Rumpelstiltskin slept badly that night, all the while jerking up and checking on Belle and if everything was okay with his son. Every time he woke up, he turned and saw the girl's blue eyes and was getting anxious about the fact that she wasn't sleeping. At one point in the night, he woke up hearing a whisper close to his ear. He concentrated, trying to understand the words, but then again Belle was silent, and his sleepy mind refused to speculate on this, exhausted by fatigue and pain. By morning he finally fell asleep for a moment, waking up when the sun stood high above the horizon.

Belle was not there.

Rumpelstiltskin looked around the room, making sure that she really was absent.

"Bae!" he called his son, who was still asleep next to him.

The boy sat up, yawning wildly and rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Where's Belle, Papa?" he also noticed the empty space where the girl once lay.

"I wish I knew ..." Rumpelstiltskin suddenly thought that she may have just gone out for some fresh air.

First, he unwound the bandage on his hand. It still looked the same; swollen and itchy, stinging with unmerciful pain with each movement. At least it hadn't gotten worse, so the bones were intact, he noted with relief. All he could do was clench his teeth, and get to work.

Rumpelstiltskin lit the fire in the hearth and hung copper kettle with water on a hook. Chamomile tea and two pieces of barley bread were their breakfast.

With the meal finished quickly, and Belle still not here, Bae ran in from the yard.

"I can't find her anywhere! I looked in the yard and around the house and in the barn." The boy shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "Where has she gone?"

Rumpelstiltskin sent Bae to herd the sheep, tossed all necessary things into the bag and went to search for Belle. He had to keep his staff his left hand because the fingers of his right one refused to bend. It was uncomfortable for him to walk and his movements were slow. He thought that he should have better taken care of the sheep instead of the boy because Bae could search the woods much faster than his crippled father. Something told him that she would not have gone the other way, to the village. But he could not graze sheep leisurely, knowing that somewhere a defenseless girl was wandering through the woods alone, and that Bae was there too.

He began his quest, pacing in ever-widening circles through the forest, which came close to their dwelling on the outskirts of the village. The woods beamed, beautiful in its June perfection. The birds warbled out their intricate trills, finding their own spouses. The further he went into the forest, the thicker the bushes crept along the ground displaying strawberries, and yet small white mushroom heads were peeping out of the soil here and there. Unable to miss the opportunity to bring home delicious goodies, Rumpelstiltskin periodically stopped and filled the bags with mushrooms and berries. In the shade of the forest foliage it was nice and fresh, while at the plain the sun burned all life down mercilessly.

Sometime past noon, Rumpelstiltskin began to feel ever-increasing concern. Sweeping branches of trees with lush green foliage hindered the search, and though he called her by her name every ten steps, he realized that even if she'd heard it she was unlikely to respond, and so he will walk past her, perhaps hidden behind some oak.

Imagination told him of more and more options of what could happen to Belle, and none of them included a happy ending. He tried to remember what she whispered to him that night, in hope that it might give him a clue where to look, but could not remember anything specific but a gust of breath tickling his ear. As the sun began to roll towards the horizon, Rumpelstiltskin lost all hope of finding her, but still went on circling the woods along paths almost invisible in the twilight, despite the fatigue and renewed pain in his knee that started to trouble him a lot.

In the distance he heard the first howling. Now it was too early for wolf hunt, but nocturnal animals have already started to wake up from their days sleep. Fear gripped Rumpelstiltskin's heart. He hadn't found Belle, and she was going to be in danger soon enough. He felt miserable; he managed to lose his wife, who had not managed to stay with him a single day! In despair, he turned back to the house, yet firmly intending to continue the search tomorrow morning. Maybe he would go into town, there was always the small possibility that the girl decided to return to her shack.

As he approached the lake by the edge of the forest, where recently a bonfire for wedding festivities stood, the sky displayed a nearly full moon shining brightly with the cold, harsh light.

Rumpelstiltskin froze. Not far away in the trees on the shore of the lake, he made out a wolf's tail in the moonlight and heard a short wolf bark. He sank lower and froze in hope that the animal will not notice him, not for a moment leaving his gaze from the now clearly visible outline of the wolf in front of a bright moon.

A young wolf walked slowly, pausing and wrinkling its nose. To the right Rumpelstiltskin saw the object its interest - a dark figure curled up in the roots of a large tree.

Belle.

Instantly Rumpelstiltskin felt a surge of relief that made him almost fall down directly on the damp grass, exhausted by continuous agitation. But immediately he remembered that, at the very same moment when he found his wife, he may lose her forever. Thoughts shot up swirling in his head, looking for a way to save her.

He leaned hard on his good leg, took a deep breath, jumped out of his hiding place in the thick bushes, shouting at the top of his voice and waving his arms around him, and ran towards the wolf. A curious wolf had already come closer, sniffing Belle's face, who watched his head motionlessly. If she tried to defend herself, to escape, to move, the wolf would have undoubtedly been chewing on her insides by now.

With his heart pounding wildly, Rumpelstiltskin reached Belle and stopped. The air in his lungs had depleted and he struggled to take fresh air into his lungs, iron chains of fear squeezed his chest. The wolf took a few steps back, dazed by the appearance of a new beast, clearly bigger and more dangerous than himself. He bared his teeth and lowered himself to the grass, not wanting to run away, tail between its legs, giving up the fight with a very scary and creepy predator. Rumpelstiltskin rooted to the ground, standing at arm's length in front of a bristling, snarling beast. In desperation, he remembered his staff and catching it by the lower end he dropped it with all his force onto the head of the wolf. It almost managed to dodge, but the whole force of the blow fell on the tip of its sensitive nose.

The wolf whined in defeat and ran into the forest depth, shaking its head. Rumpelstiltskin was still watching the animal, unable to believe that the outcome of the match ended in his favor, that he had the courage to confront the wolf. He sank helplessly on the ground beside her and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Thank you" a hoarse voice came from Belle, her shaking hands touching his face. "I was so scared".

The man startled. He did not expect her to speak to him, moreover touch him so gently.

"Why did you go into the woods, Belle?" Rumpelstiltskin asked, feeling the warmth spreading from her hands, and blood flushed to his face. She looked at him with such tenderness and gratitude that his heart sank involuntarily.

"I'm sorry" she said, and smiled shyly with her broken lips. "I was scared".

In a rush, he hugged her tightly and held against his chest.

Of course, fool, of course she was scared! How he could not see it, Rumpelstiltskin reproached himself. She was taken from her house, kept in prison, beaten, and, in the end, given to a stranger who took her out of her town. He needed to talk to her, tell her that he was not going to hurt her, that she was safe.

"Don't worry, child, everything will be fine. You will be fine." he whispered.

He felt Belle's hand slide off his back and tried to pull away. The girl's head lay on his shoulder; her deep, calm breath tickled his throat. Rumpelstiltskin wondered; how she had been able to stand so many days without sleep, she was exhausted to the extreme.

Rumpelstiltskin leaned the sleeping girl gently against a tree, thinking either to leave her here and call Bae for help, or try to carry her himself. Not daring to risk another encounter with the wolves, he knelt down and picked Belle up, who seemed to weigh even less than she looked, lying lifelessly in his arms. His injured wrist and knee screamed in protest, but he tried not to pay attention, as pitying himself won't do any help. While being careful not to drop the stick from his hand, he walked slowly to the house. He stopped every few hundred yards to rest but went on his way despite his burden. The girl's long locks covered her face and waved running down his arm, like a shawl. Those tresses needed careful combing and braiding and it'd be nice to get her a mutch or a wrap of some kind, he thought, as she was supposed to look like a married woman, not like a beggar. And shoes, he added silently, noticing her bare feet, covered in dirt after a day in the woods.

Bae opened the door when Rumpelstiltskin was entering the gate. His face shone with a smile.

"Papa, you found her!"

He ran to his father and helped him to drag Belle onto a blanket spread upon the mattresses.

Together with Bae he dined with a boiled turnip and cheese. Extinguishing the fire in the hearth, the boy lay on a blanket next to Belle, and instantly fell asleep.

Let them sleep, thought Rumpelstiltskin, looking at his son and peacefully snoring wife, clutching the blanket. Pushing a smoky candle closer, wincing as pain stung his hand, he began spinning his wheel. The blessing of sleep was not for him that night.