A Magic Knight Rayearth/ Rumpelstiltskin crossover.
Disclaimer- MKR belongs to CLAMP. Rumpelstiltskin was written by the Grimm brothers. I was appalled at what a jerk the king was being in this story and decided to change it to fit the MKR characters better.
Rated PG
Once upon a time in a land named Cephiro there was a smith named Presea. She was following her father in the metalsmithing trade and doing quite a good job.
Meanwhile, the young king of Cephiro, Clef, was having a hard time finding a wife. And the town gossips did nothing but talk about him. He was getting tired of all the pressure, so he decided to take a walk into town alone.
Clef ran into the elderly smith. To impress him, he said
"My daughter can turn any metal into gold".
Clef cracked up at the silly prospect. He was about to
depart, thinking it was just another villager trying to get on his good
side, when the smith's daughter entered the room.
"Wow, she IS beautiful" Clef thought to himself.
"Fine, I accept. I will bring your daughter to the palace
with me and see if it is true".
"Mademoiselle, please turn this copper into gold. If you
do not do it by tomorrow morning, the press shall know and you and your
father will be embarrassed."
Presea shuddered. Death was better than the poison tongues
and pens of people in that town.
She cried aloud, wondering what to do. While she was
an excellent metal worker, she knew there was no way to turn one metal
into another.
All of a sudden, a little man appeared on the windowsill.
"Do not fear, young lady. Let me do this work for you.
But I need something in exchange"
"Here, have my pearl bracelet"
Presea watched amazed as the little man turned the copper
into gold.
The next morning, Clef came by to see the results.
"This is amazing. I am beyond impressed!" Presea did
not know that Clef was not talking just about the gold. "Now could you
turn some zinc into gold?" Clef said, bringing in some zinc sheets.
Presea did want to help the king, but could not do it
by ordinary means. That night, the little man came back, and again asked
for something in exchange for his services.
"Here, you can have my diamond ring".
And again, Clef saw the new gold. He definitely wanted
to keep Presea near him at least one more night. And Presea enjoyed his
presence just as much, but was not sure why the king wanted gold so quickly,
since he did not seem to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.
"Could you please turn these iron scraps into gold?"
Now Presea thought this was pure debris and as not gold
as it could be, but she accepted. And the little man came again.
"I am sorry, but I do not have anything to give to you
this time. I will pay you once I get out of here".
"No. Promise me that when you become queen, you will
give me your first child."
"What in the world?" Presea thought. "There's no way
I am going to be queen. I am just a smith. King Clef has more than enough
noblewomen chasing after him."
"Sure" Presea said, almost at the point of laughter.
And the little man turned the iron into gold.
"Presea, thank you for the gold. You are free to go, if
you wish" Clef said regretfully.
"Do you mind if I ask you what you will use this gold
for?" Presea wondered.
"It will keep the criers quiet about me for a while."
Clef chuckled. Presea laughed with him. And they hugged warmly. Clef proposed
at the moment, and Presea accepted happily.
So Presea did become queen. She was so joyful that she
forgot about the promise she made to the little man. But five years later
she did give birth to a beautiful baby girl.
That night, the little man came by while she was putting
her daughter to sleep.
"I have come to keep my promise".
"No please don't! You can take all the jewels in the
palace's safe, but please do not take my daughter".
"A child is the world's greatest treasure, worth more
than all the gold and diamonds could be."
"You take my child, you will pay" Presea said with all
the courage she could gather.
"If you can guess my name within three days, I will not
bother you anymore. But if not, your child will be mine."
Clef had been watching everything.
"Clef, I am sorry. It is ok if you do not love me anymore"
Presea cried sorrowfully.
"We will figure out his name together." Clef said after
giving his wife a kiss. "Nobody will take our little girl away".
"Is your name Nokoru, Suoh, Akira?" Presea began asking
the man.
"Maybe Eagle, Geo, Zazu?" Clef added.
"No, no, and no! You will NEVER guess.
Clef, Presea, and everybody else in the palace cracked
the name books and began reciting every single one they could come up with.
Even ridiculous ones like "Shawshanks" and "Fiddlesticks".
"Forget it, it will not happen".
However, that night one of Clef's messengers, Lafarge,
was coming back from the woods after a successful hunt. He ran into a very
small house that not even a dwarf would fit in comfortably.
"Sounds like something that nefastous little man would
live in"
And indeed, he saw the exact little man dancing in front
of it.
"Tonight's the night tonight indeed, the little princess
mine will be, for the Queen shall never guess, that my name is Rumpelstiltskin".
Lafarge raced towards the palace hoping to not be seen
or heard. He told everything he saw to King Clef and Queen Presea.
The clueless little man appeared to the Queen that afternoon.
"Fine, is your name Taishakuten?" Presea asked.
"NOT!"
"How about Fujitaka?"
"NAAAAH!"
"Oh, I know, what was it, maybe RUMPELSTILTSKIN?"
"WHAT THE HECK?"
The little man was so furious that he exploded in a rage.
The furniture next to him got burnt from it since it was so violent. But
Presea and Clef did not care- those things were replaceable, while their
precious little girl was not.
And everyone lived happily ever after since.