Her Green Eyes (Rapunzel Retold)

Abandonment

"Rosie! Rosie!" They yelled, but she didn't turn round. She just kept running. She wouldn't stop till she reached the woods.

"Rosie please! Stop, it's not safe!" They called after her as she broke through the trees to the meadow behind the cottage and to the edge, but she already knew she wasn't going to make it. She was the fastest in all the village, but she didn't count on Sepp's persistance.

"Rosie, please." He said, panting, as she slowed to a halt, not turning round.

"You can't make me do as you say, Sepp, so don't even try telling me what to do." She breathed through gritted teeth, still not turning. This was what she hated about Sepp, he always thought he knew best. Well, he didn't. Not this time.

"Rosie-"

"MY NAME IS NOT ROSIE!" She roared, finally spinning to face him, "You think you're so smart, don't you? Well you're not!" She said, advancing on him slowly, shoving him in the chest. "You haven't got the brains to even turn into a wolf, why should I listen to you?" She growled. This was unfair. She knew Sepp tried his hardest to transform, but the magic in him wasn't strong enough, he was only eight, after all.

"Ros- Rosella, don't be mean, I try as hard as I can to turn into animals and magic things to do what I want, but I can't! I'm not you, ok? And you're not so smart yourself! With your stupid wolf friends and stupid Hexe eyes and stupid stupid hair!!" He screeched, and Rosella took a step forward, one hand clutching her waiste-length plait, the other clenched into a fist by her side.

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare call Black and Grey and Sand stupid. Don't you dare say I'm a Hexe. And don't you ever, ever call my hair stupid, or I swear I'll turn into a wolf and tear you to pieces!" She started calmly, but began red-faced screaming towards the end.

"You're hair is stupid!! It gets in the way of everything and it's ugly ugly ugly!!!" Sepp screached, and Rosella lost her temper and felt her hand rise... then Sepp was on the floor.

"You punched me in the face you, you freak!!" He wailed, and clutched his cheek, sore and bruised from Rosella's hard knuckles. He began to cry, but quickly pushed the tears from his face. "This is the last time I'll ever speak to you again, Rosella Rapunzel Schmitz!!" he yelled, and got up and ran.

"Sepp? Rosella?" The blacksmith, Jonat appeared in the meadow, and watched Sepp push past him and run home. "Rose? What happened?" He asked, confusion wrinking his brow. He was young, only around 25, and he liked to think he knew Rosella the best of all, besides Franziska.

"I'm not speaking to him again! And you can't make me!" She yelled, hand still locked around her plait defensively. Tears were pouring down her face, and she felt the sudden urge to be in teh forest, as a wolf, running with Sand and Black and Grey, they would never dessert her, they would never leave...

"Rose, you can't blame Sepp, it's not his fault-" Jonat began, trying to soothe her, but she cut him off.

"It is!!! It is!! He's just going to leave here forever and I'll never see him again and now it will just be me Kristof and Franziska and he's going!! He's going Jonat he's going!!!" She wailed, face tearstained and slightly hysterical.

"Shhhh, shhh, you'll still see him! I'm sure he'll visit! What would Yule be without Rosella's wolf tricks? Come on Rose don't cry, it'll all be alright." Jonat soothed, rubbing her arm comfortingly.

"But they wont let me see him, he'll have guards now and everything! It's not fair!" She wept, staining Jonat's shirt with tears.

"Just because he's a prince doesn't mean he won't let a pretty little girl with special talents see him. Come on, you're a big girl now, you're nearly eight!" Jonat laughed. Rosella just cried more. How could Sepp, loyal, funny-looking Sepp leave her? Her parents left her, her aunt left her before she was born, Franziska's father left her, and now Sepp? What if Franziska found out tomorrow that she was a princess, and they had been living as peasants to protect her until she was old enough? What if Kristof's parents decided to move back to France? What if Gothel realised she no longer loved a muddy little girl who refused to cut her hair and was always getting into fights with boys and constantly in the wood mixing with animals? What if one day she woke up and she was all alone?

"But I'm not a pretty little girl! I won't let Gothel cut my hair, my eyes are too bright, my skin isn't pale enough, and I'm always always muddy! No one will ever like me, I'm too different! I'm a freak!!" She wailed, and broke away from Jonat. She ran, bolting for the woods. She vaguely heard Jonat yell after her, but she was already a small white wolf, running through the forest, forgetting everything. Forgetting how Sepp's parents had told him he was truly a prince, and it was time for him to take his rightful place. Forgetting how her parents didn't love her enough to keep her all the time. Forgetting how no one listened to her. Forgetting human worries, and learning to just be.

....................

"Shhhh, shhhh, it's alright, Silene, it's alright. It wasn't meant to be." Luka whispered, rubbing his Silene's arm, as she stood there, staring at the two tiny crosses made of sticks at the foot of their cottage's garden.

"My poor Annaleise. Little baby Annaleise." Silene whispered, as the rain pattered down on the graves of her two dead children. Annaleise had bled to death, like Nikolaus, constantly shifting invisible and back, the magic too powerful to allow her to live through it. They were so young... it was not right.

"Why, Luka? Why does this keep happening?" Silene whispered, the rain mixing with the tears falling from her face, too in shock to fully take in. Two of her three children were dead. The living one she had only seen seven times in her entire life. The Hexes were probably punishing her for having children out of wedlock.

"We need to marry, Luka. I think this is why. We are not married, and the Hexes know. They are punishing us." She whispered, clinging to his chest.

"But how? No priest would wed us, we are outcasts Silene, we should be dead. Silence died for us, venturing back to our village could waste that." He whispered to her, trying not to break her heart any further.

"I don't know how Luka, but we have to. I feel it. We have to."