"Yes I can protect your little town from the ogres...for a price."
The king stuttered, throwing his arms up. "But we haven't got anything!"
Rumplestiltskin raised his eyebrows. Clasping his hands behind his back, he advanced towards Maurice and Colette. "Now I'm sure that can't be true. You are, after all, King and Queen. Surely you must have something."
"We have nothing," Colette spoke for her husband. The King stood to the side of his throne, nervously fidgeting with his shirt sleeve. "We've spent all our resources in protecting our kingdom from the Ogre Wars. You are our last hope."
Rumplestiltskin came here to name a certain price. His foresight told him of the importance of this price. His limited sight into the future did not tell him why it was important, but he knew that he had to ask this question. "What about a firstborn? Surely you'll be having a wee one sometime soon." If rumors were going to go around about him dealing for babies, they might as well be true. The fact that Maurice and Colette went to fairies first for help told him that they couldn't be the smartest rulers. Perhaps they'd consent to this deal.
Colette lifted her chin a little higher, a frown tugging at her lips. "That is a fit price for what we ask, but I must tell you. I am barren. Maurice and I will never have a child."
Rumplestiltskin let out a breath. He almost just dealt for a child. This woman wanted a baby she couldn't have, and he was considering taking away her chance at parenthood. He raised up his hands, "I apologize, Your Majesty." His foresight told him that he needed to ask for a firstborn as a price; but he didn't have to actually go through with that deal. "Perhaps with time you can give me some gold that you earn. I'm sure that price will satisfy the magic."
The King and Queen of the Marchlands eagerly accepted his offer. Naming gold as a price...Rumplestiltskin cursed himself for the sloppy move. He can make gold. He just hopes to the gods that the gold can pay the price of the magic. He expected to come here naming a baby as a price. Once he is back at his castle, he recites the spell to end the Ogre Wars' terror on the Marchlands.
Afterwards, he forgets all about the deal. He spends most of his days dealing, after all, so it's easy to lose track. Months pass without him thinking of the King and Queen of the Marchlands. Weeks go by without him thinking about the still unpaid price.
He doesn't remember the deal he made with the royalty of the Marchlands until he's spying on the fairies. He had no real reason for spying on them except that there seemed to be nothing better to do. He positioned himself in an apple-blossom tree, looking down on the fairies as they flitted about in the forest in preparation for something. When he heard them buzzing about the Marchlands and a baby, his ears perked up. With a flourish of his hands, he stilled their wings, and as they fell to the ground, paralyzed by his magic, he jumped out of the tree with finesse.
He watched his step with caution. As much as he hated fairies, he'd hate to have crushed fairy remains on the bottom of his shoe. "And just where are you going?"
Blue was the first to speak up. Surrounded in grass that almost completely covered her small body, she shouted at him. "This isn't funny, Rumplestiltskin!"
"I'm not trying to be funny." He squatted down to make eye contact with the little creature. "Now tell me where your little flock is going and I'll let you use your wings again."
She crossed her arms over her chest. From behind him, another fairy, wearing green, spoke. "We're going to the christening of the princess."
He whirled around to regard to green pixie who spoke up. "And this baby...are her parents the royal Maurice and Colette?"
"Tink..." Blue's voice cautioned the other fairy. It was all the proof he needed that the King and Queen lied to him.
"See you there!" He chimed, almost forgetting to bestow the ability to fly back upon the fairies.
He waited a few hours to arrive at the party- he'd have to arrive fashionably late. He waited until the sun set, and shades of orange and pink painted the night sky. Then he transported himself right outside the door of the Marchlands' biggest social event of the year.
Inside, he could hear the fairies performing their gift-giving ritual. He listened to them gift the child grace and beauty and lovability before he knocked on the wooden door. All music and chatter inside stopped. "Open it," he heard Maurice's voice command. Rumplestiltskin chose this moment to transport himself straight into Maurice's throne. Everybody, including King Maurice, had their backs turned on him. The crowd let out a collective sigh when the guard opened the door to reveal nobody.
"Well that was a bit of a letdown." Rumplestiltskin interrupted the calm from his perch on the throne. As the subjects whirled around to face him, he reveled in the look of fear in everyone's eyes. "Well well. What a lovely party. Even the fairies are here." Most of the fairies hovered by the door, but three fairies huddled around a cradle in the corner. "I must say I felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation." He giggled.
Colette brushed past her husband, advancing towards Rumplestiltskin. "You're not welcome here." Her accented voice shook a little, but she kept her chin lifted.
His hand flew to his chest in mock-offense. "Oh dearie me, what an awkward situation. I'm not offended, though." He stood up, approaching the white cradle. The little princess, already possessing riches and love, napped in the white silk gown she wore. "I can see you have your reasons. To show I bear no ill will, I too shall bestow a gift on the child."
Maurice and Colette shook their heads while the fairies shouted at him to keep away. With a flick of his wrist, he trapped all the fairies inside a chest, neither seen nor heard. "She shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, loved by all who meet her."
"That's a lovely gift," the helpless Queen Colette nodded, biting her lip in worry.
Magic swirled at his fingers as he put one to his lips, silencing her. "But, before the sun sets on her eighteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep like death, a sleep from which she will only awaken by the power of True Love's Kiss. This curse will last until the end of time. No power in the realm can change it."
Hope had flickered in Maurice and Colette's eyes at the mention of a way to break the curse, but Rumplestiltskin knew better. There was no such thing as True Love. True Love's Kiss was a thing of myth. Perhaps True Love, if it existed, could be the most powerful magic of all. But even though no one has loved him in centuries, he wields the most powerful magic in the realm- there seems to be no correlation between power and love.
The King and Queen now stood as an example of why one should never lie to the the Dark One. Their child had no hope of ever waking up. Maybe he'd been a little harsh, but at least the girl would live a life of luxury for her entire adolescence. He told himself he did the right thing.