25
The Safest Place
Rumple told the children they could start watching The Wizard of Oz without him, as Arrow needed to show him something first. He had made a bowl of microwave popcorn for them and they had glasses of milk also for the movie. Once they were both ensconced on the couch, eyes glued to the set, Rumple followed his familiar out the door and off towards the right, where the stream burbled and gurgled, chattering its way over the bed of rocks and dirt down to the great Hudson River. Of course, neither wolf nor spinner knew that bit of geography, but it hardly mattered as Rumple picked his way delicately across the ground, feeling with his staff to make certain the ground was free of holes before he stepped on it, lest he take a nasty tumble and break his foot or something.
Arrow trotted slightly ahead of his wizard, glancing back every now and again to make sure Rumple was following all right. It was growing on to the gloaming now, the hour between dusk and daylight, and the light was fading as evening shadows approached. Come along, Rumple. Just a few more steps, there you go!
"You sound like you're talking to a bloody toddler, wolf!" his sorcerer grumbled.
You're half-blind in the dark, I'm just trying to help, Arrow sent, his tongue protruding between his fangs in a lupine grin.
Rumple planted his staff a bit more firmly on the ground and heaved a sigh. "It's too bad I couldn't see in the dark like you."
Hmm . . . that might be possible . . . if you concentrate a little more on our bond. You could use my eyes to see, after a fashion.
"How?"
Think about our bond, Rumple. Then see through my eyes.
Rumple shut his own eyes to concentrate, focusing on the warmth that was the link between himself and Arrow. The link was like a ribbon of brilliant light running through him, radiating an extreme heat, almost like a rousing bonfire. Rumple concentrated, and the heat suddenly shifted, until he felt it throb behind his temples. He rubbed his eyes, they stung, then he opened them, squinting because . . . the light was so bright.
Bright?
It was almost nightfall, he recalled. But his eyes saw as clearly as if it were brightest day. He blinked, wondering why there seemed to be an odd haze over everything.
"Arrow? I think I did it."
Can you see, Rumple?
"Yes. Much better than I did before. Is it always this bright for you?"
Sometimes. Now follow me, please.
Rumple found with his newfound sight he no longer had to worry about stumbling and falling over rocks or other things, he could limp along almost as quickly as his companion. He found himself smiling, his newfound "sight" was a glorious thing! For the first time he realized just what potential lived within him, what magic's gift could do. It had given him a way to see the world beyond his ordinary human senses, allowed him to slip free of the limitations of the crippled body he inhabited and it made him feel incredible.
Arrow felt his sorcerer's joy and yipped softly in acknowledgement. Now you see truly, my friend. Now you see as you were meant to, a sorcerer born to magic's gift. Is it not a beautiful thing?
Rumple tilted his head back and gazed up at the moon, laughing. "Arrow, it's . . . so very amazing! This magic . . . it's a gift beyond price."
But all magic comes with a price, Rumple. Never forget it. Now come, the place I must show you is a few feet beyond here.
The spinner limped after the grimm wolf's gray tail, as Arrow led him nearly to the boundary of the property, right along the stream, which seemed to flow a bit deeper and faster there. Finally, Arrow halted, and sat, staring out at the dark water, which eddied and flowed over some rocks that protruded from the water in an odd sickle-shaped pattern.
"Arrow, is this it?"
Yes. Do you see the middle of that crescent shape?
Rumple nodded. "Yes. The water is swirling and dark there, almost like a whirlpool."
Exactly. There is a depression there, deep within the water. And my senses tell me that this was once a sacred place here. If you concentrate a bit, you can feel that once there was magic used here.
Rumple allowed his senses to extend outward, and felt what the grimm wolf did. "This is where we should hide the dagger."
Yes. It is like in your dream. The safest place to hide such an evil object is with running water on sacred ground. This meets that criteria.
"It does, dearie. Where is the damned thing?"
I dug a hole and buried it at the edge of the yard. Stay here while I fetch it, Arrow ordered, then he sprang away, until he was a blur of silver that disappeared into the shadows.
Rumple stood like a sentry beside the stream, waiting for about five minutes until his grimm wolf returned with the dagger in his teeth. As the wolf trotted up to him, Rumple wrinkled his nose, as the stench of rotten garbage assaulted his nostrils. For some reason, the stench was so prevalent that it turned his stomach. "Ugh! Let's get rid of the thing, Arrow, before I lose my supper."
The big wolf slipped into the stream, the dagger held securely in his jaws. Five steps in and he sank nearly to his chest in the water. But then his huge paws scrabbled up on the rocks and he stood silhouetted against the sky, his paws planted upon the white rocks that jutted forth from the stream in the crescent pattern.
He bent his head down, and released the dagger.
It fell into the swirling water, down into the sinkhole, and came to rest against the stream bottom, half in the muck, trapped by the running water, entombed in the sacred ground, whose innate magic roused at the touch of the foreign evil, and bound it fast.
'Tis done, Rumple! Arrow howled. Can you not feel it?
Rumple breathed in sharply, the air was free of the tainted smell of rotting meat and eggs at last. As he drew in great lungfuls of the pure mountain air, he felt something shift and change about him. The dark presence that had hung over this place was suddenly banished and Rumple felt all the tension within him ease and he felt lighter, happier, filled with hope.
As Arrow splashed his way back to his side, he knelt and hugged the grimm wolf, unmindful that the wolf was dripping wet and he got his shirt and jeans all soaked. "Oh, wolf! I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my back."
The grimm wolf shook playfully, and droplets of water flew all over. His cold nose nudged Rumple's neck, and his long tongue swept across the sorcerer's cheek. That's because the dagger is bound, Rumple! Bound and powerless! This is how it feels without its infernal influence. Arrow licked Rumple's other cheek, then yipped softly and wriggled out of Rumple's embrace. Come, my friend. Time to go back to the pups. I'm sure you'll find no nightmares haunt you tonight, Rumple!
"Or Val either, I hope," he said, then he half-ran back to the cabin.
By the time they reached it, Arrow's fur was half dry and Rumple rubbed the rest dry with a towel.
Upon entering the cabin, he found Val and Bae still on the couch, staring at the TV, which showed a little girl in a blue and white checkered dress with a small black dog, singing and skipping down a yellow brick road along with a scarecrow and a walking suit of armor. The scene made him smile, and he gently rearranged the bowl of popcorn so he could sit inbetween them.
"You're back!" Bae said, and hugged him. "But you missed the cool part. When the house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East."
"And the cyclone, and Miss Gulch on her flying bicycle," Val added. "And now they're in Oz and going to find the Emerald City."
"Sounds like an adventure, dearies," Rumple said, and snagged some popcorn and ate it.
Soon Bae had his head in Rumple's lap and Val was snuggled on his other side.
Suddenly, the little girl frowned and tapped his shirt, asking, "Papa, why are you all wet?"
"Oh. Arrow went for a swim and then he shook all over me," her father answered. "I should have changed my shirt first before sitting down here."
"You can do it during a commercial," she said, then grabbed a throw from the back of the couch and placed it over him, then leaned against him. "There! Better!"
Rumple found himself inhaling the sweet scent of milk and vanilla as Val leaned back against him, her small head resting trustingly against his shoulder. His arm curled loosely about her, and he felt a sudden lassitude flow through him. But despite his sudden weariness, he felt unbelievably happy and content. As well as unexpectedly blessed, with his two precious children here beside him, his familiar stretched out beside his feet, and a tingling cozy warmth that relieved his aching leg.
He found himself enjoying the movie, finding it at times silly, funny, and endearing, with a good message for his children to learn . . . as well as himself. Never give up. For courage is found in the most unexpected places and there really is no place like home.
By the time the movie was over, Bae and Val were asleep, and Rumple was halfway there. Feeling supremely lazy, he just lay there, his eyes shutting, drifting away to the merry tune of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" as the credits rolled on the screen.
When his eyes opened, it was morning, and he realized that he wasn't stiff, like he normally was when he first woke, and even more importantly, Val had slept all night without waking with horrific nightmares.
Rumple smiled. It must be because the dagger was bound. Its aura must have spawned those dreadful dreams, and now that it was in the safest place he could find, it could no longer affect his daughter or himself. His gaze drifted to his son, who slept still with his head in Rumple's lap, his little mouth half open as he breathed. Bae. My sweet boy, his hand tangled briefly in his son's hair. Then he turned to see Val, who slept peacefully at last, her long lashes a sooty smear against her delicate ivory skin, her little hand curled about his chest, cuddled against him. Finally! A good night's rest, my pretty girl. His hand moved to gently rub her back, as he often did when she woke hysterical from nightmares.
"Mmm . . ." she whimpered slightly, shifting so she was snuggled further against his warm side.
"Shhh. Sleep, pretty girl," he whispered, feeling a thrill once again as he recalled her little voice calling him 'papa' in the WalMart. He had felt as if he had received a king's ransom in that moment, for her acknowledgement meant that she trusted him fully at last, and had finally put the specter of her awful father behind her. At long last, he felt proud of himself, for he had achieved something wonderful—he gained the love of this poor damaged soul, and he vowed to always be worthy of it.
Baelfire and Valentina. You are the best things in my life. I will love and protect you forever.
He placed a kiss upon each little head before he allowed himself to drift back to sleep, his mind free at last from the dagger's dark dreams.
Page~*~*~*~*~Break
In the days that followed, Rumple and the children spent many hours learning various things, as Rumple kept his promise and taught Bae to read and Val to sew, and had his own lessons learning to control his magic with Arrow. The grimm wolf's bond with his sorcerer deepened, until by the end of a month, they were inseparable, and Rumple could feel Arrow in his mind even when the wolf was away from the cabin, hunting.
Rumple finished Shadows and Strongholds and went on to read the other books by Elizabeth Chadwick he'd bought at WalMart—The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion. They were tales of a man called William Marshall, an actual person, according to the author notes, and Rumple enjoyed them immensely.
He taught Val and Bae to scrub carrots and peel potatoes and make simple stews and soup. There were less quarrels between the two than there used to be, and he found his leg responding beautifully to repeated soaks in the hot tub. With the ache in it almost fading, he could walk easier, and often had days when he didn't need the aid of his staff, but could walk almost normally on it. It was then that he played outside with the children, enjoying the last days of the summer sunshine, and the sweet laughter as Val and Bae played tag in the yard and Questing Beast with him, where they had to sneak up on the sleeping Beast and touch it without waking it up. If they woke it, the Beast was free to grab them and tickle them until they begged for mercy.
They went on short walks along the stream, gathering pretty rocks and other natural curiosities, and Rumple taught them the names of the wild plants he recognized, and they all grew tanned from the sun and wind.
Arrow ranged alongside them, showing them how he caught fish from the stream, and gave some of his catch to Rumple to fry.
At night he would help Val stitch in her sampler and listen to Bae read from the little children's books he'd purchased, then read to them himself from the fairy tale book. Val now slept soundly in her own bed, like Bae, though Rumple found himself missing her sometimes, when he woke during the night alone. So Arrow took to sleeping with him, lying across his feet.
It was a time of healing and renewal, both in body and spirit, until they were all bound as closely as thread spun upon his wheel, and it was then Rumple knew it was time to return to his own realm, though not to the Enchanted Forest, but somewhere else, where they could start a new life, as master spinner/sorcerer, his two children, and his familiar.
Little did he know that decision would lead to the greatest adventure and the fulfillment of the prophecy he'd dreamed when he first arrived in New York.