Story Week 14, The Curse

The first thing I remember is waking up.

When I woke up, I was in a dark room.  Slowly getting out of bed, I felt around for some source of light.  I found a candle and matches on the nightstand next to the bed. As light from the candle flooded the room, I took in my surroundings. 

The room was circular, with fine furniture and tapestries hanging on the walls.  I was impressed until I noticed a large layer of dust on everything.  It looked like no one had been in the room in a long time.  Walking around, I noticed a large curtain.  Pulling it to the side, I found a beautiful stained-glass window.  I opened the window and looked out.  I was at the top of a very tall tower, which seemed to be part of a castle.  The land around the castle was barren and brown, and it looked like nothing had grown there in a long time. 

Feeling the urge to flee, I frantically looked around the room for the door.  A door was nowhere to be found.

I cannot tell you how long I lived in that room.  I stopped counting after months became years.  Despite living there for so long, I did not seem to age.  I could only tell that time was actually passing by my hair continuing to grow and vegetation eventually starting to grow in the land around the castle.  Oddly enough, I was never hungry or thirsty.  I just existed.  It was a very boring time. 

Because of this, I was very surprised one morning to find a frog on my windowsill.  I was even more surprised when he spoke to me.

He asked, “how did you get up here?”

“I have no idea,” I said, “I cannot remember a time before this room, and I cannot figure out how to escape it.”

“Why not use your hair?” the frog said, pointing to my very long braids that went to the floor and circled around the room, “It must be seventy feet long” 

“My hair?!” I cried, clutching it, “but I have been growing it for so long.”

“It would make an excellent rope,” he said, “You could tie your braids together, attach it to the bedpost, and climb down.”

Tearfully, I took a pair of shears out of a drawer.  Looking past the frog and out the window, I thought only of my freedom as I cut my long hair at the base of my neck.  I instantly felt about twenty pounds lighter.

After I weaved my hair into a suitable rope, I tied it to the heaviest piece of furniture that I could find.  I fashioned a pillowcase into a satchel, packed up my favorite book and some supplies. 

“Good luck,” said the frog as he jumped into my satchel.  I started my long climb down.  The wind howled and the tower creaked.  I focused intensely on my footing as I made my way the ground, not daring to look up or down. 

When I touched the ground, I collapsed in the grass, shaking.  I stayed there a minute or two until the frog climbed out of the bag to calm me down.

“You did it!” He cried, “I knew you could!”

 

When I was able to stand, I dusted myself off and looked around.  The castle looked so different from the ground. 

“Let me show you around,” said the frog. 

We made our way through the courtyard to the front doors of the castle.  There were two guards in front of it, fast asleep.  I pulled open the heavy wooden doors and we went inside.  Everywhere I turned, there were people who looked like they fell asleep in the middle of something.  A cook was slumped over a large mixing bowl in the kitchen, maids were asleep with dusting rags in their hands, children were sleeping next to some toys.  I felt a huge wave of nostalgia, but could not recall why this place was making me feel that way. 

We walked into the throne room, where lords and ladies were asleep on the floor. 

I turned to the frog with tears in my eyes, “What happened to this place?”

“Long ago, there was a benevolent queen.  She was young, yet wise, and adored by all.  There was nothing that she wouldn’t do for her kingdom.

One day an enchantress came to the castle, asking for a position as an advisor to the queen.  The queen refused, saying that a spot as an advisor had to be earned.  Enraged, the enchantress cast a spell on the kingdom, saying that nothing in the kingdom would grow for one hundred years. 

The queen was heartbroken that her people would suffer, and sought out the faerie queen, asking her to undo the curse.  Alas, the faerie could not, because only someone who cast a spell could undo it.  She did say that she could suspend the kingdom in sleep until the queen deemed the kingdom livable again.  The queen would wake up toward the end of the enchantress’s curse and live in a place that she could survey the land.  This way, she would be able to wake up her kingdom when the time was right. 

Unfortunately, while the faerie was casting the spell, the enchantress appeared and changed it slightly, causing the queen to forget who she was, and trapping her in the tallest tower.  Knowing the queen would need to remember who she was, the faerie turned the queen’s most trusted adviser into a frog, who would help the queen when she needed him.”

As he was telling the story, it all started to come back to me.  I remembered who I was, and I remembered how to end the spell.  I slowly stood and walked to the throne. My crown was sitting on the seat.  Placing the crown on my head, I sat down, smiling, and commanded, “Awaken.”

Medieval castle near Korneuburg, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author’s Note:  I took elements from this story from The Frog Prince, Rapunzel, and Brier Rose (more commonly known as sleeping beauty).  In Rapunzel, there was a girl trapped in a tall tower by a witch.  She is visited one day by a prince.  When the witch finds out, she cuts Rapunzel’s hair and casts her out of the tower.  The elements of this that I used in my story was the queen being trapped for a long time in a tall tower, from which she could not escape.  Because she was there for such a long time, her hair grew long enough to use as a rope to climb down on.  One thing from the original story that I thought was odd was Rapunzel not once thinking to cut her hair and use it as a rope.  So I had the frog suggest it. The Brier Rose is a story about a scorned fairy casting a spell on a princess when she was a baby to have her die at age 15, and another fairy changing it a bit to have the princess just fall asleep for 100 years.  What I could not understand from that is why the rest of the castle had to fall asleep too.  I had there be a logical reason why the kingdom had to be asleep; so they wouldn’t starve during the 100 year curse on the land.  I took the idea to turn the queen’s advisor into a frog from the Frog Prince.  I thought that him being a frog would keep him under the radar from the evil enchantress until the time came.  

Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm