Rapunzel Pt. 02

Eleanor's laugh had an edge to it.

"We talk a lot. Johann likes talking. He says that when he is talking to me he can forget for a while that he is blind. He told me about you and your mother, Rapunzel. He almost loves you. He said that you warned him several times before he climbed up into your tower. Is that true?"

"Yes. I tried to tell him he was being stupid. He didn't listen."

"That's why Euryale blinded him, or that's what she said. Johann said she was very fierce with him. She told him that he was stupid. He judged by appearances only and didn't think before acting. As a blind man appearance wouldn't influence his judgement. As a blind man he would have to think carefully before he did anything, even to take a step. She kept him in a hut in the forest for two weeks visiting him a couple of times a day. She told him to make sure he knew his way instinctively around that hut before taking a step outside. He had to learn to use his other senses, particularly touch."

"He had been impulsive before," Rapunzel said. "What happened?"

"Euryale took him to the city slowly walking. She told him that he had to learn to depend on someone else. Being a Prince wasn't enough. He would be responsible for other people. He had to learn how much other people would depend on him by being someone else's dependant. He must learn humility and the importance of caring for others.

I can see what she meant. Johann is almost totally dependent on me. Of course he has servants but it's not the same. I am his prop, his partner-to-be, his guide and teacher. Like him I was taught how to be a ruler of my people. Unlike him I actually took notice of the instruction. He's learning from me but what's the point? As a blind Prince and a disfigured Princess we can't rule anything or anyone no matter how qualified we are. We are just useless hangers-on, perpetually marginalised."

"Princess Eleanor, can I ask you a very personal question, please?" Rapunzel said. "It is important otherwise I wouldn't ask."

"I suppose so, if you must."

"Are you a virgin?"

"What!"

"Are you a virgin?" Rapunzel repeated.

"Yes! Yes! I fucking well am. Or not. No fucking for me ever! Who would want to fuck me except with a bag over my head? You don't put bags on Princesses' heads. I'm a virgin and will be until and unless Prince Johann marries me in a private ceremony. I'm a virgin."

Eleanor began to cry. Rapunzel started forward, grabbing a napkin. She stopped herself.

"No. That won't do." Rapunzel said to herself.

"What won't do? That I'm a virgin? Do you think I want to be a virgin? Perhaps forever if Johann gets his sight back?"

"No. That's not what I meant, Eleanor. Humour me for a few minutes while we talk some more."

Eleanor picked up her tea and drank it, looking suspiciously at Rapunzel.

"Well? What else?"

"If, let's talk about a fantasy scenario, you and Johann became rulers. Would he take advice from you? Would he listen to you? Who would actually take decisions? You? Or him?"

"That is a fantastic suggestion but you did ask me to humour you. They are interesting questions. Before he was blinded I think the answers would have been different. I didn't know him very well then but I have been told what he WAS like. He was impetuous, took stupid risks, and didn't think deeply. It might have been that he was still immature despite being in his twenties. His parents were very disappointed that he wasn't what he should and could have been. Now? He takes my advice. He listens to me. Sometimes he even defers to my judgement. If we were actually rulers? I can influence him now without him really knowing I'm manipulating him. If he was a King? Most but not all of the time I think I could stop him acting rashly. I ought to be able to prevent him from doing anything really disastrous. In a few years' time and after we are married I think I could do much better than that."

"That was what I wanted to hear, Eleanor. That was why my mother blinded Prince Johann. He wasn't taking any notice of the good advice he was being given. As a blind man he has learned at least some discretion and how to depend on others. Another odd question. Are you right or left-handed?"

"I was right handed but my right hand was more injured than my left so I use my left hand almost as much. Why?"

"Trust me for a couple of minutes more. Please give me your left hand."

Eleanor hesitated. She sat forward and extended her left hand. She tried to straighten out the fingers. That obviously hurt.

Rapunzel held Eleanor's left hand with her own right while gently stroking it with her left hand. Slowly Eleanor's fingers lost the scar tissue and straightened fully. Eleanor watched in amazement.

"How?" she breathed.

"I can heal. Your injuries are old but I can heal all of them. You can have perfect hands and the face you should have. I can't heal Johann's blindness. You can."

"I can? How? I'm not a healer, Rapunzel."

"Johann's blindness was caused by my mother's magic, not by injury. That magic can only be reversed by the tears of an adult virgin. You are an adult virgin. Your tears on his eyes will remove his blindness."

"And then he will see me as I am and reject me."

"No he won't. He will see you as you should be, uninjured and unscarred, just as your left hand is."

"And how do I explain the changes?"

"We need witnesses, important witnesses, who can testify that magic healing was used. The King and Queen perhaps? If they see their son being healed they will believe it."

+++

Three hours later Prince Johann, Princess Eleanor and Rapunzel were in the King and Queen's audience chamber. The officer of the guard was standing beside Rapunzel. Eleanor was sitting on a settee with Prince Johann's head on her lap. His parents were standing to one side. Facing the settee were a dozen of the most important nobles of their kingdom.

Princess Eleanor looked straight at the nobles. Some couldn't bear to look at her disfigured face.

"This lady," Eleanor said, pointing at Rapunzel, "is Rapunzel, Euryale's daughter. She has healing powers which she has already used on one of my hands."

Princess Eleanor held up her left hand, wiggling her fingers.

"She is going to heal my other scars while all of you watch. Rapunzel?"

Rapunzel walked forward followed by the guard officer who looked very nervous. She stood behind the settee so that everyone could see Eleanor. She picked up Eleanor's right hand and showed the scarring. Rapunzel held that hand while stroking it. Gradually Eleanor's right hand lost the scar tissue. As she finished, Rapunzel held Eleanor's hand up before Eleanor demonstrated how flexible her healed hand was.

Eleanor reached behind herself so that the Queen could examine the restored hand.

"And now she will repair my other injuries," Eleanor announced.

Rapunzel stroked Eleanor's face for several minutes. The reddish scar tissue slowly disappeared as if it was make up being removed. Eleanor's nose took another couple of minutes. When Rapunzel lifted her hands away a pert, slightly turned up, and very attractive nose was revealed. Some of the nobility clapped. Prince Johann turned his head towards the sound. Eleanor's hand moved it back to her lap.

"I can't cure Prince Johann's blindness," Rapunzel announced. "It was caused by magic. But Princess Eleanor can."

Rapunzel held out her hand to the officer who passed her a mirror. Eleanor moved Johann's head and leant forward.

"Johann? Please open your eyelids as if you were looking at me." Eleanor asked.

Johann's eyelids opened to reveal blank eyes. Rapunzel held the mirror so Eleanor could see her own face. Eleanor gasped. Her tears began to flow, tears of happiness. She let them fall on Johann's blank eyes. He blinked as the first tear hit him.

"Open! Keep them open!" Eleanor ordered fiercely.

The King and Queen leant forward. As they watched Eleanor's tears dropped onto Johann's eyes. The blankness cleared. He was looking at Eleanor and seeing her. He smiled.

"You're beautiful, Eleanor, just as I thought you were," he said, blinking again as more tears fell all over his face. Eleanor smiled down at him before bending forward to kiss him.

"Thank you, Rapunzel," the King said.

Rapunzel had stood back after the mirror had taken effect.

"We can't thank you enough," the Queen said. "But we'd like to know more."

"Later," Rapunzel said.

Prince Johann had sat up. He had picked Princess Eleanor up and lifted her on to his lap. Oblivious of the people standing around them they kissed, smiled, kissed again. Eventually Prince Johann stood up, pulling Princess Eleanor to stand beside him.

"I would like to introduce you to my fiancée, Princess Eleanor," he announced, "Who is as beautiful as I thought she should be."

Eleanor blushed. The guard officer snapped his fingers. Servants who had been waiting at the edges of the room came forward with champagne for everyone.

"To Prince Johann and Princess Eleanor," the King said loudly, raising his glass.

"Prince Johann and Princess Eleanor," they dutifully echoed back.

Eleanor raised her glass.

"And to Rapunzel who made this happen," she said.

"Rapunzel."

The next half hour was an anticlimax. The healing had been witnessed. The nobles congratulated Johann and Eleanor who stood with their arms wrapped around each other.

Rapunzel and the Queen stood a little apart. Rapunzel explained to the Queen what she had already said to Eleanor, that Euryale's infliction of blindness on Johann had been to try to teach him responsibility and consideration. His mother wasn't convinced but admitted that Johann had changed for the better.

After half an hour Rapunzel said goodbye to the Prince and Princess. They were grateful but weren't reluctant to let her go. A gorgon's daughter is a dangerous guest.

Rapunzel went over to the guard officer.

"You can now escort me out of the Palace," she told him, "unless you'd like..."

He turned pale.

"No. You're not human."

"I'm not. But beware. I'm not the only monster that looks like a young woman."

"Won't they want you to stay around?"

"No. No one wants a monster even if she doesn't look like one. No one wanted Princess Eleanor when she looked as she did. I'm going back home."

+++

Rapunzel went back to Hilda's house for the night. The next morning she set off to walk back to her tower. She'd have to use a flaming torch to get past the snakes in the tunnel but she'd take a couple of spare torches.

Halfway back to the tower she stopped at a large inn for the night. It was busy. The food was good and the service was efficient. The flaw was the landlady's adult son. He was an obnoxious drunk annoying any women. He sought out Rapunzel as the only young woman on her own. He made several crude suggestions that produced laughter from his equally drunken friends. At the end of the evening she walked up to him.

"You have been talking a lot. Are you too drunk to do the actions to match your words? You look strong enough, perhaps."

"Perhaps! I can do better than perhaps, Missy."

"Come on. Prove you are the man you say you are."

He followed Rapunzel upstairs to her room. She helped his fumbling hands to undress him.

"No peeking!" Rapunzel said, pushing him on to the bed.

She blew out the candles and undressed before straddling him.

"Hey!" He protested. "I fuck you."

"No you don't. You get fucked. By me."

Rapunzel's hair slithered around him as she stroked his flaccid erection into partial stiffness.

"What are you doing?"

The man was beginning to appreciate that he was Rapunzel's victim as her hair tightened around his body. He might have said more but her hair gagged him into silence.

Rapunzel impaled herself on his erection as he vainly struggled to free himself. She rode him mercilessly until she was satisfied that she had achieved enough orgasms.

She relaxed her hair gagging him. He could speak.

"Now, Sir," Rapunzel said, "I want more of you tonight, much more. You aren't going anywhere until I say so."

She had to give him enough slack to use the chamber pot a couple of times during the night. After each time Rapunzel rode him hard, stifling his protests with her hair over his mouth. Eventually she let him sleep and allowed her hair to draw some of his blood.

In the morning she rode him again. He was exhausted and almost motionless on the bed as Rapunzel unwound her hair. She tied his hands to the bed head with some of the thongs she used around her hair. She stuffed his mouth with a hand towel and tied that in place. He didn't have strength to resist as she fastened his legs together around his ankles and knees.

Rapunzel went down to eat a good breakfast. Afterwards she went to find the landlady and pay.

"Your son is..." Rapunzel started to say.

"...a nuisance," The landlady finished.

"More than a nuisance. He is bad for your business."

"I know he is, but he is my son."

"I taught him a lesson last night. I've left him tied to the bed in my room. I suggest, and it's only a suggestion, that you leave him there for some hours."

"You've tied him to the bed? But he is a strong lad."

"Not strong enough to wear out a woman."

"I wish..."

"Wish what?"

"That a woman would show him that he isn't as great as he thinks he is."

"I may have done that. Another suggestion for you. Send one of your oldest maids to untie him, or several maids to laugh at his predicament."

"That's a thought. I'll send his fiancée and her sisters. She's been trying to get him to behave better. She will never let him forget last night."

"That sounds good."

Rapunzel left the inn. She reached her tower in the middle of the afternoon. She lit a torch to walk through the snake-infested tunnel. She wasn't feeling very charitable to Euryale's snakes. Whether they sensed that? She didn't know but she passed unscathed. The tower might be boring but it had the familiarity of home. She'd stay there for a while until she wanted to hunt a man to feed her hair, or some stupid Prince came asking Rapunzel to let down her hair.

The End.