Breaking a tale

Luna - At least all the dresses fit in the wardrobe

I spun around to face the voice and I saw a young woman walk out from a dark corner of the room. I sighed in frustration; she must have been watching me struggle with the bags the whole time. I stopped, confused. Who was this woman? She was beautiful, with long dark brown hair that was incredibly straight and piercing brown eyes. Her skin was a warm brown and she wore a bright flowing dress. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she was the princess but there could only be one princess and someone that beautiful couldn't be a witch. Witches were supposed to be old ugly hags, not beautiful.

"Do you need some help with those bags?" she asked cheerfully in a strange accent.

As if to prove her role in the tale she raised her hand and the bags started to float up the stairs and into another room. I stared dumbfounded, even though I had seen the bags walk up the tower steps on their own it was quite a different experience to see the person controlling them as well. She noticed my amazement and laughed. Once the bags had disappeared she motioned towards the sofa and we sat down together. We ended up talking for hours, about what my home was like and how she had ended up here. I found out she was only a few years older than me, it seemed strange to choose someone so young to play the villain. Usually it's someone much older. She seemed very grateful for my company and it threw me off a little. I had been expecting little conversation and to have to deal with my captor disliking me, but this was the complete opposite. This girl seemed desperate for a friend. Halfway through our conversation, I realised that I didn't even know her name, I had been so caught up chatting that, I had completely forgotten to ask about it. I hesitated, worrying that it would seem rude to just ask for her name after we had been talking for so long but she didn't seem to mind.

"Its Eda," she said with a laugh "What's yours?"

Even though Eda was being so friendly there was something nagging in the back of my mind. I felt that this was all a trick, that she would suddenly turn and become nasty to me. As if she read my mind, (which she might have, as I don't know just how powerful she was.) she spoke

"Don't worry about me being mean to you, I can't leave either, I'm trapped as well. At least you get a nice ending to the tale."

This changed the mood in our conversation dramatically, there were thoughts whirring through my head and none of them made sense. I thought the princess was the only one trapped and the witch was the one trapping her, maybe there was more to the story then what was written.

"Nobody has a choice about what their role is in the tale." Eda said "We are all forced into roles by the Tale master. My mother was the last witch and her mother did it before her and my child will have to do it as well. I have slightly more freedom than you, but I still can't leave the clearing." She said glumly, fidgeting with a strand of her hair.

I sat there horrified by this revelation, the people in the tales had no control over their entire lives and I thought that it was unfair that I didn't get to choose what role I had in the tale, and that was a temporary role, I couldn't imagine having my whole life already decided for me. Our conversation slowed down after that and Eda headed off to her room. It was getting dark so I decided to go upstairs and unpack, I would explore the tower later. When I reached my room, another surprise awaited me. All the furniture in the room was growing from the floor! Even the bed was made from twisted branches and had a fluffy green duvet that seemed to have been made from leaves. My bags sat on the floor in the middle of the room, so I went over and unzipped the first one.

Piles of dresses exploded out and fell all over the floor. No wonder the bags were heavy, they were stuffed to the brim with clothes and accessories. I picked up the dresses one by one and hung them in the wardrobe. It must have been enchanted because every time I ran out of space the branches that made up the sides just twisted away from each other to make more space. The dresses were nice and were clearly expensive, but I found them boring, why would I need so many clothes? It's not as if I'm going anywhere for a while. They were also all floor length as well so I wouldn't have much movement when wearing them. I decided to find a pair of scissors as soon as possible and cut them up slightly to give them a more personal look. I cursed the seamstress for not giving me anything practical like some trousers and a shirt, instead, I was going to be stuck wearing awful dresses the entire time. After sorting out all the dresses I opened the other bags and started putting the items in them on various shelves and in drawers. I was amazed by the number of hair products and makeup there was. There was a small window in my room, and I was tempted to throw the makeup out of it. I wasn't going to wear it anyway, Dawn would have loved all of this but I found it completely pointless.