Author's Notes: this story is just a cracked up version of Rapunzel

"MILIARDO"

by Ayame Miyamoto

Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife who were very
unhappy because they had no children. These good people had a little window at the
back of their house, which looked into the most lovely junk yard, full of beautiful
pieces of titanium and various gundam parts; but the junk yard was surrounded by a
high wall, and no one dared to enter it, for it belonged to an Oz General of great
power, who was feared by the whole world. One day the woman stood at the window
overlooking the junk yard, and saw there a a ton of the finest titanium: the glimmer
looked so shinny and new that she longed to use them to build the best Gundam in the
world. The desire grew day by day, and just because she knew she couldn't possibly
get it, she pined away and became quite pale and wretched. Then her husband grew
alarmed and said: 'What ails you, dear?' 'Oh,' she answered with a sigh, 'if I don't
get some titanium to use out of the junk yard behind the house, I know I shall die.'

The man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, 'Come! rather than let your wife
die you shall fetch her some titanium, no matter the cost.' So at dusk he climbed
over the wall into the General's junk yard, and, hastily gathering enough of
titanium pieces to build her beloved Gundam, he returned with them to his wife. She
began constructing the Gundam herself and within a month she made a gundam armpiece,
which looked so good that her longing for the forbidden metal was greater than ever.
If she were to know any peace of mind, there was nothing for it but that her husband
should climb over the junk yard wall again, and fetch her some more. So at dusk over
he got, but when he reached the other side he drew back in terror, for there,
standing before him, was the old Oz General, Kanz.

'How dare you,' He said, with a wrathful glance, 'climb into my junk yard and steal
my titanium like a common thief? You shall suffer for your foolhardiness.'

'Oh!' he implored, 'pardon my presumption; necessity alone drove me to the deed. My
wife saw your titanium from her window, and conceived such a desire for it that she
would certainly have died if her wish had not been gratified.' Then the General's
anger was a little appeased, and he said: 'If it's as you say, you may take as much
titanium away with you as you like, but on one condition only -- that you give me
the child your wife will shortly bring into the world. All shall go well with it,
and I will look after it like a mother.'

The man in his terror agreed to everything he asked, and as soon as the child was
born the General appeared, and having given it the name of Miliardo, he carried it
off with him.

Miliardo was the most beautiful child under the sun. When he was twelve years old
the General shut him up in a tower, in the middle of a great wood, and the tower had
neither stairs nor doors, only high up at the very top a small window. When the old
General wanted to get in he stood underneath and called out:

'Miliardo, Miliardo, Let down your platnium hair,'

for Miliardo had such wonderful long hair, and it was as fine as spun platnium.
Whenever he heard the General's voice he unloosed his plaits, and let his hair fall
down out of the window about twenty yards below, and the old General climbed up by
it.

After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Baronet
was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As she drew near it she heard
someone singing so sweetly that she stood still spell-bound, and listened. It was
Miliardo in his loneliness trying to while away the time by letting his sweet voice
ring out into the wood. The Baronet longed to see the owner of the voice, but she
sought in vain for a door in the tower. She rode home, but she was so haunted by the
song she had heard that she returned every day to the wood and listened. One day,
when she was standing thus behind a tree, she saw the old General approach and heard
him call out:

'Miliardo, Miliardo, Let down your platnium hair,'

Then Miliardo let down his plaits, and the General climbed up by them. 'So that's
the staircase, is it?' said the Barronet. 'Then I too will climb it and try my
luck.'So on the following day, at dusk, she went to the foot of the tower and cried:

'Miliardo, Miliardo, Let down your platnium hair,'

and as soon as he had let it down the Barronet climbed up.

At first Miliardo was terribly frightened when a woman came in, for he had never
seen one before; but the Barronet spoke to him so kindly, and told him at once that
her heart had been so touched by his singing, that she felt she should know no peace
of mind till she had seen him. Very soon Miliardo forgot his fear, and when she
asked him to marry her he consented at once. 'For,' he thought, 'she is young and
beautiful, and I'll certainly be happier with her than with the old General.' So he
put his hand in hers and said: 'Yes, I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get
down out of the tower? Every time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk
with you, and I will make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I will climb
down by it, and you will take me away on your horse.'

They arranged that till the ladder was ready, she was to come to him every evening,
because the old man was with him during the day. The old General, of course, knew
nothing of what was going on, till one day the General saw from a distance, Millardo
pulling up a young female. Once the female had gone the General marched up to the
tower.

'Oh! you wicked child,' cried the General. 'What is this I see? I thought I had
hidden you safely from the whole world, and in spite of it you have managed to
deceive me.'

In his wrath he seized Miliardo's beautiful hair, wound it round and round her left
hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in his right, snip snap, off it came, and
the beautiful plaits lay on the ground. And, worse than this, she was so
hard-hearted that she took Miliardo to a lonely desert place, and there left him to
live in loneliness and misery.

But on the evening of the day in which he had driven poor Miliardo away, the General
fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and when the Barronet came and
called out:

'Miliardo, Miliardo, Let down your platnium hair,'

he let them down, and the Barronet climbed up as usual, but instead of her beloved
Miliardo she found the old General, who fixed his evil, glittering eyes on her, he
cried mockingly: 'Ah, ah! you thought to find your lordly love, but the pretty bird
has flown and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes
too. Miliardo is lost to you for ever -- you will never see him more.'

The Barronet was beside herself with grief, and in her despair she jumped right down
from the tower, and, though she escaped with her life, the thorns among which she
fell pierced her eyes out. Then she wandered, blind and miserable, through the wood,
eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss of her
lovely husband to be. So she wandered about for some years, as wretched and unhappy
as she could well be, and at last she came to the desert place where Miliardo was
living. Of a sudden she heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to her. She
walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when she was quite close, Miliardo
recognised her and fell on her neck and wept. But two of his tears touched her eyes,
and in a moment they became quite clear again, and she saw as well as she had ever
done. Then she led him to her kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with
great joy, and they lived happily ever after... until they met the Mutated Heero...
and his Emu wife. ^-^

The End... I think...