The Iron Stove
A retelling of the Grimm Brothers' tale
Once in a land that is neither here nor there, there lived a princess by the name of Daphne who - at the commencement of our tale - was very lost. She had that morning rode out into the forest which formed the border between her father's kingdom and the neighboring one to hunt. At first she had been part of a large party of courtiers, servants, and huntsmen, but when a particularly fine buck had been spotted she had gone tearing after it at a breakneck pace which her attendants were not able to follow. Now, as night was falling, she felt very foolish and a tiny bit frightened for the forest was becoming even denser, and she knew she had ridden much deeper into it than she ever had before.
"Idiot," she said to herself as she ducked out of the way of a low branch, and absentmindedly stroked the fine neck of her mare, "idiot, what is that trick again about the moss?" She looked at the trees, but as far as she could tell the moss covered their trunks evenly on all sides. Soon it was so dark that she could not see her hand in front of her face let alone which side of the trees the moss was growing on, so she decided that the better part of valor would be to dismount and try to find her way home when it was light again.
"Sorry Shotsly," she said to her mare, as she leaned back against the trunk of a tree, "but I'm afraid we'll have to make do."
"Who is Shotsly?" came a voice from over her shoulder. Daphne started and turned around, but it was so dark that she could not see anything. As she turned back though, her hunting horn struck the tree she was leaning against, and the trunk rang out like a bell. Daphne jerked away from it, for tree trunks no matter how old and rotten should not ring as if they are made out of iron. But as the ringing died down she heard another sound.
"My head, my head," moaned the voice, again coming from behind her. This time she turned more slowly and realized that the voice was in fact coming from the object, which she had by then decided was not a tree trunk, that she was leaning on. She jumped to her feet.
"I beg your pardon," she said, trying to make out in the darkness what exactly she had been sitting against so carelessly.
"What a well brought up young lady," the voice replied musingly. "What are you doing wandering around a forest at midnight? If it is not impertinent to ask."
"I'm lost," Daphne replied slightly taken aback by the cordial tone whose source seemed to be emanating from inside the object.
"I am so very sorry," the voice replied. "If I weren't trapped in here I would be happy to help you, but I'm afraid that," the voice paused, "well I'm afraid that I am, in fact, trapped in here."
"Oh," said Daphne, "I am very sorry." She peered again at the object, trying to make out what it was. "What, if it isn't rude to ask, are you trapped in?"
"A stove," was the mournful reply.
"A stove?" Daphne repeated shocked. "What is a stove doing in the middle of a forest?"
"What am I doing in the middle of a stove would be a more pertinent question to ask I would think," replied the voice from inside the stove even more mournfully than before.
"I'm sorry, it was quite insensitive of me to put it that way, but I am so very tired."
"You are very well brought up," the voice from the stove said puzzledly. "You don't happen to be a…" the voice broke off. "No, it is too ridiculous even to ask."
"What's too ridiculous?" Daphne asked settling down on the ground beside the stove. "I don't suppose that you could provide any heat by the way… what with your being a stove and all."
The voice sighed, rattling the bolts that held the stove closed.
"I am not a stove, I am inside the stove, and I really would prefer it if the stove did not heat up any, thank you very much since it would not go well for me if it did."
"Oh no, I don't suppose that it would," Daphne replied. "That was rather stupid of me."
"Think nothing of it, I'm just happy to have company for once, you can't imagine how dull it gets in here."
"It really must. Do many people stop and talk to you?" Daphne asked feeling rather sorry for the voice inside the stove.
"A woodcutter did once. He tried to get me out with his axe."
"That was kind of him," she said politely.
"I suppose so," was the doleful reply, "but he didn't succeed, and I couldn't hear a thing for a week because of the ringing in my ears. No, I must resign myself to my fate. It truly is too ridiculous."
"What is truly ridiculous?" Daphne asked, for by this time she was quite curious.
"A princess must free me."
"That is not so ridiculous," Daphne broke in with a smile.
"How many princesses do you know that wander around in the deepest reaches of dangerous forests?"
"I know of at least one," she replied laughing.
"You do!" the voice from inside the stove practically jumped for joy.
"Yes," Daphne said definitely. "Me."
"If I may ask, and don't think me rude for doing so, but what are you doing here. The reason my stove was sent here was that Selene decided that no princess would come within 20 leagues of this place?"
"I was hunting and was separated from my party. It really was rather stupid of me. After I was lost I went deeper into the woods instead of being sensible and staying put. Now it seems that I will never make it back home." Daphne felt a trifle mournful herself, but then she thought of the poor voice trapped in the stove and realized that her predicament was far better than his. "Who is Selene?" she asked slightly embarrassed for feeling so sorry for herself when there were others more unfortunate.
"My fiancée, or at least she fancies herself to be my fiancée," the voice replied.
"And you don't like her?" Daphne said trying to make out the stove in the early dawn light. "Well I wouldn't want to marry someone who put me in a stove either."
"Well, she put me in the stove after I refused to marry her. She said a decade in solitude might make her company more welcome. The problem is that she's a witch, I don't want to marry a witch. Who knows what she'll do to my poor kingdom if I am ever away."
"One could argue that you are away at this moment," Daphne replied musingly, then continued. "Is she ugly?"
"No, extremely beautiful actually, but very cruel as well."
"I must say that you show great strength of character in not wanting to marry her. In my experience men want to marry the most beautiful woman, no matter what she is like. You have no idea how many men have asked my father for my hand in marriage who have not even exchanged two words with me."
"I am sorry," the voice replied.
"Don't be, it isn't your fault," Daphne said smiling.
"You don't happen to be engaged to any of them yet, do you?" the voice inquired.
"No, why?" replied Daphne looking at the stove, for now she could see it quite clearly as the sun was just rising. It was a homely little black iron stove tinged with red rust, and pinesap.
"Well I hate to ask you something that it seems you've been asked a few times already, but please keep in mind that I at least have exchanged more than two words with you, and don't, in fact, know what you look like," he paused.
"What is it?" Daphne asked a little more than slightly nervous.
"Would you, if it is at all possible that is," the voice paused again, "you must realized that it is very awkward to do this from inside a stove, not proper in the slightest, but please do not hold my manner of asking against me," another pause, "do me the honour of giving me your hand in marriage?"
Daphne stared at the stove a moment.
"But you're trapped in a stove," she exclaimed at last.
"Well, that sort of is the reason I was asking," the voice explained. "You see the only one who can free me from this," he punched stove so it again resounded like a bell, then cried out in pain, "prison, is a princess who has agreed to marry me."
"I see," Daphne replied slowly.
"If you let me out I promise that I can show you the way out of this wood," the voice added.
"How?" Daphne said skeptically, "you've been stuck in a stove for ten years."
"Eight and a half actually," the voice responded dryly. "When I was free I was the king of a neighboring country. I had all of the forests in the area mapped out. Trust me, I know the way."
Daphne looked at the stove.
"So you were a king?" she asked at last.
"Yes. Why?"
"Well, it personally makes no difference to me, but my father would be upset if I promised to marry anyone who wasn't royal."
"Was that a 'yes'?" the voice asked eagerly.
Daphne looked at the stove a moment longer.
"Yes, I suppose it was," she replied with a sigh.
"Well don't be too enthusiastic," replied the voice with a sulky edge.
"I just agreed to marry a stove, how enthusiastic are you expecting me to be?" Daphne countered, a trifle irritated.
"I do wish you'd stop calling me a stove," the voice said long-sufferingly. "I am not the stove, I am trapped in the stove. There is a sizable difference."
"Well then. How am I supposed to free you? It seems agreeing to marry you was not quite enough," Daphne did not want to admit it, but she was getting rather fond of the voice which was coming from the stove. "If he isn't hideous I really wouldn't mind marrying him at all. He is entertaining to talk to at the very least."
"I don't know. All Selene said to me was that a princess who had agreed to marry me would be able to free me. She didn't provide precise directions. The idea, I believe, was to keep me trapped in the stove, not to create an amusing puzzle for my rescuer."
The sun by now was fully up, and in its rays Daphne inspected the stove more carefully.
"Why did Selene tell you how to break the spell at all if she wanted to keep you in the stove for the full ten years?" she asked as she drew her dagger and began to use its edge to unscrew the bolts holding the extremely rusty door to the stove shut.
"There are rules to these things. All spells can be broken. That's why she sent me here, she figured than no princess would make it out this far. But there is one more thing." Just as he said those words though Daphne managed to pry the door open, and out tumbled a very rumpled, yet very handsome young man. He lay there for a moment still curled up in a ball.
"Are you alright?" Daphne asked kneeling beside him and looking down into his face with concerned eyes.
"My back," the king said wincing slightly. "I know I've been asking quite a lot of you lately, but could you possibly help me stretch out. Eight years curled up in that… thing is not the most comfortable way to spend one's time."
Daphne gently unrolled the king so that he was stretched fully out on his back.
"Oh," he said wiggling his fingers and toes, "you have no idea how good this feels." He sat up, and looked at his rescuer. "I'm King Julius, by the way. I don't think we were ever properly introduced."
"My name is Daphne," Daphne replied, smiling at her fiancé whom she was quite swiftly falling in love with. Daphne would never have any idea what an effect her smile had on Julius, but at that moment he was thinking that he had never seen a more charming, beautiful and intelligent girl in his life. "and in response to your first question," she continued, "this is Shotsly." Julius looked up at the handsome bay mare and nodded.
"The pleasure is mine Shotsly."
Daphne and Julius mounted Shotsly, and Julius with one last shuddering glance at his former residence, indicated the direction out of the woods.
After they had be riding for some hours Daphne turned her head and asked, "When I freed you, you mentioned that there was one more thing. What is it?"
Julius grimaced, but replied, "I'm sorry to say, but this is probably the hardest part. If my rescuer says more than three words to another person before we are married Selene will be informed of my presence and take me away to be her bridegroom, and in that event I will not be able to escape again." Daphne drew Shotsly up so that she could turn and look at Julius more fully.
"What!" she said incredulously. "Three words!"
"Yes," replied Julius. "I'm sorry, but Selene is very powerful, if it would be easier we could go directly to my kingdom now to get married, and then visit your father on the honeymoon."
"No," Daphne replied thoughtfully. "My father must be desperate with worry over my disappearance. I must at least say good-bye to him first."
"If you think that it is possible for you to say less than three words to him I guess we should go there first then." Julius' voice was still rather skeptical, but Daphne nudged Shotsly on and soon they were out of the woods.
"I'll wait here while you say good bye," Julius said as he dismounted. "Remember no more than three words." Daphne kissed him, and smiled.
"No more than three," she replied, then kicked Shotsly into a gallop.
She soon arrived at the castle. Her father who had been up all night waiting for her came rushing out of the gate and embraced her, showering her with questions, but she remained silent, and did not answer any of them. When his questions slowed, she leaned down, and kissed him on each cheek.
"Good-bye dear father," she said lovingly, then turned Shotsly back towards the woods leaving her father, courtiers and servants confused, and unsure of what had just occurred.
Daphne galloped back to the edge of the forest, but when she reached the place where she had left Julius he was nowhere to be found. She rode back and forth along the fringe of the trees, but Julius had disappeared completely.
"Julius!" she shouted, but the dense forest swallowed up her voice, and no reply, not even an echo, returned the call. Daphne warily looked into the dark recesses of the forest, but after only a moment's hesitation she plunged back into the place that she had spent the past twenty-four hours trying to escape. She had no idea where she was going and ended up even more lost than she had been the night before. The deeper into the forest she went the more hopeless her quest seemed. Days and nights passed in a blur for her. Finally after nine days of searching for Julius without rest Daphne was exhausted to the point of death. She collapsed under a tree and looked up a Shotsly with glazed eyes.
"Shotsly," she said, "I am sorry. I didn't mean to bring you here to die too." Shotsly nuzzled Daphne's face with her long soft nose. Daphne laughed weakly before her head bowed, and she fell into a deep restless sleep. During her sleep she dreamed that all the toads in the forest surrounded her and lifted her up onto their shoulders. They bore her, hopping all the way, to a splendid palace made entirely of precious stones. Emeralds, opals, jade, peridots, gems of all the shades of green studded the walls creating a pebbly warty surface almost like the skin of a toad. Gently the toads carried her over the drawbridge and up the steps where the largest toad in world sat watching the proceedings with wise tender eyes.
Daphne awoke. She was no longer in the forest. She was lying in a silken bed, surrounded by curtains of green velvet. Upon drawing back the curtains she revealed one of the most spectacular rooms she had ever seen in her life. Laid out for her on a chair was a gown of green silk, and a lavish breakfast was spread out on a table to the side. Daphne shook her head, and rubbed her eyes, but nothing vanished. She reached out her hand and touched the velvet curtains, then the silk dress. It was all real. She stared around her in disbelief.
"Impossible," she said quietly. There came a deferential knock at her door, and in hopped a toad of extraordinary size.
"Oh good, we were worried that you would never wake. When you have breakfasted the king would like to speak with you." The toad spoke with a kindly motherly voice, and any fear that was teetering on the edge of Daphne's mind evaporated completely.
"Where am I?" Daphne asked the toad.
"You're in the palace of the Toad King. His subjects from the Black Forest found you lying half dead there and decided to bring you here," the toad replied, then continued in a matter-of-fact tone, "Would you like a bath before breakfast?"
"Yes, I would very much," Daphne said with a wondering voice. The toad emitted a high pitched whistle, and two younger toads came hopping into the room carrying a large green marble tub full of steaming water on their backs. Never had Daphne seen so many incredible things in her life. The toads set the bath down in the middle of the room, then two more entered bearing bath salts and towels. The first motherly toad took the bath salts, and expertly measured out the proper amount. Daphne relieved the other toad of its towels and laid them on the chair.
Then the old toad shooed the four younger ones out of the room and after testing the water with an experimental toe said, "Too hot for my tastes, but I hear you pale skinny toads like it that way." Daphne slipped out of her nightgown and into the fragrant steaming water.
"But I'm not a toad," she said, shaking her hair out of her face as the toad gently scrubbed her back with a cloth.
"Of course you aren't," she said comfortingly, "but often we are called cousins." Daphne looked at the toad.
"I've never heard anyone say we are related to toads."
"Well you should be grateful that the toads do, because otherwise you would have been left in that forest."
"Oh," Daphne paused and thought. "I'm sorry that must have sounded horribly inconsiderate of me."
"Don't worry dear," the toad replied as she held a large towel open for her. "I understand all this is new to you. When you were brought here you were almost dead. I don't hold anything that you might say without thinking against you." Daphne smiled at the toad.
"Thank you. You are so very kind" she said.
"Oh you don't to thank an old toad like me," the toad replied, and Daphne could have sworn she saw a blush form beneath the warty surface of her skin. "Save your gratitude for the King. Now run and get dressed. The King should not be kept waiting."
A short while later Daphne stood in a large audience chamber. She felt very small.
"That's funny," she thought looking around, "I feel smaller in the audience chamber of the King of the Toads than in my father's, or of that of any other human king." She glanced nervously at the guards who were standing stock still, looking straight ahead. "But then again, this is the king of all the toads in the world, while my father is only the king of one small country. It stands to reason I suppose that the king of all the toads would have the grander audience chamber." The doors at the other end of the hall opened slowly and majestically, and a herald hopped out.
"His Majesty, King of the Toads," he announced in a resounding voice, and Daphne sunk down into a deep curtsy. An enormous toad wearing a crown set with emeralds hopped down the steps and laid his hand gently on Daphne's shoulder.
"No need for such formalities Princess," the toad croaked deeply, "we are cousins after all." Daphne raised her head, and looked into the kind wise eyes of the Toad King. "Please, tell me. What were you doing half dead in my kingdom. It isn't good for my reputation if princesses come and die in my lands now is it?" This kindness was too much for Daphne; she began to cry though she knew it was indecorous for a princess, especially in the company of a foreign dignitary… even if he was a toad.
"Especially if he is a toad," she reminded herself. Before she could stop herself she had told him the entire story of how she had discovered the stove in the wood, and became engaged to Julius, and about the three words she had spoken to her father, but how Julius had still been stolen away from her.
"What exactly did you say to your father?" the kindly Toad King asked.
"'Good-bye dear father'" she said wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.
"Well there is your problem," the toad replied. "You said four words, and Selene was notified." Daphne shook her head.
"No, I certainly said only those three."
"'Good Bye Dear Father.'" The Toad King counted out on his fingers. "That I am afraid is four words."
"No," Daphne said, "'Good-bye' is hyphenated, it is one word. So I only spoke three."
"Well whatever you think, Selene thought that they were four, and took your Julius away from you." Daphne stared at the king in disbelief.
"So I lost Julius over a matter of syntax?" she asked horrified.
"I'm afraid so."
"Will I never find him again?" her voice was tinged in desperation.
"No, it is possible to free Julius from the witch, but it will be very hard and dangerous," the toad looked Daphne in the eye. "Are you willing to risk it?"
"I would risk everything for him," she replied earnestly. The King of the Toads let out a loud whistle, and a footman hopped in.
"Fetch me the large chest in the treasury," the King commanded, and the servant bowed and left the room.
"Will you help me?" Daphne asked, almost too happy to believe it.
"Yes, I have been wanting to punish Selene for many years. She is not kind to the toads, a great deal of her spells require large amounts," the King shuddered, "of toad's blood."
"How horrid," Daphne said.
"If you succeed at your mission you will rescue your Julius, and we shall have our revenge on Selene." The servant reentered the hall panting under the weight of a huge oak chest; he set it at the King's feet, bowed, then left as quietly as possible.
"Come here Daphne," the toad said, and lifted the lid of the chest. Inside there were all manner of wonderful things: swords, precious stones, rings, daggers, boots, cloaks, gold coins, necklaces, gowns, arrow heads, and other things so strange that Daphne could not name them. The Toad King rummaged through the chest muttering to himself, pushing haphazardly to the sides the valuable and useful objects as if they had been so much rubbish.
"Aha!" the toad said emerging from the chest holding triumphantly a small burlap bag. "I was scared that I would never find them in all that junk." He opened the bag and tipped out into Daphne's hand three quite ordinary walnuts. She looked from the nuts to the King then back at the nuts. The King reverently picked up one of them holding it up to the light carefully with two fingers.
"These are some of my greatest treasures," he said quietly. "Use them wisely, and in your time of greatest need. You are a resourceful girl, you won't use them too soon I am sure." He placed the walnut back into the small bag, and Daphne gently laid the other two nuts in the bag as well.
"Thank you," she said, not quite knowing what else to say.
"Now," the King said more firmly, "let us go to the map room and show you the path you are going to follow."
A few hours later Daphne was again riding Shotsly through the forest feeling very refreshed and optimistic. The way was hard, but Daphne was determined, and the toads had provided her with food and water to take on the journey so she made good time. Shotsly had been well taken care of in the Toad's palace and was spirited and fresh. Soon they were out of the woods into the open fields on the other side. Daphne reveled in the sunlight as she made her way down to the small village at the foot of a mountain.
The village itself was unremarkable, a market with a few houses clustered around it. No the village was utterly typical of what one would expect to find in these parts. The mountain though was not. It rose so high up in the sky that the summit was obscured by clouds, and its sides shone brightly in the noonday sun sending rainbows dancing and scattering off its ridges and crags. This was because it was made entirely of glass. Daphne stared at it. It was blinding to look at, and terrifying to imagine crossing, but climb it she must for Julius was somewhere on the other side.
There was no tavern in the village, which was just as well for princesses do not stay in taverns, so Daphne sought out the mayor, who told her many times over that it would be an honor to let her stay the night under his roof. That evening she asked about the mountain, and if anyone had been able to scale it. A deathly silence fell upon the room, and a name was whispered quietly passing from lip to lip until if finally reached Daphne's ears.
"Crazy Rambles Insanity?" she said incredulously only to be quickly hushed by everyone in the room. "Crazy Rambles Insanity?" she asked again more quietly. "What kind of name is that!"
"Some just call him Ol'Crazy, others just Ram," the mayor of the town whispered. "He climbed that mountain and the ordeal scrambled his mind, but he doesn't live in the village any more. He built himself a shack at the foot of the mountain, and only comes down the village when there's an avalanche."
"So that he won't get crushed?" Daphne asked, but the mayor laughed.
"You think Ol'Crazy cares about that! No, he comes here with the pieces of glass that have fallen off the mountain to trade them for food and whatnot. Otherwise he keeps to himself, and we don't bother him."
"Could he possibly show me the way across the mountain of glass?"
"You seem to think that he's called 'Crazy Rambles Insanity' for no reason," replied the mayor with a snort. "The man will chase you off his property with a bullwhip if you come near him. Why would a pretty girl like you want to cross the mountain of glass anyway?" he added suspiciously.
"My quest continues on the other side." The room echoed with laughter at this remark.
"Trust me lassie, any quest that takes you to the other side of the glass mountain isn't worth it," was the only response she could get out of the mayor for the rest of the evening. Daphne went to bed that night with her mind racing. She needed to get to the other side of the mountain, surely now was her moment of greatest need when she should crack the first walnut. She carefully opened the burlap bag and laid the nuts out in a patch of moonlight on her bed, but as she looked at them she realized that their time had not yet come. Every mountain could be climbed, even one made out of glass. She put the walnuts back into their bag, and went to sleep. She slept very badly. It may not be quite true that a princess can feel a pea through twenty mattresses, but she certainly can feel it when a badly stuffed straw mattress has a rogue stalk pushing sharply upwards into her spine.
By the middle of the night she had made up her mind. Before anyone else in the house was stirring she left, leaving a gold coin on her pillow in exchange for the hospitality that she had received. As the first rays of the sun bounced off the glass mountain Daphne and Shotsly were already halfway to the shack which drunkenly leaned to one side at its foot.
As she approached it she saw sitting in the sun a shriveled up old man who couldn't have been less than one hundred and fifty years old. He glared at her, and she noticed that his right hand lovingly caressed an old leather bullwhip.
"Now," he said, "Now, I don't think it be right to beat young girls, so you had better be high tailing in the other direction soon, that way I don't have to go against my principles."
Daphne decided that is was the best opening that she was going to get, and as the old man stood and menacingly swung the whip, she dismounted looking at him coolly and said, "I hear that you have climbed the glass mountain, sir."
"Don't call me sir, if you call me anything call me by my name, Crazy Rambles Insanity. I know you must have heard it by now," the man said even more ill-tempered than before.
"That surely can't have been what your mother called you," Daphne said as evenly as she could manage. Looking into his eyes she saw that the man truly was crazy.
"It ain't none of your business what my mother called me," Crazy Rambles Insanity replied and ominously swirled the whip once again.
"I need to talk to you," Daphne said as she sat down on a large glass boulder and instantly slid off it sprawling full length at the old man's feet. He laughed. He laughed so hard that Daphne was scared that he would shake himself apart with each new bark of mirthless laughter. Daphne stood and dusted herself off. She was getting annoyed. Though she was kind and generally agreeable there were limits to her patience, and she was a princess. Who was this old man to laugh at her? She grabbed the whip which he had let fall from his hands in his fit, and cracked it loudly to the side. Crazy Rambles Insanity stopped laughing in a moment.
"Now lassie you don't know how to use that thing," he said seriously.
"Well then," she said, anger fizzing below the surface of her skin, "don't make me, and we won't have a problem. I need your help, and you can either stop acting like a maniac and give it to me, or…" she broke off. There was no "or" if he didn't help her then she was lost completely, or more importantly, Julius was lost to her completely.
"No one needs my help," the old man said and leaving the whip in her hands turned back to his shack and slammed the door.
"Then I'll climb the glass mountain without your help," she said. At these words the door flew open again, and Crazy Rambles Insanity came out laughing.
"You!" he barked. "Climb that!" he pointed at the summit of the glass mountain. "And they call me crazy! You can't even sit on a boulder without falling off it." Daphne defiantly threw down the whip and approached the first slope of the mountain. "You'll die," Crazy Rambles Insanity stated flatly. "Why don't you just hang yourself? It would be a faster death."
"If I die, I die trying," Daphne said gingerly placing her foot on the glass polished frictionless by countless storms. Each time her foot touched the glass surface it slid right off. She could not take one step, but still she replaced her foot against the mountain determined to make some sort of progress. She did this all day as Crazy Rambles Insanity first laughed, then after a few hours settled down on the ground to twist a new rope. Occasionally he would glance up curiously at the strange girl who was so determined to kill herself on the mountain of glass. As night fell Daphne felt a gnarled finger touch her shoulder.
"No good climbing in the dark when you don't have to," Crazy Rambles Insanity said gruffly and led her into his shack.
The room was tiny and filled to the brim with ropes, picks, axes, and other strange pieces of equipment. He handed her a bowl of stew and then sat on a stump next to a fire, which threatened to catch the whole lot on fire. The stew tasted vile, but Daphne ate it anyway.
"Why do you want to climb the monster?" Crazy Rambles Insanity asked her, his eyes never leaving the glowing coals.
"My quest leads me to the other side," she said warily.
"Many quests lead to the other side of that mountain," he said viciously, "and many men have died in the pursuit of them. What makes your quest so special that I should help you on it?" Daphne stared into the fire for a moment, then looked up.
"Nothing," she said finally. "Nothing at all makes it special." Crazy Rambles Insanity looked up surprised.
"Nothing! No dragon waiting to be slain, no true love waiting to be rescued, no fortune to be made?" It was Daphne's turn to laugh.
"None of those would make a quest special. There are hundreds of tales of such things, why should mine be any different." Her voice was open and frank. The old man looked her up and down.
"Well you are female, that does make for a change."
"Really?" she said curiously. Crazy Rambles Insanity thought a moment.
"No, actually it doesn't. The females are the craziest of the lot of them, wearing out six pairs of iron shoes, and three iron rods looking for the home of the sun. Are you one of those? Because if you are let me tell you this, it isn't worth it, your man has forgotten you, and is going to marry some other lovely lass."
"Perhaps, but in my case I already know who she is." The man raised his thick white eyebrows.
"Oh?" he said.
"Yes."
"That does make for a change. Most of the girls who come through these parts don't know anything. It's sad though, they have plenty of guts and determination, more than most of the men, but there is no one to explain their quests to them, no one to clean up after their mistakes. They're out on their own." A strange melancholy crept into his voice as he said this. He looked at Daphne. She looked so young and small in the glow of the firelight, but in an instant the moment was gone, he shook his head and continued. "And none of them can expect any help from me. I am the only one who has scaled this peak, it is my one glory, it is the only thing that will give me immortality. Once I am gone the only thing that people will be able to say about me is 'Crazy Rambles Insanity climbed to the top of the glass mountain, and saw the summit. He is the only one.'" He then spat in the fire and stretched himself out on the hard bench which served him as a bed.
Daphne looked around her a moment at the equipment hanging from the walls, but the old man raised one eyelid and said warningly, "If anything is missing or moved when I next open these eyes I will beat you with that whip until there is not a scrap of skin on your body." He then closed his eyes and began to snore. Daphne curled up as best she could in the one clear area of the floor and tried to sleep.
She woke with a start. Crazy Rambles Insanity had kicked her.
"Get up," he said crankily. "It is a fine time for me to develop a conscience now after all these years." Daphne rubbed her side, and looked at the old man through sleepy eyes.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, trying to get her befuddled brain to think straight. Crazy Rambles Insanity dropped an ice pick, and a heavy pair of boots to the floor an inch away from her nose.
"What I'm talkin' about is that you're going climbing if you have the guts enough to risk it." Reverently Daphne picked up the boots and looked at them. From the top they looked unremarkable, patched and worn they were made of brown leather, but when she flipped them over to look at the soles she saw something incredible. Though caked with mud and almost black from use they were unmistakable, the soles were studded and spiked with diamonds.
"It's amazing, countless princes have attempted this ascent all with more diamonds decorating their best waistcoat than I am likely to see in my life, yet none of them sat down and thought for a moment, 'what is harder than glass?' It took me years to collect enough for those," he said gesturing to the boots and the pick, which Daphne had just lifted to get a better look at its point which was formed by one large diamond as sharp as a nail.
"How much do you want?" Daphne asked, her voice seeming to come from far away as she stared in wonder at the implements that would take her to her Julius. Crazy Rambles Insanity snorted.
"I'm not selling them. No I'm doing the most foolish thing in my life." She raised her eyes to meet his wild ones. He turned away. "They're on loan to you until you finish your quest. I'll keep your horse as collateral." With that he walked out of the shack, and when Daphne followed to thank him he was nowhere to be found.
Daphne laced the boots up. They were so large that they fit over her own riding boots easily with room to spare. It was hard for her to get used to the cumbersome weight and size of the shoes, but she resolutely thrust the ice pick through her belt, and approached the mountain. Gingerly she stepped onto the beginning of the slope, where her feet had slipped so many times the day before. The boot held fast, and she made her first step up the mountain.
Even though the slope was gradual in the beginning the going was slow, and Daphne was not used to climbing, but she was unwavering in her focus. She knew that she did not have much time, and she had already wasted almost two weeks which had passed since Julius was stolen from her. The way grew steeper, and despite some areas where cracks formed razor sharp edges, the surface was as smooth as ice. Soon the slope was so steep she was forced to use the pick just to keep a hold of the surface. She dug her boots into the glass and kept climbing. Her hands were soon bloody from the shards of glass relentlessly digging into them, and she was blinded by the sun, which the mountain's face was unmercifully reflecting into her eyes. At noon she finally reached a ledge where she could rest. Carefully she sat down and surveyed her surroundings. She looked down at the village below, which had become so tiny that she had to strain to distinguish the individual houses that made it up. She leaned her head against the cliff-face behind her, and closed her eyes. She felt the bulge of the burlap bag that the King of the Toads had given her, and thought, "surely now is my moment of greatest need." But when she opened her eyes they rested on the diamond pick and boots, and she knew that she was able to continue.
The glass had become almost vertical, and the task of climbing it consisted in kicking the diamonds at the toe of the boots into the wall and swinging upwards with the pick. It had grown mechanical for her, and her mind became empty as she climbed. The sun set, filling the mountain with a rosy glow and making it look like a burning ember, and then night fell. It was like cool water being poured over Daphne's skin and eyes. The mountain became silvery in the light of the moon, and she was filled with new energy. When the sun rose again Daphne cut a small ledge out of the glass, so she could get her bearings. She was above the clouds, and when she looked down the village had disappeared into the surrounding countryside. She looked up, and for the first time saw the summit. It glittered, facetted like a gemstone, reflecting rainbows up into the sky. She had never seen anything more beautiful, or more difficult to achieve.
She made better time that day. Though she was exhausted her goal was in sight, and she was more used to the cumbersome equipment she had to use. Occasionally her feet slipped, and only a desperate swing of the diamond pick saved her from a bone-shattering fall. When night fell again she was within a few hundred feet of the summit. All that separated her from the top was a gaping overhang with a jagged razor-sharp face. She wearily struck at the face with her pick, but the glass, which was weak from the elements simply shattered under the weight. In vain Daphne tried to place her pick, until finally she realize it was of no use. She would have to climb it with her bare hands. Slowly she replaced the pick into her belt, and even more slowly she bent down and removed the boots, which she slung over her shoulders tied by their laces.
The glass sliced her hands and feet as she climbed, and more than once she slipped on her own blood, but she persevered, moving slowly and cautiously at times, and at others jumping with wild abandonment to the next hold, until low and behold her hands reached up and felt the lip of the overhang, and in another moment she was on top of the mountain.
Daphne tore strips from the gown that the toads had given her and bound her hands and feet tightly with them until the blood stopped seeping through. She was feeling lightheaded, almost giddy, from blood loss and altitude, and when the day dawned bright and clear she could see to the ends of the earth. Everywhere she turned she saw, tiny and small, the entire world laid out beneath her. Finally she turned her back on the way she had come laced Crazy Rambles Insanity's diamond boots on her feet, and started her descent.
At times going down was even more perilous than climbing. The whole time steep slopes and cliffs beckoned her to fall, but she worked carefully, and the boots never once slipped out from under her. When she finally reached the foot of the mountain of glass she lay down under a granite boulder, and fell into a deep slumber.
She slept all that day and the night as well, and woke as dawn crept over the horizon for the fifth time since she had left the mayor's house in the little village on the far side of the glass mountain. Her wounds still send stabbing pains through her body, and there wasn't a muscle attached to her that wasn't sore, but still when she awoke she did so with hope and determination. She had conquered the mountain of glass, surely she could take on whatever the road had in store for her. She removed the diamond pick from her belt, and untied the boots, and left them under the boulder where she would find them again on her return journey and set out on the long path before her.
Her riding boots felt light as feathers compared to the diamond soled boots of Crazy Rambles Insanity, and the day passed quickly and easily. That night she found a spring and bathed her wounds and her body in its freezing waters. The next day her wounds were much improved, and as she wrapped them in fresh bandages torn from her dress she wondered how much further would she have to travel in order to find Julius again.
Her journey that day took her through narrow winding paths surrounded by boulders so high that she could barely see the path two feet in front of her, that was the moment when the first of the three cutting swords almost sliced her foot right off at the ankle. She jumped back only barely in time. Before her were three enormous hands emerging half buried out of the ground and gripped in each of these disembodied fists was a sword, razor-sharp and almost twelve feet long.
Daphne stared as the blades were twirled and swung expertly by the fists as if they were no more trouble to lift than an ink quill. She could not see a way across them without letting the swords dismember her. Again her mind flew to the three nuts that the Toad King had given her. Surely now was the time to use them. A round boulder was behind her, and she leaned heavily against it with a sigh as she reached into the burlap bag to remove one of the walnuts. The boulder rolled backwards slowly beneath her weight. She turned and looked at it as an idea formed in her brain. The boulder was almost entirely spherical, and with some effort Daphne climbed to the top of it as it started rolling towards the three cutting swords. She had to keep dancing backwards to prevent herself from falling off the edge of the boulder as it rolled, but it moved onward ominously approaching the blades.
CLANG! It hit the first of the cutting swords, crushing it beneath its weight.
CRUNCH! The second one was behind her as well.
CRACK! The third sword snapped in two as Daphne and the boulder passed safely over it leaving three enormous hands irately shaking their fists behind them.
The trouble that now posed itself to her was that though relatively easy to start moving the boulder was very hard to stop, and Daphne had to run very fast to keep from falling off and being crushed by the huge ball of granite. The landscape passed swiftly by, but she was far too preoccupied with what was or wasn't under her feet to notice it. That is until she flew headlong into a large body of water. The boulder sank to the bottom, but after some effort Daphne kicked off her riding boots and swam to the surface.
When her head came out into the air again she saw that she was in the middle of a great lake, and at the far side of it there stood a magnificent castle. She knew deep down in her soul that that castle was her final destination. It was there that she would find Julius again.
When she had finally reached the other side of the lake soaking wet and exhausted, she found the castle in an uproar. In three days time was the wedding eve of the witch Selene and Daphne's Julius. At this news Daphne broke down in tears. It was in this state that the cook found her, and thinking her to be a scullery maid escaped from the kitchens scolded her and sent her back to work.
Three floors countless rooms above her, Julius sat in the middle of the floor in an exquisitely furnished chamber contemplating his fate. Selene was determined to marry him, and now that she had him fully under her power there did not seem to be anything to stop her. In vain he longed for the days when he was trapped in the stove, especially for that last one when he had had for company the most charming person he had ever met in his life. He wondered where she was at that moment. She had probably forgotten all about him. Had she not forgotten his warning about the three words? But even if she had completely forgotten him he found it impossible to not think about her.
That evening, after working her fingers raw scrubbing floors and polishing silver, Daphne went out to sit on the shore of the lake and cry. There didn't seem to be anything more she could do, she was at the end of her tether. Though she was finally in the same castle as Julius she might as well have been several worlds away. There was no way for her to reach him. As she huddled there convulsing with sobs she felt the burlap bag, which she had kept safe the entire journey, move against her thigh. With trembling hands she undid the drawstring and lifted one of the three walnuts high above her head bringing it crashing down on the rock below. It split in two, and with her heart almost beating out of her chest she looked inside to see what gift the King of the Toads had bestowed upon her in her hour of need.
It looked like a scrap of fine cloth. Gingerly she took it between two fingers to draw it out from the shell. It kept coming and coming, far more fabric than could possibly fit into a tiny walnut shell. Finally, when it all had been removed, she held in her hands a gorgeous gown, which glowed so serenely, that it seemed to be woven out of moonbeams. The craftsmanship was exquisite. Gold and silver embroidery laced though the creamy silk, and tiny beads, so small that they were barely distinguishable from the surface of the cloth, sparkled in light of the rising moon. She stared at it in total disbelief.
"A dress!" she screamed. "For my hour of greatest need the Toad King gave me a dress!" She could have thrown herself into the lake in frustration and would have if at that moment Selene hadn't walked out onto her balcony, and seen her standing there holding the magnificent dress.
"You there," Selene said imperiously. "Bring that to me." Daphne looked up, and saw a ladder appear from the balcony. Carefully Daphne carried the gown up the ladder, and for the first time in her life stood face to face with Selene. She was very beautiful, but her beauty was hard and forbidding, like that of the mountain of glass. Her voice was like shards of glass as well, each word seemed to cut the hearer to their very souls.
"Where did you get this?" she asked Daphne sharply.
"It was my mother's wedding dress, made for her by the fairies of the Eastern Lands," Daphne replied as if in a dream.
"Over the next three days there shall be feasting and balls in honor of my coming marriage. Give me this dress for tomorrow's feast. I have never in my life seen its equal." Selene ran her fingers gently over the silky fabric spellbound by the complex embroidery and beadwork. In doing so she did not notice a faint shock as if a tiny portion of her power had been wrenched from her body.
"Let me see your bridegroom, and you may have this dress."
"No one sees the bridegroom!" Selene said coldly.
"Then let me at least sleep in the doorway to his chambers, surely this you cannot refuse me," Daphne replied meekly. Selene's talon-like fingers gripped the fabric of the gown, and her eyes met those of Daphne. She smiled maliciously.
"You may sleep in his doorway tonight if you wish, but you shall get no other payment for this dress," and she wrenched the gown out of Daphne's hands. "At ten o'clock I shall send my maidservant to guide you to his door." She turned and left Daphne standing speechless on the balcony.
Daphne stood there a moment staring at the place where Selene had been standing. Then her eyes slid down to the crushed walnut shell she still had clutched in her hand.
"That was unexpected," she whispered. She made her way back down to the scullery. Her break was over. There were pots to scrub.
"A wedding is a great deal of work," she sighed, as she struggled to submerge the huge iron cook pot into the tub.
Selene stroked the fabric of the wonderful gown one last time before handing it to her personal maid, an austere woman whom no one in the castle had ever seen smile in all the years she had worked there.
"Doris," Selene said with the air of someone used to her commands being obeyed, "I am going to speak with my bridegroom, but at a quarter to twelve you must descend to the kitchens, there you will find a scullery maid, bring her to my fiancé's door. She will sleep there for the night."
"Yes my lady," Doris replied with a half bow.
"Good." and Selene swept out of the room, down the hallway, stopping outside Julius' door. He was still sitting on the floor when Selene entered.
"My dear," Selene said stroking his hair off his forehead. "For the second time our wedding day approaches." Julius shook her hand off his head.
"It isn't a wedding, it is an execution."
"Is that what you think of me?" Selene asked genuinely stung by his words. "Some black widow spider?"
"Yes." Julius turned to face her. "Oh I know you won't kill me on our wedding night, but I do not fool myself into thinking that you could possibly love me."
Selene straightened and said haughtily, "How would you, a mere mortal, know all that? Perhaps I do love you." Julius had already turned back to face the wall.
"I am a challenge to you. Since I did not fall into a faint at your feet the moment I saw you I interested you. That is all. You love power and only power. You cannot stand to fail."
Selene fairly shook with rage at this. She looked at him coldly, then pointed one finger at him. Slowly Julius turned to meet her gaze.
"Do as you wish Selene. I am powerless to stop you," was all he said with a resigned sigh. Her lips moved in an incantation, and Julius collapsed in a heap at her feet. She walked over to him and gazed possessively down at his handsome form.
"You are right on two counts, I cannot stand to fail, and you are powerless, but you are wrong when you say that I do not love you. I do love you, and I must have you all to myself." She reached down, and touched his cheek tenderly. "Pleasant dreams, my love," she said, and for a moment what seemed like true feeling was shown in her cold eyes. Then she turned and left the room.
Daphne was nervous. She had washed her face and hands in an effort to look presentable, but the miles had not been kind to her. She was a shadow of her former self still dressed in the now stained and ragged silk gown the Toad King had given her, but as Doris lead her up the stairs a determined spark returned to her eyes. Somehow she was going to reach Julius. She had to. The gaunt woman gestured to the door and left as silently as she had come. Daphne was alone in a long hallway. She looked at the heavy oak door dividing her from the man she loved. She did not know what to do next. Should she knock? The door was almost certainly locked. Midnight struck on the clock tower in the courtyard. Was Julius already asleep?
"Julius," her voice was hushed. There was no reply. "Julius," she repeated. She felt rather foolish, but her quest had brought her this far, she was not going to despair now she was so close. She sat down on the doorstep and leaned her head back against the jamb.
"Oh Julius," she sighed. "If only you knew what I have done to find you. I crossed that forest where you found me lost that night. How many days ago was that night? I've lost count. I've climbed a mountain of glass." She looked down at the scars on her hands and smiled sadly raising it slightly as if to show them to Julius. "I don't think I could ever forget that. Then I had to cross these three sword-wielding arms. Julius," she said with a bitter laugh, "it is amazing that my ankles still are attached to my feet. I came this close to one of the blades. I could practically feel its breath on my skin. After that I had to swim a lake. Did you know your fiancée lives in the middle of an enormous lake? I'm working in the scullery here, and I often wonder how all the food comes for I never see any boats on the lake, but you said that your fiancée is a witch," she paused, "that might have something to do with it I guess. Julius, you have no idea how much I have done to get to this point," she choked back a sob, "I don't even really know if you want to see me again, or if you are even behind this door." She rolled her head so that her forehead leaned against the hard oak of the door. "I can only hope that somehow you will hear me."
On the other side Julius lay where Selene had left him. He had no idea how close his love was to him. His sleep was deep, and the pleas of the poor girl could not penetrate it, but as morning was about to show its face, he stirred.
Doris materialized in the hallway and shook the shoulder of the sleeping Daphne.
"You are needed in the scullery," she said grimly. Daphne rose and with one last wistful look at the door which separated her from her goal, she followed Doris down the corridor.
Julius whispered on word as he teetered on the verge of sleep and wakefulness, "Daphne," formed on his lips.
In the scullery that day was much the same as the one before. Daphne washed pots, pans, dishes, and ladles, and when there were no more things to be washed she scrubbed the floors and polished the silver, and when she was done with that there were always more pots to be scoured.
That night there was a ball in honor of the approaching wedding day, and Selene wore the fine gown that came from the walnut. She had never looked so beautiful, so magnificent. The fabric felt smooth against her skin, and if her deep spring of magic seemed diminished, she hardly noticed. She was powerful, and the dress absorbed the power very slowly.
Julius was kept by her side the entire night. He did not talk. He did not smile. And all the guests wondered who the mysterious man she was going to marry was, and why he looked so melancholy. As the ball came to a close Selene brought Julius back to his room, and then went to her own chambers to admire the beautiful dress again. As she was standing by her mirror she heard a cracking sound, and as she turned to lean out on her balcony she saw Daphne sitting on the rocks again. Again Daphne was holding a gown, but this gown was so beautiful that it put the one that Selene was wearing to shame. The more Selene looked at the gown, the more she needed to have it.
"Girl come here," she said with a wave of her hand, and Daphne had the strange sensation being lifted up from where she sat, and being carried up far above her to the balcony where Selene stood waiting.
"What is your desire, my lady?" Daphne asked with a deep curtsy.
"I must have that dress," she said eyeing it greedily. "How dare you to have sold me this rag last night, when all along you had," she broke off and fingered the delicate fabric. "Where did you get it?"
"It was my grandmother's wedding dress, made for her by the fairies of the Western lands," she said with a slight smile.
"Give it to me for tomorrow's feast, it is the last one before the wedding. I must have this dress."
"Let me see your bridegroom," Daphne replied hoping desperately for her wish to be granted, but Selene slapped her across the face.
"I told you before that I will not let you see my bridegroom, do you think that I want him bothered by every low born scullery maid who wishes to see him?"
Daphne stood tall, emboldened by the slap she had received. "Then, again let me sleep in his doorway, you cannot refuse me this." Selene took the dress from her hands, and left the balcony.
"Doris will take you there," she said over her shoulder. "It is almost midnight, wait there till then," and Daphne felt her feet take root to the flagstones of the balcony, and try as she may she could not move them.
Selene walked down the hallway more slowly than usual. There was a pounding in her head. She rubbed her forehead, and thought, "I must have had too much to drink."
Julius still was sitting on the floor when she entered. She sighed.
"You know that the room is fully furnished," she said to him. "I had chairs and couches brought here from far away lands so that your room would be the finest in the entire castle, and there," she gestured, "is my own bed. I had it brought into this room so that you could be comfortable, but day after day you sit on the floor. It is insane. Why do you do it?" Julius looked at her appraisingly.
"I like the floor," he said coldly.
"You like the floor," Selene repeated with a slight mocking edge to her tone. Then she pointed at him, and repeated the incantation of the night before. Julius slumped down unconscious, and Selene left the room just as the clock struck twelve.
That night Julius' dreams were full of Daphne; he saw her crossing a great wood, and climbing the imposing mountain of glass. He almost felt, that in his sleep he could hear her voice. She seemed so near to him.
"Daphne," he murmured feverishly over and over, but his voice was too faint, and the wood was to thick for the word to make it through to Daphne crouched on the other side of the door. When morning came Daphne returned to the scullery. It was the day before the wedding. There was much to be done.
Selene slept late, and when she woke she found it hard to raise he head from the pillow. The two beautiful dresses that had been born from walnuts rustled smugly in her wardrobe, but finally she rose, bathed and dressed finding each activity harder than usual. The day dragged on, but at certain moments she could barely contain her excitement at the prospect of wearing the new gown that night.
Daphne did not have time for such frivolous thoughts, and that night when she was resting on the rocks by the lake, and the whole castle was alive with feasting, she looked at the last walnut which lay in her curled fingers, and wondered aloud, "you don't suppose you could possibly give me a key? I am grateful, but these gowns seem like such a round about way of getting me to Julius." She heard the sound of Selene entering her chambers, and for the final time Daphne struck the rock with the walnut. The walnut shell fairly burst open as it overflowed with exquisite fabric. It took even Daphne's breath away.
"Bring that to me," came the voice a third time, and Daphne again looked up to see Selene staring hungrily down at the dress in her hands. Daphne waited, but no ladder materialized, and no invisible hand came to lift her up to the high balcony where Selene waited. The two women stood for a moment, doing nothing.
"Why are you dawdling girl!" Selene said sharply. "Didn't I tell you to bring that dress to me?"
"You did," Daphne said meekly, "but how do I reach you."
"Are you an idiot?" Selene said irritably. "Must I do everything? Take the stairs you lazy minx." Daphne fairly flew up the stairs, but when she reached Selene's room she found her impatiently tapping her foot. She wrenched the gown out of Daphne's hands.
"Why did you keep this from me?" she asked stroking the fabric feverishly as the last of her magical power began to flow out of her into the soft folds of the gown. "I suppose that this was your great grandmother's wedding dress, given to her by the fairies of the north?" she said mockingly, but Daphne coolly met her gaze and merely said.
"No, I found it in a walnut shell given to me by the King of the Toads, and if you want it you must pay the same price as for the other two gowns." Selene stared at her, and knew she must punish the impertinent girl, but the gown held her captive. So slowly she nodded.
"Go sleep in his doorway, I am too tired to stop you tonight, but tomorrow my love and I shall be married, and you, my little scullery wench, shall be executed for your presumption. I do not need you anymore. I thank you for your fine dresses, but it would be too much to think that a servant would have more than three fabulous gowns in her possession."
Julius waited for Selene to come and put him to sleep, but she never did, and finally he lay down of his own accord. The floor was hard and uncomfortable though, and he tossed and turned hearing Daphne's voice ringing through his head.
"Julius," she said. "Why don't you hear me? This is the third night I have sat here at you door, hoping that you would come and open it to me, but each night the sun rises without my even hearing your voice. If the sun rises this morning it shall rise on both our executions, yours at the altar and mine in the town square. Oh Julius, you must hear me." She sighed, and buried her face in her knees. "I don't even know if you are on the other side. People must think I'm crazing, pouring out my heart and soul to a door."
"Not that crazy, you know that you have been known to have long conversations with an iron stove." Daphne looked up, and standing there was Julius smiling down at her. The door open, the magic Selene had worked on it effective no more. Julius lifted Daphne to her feet.
"My Daphne," he murmured, "my Daphne. Why did you say more than three words to your father?" Daphne shoved him back indignantly.
"Three words? Three words indeed. I said to him 'Good-bye dear father.' Which is three words, no more no less." Julius drew her back to him with laughing eyes.
"Those are four words my dear dear Daphne."
"Is that all you can say to me?" Daphne asked. "After I went out in search of you, to rescue you. If only you knew what I had to do to find you. While you were comfortably ensconced in this castle with a beautiful woman who had designs on marrying you, Julius my love, I was climbing a mountain of glass, crossing three cutting swords, and swimming the lake that surrounds this castle, and all you can say to me is that because I didn't know that hyphenated words counted as two not one it is my fault?" She looked up at him with fiery eyes, and he leaned down brushing a limp lock of hair out of her dirty face.
"No," he whispered, "I can say much much more, but perhaps all should be said once we leave this place. Selene won't be pleased to be jilted at the altar a second time." They turned and walked arm in arm down the corridor.
"I hardly think that putting your fiancé in an iron stove in the middle of a forest counts as getting jilted," Daphne said with a smile.
"Perhaps not, but do you want to explain that to her?" Julius asked with an impish grin. They walked out of the castle and found a boat to row across the lake. Daphne looked back at Selene's balcony and she could have sworn that she heard the three gowns whispering to each other.
I do not need to tell you how Julius and Daphne made the journey back. Suffice it to say that it was much easier with company (though they did find a path around the mountain of glass instead of trying to climb it again). Crazy Rambles Insanity one morning woke to find that his boots and pick had been returned to him during the night and Shotsly had been taken. The rest of his life he spent wondering about the beautiful young girl who had managed to scale the mountain of glass, and when he died the townsfolk found a note stating that he was the first to climb that great slope, and that the one who followed him was a mere girl.
Julius and Daphne finally reached the palace of the Toad King, and they spent a month there resting after their hard journey.
One night when almost all the palace was asleep Daphne saw the Toad King again. He smiled at her and beckoned with a warty finger that she should follow him out into the gardens.
"Well, Daphne, I said this once before, and I shall say it again, you are a resourceful girl. It was through you that Selene's reign of terror was brought to an end." Daphne broke off a flower and twirled it in her fingers.
"Your majesty," she said inquiringly, "why was it that she made no move to stop Julius and my escape?"
"She was incapable of doing so," the Toad King replied looking off in the distance. "All her power was lost. Each of the three gowns you sold to her took care of that. They drained her of all her power. Now it is kept safe in a chest upstairs in my chambers," he smiled fondly at Daphne. "I promise you Selene will harm neither you nor Julius ever again." Daphne looked down at the flower a moment, then she stood up on her tip toes and gently kissed the King of the Toads on his cheek.
"Thank you, you have been far kinder to me than I deserve. Without your help I never would have found Julius again. I would have died that day in the woods." The Toad King harrumphed, and Daphne got the distinct impression that he was blushing.
"It is late child, go and get some sleep, tomorrow you shall return to your own lands, where you and Julius can finally be married." Daphne smiled and turned to reenter the palace.
"Oh, and Daphne." She looked at the great toad.
"What?" she asked with a smile.
"Perhaps the reason that Selene was weak enough to be defeated was that she broke her own rule. If 'good-bye' is one word, as you claim it to be, then Selene took Julius away too soon, and that was the beginning of her downfall. Now," he said in a paternal voice, "go to bed." Daphne left the garden, and as soon as she had lain her head on the pillow she fell into a deep sleep which was the start to a wonderful new life for her and her Julius.
A mouse has run,
My story's done.