A long time ago a mill keeper named Fai bragged about how wonderful his daughter Sakura was. He bragged so much that he claimed that his daughter could spin straw into gold.
This bragging of his spread throughout the village and soon word of it was heard by the king himself. Soon King Kurogane ordered that both the father and his daughter to be brought to him.
However when the soldiers left to carry out their orders Fai's first born son Touya attacked the soldiers nearly killing one of them but soon he too was captured and brought to the king.
"I have heard tale of your daughter and I would like to see her spin straw into gold," Kurogane said to Fai who was growing pale in the face from what his bragging had brought.
The King then turned to the soldiers "but why have you brought this man before me?" he asked pointing towards Touya
The soldiers explained that Touya had attacked them in their mission and the King rubbed his chin in thought and came up with a plan and turned to Sakura and the soldiers, "I will make a deal with you young woman; If you can turn all the straw in your tower into gold by tomorrow like your father said I will release your brother with no charges against him but should you fail he will die as is the charges against him."
The soldiers smirked at this as they brought Sakura to her tower for they believed that the miller Fai was lying and by tomorrow Touya would be executed. When they reached the room and locked her in all she was left with were piles and piles of straw along with a spinning-wheel and a small window to view the countryside horizon for when the sun rose tomorrow her brother would be executed should she fail.
The young girl then sat down to work as she tried her best to spin straw into gold but no matter how hard she tried the straw remained as it always had been. After an hour or so when the sun was beginning to set Sakura broke down and began to weep believing that her brother would die tomorrow and said to herself quietly, "I would give anything if someone could turn all this straw into gold."
"Anything?" the wind seemed to whisper to the weeping girl
"Yes anything!" she said believing she had either gone mad or one of the soldiers who may have been standing outside was mocking her
Now sunset is a time when magic is unpredictable and as fate would have it a strange boy appeared in the room. He was the same age as Sakura and had brown eyes and messy brown hair and a mischievous smile as he trotted over to the girl and asked "Why are you crying?"
Sakura stopped crying and looked up at the boy and noticed his face was covered in hideous scars that appeared to be from various acts such as burned scars around his right eye and gashing scars on the side of his jaw and judging from his torn up and ragged clothes he was not from the castle.
"I must spin this straw into gold or my brother will die," explained Sakura as her tears filled her eyes again and this time the boy leaned down and patted her on the back and gave her a rag to wipe her tears away.
Sakura took the rag gratefully and wiped her tears as the boy asked, "If I spin this straw into gold for you what will you give me in return?"
Sakura then pulled off a ring that had belonged to her deceased mother. It was a cheap metal ring aside from the tiny diamond on the very edge of it and presented it to the boy. "I will give you my late mother's ring."
The boy plucked the ring out of her hand and sat down and went to work spinning straw into gold soon it was late at night and Sakura fell asleep and when she awoke the boy was gone and all the straw had been turned to gold.
The King and his soldiers approached the room. The soldiers and the King thought that she had failed so they had already left Touya standing near the gallows awaiting the King's return to order his execution. However when they opened the door they were surprised to find that all the straw had been changed into gold and King Kurogane grew greedy and ordered the girl to be fed and ordered Touya to be released with no charges.
Sakura ate her meal of soup, bread and cheese and the King approached her and took her to another room that was larger than the last and filled with even more straw along with a large window and a spinning-wheel and said "Your father is in our dungeon if you wish to free him as well you must spin all the straw in this room into gold as well by tomorrow."
Sakura was worried and nearly began to cry like before but once again the boy with the badly scared face appeared to her with another smile and asked, "If I spin all this straw into gold what will you give me?"
At this Sakura felt a twinge of hope but shook her head and said "I'm sorry I have nothing left to give you for I am a poor miller's daughter."
"Oh I think you do have something I want but I will spin the straw into gold first and ask for your fee later," said the boy as he began spinning the straw into gold and like before Sakura had fallen asleep as she wondered how the boy found her and appeared before her without making a sound, she concluded that the boy must have climbed through the windows, (since they were big enough for a person to escape through) this time however instead of waking up on her own she was awakened before dawn by the boy.
"Oh yes," said Sakura as she stood up, "What is your price?"
"A kiss," replied the boy with a smile
At this Sakura blushed but nodded and soon her lips touched the boy's before he could explain he wanted her to kiss his cheek but as soon as she pulled away from the blushing boy Sakura heard the King approaching again and when she looked back where the boy was standing… he was gone without a sound.
King Kuorgane looked around the room and smiled joyously as he ordered her to be fed again and her father freed and like before she was taken to a larger room filled with straw and had a spinning-wheel in the middle of the room however this one was at the top of a castle tower and the window was no wider than a small bird.
"If you wish to live then spin all of this straw into gold and I will free you," said the King as he shut the door to the tower leaving her alone in the tower with no ways of escape
Sakura sat down knowing that there was no way the boy could save her now and she soon fell asleep after crying her eyes out and this time she awakened to find the boy standing beside the spinning-wheel with his back turned to her and all around them all the straw had been changed into gold.
"What will you give me for all this gold?" asked the boy with his back still turned to her
"I-I have nothing I told you that before," said Sakura more surprised than scared at the boy's appearance
"Well… how about your hand?" asked the boy
"My hand?" questioned Sakura believing he would chop her hand off
"… in marriage?" finished the boy as he turned around his scars all gone
"I-I…" Sakura was shocked to see all of the scars on the boy's face gone "I will allow that but… why me?"
"Because you're the first person to see past the scars on my hideous face. Whenever I asked for a woman to kiss me they always kissed me on the cheek repulsed at my appearance but you… you kissed my lips and have cured me of those scars," the boy said with a blush
Sakura approached the boy and took his hand in hers and smiled "Thank you for saving my brother and my father," said Sakura as she kissed the boy on the lips again
The King then returned to the room to find that Sakura was gone but the straw that had been turned into gold had remained much to his pleasure.
As for Sakura's father and brother a letter was given to them which they read
Dear Father and Brother,
I am writing this note to inform you that I am well and I will soon be married to the one who truly saved all of us. His first name is Syaoran and his last name which I will be sharing soon is…. Rumpelstiltskin, I hope you will be able to join us for our wedding! I left you a map so you can find us along with a gift from my husband-to-be.
Sincerely, Sakura
After reading it Fai gave the note to his son and took out the map as a sliver of something fell out of the envelope it was a piece of golden straw.
Well it wasn't exactly 'Happily ever after' but I think I did good with this as an ending. What do you think? Anyway the tale of' Rumpelstiltskin' and 'Red Riding Hood' were what gave me the idea to write this fic so it may be a while before I update this story… or not (who knows?) So tell me what do you think of my little twists on the tale of the brother's Grimm?