Once Upon a Time

Fortune

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

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Once upon a time, a long time ago, a young woman went out to seek her fortune.  Now, this was pretty unusual in Once Upon a Time, as young women were expected to stay home and learn the domestic arts while they waited for some fine young man who had found his fortune to come and remove them from their father’s homes to their own homes, where she would continue to perform the domestic arts.

Anyway, our young woman left her father’s home, much to his displeasure, and set about to gain her own fortune. She really wasn’t sure how she would do that, since all she knew was domestic arts, but she was brave and determined.  She was also quite beautiful, which she hoped would not get in the way of her success. She had learned when she was quite young that men were more impressed with her beauty than with her brain.

Needless to say, she met with many adventures, and it was a good thing she was smart. She got herself out of many a dicey situation by donning the clothing of a young lad. This was a practice she continued, since she was safer that way. She bundled her hair up under a sizable soft hat, and went on seeking her fortune.

In the process of all this seeking, she had to learn things she’d never dreamed of. She had to learn to fight. She became quite expert in using a knife and a cudgel  to protect herself against thieves and bullies who considered a lone young man a natural opportunity for a bit of fun.

She learned to hunt, because her stomach demanded it. She learned to build a good fire for cooking and warmth, and she learned to sleep on the ground wrapped up in a cloak. Where did she get the cloak?  Beats me.  Maybe she wove it before she left home. And I don’t know where she got the boy’s clothes, either.  Probably stole them from some unprotected clothesline.

As she traveled, she picked up a dog that had apparently been abandoned. The dog loved her slavishly, and she felt safer as the dog grew from his puppyhood to the relative size of a horse. She didn’t have to fight quite to often.

She found jobs along the way, and began to collect quite a nice stash of coins. In fact, the stash grew so large that it was no longer practical for her to carry it. She dug a hole in a wood that she passed through on a regular basis, and buried her fortune there. She added to it as time passed, and after a few years she had enough that she considered she could return to her home, build herself a house, and live quite comfortably for the rest of her life.

When she returned to her home, she found that her parents were both dead and the house they had lived in was deserted. So she set to work to clean it up and restore it, and lived in it with her dog. Of course, it wasn’t long before people began to come around to see who this young man was who had moved into their neighbor’s house, and they were quite astonished to find that the young man had turned into a beautiful young woman who dressed in lovely clothing that was strange to their eyes.

The young men in the neighborhood decided she needed one of them, and so a contest began among them to see who she would favor.  She decided, wisely, that she favored none of them. They were all somewhat stupid and provincial, and she sent them packing.

A few years went by, and finally a handsome, intelligent man came riding to the village. He had heard stories about a young woman there who had made her own fortune through wit and hard work. He’d never met a girl like that before, and he was curious. Of course, the minute he saw her beautiful face he fell in love, as young men often do, and this time our heroine felt a flutter herself. They married, and guess what?  Our smart, strong, beautiful young heroine became a very contented wife and mother, indulging in all the domestic arts, but always glad that she had  hidden away her very large fortune, just in case.

There is no moral to this story.  It just kind of wrote itself.  Have a good day 🙂

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