Tedelstiltskin

Once upon a time, in the Queendom of Sophie, there lived a poor miller. The miller's name was Nick, and he had a daughter named Vicky. Now Vicky was a skilled weaver, and often got compliments for her work - beautiful works telling whole stories in blankets and pillow cases. It so happened that one day, these stories reached the ears of the Queen and King of the kingdom, Sophie and Nick.

Wanting one of these amazing blankets and comforters set (pillowcase included, no charge) for themselves, they set off to the home of the miller. Upon arriving, they were entertained by the miller, who told outrageous stories about Vicky's skills.

"Oh yes!" He bragged. "Not only that, she can also turn straw into gold thread!" The King and Queen were so impressed, they asked that Vicky move to the castle, where if she could indeed turn straw into gold, she would be rewarded with the hand of their son, Adam, in marriage.

The miller, seeing this as his way up, bit his tongue. He hadn't meant for the stories to be taken so literaly, but now that they had, hey! It was a way up. However, he was nervous about the king's last lines - if she can't, she will be put to death - but he couldn't worry about that now. He had a fortune to make!

So the party set off to the castle. Prince Adam was immediatly taken by Vicky, as she had been to him for a long time, but she was quickly whisked away the next day, after a restless sleep, to a locked room. She was told that by the end of the day, she must have turned the kilogram of straw into gold. But she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried.

She began crying, and as her tears were reaching large sizes, a strange looking man with long ears and short legs, along with ridiculous hair in a red mohawk, jumped into the window sill.

"Vicky" he called. "I'll help you. Give me something and I will spin the straw into gold for you." With no other choice, she gave him her locket and waited. Sure enough, thirty minutes before the King came back, the strange man came back.

The King was delighted by the gold and let Vicky out for a good night's rest, leaving her to puzzle over the strange benefactor. Who was he? What did he want? Why was he helping her? But none of the questions had been answered by the next day, when she was again locked up, but with more straw than before.

Again, the man appeared and helped her, this time extracting from her her bracelet. And again the King, and this time the Queen as well, were delighted by the girl's skills.

The King came up to her that night. "If you can do this one more time, you will have the hand of my son." She was delighted at the prospect, but nervous. Would her 'friend' come back again? She could only hope.

Indeed, he did. But this time he had a strange request. "Promise me your first born child. " Vicky, not knowing what to do, and prefering to keep her life, grimaced and promised - but only if, when the child was born, she could try to guess the man's name for three days to keep the child.

The man agreed and went away, coming back to deliver the gold. As he did, she asked him. "So, sir, what is your name?" The man laughed and looked at her.

"What, do you think I'm dumb, sister? Good luck. You'll need it!" Laughing, he disapeared.

~

The wedding was the social event of the year, with thousands attending, and millions more waiting for news. About three years later, they had a child. They named it Jenn, after Vicky's childhood friend and loved it dearly.

Not to say that all Vicky did was dote on the child. She did that quite a bit, but in the three years between, when not attending royal duties or being with family, she was researching, looking for the name of that mishevious and worriesome imp.

Sure enough, he came six days after the child was born. "Now can I have my payment?"

Vicky looked at him. "I still have three days to guess!"

The imp nodded, "True. Three guesses a day for three days. Nine guesses. Well, here's day one. What are you're guesses?"

Vicky thought, scrunching up her eyebrows. It would be nice if she could get rid of the imp today, she thought.

"Michael?" she asked. The imp just laughed.

"Jasper?" she wondered. The imp laughed again.

"Peter?" she questioned the imp. He laughed with glee and disapeared out the window yelling as he did to wait for tomorrow.

The imp came back the next day, and Vicky tried again with the names Tom, John and James. All were misses and now Vicky was quite frantic as the imp was enjoying himself greatly.

That evening, she told Adam. He was shocked and agast at first, but promised to do what he could to help. "Stall him" he told her. She promised to.

Then he left.

The third day came, as did the creature. Vicky was worried. She made her first guess.

"Jack?" It was wrong. Thinking, she tried to stall him, "How about some lunch, friend?" she asked, quickly adding that this was "most certainly not a guess."

The man refused the lunch and prodded her for guess 2. "Nick?" she asked, pulling at straws. It too was wrong. As the man laughed, he asked to go to the washroom quickly.

He left, and the doors to the ballroom burst open. It was a guard. "Adam has been injured in the woods, and we are taking care of him. But he asked me to tell you "Tedelstiltskin", what ever that means." Then he was gone.

Vicky smiled. So the man's name was Tedelstiltskin. An ugly name, but for sure one that she would never guess. When the man came back, he grinned. "What's your final guess?" he leered at her.

She looked like she was going to cry, an act to disarm the creep. "I guess" she paused. "I guess Tedelstiltskin!" The man was taken aback and shrieked.

"NOOOO!!! IT CAN'T BE! HOW?!!" In a fury, he left the castle through the window he first came into her life and was gone. Vicky smiled. Her child was safe and she would never again trust a stranger. Especially not a imp stranger. And she would ask his name first, if she ever had to.

They lived happily ever after, except for the 'duckling incident', but that's another story.

The End.

#ted #vicky #adam #jenn #sophie #nick #tales