Title: Grimm

Author: Digimon Empress Yaten (de yaten)

Notes: The second part to this story (chapter two) was written as a giftfic on livejournal originally. This was written afterwards. A weird backstory for Axel's Other written in fairytale format. Edited on 3.10.2008.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or its characters. I do not claim to own them.

Once upon a time, there was a vast expanse of many Worlds that contained more forests and lakes and little cottages than could ever be counted. In one of those Worlds, outside one of those forests, next to a shallow lake, there was a little cottage build by a loving couple.

The couple could not be called happy, for though they were loving, they remained childless even after many years of marriage. The wife was desperate for a son or daughter of her own, and sought out a Witch that lived in the forest. The Witch brewed the wife a potion, but hissed a warning with a stone face:

"Keep lavish gems from your fingers, or the child's hands will burn with pride. Avoid fire in the hearth, or the child will be feisty and have a heart of coal. Let no red meat touch your lips, or the child will be more bloodthirsty than the cruelest barbarians of ancient times. Do not forget my words, woman, or you shall not live to regret them."

The woman trembled at her grave words, but agreed to follow the instructions. The wife paid the crone eight silver coins, and drank the entire bottle as soon as she cleared the forest.

Her husband did not know she went to the Witch, and she did not tell him for fear that he would condemn her actions as heretical. She insisted they lay together that night, and told him she was sure that they would have a child soon. The husband thought nothing of her words, until some time had passed and she had begun to swell from motherhood. He was delighted with the sight, and promised her gifts of fur and jewels, and swore that he would do all the household chores from now on.

The wife was grateful, for she had never been one to receive such lavish gifts. She always instructed that he cook the meat brown, and turned away gifts of expensive diamonds and jewels. And though it was cold, she never insisted that he build them a fire, though they were both trembling.

But the wife began to become quite spoiled with the attention, and in her selfishness, disregarded the Witch's words of warning and bade her husband to build her a large fire in the fireplace before dinner. She asked him to make a rare rabbit stew, for she had been craving it for all her months of almost-motherhood, and let him slip emerald rings on all of her fingers. The Witch was surely joking, she thought, because she had done all these things and nothing bad came of it.

It came time for the child to come into the world, but the birth was hard, and the mother became ill as soon as the child was born. In her last breaths, she told her husband of all that she had done, and asked him to name their child "Ael," for the angels, so that he might be protected from the Witch's curse.

The curse seemed to come for nothing, because Ael grew as healthy and normal as any child in the village. He had his mother's rust-copper hair, and the dull green eyes of his father, and none of the tempermant the witch foretold for him. He played nicely with the other children, and shared his allowance coins with the beggars, and every night, he told his father he loved him, and went to bed without any fuss.

The father lost many of his worries, but forbade his son from ever going into the forest, for the evil Witch there would surely kill him. Ael was obedient for all his years of childhood, but on the day of his twentieth birthday, could not fight his curiosity any longer. He ventured into the forest after his father had fallen asleep, and continued until he came upon a small dark cottage.

The Witch invited him in, and he could see only darkness in her eyes, but followed her inside because he considered himself just a bit brave, and would not be quelled by the fear of an old woman.

"Do you know what you are?" The Witch asked once inside, and Ael did not have an answer. "You are a special one… destined for greatness," she crooned, and Ael only shook his head. He wasn't special. A hunter's son with no skills but for dancing, which was forbidden for men in the village, so he was simply a humble man with no skills and no chance for greatness in any world.

"You do not believe me?" She asked, although she already knew the answer. "Let me show you…"

The Witch waved a sickly hand, and a puddle of black appeared next to on the rotten wooden floor. A small creature rose out of it, and Ael had no time to run as the black animal reached into his chest and ripped out his Heart.