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Chapter 5 – Day 2: Northern Star

When Belle woke up the next morning, Rumpelstiltskin and Baelfire were already making preparations for the continuation of the journey. She wondered how long they were already up. It seemed to be still early. Where did they get all that energy?

"Morning, sleeping beauty." Baelfire teased, receiving a soft clap on his head from his father, who was packing next to him. "What?" Baelfire complained.

"Not so early, Bae." As answer, Baelfire pushed his father, making him lose his balance. Rumpelstiltskin reattributed the push and before they knew it, they were wrestling on the floor. Belle had to laugh. Those two were worse than children.

"Yield!" Baelfire triumphantly yelled, as he pinned his father to the ground, sitting on top of him.

"I will not!"

"Yes, you will."

"No I won't. You know why?" Baelfire only had time to look questionably at his father, to suddenly be overwhelmed by laughter. His father tickled him so terribly that he was easily turned over to the ground.

"Now, if you would be so kind to yield to your father's power and pack the rest of the stuff…playtime is over." Baelfire lifted up still giggling a bit, slapped his father's back as a last retribution of their "fight" and made a run to the traveling bags. Rumpelstiltskin let out a sigh, a mix of enjoyment and tiredness. He walked over to Belle, rubbing his back a bit. The princess was still smiling from the scene. "I'm getting too old for this." He picked a bag, took bread out it and gave it to the girl. "Here; we'll only stop to eat on lunch."

They strolled through the forest, parallel to the river, with the same regular pace as the day before, in a calm but continuous rhythm. Belle observed her travel companions better. Only once in a while would a word be exchanged. She realized most of their communication was made by gestures and the exchange of looks. The father would indicate often a fault in the floor, something easy to stumble over, and then Baelfire would point it to Belle too. The son would repeatedly give an extra arm to support his father during less leveled grounds. The two of them knew exactly how the other functioned and probably knew each other's thoughts too.

Belle couldn't help but feel a bit of envy. As poor as they were, as little as they possessed, having each other was clearly enough. That was all what mattered. Belle realized, as great her relationship with her father was, it was nothing compared to the strong bond between Rumpelstiltskin and Baelfire. When she thought better about it, she could not remember anybody in the court having this kind of bond. She often felt that relations among families were somehow superficial. Parents and children followed a series of protocols, rules of courtesy, behavior patterns that were supposed to translate the love they felt for each other. Only, that love was not truly present. It was spoken in pre-formulated words, translated in well studied courteous bows and gestures. But the emotion was empty. She could not blame people for it. How could love develop if children were separated from their parents for endless hours, sometimes days or even weeks? How could a bond of complete trust be built if they did not have the chance to learn to know each other properly? The beauty suppressed a gasp, realizing life in court, as luxurious and beautiful as it was; was partly a façade. What was the sense in living in a great castle; having great richness, if you could not be with those you love when you wanted and when you needed? She was surprised with the conclusion she made. That a peasant could be happy with nothing. Because it's not the luxury and richness that makes one happy. It's your family.

By noon they stopped. Belle was instructed to sit and rest while Rumpelstiltskin and Baelfire went fishing. The river was shallow and both of them stood with water to their knees. Baelfire had a net and both stared into the water until a series of gestures and silent instructions were switched. After a while, Baelfire held the net low in the water and Rumpelstiltskin moved slowly, from right to left, guiding the fishes to his son. It was a work of patience and skill, but after some time, there were 4 middle sized fishes lying dead on the grass.

"That will be enough, Bae."

"I'll go build up the fire." The boy said. He got quickly out of the water and started gathering wood, while his father sat on a stone, picked one of the fishes and started cleaning it.

"May I help?" Belle asked shyly, looking at the fishes.

"There's no need, dearie. It takes no time at all."

"Yeah, but I would really like to, uhm, learn how to clean a fish." She insisted.

Rumpelstiltskin looked at her a bit surprised and she could see the dilemma working in his head. Making a Lady dirty her hands with such a task would break all boundaries of politeness.

"Why?"

"Well, a housekeeper should not have clean hands." Belle simply stated. She saw Rumpelstiltskin redden of embarrassment.

"I didn't it mean in that way!" It was never his intention to be rude or accuse her of laziness.

"I know. I know why you said it and that's why I need to learn to do things with my hands."

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes widened a bit as he understood that she meant she would merge better with the common population if she had worker's hands. He nodded and gestured a rock next to him, inviting Belle to sit down. He took a small knife from the bag, picked a fish and gave them to the inexperienced woman. He held his own fish in his hand to show how the work was done.

"You hold it like this. Careful with this part, it can be really sharp." He demonstrated showing a backline made out of a row of tiny but sharp bones "You start by the head, cut it from under and it will practically come loose by itself." Belle watched and followed his example. She gave a bit more power in the beheading than Rumpelstiltskin, but it did come loose. "Good, now from here you can get this mean back side, like this. Careful not to dig too deep, you only want to get the bad parts." He demonstrated, his hands working skillfully. Belle imitated and after a short struggling moment, she had disposed a thin row of tiny fishbone. She was amazed of how easily it came out in one piece. It was just a matter of knowing where to cut. "Now, the filthiest part…you make a cut in the fish's belly, till about the tail, cut it a little deeper in and take the insides out." He showed as gave a bit more strength in the cutting. An undistinguished dark red mass came out of the fish. He took it all out with his fingers and washed the open fish in the water. Then he showed the fish to Belle.

"It's ready to eat!" she sounded surprised of how easy the process was done.

"Almost. After you clean its insides, you'll still have to free the skin from the scales." He said as he cleaned the scales in the opposite direction of their growth, releasing them easily. Belle imitated the last two steps and proudly presented her very first cleaned fish to Rumpelstiltskin. He smiled.

"You got talent." Belle warmed up inside at the kind compliment and picked another fish with enthusiasm. Rumpelstiltskin was already almost done with his second one.

"But you are must faster."

"I've done this since I was a kid." He casually stated.

Belle couldn't help to smile. She couldn't remember ever meeting somebody so modest. She restarted the four steps for cleaning the fish and was struggling with the part of opening the belly enough to release the insides. Rumpelstiltskin had to repress a chuckle as he watched the girl try to open up the fish with some violence.

"Linda, the fish is already dead." He spoke low with a grin, like he was revealing a secret. Belle felt herself redden.

"Very funny." She finally succeeded in cutting it open.

Rumpelstiltskin waited patiently, grinning still, till Belle was ready and took the fishes to cook them. When he turned to the fire, Baelfire was staring at him with a knowingly look on his face.

"What?" His father asked. Usually that expression meant trouble.

"Nothing." Baelfire smirked and sat back, looking at his father like he knew a secret, but wasn't revealing it.

Rumpelstiltskin looked suspiciously at his son but decided to ignore and concentrate in grilling the fish. His son was a teenager after all. Only the gods knew what that crazy head of his could be thinking about. Baelfire's smirk remained during lunch and grew bigger when Belle proudly told him about her very first experience in cleaning fish. After their meal, they all went to rest a while, before they would continue the travel. Rumpelstiltskin was already half asleep when his son, whispered in his ear "sweet dreams" in a tone that meant much more than just the words.

"Remind me to kill you after I wake up." His father mumbled half asleep, for the boy's great satisfaction.

They resumed their travel about an hour later and Belle, whose hunger was finally satiated, thought the second part of the travel was much harder. Even though she rested after lunch, having lain on the cool grass next to Baelfire, trying to find shapes in the clouds that passed by; she still felt tired. Belle wished now she could have fallen asleep as easily as Rumpelstiltskin did. The man seemed to have some kind of everlasting energy. He slept perhaps half an hour and was walking with the same speed as in the morning. But Belle would never say anything about being tired. She would be too ashamed to delay her travel companions, be the maid in distress, the weakest link. So she strolled with the current till the evening fell. And after their light dinner, Belle lay down on her back feeling her whole body aching from the journey. She thought she would fall asleep immediately, but her mind didn't seem to want to cooperate. Apparently, she wasn't the only one. Belle casted her eyes on the starry sky, while she listened Baelfire asking his father questions about the constellations.

"Which one is the Fallen Knight?" The boy asked.

"There, see?" Rumpelstiltskin pointed. The boy followed his finger so he could trace it.

"Yeah, I can see it! And there's horse he fell from!"

"Yes. And can you see the Northern start?" Baelfire searched a while and then found it. The blue star, shining brighter than all other stars.

"There, on the point of the wolf's nose. What was the story again, Papa?"

"Ah, the tale of the fallen night and the wolf…The knight had heard the tales of very fair princess living locked away in a high tower in a very far land. He fell in love with her, just from hearing about her beauty. So, one day, he took off with his white horse and decided to look for her. They galloped and galloped for days, crossing unknown lands until one day a wolf attacked them. The knight fell down from his horse (that's what we see on the stars) and was forced to fight the ferocious animal from the ground. But as he struggled in defending himself from the wolf's fangs, he noticed a thorn on one of the paws. He managed to hit the wolf on the head, so it was confused for some moments. And during these precious seconds, the mighty knight, instead of killing the wolf, he took the thorn off its paw. When the wolf came back to his senses, feeling the pain was gone, thanked the knight and promised him loyalty. They became best friends and continued traveling lands in search of the fair princess. They are still looking for her. See? The wolf is leading the way, with his nose, through his smell. And the Northern star is the nose of the wolf, for it's the guidance of all travelers… When you are lost, look for the blue start for it always points north, and you'll find your way back again." Baelfire looked intently at the stars, his head resting on his father's shoulder.

"Tell another story!"

"Oh no, it's getting late. We still have many miles to walk tomorrow."

"But I'm not sleepy!" He said while he yawned terribly.

"You can barely keep your eyes open." Was Rumpelstiltskin's amused observation. He helped his son lay comfortably. "Night, Bae." But the boy didn't answer, already entering the land of dreams. Rumpelstiltskin noticed Belle had her eyes still open, watching the stars on the sky. "Good night, Linda." He whispered.

"Night, Rumpel." She said, sleep finally coming take her to a world of fair princes and princesses, dangerous wolves and kind peasants.

Belle's thought about life with be a more often subject, since it's important for her character development in this story.

What did you think about Rumpelstiltskin's course in cleaning a fish? What do you expect? I live the the one of the world's country's that consumes the most fish! XD

By the way, the story of the Fallen Night is based of the story of Saint Jerome who also friends with a lion after removing a thron from it's paw. I'm not religious. Just love the tales.

Hope you are still enjoying the story. Let me know. Review.