So this has a slightly different writing style than my previous works, because it's supposed to be the book that Isaac wrote in the season 4 finale. Whether or not I pulled that off is anyone's guess.
Once upon a time, ogres came to the Enchanted Forest. The war to drive them out was long and bloody and cost a great many lives. Among the men who fought there was the great knight Rumplestiltskin (although at the time he was neither great nor a knight, but would eventually become both). He was born the son of a coward and raised to the life of a spinner, and when the conscription notice arrived, he served bravely. When he returned, however, he returned to find his wife and infant son killed by the ogres in his absence. In his grief, the hero rode back to the front lines where he became instrumental in the Battle of the Avonlea and personally saved King George from an ogre's axe in that penultimate battle of the war.
In gratitude for the humble spinner's grand deeds, the king had him knighted and given an income once the beasts were banished. While lesser men might have retired after everything he'd gone through, instead the brave Sir Rumplestiltskin set out as a wandering knight, righting wrongs and defending the people of the land from the encroachment of the few remaining bands of ogres.
One day, as he tracked one such band through a border village, he encountered a strange creature perched on a rock. From a distance, it appeared to be a girl wearing purple satin and brown leather. It was a dangerous place for a woman, though this was no woman - instead, Sir Rumple had stumbled upon the most dangerous creature in all the realms - the Dark One.
No one knows who or what the Dark One is or where it comes from (not many people can claim to have met the beast and lived to tell the tale), but there are plenty of rumors. Most stories of the Dark One have called it a man, but what Sir Rumplestiltskin saw that day definitely had the shape of a woman. Maybe people preferred to believe they had been destroyed by a man, and maybe they had just assumed it was a man because they didn't think a woman could be that evil, but he wasn't prepared to take any chances once he had registered her oddly discolored skin. He instantly realized his mistake and reached for his sword.
"You won't destroy ogres with that," she said without turning to face him. "And certainly not the Dark One."
"I don't mean you any harm," he replied, still backing away. "I'm tracking a band of ogres who moved through here."
"And why would you be tracking them?" she asked him curiously, turning now to face him. "I thought all of your kind had gone back to their homes and farms."
Sir Rumplestiltskin almost recoiled in horror from her grotesque appearance. Aside from being scaly and mottled, her skin had a golden-green sheen to it and her eyes were so pale they were almost colorless. She was watching his every move like a predator and for the first time in many years, Sir Rumplestiltskin felt the cold grip of terror deep in his belly.
"You can answer me," she continued when he didn't answer her. "I don't bite."
"Many of them have," he said. "But I've made it my mission to drive them out of the Enchanted Forest."
This intrigued the Dark One, who had been tracking these same ogres across the same forest.
"Perhaps we can be of some use to each other Sir Knight," she replied, pulling herself up to her full height. "Magic can do many things, but requires a price...a sacrifice, of sorts."
Something in her voice had Sir Rumplestiltskin ill at ease as his hand crept closer towards his sword.
With a wave of her hand and a strange little laugh, his sword was in the Dark One's hand.
"What sort of sacrifice?" he asked her.
Would he be willing to die to end the threat of the ogres? He'd stared down death before,how very different could this be?"
"I'm in need of a...manservant," she explained, toying with the sword a little. "Nothing tawdry, of course."
"And what do I get in exchange?" he asked. The Dark One wasn't known for making deals, just for the trail of destruction left in her wake.
"In exchange, I remove all the ogres from the Enchanted Forest."
Now Sir Rumplestiltskin had a choice to make - he'd been trying to drive the ogres away since his family had been slaughtered, and here he was offered a way to make that happen. But in exchange he would lose his freedom to the Dark One. She'd quipped about what sort of servant she needed (or didn't), but he had no idea what she really meant.
Truly, though, there was only one question any great hero would need answered before making this sacrifice: "And the people will be protected?"
"You have my word," she replied flippantly, snapping her fingers to send his sword off somewhere.
"Then you have mine," he said before he could second guess himself.
The Dark One smiled broadly at that, snapping again and encompassing both of them in a swirl of dark purple smoke.
By the time the smoke cleared, Sir Rumplestiltskin found himself standing in the great hall of a large castle. The Dark One stood before him, fierce and terrifying but Sir Rumplestiltskin was unafraid. He had been prepared to sacrifice himself to the ogres to save the village and giving himself up to the Dark One had been an easy choice. Whatever she had planned, he was ready to face it.
"This way," the Dark One said, striding further into the castle.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked her.
"Your room," she replied with a strange little giggle.
"My room?"
The Dark One's castle was filled with strange artifacts that Sir Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but study. There was no castle in all the realms that held a treasure quite as spectacular as the one the Dark One kept in her castle high in the mountains. She had traveled far and wide, collecting a wide array of items of great beauty from all the magical realms. There were lamps from Agrabah, a chess set from Wonderland, and hundreds of other things of infinite power. Sir Rumplestiltskin had no way of knowing this, though, as he followed her through the great hall and down into the dungeons.
Of course the Dark One would have meant the dungeon, Sir Rumplestiltskin realized, but he had made this bargain to save the people of the Enchanted forest from ogres, and he (like all the bravest heroes) was prepared to see it through to the end.
The Dark One swung the door to one of the dungeon rooms open with a little flourish, and he was unsurprised by the meagre accommodations - simply a straw mattress and a pitcher of water on the floor.
"I'll return shortly," she said after he had stepped bravely into the room. "I must go uphold my end of the deal."
He had no time to even answer her before she had swung the door closed and was gone from his sight. He smelled the thick ozone of magic that engulfed her, and he knew then she had vanished from the dungeon.
Sir Rumplestiltskin slumped down against the wall, at last letting himself feel afraid, for all the bravest heroes must feel fear before they can feel courage.
The Dark One didn't stay gone too long, returning in time to demand he prepare dinner and to give him his list of duties.
"You'll do the cooking, and the cleaning," she said cheerfully from her seat at the head of the table. "Bring me tea in my library - which you should stay out of unless I'm in there - and to dispatch virgins so that I may bathe in their blood."
At this, Sir Rumplestiltskin was faced with a dilemma. his personal code was to uphold his oaths, and she had already bound him by keeping her promise to eliminate the threat to the land. However, he couldn't justify hunting innocents under her command, though going back on his word may bring him to harm. But would she allow the ogres to return if he broke his word to her?
He was trapped between those warring impulses, and the question of what would cause the least amount of damage to the Enchanted Forest when a smile split the Dark One's face.
"That was a quip, Sir Knight," she said at last. "I wasn't serious."
Sir Rumplestiltskin almost collapsed in his relief, and it was only then that he realized that in his distress, he had dropped one of the Dark One's teacups onto the floor. He stooped to pick it up, finding a large piece missing from the side. Sir Rumplestiltskin cursed himself, she would surely turn him into a toad for this - or maybe worse.
"It's chipped," he finally admitted, turning the cup towards her so that she could see the damage for herself. "I'm sorry, my lady."
He glanced up at her to find her staring at him with a strange look on her face, though no sooner had he noticed it than it was gone and she was leaning back in her chair and not looking at him.
"It's just a cup," she replied flippantly. "Get back to work."
That was the moment when Sir Rumplestiltskin first really looked at the Dark One. He had been watching her for threats since he met her, and now he let himself gaze on her face. She would have been beautiful had she not been grotesque. Her skin held an odd golden hue with scales visible in parts, and her eyes were unblinking and close to colorless. Her clothing only increased the oddness of her, all high collars and low cut dresses (which he tried valiantly not to notice) paired with leather trousers and long gloves. Everything about her appearance demanded he not get too close, and yet…There was something strangely fascinating about her.