The Lost Boy

His childhood was much like that of Cinderella’s: He was loved until the age of four, at which point his parents died in a terrible accident. He was sent to be an apprentice for a powerful wizard, and learned much during this time. However, the one thing he was missing from his life was love. The wizard was very smart, and extremely powerful, but never called the boy by his name. This boy was Rumpelstiltskin. As the boy grew older, he fell in love and got married to a beautiful maiden. They soon became pregnant, however, illness during childbirth led the mother and baby to die. As a wizard now, Rumpelstiltskin had powers that would seem impossible. He would travel about, finding civilians who were in need of his magic, and would take their prized possessions as payment. One day, he felt a young maiden crying, and appeared to see if his magic could be of help. She claimed that she needed to spin straw into gold, and, as payment, Rumpelstiltskin took her necklace. The next time she called, he took the ring from her finger. At this point, Rumpelstiltskin was realizing that his life was empty. He had all the riches in the world, but no one to share them with. The third time the maiden called, she had nothing to give. Rumpel pondered the dilemma at hand and realized that all he truly wanted was a child. The maiden agreed to give him her first born child, and Rumpelstiltskin agreed. When the child was born, the man was ecstatic. He finally had the child that he had been missing for so long. Unfortunately, the maiden-who was now a queen- did not want to give up her child. Rumpelstiltskin felt terrible- he didn’t want to take the child from his mother, but he also wanted a child desperately. Rumpelstiltskin looked at the queen, and was struck by the strangest feeling. He saw his mother in the queen- a woman who would do anything to protect her child. Rumpelstiltskin told the maiden that if she could guess his name, then she would be able to keep her child. Rumpelstiltskin truly believed that she would never know the name, but he found comfort in that he may be reminded of his mother one more time. When the queen guessed his name correctly, he was so overcome with emotions that he exhausted his magic to the point where he was extremely ill. He died later that night and joined his parents, wife, and child in heaven.

The End.