Rose Red and the Seven Elves

By G. L. Strytler

A Princess in servitude.

Rose Red, the younger sister of Snow White, lives with her stepmother the evil Queen. She works, cooks and cleans night and day without reward, but the evil Queen has a beautiful throne Rose Red greatly admires and on which longs to sitif only for a momentbut is forbidden to do so.

The evil Queen also has a longing for majestic objects, including a beautiful royal red robe, which can only be stitched from Rose Reds heartstrings and dyed by the girls young rich blood at midnight on the night of the Blood-Moon after Rose Red has been poisoned by the thorn of the cursed rose.

Rose Red escapes only to find seven curious elves living in a life-sized dollhouse. To her surprise and delight she finds out the elves, as slaves once themselves to the Queen, were the tiny craftsmen that constructed the throne.

As young Rose Red and the seven elves run for their lives through the Dark Forest, she asks the elves to build her a similar throne. The elves gladly oblige, but instead build for her three other gifts that might just save her life. Will that be enough, or will the evil Queens lust for greed be Rose Reds downfall?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524503567

G. L. Strytler

Grant Lee Petersen, also known as writer G. L. Strytler, is the author of Xtoriez, a book series for young adults. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he was raised in Midland, Texas and Rogers, Arkansas, but returned to Utah to attend Snow College and study business management. Grant Lee enjoys playing any and all sports. He also enjoys movies and has been a featured extra in several movies filmed in Utah including High School Musical and The World’s Fastest Indian starring Anthony Hopkins, in which he played Binocular Boy, among many, many others. In 2004 he made national news when he paid for a traffic ticket with 8,200 pennies. The stunt was mentioned on CNN as well as radio shows such as Paul Harvey. In March 2012, Grant appeared on TruTV’s Top 20 Most Shocking Videos, Pranksters Gone Wild 7, in which he plays a funny prank on a former roommate.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by G. L. Strytler.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 05/24/2016

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

742942

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

ROSE RED

and the

SEVEN ELVES

36416.png

CHAPTER ONE

O NCE UPON A time, long ago and far away, a little Princess lived in the Dark Forest of a mysterious land, in a giant castle made of stone. The great, shadowed trees of the Dark Forest stood all around the venerable palace, and beyond the trees were mystical lands with wild animals and magical creatures that had their homes among them.

Fairies lived in the Dark Forest, and pixies, and huge ogres. Trolls and goblins lived by the river. Werewolves had dens in the hills, and gnomes farmed the land growing strange and unusual crops. Dwarves worked beneath the land, mining precious rubies, diamonds and gems. To the east of the castle, and to the west, there were miles upon miles of trees, and only a few small cottages scattered far apart. Humans lived in a small village to the south that was sheltered in a small valley. But from her bedroom window in the tower the young girl could see only the castle where she lived with her stepmother, the evil Queen. A copper cobblestone road ran in front of the castle, turning and twisting out of sight into the woods where the wild monsters lived, but the young girl did not know where it went, or where it might lead.

The young girl was named Rose Red and she called her stepmother, Your Majesty, for in those days, and in that place, she was not permitted to use names of affection, especially while living her life in a royal court. She worked in servitude throughout the castle at the beck and call of the evil Queen, scrubbing floors, sweeping corners and washing windows. If she had any time she would work on embroidery.

At night, when Rose Red lay awake in her canopy bed, she listened but could not hear anything at all except the sound of the trees whispering to the wood sprites. Sometimes, far away in the night, a werewolf howled. It was a haunting sound. The young girl did not always feel safe surrounded by cold, lifeless stone walls, but knowing she was high from the forest floor in her tower, in her nice soft bed, she tried her best to drift into dreamland. She snuggled under the covers of the large bed, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

The next morning began like any other. Rose Red crawled out of bed, slid her feet sleepily across the cold stone floor, and checked herself in the mirror. The mirror most joyfully reflected the beauty that was Rose Red, for the girl had hair as black as ebony, much like her sister Snow White; but mysteriously the last two years, as either by birthright from her natural mother, or by magic, the girl’s hair turned crimson-fire in both the dawn sunrise and dusk sunset. Her eyes were wide and black as coal, but sparkled luminous sky blue by noon. She had soft dewy skin, thin curved eyebrows, straight white teeth and long full eyelashes. Her lips were naturally red as rose, and in the exact center of her round little face, she had a tiny nose as cute as a button.

Rose Red brushed her long beautiful dark locks with a golden brush while she sang, for her voice was as lovely and sweet as a freshly baked sugar frosted pastry. She dressed rapidly in her best red rags, one of only two red outfits which she owned, dabbed on a little sweet smelling perfume, and left her bedroom for the kitchen in order to prepare breakfast for the Queen. She trotted down the large majestic staircase and pushed her way through the double kitchen doors, as was her normal routine every single morning. She donned her brown apron, stuffed firewood and kindling, which had been gathered the evening before, into the stone fireplace, opened the chimney flue, and within the hour the vast kitchen began to smell of sizzling German sausage and fried duck eggs. Her mouth began to water at the sight and aromatic offerings before her, but she dare not taste, or even so much as nibble, for every crumb was accounted for in specific number, and it was castle rule that nobody ate before the Queen until she had her fill. Leftovers, if any remained, would go to Rose Red after the Queen had been dressed and prepared for the day.

Rose Red placed every morsel of food on a large silver tray as artistically as a painter creating a masterpiece, and before leaving the kitchen, she placed a kettle on, in preparation for the Queen’s rose hip tea that should be ready in time for brunch. She picked up the silver tray and backed out of the kitchen, looking around one last time to make sure everything was in order and nothing had been forgotten.

On the way to the Queen’s chambers Rose Red stopped at the door of the throne room. It was by far the largest room in the entire castle, designed specifically for entertaining guests, dignitaries, and more importantly, conducting kingdom business and ordering executions. The door had been left ajar and Rose Red could just see the mighty throne on which the Queen would sit. It was beautiful, and Rose Red longed to sit in it, if only for a brief moment. It had been made by the most talented carpenters, craftsmen and woodworkers in the land. Its high wooden back arched upward ten feet into the air; it was covered in soft, luxurious dark red velvet, and adorned with solid gold trim and ornate jewels stolen from the local dwarves.

Rose Red had always loved the sight, smell and regal power of the throne ever since she was a tiny girl, and often wondered how great it would feel to rest between its powerful arms. But she was not at all permitted anywhere near the throne, nor to enter the throne room without a direct invite from the Queen herself. There had been only three times in years past that Rose Red had been allowed to enter, and that was the reason she possessed a second outfit in which to wear. The second and last garment in her wardrobe, other than two pairs of shoes, was a beautiful red dress with a high back collar which was to be worn exclusively at public gatherings in which Rose Red was expected to smile, dance and converse with the assembled crowd and display with abundance her artificial happiness at having to live in such a grand yet heartless castle.

Rose Red set the silver breakfast tray aside and cautiously neared the throne room door. She meant only to take a brief glance at the beautiful throne, for usually the door was closed tightly and locked. Rose Red slid her long slender fingers upward along the door’s edge and opened it a bit further for a slightly better peek. There the throne stood, alone, in a darkened room with what appeared to be a single light shining down from the white crystal chandelier above. It was gorgeous beyond reason.

Rose Red’s young precocious curiosity suddenly got the better of her, and without knowing how she got there, she found herself standing at the base of the five elevated steps that led up to the throne itself.

When she