The Real Story of Hansel and Gretel_New October 28

[TeenFan]

Hansel and Gretel
Chapter 3. Measures Most Drastic


As the summer turned into fall, the nights getting colder, the drought did not relinquish its grip upon the land. The villagers were
tempted to dust off the old spell casting books, were ready to bring back the ancient rituals of the pagan days, were ready to do just
about anything to end the horrible drought and the worsening hunger. In the household of the woodcutter the stepmom came up with
a drastic solution.

"The children need to go. We cannot grow any crops, even with their help. There is only one way for you, my husband and me to survive
to see another year."

This is what was said to the woodcutter, and being a man of weakness of temperament and lacking in fortitude, he didn't know how to
veto his wife's idea. He tried to resist the plan presented to him, but his willpower wilted like the plants underneath the unforgiving
sun. The father is riddled with guilt, and he suggests one thing that could partially relieve his conscience.

"We need to give them a nice meal before they go."

* * * * *

When Hansel and Gretel came into the house after doing their outdoor chores, they were greeted by the aroma of food cooking. Some of
these aromas hadn't been wafting about the air inside the cottage since last spring. There was the sound and scent of bacon frying.
An apple strudel was baking in the oven. Stepmother is slicing off sections from a hunk of dark rye bread, when Gretel claps her hands
and jumps around in circles in delirious delight.

During dinner the delight turned to fright. Hansel noticed how father was only picking at his plate, barely touched the food on it.

"What is the matter papa," Hansel asks.

"It's your mother's idea. She will tell you," Papa didn't even look up from his plate, just stared at the fork in his hand.

Sensing that something is wrong, Gretel timidly says, "What is it? What is this grand idea?"

Stepmother was busily devouring everything in front of her. The slices of bacon, the bits of roast beef, the mushroom and carrot
soup, all was gone, down the hatch. Looking across the table at her two stepchildren, she announced something so bizarre as to be
inconceivable.

"You and Hansel will be leaving this cottage. You will leave tonight. You won't be coming back."

The two children can't believe their ears. The two of them are to be made to leave? "Where will we go?" Hansel is brave enough to
want to know.

"Your father will take you into the woods. Where?...I don't care. He will take you someplace where you must make a home for
yourselves. Hansel dear, you are a good strong boy with some horse sense about you. You'll figure something out. I'm sure you
and your sister will do just fine without us....and we'll do a lot better without you."

Now Hansel and Gretel can hardly finish their meal. This horrible situation is cause for despair. In silence the two children try to clean
their plates and slurp up the soup.

Stepmother starts taking the dishes to the washing basin. "Husband dear, you will take them as soon as you are ready. It will be dark
in a couple hours. Take them far enough away they cannot find their way back in the darkness of night. Now children, you go to
your room to pack one bag for the each of you. One change of clothes is all you really need to take with you. I will however, let
you take one loaf of bread."

In their bedroom, it doesn't take the two children long to pack the bag with a change of clothes. Hansel gets an idea. He opens the
one window in the room, and he climbs out. He is gone for around fifteen minutes. Upon crawling back inside, his pants are bulging
in two places. Gretel wants to know what he just did, but Hansel only shushes her. Shortly after that the woodcutter knocks on the
door. It is time to leave.

* * * * *

The woodcutter has taken his two children into the deep, dark, and dense woods. They have traveled a mile or so, and Hansel knows
where he is. Being a good helper in the woodcutting business, Hansel knows the area around the cottage in every direction. As soon as
they get where Hansel doesn't recognize his surroundings, that is when the intelligent boy puts his plan into use. Reaching into a front
pocket, Hansel pulls out a small white stone, the size of a marble. Making sure he is the last one in the group, with father leading
from the front, Hansel begins to drop a stone every dozen paces or so.

Father leads on through the woods, the route twisting this way and that. Hansel continues to drop the little stones at every turn. By the
time it got dark, the group had gone another mile or so. Nearly all the white stones had been dropped.

Father blindfolds and ties the hands of Hansel behind his back. Then he ties the feet together with twine. Saying goodbye to his
children, father steps behind a wide oak tree and he is gone. Gretel waits for father to reappear, but this does not happen. She unties
the bindings on her brother. The reason for the tying up becomes clear. By the time Hansel has been freed, father will be long gone,
and the children won't know which way he went.

Darkness closes in as the sun departs from the sky. The two kids have no choice but to hunker down at the base of the large oak tree.
They will stay there until the sun comes up.

* * * * *

Shortly after there is enough light to see easily, Hansel informs his sister how they can get back home. Gretel is not exactly believing
of the good news her brother tells her, but as soon as he shows her where the first white stone is, followed by the second stone, Gretel
knows her brother was brilliant. They can follow the trail of white stones through the woods.

It only takes a couple hours as Hansel seeks out and finds every white stone he dropped to form a trail of clues. A couple hours of walking
and the two children are back at the cottage.

Knocking gently on the door, Hansel and Gretel are cause for quite a shock as stepmother opens it to see her two supposedly lost forever
children standing outside.

Stepmother is furious. She calls out for her husband who was out behind the woodshed. He too is amazed to see the return of the two
children. He hugs each one of them, but the happy reunion is short lived, as stepmother says, "You will take them back into the woods.
Go deeper, farther away this time. Take the girl one mile into the woods and leave her. Take the boy another half mile further. Leave
them separately so they cannot find their way back." Stepmother grabs the bags the children carry, and she tosses them onto
the table. "They will not have need of these anymore. Nobody will ever see them again. Take em away now."

* * * * *

A mile into the woods, father stops near a stream of water. He tells Gretel to lie down on the ground, to close her eyes and cover her
earls. Gretel does as she is told, being a nice girl who always does what she is told.

"Now count to 100, an then you can get up."

As the girl counts, father takes hold of the arm of Hansel. Being much stronger, he is able to pull the son deeper into the forest.
Eventually, he lets go of the arm, and father leads the son. Hansel thinks up another plan on the spot. He rips the pocket off his shirt,
and he drops it on the ground. After a dozen paces or so, Hansel rips the bottom of the shirt sleeve. Tearing off a small piece of the shirt,
this too is dropped to the ground.

In his grief, father doesn't hear the small ripping sounds. Father never turned around more than to see his son was still behind him.
After the half mile more into the woods had been reached, father is surprised to see his son is wearing only shoes and underwear.
Now normally, a son losing his clothes while out on a walk through the woods would be cause of some questioning. However, since this
is the last time he will see his son, such questions seem to be irrelevant.

Using the laces from the shoes, father ties Hansel's hands together, ties the feet together. With the sun going down, father says goodbye,
and he disappears behind a large tree trunk. Within five minutes Hansel has freed himself, but which way father went is unknown.
The sun is too far down to do any more traveling. Hansel hunkers down to wait out the night. He knows the sister must be overcome
with fright, but there is nothing he can do now. In the morning Hansel will find the scraps of clothing. He will retrace his steps to rejoin
the sister.

* * * * *
About mid-morning the next day, Hansel finds a cold and frightened Gretel sitting by the brook where father left her. The two rush together,
hugging and kissing each other. Gretel cries for a while, then she stops to laugh.

"Where are your clothes?"

Hansel explains how he used his clothes to make a trail. It worked, as he was able to get back to where the sister had been abandoned.
However, Hansel does not know where they are. He has no clue which way to go to get back to the cottage. With no good sense of
the proper direction, Hansel suggests they proceed by following the brook through the woods.

"Small streams turn into bigger streams," the wise young lad says. "Maybe it will lead us to the village."

Hansel and Gretel follow the stream. It does grow a little larger, but it meanders this way and that way and it seems to be going
nowhere. Eventually, just as the sun is beginning to draw down from the sky once more, the pair of children enter a clearing.
In the middle of this clearing is another cottage, but this house is unlike anything they have seen before. The house is colorful, vibrant
shades of red and green stripes painted onto dark brown walls.

Coming closer to the cottage, the children detect the smell of dark bread and sugar, the cloying aroma of spices. The enticing aromas
weren't coming from the chimney. The scent seems to be coming from the house itself. The cottage in the woods is made of gingerbread!
Hansel confirms this by licking the wall of the house.

Stepping onto the porch of the amazing gingerbread house, Hansel knocks on the door. A moment later a small older woman opens the
door.

"What have we here?" the older woman asks. "Two lonely children lost in the woods. It is lucky you found my house." The woman reaches
out a hand to touch Gretel's golden hair. "Such a fine lady we have here. So pretty and adorable. I am so pleased to meet you."
Then the woman turns her gaze upon the taller, leaner, and nearly naked brother. "Such a fine young lass. So handsome and deliciously
undressed he is. How did you end up here? Never mind...I am happy to have company. I spend most of my time to myself these days.
My name is Leckermaul, Rosina Leckermaul. Come in, come in. Make yourself at home. I'll put water on to boil."

The two children are cold, they are hungry, and they are in need of assistance. Though finding such a house in the middle of the
forest seems to be too good to be true, there it is, a house with a nice old lady who wants to help. Hansel and Gretel, holding hands,
step into the gingerbread house. They step toward the fire as the door closes behind them.

[NickTwisp]

Hansel walking around the forest in just his underpants---------

[Freesub]

Maybe this wicked witch may want them naked instead of as a meal, or both

[actaeon76]

I hope that Gretel, as naked as embarrassed she might be, will assume a somewhat dominant role over her brother in the course of the tale. At any rate, I'm loving it!

[SensoryOverlord]

It's strange. As a child, I don't think this occurred to me - why would someone able to create a gingerbread house (presumably edible) even need to eat strangers who turned up?

Also, how is there a fireplace in the gingerbread house?

I must be getting old. Lost that childish acceptance of bullshit.

NOT saying this retelling of the fairtale is bullshit! It's coming along nicely.
I wonder if we'll be sympathetic to the 'old witch's intentions?
Perhaps they will align with our interests.

[TeenFan]

Hansel and Gretel
Chapter 4. Friendly but Strange


Something aromatic and enticing is bubbling away in a small black kettle. Hanging up on the right side of the fireplace, the smell of
something sweet and tasty emanates throughout the main room of the cottage. Not having eaten since dinner two days prior, Hansel
and his sister quickly stepped over to peer hungrily at whatever is cooking. Hansel was about to stick a finger down into the pot when
a sharp pain on the left ear lobe stopped him. The old lady of the house, Mrs. Leckermaul, had grabbed the ear and the nail of the
thumb digs in for a couple seconds before letting go.

"You mustn't touch any of my secret recipes my little dearies. And those hands of yours are filthy. You would have ruined the whole pot.
I will set out a washing basin for the two of you." The kindly woman took an arm, pulling the brother and sister toward the sink. Amazingly,
there was already a large ceramic bowl with steaming hot water, just sitting there as if the water was freshly heated ready and
waiting.

After washing up, Hansel took the time to look around. The cottage is spotlessly neat, and the whole house smelled like gingerbread
and cookies with hints of puddings and cakes. It's like being in the village confectionary, only there were some other aromas that
were unidentifiable. When the old lady opened a pantry door there came forth strong scents of woodsy items like moss and herbs and
stuff dug up from the ground. Even Gretel commented on it, saying it smelled like a compost heap.

Hansel studied the old lady as well. She is somewhat short and plump, a bit hunched over at the shoulders. Her face isn't old, but it is
years away from youthfulness, an ageless sort of appearance. The clothes Mrs. Leckermaul has on are clean but old and faded. The
woman steps into the pantry, and she returns with large greenish/gray leaves that are fuzzy. These leaves are placed into a mortar.
With a pestle the leaves are ground up, then some water and a several drops from a bottle from a shelf. There are dozens
of bottles on the shelf, bottles of various sizes and shapes.

"You have some scratches and scrapes young man. This poultice made of comfrey and calendula petals will have those scrapes
healed up nicely." The woman stuck her finger down into the mortar and scooped out a small amount of icky looking greenish goop.
"Hold still my pretty. This won't hurt or sting."

As Hansel feels the cold and clammy poultice applied to scrapes along the legs and outer parts of his arms, he realizes there were more
such small injuries that had gone unnoticed. With no trail through the woods to follow, he and his sister had to squeeze between bushes,
hop over fallen logs, scramble up embankments, and he had slipped and tumbled a time or two.

Gretel notices scrapes on her arms, and she gets permission to put the poultice on herself, as Mrs. Leckermaul was more than busy with
the brother.

Being so close, Hansel could hear the woman's wheezing breathing, could smell coffee and cookies on her breath. The woman's teeth
are yellow and seemed unusually pointy. The woman reaches up to place both hands upon Hansel's shoulders.

"How old are you, if you don't mind saying so?"

"I am fourteen."

"And already so tall and muscular? For a lad of your tender age. You should be chubby, more pleasantly plump like your sister. Hmmm...
what do you do all day?"

"I help my father, the woodcutter. We cut down trees and chop into firewood for sale in the village. I work hard I do. Work hard all
day."

The old woman sighs, "Such a pity. This lean muscle makes you too tough, too stringy and not ready for what I need. However...Gretel
is just about perfect. She is softer, filled out in all the proper places for a child on the verge of coming of age. She will do nicely."

"What will I do?" Gretel asks.

"You will help me in the kitchen my darling little lady. Now Hansel my dear...you will earn your dinner every day. I will require hard
labor and um, other things." Mrs. Leckermaul glances down at the ragged old underwear. "Speaking of other things. This old thing
has got to go. I must find something more appropriate for you to wear, something befitting your station. But for now you two get
yourself seated at the table. I will cook up something you will never forget."

[SensoryOverlord]

So there IS such a thing as a teasing poultice.

I suspect the lady's teeth are not the only things that will be unusually pointy soon enough.

[NickTwisp]

At the very least, Mrs. Leckermaul wants to see Hansel naked.