title TBH

Once upon a time there lived a kindly young girl. She grew up living in between a forest and palace, as her father worked as a brick layer for the kingdom and her mother a gardener. She spent her childhood watching her mother plant in the garden when her father went to work inside the palace grounds from sunrise to supper.

Her mother was a gentle soul. She would let her daughter help her with gardening; and every day the garden would grow even more beautiful.

When the daughter was old enough, her mother let her in on a secret.

“Do you know what makes my garden so beautiful, sweet daughter?” She held out her hand to reveal a handful of seeds. They glittered in the sun.

“These are Rapunzel seeds. They are not ordinary. They are magic seeds.”

 The wide eyed girl, having no reason to not believe in magic, was so entranced by the beauty of the seeds.

‘Within these seeds holds magic and power.

When you’re patient and kind, creates the most beautiful flower.”

“But you must be cautious,” her mother warned. “These seeds create much beauty, but they can also cause destruction. You must appreciate the beauty in this world, my love. But do not take advantage of it.”

The girl believed with all her heart the power and magic of these seeds.

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As she grew from a humble young girl into a young woman, she inherited her family’s household when her parents passed away. Along with her family home, she inherited her mother’s garden and her father’s bricks.

She had no use for these bricks, so she took them one by one deep into the forest and built a high, high tower, though her brick laying skills were poor. When she finished she realized she forgot to build a door.

She returned to her cottage home beside the palace, and there she spent many years tending to her garden, and with her rapunzel seeds she kept it beautiful and every day was reminded of her mother’s gentleness. She continued to care for her garden, which provided her with more than enough food for herself. She found peace in her quiet life, but she started to grow lonely.

In order to combat this she decided to set up a cart in the palace, and sell her vegetables and flowers. They were widely loved throughout the kingdom instantly along with her kindness. Even the king himself caught word of her vegetables and requested the ripest ones for his kitchen.

One day when she was still in her youth, the woman was tending to her garden and collecting the freshest beans for the king. As she was collecting, she peered threw the bushes of her garden and saw a young man building a house next door. He was the most handsome man she had ever seen throughout the kingdom. She set down her tools and from her garden she picked one flower, and went to greet him. He was laying the foundation to his home and did not look up upon her arrival.  

“Good day to you sir,

How do you do.

Here is a flower,

 From my garden it grew.

I brought it over

As a token for you.”

The young man looked up, and finding the girl most ordinary, took the flower out of politeness and returned to his work.

The woman was distraught at the lack of attention from the young man, but she returned home and went to sleep. That night she dreamt of her mother. “Be patient and kind,” she told her. “Or your flowers won’t bloom.”

When she woke up, the woman felt calmed by her dream. She returned to her garden and forgot all about the man. She watered her flowers, she trimmed her hedges, and she pulled her weeds.

At lunch time, she set her tools down, and saw once again the man through the bushes. She once again was taken aback by his handsomeness.

This time she picked two flowers and brought them over to greet him. When she came to him he was laying bricks for the walls of his home.

“Good day to you sir,

How do you do.

Here are two flowers,

 From my garden they grew.

I brought them over

As a token for you.”

 The gentleman, feeling rather annoyed by the distraction, once again took the flowers out of politeness, and then continued to his work.

Distraught, the woman returned to her cottage and cried. She found no comfort in the beauty of her garden. She only thought to weep. She did not realize how truly lonely she felt until she gazed upon his face.

She cried throughout the night. In the morning, she felt hungry, so she went out into her garden to pick fresh vegetables to eat.

She peered through the bushes and saw once more the young man, and he was laying the final tiles down onto his roof. She told herself that she would try one more time, but if she was again rejected she would never again look through her bushes.

However, as she was about to leave the garden and was taking off her apron, she looked into her pocket and saw the rapunzel seeds.

Within these seeds holds magic and power.

When you’re patient and kind, creates the most beautiful flower.

'If I eat these seeds,” she said to herself, “I then will become the most beautiful power and then no one will be able to resist me.”

In this moment of selfishness, the woman forgot her mother's warning and swallowed three seeds whole.

She felt her hair growing longer, her eyes becoming wider. She went inside to look in the mirror and reflecting back to her a girl far more beautiful than she ever had seen before.

She went once more to the man and this time brought three flowers to him. As she opened her mouth she found that her voice had become more beautiful and they floated out of her like a song.

“Good day to you sir,

How do you do.

Here are three flowers,

 From my garden they grew.

I brought them over

As a token for you.”

This time, hearing such a beautiful voice, he looked down from his work on the roof and saw the beautiful woman. He came down and she invited him over and showed him her garden. They spent the entire evening together, and that evening when they parted, the woman felt content. “Perhaps I will not be lonely any longer.” She thought to herself before going to bed with a smile on her face.

The next morning, she awoke. She stretched, and saw a hand that did not look like her own. It was wrinkly and grey. Confused, she ran to the mirror and saw that her entire face had the same wrinkly skin, and she no longer was as beautiful as she was the day before. The seeds, when used in selfish ways, had cursed her.

These seeds create much beauty, but they can also cause destruction.

Distraught at her own actions, the woman felt so hideous she did not dare to let the man, or anyone see her like this. She quickly went out and built a wall around her garden, higher than her roof top, so that no one would see her or her beautiful garden again for many years.

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The woman lived in isolation behind her walls for ten years. She had no contact with the outside world as no one dared to breach her walls. She continued to tend to her garden, in hopes for retribution for what she had done. Her garden grew as beautiful as ever.

The man who had moved in next door was distraught that he never saw this beautiful woman again, but he eventually wed another and they were soon expecting a child. In order to make room for a growing family, the father-to-be expanded their house one story higher.

From the window of their new nursery, the woman peered out and for the first time could see over the walls and into their estranged neighbor's gardens. Her eyes caught site of the greenest, most lush vegetables that she had ever seen. She saw flowers that glittered in the sun. She saw the freshness of the greens. Instantly her pregnancy cravings kicked in and her mouth began to water.

She called to her husband, and begged him to go next door and collect her greens and flowers.

He was successful the first time in taking the greens, making no noise, and only taking a small amount for his wife.

The next day the wife's hunger grew stronger. This time she asked her husband to take all of the greens, and she pointed to the flowers in the garden as well and asked for a bouquet. Her husband agreed, as he wanted the best food to nurture his wife and unborn child, and he went once again over the wall. This time he lingered, collecting one of each flower in the garden; and began to collect every green there was.

In her bed, the woman could not sleep. She thought she heard something in the garden, and she peered out her window to see the very man that caused her to act so recklessly only a few years prior.

She saw him stealing all of her rapunzel plants.

She had not yet harvested any seeds from the only remaining repunzel plants that she had, and fearing that he not only would steal all the beauty from her garden, but he would too become cursed,

she ran outside before he could leave.

As she called out to him as he was about to scale back over the wall, she saw that his face was stuck with fear on site of her wretched condition. He dropped the plants and fell to his knees.

“Be merciful to me!” he cried. He then explained that he had a wife and was expecting child, and this frightened the woman even more.

She was saddened that he was unable to recognize her. She was angered and jealous that he had taken a new wife. She was angry at herself for she could have been the mother to his child. She felt the same impulsive nature coming back to her that had gotten her to the state that she currently was in. For a moment she was furious at this man; but she also had a conflicting desire for his happiness.

Upon hearing that he was to have a child; she was afraid.

She knew that the child had already been affected by the magic, and upon her birth, she feared that it would be cursed.

The woman thought for a moment. She wanted the rapunzel seeds to keep her garden flourishing, and she also knew that if she let him have the plants, he would leave her site for good and she would be left alone with no garden at all. But she did take pity on the man and came to a compromise.

“Very well,

“take these plants, as they have been grown with patience and kindness. You're wife will be happy and healthy. But know that there is a price to pay.

Upon the birth of your child, you must give her to me.

It is the only way.

The agreement was set, and the woman was given a beautiful child with beautiful golden hair as gifted from the magic of the rapunzel plants. She promised to teach the child patience and kindness just as her mother taught her, and she promised to keep her safe, so that her daughter's beauty would never be taken advantage of.

Rapunzel, she called her.

Mother Gothel, is what she would be called.

The woman was now a mother.