Misfit Trials

Chapter 19

Marta and Rumpelstilzchen were married within the year and settled into a house in the same village as their families. Rumpelstilzchen had finished his apprenticeship as a carpenter and worked in his father's shop. Marta continued to work in the family bakery. They were happy, but for one thing...they could not have children.

Marta desperately wanted children. She prayed to God morning, noon, and night at the cathedral. She attended vespers, fasted, sacrificed her time in the orphanage, and attended daily confession. For months, years, they tried to have children. But nothing worked. As Marta became more desperate, her body took the toll. Her frame became thin and stooped. Her eyes were sunken and bruised. She rarely ate, rarely slept. Marta spent nearly all her waking hours at the church, praying for God to bless them with a child.

Rumpelstilzchen was plagued by worry about his wife. Yes, he wanted children, but he wanted Marta more. He wanted his wife happy. The life that she was living wasn't a life at all. In exasperation, Rumpelstilzchen sat at his sister's dinner table.

"Where is Marta?" Romy asked, setting a mug of beer in front of him.

"Where do you think?" Rumpelstilzchen replied, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Rum...you have to bring her home. She can't be there as much as she is. She needs food. She needs sleep. If she wants a baby so bad, she needs to be in bed with her husband."

"Don't you think I know that!" Rumpelstilzchen's face filled with frustration. "What do you want me to do? Drag her from church, kicking and screaming? I can't make her stay home. I can't make her sleep or eat? And she's too frail to participate in anything in bed."

Romy looked at her brother with worry and pain. Shooing her children into the yard, Romy sat down next to Rumpelstilzchen. "Ok, Rum. I'm going to tell you something, but you cannot tell Mama and Vati. You cannot tell anyone."

"What? Are you pregnant again? I honestly don't want to hear it." Rumpelstilzchen put his head in his hands on the table.

"No, you arsch mit ohren. I have six children. I want no more. I have a way that you and Marta can get pregnant."

"What? What are you talking about?" Rumpelstilzchen sat bolt upright, his face searching his sister's.

"You know that Uwe and I had difficulty having a child at first, right?"

"Yes. It took you about two years to have Dietrich."

"That's right. Well, it didn't happen because of prayer. Have you heard of the sorcerer Atlantes?"

"Who?"

"Atlantes. He lives in the Burgwald Mountains, about a week's trip from here. He enchanted me. Atlantes opened my womb. He made it so that we could have six children."

"How do I get there?"

Romy gave Rumpelstilzchen a map. All he had to do was get Marta there.

"Marta, liebling, I know how we can have a baby!" Rumpelstilzchen had run from Romy's house to the cathedral to fetch Marta.

Her face slowly turned toward Rumpelstilzchen. Her eyes are glazed and her lips are peeling. She wavers on her knees, continuing to mumble prayers.

"Marta, liebling. Hase, what have you done to yourself? You have to come home. Liebling." Rumpelstilzchen crooned to her and pulled Marta into his arms.

One of the sisters walked up to Rumpelstilzchen. "Sir, you cannot interrupt her prayers. She is in the eighth hour of a twelve hour fast and prayer vigil."

"What are you talking about, woman?! She is obviously delirious, dehydrated, and malnourished. She can barely kneel, let alone speak. What evil god would allow someone to do this to themselves?" Rumpelstilzchen screamed at the nun.

"That is blasphemy!" the sister covered her mouth with her hand.

"If you don't want to hear it, then you should leave now, sister. I have plenty more to say." Rumpelstilzchen picked up Marta and hurried out of the church.

For days, Rumpelstilzchen nursed Marta. He fed her broth and soup. He helped her drink. He bathed her. Each day, Rumpelstilzchen tells Marta about Atlantes. Reminding her that her body has to be strong to make it to the sorcerer and to have their child.

Marta slowly began to respond. Her excitement grew and she pushed herself to get better as quickly as possible. By week's end, Marta was out of bed and insisted that they leave. They packed two horses with supplies and headed toward the Burgwald Mountains.