A Rapunzel Short Story

Join me as I read as we experience a slightly different story of Rapunzel. The story is 16.5 minutes with an additional 5 minutes of ambient music.

This is a sweet story about everlasting love. I hope it will help you relax and drift away from today's worries.

Transcript

Welcome to Restful Journeys.

In this track I will be reading a custom story based on Rapunzel.

The title is A Story of Light and Freedom.

Please find a comfortable place to sit or lie down and relax.

Take a moment to clear your mind and allow yourself to listen to these words.

Let's begin.

Rapunzel A Story of Light and Freedom In a time forgotten,

Nestled between whispering mountains and a deep dark forest,

There lay a lonely valley,

And in that valley,

A small hopeful cottage stood beside a vast imposing wall.

This wall,

Overgrown with thorny vines,

Enclosed the most magnificent garden anyone had ever seen.

Its owner was not a king or a farmer,

But a woman of ancient and powerful magic.

Her name was Mother Gothel.

Now,

In the cottage next door,

Lived a man and his wife who loved each other dearly,

But whose hearts were heavy with a profound sorrow.

They longed,

More than anything,

For a child.

As the wife's time drew near,

She grew weak and pale,

And a strange,

Irresistible craving took hold of her.

She said,

Husband,

I cannot explain it.

I feel I shall fade away if I do not taste the rampion that grows in the garden next door,

The green leaves,

The white roots.

I must have them.

The husband's blood ran cold.

He knew the tales of Gothel,

Of her power and her terrible wrath,

But seeing his wife's despair,

His love for her overcame his fear.

That very night,

He scaled the great wall,

His heart hammering against his ribs.

He snatched a handful of green leaves and scrambled back,

Presenting them to his wife.

She devoured them and was satisfied,

But the next day,

Her craving returned,

Twice as strong.

With a heart full of dread,

The husband returned to the garden,

But this time,

As he reached for the plant,

A shadow fell over him.

Mother Gothel said,

How dare you!

You sneak into my garden like a common thief in the night.

Do you know the price for such trespass?

The man fell to his knees,

Trembling.

He begged for mercy,

Explaining his wife's condition and her desperate craving.

Mother Gothel's anger slowly cooled,

Replaced by a cunning calculation.

A smile,

Thin and cruel,

Touched her lips.

Mother Gothel said,

Very well,

I shall be merciful.

You may take as much rampion as you like,

But,

In exchange,

You will give me the child your wife carries.

The child will be safe with me,

And I shall raise it as my own.

In his terror,

The man agreed,

And when his wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl,

With eyes as green as the rampion leaves and a faint golden light in her hair,

Gothel appeared.

She took the child,

Named her Rapunzel,

After the plant her mother desired,

And vanished into the shadows of her garden.

The wall grew higher,

The thorns thicker,

And the cottage was left in silence once more.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun,

But as her twelfth year passed,

Her hair began to shimmer.

It wasn't just blonde,

It was like spun sunlight,

And it possessed a strange magic all on its own.

Fearing the world would try to steal her precious source of youth and power,

Gothel took the girl deep into the forest.

There,

She concealed her in a tall tower that had neither door nor staircase,

Only a single small window at the very top.

This was Rapunzel's world.

The stone walls,

The view of the treetops,

The songs she sang to pass the time,

And the visits from Mother Gothel,

Who was the only person she had ever known.

Mother Gothel called from below the window,

Rapunzel!

Rapunzel!

Let down your hair!

And Rapunzel would unwind her magnificent braided hair,

Throw it out the window,

And let it fall twenty L's to the ground.

Mother Gothel would climb up,

Bringing supplies and harsh lessons about the cruel,

Dangerous world outside.

Days turned into years.

Rapunzel's voice grew sweeter,

Her hair longer,

And her heart lonelier.

She would watch the birds fly free,

And wonder what it felt like to walk on the earth to feel grass under her feet.

Sometime later,

It happened that a young prince named Liam was riding through that very forest.

He had become separated from his hunting party.

Chasing the trail of a rare white stag,

He heard a sound that made him stop and listen.

It was a voice,

A sad voice,

Weaving through the trees like a spell.

He followed it,

His heart leading him more than his mind,

Until he came to the clearing and saw the source.

A tower reaching high for the sky,

And from its window flowed the most beautiful song.

He watched,

Hidden,

As the sorceress approached and called out those strange words.

He saw the cascade of golden hair and the woman climb it.

His eyes widened in astonishment.

Prince Liam said to himself,

So that is the ladder?

What incredible magic is this?

And what incredible creature must live in such a prison?

The next day,

Once Gothel had left,

The prince stepped into the clearing.

His heart thundered.

He imitated the old woman's call.

Rapunzel,

Rapunzel,

Let down your hair.

The hair tumbled down,

A river of gold.

He seized it,

And for the first time,

Rapunzel began to pull up a person who felt different,

Lighter,

Younger.

When he reached the windowsill,

She gasped and stumbled back.

She had never seen a man before,

Let alone one so handsome,

With eyes that held the entire sky in them.

Rapunzel said,

You,

You are not Mother Gothel?

Prince Liam said,

No,

My lady,

I am Prince Liam.

I heard your song,

And it called me here like a beacon.

Why are you locked away in this tower?

And so,

Rapunzel told him.

She told him of the only life she had ever known,

Of the cold love of Mother Gothel,

Of her dreams of the world.

Prince Liam told her of his kingdom,

Of bustling markets,

Of vast oceans,

Of dancing and laughter.

They talked until the sun began to set,

And he knew he had to go before the sorceress returned,

But he promised to come back.

And he did.

Every day,

While Gothel was away,

He would come.

He brought her a ripe peach,

The juice of which she had never tasted.

He brought her a velvet ribbon.

He brought her stories,

And most of all,

He brought her friendship,

Which soon blossomed into a deep and abiding love.

It was Rapunzel who,

One day,

Her spirit finally awakening,

Conceived a plan.

Rapunzel said,

Liam,

You must bring me a skein of silk each time you visit.

I will weave it into a ladder.

When it's long enough,

I will be free.

I will leave this place,

And you can take me to your kingdom,

Where we will never be parted.

The prince agreed,

His heart soaring.

For days,

The plan worked.

The silken ladder grew longer,

Coiled like a secret promise in the corner of the tower.

But carelessness undoes the best laid plans.

One day,

As Rapunzel was helping Gothel braid her hair,

She absentmindedly let slip.

She said,

You know,

Mother,

You are much heavier to pull up than the young prince.

A deadly silence filled the tower.

Mother Gothel said,

What did you say?

You wicked child!

You have let a stranger into my tower?

You have betrayed me!

In a fury of rage and fear,

Gothel seized a pair of shears.

With a sickening snip,

She cut off Rapunzel's beautiful hair.

The magic in it flickered and died,

Turning it to dull,

Dead straw.

Without a word,

She dragged the weeping girl out of the tower,

Banishing her to a barren,

Distant desert where she was left to a life of misery and solitude.

That evening,

The prince came,

Full of hope.

Carrying the final skein of silk,

He called out,

Rapunzel!

Rapunzel!

Let down your hair!

And mother Gothel,

Waiting with a heart full of malice,

Let down the severed braid.

When the prince reached the top,

He found not his love,

But the glittering eyes of the vengeful sorceress.

Mother Gothel said,

Ah,

The thieving prince!

You came for your prize?

She is lost to you.

The bird has flown from her cage,

And you will never,

Ever find her.

In his despair and horror,

The prince stumbled backward,

Falling from the high window.

He did not get hurt because the thorns in the bushes below helped slow his fall.

He crawled away,

His spirit broken.

He went off into the wilderness,

Living on roots and berries,

His only comfort the memory of Rapunzel's voice.

For years he wandered,

A lost soul in a vast world.

And for years,

Rapunzel lived on the barren waste,

Surviving,

Her spirit tempered by hardship,

But never broken.

She gave birth to twins,

A boy and a girl,

And her love for them became her new life.

She would sing to them,

And her voice,

Though sadder,

Still held its old magic.

Fate,

It seems,

Is not without a sense of poetry.

The depressed prince,

Drawn by an unseen force,

Wandered into that very desert.

One day,

As he rested against a sun-baked rock,

He heard it,

Faint at first,

Then clearer.

A voice,

A lullaby he knew in the deepest chambers of his soul.

He followed the sound,

Stumbling over stones,

His heart guiding him.

As he drew nearer,

The singer heard his approach and fell silent.

Rapunzel spoke out,

Who is it?

Who is there?

At the sound of her voice,

The prince wept.

Prince Liam said,

It's a broken man who once knew a sound like yours,

A voice that was his salvation and is now but a memory to torment him.

Rapunzel knew that voice.

She ran to him and began to cry.

She fell into his arms and she embraced him,

Weeping for his pain.

Her tears,

Tears of true love and profound sorrow,

Fell upon his eyes.

A miracle occurred.

All of the prince's pain,

Cuts and bruises were instantly healed.

The anger and despair washed away by the power of a love that had endured all.

He pulled her back and saw the woman he loved,

Older and wiser,

But more beautiful than ever.

And he saw two beautiful children,

His children,

Looking up at him with wide curious eyes.

Prince Liam took his family,

His Rapunzel and their children back to his kingdom.

There was great rejoicing for the lost prince was found and he had brought with him a queen of strength and grace.

As for Mother Gothel,

It is said that the day the prince felt the tears of Rapunzel,

The tower in the woods and its purpose was finally gone,

Crumbled into a heap of stone.

In the magnificent,

Selfish garden,

It grew wild,

Its magic fading until the rampion and all the other plants were swallowed by the forest,

Becoming nothing more than a forgotten fairy tale.

But the tale of Rapunzel was not forgotten,

It became a story told to children,

A reminder that no tower is too high,

No wall is too thick and no darkness too deep to withstand the power of a loving heart,

A brave spirit and the unbreakable light of hope.

That concludes this story.

I hope you have enjoyed this,

Have been able to relax and possibly fallen asleep.

Thank you for watching.