The huntsman clutched the knife, ready to plunge it into the girl's heart. Snow steeled herself. She saw her mediocre life pass before her eyes, her one big nonevent, and resigned herself to death. But.... it never came. She opened her eyes to see the huntsman crying.
"I'm so sorry, miss. The queen asked me to kill you because you were more beautiful than her."
"Grimhilde sent you?"
The huntsman nodded. "She offered me the Pondering Wand for your heart."
"The Pondering Wand? She said that's the most powerful wand in the world! Why would she..."
"She is an evil woman, Snow. There are evil, vain, greedy people in this world, and she is above them all."
Snow knew she was evil, but to kill another person, or, rather, to have someone else kill another person, just because of jealousy...Snow hadn't known people actually did that, and she'd definitely never imagined she would be involved in such treachery.
"You go back to the queen," ordered Snow, "and you tell her that I am not afraid of her."
"Well, you should be. If you're so 'not afraid of her,' you go tell her that. I can't go back there."
Snow sat down on the rock behind her. "Why did you need to kill me?" The huntsman looked at the ground. "Huntsman." He started cleaning his knife. "Do you have a name, huntsman?"
The huntsman looked up. "No."
"Come on. Everyone has a name."
"I don't." He sat next to Snow on the rock. "My parents never gave me one. They named me Huntsman because that's what they wanted me to be." He started sobbing. "But I don't like it. I don't like killing things."
"Then why did you try to kill me?" Snow questioned patiently.
He hesitated. "She offered 500 marks and the Pondering Wand. I really need the money and the power. Do you know how much power is contained in that wand?"
"And why is that? Why do you need money and power?"
The huntsman sighed. "My wife is dying. She tells me to spend more on our children. She doesn't want them to have the lives we had. We want them to go to university. Do something with their lives. Be lawyers or something. Anything besides...huntsmen. I thought that with 500 marks, I could afford some medicine for her. But now what am I going to do? I have no heart to give to the queen."
"You could trick her. Give her a pig heart or something."
"You're right. Thank you. Now...you have to run. The queen will find out that you're alive eventually. You should go hide somewhere. Stay out of town, she'll find you there. Now go!"
Snow stood up and said, "Thank you... Hubert." and ran into a dark part of the woods.
