Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff

horrible.”
    “Strange promises can come out of the desperate,” said the witch. “Sometimes it’s best to leave others’ destinies alone.”
    “And what of my own destiny?” I asked.
    The witch’s bright gaze pierced me right through. “It’s yours to find, along with your name,” she said.
    “It’s getting dark,” said Red. “We have to go now. Mother will worry.”
    Gran would have been worried too. I wished she were here to worry over me.
    We made to leave until the witch said, “Wait.” I turned around. She came forward with her hand in a fist. “Hold out your hand.” She reached out, and for a moment, I thought she was going to give me something special, maybe something magical that would help me. She dropped a speck in my hand, and all my hope drained away.
    “Oh … Thank you.…” A seed. She had given me a tiny seed. What good would a seed do me in a mountain that refused to grow anything but pine trees and wild shrubs?
    “Little things can grow big,” she said.
    I put the seed in my pocket and nodded, too exhausted to argue.
    “One last thing,” the witch said. “Watch your step.”

    Red and I walked in the snow, the stones on either side the only sign of the path. We didn’t talk the whole way home. We were both thinking, though, and probably about the same things, but in different ways. I was thinking that I should help Opal. Red was thinking that I shouldn’t. I was thinking about bargains and death. Red was thinking I was an idiot.
    My thoughts turned again to my name and my destiny. Maybe there was more to it than I really knew. I felt it, as if it were hovering just above me but I couldn’t grasp it. I did have a whole name. My mother had whispered it in my ear, and somewhere in the world it existed or Iwouldn’t be here. That’s what I thought, anyway. But for now I wondered if the destiny I was following was connected to my real name or only the bit of the name I knew.
    Just as we approached my cottage, I stepped into a ditch and went sprawling.
    So much for heeding good advice.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rump to the Rescue
    It was afternoon when we reached my cottage. Red stood by me and finally spoke her mind.
    “You’re going to go, aren’t you? To help Opal.” It wasn’t a question, really, and the declaration cleared my own doubt. I had to go.
    Red let out a heavy sigh. Her brow was knit and her mouth curved down, but she didn’t look angry. Was she sad? I’d never seen Red sad. That’s when I realized that, even if she did call me an idiot, Red really cared what happened to me. She was my one true friend.
    “Will you take care of Milk for me? She gives some milk still.”
    She nodded. “What about your donkey?”
    “I’m taking him with me.” I didn’t want to burden Red too much, and even though Nothing was ornery andstubborn, he might be able to carry me or my things, if I could get him to move.
    “How will you find Opal?” Red asked.
    I shrugged.
    “What if she’s locked up?”
    I shrugged.
    “What if you get caught and shot with an arrow, or poisoned, or—”
    “Then I’ll be dead, Red.” I smiled because of the rhyme, even though it wasn’t a happy one.
    Red gave me one of her rare smiles. “You’re an idiot, Rump, but the smartest idiot I know.”
    I put my hands in my pockets, pulled out the seed Red’s granny had given me, and held it up to the sun. I thought how the odds were stacked against both the little seed and me, a boy all tangled in life and magic. We didn’t have a chance, really, but sometimes you still have to try.
    “Little things can grow big,” I said.
    “Under the right circumstances,” said Red, and she bent down and dug up some cold earth. I placed the little seed in the hole, and we covered it up.
    After Red left, I stuffed just a few things in a satchel: a dry loaf of bread, some biscuits, a skin of water, and my mother’s bobbin from her spinning wheel. I knew that it wasn’t the reason for the magic, but I wanted