The Fire Protection Potion was a volatile potion to mix. It had to be tended to carefully throughout its entire brewing processes. Most didn't even try to make it as there was another potion that emalmost/em did the same thing and was easier to make, the ingredients easier to come by. But the Knight had asked for this potion to help with the dragon his intended's father asked him to face.
Rumpelstiltskin was at the most temperamental step, the liquid had been boiling for the last four days over a the white-blue flame of a fallen star. At a careful distance he held the vial of dragons saliva, and he didn't want to think of what he had to do to get it from Maleficent. He needed fifteen drops over the course of a minute, too soon and the mixture would explode, too late and it would burn the drinker from the inside out. Drops one thru fourteen were find, but waiting for drop fifteen, he heard a furious shriek coming from outside. His hand slipped and the last drop went in to soon.
The boiling seemed to intensify before shooting upwards. He jumped out of the way as it rained down on him. What was left in the caldron started to smoke and he went to push the window the rest of the way open.
He looked out to the person who had screamed. He could see Belle in the Hedge Maze. It had been two weeks since she had found the maze and she has steadily made progress in solving the puzzle. Depending on which way she went from her current position, she was only about five or six turns from finding the center. Her current problem was that a baby Sphinx was guarding the next turn. He watched as she tried to shoo it away and when that didn't work, she tossed a rock down one of the lanes to get it to follow. He knew exactly when it asked her it's riddle.
She had been looking for another rock to toss, when she jumped and her head snapped to look at the Sphinx. She walked over, spoke, but the Sphinx just ruffled it's feathers. He took a step and appeared behind her.
"Please?" she asked it. "I won't harm you. I just want to pass by." Her attention was on the creature and he stepped quietly behind her.
"Having trouble?" he asked. She screamed and jumped away from him. He giggled.
"Don't do that!" she told him, hand pressed to her chest.
"I'm sorry, Little One." Her glare told him she knew he was lying.
"It won't let me pass!" She pointed to the Sphinx, who ruffled it's feathers again.
"Of course not," he replied. "Not until you answer correctly. What was the riddle? It's only a infant, so it shouldn't be too hard."
He stood watching, the unnatural feeling coming to him, as she opened her mouth, brow furrowed. She bit her lip and lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I don't remember."
"That's all right." he said. It wasn't. Something about this was very wrong. "We'll ask again." he said and turned towards the creature. "Sphinx, I'd like to pass, what is your question?"
The Sphinx sat up straighter, cocked it's head and spoke. "emVoiceless it cries, wingless it flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters./em" It raised one eyebrow at them, then laid down to wait.
Rumpelstiltskin frowned. It really was easy, but he watched as Belle bit her lip again, face scrunched in concentration. After a few seconds, she looked up at him and shook her head. The wrongness of that slammed into him so hard that he took a step back.
"Well," he said, handing her a piece of parchment with the riddle on it, "think over it and if you haven't solved it by dinner, we'll see what we can do, all right?"
She nodded and took the parchment. He fluttered a smile her and disappeared back to his tower.
He walked back over to the table and cleared the mess to start the potion again. The flame was still flickering as he put a new caldron on the base. He was glad he had two made out of Wolframite, as no other metal could withstand the temperatures of the flame. He put 3 cups of Phoenix ash in and added water. As it steeped, he got the other ingredients ready and added them so the potion was ready to be set it aside to boil for the next four days. Then he retreated to the Great Hall and his spinning wheel.
As he prepped the straw, he pondered why watching Belle not be able to guess the Sphinx's riddle bothered him. He didn't know what Belle was suppose to be, what his foresight was insisting he help her achieve, but he got the feeling that she should have been able to answer the riddle. It truly was an easy one. He once again wondered what lengths Maurice went took to keep Belle 13 for seven centuries.
Something about that last thought struck him and he ruminated on it while the wheel spun.
The fading light had him looking up, he saw that the table was set for dinner. He tilted his head and emsearched/em the grounds for Belle. She was still in the Hedge Maze, once again he appeared behind her. Sitting with her legs crossed in front of her, elbows on knees, with her face cradled between her hands, the parchment forgotten in her lap. The Sphinx had curled up and gone to sleep.
"Belle?" She looked up. "It's time for dinner." He he held out his hand. With a sigh she stood and took it and he transported them back to the main hall. She took her seat, but seemed distracted, going between playing with her food and shooting glances at him from the corner of her eye. "What is it?"
"I couldn't answer the riddle."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. You said you would help if I hadn't gotten it by dinner." She waved her hand at the table.
"True," he said, inclining his head. "Come with me. He pushed away from the table and out the double doors. He turned down a corridor he knew she hadn't been down yet. Once she caught up, he paused in front of another set of doors. He smirked down at her as she looked at him in curiosity. With a flourish, he pushed the doors open and stalked into the middle of the room. One more hand motion and the sconces all lit at the same time.
He watched as she blink, turning in a circle.
"A Library?"
"Yes. I'm sure I have some books in here on riddles."
Turning back to him, she frowned at him. "I don't understand." she told him, head shaking, "How will this help?"
His breath caught in his throat, once again the wrongness overwhelmed him. Her grown image appeared before his inner eye again. Head ducked, knowing smile at the corner of her lips, one hand out -beckoning, in the other was a book, held possessively against her chest, her thumb gently caressing the cover. He swallowed once before speaking.
"Belle, did your father let you have books?"
"Yes," she nodded, "He let me read his books on how to take care of flowers. And I still had one of nursery rhymes from when I was small." She frowned. "Ruby brought me one once, but Papa had to read it first to see if it was okay, I just realized that he never gave it to me."
"To...see if it was okay?"
"To see if it had any dangerous things in it. Papa say that knowledge can be dangerous."
Rumpelstiltskin clenched his fist, nails digging deeply into his palm.
"It can be," he said tightly, "if you have too little." He turned, not letting her see the emotions on his face. He knew that Maurice was overprotective, but not letting the child read was...
He shook his head and gestured to a table, a pile of books appearing on it. "I think these will help you the most if you wish to solve the Sphinx's riddles."
She walked over and picked up the first book, barely scanning the title. "Couldn't you just tell me the answer?"
"I could," he hedged, "but tomorrow he'll just have a different one. The best way to solve a problem is to have knowledge. You can take any of these up to your room if you wish."
