Once, long ago, in a tiny German village, lived a girl a boy named Amalie and Piper.
Piper had another name, but over time, his talent with the pipes led people to call him ‘Piper’ so often that they forgot his real name.
The village children often poked fun of Piper for his uncanny musical ability.
One day, a group of boys surrounded Amalie and Piper under her family’s apricot tree.
“Look, there’s that demon boy!” one of them sneered.
“Yeah, Piper, you were so creepy your own mom abandoned you!” another added.
“If it weren’t for Amalie’s parents, you’d be dead, like you should be!”
Piper froze. The blood drained out of his face and his eyes narrowed into slits. Beside him, Amalie stood, eyes flashing. “Anton! Markus! Georg! How dare you?”
One boy started, then hung his head in shame. “You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Come off it Markus!” the boy beside him snickered. “You afraid the demon boy will summon a rat to bite you to death?”
“Forget it, Anton,” Markus said. “Let’s go.”
But it was too late.
“Piper, don’t!” Amalie cried, but Piper raised his pipes to his lips and played a high, shrill melody. Suddenly, the air came alive with the buzzing of wasps. Shrieking, Markus and the other bullies ran from the angry swarm.
With a satisfied smile, Piper set his pipes back down.
“Piper!” Amalie said sadly. “I wish you wouldn’t be so vindictive.”
Piper frowned at his feet. “They started it,” he retorted.
:---------------:
One day, many years later, Piper came to Amalie with a special request.
“Piper!” Amalie smiled one day as she spotted her best friend in the doorway. Piper had combed his unruly blond hair. He was wearing his best suit, and he held a single rose in his right hand. “You look fancy. What’s the big occasion?”
“Amalie,” Piper said, “I’d like to ask you something.”
“Hmm?” said Amalie, not really listening. She hummed she rearranged some flowers.
“Amalie…”
“I’m sorry, Piper. But I really must finish cleaning first. Markus is coming for dinner, and—”
“Markus?” Piper’s face darkened.
Amalie frowned. “Stop it, Piper. I know you aren’t fond of Markus, but he is a good man, and I want you to get along.”
Piper sighed. “Fine. But Amalie, could you please stop a moment and listen to me?”
Amalie looked at the messy kitchen, then at Piper’s pleading expression. “Okay. But hurry.”
Piper took a deep breath. “Amalie, I was wondering… I mean, we’ve known each other so long, and…well, I was just thinking perhaps…”
“For heaven’s sake, Piper, what is it?”
“…Will you marry me?”
Amalie froze. “Oh, Piper,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “I was about to tell you—Markus and I are engaged.”
Piper’s face paled. His right hand convulsed, and the rose snapped. Without a word, he marched out of the house.
“Piper!” Amalie ran after her friend. “Piper, wait!” she reached for him, but he flung her aside.
“Piper! Won’t you calm down and listen?” Amalie pleaded. “You’re my best friend—”
Piper stopped. He turned slowly and gave her a cruel smile. “No Amalie. I’m nothing to you.” With that, he tossed the broken rose on the ground and crushed it under his heel.
:---------------:
Years passed, and one day, Amalie gave birth to a baby boy named Hans. The child was perfect—except for his right leg, which was irrevocably twisted.
In spite of Hans’ disability, his parents loved him. Markus made him a cane to compensate for his leg, and Amalie told him stories of her childhood.
Hans grew up under the apricot trees that his mother and Piper once played beneath. Because Hans couldn’t run and play easily, he had time to develop a great talent for music.
The other children sometimes laughed at Hans’ twisted leg. But when his peers teased him, Hans would smile, then play so sweetly that they would fall silent, feeling ashamed of themselves.
:---------------:
One day, Hans came to Amalie with a question.
“Mother,” he said, “did you hear any strange sounds last night?”
“What kind of strange sounds?” Amalie asked.
“Pipes,” Hans replied. “They were haunting, almost…magical.”
“You were dreaming, darling,” Amalie replied. “How—”
They were interrupted by a piercing scream.
“What is it?” Amalie asked, rushing to the door.
“Rats!” the distraught woman exclaimed, as she ran past. “Hundreds of them! And they’re headed this way!”
The neighbors poked their heads out of their houses, and saw, in the distance, a sea of mottled rats came roaring down the mountain, mouths open in hunger.
The women set out rat poison, the men brought out their guns. But nothing worked. In seconds, the rats converged on the little town, and immediately began eating everything in sight—they nibbled on the fruit, on the vegetables, on the toes of little children whose parents didn’t whisk them away fast enough. For days, the plague continued, until by the end of the week, nothing was left.
The mayor made a proclamation, guaranteeing a generous reward to anyone who could rid the town of rats. But no one responded.
By the beginning of the second week, the villagers were desperate.
“Can’t anyone end this plague?” The mayor wailed at an emergency village meeting.
“I can,” said a voice by the door.
The assembly turned to face the newcomer. He was tall and tanned with slick blond hair and glowing black eyes.
“Piper!” Amalie cried, leaping up to greet her long-lost friend.
“Piper?” gasped everybody else, for they couldn’t see the resemblance between the once-scrawny orphan and this handsome stranger.
Piper ignored Amalie. “I can get rid of your rats,” he addressed the crowd, “but I must be paid.”
“Anything!” the mayor assured him.
“Thirty thousand marks,” Piper said. “I will have thirty thousand marks, or you will pay with something infinitely more dear.”
The people gasped. The entire village’s income for one entire year did not add up to thirty thousand marks. But they had no choice.
“Done,” the mayor said. “Please, get rid of the rats.”
Piper smiled as he reached into his pocket and brought out a set of black pipes.
The entire village fell silent as Piper played. For many moments—no one knew how long—they sat, stunned, as Piper’s melody wove a magic spell around them.
Then one of the men pointed out the window. “Look!”
Outside, a sea of brown bodies scampered straight for the ocean. As the people watched, the rats leapt to their deaths, drowning in the crashing waves.
When the last rat had disappeared, the Piper put away his pipes as the villagers burst into applause.
Piper smiled again. “Thank you,” he said. “And now, my money?”
The people looked at each other.
“Erm… the mayor stuttered. “Well, you know the rats ate everything…it will take time to raise money…”
Piper’s face darkened, and even the most hardened man found himself trembling under Piper’s wrathful gaze.
“You mean,” he said quietly, “that you won’t pay me?”
“No, no!” The mayor cried. “Of course we will pay you. It will just take time…” he trailed off and looked to Amalie. Everyone knew the two had been best friends.
“Piper,” Amalie said, stepping forward. “Won’t you please give us some time to come up with the money? You know we will not cheat you.”
Piper refused to look at her. “You will not honor your promise?” he asked softly. “So be it!” Then he turned and vanished.
:---------------:
The next morning, wailing filled the air.
“My children! My children!” the mothers cried as they searched in vain for their missing offspring. But every bed was empty, every child under eighteen, gone. Amalie, too, panicked when she could not find Hans.
“It must have been that Piper!” someone accused.
“I always knew he was a demon!” someone else cursed.
“Let’s go find him and make him give us our children back!” yet another shouted.
The men organized a search party. But there was no trace of Piper or the children anywhere. The party searched all day and all night, and finally, as the sun was about to set, the searchers bumped into Hans.
“Isn’t that Amalie’s son?” someone exclaimed.
“It is!” another confirmed. “Hans! Where are the other children?”
Hans was weak with exertion. “I don’t know,” he rasped, leaning on his cane. “I followed them, but they were too fast.”
“What were they doing? Where were they headed?”
Hans shook his head. “I don’t know. They were following the piper.”
“I knew it!” The men groaned. “But why?”
The men returned sadly home, one of them carrying the exhausted Hans. When the women saw them coming, they raced to meet them, and Amalie eagerly took Hans into her arms. But the women’s excitement turned to bitter disappointment when they realized that the rest of the children had not been found.
:---------------:
That night, as everyone slept, a haunting melody awoke Hans. Against his will, Hans found himself slipping on his shoes, picking up his cane and stealing out of the house.
After walking for hours, Hans spotted the source of the music—a tall, lanky man with a set of ebony pipes. As Hans came into view, the music stopped.
“I know you,” Hans said. “You’re my mother’s childhood friend, Piper.”
“At your service,” Piper acknowledged with an ironical bow.
“You sent the rats, didn’t you? So you could use lack of payment as an excuse to kidnap the children.”
“My, my. What a clever boy!”
“Where are the other children?” Hans demanded.
Piper smiled. “Come with me.”
He led Hans to a large boulder. Piper played a brief but complicated melody, and at once, the giant rock split in half. As Hans followed Piper through the opening, Piper played again, and the hole disappeared. The tunnel ahead was lit by some sort of incandescent light, but Hans could not locate its source.
At the end of the tunnel, another boulder blocked their way. Piper again lifted his pipes but this time only played half the melody. The boulder cracked open, but only enough to see inside, not enough to pass through.
Hans saw a dozen children, shivering from cold and hunger, just beyond the boulder. They saw him too.
“Hans! Hans, save us!” They cried, running for the opening.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Piper wagged his finger at them and raised his pipes, sealing the crack.
Hans whirled on Piper.
“Why did you kidnap them?” Hans demanded.
“It’s not as if I wanted them, the spoiled brats,” Piper said.
“Then what do you want?” Hans asked.
“You.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Once, your mother and I were best friends. If things had gone as they should, you would have been my son. Instead, I was discarded like an old shoe.” Piper spat. “The last dozen years I learned everything I could about black magic and the pipes from a famous—or should I say infamous?—sorcerer in a faraway land. But now I am getting old. I want someone to pass my wisdom on to. And who better than my dear old friend Amalie’s only son?”
Hans said nothing.
“Of course,” Piper continued, “your mysterious disappearance will likely break your mother’s heart. But no matter. My heart was broken once, and I survived, didn’t I?”
Piper shook his head. “Enough talk. I cannot teach an unwilling student, so I must ask: Will you come with me? Or do I have to seal you in the cave with the others?”
Hans thought for a moment. “I will come,” he said.
“Excellent!”
“…if you let the others go.”
Piper laughed. “Impossible! Their parents hated me, you know. They envied my talent and made my life misery. Only Amalie…” he trailed off. “In any case, I won’t do it.”
“Then you’ll leave them to die?” Hans said, horrified.
Piper tapped his chin. “Hmm…yes, I suppose I will. I think it’s fair, don’t you? Twelve years, twelve children. One for every year I’ve suffered. But enough. We must be on our way.”
He reached for Hans, but the boy drew back. “No. Not until you set them free.”
Piper sighed impatiently. “Come, we don’t have time for this. If you won’t come voluntarily, I’ll just have to leave you with them.”
He raised the pipes to his lips…
…and that’s when Hans struck him. Lifting the stout walking cane his father made, Hans knocked the pipes out of Piper’s hand and swept Piper’s feet out from under him. Piper hit his head against the boulder and fell instantly unconscious.
Hans grabbed the pipes and raised them to his lips, struggling to remember how Piper had played it. As he blew on the pipes, the boulder started to crack and then the crack widened until finally the children could get through.
They were weak with relief, but Hans pushed them down the tunnel. “Hurry, he’s waking up!”
As if in confirmation of his words, a moan escaped from Piper’s prostrate form.
The children scurried through the tunnel and when Hans opened the second boulder, they piled outside eagerly.
Hans was the last. As he stepped into the early morning light, a voice arrested him.
“Stop!”
Piper stood inside the tunnel, holding his bleeding head as he limped toward the opening. Hans raised the pipes.
“Stop!” Piper cried again. “I can give you power, riches. I can heal your leg!”
Hans paused.
“That’s right,” Piper coaxed. “Just give me the pipes. With my help, you will be unstoppable! No one will dare tease you for your weaknesses again!”
Hans closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were full of pity…and resolve. “That’s where you and I differ, Piper,” he said. “Because, to me, my disability isn’t my weakness. It’s my strength.”
Then, he brought the pipes to his lips and played.
:---------------:
Everyone cried.
Not a single eye, young or old, remained dry as the village children reunited with their parents.
Hans smiled as he stood by his parents’ side. In his hand, he still held the Piper’s ebony pipes. As soon as the weeping and hugging had subsided, Hans limped toward the men.
“He’s still in there,” Hans told them. “The Piper, I mean. I left him in the tunnel. He can’t get out.”
“Let him rot there!” the village baker growled, embracing his newly-returned daughter.
“Okay,” Hans said, limping away. “If you won’t go, I will.” Markus and Amalie hurried to follow their son. The other adults looked at each other in consternation. Then the baker’s daughter broke away from her father and followed Hans. One by one, the other children followed suit, and their perplexed parents had no choice but to follow.
The baker’s daughter walked beside Hans. “Hans, what are you going to do with his magic pipes?”
Hans smiled at her. “Destroy them.”
The adults nearby gasped. “But what if the rats—?”
“They won’t be back.” Hans said it with such certainty that they fell silent again.
When the villagers finally reached the boulder, it was gone, and the Piper nowhere to be found.
“What do we do now?” One of the villagers asked. They all turned to Hans.
“Nothing,” Hans replied. “He’s gone. We can go home now.”
Again, the villagers exchanged dubious looks. But seeing how there was nothing to do, they shrugged and left, one by one, until only Hans and his parents remained.
“Where do you suppose he’s gone?” Amalie asked.
“I don’t know,” Hans said after a moment’s reflection. “But wherever he is, Mother, I hope he’s learned to let go of his hatred and be happy.”
Amalie smiled and hugged her son. “Me too.”