Hazy golden streamers of sun slanted pleasantly through the thin breaks in the tangled canopy above the enchanted island. The rays seemed to fall like strange showers of flaxen light leaving pockets of capricious darkness about the gold spears wherever they touched. Sun motes played lazily and danced fervidly though the shafts of tawny luminance while the entire jungle seemed to come alive to the beckoning of the rare oblique rays that kissed the tangled floor.
Birds of every conceivable hue who trilled every musical annotation gathered upon the creeper strewn branches of the entangled trees. Their grand plumages that rivaled the rainbow near glowed in the sunlight as they watched the pirates below them like eager, vociferous spectators.
Too few ever came to the island under the birds keen eye and none had survived to tell the tale.
A grimace etched Belle's lips as the musical birds intoed the break of day. The avian creatures songs seemed to mock her plight and that of her captured crew. Bound by the throat with no resources she could not save her crew or her love. Hades curse her but she couldn't even save herself from the clutches of one devious pirate!
Thirst hounded Belle as she glumly awoke with such thoughts, but the bile of her fate moistened her mouth with poison. Her hunger was one that led to disgust and her pains of rest on the root meshed ground throbbed with her crimes. The day seemed made to illicit her torment and she was hard pressed to end the suffering.
If everything went Blackbeard's way this would be the day Rumpelstiltskin died.
"Don't those creatures sound so beautiful this morn," Blackbeard commented in victorious admiration. Hands clasped to his wide black belt, the pirate captain stood by the embers of the nights fires and tiled his filthy head upwards to the chorus of birds.
Sun splattered a golden glow over his swarthy visage like a blessing sent from the top of the cramped mountains. Closing his eyes, he inhaled the sweet exotic smells of the isle and reveled in the day that appeared to turn out for his triumph.
"Aren't those birds lovely?" he exhaled and looked towards Belle. His lips upturned into a wolfish grin that sought to devour all she held dear. "Like a choir singing for me."
Belle scowled hatefully into his face, unable to even conjure up the tactile captain to revoke his words. If looks could have killed she would have already taken control once more. "You always did think you were larger than life," she fenced back, her voice a disgruntled growl.
"Aye and now I finally get to really have that true on all accounts," he parried happily to her dissatisfaction. If he was in anyway affronted by her snap, the signs never gave way to display his irritation. With victory so near how could he be angry?
Chuckling to himself as if he told himself some humorous joke, Blackbeard looked at pirates and captives strewn out over the warm jungle floor. None seemed to have slept well, but what did they matter but to serve as stepping stones for his needs?
A bark of laughter vomited from his lips, for he was in too fine a mood for his normal snap. "Up and at 'em my lucky friends! Can't you smell the stench of spoils on the air? Can't you feel the tingle in your fingers and drumming in your hearts? There is power to be had."
With a bit of flare, Blackbeard unsheathed his blade, a wicked cutlass that had served him through many straits. The curved steel gleamed almost liquid in the vibrant gold light as he pointed the tip to the direction of the foreboding mountains in the hazy, blusih distance. The tangled mess of vines and low limbs barely gave a view to the enchanted peaks below the canopy. "There beyond the stone lies our destiny and power without limits!"
There would lie his greatest triumph.
"How quickly you forget the dangers Blackbeard," Belle put in wryly, her words like a rain cloud over the rays that illuminated the happy captain. "Tell me, did you happen to mention to your fine crew the dangers that come with entering that mountain?" Before he could interpose with some excuse she plowed onward with the devious traps that awaited them. "You see, if you've thoroughly scanned the legends and texts as much as I then you should know about the room of one thousand knives, the steps, if walked upon, that send arrows tipped with acid through the rooms, or maybe the floors that shatter leading to sable waters that are mired with beast that have not eaten for seven eons to feast on their flesh not to mention the multitude of traps that we know nothing about since the text has worn away to time."
Though she was helpless to gainsay the nefarious captain she was not completely out of options. Fear worked well with any living creature. He could not do the mission alone. His crew was still needed but if there fear held them back he would be just as good as stranded.
Confused, frightened looks passed amongst the pirate crew at such perilous entrapments that were revealed. Danger flourished in their stock and trade but such perils were un- heard of. They dealt in plain battles, nary magical rooms laid with tricks and mythical beasts to combat.
Passing strange glares to one another, a daunted look hedged their tired eyes and hesitation pulsed in their greedy hearts. The former exuberance in their bodies was banked like an old fire in light of the news. Was the dagger truly worth such bodily risk? Would they even find the blade?
One frightened soul visibly gulped as the immense hazards Belle had so described swam through his head in a flurry of barely conceivable nightmares. With the back of his hand the man wiped cold beads of sweat from his filthy visage and shuddered violently even in the warm morn. "Cap-"
He got no further as the captain whirled about and with one swift stroke severed his head from his body. Blood spurted in a gory fount from the base of the neck where the head was once perched before letting the crimson essence burble copiously down the still body.
A look of trepidation still clouded the nameless pirate's features as the head bounced away like a misshapen marble into the undergrowth and the body tumbled to the jungle floor.
Looking down critically at the oozing corpse, the captain slowly raised his vision to his crew. Deadly severity gleamed like iron rivets in his gaze. "Deserters will die by my hand long before any trap sets hold. We're here now. We go all the way come death or demise. Is that clear?"
Hasty nods bobbed from all the pirates who acquiesced immediately in terror of their captain. None wished to face the cutlass of the notorious pirate. Though death may face them in the mountains, death was assured and imminent by Blackbeard's hand.
One by one Blackbeard looked into the eyes of his crew. Sword pointed at them like a compass needle seeking to find an untrue heart, he judged their intention before he slowly sheathed his blade.
Little by little a grin split his knotted beard as though his words were a jest. Once more a good humor, though strained, fell upon him. "Of course there are dangers my friends. Great gifts run great perils, but this dagger is not impossible to claim and those who make the journey will find themselves greatly rewarded!"
Or, they all knew, without him saying, dead and forgotten.
~8~8~
Steam arose from the jungle floor and through the thickly laced canopy like smoke from a thousand campfires as the party arrived at the foot of the mountains. The day, as they had journeyed, had grown near intolerably hot and the climbing simply to reach the base of the mountain had been no picnic for pirate or prisoner alike.
Moisture that rose from the verdant floor made the atmosphere humid and left the pirates struggling for breath in the tepid climes. More than once had the excited Blackbeard ordered a stop and more than once had a pirate collapsed only to either push themselves up or be killed by the ruthless captain.
They had walked for four hours and finally, the found themselves at the very root of the crested mountain. Though they should have found rest there, Blackbeard pressed forward to find some entrance to the mountain. They had trudged on for three more hours until finally, a scout had come across a cave nearly hidden in a tangle of brush.
Up close, the mountain was a far different spectacle than on the sea. Hundred of crags and ledges pockmarked the mounts sides like maggots had feasted on the stones flesh. An ominous air resided upon the slopes and crest and seemed to pulsate down to the very foot of the mount.
Still, after the strenuous labor upon reaching the mountains, the party had little room to care what ominous press the slopes gave. The shadow of the mountain was almost a blessing in the heat, providing much needed shade for the group.
A cold, musty wind seemed to blow down from the slopes and the crew and prisoners sprawled out unto the darkness for the coolness and much needed rest in the short grass that grew at the base of the peaks.
Sweat dampened every piece of ragged clothes they wore like a second skin. Sweat poured from every body and breath fell in ragged, painful puffs from prisoners and pirates alike.
Fatigued, but indefatigable, the captain caught his breath as he scouted their next move. The large mouth of the discovered cave was hewn a little to their left, a place easy to reach, the mountain could have been pockmarked with cavern so who knew which one was correct. The mountain was not made to be climbed, but the entrance before him clearly testified that they were to enter, though to their peril or victory was uncertain.
A hundred things could have been wrong with the entrance. What if the cave only led to a trap? What if the maw was too easily discovered and led only to a trick to end them all before they began? Still, what choice did they have?
"Alright," Blackbeard gasped fitfully and leaned back on the bark of an exotic tree. "No time to rest." With a stubborn grunt he pushed himself up and walked determinedly towards the black mouth of the cave.
A unified groan met his steps as tired eyes watched him make way to the cave. They should have been fresh and ready to enter into the cave. Instead they barely had fuel for torches, held few ropes, and carried a scant amount of food. They should have had a rest and gathered themselves but their captain's egregious will was indomitable.
Sharply turning to their unspoken complaints, Blackbeard eyed them all dangerously. "Well? What're you all waiting for? Up I say!"
"Captain," Gaston piped up breathlessly as speaker for them all. "We don't know what awaits us in there…. We need rest."
A threatening growl rumbled like thunder past the black follicles of Edward Teach's beard. Eyes gleaming fire he seemed caught by fury of eagerness. "We'll head out when I say we will!"
"That's right and leave them all weak enough to be expended," Belle attacked again, her breath a ragged gasp.
Blackbeard's eyes flickered to her, his fury unquenched. A muscle jerked in his jaw as he took a step towards the captain. Her ploy was obvious the first time, but so close to his goal he could not afford a moments hesitation from his crew. "You just keep your mouth shut before I shut your gab permanently!" He roared and raised a hand to strike her.
If she wouldn't stop planting the thoughts of mutiny into his crew then he would make her silent. He had come to far to be undone by mistrust.
"No!" Rumpel was there in what seemed like a wink standing before the captain and his beloved. His breath came out more laborious than the rest of the pirates as he faced the resolute captain. "You wont touch her," he stammered fearfully. "I wont let you."
Now that they were so close, Blackbeard, he banked, would not try to lose his key so soon. In the shadow of the island Rumpel knew leverage was on his side. He was the one chosen to take his life for their security and freedom. Blackbeard wouldn't try to harm them so close to his goal and risk the trip for naught.
Glaring angrily at the spinner, the retreated a step. "Alright cripple. You have what you will. More incentive for you." Eyes steely again, he turned about to look at the now easily breathing crew. "But hear me, we go now!"
With that, the captain turned away. His ruby coat flapped like a battle pennant as he marched to one of the maws of the mountain.
A heavy breath of immense relief surged past Rumpel's thin lips as the nefarious corsairs stomped away. Turning to Belle he knelt to help her to her feet. "Here, we'd better get on the move again," he remarked sadly and took her hand.
Climbing to her feet, Belle stared into his compassionate eyes sorrowfully. "How can you sound so calm?" pain instilled her voice.
"We'd better get on" was for jaunts, small adventures not for someone who was soon to meet their end! He acted as though he was not going to meet his death. Why did he carry himself as though she did not deserve all the pain that was to come? Why did he blockade Blackbeard from the pain that was justly hers for getting them all into the inescapable mess?
"Everything is not as dark as could be," Rumpel explained timidly and limped along side her. At least he got to see her once more. At least he got to touch her. Perhaps Blackbeard would not be so cold and he could tell them goodbye before he died.
Belle shook her head. "You're going to die," she repeated lowly, her heart in her throat. "All is dark."
She was bout to lose her love. Fate was about to separate them. Her anger and stupidity was coming back to bring more pain than before.
"For love all is light. What kind of man would I be if I did not try to save those I love and cherish?" the spinner countered and grasped her hand comfortingly. Holding her hand, they entered the darkness of the cave together.
Immediately darkness overcame them as they entered the maw of the cave. The susurrus of bare pirate feet over dust and pebbles filled the cave with a foreign sound that made goose flesh arise on the skin. A shiver trailed miserably down their spines as the mountain seemed to engulf them as they entered in twos and threes. A strange coldness encompassed the mountains inside and breath came out in small puffs from every pirate and captive. The chill seemed almost like a chill of death to forever freeze them how they were.
Without word from Blackbeard, a few pirates alighted rags bound on sturdy limbs to guide their way. Their soft orange glow seemed unwelcome in the mouth of the cave. The fire seemed as though the flickering light had awakened something long sleeping but had made no move to attack them.
Still, the light achieved some ends to the darkness letting the whole of their entry be seen. But with a look, the heart desired blackness nearly once more. The inside of the cave was a disturbing thing. The roof was mazed with stalagmites that looked as fangs about to chew them whole. The furthest portion of the cave was made into an alcove shape and trailed down like a throat all the way down to a belly.
Grabbing a torch, Blackbeard stepped forward feet before them all. His eyes searched the dimness greedily. Traipsing further into the dimness the captain peered up above the tunnel.
"Give me a light," he ordered without turning his head.
Immediately a torch neared so that he could make out what was above the tunnel. A few words hewn from a lost age glimmered like forgotten jewels in the firelight.
Puckering his eyes, he tried to decipher the words. "Here lies the accursed blade. Let the cold of the steel not lead you astray for the blackness within is hotter than flames."
Silently re-reading the lines again, the captain posted his fists and his hips. "Now I wonder-"
He got no further as the cave began to rock and quiver. Stray pebbles and hunks of gray and brown rock began to topple from the ceiling as the cave quaked. The grating rasp of stone on stone cut through the air like a knife slicing terror to the heart of the crew.
They had not been all in the cave for but a finger few of minutes and already the magic wards reared to beat them away.
Light from the torches undulated across the rough walls crazily as the torch bearers sought a way free or tried to hide from the apparent cave in. The shadows pranced madly upon the stones as though living the terror mere words could not postulate.
A shriek rent the air from one of the pirates as a broke stalagmite hurtled down upon him and snuffed out his life. Larger chucks of roofing began to fall around them in a rain of death.
"Back out!" a terrified pirate screamed frantically, uncaring about the blade of the captain in the throes of the quake.
Oh but once in the mountain, Belle knew, escape was impossible.
At once the grounds shaking began to take on a new aspect in the demise of the pirates. An aspect of trickery. Beneath them the grating became louder as though rock was being shoved into place or out of socket.
The stone began to take on a life of its own that made the earth beneath them move. Walls began to push or recede as the floor began to grow lower or take on higher elevation. All about them, the mountain was moving.
Already some of the pirates were blocked off from their brethren. Ariel and Robin were cut off from their groups, their chains snapped off by the hard stone that broke iron like bits of dried twig.
The mountain was making sure they could not stay as a group, but die or be allowed to wander through mountain that forever changed and left them in spattering of fours and fives at most.
"Rumpel, Bae, everyone, stay close to me!" Belle ordered evenly in the tumult. Wrapping one around the spinner she did the same to Baelfire. From the corner of her eye she saw Jefferson try to reach them only for another wall slammed in front of him blocking him off from the group.
Screams became shallow and distant as the mountain puzzle twisted them in the caves and in rooms of traps. The shrieks were of those who had discovered they had been buried alive, yet could only yell loud enough for their words to be a mutter of their terror.
Once the quaking ended, Belle opened her eyes. The path behind them could have well as been a wall the entire time and they had arrived in a dead end. There was no way out anymore from whence they had come.
By either blessing or curse she found the same path before them open and the only people around to stop them Gaston, Blackbeard and one unlucky soul who'd been close enough not to be taken into another cubby of the mountain.
Belle had no recollection of his face, but she hardly dwelled on the matter. She and Bae where still outnumbered against two skilled pirates and chained up as well.
Breathing hard, she finally let Rumpel and Bae go. Dust arose from there tumult and all coughed into the gray and brown film but they were little worse for wear. The mountain had done the job of separating them effectively cutting off nearly every resource they had.
"Well captain," she spat past a puff of dust. "What about your grand schemes now?"
Scowling, he grabbed the torch from the nameless pirate and began to head down the throat of the inscribed tunnel. The light showcased a flimsy shadow around the esophagus of the tunnel, but still undaunted as ever. "We're not defeated yet, Captain Belle. We have a way, our only way." He nudged his head to Gaston and unsheathed his weapon with a light rasp. "Make sure you keep an eye on them. Let's move. The only way we'll be getting out of here now is if we discover this blade."
"Did you think there any other way?" Belle asked sardonically, but was met only with silence as they were prodded down the mysterious tunnel.
~8~8~
Hours, perhaps three of four, to Rumpel's estimate had passed as they had searched the tunnels. The first tunnel had deviated down into a medusas head of off tunnels but they had kept pressing on by the determination of Blackbeard.
The hours seemed to meld together well in the darkness so that the minutes that ticked by all meshed into unreliable gauges. Had they been there, three hours or eight? Did the sun still shine or was the moon high?
Such questions plagued the spinner as they walked in the ever frigid mountain. And the more they walked the more he began to worry. What if they were down some endless corridor to go forever in circles until their bones were dust? What if the tunnel was to be their prison?
Though the thought of having Blackbeard meet his end in the tunnel was a pleasant one, the spinner quailed to think of such a fate to his son or his Belle. Better that they find the dagger and be free than that fate of dying alone and forgotten in the tunnels.
And yet, there was no evidence they were close to the dagger. Not only did they have to way or knowing where they went, they had no way of guessing what way was the right way.
And so they ambled aimlessly, searching and searching, forever searching.
"Papa my feet...," Bae panted as the rounded what seemed like the thousandth curve.
A bright intrusive pounding flared through the boys feet with every step. Guts of pain exploded into him with the ragged nonstop walking. The pace was a cruel one and with the cold that surrounded them his bones felt brittle.
The only saving grace was the warmth that the spot he passed seemed to house, easing his misery a bit.
They had walked nearly without rest for Blackbeard wanted no malaise to take them where they could not rouse themselves to search.
Looking back, Rumpel paused a moment and scrambled back to his still son. "Take a slower time. Remember to press lightly," he tired to help and in doing so try to give the last words of wisdom to his boy.
Tears filed his eyes at the thought but he blinked them away. He could not cry in front of his son.
Coming to a halt, he handed his son his staff. "Here maybe this will-"
"Who said you could stop!" Gaston roared. His voice bounced off the small tunnel as he padded towards them.
Rumpel dipped his head in deference to perhaps mollify the brute. "Please my boy, he's very tired. This place has only been so cold and unforgiving, right here it's…." his voice came to a halt.
That couldn't have been right.
Both spinner and pirate looked as though epiphany had struck.
"Warm." Gaston caught up immediately. "Warmth…." Turning to the dimly fading light he hailed Blackbeard. "I think we're on to something!" Though he was no thinker his mind readily drew back to the words over the tunnel those hours before.
"What?" Blackbeard came back into dim view. His face dared no excuses to stop his mad race to claim the dagger
A voracious smile alit Gaston's features. "Feel that?"
"Feel…." Revelation arose on Blackbeard's features. "The airs different."
Moving about like a blind man, the captain seemed to walk with the warmth until he reached the left wall of the tunnel. Placing a hand on the wall, the captain moved his palm in search of the warmest spot. Gradually, the flakes of dust and dirt began to come off and in what felt like a breathless heartbeat the nefarious captains fingers were hooked upon a stone latch.
Exuberant, with a slight shove, the captain pushed the door forward. A hint of white light gleamed through and there before him was a room in the shape of a deep cistern. A row of stairs scaled down to the center of the room where shone from above a column of light and standing on a pedestal in the midst of the alabaster column was the object they had long sought.
The dagger.