STUCK IN MY HEAD ── killian jones

iii ➤ where it went wrong

The Enchanted Forest,
200 or so years ago

In a small, dirty hovel where straw litters the entrance and screams fill the air lives the Stiltskin family. The little town holds their breaths for everyone knows - the Stiltskin's baby is here. Rumplestiltskin grips his wife's sweaty hand as she cries out in pain once again. Milah screams one final time, her head laying back in relief. The midwife takes the newborn and carefully bundles the crying babe before handing her to Milah's waiting arms. Her cries quiet at the gentle soothings her mother whispers in her ears.

"She's a beautiful, perfect little girl," the nurse's lips twist up into a grin at the two new parents, "do you have a name in mind?"

Milah's petal-like lips let the name stumble off her tongue, "Calypso Stiltskin."

Calypso Stiltskin, the nurse repeats in her thoughts, "a beautiful name, Miss."

Rumplestiltskin takes the fragile babe from his wife's arms, a mad grin spreading across his features that make his eyes shine with some new kind of pride.

"Your Papa's here, Princess. I promise to love you and protect you forever, my daughter."

Calypso had been born the same harsh winter that the ogre wars truly began. The fighting had started early on in the mountains, but now the orges had set their sights on the entirety of the Enchanted Forest. War soon broke out across the lands and blood watered the grounds as the ogres pursued the retreating armies. Luckily for the new little family, the small coastal village the Stiltskin's called home would remain untouched from the fighting and the bloodshed for years. However the village did have a large port, and soldiers came in and out every minute of every day.

Small Calypso grew up to the sounds of thudding feet as they marched onward to battle and happy streets that rang with cheers and chatter of people unscarred from war. She grew up a princess in her papa's loving eyes and Calypso grew into a young lady as her mother taught her everything she would need to know in life, in home, and in work. At four or five years old Calypso loved every chance she got to work with the wool or help her mother bake. She thrived at the opportunities she got when she could run through the cobblestoned town center and laugh at every delight it held in store.

Except several years had passed and the war was still going. Most assumed it would never end, and even more feared that the orges would win. Calypso saw things change as she got older. The way more soldiers began coming into port and the sounds of her town began to dull with each day that the war carried on. Calypso even saw her mother begin to fret over the smallest things, and little did Calypso know that Milah was worried for her future. But oh something changes when she sees the dull glaze in her father's eyes switch to proud determination.

"Milah! Cali! Look I've been enlisted!" Rumplestiltskin hurries into his home, grin widening as he held the enlistment order, "Now I'll no longer be known as the village coward!"

Six year old Calypso runs to her papa and dances around him chanting, "Papa's going to be a hero! Papa's going to be a hero!"

Milah hurriedly throws a shawl over herself, as she stands. Rumple swoops his daughter up into his arms and spins as she laughs like little bells dancing in the wind.

"That's right dearie, I'm going to make you proud of me."

Cali snuggles up close to him, chin digging into his shoulder as Rumple hugs her.