Golden, warm fall sun settled down pleasantly over the fall encumbered woodlands of the rich realms near Nottingham. Peace filled the entirety of the massive forest as the Dark One and his lovers slave began to make their trek back to Cora's dreaded citadel. Nature itself seemed to quell any troubles in thanks for letting the notorious thief of their woods live another day with his lady love.
The horses pulling the luxuriously dark and gold carriage trotted lazily through the small, curving dirt road carved through the bucolic Sherwood Forest. Taking their time through the land they meandered pleasantly over the rolling knolls, through the deep recesses of the forest, and many a time skirting the fringe of trees that separated fields and valleys from the gnarled undergrowth of the woods.
Multitudes of bright yellow wild flowers splashed with smaller sprigs of sunny blue and deep purple flora hedged the insipid road with color, and bowered the gray trail with vibrant delight to the senses. Through the curtain of trees that hid the carriage from fearful eyes, they saw the rich emerald lands golden with goods and the rolling meads of the world that neither much belonged to any more.
The journey was far longer than the one coming to the forest, but for that Belle had no quarrel. Freedom sang joyously through her veins to be out from the stone mausoleum of her dastardly owner. Cold wind briskly kissed her cheeks and adding fire to her pale flesh in a ruddy hue painted against her flesh. Golden sun warmed her skin in a blaze of cheer that filled her to her very soul and shred the clouds of melancholy far from the beating of her stoic heart.
To be out of the confines of her prison was the sweetest of waters to drink and the most soothing balm to her beleaguered soul. Out in the open she felt herself human once more with feelings and thoughts instead of a piece of living, working property owned by a heartless hag.
"Thank you." Belle muttered with a shy smile as the carriage of her venomous mistress slowly rumbled through the dazzling, autumn enthralled forest.
The fiend snorted jestingly at her repetitive phrase. His lips contorted into a genuine smile that he hardly ever beheld before his lover. Skinny arms crossed, he pinioned his black dots upon the beaming woman. "That's the seventh time you've said that to me since we've gotten back in the carriage." An amused huff fell from his thin mouth. "What am I being thanked for this time?"
"For allowing the horses to take their time." Carnelian faintly tinted her cheeks in a demure blush. "I can't remember the last time I saw trees or the sun or even a flower." Embarrassment welled in her throat with the heartfelt admission. Averting her wintry blue eyes, the beauty looked to the black floorboards tarnished with gray grit. "Foolish, I know." She finished self deprecatingly.
A frown pulled at his gray lips towards her grateful shyness. Thin gray-gold lines wrinkled his visage. "Cora truly has never let you out?" Consternation laced his creased brow.
"Certainly not." Replied the enslaved beauty. Sitting back in the plush seat, she stared out of the window thoughtfully, her eyes absorbing the wondrous colors. "Cora shows kindness to no one she thinks below her, especially not slaves."
Dour silence reigned supreme from the all too true observation about the evil witch. Cora was not a kind woman by any stretch of the imagination. She wasn't even truly kind to him, merely attracted to his darkness and the lust that conspired therein.
"It's not foolish." The Dark One replied at length, disbanding her notion of ignorant sentimentality. He jolted from side to side in his seat as a carriage wheel rolled over a hole. "Things we once took for granted now become prized treasures when we lose them."
Of that, he reasoned direly, he knew all too well.
A soft smile traced the beauty's pink lips as she turned her head up. Admiration gleamed like freshly unearthed jewels glittering in her azure depths. "That was beautifully put Rumpel. You have a way with words"
Looking into forever, lost in her sapphire gems, his wizened heart lurched once again against the hollow of his chest. Ever since he let Hood free to be with his family and she hugged him, the experience was coming all too often to his beastly senses. What was of even greater alarm to him was that he did not care in the slightest. Truth be told, he enjoyed the feeling an errant glance her way caused to his numb heart, once more twitching to life.
The shadowed cloak that once hid who she truly was under a blanket of darkness and humble submissiveness was gone and dismissed to a morass of fear long left behind. Before him was the true Belle in all her glory and he was enchanted.
No there was more to her than her special enchantment, he knew in the depths of his foul heart. Oh so much more.
Stretching like some lazy cat awakened from a nap, the Dark One flexed his stationary limbs as best he could in the confines of the black carriage. His bones popped pleasantly in their sockets as he allowed a tactful yawn to escape his thin lips.
Flicking a wiry claw up in prompt magical command to the accursed horses, he bid the animals to a halt. Perhaps, he figured, more for her than himself, a walks would do them both a spot of good.
Obedient, the enchanted creatures drew to a precise pause. Shaking their silky heads and snorting, the beasts once more stood awaiting instructions from their magical driver directing their steps.
"I'm tired of riding." The Dark One informed his curious passenger. "Let's walk for a while." He slipped easily from his perch and to the gray path.
Helping the beauty out, the magical fiend slowly let his ebony eyes take in all of her as she stepped free of the black carriage. Sunlight danced in her chestnut mane, turning her locks into a ruddy umber. She wasn't necessarily tall, he noticed for the first time. She was only a few fingers under his own height which wasn't particularly great.
Her chestnut mane was thick and cascaded in a dark amber cataract down her slender shoulders. Though enslaved, the beauty stood stately and refined out of the eyesight of his lover. Even in the tattered golden dress she looked beautiful and noble as certainly she must have when she'd been a princess.
Oh yes, indeed he was enchanted with this Belle; his Belle.
Laughter warm and soft as the rays of light that filtered through the dying trees spread infectiously from her smiling mouth. "I'd be happy to walk with you, Rumpel." She informed the dark master and vapidly padded down the gray snaking trail gouged from the woods.
A truth had never been so pure from her heart, Belle knew inwardly. Looking back she couldn't recall anything so great she desired than to walk with him under the vibrant trees and bask in the warm rays of fall sunshine upon their faces.
How could she make him so nervous, Rumpelstiltskin contemplated wildly, his mind in a whirl with but her single smile. A wary grin of his own flickered upon his lips as he managed to order his feet to move and fell into step with the beauty. Hands behind his back, the Dark One kept her vapid, pleasant pace as they started on their way.
Quiet pervaded the sun gilt forest as they marched through the flower embroidered path. Lost in the awe of the woods they trod like silent guest in the majestic court of fall. Only the crunching of their shoes on the grit gave any noise from them. Tack and harness jangled and clinked from behind as the accursed horses calmly trotted behind the pair with their lightened carriage load.
What could he say to her, the fiend scrounged about in his mind as they ambled down the gritty path winding out forever before their eyes. Already they exhausted everything they already knew about one another and toed the line of things they knew they should not inquire. There was nothing more to be said about much of anything.
"I am sorry about your plight." The magical monster consoled sincerely, before he could clamp the words from his wily tongue.
Hiding a visible flinch, he kept in languid step with the content beauty as they meandered. His black eyes stared at her from his peripheral sight, gazing for any pain from his choice words. Heaven above knew he did not wish to cause her any more pain than what she endured.
Over the months in the Dark Castle, he had come to pity her. The life she lived was not fit for criminals let alone the kind, quiet Belle.
Sorrowfully, Belle shook her umber head. "Don't feel sorry. You've done nothing. I chose this life knowingly."
"You chose misery." He spat wryly, his words awash with acrid bile. Life could be so unjust. The person who deserved happiness was the thrall of the one who wished to ruin all goodness. Even he did not appreciate such a cruel twist of mocking fate.
The beauty heaved her shoulders in a plaintive shrug, her voice saddened to the point of regret. "We all have our burdens to bear, Rumpel. Some our heavier than others."
Nodding in silent agreement, the Dark One looked down to the gravelly path snaking through the forests side. His knee high black boots kicked up minuscule clouds of gray dusts as he toyed about with prickly, delicate words lingering about like humming bees in his mind.
He knew those words she spoke were true as well. If he had learned anything from being the wielder of dark magic, everything came with a price, a burden, a toll.
Nippy wind whispered through the dying trees, prompting the leaves to pick up their feet in a dance as they fell once more to silence. A hoard of dried leaves rustled down from the shedding trees and upon the road and swirled in a small cyclone of colors. They wove and twirled and dipped as though all partners in an elaborate dance before falling to the earth once more to rest themselves on the trail.
Belle shivered at the merciless maestro of wind but smiled in rare delight at the sight. Autumn, no matter how cold, was her favorite season.
A frown tugged at the Dark One's lips as he saw her body quake with cold. He had not thought the day too brisk himself, but then again, he supposed with a bleak curse to himself, he was clothed quite warmly. All Belle held was a tattered dress.
Snapping his dexterous talons, the Dark One, called magic to his charitable will. Purple smoke engulfed his hand before the wind spirited the fog away in another dance of leaves. As the fog departed, resting in his scaled grip was a green and gold cloak. The cloak was simple, but thick to keep the worst of the wind away. A silver clasp in filigree in elaborate woven knots adorned the joint of cloak to cowl to keep the garment securely in place.
Wrapping the cloak about her, his dexterous fingers gently roved over her shoulders and clasped the silver pin together near her swan like neck.
Grateful for the gift, Belle bundled the cloak about her to stave off the probing fangs of fall. Pink tinted her cheeks as she ducked her head in the face of the boon and sidled closer to him in silent thanks.
Swallowing hard, the Dark One focused on breathing in and out as she strayed closer. His heart and lungs and stomach and even his cunning mind acted in the most preposterous manner when she was close.
"About earlier." He began tenuously to quell the jarring beating of his flipping heart. Trepidation burdened his tricksters tongue with a burning question that tattooed his mind since the early beginnings of the entire encounter.
Part of him knew he should not ask, but his curiosity and dread were too hungry to be sated with ignorance. He needed to know.
Belle's lush mouth curved into a dark grimace. Pain and the memory of lingering terror all as one flickered in her cobalt orbs. "When she tried to whore me?" She queried for clarification.
Nodding warily, the magical fiend sighed. "Has she ever tried something so horrid like that before?"
"No." The brave beauty shook her head resolutely. "I would think she would if she had the opportunity, but until you came along there were no visitors to her castle. She had no need to… loan me out." An icy shiver trailed up her spine at the unpleasant thought of bedding the most remiss, ignoble of her ilk. "Now though I fear…." The last words lingered ominously unspoken.
Protectiveness clawed over the Dark One's murky black heart in the face of her nameless terror. Beastly owning banished even the evil rotted over his forgotten soul. As long as he had breath in his ancient lungs, being bartered as some sort of pleasure deal would never become her horrendous reality. She suffered enough as she was.
"Cora shall never do such a thing to you." Rumpelstiltskin swore solemnly to even the foul darkness in his very being. "You have my word."
Turning to the fiend, the woman perched a brow to his vow. Though she knew not much of his deal makings, oaths, even she knew, were rare if at all existent to mere mortals. "You mean that?" Hope fringed her voice.
"I always keep my word, my Belle." The beast assured his beauty calmly. He would have sworn upon his dagger if such would have driven home his point. Such a terrible thing would never befall her. Anyone who chose to strike such a vile bargain would end up torn to bloody rags by his hands before they laid a foul hand on her.
Touched by his words, the beauty ducked her head to hide a smile. "Your Belle? Are you my master then?" Humor laced her tone.
"You no I don't see myself as that." Joking laced his reply. "I feel somewhat..." The Dark One fought for the right word. What did he feel for her? His heart jumped at his own inward inquiry. Stashing the contemplation away he cleared his through imperiously. "I feel somewhat responsible for you." He finished, though the words seemed far too inefficient in his mind.
That was a part of what he felt, but not nearly all of what bloomed in his black heart.
Placing a work worn hand on his arm the beauty smiled happily into his gray-gold face. Her eyes were watery, transforming her blue depths into crystal. "Thank you." The words came out in humble gratitude from the very depths of her heart. How she wished to give him more than a thank you, but what else did she have?
"You don't need to thank me Belle" A sly, impish smile sprang to his lips as his heart leaped.
She shook her head stubbornly. "I do need to thank you so much more; a thousand times more."
"And what are all these thanks for?" A huff fell from the fiends gray lips.
"For or being my friend." Her voice was soft as the cloak about her shoulders with the simple, unexpected explanation. "Thank you for being my protector."
There was no doubt left in her mind after all he had done he was her protector. He who took the brunt of Cora's wrath for her and even diverted her mistress will. He who, even steeped in his own pernicious fury lied for her to keep pain from assailing her flesh. He who guarded her secrets and her rebellions from Cora's cruel eyes.
Ice claimed the Dark One's heart at her reply. The words, so soft and true and her gentle touch blockaded the darkness long steeped in his soul. No one, as long as he could recall had ever called him a friend. He was called many thing both cruel and dark, but never that.
He could have taken a step away from her in that instance, which he knew he should. He should have disbanded her notion of a companion and ally. He should have grown cold. He should have ranted angrily at her presumption and lied to her face as easily as he lied to Cora's. The moment she laid a hand upon him he should have disentangled himself and cast a cold wall up to repel her.
Instead, the Dark One placed his hand over hers. His gray-gold claws reverently touched her own as though her flesh was magic. "You're welcome Belle." The beast smiled softly to his… friend.
Grinning brightly at his face without a hint of disgust to his scaled hide, the beauty slipped her arm in his own. Arm in arm, they walked down the lonesome snaking path beneath the vibrant falling autumn leaves enjoying the silence their companionship wrought.
~8~8~
Darkness tinted the last of the foul treetops just as the Cora's carriage rolled through the fanged gates of her dreaded citadel. The clatter of wet cobblestones under horse's hooves heralded their arrival from their venture far better than any other sign of their return could have.
Reigning to a halt by themselves, the midnight beasts pawed at the slick gray flagstones warily. Opaque vapors streamed from their flaring nostrils as they jerked their heads and shook in horror.
Neighs of abject terror pierced the dark air as black magic slithered from the sable stones of Cora's keep. Tendrils of vile darkness coiled over their strong legs like hungry pythons squeezing the life from their limbs. Inch by inch, the magic devoured the skin and bone and flesh and blood. With a crazed shriek of terror the horses bucked and reeled. Hooves pawing at the air, the seemed akin to animals drowning in a sea of dark tentacles. The magic vines clawed over their hide, pulling them down and mutating their being. Bones crunched and reformed and skin pulled and shrank and seemed on the cusp of tearing to spill forth a tangle of organs and tube like intestines.
In less than a blink of an eye, the ebony, accursed horses turned back into their original form of large, pink tailed rats Cora employed for her gain. The beasts were monstrous, red eyed, sleek black beasts that scoured her larders in the dead of night for any dropped food.
Terrified, the four unwitting rodents scurried hurriedly off to their dark lairs inside the manse of Cora least one of her pet crows spy them from above and gather a late supper of magic tasting rat.
Belle swallowed hard as the horses once before her dispersed back into the rats they were born as. Horror swarmed her brave heart, but there was nothing to be done. She knew Cora employed such tricks for no other reason than to be a vile mockery of the magic the fairies were said to perform.
She should have been used to such powers, but could never feel at ease of such illusions and painful mutations he mistress wrought.
Casting the poor rats out of her mind, the beauty breathed the cool autumnal air deep into her body. Her lungs burned pleasantly with the effort as she gazed upon the midnight firmament.
The clear night sky was brilliant with glittering diamonds nestled in the velvet bed of eternal black. The trails of far off galaxies swirled in some milky path that led off to other realms dotted amongst the stars.
Though he and his lover had departed at the border of the forest sometime in the early evening, the Dark One had not been in any hurry to return back to her ominous citadel. The horses pleasantly cantered and an easy pace that belayed their rabid galloping and frothing at the mouth with Cora in command of their minds.
Master and slave took the long way through every dale and wooded copse and sunlit coppice and all too often the Dark One stopped the carriage to 'stretch his legs' drawing out the time of their venture. He had been in no hurry to view the foreboding walls of Cora's keep and for that Belle was glad beyond all measure.
Proffering his hand to the beauty, the Dark One smiled sadly at the woman he'd gotten to know so well through the day. Now they were back on Cora's soil where she was a slave and he but a lover.
Soft smile etched upon her face, the beauty gently took his hand. His strong touch brought a shock of safety to her that soothed her forlorn heart. Though she was in the keep of her cruel mistress, by his gentle touch her brave heart whispered she was safe and all was well.
Stepping down, the beauty looked into his fathomless orbs. Humor traced her mouth into the curve of a smile. "Despite the near… murder. I had a wonderful time today."
Even if the only moment was simply for viewing the falling leaves and basking in the freedom of the outdoors, the day was an utterly grand one by his side. They had taken precious time for walking and talking or merely staring at the beauty of their realm. They shared a conjured meal on the top of a knoll that allowed a lovely view down to a charming little town in the countryside.
She had given her gentleman a flower after their luncheon and he had taken the wild flower and tucked the flora behind his ear. In their rest they laid back on the lush grass and let words flow free from their heart as they watched errant clouds upon their own journey through life in the endless firmament.
In her mind, the beauty could well see more of those days beside him, watching the leaves turn and the snow fall and then the budding shoots sprout on the awakening land. The thought was pleasant to say the least.
Still, she sighed inwardly, her imaginings were merely a day dream from an avid day dreamer.
"The hour's late." The Dark One stared deeply into her aqua depths, his voice a whisper in the blackness.
Gazing at her, the fiend barely noticed his hands still grasped to hers. His thumb traced small circles over her hand as he held her close.
Belle ducked her head bashfully and bit the side of her bottom lip. Regret filled her veins instead of blood. She did not want the time to end, but like all good things, they had to part. "I know. I should get to my cell. Cora's likely to have me up extra early."
Cora. Despite himself the Dark One frowned at the moniker of his evil lover. Cora; the deplorable name stuck like a jagged fishbone in his throat. All at once, the thoughts of her came rushing back. The hour was late, he had no head of the thief, and there was no excuse for his tardiness.
None of that was going to be good.
Pressing a hand to her back, the fiend guided her to the towering black doors of her mistress keep. "Better move. Perhaps she's gone to sleep." He dared voice his hope aloud to the beauty.
"Perhaps not." Cora refuted calmly from behind them.
Stopping as though caught like thieves themselves, the pair froze. Anxiously they both tossed a wary glance one another's way. Things were not going to be good.
Turning about in an instant, the Dark One smiled fiendishly to his love. Shadows adumbrated her pale features, but the darkness did nothing to hide the rage flickering like errant flames in her cunning almond eyes. She was none to happy at many things she saw and did not see.
Taking his hands slowly off the beauty as though she were some priceless object he was not allowed contact, the Dark One rose to challenge his angry love. "Cora, I see you waited."
"In vain." The witch replied candidly, her voice a lance of frost and her mouth skewed into a sneer. Almonds eyes scourging the magical monster, the sorceress ruby lips thinned into a red line painted across her face. "Where is the head of our little thief, Rumpel?"
Of course, she knew of the clemency, but if she did not act surprised and furious, the fiend might very well suspect something amiss. Besides, she was eager to hear what lies or truths he would speak.
"On his shoulders the last time I saw." The Dark One lied easily. "We didn't find him. Our information was poor."
The witch nodded succinctly as though the excuse was a legit one, though she did not like the fact. "I see." She quickly flickered her eyes to the frightened, bowed slave awaiting her mistress words. "So you spent all this time scourging the woods for the thief?"
"Until the dark began to close in." Rumpelstiltskin crooned sensibly and flourished his talons. "You know how I hate to disappoint you."
A half amused huff fell past her glossy scarlet lips. "No doubt the slave slowed you down." She paused for a moment and peered deeply into the encroaching darkness. A cloak he must have summoned for her adorned the slave girl now to ward off the cold "Where are her chains?"
"I took them off." The fiend explained lightly, his voice forcibly careless. He feigned exasperation to her questions. "They would have made our coming, if we located the thief, heard for miles."
Sighing, Cora stared all suffering at the Dark One and her slave. Some small tether seemed to bind them that forged a camaraderie. Oh yes, she knew inwardly, her odd feeling more than justified, there was something with them, something she could extort to her advantaged if tendered correctly.
Plucking insouciantly at a pointed sleeve, the witch frowned darkly at the poor news she already knew. "Since I've been cheated out of a thief I suppose the slave girl will do." She turned her gaze fully to the humble beauty. "I believe you know what you'll be doing fro the next few days, slave."
"Cleaning the tower steps mistress?" Belle broached tentatively, her voice low and rife with fear. That was her best guess, but only Cora knew what cruelties she had in store, especially those that angered her.
A wicked grin curved her mouth. "Smart woman." Cora chuckled vilely. "And since you can stay out all day tromping through the forest like some vagabond, you can get started now.
"Now?" The Dark One piped up at the incredible punishment to the beauty. "Cora the hour is…."
Abruptly clearing her throat in warning haste Belle brought the fiend to silence. There were some things that couldn't be talked about so argumentatively. Cora would grow suspicious of their friendship should he argue every punishment.
Remembering himself, the Dark One shut his mouth. His lips were a thin line that held back his words to save her. Gathering the sudden caring he had and forcing the protectiveness away, the fiend breathed deeply. "An excellent idea Cora." He proclaimed to the suspicious woman.
"I'm glad you think so, Rumpel." She smiled charmingly to the grimacing beast. "I'm going to bed now. Don't tarry to long down here. We've had a long day." Snapping her fingers, with that, she was gone to her chambers leaving the pair alone once more.
Injustice surged in the Dark One's black heart as the sinister magic wafted over the crisp autumnal winds. His heart swelled to bursting with rage that shifted the darkness away into the crevices of his weathered soul. How dare she do something so utterly, ruthlessly deplorable.
"Why did you stop me?" Rumpelstiltskin turned to the beauty sharply, his word laced with confusion. "I could have changed her mind."
Belle tossed her head, her lips holding a small sad smile. "I appreciate that. Truly I do, but to bar her from everything would only make things worse. She would get more creative and more vicious."
"I though I was your protector." Taking a step closer, he frowned in disapproval at the thought doing nothing to ease her suffering. She called him protector and he liked the title. Yet what sort of protector stood by as those he protected were hurt?
Placing a hand on his slender shoulder, she huffed a mirthless laugh. "Protector yes, master no. Do not forget Cora still holds my bargain. When everything is laid out, I am still her slave, and I know enough about magic to know you can do nothing about that fact."
Milky gray vapors billowed from the Dark One's mouth as he snorted derisively. Inside, he knew her words were all too true, but that did not make them any easier to swallow. The last thing he wished to see was blood staining her ragged dress and her fingers cold and numb with icy water.
"Fine." A growl rumbled softly past his thin gray lips. "But if you require my aid…."
What? A sudden panic overtook his lips, driving his outlandish words to a tremulous halt. What would he do if she needed help? What could he do besides try to divert his lover from her cruel intentions?
Taking a step lumbering back from the beauty, the Dark One stared in sudden disorienting awe. Blinking rapidly he gazed in abject horror of himself. Disbelief etched his gray-gold features in tandem with the wariness of her beauteous face. Being under shadow of the walls brought them back to a harsh reality of their caste.
What were they doing, talking so lightly like familiar conspirators or dear friends under the shadow of night? He was the lover of Cora and she was the slave of his lover. They shouldn't have been talking so, and yet they were.
What plague had infected them to make them think that suddenly such a thing was suitable? Why did their interactions feel so right? What was happening to them?
Shaking his straggly, dirty brown head, the Dark One turned away. Head down, the fiend forced himself not to look back at her lest his heart be enraptured once more in the insanity of everything.
His black heart and plotting mind netted in an ancient web lay in all shattered jumbled inside his scrawny figure leaving him to try and put the pieces together in a way that made sense. Why did she rouse such odd things in him? Why did he allowed her to do so?
Rife with the same emotions, the beauty departed inside to find the tools to clean the tower steps and get a very long task started. Perhaps, she supposed as she traversed the cold, black halls, the punishment would not be too terrible. At least the time scrubbing the coarse stone would allow her to sort the many different things swarming confusingly in her spinning head.
A smile tipped Cora's glossy ruby mouth as she watched the interaction below from her red windows. Her eyes scanned the pair so close and talking to one another in a duplicitous manner of allies.
Fathomlessly black jealously sparked like a roaring inferno in her chest, but she pushed the useless emotion aside for others that would serve her all the better. Watching them part from above in her gilt bed chamber; a new plan slowly began to take root and form in Cora's bright, malicious mind.