First Rumbelle fic, lets see how it goes. This story is generally about Belle and the incredibly mysterious and sexy Rumplestiltskin, but Bae does have a large part in it too. Flames are allowed, always open for creative criticism but I really hope you'll all love this story as much as I love writing it.
If response is really good, next chapter will be up tomorrow.
Blood filled the sky, a ghostly cloud of death and horror always etched into the blue, overshadowing the beauty and simplicity that had once lived there so very long ago. For generations this battle had been fought, helpless, untrained men, women and children sent to fight against blood-thirsty ogres who were void of human emotions like love and compassion.
Idiotic creatures who loved the sound of breaking bones and the endless screams of fear and pain; they knew nothing else. People wanted them gone simply because they could not control or defeat them, in their minds, humans were the evil ones.
An incessant affair of misunderstandings and revenge-fuelled attacks had led to the pain and misery of the small little villages in the Frontlands.
The age had been lowered to fourteen and the children were taken even sooner, parents who thought they had more time, showering their children with all the love and affection they could bestow because they knew it would not last. On the ground, in filth and dirt they would lie on that fateful day, when the one thing they cherished more than anything in the world was ripped away from them and they were powerless to stop it. Thin and weak, their hearts bleeding with anguish and misplaced blame which fed the ever growing guilt.
Why couldn't they stop it? Why couldn't they be different? Why couldn't they stand up to the cruel knights who stole the happiness from their world?
Because the Dark One served them.
One man with more power than any should possess was controlled by the Duke and because of him they were powerless to stop the evil that was being enacted upon their land.
When a girl called Moraine was taken away to the wars, one man feared for his son's life and found a way to break this chain of torment and grief.
By taking the power of the Dark One for himself.
On this day in the late of autumn, the man who had previously been known as the village coward, stepped out into the field of battle and made it stop. He made a truce with the ogres and satisfied their need for control over their own lives and environment, locating them a place to live where no man would venture.
And then he led each and every child back to their greatly missed homes and their tear-soaked parents who could only look up at the beast and beam with happiness and gratitude, for he had brought joy back into their lives.
When the new Dark One had walked back to the poor little village and returned Moraine to her blissfully elated mother and father, they still had been terrified of him and treated him like a monster. He hadn't cared for it as all he had wanted then was to return to his son who had lived without him for the days he had taken for his mission.
He walked inside the dank, shabby hut and found his son by the fire, curled up with tears on his face. When questioned, the boy had told his father that even though he had returned, his father was still gone, taken over the by the numinous monster inside.
From that day forward, Baelfire had never been able to truly trust his father again, no matter how much he tried to be the man he once was. His father had never had a lust for power, he was not accustomed to it and it had been only too easy for the seductive magic to take him over once he knew what it felt like.
Now he knew what power was and what it promised him, he was not going to give it up. He could finally protect his son for the first time in his life, never the old man, never the coward, never the cripple ever again. No one would hurt him or his son and if they tried he would punish them.
That was where the trouble began, because normally no one paid much attention to Baelfire and treated him just like every other child in the village. If he stumbled in front of a cart or bumped into someone while they were walking, they would scold him for not looking or for getting in the way. Whether Bae was actually at fault in anyway didn't matter in the least, because the moment Rumplestiltskin heard someone yelling at his son, his temper flared.
Simply stepping outside the hut was enough to make the entire village cease to speak or move, for fear of what he might do should his attention be drawn to them. Anyone who caused trouble for Bae faced the wrath of his father, which more often than not resulted in death in a fairly unpleasant way.
After a lifetime of being abused, exploited and manipulated, the control and power flowing through his veins was like a drug and he couldn't let it go. All he had in his life that he could truly call his own was Baelfire and he was determined to keep him safe and happy.
But his son was not happy, because this power came with a price, and that price was his father.
Almost a year after the events of that day, things had only gotten worse.
"If I find a way to break the curse that doesn't kill you or hurt me, would you do it?"
"It's not possible."
The son and father argued over lunch, the man eating the soup with a carefree delight while the boy burned over what had happened only moments before. He had fallen in the street, tripped over and troubled a man with a donkey pulling a cart of chickens and eggs.
The moment his father had come out of the house, he had known it was all over, but still he tried to defend the poor man and make his father have mercy. But with a bad scrape on his left knee, Rumplestiltskin had heard none of it, turning the man into a snail and crushing him with the heel of his boot.
He didn't care whose life he took now, it didn't mean anything to him that his value for life had melted away to reveal the power-hungry creature that lurked within.
"But if it was possible-"
"Are you really that unhappy, Bae? I can conjure anything you desire."
A sad stare and a lonely heart was all the response he had.
"Name it, what do you want?"
"I want my father."
The remark had no impact on the Dark One whatsoever.
"All I want is your happiness, Bae; if you find a way...I'll do it."
A steady shake of hands and the boy smiled for the first time in weeks.
"The deal is struck."
If he found a way to save his father, then everything would be alright again. The people in the village could stop staring at him and the other kids wouldn't run away as soon as they saw him. With his father The Coward, Baelfire had been an outcast, but now that he was the son of the Dark One, people feared him as well.
All except for Moraine.
A young and sweet girl with ash brown hair and bravery unmatched by the other children in the village, she was the only one who would talk to him. Moraine, with her pretty blue dress and the front locks of her wispy hair pulled back off her face and tied behind her head, the rest of the cascade running down her back and curling over her shoulders. The way she would smile at him and call his name, like the voice of a sweet nightingale.
So soft and gentle but with the courage and fire of a childhood knight, she would play swords with him when he was on his own and she would tell him stories about the strange creatures she had seen on the battle fields, and about the day that his father had saved her and all the other children of the Frontlands.
If her parents weren't so terrified of him and his father, he might have thought to ask for her hand in a few years; for he could think of no one else he would want to spend the rest of his life with.
But something had to change.
He couldn't imagine his father actually letting him go to make his own life, and with his magic there was nothing he could do to stop him from keeping him locked up the hut for the rest of his days. His father couldn't live without him, he knew this, he couldn't live alone; he simply didn't have it in him.
Baelfire couldn't bear the idea of losing his father, so there was only one option; find someone to keep him company. Maybe if he married again or had another child, maybe a pet would be enough or even just having one single friend.
But how could you hope for that to happen when people were scared to death at the very sight of him? He was good man underneath; a caring, loving man; but only Bae could see it.
The only choice he had was to find a way to break the curse.
So in the dead of night, a week before his 15th birthday, Baelfire packed a bag and left the village to find that way.
He had no idea where his journey would lead or what it might entail, but he couldn't bear to see his father like this any longer. Whenever he went out to go to the shops or to visit Moraine, he could see the loneliness mixing in his eyes and knew that, even with his magic and power, he was still as lonely as he had ever been.
In the middle of the night, Baelfire escaped the house and fled into the forest, the only way he could think of to go that his father wouldn't immediately follow him. There were dangerous things in the forest, especially at night, and Baelfire was smart enough not to go near them. That knowledge would lead his father in a different direction and spare him time.
Just before he stepped inside, a quiet voice called his name.
"Moraine, what are you doing here?"
The girl approached him cautiously, a look of worry on her innocent face.
"What about you, Baelfire? What are you doing here?"
"I'm going to find a way to save Papa, even if that means leaving the village."
"Don't you know what's out there? This is the forest of nightmares, the moon brings out the worst of them."
"If it was really so bad, they wouldn't have built the village so close. What if there is something in there that someone is just trying to hide? What if there is magic? Magic that could help Papa?"
"Baelfire, please don't go, if you do we may never see each other again."
The hint of humidity in her eyes made his heart beat sadly for her. He took her hands in his and looked into her eyes, his heart beating faster with every passing second. They had never been so close before and he wanted to remember this moment, just in case she was right and he never returned.
Baelfire's mother had left them soon after he was born and his father had never been with another woman since, so he didn't really have any role models in terms of romance, but he did have very good instincts and those were what he was listening to right now.
"I would rather not leave, but this can't go on, Moraine, he's getting worse every day, I need to do this; do you understand that?"
She nodded, fighting the tears that wanted to spill from her lovely hazel eyes.
"I want to help, maybe I could tell your father so that he won't go after you."
"No, I don't want you to go near him. He won't understand and I don't want him to get angry at you...I don't want you to get hurt. Please, promise me you won't talk to him or visit him, please."
"Ok, I promise, as long as you promise to come back."
"I promise, one way or another, I'll come back."
A small smile found its way to her lips and it made him all fuzzy inside.
She slipped the little braid and bead bracelet she was wearing off her wrist and slipped it onto his. "I'll want that back someday." She told him, smiling, as if he needed any more incentive to return.
He released her hands and stepped back, preparing to say goodbye. The look in her eyes made his stomach twist as she showered him with a series of wildly different emotions on her face.
Just as he was about to step into the forest, she moved forward and placed a light kiss to his cheek before running back into the shadows, returning home before her parents noticed her absence.
Baelfire swallowed, his heart fluttering inside his chest as he thought about the bashful smile that had been on her face as she ran back home. Oh yeah, he was definitely coming back.
Taking a deep breath and turning towards the cold darkness, Baelfire walked inside the forest, determined not to return until he found a cure; but determined to return none the less. After all, he had someone waiting for him, and he was not going to let her down.
... ...
Daylight peeked under the door and through the openings between the curtains, drawing the Dark One from his sleep. Lately he had been making renovations on the shabby little hut to make it more pleasing to live in, today he was thinking of making Bae his own room perhaps, although he didn't know if he could still sleep without the soft sound of his son's breathing beside him in the neighbouring bed.
Rolling over to see if said son was still sleeping, Rumplestiltskin was surprised to find the bed empty. It was dawn, Bae never got up that early before. He drew himself out of his own bed, changing into a red silk shirt and brown leather pants and boots and went in search for the lad.
"Baelfire! Where are you?"
He called throughout the house, a wave of anxiety coming over him when he failed to get a response. While the place was a little bigger than before, there was no reason why they wouldn't be able to hear each other from the other side of the house; or even from out in the sheep pen.
Maybe he had gone to visit his friend, that girl with the braids. What was her name? Moraine, that's right. But she wouldn't be awake this early, she didn't have to work, her parents were one of the wealthier families in this town, regardless of how little that really meant here.
He decided to wait for an hour or two, just in case Bae had just stepped out to do something, his son was entitled to his freedom, just as long as he came home. But after sitting at his spinning wheel, letting time roll on by with every loop of the wheel, he came to realise that something wasn't right.
Rumplestiltskin left the cottage and went straight to the home of Baelfire's lifelong friend. He knocked on the door placidly, holding back his fear and anger. He was pleasantly surprised to see the girl answer the door, thinking most parents would advise their children against such a thing with him living so close by.
"Good morning, Moraine, I was wondering if you had seen Baelfire today?"
The girl forced herself to smile, summoning up the bravery she had used to face the Ogre Wars.
"No, I'm sorry I haven't, wasn't he at home this morning?"
"No, he wasn't."
The anger on his face was growing and Moraine couldn't tell if it was directed at her or Bae.
"Maybe he went to the market; one does get the best service when you go early."
"The market won't be open for another hour, girl, and he has been missing for three."
She could see he was losing patience with her and knew that he wasn't buying her story.
"Well...I..."
"Where is he, dearie?"
Rumplestiltskin grinned at her and she felt a shiver run down her spine, so much for keeping herself safe from him.
"I don't know."
"Now, you see I think you do, and you should tell me right now before I lose my temper and do something I would rather not, as my son is so very fond of you. But I will hurt you if you don't tell me the truth right now."
"I am telling the truth, I don't know where he is."
Suddenly, his hand was around her neck and her parents were running to the door, having just awoken to the sound of their daughter's voice.
"Wait, stop! Please don't hurt her, please Rumplestiltskin."
Moraine's mother begged him, her face showing a facsimile of the horror that had been on her face the day Moraine had been taken.
"I will release her as soon as she tells me where my son is."
Moraine's father was close behind.
"Please, you can't do this, you can't, I beg you."
That brought a snarl to the Dark One, but his eyes never left the young girl's face.
"You owe me your daughter's life; you do not have the right to tell me what I can or cannot do."
Fear gripped at the girl's heart and she finally began to really see the monster that had taken Baelfire's father. His hand around her neck sat comfortably there, he wasn't hurting her or even blocking her airway much, he was just holding her.
"I promise you, I don't know where Baelfire is, you know I would tell you if I did, don't you?"
He seemed to contemplate that for a moment before releasing her.
"You are an honest girl, I believe that, but if I should discover that you are keeping something from me, I will be back to collect on your dept to me."
She nodded her understanding, being too scared but also too surprised to answer.
Rumplestiltskin ignored her parents completely as he turned away. As soon as Moraine had closed the door, her parents wrapped themselves around her, hugging her tightly.
"My god, Morrie, what were you thinking? You shouldn't have been anywhere near that boy, he is dangerous."
She pushed away from them and scowled.
"Baelfire isn't the one who is dangerous, his father is, and I'm not going to let that stop me from seeing him. Baelfire is a good person and he would never let his father actually hurt me. If it wasn't for my friendship with him, Rumplestiltskin might not have taken mercy on me just then."
She really hated it when everyone blamed Bae for the sins of his father, even when it was her loving parents.
"But you were telling the truth, right? You don't know where the boy is, do you?"
"No, I don't."
And it was the truth, she knew he had gone through the woods, but that was hours ago, she had no idea where he was now.
Yeah, I kind of love Bae and Moraine, so they get parts too in this. R&R can't wait to hear what you guys think
