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Once upon a time, there lived a man and a woman, who had long wished for a child, but in vain. But then one blessed day the woman seemed to be expecting and the two rejoiced and thanked the gods for their good fortune.
The woman spent many of her days sitting in their little house and looking out of the small window in the back of it while knitting clothes for their baby. From there she could see a beautiful garden filled to the brim with the finest vegetables and flowers, but around it, a high wall had been built and no one dared to venture near it; for it belonged to a witch of great might who was feared and respected throughout the whole land.
On one of these days, her gaze landed on a patch of the finest rampion she had ever seen. Their leaves were lush and of a green so deep that she had never seen it before that day. She could swear the longer she looked upon it the more she was able to imagine the taste of it; but quickly she realized that she could never truly have some for herself, however great her longing for it may be.
But each and every day that she sat at that window and looked at that bed of rampion her longing grew and she pined away, growing more pale and miserable with every day that passed. Seeing this her husband grew uneasy and asked her: “My dear wife, what is the matter with you? You’ve been grey and tired and I fear for you and our child.”
“Oh,” she answered, “I shall die unless I can have some of that rampion to eat that grows behind that wall.”
The man of course knew just who that garden belonged to and he was afraid of what would happen if he were to go near it. But he loved his wife and thought to himself “Rather than lose my wife I will get some rampion, cost what it will.”
So in the twilight, he stole over to the wall and climbed it as quickly and quietly as he was able. He hastily plucked a few rampions and clambered back over, his heart racing and his mind fearful. But no one came after him and so he felt safe when he proudly presented his wife with his prize. His wife was overjoyed, her cheeks red and her eyes shining. She made them into a salad and ate it with such obvious delight that both of them were happy.
But the meal was so delicious that now she longed for it even more so than before and soon she was back to staring out of the window at that wall and sighing in despair. The man, more confident in his success now, once again waited till twilight before scaling the wall and dropping into the garden.
But this time the witch stood before him, her eyes blazing and her voice angry and the man felt a fear unlike anything else striking his body.
“How dare you climb over into my garden like a thief, and steal my rampion! I shall punish you and use it as an example to scare anyone who would dare to be as foolish of you!”
“Have mercy!” he cried out and fell to his knees, “Even though it would be just to punish me, I did this out of necessity, not malice. My wife was overcome with longing for your rampion which she could see through the window and she was wasting away and would have surely died if she didn’t have your rampion to eat.”
The witch was silent in contemplation. When she spoke it was with a note of finality. “If it is all as you say you may have as much rampion as you like, on one condition - the child that will come into the world must be given to me. It shall go well with the child, and I will care for it like a mother.”
In his distress, the man promised everything he returned home to his wife to tell her the news. She was upset and cried for days but soon her longing for the rampion overwhelmed all other feelings and both of them made peace with what had happened.
The witch kept her promise and the man got all the rampion his wife desired and she grew fat and happy and the days of labor were fast approaching. She gave birth to a healthy boy, with eyes and hair that was as green and vibrant as the rampion had been and the witch appeared before them to take him away with her.
As the witch had promised she took care of the child as if it was her own and she loved him with a fierce possessiveness of a dragon. Even though he was plain to look at, except for his vibrant hair and eyes, his smile was as bright as the sun and his voice was as sweet as the ripest fruit in her garden. Whenever he was singing people stopped outside her home to listen and look upon him and he was beloved by everyone who talked to him.
When he turned twelve the possessive urges of her grew stronger and she wanted to keep the young boy all to herself, so she took him away into the woods and shut him up in a tower with neither steps nor doors, only a small window at the top of it. Whenever she wanted to be let in the tower she would stand underneath the window and shout up to the boy:
“Izuku, Izuku!
Let down your hair!”
Izuku had beautiful long hair that shimmered like the leaves in the sun and fell down his body in gentle curls. When he heard the voice of the witch he would undo the fastening of the upper window, unbind the plaits of his hair, and let it down to the ground below, and the witch would climb up by it.
Izuku was saddened by living in the tower for he missed talking to people and running through the beautiful garden. But he loved the witch like a mother and so he stayed in the tower and did everything she asked of him. He spent his days painting and reading, learning to cook and to knit and when he felt the urge he would sing and his song was so sweet that even the birds in the trees and the animals on the ground stopped to listen to him.
The years passed that way and Izuku grew into a handsome young man. At the same time, his longing for the world outside of his tower grew. He asked the witch to bring him books so he may learn but she refused to do so in fear he would grow tired of his life and try to leave.
One day the son of the King and Queen Bakugou rode through these woods, having been separated from his hunting party and searching for the right way. While he took a break to water his horse he heard a voice sing a sweet song. He was entranced and stood to listen, all thoughts of his party forgotten. He followed the voice deeper into the woods and came upon the tower.
Hidden by the cover of the trees he spied Izuku sitting up on the ledge of the window, trying to sing away the loneliness and boredom of his isolated life. Katsuki wanted to know more about the young man with the sweet voice but when he inspected the tower he could find no way into it.
Noting that the sun was already low in the sky he returned to his horse and reunited with his hunting party again. The prince and his entourage rode home but the song of the boy had made its way into his heart and mind and he couldn’t forget about it.
So the next day the prince set out into the woods again. After a long time of searching, he heard the sweet music again and made his way to the tower. Once again he couldn’t find a way into the tower but he found none. When he made his way back to his horse he saw an old crone make her way through the woods towards the tower. He hid behind a tree and watched her step up under the window and call out to the boy:
“Izuku, Izuku!
Let down your hair!”
He watched the boy let down his long vibrant hair and how the witch used it to climb up the wall and how she clambered in through the window and he thought to himself, "Since that is the ladder I will climb it, and seek my fortune." And the next day, as soon as it began to grow dusk, he went to the tower and yelled,
“Izuku, Izuku!
Let down your hair!”
Now Izuku heard the cry from down below but he noticed how it wasn’t the witch who had called out to him. Curious and a bit frightened he leaned out of the window and peered down. There he saw a young man, his hair as light as wheat. He couldn’t see much more for he was far away.
“Who goes there?” he wanted to know of the stranger, his curiosity winning out over his fear. The prince gave his name and repeated his request. But still, Izuku refused.
“I do not know you and my mother will be cross with me if I let in a stranger. Why do you want to come up here?”
“I heard your beautiful song and wanted to know the person behind it. Aren’t you curious about me? I can answer all of your questions, if only you let me come up there with you.” And even though Izuku was still scared he decided to help this stranger. So he undid his braids and lowered down his hair so that the prince could use it to climb up to him.
When he sat on the window sill Izuku was struck by his beauty. His skin was shining and his eyes were the likeness of a piercing red gem. His face was sharp but handsome and his body was strong. The prince was also entranced by what he found. Not only did the man before him have the sweetest voice he had ever heard, but his looks were beautiful as well. His hair and eyes shone from an almost unearthly green and his pale skin was littered with freckles, scattered about him like stars in the night sky.
The two of them sat together on the floor and told each other tales of their lives and Izuku finally got all of his questions answered. The prince was more than happy to indulge him in his thirst for knowledge and shared with him the adventures he experienced. Izuku, in turn, told him what he knew about magic and about how he came to be in this tower and as the night came to an end he once again sang his sweet song for the prince.
Both were hesitant to part ways but Izuku knew it wouldn’t be long before the witch would return to the tower and he would be in trouble if she found someone else up here with him. So the prince climbed back down but not before promising to return the next day.
He kept his promise and every day from then on he returned to the tower just as the sky started to turn dark. Izuku soon grew to love these visits dearly and was spending all of his free time thinking about the handsome prince that he had let into his home and his heart. The prince felt much the same and one day, weeks, and weeks after their first meeting he asked Izuku if he wanted to leave the tower and come live with him in his castle.
“Your singing has entranced me but as soon as I saw you I knew I wanted you to be mine. Every day we spend together made me grow fonder of you and now I don’t want to be apart from you anymore. I want you by my side, day and night.”
And Izuku’s heart swelled at hearing that and with a joyful smile, he laid his hand into Katsuki’s.
“I too have grown to love you over the time we spent together and would be happy to go with you. But I don’t know how to get out of this tower by myself. The next time you come to visit me, bring with you a strand of a silken robe and I will collect them and make a ladder and when it is done I will leave this place and not look back.”
They embraced and shared a kiss and more throughout the night.
And so it continued for a time, the prince visiting his beloved in the night with a strand of a silken robe and the witch keeping Izuku company in the daytime. The more he talked with her the more he realized how jealous she was of him. She punished him for questioning her or for asking about the outside world. She threatened to leave him alone for days in punishment and to withhold the food she would bring him.
Now that Izuku knew the love and care of the prince it was harder and harder to stay obedient and not talk back to her. But one day he made a mistake when helping her climb up through the window. She had been getting weaker with age and Izuku was forced to pull her up instead of herself climbing like she used to. He was exhausted and in his carelessness, he asked:
“Mother Gothel, how is it that I have to pull you up with all my might, and the King's son is with me in a moment with his strength alone?”
Too late he realized his mistake and as hard as he tried to take it back the witch had already seen through his lies.
"Oh you wicked child," cried the witch, "what is this I hear! I thought I had hidden you away from all the world, to protect and cherish you like I had promised and now you too have betrayed me! No longer shall I be merciful and your punishment will be swift and just."
And in her anger, she seized Izuku by his beautiful curls, struck him several times with her left hand, before grabbing a pair of shears and cutting off all his hair up to his scalp. Now the beautiful locks lay on the ground, looking lifeless and pale in comparison to their previous glory.
But that wasn’t punishment enough. She was so stricken by the perceived betrayal that her heart had gone cold and all the love she had harbored for Izuku, as jealous and possessive as it had been, had left her. She took Izuku and put him in a waste and desert place, where he lived in great woe and misery. For he could not recall which path she had taken in bringing him here and as hard and cruel as living in this place turned out to be, it was the only place where he felt safe, never having learned enough about the world to survive in it on his own.
So he spent his days alone and scared, mournfully thinking back to the time where his prince had held him in his arms and Izuku had tasted what true happiness could have been like.
The same day on which the witch took Izuku away she went back to the tower in the evening. Quickly she tied the severed locks of hair to the hasp near the window and waited for the hated prince to arrive. For in her mind she had decided that punishing her ward wasn’t enough, the miserable prince who had tainted her sweet child must be punished too.
And when the King's son came and yelled out in joy,
“Izuku, Izuku!
Let down your hair!”
she let the hair down, and the King's son climbed up, but instead of his dearest Izuku, he found the witch looking at him with wicked glittering eyes.
"Aha!" she laughed, mocking him, "you came for your darling, but the sweet bird sits no longer in the nest, and from now one will never sing again; the cat has got her, and will scratch out your eyes as well! Izuku is lost to you; you will see him nevermore." Katsuki was beside himself with grief and rage, and in his agony, he sprang towards the witch, his sword raised to strike. He fought to no avail for the witch was too powerful and with a mere flick of her wrist, he was thrown back and fell out of the tower, down towards the earth below. He escaped with life, but the thorns on which he fell put out his eyes.
Blinded and suffering he stumbled away, through the woods and as far as his feet would carry him. When he collapsed from the strain he yelled and raged at the world and only the wild animals were witness to his pain. His heart was broken alongside his body and he wanted nothing more than to see his beloved again. His only hope was that Izuku could still be alive, for the witch had not said what she had done with him.
Pushed on by that hope he wandered blindly through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and doing nothing but rage and weep for the loss of his dearest husband.
So he wandered several years in misery throughout the land, never stopping and always searching with his heart since his eyes were without their use. But one day he was stopped in his aimless wandering by a voice that he thought he knew. It sounded like his Izuku but his mind had played tricks on him before and so he didn’t dare to hope. He still followed the voice through the waste and stumbled upon a meager hut. It was indeed the place where Izuku now lived with his twin children that he had borne, a boy and a girl.
Without his sight, he wasn’t sure if it was really his beloved in front of him and the years had changed his visage so much that Izuku didn’t recognize him at first. But when he offered some water to the poor, blind stranger he took a closer look at his scarred face. The wheat blond hair and the sharp jaw made him think of his prince and with tentative hope, he reached out and touched his cheek.
That was when Katsuki started to weep, overcome with the joy of finally having been reunited with his love and the two embraced and Izuku started to weep too. And when his tears touched his eyes they became clear again, and he could see with them as well as ever. He kissed his husband and his children and for the first time in years, the family experienced true joy.
He took them to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy, and there they lived long and happily.