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Chapter 16
The rest of the day found Rumplestiltskin explaining to Charming that Belle/Lacey was now a scantily clad bar fly drinking her life away at the Rabbit Hole, asking Charming to help him talk to Lacey, and asking to take Lacey out to dinner at Granny's the next day. The only interruption came when Rumplestiltskin's door bell rang and he found King Robert, better known to him as Cinderella's father-in-law, on his doorstep.
"I am sorry to bother you Rumplestiltskin but I am here to ask if you have any spells to restore memory. I'll make whatever kind of deal you want?"
"And why would you need a memory spell, dearie? Rumplestiltskin's voice fell into his usual sing-song tone when a deal was in the making.
"Regina gave Belle false memories. Look, Belle was a guest at my castle for a while in the old world. We…I loved her", the King's eyes looked down at the floor, "Since the curse broke, we started talking again. I came to visit her at the hospital after she was shot, she didn't remember me but she talked to me… Now she won't even see me and I am afraid she will do something she regrets or gets herself hurt. I'll do anything to help her. I..."
"You love her?" Rumplestiltskin could not deny the feelings of possessive jealousy that bubbled up inside him. He forced himself to fight them down.
"Yes, but look, if you love her and you can restore her memory, I'll stay out of your way, just please help her."
For the first time Rumplestiltskin considered the possibility that this man might be worthy of Belle.
"Don't worry about it dearie. Renik and Blue are working on a potion to restore memory and in the mean time, I will look after Belle. Now, what you have to worry about is what happens after her memory is restored." Fear flitted through the king's eyes but to his credit he stood his ground and when he looked Rumplestiltskin in the eye again stubbornness had replaced fear.
"What I mean, dearie, is, you don't want to know what I will turn you into if you ever hurt Belle in any way." For a few moments, the two men looked at each other in silence. Then, understanding dawned in the king's eyes and a smile lit up his face.
"You don't have to worry about that, Rumplestiltskin. You never have to worry about that." And with that King Robert grabbed Rumplestiltskin's hand, shook it in his own, and almost skipped down the steps to the street.
Messaging his hand, Rumplestiltskin slammed the door closed behind the King's departing back.
The next day Rumplestiltskin opened his shop not so much to complete any pressing work but to take his mind off worrying about his dinner date with Lacey. He wanted everything to go well enough so that Lacey would spend the next few days in his company instead of getting into trouble at the Rabbit Hole. Since he genuinely cared about Belle, he wasn't too worried about pretending to be romantically interested in Lacey since that personality would be gone as soon as Renik finished developing the potion that would restore Belle's memories.
When Rumplestiltskin first felt the tingling in the air he assumed he was imagining it due to the tension gripping his body. However, when the feeling only proceeded to become stronger, he quickly realized that the vibration was due to a large expansion of magic. He determined that the source of the magic originated in the woods at the edge of town and transported himself there to try and determine what was happening. He found himself standing on the edge of a clearing but the sight that met his eyes made his knees turn to water and he flung out a hand to steady himself on the nearest tree trunk.
At first, all he saw was what looked like a black hill on the opposite edge of the clearing. However, when fiery eyes flashed into his own, he immediately recognized the creature that was Maleficent in her dragon form. At that moment, Rumplestiltskin gained a new appreciation of Charming's bravery when he agreed to fight this creature with just a sword to place the true love potion in the belly of the beast.
Renik and Marina stood a few feet in front of him and seemed to be watching the beast. A white string of smoke stretched like a leash from Renik's hand to the dragon's chest. Since Rumplestiltskin often collected rent at Storybrooke Stables, he was familiar with trainers using lunge lines to work and school their horses. This was exactly what Renik seemed to be doing with the dragon. However, all thoughts flew out of his mind, when he noticed that Renik and Marina's attention was riveted not only on the dragon but also on the woman steadily walking toward it. He wanted to scream at Lee to come back, that this dragon knew only how to kill, and that she was walking toward death. At the same time he knew that anything he said would be useless. If the look on her face was anything to go by, nothing existed except the creature in front of her and her need to reach it.
The flaming eyes in the black body stared at the woman. The size of the monstrosity made her look small and insignificant. Yet, she strode on. She was now close enough to the creature that all it had to do was stretch out its neck to kill her with one snap of its jaws. Purple smoke writhed around Rumplestiltskin's hands as he gathered all the magic he could summon to protect her from the beast but the fact that Renik was using magic to exercise control over the dragon frightened him more. If Renik thought Lee needed protection, he had no idea how much of Maleficent's mind remained in control when she took her dragon form.
They watched as Lee went down on one knee in front of the creature and bowed her head in a knight's gesture of fealty. The creature reared as it spread its wings and let out a roar, yet it did not lunge toward the woman before it. Lee looked up at the monster but remained in the same posture with one knee bent on the ground. The dragon came back down on all four of its legs and sniffed the air. It took a few steps to the side then half turned and looked at the woman over its shoulder. It seemed to be preparing itself for something, something it did not particularly want to do. It shook its head from side to side and then did the same with its body, making the wings fan out on its sides. It took a step toward the woman, stretched out its neck and sniffed her face. Leena closed her eyes preparing for the next second that would decide her fate.
Then, the dragon lay its head on the ground with wings spread out and one of its legs partly stretched out. He saw her rise and walk toward the monster, step up onto the outstretched leg, hold on to a ridge protruding from its back, and propel herself into what looked like a tiny saddle. She then tightened a belt around her waist and petted the dragon's back. In the next moment the dragon stretched its head up, beat its wings, and rose off the ground.
They seemed to be practicing some sort of hand signals because the dragon flew in one direction, turned to the left, then turned to the right and for a few seconds hovered in the air. They did not seem to be performing any difficult flight maneuvers and Rumplestiltskin could almost start breathing again if he could only forget that woman and dragon were flying in the sky above the tops of pine trees. When they finally came down to the ground on the same spot where they started, Rumplestiltskin did not know if he had stood there for minutes or hours.
The dragon stretched its leg out once again allowing Lee to jump off its back and onto the ground. She then turned back toward the beast and pressed her entire body to its chest with her arms flung out at the side. After a few seconds she took a small step back and gently rubbed the dragon's hide as if she was petting a cat. Renik and Marina ran over to where she was standing and Rumplestiltskin watched as Marina curtsied and Renik bent down at the waist in front of dragon and rider.
"No, stop that", he heard her say, "practicing a few moves with a magical leash attached does not a dragon-rider make. Let's see how I do in a few real battles and then we'll talk."
At that point, Maleficent decided to forsake her dragon form for the more human variety and instead of a dragon a tall, blond woman joined the group in front of him. Leena seemed startled at the change but immediately reached out to put her hand on Maleficent's arm.
"Thank you. Thank you for showing me how to fly," Leena's eyes glistened with tears but the expression on her face was one of absolute joy.
"We'll make a dragon-rider out of you yet," Maleficent actually smiled at Leena, "if we are done for today, I'd like to go home and rest."
"Thank you, Maleficent," now Renik was smiling at the sorceress, "we are done for today. We'll practice again at the same time tomorrow. I'll transport you and Leena home too," he turned to Marina, "please make sure they eat and rest."
"Will do," Marina placed a quick kiss on her husband's lips and the three women disappeared from the field.
"Well, well, Rumplestiltskin," Renik started walking toward the other wizard, "I thought we had an audience for our little practice session."
"Oh, yes, I saw the leash you had on Maleficent. Still don't trust her not to tear Lee apart, do you?"
"She won't tear Lee apart. If she does, she knows I will be forced to recreate the moment when Prince Phillip shot that arrow inch thick in fairy dust at her dragon form."
"Ah, so that's the favor she owes you. After you so graciously helped her survive, she turned the prince into a yaoguai, you know."
"Yes, he lived as yaoguai for all of two weeks in Cinderella and Thomas' kingdom before Belle used fairy dust to turn him back into a prince. Never mind any of that now though. I do hope that seeing Leena on that dragon makes you realize once and for all that a dragon-rider was what she was born to be." When Rumplestilskin didn't speak, he continued, "I am sorry you didn't listen but I warned you before that what is mine will always come back to me. The Farini ruling triumvirate, Wizard, Monarch, and Dragon-rider, is now complete. I am sorry, I tried to warn you, but there is no place or need for you in her life here or in the old world, not anymore."
"I am sure you will forgive me if I don't take you at your word before I hear the same sentiment from Lee."
"As you wish," With a polite bow toward Rumplestiltskin, Renik disappeared from the field.