Fractured Fairytales: Rapunzel

[Cassidy Clark]

Oh, she could certainly keep Avalon here - though she wanted to leave, certainly, it was the kind of 'wanted' that was an unnamed thought, one she wouldn't even acknowledge to herself. Mother was good and kind and had always taken care of her, loved her, and if Mother said that there were bad things waiting in the world for her then she would stay locked away in her tower, a golden bird in her gilded cage. Oh yes, she would remain obedient. Probably. Then again, it might drive her mad - if she wasn't slightly mad already. She'd been locked in a tower her entire life, cut off from all outside influence. That kind of thing could have a few psychological effects.

But she could alleviate the boredom for now - she had books and she had inks and she had paper and she had food that she could tame the animals with, whom she had been making progress with. She looked back up at Mother, face thoughtful. "It's almost my birthday, isn't it?" she asked. It was slight changing of the subject, true, but birthdays were slightly different then other days, and it did well to remember that when she considered her request, as Mother would already be bringing surprises then.

[Katya]

Elke thought for a moment, and then blinked a few times. "Why, yes, I suppose it is. My, time just flew by this last year. Oh, I still remember when you were as tall as my knee! You used to climb up on my lap and I'd read you stories. Not anymore, though," she said wistfully, a wry smile on her face. It was hard to tell whether she was sad or not; Elke did a good job of hiding her emotions when she wanted.

"What of it, dear? Was there something special you were hoping for? You know, I might be able to get another level in this thing. It'd be a pain, but I might be able to manage. A solarium, how about that? You seem so fond of the birds, it would be a nice place for them to visit you," she suggested. A solarium was a nice idea - Elke could easily construct an upper level of the tower with magic. It'd take a bit of effort, but she could do it.

[Cassidy Clark]

Avalon's eyes widened at Mother's suggestion - another level? A solarium? It was quite true that she loved birds; for quite some time she'd almost asked for a little caged bird to keep her company, and maybe Mother had sensed that, since she had brought Avalon a canary once, when she was much younger. It had been golden with bright black eyes and a neat black crown to match a few black feathers at the ends of his wings. She had loved him, but it had also always struck her (she sometimes felt like a bird herself) as wrong to keep a thing of air and freedom locked up like that. She couldn't leave, but he certainly could, and in the end he had. She'd opened the door and he'd flitted away, out the window and into the world.

Ava smiled up at Mother, the look happy and heartfelt. "That would be wonderful. Thank you." And it would similarly be wonderful to have somewhere else to go. She never went outside; the sky seemed so big that it might swallow her if she tried. And here was a way that she could, ever so much better then simply a balcony. Another place that she could go....

[Katya]

Elke smiled, triumphant. That did the trick, all right. She'd get her things together and try to find the proper spell to construct one when she went home that evening. "It'll take a few weeks, I'm sure, for me to find the correct way to go about it, but I think the anticipation will be worth the wait." She reached forward and gave Avalon an affectionate tug on strands of her hair, and winked. "Then your bird friends will have somewhere to rest when they come visit. Perhaps you can draw them for me, and I can have them framed."

She stayed a while longer, but as always, Elke had meddling to do in the real world, and so she had to leave the tower, and did so as gracefully as she always had, sliding down the long golden braid Avalon had grown. She gave her a wave from the bottom of the tower, and vanished into the forest.

[Cassidy Clark]

Avalon did generally keep her hair in a braid now, simply because it had grown so long that it was very difficult to manage any other way. That didn't stop her from unbraiding it all to brush and brush and brush quite often - after all, though at times there was little to do... well, hair like hers demanded considerable grooming. It could take almost all day to brush it properly, which was perhaps why Mother did not do it as often as she had used to. And it did look pretty in the sun, glittering as though made of spun gold.

She took the soft bristle brush that Mother had given her and she brushed and she brushed and she brushed, brushed until her golden hair positivly shimmered and fell in soft waves all around her. And then, once the long process of brushing through her hair was done, she carefully and meticulously braided it and refastened the end. A sparrow perched on the sill and chirped at her as she was done, and she looked up at it and laughed. She had paper and she had books and she had ink as well as charcoal and she was to have a solarium.... Sometimes Mother really was much too good to her.

Avalon carefully ate half the plum that Mother had given her and then offered the other half to her birds and her squirrels and the mouse in the corner.

Soon it was dark and she went to bed. She fell asleep quickly.

[Adam Valerius]

Prince Valerius had been separated from his riding party, which was mostly his own doing. He'd grown tired of being bored to death with politics and sly jeers back and forth between the men who fought constantly for his father's favour. It drove him to do foolish things, like claiming he heard something, going to investigate, and no doubt scaring the daylights out of them when they happened upon a very missing prince.

Oh well. He could endure being screamed at by the king if it meant a few hours of peace from those rambling idiots.

He enjoyed the warm sunlight on his shoulders as he road with Polly, his absolute favourite mount. She was temperamental at times, but what woman wasn't? She was a pretty golden mare, with a mane and tail of the lightest blonde - she resembled what could be considered a Palamino in colouration and size, actually. Adam didn't care what she was, so long as she was as willing to explore as he was, and she sure seemed pretty into it. She began to slow her pace as they crossed by a small stream, and he stopped to let her drink, wandering a few yards while she busied herself in the water.

At first, he didn't actually believe his eyes. There, in the middle of the woods, smack dab in the small clearing, was an extremely tall tower. It's tip was only just above the tallest portion of the tree line, so it wasn't a wonder nobody'd found it. These were lands in between two kingdoms, and not often traveled, but even so...

"What in the devil?" he asked himself aloud.

[Cassidy Clark]

Avalon was at the window, head resting on her arms (her hair was very heavy, after all) as she looked out at the forest. It was nice doing that sometimes, not doing anything, not thinking of anything, just watching. She'd seen a hawk a little while ago, flying free.

And she was confined to one tower, just one, only one place. On the other hand, she would have a solarium soon. Then, at least, she would really know what it was like to be under the sky. Ava tried to imagine what standing on top of the tower might feel like; perhaps like a squirrel at the top of a very tall tree.

A new sound, down on the ground. Crunch, crunch - a bear, perhaps? She had seen a bear once and he'd obliged her by staying near long enough for her to get to know him well enough to draw him. She looked over to the sound, somewhat curious- and then started back, almost a startled bird herself. It was... it was something like herself, actually. Only not really; the whoever-it-was had dark hair like Mother.

Avalon pulled back from the window a bit, uncertain.

[Adam Valerius]

He had seen someone! He was sure of it now! He ran up to the base of the tower, and then took a few steps back. "Where is the door?" he asked, mystified. He walked around it a few times, and then just gave up, backing up enough to see the window again. He cupped his hands to his mouth and began to yell.

"Hey! Is there anyone up there?" he called. He knew he had seen someone up there, but he didn't know who, or what, it had been. "I'm not going to hurt you! I just never knew this tower was here before!" he added lamely. He figured that there had to be a way up and down. Honestly, who lives locked in a tower forever? That would just be ridiculous.

[Cassidy Clark]

Avalon was almost like a bird herself - curious, but still a bit wary. She could see him as he walked up towards the base of the tower and heard his question - door? What door? She came forward again and peered over the windowsill - there he was, now backing up again. She'd ducked back a little once again when he looked up and spoke, but stepped hesitantly forward after a second.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

[Adam Valerius]

"Sweet!" he exclaimed to himself as she peered over the tower again. She really was pretty - maybe she was an enchantress? He'd heard stories of how they'd live in hard to find places in order to live undisturbed. But she didn't look like an enchantress...

"I'm Adam!" he called up. "I just sort of got lost and found this place. Do you live up there?" he asked, trying to find an appropriate level between a shout and speech that wasn't so loud it'd alert his hunting party to his whereabouts. He wasn't in the mood.

"Can you come down and talk to me?"

[Cassidy Clark]

Avalon was curious now, and that curiosity was overcoming the wariness that had been her first reaction. She leaned a bit further out of her window again, kind of... well, studying Adam, truth be told. He was somewhat facinating.

"Yes, I live up here," she'd said when he asked that - and then... come down?

"Come down?" She sounded almost bewildered, as though the suggestion itself was ridiculous. "No, of course not." Not that she hadn't thought about it occasionally, but aside from the fact that there was no way to get down there was the fact that Mother had told her time and again that she was in the tower for a reason, for protection. Avalon wondered if Adam was part of what Mother had been talking about. But that was a silly thought - he seemed nice.

Besides, even if he was (though she didn't think so) she was still in the tower, therefore she was safe. So hah. Not that she could really change that situation anyway....

Avalon shook her head again. "Mother said not to."

[Adam Valerius]

Adam frowned a little, but he wasn't one to be defeated so easily. "Well, where's your mother? I can ask her. I'm a prince! I can't really do anything terrible, if that's what you're worried about. I mean, I guess technically I'm a good guy. Have you ever seen the castle? It's only about a two days ride from here. It's pretty neat - some of the spires are even taller than your tower. You can see for miles, I bet you'd really like it, since you're so fond of being up there."

He was teasing her, but only just a little. He was starting to think there wasn't going to be a good way to talk himself up into that tower, not without talking to her mother first. Maybe if he invited them both to the castle...

[Cassidy Clark]

Avalon shook her head again, this time looking almost a little alarmed. Mother was SO overprotective though, and she didn't want her to be mean to Adam. He didn't seem like someone you needed to be mean to, that was all. "Mother isn't here right now, but I don't think that she likes visitors. She probably wouldn't like you. Maybe you shouldn't talk to her. Maybe I shouldn't talk to you. Mother left me in this tower to protect me, she said. Maybe she meant from you."

And 'fond of' were possibly not the words - not that Adam would know any better. And not that she hated it either, of course not. She just wished that she could run, could move. She couldn't up here, not really.

[Adam Valerius]

Adam huffed. "Fine, then. Suit yourself. See you around," he called. He gave her a wave and got back on his mount, heading back for the woods. He didn't go very far, though, only far enough that he could hang around and see what it was the girl was doing all day. He didn't really think it was stalkerish - he was still young, and he had a habit of being boyishly curious about many things he shouldn't, including places he wasn't supposed to be.

Elke, of course, had no idea that someone had just been there, and after an hour or so showed up for her usual rounds. She'd brought Ava some spectacular apple juice from a fresh harvest. She was actually quite proud of it, if she didn't say so herself. She'd also had some time to sketch up the rough idea of the solarium, complete with a little ladder and a loft. That she hadn't done so much as spoken to someone who built things to give her an idea of what it was going to take. She could use magic to do it, but if she had no idea of how to construct it, well. It wouldn't be the most sound structure to be climbing on, that was all.

"Avalon, let down your hair!" she called from the base of the tower, rapping on the side of it with her staff.

[Cassidy Clark]

If Adam was hoping for anything exciting to happen then he was dissapointed, as Avalon just sort of... stayed in her tower. As she always did.

She read until she heard someone outside the tower again, but she didn't go near the window until she heard Mother calling for her to let down her hair. Then she smiled, a look as sweet as sugar, and began lowering her impossibly long braid. It had become routine now, Mother asking for Ava to let down her hair that she might climb up.

"I didn't think you were coming this soon!" she said happily once Mother was in the tower with her, and she gave her a hug.