When You're In Need

Sighing, a girl who couldn't have been older then seventeen-years-old slumped against a wooden door and slid down it to hug her knees to her chest. She had fallen quite madly in love with a boy a few years her elder who had gotten separated from his family whilst hunting and somehow ended up at her family's home.

When he was found wandering aimlessly in the forest on their property, her father brought him to the house and said that he would give him one of his daughters to marry.

He was first promised to the girl's eldest sister, a woman of incomprehensible beauty, but her father decided against it after giving him the task of guarding her through the night, which he had done.

He was then promised to the girl's second sister, a woman of great knowledge, but her father said no after telling him to cut down the largest tree in their forest for firewood; he succeeded in that too.

Finally he was promised to her, the youngest daughter. She had no particular trait or ability that ever stuck out or impressed her father, though people from the town told her she was the most well-behaved girl in their family. She hung off of that. Unfortunately, her father once again decided that the boy couldn't have her even after he successfully mined the finest gemstone to be faceted to her engagement and wedding bands, and even made the rings.

The girl had the rings in the palm of her hand and had been ready to tell the boy that she wanted to marry him before the sun set on the following day when her father told him he couldn't have her. The boy was told he had to leave the next day and that he wasn't worthy of having any of the man's three daughters.

The younger daughter had been heartbroken. She had watched him the entire week he had been at their home, seeing him do these things to have a bride. And, she was hoping that she wasn't being conceited in believing this, it seemed that the boy had worked hardest on finding the gemstones for the rings. She was sure that if this were really true it was because he was convinced that this meant he would indeed be married this time, but she didn't care. It made her heart soar to think that he wanted her the most over her two older, "better" sisters. So when her father denied him her as well, she was broken and retreated to her room to cry; she was convinced that she'd have no one better.

That fear was quickly extinguished when the boy returned to her room in the night and asked her to elope with him, which she accepted excitedly as the first ring he made for her was slipped onto her finger.

It was while they were running through the forest, trying to get away from the girl's father, chasing them with a loaded gun, that they had to hide. The couple chose a briar covered in roses, ignoring the thorns they cut at their clothes and skin when they hid.

The two eventually fell asleep in the rose briar, not even noticing when the girl's father ran past them still looking, or when he walked back by them to go back his wife, having given up on finding them.

They stayed there for a full day before crawling out to continue running, convinced that the girl's father would still come after them.

When the two reached a church near to the boy's original home, the girl's mother appeared before them. They nearly ran again when they saw her, but they were stopped.

"Hold on," the girl's mother pleaded, "just one moment." They stopped at her tone. "I know you two have run from my husband to wed, it's obvious enough, but please allow me to give you something." She held out her hands, showing three walnuts in her palms. When her daughter questioned her gift, she responded, "They're walnuts fashioned by a nearby Witch. When you crack them open, they will help you when you're in need."

The girl wasn't sure what the point of the gift was, yet she took the walnuts anyway. It would be a way for them to have food if it took them much longer to reach the boy's home, she supposed.

Once her mother left, the two continued on.

Before the sun set on them that day, they had arrived at the town the boy had originated from. He asked her to wait on a bench not far from his home so that he could go tell his parents the wonderful news, and she did just that.

She waited for hours that bench, through the cold night, and deep into the next afternoon, not knowing that the boy's mother practically threw him down the aisle at the first mention of her. The girl, distraught and not knowing what had happened to the boy, found a place to work and a place to live, hoping to one day either find the boy to know what had happened, or to return home a more conventional way, as she would not go through the forest alone.

It would be a full month before she saw the boy again, and this time at her place of employment.

The girl became elated at the sight of the boy but then saddened at the sight of his wife. She was afraid to approach them for the wife was more beautiful than what she had become over the last month.

Scared, she retreated to think of a way out of talking with them. It was then that she realized that one of the walnuts her mother had given her had appeared in her pocket. She immediately cracked it open, curious about what would happen.

From it, she produced the most beautiful diamond necklace she or anyone she worked with had laid eyes on. The girl put it on and walked over to the boy and his wife with newly found confidence.

The wife, entranced by the necklace, demanded that she have one exactly like it or she would leave the boy. So the boy immediately asked the girl where she found the necklace.

"It's one of a kind," she replied. "I'll give it to your lovely wife if you pick me a rose from a briar ten miles into the forest."

The boy nodded and went off to get the thorned rose, exchanging it for the necklace. The wife was happy then, saying that she would stay with him forever.

Only a week later, the girl saw the boy and his wife again. This time, she knew she had the walnut and cracked it open when she saw them. Out of the second walnut, she produced a fine diamond broach unlike anything anyone had seen before.

The wife saw and demanded this as well. The boy asked for it.

"I will give it to you if you get me another rose from that same briar as you did last week."

The boy once again picked a thorned rose from the briar and traded it for the jewelry. This time, he told her that she almost looked familiar to him, but his wife pulled him away before the girl could say a word about it.

It was another month before the girl saw them again. This third time, when she cracked open the final walnut, a beautiful white silk dress with tiny diamonds weaved into it appeared.

The boy saw the dress before his wife and approached the girl. "I will give you the entire briar if you would allow me to present that dress to my wife."

"I will not give this one away," she said, "for this is my wedding dress."

The boy nodded. "Where is your husband to be then?"

The girl smiled at him. "In front of me." When he gave her the strangest of looks, she reminded him of their short journey together after the week he spent at her home doing tasks for her father. He remembered her and smiled at the memories, but then apologized.

"I'm married," he told her, "so I just can't redo what has happened. I'm sorry, again, but we cannot be together." He left without the dress and even led his wife away so that she would not ask for the dress from the girl.

The girl, depressed at this revelation, quickly returned to the home she had run from. But she did not return to the house, only to the town itself.

Back there, she went to the Witch who she believed to have been the one who made the magic walnuts and asked for a fourth. She gave the Witch the dress from the third walnut as payment for it.

The girl walked to the briar in the forest that she and the boy had hidden in two months ago. Once ducked in there, she cracked open the fourth walnut.

Inside was a vial of poison.