On a small farm in a town at the very farthest end of King George's kingdom, a twelve-year-old boy sat on his porch tending to two orphan lambs while his father tended the flock.
"Just drink up little one, and soon you'll be big and strong enough to join your flock."
"James, aren't you supposed to be helping your father bring in the sheep?"
"That's what I'm doing, Mother. I just have to give these lambs their milk first." Then James looked up and met his mother's gaze. Her smile was warm, but the look in her eyes was bittersweet.
"Mother?"
"Yes, James?"
"Why are you always looking at me like that?"
"What…what do you mean?" Ruth faltered.
"I see it in your eyes. Every time you look at me, it's like something's…missing."
Ruth grew quiet. "All you need to know, son," she finally said, "Is that there is nothing about you that doesn't make my life complete." She stepped closer and touched his cheek. "I'm so proud of the man you're becoming."
James smiled a little but walked away after the lamb was done sucking. He helped his father herd the flock into their fenced pen. By the time they were done, it was raining.
"Looks like there's a storm coming," James remarked.
"You're right," his father agreed. "Help me bring the pregnant ewes into the carding shed."
"What should I do with the baby lambs?" asked James.
"Take them to your bedroom after we're done."
"I'll go lock all the shutters," said Ruth.
Once the little family had secured their home and livestock as best they could, they ate a little supper and then went to bed. James tossed and turned as wind whipped at the shutters and raindrops tapped loudly on the roof and lightning flashed. He sat up with a start when he heard a distressed animal noise. Were the sheep okay in the pen? Worse…had they forgotten to herd one of them? They couldn't just leave one out there. James got up and ran for the front door. But as he became closer, he realized that the distressed sounds didn't sound anything like his sheep. They sounded more like…
Horses.
Sure enough, when James carefully opened the window and peeked out, he saw two people and two horses huddled under a tree. One of the horses was prancing anxiously, and the couple was huddling together for warmth.
"Um…excuse me?"
Both of the people jerked their heads up with a start when they saw James. Almost as if they were afraid of him. He shut the front door behind him and carefully went over to the tree they were standing by.
"Are you lost?" he asked.
Neither of them spoke.
"You can sleep inside if you want," James offered. "And you can tie up the horses out here under this tree. It's alright."
The two frightened travelers hesitated. Each one pulled a piece of rope out of a bag they were holding and tied the horses to the tree.
"Come on now," James encouraged. Quickly the couple followed him back to his house, and he opened the door and let them in. Inside, they took off their coats and warmed themselves near the fireplace.
"I'm James," James offered.
"I'm Regina, and this is my husband Daniel," offered the woman. James smiled a little. Then he stepped out of the room so that they could change into dry clothes. When he came back, they'd spread out a dirty blanket on the floor for themselves to sleep on. A blanket that had clearly seen more dirty ground than beds. James smiled sadly to himself, hoping that he'd done the right thing trying to help them. If they turned out to be swindlers, his parents would never forgive him. But James didn't think they were. There was something about them that made him trust them.
Fortunately, his instincts were correct. James woke up the next morning to find his mother helping Regina wash the clothes and blankets while his father and Daniel seemed to be repairing a piece of fence on the sheep pasture.
"What's that thing?" James heard Regina ask.
"It's…my washboard," Ruth responded. "I know it's seen better days."
"Sorry, I've never seen one of those before at all. My mother had a different way of getting our clothes clean."
Ruth raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"
"Let's just say you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
James smiled at the two women and then grabbed a roll off the counter before walking outside to where the men were.
"Now just shift that piece of wood here…" instructed James's father. "Good. Now just hammer this nail back in and we should be good to go." Daniel looked perplexed. "Grab the hammer, please," said James's father again.
"Pardon me. I've just never seen a nail hammered in before. Which tool is the hammer?" The older man pointed to the hammer. Daniel smiled confidently, grasped the hammer by its head, and began using the wooden handle to bang the nail into place.
"You folks aren't from around here, are you?" remarked James.
"James…" warned the older man.
"It's fine," said Daniel. "We're not, actually. I train horses for a living, and…" he stopped short of revealing any of Regina's history. That could be detrimental.
"Cool," said James.
"James, please let the sheep out into the field now."
"Yes, father."
A few minutes later, Ruth and her husband went to go take inventory on their wool supply, and Regina went over to Daniel. "Do you know anything about washing dishes?" she whispered. "My mother always just made them disappear after we were done with them. And she always conjured the food, too. Did your mother ever have something shiny in her kitchen called a stove?"
Yes, it was definitely clear that the two had a lot to learn about country living. Especially Regina.
Two years later
In a puff of purple smoke, Cora found herself in the main hall of Rumpelstiltskin's mansion. There was no one in sight except for a pretty young brunette scrubbing the floor. When the girl glanced up and saw Cora, she eyed her warily.
"Where's Rumpelstitskin?" Cora demanded.
"Right here, dearie." Cora turned and saw Rumpel at his spinning wheel, where he hadn't been two seconds before. "You can always just summon me, you know."
"I wanted to see it for myself."
"Step this way, if you don't mind." Rumpelstiltskin ushered Cora up the stairs and into a small room with nothing in it but potions and heaps of parchment-some scribbled on, some blank. Cora picked up one of the scribbled on pieces of parchment. All of them had riddles written on them.
"Now, are you satisfied that I have, in fact, been trying my damndest to figure out the right combination for our curse?"
Coldly, Cora picked up one of the pieces of parchment and read it off. "A vial of water from a lake of sand, the thumbnail of a giant's hand," she picked up another piece, "Boiling dust from the devil's bowl, a shard of glass from an empty soul." Cora looked up. "That doesn't even make sense!"
"It doesn't matter," Rumpelstiltskin mumbled uncharacteristically irritably. "None of them are the right combination to make it work. And when I do find the right combination, I'll need to find the right potion to make it work. If you want to help me any, deliver this cloak to the Lucas family. They've already paid for it."
"Fine," Cora agreed reluctantly. "Any other errands you'd have me run while you're working on my curse?"
Rumpelstiltskin smiled. "Now that's the way to move things along faster! When you're done with that, you can go down to the dwarf's mine and procure some fairy dust for me."
Cora sighed and went to go find the Lucas family, wondering just how much she'd have to do for Rumpelstiltskin while he was busy looking for her curse. The one he had come up with in the first place, no less. Not that it was really a problem. She'd given up hope of ever finding Regina, and one day she'd suddenly realized Henry had left her, too. Time was all she had these days.
What Rumpelstiltskin wasn't telling her, of course, was that in addition to coming up with the right way to enact the curse, he also needed to find the means to break it at the other end. And that wasn't going to be easy.
On the farm, Ruth smiled as she watched her husband and son work together to tend the flock. Today James was allowed to bring the sheep back into the pen one by one, next week he would be delivering a pregnant ewe's lambs on his own. Ruth wondered if James would ever want to leave this farm. Probably not. James was a natural with these animals. Then again, he was also good at helping Daniel and Regina with their new horse breeding farm, and if he did choose to get into that particular industry, he may be far better off.
"Daniel! Regina!"
Ruth smiled a little as the young couple came into view and her son raced to greet them. They were on horseback, as usual, but one of them also had a young mare in tow.
"What horse is that?" asked James. "I've never seen it before."
Daniel smiled. "Regina and I have decided that in exchange for all the help you've given us at the stable, you should have a horse all your own."
Ruth gasped. "I'm sorry, but there's no way we can aff-"
Daniel put his hand up. "Don't worry about it. Consider it our way of paying back for the kindness you all showed when we first arrived here. I can't bear to think of where we would have been without your family."
Ruth hesitated and then smiled. "James, what do you say?"
James was looking over his new horse as if it were an object from heaven. "Thank you, Daniel, thank you Regina," he finally managed.
Daniel smiled. "Why don't we try taking her out for a quick ride before dark?"
James looked to his father for permission. The shepherd nodded. Daniel handed his horse's reins to Regina and then walked away to help the boy mount his new horse. Ruth watched as Regina fumbled with the rope as she tied her horse to a tree, then Daniel's horse. When she walked over to Ruth, Ruth noticed her face was pale.
"What do you need to talk about, dear?"
"I'm pregnant."
Ruth smiled, put an arm around Regina, and took her inside.
"So, am I the first to know?" asked Ruth as she began fixing a cup of tea for the younger woman.
"Yes," whispered Regina, near tears. "I don't know how I'm going to tell Daniel."
"You think he doesn't want children? But he's always been so good with James."
"That's just it. If I tell him, he'll probably be thrilled, and then he won't be able to understand why I'm not." Regina sat down in a chair. "How am I supposed to know how to be a mother when mine…"
Ruth wrapped her arms comfortingly around Regina for a moment. She knew only that the younger woman's mother had been physically, verbally, mentally, and emotionally abusive to her growing up, and that Regina didn't like to talk about specifics. She'd also gathered that Regina and Daniel were hiding from her in this village, but they'd never talked about why, and she'd never asked.
"You're a good, loving woman, Regina," Ruth assured her. "You'll be an amazing mother. You have a strong heart. And you have Daniel. And you have us."
Regina nodded, feeling comforted but still unsure.
"If you like," Ruth whispered. "I have a way to let you know what you're having." She pulled a necklace out from under her shirt. "Do you want to know?"
Regina sat up and nodded. Ruth handed the necklace over to Regina, and it immediately started swinging. Ruth's face broke into a smile.
"What is it?" asked Regina.
"A boy. You're going to have a son."
Eight and a half months later
"They sure have been in there a long time," remarked James as he plopped himself down on a tree stump near where Daniel was pacing.
"Not even that long," mumbled Daniel to himself. "Are all the horses in?"
"All four are back in their stalls, they've been fed, watered, and groomed, and you've asked me that question five times." James paused for a moment. "You nervous?"
Daniel got up. "Why don't you ride along back to your farm now? I know your father is expecting you."
Just then, the front door burst open and Ruth called out for Daniel. He ran over to the front door.
"Are they alright?"
Ruth beamed and nodded. "Congratulations, Daniel. You have a healthy wife and son."
Daniel heard the baby crying as he entered the one-room cabin, where Regina was laying in their bed cradling her new baby. He was wrapped in a hand-me-down blanket from Ruth and James and wearing only a cloth diaper. Considering the nightmares she'd been having lately, Daniel was afraid of how stressed she would be now that the baby was actually here. But right now, she was glowing with happiness.
Slowly, Daniel moved over to her and sat down on the bed beside her.
"He has your eyes, Daniel," whispered Regina.
"He does," whispered Daniel. He reached out and touched the baby's cheek with his thumb. "Welcome to the family, Henry."
Two years later
"This is it now," whispered Rumpelstiltskin to himself. "This has to be it."
On a blank piece of parchment, he scrawled out the words, "An ogre's horns, not one but two, dust from the hands of something blue." He closed his eyes and held it up with his right hand, expecting the paper to glow for a second. It didn't. Rumpel let the piece of parchment drift to the ground and sighed deeply. There was no telling anymore what the curse was going to take. He had tried more combinations than he could count of objects that were sure to prove nearly impossible to procure. After all, this was the curse to end all curses. There was no way it could be anything easy.
"Rumpelstiltskin!"
He looked up. Belle burst into the room breathlessly.
"Cora's here?" she nodded. "Hide." The servant girl obeyed his command.
Minutes later, Cora entered the room. "I found the dwarf hatchery you wanted me to break into."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Bring me two of the eggs. We need them."
"What for?"
"To do some business for us, of course. People see dwarves as innocent as they do fairies. They trust them."
Cora smiled quickly and went off to get them. Rumpelstiltskin just sighed as soon as she left. This wasn't making any sense. How could none of his combinations be working? All magic comes with a price. He knew that better than anyone. Was his price destined to be an eternal puzzle and a never ending search for Baelfire? No. He would not accept that.
In that moment, the dark one's eyes happened to fall on his potions rack on the opposite end of the room. In particular, they fell on the one empty spot with the heart marker.
That's when it hit him: love, after all, was the most powerful magic of all. Maybe he was just approaching this the wrong way.
"Locks from those with the darkest souls, the strength of something you hold too close."
Rumpelstiltskin held his breath as he held up his hand with the piece of paper in it. He watched. And he waited.
And then it flickered.
Then another flicker.
Then suddenly, a bright glow that illuminated the room.
A smile spread across the dark one's face. "Now we're talking, dearie."
A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all your lovely reviews! To the person who reviewed as guest, way ahead of you as you can see! ;) I'm quite flattered at the number of followers and favorites this story has already gotten, I really hope I'm doing the premise justice!