Breaking a tale

Luna - Burning down a tower whilst you're in it is not a good idea

I went back inside just as Eda entered the tower carrying a large bag of groceries, that must have been what those two women were doing. She placed the groceries on the countertop, and I helped her put them away. She looked drained, like the encounter with people from the outside world just reminded her again of what she didn't have, although she might have just been exhausted from walking up all the stairs, they seriously should install a lift. After the groceries were all put away we went into the living room again.

As I sat down the leather pouch holding my knife fell out of my cloak. Eda noticed it straight away and snatched it up."What's this?" she said with a curious smile as she took the sword out of the pouch. She twisted it around in the light, analysing it from every angle before handing it back to me."I approve, it's good to have some form of defence on you, though I doubt you will need it up here, what's its name?" she asked

I was taken aback, I had been worried Eda would have confiscated the knife. It was good to know she approved of it, but I didn't understand what she meant by the knife needing a name.

"All weapons need a name" she continued "It helps enhance their properties in battle"

I thought for a second, I doubted I would ever use the knife in battle, but I might as well name it anyway. After a long time of thinking over different possible names, I decided on Wolfblade because of the dog carvings on its hilt, even though the carvings weren't wolves Wolfblade sounded much cooler that Dogblade. Eda approved of the name and with that, I put Wolfblade away and hid him back in my pocket.

The next day followed a similar pattern to the first. This time I was in charge of cooking and the food wasn't nearly as good as Eda's but it was tolerable. There was still a painful amount of free time and by the end of the week I had finished all the books on the bookshelf, they really hadn't thought the entertainment though. I discovered that there was also a small bookshelf set into the wall of my room. There were 15 books on the shelf and none of them had titles, just a number from one to fifteen on them. I discovered they were the past runs of the Sunflower Tale and even though the tale was nearly the same in every book it was still interesting to read them as there were details that were unique each time and each story had a different set of characters. The princess's story was always the same. She gets imprisoned then suddenly the prince comes along and rescues her. Hooray! Happy ending for all...

Well, not all... The witch's ending seemed to change every story and none of them were happily ever afters. The first one wasn't so bad, the witch and her family are cursed by a good fairy to be trapped in the tower forever more, I felt sorry for Eda having to be alone once I was gone but it wouldn't be that bad, I could still visit her from time to time. However as I read through the different endings the punishments got darker and more severe. By the fifth volume the witch was blinded by the prince and by the seventh she was thrown off the edge of the tower and to her death. I desperately read the rest of the books, hoping that the witch's ending would get better until I reached the final book in which the princess herself sets the witch alight and she burns alive.

One day I would be immortalised as a hero and my life celebrated for all to see whilst Eda's death will be written down in gory detail, used by parents to teach children why they shouldn't misbehave. I used to read the tales and enjoy their ending, the villain's demise was what they deserved, after all they were just characters in a book, just playing their role in the tale. Eda didn't feel like a character and I didn't want her to die, especially not because of me.

I decided I had to leave, Eda wouldn't be killed if she wasn't holding the princess captive, I began to plan my escape. It should have been easy enough, there was nothing magical holding me back. I just needed to get out of the tower without being caught. My days became a lot more interesting once I decided to escape. The first thing I tried was the door although it was locked. I guess that is what people do to doors when they don't want anybody leaving, they lock them. I tried to find the key but to no avail, I guessed it was probably in Eda's room but I didn't want to go snooping around so I tried to find another way out.