Chapter One

The man trembled as he explained to King Maurice his family's financial troubles. "Sir, if you could just lower our taxes. Only for us of course," the man requested as he clutched the brown wool cap he usually wore. The king had recently raised the taxes to about 5% the usual amount making it difficult for some of the common folk to pay.

"I could but would it be fair to the rest of people," Maurice reasoned with the man, "If you cannot pay your taxes is it my fault?"

"No of course not you're Highness. I do not bbbbllllaame you. I take full rrressponsiblity. IIt is just because they are so high; I cannot pay them this month," explained the man. "Could you at least give us more time?"

Maurice smirked at the pitiful man's request and watched as the man began to shake uncontrollably. "I still don't see how that would be fair to the rest of my people," he questioned, "If you have no other argument to give me then I suggest you do not waste my time with your petty complaints." Waving his hand he ordered his guards to take him away.

Belle observed this scene without comment, for her opinions on her father's policies were not warranted by her father and his council. She questioned why he chose to raise the taxes again; after all, it was not like the kingdom needed the money, especially with the alliance with Lord Adalard. Lord Adalard gave them gold and knights for Maurice's army, and Maurice's daughter would marry Adalard's son, Ser Gaston. Gaston was an arrogant, superficial prick, whom Belle had no feelings for, but she was a princess that always did her duty to her father and the kingdom. It also prevented her father from questioning her activities, since supposedly Gaston kept her in line, and Gaston was too preoccupied with himself to notice her. She came to her father's council meetings and audiences, paying attention more so then most would expect from her as a woman.

"Father, maybe you should consider lowering the taxes," Belle said once they were alone, "Do you really need to fill our bank, by forcing higher taxes on the people?"

Raising his brow, Maurice looked at his daughter in disbelief. "Yes, of course we need to raise the taxes. The peasants need a good motivator to work harder, and we do need to pay Lord Adalard for his knights."

"I'm marrying his son, isn't that enough," she muttered, not meaning to speak it out loud.

"Don't be ungrateful, Isabelle," Maurice said narrowing his eyes, "You should feel lucky that Lord Adalard is allowing you to marry his brave and handsome son. Most women would be envious of the honor that is being bestowed upon you."

She wanted to roll her eyes, but chose to just nod and smile. "Of course father." She wanted to tell her father the truth about Gaston, but she knew it would not matter as her father would not believe her, nor would he care, still forcing her to marry the man because he would get an army.

"Sweetheart, weren't you planning on riding Philippe," Maurice inquired holding his daughter's hand.

"Yes, of course," she replied nodding and turned on her heal to leave.

Maurice spoke up before she could exit the room, "Gaston will be there. He wanted to join you on your ride."

Belle cringed at the thought of her betrothed riding with her, because that meant he would want to go hunting while they trekked through the forest, but she still turned to acknowledge her father's comment. "Yes, I look forward to riding with him, and maybe he can help me improve," she replied.

In her riding dress, Belle saddled Philippe just as she heard a deep voice greet her, "Good afternoon My Lady."

She grimaced at the sound of Gaston's voice. "Ser Gaston it's good to see you again. My father has just reminded me you wanted to join me on my ride."

"Yes," he agreed as he gathered up the saddle and reigns to saddle the white stallion he called Ghost.

He came out of the stall just as Belle was straddling her other leg to the other side. "Lady Isabelle shouldn't you be riding with both your legs on one side," he questioned.

"I don't like riding side saddle and I'm just riding for pleasure, not as a presentation for anyone," she said smiling politely at his inquiry.

Even though a part of her wanted to go ahead and take off ahead, so he would be forced to catch up, but being a lady she remained waiting for him to saddle Ghost. Avoiding the crowds, Belle and Gaston took a back road into the forest. Normally, she hated one of her father's guards riding with her, but she would have preferred one of them accompanying her rather than Gaston. As she expected he spent most of the ride sharing with her, his hunting escapades, and pausing to see if any of the animals they crossed were worth killing.

"Ser Gaston, can you just let the deer go," she protested as Gaston jumped off his horse and prepared his bow to fire, but he put a finger to his lips to shush her. Belle rolled her eyes as she watched him prepare to fire his bow, but just as he was about to fire something else hit the deer stabbing it. A girl about Belle's age appeared from behind one of the trees and ignoring them yanked the spear with a hard jerk.

"Excuse me girl, but these are King Maurice's lands! Do you have permission to hunt on these lands," Gaston questioned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the girl.

Putting her hands on her hips the girl replied sarcastically. "Oh I did not know the king owned all this land. Well I am one of the king's people so I guess that gives me permission to hunt."

She smirked as Gaston glared at her, and Belle could not help but giggle. The girl's dark brown hair cascaded down her back, but she wore trousers and animal fur making her seem less of a lady than what Belle was used to seeing in court. She could already tell she would have liked having this girl as a friend.

"You must receive permission from the King to hunt," Gaston repeated, haughtily.

"How do you know I haven't already," she asked.

"Have you," Gaston asked.

"No, these lands belong to everybody and you shouldn't have to get permission," the girl said.

"Gaston, please let her go," Belle protested, "let's just continue our ride. She has done nothing except just kill the deer before you."

Gaston jerked his head around glaring at Belle for exposing what was actually bothering him to this girl.

"Alright, fine," he said sounding like a child rather than a grown man, and the girl took off before Gaston could change his mind.

The rest of ride was quite uneventful and quiet as Gaston pouted at the thought of a girl killing the deer before he could. He did not like being shown up by a female, especially a child. Belle, on the other hand, was happy as the quiet gave her a chance to enjoy the fresh air and think about the latest book she was reading, Utopia. It was quite a fascinating read, discussing a perfect society.

Snow White had returned to the cottage, her and her brother, Rumple, shared and had lived in ever since they were born. Their mother had died giving birth to Snow, and when Rumple was ten and Snow was eight their father, a con man, got himself into debt making it difficult for them to pay their taxes to the king. Their father, Colin, made a deal with the local butcher, who was a very large and an aggressive man, but he could not pay the butcher back. Afraid for his life Colin left his two children with some spinsters. Rumple and Snow finally had a good life with the two old women, and Rumple was even taught how to spin by them, but eventually the two women died. Rumple was sixteen and had been taking care of his sister ever since.

Snow laid her spear against the wooden wall of the cottage and heaved the deer she had caught on top of the table.

"Got this week's meal," she said smirking triumphantly at the memory of her accomplishment, "and I killed it before one of the king's knights." Snow had enjoyed watching as knight, whom the princess referred to as Gaston, who was rumored to be one of the best hunters in the kingdom, finding himself being outwitted by a woman. His expression of disbelief made her giggle at the thought.

"Impressive Snow," Rumple muttered, glancing up for a second to see the deer she had killed, but returned his attention to the wheel. He was currently making a wool blanket for a customer, whose child was very sick and needed a blanket for warmth. "You should be careful; if you are referring to the knight I think you are. He might tell the king," Rumple added warningly knowing that if knight was Gaston they were in deep shit.

Taking a knife Snow began to stab the dead deer, gutting out the meat for them to cook for later. "Well Princess Isabelle was with him so maybe I won't get in as much trouble," Snow said throwing the bleeding chunks of meat into a wooden bowl.

Rumple smirked rolling his eyes knowing the princess would probably side with her father and Gaston on this one.

"You might want to consider that the princess might actually be a decent human being, Rumple. She was the one who requested that Gaston leave me be," Snow replied defensively. She liked the princess well enough unlike her brother, who had no respect for the royals, and would like to meet her, talk to her for more than a second.

"Ah, the saintly princess protected you from her boorish fiancé," he said sarcastically, making flourishing gestures as he spoke.

Snow just rolled her eyes. "My dear brother no one can seem to live up to your expectations. Can they?"

He chuckled and returned to his spinning while his sister returned to her animal gutting, which was something he had taught her how to do, hunting animals for their hides and food as well as killing. No one would suspect the quiet and timid Rumplestiltskin to be able to hunt, but he needed to get the animals for survival. Rumple often prayed to the Gods that the animal may go in peace and that he would not be condemned for killing the beast. Snow took over once she learned how to hunt them herself while Rumple focused on the spinning, because Snow had never been skilled at it.

"You do, my dear sister, and you are the only one who matters", he smiled at his sister with affection.

Snow finished her chore with the deer meat, and walked over to her brother. "I love you too, Rumple", she smiled and kissed his forehead. "And….tonight we are going to eat good!", she sat down rather unlady like and took a drink from the bottle of ale that they shared on occasions when things were going well for them.

"I think we are heading in the right direction brother, perhaps one day I will find my prince," she added to the last word, making it sound cute. "And you will find your princess, yes?" Snow made a cute face. Rumple rolled his eyes.

"No princess would want me, sister…but I agree that tonight is looking up…"

Just then a loud banging was heard on the door, and both jumped as they were not used to such intrusions. Rumple reluctantly pulled himself off of his stool and approached the door opening it.

Two guards stood at the door with a piece of parchment in hand. "We have a warrant for the female resident of this home! Woman, you are under arrest by order of the king!"