Same as, same as. Never have owned it, never will!
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Chloris did not tell her parents. They had made it very clear that did not want anything to do with their seven sons. The children had given her an idea; a crazy and selfish idea that she was going to put in action. Very, very carefully she had placed the strip of parchment with her well thought-out words somewhere it would not be found until morning, before they would see, or rather, wouldn't see, Chloris. She felt like she needed to do this and would be forever plagued if she did not. With the images that she had dreamt up for her brothers in the past few days, she snuck out of her house, mounted her horse and rode over to the town in which she heard the Brothers Grimm were staying in.
She was tired from riding even before she had reached the town. She felt sleep coming over her softly, in gentle waves, and she wanted to stay in a small place in a town two days from where her destination was. Her plan was to ride all the way there, tell the Brothers Grimm her predicament and sit back and wait for results (she was a lady, after all. She couldn't get involved, anyway). Somewhere along the line of planning, though, she forgot that she was human; even worse, she forgot that she was a human riding a horse, with a far off destination in mind. She had not packed a thing, except her father's ring to remind her of the parents, and some bread, (Never mind, she had told herself, It just means that I shall travel more quickly with the lack of weight...) and now that she was acting her plan out, she regretted it all. She wanted to sleep and eat and wash and do something, anything, that wasn't ride on a horse. Not only was it getting tedious, it was also painfully sore. She finally sighed and decided to give into her temptations. She dismounted her horse and entered the establishment, talking a deep breath before shoving the wooden door open.
It was different to what she expected, although she did not know what she had anticipated. There was a gathering of minstrels playing in the back of the bar, and heavy amounts of men drinking, latched onto a woman, or in some cases two or three. Chloris wrinkled up her nose and delicately made her way to the back of the pub, where a man cleaning cups was. He looked up and grunted at her untidy appearance.
"Excuse me?" She called out to him.
"Eh?" He yelled back.
"Would you have a room for me to sleep in?" She asked, holding up her small sack, just in case the man was deaf. Apparently, he wasn't.
"A room, eh? I have a room for you. Go upstairs to the left; Room 12. You get your own breakfast. Can you manage that, eh?" He shoved her towards the stairs.
"I'll try my best, sir..." She got cut off as the barman pushed her up the stairs, sending her flying and out of breath. She shook her head, stumbling into her room for the night. Collapsing on her bed, she fell straight asleep and had the first good night of sleep in what felt like years, all because she felt like she was helping her brothers in a small, noteworthy way.
When the light form the sun lightly shone through her shutters the next morning, Chloris shot up. It was not because she didn't know where she was (though, she had to admit it was a great deal weirder not waking up to her bedroom for the first time in her life) nor was it because of the heavy stench of dirt and faeces entering her room and harassing her nose. It was because the barman downstairs had started shouting at someone—two men, it sounded like—about not being able to pay their rent for the night. Chloris's breathing quickened when she realised her predicament was exactly the same. She had no money on her, and she way of repaying the man. She couldn't sell anything because she would, in fact, need to have had something to sell in the first place. She could not believe how utterly stupid it was of her not to think she'd need to pay. She winced, when she realised she had just slapped herself, and then hit herself again when she realised that she had no escape. She couldn't just walk downstairs and lie to that man. It was sinful! Nor could she explain what happened; she remembered the way he had easily pushed her up those stairs last night. She jumped out of bed quickly and knocked a chair out of her opened window in her haste. She paused, hearing it drop not shortly afterwards and ran over to the wooden ledge. Looking downwards on the street, the dirt was not far from where she was. As luck would have it, there was even a cart below her window and she could easily fall into it. Albeit, it most definitely would hurt, just it would be better than getting arrested, as the man downstairs currently was. She could hear his protests from her room. She needed to get out of this building to save her brothers, and the less trouble she ran into on the way, the better. Chloris looked over her shoulder quickly, and saw her pack lying on the floor next to the too thin wooden door. She scampered over and grabbed the material in her hands, before rushing back to the window. She quickly convinced herself to swing her leg over onto the other side of the window and do the same with the other one. With her pack in one hand, the other grabbing hysterically onto the window, matching her hysterical almost silent squeaks and groans, she snuck a quick glance into her room. It looked used, like when she had entered yesterday, but untouched by her. She almost let out a small sigh of relief when she heard the most terrifying noise of her life; she screeching of a cart wheels, and the whinnying of a horse starting to trot in dawn's frost. She looked carefully down not wanting to see the sight below her. Not even twenty feet below her, a merchant was heading out to market early, in hopes of grabbing the best spot to set up his stall. A loud cry of disbelief echoed around the almost empty streets.
There was a pause before some men came running over, crying out repeatedly "Miss? MISS?". She let out a yelp before replying.
"Yes?" It was quite hard to reply, when she was dangling with one hand from a second-story windowsill.
"Miss...Are you alright?" A voice asked her.
"Yes, yes. I'm sure I'll be—" A short shriek cut her off as her finger slipped the tiniest bit. If it was one more millimetre, she would be balancing precariously on the window. As it were, her hand was beginning to hurt and splinters were digging into her hands.
"Steady on, men!" Came a cry as a hand found its way to her ankle.
"What are you doing?" She kicked and lost a little more off of her height. She dropped her bag, hitting one of her rescuers, and grabbed the windowsill with both hands.
"Ma'am, you're going to have to let go," A completely different voice cried out from the crowd. She was appaulled and wanted to protest, when she heard a tapping on her window.
"Eh?" It was the barman from last night.
Chloris let out a squeaky "Okay!" and jumped down into her unready saviour's arms. The two of them fell to the ground with a dull thud. Chloris quickly jumped up and gave the blonde man a happy smile.
"Thank you," she said sincerely, whipping dust off of her dress and making her way over to her pack. "I will never forget this day, or your faces," she gave them a quick curtsy before carefully walking over to her horse, staying out of sight of the bar and its unpleasant owner.
"You're quite welcome, Ma'am!" A group of voices called out after her. She mounted her horse quickly and rode on out of the town at a very uncomfortable and awkward canter. Shouts and yells were heard behind her, and the protest of men before the rode out of earshot.
The next town was a decent way a way. She estimated that it would take her a decent week before she reached it. She chewed thoughtfully on her stale bread, mulling over her morning's start. A small fond smile now played on her face when she thought of it, unlike the feelings after the shock had first subsided. She could practically feel the adrenaline still filling her body and she felt a happy feeling or joy and curiosity and...something that could somewhat could resemble freedom? She shook her head from the thought and quickened her horse, trying to hurry along the travel time. If she could reach a barn or an old mill before dark, that would suit her just fine. She had learnt her lesson fairly and she would not be a fool, for it would take a lot before she repeated it.
She rode through the rest of the day, and had to hide off of the path in some forest during the night, for she could not find a shelter. Most of the week continued the rest of the day, riding through places and walking besides her horse when she felt her muscles get too sore. When the day finally came when she reached the town of her destination, she was ecstatic. Not only was she about to meet, what seemed to be, the two most famous men in the whole of Germany, they were going to save her brothers. Her seven brothers had kept her riding through the remainder of the night, instead of stopping to rest. She had reached it at dawn, and people were starting to rise. She had smiled brightly and trotted all over town, leading her horse to get feed and to lap up water happily. Chloris had given each town person a slight bow and had talked idly to some of the merchants setting up. When the majority of people were running out what Chloris presumed to be the marketplace, she finally started her search.