Rapunzel Pt 02

Sequel to my 2004 version of Rapunzel

With apologies to the Brothers Grimm.

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Copyright Oggbashan January 2017

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

Note: Euryale was one of the Gorgons, and immortal.

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The prince Johann had survived three months with Rapunzel and her mother Euryale before they let him go in an anaemic state. Euryale didn't tell Rapunzel that she had blinded Johann before abandoning him at the edge of the forest.

She didn't - until they had an argument three months after Prince Johann had left. Rapunzel was annoyed that she had to stay in the tower while her mother roamed the countryside. There was no reason for it, was there? Rapunzel hadn't been a virgin for at least a thousand years so why was she 'protected'? Even if she was only a quarter of a goddess she could protect herself, couldn't she? If it hadn't been for Euryale's blood lust Rapunzel could have enjoyed Johann for years.

That was when Euryale shouted back "If you want him back, you find him. He can't find himself. I blinded him so he couldn't lead anyone back here. If you are satisfied with a blind mortal you can have him."

Euryale stormed out in a temper leaving Rapunzel alone in the tower. From past experience Rapunzel knew that Euryale wouldn't be back for months or years. Euryale would go to a city and drink men's blood for a month or two before she had to move on.

Euryale could enter and leave the tower without using Rapunzel's hair because there was a snake infested underground tunnel. No snake would dare bite Euryale. It would die instantly. As Euryale's daughter Rapunzel couldn't be killed by snake bite but she might suffer considerable pain if she tried to use the tunnel.

Rapunzel took some money from their strong box. She sighed. Euryale might be her mother, but she could be a pain. She unbound the last six feet of her hair, let it wrap itself around a strong hook and lowered herself out of the window and down the tower. She willed her hair to unwrap and it slid down the tower. She bundled it up into a backpack and covered the backpack with a large cloak. It gave her an odd shape but that was better than having her hair trail on the ground for yards. She set off through the wood looking for Prince Johann.

Soon after leaving the wood she met a woodcutter heading towards it.

"Have you seen a blind young man recently?" she asked.

"If I had, he wouldn't have seen me." The woodcutter replied. "What does a pretty girl like you want with a blind man, anyway? I could do anything he could and see you while I'm doing it. How about a quick fuck?"

Rapunzel's hair flew out of her backpack and snaked around the woodcutter. He was tightly lashed into a faintly squirming bundle of braided hair. The end of Rapunzel's plait squeezed around his throat. His face was turning from red to blue before she released her stranglehold.

"I wanted a civil answer, not a suggestive one," she said. "Have you seen a blind young man? Yes or No?"

"No... I'm sorry, I didn't realise you weren't human. Let me go, please."

"I'm human enough to resent an invitation for a fuck from a sweaty peasant like you. You should be more polite to strangers. I'll let you go in a minute, when my hair has fed. Just stay still and it won't hurt."

The woodcutter would have pleaded again but his words were cut off in a skein of Rapunzel's hair. When she released him there were threads of blood across his bare skin. He staggered to his feet and shuffled away.

Rapunzel sighed as she piled her hair back into her backpack. This wasn't going to be easy.

She made her way to the nearest village and paid for a night at the inn. There were some strange looks because she didn't remove her backpack even when eating but no one insulted her. She asked the landlord about any blind men. He hadn't seen any. She wondered whether Euryale had lied to her.

As she made her way up the stairs towards her room a middle-aged groom stopped her.

"I might be able to help, miss..." he said nervously.

"How?" Rapunzel said abruptly. She was tired and in no mood for banter.

"I heard something..."

"What?"

"It might be worth a reward?" The groom was shuffling his feet.

"What sort of reward?"

"What can you give?"

"Come with me," Rapunzel said. She led the way to her room and unlocked the door. Once she and the groom were inside she locked the door again. She sat down on the bed and patted it.

"Sit here," she ordered. The groom sat beside her.

"What have you got to tell me?" She asked.

"Payment first..."

Rapunzel's hair snaked out, trapping the groom's arms by his sides. His protest was muffled by a braid cutting across his mouth. Rapunzel pushed his pinioned body backwards to the bed as her braid wrapped closer and closer around him. His eyes were wide open with shock as she put her face above his.

"Are you going to tell? The payment will be your freedom. If you don't tell..."

Rapunzel's hair squeezed around his ribs forcing the air from his lungs. A loop of hair tightened around his neck. His frightened squeak died in his throat. His face was turning blue from lack of air.

Rapunzel relaxed her hair's grip.

"Well?"

"The blind man passed two or three months ago going West." The groom croaked. "He was wearing a sword. I don't know why. He can't use it. An old crone was leading him. She had weird hair hidden under a large floppy hat."

"Euryale..." Rapunzel whispered.

"Who?"

"It doesn't matter. Thank you."

Rapunzel released the groom. She produced a silver coin from her purse.

"You could have had this without being throttled. Learn from it. People give rewards for information. The size of the reward depends on how useful your story is."

The groom rubbed his throat gingerly.

"How was I to know that a pretty girl could be so dangerous?"

"Not all pretty girls are what they seem. Be more careful next time. Go!"

She pushed her hair into her back pack. The groom scurried through the door.

It was too late for her to continue that day. She'd stay overnight and go West in the morning. It should be easier to follow Prince Johann if he was with Euryale. He was going West, led by Euryale months ago? What had he been doing during the two weeks when Euryale had still been coming back to the tower? Her mother must have been looking after Johann. Why? Why had she blinded him?

That night Rapunzel slept badly. She couldn't understand what her mother was doing with Prince Johann. Westward? That was the direction of the Prince's domain. Was she taking him to his home? Why?

The next morning she paid the innkeeper for her breakfast and left. The groom saw her as she passed the stables. She waved at him. His face turned white as he scuttled back from the door.

Rapunzel had walked several miles when a horse and cart came up behind her.

"Lady? Want a ride?" The carter's voice sounded friendly.

Rapunzel turned round. The carter smiled at her. He looked like someone's father. He was wearing a surprisingly well-tailored jacket.

"If you are going West, yes, I'd like a ride," she answered.

The carter watched as she climbed up to sit beside him.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm looking for my mother," Rapunzel answered. "She was going this way, leading a young blind man. Have you seen them?"

"No. But I wouldn't have done. I haven't been along this road for half a year. I've got ten miles to go, unload, and then I can go back home."

"When will you get to your destination?"

The carter looked up at the sun.

"About eleven o'clock I think. The unloading shouldn't take long and I should get home by dusk. My wife will be pleased to see me - because I'll have been paid."

"Not otherwise?"

"We need the money. I would like to be with her. She likes having me around, but I won't get much local carting work until harvest time, and we need to eat."

As they travelled the carter talked to Rapunzel about the countryside they were passing. He didn't ask any questions. She appreciated his tact.

At his destination, a farmhouse being extended, he had some smith's ironwork to unload. Rapunzel helped him, surprising him with her ability to carry heavy weights. The carter was paid. He looked sorrowfully at the few coins he had earned.

"What's the matter?" Rapunzel asked.

"I've been paid the proper amount but I'm not sure we can survive the next few months on this."

"If I asked you to take me to the capital, and paid you, could you take me?"

"The capital? We wouldn't get there until dark. I'd have to stay overnight in an inn. I can't afford that."

"You could, if I paid you for the night's stay and food."

"Can you really pay so much, young lady?"

"Yes. To show you that I can, I'll pay you for the miles you have taken me so far, and also for the rest of the way to the capital. I'll pay for the inn. I'll say you're my uncle. That do?"

"It would - if you really have the money."

Rapunzel put a hand through a slit in her skirt to find her purse. She felt around to produce a handful of silver coins. She held them out to the carter.

"Would this be enough for you to take me to the capital?" she asked.

"Enough? That's more than I would earn in a year. How rich are you?"

"Rich enough to prefer not to walk, uncle."

Rapunzel poured the coins into his hand. His face paled as he felt the weight of the coins.

"You don't know what this money means to me, Miss," he said.

"If it makes you and your wife comfortable, then that's good."

"It does more than that. I owe a small amount to a moneylender. He has been good to me for years, tolerant and understanding, but this money means I'd never need his services again. It can provide for emergencies."

He stopped speaking. His face brightened.

"The capital? I could visit my sister-in-law if I could pay for my food. I could buy some cloth for my wife to make herself some new clothes. She's really good as a seamstress but needs cloth to work on. Her father was a tailor. Just a few of these coins would buy enough to make her happy and busy for months."

"Did she make your jacket?"

"Yes. That was last year when we had some money."

Rapunzel put her hand back in her pocket.

"Uncle? If your wife had plenty of material, could she make clothes to sell?"

"Of course she could. She's a great seamstress."

"Then uncle, I'd like to invest in your wife's skill. You have an empty cart. Buy whatever your wife might want to make clothes for others. All I ask is one tenth of her profits to be kept for me until I ask for it. Could you and she do that?"

"But it might take months before she makes a profit," the carter protested.

"Months, years, it doesn't matter. Is it a deal?"

"I can't refuse an offer like that. Do I need to sign a contract?"

"No. Just give me your name, and your word."

"My name? Angus Scott. My wife is Jean. I give you my word. One tenth of the profits."

"And my name is Rapunzel."

Angus' face went pale again.

"Euryale's daughter?" he whispered.

"Yes. But you are safe from me. We have an agreement between us. I won't hurt you, nor will my mother."

"I thought it was too good to be true. You're not human, Rapunzel."

"No, I'm not. But I can behave as one. And we have a deal."

Rapunzel put her hand into a slit on the other side of her skirt. She produced a gold coin worth far more than the handful of silver she had paid Angus.

"This is my investment in your wife's dressmaking. It will never need to be repaid, only one tenth of any profits from her work. Take it, Angus, please."

Angus was reluctant. His hand stretched out and withdrew slightly.

"Take it," Rapunzel repeated. "It won't harm you, nor will I. Look..."

Rapunzel took his calloused hand, dropped the gold coin into it, closed Angus' hand around them and stroked the back of his hand.

"What have you done?" Angus asked in alarm.

"Gorgons, and Gorgons' children, can heal as well as harm. Try stretching your back, Angus."

"My back? It's too stiff."

"It was. It isn't now. Try it."

Angus stood up on the cart's seat. He straightened his back. A look of disbelief was followed by joy. He swung towards Rapunzel, took her hand to his lips and kissed it.

"Thank you, Rapunzel. I don't know how, but that's amazing."

"I am - amazing," she replied, "Or I can be to my friends. Now, on to the capital, please."

+++

They talked as the horse and cart trundled slowly along. Angus knew that Rapunzel wanted to find Johann, and possibly her mother Euryale. Angus didn't want to meet Euryale. His fear of Gorgons was too great but a beautiful Rapunzel sitting beside him didn't look like a Gorgon.

Angus plucked up his courage to ask the awkward questions.

"Why, Rapunzel, were you in the tower? And why aren't you now?"

Rapunzel laughed.

"Why was I? It was a long time ago. Pan wanted to make love to me. I didn't like the idea of cloven hoofed children with horns and a tail so I retreated to the tower to get away from him. Why aren't I there now? Pan gave up hundreds of years ago. Now I want to find Johann. My mother blinded him. He didn't deserve that. He had tried his best to please us."

"If you find him, can you make him see again?"

"I don't know. I know what might heal his eyes - the tears of an adult virgin."

"An adult virgin? In the capital? She must be rarer than hen's teeth," Angus protested.

"I know. But there might be one. That's all he needs."

Angus asked Rapunzel if she wanted to go to an inn in the capital, or stay with his sister-in-law.

"I'll have to pay her so she can buy food. She's even poorer than we are since my brother died. She has a teenage son and daughter she's trying to teach to become a tailor and seamstress to start the family business again. She makes a little money repairing clothes, and that's their whole income."

"Is she a seamstress too, Angus?"

"Yes, but she used to help my brother with the tailor's business. Now he's dead she can't be a tailor. Only a man can be, and her son's still too young."

"How good a seamstress is she?"

"Nearly as good as my wife. No. I wouldn't say it if Jean were here but Hilda is just as good as my wife."

"OK, Angus. We'll stay with your sister-in-law but I'll pay what we would pay in an inn. That do?"

"She would be very pleased with that."

Once at the capital they went to Angus' widowed sister-in-law's house in a poor district near the market. It was a large dilapidated house with a shuttered shop on the ground floor.

Angus helped Rapunzel down from the cart before he knocked on a door beside the shop front. A teenage boy opened the door.

"Uncle Angus!" the boy said. "Mum will be pleased to see you."

"Hans. This young lady will be staying - as a paying guest. Your mother might have to send you out shopping."

"Shopping? I'll take Jutta too. She's better at bargaining with shopkeepers than I am but can't carry much."

In the kitchen Hilda was baking bread. She hugged Angus and welcomed Rapunzel politely. When Angus explained that Rapunzel would be paying for both of them to stay Hilda was relieved, then astonished when Rapunzel poured some silver coins on to the kitchen table. Hilda quickly wrote a shopping list and sent Hans to find Jutta and go shopping.

As soon as her children had gone, Angus introduced Rapunzel.

"Hilda, your guest is Rapunzel, you know, Euryale's daughter."

Hilda was shocked.

"Rapunzel, but..."

"You have nothing to worry about, Hilda," Rapunzel said. "I'm here as Angus' friend. I won't harm you or yours."

"But why...?"

"Why am I here? I'm looking for my mother Euryale and a blind young man who is with her. They've come to the capital. I don't know why."

"Euryale and a blind young man? They should be easy to find, Rapunzel. Tomorrow I'll send the children out looking and asking for you. It shouldn't take them more than a couple of hours but it might tire Jutta."

"Tire Jutta? Why?"

"She had a broken leg a few years ago and it didn't set properly. You'll see her limping when they return. I'll just put this bread in the oven and make some tea for us. Please sit down."

Angus and Rapunzel sat at the kitchen table. Ten minutes later all three of them were drinking tea.

Later, when Hilda went off to make the beds for her visitors, Rapunzel asked Angus about the shop. He sighed.

"Hilda's husband was trying to expand the business. He had bought and installed some weaving looms and was going into partnership with a master weaver. They were on a trip to buy some more equipment when they were ambushed by bandits, robbed and killed. Some of the money that was stolen had been borrowed against future profits. The business was wiped out. Hilda repaid the debt but that left her with nothing but this building. The tailor's apprentices had sought new masters.

In theory Hilda could have become their master, but she didn't have enough money left to keep up her subscription to the tailors' guild, or enough to even feed the apprentices."

"Is there a possibility I could invest in Hilda's business, Angus?"

"I'm not sure it would be a good risk, Rapunzel. When Hans is a couple of years older he could be an apprentice, and another year later Jutta could be, but Hilda hasn't got enough to pay for them."

"But if she paid her dues to the guild, could she take apprentices now?"

"Possibly. But she'd need a master weaver as well to run the looms."

"How much money?"

"I don't know, Rapunzel. As much, or maybe more, than you've invested into my wife's skill."

"Angus. Like my mother, I'm immortal. Time is unimportant to me. I can wait a decade or two for a return on my money. Otherwise it just sits in the tower, inaccessible to humans. Could we talk to Hilda about the possibility?"

"We could, Rapunzel, but I'm warning you again. It will be risky. It might be less risky if the children were a few years older, and if Jutta's leg was stronger."

"Why Jutta's leg?"

"If she could move better, or carry more, Jutta could help Hilda. If Hilda is to start the business again, and take on apprentices, she would need Hans and Jutta to take over the domestic activities, at least until they could afford a servant or two. At present servants are no more than a wild dream for them."

At that point Hans and Jutta came into the kitchen carrying the groceries they had bought. Hans was carrying far more than Jutta, but she was obviously in pain. Their mother, Hilda, came downstairs.

"Hans, Jutta, this lady is our guest for a couple of days. Her name is Rapunzel.

Hans looked shocked. Jutta was intrigued.

"Rapunzel with the very long hair?" Jutta asked.

"Yes. I am." Rapunzel replied.

"Aren't you dangerous?" Hans blurted out.

"Not to friends, nor when I'm a guest in your house, Hans. But I can be dangerous, mainly to adult men. Until you are a few years older, you're safe from me."

"But Uncle Angus isn't?" Hans insisted.

"He's a friend. He's safe from me unless my hair is loose. That's why it isn't."

Jutta looked disappointed.

"So I can't see it?"

"You could, if your uncle wasn't in the same room. Not while he is. But, I want something from you, Jutta. If I let you see my hair, will you let me see and touch your damaged leg?"

"Why would you want to do that?" Jutta asked.

"I might..."

Angus interrupted.

"Rapunzel can be a healer, Jutta. She might be able to help with your leg."

"But the doctor said nothing could be done, short of breaking it again and resetting it, and that might make me worse," Jutta said.

"I won't make it worse, Jutta. My touch wouldn't even hurt. Is it a deal? You see and touch my hair; I see and touch your leg."