Next chapter, obviously. Apologies for the grammar mistakes, but you all know that. Here we go!
Fairytale Land of the Past
The last wizard had failed him, and Jade began to wonder why the fool had even called himself a wizard. He in his tall throne-like chair, with his stupid blue robe and giant spell book that a mouse could sail down a river on. Jade rolled his eyes with distaste for the man he had traveled to for aid.
"The least he could've done was better explain himself," Jade grumbles as he walks on through the forest in the dark hours of the night. "Tell me why he was unable to part with a potion. Or, share the secrets of a spell I could've used. Why did he have to present me with a riddle? Why couldn't he just-"
"Make a deal?"
Jade stopped, turning fast behind him to capture the source of the voice or to, hopefully, be sure he was alone. He'd rather be hearing things from the lack of sleep than believe he wasn't alone. And when he shifted his sights to behind him to be sure that that was the case, he was overly relieved when alls he found was blackness and the faint show of trees from the speck of moonlight that casted itself down from the sky. Jade breathed a sigh of relief and turned forward ... only to be startled back.
"Ah!" he yelled as he toppled backwards onto the forest floor, attempting to crawl away from the being that stood before him.
A rather ugly type of beast, covered with the hood of a cloak, but Jade could still make out the details. The skin that covered this creature was crawling with scales and a horrid shade of brown and gray. The nails on him extended further than the length of any female's Jade had ever encountered. And that voice ... so high pitched and sinister. It was enough to make Jade shiver.
"Not the proper way to great someone who is going to help you," the beast said, resulting in Jade's racing heart slowing down slightly and his breathing to ease.
"Wh ... what?" Jade stammered.
"I'm here to help you, Jade," it repeated.
"H- how do you know my name?"
"Don't question magic if it's what you've been searching for," it countered.
Jade sat up on the forest floor, collecting himself some before getting back on his feet. The creature knew of his desires, so he figured he was worth talking to. He brushed himself off before speaking again to the being before him.
"You have magic?" Jade questioned, and he swears he saw the being smile under his hood.
"Indeed, I do," he replied. "Magic that can save your sister."
Jade's fears vanished upon discovering that there was still hope for little Cindy after all. The other sorcerer might have been a wash, but this one was offering magic when Jade had none. It was almost as though a miracle had presented itself to him in his lowest hours.
"This is amazing!" Jade exclaimed. "I'll give you anything you want for it. Name your price."
"My price," he said, "is you."
Jade's smile had abruptly faltered. What was once a dream had now turned into a nightmare.
"Me?" He pointed to himself as he spoke. "Me? But ... why me? I have nothing."
"That's not entirely true," the being explained. "You have an ache in your heart, a desperate soul, and magic."
Jade shook his head, not in denial, but rather annoyance. Another master of magic was telling him he possessed the very thing he has been searching for. He was positive that if he had such powers, he would have found out about them by now.
"You're insane," Jade muttered.
"Besides the point."
"Look, the last sorcerer tried to sell me the same dish," Jade explained, agitated. "But it simply isn't true. I do not have magic. If I did, I would have used it by now."
"Other sorcerer?" he asked. "What other sorcerer did you first encounter? What was his or her name?"
"Does it matter?"
"It does to me."
"I don't remember," Jade confessed. "I don't think I got his name. I was just pointed in his direction when wandering around asking people for a wizard or something. I never got his name."
"Was it Merlin? Domingo? Judah? Cyprian? S-"
"I told you," Jade interrupted, "I don't remember, but none of those names are familiar."
He rolled his eyes under his hood.
"And he told you you had magic?" the being asked Jade.
"Yeah. Though, he wasn't very detailed in his explanation. He kind of just said it and then I left. He, honestly, wasn't much help, and you're not that much help either. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sick sister to get back to."
"Hold on a moment, Jade."
And so the boy was stopped.
"Magic doesn't just come to you," he explained. "You have to practice it. I am willing to make you a deal. Two, actually. First, in exchange for your servitude, I will give you the magic that will cure your sister."
"Done!"
"I'm not finished." He held up a finger. "Failure to comply to these terms; if you try to run away, try to wiggle out of your end of the bargain, or attempt to kill me, your sister's cure will ware off ... and she will die."
Jade swallowed hard, knowing what he had to do.
"All right," he agreed. "What's the second deal?"
"While you are my servant, I will train you to use your magic. In exchange, when I say so, you must caste a spell for me."
"A spell?" Jade raised a brow.
"Mhm," the creature confirmed.
"You're a powerful sorcerer. What do you need me to caste a spell for?"
"A spell with such epic proportions requires more than one magic practitioner to caste it. It requires a lot of power and a lot of magic, so I'm going to need your help to make it happen. So, Jade ... do we have a deal?"
The beast extended his hand to him, reaching into a ray of moonlight, allowing Jade to see his skin more clearly. As scaly as a snake's and as hideous as a toad's, the nails as long as a phenix's talons. All the while, Jade thought of his sister, how she was ready to give up, and how this just might be his last chance at saving her.
So he sucked up his fears, grabbed ahold of the stranger's hand, and shook on it.
Somnium of the Present
"You can't just smash it, if that's what you're thinking," Jade explained once Lucinda picked the tiny teacup up from off its pedestal and twisted it in her hands.
"Why not?" she questioned.
"It won't work," Jade answered. "Magic is a bit different here. In order for this to work, you need to break it elsewhere."
Lucinda sighed a deep huff, all of this being so much more complicated than what it had to be. She rolled her eyes aggressively and looked back towards Jade, examining him.
"Nothing is ever made easy in this place, is it?" she questioned with annoyance.
Jade shrugged playfully.
"Afraid not."
"Oh my gosh," Lucinda moaned, throwing her head back and stomping her feet some as she walked about the room, heading towards the head of the table's chair and plopping down into it. This was more work than she has ever done before. "Wonderland would be easier than this," she muttered under her breath.
"The Mad Hatter may be mad," Jade commented and then brought a finger to his temple, "but I am beyond boarder-line insane!" His eyes were so wide, Lucinda feared they were no longer in his skull. He was so bizarre.
"Being here as long as he has without anyone to interact with for nearly a hundred years," Bae explained as he set his fourteen year old self on the table, adjacent to his sister, "does something to your mind."
"You begin to lose it!" Jade further shouted. "Begin to act wildly and randomly, and even start forgetting about your responstables."
"That's not even a word," Lucinda corrected, setting the teacup down on the table so she could rub her forehead.
"I made it up," Jade said easily.
"Pretty sure someone before you did," Bae commented.
"Really?" Jade questioned.
"Pretty sure," Bae stated.
"All right, enough!" Lucinda could no longer stand the conversation. Mad people were not her bearings. She never had to deal with them before. "It doesn't matter. Point is, it's not a word, so stop using it in your vocabulary."
She was probably expecting Jade to be highly embarrassed or frightened of her remark, but where Lucinda once imposed fear was no longer her surroundings. Instead, she was in a different world of color, and one where people would only fear her if she gave them something to be afraid of.
Jade simply looked to Bae with his two different colored eyes, face blank, and had his friend give a shrug.
"Geez," Jade spoke without moving his mouth as to make it seem he was trying to make his voice inaudible to Lucinda, but just as Bae could hear it, so could she. "What stick got stuck up her ass?"
Bae couldn't hold in the laughter, as Jade bit his tongue and crossed his eyes at the end of the question. Oh, his mind had went bonkers from when we last saw him in the Enchanted Forest.
Lucinda rolled her eyes again and sat up just a bit taller in her chair, attempting to do something she had yet to do in this world; use magic. She was the Dark One now, so no sense in not giving it a go. She pictured Jade as a horrid old toad, ones that frequently popped up into her own fairytale books, but unlike the princesses in her books, she would know for sure that there was no handsome prince at the other end of the lips.
She flashed her hands at him, doing everything her father taught her to do back in her old world, except, this time, nothing happened. Jade was still there, still standing on two legs, and still wearing that big stupid grin he had refused to remove since she came here.
"That's some cool hocus pocus trick," Jade commented when Lucinda's spell obviously failed. "Would ya teach it to me?" He started laughing madly again, and even Bae couldn't hide the fit of chuckles that bubbled in the very pit of his belly.
Rather than be annoyed, Lucinda panicked. What was she without magic and her title?
Nothing.
"I don't understand," she fretted, examining her fingers and palms. "Magic was my best feature besides my great looks and status. How is this possible? And I'm supposed to be the Dark One. Why is it I can't use magic."
"Magic is different here, Lucinda," Jade answered. "Have you not picked up on that yet? Everything is almost like the opposite here. Magic, in this world, is like the magic that was in Storybrooke. You can't just use it here, you have to remaster it."
"Remaster it?" She was beginning to lose hope that she would ever escape. She was a master of magic, and now she had to learn it all over again.
"Yeah, that's what sucks," Jade confirmed. "Lucky you, I just so happen to be a master of magic in this world. I had several years to practice. Wanna see?"
"Not really, no," she answered.
"Oh, I'll take that as a 'yes' then," Jade expressed cheerfully, to which Lucinda shook her head and fell back into her seat.
Jade quickly summoned a chalice to his hand and swallowed the contents inside before throwing the chalice behind him, only to have it disappear into nothingness. With fluids contained in his cheeks, Jade readied himself as Bae leaned over to his sister and informed her of what Jade was about to do.
"He's gonna blow bubbles," he said.
As confused as ever, Lucinda shifted her gaze towards her brother and said, "That's impossible. Did he drink soap?"
"No," Bae chuckled. "Pink champagne."
Lucinda and Bae both turned back to Jade, who blew a pink bubbly bubble from his mouth, and that bubble multiplied into several others, and they continued to grow in numbers until there was nearly fifty of them. With Jade's mouth now free to speak, he began to sing as the bubbles began to take form of something ...
"Did he blow ...?" Lucinda began to ask, but was cut off by Jade's singing.
(Sing it, Readers! I know you all know this one.)
"Look out! Look out!
Pink elephants on parade.
Here they come!
Hippety hoppety."
Sure enough, the pink bubbles took the form of elephants that started parading around the main hall of the castle. Giant, pink elephants with blackholes for eyes. Lucinda had never been so frightened, and so jumped out of her chair and took cover beneath the table, just having her eyes peek out from beneath it as Jade continued singing and the elephants continued to march in their parade.
"They're here, and there
Pink elephants ev'rywhere.
"Look out! Look out!
They're walking around the bed
On their head
Clippety cloppety.
"Arrayed in braid
Pink elephants on parade."
Bae joined in at that, singing from his spot on the table as he rocked back and forth, admiring the view of the marching elephants around the castle his father once called home.
"What'll I do? What'll I do?
What an unusual view!"
Jade took the lead of the song once more as Lucinda continued to watch in horror.
"I can stand the sight of worms
And look at microscopic germs
But technicolor pachyderms
is really too much for me."
Bae came back into the song now, hopping off of the table and marching with the elephants and Jade, who had summoned to his hand a wizard's staff, and twirled it in his fingers as they paraded about the room, scaring the crap out of Lucinda (as this scene did to most of us when we were younger).
Bae then sang,
"I am not the type to faint
When things are odd or things
are quaint.
But seeing things you know that ain't
Can certainly give you an awful fright!"
Together, Bae and Jade shouted,
"What a sight!"
Jade sang,
"Chase 'em away!"
Bae repeated it.
"Chase 'em away!"
Then Jade,
"I'm afraid!"
Then Bae,
"Need your aid!"
Then together,
"Pink Elephants on Parade!"
Fairytale Land of the Past
"How is she?" Jade questions his mother after he bursted into the house, needing to tend to his sister before his leave. The creature had to keep to his word before Jade went anywhere with him. Cindy had to be cured.
His mother, tired ole soul, was cooking up another round of noodles and broth for them to feast on that night, but poor Cindy had been telling her mother that before Jade's return, that she doubted their would be a need to cook for three any longer.
"Still resists hope," his mother replied, crossing over their small cottage to greet her son upon his return. They shared a short, yet passionate embrace, before Jade rushed over to his sister's side, kneeling at her bed.
"Cindy?" he speaks, bringing a hand to her forehead and wiping away the sweat stuck strands of hair that covered it. "Cindy?" he says again, and this time, her eyes slowly flutter open.
"Jade." She smiles faintly, something she hasn't done in a long while. "You came back."
"I told you I would, didn't I?" he said, smiling sadly, tears pricking at his eyes. He knew he would have to go soon. He couldn't stay much longer. "And guess what, Cindy?" he says as he perks up slightly. "I found you a cure."
She looks to him confusingly. He was setting out to find treatment. Instead, he returns with a full blown cure.
"Yes, that's right," Jade confirms. "A cure. Something that will heal you so that you shall continue living."
Jade quickly reaches into a pouch attached to his hip, hidden by his old, worn cloak. That's where he had stashed the vile he had been given by the fellow he made a deal with.
"Here we are," he says as he began to pull open the tiny bottle's cork with two fingers.
All the while, his mother suspiciously watched, hovering over him and examining the vile with frightful eyes.
"Jade," she spoke as he continued to fight with the cork, "how did you pay for that?"
With my freedom, Mama, he dare not say.
"It doesn't matter," was his replacement response to the truth. "I have it, and you don't need to worry about it."
Cindy had lost all the fight within her, closing her eyes and beginning to drift into the next life. Jade quickly struggled with the bottle and pinched her cheeks so she would open her mouth and drink the potion.
"It does matter," his mother pried. "Where did you get it? Who gave it to you?"
"Mama," Jade nearly growled, "not right now."
"Jade, no!" she said, smacking the bottle out of his hands, its contents spilling onto the floor.
Horrified, Jade stammers for words, looking to the liquid that was now drenching the ground beneath them. The cure, the one thing that could save Cindy, was now being observed into the dirt that they were forced to call the foundation of their home. Jade clawed at the soil, attempting to lift the remains of the liquid, but it was no use. It was absorbed. It was gone.
"Mama, what did you do?!" Jade shouts furiously at his own mother. "Why would you do that?"
He gets onto his feet, aggressively approaching his mother as the woman who gave birth to him gave him her reasoning behind her actions.
"We couldn't afford that with money or food," his mother explains. "And no merchant or doctor would sell you that unless you had one of those two things to spare. That only leaves one other way you got your hands on that potion, and that's magic. And how many times have I told you, magic always comes with a price? Jade, this is one I don't think you are ready to pay."
"How do you know what I am or am not capable of doing to save my sister?" he asks in rage.
"I know what I am and am not capable of doing, and that is having to decide between my babies," she cries, falling on her knees and beginning to weep into her hands. "I know where you got it," she sobs. "I know where it came from. And I know the price you have to pay for it. Your father paid the same ... so you would survive."
Jade stops in his place and lowers his anger, listening closely to the weaving of his mother's words.
"You weren't supposed to live," his mother explains. "You were suppose to die when you were a baby. Your father tried everything; every treatment, every remedy, every suggestion that the most intelligent of minds made. Nothing ever worked. So to make sure you lived, he turned to magic. He made a deal with a sorcerer for a potion just like that," she pointed to the spot on the ground where the cure had been spelt, "to save you. Obviously, it worked, but your father sold his soul for it, leaving me with you and another child on the way. I wasn't ready to let him go. I am not ready to let Cindy go. But I'm also not ready to let you go.
"Never," she begged as she cried, "never, ever ask me to choose between my children, Jade. I beg of you. Don't ask me to do it, because I can't. If I can save you, I will. But don't ask me to sacrifice one child for the other when I know there is something I can do to save them. Don't ask me to do it."
Grieving and guilty over his anger when he understood not of why his mother was so eager to be rid of the cure, Jade knelt on the ground beside her and took her in his arms, comforting her as she wept.
"Mama," he muttered into her shoulders as he tenderly stroked her hair, "I already made the deal. Whether or not she drank the potion ... I belong to him, now."
"Jade, no," she sobbed, pulling him closer to her, holding him tighter, unwilling to part with him. "No. No. No."
"Mama," he says, fighting off his own tears. "Mama, you have to let me go back and make another deal with him. I need that cure."
"No," she refused. "No, I won't let you go."
"Mama, I have to. If I don't, you'll lose both of your children. Wouldn't you rather at least have one stay with you for the remainder of your years?"
"I'd rather have both of you," she wept.
"I know, Mama," Jade confessed, truly aware of her feelings. "I know. But, unfortunately, you can only have one of us."
"Don't make me decide," she pleaded. "Don't make me choose."
"I'm not, Mama," he said before holding her out at arm's length and looking into her wet, sad eyes. "I'm choosing for you."
Somnium of the Present
"That frightened of parading elephants?" Jade questioned as he poked his head under the table, encouraging Lucinda to emerge.
"That is not natural," she says as she creeps out from her hiding spot. "Even by magic's standards."
"Oh, relax, why don't you?" Jade suggested as he helped her up and she straightened out her dress. "Tell you what, I'll teach you magic so you become more useful and this whole escape mission becomes much more do-able. We'll get started with training in the morning. It's getting late and I am fairly tired."
"Dark Ones don't sleep," Lucinda remembered, picking up the teacup and twirling it some more and then examining the main hall.
So this place was the scene of the crime? Where her mother had dropped her father's teacup? Where her mother fell from her father's curtains? Where her mother and father fell in love? And yet, not too long ago, pink elephants were parading around the place.
"I remember my father telling me he barely ever sleeps. Dark Ones don't need to," Lucinda muttered, wondering what she was supposed to do for the hours of the night.
"Not to worry," Jade assured, "for I have a potion that can make even Dark Ones fall fast asleep. You may be able to detect potions, but be immune to magic, you are not. You'll have a peaceful eight hours of undisturbed sleep, and then, we will begin our magic briefing and set off on this quest of yours to smash the teacup."
"Where do we have to go to do it exactly?" Lucinda questioned with a raised brow.
"A temple of some sorts," Jade explained. "I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. Come," he began to walk towards the stone staircase in the corner, "you can sleep in my old room."
Despite not having to sleep, Lucinda was exhausted from what the day had brought to her. Not so long ago, she was spinning and twirling with different princes from around the realm, feasting on fine foods, and living the princess life. Now, she was trapped in a world where she was being attacked by ogres, visited by spirits from beyond the grave, and taunted with elephants. Sleep, even if it was a potion induced one, sounded like a good idea.
So, she let Jade lead her up the steps to- quite possibly- the highest room in the tallest reaching tower of the dark castle. She remembered her mother being tossed into the dungeons, so she figured, a secluded room at the very top was not as bad, and considerably a step up from the last woman's visit here.
It was a tiny, rotunda room with a bookcase against the wall and an average sized bed with a single window and a fluffy quilt as a blanket. A single nightstand with several candles aglow was the source of light, and it gave the room a cozy feel.
"Just make sure you make your bed before you come downstairs for breakfast," Jade said as he pulled back her quilt to allow her entrance into the bed, and then began making the potion by magically summoning the ingredients to him and working on the nightstand in the room.
Meanwhile, Lucinda scoffed at the idea of her making her own bed, removing her sword from her hip and setting it down on the ground by her bedside, wanting it close to her.
"Me making my own bed," she teased. "What a funny jest."
"No jest," Jade assured. "I mean it. You lost your status as a princess, remember? Here, princesses don't exist. There are only mortals and sorcerers, so get used to your new position as one."
She removed her boots and tossed them aside before walking up to Jade, awaiting her tea.
He took a glance at her, realizing she had no nightgown to wear, and so flashed one onto her. A rather comfy one made from cotton, a nice and snug fit on her slender body, and a light pink color despite the somber feel that the whole world gave off. For once, something wasn't bleak in the world of fantasies and cursed dreams.
"Thanks," she muttered, even though she was enjoying it more than she would lead someone to believe.
Jade merely smiled and finished the concoction he had been brewing. Lucinda climbed into the bed and Jade presented her the small, handleless cup that she gripped with both hands and sipped on. It tasted mighty fine for a potion. It had a nice warm, comforting tea taste to it. She knew better than to complain that it didn't taste like magic, but her senses within her threw up the red flag as her Dark One radar was supposed to do. There was a sleeping potion in there, but Lucinda did not object to it.
As she sipped on her spell, Jade brought the covers up to her chest and tucked her in snuggly. He knew it was difficult for Lucinda, he had endured the harsh truth himself all those years ago when he was first cursed and sent here. It is a horrible truth to have to swallow, and Lucinda was taking it much more lightly than he was, but perhaps that was because he was the first one to arrive here, and there was no one around. There was nothing, but blackness and bleakness. He was truly alone.
Jade would never let his somber show, for that was his weakness. Kindness, however, he could afford to spare.
Once Lucinda finished her tea and was all tucked in, Jade removed the cup from her grasp and flashed the set of pots and potions away, back to where they belonged.
"All right then," he said as he clasped his hands together, "looks like you're all ready for the night. Unless ... you need anything else?"
She shook her head and played with her fingers.
"No, I think I'm good for the night," she confirmed, looking shyly up at Jade. He has been rather helpful.
"Okay," he said. "Then we shall begin in the morning. Good night, Lucinda."
"Good night, Jade." She smiled.
Jade turned and began to descended down the stairs until he remembered something, and so looked back at Lucinda.
"Lucinda," he said, and her eyes met his. "Don't worry," he assured. "We'll get you out of here. I promise."
She had no idea why, but that made her feel so much better. She smiled sweetly once more and batted her eyes. She was going to get out of there. She could feel it.
Jade finished his hike down the steps where Bae waited, smiling smugly.
"Your bleak world is no longer bleak, is it?" Bae questioned with a wag of his eyebrows as Jade slowly closed the staircase door behind him.
"You're both important to me," Jade replied. "Seeing her here is a constant reminder of the success she's had, and the failure I have become."
Bae quickly came to his friend's aid, placing a hand on Jade's shoulder as comfort.
"You're no failure, Jade," he assured. "You're going to end this. All of this. I know you will."
A reassuring smirk crossed Jade's face at those words, and so he nodded once to show his belief in Bae's statement.
"She won't get away with this," Jade vowed as he began to walk down the corridor, Bae following closely behind him. "I won't let her."
Fairytale Land of the Past
"Ya lost it," he spoke aggrieved.
"I didn't lose it," Jade argued. "I spilled it before I could give it to her, which is why I need another."
The forest at night always made meetings like these so much more frightening. Jade was shaking under his cloak when he knew there was no need for it. Still, he found himself unable to stand still and only hoped that the one he spoke to could not sense his fears.
"This does not erase our last deal," the creature reminded Jade. "You still have to come with me. Your clumsiness is not my fault."
Jade sighed, resentful towards this man, but what other choice did he have than to make deals with him? No one else would bother to help.
"I understand," Jade said, because he did. He understood the deal perfectly. A cure for eternal slavery. It didn't matter if Cindy swallowed it or not.
"But there must be something I can trade in order to get another cure," Jade pried, to which his negotiator seemed to be intrigued by.
"I suppose there is something you could do for me to get another cure, but it would have to be something big," the sorcerer suggested.
Jade, knowing that when this guy meant 'big' it was rather going to be an 'enormous' favor, was unsteady. Either way, it was for Cindy, and she was worth everything. So, he swallowed his fears again, and nodded in agreement.
"Tell me what I have to do," he asked, and the dark one laughed a taunting giggle of sorts before beginning to explain the mission Jade was to be tasked with.
"It'll take some time, but when I feel you're ready for the task, I will send you on it," the creature said.
"Hold on," Jade interrupted, "is this part of the spell I'll have to caste?"
"Not at all," the other replied. "This is for more personal gain. But, this is going to be tricky, and you'll need to be sly, quick, and stealth. It's easy to get caught, so you must learn how to sneak past magic."
"I assume I'll be stealing something," Jade commented, which earned him another sinister giggle.
"Oh, you catch on quickly. I like it," the dark one praised. "Stealing something, yes, from the last sorcerer you visited before me."
Jade blinked his eyes and furrowed his brow. There seemed to be nothing in there worth stealing.
"What would I be taking?" he asked curiously. "The sorcerer had nothing. Just a spell book and a cauldron."
"It may not have been so obvious," the other suggested. "Tell me, sonny boy, was he wearing a tall hat on the top of his head?" The creature gestured a tall, pointed hat on his own head as he asked Jade the question.
Jade thought back to when he visited the more than less than unhelpful sorcerer before he had encountered this one. Was he wearing a hat?
"Yes, he was," Jade replied. "A tall blue one. It had stars on it, if I'm not mistaken."
He saw the rotting teeth smile from the dark one's mouth upon giving that response.
"That?" Jade questioned. "You want me to steal that? It's a wardrobe accessory."
"But such a nice one," the dark creature countered.
Jade rolled his eyes and caved.
"All right, I'll steal the wardrobe accessory for another cure. Deal?" Jade stuck out his hand first this time, impatient and wanting to get back to Cindy before it was too late.
The creature laughed before nearly skipping over and taking Jade's hand with his own. Once their fingers locked around each other, the creature used his free hand to present Jade with another bottle filled with the cure.
Wide eyed and cheerful, Jade nearly snatched the bottle from the creature's hand and stuffed it away into the pouch around his waist.
"Don't spill this one, Dearie," the beast warned. "I have no more deals to make with you."
"I'll guard it with me life," Jade swore.
"Good boy, Jade. Now run on home to save your sister, and once she is cured, you will be brought to me. Understand?" the being reminded Jade, and he nodded, well aware of what was going to happen to him.
"I understand," Jade confirmed. "But, I never got your name," he abruptly realized.
Just then, the dark one gave an extravagant bow and offered a roll of the Rs as he told Jade his name.
"Rumplestiltskin."
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