27B (COMPLETED)

(Above - Ethan) Chapter One

Hey guys, it's me, bethrocks3211! I know, I know, you want to read the story. It's okay, I just have to tell you guys some stuff first. So, number one, if you want to see Ethan's face, (Ethan is my main character,) then you have to click on the two pictures and scroll right one. I don't know what happened to it, and I can't get rid of that cover! It used to be my cover, but I just made a new cover and for some reason the old cover made an appearance in the first chapter. I guess it still wanted to be in the story, so it jumped in on Ethan's space. Number two, the story might seem like it's realistic fiction at first, but don't fret! The fantasy part will come. Okay you guys, go ahead and read the story! Love you all! XOXOXOXO
~bethrocks3211

Mollie...
18 years ago...
Mollie sat down on the smooth, wooden bench in the middle of the cramped and grimy room overflowing with golden straw. She flipped her flaming red hair over her shoulder in frustration. The mahogany spinning wheel sat at her feet, mocking her greatly. How could she have possibly lied about her talent to the king out of her stupid desperation? All she had wanted was to be a noble woman. She couldn't spin all this straw! Not if she had a million years to do it! Mollie stood up and walked stiffly to the first huge pile of the brittle, unspinnable straw. She had to spin it all into pure gold strands by morning, or else she would be beheaded. Kings orders. Just the thought of lying with her smooth, pale neck exposed to the glinting metal blade gave her the willies.

She shuddered and picked up a piece of straw. It was brittle between her fingertips, and she had no idea how she would spin it through that dreaded wheel and make it pure, shining gold.

She sat down on the bench again with the straw still between her fingertips. She fed the end of the straw through the wheel and felt a cold, dreadful, sick stone settle in the pit of her stomach when it drifted lazily to the floor before she even started spinning. Mollie furrowed her eyebrows and picked it up, feeding it through again. It fell to the ground.

"Drat!" She screamed, standing up and kicking the wheel to it's side. "Drat this stupid straw!" She sat down on the bench and started to cry. Loud, heaving sobs that a person produces when they are certain they will die and have to deal with the thought of it for the rest of the night until morning.

"POOF!" She heard a deep, husky voice behind her yell. She stood up and whirled around, surprised. "Who are you?" She asked the man standing there. "And why did you say POOF?"

"It adds effect." He said, matter of factly.

"Okay." She said suspiciously. He walked to a pile of straw and picked up a long, golden piece. He twirled if between his fat fingers. "You're trying to spin this to gold?" He asked, studying it.

"Yes," she said hesitantly. Mollie didn't know how he knew that she was trying to spin the straw to gold. She decided to go with it.

"I will help you. I can spin straw to gold. It is one of my many talents. I'm going to spin all of this straw by the morning." He paused, and before she could gasp and cry from happiness that she would be saved, he continued. "But I want something in return... Of course." He twirled the piece of straw around his finger, then reached out and took a strand of Mollie's fiery red hair and examined it intently. Mollie pulled away, but she didn't have the courage to pull it from his fingers. "I don't have any children, and the first one you have will be mine."

Mollie sat heavily on the bench, and her hair fell from his hand loosely. She wanted to live ever so badly. She was too young to die over some straw. But she didn't want to give up her first child either. Fat tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her flushed cheeks as she pictured herself handing an infant over to this rough, tall, scary looking man. "There's nothing else you want?" Mollie asked, wringing her hands. The man shook his head.