Swan Song ❂ Killian Jones [1]

141

- Enchanted Forest, past year

The light of the moon shone through the open doors of the Dark Castle as their large group made their way inside, eyes looking around curiously as they watched the shadows, all aware of the traps Robin had spoken of. Well, nearly all of them. "Your majesty, I wouldn't..." The thief tried to warn Regina as she headed for one of the doors, but once he realized she wasn't listening he was forced to take action instead.

Notching an arrow into his bow, he aimed it at the door and let it fly. It whizzed past Regina's head just as she reached for the knob. And once it embedded in the wooden surface, flames surged around the door, forcing the Queen to step back in surprise as the trap came alive.

However, once she was past her moment of shock, the woman's glare turned back to the leader of the Merry Men as she scowled at him. "That arrow almost took off my head." She exclaimed in an enraged voice.

"Well, that door almost took off your arm." He pointed out, a sharp bite in his own voice as he regarded her with disdain. "Where I come from, a simple thank you would suffice."

"Where you come from, people bathe in the river and use pinecones for money." Regina scorned while Odette let out a very vocal, very obvious groan.

"Shut up already!" She glared at the both of them as she began to step forward, moving past Robin and towards Regina. More precisely, towards the now disarmed door. "Let's go and get this done with before we're caught." Hand grabbing the knob, she pushed the doors open, Regina helping until they were all able to pass through it and into the main room of the Dark Castle.

Not many have seen it before, and while all alone it was a marvel, filled with trinkets and items none of them knew the origins of, what caught their eyes most was the cage standing on one of the sides. And the man within it, sitting at his wheel and spinning straw into gold as was his most famous trick.

"Rumplestiltskin?" Snow called out to him as he didn't even look up when they approached the cage. And still, he didn't turn or stop what he was doing, making Odette believe he was still unaware of them.

But then he spoke up, in that sing-song voice she'd always found so infuriating. "Rumple, Bumple isn't here. Rumple, Bumple gone, my dear." But this time, she couldn't help but notice, it seemed even worse as he giggled. He sounded downright insane.

"He really is back from the dead." Regina mumbled in surprise as she watched him, eyes full of shock, but also a tinge of happiness as she thought this might truly be the first step on their path to successfully defeating Zelena.

"Dead. Dead. So much better. Dead." And still, the Dark One's ramblings didn't inspire much confidence in the others.

"He's lost his mind." David scowled in disappointment.

"On the contrary." Rumplestiltskin spoke up, finally making it clear to them all that, despite his messy words, he did understand what was going on around him. At least a little. Enough to perhaps communicate with them. "Now I have two. Two minds. Mining time. Digging deeper in the grime."