Once upon a time, long, long ago a king and queen ruled over a distant land. The queen was kind and lovely and all the people of the realm adored her. The only sadness in the queen’s life was that she wished for a child but did not have one.
One winter day, the queen was doing needle work while gazing out her ebony window at the new fallen snow. A bird flew by the window startling the queen and she pricked her finger. A single drop of blood fell on the snow outside her window. As she looked at the blood on the snow she said to herself, “Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony.”
Soon after that, the kind queen got her wish when she gave birth to a baby girl who had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They named the baby princess Snow White, but sadly, the queen died after giving birth to Snow White.
Soon after, the king married a new woman who was beautiful, but as well proud and cruel. She had studied dark magic and owned a magic mirror, of which she would daily ask,
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?
Each time this question was asked, the mirror would give the same answer, “Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all.” This pleased the queen greatly as she knew that her magical mirror could speak nothing but the truth.
One morning when the queen asked,
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
she was shocked when it answered:
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Snow White is even fairer than you.
The Queen flew into a jealous rage and ordered her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demanded that the huntsman return with Snow White’s heart as proof.
The poor huntsman took Snow White into the forest, but found himself unable to kill the girl. Instead, he let her go, and brought the queen the heart of a wild boar.
Snow White was now all alone in the great forest with nothing but the whistling wind caressing her soft, gentle face. She stood there rooted to the ground knowing nothing but fear and her heart thumped so loudly that she was afraid for a moment that it would come out of her chest. A princess, knows nothing but grand castles, thriving parties and handsome princes but in this unforgiving territory she was no longer a princess; just a survivor.
That night was the longest night she’d ever had. Lonely, cold, and hopeless, a wave of pessimism and reality hit her conscious mind hard. She was after all just a weak, feeble human being. There was no fire that night, as she did not know to make one. Of course in castles, one snap of her finger and wood would be brought into the Great Hall. She could not sleep that night. But throughout the dark, silent night her lips moved to the words, “This is the end”.
As the sun rose over the mountains in the morning the wide expanse above turned scarlet and the darkness had ended. Snow White was no longer the same person anymore. Her eyes drooped and her fair skin turned a ghostly pale. Her blood red lips were a soft pink and her hair looked a tad bit grey. She lay there in the rough grass about an hour after she woke up simply waiting for death.
She suddenly heard a soft rustle of the leaves and turned her head violently in the direction of the sound. With a quick blur whoever or whatever was there hid behind a great oak tree. She spoke softly with a tremor in her voice, “Who’s there?”
Silently, a silhouette appeared and the outline of a man began to appear. He wore a dark green hood and his pants were torn and rugged by the looks. On his right shoulder he had slung a dead rabbit and on his left was a quiver full of arrows. He removed his hood to bring into view his stern face. His piercing green eyes looked at her in a questionable manner and his mouth opened slightly expressing his surprise. Snow White was startled as well. Should she be afraid or relieved? The man was unquestionably handsome apart from his rough beard and long dirty blond mane. He was muscular and tall with caramel coloured skin.
They both looked at each other for about a minute before the man finally spoke, “Who are you?”
Snow White was startled for a moment before she finally opened her mouth to say,” S-Sno-w W-White” She held her head low, not making eye contact anymore.
The man pondered for a second and asked curiously, “Now what is a princess such as yourself doing out here in this forest?”
So finally Snow White opened up and poured out the whole story, what was on her mind, how she felt until it seemed like ages when she finally stopped. The man listened to her attentively, asked her questions in the middle and nodded or shook his head every once in a while.
When she was done, he said, “My name is Oliver. I have been in these woods a long time. Even I yearn for revenge and one day I will get it. But for now, I guess I cannot leave you here to die. I will teach you how to survive. I will teach you how to hunt and how to move quietly through the woods. You must become someone else now. You must become something else….”
And so he did. Every day they went out and did there training. It must be understood however, that Snow White was a princess so obviously she hesitated, even resisted sometimes but at the end of the day, it was him that was keeping her alive. So after a while she stopped and listened patiently, sometimes even contributing to what was being discussed. He taught her to find food, to know the poisonous plants from the edible ones. He taught her how to stalk prey, how to move silently through the trees until the prey stopped long enough to shoot an arrow through its eyes. She learned slowly, very slowly in fact, but after five long rigorous years she was ready. She was no longer a girl but a strong woman, one who no longer feared death. She was ready to face the Queen once again. But of course she was infatuated with Oliver. How could she leave him? His quick wit, his handsome, charismatic looks filled her dreams every night. One day she finally approached him and revealed her feelings.
He sighed and said, “Even I feel the same way, but I cannot. Your revenge may be near but mine lies far away. Revenge is something that cannot be let go of, even you know that. One day after a few years I will come back for you and we can start over. I have to leave for East tomorrow, there’s a ship that will be arriving to take me back to where my quest lies.”
With heavy hearts, Snow White and Oliver departed in the morning leaving for the different destinations.
The castle had changed a lot over the last five years. The king was utterly depressed over the loss of his daughter and remained confined to his chambers all day. He had spent a year trying to find her until finally his spirits broke and his mind lost its way. So it was the queen who had taken over and as in all stories the wicked one always causes devastation and grief amongst its subjects.
One day when the queen was in her chambers she saw under a pile of her old belongings, a gleam of silver, the mirror which she hadn’t used in a very long time. She took it out and blew the dust off of it and asked once again, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” she was shocked when it answered:
You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Snow White is even fairer than you.
Her blood began to boil and her face turned red as she flung the mirror out of her window. When she turned around she saw an outline of a hood pointing an arrow straight at her heart. Her face turned a ghostly pale as she saw who emerged from the darkness. Just as she opened her mouth to scream, the arrow released from its quiver and the queen fell down the tower. Well….I leave it up to you to know what happened next!
