Once there lived a poor man and woman who longed for a child. Try as they might, they could not conceive, and the woman grew wretched with despair. She took to lying in her bed and gazing out the window. Through this window she could see a garden beyond their home, a garden that happened to belong to a powerful sorcerer. As she looked out at the garden, the woman saw the most beautiful rampion, and longed every day more and more for a taste of it. Her husband noticed her desire, and one night he climbed the wall into the sorcerer's garden and picked some rampion, bringing it back to his wife. She made it into a salad and ate it greedily.

After that, however, the woman's appetite for the rampion grew, and she craved the plant more than ever, refusing to eat anything else. She soon grew pale and drawn. The husband became frantic, and climbed over the wall again under the cover of darkness. This time, however, his luck was not with him, and he ran into the sorcerer who owned the garden. The sorcerer was angry, but the man explained that his wife was about to die, and would only eat the rampion. The sorcerer softened, and told the man that he would allow them to eat his rampion, if only they would promise to give him their firstborn child. The man agreed, and was allowed to take as much rampion as he wanted.

The woman grew well upon her steady diet of rampion, and soon it became apparent that she was with child. When she bore the child, however, the sorcerer appeared and demanded his payment for their bargain. Snatching up the child, he disappeared, and was never found in those parts again.

He took the child to the woods and raised her in a tower, giving her the name Rapunzel, after the plant her mother had loved so much. She grew into the most beautiful child, with long, fiery orange hair. As she grew, her hair grew with her, and it was soon long enough that the sorcerer used it as an entrance into the tower. He would stand beneath the window and call, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair." The girl would then drape her hair over a hook, and the sorcerer would climb up into the tower, usually staying until nightfall.

One day, a prince was riding his horse through the forest, and heard a voice singing. Enchanted, he followed the source of the sound until he came upon the tower. He rode all around the base of it, looking for a door. During his search, however, he heard someone approach, and took his horse to hide in the woods. From his observation spot, he watched a small, weathered old man approach the tower and call out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair." To the prince's amazement, a thick strand of hair fell from the open window at the top of the tower, and the old man was brought up to the top.

Now that the prince knew the way to get in, he settled down to wait. After a while, the old man was let back down the side of the tower by the strand of hair, which was then pulled back up. When the prince was sure that the old man was gone, he went to the base of the tower and called as he had heard, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair." To his surprise, the hair was lowered for him almost immediately, and he climbed up, eager to see the source of the voice at the top.

He clambered through the wide window at the top of the tower, peering into the quickly darkening room that was lit only by the pale light from the window and a few candles. From within the room he heard a gasp, the sound giving his eyes a place to focus on. As he found a face, his heart skipped a beat. It was a girl, in the prime of her youth, with an open, pleasant face and budding figure. And, of course, her hair; yards and yards of it, now curled in a pile at her feet. Her sapphire eyes stared wide at him in accusation as she demanded, "Who are you, and how did you find me?"

The prince immediately held up his hands. He didn't want to frighten the girl. "I'm sorry, I was just passing by earlier today and heard you singing. It was such a lovely sound, that I wanted to see who was the source of the voice. I heard how the old man got up, so I thought I'd try it, too. I really didn't mean to frighten you. I just wanted to meet you and talk with you."

The girl seemed to relax a little, but still was on guard as she repeated, "I asked who you are!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I am the prince of this kingdom. My name is Fakir." Something passed over her face as he said his name, but it was gone quickly. "What is your name?" he asked.

She hesitated, but answered, "My name is Rapunzel. At least that's what the sorcerer calls me."

The prince stepped forward a little. "May I sit?" he asked. Rapunzel hesitated a moment, then nodded. He took a seat on the windowsill, and she sat down in a chair close to the window. He then continued, "You said that man is the sorcerer. Is he not your father?"

The girl shook her head. "No, I've never met my parents. The sorcerer only says that my father was a very stupid man who traded me for some rampion that my mother wanted. I don't know anything about that though. I've been in this tower as long as I can remember. I want more than anything to go outside, and maybe even find my parents."

The prince was overwhelmed with a desire to protect her. He knew, from the core of himself, that he had to protect this girl from anything and everything, and at any cost. He sprang up from his seat on the window and exclaimed, "Then let's get out of this tower!"

Rapunzel looked up at him. "How are we supposed to do that? The only way in or out is by my hair. I would have left years ago if I could."

Fakir waved her off excitedly. "Your hair is plenty long. If you double it up on itself, you should be able to get yourself at least halfway down. I'll wait at the bottom and catch you, and then you'll be free." He felt bold, and reached out to take her hand in his. "I know you want to leave. And I promise, I'll never let any harm come to you. Come with me, this might be your only chance to leave and live the life you want."

The girl seemed to waver visibly. Her eyes stared into the prince's, and fear was apparent in them. He leaned forward and whispered in a low voice, "Trust me. I will make sure you get out safely."

She took in a deep breath, then said in a quavering voice, "All right, I suppose I can trust you. Let's try."

The prince smiled, and leapt up. "Come on then, Rapunzel, let down your hair."

She stood up next to him, and arranged her hair on the hook hanging next to the window. Quickly, the prince scrambled down and reached the bottom. He called his horse over and mounted it, hoping the extra height from being astride a horse would help when it came time to catch his precious cargo. He tilted his head backwards and called, "Now pull it up halfway and grab on."

Hesitantly, she followed his directions. Slowly but surely, he guided her to grab the hair and begin walking herself down the wall. It worked until she was about two thirds of the way down the wall, when she reached the end of her luxuriant braid. Looking down at the rest of the distance between them, she cried, "Fakir, I'm scared!"

The sound of his name from her lips stirred something inside of him. He pushed it down and called back, "It's all right, Ahiru, let go. I'll catch you from here."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. Let go."

She squeezed her eyes shut tight, and released her hold on her braid. With a squeal, she plummeted down, straight into his waiting arms. She kept her eyes shut until he laughed gently at her. "You can open your eyes now, Ahiru. You're safe."

Cautiously, she looked around, then up at the prince, and smiled. "It looks like you did catch me after all."

His heart constricted, and he leaned into her without another word, sealing his mouth over hers.

Almost reluctantly, Fakir removed them from the story. He had enjoyed this one very much. After having to see his love's lifeless body in the last two stories, he had decided upon a much safer route this time, and had deliberately chosen something with minimal roles from other people. He was still unsure what was happening with Drosselmeyer's appearances in these stories, but he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with his seeming lack of power to keep the man out. Another thought had occurred to him after seeing Ahiru lying on the floor as Snow White. He really had no idea what would happen to her in real life if she died in one of his stories. At first, it hadn't seemed like a big deal, but it was becoming more apparent through their almost-successes that there was some bearing on real life through his stories. He didn't know what he would do if she got hurt in one and it turned out to be permanent. He didn't even want to think about what might have happened if his kisses hadn't revived her. So for this story, he had kept it as simple as possible, trying to exclude any other characters and potential danger, seeking to focus solely on the effects of a kiss. It certainly seemed to be doing something, as they had almost been successful in the last two stories. So this time, he was determined to focus on just the kiss by itself, without it playing any other role in the story.

He kept his eyes closed for a moment after returning, and noticed that he still felt the weight of Ahiru in his arms. He could feel her back pressing against his arm, her legs draped over his elbow, and even the curve of her ass resting on his lap. He ignored the stimulation from that, and cautiously opened his eyes.

But by the time they were fully open, she had turned back into a duck.

The now-familiar sting of disappointment swelled in his chest, and Fakir fought back the sudden urge to scream. Instead, he pressed Ahiru to himself, dipping his head down low over hers. Her concerned quack did little to bring him out. The stark contrast of having such a simple life, of having the girl he loved held tight in his arms, to this one where he couldn't even use his power to change her back from a duck, was heartrending. As he sat, head bowed over hers, he wondered for how many more months he could endure this, and a dark thought crept into his heart. Was there no other way for Ahiru to be human than for her to have Mytho's heart shard?