From the Other Side

I didn’t understand what the big deal was. All I wanted was what I was owed.

If anyone is to blame for what happened, it was the girl’s foolish father. Only a true villain would tell such a greedy, powerful king that his child - his simple, human child - could spin straw into gold. Why am I painted as the villain? The man sold out his own daughter! And beautiful though she might be, how was the poor girl supposed to accomplish that feat?

I was a hero, walking into the locked door of the girl’s room. A locked room no less! As if locks could stop one such as me. It was easy enough to spin the straw overnight, collecting her necklace as my due. I was actually preparing to move on when I heard the girl crying again. I never could stand a woman’s tears.

“What will you give me if I spin all this straw into gold?" I had asked, not wanting to seem too soft. This was business, after all. The greedy king had filled the larger room full of straw, obviously wanting more gold.

"The ring from my finger,” she’d answered breathlessly, the hope in her eyes my complete undoing. This was no big deal for me. I knew I could spin mountains of gold in a night without breaking a sweat. But why was I wasting my time and talents on this girl?

“Please.” That was something that the old fairytale left out, a detail that the Grimm brothers had thought too insignificant to share. She hadn’t blubbered or begged or anything else annoyingly typical of her sex. She’d simply cried as if her world was ending and asked me with that one word to fix it.

So I did.

By now I knew that the king’s greed knew no limits. He seemed the sort to try my patience again. Not mine, of course. As far as the avaricious king knew, it was the girl that was performing this miracle. And, combined with her startlingly good looks, he’d found a rare, precious gem in her. He intended to keep her. But not without a third test, one to secure him as one of the richest men in the land. Sure enough, the girl cried out again the very next night. She was now in the biggest room yet, packed full of straw. She was bawling her eyes out as she had for the past two nights, helpless to complete her impossible task. Only this time, she had nothing to offer me in exchange.

“I will spin all this straw into gold,” I bargained, seeing her desperation. “But in return, I require your firstborn child after you are made queen.” The girl eagerly agreed and the bargain was struck. I immediately got to work, knowing how this was going to end. The king would marry her and the moon would be guaranteed to be sweet as honey on their union. Then they would have a child for me to claim. A son or daughter to call my own. Who could ever ask for more?

Things went according to plan, but when I came to collect what she’d agreed to, she refused. I was outraged. We had a deal! I’d saved her life! Not once, but three times from the king’s greed! How could she renege on our deal? The twit had even gone and forgotten me and my role in her miraculous story. I was astonished at her audacity. How could she forget the king’s cruelty to her when they first met? Was she just picking her battles? No matter. It was the child that mattered.

She offered me half the kingdom’s wealth, as if that could replace a child. “I have no need for material possessions, girl! I can spin gold from straw! You agreed that your firstborn was mine. Hand her over so I can be on my way.”

But then she’d cried and I’d relented. As I’ve mentioned before, I could never stand a woman’s tears.

“I will give you three days to guess my name. If you can do that, you may keep your child,” I found myself striking a new deal like a fool. I curse the day I proposed that deal. I should have taken the child and been on my way. I should have ignored her misery and collected what was owed to me. But instead I made what I thought was a perfect deal. After all, how could she possibly guess my name? Her first and second nights guessing were bliss. My name was not common by any means. I knew she’d searched far and wide throughout the land and got nothing! Then I let my pride get the better of me and said my name where the gods and anyone else could hear. I was so furious when she let my name pass her lips…

“Papa?”

A devious chuckle passed my lips as I looked at my little girl. She was radiant as she played quietly in the living room, her features an almost heartwrenching callback to her ancestor. Aurora was the definition of grace and beauty, and she had no clue - no CLUE - of her heritage. I’d followed that family through the years and decades and centuries, patiently waiting to strike another deal. The queen should have been more diligent about warning her offspring about the threat of me. But she knew so little of me; didn’t bother to learn my ways, my habits. It might have saved her descendents if she’d passed on the story correctly, if she’d understood the real lesson of the fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin - that fey hold grudges and that we are eternal.

“Yes, little one?” I answered my daughter, pushing a lock of her golden hair behind her ear tenderly.

“Can we go to the NASA historical museum tomorrow?”

“Of course we can, sweetheart. And, I may have more secret history to share with you there,” I grinned. The child giggled at the prospect of more fairytales and lore from yesteryear. I turned away from her to start dinner and hide my predatory smile, my human glamor firmly in place. What can I say? I learned from my mistakes. Her mother’s tears hadn’t deterred me this time. I struck a bargain with her ancestor and I’d finally collected.