Once upon a time in Rulan, there lived a merchant, his wife, and their teenage son. They had the misfortune of living on the brink of poverty due to their selfish king. The king took his subject's goods by force, giving them a measly pay in return. The farmer and his wife wanted to teach the king a lesson, so one day the tale of their boy turning dust bunnies into gold reached the king's ears. The king quickly summoned the farmer's son. When he arrived at the King's marble castle, King Kelvin led the boy in the dead queen's chamber which hadn't been cleaned in years.
"Get to work, boy. I want this dusty old room to be filled with gold by tomorrow morning,” the king growled as he locked the door.
"If I could turn dust into gold, I would have gotten my family out of poverty. What a silly king for not having thought of that. But what am I to do?" the boy said to himself.
"I can help you there, my boy," a female voice spoke. The boy turned around until his gaze fell upon an old lady dressed in dirty old rags standing in the corner of the room. Her skin seemed to be glowing red, as if she was on fire.
"How can you help me when you can't even help yourself?"
"Looks can be deceiving child. I heard about your dilemma and I can help, but what will you give me in return?"
"Anything you want in the future,” the boy said desperately.
“You have yourself a deal.” The old lady whispered some words and waved her arms around while dust from the top of the four poster mahogany bed collected in front of them. The dust flew in a blur of gold for a few minutes and suddenly stopped. The sound of metal could be heard as hundreds of gold coins fell to the floor.
“I'll leave you to rest. After all, you have a big day tomorrow," the witch said.
The merchant's son was pleased with the turn of events and happily fell asleep on the pile of gold. Early the next morning, King Kelvin stormed into the boy's room, waking him up.
"What, you actually managed to make gold? As your King, I order you to make more by tonight. If you can, you will have the honor of marrying my daughter." From behind the King, stepped a beautiful maiden. Her gaze lowered, Princess Pearl's long shiny brown hair was tied in a Dutch braid that reached her back. When she looked up, the boy noticed her stunning green eyes and dimples as she shyly smiled at him. He immediately fell for her looks.
After the king and his daughter stepped out of the room and locked him in, the boy thought of searching for the witch. This wasn’t necessary, as she soon appeared.
“Make me some more gold so I can present it to the king tonight and marry his daughter.”
“And how do you plan to repay me?"
"You can have whatever you want, once I marry the princess."
"In that case, promise me your first born child. If you fail to hold your side of the bargain, I promise you, you will suffer," the witch warned.
“I promise,” the boy said hastily, not thinking things through. As promised, the witch turned more dust lying on the wardrobe into gold and the boy soon married the princess.
The newly weds lived happily together for many years and eventually had a baby daughter, but unfortunately, the mother lost her life. To make things worse, the peace and quiet came to an end one evening. As the baby’s father was putting her to sleep, the witch appeared.
“It is time for you to repay me as you promised many years ago. You may have forgotten, but your first child belongs to me,” the witch said with a wicked grin.
“Take my jewels instead and go marry any guy that will take you. Then you will have a child you greatly want,” the man said protectively covering the baby.
“It is not any baby I want, but yours. I will give you another chance. If you can guess my name by tomorrow evening when I shall return, you may keep the child. If not, kiss your daughter goodbye,” the witch cackled as she disappeared in the blink of an eye.
But try as he might, the baby’s father couldn’t think of any name for a witch. The next evening as promised, the witch returned.
“Have you any clue of my name?” the witch asked as she slowly walked towards the sleeping baby’s crib.
“…Gothel? Medusa? Medea? Willow
“No, you fool. Now step aside as your daughter is now mine.”
But the man would not give in without a fight. He ran to push the old lady out the window, but she easily evaded him as he tumbled down to his doom.
“Serves you right. You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep after all.” Quickly and quietly, the witch took the bundled baby and disappeared from the castle forever.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Many years passed and the baby grew to be a beautiful young lady with long brown hair. The witch, who the girl believed to be her mother, kept her in a tower in the middle of a forest. “For protection,” the witch claimed when the girl asked. This girl was later known as Rapunzel.
