The King and Queen of Corona sat next to a small crib, tears falling from the Queen's eyes. The King leaned over, kissed her forehead, and retreated from the room. Outside in the hallway, a man appeared to be waiting for him.
"What can be done, Doctor?" the King asked, glancing back towards the door he just closed.
"I'm afraid there is nothing, Your Highness. She doesn't have much time." The Doctor looked at him, a shared sadness hanging in the air between them. The King nodded to dismiss the doctor and walked dejectedly into his study, pacing the room.
"Why, hello!" an enthusiastic voice greeted the King from the balcony. The King looked up to see a man…or what appeared to be man, but couldn't possibly have been human. The…creature…before him was dressed like a man, but his skin appeared to be covered in scales. The mischievous smile he wore sent chills down the King's spine as he reached for the closest weapon that he could find: a dagger in the drawer of his desk.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"The name's Rumplestiltskin," the creature said with a flourish of his hand and a bow.
"How did you get in here?" the King asked, edging closer to him, the dagger still pointed straight at him.
"Through the front door, of course. Your guards seemed a bit…pre-occupied…with a young orphan boy wreaking havoc in the stables. If only they knew," Rumplestiltskin replied with a haunting giggle.
"So why are you here?" the King asked. Rumplestiltskin glanced at the mantle where a small crown sat in a glass case. He approached the case and gazed inside, his hand caressing the glass before he spun around suddenly to face the King again.
"Your princess is dying, and there is no hope left!" he exclaimed, as if he were all too happy to be expressing such tragic news.
"And you can save her?" The King asked, not allowing himself to hope just yet.
"No. But I have something that can," he said, his smile growing wider to reveal a mouthful of rotting teeth. Despite his reluctance, the King lowered his dagger slightly. Taking the King's movement for curiosity, Rumplestiltskin conjured a flower, its heart purple and its petals gold, glowing in the night. The King's eyes widened as he stepped even closer, leaving only a small amount of space between them. "I'm sure you recognize it. After all, you built this kingdom on the idea of it."
"Where did you find that?" the King asked, raising his dagger again.
"There's no need for that," Rumplestiltskin said as he waved his hand and the dagger disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. "What's important is not how I got it, but what you're willing to do to get it."
"If it can do what the legends say…if it has the power to save her, I'll do anything," the King said, taking several steps back.
"It most certainly does, Dearie. My price is simple, really. I want it back. The power. After you save the child, you will return the healing power to me. It's quite hard to come by," Rumplestiltskin said, a certain air of trickery about him that the King didn't trust in the least. But what other choice did he have?
"Of course. As soon as she's healed, you can have it back," he promised.
"So we have a deal?" Rumplestiltskin asked hopefully, rolling out a scroll of paper as the King sighed, pulling a quill off of his desk and signing at the bottom.
The King walked into the Doctor's office, placing the flower down in front of him. The Doctor looked up, his expression asking an unspoken question that the King answered with a simple nod.
The Doctor placed the flower into a bowl of water, the golden glow spreading throughout the liquid. He carried it carefully into the nursery, followed closely by the King. As the door opened, the Queen turned to see who had entered, and upon seeing the hope in her husband's eyes, glanced back down at the crib with a smile on her face.
A baby girl with long blonde hair smiled up from her crib as the Queen reached inside and lifted her into her arms, smiling and nuzzling her nose against the giggling child. The King reached out and placed the crown from his case on the baby's head, laughing when it fell down over her eyes.
The King and Queen carried the baby out onto the balcony where a paper lantern with the symbol of the sun sat suspended on the rail. Together, they raised the lantern into the air, watching as the entire kingdom followed suit. Soon, the sky was filled with lanterns, a beautiful sight to behold, but the King and Queen only had eyes for the baby girl in their arms.
Later that very same night, the baby slept silently in her crib, her long blonde locks draped over her like a small blanket. Suddenly, a puff of purple smoke filled the room. As it faded away, Rumplestiltskin materialized just over the crib, staring down at the baby with an evil grin. His eyes, however, were filled with an unexplained sadness as he reached out as if to caress her cheek, but quickly pulled away and with a shake of his head, tightened his fist. The moment that he did, the baby's hair began to glow from root to tip, a golden blanket wrapped comfortably around her. Smirk growing, Rumplestiltskin produced an empty vial from his vest, reached down into the crib, taking a strand of hair into his hand, and sliced it off with his dagger. The second that the hair was separated from the baby's head, however, it turned brown and the glow disappeared.
Holding a powerless strand of hair in his hand, Rumplestiltskin turned and stormed towards the balcony doors, paced back to the crib, and glanced down at the sleeping baby inside. Wringing his hands, he sighed with exasperation and lifted the baby up, taking care to extend his arms out as far as he could in order to maintain a physical…and emotional…separation between them. But the movement woke her, and he expected her cries to echo throughout the kingdom the second that she saw the stranger holding her. However, she smiled, completely unafraid, and latched her tiny hand onto one of his fingers. He softened, then, a genuine smile turning up his lips for the first time in what felt like an eternity. He pulled her close, against his chest, and couldn't help but rub his finger against her cheek.
"You can't have her," said a new voice as Rumplestiltskin looked up to find the King with a sword outstretched. "Take what you came for. We have no use for the power now. It means a great deal to me, what you did for her, but if you think that means that you have some kind of claim to her…"
"But I am taking what I came for," Rumplestiltskin interrupted. "The power is here." He waved his free hand over the baby, and the King looked on, his eyes wide as her hair began to glow once again.
"You knew this would happen. You knew that it would become part of her," the King accused, his eyes still on the baby.
"I knew that the power would remain…intact…but not how or where," Rumplestiltskin replied, his grip instinctively tightening on the baby still in his arms.
"You can't have her," the King repeated through gritted teeth.
"That was the deal we made."
The King pointed the sword even closer to Rumplestiltskin's neck.
"And if I were to kill you?"
"The deal would be broken and the child would die," Rumplestiltskin said, though his usual enthusiasm at expressing the fine point of a deal was lost as he glanced down at the girl.
After a moment of silent consideration, the King lowered his sword, his eyes dark.
"You won't get away with this," he growled.
"That's the thing about children. Before you know it, you lose them," Rumplestiltskin said, spinning in a circle of smoke and disappearing into the night, a second chance he never expected and wasn't sure he wanted holding tightly to his finger.