RUMPELSTILTSKIN RETELLING.
"I challenge you to find my name, princess. Three tries." Light flickers beneath the recesses of his mask, the wooden fangs and shadowed eyes. "Think you can beat me?"
***
A witch doctor, user of dark magic, terrorizes a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
When I was ten, a village boy dared me to run up a mountain.
He said girls were too weak to do it.
But I was already running. I climbed in my training sandals, in plain clothes. It was cold, the farther I climbed. So unbearably cold. The gods' gifts and my power were just barely enough to keep me from dying altogether. I'd inherited Divine powers from my fathers. Baba Elio could control fire and sun. Papa Ryu could create illusions.
My eyes, from Ryu, would see through most illusions. My skin, from Elio, would withstand heat and cold for longer than regular humans could.
I climbed the mountain until the ice cut my feet and my skin broke open and bled. I lived off boiled roots, starting fires with bits of flint from my training survival pack. I slew a baby rabbit, and cried as I ate it, my belly swollen with hunger.
When I returned from the top, the village boy said I was crazy. I didn't listen, too busy nursing my wounds. I couldn't walk for weeks afterwards. The soles of my feet were torn up. They had to pull out a rotten tooth I'd hit on a rock climbing back down, replace it with a silversmith. And I threw up afterwards, stomach nauseous from the air pressing too quickly into me, from not knowing how to time my ascent or descent without getting horribly sick.
My fathers were furious, wanted the boy beaten for exploiting my weakness.
I lied. Said I had challenged myself.
My fathers called me crazy.
When they said it, it hurt so much more than when the village boy had spoken his lies.
***
Readers,
Firstly, love y'all for the votes and comments.
Secondly, dares/peer pressure are powerful types of magic.
