After that, every day was the same for Rapunzel. She cleaned her room at the top of the tower. She braided her long, long hair.
And every day at lunchtime, the witch came to the tower. She stood under the window and shouted: “RAPUNZEL! RAPUNZEL! LET DOWN YOUR HAIR!”
Rapunzel threw her braid out of the window. The witch climbed up Rapunzel’s hair like a rope, and crawled in through the window.
The witch taught Rapunzel how to make medicines with herbs. And Rapunzel loved the witch. She was Rapunzel’s only friend.
One night, Rapunzel was reading a book beside the window when she heard someone below:
“RAPUNZEL! RAPUNZEL! LET DOWN YOUR HAIR!”
“That’s strange,” she thought. “The witch never comes this late.”
She threw her braid out of the window, and the person climbed up, up, up.
But when this person reached the top, Rapunzel saw that it wasn’t the witch. It was a man!
Rapunzel quickly grabbed her book and smacked the man on the head. “Get out! Get out! You’re not the witch!”
The strange man fell to the floor. “Ow! Ow! Stop hurting me!” he begged.
“Who are you? What do you want? Why did you climb my hair?” demanded Rapunzel.
“I’m Justin! My name is Justin!” he whimpered. “I came here to save you….?”
As you can imagine, Rapunzel was not very impressed.
“Tell me, Justin,” she growled. “Does it look like I need to be saved?”
Justin sighed. “I’m sorry. I thought this was my chance to be a hero.”
“What do you mean?” asked Rapunzel.
“My chance to be hero!” said Justin. “Every man needs to be a hero at least once in his life. It’s the only way to live happily ever after!”
Rapunzel put down her book.
“I don’t need a hero,” she said, kindly. “Go away. Be a hero somewhere else. It’s late. I want to go to bed.”
Rapunzel threw her braid out the window.
“Well, can I come back and talk to you tomorrow?” Justin asked, “you seem nice. Also I brought a rope for you. In case you change your mind one day...”
“Fine, fine,” said Rapunzel. “Goodbye, Justin.” And Justin climbed out the window and down Rapunzel's hair.
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