In The Moonlight

He had never entered this realm. In fact, no one had ever called him from here. A realm that surpassed the castles and roads of his own. No vassals or lords. Not even kingdoms battling for more than they needed.

The night was far more silent than the nights he had known in the other kingdoms. The only comparison could be the eerie quiet of his castle. The fortress of the Dark One.

Yes. He, Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One. Eater of Children. Maker of Deals. Imp.

He was inside a realm of minor magic. Nothing like his power existed within this realm. He could feel it in the air, soiling his skin through his dragon vest and forest gray silk shirt. Contaminated, something here was certainly evil but it wasn't like him. It seemed to be in "accordance," so to say.

"He' nt aa nikhe! Rumpelstiltskin!"

The devil's smile crossed over his features as he heard this. He hadn't been mistaken. Someone was looking for him. Quietly, he creeped towards the far off cry. No creatures stirred away from his presence. How strange. Again, it was only him and his magic.

The strange language left a tang in the air. It was roughened and grit-like. As though the sounds scratched themselves out of the human throat and died out in the crisp atmosphere.

Oh, it fascinated him. He had to know what it was saying. What "they" were saying. Yes, a second could be heard as he went closer to the source. His long fingers drew circles and as though he were born to it; Rumpelstiltskin knew every word.

"Rumpelstiltskin! I call to you! Show yourself!"

A boy, Rumpelstiltskin loved making deals with children. They never truly knew the price that they would pay.

"Little brother. I told you that it was just a story."

The imp didn't even halt to question the presence of the girl. It would hardly matter; perhaps he would make two deals tonight.

"But he promised. I have to do it. Father will die if we don't find a way."

A clearing opens to Rumpelstiltskin as he glides past tall trees and fallen stumps. The air is changed. Moonlight lights up the scene and a child stands small next to another figure. Instead of making himself, he waits and watches for his moment.

The young boy could hardly be more than 10 summers. Willowy in his frame and slender through the neck. Long hair crudely pulled back by some string of leather. No shirt but a wrap of a sort around his hips. Black symbols of oddity swirl round his thin torso. Rumpelstiltskin eyed the copper skin with interest before promptly examining his own green gold flesh.

He liked their style.

"Haun'e, he isn't coming. It is not true." The second voice was cold, near to dead. "The man was just telling you a story. Like the ones we tell during winter-"

"No! He promised!" The child screamed in desperation and hurt. "He said that Rumpelstiltskin could save Father."

"Sometimes, we promise what we hope will happen." The woman, not a girl, hardly raises her voice against him. "Not all is so. We should be with Father." Rumpelstiltskin remains crouched behind still willows. His breath is closed and doesn't stray from his body. However, when a prime moment arrives; he is never one to disappoint. Without another second wasted the Dark One slipped through the branches.

"Perhaps I could be of service."

Both figures froze in the silvery moonlight. Their long hair rippled when they turned in fear. The boy squinted through the misty air while the woman's mouth immediately flew open.

"No need to be afraid, dearie." Rumpelstiltskin approached in a haunting manner of humor and terror. Long fingers curled and uncurled in grim expression. He knew that he would always possess the role of a predator but that was his role nonetheless. "You were the ones who called for me after all."

The handsome child took a step forward tentatively. "Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Ay, lad. That is me. Now, what are your names?"

"I am-" before the boy was finished, long limbs covered in the same eerie paint wrapped around him. The woman wasted no time in plucking him out of the conversation.

"Shhh! Don't give him your name!" Her voice, low and whispered, barely reached the imp's ears. If it weren't for his other abilities, he probably wouldn't have caught the rest. "Names are power. Do not give him power over us."

"But sister-"

"I told you hush." She pushed the boy back even further from situation before facing the grinning imp. "I know what you do."

Rumpelstiltskin gave her his most endearing look of curiosity. Although she hardly looked up from the ground as she spoke to him. He couldn't decipher this as a sign of respect or absolute fear; either way, something about her pleased him immensely.

"He doesn't know what you truly are. He's only a child." Rumpelstiltskin only saw an echo of moonlight shining in her eyes when she barely met his gaze. "Please don't take him."

Rumpelstiltskin ignored her and returned to her original point. "You said that names have power? Is that some little story that someone told you?"

He watched her swallow cautiously. Perhaps, it isn't fear. Her shoulders seemed to roll down and relax. She became still for an entire moment. Next, was the most unexpected answer; at least, in his opinion.

"It is what my people believe. We have always believed it." Her dyed fingertips, a hue of blue or purple on dusty skin; tangled themselves in the strange tanned fabric covering flat abdomen and slightly flared hips. How peculiar, he pondered, whether it is custom or illness. "But I will give you my name."

"Isn't that dangerous, dearie? Giving your name to a ''monster'' and letting me have power over you?" A hiss slithered through his sentences and drew a visible shiver up her spine.

"You can only have power over me if I let you have it." At once, the gaze of moon flicked across his with the same shuddering effect. "I will give you the power to address me. I am Moon Eyes."

His tongue slid over his lips in a feverish laze. The act hardly turned the woman out, like it normally did to all the rest. When he stepped within touching distance, she didn't falter. As his breath touched her smooth rounded cheek, she inhaled without any sense of being repelled. Rumpelstiltskin could only sense what made her so different from the rest and like every other mysterious characteristic of hers; it was unrecognizable. He raised a claw to trace over the blackened marks across her bare shoulder. The only physical note from her was the indenting of skin from pressure.

"You are the deal maker? The one that the pale eyes spoke of?"

"I don't know who you're speaking of." He mused thoughtfully as his hand traveled down her lithe arm.

"I've only experienced this realm in," he brought his fingers back to discover that her skin is just as marked as his own. "Fragments. I have heard of it and I have seen it but never entered."

"How is this so?" Her voice was low and gentle. Moon Eyes, never having jerked back before suddenly jumped as he tried to speak as gently as possible. Although it was probably his sudden grasp pulling her against him that frightened her. "Visions. I see this world in visions."

Her scent was inhaled by him. He knew of smoke, sage, and tobacco combined in her skin. Along with blood and sickness. Immediately the deal took form in his meticulous head. "And what I have seen is illness and death here. It has killed many of your people. Am I close, dearie?"

Hardly a twist or a turn from her. Her only resignation was to stare anywhere but at him. He pondered over whether she is overly stubborn or further frozen in fear. The only movement that escaped from her zombie-like mode was her lips whisper. "Can you help us or not?"

"Of course. I am the "deal maker." He dropped her arm before she could reply and as quick as a bird's wings, Rumpelstiltskin was lengths away. Moon Eyes didn't bother looking up at him or pursuing his presence. Her boxy frame slowly kneeled down and her head was held straight as she began her haggling.

"We will trade."

He stopped his sentence when he realized that she had repeated the same sentence as his. A delighted grin lifted his spirits and he clapped gleefully. This woman was much different than the others in his realm. How afraid and pitiful they became at this point but her; she was sating a hunger of his. One that Regina and Maleficent could never fulfill. This dark eyed, long haired enigma was using his own maniacal yet logical thinking against him. She was playing his game at an equal level.

Moon Eyes' face gleamed timidly at his clapping. She understood his contentedness and shared it. At least, he supposed this as he started approaching in a manner that was much less restrained then before.

"What will you offer, Moony?"

The full lips turned bitter in resentment as his mispronunciation. "My name is Moon Eyes-

"You seem more like the "Moony" kind. When it's high, you're bright and happy and shiny." He doesn't know why he's begun to circle around her but he has. "When it's half cast, so are you. Then when it's gone, well, you are gone too. You're Moony. Loony like the moon!"

Before she answered, the laughing imp rasped. "And of course, you are a woman!"

He didn't expect her to catch on to the quip but she surprised him. "Is being a woman so funny, Rumpelstiltskin? Perhaps, in another time, you would have been welcomed here. Even by us women."

Then again, he was never that slow on the uptake as well. "Is that part of the trade?"

He took his place on the ground behind her and hovered over so that his long nose rested on the lobe of her ear. "Would you give yourself to a beast? Submit yourself to cruelty and brutality? I must warn you, I can be quite a nasty little beastie if I wish to be."

Her sugary scent of sweat and mountain winds was maddening him beyond belief.

"Are those the only trades that you accept?" He watched her speak in the same tiny whisper that he had used.

He wished with all of his might that she would end this repartee. Why can't she blush, giggle or better yet, fall disgusted at the idea? The question sat inside his chest and tickled his ribs in annoyance. Rumpelstiltskin was not accustomed to the indifference and amount of thought that she was putting into this proposition.

"Moony" was methodical but not cold.

Yet, there was not the same wantonness that he had viewed in the eyes of the tavern wenches that offered themselves to him for a quick deal. To be rid of the unwanted brood, the death of wretched customers or the usual wish for escape from their rotten surroundings of lusting men and heavy handed pimps. Yes, he had experienced all sorts of 'offerings' but was proud enough to never lowering himself to such despicable behavior.

No, this was not the world of Moon Eyes.

There were no towns. He had surmised this on first glance. There were no taverns or brothels. The people here only drank the sweet water of untouched creeks and consumed raw fruit from the plentiful bushes that they scouted. The world she inhabited and the people she existed from were all as untouched as she was. Innocent but not ignorant or naïve. At that point, Rumpelstiltskin viewed her as he would a freshly sharpened blade.

Dangerous.

How many seconds had passed as he had configured a past and a world for this woman in his mind; Rumpelstiltskin replied to this by rising harshly and brushing past. He doesn't run away from the strange behavior he's exhibiting but he decided immediately to wrap this up. Because he does have many, many, important things waiting for him at his fortress and curses won't create themselves.

"Well, what will it be, dearie? Unfortunately, I don't have the time for chitchat, chitchat."

She remains as quietly collective and dignified as before until finally the painted visage of black striped eyes turn to their forgotten third person. "Go back to our people and to Father."

"But sister, what about you?"

The small boy hadn't even moved an inch from his spot and neither had his fear resided.

Her head only tilted to partially face him. "Go. I will take care of everything. I promise."

It is more than finality inside in her tone. It is not a commandment or a plea. It is absolution. Even Rumpelstiltskin felt something from that. However, he admitting that to himself was impossible. After all, he was the Dark One and she was just a mere trifle in a very odd realm.

With one last glance, the boy sprinted out of the wooded glen. Rumpelstiltskin smiled at his good fortune; deals were always less difficult when he only had one person to contend with. The fangs sparkled in the light and caught the woman's attention. How she was standing up made him feel a little uneasy; that he might slightly admit but only quietly and solely to himself. It was slow and sensuous. The soft grass made a whisking sound as she dragged her feet at a slow pace towards him. She was approaching, head down cast and shoulders slouched. Her hands though were moving in a means that sent bigger shivers down his body and making a lump magically form in his throat.

Her fingers reached precariously under her arm and tugged. The wrap loosened. Only her hands were keeping the thick material from falling. Oh yes, the imp was considering that this little slip might frighten him even more than Regina does on a bad day. The girl was not the average deal seeker. He anticipated how far she might attempt to go before he would see that expression.

Disgust. Hate. Fear. Shame.

He knew those so well and no person had ever looked at him with anything else. Except for her. The one that he doesn't speak of, he doesn't think of, and he never mentions. An ache erupted in his heart and he felt more ashamed of his actions than ever before. Was he, Rumpelstiltskin, actually considering this offer when she was still alive in his heart? He always avoided the remembrance of Belle, so why no-

Warm fingers touched his cheek. The fingertips traced his features in a curious manner. With eyes closed and shuddered breath, Rumpelstiltskin recalled how only one other woman had laid a hand so easily on him without any hesitations. The other hand joined the first and he felt the patterns of the human yearning for touch being singed into his skin by gentleness.

Then he glanced at Moon Eyes. She wasn't looking at him but her actions were directed at him. Instead, she was looking past him, out to the open night sky. The full moon glowed inside her as an eerie apparition but the expression was warm. Not the fondness she would have for a lover but a liking of a sort. Rumpelstiltskin felt hypnotized by the lack of understanding that she had exposed within him.

"Look at me."

He didn't realize that he had commanded her so teasingly until her nose crinkled in dislike. "No. I mustn't."

"Dearie, I told you to look at me."

Her hands had travelled down his shoulders and his own were gripping hers in a fury that he knew so well. The deal maker felt justified in his anger; after all, this was how every woman would come to be in reference to him. They despised him. They were disgusted by him. They did not love him or desire him in any way. Yes, he could afford to be smug at this moment; he decided that as he laid his grip on her chin and wrenched her face to his. Now, if only she would make it easy and open her eyes but she doesn't. Quickly, the imp became enraged by her refusal.

"You are going to face the deal that you've started!" He roared against her and held her still. His long nails drew blood from her shoulder. The hot plasma felt like tepid spring rain against his flesh and it pushed him over the edge.

"No! Stop! Stop!" Her fists pounded helplessly against him and he finally realized that she had been without clothing for some time. He drew on her naked disadvantage and dug his fingers into the small of her back. A hiss of pain made spit fly out of her gasping mouth but like he expected, she was stilled.

"Don't. Please, don't."

The moon woman's pleading made him feel the same empowerment that he had lost before. She was terrified and he loved it. Her long hair tangled up with the clotting blood of the wound down her back. With another curl of his fingers, the woman's eyes open.

"All I want is one little look, Moony." A crooked grin and reddened eyes encompassed his entire composure. He was ecstatic to be back in his own game with his own rules. "You do this and I will take away this little sickness from your people. All of you will be safe again."

Her strength was leaving her. He noticed when her body started sagging against his. Yet, she still spoke weakly. "You are promising this? It will be the trade?"

With some of his usual flourishing, he tactfully withdrew his other claw from back; despite her wince of pain. Then he placed it over the area that a heart should have existed. The bloody fingers only served to make him more menacing, despite the look of genteel in his manners. "I will uphold our trade if you will."

Her nod brought out a chuckle from him and he propped her up to his gaze like she was no more than a child. "Now, let's see those eyes, Moony."

She opened her eyes to his. Rumpelstiltskin's grin died on his lips and the arrogance he always displayed was pushed back. He knew that he had committed a major mistake in allowing her to look into his eyes.

The sensation of a sword being shoved through his sternum and pulled out was the literal feeling. The experience was his life, from birth to that moment. However, the horror of it all was that she knew. She saw everything and knew everything. The cruel childhood of being chided and starved. The loveless marriage that's only gift was Baelfire and how he lost his only child. The birth and training of Regina. Finally, the most regretful moment; his rejection of Belle and her love. Rumpelstiltskin felt her dig inside of him and once inside, she took him.

That is why she avoids my eyes. He felt a great fool for not heeding her mannerisms and not "seeing" her for what she truly was. Sorceress. Seer. Demon.

She was just like him.

With a resounding cry, she released him. Although he would say that he released her. Either way, both were laying on the cool grass and trying to gather their strength to face the other. He was lost in a world forgotten places and people. The colors that he would dye onto cotton and weaves. The smell of the tiny village that his son played in. The heartache at his wife's betrayal. How he had hated himself as the Dark One when his son only looked at him with terror. But losing Bae and Belle were both equal in heartbreak.

Tears streamed across his thin face and sharp chin. He wished they were only raindrops. A trembling hand came up and viciously rubbed all traces of sentiment. He had promised that he would never have a weakness and he had meant it with all of his soulless will.

"Bae…coward…Regina…power…" He knew she was only a reach away but her voice entered his head like a mallet. "Belle…true love…coward…co-"

His magic ensured his strength and with a flash, he was on top of her. Straddling her waist and looming above like a vulture. Her locks were spread out like a funeral pillow black and moon light. Suddenly, she seemed more vulnerable and younger than ever before.

"It would be very foolish of you to repeat anything else, Moony." Her eyes remained as tightly closed as ever before. Yet, he traced a nail from eye lid to eye lid. "So, you have a power. One of a kind and very useful. I wonder what other little tricks you can do."

"I…warned you." Her chest heaved up and down in painful motions. "Should…have…listened to me. Now…I know…all. Coward."

Rumpelstiltskin had no hesitations in putting his knee over her throat and letting down his weight on her windpipe. In fact, it was so instantaneously that he almost lost himself in the act and killed her. Yet, he only allowed a little weight to sag down on her. Just enough so that she would know what could happen.

"That's not a word that I like hearing, dearie. Not a very nice word."

"It is true." Her hands were against his leg but there was no strength behind them. "You are…the weakest…being. Coward."

Pressing down harder and hearing her choke was enough to satisfy his anger over that last remark. He didn't want to kill her but he should. She knew everything about him and that was good enough reason to be rid of her. Yet, she could be very useful. Very utilizable in the right capacity and if she had a penchant for magic that has been surviving in this dampened environment; she might surpass Regina. However, he noticed one flaw about her.

He couldn't see her future. Fingers were pressed against his temple and his eyes were closed. He was indifferent to her struggle as he stayed on top of her and tried to look. Nothing. He saw nothing at all.

However, she had seen everything about him. She had passed through his defenses and he couldn't get through hers. The Dark One tried to see a future without her. It was the same stream that he had always seen.

The marriage of Snow White and Charming.

Their child.

Regina would initiate the curse and all would be as it should.

But then if he tried to bring Moon Eyes into the picture. It was blank. Interesting, he looked at her expression of struggle against suffocation and calculated what would be the advantage. Suddenly, he heard a whimper.

"One day, I will save you from her. Regina."

He snickered wickedly. "From Regina? She is hardly a threat to me."

"I will save your…heart." He lifted his knee and calmly waited for her to regain her capacity to converse. "She will try to kill the ones you love. I will save them."

"Them? It isn't some princess?" He let out another high pitched squeal of humor.

"There will be two of them. A woman and a man."

The creeping sensation of fate being twisted was palpating inside of him. He twitched and tried to keep sensible but this woman wasn't allowing him to remain unscathed. "Who are they?"

Through her closed glances, he can see the nervousness. "I don't know. Their faces were blurred. I only saw you and Regina. You were dying."

"How would you be of any aid?"

His tone was sharp and hurtful. He made Moon Eyes seems as though she were the weakling, the coward. He could only picture her bleeding and hurt in the grass as she was with him standing high above her. Not like the powerful being that she was describing. Still, she kept strong against his words.

"I will be powerful but I will not be like either of you. I can't be like you. It isn't in me."

"You don't know until you're in the same place, dearie. Don't overestimate yourself."

"Then let me die here." She tried to sit up but the pain threw back down. "With my people."

Moments pass and Rumpelstiltskin seriously considered her order. He could leave her here and she would bleed out by morning. Her village would find her naked and scraped up; like an animal had attacked her. But if she survived than she had to face what was coming. Yes, the imp had seen the future of this world and she won't survive; none of her people would survive even if he freed them from sickness. The forces of man would always have an essence of evil that could surpass even his malicious ways.

But we did have a deal.

He swiped his hands together and brought forth magic. The sky turned into an oblivion of orange, red, and purple. The moon paled over into a shiny disc. Moon Eyes still scrunched her eyes closed against the roar of the wind and air being thrown into a mess by the spell. His long limbs drew circles and stars. The mousy hair on his head flopped over his eyes and all he could do was conduct the spell until its end.

There. He felt it. The sickness that was within the people. It clung to them and destroyed their bodies. Their pores were turned into blisters and their breathes were stolen by liquid in the lungs. Fever made them feel unbearable to any sense and heightened their pain to a pinnacle of despair. Their pain, for a moment, became his pain.

But then as the spell cleared from the sky, the illness had passed with it. Rumpelstiltskin lightly huffed and blew his hair from his face. The lank strands flew to the sides and he was brought back to this original state of immaculacy. He almost walked away before he heard-

"Thank you."

She was sitting up and staring at the clear night. No longer kept in a haze of death and sadness. Even her spirit seemed lighter than before. He giggled one of his inhuman sounds and crept back to her.

"We had a deal." Once again, he kneeled behind her and leaned in. "Would you like to make another?"

"I have seen our future." She sounded so assured that he wondered if he could ever actually make her fear him. "We will make many deals together. However, you do not need a deal for this. You just have to ask."

Somewhere inside, he knew what she meant. Maybe he had always known her and that was what terrified him. Knowing someone and having them know him without risk of losing them. It made him feel almost as composed as she appeared.

"Would you like to learn some magic, dearie?"

Still, she could surprise him. "Rumpelstiltskin, I want to learn everything. Not just magic."

"An education is never a waste. That is what they say."

The odd little voice that he only used for making deals and scaring kings erupted from him as part of habit. If only, she didn't smile so pleasantly and nod at his quips but she does. Her wrap that she had abandoned, had found its way back to her body and was in place as she slowly rose to follow him.

"I have only one request for you." He paused for her to catch up and kept his ear open to what she wanted to suggest. "Don't call me, Moony."

He hopped from foot to foot in boredom and teased. "Loony Moony doesn't like her name. Then what shall the monster call her?"

"You're not a monster." He almost tripped when he heard her reply. Only one other person had ever told him that. Yet, Moon Eyes didn't even take the time to connect the dots with who had shared the same phrase. Instead, she walked right past him as though she knew how he had come to be here. "But you refuse to say my name right so we must agree on another name."

"You must have many names if you can pick one from another." He flittered in front of her and snapped his fingers. "Just like that!"

"Maybe, I do. Dark One." She teased him like he was an old friend and Rumpelstiltskin found it unnerving yet comforting. Not many were unafraid of him. "But no, I only have one other name. The pale eyes gave me one when they couldn't say the first one."

They were at the spot that he had arrived. Rumpelstiltskin held onto her wrist like she was a runaway child. He noticed that she didn't seem insulted by his actions but neither was she pleased. Again, there was that indifference that always made him feel unsure; like she was thinking thousands of things that were beyond his comprehension. He had to free both of them from this odd mood.

"So, what pray tell is this other glamorous name of yours, dearie?"

His fingers had already drawn the transportation spell but she said it despite the purple haze that seized them.

"They called me, Pocahontas."