The Song of Fern

The boy who was afraid of nothing 2

It hadn't taken long before the first rose petal fell. After Fern told her brothers what had happened the day she got home after the festival, unable to keep a secret this big, Kayro had become angry. He hadn't yelled and he hadn't cursed and he hadn't trashed the place. Instead, he had become very quiet and he'd walked out the door, letting it fall closed silently. Worried, Fern had looked at him.

Avoiding his sister's gaze, Avery had studied the flower in the small crystal vase from every angle and Senna had meticulously checked his fingernails. Lewis and Zeno had pursed their lips before they followed Kayro outside and even Maxen seemed to have found some very exciting corner in the cottage.

'I'd rather he'd be yelling,' Fern said quietly, referring to Kayro. Senna rolled his eyes.

'He isn't yelling because he already knows what to do,' he said slowly. 'And he doesn't like it one bit.' Her eyes got big and she looked up at him.

'What do we need to do?'

'We need to write to the Frog King,' Maxen said, stretching his arms over his head before he turned away. 'And we need to ask him for help.'

'A bargain for a bargain!' Fern cried out, throwing her hands up in despair. 'You really want me to choose between a toad-man and an assassin for a husband?'

'What I want is for you to put together a list of names, so you are at least fighting for your own hand.' After that, the brothers left the cottage altogether, conspiring to find another way to find out Rumpelstiltskin's true name.

The entire day Fern sat at her desk, all the way up in the tower, compiling a list of names. Common names, weird names, long names, old names, ugly names, bold names, unusual names, short names, pretty names, boring names, new names, exciting names, rhyming names, names with hyphens, names that consisted of initials, names of people she knew and names that were much rather sounds. She would not stop writing down names, and when her right hand started to cramp, she wrote on with her left.

The following morning, a second gift was brought to the cottage. Again it held the seal of Rumpelstiltskin. This time, her brothers did not laugh when Fern opened the box. Inside, she found a note. She cracked the seal and opened the letter.

For our wedding night. -R.

Embarrassed and disgusted, Fern threw the letter inside the box and closed it, not wanting to see what he had given her. Without a word, she had stormed out of the cottage and walked all five hundred steps up to her tower room. She sat down at her desk where she passionately started writing down names again. She wrote down the names that she thought fit Rumpelstiltskin very well, such as Rotten-Teeth and Spider-Legs and Gross and Disgusting, but she also wrote down the names she didn't think he would bear. The second day, she started writing with her right hand and went on with her left as soon as the right started to hurt.

That night, Rumpelstiltskin appeared right outside the cottage. Reluctantly, Fern met with him outside, where only the moon lit up his ghastly features. He looked even more terrifying than in broad daylight.

'Surprise me, girl,' the monstrous Fae said. 'Do you know my name?' 

She wasted no time. 'Caspar? Tom? Bam-Bam? Spindleshanks? Roast-Ribs?' Fern went through all the names she had written down, but after each and every name, the assassin said: 'That is not my name.' She grew more nervous with every name, and he got more and more excited.

At the end, she threw down her papers as none of the names were his. 

'Did you like my gift?' he asked. She blushed. She didn't dare answer him, nor did she look at him.