Post by Gin on Jan 24, 2006 9:17:33 GMT -6
This was a creative writing assignment. It was written between the hours of 9pm and midnight, so it's not the greatest; some parts definitely need to be tweaked and elaborated.
Once upon a time, there was a young girl with the most beautiful hair anyone had ever seen. It was golden, very soft, and shone brightly, even at night. She took great care of it, making sure to brush it out everyday as to not get tangles. She washed it with only the cleanest water and the finest soap. She never used clips or ribbons to pull it back, for fear they might ruin it, nor would she ever wear hats, which would cover it and then no one would see it.
The loveliness of her hair had, over the years, gone to her head. The girl became very vain and took great lengths to protect it. She never let anyone touch it, even her own mother. She became very arrogant, not caring for anything except her hair.
One day, while walking through the woods on her way to town to shop, she came across an old beggar woman. She was hunched over, with a dirty, torn head kerchief. Her dress was patched up and fraying at the seams. Her apron was stained with dirt and food; her hands and face covered in grime. At the girl's approach, she smiled, showing what little teeth she had were rotten.
“Thank goodness someone came,” the woman said. “My poor cat ran here into the woods and is now trapped up in this tree.” She pointed to a branch directly above her, showing a mangy, long-haired tabby staring down at them. “You appear to be young and fit, would you please climb up there and get her down for me?”
“Are you crazy? I'll ruin my hair if I climb up there. And who knows what that flea-bitten creature will do to me,” the girl snapped and walked on.
Little did she know that this old woman wasn't just an old woman. She was, in fact, a very powerful witch who liked to come up with little schemes like this to reward the kind-hearted. When she came across those who were selfish, like the girl, she would put a curse on them as punishment. And that's exactly what the girl got.
The girl went to town, bought food for her family and went home. She finished the rest of her chores for the day, brushed her hair, and went to bed. She had completely forgotten about the old woman and the cat.
The next morning the woke up with bright sunlight in her face. She sat up to brush her hair, but noticed her head felt strange. She looked down, and all of her hair was in her bed. She touched her head, but only felt naked skin. She screamed and ran to her mirror.
“This cannot be happening!” the girl screamed, looking at her bare scalp. “How could this have happened?”
She then remembered the day before.
“That horrible old woman! How could she do this to me?” the girl sobbed. She sat down on the floor and cried.
Her mother rushed in to see what was wrong. She gasped at the sight of her daughter and asked her what happened. The girl told her the whole story. Her mother told her to go back to see if the old woman would undo the curse.
Ashamed of her baldness, the girl put on a head kerchief and went to find the old woman. When she got there, the old woman was sitting on the ground petting her cat.
“I wondered if I'd see you again,” she said, grinning mischievously.
“You wretched old woman. I know you did this to me. Make my hair grow back right now!” the girl demanded.
“Yes, it's true, I did make you lose all of your hair. But, you were so rude to me, I needed to teach you a lesson,” the woman said.
“Well, lessoned learned! Now fix my hair!”
“Unfortunately, it's not that simple.”
“I don't care how difficult it is, just make my hair grow back!”
The woman sighed, “I don't have the ingredients I need.”
“Then I'll go get them. What are they?”
“There are only three. The first one is three eggs of the phororhacos. The second is one cup of milk from the quagga. The final one is exactly one hundred berries from the glabra shrub.”
The girl accepted, even though she had never heard of any of these things. She left for town, hoping someone there could help her. There, she asked around what any of these things were. She finally found an older gentlemen who knew. He also told her where she could find them. She thanked him and went on to find three eggs of a phororhacos. The man said she could find them in the mountains.
The girl first went home to grab her bag to carry the items she would be finding and an old milk bottle to carry the quagga milk. She then said goodbye to her mother and left for the mountains.
It took her the rest of the day to reach the eggs she needed. They were in a nest that was perched on a spindly branch that looked like it would snap at any second.
The phororhacos must be nocturnal, the girl thought. The parents aren't here.
This was very fortunate for her, because the phororhacos is very territorial, especially when there are chicks to protect. People have been known to be killed by a single protective parent.
She carefully climbed onto the branch. She was scared out of her wits, but, from judging by the size of the nest, she figured if the parents can sit on the eggs and be safe, she certainly could, too. There were five eggs in the nest. She selected three, put them in her bag and then carefully climbed off the branch.
She walked down the side of the mountain when she heard a loud cackle behind her. She turned and saw two enormous birds flying directly for her. They were the parents, attempting to get their eggs back.
The girl ran at breakneck speed, then ducked into a small crawl space she spotted. It was too small for the phororhacos, so she decided to stay there until they left.
She waited and waited, but they wouldn't leave. Not knowing how long they'd stay, she decided to explore a bit. The space was very small, but she found that it was actually a tunnel. She crawled along it, careful not to crack the eggs. It was pitch black and she was afraid she'd meet something hideous.
After what seemed like hours, she eventually felt a draft, and noticed a small light in a crack up ahead. She crawled towards the crack, and found that the tunnel was blocked by a pile of rocks. She moved them aside and crawled out. She was in a forest she had never seen before. In the distance, she heard faint cry that sounded a bit like “qua-ha.” This, the man had told her, was the cry of the quagga, which got its name from its call.
What are the odds? the girl thought. She followed the sound until she found a herd of them. They looked like yellow-brown horses, but their heads and necks were black-and-white striped like zebras.
She quietly crept up to the herd. She saw a mother nursing a baby. She waited for the baby to finish, then carefully approached the mother. She was unnaturally docile for being a wild animal. It let her milk her until the girl got a cup of her milk.
“Thank you, Mrs. Quagga, I greatly appreciate your cooperation,” the girl said, and left.
The only thing left for her to do was to gather one hundred glabra berries. The man said she would be able to find a glabra shrub anywhere near a still source of water at the top of a mountain. She sighed at the thought of having to climb a mountain again. She hoped the phororhacos wouldn't find her. She didn't think they would have forgiven her by now. She started back for the mountains.
She reached the mountains at midmorning. At the base, she rested for a bit, realizing she had been traveling for close to 24 hours. She laid down in a patch of grass and fell asleep.
It was twilight when she awoke. She sat up and checked her bag. She was relieved to find everything was intact and started up the mountain again.
She reached the top of the mountain, found a small collection of water and used the moonlight to search for the berries. It was difficult to distinguish which berries were the glabra berries. According to the man, they were small, dark berries with a distinct malodorous scent to them. He said it was similar to a wet dog.
The girl wandered around a bit until she smelled them. She found them and then picked a few more than one hundred of them, so that in case any of them got lost, the whole trip wouldn't have been in vain.
She made her way back to the base of the mountain, then remembered she had no idea where she was. She had never been on this side before. In fact, she had never heard of anyone going to or coming from it, either. The only certain way to get back, she decided, was to go back through the tunnel. She didn't look forward to it.
She found the tunnel and crawled in. She eventually reached the end and prayed the phororhacos weren't there waiting for her. Then she heard a familiar squawk.
The girl swore to herself, then got ready to run. She braced herself, then bolted out of the tunnel. She ran and ran, and finally got to the base of the mountain. She kept running until she thought she was safe. She looked around and found she wasn't being followed.
She continued on until she got to the town. In town, she found the old man and thanked him again. He was glad she had been successful.
She walked back to the forest where the old woman was. Right as she had been before, the old woman was still there with her cat.
“Here it is! All the ingredients for a potion to get my hair to grow back,” the girl announced, and handed her the bag.
The old woman just looked at her, bewildered for a moment, then laughed a full, hearty laugh.
“Hey, don't laugh, you knew I was bald, you made me that way, remember?” the girl snapped, unsure of what was so amusing.
“Oh, I'm sorry dear, that's not why I'm laughing. It's just that, that's not what all this stuff is for,” the woman said, wiping a tear away from her eye.
“WHAT?!” The girl screeched, “Then why did I risk my life to get all that stuff?”
“You see, my mother used to make her family's special bread using those ingredients. I haven't had some in a while, since it's so difficult to gather the most important parts, especially now that I'm not so young anymore,” the woman said.
The girl just glared at her. The whole thing had been for this woman's snack! She couldn't believe it. She just sat down and started crying.
“You horrible woman! It's bad enough you made me bald, but then I just did all of that for nothing! How can anyone be so cruel?” she wailed.
“Oh, come now. It wasn't cruel. It was a test. You had to deserve your hair growing back, and I think you succeeded,” the woman said, with a curious grin on her wrinkled face.
The girl felt something hit the back of her neck. She reached back and grabbed what it was. Her hair was back!
“Oh, thank you! I take it back that you're a horrible woman! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she screeched and hugged the woman. “I promise I will never be so vain ever again!” She bounded down the road to her house.
She got home and looked in the mirror. Her face was all filthy and her dress was torn, but she didn't care, she wasn't bald anymore! Although, upon looking closer, her hair wasn't as golden or as shiny as it was before.
Oh, well, at least it's back, she thought, as she went to the tub to wash up.
Once upon a time, there was a young girl with the most beautiful hair anyone had ever seen. It was golden, very soft, and shone brightly, even at night. She took great care of it, making sure to brush it out everyday as to not get tangles. She washed it with only the cleanest water and the finest soap. She never used clips or ribbons to pull it back, for fear they might ruin it, nor would she ever wear hats, which would cover it and then no one would see it.
The loveliness of her hair had, over the years, gone to her head. The girl became very vain and took great lengths to protect it. She never let anyone touch it, even her own mother. She became very arrogant, not caring for anything except her hair.
One day, while walking through the woods on her way to town to shop, she came across an old beggar woman. She was hunched over, with a dirty, torn head kerchief. Her dress was patched up and fraying at the seams. Her apron was stained with dirt and food; her hands and face covered in grime. At the girl's approach, she smiled, showing what little teeth she had were rotten.
“Thank goodness someone came,” the woman said. “My poor cat ran here into the woods and is now trapped up in this tree.” She pointed to a branch directly above her, showing a mangy, long-haired tabby staring down at them. “You appear to be young and fit, would you please climb up there and get her down for me?”
“Are you crazy? I'll ruin my hair if I climb up there. And who knows what that flea-bitten creature will do to me,” the girl snapped and walked on.
Little did she know that this old woman wasn't just an old woman. She was, in fact, a very powerful witch who liked to come up with little schemes like this to reward the kind-hearted. When she came across those who were selfish, like the girl, she would put a curse on them as punishment. And that's exactly what the girl got.
The girl went to town, bought food for her family and went home. She finished the rest of her chores for the day, brushed her hair, and went to bed. She had completely forgotten about the old woman and the cat.
The next morning the woke up with bright sunlight in her face. She sat up to brush her hair, but noticed her head felt strange. She looked down, and all of her hair was in her bed. She touched her head, but only felt naked skin. She screamed and ran to her mirror.
“This cannot be happening!” the girl screamed, looking at her bare scalp. “How could this have happened?”
She then remembered the day before.
“That horrible old woman! How could she do this to me?” the girl sobbed. She sat down on the floor and cried.
Her mother rushed in to see what was wrong. She gasped at the sight of her daughter and asked her what happened. The girl told her the whole story. Her mother told her to go back to see if the old woman would undo the curse.
Ashamed of her baldness, the girl put on a head kerchief and went to find the old woman. When she got there, the old woman was sitting on the ground petting her cat.
“I wondered if I'd see you again,” she said, grinning mischievously.
“You wretched old woman. I know you did this to me. Make my hair grow back right now!” the girl demanded.
“Yes, it's true, I did make you lose all of your hair. But, you were so rude to me, I needed to teach you a lesson,” the woman said.
“Well, lessoned learned! Now fix my hair!”
“Unfortunately, it's not that simple.”
“I don't care how difficult it is, just make my hair grow back!”
The woman sighed, “I don't have the ingredients I need.”
“Then I'll go get them. What are they?”
“There are only three. The first one is three eggs of the phororhacos. The second is one cup of milk from the quagga. The final one is exactly one hundred berries from the glabra shrub.”
The girl accepted, even though she had never heard of any of these things. She left for town, hoping someone there could help her. There, she asked around what any of these things were. She finally found an older gentlemen who knew. He also told her where she could find them. She thanked him and went on to find three eggs of a phororhacos. The man said she could find them in the mountains.
The girl first went home to grab her bag to carry the items she would be finding and an old milk bottle to carry the quagga milk. She then said goodbye to her mother and left for the mountains.
It took her the rest of the day to reach the eggs she needed. They were in a nest that was perched on a spindly branch that looked like it would snap at any second.
The phororhacos must be nocturnal, the girl thought. The parents aren't here.
This was very fortunate for her, because the phororhacos is very territorial, especially when there are chicks to protect. People have been known to be killed by a single protective parent.
She carefully climbed onto the branch. She was scared out of her wits, but, from judging by the size of the nest, she figured if the parents can sit on the eggs and be safe, she certainly could, too. There were five eggs in the nest. She selected three, put them in her bag and then carefully climbed off the branch.
She walked down the side of the mountain when she heard a loud cackle behind her. She turned and saw two enormous birds flying directly for her. They were the parents, attempting to get their eggs back.
The girl ran at breakneck speed, then ducked into a small crawl space she spotted. It was too small for the phororhacos, so she decided to stay there until they left.
She waited and waited, but they wouldn't leave. Not knowing how long they'd stay, she decided to explore a bit. The space was very small, but she found that it was actually a tunnel. She crawled along it, careful not to crack the eggs. It was pitch black and she was afraid she'd meet something hideous.
After what seemed like hours, she eventually felt a draft, and noticed a small light in a crack up ahead. She crawled towards the crack, and found that the tunnel was blocked by a pile of rocks. She moved them aside and crawled out. She was in a forest she had never seen before. In the distance, she heard faint cry that sounded a bit like “qua-ha.” This, the man had told her, was the cry of the quagga, which got its name from its call.
What are the odds? the girl thought. She followed the sound until she found a herd of them. They looked like yellow-brown horses, but their heads and necks were black-and-white striped like zebras.
She quietly crept up to the herd. She saw a mother nursing a baby. She waited for the baby to finish, then carefully approached the mother. She was unnaturally docile for being a wild animal. It let her milk her until the girl got a cup of her milk.
“Thank you, Mrs. Quagga, I greatly appreciate your cooperation,” the girl said, and left.
The only thing left for her to do was to gather one hundred glabra berries. The man said she would be able to find a glabra shrub anywhere near a still source of water at the top of a mountain. She sighed at the thought of having to climb a mountain again. She hoped the phororhacos wouldn't find her. She didn't think they would have forgiven her by now. She started back for the mountains.
She reached the mountains at midmorning. At the base, she rested for a bit, realizing she had been traveling for close to 24 hours. She laid down in a patch of grass and fell asleep.
It was twilight when she awoke. She sat up and checked her bag. She was relieved to find everything was intact and started up the mountain again.
She reached the top of the mountain, found a small collection of water and used the moonlight to search for the berries. It was difficult to distinguish which berries were the glabra berries. According to the man, they were small, dark berries with a distinct malodorous scent to them. He said it was similar to a wet dog.
The girl wandered around a bit until she smelled them. She found them and then picked a few more than one hundred of them, so that in case any of them got lost, the whole trip wouldn't have been in vain.
She made her way back to the base of the mountain, then remembered she had no idea where she was. She had never been on this side before. In fact, she had never heard of anyone going to or coming from it, either. The only certain way to get back, she decided, was to go back through the tunnel. She didn't look forward to it.
She found the tunnel and crawled in. She eventually reached the end and prayed the phororhacos weren't there waiting for her. Then she heard a familiar squawk.
The girl swore to herself, then got ready to run. She braced herself, then bolted out of the tunnel. She ran and ran, and finally got to the base of the mountain. She kept running until she thought she was safe. She looked around and found she wasn't being followed.
She continued on until she got to the town. In town, she found the old man and thanked him again. He was glad she had been successful.
She walked back to the forest where the old woman was. Right as she had been before, the old woman was still there with her cat.
“Here it is! All the ingredients for a potion to get my hair to grow back,” the girl announced, and handed her the bag.
The old woman just looked at her, bewildered for a moment, then laughed a full, hearty laugh.
“Hey, don't laugh, you knew I was bald, you made me that way, remember?” the girl snapped, unsure of what was so amusing.
“Oh, I'm sorry dear, that's not why I'm laughing. It's just that, that's not what all this stuff is for,” the woman said, wiping a tear away from her eye.
“WHAT?!” The girl screeched, “Then why did I risk my life to get all that stuff?”
“You see, my mother used to make her family's special bread using those ingredients. I haven't had some in a while, since it's so difficult to gather the most important parts, especially now that I'm not so young anymore,” the woman said.
The girl just glared at her. The whole thing had been for this woman's snack! She couldn't believe it. She just sat down and started crying.
“You horrible woman! It's bad enough you made me bald, but then I just did all of that for nothing! How can anyone be so cruel?” she wailed.
“Oh, come now. It wasn't cruel. It was a test. You had to deserve your hair growing back, and I think you succeeded,” the woman said, with a curious grin on her wrinkled face.
The girl felt something hit the back of her neck. She reached back and grabbed what it was. Her hair was back!
“Oh, thank you! I take it back that you're a horrible woman! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she screeched and hugged the woman. “I promise I will never be so vain ever again!” She bounded down the road to her house.
She got home and looked in the mirror. Her face was all filthy and her dress was torn, but she didn't care, she wasn't bald anymore! Although, upon looking closer, her hair wasn't as golden or as shiny as it was before.
Oh, well, at least it's back, she thought, as she went to the tub to wash up.
The End
