Once Upon a Time 1. Runaway

**Bunnies: Alright, there she is doing something she should really be doing instead of writing Rum/Belle, but we'll fix that. On the count of three we jump out of the bushes on her. **

**Me: (looks around): What was….**

**Bunnies (wielding baseball bats): Get her!**

**Bunnies (pouncing as swinging the Rum/Belle bats)**

**Me: Must…write…Rum/Belle.**

**Bunnies: Mission accomplished. Let's get cake.**

**Bunnies: (Looks at you): You saw nothing!**

**Bunnies (Disappear into the shadows to get cake)**

_A/N: Yup more Rum/Belle. I have done Belle with magic, but never properly I don't think. I've always skipped the learning process, but no longer! This is not a one-shot, but the bunnies didn't hit me too hard so chapter will be sporadic. Enjoy._

**Disclaimer: I do not own OUaT.**

**~8~8~**

Dark clouds waywardly scudded the ebon firmament above the thick forest of Avonlea. The moon was a pallid ivory coin nestled in the satin night of late autumn that seemed to illume the land like day. Pines and dark firs latticed the pale face through the intricate canopy above allowing slants of moon to gild the laden branches in pale white and light a dappled path of motteled silver through the dark wood.

Hungry creatures that prowled the night were unusually silent and subdued as a lone figure stumbled raggedly through the verdant undergrowth and raised gnarled roots that spread like a rumpled carpet under the fallen crisp leaves of oaks and ash.

A woman with thick brown hair and eyes of sapphire tumbled through the forest for her life. Sweat chilled upon her creamy, dirt and blood stained skin as she raced like a frightened doe on the run from a nearing hunter. With every lurching step she prayed to outdistance her predators and at least find a place to hide from their blades and scalding hatred.

Behind the panting figure a gang of sword and torch wielding men galloped murderously through the ancient trees. Trussed in trapping of mail and silver plate they look akin to demons lumbering after her. Had she been upon open ground the men would have easily met her, but the forest impeded their journey as they strode upon the backs of frothing, wild eyed horses.

Part of her was merely grateful they hadn't time to gather the dogs that would have easily hunted her down through the brambles and thorns and clamped their snarling, frothing jaws upon her arms and legs.

A strangled sob escaped her cracked lips as a sharp branch struck her cheek a stinging blow as she ran blindly. Hot blood oozed down her porcelain cheek as she dashed headlong into the wilds.

"Faster men, we're gaining on the witch!" A blustery voice echoed about the naked, plaintive trees as though the scent of her agony was a beacon to them as spilt blood was to sharks.

Dread chilled the blood in her veins as she plowed onward to escape her pursuers through the thickest of the dried bramble and tangle. Tears stung her azure eyes, but she fought them back, burning them away with the will to live roaring in heart. No one would slay her least they could catch up and thrust a sword through her heart. She would not lay down like a cow for the slaughter and simply die because of something she could not help. No one decided her fate but her.

Maybe one day she could come back if she proved she wasn't cursed. Mayhap then their words would ring hollow and afforded her peace if she could but show how a help she could be. Until then she was not welcome or indulged. She was a dead woman by their strict standards.

"She's headed for the thickest parts of these accursed woods!" Another voice that once called her love and betrothed shouted like a clarion call in the darkness. Of all those in pursuit of her life, he was the one she was most wary over. Gaston knew the woods far better than she and could easily hunt her down had she been in hiding. He oft found himself in the kings woods to hunt game and now he was hunting her like a prize stag he would mount upon his hall wall.

Desperate, the female flung herself into the prickliest thorn thickets she could encounter. Eyes closed, arms flung over her head, she plowed through hoping what was left of her once shimmering golden dress would stay the thorns somewhat. Blood oozed from a hundred cuts, sopping her dress in ichor. Her hair entangled in the vines and prickles only to be yanked free from the thorns as she flew through the night, but still she raced on.

A sad smile bloomed upon her lips as she heard the horses shriek and the men behind her curse lividly as they were scratched and scraped and their horses rebelled against the undergrowth. The horses were bereft of their plate tackle, and had no intention of racing madly through the thorns. Maybe she had outrun them; maybe her wit had endured past their hatred.

Abruptly, as though mocking her thoughts of escape, a bent root caught her foot. The world seemed to come up to meet the beauty as she tumbled to the hard, cold ground. Shaken with fatigue, the fleeing woman forced herself to her knees but could not gain the strength for another step. They had been pursuing her since midday and now it was close to midnight. She had run without food or drink, without daring to stop. Behind her the sound of horses plowing through the cut brambles sang like a dirge in her ears. They had caught her.

Defeat welled within her, but she forced the bile back down. At least she had given them a good run and made them pay for unjustly stealing her life.

Looking forward towards where freedom could have been found if only she had not tripped her eyes widened to see tight leather pants instead of the dark, twisted trees. A gasp escaped her lips as two onyx eyes peered down like eternal pits in the blackness. The voided orbs were even darker than the night itself. His straggly hair fell about her face and his skin glimmered in the pale moon light like fish scales. A clever smile donned his lips as though she was a treasure he had lucked to come across.

His body was garbed in a brown silken shirt with a scarlet brocade vest and his breeches were made of dark leather. The buckles on his shoes glinted in the moon light like coins as he paced forward closer to her.

Startled, the woman tried to scrambled back, but her sore muscles rebelled. Even in the face of a strange new creature she could not run.

"There, we've caught her!" A voice, her papa's once so loving and kind, cried out angrily as the knights began to clear the thorn bracket.

The horses neighed crazily as the all pranced closer to the kneeling woman. Their eyes rolled wildly showing the white and opaque vapors bellowed from their steaming, flaring nostrils. Even in the mad chase the horses had not acted so rabidly, putting the men on edge.

"Look at the thing before her, she's summoned an aberration!" One knight screamed as his horse reared, legs churning the air. Blades waved through the air at his declaration, ready to take on the thing before them.

"No aberration I assure you gentlemen." The thing before them replied in a tittering, cultured voice. On hand behind his back he stepped clearer into a slant of glowing moon, revealing his gray-gold skin and flamboyant clothing of mulled russet and bright crimson. "At least, not the kind you think of."

The first speaker, a corpulent man dressed in ermine and fine spotted furs danced his tired animal closer. Beady black eyes puckered into the darkness, the ostentatious man's jaw was set wrathfully. "I am King Maurice, merchant Lord of this small land. What are you creature?"

"A creature of vastly powerful magic, great king." The strange thing bowed courteously as though he were in some court rather than the dark woods. "Rumpelstiltskin is the name." He trilled his title proudly, a smile inching upon his thin gray lips.

"Magic." The king huffed angrily. "We are men of science and law. Not of religion or magic. You have no place in our realm."

A grin stapled the creatures face as he clapped his black nailed hands together gleefully. "Ah so you are men of ignorance. Good that makes this all easier."

The knights bristled but remained silent in the face of the strange man. Spitting to the side the king stared the fiend sharply. "You are not from my kingdom, and your ways and the ways of the rest of this world are different. Since this is the case you may have a warning. We do not take kindly to people with the curse in my kingdom. Leave or be killed."

Rumpelstiltskin shrugged laconically as though taking the warning as mere advice and not a threat. "I was just passing through when I saw this riveting chase." He flourished a hand down to the cold, quivering woman breathing heavily after the lengthy run. "Quite a thrilling hunt with all of you on horseback and a lone woman bereft of a weapon racing for her life on foot."

"That woman, as we have just found out today, has the curse of magic." The plump king's face darkened hatefully as he pointed a grandiose sword to her. "To think, my own daughter was one of them. She used her power today by some stroke of good fortune and was discovered. She must now be killed." Raising a thick hand, he motioned to a man with a quiver bristling with arrows and a fine brown bow. "Her former betrothed shall have the honor of ridding our kingdom of another with such a foul craft."

"Perhaps there is a better way." The Dark One broke in just as the muscle ridden knight drew his bow. "You hate us people of magic do you not?"

Maurice nodded tersely, his eyes aglow with intrigue and vast suspicion. Who was this thing that had appeared through the low mists and spoke so grandly?

"Death is too good for one who so long betrayed you, don't you agree." The fiend cajoled in his falsetto timbre. "For so long you had a magic user in your court and knew not of her power. And now you but wish to end her life with one arrow?" Shaking his head and clucking his tongue as though in pity he held out his hands imploringly. "Let me take her off your hands. Sell her to me and I will make certain a swift demise will not be her fate. I will show her things worse than death."

The king shifted dubiously. "You would do such a thing to your own kind monster?"

"Oh yes, we monsters are very cruel. I have a torture room just for magic users to watch them be devoured by their own powers. Very gruesome, like fire on a candle wick burning them until their life is snuffed out." He nodded happily. Snapping his talons, lilac magic flitted through the air. The knights gasped in fear as magic crackled through the night hour. A yellowed scroll rested in the Dark One's grip where nothing had been before. Putting a hand in his ruby vest he produced a golden griffin quill. "Here's the deal, a room filled with gold in your palace for the girl."

Shock branded the woman's sweating face as she stared up to those who surrounded her. Rage and fear gripped her heart at the sudden turn of events. Her father knew her too well, knew what she would loathe. She had always been something of a free spirit and to have her fettered to a life of thralldom would be worse than death.

"Papa no... please. Rather I die than for you to even consider this." The girl upon the ground croaked desperately. For long moments she had knelt there waiting for the arrow to pierce her flesh, but the words of the strange thing, Rumpelstiltskin he called himself, sent shivers crawling down her spine.

Ignoring the woman he once called daughter the king stared at the Dark One. Affection for his daughter was gone with the knowledge of what she was. Her pleading only solidified the fiend's words and convinced him of the right choice. So long as they were left alone he cared not what happened to her. "Make certain that if she somehow escapes she will never again come to our lands and the deal is done."

"A deal then, king!" Rumpelstiltskin crowed delightedly like a happy merchant. His quill worked rapidly as he added the final touches to the scroll with outlandish flourishes of the feathered pen. "And the girls name?"

"It was Lacey." The king growled darkly, his lips twisted into vile disgust. "It was a family name but no longer. That title is no longer hers. I recant her as my daughter and dub her dead. She will never be spoken of again in my court. She has no name."

Chuckling lightly the Dark One scribbled upon the magical parchment with his golden quill. "The girl then." He trilled as he made the last dash. "There." Looking over the scroll with undisguised satisfaction he reread his changes. "The girl, once daughter of merchant King Maurice hereby belongs to the Dark One for the rest of her days."

"Deal." Maurice held his corpulent fur gloved hand out for the scroll. With a few noble flourishes his name lay engraved upon the parchment. "So long as she never comes back to this land we are of one accord. Take the witch and be done with you both monsters!"

A sly grin weaseled upon the Dark One's gray-gold face as he dipped a flamboyant bow and banished the scroll in a spurt of magic and a wave of his hand. "Of course your majesty. We'll be on our way, and I think you and your men should be going as well. The night is a nasty time with monsters in maid skin and all."

Nodding succinctly, the monarch turned his calming charger. The sweating beasts of the knights plodded tiredly back the way it had come on their mad dash. One by one the horses departed in a somber line, their hooves crunching the freshly fallen of the last leaves till even the sound of rustling was dead.

The woman watched with a wounded heart as her papa departed as though he had never called her daughter. In less than a day she had lost everything, even her name all for one mistake of a good deed.

Stuffing the enchanted quill in his crimson leather vest, the Dark One hummed happily to himself. Another profitable deal had been done. Waving his hand so the girl found herself to her feet he tugged at his vest and turned. "Well now let's be on our way girl."

"I'm not going anywhere with you." She retorted firmly, chalking up the last courage she held close like a wooden targ.

Lifting a finger into the air he grinned impishly. "Yes you will. I just made the deal and wrote it up. Weren't you listening?" He giggled sinisterly as though her slavery was amusing.

"My father signed that. No one decides my fate but me." Jaw knotted determinedly she stared the strange man-thing in the eye, defiant even though it might be the last time she drew breath. His words were right she knew, but perhaps there was a chance to fool him.

"Actually I do. Not only was the man your father and in being so having rule over you till marriage and also being the king to govern and dictate all the lives in his kingdom I own you twice over." He explained nonchalantly. "The magic wouldn't work if the bargain was not valid. In another land perhaps you would have a point, but you are of this realm and the laws were your father's laws."

Her eyes narrowed in the darkness. "I am my own woman. You made no deal with me. My father had no right and so I am not bound to your silly deal." Her heart sank low into the mires of desperation knowing her words would not dissuade him. His words rang true and they both knew it. Denial was but a last attempt to salvage her freedom, but there was no outwitting the strange creature.

"He had every right." Smiling like a small child who had just discovered something new, the Dark One clapped his hands. "And I even get to name you. Now come along with you. You may come freely and scrounge what's left of your pride or come by the power of magic. Either way you will follow." A hint of a growl traced his words sending a bolt of fear rippling through her.

The woman stared at the gray-gold skinned man for long minutes. Another biting wind measured her decision. She had no home any longer, no gold, no friends or even family. Head held high she motioned to him as though she were still a princess. "I'll follow willingly by my own decision."

"Good." He traipsed past her in a half skip. "My carriage awaits a small ways down the road." With that he walked languorously through the sable woods.

Heart heavy, the girl now without a name followed. Only once did she look back in the direction of what once was home then turned to trail the thing that had saved her life.

"Who are you?" She demanded to know as she followed close, her eyes searching him. He looked something like a man but none she had ever clapped eyes on.

He raised a finger into the air as he walked on. "Rumpelstiltskin, Dearie. You know the man who just bought your life from the maw of death?"

"What are you?" She struggled to keep up, though when he had magically helped her up he had done something to give her more strength. He wasn't quite a man she could discern, not quite at all.

The Dark One giggled manically. "A monster, a beast, a creature that prowls the desperate." Before she could broach another question he added. "And a skinner of maidens who ask to many questions."

Culled by his gruesome reply, the beauty kept her lips tight. Part of her whole heartedly believed he could and would do just as he warned. A bundle of emotions, the girl steadily followed the strange, powerful man who was now her master into the night.

~8~8~

The vermillion and silver carriage jounced roughly upon the snaking rutted roads that winded through the sleeping forest. With each new hole the wooden, gilded wheels encountered the red and silver carriage seemed to leap into the air and crash down to earth in a thunderous crescendo.

Ebony horses, led by neither coachmen nor rider, raced like frothing black demons down the dark roads. Their neighing fell to the ears as ghastly wails setting the dark coppices with spectral sounds of the dead and other monstrous creatures that lurked in the nightly hours.

A singular guttering candle alit the carriage with somber light, casting the Dark One's face in a shimmering glow of gold. The flame danced crazily in the speed of the wind, but never winked out or smoked.

The girl, Lacey as she had once been called, wrapped her slender arms about her sweat chilled body miserably. She looked a pitiful sight in the darkest corner of the carriage away from the flickering candle as though light itself burned. Home, family, life, and even her name gone with one simple spark of magic. One mistake had been all it took to end the life she had led and now be thrust into a strange turn of events with a thing that now owned her.

He had not taken his strange black eyes off of her since he had entered the carriage, and she had stared back with as much intrigue, determined to watch every move he made. If he could be rude, then surely she could parry him as well.

"I'm deciding on what to name you." Rumpelstiltskin revealed lightly. "Since it appears Lacey is off limits."

Her body stiffened at his words though she did not rise to argue against him. After the day she had endured a name was the least of her problems, but perhaps the most hurtful.

Leaning against the side, he spared a glance out of the carriage window covered by black satin. "We're nearly there." He remarked to himself lowly.

"Almost where?" She asked, her teeth chattering.

His lips twitched in a smirk. "My home. A castle nestled in the faraway mountain peaks."

She frowned darkly and shook her head. "That's impossible there's no mountain anywhere near my old h-"

The carriage lurched to a halt. Tack and harness jangled as the horses pawed at cobblestone. Wherever they were there was stone and mortar and cold, ghastly cold. Chill slithered through every crack in the gilt carriage making the beauty shiver.

"There." He tittered impishly and opened the carriage door. "Home sweet home." Beaconing his hand to the wary woman he held out his hand. "Come now girl."

"My name isn't girl." She growled as she took his hand.

"Very observant." A smile curled about his lips. "You don't have a name any longer, until I give you one. Don't fret though, names have power. Perhaps it would be best of none if us had names."

Forcing her tongue to still its retort, the girl stepped clear from the carriage. Her eyes widened like indigo pools as she gazed at the masterfully built castle of gray. Gargoyles clung to the roof and banners whipped crazily in the wind on the spires. Behind her a large stone fence had been erected while the rest of the estate was protected by perilous snowcapped mountains on all other sides.

"Don't dawdle girl, come now." Rumpelstiltskin sniffed as he pranced to two thick oaken doors. Waving a claw the massive doors groaned open revealing the dark inside maw of the citadel.

Too tired to broach more protest, if it would even do good, the nameless girl followed obediently. Despite what she had stated before the words of her father were true. In her land a woman was governed by her father till marriage. With such control he had sold her like a hog and she could do nothing in refute.

Warmth wrapped about her as she entered the stronghold. With the heat suffusing her stiff limbs she let the vastly pleasant feel force the chill away from her bruised body.

"Your father sought your death because you have magic, yes?" The Dark One inquired as he led her through a labyrinth of grandly decorated torch lit halls.

Sorrow clenched her heart, but she nodded dourly. "Yes. Magic is forbidden in our kingdom. My father is an inventor. Anything that is not science is frowned upon."

"Well then aren't you happy you won't ever see that place again?" His giggled echoed about the drafty corridor as they walked deeper into the keep.

Anger burned in her eyes as she stared daggers at the creature. "No. My father may have sold me, my kingdom loathed me, but it was home and I was happy there for a long time."

"Well this is home now." He remarked insouciantly, uncaring of her anguish. In less than a day everything had been stripped from her but the clothes upon her back. She had been struck down from her noble station and sold to a thing that had appeared in the woods as she was about to be killed like an animal.

"It's not home." She muttered, too fatigued even to snap back to her master with the proper bite. "It's a prison."

"I'm glad you see it that way." His high pitched laughter sang through the warm air as he stopped at a thick door with an iron barred window high upon the wood. His smile widened cruelly as he opened the door to a stone cell. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to try to convince you on the whole home thing." He sniggered impishly and offered a mocking bow.

The cell was bare save for a pallet of golden straw and a thin moldering blanket of gray. A dungeon of the most spartan stood before her to be called home now and forever.

The fire to fight him had been damped with the trials of the day that beset her from all sides. Another instance she would have been appalled and demanded to be let out or argue his choice to store her in a cage, but exhaustion swelled over her in a tide. Sick of heart and weary of limb she stumbled into the cell with barely enough energy to stand. Whatever magic he had wrought upon her had waned away leaving her with the fatigue she had known.

At least she was not running for her life in a cold forest. At least her father was not seeking to end her life. Whatever the creature deemed to do with her or how he found her remained a mystery, but so tired she no longer cared. All the evil cast upon her could be worked out when she recovered and assessed her strange new life.

Falling upon the pallet of straw she could nary even pull the musty blanket over her before her eyes shut. Despite the trials and changes of her life in one horrid day she was alive.

The last image she viewed was the slender, leather clad figure named Rumpelstiltskin stare down at her before closing the cell door of his newly acquired slave.

A chortle of glee escaped his thin lips as he strode to his spinning wheel to celebrate. Finally he had caught someone with natural magic and she had not cut some traitorous deal or bargain he had to circumspect or uphold. No, she could make no deal. She belonged to him and him alone!


	2. An Apprentice

Gray dawn ascended regally over the snow laden valley nestled in the midst the perilous, white-capped mountains. The hostile, untamable land in which Rumpelstiltskin deemed home lay crisp and silent as a forlorn grave.

The sun climbed the jagged, rocky range till lavender and crimson painted the snowy fangs of the lighted peaks and dabbed the unblemished blue sky with ribbons of brilliance. All the world about the Dark Castle rested still and quiet as though the earth, covered snugly under a thick blanket of alabaster, slept peacefully even with the suns rise.

Golden rays slanted welcomingly into the squalid stone cell that imprisoned the beauty like a gentle message for her to awake. The sold woman sniffled fitfully as she snuggled down deeper into the dry, itchy straw that served as her bed. Her nose crinkled slightly against a stalk of bedding ghosting near her face. Somewhere in the night she had pulled the musty blanket over her body for warmth before succumbing to the blackness of dreamless sleep once more.

Mottled blue and black bruises from her run ached her body. Pain throbbed in the back of her mind as a constant reminder of what had been done to her.

Part of her felt as though the turmoil's of the day before had been but a dream, but the scratchy straw beneath and the thin coverlet wrapped above and the stony walls all about held testament the nightmare had not lurked in her repose of slumber.

The dreaded night and all its ill had been all too real and all too painful against her heart. No, she was no longer in the palace of her inventor father, but in the dungeon of a man-thing awaiting a fate of eternal thralldom.

Spurred by the unpleasant thought, the beauty frowned darkly in her light doze. Despite her tiredness she managed to force herself awake from the peace of black sleep. Fatigue heavily burdened her soul, but the events in the misty forest of her old home brought strength to her weary limbs.

Rising unsteadily, her feet tripping against the folds of her once golden gown not crusted with dirt and dried blood, she stumbled precariously to the thick door.

Gathering herself bravely, the beauty mustered as much decorum as possible. A new day dawned in her life and now with more of her bearings and senses she would be a better challenge for the gray-gold creature for her freedom.

Hand ready to bang upon the wood to grab anyone's attention she halted in midflight inches from the thick, iron banded door. By some instinct she tried the iron ring latch though common sense screamed it would be locked tight. Who would put a slave in a prison and not lock the door?

Grabbing the cold iron ring, she probed a testing shove to see if the door would give at all. Grit under the door crinkled with effort at her inquiry as though answering her silent query. Surprise marbled her face as the door swung open easily upon quiet hinges. She cringed as the door banged against the wall. Dust and dirt of ages crusted away in flakes from the wall, but nothing stirred from the dim hallway. No lock barred her path. She was free to roam from her cell at will.

The alcove before her was dark, but there it was before her, a path to freedom from her cage. A few low torches alit the way like a path of flame towards emancipation.

Praising her good fortune, the beauty tenuously peeked her umber head out of the threshold. Sure of her solitary presence, she tiptoed out of her squalid cage bravely. Drafty air nipped at her bruised, milky skin, as though a hint of the cold outside permeated the gray stone. The halls were dank and dark save for a few low glowering torches, more orange embers than fire, and scant slants of dirty sun that seeped through from squat, ugly gray windows at the top of the towering walls and mottled the filthy, dust ridden floors.

Ears strained to their limit, she detected not a breath or a scuffle of feet or even the clank of armor upon guards if there were any. Perhaps she was truly all alone.

Hope swelled like a powerful tide in her chest at the thought. Gladness sparked in her heart at the opportune moment. Had the creature forgotten about her? Had he gone to prowl the realms and bring misery leaving her to her own devices?

Thrilled, the woman crept carefully down the dim, drafty halls like a shadow against the stone walls. Despite the events of the previous day her memory was sharp as a warrior's whetted blade and her cunning doubly so. Remembering the snaking path the man, her master, had taken her was one that came with ease.

Boldness grew with each step as she traipsed the long, labyrinthine halls that seemed to stretch on for eternity. Ivory marble columns lined the walls and expensive trinkets and valuables stood upon alabaster pedestals back dropped with ornate tapestries from times gone by.

A cry of delight nearly escaped her lips as she found the monolithic doors and the grand vestibule that led to the outside world. Forgetting all stealth, the beauty raced to the titanic portals that offered freedom behind their wooden panes.

Her hands curled over the dark rings as though they were precious handles of gold. Freedom lay in only a few good tugs! Using all her paltry might she pulled at the doors preparing to feel the fierce mountains winds kiss her skin. With a grunt she heaved for life and freedom!

Disappointment filled her heart as bitter bile as the doors did not budge an inch. Gritting her teeth staunchly to stave off her panic, she pulled with all of her meager strength, but the doors where akin to stubborn mules she was trying to tug along! Not a single hair gave to her fierce pulling as she wore out what little energy she had left in her form.

"Trying to escape already?" A tittering voice clucked in mock disappointment, his voice more amused than anything else.

Turning swiftly, the beauty backed as far as she could against the doors. Hands behind her, she pressed against the barriers as though she would but sink through the doors and be free. She had been caught like a thief trying to make away with an expensive bauble.

Hair dishelmed, panting with exertion, she looked upon the thing warily. Her heart tumbled wildly in her chest at the voice she had heard only the night before. Blood departed from her lovely face, telling of her fear.

The creature stood easily before her. His garb was a bright russet hue and fine black leather attired grandly about his body. A white cravat was bound about his neck with a large star-like opal in the center. Eyes of ebony twinkled in merry amusement as though reveling happily in her abject failure to freedom.

Motioning a gray-gold claw to the door he leaned against an alabaster pillar lazily. Mirth tinged his tittering timbre. "Don't mind me, please keep trying in vain."

Enraged by his words she boldly took a step towards him, her eyes fearless and daring. "I will get out of this place."

"Not unless I say so, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin shrugged, his grin transmuting into a nasty smirk. "I do not want you to leave the castle. The magic that was cast upon you when you were sold makes certain my wants are tended to. I cannot control your body without chains and fetters, but rest assured the magic will see you do not escape without such vile implements."

Refusing to believe the creature's cocky, sharp words, the beauty turned back to the large doors that held freedom. Renewed with vigor wrought forth from anger and melancholy and desperation she pulled at the iron rings with every fiber of her being. Sweat trickled down her temple, her muscles screamed with exertion as she pulled. She would not accept his ownership; she would not accept his words! Yet in her heart the truth rang clear.

Yawning politely into his hand, Rumpelstiltskin steepeled his wiry fingers into a loose pyramid. Placing his fingertips beneath his jaw he spoke softly, his words a careless trill. "You may of course keep at this like a fool, or you may follow me to find food."

At the mention of something to eat, the beauty ceased her fervent bid for freedom. Her stomach growled like a surly wolf, reminding her she had eaten nothing since the dawn of yesterday before her world had collapsed under her.

A sly smile traced his lips as he eased away from the column. Cunning eyes glittered like faceted black diamonds. "Ah so there is something you want more than freedom."

"Never." She snapped angrily, her voice feeling small in the grand vestibule. She sniffed imperiously trying to seem calm and assured. "But things must be put into perspective." Her escape would avail her nothing if she starved in the icy mountains or was frozen to death by the gnashing teeth of the wind and the deep blankets of snow.

He heaved his shoulders in a shrug. "Fair enough. Follow me girl. The Main Hall is where we will take all of our meals."

Seething, but famished, the beauty followed knowing she had little choice if she wished to still the growl in her stomach and dissuade the man's wrath. If he could halt her from leaving, what else could he do to her? Perhaps it was best to submit for the present. At least she would be fed and the citadel was warm.

The pair came to a large lavish chamber brimming with ostentatious riches. Trinkets of every sort filled dusty cabinets and dirty niches like a dragon's wealthy hoard all piled without rhyme or reason. A large fireplace was carved into one of the walls. Ash and char smoldered in the hearth, telling the fire was only recently dead. An oaken, oblong table rested in the center of the gaudy room reminding the woman of the feast tables in her old home. One chair, upholstered of burgundy leather rested at the end of the table like a king's throne.

A blue and white ceramic pot and matching cups and delicate bowls lay on a silver tray close to the farthest end where the singular chair stood.

Striding purposefully, the fiend eased himself down into the only chair in the room. Beckoning a talon to the tray he smiled widely, savoring her anger like a fine wine. "Breakfast will be along shortly. You may pour my tea now as you will do every morning."

For a tense moment the girl stared angrily at the gray-gold beast smiling before her. He could give her demands, but the thought of serving him galled the very marrow in her bones. Though she had never flaunted or much desired her station of princess, to be a slave prodded rebellious flames in her heart.

Still, she supposed dourly, her father's law upheld in her sale. She had no choice but to serve him. The deal had been struck no matter how she protested or wished it had not. Guilt stabbed at her chest cruelly as she recalled women in her village being arranged to marriages they detested or given to others to settle disputes. How long had she abided in silence to her father's laws while other women were treated like property? Was slavery her punishment for not trying hard enough to end the mad tyranny? Was this all a judgment upon her?

Sucking in a deep breath, as though forcibly relenting some part of her stubborn will, she complied dutifully. Steam whisked through the air in thin streams of fragrant vapors. The brown brew smelled close to peach, she supposed as she gathered the saucers and other implements. Pouring the tea with delicate care she handed him the only cup.

Smacking his lips happily he stared at her over the gaily painted rim of his blue and white cup. He could smell the power radiating off her like a pungent, but not unpleasant, odor. Puissant power snapped about her like lightening in a storm though she could not tell. Magic glowed merrily about her like a luminous aura only those gifted with magic and trained to spot it could see.

Gathering his words, he spoke in a feigned careless manner. "I hope the door incident was enough to finally prove that the bargain with your father was a true one."

Begrudgingly she nodded faintly in reply. Her delicate hands fiddled with a silver sugar spoon to avoid the victory sparkling in his eyes. There could be no denying it. She might as well have said the sun was green!

"Good." He chirped happily, taking no notice of the pain in her azure eyes. "Then let's get down to business. You will serve me my meals and clean the Dark Castle. You will launder my clothing and dust my trinkets and other things of worth. You will fetch me fresh straw when I spin at my wheel." At that, the curious woman perched her head up but he ignored the intrigue dancing in her bright eyes. Finishing the tea he handed her back the cup to refill as he continued easily. "And starting today I shall instruct you on the arts of magic."

"What?" The word babbled in disbelief from her mouth. Shock filled her in an overwhelming tide of emotions, her porcelain features cast in surprise. The cup dropped uselessly from her hands in astonishment. Surely his words had to be some cruel quip!

A sharp crack echoed about the hall, but for the moment both ignored the cup wobbling upon its fragmented side. "You will learn magic, Dearie." He echoed, unable to swipe the grin from his face. The look upon her face had been a priceless moment he determined to forever remember.

"W…why…?" She stared dumfounded at the creature. Magic was what had doomed her and now she was to make a livelihood of it? What powers of fate and irony had looked down upon her and cursed her so?

"I need someone with power." He revealed lowly, his voice laced with a hint of excitement. "Someone I can teach the bloodiest spells and darkest arts to. Someone I can control completely as they do my will. You will have your uses once your full potential is taught. And as your master I shall make use of them."

Later when she had fully learned to accept her fate and he was sure in the powers she could wield, she would be an assistant of sorts. He would send her forth gathering rare plants from about the realms whilst he could be doing more important things. There had always been too many deals coming from thousands of desperate people and being only one with such power he could hardly accommodate them all. Having another who could go forth and bring back trinkets or aid with his tampering and machinations would be a boon of the highest standard.

Before she could retort he raised a claw for her silence. "Don't bother to object, Dearie. You and I both know the outcome."

"You'll force me into this foul trade?" She spat dourly, her shoulders slumped with the burden of sadness. Anger twinkled like embers in her eyes. Was her fate truly to be what she had been taught all her life to hate?

"Not at all." The Dark One's grin stretched tight. "One cannot force magic, Dearie; either you learn or you will not, but you have no other option before you. We both know this is the only path you may take. Your family has forsaken you,** y**our people have shunned you, and you are an outcast and slave and have nothing to your nameless self. Magic is the only bright focus in your pathetic life. The power than courses like fire through you veins is a single lifeline to clutch as you sink in the mire of ill fate. It is this or nothing.

"Being instructed you will learn the full extent of your powers and we both know rather well if you kill me, your master, well…." He flourished his hand lazily as though his words were on no concern or relevance. "Then you are a free woman. But you will never have the opportunity to slay me lest you know how to wield your skills."

Of course she would never be powerful enough to best him, but the extra incentive would surely make her take to the craft with a will. When she discovered she would never be as strong in the gift, she would be too far too turn back. Above all, he knew the lengths people would go to be free of fate, of others that ruled their lives through fear. Had he not been one such as that long ago; a slave to his cowardice?

A free woman. The thought burned like a brand in her mind, setting her thoughts ablaze in an inferno. Should she one day slay this man, this Dark One, her life would be her own once more neither controlled by master nor father. Oh the words were like a dream becoming life!

"But know this." Abruptly, his voice darkened to a deadly rumble like a growl from a rabid animal. Jaw set, his eyes were as narrow, sable arrows aimed at her heart. Darkness sprang to his blood in a surge of barbarity. "Know that if you try to kill me you get only one opportunity. For if you try to defeat me and fail, rest assured I will kill you."

Dangerous magic snapped through the air like electricity. Every word was a solemn oath uttered from his thin lips. Images of demise flashed through her eyes in a terrifying, blinding blur. He could do many terrible things before he killed her and if she did not slay him those things would surely come to pass.

Terror gripped the beauty with icy claws that dragged her heart down into the pit of her stomach. Every word he spat was true. "I…understand." Her voice sounded small and humble in the face of his quiet danger.

"Good." His smile lightened the black, murderous mood as he sat back in the chair. Legs crossed he stared happily at his dour slave.

Desperate to stare anywhere but his fathomless depths that promised death, her eyes fell to the cup lying pitifully at her feet. Kneeling in the remnants of her crusted, bloodstained dress, her fingers clutched the cup tightly as though he would snap upon her in his suddenly foul state. "I'm…sorry, but it has a chip…."

Staring down at her, the Dark One shrugged uncaringly, his dangerous mood fully gone. "It's just a cup." There was nothing important about it of course.

"Right." She managed a faltering smile. Placing the cup back upon the tray as rose gracefully. "So when do we get started with magic?"

"Right after breakfast." The fiend waved his hand laconically towards the table. Pewter bowls with steam curling from the contents rested upon the table. A chair appeared from a spurt of amethyst magic at the other end of the table.

"Our first lesson will consist of learning a few basics to magic." He continued as she numbly sat at the other end of the table. Weariness lined her face as she stared at the meal ravenously. Chewing a mouthful of gray looking food he gestured to her with his spoon. "And I will have to find you something else to wear. Slave or no, I shall not have my apprentice in trappings of rags."

Grateful for the inkling of kindness, the beauty managed a more genuine smile. "Thank you." She replied shyly, realizing how little she had.

"I'm still thinking." He remarked suddenly through a mouthful of food as though she had broached a question. Staring down into his bowl ponderously the fiend seemed lost in deep contemplation.

She blew on the hot meal. "About what?"

"Your name." He retorted softly. If she was too live and learn at his home, she needed something to suit her, something to explain what she was.

"Speaking of names." The girl circled the spoon about the rim of her bowl. "What shall I call you?" What would she call her captor, her slaver, her teacher?

He swallowed and shrugged uncaringly. "Rumpel if you like." His name was simply too long for most people to say over and over again, even in a curse as many did.

"Rum." She declared with a thin smile. The name slipped sweetly off her tongue with a strange ease of something delectable.

He glared over to her irksomely. "No not Rum, Rumpel." He corrected. Even as the words left his mouth he knew he had made and erroneous error on his part. Correcting her showed he cared.

She persisted, seeing an opportunity to get back at the creature for all his barbed wit and cruel amusement. "Rum. I like that instead."

"I don't." The Dark One growled, his appetite suddenly gone at his slip. Not in long centuries had someone dared defy him or even poke fun at him. Yet this brave, intelligent woman did so. Angered, he snapped upon her cruelly. "If you have such distaste to that name you will call me master, but not Rum. Are we clear?" His ebony eyes challenged her.

The girl shrugged this time, pleased to have turned the tables on his careless treatment of her. "Of course master…." Under her breath, but well enough for the fiend to hear she added mischievously. "Rum."

She had cheek, he knew imperatively. Frowning thinly, he took a tasteless bite of the meal. At the very least she was not a quivering mass of trembling fear, he soothed to his ire.

Part of him had to give a nod of respect to her bravery or foolishness. Did she not know of his vast power, of his cruelty? Did she not know how dangerous it was to poke a monster?

Uncomfortable with the odd thought, he grew silent as he pondered why she did not seem fearful of him and why he had insofar not showed her just how cruel he could be to draw that fear out. He had permanently maimed others for far less, and yet he sat their wondering why he did nothing to punish her.

~8~8~

"Our first lesson will be fire." Rumpelstiltskin explained sagely to his newly dubbed apprentice. After their meager breakfast he had quickly started a lecture on the primal laws of magic. The girl listened in rapt attention that gave him a thought she would be a good learner.

Waving a hand flippantly in the drafty air the fiend summoned magic to his behest. Power surged through his veins at but a thought, bringing forth the magic within. Purple clouds enveloped the appendage but quickly dissipated as smoke on the wind leaving a large tallow candle in his grip.

Placing the sizable candle upon the main hall table, he stroked the rigid black taper at its top to a fine point. "Flame is essential to all living things. It is also the easiest to conjure for humans. Without fire humans like you would not proliferate the world as you do. Fire protects and destroys and builds and demolishes. You can cook and you can burn. Heat a fire or demolish a hovel to ash. Flame is in your blood."

Leaning against the table he proffered his hand out to the yellowish candle. "Now, try to light the candle Dearie. Feel the warmth within your body. Picture the dancing flame in your mind and try to put that image upon the wick."

Nodding uncertainly, the beauty stared hard at the black wick, her mind summoning up images of fire. Fire leapt like frolicking hares in her mind, a conflagration that vomited from the maw of a volcano came to her thoughts, and the image of a small dancing flame lit by a window all dashed in her mind in a wheel of heat. Flame whirled and spun in a kaleidoscope all aimed to the candle.

Her father had oft scolded her imagination and the day dreaming she found herself enchanted with, now she was encouraged to use those gifts many a day dubbed a waste of time in her old life.

Minutes ticked by in dead silence as she concentrated her whole thought. Cold, sticky sweat beaded her brow that was beetled in consternation with the simple exertion. Breath came faltering from her lungs, but she forced herself to think of fire and the wick aflame.

Her stomach felt afire with the strange effort. The tips of her fingers seemed as though they were burning. Blood boiled from the fire within. Her body seemed to be catching afire, not the candle!

In a moment of panic she thought to sever the link. As she was about to wash the thoughts of flame from her mind, she was rewarded with a small spark upon the taper. Red flame leapt hungrily upon the wick with a steady tongue of fire.

A thrill of exhilaration sped through her blood in unusual glee. Though small was the flame, she had done it; summoned fire!

In a whoosh of heat the flame suddenly engulfed the candle leaving a small pool of wax and ashes where a candle once stood. Fire roared high in the moment of wildness, seeking out more to burn but failing in its gluttonous quest. Hands of fire shot out of the conflagration as though trying to grab her.

A cry of surprise escaped her lips as the fire roared and diminished in the blink of an eye. The heat brushed her face but little more as it descended from its conflagration into a series of small, bickering fires upon the table.

Just thinking of the flame had worn her out in a hearts beat. Her face felt red from the blast of the fire that engulfed the candle.

"Excellent Dearie." The fiend crowed with unabashed delight as though taking no notice of the fire dancing upon his table. Waving his hand once more, the guttering fire remnants upon the table died. Thin trials of black smoke curled to the ceiling as the only indication of the awry magic.

"I was dubious you could do it so early on." Rumpelstiltskin admitted aloud. Putting a hand to his chin he added. "While your power is vast, you do lack control. I think that will be our biggest hurdle."

Breath wheezed in her lungs as she looked into his eyes. Anger bubbled in her heart towards his words. "You mean…you mean you asked me to do this, knowing I could very well fail?"

"You will fail many times." The Dark One replied sagaciously as he walked behind her oaken, high backed chair. His fingers curled about the wood as he looked down at her from the top of the seat. "Magic is not like weaving or blacksmithing. It is a delicate craft that requires a skill beyond those of flesh or mind. Magic comes from something deeper, something tied to our emotions. I did not lie to your father when I said you will face things worse than death. Some magic is very dangerous and tricky. Pain comes with our craft as you no doubt experienced. But the rewarded." He chuckled lowly, his eyes glimmering devilishly. "The reward makes it all worth it."

Flourishing his hand he banished the blackened mars on the table. "Enough for the day, girl. Now it's time for you to clean. The castle needs a caretaker now, not an apprentice."

As the beauty rose tiredly he pointed a talon to a closed red door at the side of the main hall. "You can start in the larder and work into the kitchen. Remember, I want another pot of tea at four. I shall be at my wheel thinking if you need me."

Rebellion burned hot in the beauty to be treated as an owned thing once more, but she complied dutifully.

~8~8~

"Not a bad start." Rumpelstiltskin admitted whimsically as he escorted the beauty down the corridor to her dungeon.

Silently, the girl rubbed the back of her aching, knotted neck. After their small lesson she had spent the rest of the day scrubbing and dusting the larder and the kitchens. In the interim, she had tried using the focus of flame once more only tiring herself out more.

Her body ached in places she didn't know existed as she walked beside the monster. Magic was a fatiguing thing along with back breaking labor. Was her fate always to be too exhausted to do anything but sleep as the sun went down?

The door to her cage swung open lethargically with an inkling of his purple magic. Wordlessly, she lumbered in. Abruptly a humoring smile curved her tired lips as she reveled in the humble sight of the straw awaiting her. How could an old blanket and a pallet of straw look so welcoming? Her bed in her father's palace had never looked so fine to her tired body.

"You will awake at dawn to have my tea prepared. Afterwards you shall gather the straw from my stock and lay it beside my wheel." He informed her in a trill. "And one more thing." Purple magic clouded the air at his words.

At the tingling of dark magic flitting uneasily through the air, the girl turned about. Surprised, she sucked in a breath to see what lay in his hands. A blue dress rested in his hands like an offering. The garb was simple, yet looked beautiful in its humble fashion.

"I promised you a dress." He held out the attire almost bashfully, his lips hiding a wide smile. "This is yours. I don't want to see you in that gold rag anymore."

Taken aback the beauty took the soft cotton dress. "Thank…you." Touched by his gift she turned away from him, her mind wondering where she could put the garb without having the dirt and muck of her prison mess her attire.

"Belle." He declared aloud as she looked longingly at the meager pallet of straw and the thin blanket.

She turned to him, her eyebrows knit curiously. "What did you say?"

"What I've decided to name you. Your new name is Belle." He explained with something akin to gruff gentleness. Abruptly he lifted her chin in his hands tenderly as though observing her intently. "The name fits you. Good night Belle."

In an instant the door closed and he was gone; the only remnant of the creature the fading echo of his boots along the stone.

Staring down at the soft garment in her hand, she felt the fibers and little needlework of the blue. Why had he done such a thing? He could have easily have left her to rot in her old torn clothes as a permanent reminder of where she had come and what she had been. Yet he chose to wipe that life away as though it had never been.

A smile came unbidden to her lips as she stroked the cloth tenderly. "Belle." She mulled over the moniker given by her master. The title he gave her wasn't bad, and at least, she felt tears brimming in her cobalt eyes at the thought, at least it was hers if nothing else.


	3. Cleaning

_A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing guys and gals!_

**~8~8~**

Belle stared forlornly down a dark, ominous corridor on the third floor of the Dark One's dreary stronghold. Low torches guttered insipidly in their stone sconces casting dreary light down the dim hall. Gray cobwebs hung heavy with dust particles in the blackest corners and the tops of doors like ashen, festive garlands morbidly wreathed about the rarely habited wing.

Every large room was littered with thick layers of grime and dust that had settled in long ages past and had only gathered with the years of blatant disregard. The chambers, while gilt and ornate with gold and silver trappings and cloths of gossamer and silks, were unkempt and hidden behind the veils of mistreatment and filth. How could one tell what priceless vase sat upon a column or golden trimmed mirror hung upon the painted walls if they were shrouded behind three inches of dust?

Exasperation burned as an inferno in the beauty's strong body at the sight of the long corridor that promised yet another day of hard labor. A vast arsenal of cleaning implements sat to either side of her, ready to be plucked up and used to banish the evils of dust away. While she did enjoy the hard, honest work, her body flinched in protest of another lengthy day of scrubbing floors on her hands and knees and washing monolithic windows and sweeping the dust from every corner.

Indomitable, she forced a staunch smile to her full lips, coercing herself to think positive in the face of tedious labor. Perhaps one day when she had matured to a good, promising potential in her gift Rumpelstiltskin would not demean her any longer with drudge work. Perhaps the labor was a cautionary remainder that if she refused to take up the skill with anything less than all her will she would be confined to back breaking chores the rest of her days.

Pushing the vastly unpleasant thought far from her mind, the beauty focused on what had gone right that would mayhap graduate her from her station of mere housemaid to full time apprentice.

Another lesson had transpired fairly well with the Dark One. Little by little his words were beginning to make sense and his teaching something that did not leave her mind awhirl and lost in a murky slough of confusion. Beckoning flame was still a fair challenge, but the power came easier to flare through her blood before sent the image of flame forth into life.

Though she knew her master was loathe to admit it, Rumpelstiltskin was impressed by the strength within her to grasp and wrangle the wild power flowing through her blood so easily. The determination and sheer will to summon forth her power had taken him aback though he oft tried to hide his thoughts and feelings behind a mask of thin smiles and cruel quips and tittering laughter. Her master did not commend her often, but when he did she felt proud for having an ease to summon up the power lurking within.

Yes, she would to show she was determined and skillful to whatever task he sat before her! Soon he would recognize she did not mean for his magic lessons only to be at his fancy or when he found the time. She would be a dedicated student who would devout most of her time if he but gave her the chance.

Staunch will welled within as she lugged the wooden bucket to the first door. The faster she cleaned the faster she could be afforded well needed rest or mayhap spared time to work her new found skills of the arcane.

"Quite a work load ahead of you, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin commented amusedly as he appeared behind her in a cloud of lavender magic. The tingling sensation of his power hummed lightly through the air like a feeling of a storm upon the wind. His magic always felt akin to spiders crawling up and down her skin when he used it so close to her.

A squeal of surprise nearly fell from her lips as she jumped at his sudden appearance. Part of him delighted in catching her of guard, she knew, to frighten her as he melded from wherever he hid himself.

Fire mounted heatedly in her cheeks as she spun about fearlessly to face him. One hand curled into a tight fist, the other holding the bucket, she took an intrepid step forward so he was only inches away. Fury danced in her brilliant cobalt eyes all aimed towards him. "I wish you would stop trying to frighten me." She glowered angrily to the smiling fiend, trying to keep the fire of her rage alive.

What anger she held to him strangely felt quelled when faced with his mischievous, puerile grin. He was like a giddy, unmanageable child who at long last had finally found someone to play with.

"It is but another skill you will learn, Belle." The fiend's scaly features glowed faintly with the soft light from the dirty windows as he spoke. "Soon you will know how to detect my presence when I use magic to appear. Until then, I think I am entitled to a little fun." He sniggered impishly, reveling in catching her off guard.

Stalwartly placing her nerves in check she frowned sternly to hide the urge to smile pulling coaxingly at her lips. "It won't be fun for anyone if I die of fright when you think to scare me. What if I had been on a ladder or upon the stairs?" She perched a brow questioningly, a hint of a smile curling her lips. "Hmm, what then?"

Chuckling with strange sinister softness the monster cupped her chin gently with his wiry talons as though his pointed nails would scar her flesh if he was too rough with his treasure. Cocking his head to the side he stared at her strangely, his eyes unfathomable pools of midnight. "I thought you weren't afraid of me my brave Belle."

"I'm not." She slapped his hand away, her eyes icy blue gems narrowed upon her master. Shivers crawled up her spine at his touch lingered upon her milky skin, but she forced the sensation down. Every time he touched her she felt the spark of something in her body. The feel was not unpleasant, but there just the same filling her head with strange thoughts she could not comprehend.

In truth her words was not simple pride or boast and foolish braggin. The beauty did not fear him in any real sense. Certainly she was wary of his vast magic, but even when he was in a dangerous, surly mood she could face him bravely without feeling herself a shivering mass of terror quailing in his wrath.

Taken aback by her words, a hint of confusion wrinkled the face of the magical fiend. Truth glimmered in her eyes without a hint of denial or deception. Was she truly not cowed by his beastliness?

Forcing the troublesome thought away he masked his uncertainty with a tittering chortle. "Brave words for a slave, but fear not, I have not come to scare you out of your skin." Flourishing a hand carelessly through the warm air he turned upon his heel and faced his back to her. "In fact, I've come to give you something to work on whilst you clean. Something that will have benefit for us both."

Curious of his chirped words she sat the heavy bucket to the marble floor. Pearly suds sloshed unnoticed at her feet as she leaned against the wall. "How will it help me and you?"

A sly smile weaseled eagerly upon his gray lips though she could not see his wide grin. "Allow me to demonstrate, Dearie."

Turning carelessly to the mop beside the bucket the Dark One summoned his power forth with practiced ease. Amethyst magic seeped in thin mist from his wiry black fingertips. The power snaked slowly through the air upon his silent behest, guided with ancient will alone. Tendrils of puissant magic brushed and coiled sinuously about the wooden handle of the mop as though the mist were some form of varnish. Slowly, the magic sank into the wood till merely a faint trace of purple power was present to the eye.

The mop began to rattle as though some invisible hand had taken the haft and held it aloft. The gray tapered ends fluttered and snapped through the air with power, going rigid and then limp or wavy like shifting worms writhing in the muck.

Belle watched with wide eyes as the mop plunged into the sudsy waters sending soapy liquid all about upon the dirty floor. Water dripped steadily from the mop as it magically raised itself from the bucket and began to slosh earnestly across the grime covered floor spreading water and foam in all directions.

"There." Rumpelstiltskin announced victoriously as the mop made the filthy floor sparkle to its old silver, marbled glory. He turned back to her once more to bask in her surprise. His smiled stretched from ear to ear as he proffered his hand to the cleaning tool. "This way you may clean and learn at the same time. As your skill grows so will your mastery over these things where you may clean the castle from top to bottom one day all the while in true study of your gifts."

Amazed, Belle turned to her master. Confusion and a tinge of dismay laced her lovely features. "But…I…I can't do that yet. I can barely light a candle!"

"I never said do such magic's _today_, I said work on it." He reminded her with a reprimanding cluck of his tongue. "Indeed you will not be able to do such a feat for many months if not a full year to come."

Blinking owlishly, her brow furrowed in confusion. "If you could do this why haven't you cleaned the Dark Castle before my arrival? You can make mops dance upon a whim and at twiddle of you fingertips but you wish me to clean by hand?" Did he enjoy seeing her scrubbing away like a scullery maid, or perhaps he was trying to make her so tired she would never try to escape again.

"Too delicate for a former princess' sensibilities?" The Dark One inquired in a trilling, mocking tease. A hand went to his chest in feigned shock. "Shall I lock you in a room with an embroidery needle and have you darn and mend my clothes and spend your days languishing about with that trifle skill, milady?" Even though only after a few weeks he had spent with the curious, brave woman, he was certain she was not distraught over the loss of her caste or bemoaned her fate of hard work as many princesses would have. Still, the temptation to poke at her was too good to be denied.

Pride hurt, the beauty straightened as though insulted. Her words were as crisp as the glimmering crust of snow upon the mountain peaks. "No. I simply don't see the sense in any of it."

"It's not your job to see sense." He countered expertly, his voice calm and assured. "Your only task is to do that which I demand. And if, or when, you manage to do this there will be no need to physically lug burdensome wooden buckets up three flights of stairs and tackle a whole hall of rooms by hand, will there?"

Before she could retort, he disappeared in a curling clouds of his lilac stained magic, leaving her to evoke her works by magic or labor. A sigh of abject frustration fell from her pink mouth as she rolled her eyes at her eccentric, strange master. He could be so utterly infuriating at times!

Turning about again, she found the magic had left the mop like a puppeteer who gave up the puppets strings. The old brown mop lay down upon the clean floor in a pearly soap puddle of wet; once more lifeless and prone as before.

Picking up the mop, the beauty echoed another tired sigh and headed for the first door. The gold latch was caught and stubborn and almost rust-like, holding testament to its age, as she forced the door open to the chamber that had never entertained a single person.

Dust billowed through the air as she stumbled haphazardly inside the filthy confines. Particles of grime laced her throat and nose sending her into a coughing fit. Her eyes felt afire and grimy as she rubbed the dust away and forced herself into the room with a stoic will.

The room was ornate but covered in filth. Dust layered the trinkets of vases and tapestries set into the chamber. Furniture that should have been covered by white sheets lay covered in grime. Rat droppings liberally spotted the marble floor and on the crystal vanity. Thin draperies of light blue hung from the windows were ridden with a myriad of moth holes. A bed laid close to the titanic windows made up with expensive cloth that had also succumbed to the ravenous gluttony of moths for ages past.

Determined, she would try to work the wondrous magic as the Dark One did. Heaven knew she would try with every essence of her being, but she was doubtful of any outcome. The master had been practicing his dark art for many long ages. Belle grimaced at the thought as she shooed the dust away with her hand. How could he possibly think in a handful of long months she would even be ready to consider magic to make objects move upon her command alone?

Confused by the thought, the beauty tucked the contemplation in the back of her mind to perhaps bring forth whilst she cleaned. For now though, she had to rely upon brute strength alone and perhaps the sliver of hope she could truly do the magic she had witnessed in the hall.

Inside the dust filled room, her red, stinging eyes drifted covetously to the lavish, oval bed by large, filthy bay windows covered in grime. Garnet silken coverlets draped the wide bed lavishly and pillows of goose down heaped the front of the bed till they nearly covered the beach headboard. Intricately painted murals of bucolic forest life lay above the place of slumber as though to give some tired soul good dreams. Part of her yearned with fierce longing to simply crawl into the little piece of heaven and sleep until her body did not feel dragged upon the ground.

How she wished to sleep in a real bed again instead of a pallet of dry straw. How she wished she was not subject to a man-thing's wishes and fancies at every turn.

Laying the mop against a cream painted wall, the beauty padded in front of the cleaning tool and focused on the mop as she had seen him do. Jaw set and eyes narrowed upon the mop she stretched forth her hand as though to grab it. Magic surged hotly through her veins in a dead gallop of novice power. The magic churned and frothing in her veins like waters in a raging gale in her veins ready to be loosed, but the control was a lacking factor to unleash all her latent abilities.

Aiming the hazy red power to the haft of the mop she willed the device to move. Using every fiber of her limited taught skill, she honed in on merely the mop and her desire to have it slosh itself in the bucket of soapy water and glide over the floor.

True disappointment did not spring to her soul as the mop remained still as ever before. She had not gotten to that certain stage and perhaps wouldn't for a long while yet.

Dispirited by the thoughts of long months of hard labor, the beauty grabbed a white and gray duster like a royal scepter in her grip. Blowing a wayward stranded of hair from her features she decided on her first area to tackle. Perhaps her master whished her to figure it out on her own without more lessons on the subject, perhaps he was merely taunting her limited skill.

A low sigh erupted from her frowning lips as she padded to a heavily carved armoire laden with dust. Focusing on what new ways to make the magic work, she flung herself into the arduous day of cleaning. Dust flew through the air with every brisk stoke of the ample duster. With each mote of grime falling to the floor determination welled within her.

She would find a way to make it work. Some how.

~8~8~

Late evening sun crept into the pristinely washed windows of the third floor proclaiming the nearing end of the bitter winter's day. The world outside laid in a crystal white bed of unblemished snow spread in heavy drifts. Alabaster frost stretched out like a sea in all directions only contained by the mountain that cupped the dale where the Dark Castle stood gray and ominous in the land of white.

Exhausted from her toils, Belle limply sank down to the still dirty floor. Agony from rummaging through heavy trunks and carry loads of thick, extravagant cloth throbbed in her back at even the slightest movements. The mop clattered loudly to the grimy marble floor as though a weapon being thrown down in defeat against the forces of dirt.

Tendrils of umber hair that came a loose from her azure bow curled and wisped freely about her face and gummed to her dirty skin. Fatigue traced her lovely features as she wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her hand brining back a smear of dirt.

Pain flared through her appendage at the once simple action. Her hands burned and throbbed with her exertion. Fresh, raw calluses broke against her palms making her hands feel akin to slabs of meat.

Her only break in the tedium of cleaning had been to serve that Dark One his tea and gather an extra load of straw to be conjured into gold for his wheel. In such small time of relief his smirk followed her only bolstering her determination.

For long hours the beauty toiled relentlessly attacking dirt and grime with her frustration and will. She had labored till her determination was fueled by only vapors of her resilience, and still she had nary finished half of the rooms! Of course through her strenuous cleaning she had tried working her power to accomplish what her master had done. Magic would have assuredly made her quest faster, but she remained as inept in that delicate art as she was many things.

Body tired beyond all comprehension, she felt her eyes began to lower with the sheer fatigue of relentless labor. Her eye lids felt cumbersome and too heavy to lift. Her breath slowed to a peaceful pace as she fell easily into the realm of sleep. Head to her chest, the beauty was fully asleep in less than a moment of taking a break.

In her dreams she imagined the cleaning tools alive and working upon their own volition.

The old yellow sponges cleaned the towering windows, making them clear as though there was no glass in their panes. Soapy mops, laden with pearly suds, swirled and danced upon the marble in a tune all their own. They looked as though gracefully waltzing with one another as they glided effortless to clean the floors and make them shine. Black dusters swayed happily against their eternal enemies of grime and filth upon the ornate trinkets that laced every chamber. Thick blankets flew from old chests and quietly snapped themselves clean of dust in mid air before folding themselves back whilst large brooms swept away their dust and dead moths quickly.

The dream was a vastly pleasant one where she knew all the implements worked at her commanded. Her crimson magic powered the mops and brooms and dusters with but a thought.

Night had fallen into tranquil darkness when the beauty finally awoke. The pallid moon was a smiling slice in the velvet firmament sending silver slivers stealing through the panes. Moon beams danced across her skin, dappling her creamy flesh in light and dark shades of shadow and light.

Dread clamped tightly about her heart at the thought of not finishing her chores. Would the master be cross with her, was he simply awaiting in the hall with his vile smirk and leather clad arms cross with an "I told you so" ready upon his lips?

Alarmed, the beauty shot up from the dark corner, her heart racing frantically in her chest. Her azure eyes widened into twin pools at what stood before her. Part of her thought herself still in the realm of peaceful repose and dreams, but the cold and the world about her attested she was awake.

The Dark One stood at the threshold of the door directly across from her. Surprise instead of anger or cruel ease pinioned his gray-gold visage. Arms crossed he stared at the same thing that caught the beauty's eyes with the same vast astonishment.

The singular mop, powered by Belle's crimson magic, stood into the center of the ornate chamber finishing the last of the moping in the now thoroughly cleaned room….


	4. Control

"How did you do that?" Rumpelstiltskin demanded to know as he padded determinedly into the cleaned chamber. His voice was frail with disbelief of seeing the mop twirl wetly upon the floor with the last speck of dirt upon it otherwise polished surface.

With a forceful, flippant wave of his gray-gold hand he pushed her magic's away from the mop. The once enchanted tool tumbled uselessly to the floor in a squelch of brown, tepid water forming about its end.

Confusion twinkled brightly in his ebony orbs as he searched her with frenzied alarm. A tinge of wariness he could not mask behind a veil of neutrality carved against the flesh of his scaly visage. She should not have been able to coax such power, simply no possible way.

Magic ensconced him like a steel buckler, ready to protect him at a moments notice against any lingering magic she might have. Whatever caused her abilities to spring forth could snap upon him if he was not careful. Some magic did not mix fluidly with one another when not held in check. At any given notice, if her magic still flowed and gushed with the strength of a raging river, the power could snap upon him like a rabid wolf.

Steps echoed dully against the marble, the sound pointed and clear unlike the muffled foot pads of the once dust ridden chambers as he strode further into the lavish quarters. Mind awhirl, the Dark One looked down upon the lifeless mop. The toe of his leather boot lightly, curiously even, kicked the still mop as though it were some animal playing dead. The tool scraped against the floor but lay still without any wafting provocation of power.

How had she even brought forth such magic so soon? What had she been doing all by her lonesome whilst tucked away cleaning the ages of grime away from his things? Such power wasn't supposed to happen so soon. Magic should not have surged so passionately, so fragrantly and wild through her veins and leapt like cavorting sparks from her flesh. Her powers were to have been novice at best, but before him were the signs of someone who could be a master sorceress far more powerful than Cora had been or her wretched daughter.

The thought that he truly did not know how much power she held stuck him with the force of a lightening strike crashing against his heart. Wariness beat a faltering tempo in his black heart forcing his body to wince with its churlish sting. A spark of fear he had not known since he had been a cripple trying to figure out a way to save his son a bloody, gruesome murder in the ogres wars flooded through his unctuous, black blood. He was a creature who enjoyed knowing the details set before him and finding security and comfort in the nest of plans and cunning he erected. Surprises, especially when it came to magic, were not something he appreciated in the slightest.

Belle stared incredulously at the befuddled Dark One as though she might see the inner workings of some mischief. Brow beetled, she attempted to decipher the signs wrinkled upon his face. Perhaps he was trying to throw her off, see the thoughts of her mind and coax out an inkling of deception he thought there behind her wit and tender words. Yet, some foreign seeded deeply in her knew none of what had occurred was at his behest.

"I…I don't know what happened." She admitted lowly as his astonishment remained.

Normally his features were aloof or amused or neutral. Never had she seen such surprise upon his face. No, he was not playing one of his jokes or luring her into a clever trap. _She _made the mop and sponges and all other implements come to life.

Strong steps from the fiend echoed about the room as he closed the distant to the beauty. Eyes of charcoal focused upon her with an unearthly interest. Fear, as much as he smothered down with his centuries old, stalwart will glimmered in her depths. She was more afraid than he, though she looked upon the fear with bravery. Not certain whether to be impressed or disgusted with her insoluble courage, he shook his head. "You shouldn't have been able to do that."

"You keep underestimating me it seems." The beauty stood proud. Chin jutted, her blood thrilled with the excitement of magic to hide away her breathless terror. No longer would he mock and laugh at her attempts to conjure flame. In her dream riddled sleep she had proved her powers could match his own!

A faint smile broke upon the Dark One's scaled visage, shattering the spell of astonishment. Once more he was the mollified, always perceptive monster. "Perhaps I do, Belle-of-mine. You continue to surprise me which is no mean task."

For a moment the calm assurance in her words cracked. Uncertainty flared across her face as though struck by a heavy hand. "So what happens now that you know my power can do this?

Beckoning a hand towards her he turned for the door. "Come, the hour is late. We'll talk on our way. I need to figure out how exactly you accomplished this feat."

Nothing good ever happened with a powerful magic user who didn't know how or why to control their gifts. Stories in every dusty annals of the realms often held tales where a rare magician of true worth did something catastrophic though they did work their power by accident. Entire civilizations had been annihilated and extinguished like candle flames with but a mistake with magic!

Even he, when the magic of the kris first hummed through his veins, had so much to learn though the dagger bestowed him with knowledge. Night after night he had spent honing his craft and untangling the puzzles of magic with the knowledge implanted in his mind he had yet to put to the test. There had been many a failures, but success was sweeter than honey.

Things were moving to fast, he knew imperatively. Worry niggled at his black heart like a splinter lodged in his flesh at the thought of his plans speeding away form his thrall. If her power developed any faster, her absolute control and training might be well out of his prowess to manage.

As they departed, Belle concentrated firmly upon the blue shoes that matched her dress. Every so often she flashed him surreptitious glances as though seeking to find his thoughts written upon his ponderous features.

Embarrassment filled her as she heard the ghost of his words from earlier. Perhaps she was simply a spoiled princess who could not even work hardy for a few weeks, let alone the rest of her days.

Swallowing the acrid bile of her pride the beauty cleared her throat to grab his attention. "I…uh…I'm sorry for falling asleep on the job." Her eyes peered into the dimness before her, unwilling to see his little grin that would assuredly smear his lips.

Face blanker than the crisp snow about them, the mystical fiend kept his thoughts carefully hidden in his soul. Of course he had known when she would be too tired to continue cleaning at some point. Part of him had planned to creep up and scold her for resting while she should have been dusting and sweeping, but instead, strangely, despite the cruel darkness tempting him, he had allowed her the rest. Now the cleaning, against all his expectations had been finished and grandly so!

Awkward coldness drew upon his face like fronds of ice. Never would he say he would allow such action, but there was no need to scold her unduly. A monster was he, but not frivolously cruel. "Don't let it happen again." Came his gruff reply trying to seem strict and hard but failing in his normally infallible masks. "And don't try to clean again using that magic until you know precisely how."

"All that matters should be that I did it shouldn't it?" She followed at his side, her face laced with curiosity. Though her mind whirled with fright at her abilities beyond her ken, part of her wondered why he had not snapped upon her for falling asleep. Tucking the odd thought away, the beauty focused back on the conundrum at hand. She had the power and she had used the magic skillfully, what else mattered?

He snorted in stark derision. "Hardly, Dearie. You don't even know how you did summon the power to your call. You were asleep and some how the magic slipped out. Magic is dangerous power to be trifled with so..." He paused and waved his fingers through the air to emphasize his point. "Frivolously."

"Then surely this warrants more time to look into why this happened; more time to hone the skill you said would take me a year to master." The beauty parried ingeniously. Her lips fought to hide a tactile grin against him.

Taken aback by her intelligence he paused his trek down the lonesome corridor to truly appreciate her cunning. The trap she had so expertly laid before him had been sprung and he lay caught in its fangs with no way to turn. Nothing else was as of much importance or blockaded their paths. She needed direly to master her gift before it set forth from her control permanently.

A smirk of admiration pulled at his thin gray lips shrewdly. "Clever. Sneaky but clever." Offering a slight gesture of acquiescence to her words with a tip of his head he continued. "But you are correct. At the rate you are taking with magic your duties should focus more on the power than brooms and mops. Control is of the utmost importance now to us."

As the pair came to a flight of ivory, spiraled steps the Dark One stopped and veered a sharp right away from the stairwell as though suddenly changing his mind in some private matter.

Quizzical wonderments flared thought the beauty as he picked another path down a dark hall. Clutching fistfuls of her blue dress she hurried to follow. "Where are you taking me?" She inquired curiously, her eyes puckered into the murky darkness to breach its ominous shadows.

Silence reigned for long moments before the magical fiend replied off handedly. "My apothecary." His voice low, he continued on his way, nary looking back to the surprised woman trailing him earnestly.

"In the West Wing?" She prompted, her tone laced with incredulity. Forcing her pace closer to him, she stared in unabashed surprise. The west she was forbidden to enter on pain of being transmuted into a toad or serpent if he discovered her in his sanctum. "You…you said I wasn't allowed any where near your potion room."

His apothecary was where he usually was when not spinning stalks of worthless straw into laden spools of twinkling gold. Regents of strange plants and other odd ingredients all went into his apothecary never to be seen again.

A lump of wariness arose in Belle's throat at the thought of why he wished her to go into his apothecary. Did he wish to study her like some strange animal on a butchers slab? Shove toxic, nauseating potions down her throat or test her magic with strange devices?

Delectable irony stung the fiend like a scorpion barb to his brilliant senses. The sweet poison of fate burned acridly through his veins. How he enjoyed a good dose of irony even upon himself at times.

A thin smile curved his thin gray lips whilst he took her through the winding halls and gaping apertures. "I also said, predicted even, that your magic would take a year to develop to such a degree. With new discoveries things must change." He replied as he stopped at a dark wooded door.

The stoic portal before them stood massive and impenetrable like a slab of the rock instead of wood. Strange runes and engravings covered the door as though claws had carved them out in their crude shapes. Twists and whorls and foreign letters all danced in a jumbled upon the unknown wood.

Even with her novice power Belle could feel the magic rippling from the door and pulsating like a hearts errant beat. Magic layered the wood like a shield covered in steel crafted to be and impenetrable force. The mystical carapace was fortified with centuries of spells and enchantments and wards to guard against someone breaking in to his apothecary and tampering with things beyond their ken.

Words tumbled lowly from Rumpelstiltskin mouth as he waved his spindly talons across the door. Black fingertips touched certain runes molded upon the door as though they were some lock. Purple power shimmered against the wood then faded, leaving Belle bereft of the tingling of magic that crackled from the wood.

"What did you do?" The beauty queried as she took a careful step to the door.

"Simply making my apothecary accessible to you, Dearie." Explained the Dark One. A tittering gleefully chuckle escaped his mouth. "I can't have the risk of you being disintegrated at a mere touch of a door."

Surprised, the woman eyed the door mistrustfully. Her fingers curled against her side on instinct. "You mean had I even touched the door I would have died?" Belle balked with astonishment.

"There are many dangerous things in this place, Belle." He explained sagaciously. "Your curiosity could mean a horrid fate if you touched the wrong thing."

Without another word, the Dark One opened the door with a wave of his hand. A large, oblong room appeared before them heaped with filth. Potions coated with centuries of dust and cobwebs glimmered dully behind the grime upon thick shelves that surrounded the room. A miasma of color twinkled in every hue and dappled the coarse gray floor and the cold stone walls with mottled radiance.

Phials and vials cluttered tables or sat forgotten upon their sides in dark corners, their insides long gone. Yellowed parchments scribbled with notes lay scattered upon the tables haphazardly dotted or smeared with blots of dark ink like dollops of black blood.

A dark iron cauldron swung over a cold hearth carved to the back wall of the windowless room. Dribbles of black and brown crust clung in a dry trail to the sides, testifying that the Dark One was not too concerned of what spilled out over the flames that bickered beneath the belly of the pot.

Out of all the rooms she had seen and cleaned in his citadel this was the filthiest of them all.

"Don't mind the mess, Dearie; you'll soon learn to ignore it." Rumpelstiltskin commented absently as his Belle began to mill about the once denied terrain.

Curiosity burned like a blacksmith roaring forge in her eyes at all the strange sight met before her. Hiding his amusement to her relentless curiously, he padded through the clutter to a chest tucked to the back of the wall next to the hearth.

Kneeling he flicked open the chest and began rummaging through its contents whilst he spoke. "This will be where we shall hold council when I teach you more…lethal magic. The spells upon the door did not only keep things out, the runes also prevents things from escaping."

Coughs, teased forth from the dust, wracked the beauty. Waving a hand to push the dust away, she spared the Dark One a clandestine glance of nervousness. "What…what kind of things?"

Smiling in silent amusement the Dark One took a moment from his search to point a wiry finger upwards. "Take that for instance."

Blood seeped away from Belle's lovely features as she slowly craned her neck to the vaulted ceiling. Ivory bones of some titanic creature dangled above them. Its crested head was as large as she was tall. Fangs bigger than broadswords lined its maw in rows that told the silent tale of ultimate death and carnage in bloody agony if caught in the once strong mandibles. Five long, thin bones stretched out from each side of its back so that the longest of the bones touched the walls with its tips easily though the room was massive. Spike sharp claws, four on each foot, curled like cruel daggers awaiting to rend to unlucky soul to bloody ribbons. The bones of the serpentine tail was curled upwards like a scorpion's barb ready to strike.

The bones belong to some beast of primordial age, something that had once ruled unsurpassed by any above or below.

Magic kept the skeleton aloft, making the bones seem almost lifelike. At any moment she expected flesh to creep over the bones like mold and blood to surge through its dried veins and spring to life.

"Dragon is the word you are looking for Dearie." He snickered impishly as he looked back, reveling in her shock and awe. "Or what's left of one."

Unable to take her eyes of the terrifying skeleton words strangled past her tremulous, throat. "How…how did you…."

"An accidental summoning." Rumpelstiltskin sighed as though the matter had been little more than an inconvenience in a rather droll day. "We can clearly see who got the better part of that fight."

"Then after you slew the thing you decided to string it up like a trophy to gawk at." Anger simmered in the beauty at the thought. Seeing the bones above reminded her of her former betrothed. He too had liked to go off gallivanting the realm of her father on hunts and bring back the finest prey to hang upon his walls. Part of her sometimes wondered if he had slain her that cold night in the forest would he have had her stuffed, placed eyes made of glass in her skull, and hung her upon his wall? Her former people considered magicians some sort of beast anyway, why not one garbed in human skin?

Hearty laugher tumbled sonorously from his lips. "Try looking at it closer, Dearie."

Curious, the beauty puckered her eyes towards the bones above. Fear filled and froze her vines like flows of ice as the head turned an inch towards her. There was no draft in his apothecary, no haunted wind to move the bones aloft in the towering rafters like a puppeteer's hand. The bones were moving.

Grunting as he stood, the Dark One traipsed leisurely over to the frozen beauty who stood looking up at the bones that looked down upon her with blazing hatred in their black, eyeless sockets. Her face was pale as death and nearly as white as the bones hovering above their heads.

A slight giggle escape his lips mockingly. "I do forget so many times your people were afraid and ignorant of anything they could not understand. Magic is extremely dangerous if not used carefully and expertly. I summoned the creature in hopes to have it wreck havoc upon a kingdom. When I summoned the monster not everything made it through. I uttered one word, one inflection, of the incantation out of place and that was the result. It came through the portal looking like nothing but bone. The rest of the dragon is still their, only invisible to the eye. After the battle and I learned my mistake I summoned another with no issues whom I then let free upon the kingdom."

A brow arched, he turned to her questioningly. "Do you know why I have him strung up there?"

"That's…that's what can happen without control. You have it snared up there as a reminder that magic is wild and can do devastating things if not done to the letter." Belle concluded breathlessly.

Oh but she was perceptive! No one had seen the meaning of what he wrought quite like his Belle. Regina had only looked upon it as a sign of his power, oh but there was so much more to it than that!

Rumpelstiltskin applauded her wit inwardly as he watched her stare with awe upon the creature. Pity wrinkled upon her features toward the creature caught forever in some spell that kept it aloft and alive.

Padding a step closer to his apprentice, Rumpelstiltskin chuckled lowly. A wide grin stretched his lips almost inexistent as he held out what he had been searching for. "Since you seem to have an understanding about how dangerous uncontrollable magic can be perhaps this will be easier."

Tearing her gaze away from the beast above, she stared at he beast beside her. Anger heatedly swelled, mightier than the gaze of hatred from the dragon, in her chest to see what he held before her in his grip: a thin metal color of silver. Swirling, flowing script of black engraved the collar in a fluidity of strange, ancient words spoken in a tongue time had forgotten.

Fury chocked her words in a stranglehold of her throat. Hands curled into fists she glared daggers at the Dark One. "How dare…what…I refuse…."

Uncaring of her emotion flickered upon his face. "Yes, yes, yes, your pride will be hurt and all that drivel, but for the sake of your apprenticeship allow me to explain. Long ago, even before I was a thought, many people had magic. The power was not rare or feared. The collar is an ancient tool made to assist those who lack the control to govern their magic while learning to control their gift. It will help you control your power." Rumpelstiltskin cajoled gently and tipped his chin upwards. "To help prevent instances like that."

Anger flared in her eyes like embers of a roaring blaze. "No!" She was not a dog or a prisoner headed for the gallows! He wished her to put a collar on for what?

"Do we need a repeat of that fellow above us?" The Dark One flickered his eyes to the skeleton forever locked in the magical disaster Rumpelstiltskin had wrought.

Hardened with the fire of anger, she held her tongue knowing no reply would suffice. In some regard he had a point. Her magic was uncontrolled; a catastrophe was simply simmering inside for her power to go awry like the candle that had charred in flames, only worse. The magic was wild and it indeed was waiting for a chance to slip out and wreck havoc.

His ebony eyes softened for a brief moment in understanding. Belle was as free as the mountains summer wind billowing down the peaks. Having something so…degrading would be horrible, but it had to be done.

"I can't make you wear this." He revealed freely, taking a risk to perhaps coax her trust. "You must lock it in place and wear it. Your magic is evolved so rapidly in the course of but a spattering of weeks. What you have been subduing all your life in fear and hatred is bubbling forth like a lidded cauldron with to much presser within. We must have a way to stymie the flow so that it comes gradually and not erupting. It's uncontrolled and snarling and rabid and just waiting for the moment to overpower you. Believe me when I say magic has a will of its own; a wild will and without the reigns of control it can do monstrous things." For a moment his words seemed tender and human and understanding. "I'm not trying to collar you Belle; I'm trying to hold back the magic that wants to burst forth."

Had she not shown how much prowess lurked in her veins the step could have been avoided. Learning at her own pace would not have been a trial and dangerous chore had her power not manifested so. A trickle of magic was nothing, a typhoon of her arcane gift was a different matter altogether.

Despite her fury, his words rang true in her mind and heart. The magic brimming inside her was akin to wild, rabid wolf galloping through her mind. Power was unfettered and ravenous in her blood.

"And this will control all the power into something that can be managed until I grow in skill?" She asked anxiously, her heart dropping at the thoughts in her mind that considered putting the device about her neck.

The Dark One merely replied with a nod, not trusting himself to say more and frighten her back into refusal.

"Fine." Belle growled furiously through grit teeth. Humiliation washed over in a tide threatening to drown her will. The magic had to be reigned in, no matter how infuriating.

Inwardly relived, he lifted the iron collar towards her akin to an offering to an idol. "I promise you, you will still have full capabilities of your power at your disposal, just not in gouts you cannot manage."

Of course, though she would still be capable in her prowess, her limited flow would be a boon to him in case she ever decided to have recourse to slay him. The collar did not come without some sort of control in case she ever thought to use her magic against her tutor.

Hands shaking in abject fury, the beauty took the circlet of silver in her grip. Her thumb smoothed over the flawlessly smooth metal as though in last debate with herself. Sacrifices, even inward ones had to be given at some point. If nothing else at all Rumpelstiltskin had been brutally honest with her magic and powers. Her journey would be a hard one filled with things she would not wish to do or see, but she had to. How could she allow herself to be thwarted by a dagger sharp stab of pride?

The choker was cold to the touch as she hastily wrapped the metal around her neck. Part of her there was no sense in making the pain an arduous ordeal. Skin skirted icy silver, making her blood boil with fury despite the chill of the metal.

Pulse throbbing in her milky neck, the collar snapped on with a small click, settling in place. In an instant the lock melded like molten metal, blending the two ends into one so that the chocker was smooth all around with no seeable way to remove the collar.

Magic hummed against her quaking body, thrilling against her flesh with a zephyrs kiss. The power lurked and skulked ravenously in her mind instead of galloped with the wild frenzy it wished.

Taking a deep breath she forced her anger away. His words, while difficult to accept, had all been true. The collar reigned in her zealous power and haltered it for better control.

Adjusting the collar about her neck, she grimaced as she forced her hands away, refusing to acknowledge or touch the device. "What now, Rum?" She inquired, purposefully using the name he claimed to loathe.

"Now." Rumpelstiltskin smiled cleverly, his hand fluttering though the air as he motioned to the potions. "We truly begin to make you a sorceress."


	5. A Stone Heart

_A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing lovelies. Pie for all! :3_

**~8~8~**

Frail winter sun stole insipidly into the main hall of the Dark Castle. The frayed edges of the dark red, velveteen curtain nailed over the monolithic window panes allowed only a few honeyed beams to trickle inside the fortress of the ignoble Dark One. What little light managed to find its way past the somber shrouds was bolstered by the flames nickering in the hearth allowing luminance against the ominous gloom and dank dimness of the beast's stronghold.

Multicolored jewels glimmered effervescently against the rare slants of golden light that danced upon their faces. Belle weighed the king's ransom of glimmering rocks in her cupped hands heavily as though judging their worth. The heap of gems in her hand could have kept a kingdom rich for months in the most lavish wants.

Brow knit thinly in concentration, she stared piercingly at the bibelots with the eyes of one who now saw beyond their beautiful facets and rarity.

"Certain stones have certain properties." Rumpelstiltskin explained in his tittering, nearly jovial tones. Plucking a diamond out to the sizable horde of precious rocks he raised the faceted jewel up to his puckered eye and pinched the gem betwixt two fingers. "Diamonds and crystals make excellent channeling charms whilst an opal per se can be used to soothe a sudden flash of anger. Some stones can be used to track whilst others can make you…" He snatched up a flashing garnet and waved his talons revealing nothing in his hand. "Disappear."

A quiet giggle involuntarily escaped Belle's full pink lips at his quip. Despite his snapping beastliness, at times when it seemed the evil in him was not plying to some mischief, he could be humorous when given the rare moment.

Head cocked slightly to the left, Rumpelstiltskin stared strangely at his apprentice as though the thought of laughter was a foreign novelty to his senses. Screaming and curses was what he usually received from others, not smiles and chuckles. Someone in her position did not giggle or grin so freely. She should have been throwing him killing looks and brooding over her lot in life and how hard he pushed her evolving powers.

Laughter came freely and fearlessly to her lips. Even in the deepest of studies she could manage a faint if not worn smile to him though he knew not why.

Abruptly, her smile dissipated leaving a ponderous frown. Her gaze settled once more on the cold stones, so heavy and powerful in her hands. What once her people and herself had seen as mere extravagant trinkets of the wealthy to be worn about necks and laden upon fingers or tools in mad inventions held powerful magic behind their faceted sides.

Having the chill gems in her grip whispered her ignorance on the ways of magic her father and people had shunned. How long had they denied the power of magic? How long had she been taught to hate and shun and force from her mind all consideration of the art?

A sigh tumbled past her lips as she carefully deposited the jewels upon the main hall table. The sound of expensive gems clinking together rankled through the air as they piled neatly in an affluent hill.

"Even the poorest of serfs in other realms had a simple understanding of magic, while my people remained in the dark. How am I to learn all of this?" She flickered her plaintive gaze to the tea sipping Dark One.

Despite far better cups at his disposal, still he employed the chipped cup she had dropped on her first day when he told her of the fate he had brought her for. Though he was strange she had to ponder why he never tossed the broken trinket away. Surely he could repair the chipped cup with but a spurt of magic and a wave of his hand if that was his desire.

"Make notes." Rumpelstiltskin giggled impishly in reply, taking delight in teasing her. Neither Cora or Regina had taken to his wit and humor as Belle did. They were always irked with his quick quips and snappy come backs, but his Belle seemed to almost enjoy his playful banter.

Lips pulled to one side Belle eyed him with a hint of mirth. "I'd have a library full of notes by the time I learned all there was you possessed to teach me." Already she felt her head ripe for bursting like a plump melon filled with knowledge.

The magical fiend nursed his steaming cup thoughtfully. "Then why not simply use the library if you are so indeed worried of forgetting the things I teach. There are plenty of tomes on every subject I shall endeavor to teach you."

Her eyes grew wide towards his words. "We…you have a library…?" Eagerness, barely subdued with a stoic calmness, fringed her soft tone.

"Of course." Rumpelstiltskin snorted in reply. He owned a vast estate and a monolithic castle that had stood for ages. Why should he not at least have a place to gather any tomes of worth?

Over the centuries that crawled by for him, he had collected a sizable store of tomes, scrolls, books, ledgers, chronicles, and compendiums from every corner of the realms he traversed. No story or book or tale had escaped his library in some form. Even if it was scribbling of a children's book!

Nudging his head to a door on his left he delicately placed the tea cup upon its painted saucer. "The library is on the second floor two halls to the left."

The heavy chair Belle resided upon scraped hard against the stone floor as she nearly leapt up like a scalded cat. To have a place read once more! Losing herself in a book had oft been her only escape in the hard, factual land of her father. While knowledge was welcome in her father's court, he shunned all forms of literature that suited leisure or incredible tales.

The few precious books she had owned unbeknownst to her papa were faded; crumbling children's books she had read thousands of time when she knew no one else was about to scold or report the tomes to her strict father.

Now simply a few doors and steps away lay a true library! A place she had no fear of being discovered and lectured over the vices and absurdities of fiction.

"Were do you think you're headed to, missy?" The fiend placed a claw firmly but not rough on her slender arm. Hiding a grin behind an icy, stern glare, he gestured to the pile of glimmering gems betwixt them. "I need those separated and categorized in their own piles to show what I've taught hasn't gone in one ear and flown out the other. Lest you forget you may not do as you wish any longer."

Bright pink flared in the beauty's cheeks like the rosy tint of dawn upon her creamy skin. Justly reminded of her studies, Belle sank back insipidly into the burgundy seat.

A deep frown pulled upon her lips as she stared back at the jewels. Other princesses would have gladly lost track of time picking their way through the gems and admiring the expensive stones, but she would have rather been sequestered away with dusty, fading tomes than dealing with crystals and emeralds and the like.

Rifling through the stones under the careful eyes of her master, the beauty began her tricky, arduous task, though her mind wandered towards the library he spoke of, just barely out of reach.

~8~8~

"And the sapphires can help in searching for things once lost." Belle sighed gustily as she neatly placed the last flashing gem in its pile.

The main hall table was a rainbow of colors from the jewels she had arranged with careful precision. Magic that hummed in the stones vibrated with happiness with being next to their own kind. Each bit of latent magic was made stronger being beside one another so that the whole table pulsated with earthy energy that transmuted into different aids and abilities.

Forcing herself not to stare covetously at the door for the hundredth time, the beauty focused intently upon the magically endowed stones. The thoughts of mountains of books were a tempting lure in her mind prompting her to wrench herself away from the table and follow its sirens call.

"Good, very good." Rumpelstiltskin nodded slightly as he circled the table. His ebon eyes dazzled with the twinkling prisms that fractured from the stones. Impressed, his thin lips curled with consideration as he grunted and grumbled with satisfaction. "Good enough I suppose."

Hands clasped together to keep from wringing them, the beauty fidgeted slightly. A frown tugged at her mouth as he remained silent and staring upon the gems. The mischief almost crackled off him. He was going to make her ask.

"Well…?"She queried softly, holding back the utter eagerness in her timbre.

The fiend's voice held a laugh as he played dumb to her wants. "Well what, Dearie?"

"May I find the library now?" Belle forced the hint of annoyance out of her voice less he decided on a different recourse.

Silence reigned but for a breathless moment. Her ears yearned to hear the words that finally allowed her to go to what she had dreamed of since she could read.

"You are dismissed for now." He waved a hand flippantly towards her, deciding not to drag out her excitement any longer.

Relief filled the beauty at his words. Offering a small curtsey, she raced away in a flash of rustling blue skirts and fluttering brown tresses.

An involuntary smile twitched upon the Dark One's lips, taken by her elation and happiness. How could one person be so excited for a hoard of old books? Suppressing a chuckle, the fiend followed at an easy pace as though drawn to her glee like a moth to a bickering flame. How could he not be lured to such soft smiles and sweet laughter?

Disturbed by the sudden thought, the fiend forced the particular pondering far in the back of his mind.

Darkness prowling inside him whispered to deny her access to what she so desired but he pushed the cruelties away along with the strange thoughts with a staunch will. Insofar her life had been one hardship after another; why not allow her the little repose of a library if she so loved the yellowed parchment and dusty spines? What mortal harm was a spattering of kindness now and again?

Blood galloped frenziedly through her veins as she found the twin doors that led to the library. The library was not difficult to discover though with so many corridors she had easily overlooked the one leading to the library.

Her heart somersaulted insanely in her chest as she gleefully curled her hand over the golden latches. With a firm push she opened the portals reveling to her a place she had only envisioned in her wildest dreams.

A circular room appeared before her like a banquet hall for a starving peasant. The floor was made of cream hued marble that looked big enough to hold a kingdom full of dancers at a ball. The domed roof was forged of blue glass in a spider work of gold veins that spread like thin roots. Blue glass from above transmuted the warm sun rays that fell from noontide into shimmering azure akin to light against the ocean floor.

The largest of giants could have easily called the chamber home!

Save for the doors, the walls of the grand room were covered with grimy, oaken bookshelves. Books sat clustered upon every shelf without rhyme nor reason. Some looked packed so tightly they seemed impossible to dislodge. Stacks of books spotted the floor where space had run out to house their knowledge and adventures.

Dust layered thick upon the aged tomes holding testament to their disregard. Brass ladders leaned against the shelves, towering up to the highest tier of books in the mountainous room. Crimson couches and divans dotted the marbled floor, beckoning her to sit upon their plush pillows and curl up with one of the precious books.

"It's beautiful." Belle gasped breathlessly. Never in all her life had she seen so many books!

"Odd." Rumpelstiltskin commented more to himself than his apprentice as he followed in. "I haven't met another princess who enjoys reading as much as you seem too." Boredom laced his gray-gold features as he stared about insipidly. He had never much cared for reading even when he had taught himself as a young lad.

Flipping through a leather backed tome nearest to her, Belle sighed dreamily. "I adore books. They were once my singular escape from the world of cold logic."

"A strange activity for one of noble heritage." He observed insouciantly.

Pain danced in her cerulean eyes as though his words had stung her. Holding the book tight to her drumming heart she shrugged lugubriously. "You wouldn't be the first one to think that of me."

None had ever understood her love of books and why they were as precious to diamonds to her. They were her adventures; her place where she felt safe tucked inside their pages and lost in their inky worlds.

Guilt elicited by his careless words stabbed at Rumpelstiltskin heart. The pain in her eyes nearly brooked forth an apology from his cold soul. Sorrowful memories were the last thing he had meant to dredge forth from her heart.

Forcing his sorry down in a hard gulp, the fiend smirked. "Well, at the very least you will not be judged for your strange likings here. The library is at your disposal and all its contents provided for a few things on your part."

"I have nothing to offer you for the use of this place." She stammered, her mind reeling to think the wonderment of the tomes could be snatched away by a simple command or a deal she could not uphold. Clutching the book tighter to her chest, she muttered a plea beneath her breath he would not choose to yank away the one measure of normalcy in her life she had but newly discovered again.

"Consider the library a form of incentive." The Dark One trailed a finger against the spines of the books bringing forth a fingertip of grime. Rubbing the dirty fingers together he watched dust crinkle to the floor like snow "So long as your studies keep I have no objection or qualms to your dallying in the library."

Relief flood color into the beauty's pallid face. A trembling smile bloomed upon her lips. "Of course, Rum, I'll work harder at my studies I swear. "

For a brief moment warmth sparked in his eyes before the cold darkness of his eternal sable depths returned. "I don't doubt it Belle-of-mine."

For what he had in store for her, she needed to be stong in her gifts and if offering her a room full of books would achieve his ends then so be it.


	6. Anger

Long, frigid months in the gnarled, unforgiving clutches of old man winter passed in the realm betwixt the snowy mountains where master and slave, teacher and student, dwelled. Bitter cold desolated all upon the jagged peaks and stony crags save for the gray castle tucked away like a gray jewel in the midst of the mountains.

As time crawled along in the morose winter days, so too did the beauty's power grow in skill. Every new dawn wrought a new ability she would nary have imagined before in the strict, logic dominated, court of her father. Water transmuted to fire, dust could be swept away in a languid wave of the hand and the discovery of magical items that littered the world awed her senses.

Through it all, the Dark One stood at her side always patient and watchful of her gifts. He was never without finding a flaw in her spells or her magic weaving or even tearing a new web of incantations apart and making her do the entire thing over, but he was not cruel in his strict observances. Accolades were rare but given just the same like bibelots interwoven with his astringent criticisms.

Her work was hard and oft tedious but she enjoyed the labor and the cunning it took to manage the power so long brewing within. With every success the magic in her crowed with delight and jolted her to greater heights.

Though hate for him and his arduous demands should have surged through her veins in a tide of boiling oil, she enjoyed when she properly learned a spell and he congratulated her on her growing prowess.

Fear did not rear its abhorrent head when the master lurked about over her shoulder watching her progress or brought forth his magic to entangle with her own when she struggled. She was not disgusted by his scaled skin near her as she practiced evocations with him, but more intrigued and curious when her mind could wander a bit from the tasks at hand. Had a spell gone awry to make him look like such? Was she in danger of turning like that once her power was mastered and matured?

He could be snapping at times when he thought she was not dedicating herself enough to a particular work and still she felt not a niggling of loathing or fear or disgust. Many a time she stifled giggles at his flamboyant ire, sensing more mocking, playful anger than true wrath.

Yes, if she knew anything, it was that she did not hate Rumpelstiltskin nor abhor his teaching. Which begged the question, what did she think of him?

~8~8~

A tired sigh brooked past Belle's lips as she flicked open the thick oaken door and stumbled into her dark cell. The old straw, mottled dull gray and gold, seemed a heavenly berth as she plopped down in the comfortable heap like a heavy sack. Golden stalks flurried about in a storm of straw as she nestled down.

Though the Dark One had not ordered her to her cell, the cage was her only private room where at the very least he allotted her a modicum of privacy. Partially in jest, he long ago dubbed the foul prison 'her room' and indeed treated the dungeon as such.

Pain throbbed dully in her skull as she laid her chestnut head down gingerly into the bale dirty straw. Squeezing her eyes tight against the small slants of light seeping into her room from the tiny squat window above, Belle rubbed her temples delicately to assuage the agony.

Forging magical runes, their more arduous lesson and her least favorite, was a hard task. Magical wards, as Rumpelstiltskin showed, had to be erected by magic then 'written' as it were by the same puissant power, then placed upon an item. Though penning a rune was strenuous, the sigils were extremely powerful and could lay dormant for centuries. Ink could not be used, but pure magic turned into a physical inscription.

Rumpelstiltskin had even allowed her to view the wards he carved into the mountain sides and on the treacherous trail that led to his domain to keep curious visitors away and dissuade errant knights of quests for fame and glory by trying to lob off his head and skewer it to a spike.

If a hapless soul made it past the terrors of the perilous peaks un-flagged by strain and fatigue and not torn to bloody rags by the bitter winter winds, they would be forced to stumble about the traps he so cunningly laid.

Poisoned spikes surfaced from the ground when one of the icy stone was walked upon while another released a ravenous yeti when another living soul was detected. Boulders crashed from impossible places of seeming serenity, unnatural storms of bitter sleet and jagged shards of ice raged rained down from all sides, and even avalanches all happened at his behest with the dark purple runes craved by his hand.

After she had mastered the simplicities of the craft he ordered her to mark her own sigil at the massive doors of the castle. Of course she had been wary to put such a sigil to cause harm anywhere, but then again, her powers were not lethal and if someone could pass his runes unharmed then hers would be but a tickle.

So pleased had the master been by her near perfect showing of her crimson rune magic, he allowed her the rest of the time in the library. Relentless though he was, he was not bereft of allowing her rewards for a job well done.

Smiling lightly at the thought, the beauty reached under the mass of straw and brought forth the book she had managed to sneak from the library unnoticed by her usually observant master.

Normally he would wander about the library with her, hands folded behind his back, looking at nothing particular, but keeping an eye upon his bumbling apprentice when she scaled the tarnished brass ladders or tried to summon a book down. Part of her amused mind thought it almost chivalric how he always tried to surreptitiously keep an eye upon her.

A laugh nearly tumbled past her lips, but then again the side reared upon cold logic that always thought otherwise dried the merriment upon her tongue like a sour taste of a bitter brew. Why would he care about her personal safety beyond what her life meant to him? She was valuable property and he was perhaps making certain she wasn't damaged.

Tossing the conflicting thoughts away, Belle focused back upon the book she would have most likely been denied in taking away from the store of writings had he been there to watch her.

The tome was covered in pale silvery leather, almost like a sickly white underbelly of some beast. A small red tassel dangled from the end of the book, a startling contrast to the drab milky hue.

Clever fingers smoothed about the dull edges as though pondering the tome with her soft fingertips. No marking or title engraved upon the face or upon its ridged spine giving a clue to its contents.

Flourishing her hand thoughtlessly, the beauty summoned forth a host of candles upon the gray stone floor and the ugly squat window high above with careless ease. Orange and yellow flames once paltry and sputtering flared to life in bright luminance turning the dimness into a menagerie of lights. Dark shadows cavorted about the coarse stone walls as she snuggled down into her bale of straw for a clandestine session of reading.

Gray dust fell from the aged pages as Belle creaked open the book stealthily. A quiet sneeze shuddered through her as she did her best to remain silent in case he might hear her and think something amiss. The book was a vastly important one, she knew, one perhaps he may not have wanted her reading on her lonesome.

Her sweet voice was barely above a whisper as she read the first line. "Invisibility: The Supreme Art of Espionage."

A thrill shivered through her galloping blood as she greedily read the almost blurred black words upon the faded yellowed pages. The script etched upon the fragile parchment seemed as though it wished to disappear itself. Latent magic thrummed from the book, dictating its power lied dormant for centuries.

While she had no desire to scrounge away secrets from her master, she wished to learn a few things on her own. Despite their lessons and his nearly kind treatment of her she wished to show how she could learn things on her own without his guiding hand watchful eyes.

Yes, if she could display her prowess to actually surpass his teaching then that would be a boon to them both!

The tallow candles Belle summoned in her cell sputtered drearily in their last few flickering of light. So enraptured in the hidden intricacies of the tome, the beauty only noticed the time had flown by as she found no more words to read upon the last page. Without her lessons the tome would have been meaningless drivel, but endowed with the arts of the arcane she understood perfectly as though born to naturally comprehend the workings of the complicated spell.

A wide smile perched unbidden to her lips as she shut the book. Dust disrupted from the pages billowed through the air in a flurry of filth at the action. Bidding the grime away with but a thought the beauty hefted the heavy tome happily.

Embers of eagerness flared in her indigo eyes as she ran her delicate hand over the book and flicked a strand of golden straw from its bound hide. If she could do such a spell without his aid or knowledge then she could far surpass what he thought even capable of now!

"Very well." Belle spoke strongly to the blackness as she tucked the book away under the pile of straw. "Let's see if this works."

Lifting her hands to the blackness, she seemed akin to an orchestra maestro addressing the magic and the darkness about her. Waving her spell worked fingers coaxingly; the beauty gathered the air in her cell about her as though tempting it to her beck.

The last pathetic flames of the candles winked out with only a tendril of gray smoke wafting to the ceiling as she called the air to heed her powers alone. Wind gleefully harried to her call, whirling about her with its silent tongue and whispering the nothings gathered upon the currents of air. Thin tendril of crimson magic snaked through the wind gliding over her limbs and tousling her hair wildly. Her hands, heavy with magic, worked as though making an imaginary cloak of out thin air.

Magic boiled hotly in her veins, churning her blood in a rampant gale. She knew she could do the spell if simply for the fact the ichors in her veins screamed she could.

Closing her azure depths she focused on the magic she had forged and laid the magic like a mantle upon her shoulders. Cold whispered through her bones with the cruel bite of the wind. Not only had she put the air about her to mask her body, the wind flowed through her as though she were not even tangible sending her figure doused with chill.

Without even summoning a mirror, she knew she was invisible. Keeping her teeth from chattering the beauty reveled in her frosty achievement. Without his aid or advice she had preformed a masterful piece of magic all by herself.

Gladness bubbled in her heart as she reveled in her victory. Flicking her hand with half a thought the iron banded door creaked open. Her steps were as shadow strides as Belle began to thread her way through the drafty corridors.

Gladness roared in her heart as she winded her way down the halls without stirring a candle flame. Oh wouldn't Rumpelstiltskin be more than surprised when he saw what she had wrought in only a few hours!

~8~8~

Greenish brown steam wisped in heavy billows from the iron cauldron burning in the Dark One's apothecary. The hazy vapors trailed lazily to the trapped dragon above wreathing the ancient bones of the creature in the sickly mists.

A chalky, yellow powder rested in a mortal and pestle on the far right end of the mantle over blazing hearth. Potions and regents lined the stone shelf above the roaring fire awaiting use from the monsters hand.

The already slovenly laden tables were strewn with hastily scribbled notes on vellum ends and vials nearly empty to their dredges in a frenzy of experimentation.

Rumpelstiltskin stared intently upon the acrid bubbling cauldron stewing with magical regents. Wortseyes, spiderhair, wolfvenom, waters from a stream that ran backwards, bone marrow from a three hundred year old hag, the feathers from a gryphon, and much more all stewed rankly in the black pot.

Eagerness and expectation danced rabidly in his onyx orbs as he watched every syrupy, green bubble pop sending another ribbon of noxious vapor into the drafty air and the vicious green ooze churn upon itself with unrest. His scaled face glowed in an eerie deathly parlor of pallid green, his skin skimmed by the acrid, hazy steam like the hands of a caressing lover.

Another turn of fate had allowed him to breakthrough the tangled mystery of a potion he had been plying his hands at for centuries! Such a discovery on his part had not occered in half a century. A faint smile pecked at his lips as he plucked up an iron enchanted ladle and dared give the concoction a tenuous stir. A flash of green magic erupted from the hazardous brew but simmered down a moment later as though angry for being touched.

Cackling in glee the Dark One did his best to refrain from an impish skip of happiness. The potion before him could very well be the one to finally have the one of the most powerful elixirs he had never made: a potion to mimic death but not truly kill.

Abruptly the bubbling mixture began to churn more violently. The fiend stepped back, his smile wide, as the magic finished the last stage of the tonic. What once was green slowly began to mutate colors. The liquid roiled and churned violently before letting forth a foamy substance of vermilion. The boiling stopped as though cold leaving only a syrupy liquid in the pot and the foam it had wrought.

"Yes." The fiend hissed lowly, his normal falsetto timbre tinged with dark triumph.

Plucking up a glass vial with a pair of wrought iron tongs, he carefully dipped the glass container only enough to gather the crimson foam. If he mingled even a drop of the liquid with the foam the potion would be ruined and he certainly did not have all the fabled ingredients on hand to start anew should he fail.

Carefully, ever so carefully, the fiend filled the bottle, his hand as certain and unwavering at stone. Breathless, he marveled at the blood-like foam conjured by his genius. Regina would snap up the poison in a heartbeat and use the venom when the time was right. The dastardly woman was easily goaded along with the prod of vengeance.

As he drew up the thick phial in an instant he knew he was not alone. Another breath, another heart beat drummed in his midst in an erratic tattoo. Could someone have finally found a way to seek his demise at one of the most important times in all his long years?

Instinctively the Dark One twirled about, all else forgotten but his survival. The vial cracked and tumbled away into the embers. Ruby liquid hissed into the bickering flames and wrought forth a foul steam as he eyed the nothingness.

"I know your there." He snarled like a cornered beast. Dredging magic to his blood he sent out a pulse of his power to banish any other power.

Surprise clenched his heart with icy claws as he saw his apprentice appear in a haze of fading crimson power. Curiosity and wariness glimmered upon her visage as she realized what he had done to dispel her guise.

Anger melted the frost in his heart like a wave of fire as he realized what she had done and how she had done it. She had become invisible and infiltrated his apothecary when he wished to be alone.

So used to her company he had grown lax in his alert. She had stolen into his sanctum like a master thief and he'd only known at the last moment! How long had she been watching? How long had she lingered like a shadow upon the gray walls dictating the recipe to heart?

"How dare you spy upon me!" Rumpelstiltskin roared manically toward the beauty, his temper leaping to life with the fire of wrath. Hard steps echoed like thunderclaps about the large room as he towered over her in a pillar of fury. "I graciously allot you time for your own and you use those precious hours to skulk about like a rat and peer at my doings!"

This was what happened when he allotted her little freedoms, or so the darkness milling in him whispered. An advantage, that was all anyone, even her, sought in life to achieve and gather as much power and influence as possible.

"I'm sorry." The surprised beauty backed away tremulously, her steps flagged with terror. Fear painted her face a pallid hue. Never had she witnessed him so enraged. He had his moments to be sure, but nothing as what was before her. There was some evil and murderous in his onyx eyes, something that whispered her immediate, gory demise with one wrong word or look. "I…I read up on an invisible incantation. I just wanted to try it out. I was coming to show you." Belle explained anxiously. "Why…why are you so upset? You're always encouraging me to learn new spells."

She had only walked in at the last minute of his spell upon finding the door unlocked. By the time she fully slipped in she had just watched him pull out another potion like she had seen him do many a time. What had he been doing to rouse him to such wrath at her presence?

"Centuries I've worked upon this potion and your bumbling has ruined the elixir!" He growled blackly, his eyes peaked with rage. "I'll have to scrounge the realms again to find the regents you foolish girl!"

Faltering words stumbled past her leaden tongue. "I…didn't…I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't!" He turned his back upon her, his ire no less quelled. Incensed at her gall, he flourished his hand dramatically. "Oh but you just needed to find out; another chance to see if you could find a weakness to the Dark One!" She had invaded upon a vastly private matter and seen things she should not have. How long as she been tucked away in his apothecary looking on upon what regents and certain charms he had mingled in the pot?

Staring at the mess of running foam and broken glass, anger bubbled within like the contents of the pot. She needed to learn a lesson on snooping!

"Let's see if a week in the dungeon can dampen that relentless curiosity!" Snarled the Dark One, his temper overriding all reason.

Snapping his wiry talons he summoned the furious magic to his demands. The silver inscribed collar hummed to life effectively stifling her power from coming forth to her demand. Hobbling her magic was only one part of the punishment, but perhaps the worst.

Grisly satisfaction tinged a thin, rueful smile as the beauty disappeared in a spurt of lilac stained power.

For too long he had been dropping her scraps of kindness and looking over faults with a blind eye. She was so unassuming in her demeanor and the ways she seemed willing to learn. He did not think to keep such a critical eye upon her as he had done Regina or her dreaded harpy of a mother. Those he had fully expected to betray him at the slightest opening in his armor, but he felt no such compunction with Belle.

She was not the deadliest serpent he had dealt with but perhaps the most dangerous. Her fangs possessed no venom and her scales not strong enough to constrict, but she had stealth and guile on her side. He could not detect her or truly gauge her intentions.

There had to be ground rules from now on. Boundaries had to be erected and his eyes unwavering from her in case of treachery. His demise meant her freedom after all.

"I shall have to make the warning perfectly clear." He rumbled beneath his breath. "She will know after wallowing in the dungeons bereft of any comfort and kept away from her magic what it means to cross the Dark One and how worse things can be!"

~8~8~

Fury roared like an inferno in his burning heart as he stomped down the slimy stone stairs to the dungeon. The torches sat in their stone scones cold and dead, but it mattered not. His magically endowed sight more than made up for the thick darkness pressing about him with smothering shrouds.

Oh yes, he raged inwardly, a snarl etched upon his lips, she would soon know her place and know her little tricks could not avail her against his cunning thoughts. He would threaten to skin her alive if need be if she ever tried to spy upon him again!

Stopping at the door to her cell, the Dark One stared to fling the door open with a languid wave of his hand. The sound of sniffling and chattering teeth abruptly made him quell the scalding burn of magic in his blood.

Turning the magic from the door to his sight he peered past the thick targ of wood.

The beauty curled against the furthest corner in her fetid prison. Her flesh was ashen and pallid with chill. Not a stalk of straw laid upon the coarse stone straw and the moldering blanket was no where to be found. Cold wafted bitterly through the dungeon assailing her flesh with its gnashing bite down to her bones. Warm tears streamed her face before cooling from the snap of the cold.

In his fury he had taken every small comfort from her, everything that might have made the dungeon feel something akin to a meager home.

Guilt involuntarily knotted like a lumpy boulder in his throat. Hands of shame wrenched his black heart cruelly to see her miserable and afraid of some fate for angering her master. Perhaps she had been true in her words and he had merely lost his temper.

She had no knowledge of potions yet, what need was there to spy? But then she had learned an invisibility spell by herself.

Indecision doused the anger storming in his soul. A dark frown pulled at his lips as he banished the seeing magic away. Mayhap he should not have been so strict and unforgiving or unwilling to hear her words. Perhaps he should have tried to be reasonable.

For a moment he nearly summoned her little luxuries back determined to make amends with his servant. It was not too late to undo what he had done and hear her out. Perhaps they could even patch what had been ripped by their mistakes.

Darkness snapped upon his moment of weakness like a surly dog. His hand fell back limply to his side, uncertain upon what to do. No, if to give her back her little smatterings of comfort would show even an inkling of weakness it could not even be chanced to be allowed. He would never be weak again, never show a hint of frailty.

And yet…

~8~8~

Tears brimmed the beauty's azure eyes as she stared into the darkness of her prison. The tears were not coaxed forth from his pernicious wrath or her stupidity in thinking he would be impressed. No, her tears were not for fear of his anger or ashamed of what she had done. What he had done brought the stinging tears unbidden to her eyes.

She had tried to summon candles or even a blanket, but her powers would not heed her call. In the moments of his fury he had shown something he should not have; a secret she had not known and though did no exist.

Angered, with but a thought he had cut off her powers with the silver collar about her neck. While the magic surged and clawed painfully at her soul and roiled in her blood to be free, the power of the torque kept it at bay closing the flow completely.

He had told her when she had been wary to latch the collar on the magic would be merely held in check, that she would have full control and the collar would simply give her a medium to let the magic flow without overwhelming her. Eyes full of truth, he had lied through his teeth to achieve his ends. Oh he hadn't lied per say, but he had so failed to mention he could cordon off the power at anytime he chose.

Pain leapt cruelly in her body with each moment the magic was not allowed to simply be free. Her head spun in painful waves of agony as the magic seemed to wish to claw out of her. An entire week of the magic bottled up without anywhere to turn accept upon her caused her to flinch. A single tear trailed down her face at the agony that was to come.

Whatever she had done by her egregious error she was to pay the price and perhaps more. Who knew how deep the depths of his fury delved.

Forehead resting her drawn knees, she huddled for warmth and tried to soothe the raging magic within. She would apologize for the mistake when he let her out but nothing more. He should not have lost his temper for such a mistake.

Abruptly the perfume of warm raspberry tea danced upon the cold air. Warmth filled her as the aroma distilled into the air. The scent seemed to soothe the pulsating in her mind adding tranquility to her magic. The fragrance seemed to very well calm the rabid magic in her mind quelling the pain to nothingness with but its aroma.

Surprised, the beauty tiled her head upwards, following the scent of tea like an invisible trail. Confusion flashed in her azure gaze at the sight left for her.

Settled on gilt, silver tray, a blue and white tea cup and the steaming pot sat by the door waiting for use.


	7. Quiet Apologies

_A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing lovelies! Work stuff starts today the chapters might be a tad more erratic. _

**~8~8~**

What was he to say to her, Rumpelstiltskin pondered intently to himself. The master of magic paced feverishly in his apothecary with the singular thought roving through his tactile mind. His wiry, scaled fingers stroked his clean shaven chin thoughtfully as he tendered the blistering question in his fertile brain like a delicate potion to be brewed. Words came to his mind in a string of battology but nothing seemed sufficient to say.

Summoned globules of silvery light pulsated dimly along the grimy, cobwebbed corners of the large room. The chamber was gilded with paltry pale luminance that made the items scattered about seem swathed with silver. All about him in his vast apothecary had been disregarded and untended for a week with his inability to figure a way to address his slave upon what he had done and how he had let his temper take him thrall to slake his anger.

Though he had tried to work the progress was stifled by indomitable thoughts of her reeling incesstantly through his mind. Regents laid moldering upon the tables and un-stored, potions were half finished or simply unmade, and formulas that were carelessly not jotted down when he actually managed to get perhaps an hour of work done all sat haphazardly about him.

The ruined venom of crimson pooled like dried blood in the cold black embers of the stone hearth. Shards of glass, stained black with fire and tinted with the elixir, littered the mess a week later but so engrossed in his conundrum, he paid the spill little heed despite all the trouble it had wrought him and his Belle.

A week had gone by and his Belle's punishment would soon be at its end. What would she do with her freedom and the collars magic alleviated he pondered fitfully. She would know she had been lied to when he used his mastery over the chocker to blockade her power in his moment of rage.

Cursing himself thrice over as a witless fool, the fiend snarled in at his lurking temper that so damned him. He had always had anger, dark and loathing prowling in his soul, even as a crippled spinner. When he was but a sniveling coward he had not dared to rear that fury to those who did him wrong, yet when transformed into the Dark One his temper roared to life more than making up for the torturous years of the meek cripple's existence.

Unless she stepped far out of line he had never meant to enact such power. But so infuriated was he by her accidental intrusion he cared not what he had wrought or what hand he played. Now, riddled with worry he wondered what would be her recourse in light of his lies. Would she refuse another lesson in magic, curse his existence and his fabulist working of words, or simply not deign to speak with him?

Pain involuntarily clenched his heart at the latter though he could not tell why. Perhaps he had gotten accustomed to her relentless questions and pleasant chatter.

The thought of her never wanting any more to do with him had indeed prompted him to give her the special tea brewed for magicians. With darkness tugging him one way and the spark of guilt the other, he had resigned himself to an agreement that quelled both sides. He had not banished her punishment, but instead gave her the tea he kept when even his magic simmered with unrest.

The fragrant brew was a boon in calming the pain magic wrought when not used for long times or too wild to maintain. He'd kept a steady stream her way and even granted her the use of his chipped cup in some form of apology his mouth could not relate.

Now he only hoped it would be enough to assuage some of the anger she rightly deserved to wield against him for blowing things out of proportion and refusing to see reason.

"Rumpelstiltskin." Belle's slightly muffled voice flitted the cool air warily as she knocked cautiously upon the door.

Alarm welled within the fiend's form like a tide nearly overwhelming his thoughts. Dabbing his dry lips with an even dryer tongue he forced strict neutrality upon his gray-gold visage. "Enter." He allowed, his tone gruff to hide the quiver he feared lurking in his throat. How could one woman make him seem so unlike himself?

The door creaked open vapidly as though the woman on the other end was fearful of what lay inside. Cautiously, the beauty poked her russet head though the crack in the door with the slightest hesitance. Tendrils of hair wisped about her milky skin giving her an anxiousness about her. Her sapphire eyes pinioned against him perceptively as though searching for a hint of displeasure at her presence. He had just lessened the collar magic's earlier that morning and she wanted nothing to anger him further and induce the power to halter hers once more.

Her wariness of him plunged a jagged dagger deep into his black, shriveled heart. His Belle had never been afraid of him before and he had enjoyed that. While others sniveled and cringed she stared back at him fearlessly always ready to face him even in ire and brave his snarling beastliness. Had he ruined that simple pleasure with his anger?

Never had a name felt as thick upon his tongue as hers did at that moment. Words of battology faded into the background of his thoughts. The words he meant to say, whatever they had been, fled from his mind like leaves taken away in a typhoon. Her given moniker was as lead filling his mouth as he stumbled to articulate. Why did these things always happen about the girl?

"Belle." He finally coughed politely into a scaled fist barely able to say her name. Gesturing to the nearest table he forced his voice to sound nearly normal. "Let's get back to work shall we. I'll have you penning enchantments today."

Cowardice stung him with its sharp talons rending cruelly into his flesh. He could have said anything but in that moment the coward in him had taken over. If she would not bring up what they had done than neither would he.

"Oh…of course." The beauty replied almost bashfully, her voice fringed with nervous relief. A faint smile penetrated the anxiousness as she lifted a hand for him to wait. "Just one moment."

Before he could reply to her doings she dipped away from view. In a heartbeat she returned with a silver gilt tray in her hand. The pot seeped milky steam from its delicate curved spout, releasing the fragrance of peach leaves pilfered from his kitchen.

Head down to navigate the treacherous footing amidst the clutter of old bottles and yellowed parchment, she carefully balanced the laden tray burdened with the tea pot and cups and sugar bowl to the nearest table. "I…um…I just thought we could have a cup of tea while we work." She explained softly, preparing for him to snap upon her.

The tea tray clinked softly as she let it down gingerly over a slew of papers she hoped not to important.

Flourishing he claw lazily, the Dark One feigned carelessness. "Magic can well serve it, Dearie; you've no need to impede yourself with that onerous chore."

"I know." She flickered her azure glance towards him as she delicately poured the steaming brew into cups. Her shoulders heaved in a shrug. "I like making tea. It really is no trouble and you've had me serve it so long, I suppose I've grown accustomed to setting out cups and saucers for us."

It was a thank you, he knew instantly. Staring at her as she measured the sugar into the cups and a splash of cream in his as he enjoyed his brew he knew instictivly the tea was for ammends. She was thanking him for the tea he gave that assuaged the pain of hindered magic. Though he was not inclined to go back upon her punishment he found a way around to make it not so painful.

Taking the chipped cup from her delicate hands, he forced a nonchalant air about him. Aromatic steam brushed about his gray-gold features as he sniffed appreciatively. Feigning insouciance he sipped gingerly, allowing the warmth to sluice within bolstering his masks.

"Whatever you decided, Dearie. Far be it from me to stop you." He replied behind the chipped rim of his cup.

Silence lorded about teacher and apprentice as they shared the moment of sipping tea. Both leaned against the heavy oaken table, their cups close to their confounding hearts. Each held their private thoughts closed, wondering what the other pondered with every nip of the brew.

Neither would outright apologize for what they had done they knew. No, both were far too stubborn for that and they knew it. Belle, in her infinite Belle-ness attempted to forge amends with tea. Perhaps, or so the Dark One considered, he had to mend his part of the gap he had formed as well.

"So…" Belle broke the quiet tenuously. Looking down upon her brew, her thumbs circled the painted cups rim as she sliced through their peace. "Shall we get to work?"

"Yes but I've changed my mind. I think we shall be doing something a bit less monotonous than scribbling down enchantments." He proclaimed before he even knew what he was saying.

Curiosity laced the beauty's face as she swiveled her head to him. Her brow knit thinly with confusion to his words. Inside her heart thrilled at the prospects of skipping the tedious chore of putting enchantments to scrolls. "What did you have in mind, master?" She queried, forcing her herself not to sound as eager as she felt.

"To long have we been cramped inside studding all the book work." Rumpelstiltskin explained. Nursing his tea, he fought for the words to come to him of their own accord. The damage had been done now despite what he wished to take back what had been said. He had given her something to look forward to and was loathe to renege. "A trip outside on the grounds to show a few things of what you learned is in order."

Belle heart soared with the words that fled his mouth. Happiness molded into a wide smile upon her lips, testifying her unsuppressed joy. Something she had once taken for granted now lay before her in a stroke of kindness from the Dark One. Though a complaint never once fled her lips, she missed the freedom of the outdoors. Months she had been confined to the stolid gray walls of the massive keep with only the dirt and filth of the halls under her feet.

The monolithic windows had been mocking edifices keeping her away from the frozen land. She missed venturing out in the clean air and the crisp breeze with land crunching underfoot, but she nary complained of his orders to be locked inside. Stubborness refused to let him think of her some bratty, spoiled princess.

"That sounds marvelous." She admitted gleefully, nary even attempting to hide her happiness, as she placed her cup down. Hands folded gingerly her lap she waited upon his very word.

Tugging sharply at his brown leather jerkin he pretended to fiddle with the bottom button to keep his eyes away from her dazzling smile. Many a time her mere grin made him wish to break into a foolish grin of his own. Her happiness was almost a tangible force, emenating to him and making him tipsy off the sensation. How could one such a she, a former princess enjoy such a simple thing and how could he enjoy that she enjoyed it?

Magic came to his commanded, surging through his blood without a thought as he snapped his gray-gold fingers. Hazy lavender magic erupted all about them as though dousing them in his gift. The power entierly enshrouded their forms for but the briefest of moments before wafting away like smoke upon the wind.

A gasp tumbled from the beauty lips as she felt the warmth of natty new cloths attire her form. Her blue dress lay banished, replaced by a thick dress of gentle eggshell blue. Rabbit fur gloves were upon her hands and a soft gossamer cloak of green and blue covered her body. Thick, brown boots lined with fur replaced her blue shoes that would never have sufficed in the drifts of snow.

Pleased with the transformation, the beauty drew her eyes to her master.

Rumpelstiltskin primly adjusted his thick, dragon hide cloak about his scrawny shoulders almost majestically. The clock fell to his boots, just flitting the floor. The ostentatious drape glittered with shimmering, golden scales plucked from the most tenacious of dragons. White wolf fur taken from the king of wolves lined the edges and inside of the shroud. A golden filigree clasp expertly crafted in the shape of a dragon, its leathery wings outstretched, kept the mantle in place.

His cloak rustled about his black leather boots as he strode to the beauty. Dipping a low, flamboyant bow he held out his slender arm as though some enterprising knight asking a lady out for a stroll. "Shall we my Belle?" Light hearted, mocking mirth tinged his inquiry.

"Why yes." Belle replied softly to her master. A smile tipped the borders of her mouth as she slid from her perch upon the table. She seemed every ounce a princess of noblest birth as she slipped her arm fearlessly into his. Her body sidled close to his own as though drawn on instinct. Not a hint of revulsion lined her porcelain visage as she patted his arm with her free hand.

For a moment the Dark One simply stared at the sight of her so close to him. How stranger it seemed someone so like her would act as though he was not beastly and repulsive and worthy to be shunned.

Innocent inquiry danced in her azure eyes fearlessly meeting his wretched black depths. "Shall we depart…?" She asked uncertainly.

A dark profanity spat inwardly in his mind with her words. Anger at himself roiled like thunder in his heart for the second time that day. Mindless he had been staring at her, his ancient brain lost in a wandering thought of her.

"Oh…yes…." He remarked lowly as though coming out of some enchantress' thrall. He managed a thin smile as he proffered his hand to the door. "Onward we go."

~8~8~

Beautiful snow twinkled upon the sleeping, frozen earth like a snug, thick blanket over the world. Frost glittered like diamonds in the dazzling dawn sun shining over the mountain climes.

The world before them sat unblemished from tracks or paths forged by beast or man through the banks of alabaster. The barren trees that dotted the land were laden with snow upon every branch like icing upon a cake. The crisp winter firmament that shown above them was a crystal blue bereft of a hint of clouds in their pristine expanse.

Happiness sang through the beauty as she awed at the sight of the tranquil world. Belle breathed in the crisp frigid air deeply in her slender form. Her lungs burned heartily with the cold seeping through her body reminding her what fresh air tasted of. After being sequestered away into the dim confines of the Dark Castle even the chill air seemed a rare treat.

Laughter bubbled from her lips as she disentangled her arm from her masters own and ran out to the world of white. Steamy vapors wisped from her mouth as she raced into the thick sea of snowy delight. Gloved hands clutched the folds of her thick blue dress tightly as she plowed a way through the unblemished dunes.

The flaxen rays of sun cascaded about her, showering her with its paltry warmth. The world itself seemed to bid her a welcome back. Sun danced in her chestnut mane as she gallivanted like a giddy child through the snow. She stumbled once in a peal of merriment only to leap up again and revel in the feel of wind and snow and cold.

A half smile crept upon Rumpelstiltskin's face as he remained in the shadow of the threshold. Merry laughter rang through the cold air soothing his soul and drawing forth a tinge of true hilarity in his black heart. His ebony orbs glinted with the blinding flash of snow as he watched his dutiful Belle in a moment of repose and joy.

How long had it been since he'd seen someone enjoy such simple pleasures? How long had it been since he allowed himself to enjoy humble moments of happiness?

Though long ago winters had been hard when he was but a mere man, his son had always loved the winter and the snow. Even with his limp and their penury they would wrap themselves in every scrap of mismatched cloth and patched clothing they could find and tromp about for hours through the flakes. From dawn till dusk they played and cavorted in the deep snow until his maimed leg was stiff and ached remorselessly for days after. But it had all been worth it to see his sons red face, wide with a grin and laughing gleefully or chattering on about their fun for days afterwards.

His heart jerked painfully at the thought of Bae the sight of his pleased servant dredged to his mind. Wiry fingers twitched erratically to be at his ancient wheel and spin until the memory was lodged far in the back of his thoughts, but he had promised her a small time out from the confines of his crypt and he would not lie to her. The words came suddenly unbidden to his mind in a solemn oath. Never, never again would he lie to her.

Crossing his leather clad arms he leaned against the door, allowing her a time of freedom and play. Onyx eyes remained riveted upon her like a wolf witnessing a strange new creature he could not quite figure out. How…beautiful she seemed cavorting through the snow so childishly, scooping up flakes to but merely toss it in the air and allow the wind to take them where they will in a showering of glistening white.

A chuckle escaped his thin, smiling lips at her antics. Only his Belle would do such a thing. He shook his straggly brown head helplessly forcing the fondness for her that surged within to subside to a simmer. He was the Dark One, stealer of children and eater of hearts; he did not grow 'fond' of anyone especially destitute slave girls who knew magic.

Stepping out of the shadows he flinched in the brightness of the unblinking eye above them. Even the day time seemed to abhor him where it loved his Belle. His gray-gold flesh glimmered like twinkling snow in the sun as he reached her.

Fronds of glistening snow flecked her umber mane as though she had been caught out in a snow storm. Breath billowed in opaque vapors and gasped falteringly from her lungs in the happy exertion of enjoying the cold winter morn. Her body felt afire and her cheeks numb, but how alive she felt in soul!

"If you are quite finished with your puerile antics then let us begin." A stern gaze glinted in his ebony eyes to shroud the amusement he felt melting the ice of his black heart.

Faded scarlet dabbed her porcelain cheeks, more from the nipping cold than his words. Embarrassment mingled with elation sparked an inferno in her spirit. She hadn't been so free since she had been a little girl allotted secret time in the snow by her nannies.

Eyes cast down she stared intently at the churned snow about her holding testament to her childish play. "S…sorry…I seem to have forgotten myself."

Part of him wished dearly to allay her bashfulness but he had not the courage to alleviate her embarrassment. To do so would allow her to know he had enjoyed watching her happy and laughing and free. And perhaps he had wished to join her.

"No matter. Now, I wish to see an example of your learned prowess without any aid." He took a step back and eyed her critically.

Her eyes scanned the blinding white of snow cupped preciously in the bowl fanged by the hazardous slopes. Besides for a few tress that dotted the extensive grounds the world lay empty and barren. "How?" Confusion laced her tone as she proffered her hand out to the white world. "There is nothing here to work with."

"One of magic's greatest uses is making do with nothing but the barest necessitates about you." The fiend trilled impishly. "Show me you can do something commendable without candles to be lit or shelves to be dusted with magic."

Making things out of very little was no mean feat for any magician. Cora and Regina had struggled most of all upon the particular magic of using spur of the moment things on hand. No, their way was more of long intrinsic planning's and schemes that were built about things and people they could use and manipulate.

Taking a deep breath, Belle nodded determinedly. Her eyes gazed at the emptiness about her trying to find the slightest item to allot her an advanatge. The bite of wind nipped against her creamy flesh and swirled and scudded the wayward flakes of frost about the ivory dunes. What could she do to impress him of her evolved prowess with nothing but snow and barren trees about?

Extending her hand out to the thick snow, the beauty summoned her power to her blood. If there was nothing above the feilds of white mayhap there was somthing hidden below. Magic galloped hotly through her veins, setting her blood afire. Cold dissipated from her body as the magic once bound by the collar eagerly leapt free to do her bidding.

Tendrils of crimson mist crept sinuously from her fingertips. The magic slithered towards the alabaster frost like curious serpents released from a cage. Blood red tinted the snow with her puissant powers as magic met frost.

Slowly the snow below her melted into cold ruby liquid. The ground below the blankets of snow was hard and gray and sleeping. Dead grass lay shriveled and damp with vermilion of melted snow. A singular acorn, lost by some intrepid squirrel, her magic had located, lay in stasis beneath the blood chilling cold.

A satisfied smile etched her lips as she focused on the blood like liquid of melted snow. The magic infused wet sank into the slumbering, thirsty earth greedily. With the frail light mingled with her magic the damp grass began to change. No longer was the land hard and repelling, but soft and pliable. Gray stalks turned a vibrant emerald amidst the snow with the vermilion essence. The ground grew loamy and suffused with warmth that desired to no longer be aloof and cold. Almost with a life of its own, yearning to nurture something living, the earth swallowed the acorn.

Forcing a pulse of power through the ground the beauty focused her magic to the shell. A budding, pale, jade steam curled out from the warm land. The thin young plant strained towards the frail sun like the hand of a child seeking a parents. Green leaves studded the plant intermittently, unfolding into shining jade.

"Impressive." Rumpelstiltskin commended thoughtfully. Snow crunched beneath his leather black boots as he strode over to fully observe her work. Hand tapping his chin he circled the plant life amidst the slumbering world about it. "Regeneration, magically sound, structurally sound, and all…" He bent down and plucked a satiny petal from the growing sapling. "Real." A smile donned his lips as he twirled the leaf in his hand. "Wonderfully real."

Many things cold be duplicated with magic and copied to simulate reality but it took greater effort to create something real and true and genuine.

"Instead of mimicking the life of a plant, I sped up the process." She explained breathlessly. Her heart raced from the exertion and the thrill of accomplishing something so risky. Pain flared through her body, but the sucess more than made up for any discomfiture. Just as it had suceeded she could have failed miserbly and had only a melted puddle on the cold earth.

Rubbing the spear shaped leaf between his thumb and forefinger, the Dark One flickered a curious glance to his shaking apprentice. "I haven't taught you that yet."

"I figured it out on my own." She shrugged in reply. Kneeling into the snow, the beauty tenderly coaxed the wiry sapling to grow stronger. It would not reach the full height of a tree, but it would not succumb to the snap of winter and when spring washed over the world with warmth then it would grow stronger than all others.

"What do you mean 'figured it out'?" Accusation laced his tone as he stared down upon her. Had she been reading more books in secert?

Focusing on the tree, Belle mulled over her reply. Crimson magic spiraled the bendy sapling trunk, suffusing it with strength as her mind combed for the right words. What could she say to make him understand? "Times changes all things and sometimes at the least expected moments. What was once hard and cold turned soft and warm and inviting given a little push." Her fingers dug at the soft spring-like ground. "The earth looked hard and wished to deny the acorn, but all it really needed, wanted, was warmth."

At that moment something strange pulsed in the Dark One's heart. Her soft, wise words were arrows singing through the air and assailing his dark soul.

"I never looked at it that way." The magical fiend admitted hollowly, uncertain of what foreign feeling leapt in his heart.

Mischief clandestinely tugged at the beauty's lips as she waved her hand and siphoned her magic away. "Does that mean I taught you something today, Rum?" She queried hiding a tinge of mirth under her ever curious timbre.

"Perhaps." A ghost a smile danced fleetingly across his lips. His lackadaisical steps wandered to the opposite side of the sapling. Abruptly he bent down and waggled a finger at her. "But don't think it'll happen often. I'm still the master of magic around here."

"Of course, Rum." Belle giggled happily, always amused by his mannerisms.

A wondrous ache throbbed in his heart at her laughter. Never before had he thought the sound of merriment so sweet. He could almost taste the glee on his tongue like a dollop of fine honey.

Alarm sparked in his gruesome black heart at the intruding thought sparking unbidden in his dark soul. What was he thinking to even allow such a thought hold court in his ancient mind?

For the first time in eons he was the first to break a stare of another. His completely voided eyes of midnight usually turned others away to stare at their hands or the floor, but never his Belle. She looked at him as though seeing past his ugliness and anger. "Well, we've spent quite enough time freezing. Let's be on our way inside."

Rising to her feet with stately grace the beauty nodded in agreement. Sadness tinged her heart that she would mayhap have to wait another slew of months for another romp of freedom outside the dreary halls of the Dark Castle but what joy he allotted her had been wondrous indeed.

"Worry not if you think this is only a rare outing." Rumpelstiltskin assured her as though reading the thoughts in her eyes. Peering to the jagged peaks of the mist shrouded mounts the Dark One grinned dryly. "Winter shall be vanquished soon. The snow in the valley will thaw and then we may move to other matters best not studied in the Dark Castle."

Crunching in the trail he left behind the beauty quirked and eyebrow curiously towards her master. "What kind of matters?"

Force of will alone kept him from breaking into a grin. "Why how to battle with your gift of course…."


	8. Combat

_A/N: Ugh, my apologies for the wait. Work is busy along with other stuff. So yeah this tale is now under 'don't-hold-your-breath- for -steady-updates'. I'll try to put a few up every week if I can. _

**~8~8~**

Spring's first zephyr clandestinely slipped down the icy sides of the mountains jagged spine. Warmth entwined with the bitter winds of frigid winter and overtook the gnashing cold with vivacious heralding of life. The winds were as a clarion call to the slumbering world, singing for the long sleep to be no more.

Thick folds of frost dwindled into meager crusts of snow with the swirling warmth of life's renewal that breathed and thawed through the rousing land.

Winters deathly skeleton grip relaxed in the face of the coaxing life as always it must in its due course of time. The land slowly awoke to nature's behest and ached and bloomed for the life gone those long months of hard slumber. Patches of greenery sprouted amidst the lessening fronds of frost revealing the wakening world of brilliant jade and soft colors of spring too long hidden beneath the frozen cold.

Pale pink buds sleeved the limbs of gnarled trees, bequeathing them with glorious attire of life. Emerald leaves donned the branches transmuting the sleeping skeletons into awakened persons.

Birds in a vivacious menagerie of bright colors flocked to the warming world in the melting mountains. The plumed fowls, so grand to the eyes that only viewed the white and grays of snow alit the world with glorious melodies in the gray dawn.

A stream, once cast over with ice, surged with the runoff of melt from the mountains and babbled down the rolling knolls of the Dark One's vast estate. The glistening crystal waters twinkled merrily with the bobbing leftovers of hunks of bluish white ice that floated indolently down the splashing rivulet.

Belle stared yearningly out the monolithic panes of the main hall. The wonders of springs return thundered down the mountain faces and splayed out before her temptingly in a bucolic display of life. Never had she seen such beauty wrought from cold and bareness.

Hand pressed to the cool glass, the beauty dreamed of being amidst the warmth and the fragrances dancing upon the air. Her breath misted the crystal panes and distorted the picture of renewal as though the images of spring did not exist for but the briefest instance.

A sad smile curved her lips slightly as her eyes dictated the rejuvenation of life to memory. Spring never seemed so grand in the place of her father. For her people the seasons were but another means to an end, a time to merely plants when the earth was soft and not appreciate the colors and wonders.

Winter had been long and hard with heartaches laid in her life from her fathers shunning her to her slavery to the Dark One. But spring, spring! Her life, like the land, could bud anew and flourish like the living things arising in the world.

Perhaps spring was her time to be the person she could be with her magic.

Abruptly, a cardinal swooped down in a flash of red upon the window seal outside her reach. Plump vermilion feathers garbed his tiny body finely in a suit resplendent of spring. His tufted crimson head constantly moved and quirked as he plucked at his feathers delicately and hopped about the gray seal. A beak of black pecked inquiringly at tiny granules of stone as particular to the gray rock.

A smile blithely touched the beauty's soft pink lips as she accepted the tiny bit of spring so close to her.

"I never figured you one to wander so off track from your studies watching birds, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin chirp impishly, his voice an echo about the dismal hall of his citadel. Heavy, purple clouds of magic swirled through the air as he appeared in the main hall in a roiling fog.

As though sensing the presence of the maniacal fiend, or his repulsive magic's swarming about, the bird darted away as nothing more than a streak of crimson dotting the azure sky.

Watching the avian creatures flee, Belle's shoulders slumped lugubriously. Her fingers slid down the window as though bidding the creature anew. A sigh whispered from her lips as she slowly pivoted away from the window. Dusty books sat littered before her in a sea of complex knowledge unlocked only through practice and study of their ancient text.

"I'm sorry." She rubbed her hand along her brow, forcing herself to refocus. "It's been difficult to keep focused of late."

Nonplused by her earnest yearning to be out in the world, the Dark One pranced closer; his eyes alit with the splendor of impish mischief. "The great outdoors beckons does it, Dearie? You want to feel the warm kiss of wind and delight in the smells of newly born flowers in the meadows?"

Though his cloying voice dripped in mocking of his cruelest sort, the apprentice nodded sadly. "Yes." How could she deny the pining in her soul and the coaxing of the lapis lazuli firmament?

"Wish granted!" Rumpelstiltskin crowed in reply. A tinge of kindness fringed his falsetto timbre foretelling his former words had been but a lure for his odd generosity to spring forth.

For a moment Belle remained staring at the scribble upon the pages before her. Her mind seemed not to access his trilled words as though he spoke a lost tongue. Abruptly, her head shot up to face him. Here azure eyes were wide as coins as she finally drew his words to full understanding.

Her words stumbled upon one another clumsily. "You mean…?"

"Go out? Yes." He confirmed with a succinct nod. "With springs dawn comes the beginning of my infamous doings. Rest assured, Dearie, I do not spend idle time languishing in my castle all year round hoarded away like a miser denying my gifts to none. I amble about the realms making deals with desperate folk, forging destinies into contracts, and the like. In my ventures there comes times when I need to access my defenses. People will try to kill you simply because you are who you are. It is imperative you learn your gift in all ways, not simply make clocks and candlesticks talk."

Fighting. Belle forced a frown not to bloom across her pink lips at the word that slithered darkly into her mind. She was no ardent lover of battle or reveled in the tales of combat told.

In truth she abhorred the thought of combat; men ruthlessly butchering one another for some gain that would scarcely even be their own, or slaying for the mere hatred of their foe. Yes, at times fighting was needed, but to know how to make her magic lethal set a discordant cord thrumming in her heart.

"Don't look so glum, Belle-of-mine." The Dark One peered at her less that thrilled visage, guessing her reluctance. Flourishing his gray-gold talon whimsically he uttered a chortle. "In our training you get to fight me all you will with no ill repercussion upon your part."

That, he figured, if nothing else would wipe the frown that displeased him so from her face. A smile, he secretly cherished, would mayhap play upon her face and that would be enough for him. Who would not relish the chance to spar with the Dark One and hopes to lay a blow upon him? Even with but half a thought, he could draw a myriad of people to his mind who would jump at the opportunity to lay ill against his gray-gold hide.

Dust billowed into the warming air as Belle closed the tome before her. To the Dark One's disappointment, if anything, her frown darkened.

"I don't wish to hurt you, Rum." Belle protested. An all suffering sigh tumbled form her lips at the admission.

Rising gracefully, she busied herself stacking the books surrounding her perch upon the window seal. Gathering the faded tomes close to her chest, her sad eyes were hidden behind the veil of silky lashes. "Despite what you may believe about me hating you and wishing you fall to some horrid demise, I don't. I am grateful to you and do not wish to see you harmed even by my hand. You have been kind to me. When I had only my life you took me into your home and taught me to control the power that heralded my banishment from my father. Should I repay that good favor with trying to maim you?"

A look of surprise slipped past the cold iron wall of his fastidiously tailored visage. Confusion beetled his brow into barely perceptible wrinkles. "Kind." He frowned inwardly at the word she deemed him. Did she truly think his actions were mere gallantry?

"Kindness had no place in it." He denied vehemently like a thief caught with his ill gotten gains still in his clutches. "I needed a servant to fetch me things and do the more tedious work of magic. I convinced your father to sell you. That was not the work of kindness. If I had been a generous, noble monster I would have protected you and set you free with a sack of gold to start off your new life."

Laughter softly slipped from her throat as she spared a glance at his confusion. He looked as though not certain if her words were truth or sarcasm or what guise to enshroud himself with. "Don't mistake me, I know you bought me for a purpose to work and serve with magic, but nonetheless what you did was kind. There was a host of other things you could have done, but you did not."

Uncertain where the conversation was headed, or where he wished to travel the veins of words, he shook his head as though unpeeling himself from the sticky webs of her soft words and tender smiles.

Revelry once more danced in his orbs like glinting of fire in his obsidian depths. Ambling closer to the beauty he banished the books bulging in her arms away with a flick of his wrist.

"Forget the books." The fiend chortled, his lips curved into a cheshire smile. "We go to practice now. Our training will be lengthy and before the end of each session we will have a fight with the lethal magic." He lifted a scaled claw before she could utter the first syllables of protests. "Worry not, my Belle, I have magic that will protect us both from death and fatal harm. We shall have a ring and when one of us is thrown down or knocked out of said ring the bout shall be over."

He knew her well, Belle conceded inwardly as she shut her mouth. In spite of herself a spark of darkness glimmered in her soft heart. Perhaps knocking him about would not be a terrible thing. Mayhap she could put humbleness in him.

Inside, she laughed at the absurd thought. Moving the castle with only her hands would be an easier challenge than humbling Rumpelstiltskin!

~8~8~

The practice ground for master and slave lay behind the castle in a sprawling field down in the sunlight dale. Rays of gold gilded the swaying grasses and the budding leaves of the blossoming trees. Wild flowers of amethyst and blue and gold dotted the carpet of greenery into a wonderful wayward pattern. Had the ominous citadel of the Dark Castle not loomed behind them, the place would have been a veritable paradise.

Though bucolic grandeur bedecked the world and surrounded them, Belle almost loathed treading across the soft grass and the moist earth adorned with flowers as she followed her master. What beauty would there remain on earth scarred by magical warfare? The flowers would be trampled and the day sullied by feats of harm.

Loneness enthralled the beauty at the first true sight of the magnitude of his vast estate. The mountains stood like white capped fangs about them, denying the realms entry from the outside and denying her freedom from within. Sprawled out before them a verdant land lay, but so drear with silence the world was akin to a tranquil graveyard. Children did not play and dash through the grounds, women did not gossip whilst on their matronly errands, and men did not chat whilst going to the fields that could have been scythed.

Slowly, she swiveled her head, and viewed the capped peaks bordering all sides of the wide, wild terrain about her. How lonely the world felt, how lonely she felt even with her master standing near. Pity welled in a surge of emotion for the Dark One. For centuries he had lived in his massive gray citadel bereft of a companion, alone to the world when he strode through the massive doors without greeting. He possessed only his dusty trinkets for company through endless centuries and now he possessed her.

"Lets get started shall we?" Clapping his hand together the fiend padded past her to stand a few feet away. Dark purple magic tinged his wiry fingers as he turned sharply on his heel back to her. "All fighting magic is the use of things around you or the conjuration of things forged of magic. Let me give an example."

Snapping his talons, magic curled over his hand fully. In the next instant a shining cutlass sat in his grip. The curved blade glinted sharply like freshly forged steel in the sunlight. Dark brown leather bound the hilt and a blue tassel at its pommel snapped in the wind.

The blade looked real, wonderfully real, and assuredly cut like the real thing, but it was forged of magic. A lavender tinge graced the outline of the blade, showing its cunning deception to those not gifted with magic. The steel and the curved hilt were nothing save his channeled powers.

Flicking his wrist the sword dematerialized into a haze of dark amethyst smoke. The wind eagerly took the lavender essences ferrying it upon the wind from sight and over the perilous peaks.

"That was conjured magic." He explained. "This is magic that uses the real things about you."

Palm upward, he lifted his hand so that it was above his head. The ground rumbled beneath them both with the effort of some silent magic he wrought. Belle staggered to stay aright with the world quaking beneath her feet. A pillar of stone erupted from the earth in a shoot of crumbly soil and rocks before him.

Belle's eyes widened to see him use magic to such an effect. Neither Arrows nor flame could pierce such a shield of hard land. Even the fist of a giant would be met with pain slamming against such a barricade.

Settling the earth down again as though the amassed buckler had never been, the Dark One chuckled at her astonishment. "The elements bend to our wills Belle. When magicians fight we fight with power." Beckoning to her, he donned an indolent grin. "Come, try your hand. Shoot a fireball at me."

"Rum I'm not…." His steely gaze stilled her tongue better than any words could have.

A grimace marbled his thin gray lips into a line of disapproval. "You cannot be reluctant in battle, Belle. People will hate you for what you are. Even now people hate you who don't even know of your existence. Rest assured they will not wait to slay you if they see a chink in your magic. You must be fear, reviled! If you can draw and quarter a man with but a snap of your fingers have no doubt life becomes all the safer."

"Why must they fear us?" She shot back painfully. The memories of her own experience came vivid to her thoughts. All the mindless hatred pointed towards her told his words were truth, but he was wrong, somehow, he was very, very wrong. "Why do we not show them we can do good things and they there is no need to fear or hate? Instead of teaching me how to disembowel someone maybe we could go down to a disease ridden village where you could teach me how to eradicate a plague or mend broken bones."

"Hate doesn't care or see good deed." He parried calmly. "Hatred doesn't care we could mend wounds or feed the starving. Hate and ignorance see us as powerful creatures, threats that must lurk in the dark woods and only be mentioned in secret. You've seen such. You know from first hand experience. I know from first hand experience."

He had promised himself he would do only good when first he had been granted the curse. His village did not go hungry, people were healed and the lands were bountiful. And yet they still had feared him with as much fright as they did the wolves and monster that lurked in the woods. The baker who once brusquely denied him a loaf of bread to feed his son when they were all but starving, still cowered and groveled and freely gave the newly christened Dark One any food he desired for free though he always offered to pay good coin.

The children he had spared gruesome demise upon the front lines as ogre fodder still screamed and ran from him though many he hand tended to their cuts and abrasions.

He had learned of plots to have him killed by the village elders because of who he was, not of what he did. And in those times a darker Rumpelstiltskin had gained ground. Once he flexed his magical prowess the rumors of deaths ceased and only respect and obedience and safety wrought forth of terror remained.

Sighing resignedly the beauty called flame to her hand. In someway, she noted inwardly whilst the magic surged forward, he did have a point. Fire crackled hungrily against her palm as though willing her to sent its every gluttonous fangs out to devour what it could. With the force of practice, she molded the wild fire into an orb of weak flame. Thrusting her hand out, she willed the ball of death to his person.

The undulating mass of fire hurtled his way like a comet shot from the sky. Fear arose in her belly like bile as he stood calmly, making no move to deflect or extinguish the blaze. What was his game to do nothing? A panicked shout erupted from her mouth just as the fire ball careened mortally close.

Up snapped the Dark One's hand, his grip eager and ready for the roaring sphere of fire. The orb of flame hit his outstretched hand with little force. She might as well have tossed a child's ball to him rather than a blazing streak of fire!

Her magic flickered and bickered angrily in his hand though he remained un-branded by the gluttonous fire. With a low murmured word his magic whispered over the flames, dispelling them in a sheath of smothering purple.

"Powerful and effective." He raised his hand again to inspect his palm. Minor blisters, angry and raw red, scored his fingertips were he plucked the fireball from the air. Rubbing his fingertips, he nodded with impressments. "You're a natural."

Guilty of the pain she had caused, the beauty turned her head to the swaying grasses about her dress, unable to look at the damage she'd wrought. "I hate fighting." She spat. Goosebumps lined her arms at the thought of turning her magic on him.

"You'll soon find irony is the lot of those who wield magic." Rumpelstiltksin chuckled mirthlessly. Pain of long memories no amount of spinning could ever eradicate from his memory danced in his eyes. "It's always what we don't want that we get."

Stunned by his own words, the fiend cursed himself quietly as a witless fool. Why did he say such things about her? How did she manage to surreptitiously sneak open the door to things best left hidden and forgotten?

Banishing the thought, the Dark One turned his attention of his tingling wounds. Purple magic coolly tinged his blistered fingertips sending a healing pulse through his hand. The flesh transformed back into its healthy gray-gold bereft of injury.

Flexing his hand to be rid of the last twinge of pain, he allowed his heart to give way but an inch to her. "Since you hate the lesson of protection, I'll make you a deal, Dearie. We shall fight here and now. Should you win against me there shall no more lessons. Instead you may use that time for leisure to amble about the grounds if it pleases you. But if I win I'll teach you how to fight and I'll have not another word of how much of a distaste bloodshed leaves on your tongue."

Turning to him, incredulity flared in her eyes. Though he lied to her once, something prompted trust for him though her senses screamed he could not be believed. "Truly?"

He held out his hands in admissive reply, his lips tipped with faint amusement. "Truly." He echoed softly. "No rules, no holding back on your part. If you manage to fell me or make me submit you are the winner."

A confident smile bloomed happily upon Belle's lips. Eyes aglow, she found a fire deep inside that thrilled at the one chance to never have a lesson in willingly using her magic for combat. If she was the victor of their scuffle her days would no longer be confined to lurking the halls of the bleak castle like a specter lost upon its way to the realm of the dead. She could let the sunshine kiss her cheeks and feel clean win tousle her hair and warm her flesh.

"Wait." She paused suddenly, her sweet tone dubious. "What will you do?"

The fiend shrugged carelessly. "Laugh mostly I suppose. If and when I grow tired of your paltry magic's trying to subdue me, the bout will be over and I expect you here the same time tomorrow ready to learn how to skin a man alive."

"A deal it is then." Belle nodded tersely.

Summoning the roiling flood of magic in her veins, the beauty aimed a testing fireball at her opponent. His hands did not even shoot up as the fireball collided against him, or tried to.

A glowing shield of invisible magic cocooned his body better than any suit of infallible steel armor could have. The shield shimmered with the impact, revealing its nature for a brief instance, but little else. Tongues of flame licked greedily about the shield, trying to find a foot hold to greedily devour flesh to no avail. The flames struck the barrier only and slid down to bicker and die upon the earth in smoking embers and ash.

"How is that fair?" The apprentice gaped in surprise. "How can I even try to win if magic cannot harm you?"

He giggled in his impish way and winked roguishly to his surprised servant. "You'll learn that when you lose."

Of course, to a degree using such power was unfair. He was the only sorcerer who could conceive such a shield and no matter how tenacious she fought or how strong her magic she would never best him. Still it would be an easy way to have her learn the art without her broaching displeasure rather than seeing her reluctance.

Lips thinned into a pale, pink line, the beauty stoically faced the problem before her. Sending her magic down to the earth she summoned the land to her bidding. The verdant earth, proliferated with flowers, swelled in a wave towards him.

"Clever." He admitted as the wave of rock broke over his shield like an angry gale swept breaker. The earth slid away still leaving him unscathed. Dirt slowly tumbled to the earth to pile at his feet in tiny mounds. He shook his head as though pitying her. "But ineffective."

Magic after magic Belle tossed to the smugly smirking Dark One. Shards of glassy blue ice reigned from above, fire leapt beneath him, and an arsenal of weapons conjured of magic broke themselves upon his shield.

Boredom laced his face as the last arrow of magic she flung at him snapped upon the carapace of magic. The conjured missile faded into crimson mist and shredded away even before it struck the fire scorched earth about him.

Breath labored from her lungs in a burning inferno. Her muscles ached from the strain magic put upon her slender body with the effort of conjuring. Catching her breath, she let her hands fall limply to her sides. For an hour she had assailed his shield trying to pierce a hole in its hide, yet it remained as unscathed as her first attempt.

"Ready to admit defeat yet, Dearie?" Rumpelstiltksin trilled enjoyably as though enjoying some fairs act.

"No." She shook her head resolutely. "Never."

There had to be away. What kind of magic could get through his shield? The elements could not penetrate the wall, neither magic nor any magic displayed about him. Brilliance struck her like a bolt of lightening she had reigned down upon him.

Hiding a grin, the beauty eyed the beast with tenacity born of a stern will alone. She would see herself the victor! Gathering her power she shot and array of conjured fire towards him.

Hiding a yawn behind his hand, he tapped a boot impatiently. "Fire again? Are you running out of ideas so…." He got no further as a charging Belle tackled him to the verdant ground.

Breath squeezed from his lungs at the sudden surprise impact of her body clashing against his. The world spun crazily for the Dark One as he collided with the earth. Soft grass broke his descent but the shock numbed any pain at all. She had felled him!

Belle stared down upon him victoriously. A large smile donned her beautiful face prettier than the flawless sapphire sky above them. It was only then the fiend registered she was lying atop him.

For an instant the world did not revolve. The birds did not sing their glory of springs returned. The wind did not ripple the tall grass. The babbling stream did not flow its eternal course. In his thoughts and senses there was only her and the feel of her body press with his.

Rebellious strands of her chestnut mane ticked his face. Her lovely eyes encompassed his world. Her flesh felt undeniably soft where milky skin met rough, scaly flesh.

For a moment, he wished himself brave enough to wrap his arms about her if just to recall what the feel of another enclosed in his arms was like. Perhaps, the part of his mind not tainted by the darkness dared dream she would accept the hold of the monster and allow herself to lay snugly in his arms as the spring sun warmed them.

"You blocked anything magical trying to harm." She declared breathlessly, her azure eyes dazzling with triumph. "And I never wish to harm you."

"So it seems." He managed to say with out a hint of frailty in his timbre. He only blocked what he saw as a threat, did his mind not think of her as another who could backstab him?

For a moment both lay silent in the tall grass, her atop him, in her victory, and he in his failure, yet loathed being anywhere else.

"Well…?" Belle prodded, wanting his utmost assurance for the task that was so ill with her soul.

Frowning, the Dark One nodded. "Yes, yes no more lessons in combat. Now if you please…."He gestured to his pinned body beneath her.

Scarlet painted her cheeks at the sudden realization. Never had she been so close to a man in such a way! "Oh! Yes, sorry…." she mumbled sheepishly as she scrambled off of him.

As she rose, he leapt up ungainly, off kilter by her actions. His body felt clumsy and numb an uncertain with her no more to his skin. Part of her scent lingered upon him like the scent of ale on a drunkard though far sweeter than any vile swill. Both stared strangly at one another as though not certain what thoughts dashed in their minds.

Abruptly a large shadow wheeled from above and darkened the ground where they trod. Both craned their necks upwards to see what cast such a large darkness. An enormous raven, a sable stain upon the pure sky, cawed its raucous presence from above. The deathly sound echoed singularly about the mountains as though murdering the sweet trills of spring birds.

Circling above them as though they were rotting carrion, the ill omen of a bird swooped betwixt them in a flurry of feathers. A tiny silver scroll case was tied to its legs by a leather strap that flashed in the sunlight. The winged creature squawked irksomely and snapped at the beauty as though hating her.

With a flick of his hand, the Dark One slipped the case from the stick-like appendage. Knowing its task at an end with a shrieking caw and an awkward leap into the air, the bird gained heights and departed from whence it came over the glistening mountain peaks.

Opening the epistle with the snap of his wrist, the Dark One studied the note laid in his grip. Fathomless dark eyes followed the small dark letters scribbled upon the page, his mouth working in silent reading.

"Who is it from?" Belle inquired curiously, unable to quell the flames of her inquisitive nature from the strange fowl's presence.

Holding the letter lightly in his grip he considered the weathered parchment thoughtfully. "An old apprentice." He admitted distastefully as though the name left a sour taste burdened upon his tongue. "Regina."

_A/N - This is an alert from the Storybrooke national evil queen warning system. Regina is coming. Run. _


	9. Meeting

"Who is Regina?" Belle accusingly demanded to know as she followed after the sprightly Dark One into his ominous stone lair. Her lovely face lay contorted with misunderstanding and concerned beetled upon her flawless brow.

Was she a friend? A fellow magican? A...lover? Even at the thought, her stomach knotted dangerously though she was not certain why the contemplation bothered her so.

He muttered a half hearted, almost bitter chuckle. "Weren't you listening, Dearie? An old apprentice." Replied the fiend as he entered into the main hall.

"Why did you never mention I was never the only one? That there were others like me and you?" She inquired icily. Her reprieve of spring was a forgotten thought in the opaque mists of her mind with the new revelation so flagrantly touted before her. Despite herself the flames of jealously roused in her heart and spewed errant crimson sparks that burned her soul to dark, bitter char.

"I thought she needed no introduction. Have you never heard talk of Queen Regina, undisputed queen of the realm of king Leopold?" The feigned eased himself into his ornate, heavy carved chair at the head of the table. Tiny scroll still held in his grip, he unrolled the yellowed epistle to examine the neatly penned words further. His eyes scanned the dark lines as though some trap or cantrip lay nestled beneath the inscription.

Belle gaped with unabashed shock, her eyes large pools of cerulean. He had trained the Regina who became queen! Even in her realm where her father shunned talk of the outside world or their succor, they had heard the tales of the vicious; murderess monarch Regina who attempted to slay her step child, and anyone who dared defy her will with her spells.

Maurice remained far away and small enough to be naught but a simple thought, but they greatly feared her power and wrath should her eye turn to them. What should a realm who shunned magic do if the powerful mistress of magic declared war upon their heads?

Inadequacy welled hotly in her veins and perniciously boiled the bile in her body. He had trained a queen, the most powerful queen in all the realms at that! How small and pathetic she must have been to train; a mere slave for his whims to bustle about with minor magical chores he seemed too lofty and puissant to tend to himself.

"She's…she's very powerful then?" The beauty asked lowly, refusing to allow the feel of inferiority to mingle in her voice and reveal the deficiency she felt stir uneasily in her heart.

Holding the yellowed parchment to his features he murmured off handedly as he remained to examine every last scribble and jot. "Extremely powerful."

"Have there been any others you have taken under your tutelage?" Her eyes searched the heavily carved table unable to meet his gaze. How many more, with greater power than her had he tempered into master sorcerers and witches with the occulted arts? Had he trained Merlin or Madame Mim?

He nodded simply as he tenaciously, stubbornly, fought the bitterness and abject fury stewing in his black blood of betrayal the memory of Cora dredged up and evoked in his heart. With Cora he had been a fool; so easily lured by her cunning and ruthlessness just bubbling below the surface of that dainty face swathed with turmoil.

With Cora, he thought he had found one to share his dreams of power; one as blood thirsty and vengeful as he, willing to do anything to achieve their goals. Even a monster became lonely and so many years bereft of companionship, he had fallen into her lustful trap of womanly wiles and became drunk off her hunger for power until she ripped a gapping, dripping hole in his soul. Of course she would hold a bitter sweet place in his black heart, but one he would nary like to know again.

Placing the note down, a near regretful sigh tumbled from his frowning lips. "Only one more. Regina's mother. But." He held up a finger. "Rest assured of your place, Belle, I have no intention of taking another apprentice after you or replacing you. You shall suit my needs quite well."

At least, Belle comforted herself slightly, that was one small mercy. A certain pride swirled in the simmering pot of unwarranted jealousy and deficiency in her disrupted soul. She was to be the last taught by the Dark One, an honor of some sorts.

"So." She neared closer to her master, her eyes alit with enflamed curiosity. Cocking her head coquettishly to the left she peered at him with unveiled concern. "What does the note say?" Trepidation cringed in her soul though she masked her wariness. Would he even allow her such knowledge?

The fiend flourished his hand lazily as though it was no serious matter. "Spring is here and the world wakens afresh with troubles and turmoil. We normally meet in these times speaking of deals we could hammer or enemies made and other matters."

"Just an invitation then?" She could not contain the relief in her voice.

"Perhaps." He stroked his clean shaven gray-gold chin with wiry claws. "Oh but you'll see what this meeting holds, for you, Dearie, are coming with me."

~8~8~

Belle felt her stomach leap like a salmon swimming up a mighty river as the midnight carriage rolled at a breakneck pace of over the dry, rutted dirt road. A blot upon the sullen day, the ostentatious carriage dashed down the forest thickly bowered roads like a demonic bat out of hell. The gilded wheels clattered crazily with every bump and threatened to topple to its side with every perilous, careening curve, but remained aright.

Attired in her simple blue gown, the beauty felt herself sorely lacking for meeting the magical queen. She had not felt truly like a servant until now in meager cotton and linen.

Rumpelstiltskin, nattily garbed in grand bronzed leather with matching boots and cloak, his matted hair combed and neat so that it fell in a dirty brown veil about his head did not help matters. He made her feel a wastrel caught in the trappings of rags compared to the grand way he chose to garb himself.

She had not liked the thought of accompanying him in the first and her attire only exasperated her tenuousness, but his word was final and here she sat in his magical carriage waiting to meet the most powerful monarch in all the realms.

"So nervous Belle-of-mine?" He teased in his airy fashion as though some joke always danced in the back of his mind.

Plucking at her green and yellow cloak the beauty heaved her shoulders in a demure shrug. "I am to meet the famed queen Regina. I have heard tales of her, everyone has. Of course I am nervous." Nervous though, in her estimation, put it lightly. Her body tingled with nerves her stomach felt light and unsettled.

"You act as though you've never been in the face of royalty. You were a noble yourself." The magical monster huffed.

"But I am a servant now." Belle refuted expertly, giving vent to her trepidation. "Even before my slavery I was but a princess from a minor kingdom no one wished anything to do with."

He shrugged indifferently and rapped his spindly fingers, dark nailed against a knee. "Worry not, Regina is cunning and dangerous but oft underestimates her quarries. You'll see past her veils soon enough once I show what you can do."

Staring intently into his fathomless black eyes, surprised laced her beautiful visage. "Show what I can do?" She echoed in disbelief as she leaned forward in the rattling carriage. "You bought me with you to merely display my magic?"

"Of course." Black and yellow teeth glinted past thinly smiling lips. "It was thought Regina was the last of our kind with vastly powerful magic, but you will prove her assurance wrong; plant seeds of doubt to riddle her mind and rot away her fortitudes with your existence."

Indignation rose in a scalding wave inside her. Her mouth sputtered and fought with her tongue in attempts to find the words of fury blistering in her soul to spew at him. "I…I will not…I refuse! I am not some sort of trained pet to be shown off; some weapon you wish to display!"

"Not so kind now am I, Dearie?" He leaned forward and cackled icily. Her former words of his suspected kindness would be proved wrong with his actions. No longer would she have the foolish notion of a spark of goodness in him and in the same instance spur forth his schemes.

"No." The beauty agreed angrily, her eyes alit with anger and melancholy. Leaning back as though pushed into her seat she shook her head, her voice a whisper. "No you are a beast for this."

His talons flourished through the air carelessly. "I already know what I am and soon Regina will know what you are."

Even as the words left his mouth the carriage ground to a whickering halt. The midnight stallions, frothed with their hellish run, pawed at hard black flagstones and whinnied crazily as though rabid.

Pulling the lacy black curtain back with her finger, Belle peered out of the small window to catch a glance at the palace. The stone about them was as black as her maters eyes. The palace, once grand and resplendent with high towers and thick walls, seemed dampened by an aura of subjugation.

Sickly milky hued fog wafted along the parapets where black mail peeked out from the thinner parts of the mists. To the beauty it seemed as though demons played in the dark folds of the vapors and held the palace enthralled. A thick dark iron gate that led to the fetid city stood barred and flanked by more black plated guardsmen, their swords drawn and a few tips bloody from a desperate soul, crazed from disease.

Pity welled in the beauty to see faces peering inside the gates, hungry and forlorn. This above all was a place of misery.

Instead of the carriage door opening with amethyst magic, a swarthy, balding man unlatched the door and vapidly pulled the portal wide. The fellow looked a poor sight staring up before them into the darkness of the lordly carriage ferried by the stallions of nightmare. His livery of black and red sat rumpled about his gaunt, hungry body. His black eyes were sallow and tinged with fatigue and fear born of a life of hardship.

Bowing lowly to the Dark One so that his body nearly scraped the ground, he scuttled a fair distance away as though the fiend was endowed with leprosy or the plague. "Great Dark One, welcome. The queen awaits you in her tower."

Stepping grandly from his carriage, the Dark One observed the meticulous courtyard about them. People with sunken eyes wide with fear stared and bowed with due respect to his power as they scuttled by, doing appointed chores under the hard eyes of whip hefting guards in black plate.

"You show no deference to my apprentice, worm?" The Dark One chirped pleasantly as though they were old friends. His eyes glinted like a cat toying with the helpless prey of a cornered mouse.

Head jerking upwards, the balding servant's eyes grew wide with alarm as Belle slipped from the carriage after the Dark One. Had he seen her he would have offered aid to scale the carriage as was his duty. Tripping over himself he bowed and scraped to the point of embarrassment. "Forgive me Dark One! I had no knowledge you had a guest!"

"It's…it's… alright." Belle tried to soothe the frazzled, frightened soul. Holding out her hand as though to a wary animal, she flinched away as the ostler buckled to his knobby knees in terror. Calloused, thick blue veined hands held over his liver spotted head, he groveled in pitiful whimpers for mercy from her hand.

"Do you see, Belle?" Rumpelstiltskin whispered seductively in her ear as he sidled close beside her. While she looked down in utterly aghast surprise he looked down proudly at the fear, drinking in the man's terror like a fine wine. "This is power. You, a mere slave, can cause this man to grovel because of what you are. Command and he will obey to the letter in terror of you."

Proffering his hand to the courtyard about him, the beauty's eyes could not help but follow his talons. Hungry, desperate people beaten down and subdued by a cruel despot stared at them with dreadful intrigue and terror. Each face was thin and wan with worry of not knowing if they would starve or would the queen's murderous rages be turned against them.

Walking forward to the man, Belle refused to let the words of her master find a way to infect her. She would prove him wrong, that fear was not the lash to hold above their heads. Holding out a hand she knelt. "Come now there's no need to be-"

Crazed with terror the servant scrambled away half walking half crawling for any place safe. He called for the guards, begging them to take him to the dungeons, but even they refused to touch a quarry of the Dark One or his prize. The sound of his tremulous voice, begging for clemency, echoed faintly about the austere stony citadel as he raced for his life.

Looking at him scramble away, the beauty could not help but feel her hopes dashed to bits. Disbelief and frustration and sadness laced her beautiful features as the poor man rounded a corner and disappeared to quake in some shadowed nook.

"Come along, Belle-of-mine." Rumpelstiltskin remarked calmly as he held out his arm and adjusted a tunic cuff. "We mustn't keep her majesty waiting."

Shocked and disturbed by the power her mere presence evoked, she followed behind the Dark One as they entered, undisturbed, towards the spiraling basalt tower above them.

~8~8~

"Rumpel." Regina's honeyed tone greeted the pair pleasantly as they strode into her tower.

The queen was garbed finely in dark silks and ruffled lace that marked her station as a powerful sorceress and monarch. Her hair was pinned in a stylish bunch with a net dotted with dark pearls. Pallid skin, like a specters made her body seem mystically radiant in the dimness of the chamber. There was a dangerous grace to her, like that of a prowling cat stalking its prey from above.

Smiling a vermilion crescent, the witch proffered her hand into her tower. "Please be welcome."

Belle fought not to allow a gasp escape her lips as she followed the Dark One inside the lair of the queen. The floor was marbled in a foggy blood red hue. Torches that bickered around the stone walls cast their gleaming flames upon the marble making the rose red seem as cisterns of blood held apart only by a thin layer of glass.

Stained glass murals of her short reign lay in the arched panes of her tower. Books and tomes that seemed stitched of human flesh or sewn as covers sat in their dark cubbies about the sheer basalt walls. A crimson divan with a small three legged table and decanter sat next to a dead fireplace, the only comfort in the large circular room.

Marching confidently into the center of the room, the Dark One bowed flamboyantly. His cloak rustled about his ankles as he dipped low in mocking reverence "Majesty, how pleasant to see you again."

"As well as you, Rumpel." Her sinuous, silky voice held an eased chuckled forged of years of practice. Her sharp brown eyes turned to Belle as though just noticing the woman she had felt in her tower the moment she set foot upon the steps. "And what's this, you've bought a friend? Dealing so early Rumpel dear?"

Her sensual body garbed in lace and sable silk shifted past the widely smiling Dark One. Intrigue danced in her russet eyes and more than a little suspicion. "And who might you be?" Her honeyed smile of glossy ruby was a poison graced upon her lips.

Head held high, the beauty employed the years as a princess to her advantage. Her eyes were cool chips of blue as she studied the queen with her own studious, near challenging gaze of royal station.

"A pretty girl." Regina laughed lowly, her voice dripping with acidity as Belle held forth no reply. Abruptly her finger curled about the collar cleverly hidden beneath her cloak clasp. "A prisoner."

"An apprentice." Belle parried proudly. A small grin involuntarily twitched up the edge of her lips. Why did saying such a thing give such a rush of elation and delight?

Surprise the harpy could not disguise splashed upon her facade as though she had been doused with cold water. Her look was enough to make the beuaty laugh aloud had she thought it would take the haughty witch down a peg or two.

Sniggering impishly the fiend stood to the side of them, delighting in their bout and immediate dislike for one another. "Regina meet Belle, my final apprentice."

All false friendliness evaporated from her pallid features like mist in the glory of summer sun. Irritated by his smiles and low chuckles, the queen snapped her head to face the giggling fiend. A sharp frown lined her pallid face, making her features look rictus and angular with fury. "You said there were no more with such power!"

Had he not years ago assured her no one with magical prowess compared to hers would rise? Of course people would still be born with magic, but not so much to pose a threat. If the scaly toad found one to consider worthy of training….

"Flukes happen, Dearie. She would have been dead had I not swooped in and bought her from a murderous father." He shrugged.

Furious and alarmed but now with a small arrow in her arsenal the witch smiled thinly to the beauty as though to dismiss her. "A slave then with but a smattering of power."

"I can assure you, Dearie there is nothing paltry about her gift." The Dark One commented, but said no more. His eyes turned to Belle, the words to order her to display her prowess on the tip of his tongue.

Abruptly the words died upon his thin lips before an utterance could seep out. Guilt he had smothered since his talk with her rose to the surface like vomit he could not spew. Hesitation brooked in his heart, shriveling the command to nothingness. Belle was not a thing to be ordered about. She was a woman with feelings and thoughts. He had ordered her where she did not wish to be, to face a woman who would hate her, and then he would demand her show her prowess?

Though he had taken her for a purpose and though he acted as though her words were water rolled off his back, her displeasure stung to his very core. She did not deserve to be put on display though he knew she played a part in his schemes.

Looking to her, a touch of asking flickered in his eyes with the silent question. He was not demanding, Belle knew, he was asking and being...kind.

Seeing him willing to make her on choice touched the beauty. He could have easily forced her to put on a display but chose to allot the decision her choice. Would she not repay such unwarranted freedom?

Taking a breath, the beauty summoned her power for a grand showing. Wind whispered fiercely as though with some angry secret in their ears. Her crimson power spread out in tiny striations upon the blood tinged floor. Power pulstated through the room like a hearts beat as the magic ran wild and free. Regina stood in amazement as the land outside was filled with cries of joy.

Rushing to the window in a flurry of black silk, she stared down as food upon large tables lined the street. Amazed peasant and mendicants alike rushed to the guttered roads, staring up in confusion or crying out. Food mystically appeared in warm heaps long the sides of the dirty cobble and dirt roads. Even from her tower, the harpy could smell the delicious aromas wafting to meet her.

Below her, starving masses tucked food into their arms and ran into their hovels or ate their fill while wondering where the food came from.

Astonishment carved along her sharp, pallid features as she saw the enormity of the magic the girl had preformed. It was not a simple loaf of bread but feasts that lined the streets!

Some looked towards the black spire and cried Regina's name with unwarranted gladness whilst others danced and wept with joy at the gift to sate their gnawing hunger.

In the moment she cared not the people ate or that they thought her the culprit of kindness. All that mattered to the witch was one disturbing fact: she could not do such power so vast so quickly.

"That will be enough, Belle." The Dark One sighed pleasantly as she made himself comfortable on a crimson divan. "You've made your point quite well."

Letting her slender arms fall down to her side the beauty allowed a hint of superiority to trace her lips. Nodding once to the fiend she folded her hands and waited for the queen.

"A fine trick you've taught your pet, Rumpel." Her tone held not a fraction of her former disguised friendliness. Her smile slithered unhappily to her lush lips, her eyes only true to the emotion within. "I hope you find a satisfying distraction in training your little slave girl."

"She is my apprentice first and foremost." Rumpelstiltskin corrected. "As once you were, Regina. You shall refer to Lady Belle with deference and respect and as an equal."

For a moment it seemed the harpy would explode in a gale of fury. Equal to a slave girl! Her eyes, fronded with brown shards of ice, glared from Dark One to his servant. Her hands were balled into tight fists at her side as though to keep from pummeling the russet haired woman. Anger surfaced where guised welcome once glimmered. How dare he demand she treat the girl with respect!

Forcing her anger down in a bitter swallow she nodded courteously to the apprentice. An insincere smile traced her lips as she studied the woman with newfound light. "As you wish, Rumpel. I'll humor you and your slave." Turning to the beauty her timbre held disgust and anger. "Lady Belle I and your master have private matters to discuss. Would you mind waiting in the hall?"

Casting a glance at the Dark One, the beauty smiled acceptingly as he nodded. "If he wishes."

"I won't be long." He promised her gently, proud of her prowess and how she had displayed her power. Never had he felt such pride from Cora or Regina, but Belle's actions awoke a pride he thought nonexistent. How he wished to roar to the goring people below, their gift came from his Belle, his apprentice!

Her blue shoes beat a victorious tattoo upon the crimson marble as she strutted away. As the door closed so too did a ward of silence coat over the wood.

"Such power!" Regina shrieked at the Dark One rabidly. Her voice was a shrill banshee cry echoing sonorously about the stone room.

Cleaning an ear with his pinky, the fiend nodded insouciantly. "Unfathomable power. More than you or your mother combined."

"Were did you find her?" She demanded to know, her eyes wild with fear and rage.

Crossing his legs he smiled widely reveling in her true nature come to the forefront of her emotions like a dog dangerously barring its fangs. "Where I told you."

"Did you see what she did?" The harpy pointed a painted finger to the rose window. She broke through my magic as though it was snow and her power a hot knife! If she could break through layers upon layers of intricacy woven spells and sigils and incantations, some of which you gave me, without even the bat of her eyes, do you know what she can do?" Regina whispered viscously as though the beauty could hear past the door. Who knew, maybe she had such power to thwart the ward. "Do you know what that means?"

Normally to break through even the simplest ward took a small time. She over powered magic in the way that was unheard of and she was simply in an apprentice stage!

"Indeed I do, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin replied and allowed a cunning smile to widen upon his lips. "And you do as well."

At that, Regina's furious frown turned into a sudden enlightened, glossy ruby grin. Though it galled her to her very bones, she inwardly congratulated the ageless cunning of Rumpelstiltskin.


	10. Power

_A/N: Hello all. Yes, it's been a while since I gave a new chapter, but I did warn y'all :3. This one is a little long so hopefully it'll tide you over. Thanks for reading and reviewing Lovelies!_

**~8~8~**

Pink and lavender ribbons tinged the airy mountain peaks in a soft blush that grandly painted the grayish blue rim of sky in the Northland. The snow upon the jagged pinnacles seemed to soak in the light of dawn till the peaks were drenched in a crimson that was red as blood from a fresh kill. Truly the perilous mountain apexes looked as fangs rending into a bloody kill to devour its prey.

Today was the day, Rumpelstiltskin decided determinedly as he took in the majestic, bucolic scenery splayed out before him in all the savage glory of the morn. Standing in the spring warmed valley below the ever frost laden jagged mounts, the fiend nodded to himself with the thought. Wind tousled his straggly mane, fanning his dirty brown hair about his gray-gold visage. His eyes blurred with mist at the bite of the zephyrs.

Steam from the aromatic tea in his chipped blue and white cup swirled temptingly about him like hands caressing his gray-gold visage. The radiating heat from the brew warmed his scaled hands as he gazed into the brilliant distance and thought of what lay over its hazardous spine.

Spring was in full swing upon the realms and the people awakened from the winter hibernation. The desperate souls of the land surged with a forceful, simultaneous moaning in his mind that came like a roar of waves breaking over the shores. Their cries were as the dead specters left to wander the world, searching for peace that would never be theirs.

Yes, today was the day Belle would make her first deal with such desperate souls.

Belle. His face softened at the moniker that came so easily unbidden to his thoughts. Her very name set his ancient, tactile mind down a tumbling spire of thoughts he could not contain. There was a uniqueness to her that would have remained even if she was as magical as a rock.

"Dawn is always my favorite time of day." Belle commented quietly from behind.

Surprise jumped through his body in a sudden jolt. Though he was impressed at her silent approach and keeping her presence unknown to his rambling senses, he remained staring at the colorful tint of day.

She was getting better, his Belle, everyday her skills were increasing and truthfully, far more than he thought. Still, she was no where near his power though she was… formidable to any who was not the Dark One.

Politely masking a yawn behind her hand, the beauty stood beside him on the doorstep of his castle. Long gone was his concern that she would escape and dash down the narrow mountain path to freedom. She was committed now and to a degree he trusted her. His fear of her backstabbing him in vain attempts of his power was truly the least of his worries. She would be no runaway prisoner, even if she could have been, for where would she even have gone?

Though they were but master and slave, the pair shared the silent, tranquil moment together in the cool, sweet scented spring morning. How long had he wished for another to stand beside him to indulge in small, private moments?

Shaking the alluring, disturbing thought far away from his sharp mind, the fiend broke the spell of her company with a deep breath. "Today is very important for you." A mischievous grin donned the Dark One's lips as he precariously sipped his tea. The warmth of the brew took what little nip that tumbled down the mountain away.

Belle turned her gaze from the bucolic display over the jagged peaks and towards her teacher. Her brow perched with irresistible curiosity. "Oh? What is so new and novel shall I strive to learn today?" She asked in vexation, her tone teasing to the magical monster.

A half smile involuntarily twitched at his thin, gray lips. None would have dared tease him so lightly, he knew, none save his Belle. Oh but she was brave.

"You shall make a deal today, Belle. A deal with a desperate soul and you shall take the most precious thing they have in returns for what they desire." The magical fiend rocked back on his heels nonchalantly as though his words were everyday occurrences.

"No." Belle restored simply, her tone soft and assured.

The fiend scoffed icily incredulous like her words were nonsense. "No?" He echoed as though he hadn't heard her properly. Embers of anger glowed like coals in his black heart stoking the rage always lingering in his soul. "No is not an answer you have the privilege of giving me, Dearie. Do no make the mistake of forgetting what you are."

"There are better ways to use magic. You, we, do not have to deal with people for their most precious items." The beauty argued logically as she always did.

They had had the altercation more than once. She did not believe in his ways of coercing others for his own gains. Oft they found themselves screaming at one another over who was right till he sent her away.

Flourishing his wiry talons, the magical beast growled. "Everything comes at a cost, Belle-of-mine. Magic is not charity to bestow upon the helpless."

"Why not?" Belle parried simply.

He sighed in an all-suffering manner, his voice clipped with agitation. "Because all magic comes with a price."

"It doesn't have to be such a cost." She pressed, seeking to make him understand. "Why does it have to be their price? Why can I not choose to pay the price for them?"

"Because that does not make you powerful!" He snapped, suddenly fierce. Closing the distance betwixt them, the fiend pointed a black nailed finger at her heaving chest. His lips formed ever whispered word with delicate care and his tone was strangely soft and laced with danger. "When a man comes crawling to you, with the last of what he has, willing to toss his most coveted item at your feet that is power."

He had been like her once upon a time, thinking he would be different and his powers used for good. Better she learn that way was impossible. The allure was too strong to fight.

Staring back without a hint of fear, the beauty gazed icily upon her master. "I don't want power."

A rude scoff erupted from his mouth at her proclamation. Turning his back upon her, he giggled impishly, once more in control of his snapping wrath. "Everyone wants power, Dearie. The power to save, the power to destroy, the power to heal or the power to kill. Everyone wants power of some kind."

"You're right." Belle admitted suddenly. "I do want power." Before he could give a victorious reply she added. "The power to help."

"And you will." Replied the Dark One carelessly. "Just for gain."

Belle frowned thinly. "Then that's not true help."

"Details." He flourished his fingers through the air and muttered an impish chortled. Waving his hand, the precious chipped cup disappeared from his talons. Turning back to her, his ebon eyes scanned her body. One wiry talon tapped at his chin. "Now what to do with you."

Belle's brow beetled with confusion. "What does that mean?" She queried uncertainly.

"To be the Dark One's apprentice you must…." He paused and motioned his hand vaguely towards her. "Look the part."

Holding fistfuls of her comfortable blue dress in her grip, the beauty looked down upon her clothing. The raiment was soft and cool for the warmer days. He had kindly donated it to her when all she had were rags from racing through the forest. "What's wrong with what I have?"

"No one is going to take you seriously." Rumpel snorted uncouthly. "They expect one so named the Dark One to be a hideous monster or something that defies their tiny minds."

"They must be disappointed then when you arrive." Belle observed charmingly. Never had she seen what others feared of his skin.

The kind words struck him like a blow to the gut. There was no cruel mocking or hurt to her words, but truth, plain, honest truth. His heart lurched as though she had tugged an invisible cord attached to his aorta. How many people had sneered at his ugliness and balked at his strange skin? Did she truly think-

Banishing the thought from his mind he cleared his throat and continued. "Nevertheless, you can't go traipsing around looking like some…woman from a quiet village. You look more servant than powerful sorceress. It makes the job much easier when they know what they're dealing with."

"Fine." Belle sighed, unable to keep a grin from stealing upon her lips. She stared at him at a loss. "What exactly do you suggest, Dark One?"

Snapping his dexterous digits, the fiend beckoned magic upon his Belle. Purple smoke enshrouded her body and infused her dress as though a dye. Tendrils of magic curled over her limbs and sunk into her milky skin.

As the smoke cleared the dress was gone, leaving red leather in its place. Light russet hair was pinned up messily, the beauty looked a completely different beauty than the sweet, curious Belle he tutored in the confines of the Dark Castle. She looked akin to a sultry mercenary or highwaywoman than a book loving, quiet woman.

Onyx eyes pinioned upon her, the fiend found his fathomless orbs roving her body without his volition. The garnet hued leather displayed curves he hadn't known existed under the milk white chemise and the azure dress. There was a certain wildness about her, but nothing that could shadow her utter…Belleness.

His tongue felt thick in his mouth looking at her. Many a night rambling through the realms he had seen lascivious barmaids displaying the cleavage of ample bosoms or noble women trussed up like toy maker's dolls but none could compare to the simple red leather that spoke wonders for the woman beneath.

"I…" Belle stared at herself as though for the first time seeing her body. Holding her arms out she inspected the leather and the look he had offered with his magic. "I like it."

Had he the will too speak, the Dark One would have readily agreed.

Perching a brow she asked. "So now what?"

Forcing the boulder of awe from his throat, Rumpelstiltskin grinned. "Now, we find ourselves a desperate soul."

~8~8~

Clouds of lavender magic roiled in the midst of a forest awakened with the kiss of spring. Golden shafts of sunlight filtering in through the green canopy above dappled the dark purple magic in shadow and light.

Abruptly, the magic shredded away in a thin fog of lilac vapors that steamed upwards with the forest mists.

Belle stepped out of the remnants of the cloud with a steady, practiced ease. Once she had been bumbling and sick after a trip with magic and now she could venture with her power almost as far as him.

Hands on her hips she surveyed her surroundings with perceptive eyes. The thick copse of maples and elms and ash stirred the thoughts of running for her life through the woods of her home. Her blood chilled as she recalled the wild, whooping yells of bloodthirsty knights and the sting of the brambles over her body as she raced to outpace her murderers.

"A fine spot." The Dark One brushed his claws over his brown leather tunic as though particles of magic lingered on his garb. "Our targets lay just over the rise and in the clearing." His head jerked to the left to direct the way.

Nodding stoically the beauty followed her beastly teacher. "Any information on who I'm dealing with or am I to always walk in blind?"

"Fear not, Dearie. Soon you will learn to hear the pleas of the desperate. All sorcerers have the gift to hear those who need them. It's one downside to being a sorcerer but I'll teach you how to block them out in time and let you take your pick of who too approach and who too ignore." Rumpelstiltskin replied mildly as he threaded his way through the sunlit forest. His skin glittered in the intermittent rays floating down through break in the trees, making his skin seem more gold than cold gray.

Nimbly leaping over moss laden logs and lichen strewn stones he add. "And as for the target there are two of them. They're two young lads deep in the mire of penury. They support their ailing mother and work hard for the little they have. Both of the young lads wish for fame and gold to do as they please. They wish to go on adventures and write tales of the adventures they've already had."

Knocking away a low hanging branch, the apprentice stared at her master incredulously. "That's a pretty laden request. What am I too ask from two poor boys with little to give for such a boon?"

"That, Dearie, is for you to figure out. Worry not of the magic, their request compared to others is but a trifle. This is more an exercise for you. I want you to learn the art. If two fools grow rich off the lesson then so be it." He stopped at the edge of the forest border. The thick foliage blocked the fields that lay below the knoll.

Frowning she declared. "You know I won't do this the way you want. There is a better way, I know it. If this is my deal I shall try the way I think shall work."

"If you do…" Ice fanged is words in a sudden rumbling of danger from the infamous Dark One. "If you do, then the after affects will not be pleasant."

Abruptly, as though the threat had never been his tone once more transformed into the light uncaring Dark One. "Here we are, Dearie." The fiend waved his talons. The veil of leaves and limbs parted by an invisible hand. Proffering his hand out to the humble valley below them he finished with a trill. "The house of Grimm."

Sun drenched the small glade that housed the small hovel of the Grimm clan. The small yard shadowed by the hovel was dusty and barren and lifeless. A large blue tick hound lay on its side, dozing in the sunshine. Two thin chickens industriously pecked and scratched the dry earth as though some granule from their meager breakfast had been lost. A pathetic stick fence surrounded the small home and encircled a place for a few animals.

Two boys, both barely past their teen years, worked out in the golden rays. Their torsos were shirtless and laced slick with sweat from toiling under the spring sun. Sinewy muscles rippled under their bronzed flesh telling of years of hard work.

The tallest of the pair, a black haired lad, hefted an axe he wielded to cut logs. A neat stack already lay beside him to sell for a paltry sum at market.

His brother, a small, dusky blonde haired boy talked softly to an old ox that languidly plodded along in a barely tilled failed. The door to their simple hovel laid held open by a large rock.

Every so often the boy with the axe, closest to the ragged domicile, peeked inside to check upon his bedridden mother.

Staring down at the sight, some part of Belle knew the Dark One had chosen the destitute family for a reason, perhaps a personal one. Perhaps he felt the tug of sympathy in his heart as she did as well.

"Right behind you, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin poked a finger into her back to prod her forward.

Taking a deep breath, the beauty gathered her courage and goaded magic to her blood. Crimson enshrouded them in a veil of magic. In the blink of an eye the pair stood in the midst of the small dusty yard of the hovel.

The hound lifted its droopy head and growled at the intruders as the chickens ran about in terror.

A cry of surprised wrenched from one of the brothers lips as the ruby cloud dissipated. The young man with the axe stared in awe of the two figures before him. His blue eyes were as wide as gold coins. The axe in his hand drooped slightly in the face of the lovely Belle, but his fingers held the handle tight as his eyes flickered to the gray-gold…thing behind her.

"Wilhelm." The brother murmured. "Wilhelm!" He cried louder, hailing the younger boy from the fields.

Dropping the fray lead of the old ox the younger boy raced over the field with the swiftness of a running hare. His eyes immediately stapled upon the two figure standing at ease. "Jacob!" He cried back, his voice filled with excitement and concern.

Who were the two strangers that had suddenly appeared? How had they come without even the chickens setting up a stir or their dog to bark in greeting?

Nimbly leaping over the stick fence the, the younger sibling stood by his brother. Breath wheezed out his lungs as he stared at them in awe. "Jacob, why didn't you tell me you saw visitors on the path?"

"They…they didn't come up the path." Jacob sounded confused and swiveled his head to the weed ridden path. He scratched a calloused hand to his thatch of black hair. "At least I don't think…."

Belle smiled amiably at the charming young lads. "You're correct. We didn't come up the path."

"Then who…how…?" Wilhelm breathed in astonishment. Though he was surprised, his eyes drifted warily to the beast standing behind the beautiful woman.

Arms crossed, Rumpelstiltskin did not speak but watched intently at the interaction. They were both wary of him, he knew imperatively, but their awe overshadowed their curiosity and fright.

Snapping her fingers, Belle forced the wood on the pile to split of its own accord. Timber cracked on its own accord and piled itself neatly in the cart of its own accord. "Magic." She replied mildly.

"Magic." The brothers whispered simultaneously in dumbstruck wonderment.

Wilhelm turned to her, fear and awe glittering in his azure eyes. "If you do magic then that must mean…."

"She's a sorceress, Wil." Jacob answered before the lovely woman could. "She's the answer to all the wishes on all the stars we've made."

Belle nodded succinctly. "That I am." She added softly. Offering a curt bow, her smile dazzled them. "My name is Belle." She proffered her hand behind her to the glowering fiend. "And this is Rumpelstiltskin. I am here to tend to your wishes…for a price."

Letting the axe in his grip slide numbly to the dirt Jacob blinked owlishly and tossed his head. "Then you must know our pleas. How long we've hoped and dreamed for this day. But you must also know we don't have much."

"I understand." Belle tented her fingers ponderously much like she had seen her master do. "But surely you must have something of worth I would take."

Wilhelm proffered his hand to the paltry surroundings. "Look around, milady. We've only a few chickens and our old ox. Besides for our axe and a few blankets and pans in the house we've nothing more."

"And besides." Jacob quietly added on for his brother. "We have a request to add to our plea." Twisting his hands with nervous energy he explained. "Our mother…when she was struck with fever we thought she'd get better. I and Wil often dreamed of the day we could have enough gold to spoil her, but no amount of gold will make her better. Not for what she has. We'd give anything to have our mother better, even to abandon our deepest wishes."

"I see." Belle tried to mask the sympathy she felt for the boys in her blue depths. If her mother had survived she would have given anything she could to save her as well. "I'm sure we can come to some accord."

A silently observing spectator, Rumpelstiltskin interjected in for the first time. Warning danced in his eyes as he leaned forward to the beauty. "That wasn't part of the deal." He hissed viciously in her ear. "Your skills are vast, but they can still not do so much."

Ignoring him, she smiled as a sudden idea entered her mind. "I know what I shall have from you both."

Anticipation danced in their eyes like sparks. Both looked as eager puppies ready to do her bidding and bequest.

"My deal is this. For what will be done to you, you both must give back in some way. Give to those who won't have a happy ending as you will. Do this and I shall grant your wish. My companion will handle the addendum of healing your mother." She stated softly.

The boys looked to one another in awe. "That's it?" They both asked as one, their tones laced with disbelief. Surely she had to be a cruel enchantress tricking them. Surely one could not ask for so little in return for so much.

"Absolutely not." Rumpelstiltskin growled dangerously. His eyes cooled into glassy shards as he glared at her from behind.

Turning back to him she smiled to assuage his growing temper. "I'm not finished. There is one more request for the cost of healing your mother."

The boys paled, but added bravely. "What will you ask, milady?"

"A kiss." She claimed coyly. "From both of you."

Both siblings looked to one another as though they had just come across a cave filled with treasure. Wide, grins splayed across their boyish faces at their good fortune. "That, lady." Wilhelm replied. "Is a payment neither of us will mind."

Jacob, the older and impetuous of the two moved forward first. Before he could take a step the Dark One intervened. With a wave of power, the fiend knocked the boy back from his Belle.

With a yelp, Jacob reeled backwards. His slender arms flailed as he landed on his bottom. The dog that remained asleep jumped up to defend its master.

With a growl of his own, the Dark One sent the dog running away with its reedy tail between its legs. Even he knew not to face such a man.

The wiry fiend was like an angry abomination betwixt the boy and his Belle. Despite himself being only an observer a strange possessiveness gripped him. The very thought of seeing them steal a kiss from _his _Belle sent his blood boiling like lava in his veins.

"We need to finish the deal Rum." The beauty stated, though she seemed not at all alarmed. No, she seemed as though she had been waiting upon his reaction.

He snarled barbarically, his ebony eyes dark, angry pools glaring at the boys who dared even come near his Belle. "No you don't." The fiends spat, his tone like acid.

"The deal was struck." She reminded him.

"I've healed the woman." Rumpelstiltskin growled lowly. "No need for this. By now she will be just rising from her sick bed and we, Dearie need to head back. The price for my healing the woman has been change. A price you will pay."

Wilhelm reached for the axe lying in the dust. Fury sparked in his narrowed eyes. "Does this creature threaten you, milady?"

"He is a grouch." Belle laughed lightly, forcing the dread she felt pool in her gut at his warning. She had taken on the price of healing their mother but knew her sacrifice only proved her point.

Snapping her fingers, she forced her crimson magic into the house. Large sacks of gold and jewels filled the rooms and the cellar. Their cupboards filled with hot, good food and their trunks sat packed with fine clothes fit for nobles and the most affluent of kings.

A weak cry of astonishment and joy echoed from the dark hovel. Both boys turned to the sound, their faces glowing with exuberant delight. Their wishes were answered, they had all they would ever want. "Thank you, thank you!" They cried as they rushed into their pathetic dwelling.

Dim cries of glee from a weak, but now well mother met them. All three voices collided at once in talk of the magic about them.

Before Bell could wish them well, the Dark One turned sharply to her. Fiery anger flared in his black eyes like an inferno aimed towards the cunning woman. "I warned you, Dearie." He snarled rabidly in a thunderous murmur. "You will pay."

Grabbing her firmly, but not roughly by the wrist the Dark One began back up the incline to the forests fringe. How dare she defy him, her master! And how dare she brazenly make him part of her ridiculous schemes!

"That's the point, Rumpelstiltskin." Belle replied somberly. No fear traced her voice as she made no attempts to escape him or his wave of anger. "Better someone pay the price for good. I helped them without having them take a burden on something they'll regret."

Forcing himself not to admit he fell for her cunning he growled. "You bargained poorly."

"My price was their word and the kiss." She replied. "One of which you denied to be paid."

"Though I said it did not matter that hardly covers the cost." He parried sourly, unwilling to admit she had proven her point.

A soft smile painted her lovely visage. "I know, but the rest of the price was me learning. You wanted me to learn and the price of my new found knowledge is their gain. And as for the rest…I knew my price to pay…."

Not trusting himself to speak, the Dark One snapped his fingers. Livid purple thunderheads ensconced them in a choking mist of magic. In moments they arrived in the Dark Castle.

As the mist thinned, her red leather dissipated in a haze. Her simple blue and white dress once more garbed her figure, turning her once more into regular Belle.

Letting her wrist free as they once more stood upon the plush carpet of the main hall, the Dark One padded angrily toward the dead fire place. Magic surged from his outstretched hand in a ball of fire towards the dry wood in the hearth.

Shards of wood leaped in the stone hearth from the impact. Flames burst upon the wood hungrily, sending warmth and light through the always dim and dreary main hall.

Placing his arms against the mantle, the fiend stared down ponderously in the dancing, coaxing flames. How did she do such things to him? How did the wily woman make him fall for her tricks when he could so clearly see everyone else? He had played into her hand like a fool and paid the price.

He should have punished her, he knew, but instead found himself feeling rather impressed at her daring. Not even Cora would have dared something to utterly brazen.

"So." Belle voice floated softly through the air. Wariness lay on the fringes of her voice as she took a fearless step towards him. "What are you going to do to me now?" From the moment she disobeyed she knew the price was facing his wrath. Though she was bold she did not dare try to outrun what she could never escape.

Angry words wished to spew from his mouth in a fount of fury. His lips twisted to speak but what was there to say? She had outmaneuvered him and had not even gloated of her success.

With an abnormally tired sigh he motioned his hand, his voice that should have been livid and snarling quelled and soft. " To the dungeons with you Belle." What else was there to say?

"You mean you're not…." She paused as he stiffened. Instinct screamed not to question his sudden clemency. Closing her mouth she nodded in thankful acquiesce. "Good night Rumpelstiltskin." She muttered as she quietly padded out leaving him with his troubled contemplations.

The icy coolness of the corridor leading to her room in the dungeons felt good against the beauty's skin as she entered. Darkness hid her face and the consternation laced upon her lovely visage. No punishment? That was not his way.

True, he never was a cruel master, but he had always been strict. He was hard but fair to her and that was as much as any in captivity could ask, she knew imperatively. If he had no punishment in store then what was he planning?

A sigh of grateful relief escaped her lips as she leaned against the cold stone wall. His lack of discipline was one worry eased, but of all the troubles in her mind, his punishment for her disobedience had been the least of them.

No, the greatest thought lingering like an odorous, black cloud in her mind caused her far more concern. Why had she felt such a thrill bargaining with the brothers Grimm? Why when she stood before them had there been a rush of power such as she had never known? Why had her thoughts gone to the scintillating highs of power, knowing their fates rested in her delicate hands? Why had she secretly reveled in their desperation and hollow eyes as they stood before her?

And why had she enjoyed it far more than she knew she should…?


	11. Regina Strikes

_A/N: A big, big, thanks to_ **iluvspike1024**_ for making the wonderfully awesome cover for this tale! I love it, and I'm so grateful you took the time out to make it. It's perfect, thank you so much :3_

**~8~8~**

"We have a problem." Regina declared lowly to her silent companion and enemy. Her voice brimmed with a hint of annoyance as she watched ravenous flames lick hungrily at large, sweet smelling logs nestled in a large stone hearth.

The heavy scents of smoking cypress wood drifted languidly about the uncomfortably warm chamber of the solitary keep. Though springs warmth was in the air the fire was a roaring inferno dancing in the dark stronghold and turning the chamber into a veritable furnace.

Orange-red flames flickered eagerly over the wood and cast their warm glow into the ostentatious chamber. The room was heaped with hoards of riches unfound in centuries. Shadows cavorted on the tapestry laden walls like conspiring demons awaiting to spring forth and deliver troubles and ills at the two women in the room's bequest.

Both lavishly upholstered, high backed chairs faced the fire place in the dim room with a match three legged table betwixt them. The chairs looked as though they had been carved of some ancient behemoths bones. Spiraled horns decorated the top of the plush chairs and the feet were curved like swooping claws over wooden orbs.

The monarchs glossy ruby lips were pursed in a half smirk of worry and irritation as she shifted in her seat. Garbed in lacy black, she looked a regal figure even in another woman's palace. Her hair was bound in a top knot and flowed down her shoulders. A fine crystal goblet filled with blood red wine lay perched in her black gloved right hand. Her nails of drummed mutely upon the snakelike stem, the action holding testament to her blistering annoyance.

Her hostess, a secluded woman who resided in her cliffside castle folded her oddly long hands gently in her lap. A red wimple befitted with horns nearly concealed her face as she too stared at the fire ponderously. A matching black dress donned her figure, nearly making her meld with the ominous shadows. Her skin was pallid as the pale moon and stretched thinly over her angular bones. Her body seemed ill-fitting to her phantasmal flesh for it was stretched in places that should have been soft and oddly angular in others.

If the heat affected the mistress of the strange, secluded castle at all, her discomfort didn't show.

The other, dainty, women beside her majesty uttered a low chuckle. "_We_? What problems so concern two of the most powerful sorceress' in all the realms?"

"A very dangerous problem, Malificent." Regina scowled ponderously into the flames. "A problem that I fear is more powerful than us put together."

The dragon sorceress allowed and all-suffering sigh to pass her thin, partly frowning lips. Her jade, reptilian eyes flickered to the red, high backed chair beside her own and looked towards the ruler with forced friendliness. "I fear that's old news dear. Rumpelstiltskin has always been the preverbal 'pebble in our boot' if you will."

"I don't speak of Rumpelstiltskin." Regina languidly swiveled her head to face her friend. Tendrils of her onyx mane fanned against her face at the action. "I speak of his apprentice."

Daintily plucking up her own goblet of crimson spirits, Malificent swirled the fragrant wine and sniffed approvingly of the ancient vintage. "A new one? My, is that jealousy you possess Regina?" She poorly hid a wide, black smile behind the gilded rim of her translucent glass.

"Hardly." Regina deadpanned wryly, her lips twisted into a displeased crescent. Flourishing her hand through the air, black mist swirled tightly about her open palm in a small typhoon of magic. A medium sized glass orb rested in her hand as the magic cleared and filtered away with the sweet scented smoke that spiraled to the rafters.

Forcing a pulse of dark energy through the orb, the monarch focused her memory into the ball. A bloom of utter blackness erupted into the orb. Sinuous tendrils of ebony clawed at the inside of the ball and wriggled with a way to be free. The mist swirled into a small whirlwind of magic, bringing forth a hazy picture etched in the queen's mind. "She did this, Malificent."

Slowly, the image of food materializing upon the filthy streets of her city came into view. The figure of the woman and her master appeared clearly through the spectral glass, showing a prowess from a sorceress that had not been seen in millennia. Rumpelstiltskin stood beside the girl, his arms crossed and an approving smile slashed upon his features. With an extra burst of arcane power, the witch let the memory of the intense power she felt that day flow through the room.

Horrified, Malificent looked on to the scene of the pretty maiden barely breaking a sweat at such tremendous feats. Her crimson power surged strong and nearly uncontained. She had used no regents, no elixirs, no special scrolls, she had used raw, barely contained magic from will alone.

Sensing the numb awe of the dragon sorceress, Regina let the magic ooze away like sludge flowing in a ditch. Mist enfolded the orb like a velveteen scarf leaving the ball an opalescent shine like a large, precious pearl in the queen's dark, satin clutches. As quick as it had come, magic once more surged to her command as she banished the globe away in a spurt of ebony power.

A ghastly white paleness tinged the skin of Malificent's sallow cheeks. Fear danced in the bickering flames in her eyes, just as they had with Regina. Yet unlike the evil monarch, she could do nothing to hide her terror galloping through her blood and chilling the very bile in her body with the new revelation.

"Who is she?" The dragon asked lowly, her words nearly a deathly whisper pried from barely parted lips. Eyes awash with fright found Regina's own. Her fingers curled tight over the arms of her chairs. Nails of black scored long, thin lines upon the wood in her vice.

"Her name is Belle. She is the Dark One's slave." Regina sipped her rippling wine delicately.

Laughter, uneasy and discordant, tumbled from the black sheen of Malificent's lips. With forced ease, she leaned back tensely in her chair, her body rigid. Shaking her head she looked torn between grim amusement and terror. "Trust that imp to acquire such power then…then…" She waved her hand as though catching the words that eluded her so from mid-air. "Subjugate it of all things! Does he know what he's dealing with?"

"Of course he does." The harpy scoffed at the ludicrous thought. "Doesn't he always? He tried convincing me she will help my plans along."

Malificent grimaced at the mention of the queen's plans to spirit them away to some foreign world. She was always larking upon taking happiness away, unable to accept that her foe was free. Leaning back in her seat she tented her fingers under her chin. "Yes, that futile plan you so wish to come to fruition." Before Regina could offer an angry retort she waved her hand. "But let's not get off track to the real peril here. This girl is dangerous, the last of her kind I'd bet."

Part of the solitary sorceress wondered where such power had hidden for so long. Where could such magic be sequestered away that the world never knew of the extraordinary power contained within the petite figure of a brown haired beauty?

Regina huffed before taking a nip of the wine. "Dangerous is an understatement. What's more, she's free willed, not some meek slave girl that the toad has under his thumb. She challenges her master Rumpel and that could spell trouble for us all."

"You think she has more power than the Dark One?" Fear slipped into the dragon's normally soft, conniving voice. Goosebumps shivered alone her arms even at the terrible thought. Rumpelstiltskin was a powerful nuisance, but one who only enjoyed toying with others, not world domination or total destruction. Who knew what the strange girl would do once her full power was recognized.

The monarch shook her head. "Maybe not, but when she is at full power her might will have to be reckoned with…even from him."

"And so you come here asking for what, Regina?" Malificent broached finally getting to the heart of the matter that called for a personal visit from her closet friend and rival. Her voice rumbled deep in her chest and dripped with acrid venom.

Gratefully placing her glass down on the table between them, the queen smiled in an almost friendly manner. "A simple ploy to fix this…problem. Nothing that will lead back to you, Malificent. I've seen little of what she can do, but it is alarming already." Regina proffered her hand to the spider work glassed window looking to the satin ebony skies. "I require the aid of one of your children."

The solitary sorceress stiffened as though struck by a glowing branding iron across the face. Her jade, reptilians eyes narrowed into thin, puckered slits of anger. Mouth a thin line, she tossed her head. "I will not send forth one of my babies to die at this girls hand just so you can try to measure her ability. That is, if Rumpelstiltskin didn't defeat them first before they even reached the chit."

"Don't think me a fool, Malificent!" Regina snapped back venomously. Anger smoldered in bright, red embers in her eyes as she forced her temper to lax. Smiling coolly dangerous, she continued. "Your entire clutch couldn't defeat them all, let alone one. No, I require a swift flyer to go across to the forest and near the sea kingdoms."

Confusion beetled Malificent's brow in thin, wrinkling lines. Taken aback by the request her temper vanished. "The sea kingdoms? Why?"

"Their prince was recently found washed up ashore from a terrible shipwreck. He was feared lost in a storm, a storm I had created." Regina supplied with no little hint of pride at her dastardly work. "The boy, Eric, I think is his name, is a supporter of Snow White and Charming and their quest in taking back her kingdom from George. That was a good a reason as any to wipe him off the face of the realms." She shrugged. "At any rate he survived. My spies there told me he was babbling on about some 'mermaid' who had rescued him. It wasn't long after that delicious little tidbit of information I went in search of the besotted maiden."

Malificent smiled vilely. "Always dabbling, Regina. The magic of the seas is very powerful, remember what it did to poor Ursula." She waggled a long finger and uttered a tsk-tsk as though the queen were a naughty child.

A conspiratorial grin bloomed upon Regina's glossy mouth. A small, bark of a laugh escaped her lips as she sipped her drink and continued. "In search of such magic I went to see if I could be of service to the girl…for a price of course. In exchange for scrolls or any arcane artifacts from the lost city of Atlantis I gave her legs to be with her prince."

"The point of all this, Regina?" Malificent sighed. Her thin fingers rubbed her temples in small massaging motions to allay the headache she felt coming on.

"I need your dragon to spirit away this girl before she can get to her prince and drop her at the Dark Castle." Regina revealed.

Confusion glimmered in the dragons eyes. "For what, Regina? What purpose does any of this serve to get rid of this…Belle?"

Leaning forward to her friend, the monarch lips upturned into a malicious ruby slice. "The mermaid I gave legs to is no ordinary merfolk. Her father is Triton, king of the seas, nearly a deity in his own rights. Think about it, a being with almost deity like powers! The dragon won't be connected to you or your clutch. Many dragon carry away humans in their hunger. But, if Triton learns that his daughter has been captured by someone on the surface all that power and fury will be directed at the girl and her imp of a master that abducted his precious Ariel."

~8~8~

Pain throbbed in Belle's right hand as she jotted down the last regent of the potion in her neat script. The dark crimson ink shimmered like freshly split blood in the fire light as the magic liquid dried to the ivory vellum.

Leaning back contentedly in her high back chair, Belle cocked her head slightly to the left to admired her handiwork. The words were neat and fluid and penned just so that none would ever have troubles deciphering her inscription. She'd worked for nearly a week and finally she was done.

"Finally finished, Dearie?" Rumpelstiltskin asked lightly in his trilling manner as he appeared in the apothecary. His steps made nary a sound over the cold stone as he padded over to the beauty seated in the plush high back chair.

Nodding tersely, the beauty deftly rolled the scroll. Tying a green, silken ribbon about the vellum she neatly stacked the writ with the large, pyramid shaped pile next to her. "Just done now, but you knew that or you wouldn't be here." She confirmed with a tired smile. Laughter echoed gaily from her lips as she stretched her knotted muscles and rose from the chair. "It's a miracle I could read any of that chicken scratch you had scribbled down. Just think, such marvelous potions lost to the world because they're indecipherable."

"I'm impressed you managed to finish re-writing them as fast as you did." He commended aloofly. Part of him wished to say more, but he refused to let that strange part of him surface. He wanted to dot on her accomplishment and praise her progress but refrained from showing too much elation.

As if agreeing with him, her stomach rumbled. A wolf growl echoed about the apothecary showing how she had managed to finish.

Immediately, his thin gray smile pulled into a frown. Accusation flashed upon his features as he took a step to her. "I thought I told you to take a break hours ago. To eat something."

She heaved her shoulders in a guilty shrug. "I was almost finished, besides you wanted them done and I wasn't really hungry."

Tossing his head, the Dark One's frown deepened in disapproval. Snapping his fingers, he called magic to his command. A plate of food from supper appeared on the neat table in a fog of lavender hued magic. Roasted chicken breast covered in orange sauce and crusty, fresh bread steamed temptingly on the plate. Two white and blue ceramic cups, one his favorite chipped trinket, clustered close to the tea pot and cream bowl he summoned along with her meal. After she had become prisoner of the Dark Castle he rarely ever drank his tea alone.

"Thank you." Belle muttered gratefully with a bob of her head as she moved to the scrumptious meal. Sliding back into the chair she tucked in ravenously.

Chuckling, Rumpelstiltskin leaned against the large table. Pouring a cup of tea, he sighed lightly as he let the warmth radiate to his spindly fingers. His eyes shimmered in the blazing firelight of the hearth as he folded his arms contentedly.

Though he loathed admitting his faults, he enjoyed the quiet moments with her. They were lovely tranquil instances he cherished with all his being. How long had he lived alone in his fortress had he forgotten what good company was like?

"So which one is left?" Belle asked curiously as she turned her attention to the supper she had long denied.

"Pardon, Dearie." He turned his head slightly from the lowly bickering hearth to look at his Belle.

Spearing a piece of succulent chicken with her knife, a nasty habit she had picked up from her master, she gestured to the vibrantly hued potions lined upon the shelves with her free hand. "You know the final potion. Every shelf is filled albeit messily. There is only one space that hasn't been filled."

"You may be my apprentice, Dearie, but you can't know everything." Rumpel replied mildly, his voice low and brooding as he turned his gaze back to the flames. "Not just yet anyway."

Taking the hint, Belle turned back to her meal. For a moment they sat in silence, the only sound the woods popping happily in the hearth and the clink of cutlery upon plates.

A smile came to his gray-gold features as Belle tried in vain to stifle a yawn. "Tired Belle-of-mine?" He inquired, his falsetto voice brimming with humor.

Hand up, the beauty covered her mouth politely from another jaw cracking yawn. "Inscription is tiring." She replied in kind then added. "Though I think it is time we addressed another issue here."

The fiend's heart leapt at her strange words spoken so smoothly and alluring. Excitement galloped rabidly through his blood as his imagination spoke of things that would never be. His heart tumbled madly in his chest with each second. Turning to her, he forced strict neutrality over his features. "Address what?"

Cobalt eyes meeting his, she forced back another yawn. "Don't you think its time I was given a room of my own?"

Relief filled him at the sudden request. Of course her matter would be nothing… unseemly from her. No, that was only his beastly imagination running free and untamed with the inkling of him that was still a man and craved manly things. The matter, at least to him, was nothing serious.

"Out of the question." He replied curtly, though not in anger. Sipping his tea, he let the warm, fragrant brew settle him once more.

Exasperation lined her lovely visage. "Am I still a wild prisoner you need to cage up? Have I attempted escape since my first try? Am I to always have my home in the dungeons no matter how far my skill progresses?"

"Perhaps." He chortled impishly, taking puerile pleasure in her boiling annoyance. Of course she would have a room, one day when he fully realized the extent of his gift and knew for a fact she would prove little challenge, but until then he was unwilling to even suggest a hint that they stood upon equal footing. With every night in the dungeons though they might be amiable and a match of wits in the sun kissed hours, at the end of the day he was the master and she the servant.

Belle bit back her tongue from retorting. Holding the infuriation that brewed in her for him, she willed her rare temper not to surface. Oh but he could be so childish and unreasonable at times!

"Think of it this way." The Dark One chuckled in his manic way to appease and assuage her temper. Placing a scaled talon beneath her chin, he let a small smile peck his lips. "You, Belle, are my rarest possession, and rarities belong locked up." He trilled impishly.

Though she could not help but feel annoyed a smile she could not contain at his unwitting charm eased upon her lips. "If that is your attempt to butter me up I fear you are poor at it."

Letting his hand fall away, a cocky smirk tugged at his lips. "Well one must always tr-." As the last word left his lips a hurried knock abruptly banged on the door.

Thunderous booming echoed about the ominous citadel like the heavy, errant pounding of a war drum over the fields of battle. The thumping was insistent, almost panicked by the ragged, forceful hammering.

Master and slave turned to one another with confusion. Who would be knocking upon the Dark One's door in the middle of the night? Who could even scale the mountains in the first place and come out alive!

As if on cue, both snapped their fingers, calling upon their magic to ferry them down to the vestibule. In an instant, magic crackled at the threshold of the Dark Castle like roiling thunderclouds to match the booming. Purple and crimson mingled in their vibrant shades as the two stepped out easily. Save for one low, guttering torch, the hall leading to the double doors was bleak.

Curiosity in a veritable inferno, Belle reached the door first. Tugging at the thick iron rings, the beauty gasped at the sight before her.

A lone girl with long shocks of abnormally fiery red hair staggered before her like a drunkard who had nearly lost the use of his legs. Her knees knocked violently and her hand clutched at the door side to keep aright.

Her skin was a sickly pale, almost like the pallid underbelly of a fish, and her wear was merely a rough, brown sack that once carried potatoes closed together by her waist with a length or rough ships cord. A pink shell dangled about her neck by a thin piece of rotting leather.

For a moment, the strange girl searched the door in a panic before she found Belle's eyes. Sky blue met sea green as they stared at one another as though both surprised to see the other.

A plea for aid nearly tumbled past the strange girls cracked, quivering lips but the words came out in a gasp. Taking a tenuous step forward on pale, wobbly legs that looked awkwardly gangly, she stumbled and fell into Belle's arms in an unconscious heap.

**~8~8~**

_A/N: Yes, this is a new twist to the tale! What does this have to do with Belle learning magic? Well, you'll just have to see. Plus, I do think Ariel will be on the new season._


	12. Her Name is Ariel

_A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing guys and gals :3_

**~8~8~**

Warm wind slipped into the drafty confines of the Dark Castle from the wide open double doors. Oblique beams of tranquil silver moonlight spilled through the open portals, dappling the gray stone and the unconscious, bedraggled woman with a pallid shine. The beams of moon danced in her fiery scarlet mane turning her locks into vibrant, wispy flames against the night's illumination.

Muscles tensing with the sudden weight, slowly, Belle lowered the woman to the cold vestibule floor. Pulling her on her back, she inspected the lass. Placing the back of her hand on the girl's forehead she found her skin cold and clammy as frozen wax. The girl looked disturbed and wrought with terror even in her unconsciousness state. She seemed as though caught in the snare of horrid nightmare, unable to break free from her forced slumber. Stark lines of fear and anger scored across her face in her unconsciousness. Her copious, long ruby hair laid in every wayward direction making her seem wild.

Where had she come from at such an hour? How had she gotten to the Dark Castle stoop with nary a scratch on her fair flesh?

Sinewy arms crossed over his dark tan jerkin, Rumpelstiltskin held back as a silent spectator as Belle looked over the poor girl. His ebony eyes searched the prone woman as though she could be of some use in a further deal but no more than that. He made no motion to help but stood in the slants of shadow and moonlight like some ethereal specter.

Snapping her spell clever fingers, Belle brought forth a wet rag in a small cloud of dark crimson magic. Delicately, she dabbed the cool cloth over the girls face as she had seen many a nobleman do to fainting, women in her father's court. Droplets of water beaded her skin, but strangely seemed to meld well with her flesh. Water sprinkled the girls face, somehow gave her a more natural look if such was possible.

Slowly, the girl's eyes fluttered with life as the feel of cool wet against her cheeks coaxed her back from the smog of her darkened senses. The thick fog in her mind cleared with every touch of the cold compress that reminded her so much of the water from her home faraway. For but a brief instance, she felt safe again with the water hitting her face. All was as it should be, with her father down below and Eric, the prince waiting on the golden shores to snatch a glimpse of her.

Abruptly, the last moments before she met her love came surging back. The piercing, ear bleeding screech of some above world creature and the large shadow once more descended upon her in memory. As she ran in terror, she recalled the creatures, cruel talons grabbing her under her arms and piercing part of her sack that became her only clothing. How she struggled, wriggling and writhing to free herself and meet her love, but, the winged serpent carried her far from the prince she had been so besotted with. She could have screamed his name save she had no voice, not after the deal with the crone.

Pained with the memories assailing her, the redhead's face crinkled into thin lines of horror. Body struggling as though she were still trying to break free of the monsters grip, her mouth opened to speak or scream yet nary a singular word fell from her lips.

"Calm yourself." Belle soothed in a whisper, hoping the girl could understand her tongue. Her delicate hands slowly worked the cool cloth to press against the girl's wrinkled brow as she spoke comforting words in her tender timbre. "You're safe here."

Vapidly, the girls head turned to where the voice of security hailed. Alarm and stark relief danced in her untamed jade eyes to see the other woman staring down with such concern and surprise. Swallowing hard, her mouth moved as though she were speaking yet no words tumbled from her lips.

"She's mute." The Dark One stated obviously, his growling tone laced with disgust. He stared down as though finding a once useful tool broken and irreparable.

Perhaps, Belle wished to say, but held the word tucked behind her pursed lips. Mute people, she assumed, did not move their mouths as though they were talking like someone who could harness speech with skill. If they did, their mouths were worked slowly to help people see the words they formed. No, the beauty decided in an instant, the girl before her had not been born a mute or had been recently.

Groggily, the redhead turned to see the much less amiable speaker. Her skin paled to a ghostly pall as the moonlight glittered softly off his gray-gold scales twisted in disapproval. Never had she seen a human such as that. Weak as she was, she sought to scramble away from the aberration. Her mouth wrenched open to scream, but silence prevailed in the intense, ominous quiet of the citadel.

Placing a tender hand on the girls shoulder, Belle sought to assuage her terror. "It's alright. He won't harm you."

An irked agitating sigh escaped the Dark One's lips at her not all accurate words. Of course he would not cause her harm, not yet. Padding closer to the girl from behind, his lips thinned with displeasure. Boots barely making a sound on the coarse stone, he loomed over both women with a judging air.

Twitching his head to the yawned open door, he stared down at her in disgust. "If she can not bargain she's of no use to us then. Toss her out where you found her."

"No I shall not." Belle replied tartly to her master, her attention centered on the awakening lass who did her best not to look at the odd creature.

Rumpel tossed his head unhappily, not at all pleased with her response to his command. His lips curved into a deeper frown from her reply. Anger burned like dark orange brimstone in his black eyes. "You keep telling me that as though you have a choice to."

"I'm not throwing a helpless, cold, girl out simply because she cannot make a deal. Master or not I shall not be the pawn of such cruel words." The beauty didn't even look up to him with her parry. "She has no shelter, no coin, no bargaining chip, and not even a scrap of the poorest of clothing. Can't you have any pity?"

The fiend stomped his foot childishly. The noise echoed dimly down the darkened hall. "This is not an inn, Belle. She has no place here." He snapped angrily.

"She can have a room on this floor." Belle mused more to herself than in reply to her disapproving master. In her thought she seemed no longer paying any heed to her disagreeable owner. Her mind whirled in contemplations of arrangements for the stranger. "I'll light a fire and see if I can scrounge up some better clothes."

Eyes pinioned upon her, the Dark One muttered a warning growl behind barely pried apart lips. "Belle…."

"Of course she'll need a bath first." The beauty added on. Smiling down at the girl she made herself seem amiable. "If you can understand me have no fear. No one will harm you."

Shocked by her brazenness, the fiend did not know whether to feel furious or concerned of his waning power over his apprentice. She ignored his control, but then again had he ever held any true control over her at all? "Belle." He sputtered, seeing she held no reaction to his bristling temper. Most would have frozen in terror to see his wrath shown, but not his Belle, never his brave servant.

Looking up to him, her eyes flashed with her rare temper. Anger sparkled in her azure depths with the intensity of an inferno raging uncontrolled. Ironically, her voice was cool as a shard of ice from the mountains pecks. "If you continue to be ridiculous, I will ignore you, Rumpelstiltskin. This girl needs help and you wish to shove her away, perhaps to die at your doorstep all because you do not think her useful or can wrangle something valuable from her."

"Not our problem." He snarled vehemently and motioned an arm to the door. "She cannot stay! I command you to toss her out and be done with it!"

Turning her head down, Belle smiled warmly at the redhead. Offering her hand, she motioned to help the girl up.

A moment of suspicious and dubiousness crossed the strange girls face, her sea green eyes flickered from the smiling Belle to the scowling, beastly Rumpelstiltskin as though she could discern their words. Tenuously, she held her hand out and grasped Belle's own like a life line.

Her awkwardly thin legs wobbled precariously as she found her feet. Her knees nearly buckled, unable to support the foreign body in which they found themselves. To the redhead, lead seemed to shackle her ankles to the roots of the earth as she put one foot unsteadily in front of the other. How did humans actually do this "walking" business so smoothly? With the question still burning in her mind, she teetered and tottered like a drunkard filled with too much swill.

Belle, seeing the girl's plight, wrapped the girl's arms over her shoulder. Putting a slender arm around her waist she helped the girl, all the while speaking tenderly to her new charge.

Behind them, the Dark One stood in the moonlight at a loss for what to do. She disobeyed him blatantly, and yet he found himself unable to act in any major way. He could have called magic to his beck or even physically stopped them and tossed the girl out himself, but he remained prone as though frozen to the ground in shock. No one had ever so disregarded him!

"Belle!" Rumpelstiltskin's voice roared futilely down the hall in an insipid echo as the two kept walking down the drafty corridor. He shook a fist in her direction. "I command you do as I bid! Belle you are my slave and I will not allow this! I…I…."

Stifling a smile at his loss for action, the beauty arduously led the new girl to a place of safety inside the Dark Castle. Had he not felt a twinge of pity for the girl, Belle knew perhaps more than he knew himself, the master would have tossed the girl out himself. Still, the beauty knew, her bright smile fading into a frown, she was toeing a dangerous line defying the Dark One so.

~8~8~

Warmth and safety was the first sensation Ariel awoke to in the bright morn. Heat cocooned her form in a thick blanket wrapped tightly about her person. The heat was strange, unlike the hot vents on the sea beds, but more a cozy warmth in dryness that was foreign but not unpleasant. Her body felt the odd sensation of cloth and linen over top her form unlike bare skin in the water. Blankets, she thought they were called, but she wasn't certain.

A massive yawn escaped her lips, but no sound returned to her ears. Deep regret plunged into her heart with razor talons rending her raw soul to shreds. Whenever no words escaped her lips she was reminded of her poor choice with the haggard, propositioning crone.

Rubbing her bleary eyes with the back of her hand, she sat up on her elbows to view her surroundings. The last thing she recalled was a girl and a beast standing over her and speaking.

The room was ornately furnished, speaking of great wealth wherever she found herself. A dead, but recently used hearth sat in the corner. Thin tendrils of smoke from the night before wound up from ash to the chimney. About the room trunks and a few tables scattered the chamber. On the back of a chair, a luxurious peach colored dress lay draped over the top.

"You're awake." A gentle voice remarked from a corner of the room.

Startled, the girl jerked her head to there the noise hailed. The woman from the night before smiled at her from the side of the bed.

"Don't be frightened." Belle held up a hand to assure the girl she meant to ill. Seeing the fear glimmering in her eyes, she tried to make herself seem as tender as possible. "I'm a friend." Carefully, Belle seated herself on the edge of the wide, luxurious bed. Her attitude radiated an aura of kindness soothing the redhead's nerves.

"You look as though you've had quite an experience." The beauty probed to the silent guest. "My name is Belle. Can you understand my words?"

Eagerly, Ariel nodded as she scooted to sit up. Her back leaned upon the head board as she smoothed out the blankest and stared fully into the kind rescuers eyes. Only then did she notice she wore not the old sack that clothed her, but a pink nightshift. The blanket over her was the colored of autumn wheat and dazzled the mute's eyes.

Delight glimmered in her jade gaze at such things she'd only heard about in legends from other merfolk. Her pretty mouth moved to inquire of everything around her, but once more words silently slipped past her lips without sound.

"My so curious." Laughter tumbled gaily from Belle's lips. Though she couldn't understand the girl, already she had determined she liked her. "I feel as though you could ask me anything. Could you talk…once?" She asked tenderly, not knowing if the subject was prickly to her guest.

Sadly, the girl nodded, her bright eagerness fading like the sun behind a gray cloud of somber remorse. Her fingers unconsciously traveled to the pink shell strung about her neck with a thin pierce of leather. The smoothness of the trinket gave her a modicum of comfort, knowing that she always had one last resort no matter what transpired.

Though the woman was insofar kind, she knew better than to trust one she just met. After the last sorceress she met, the niggling untrustworthiness prevailed deeper still. How much did she dared tell her rescuer? How much did she dare not too?

"Well that makes this so much easier." Belle smiled warmly. Snapping her fingers she commanded her magic to the girl. Surprise splayed upon Ariel's features as thin tendrils of magic crept towards her like sea serpents over the sea floor. Another sorceress, she confirmed, adding to her inward dubiousness.

Panic welled in her, but the fact the woman had so far not tried to harm her put her disquiet a bit at ease. The sinuous fingers of crimson mist crawled up her body like the legs of a spider and seemed to climb to her throat. Ariel thrust her body back from the power, but the head board kept her from scrambling any further. Her pulse thundered rabidly in her body as the mist seeped into her body. Unlike the last witch who had endowed magic upon her, the power did not hurt. A tingling sensation shivered through her throat, but no more than that.

Ariel clutched her throat with tender hands as the last of the mist evaporated into her skin. Something strange shifted in her throat like a gate opening. A cough fell from her lips then another.

Hunched over, little by little the coughs formed into words. "I can…." She let out a massive cough. "I can speak again!"

"I should hope so." Belle smiled pleased then giggled. "Otherwise Rum would have been right and I need to work on my mending incantations a little more."

Joy filled the former mermaid like water breaking through a dam. Renewed and gleeful, the redhead leapt from the bed to tackle her benefactor in a titanic hug. Breath wrangled out of Belle's lungs as the girl impacted her with the massive hug.

Hot tears rimmed Ariel's eyes as she squeezed tighter. "Thank you. You've done more for me than you could know." Rising, the redhead blew a lock of her scarlet tresses from her features. "There is so much to do! I've got to find Eric and settle everything with my father and…."

Belle laughed as she too arose. Straitening her blue garb she cleared her throat. "Hold on. You've been through a lot. Come, I'll allow you too get dressed and you can tell me everything at breakfast."

"Morning food." Ariel nodded to herself as though trying to remember some important fact.

The beauty smiled to stifle a giggle. "Yes, though I dare suppose Rumpelstiltskin is less than pleased at having another for breakfast."

"Rump…Rumpel…?" Ariel's voice held confusion, unable to fully take in the ridiculously long title.

A smile perched upon Belle's lips as she exited. "You'll see."

~8~8~

Rumpelstiltskin paced maddeningly in the main hall of the Dark Castle. Morning sun seeped through the tall windows casting all in a gilded, golden glow and transforming his features into a glimmering shine crinkled with a mix of agitation and worry. The fiend seemed akin to a restless, caged tiger prowling its tiny, barred confines with every minuet that ticked by.

The large oaken table that was normally set for two was set with three cups and three steaming bowls of porridge. The third bowl almost seemed akin to a slap in the face, telling of the disobedience his apprentice wrought.

He shouldn't have let the girl stay, he knew, he should have implicitly denied Belle her rescue, but as he was slowly finding out to his terror and chagrin, he had a difficult time refusing Belle anything. Besides, the girl had dredged up unwarranted memories of his life before the Dark One. He had once been reduced to rags and begging for him and his son. Still, that did not mean his apprentice could disregard his orders so.

"You waited for us, Rum?" A note of pleasure fringed Belle's sweet tone as she appeared through the door.

The saved girl, donned in a simple peach colored dress followed slowly behind her rescuer. The redheads agate eyes were as round as disks as her head swiveled about gazing at the trinkets upon the walls and atop their allotted pedestals. She trailed close behind Belle as though a newly hatched chick with a mother hen.

He scoffed, denying her words. "Hardly. I was more thinking why I haven't locked you up for your implicit disobedience and the fact that that…girl is still traipsing about in _my _castle."

"Locked up…?" The girl inquired to her rescuer as though the words were foreign.

She talked. The words blared through the Dark One's mind like a war horn. Flashing his ebon gaze sharply to his apprentice, he glare murder at her. "Belle you did not." His voice brimmed with accusation

Belle shook her head. "It was the right thing to do, Rum and I don't regret it or ask for payment." She beckoned Ariel to a tall chair.

Did she live to infuriate him, Rumpel pondered as he sat down heavily. Did she enjoy seeing how much anger she could stoke in him, or how much of his lessons she could toss to the wind with her acts of goodness and kindness?

Warily, uncertain whether to trust the frowning man thing, the redhead sat down slowly. Muscles tensed, she seemed ready to jump up and dash away at any moment. Along with her anxiousness, the bowl before the former mermaid set another trial against her.

Staring down at the blue and white ceramic dishes, Ariel's eyes wandered from silver spoon and cups, her mind uncertain what to do. The utensils were so strange and foreign and made of metal and fixed into such odd shapes.

One, she was once certain, was a hair tool sat next to the bowl, while the other was some sort of digging implement or so she had thought. Looking at a loss she felt herself almost overwhelmed even by such a simple meal. What in the realms was she supposed to do?

Flickering surreptitious looks to the others, she tenuously picked up the spoon and followed their example least she draw even more suspicion.

"So now that we're all together, what's your name?" Belle blew on her porridge to cool it.

She grinned at her rescuer, thankful for talk rater than figuring out why the dinglehopper was on the table. "Ariel. I came from the shores of the sea." She was hesitant to tell all of her tale least they not be who they seemed. One, she knew was a sorceress, and the other seemed not at all fond of her.

"How'd you come to my door, like a wastrel in the dead on night?" Rumpel precariously sipped his tea, his voice clipped and indignant.

"A…a giant…reptilian thing came swooping me up from the sands…it…it carried me off and dropped me here." Ariel explained lowly, her tone was laced with sadness as the memory once more reared in her mind.

Belle's brow furrowed ponderously. "A dragon, do you mean?"

"Dragon?" Ariel shook her head, her tongue fumbling over the forgiven word. "Another word I do not know. If it is this dragon you speak of then it took me away from Eric."

"Eric?" Belle asked.

Ariel nodded. "A hu…man I met once. I was on my way to find him." After what transpired with the witch she did not dare tell them all that had occurred or who she was just yet, and definitely not in front of the other one. Such knowledge freely given could be disastrous, and doubly so in the hands that wished ill on her father.

The beauty sipped her tea. "Well that's fortunate. We can get you back to your man with no trouble at all. Until then you are our guest."

"Wrong, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin parried simply, his voice low. "You may think you can disobey me as much as you like, but until, I say so she is not a guest but a prisoner, my prisoner." He smiled maliciously over the gilded, chipped rim of his cup.

Dread pooled icily in Belle's gut. Her stomach dropped at his words though she showed no hint of disquiet on her features. She had toed the line a bit too closely, she knew to her detriment. Rum was only apt to let so much slip before he gathered himself and tried to make himself seem the beast he wished everyone to believe he was.

Ariel's brow furrowed at the word they did not have in Atlantis. "Prisoner?"

"A captive, Dearie." The fiend giggled in his impish timbre. "One who cannot leave of their free will."

The redhead shook her head reverently, her shocking vermillion locks fanning across her face. Eyes glimmering with near desperate looked from Belle to the Dark One. "But I can't stay, I need to go back. You don't understand…." She turned to Belle, her features marred with pleading. "Belle, please."

"Rumpel, you can't do this." Belle protested, her voice strained.

Flickering his eyes to his servant, he took another nip of tea. "I can and it is high time I did. You need to remember where you stand here, Belle." For the longest time he had been far too lenient to her, enraptured by her presence and enthralled by her companionship she allotted him. He let her get away with far too much and the outcome was a girl freely let into the Dark Castle with no repercussions.

No, it was high time, his servant remembered who was master.

For all her courage, the beauty could not meet the girl's gaze. Rumpelstiltskin had spoken, and though she had defied him to a degree, he could use his magic to stop anything she attempted in letting Ariel leave. "I'm sorry, Ariel I-"

"But you're a sorceress." The girl's voice lowered in fright and misunderstanding.

Pity and sorrow flashed in Belle's cerulean orbs. The girl had been counting on her to see her back to her love. "I'm truly sorry, Ariel. I'll explain everything later." Some how she had too make her understand her will was not entirely her own.

"In the meantime." Rumpelstiltskin slowly stirred his tea, as though insouciant to the agony of the redhead. "Belle, I want her kept in her room, you so generously offered her. Until I can figure out all the details, I do not wish some strange woman to be wandering my castle."

"You're making a terrible mistake." Appetite lost, Ariel pushed the half consumed bowl of now cold porridge away. "Keeping me here will spell your death."

The Dark One's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Is that a threat?" His voice growled.

"It's a warning." The redhead sighed sadly, seeing no way the strange beast would free her or her new found friend could help. "One I wished you had heeded."


	13. Unexpected

_A/N: I'm back! I see now I have a tendency to get off track, by complete stories. : Sorry for the wait!_

**~8~8~**

"How can you let him do this?" Ariel asked in stark astonishment as she closely trailed beside Belle.

Fluttering torches cast sharp slants of light upon them at odd intervals. Their hair gleamed vibrant reds and burnished copper under the flames as they made all haste back to the lovely chamber. Fistfuls of her graciously donated dress in her delicate grip, the redhead plowed after the somber beauty leading her through the enchanted castle. The pair traversed swiftly down the dark corridors that led to the new prisoners chambers like beautiful phantoms of some long forgotten age flitting by in the shadows.

Making certain Belle's attention was not upon her, the redhead clutched the pink, spiral shell at her neck. Desperately, the former mermaid whispered a word against the opening of the shell. If she could not get to her love, then there was no reason to languish in confinements forever, she mused morosely.

Guilt and a sudden longing for home stabbed cruelly at her heart as the word drifted down into the seashell. Why did she have to come up on the surface? Besides for Eric, there seemed nothing good about dry land.

Even as the impulse to be home again sprang through her mind, a faint red glow pulsed from the inside the shell then died still. Her want had successfully enacted the magic in the choker. Sad, but satisfied, she looked back up and focused on her caretaker once more.

A frown tilted upon the beauty's face as she ascended the narrow stone steps. Her disappointed features were shaded by the shadows mingled with torchlight. "I have no choice, Ariel." She explained sorrowfully. Sighing she opened the door to the quaint temporary prison of their 'guest'. "You don't understand the situation."

Taking in a deep breath, the redhead stayed her typhoon of errant emotions swirling in her heart. Some words her rescuer said were true. In less than two days her life had flipped over on its head and landed her prisoner of some powerful beast. She's didn't understand much of the strange dry land, and certainly not the being that was lord of the castle.

"Maybe you're right." She huffed quietly, her voice ashamed for her childish outburst. "I'm sorry for turning my ire on you when all you've been is kind. I could have died but you took me in."

Belle grinned and shook her head. "Think nothing of it." Abruptly, her brilliant smile died upon her lips. "What we need to do now is focus on a way of getting you out of here."

To spare his pride, the Dark One was apt to keep the strange woman forever. If no one came to search for her or she became a valuable pawn, Belle shivered to think of the redhead's fate. What if after she learned all from her apprenticeship, Ariel was made slave?

"You have magic." Ariel remarked as she padded over to the bed. "Why can we not simply walk out of the doors, all because he says no? Who is he to give such commands?" A snort of fiery rebellion feel from her lips. She had never been one to heed much instruction; that much was obvious from her secret hoard of above world treasures in a coral crag and her frequent trips to the surface against her father's orders.

A sad smile donned the beauty's lips. "It's not that simple, Ariel. Not only is the Dark One extremely powerful, you are not the only one bound here."

Walking over to a pile of dresses and other articles she had laundered for her guest, the beauty heaped the mass of fabric in her arms. Soft and simple cotton dresses in many hues mingled with brown brocade chemises and hose all sat in her grip. Dropping the pile on the bed Belle sat next to the prisoner. Dutifully, the apprentice began to tend to the chore. Anything to take her mind of the current situation was a welcome.

Curious, Ariel dove in to aid. Digging into the pile she watched the beauty before trying herself. Her eyes scanned the brown haired woman from under her long lashes as she fell into a rhythm of folding. Fear pooled like a sheet of ice in the pit of her belly and wariness gnawed at her gut. The words of her new friend certainly worried her.

"What… what did you mean I am not the only one?" She bolstered up the courage to ask.

Was the collar not enough of a hint, Belle wondered curiously? Exhaling slowly, the beauty shrugged insouciantly. There was no need to hide what she was even if she could. "I am a slave. I cannot do as I wish, Rumpel is my master."

"Sl… ave?" The redhead tilted her head up revealing her furrowed brow. Her lips twisted as she spoke the foreign word. "I do not understand. What is a… slave?"

"Something akin a prisoner." Belle explained softly as she folded a sash. "Only that I will never have the opportunity to leave. He owns me, like a possession." Her voice could not hide the sadness in her heart. "One day he may let you free, but I never will be."

Dread and pity for her new found friend filled the former mermaid's heart at the admittance. Another dose of guilt shanked her emotions at her own absent minded selfishness. She had never given thought to Belle's plight or why she took orders from the scaly being though she did not agree.

Rage fumed rebelliously in her brave, free heart at her friends fate. Back in the sea she had only thought the cruelty of humans to be a myth. Never could she imagine people so wicked who did such actions. Her father had often warned her of the backwards ways of dry land folk, but she had never thought they were truth.

"How terrible." Ariel whispered lugubriously, her voice hedged with righteous frustration and indignation. How could that beast do such to a lovely, kind, selfless woman!

Belle smiled, showing not a hint of her sadness lingering through her heart. Over the months, the sting of her plight was a callous against her heart. Sometimes the fact ached, but the knowledge of what she was never hurt to badly anymore. Her fate could have been so much worse.

A small grin curved upon her mouth. "It's not so bad." She shrugged carelessly to veil her dudgeon and tended to another piece of laundry. "He is not a harsh master to me. Certainly there are crueler people to whom I could have fallen thrall."

"But don't you miss freedom; to do as you please without a master over your head?" Ariel inquired, her hands trying to copy Belle's neat, quick folding. Folding was another thing she had never done. One did not exactly fold seashell bras.

Biting a corner of her bottom lip the beauty nodded slightly. Melancholy glimmered in her eyes telling of the words tucked in the crevices of her heart. "Of course I do. Everyday I wish I was free."

Perhaps she wouldn't have cared at all if selling her freedom away was her own choice, a sacrifice of sorts, but her papa had callously sold her like a blemished sheep on market day. She was an outcast with no say. At least, she contented herself whenever the thought happened upon her, Rum treated her somewhat as an equal.

"Well then." Ariel smiled widely to her friend. "For your kindness to me and because it is right, I shall free you."

Happiness flashed in Belle's blue orbs at the kindness of her new found friend. The words were futile of course, but she did not dare say such. The thought was the only thing that mattered.

Placing a hand on Ariel's own, Belle grinned thankfully. "I'm just happy I have someone to speak to." She jested truthfully. "Even when I was free, I didn't have many friends. It's nice to speak with someone else." Laughing merrily she waved her hand as though shooing some morbid fly. "But enough of this sadness. I finally have someone to talk to. I want to know all about you, who you are and where you come from."

"Of course." Ariel giggled, unable to remain plaintive with the ever optimistic Belle. Her laughter, like the soft peal of bells wafted about the room as she added. "We won't have much time, and I want to talk with you as much as I can before the end."

Confusion danced across Belle's flawless face at the odd words. Brow beetling faintly, her laughter fell to an insipid halt. "What do you mean by that?"

As If on cue, the castle quaked. The very foundations of the ancient keep shivered tremulously upon the mountain stone as though the castle was a ragged toy in a destructive child's grip. Trinkets rattled upon the dusted shelves in the room and the fire in the hearth guttered wildly. Bits of dust and flakes of stone crumbled downy like to the earth, sprinkling the rugs with gray grit.

"Belle!" The voice of the Dark One roared from below.

Stilled, the beauty listened in amazement to her master's voice. For the first time in all the months she'd been his prisoner, there was something far different in his tone, something that made her blood thrill and chill - wild, unadulterated fear.

Beside her Ariel showed not a hint of alarm. A wide smile of victory pulled at her lips as she leapt neatly folded the last article of clothing. "That's daddy now."

"Daddy…?" Belle whispered, her words unable to become louder past her heart lodged tightly in her throat.

Grabbing Belle's hand, the redhead slid from the bed and pulled the apprentice to the door. "Come on. We shouldn't keep him waiting."

Willfully, Belle allowed herself to be dragged down the spiral stairs and the hall. Her mind flew in a whirlwind of confusing contemplations. What had been that shaking and why did the Dark One sound so utterly afraid? Who was intruding upon the Dark Castle and why?

Abruptly, her thoughts extinguished as something cold and wet sloshed against her blue shoes. Tilting her head down, her eyes grew wide to see a practical lake of water up to her ankles. The edges of her dress floated in the icy liquid, clinging to her legs. Foamy, green water swirled about her and getting deeper all the time. Already what had been to her ankles was at her calf.

Waves of dull teal lapped roughly at alabaster pedestals as though trying to bring them down. Trinkets vapidly floated by, bobbing on the every higher water like driftwood and flotsam from some ostentatious shipwreck. Even a basket of golden string went floating by, going wherever the water could find purchase. Sharp saltiness wafted through the cold air, giving Belle the scents of the seashore. The water seemed not from a pond or lake, but the hint of saltiness told the waves were from the sea itself.

Gleefully splashing in the water with a frightful ease, the redhead plowed through. Many people lagged in the water but Ariel was like a siren dancing on the waves. Pushing open the door to the main hall, the strange woman dipped through the water and forced the door to stay, giving Belle a view of the main hall.

Awed, the beauty could only stare in amazement. Before them was a massive sight Belle knew even if she lived for a thousand years she would never forget.

Water, as high as the once lit fireplace, swirled through every crack and crevice of the great hall. Light purple mist floated above the raging waters like morning fog lying over a placid lake. The tendrils of damson seemed like fingers trying to combat the water magic, but failed miserably by only hovering over the waves in vain.

The only thing not swamped was the large oaken table bobbing in the center of the room like some raft. Upon the table, the Dark One stood, and before him, a primordial creature of ancient age.

Large, milky white eyes stared upon the Dark One fiercely. A thatch of shaggy silver hair dripping with wet hung to his ears and a thick beard of hoary white like the surf lay dampened upon a thick, barrel chest. Muscles and veins puckered from beneath tanned skin, showing a monstrous strength unequal to any mans. Only a simple pair of dull blue dolphin skin leggings donned his lower part. The being's legs, thought they seemed like they did not belong to the torso, were like pillars in the midst of the impromptu sea, unbreakable and solid as stone. In his large right hand, an ornately carved, golden trident sat clutched in his strong fingers

The trident was a marvel. Bands of lapis lazuli rounded the shaft and the butted end was forged of topaz. Three prongs pulsed with such magical energy, Belle felt her blood burn. Certainly this was a sorcerer of no little means.

While the being wasn't a giant, but certainly no mere mortal, his very aura seemed to tower over the spindly Dark One who stood before him on quaking knees.

Rumpelstiltskin's ebon eyes ignored the trident altogether, but sat stapled to the left hand of the creature where a small kris, nearly unnoticeable, lay clutched in his palm. Pain and worry cracked against his flesh telling of a terror Belle did not even fathom.

Wondrous laughter bubbled from Ariel's lips as she proffered her hand to the massive being. "Belle this is my father. My people call him Triton in our tongue, but the land folk call him…" She paused and searched for the word on the brink of her mind then snapped her fingers. "Poseidon!" She crowed as the word came to her.

"Poseidon…." Belle raked a hand through her thick tresses. "That means you're a… you were a… mermaid."

Happily, Ariel nodded. Everyone had secrets and now one of her biggest was out of the bag. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't know what would happen if you found out."

At the sound of her voice, the deity turned to the pair. His once stern lips broke into a smile of relief as he spied his daughter. "Ariel. Thank Olympus you're alive!"

"Poseidon is your father?" Belle echoed to the redhead. Utter disbelief speared her tone, her jaw nearly falling to the floor.

"Dare you speak before me, mortal!" Triton roared, his voice like the ocean crashing upon a cliffside in a hurricane.

Belle trembled fearfully, her mouth shutting like a sluice gate. No wonder Rum had sounded so desperately fearful. The thing before her was a powerful deity, and a none too happy one at that!

Gliding through the water gracefully, the redhead fearlessly neared the massive being without a hint of fear. Happily, she hugged her father tightly, her slim arms unable to even cover half of his torso. "Daddy."

Smiling lovingly at his child, he hugged her gently with his massive strength. In an instant the tenderness faded, turning him back to an enraged deity. Pointing to the table with his trident, the lord of the seas addressed the beauty. "Here, on this piece of driftwood with this this other being. I won't tolerate either of you scrambling around like drowning rats."

Obediently, Belle sloughed through the water now up to her waist. Scrambling in a most undignified manner up on the table, she threw a stare at the Dark One. "Why haven't you done something?" She whispered beneath her breath.

"He is a deity, I am the Dark One." He snarled lowly. "Though they barely tamper with us, even some things trump me, Dearie!"

"Silence!" Triton bellowed, his voice filling the entirety of the castle.

Immediately, both fell silently, not daring another word. They were in trouble and knew all too well the danger that faced them.

Turning back to his daughter, he hugged her again and kissed the crown of her head. "Oh my precious Ariel. How have you come so far from your home? Did they put a curse on you? Have these barbarians harmed you in any way?"

Ariel tossed her head. "I haven't been touched. But the scaled one told me I was a prisoner here."

"A prisoner." Poseidon growled the word like some vile curse. His eyes slowly roved to the pair on the floating table. "So it was you both who captured my daughter?"

Ariel raised a hand to her father's chest. "No they did not capture me." She refuted before her fathers anger boiled over. When he was in one of his rages, he couldn't even be stopped by her.

Nodding stoically, her father's temper simmered, not banished, but controlled.

Tensed, both sorcerers breathed a sigh of relief. At least Ariel remembered that!

"Very well." He smirked grimly. Raising his glorious trident, he pointed the pronged tips to the helpless pair. "Since you are in good health, but they did keep you prisoner, they will receive quick deaths from my hand."

Rumpelstiltskin inhaled sharply, his black eyes filled with fear. For all his powers he could not scale over the innate powers of a deity. Perhaps he could have teleported them to safety if the deity had not possessed his dagger.

After the creature broke the doors down to his palace, the hulking deity immediately called the dagger to his hand, for even the dagger had to obey such power, and called the fiend to halt.

Staring down her fate bravely, Belle faced the tips of the pulsing trident fearlessly. If she was to die, she would do so with her head held high.

"Daddy no!" Ariel interceded vehemently. Pulling on the golden trident she forced the hand of her father down. The water splashed up in a fugue as an linking of power that would have slain them crackled through the water. Mist falling, she looked to her father pleadingly. "You can't kill Belle. She saved me when I was injured. I owe her my life."

He scoffed, but flashed his gaze to his daughter. "You owe your life to one of these insignificant ilk?"

"Belle saved my life when the other wanted nothing to do with me." Her tone grew cool when referring to the beast. "He made me a prisoner when she wished to free me. She couldn't because she is a slave to this… monster. I wish to free her from him. This is the least I can do."

Grim, he assented to his daughter. "So be it." The glow upon the prongs focused like pinpricks on the scaled fiend.

"No. Wait!" Belle barked abruptly. Hands upraised, she stepped in front of the Dark One, a shield to the man who imprisoned her. "Please spare him!" She turned to her friend beseechingly. "Ariel, please."

"What!"

"What?"

Ariel and Rumpelstiltskin replied simultaneously. Shock and surprise entwined in both their voices.

The former mermaid tossed her head. "Belle, this is the man who imprisoned you. His death will free you and give your life back."

A pang throbbed darkly in the beauty's, brave, palpitating heart at the all too true words flaring through her soul. Freedom was at the tip of a powerful trident, solidifying her wants to have her own will again. To say she was not tempted would have been a monolithic lie. For everything he had done, the collar, her slavery, his will to keep her in the dungeon, he deserved death. With his demise, everything could be hers, the castle, power, prestige. Everything.

Oh what temptation!

Swallowing hard, Belle tossed her head stubbornly with the dark thoughts whispering into her mind. She could not take the easy way, the cowardly way out. That was not her way. "No. Not death." She confirmed stoically.

Amazement stapled the Dark One's features for her words. Surely she couldn't be serious. Was she truly in his favor, her taskmaster, her slaver, the man who cared nothing for her life as her own?

"Are you sure Belle?" Ariel asked cautiously, her eyes narrowed slightly upon the beauty in confusion.

Belle nodded. "Please. I know you do not think it, but I see he does not deserve to die. You don't know him like I do."

Looking to his daughter the king of the seas, queried her with a silence that spoke louder than words.

"If you're sure Belle." The redhead nodded uncertainly.

Irked, Poseidon lowered his trident. The waters about them receded, leaving the ancient rugs dampened and the wood in the hearth soaked. Bibelots and baubles fell gently to the floor and wobbled, leaving the room in ruins.

"As long as no harm has come to my daughter you shall live." The deity grumbled. "But I shall not leave someone so brave in the chains of slavery." Grasping the dagger delicately by the wavy steel, the deity held the leather handle out to Belle. "I give you this for your courage. Perhaps now you will give this creature a taste of his own medicine." He winked conspiratorially.

"Thank you." Belle bowed awkwardly hefting the warm blade in her hand. She would have been a fool not to take the strange dagger. Though she was curious of the weapon, she truly did not want it. "And Ariel." She turned to the redhead. "I hope you fulfill your dreams."

Wisely she kept the words vague, her woman's intuition telling her of what should remain silent to the ears of her father. Perhaps now that she had her legs she would find her courage along with it.

Waving his trident across the ground, the two mermaids disappeared leaving the beauty and the beast alone.

A deep breath fell from her mouth as she turned to the Dark One. Instead of relief his face was still drawn as though something pained him. He looked like a skittish deer ready to bolt. Anxiety laced his features, his obsidian eyes pinioned upon the blade in her grasp. Did she know what she grasped, he wondered nervously. Surely she could sense the magic and the power.

"This does something to you, doesn't it?" She queried lowly, her words sure and soft. Holding the blade close, she canted her head curiously to the left. Power crackled off the blade in waves that told her without a doubt, the blade was more important than she could possibly know.

"It does." He admitted freely, but not spoke no more.

She had power, Belle knew instantly without a hint of doubt. Despite herself a dark thrill coursed through her in malicious delight. Eagerness flowed through her veins gushing through her body with a tingling sensation.

Poseidon had given her power over the Dark One, a slave over her master. Oh the fun she could have. She could make him sleep on a cold dungeon floor or have him up late penning enchantments on vellum by hand! She could take his freedom and place a collar around his neck to see how he liked it!

Flickering his eyes down to the blade, she gripped the hilt tightly. Temptation burned hotly in her heart, but she dampened the will. No, that wasn't right, none of her thoughts were.

"Here this is yours." Instincts screaming otherwise, she held out the blade to him solemnly. Darkness snarled against her kind actions viciously inside her, but she ignored the tainted power wishing her to be mistress. To keep him as he did her was wrong. She had no right to the kris.

Incredulous, the fiend stared at her, his brow wrinkled with consternation. Awe he could not conceal donned his features in a wave of astonishment. "Truly? No trick?" The words all but whispered from his thin gray mouth. Was she really simply going to hand over all his power over himself and her back without any price?

Belle nodded determinedly, swallowing her want to have him under her command for once. "Yes."

Goodness was not taking advantage of another. She would not ask him of what the blade was for. No, she would not breech that particular trust and she would not ask anything in return.

Cautiously taking the dagger, the fiend clutched the weapon as though it was some rare trinket. Tracing his spindly over the steel, he banished the blade to some secret place outside the fringes of her power.

Power back in his grasp, his shoulders slumped as though some weight had fallen from his back. Relief bellowed out of his lungs in a sigh. Once more he was unstoppable, his power in his grasp.

With his power secured, he turned his attention to the beauty. Curiosity and misunderstanding his did not try to hide traced his features. For a moment, his eyes inspected her, searching for deceits. She had willing given up another part of freedom.

Clearing his throat austerely, his features hardened. "All of this because you let that chit here." He pointed and talon to the door behind him, his voice scolding. " Be gone. I need to think now."

Nodding, the beauty complied obediently. She should have expected no less from him even from showing him mercy. "I'll see my self to the dungeon." Her shoulders heaved in a shrug

Distraught, Belle padded out, her head low, mind filled with regret. How could she have been so foolish. But no, she reminded himself, this was not for herself. Being good meant doing things without expecting anything in return even if she had saved their lives. She shouldn't have expected anything, Belle mused, nor truly did she expect something different.

"Wait." He called out, voice soft.

Stopping dead in her tracks, the beauty turned back to the beast. Was he going to rebuke her again?

Not looking at her, he shrugged carelessly. "You may take the mermaids room if you desire."

Without another word to explain his sudden kindness, he disappeared in a cloud of thick, dark damson to his tower.

Alone, Belle stared at the place he once stood. Had he just...?

Slowly, almost without her volition, a faint smile grew curved her lips.


End file.
