Something wasn't right.
The feeling deep in the grooves of Cora's wretchedly sable heart whispered the words to her malicious mind in warning. Her murky soul slashed the words upon her spirit, like a desperate message written in blood.
Something wasn't right, Cora knew explicitly. For a few weeks now she had known something was amiss. An ill feeling shadowed her intuition with black wing of suspecting bowered over her wicked heart. Some misfortune gnawed like a rabid wolf at her bones, only she did not know what exact trouble there was to cause her malady.
The thought, to say the least, had been driving her mad. Night and day when she held a spare moment against her plots the trouble re-surged from the morass of her darkness without fail. Her spirit, black as death and loathing, niggled with the off kilter ill she felt brewing amidst her foul being.
What was off, she wondered endlessly in the abysmal carousel of her mind. What was amiss?
"Careful now." Rumpelstiltskin cautioned as he watched his lover from the other side of the cleared stone table. His onyx eyes sat clapped to two vials in delicate her hands. Brackish oily green liquid sat in the right vial and bright crimson in her left. Pale teal and carnelian acrid vapors wisped from the open tops sending a noxious scent into the room.
Looking upon the beakers intently the fiend measured the bubbling, vicious fluid by eye. His sable depths slowly scanned both for any untoward reactions in their glass. Both were highly toxic and doubly dangerous when agitated to much.
"Only two drops to the green, Cora." The Dark One murmured, his lips barely moving. With such volatile fluids he did not dare draw his voice above a deathly breath. His body stood stock still like some horrendous gargoyle upon clothed hind legs. Only his chest gave away life still in his frozen figure.
Nodding faintly, the witch tenuously tipped the red vial to the mouth of the green. The syrupy scarlet fluid vapidly slid down the neck of the bottle to the rim. A perfect tear shaped drop fell out and then another. Before the last could fall, the witch jerked the beakers apart. The third drop from the red, let loose from the exchange, splashed to the stone table betwixt them.
Powerful oily gray smoke snaked in a line from the stone as the ruby fluid ate through the rock. Such liquid could melt through skin if given a an open area of flesh to devour.
"Done." Cora sighed in relief and lowered the two vial gently.
The mucus like substance in the green vial settled from its irate simmer like a soothed wolf making the elixir harmless to the touch. The potion was a delicate one, but produced a powerful toxin that could lay a dragon low if done right. The potion was rare and for good reason. With one thing amiss the makers of the tincture would find themselves maimed or dead.
Waving her small hands, the witch brought magic to her command. Swirls of blackness clawed up from the stone, like demons claws tearing out of the earth. Grasping the vials in their intangible hands of reeking magic, the power enveloped the phials in a cloud of darkness and spirited them away for safe keeping.
"The Silent Slumber." Rumpelstiltskin trilled the name of the concoction cheerily. He flourished his wriggling gray-gold talons through the cool air. "Guaranteed to make a sleep so sound nothing but death could awake you!"
Cora preened at the hard wrought potion forged by both their hands. There were big plans for that particular toxin in her schemes. "We sprinkle the elixir upon the fairies and they'll be out long enough for us to get what we need."
"With there magic it'll only last a few moments." The magical fiend snipped out a careless warning, his gray lips a crazed smile of dastardly delight.
Of course she would know the peril, but he couldn't not help but point out their small window of time just the same. If anything went wrong, they would be facing a buzzing, vibrantly luminous miasma of angry fairies out for blood and with wands to take such vengeance for their precious magic.
The cunning witch shrugged her shoulders demurely. "More than enough time." She purred to her lover, her lips carved into a ruby smirk. Abruptly the coyness fell from the painted veil, mutating her features into agitation. Her almond eyes turned to the stone door of the tower. "Speaking of time where is that slave. Luncheon is nearly due."
"Here Mistress." Belle pushed open the thick stone door just as the words fell from her cruel owner's mouth.
Dutifully, like some wary mouse in the undeniable domain of cats, she shuffled inside. Her breath panted heavily from her heaving body as she walked inside. The steps were steep and massive to the dreadful tower.
After her morning chores and a quick scurry for a lunch, she was all but exhausted upon the trek. Flights wove in a spiral to the top of the wretched point, the highest tower in Cora castle.
A frown pulled the edges of Cora' pursed lips. "You were almost late slave. I'd assume you would like to eat tonight and tomorrow."
Belle nodded dutifully, her head bowed. Being late usually meant no food herself. Cora saw everything as a means to punish and never held back her cruelty. There was no window of mercy for her, just a small sliver of time to get things right or suffer consequences.
Laboriously carrying the tray filled with goods, the beauty focused upon the piled high silver platter. Her hands curled in a vice over the trays edges, determined not to let the tray slip from her hands. With the height and time the journey took to get to the tower two trips simply would not do. Her only hope was to put everything on the tray in one tremulous venture and hope she did not spill.
Though one journey was her only recourse, admittedly, she wasn't the best balancing act around. At home she was jestingly called the clumsy princess and for good reason. She had once in her youth managed to make two rows of freshly polished knight's armor tumble down a hall whilst carrying a parasol. How no one had ever figured out, but then again, she was Belle through and through with the knack of doing the impossible.
Focusing upon the tray with all her flagged power, the beauty stared hard at the piled high contents. The only thing she'd left at the base of the stairs was the tea pot. That too would have been burdened upon the tray had there ban any scant room left to fit the ceramic. Of that missing item, Cora would have no recourse to snap upon her.
Walking upon treacherous path, the beauty balanced the fragrant goods with all her being. She dared not spill a single drop in front of her malicious mistress. Her pink tongue stuck out at the edge of her mouth displaying her iron wrought concentration to the treacherous task. Step by step she padded carefully to the stone table. So focused upon the tray she did not see the end of the faded Agrabah rug curled up like some viper waiting to strike her ankle.
Like fate snapping another line of her good fortune, disaster struck. Her frayed gold shoe tripped upon the tapered lip of the well worn rug causing her lurch forward directly in the face of the Dark One.
Food flew through the cloying magic air and delicate bowls filled with dainties of Cora's likes crashed to the floor in a clatter of silver cutlery and ceramic all jumbled together. Sugar and cream sluiced the gray floor with alabaster and plump grapes tumbled into crevices and rolled about the stone. The two plates burdened with their light meals tumbled down and crashed into a thousand shards coated with what was once on their burdens.
Gritty stone dug into Belle's knees and the scraped the heels of her hands as she crashed like some clumsy meteor to the rock. Falling to her face, the beauty barely felt the pain of the cold stone. Abject terror replaced any bruises she would most likely feel. Terror instead, clawed deep in her soul. Fear slammed upon her with the force of a strike that she knew would not be long in coming.
She had spilled everything….
Looking up, her face paled to a ghostly gray of terror. Splashes of cream and some pea green goop splattered against the Dark One's brown clothes. Bright beads of red dotted his wear near his sleeves and slashed a line ruby along his vest. Cream splotches spotted his knee length boots like white tears. The mess upon him was minimal in the overlook of his sinewy person, but there nonetheless.
Not only had she slipped the food but some stuck to the Dark One clothes.
"I'm so sorry Rumpelstiltskin!" Belle cried as she came to her knees. Arms working frantically she snatched up what she could and held the objects tight to her chest. Her mind reeled as she tried no make some sort of words to say. What was there to say? Sorry, especially in Cora's ear meant little more than wasted breath for clemency.
"Stupid slave!" Cora screamed in her ear like a screeching harpy who spied some intruder to her nest. Fury mutated her features into a sharp cut through the pale beauty of her skin. Her almond eyes blazed with an unknown wrath Belle hardly ever fathomed before. "Clumsy little idiot!" She kicked a lone shard nearest to her feet at the girl. "Look what you've done. Not only have you broken everything but you've sullied your master's clothes." Pointing a spell worn finger at the flinching girl, the witch turned to her lover. "Rumpel punish her."
At the command the Dark One froze in place. His boots seemed to take root in the cold stone as her word slithered about his brain. His wiry body stilled upon the harsh words that fled from Cora's mouth. Of course he had intercepted pain from the beauty but he had never been asked to dole out torment.
Like a barbed lance to her soul, the beauty flinched visibly as the words struck home to her brave heart. Hurt and wariness rushed over her in a wave that swept her out to the perilous sea of despair.
He had no way out of such a command, not when things had gone so wrong. There no excuses, no places to send her, no corner to dust to hide her from Cora's blistering wrath bursting from her maw like poisonous lava.
Tenuously, the beauty arched her head up. Her body quivered with the motion, but she dared not turn away. Part of her begged to see what he did, too curios to turn away and brace for pain.
As her azure eyes found his bottomless pits, she paused. Not a hint of disgust etched his face only concern. He seemed as wary as she.
"Rumpel. Punish her." Cora snarled through gritted teeth. Her cunning eyes searched the fiend with a veiled look of confusion.
What was taking him so long? Why had he not sent shoots of pain through the girl for her blundering?
Swallowing hard the Dark One stared down upon the helpless Belle. Truly, she had no means of escape, no words she could say, nothing. His scaled fist curled at his side but he made no move. Not even with the darkness screaming at him and clawing at his weak heart would he obey.
To strike Belle? No. Never.
"Rumpel…." The witch's voice nagged insistently in his ear, her timbre like the incessant cawing of her pet crow.
"No." The word mumbled from his thinly pried lips.
No, and that was what his answer would stay.
Surprise laced the wicked face of the witch like a thin cloud over her pale features. Her eyes narrowed into twin slits akin to viper's orbs upon prey. "No?" Her voice flared disapproving challenge. How dare he say no to her? How dare he defy her words and what she demanded.
"Come now Cora." He turned to her to reason temperately. He proffered a hand to the silver gilded upturned tray at his feet. "She spilled the tray on accident. There was no malice."
Part of him didn't even believe Belle possessed a hint of vileness. Whenever they found themselves alone, she was always tender and kind. For all her years not an ounce of evil had taken thrall over her soul.
"Accident?" The word huffed ludicrously from her blood red lips wrench in a dire frowning sneer. "I've seen you turn men into flies for merely bumping into you. What do you care if her spilling things, like some clumsy, drunken lout was on purpose or not?"
Before he could parry, a sound crashed from the bottom of the stairs. The hollow sound shot through the tower in a muffled crack that echoed about the walls. On instinct both Dark One and witch jerked their heads to the door.
Even Belle, mired in the throes of fright identified the sound. Though the strange noise was nothing she had ever heard before her mind came to only one conclusion. Someone else was in the castle.
"We've a guest it seems." Cora muttered lowly, her lips a crimson line upon her painted pale face. Her head swiveled back to the mystical fiend, her almond eyes still with circumspect fury dancing in her treacherous orbits. "We'll deal with this later." She promised in a dangerous hiss, her lips skewed with wrath.
Grasping her black gown in fistfuls, the witch descended like some dark banshee down the depths of the stairs to combat their uninvited visitor. Her presence, like a shadow, lightened the room as she departed leaving a shaking Belle and a determined Dark One alone.
A vile curse aimed at himself fled from Rumpelstiltskin lips as she departed in a flutter of darkness and wrath. The darkness milling inside whispered his cowardice and weakness for the slave girl.
Cora would want an explanation sooner or later why he refused to harm her servant and he had no way of giving her any. In truth, he had no way of answering himself.
Shaking his straggly, dirty hair, the Dark One shoved the thought into the darker crevices of his ancient heart. He would have to deal with that another time.
Holding out a talon to the beauty, the fiend helped her up from the mess of cracked porcelain and spilled food. Magic hummed in his veins as he called the devious power to his beck. With a wave of his gray-gold claws he beckoned the magic to clean up the mess upon the floor and his clothes. Tendrils of purple fog streamed like searching snakes from his fingers and set everything aright upon the tray. At least, he reasoned for the actions, if he was already in trouble with Cora helping the girl a little more would not be ill. One couldn't start a fire in the middle of an already blazing conflagration.
Before the beauty could speak a word of fate, like a phantom, he stalked off after his angry lover. Perhaps he could have offered a word to the servant girl, but what could he have said to her? He could not even give his own heart an answer, much less the one he had just spared.
Flying down the dark stairs two at a time, the fiend came upon the main hall of Cora's ominous domain. An ugly black rock and fragile ruby glass littered the floor like iced blood, showing the evidence of an intruder. Sun light caught the shards of carnelian in a dazzling display of gold and red upon the gray stone floor.
With Cora at one end of the main hall, the ruby glass divided the intruder who stood upon the other side. The cur was dressed all in forest green and dappled browns about his body. His head was hooded only so far as to veil his eyes. A cocky smile etched his features from beneath the cloaks cowl. A long bow was gripped tightly in his right hand and a quiver of arrows bristled on his back.
"Well, well, what have we here, Cora, my love?" The Dark One queried in a manic chirp as he slowed to stand beside the witch.
An acidic smile weaseled upon the sorceress ruby lips. "I was just asking the same." She perched a plucked brow to the brazen thief. "Who is this that dares enter my castle?"
"Robin Hood's the name." The cloaked thief preformed a cheekily low bow of mockery. "And I'm here to rob you." Plucking up a crystal wand from a nearby pedestal, the thief examined the wand in the light of the broken glass. Slants of crystal and pink magic glittered in the length of the crystal wand, telling the tale of power no mere mortal could dream of wielding.
Cora huffed a nearly amused laugh, her cunning eyes glittering dangerous pleasure like a cat with a new prey to torment. "He's honest at least."
"All truthfulness aside are you sure you want to do this, Dearie?" The Dark One queried slyly. Taking a prancing step forward he flourishing his spell laden fingers through the air. "That wand can do nasty things If you don't know how to use the magic."
The smirking thief shrugged insouciantly, beaming a confident aura. "Pretty sure." Hood pulled out a quail feathered arrow. "Do you know what this arrow can do to you?" He challenged in return to the fiends dark cheer.
Dark One and dark witch looked to one another. Darkness mingled in their entangled thoughts in a union of evil. Their thoughts read the same though they spoke nary a word betwixt them.
Looking back the fiend smiled. "Has to hit me first." He sniggered impishly and padded forward.
As he moved, the thief loosed his shaft. The arrow sang toward the Dark One but not before he summoned magic to cast him free of the arrows point. In an instant he stood next to Cora and in the next, he was vanished.
Even as he did so the arrow changed course, following the trails of magic the fiend left behind.
Insouciantly watching, Cora's eyes trailed the arrow and the magic within. Oh no, this was no ordinary arrow she saw now. Someone had bestowed the arrow with magic, weak magic, but magic nonetheless. With a wave of her hand she could have disintegrated the speeding projectile in a pile of ash, but she stayed her vile power.
In that instant as the fiend disappeared, Belle descend the steps. Walking upon cats shadow she planned to head for her cell to avoid her mistress, but the spectacle in the main hall caught her eye.
She should have made all haste to the nearest hiding place, but something beckoned her to stay. Even with Cora near she could not have left if her heart had wished her to.
Curiosity laced her features as the arrow turned course in the middle of the air. The shafts seemed directed by some invisible hand, changing direction with the magically taken steps of the Dark One.
Within seconds the Dark One appeared on the other side of the room, the arrow in hot pursuit. The shaft whistled a deadly tune, aimed for the target bewitched upon the arrows set course.
Before the Dark One could cast another spell, the missiles struck his heart.
"No!" Belle felt the word shriek from her lips before she even registered the sound was from her tongue. Dread plummeted her heart in the icy swamp of her stomach as the arrow lodged in his chest.
Startled at the shaft caught in his chest, the Dark One stood frozen. The arrow still quivered, punctured upon his skin and deep into his black heart. His mind roiled with thoughts. The thought of the arrow sticking him surprised him less than he knew it should have. He was more focused on the witch standing calmly by the door.
Vapidly, his head turned to her. Why had she not stopped the arrow? She could have easily intercepted such magic once she sensed the arrow possessed power.
Satisfied, the intruder tipped his cowl to Cora petulantly. "My lady." He huffed a laugh. "Don't you just love magic?" Hood smirked cockily as he carelessly stalked passed the struck Dark One. "I know I do."
Magic rippled angrily through the drafty air even as the words left his mouth. Bursts of damson clouds roiled like fog under his feet. Looking up, the scaled features of the Dark One smiled in his face.
"As. Do. I." The fiend jerked the arrow out of his chest. Only a hole in the leather vest remained where the arrow had once been. Giggling sinisterly, the fiend dispatched the arrow in a spurt of magic leaving his gray-gold claws barren. "But don't you know Dearie; all magic comes with a price." His smile widened like a dragon with cornered prey. "And for you, that's me."
Thrusting a scaled hand out, the Dark One grabbed the green garbed thief's throat in his magic laden claws. His pointed black nails dug into the vulnerable flesh of the pale neck like pinching some over ripe fruit. Hot ichor streamed down his black fingertips and stained the thief's cloak as he squeezed just enough to induce pain but not kill.
The hood of the intruder flew back in the gale of black magic, showing his face clearly in the light. A handsome young face met their inspection. His hair was short but of silky brown curls and some form of a beard was growing upon his features. His cocky smile had long departed, filling his umber eyes with terror.
Canting his head to the side, the fiend cackled in manic cheer. "What shall we do with him, Cora?"
"I'm not certain yet, Rumpel." The witch purred as she vapidly stalked up to her lover. Her every step was like a prowling cat, seeing what her mate had caught. Standing close she placed a spell clever hand on her loves shoulder. "But we'll think of something." A venous smile overtook her lips. "Place him the cell next to the slaves. We'll figure out what shall be done about our thief sometime. He's not going anywhere."
Banishing the thief in dark purple smog, the Dark One grinned at his love. If anything could redirect Cora's attention a novel new pain would. Perhaps he was in the clear.
As though reading his thoughts, the witches smile died upon her ghostly face. Now, she had something new thing which to partake her time but that did not mean she would overlook what had previously transpired. "Don't think I've forgotten, Rumpel." Her eyes glanced to the slave girl loitering in the shadows of the threshold before turning back to him. Fury rested in her slit almond orbs, searing away any notion of hope in his heart. "We will speak of that later."
Waving her spell clever fingers, the witch disappeared in a cowl of dark shadow; no doubt to plot and arrange the pain that would soon shower down upon their newest prisoner.
A deep sigh of relief fell from the Dark One's lips as his lover departed in a cowl of dark raven feathers. He might not have saved himself a lashing from her tongue or who knew what else, but at least he'd not deal with thing he did not even understand at that moment.
Turning his head to the door, he eyed the enslaved beauty lingering in the dark. Her bright azure eyes seemed to glow even in shadows that chained her so. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought he remembered a scream, but he wasn't certain with the pulsing of magic like blood pounding through his ears.
"Are you hurt?" Belle asked cautiously and scuffled out from the ominous shadow like a rat with the cats gone. Concern glinted in her blue orbits, filling his heart with cozy warmth nestled against the uncertainty of the previous moments upstairs.
Instinctively, Rumpelstiltskin rubbed the spot where the arrow had struck. He would be alright, but the wound throbbed. Just because the arrow did not kill did not mean pain was vanquished. "No, no, just a little sore." He quickly relived her wariness.
Abruptly and not of his own volition, a peculiar thought struck his withered heart. Cora had not asked if he was alright. Cora had not even shown concern for his plight. But this girl, the enslaved of his lover did?
Why?
"I know a poultice that can relive the pain." She offered tenderly, her word genuine for his comfort.
Waving his scaled claw, the fiend discarded her concern. "The wound isn't terrible. No need for fuss." On an after thought, he added. "And you should keep to yourself Cora's liable to do anything at present." He warned lowly lest her ear still linger upon the draft.
"I know." Belle worried her bottom lips faintly. Every moment she knew was perilous, but she could not leave him not knowing if he was alright. She couldn't leave him not knowing how grateful his clemency had been. "Thank you." She blurted out, knowing he did not like her words of thanks. Before he could protest she smiled and added. "I'm… I'm glad you're alright."
Just as the words left her mouth a scream tore through the deplorable bowels of the castle. The air rang and shivered with the voice of torture and endless agony. Torment and desperation laced the cry upon the drafty currents swirled through every crack of the abysmal keep.
Belle flinched, her muscles taunt from the shriek. The Dark One merely smiled one more the wicked imp.
"Our guest might beg to differ." He cackled in reply and disappeared in a spurt of purple to join his lover in her vile tortures of their resident thief.