Stealing the Stories: Chapter Two Rapunzel
Then, he heard a familiar voice calling his name — Jasmine! She didn’t seem to be in distress, but she seemed somewhat frightened, so Aladdin dashed off on his horse. He followed Jasmine’s voice and came upon a clearing, where there was a huge tower. At the top was Jasmine!
“Jasmine!” Aladdin called up, “Come down here!”
“I can’t!” Jasmine called back.
“Why not?”
“Shh!” Jasmine shushed him, “She’ll hear you!”
“Who?”
“Never mind. Just climb up,” Jasmine let her hair — her very long hair — cascade down the side of the tower. Aladdin stared at it for a moment with a confused expression on his face before climbing up. When he got to the top, Jasmine pulled her hair back up.
“Do you know where we are?” Aladdin asked.
“I don’t know,” Jasmine had wide eyes, “I just found myself up here… With a nice dress and fifty feet of hair!!”
“Chaos talked to me. He said we had to defeat obstacles in stories?”
“Rapunzel,” Jasmine whispered to herself.
“What?” Aladdin asked.
“It’s a fairy tale,” Jasmine told him, “A tale where a girl was taken from birth by an old witch. The girl grew hair so long that the witch could climb it every day to feed her. Then a prince comes along to save her… I guess that’s you.”
Aladdin nodded, “So, how are we to defeat this?”
Jasmine shrugged, “In the story, the prince got caught by the witch, who sent her raven to fly both of them to different wildernesses. The prince went blind and nearly died. The girl wandered around for years until she found the prince and healed him with her love.”
Aladdin grimaced, “Years?”
Jasmine nodded, “Unless we can find some way out of her curse, Chaos’s little joyride will turn into more of a death-match.”
“Oh joy,” Aladdin gulped.
“Don’t worry,” Jasmine reassured with a smile, “You’re a whole lot more coordinated than any handsome prince.”
“Are you saying that I’m not a handsome prince?” Aladdin joked.
“Rapunzel!” a voice called before Jasmine could answer.
“The hag!” Jasmine whispered, “Quick! Hide under here!” Jasmine rushed Aladdin to her bed and let Aladdin crawl under.
“Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down you long hair!” the witch called.
Jasmine walked over to the window and gazed down at the witch. She thought about whether or not she should let her hair down.
“Let it down!” the witch scowled, “Else you’ll die of starvation!”
Well, here goes. Jasmine let down her hair, and the witch climbed up.
“Here’s your food. Eat,” the hag went over and sat down on the bed, “And give me the tray when you’re done.”
Jasmine scarfed up the food, in hopes that the witch would leave when she finished the last bite.
“What’s wrong with you?” the witch snapped, “You’re eating like a starving buzzard! Are you hiding something from me?”
“No, Ma’am,” Jasmine answered.
“You called me Ma’am?!!” the witched looked startled, “There is something going on!”
“No, not at all!” Jasmine tried not to panic.
The witch plopped her backside on the bed, “There’s something wrong with this bed! It’s so stiff!”
“No there’s not!” Jasmine wanted to kick herself for acting so panicky.
The hag looked at Jasmine as if she was sick and then suspiciously looked at her with one eye, “There’s not by perchance a man in here, is there?” She sniffed her nose a few times.
“Of course not, Milady,” Jasmine shook her head. “Nobody can pull the wool over your eyes.”
The hag nodded, “You’re right,” she knocked over the bed, revealing the crouching Aladdin, “They can’t!”
Aladdin scrambled to his feet and over to Jasmine’s side, “Don’t punish her please. I scaled up here and hid; she had nothing to do with it.”
The hag laughed, “No way! Nobody could possibly scale those walls!”
“I can!” Aladdin boasted.
Jasmine rolled her eyes. Oh no. Not again. Aladdin had a habit of saying he can do things — even if he wasn’t sure he could.
The hag grinned, “Then let me see yeh’. G’on. Scale the tower wall. I wanna see it!”
“If I do,” Aladdin offered, “will you let Jas- er — Rapunzel free?”
The hag laughed, “Yeah, I will. But only if you scale it with no maiden's hair to climb!” The witch drew out scissors and snapped of Jasmine’s hair. “And if you don’t, you both die.”
Aladdin held out his hand, “It’s a deal.”
The hag nearly squeezed his hand right off, and her boily unwashed hand made Aladdin grimace. The hag transported them to the base of the tower, “She doesn’t get let go until you reach the top. Ready?”
Aladdin gulped, “No… I mean yes!”
The hag rubbed her hands together, “Go!”
Aladdin looked back at Jasmine and approached the bare tower exterior. He gripped a stone and put his feet in place. With all his might, he used the stones as a rock-wall — a tiring one with barely any foot or hand space, that is. Once he was half way up, Jasmine could almost smell their first victory of the day.
But, when Aladdin only had about seven stones left until the top, the hag grew impatient, “Hey! No fair! I didn’t actually expect you to make it!” She shrieked and had vines wrap around the whole tower. Aladdin saw the vines rapidly dashing towards him and picked up his pace. But the vines were faster, and they tied Aladdin to the tower.
Jasmine yelled at the hag, “That’s not right! You made a deal!”
The hag snickered, “I never said I couldn’t bring him obstacles!” She raised her hand, and thorns slowly crept their way around the tower on the vines.
Jasmine became confident, “Then you never said I couldn’t help him either!” She rushed over to the tower and began to climb the vines. The first few steps were painful due to thorns, but she was climbing faster than the thorns and was determined to beat them up the tower.
The hag shrieked again and lifted her hand again, so the thorns got larger the higher they went. The thorns were the sizes of daggers now! Jasmine quickened her pace.
“I’m coming!” Jasmine called up.
Aladdin strained his neck to look down, “Jasmine look out!!!”
A thorn the size of a large sword shot out right next to her hand. She yelped in shock and sprung herself up a few stones. By here she could reach Aladdin’s ankle. She grabbed it and pulled herself up directly beside him.
“Hurry,” Aladdin urged and gestured with his head to the now spear-sized thorns shooting out about five feet below them. Jasmine reached for one, almost losing her balance, and plucked it off. With it, she cut the vines around Aladdin off, and the vines fell down by the hag. Now that Jasmine had nothing to hold onto, she fell. But, Aladdin caught her.
They were now holding on for dear life, and the hag was just standing there, dumbfounded.
“Hurry,” Aladdin grunted. “Climb up my arm.”
Jasmine climbed up his arm and through the tower window. She reached for Aladdin, who was losing his strength to hold on. He reached out for her, and she pulled him up. When he stumbled into the room, he stumbled directly into Jasmine’s arms.
The panting Jasmine and Aladdin walked over to the tower of the window, where the witch found herself trapped in the center of her own vines and thorns. She could have planned another attack, but she had made a deal she couldn’t break. She sighed and gave up.
Aladdin and Jasmine smiled at each other with relief. But they knew their adventure was far from over.
Stealing the Stories by Meesh