Rapunzel

From the original Grimm's tale found here:

she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding
his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and
venomous looks. "Aha," she cried mockingly,"you would fetch your dearest, but
the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest. The cat has got it,
and will scratchout your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you. You
will never seeher again." The king's son was beside himself with pain, and
in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life,but
the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.

Alternate Ending:

But then a nymph fluttered by the his ear and whispered this message: "The forest weeps for you, my Lord. Please follow my song and I shall lead you to refuge and recovery. But your heart must be pure!"

The king's son followed the enchanting song of the nymph though it was not audible to most. The loss of his sight had caused his other senses to become more potent. The nymph led on for days through the woods trying desperately to keep the young boy from harm.

Three days later, parched and starving, the young boy arrived at the desired destination of the nymph. The nymph no longer sang, but again encroached the boy's ear.

"Now that you have paid the price, you have lost your sight. You must rely on your other senses to find your true path, or let the path find you, " the nymph spoke.

"But what am I to do next? These riddles vex me! I beg of you, please lead me further!"

But the nymph was gone, vanished from the boy. The boy's heart sank. He had lost everything and now following this nymph had led him to an unknown place. The boy pittied himself and considered himself as good as deceased.

That evening the boy awoke , drowsey from a slumber, to a familure scent. The smell curled around him, wrapping him in a feeling of home. As the scent permiated his nostriles he came to his senses.

Rapunzel was walking down the path, gathering fruits and berries for her dinner.

The boy opened his mouth, dry and cracked, and tried to call to her. In his head it rolled out, "Rapunzel! Rapunzel!" But in reality nothing more than a whisper left his lips.

Rapunzel heard something in the brush. She paused slowly peering around for she had been chased out of the wood by a wolf a few nights before. Completely stopped and silent she heard it again! She carefully stepped forward and saw a wrech of a man lying in the brush. The sight gave her a start as the horrible man reached to her with a filthy hand. When she moved back with a jolt she noticed that the man's eyes did not exactly follow her. He must be blind, she thought. Carefully she approached him.

"Are you hurt?" She asked.

His lips moved, but he could not speak.

"Can I help you?" again she queried. Still nothing.

She picked him up by the arm and helped him upright. His eyes had been impailed and dried blood had pooled about his eye sockets.

She took him back to her encampment and sat him by the fire. She checked on her two sons and found them to be awake. Rapunzel then made a brisk tea of berries and leaves she had gathered.

She gave him a cup of the warm brew and he inbibed. He apparently had not had liquid in quite some time. Then he spoke! Almost in a whisper at first, but words non the less!

"Rapunzel," he managed. "Rapunzel, it is me." Sending chills down the spine of the girl.

"What is this?" she asked. "How do you know my name?"

"It is I, the boy who called to you, to let down your beautiful hair. I have been tricked by the enchantress and she has plucked out my eyes that if I ever found you I could not gaze upon you."

Rapunzel had recalled a nymph that led her and her two sons to the encampment and that he taught her how to use the forest for both food and for healing. She gathered several leaves and made a paste. She applied this paste to the young boy's damanaged eyes for several days. Once removed the boy could see again, and the family did indeed live happily ever after.