Bender's Works

The Three Snake-Leaves Rewrite

We were given an assignment that involved rewriting a children's story. My being the dark person I am decided to rewrite a shorter story by the brothers Grimm.

When I was a young boy my father was poor. When he could no longer support me I decided to go. I told him, "I would rather go off on my own so that I'm not a burden to you." I left after that and wandered until I found a king in the next kingdom who was at war, so I decided to join him. We were losing really badly in the beginning. My comrades were dying left and right and then the commanding officer was hit. The rest of the troops tried to flee, but I stopped them. I shouted at the top of my lungs, "We will not let them destroy our home." You know what? All the rest of the troops decided to follow me, and we actually won. We defeated the enemy and returned to the king.

They told the king that it was all because of me, so he gave me great treasures and made me the known throughout the kingdom. But you see, the king had a daughter, and I had fallen madly in love with her. She was strange, though. She wouldn't vow herself to any man unless they vowed to be buried alive with her if she died first. She said it was because he should have no reason to live if he loves her as much as he says. I did, so I told the king, "I will be buried with her if I outlive her. I am not afraid of death if it means I get to be with her."

We lived happily for a while until the worst thing happened. My beautiful wife fell ill and no doctors could save her. As I stared at her dead body I recalled my vow to be buried with her and I was afraid. The king placed guards to make sure I didn't leave. I was trapped, and bound to die of hunger. They had placed four loaves of bread and four bottles of wine in the vault. I ate very little and only took a sip a day trying to stay alive for as long as I could.

One day I saw a snake slither in and go towards be late wife. I raised my sword and cut it into three pieces cursing, "You will not touch her as long as I live." Soon after the first snake died another came out, but retreated after seeing the first snake. A few moments later it came back with three leaves in it's mouth. It laid the leaves on the other snakes wounds and the snake was pieced together again. The leaves were left on the ground as the snakes slithered off. I thought to myself, "Would this work on a human being?" So I laid one leaf on my wife's mouth and the other two on her eyes. As soon as I placed the last leaf she began to stir.

"Where am I?" my wife called out.

"You are here with me," I replied. Then we went and knocked on the door so the guards could hear and told them what happened. The king came down and and rejoiced with us that we were both very much alive. Upon returning to the castle I handed the leaves to a servant and told him to hold them at all times in case we ever need them.

Shortly after all this happened I began to miss my father and suggested a voyage over sea to visit him. My wife agreed, but she became more distant than usual. I had no idea why. I only hoped that she still just needed rest. At least that's what I had thought.

Until one night while I was sleeping I was grabbed by my head and feet and out onto the deck. I saw the skipper had my feet, but I wasn't sure who had my head. Then the next thing I saw was water. It was all around me, and it was cold. I struggled a little, but I had never learned to swim, so I sank. I sank straight to the bottom where soon all I saw and felt was darkness.

I had no idea how much time passed before I was fished out of the sea and leaves were placed on my mouth and eyes. I gasped and breathed in huge amounts of air. When I finally opened my eyes I saw the loyal servant that I had given the leaves to. He began to explain of what had happened. He told me of my treacherous wife and the skipper she had fallen in love with. I was devastated. My wife had loved another man? We had vowed to die together. We vowed that we would only love each other. I went into that vault for her when she had died, and the return I get is my own death after bringing her back to life?

My thoughts still stirred as the servant and I rowed back to the kingdom. We rowed so much and the weather was just right that we happened to return before my wife did. We told the king what his daughter had done. He replied, I can't believe my daughter would do this. I will tell everyone as soon as she returns." Then he pushed us into a room and told us to be quiet. My wife returned and I heard the king talking to her. "Why are you alone, my dear daughter?"

She cried, "He got sick and died. The good skipper here helped me and was there when he died."

The king seemed to ponder this before he spoke. "I will make the dead live again." Then he opened the door and I stepped out into the hall. As soon as my wife saw me she fell to her knees and begged for mercy. "No mercy for you. He was ready to die with you and brought you back. Instead you kill him in cold blood while he slept. You will get what you deserve." The king ordered that the two be placed in a ship pierced with holes. I watched as they sailed off into the sea. I saw them sink and neither resurfaced. I only felt pity now for the woman I had onced loved.