Once upon a time…
There was a king who loved hunting.
One day he was out hunting, and got lost. He’d been chasing a deer so fast his attendants couldn’t keep up, and before he knew it he was deep in the woods. He walked and walked, but only got more lost.
Eventually he came to a small cottage. He knocked on the door, and a witch came out.
Alarmed, but still lost, the king asked if she could show him the way back to his castle.
The witch said yes “but on one condition!”
Upon hearing this, the king debated wandering off and starving to death instead. Which, yes, that’s the correct response. He asked what the condition was.
She was like “marry my daughter when you get home.”
He seriously debated starving to death, but finally decided marrying her daughter would be slightly better than death. Besides, the witch brought her out of the cottage, and she was very pretty.
So the witch led them out of the forest, and the next day he married the daughter.
Now, this king had been married before. He had seven children: six boys and one lovely little girl. He was afraid their new mother-in-law would hate them and do something evil, so he took them to a house so deep in the woods it was unfindable without magic. Specifically, without a ball of magic wool that, when thrown, would roll all the way there.
Which, no, that’s not the correct response.
Anyways, he asked everyone to not tell his new wife about the kids. They agreed, because he was the king.
Well, he loved his kids, and went practically every day to see them. His wife noticed he was gone a lot, and not always gone hunting. She asked around, and finally one of the servants told her about the kids and the magic yarn.
She was upset about her husband keeping such a big secret from her. Which is an understandable reaction. So, since she knew magic, she knitted a bunch of silk shirts for them. When they touched the kids, the children would be transformed into swans.
Which is not an understandable reaction.
A few days after she was done with the knitting, the king went out hunting. She got the yarn, yeeted it into the forest, and followed it to the kid’s house.
The kids saw her coming. But, since the only one who had visited them was their dad, they presumed this was him. So they ran outside to meet their visitor. But, brothers being brothers, they pulled a mean prank and locked the door when the six boys were out, not letting the little girl out.
Their stepmother didn’t know how many kids there were, or what gender they were, so she didn’t notice the girl was missing. She said she had presents for the boys, and gave them each a shirt.
As soon as the shirts were on, the boys turned into swans and flew off into the sky.
The stepmother laughed maniacally, and went home.
The next day, the king decided to visit his kids. He followed the yarn out into the forest, but when he got there, the house was empty! He unlocked the door and searched through the house in a panic, until finally he found his daughter hiding under a bed.
The girl was in tears, clutching a handful of swam feathers. She explained what happened, and the king knew his new wife had cursed his sons.
He decided it wasn’t safe to leave a little girl in the forest all alone (yes), so he told her he was taking her to live with him and her stepmother (…no).
The girl said she wanted one last night in the forest house, just in case her brothers returned. That way if they came back, they wouldn’t think they’d been abandoned. The king agreed, and left.
The girl immediately packed up her things and ran away.
She walked all night and most of the next day, until she came to a house in the middle of the forest. There were six beds in the house, so she climbed under one to sleep. At dusk she woke up to the sound of swans.
Six swans came flying in through the window, and (after an anime magical girl transformation scene) turned into her brothers! The girl crawled out from under the bed, thrilled she’d found them!
They were like “…oh, joy, you found us…”
She was like “yep! And now we can go home!”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
They were like “uhhh… no, we can’t. We’re… too ashamed that we’re swans all day. Yep. And you can’t stay here with us cuz… this… is a bandit’s house. Yes. Very dangerous. You’d better leave as soon as possible.”
She asked if they couldn’t protect her from the bandits.
They were like “nope, absolutely not. We’re swans all day, completely unable to protect you.”
She was very sad about this, and asked if there were any way to break the curse.
They answered “yes. There are six of us, so you have to not say a single word for six years. And meanwhile, make us six shirts out of starwort. But if you say a single word, the six year clock will restart. Got it?”
She clamped her mouth shut, nodding.
They were like “perfect! Now go, before the very dangerous bandits get back!”
She nodded again, and ran off to find starwort. Whatever that is.
Ok so, to me, all that just sounds like a big prank. I mean, how do they know? It’s not like the witch’s daughter sewed an instruction manual into the silk shirts. It doesn’t say they found the witch and asked how to break the curse. And they’d only been cursed under 48 hours, how were they so sure how it worked? I think the bandits weren’t real, either. I don’t know where they got the six beds from, but the fact that there were six to me implies they were the ones living there. And I’m pretty sure a flock of dedicated swans could 100% kill a group of bandits. Swans are scary.
Anyways, the girl walked and walked, collecting as much starwort as she could find. She walked so far, she entered the neighboring kingdom.
That day, the king of that kingdom happened to be out hunting with a few of his men. The girl heard them, and climbed a tree to be out of their way.
Well, they saw her. They were like “hey! Are you lost?!”
The girl took off her gold necklace and tossed it down, hoping that would make them leave her alone.
It didn’t. They gave the necklace to the king and asked her to come down, telling her she didn’t have to be afraid.
So she dropped her belt to them. They didn’t get the hint, and kept asking her to come down.
Not having anything else (other than her nightgown) she gave them her underwear.
Which just gave all the wrong hints, DON’T DO THAT, KIDS.
At that point the king’s men climbed up the tree and got her. They put her on the back of the king’s horse, and took her home.
The king, deciding he’d found the perfect woman (pretty, mute, takes underwear off with little to no prompting), married her.
Which, I’m sorry, but I really want to know how old she was. Cuz it never says. The story calls her a “little girl”. It doesn’t specifically say she was the youngest child, but it does imply that. The first half of the story has her talking like she’s under ten, which is incredibly disturbing. It never says how old the king is, either. He could be anywhere from sixteen to fifty, which is just bad.
Aaaaanyways, yep, they were married, and the girl became queen.
The king’s mother didn’t like her. She, in fact, quite hated her. She did things, blamed them on the girl, and the girl couldn’t defend herself.
…Why didn’t she write out her defense? It’s not like the queen couldn’t get a pen and paper if she asked for them. Was it cuz she was too young to be able to write? We don’t know!
Well, nine months after getting married, the queen had a baby! Everyone was super thrilled about this (I’m sure), except the king’s mother.
So a few nights after the baby was born, the king’s mother snuck into the queen’s room, stole the baby, and smeared blood around the girl’s mouth.
Yep.
The next morning, when everyone was looking for the new royal baby, she was like “cannibalism.”
Yep.
The king’s mother told everyone that the queen had eaten her baby. No one particularly believed her, but the queen only shook her head in defense, so who knows.
…A year after that, the queen had another baby!
……The king’s mother stole the baby and put blood on the girl’s mouth again.
YEP.
This time, when the king’s mother said “cannibalism”, some people started to believe her. The king didn’t, but he had doubts.
Well, about… (where’s my calculator…) 51 months later, the queen had a third baby.
The king’s mother, who still hated the queen, stole the baby and put blood on the queen’s mouth.
…You’d think that at this point the king would have set up a guard around the baby, or had someone else in the room at all times. But I guess not!
Anyways, this being the third “eaten” baby, with the queen not defending herself as a non-cannibal, the king had no option but to burn her at the stake.
Well, it just so happens that the day the queen was set to be executed was exactly six years after her brothers had told her to not speak! What a wonderful coincidence! And she’d finished making shirts out of starwort!
When the guards dragged her out to the unlit pyre, she watched the sky. As they tied her to the stake, six swans came flying into the square.
She tossed the six shirts she’d made into the sky, and each swan caught one. When they landed, they went through an anime magical girl transformation, and turned into six strong men. They surrounded the pyre, not letting anyone light it.
The queen, finally able to speak, pointed to the king’s mother and yelled that she’d been the one to kill the babies.
The king believed her, took her down, and had his mother burned instead.
And they all lived happily ever after???
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Moral: If you decide to write a fairy tale, for the love of all that’s holy MAKE SURE YOU GIVE EVERYONE’S AGES!!!!