Glittering Gold | ONC 2024

The Retelling of the Retelling

This ONC Entry is finally complete! I want to thank you for reading this far and as a bonus, I have a short story for you below.

Glittering Gold is not only written for the prompts from ONC 2024. It is also a retelling of a short story I wrote some years ago, which is a retelling of one of Aesop's Fables, The Horse, Hunter, and Stag.

I hope you'll enjoy this one too.

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Untitled, Retelling of The Horse, Hunter, and Stag from Aesop's Fable 

"I have given you everything!" The king looked down upon her wife, who had been disobedient. She had been frolicking outside the palace without an escort.

She had done this several times, and the people in their kingdom began to whisper. Their rumors told of her unfitting to be queen, but she didn't care. She never wanted to be queen.

"Not my freedom," the queen said, glaring back at the ferocious king.

He raised his arm and slapped her cheek with the back of his hand, and she fell to the floor on impact. When she touched the pain, her finger came away with blood. There was a gash on her face.

The queen's nostrils flared. She dared to look back at him even when she was down on the ground, and he could hit her again. "You will never have my respect nor my love," she said through gritted teeth.

The king growled at her, and she thought he would hit her again. But he did not do such a thing. He turned away, and before he left her, he commanded his guards, "Take her to her chambers, and don't let her out unless I say so."

The guards dragged her to her room. She tried to escape their grasp, but the men were too strong for her. And soon, she found herself in her chamber. But she wouldn't call it a chamber, not a room, but a prison.

She cried herself that night until she was able to sleep. In the morning, the doors open to let in a chambermaid who had brought her food.

"Help me," the queen said to the maid.

The chambermaid looked at her with pity, but then she nodded. "I know a witch who might be able to help you."

"Where can I find her?" The queen asked.

"The witch has a cottage in the northern woods."

The queen then plotted her escape to meet this witch in the cottage in the woods. After days of being locked up, she was finally permitted to leave her room. She roamed the palace obediently like a real lady that the king expected of her. And after a few more days, he had agreed to loosen her bonds. The king allowed her to go out, but she would always have an escort. That was the condition, and she agreed.

The day came when she came out through the gates of the palace. A chambermaid at her side. The same chambermaid who wanted to help her that first night that she was locked away. When they reached the far side of town, the queen turned to the maid. "I will leave now to meet the witch. I will return before the end of the day. You will wait for me here."

The maid nodded to her, and she raised her hood over her head, hurrying into the northern woods.

It was late afternoon when she came upon a hut with a smoking chimney. She walked up to the door and gave a light knock. The door opened for her into a dark space inside. Only the light from a fire in the hearth lit the hut.

"Why have you come, Your Majesty?" A voice asked.

The queen entered and looked around, but she could find no one inside. The door shut behind her, but she wasn't afraid. "You know me?" she asked, pushing the hood off her head.