Fairytale (Ropemaker Story I)
By C

Once upon a time, a young rope maker went out into the world to seek his fortune. He traveled on foot for many months and saw many strange things along the way. One day, he came into a kingdom that seemed to be under a curse: the fields were blighted, the air was grimy with clouds of soot, and the few people he saw fled as he approached. After a few hours in this strange country, he was surrounded by a troop of mounted soldiers. They seized him, put him on one of their horses, and took him to a large, black castle at the top of a high hill. Then they brought him inside and marched him into a great hall with two thrones at the end of it. They brought him up to the thrones and threw him down on the floor. A harsh voice then commanded him to look up.

The occupant of one of the thrones was clearly the king of the country. He was an old but powerfully built man with white hair and an iron crown. Next to him, on the other throne, was a young woman, with a smaller crown. She wasn't beautiful, but her face was animated by a lively intelligence. The rope maker couldn't keep his eyes off her.

"You're a trespasser!" said the king.

"No!" said the young man. "I'm just an innocent wayfarer."

"No one is innocent," said the king, "but I'll give you a chance to save your life. You've seen no doubt that our kingdom is under a curse. Several years ago, four evil fairies came here and ruined everything with their hateful magic. They're a kind of vampire, really, and they slowly drain the life out of everything: people, animals, crops. If you can capture them, I'll let you live. In fact I'll do better than that: I'll let you have the hand of my daughter in marriage. She's getting on my nerves lately and I'd like her to move out. What do you say?"

The young rope maker glanced at the princess, who smiled at him mischievously. "Very well, Sire," he said. "I'll try. But . . . how do I capture them?"

"How the hell do I know? We have one clue: an old charm regarding vampire fairies that goes like this: 'The best hope: a length of rope.'"

"Well," said the young man, "I am a rope maker. Maybe I am the one destined to bring their reign of terror to an end."

"For your sake you'd better be," said the king. "My men are the best trackers in the world. If you haven't caught those supernatural bitches within three days, you'll be hunted down and brought back here. Then you'll dangle at the end of your work product."

So the young man set out. He reasoned that if they were vampires, the fairies would be attracted to any fresh life force, so they would probably come to him on their own, given enough time. He hoped they'd come before three days had passed.

After several hours, he found a deserted cottage. It very likely had belonged to a rope maker, because it contained several lengths of the stuff. A good omen , he thought. He would stay here for the night. Before turning in, he pulled out his wine flask. Suddenly, it was as if a voice spoke in his head and told him to take a piece of badly rotted rope that he had found, crumble it up, and drop the bits into the wine. He followed the strange prompting. When he was done, he decided not to drink the wine, but to go right to sleep.

Sometime later, how much later he couldn't say, he awoke to find the cottage filled with a bright, unnatural light. He was surrounded by four of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. One had a head of the brightest red hair, with a matching red shift, red panties, and red high-heeled pumps. She had a pair of red wings as well, something like an insect's. These folded and unfolded repeatedly as she stood there. The next had bright blue hair, a blue outfit in the same provocative style as the first girl's, and blue wings; the third had hair, outfit, and wings of white; and the fourth had everything in green. Each wore, as well, a ribbon around her neck, in the appropriate color. They smiled at him, and as they did, he realized they had unnaturally long canine teeth. He was frightened, but also fascinated. He realized that they had put some kind of spell on him: he was finding it very difficult to move.

"What a handsome boy," said the redhead. "I'm feeling thirsty, girls; shall we share a drink?"

"Let's, let's," said the others, and smiled at him with a terrible greed.

"I'm a little thirsty too . . . ladies," said the young man. "Could I just have a sip of my wine first?"

"I don't see how that could hurt," said the redhead.

Suddenly he found he could move again. He reached over and picked up the wine flask. Once more, as if a voice spoke to him, he knew what he had to do. He raised the flask, as if to drink from it, and then, very quickly, splashed some of the wine on each of the evil fairies.

They screamed with fright and pain and tried to run for the door, but he blocked their way. He forced them into one of the corners and then tossed the rest of the wine on them. More screams; then they were still. Carefully, he looked them over. They weren't dead--just unconscious. He got out some of the better rope he'd found and tied their wrists behind them. Then he punctured their wings with an awl that had belonged to the owner of the cottage and fastened these together with additional rope. Next he took the ribbons from their necks. It seems , he thought, that rope takes away their powers . He hoped that binding them with it would be enough to keep them helpless. Something made him believe that it would.

After about an hour, the four evil girls returned to consciousness. They struggled for a bit against the ropes that held them, but it did them no good. The redhead, who seemed to be their leader, looked up at the rope maker.

"What . . . what are you going to do to us?" she asked.

"I'm going to take you back to the king," said the rope maker. "But I'm not going to let him deal with you. No, I have a feeling it has to be someone like me."

"Do you mean you're a . . . a . . . ."

"Yes, a rope maker."

The four wicked fairies started to wail. "No no no no!" they cried.

"There was a prophecy, wasn't there?" said the young man. "You knew you'd run into me sooner or later, didn't you? Why make such a fuss now?"

"Because we don't want to die!" said the green girl. "And it really shouldn't be necessary, should it? I mean, we can pool our resources and give you four magic wishes, if you want. Just promise to let us go!"

"I have a feeling your magic is very dangerous; and I think I'm going to get what I want anyway: a princess and a fortune."

"That scrawny little bitch!" the blue girl cried. "Why have her when you can have all four of us?"

"I have to admit it," he said, "sampling your charms would be sweet indeed, for a little while. After that, I've a notion you'd devour me, like a quartet of female spiders. No, it's like this: I've bagged you, I'm going to keep you, and I'm going to kill you. So why don't you just have a good cry about it and, when you're done, we'll be on our way."

So they did cry: big heartbroken sobs. When they finally subsided into sniffles and the occasional plaintive whimper, he got them up, not ungently, and marched them out. He found that they had to go in whatever direction he told them, though it was clear they didn't want to.

In this way, he herded them toward the castle. They pled with him for their lives as they went, but he was in no mood for mercy. Eventually, they arrived. He shouted out to the guards, and told them to fetch the king and his daughter, as he had accomplished what had been commanded.

After a few minutes, the king and princess came out. "This had better be good, " the old man said. Then he got a closer look at the rope maker's unwilling companions, and he fell silent for a while. "You did it; you nabbed them," he finally managed to say. "How?"

"With rope," said the young man. "It nullifies their powers, and I have a feeling it can kill them. I need your men to help me." He explained in a low voice what was necessary (he didn't want his prisoners to get too agitated), and the king commanded the guards to make it so.

After about half an hour, several of the king's men wheeled out a gallows from the castle dungeon. It had four nooses, ready for business. When the girls saw exactly what was in store for them, they began to wail loudly once again.

"Can't we discuss this?" said the redhead through her tears. "How can you do this to creatures as lovely as we are?"

"Beauty fades," said the rope maker, "and all that crying is ruining your faces. Enough already!" He then forced them to climb the gallows. They went up onto a drop-away platform, and once there, he put the nooses around their necks and tightened them. Each girl shuddered as the slack was removed.

For some time now, he had been curious about one detail. Finally, he had to know. He went from girl to girl, yanking their panties down to their knees. (Oh, how they squealed!) Sure enough, each had a muff of the same bright color as the hair on her head. He noticed that their groins were damp, and on an impulse he slipped two fingers into the white-haired girl's cunt and put them to his lips. The taste was like honey with a slight dash of vinegar. He felt himself hardening, and for a moment he was tempted to throw in his lot with them and forgo the princess. Then his head cleared. He went behind them, found the lever he was looking for, and pulled it. The wicked fairies dropped about a foot and hung there, squirming frantically like so many hooked fish.

Suddenly, the princess ran up to the gallows, quickly climbed the steps, and threw herself into the rope maker's arms. "Oh my God," she whispered in his ear. "I'd like to fuck you right now, right here, while these bitches snuff it."

"Princess!" he said. "Your father . . . ."

"I know," she said. "Don't worry; we'll have plenty of opportunities later. For now, just kiss me."

So he did just that, as the four vampire fairies kicked their lives away.

Of course, the young rope maker married the princess, and later they became king and queen. His sideline as a wicked fairy killer brought plenty of additional revenue into the kingdom. Countries hundreds of miles away would seek out his services. Often, at night, he and his queen would make love beneath the dangling, thrashing feet of their latest catch. They lived happily ever after, but the fairies didn't.

The End