He never left the woods with the girl, just used his magic to take them to another glade where the hunters couldn't track them. It was a campfire, a place with logs around it and charred wood, where youth probably liked to come late at night for privacy from their parents or to test who was brave enough to stay out in the same woods as the beast for the longest. But for now there was no threat, not while the monster was silent and human again.
Monster…who would have ever suspected that the monster was a woman. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, of course, he knew that werewolves could be women just as well as men, but in his mind, he'd never once thought he'd be dealing with a female. Suddenly he wished the spell allowed him to change the color of the cloak spread over her now. A mild green or light blue? Then again, it did match the rosiness of her cheeks and nose. He supposed it suited her. But the girl…
"Oh…" he stepped away as the woman gave a sigh and rolled over as if in sleep. He'd healed the dent in her head, but not to perfection. It was mostly healed, but he'd purposefully left just enough of the injury to give her a headache when she woke up. If he was lucky, she might also feel a bit weak. She'd be fine after a day or so, but the remaining injury was just enough to make sure that she couldn't get up and walk away from him when they needed to talk; or if she'd tried, she'd at least be slower.
While she was out, he took the opportunity to search her clothes. Knowing that she would be asleep until dawn, he looked, seeking out anything that might identify who she was, that would give him a name! A letter, a tax reciept, even a-
He gasped as his fingers brushed her hand and visions flashed before his eyes.
A building with a sign that said "Granny's Diner."
"Widow Lucus," his voice whispered in his own ear.
Ruby-red.
A woman who bore similar facial features.
Her granddaughter.
Extra pickles.
A brown haired woman sitting across from him. He wasn't focused on her but her hands. He wanted desperately wanted to reach over and touch her again.
"They smell delicious, Granny!"
"They are delicious! Didn't take any Dark Magic either! Oh, and uh, I charge extra for the pickles!"
He avoided the old woman's eyes.
"I have a complicated relationship with her."
He pulled away from the woman as the visions faded. He was overwhelmed by the information he'd received, but rather remarkably, he'd understood some of it. Most of it. Her name was Widow Lucas, or at least it would be one day. She would have a daughter who would have a daughter named…was it Ruby? Red? What he'd seen after that, the images…they were of a world not like this one, though somehow the walls had resembled this forest. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and tried to piece it back together. All he saw were trees on the walls. And Granny…she was Granny.
Though…as he opened his eyes and looked her over…he reckoned she was a teenager but ages could be difficult to pinpoint. Still, she was certainly no more than twenty. Old enough to be a mother, possibly, maybe be newly married, but not enough to have grandchildren! Granny?
And what the hell was a diner and why was it hers?!
Before him, she gave another sigh and continued to sleep, but the noise brought him out of the future and into the present. When she woke, she'd be hungry, all werewolves were, at least that was what the books said. A little bit of his magic shielded them from the hoard, and a little bit more had the fire blazing, and fish cooking close to morning's light. Waiting was no longer an issue for him. Perhaps it had been when Bae had first gone away, but now hours could pass as though they were seconds, and by the time the fish were done cooking, the sun had risen over the horizon and it felt like no time at all. He placed the delicacies on a leaf and pushed the leaf close to the woman's face, then stepped back and watched.
Like a dog, her nose sniffed, sensing something different in the air. Her body jerked and moved, as if suddenly the feeling of cold from the snow had finally overwhelmed her. Then, finally, she opened one bleary eye, opened the other, and gazed at the fish before her…and pounced!
"Oh!" She was quick to dive into what was presented there for her. She was lucky he'd taken out the bones, otherwise she would have easily choked on the things as she shoved it all into her mouth. She ate it faster than he'd ever seen Baelfire eat, and considering the fact that his boy had been well into his adolescence, that said something.
"Careful, Dearie!" he hollered out from the other side of the fire circle. "Wouldn't want to fall prey to poisoned fish now, would you?"
The girl looked up at him and stared. It was a different kind of stare than he'd expected. Usually, when he revealed himself, people were quick to jump up and stay back, startled and frightened. She was startled, her heartbeat revealed that much, but she didn't jump to her feet. She didn't even alter the way she was laying there perched over her food! Instead, she just stared quietly at him from under her eyelashes, suddenly aware she wasn't alone. He watched as she took a deep breath through her nose, subtly smelling what she held before popping the last of it in her mouth.
"The only poison there is that it's overcooked," she challenged as she chewed. After her last bite was devoured, she finally sat up and looked around. She lived in the village, there was no doubt about it. As she looked at the woods around her, he watched as the confusion on her face melted into recognition, and she zeroed in on trees just over her shoulder. The way home, he assumed.
"Who are you?" she asked, turning back to him with suspicious eyes. "How did I get here? And…what am I wearing?!" she exclaimed, suddenly holding her arms out and observing the cloak around her shoulders.
He smiled as he pushed himself off the log he'd been resting on. She was intrigued. That was good. He needed her to be intrigued.
"Call it 'payment in advance'!" he chimed, being purposefully mysterious. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am...Rumpelstiltskin!" he announced, lowering himself into a bow, "also known as The Dark One. And you are…"
He offered his hand to her, and she looked up at it from her spot on the ground before finally turning instead to play with the cloak's clasp.
"Going home!" she responded before pushing her legs under her and trying to stand. Fortunately, he'd thought ahead, and what was left of her injury had her stumbling and reaching out for him to regain her balance.
"Careful, Dearie!" he exclaimed as he helped her sit down on the log behind her. "That was a nasty knock you took to the head last night." Immediately her hand flew to the front of her head, the place where the dent would have been, and he watched as confusion and worry clouded her eyes. She hardly noticed when he took her arm in his hand. "And that is a nasty bite you have there…"
Their eyes met for a moment as they both considered what he was looking at, then she yanked her arm away from him.
"That's none of your concern."
"Oh, on the contrary! 'Tis the concern of every gentleman and woman you threaten in this town!"
"Threaten?!"
"Well, of course! I wonder, how long have you been afflicted by that little mark there?"
"It's nothing!" she yelled, getting to her feet again, though he noted that she was shaking. "A gift…from the creature who killed my father and brothers."
He let himself giggle in amusement because that was the least of what that scar was. It was the point of infection. "A gift from a creature like what you've become…a werewolf!"
Her gaze was maddening. It was something he'd never seen before. Neither fear nor attraction lay in it, only anger. And perhaps a bit of stubbornness. She leaned forward when most people looked for any excuse to move away from him.
"No," she stated clearly through clenched teeth.
He laughed again because though she'd denied it, the truth of it was in her eyes. She knew, she just didn't want to admit it. "Well, surely, you must have figured it out by now!"
"No!" she stated, getting up and moving away from the circle. Her footsteps fell so hard her wobble nearly disappeared.
"Haven't you noticed…the way smells and tastes come to you like they hadn't before?"
"No."
"An odd urge to run and jump, an even odder urge to bathe in the moonlight as it flutters through the trees?"
"No!"
He grabbed her by the arm before she could get too far away. "Yes!"
"Let me go!"
But he didn't! He couldn't. "You have noticed, three days a month, you disappear, wake up somewhere you didn't fall asleep, because you are fighting what you've become!"
Truth. There was nothing but truth in her hard, steely eyes as they watered, but no tears came of it. "What I have become is none of your business," she spat before yanking her arm out of his grasp and turning away. But it was his business, especially while she still wore his cloak.
"None of that, Dearie!" he proclaimed before using his magic to take them farther into the forest, so they stood on the edge of a cliff. There were few places she could go now. And it scared her. Though she had anger and severe tension in her face when she turned back to him, he'd seen the way her shoulders had shaken before she'd turned.
"Who are you?!" she cried. "What do you want?! Why won't you just let me go?! You must have something better to do than harass a woman like me!" Demands. No crying, no begging, no pleading. Just furious, logical questions. It seemed for this one fear only led to more anger.
"Not until you've heard my proposal?"
"Proposal...what 'proposal'?"
He smiled as he stepped closer, sensing her curiosity even through her frustration. "I…can…help you!" he declared with a happy laugh, hoping that if he was excited, she might get excited as well. This girl wasn't the fearful, unhappy being he'd anticipated dealing with, but she was strong enough that she could help him with what he needed, and he'd sensed enough pain in her denial to know that he'd come prepared to make deals. Hell, she was already wearing exactly what he'd have given her to help with her self-loathing problem.
"Behold!" he announced, flinging his arms out toward her, "a cloak of red! Made it myself right down to the last thread! Bit big…but you'll grow into it."
The woman, "Granny", as he was coming to think of her grabbed the edges of the cloak that was still buckled over her shoulders and examined it. After a few moments, she shook her head and let the mantle fall down around her shoulders.
"How does a red cloak help me?" she questioned with irritation. He couldn't tell if she was growing furious with him, or with herself for giving in.
"Because this cloak…" -he stepped up next to her again so he could whisper the secret in her ear- "is magic!" When he moved away he let his mouth hang open, and his eyes go wide with the shock she should be feeling; the shock that she wasn't showing on her face at all. Perhaps she just didn't understand what that magic had done for her last night, and what it could do for her tonight. "Wear this cloak on the nights of the full moon, and you'll find that your mind is your own. Your body won't change. You'll remain just as human as…well…as human as I once was."
She squinted her eyes at him in suspicion, looking him over skeptically before one of those hands reached out to her side to grab the cape once more. She glanced at it again, but only for a few moments before looking back up at him with distrust. A keen one this "Granny" was. Whatever children or grandchildren she managed to have, Ruby Red, would not soon evade her sharp mind.
"Why?" she finally asked, tossing it back over her shoulder as if it was nothing. She was trying to detach herself from it, trying not to get her hopes up. "Why would you do this? Why…why would you help me? Nothing in this world is for free."
He took in a dramatic gasp that made her jump. "At last! Someone who speaks my language!" he exclaimed before putting his fingertips together and beginning to circle. She was tough, but she was still a woman, and they were delicate. She had a fear of being the wolf that she was, which meant she knew what death and murder could do to others. He had to tread very lightly with this one. Perhaps even take his time. But what was time for him? The contract had held no time restrictions; therefore he had quite literally all the time in the world.
"Alas, I find myself with a bit of a pest problem that needs to be taken care of. It's not the job for a woman, but just the right job for a wolf."
She didn't let him circle the way others usually did. Her gaze followed him, turning as he moved around him, her eyes hawk-like, ever vigilant, taking in every detail. It was a shame she'd never become cursed as he was, he had the dreadful feeling she might be just as good at it as he was. A worthy opponent.
"Pest problem? Bugs?"
He let out a giggle. Knowing what Alexandra's husband had done, that wasn't an inaccurate description.
"A bug of sort. A very tricky species. But trust me, the world would be far better off without this particular insect if you agree to help me."
She shook her head and swallowed. "I'm not a fool, Rumpelstiltskin. This is no bug we're talking about. This is a person, a human being, isn't it?!"
He let himself laugh if only because there would be no use at denying it. Ignorance was bliss. If she'd agreed to help, he would have made all the arrangements, and in her blackout, she need never have known exactly what she'd done. Now, there was no denying it.
"Clever girl. It would be easy, a simple agreement. Simply cast away the cloak one night, and I'll bring this pest to you! And from there, what happens…happens!" he shrugged. He watched carefully as her eyes narrowed even more than they already had, and she took a step away from him. That was bad, a very bad sign indeed. The deal was failing, he was losing her, and all over one little detail he'd tried to avoid! "Don't make rash decisions, Dearie!" he inserted before she could disagree. "I'll tell you what…keep the cloak, try it out, wear it for a month. I'll be back at the end of the next full moon. Until then…enjoy!"
With a snap of his fingers, he burst into smoke and vanished from her gaze.
There's our Granny! She was fun to write. I really enjoyed putting all of her chapters together but I liked the ones where Rumple and Granny spoke with each other the best. It should be pretty easy to see her older self in the chapter, her stubborn fearlessness. It's not as obvious in this chapter as it will be in the next chapter but Rumple does find it very attractive. He has something of a crush on her though he'd never admit it. I did that, for one reason, because Granny is a strong woman and I think between Belle and Cora and even (gag me) the Evil Queen we can all agree that Rumple has a thing for strong women. I think he'd even fess up to that. So it seemed very in character for him to have a crush on this younger version of Granny. Also, I did it to show that Belle and even Cora are not random anomalies. He is a man. He feels things like any man would and attraction is one of those things. Besides, when Belle comes along, this little crush will play its own role.
Thank you so much for reviewing MerlockVonBaron and Grace5231973. I appreciate it more than you know. I hope that you are enjoying these chapters so far. Next we have another Granny/Rumple chapter before we arrive back to Stephen and Donna because I didn't forget them! In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy his chapter! Let me know! Peace and Happy Reading!
