Belle slept for a few hours, the sun rose high in the sky and a combination of the heat and her thirst drove her from her make shift bed of straw. She rubbed the sleep from her eye, the other was still too tender to touch and took in her surroundings. Cobwebs, some deserted, some occupied littered the corners of the old stable. The bottom half of the room she was in was made of cobble stone with wooden stalls and wooden framed openings. A nice solid roof kept out any rain, which was good because even though the sun shone high, clouds formed off in the distance.
Belle spotted a broom in one of the corners of the room. She gingerly checked her ankle, it was bruised and tender, she could put a small amount of weight on the ball of her foot, but none on her heel without extreme pain. She got up and made her way over to the broom, it would have to do for a crutch, she desperetly needed to relieve herself and then see if that old well contained any water, perhaps she thought by some chance a chicken with a few eggs might be here, her belly rumbled in agreement. It had been 2 days since she had eaten and with the megar rations she had been delt in her dungeon prison, her weight had severly dropped these last few months. But she was free now and there was no way she was going to return, She decided if they indeed caught up to her that she would take her own life rather than be captured .
The Broom made a splendid crutch and after a few necessary moments behind the stable, Belle was ready to inspect that well. She propped her crutch up aganist the stone of the well, the wooden bucket hung from it's rope, she plucked it down and dumped out it's very upset 8 legged occupants. She plucked a handful of grass and cleaned out any web that remained in the old bucket.
Belle leaned against the side of the well holding her injured foot off the ground as she dropped a few pebbles in the well. listening for the confirmation of water, Belle sighed in relief as she heard the small splash and she happily sent her bucket down the well on it's errand.
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Rumplestiltskin woke up in a bad mood. he should have never let that filthy peasant woman sleep in the stable. Now he'll never get her out of here. He stomped down the stairs from his tower with a mission, that woman had to go. He prefferd his solitude he told himself. She probably had 10 children hidden in the woods somewhere and she was waiting to rob him blind, Rumple humphed to himself, probably not even hurt, that was just a show for sympathy. "Well, she'll get no sympathy from me" he spat. As he decended the stairs he caught sight of Belle out of the window. He stopped to glare out at her.
Belle was just reeling the bucket out of the well, she had a difficult time balancing the now heavy bucket with her injured leg and petite frame. but she managed to get ot to the ground with out too much of the water spilt.
Rumple watched from the window as she kneeled by the bucket, scooping out the water, handful by handful to satisfy her thirst. Her chest heaved as she wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand, still staring into the bucket. Rumple observed with raised eyebrows as Belle began to seemingly wash her face and arms in the water, he made a grimace at the state of her hair as she took the rag off her head, splashing the cool, well water on her neck and head. Rumple thought her hair was probably past her shoulders at one point. it was brown and somewhat wavy but one side was hacked off way shorter than the other, Rumple aggreed that she was right in trying to hide it in the head rag, it was hideous. Suddenly she jerked her head up as if she saw something, she drug herself up and grabbing a poor excuse for a broom, she hobbled off toward the stable. "Probably going to get the children she had stashed in the woods" he mumbled.
Rumple continued his decent from his tower to find her and send her on her way, but first, perhaps alittle tea.
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Belle satisfied her burning thirst, but it didn't do much for her knawing hunger. She spashed water on her neck as a sound caught her ears, a cluck. A rouge chicken had wondered out of the woods a few weeks ago, straying away from the neighboring village after a fox seperated it from the others, somehow it had escaped and sought refuge not unlike Belle in the old stable. it clucked loudly as the woman robbed it of it's clutch of eggs. Belle cried out with relief as she cracked the warm egg and let the rich yolk run into her awaiting mouth, it was thick and felt abit slimy but it would hold starvation off alittle while longer. She ate a few more, then put the rest in a pouch for later, She made her way back to the little room and decided to tidy it up. If she was allowed to stay here for a few days then at least it would look liveable. Belle wiped the last remanet of egg off her mouth as she turned her crutch back into a broom and began her task.
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Rumple drank his tea at his spinning wheel. the straw and thread moved gracefully through his slender hands as he stared into the wheel. A few hours had passed and his stomach started demanding food. He adandoned his wheel for a loaf of round bread as he paced the main hall of his castle, angrily snatching pieces of bread and chewing alittle harder than he had too.
He resented the fact that this woman showed up, obviously expecting handouts for herself and who knows what else. Apparently the lame leg was real, but now he couldn't even enjoy his lunch without guilt. I geuss now I'm expected to feed the girl. "thats it, she's gotta go" Rumple marched toward the stable with his bread in hand.
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Belle steped back on her one good leg and examined her handi-work. The stable looked a million times better, she rid the room of any unwanted residents, well, except for her and while rumaging around she spied an old table and a stool, she managed to drag them into the room she was presently occuping and sweep all the straw toward her bed and clean the rest of the floor as well. as she was admiring her clean room, Rumple walked up behind her silently. He peered around her slender frame to see exactly what had all of her attention.
"How did you manage to accomplish all of this on one leg I wonder?"
"AAH" Belle yelped out as she spun around to the sorcerer. As she pivited around, her one good leg gave out and she fell, right into Rumple's arms.
It was purely out of reflex that Rumple dropped the bread and caught her as she fell "Oh gods, I'm so clumsy" Belle huffed out as her face turned bright red.
Seeing how he already had a handful of her, Rumple picked up her slight frame and set her down on the stool. She felt like a little bag of bones in his grip. "Thank you" Belle whispered as he plopped her down on the stool. "No matter" Rumple said.
He leant down to retrieve his bread and sat it on the table before the woman. "ah, here I brought you something to eat." oh gods, he was getting soft. Belle looked up at the man before her. He looked scary at first glance. He was not the right color for starters. His skin was a greenish gold color. he had sharp features and wore a slight frown. his teeth were discolored and his hair hung in dirty waves down either side of his face, but Belle was in no position to refuse the bread."thank you sir" She said as she pulled the meal toward her and tore off a hunk, stuffing it into her mouth.
Rumple looked down at her foot. The bruising was severe and it looked very painful. On an impulse he scrunched down on his knees and ran his finger over the injured foot. "What happened?"
"I uh, well, I fell" Belle didn't want to go into any details at that moment. "May I?" Rumple asked as he held out his hand in a gesture that meant he wanted to inspect her foot. Hesitantly, Belle raised her leg and let him see. Rumple took her foot in his hand. His touch was gentle Belle noticed as he ran his finger over the bruises. "It's broke" he whispered as he looked up at her. "How long has it been like this?"
"Just a few days" Belle answered him. "Stay still" Rumple commanded as he wraped his hand around her leg applying pressure. Belle bit her bottom lip trying not to whimper as the pressure hurt but suddenly she could feel warmth, radiating out from his hand and it felt good. Rumple used his magic to repair the broken bone and torn ligament in her ankle. As he placed her foot back on the ground, Belle noticed that the bruising was gone. She looked at her foot in wonder as she tried to place a bit of weight on it, no pain. She smiled as she stood up and walked a few paces. Tears of graditude slipped out of her eyes as she favored the sorcerer with a grateful smile, Rumple noticed for the first time that she had blue eyes, well the one he could see was blue.
"Oh thank you, Please let me repay you" Rumple was about to walk away, mad at himself for handing her his bread but at her words he turned around," I'm curious as to how you think you will repay me?"
"Well, I could clean up abit, in there for you, if you'll let me" Belle said timidly. "Or perhaps, fix you a meal." Rumple sighed, he wasn't going to be able to get shed of her, "Very well, A meal perhaps." Belle smiled at him. "First things first though, Whats your name?" Belle thought for a moment before she spoke, "It's Gale."
"Gale huh, Well, I'm" Belle interepted him, "Rumplestiltskin?"
"Indeed I am."