An Apprentice in Magic: Chapter Four

Chapter Four:

            Rumple wrapped his cloak tightly around him trying to stifle the chill that surrounded him as he stood in the middle of this dank crypt, a place he didn’t understand his brother, Rasputin, found so comfortable.  Then again, Ras was always the more cold-blooded one out of the three of them. 

            “Ah, Rumple, my dear little brother,” Rasputin said enthusiastically, as he emerged from the shadows.  The sleeves of his robes dangled like shrouds off his arms as he approached his baby brother.  “I’m glad you have come to grace me your presence.”

            “You summoned me Ras, I wasn’t going to turn down my older brother’s request to see me,” Rumple replied curtly.  “What is it you want?”

            “Ah, well business first,” Rasputin stated, “Rothbart, is really the one who wishes to see you.”

            “Really, why is that dearie?” Rumple questioned.

            “Maybe he wants a family reunion,” Rasputin replied, shrugging as he removed his hood revealing a long dangling black braid.  A man with round spectacles and brown messy hair came through a door in the corner of the room carrying a tray of empty and half-filled vials.

            “Thank you, Bartok,” Rasputin muttered. Bartok placed them down on the table scurrying away.

            Rumple rolled his eyes. “Rothbart just wants me to come back to The Order, which will not happen,” Rumple said stating what he already suspected.

            “It’s more than that Rumple!  The sisterhood is planning something and we need to make sure we strike first or retaliate once they attack us,” Rasputin declared, frustrated that his brother would leave The Order now.

            “I don’t support Zoso’s philosophies and now that I’m no longer in The Order, Cora and her daughters aren’t a threat to me,” Rumple said turning on his heal, turned his back on his older brother, but as if a cold hand had grasped his throat, Rumple found himself choking.  Hunched over he clutched his throat, his face becoming paler.

            Rasputin walked toward his brother with graceful ease, but he spoke with menace.  “You would turn your back on me, on us, your own brothers?  For what, cowardice? You think you’re better than us Rumplestiltskin, you’re not!  Far from it dearie.”  He threw his brother against the stone wall resulting in a rising of dust and shards of stone. Rasputin released his brother from his ‘grasp’, and Rumple began to retch and sputter, clutching his throat as he recovered from his older brother choking him.

            “Forgive me Rumple for being so cruel, but it was the only way to make my point clear,” Rasputin said apologetically.

            Rumple glared at his brother. “You made your point perfectly clear,” Rumple spoke throatily.  Pulling himself back up, rubbing his neck, he said, “I have to return to the Dark Castle, I have business to attend to, but I’ll consider your point.”

            “Yes, I thought you were no longer taking in apprentices after the incident with Cora’s daughter?”  Rasputin smirked returning to his potion making table and set to work on a potion he was working on.  His Grimoire creaked as he opened it, flipping through the pages, until he came across the page with potion he was working on.  Rasputin ran his gnarled finger along the black ink, reading the words precisely to check to see which ingredients he already had and needed.

            “Well, she is a special case,” Rumple rasped, being careful not share exactly who Belle was so as not to implicate her as a threat to The Order.  Many would use the young woman, then again, wasn’t that what he was doing as well?  Well, better me, than one of my brothers, or Cora and her daughters.

            “Ah, well then go back to your little apprentice and let me know if you will return to The Order or not,” Rasputin replied.

            Rumple disappeared in a puff of deep red smoke as his brother shook his head smiling slyly to himself.  “I will see you soon dear brother.”

           

           

            ~Page Break~

            After posting her letter Belle returned to reading the magical tomes presented to her.  She read each other text carefully, summarizing what she read to prove she could understand the material, but most of text was just words to her.  She began to recite a spell that resulted in doves bursting out from some of magical texts, rabbits popping out of nowhere and quickly breeding, and transforming herself into a hound.

            Frantically, Belle sniffed the ground chasing after the birds and rabbits, a habit she couldn’t control due to animal instinct.  Her barking and growling distracted her from hearing the sweep of a cloak and the burst of smoke as a figure emerged, Rumple had returned.

            “What the bloody hell did you do dearie?!” He exclaimed as his eyes bulged.  He searched the room finding his student absent, only several doves and rabbits being chased by a hound were in his presences.

            He sighed in exasperation and with a wave of his hands the animals froze in mid-flight.  Grimacing the scent of the animals and there shit overwhelmed him forcing him to pinch his nose to block the scent from filling his nostrils, but they all had natural auras with the exception of the hound, which had a blue aura surrounding the animal.  Rumple came upon the dog touching its head, the animal unfroze.  “You have to be the most unpredictable student I have ever taught,” he muttered rubbing the dog behind ears.

            She glanced up, crying as she cocked her head, and her ears perked up at the sound of his voice.  Her tail swayed back and forth in swift motions and pee began to leak out of her at Rumple’s feet.

             Rumple muttered, “Great!  Well, you’re entitled to make mistakes dearie, but it won’t mean you’re not going to get a lecture.”

            Waving his hand around Belle, she transformed back into human, crawling on floor on all fours.  Looking around the room Belle lifted her head up to see a displeased expression on Rumple’s face. 

            “Sorry, it was an accident,” she said timidly pulling herself back.  She stared down at herself realizing she was naked and Rumple turned blushing as had forgotten how with animal transformations you don’t keep your clothes on.  He tossed her a wool blanket to cover herself up with.

            “Why, don’t you go get dressed and we’ll talk when you return,” he said and Belle scurried out of the room blushing as well.

            Sighing, Rumple stared at the disaster that Belle had created trying to decide if he would be ‘nice’ and take care of the mess of shit, broken glass, over turned chairs, and different colored potions, that thankfully were harmless, himself, or if part of her lessons would be to clean this up. He chose that latter as it would teach her discipline, but he would remove some of animals knowing making things that moved vanish wasn’t as easy for beginners.   With another wave of his hand the doves and rabbits came alive again, but he was given a ‘thank you’ with a smear of white dripping on his golden, curly locks.

           

~Page Break~

            Belle returned wearing a simple looking olive green frock while Rumple was still rinsing the little present one of the dove’s had left in his hair.  He ran his fingers through the curl to check and see if anything was left.  The hair felt wet but not sticky and he was satisfied.

            Covering her mouth Belle tried to stifle the giggles that slipped from her mouth as she watched his actions. 

            Glancing up at her, Rumple raised his brow. “You’re going to clean this up.  I already took care of the animals, but the rest of the mess is your responsibility.”

            “Oh okay,” she said cringing as she acknowledged the mess that had been left behind.  Belle went to get the broom that was leaning against the wall.

            “Ah, ah this I want you do with magic,” he said wagging his finger.

            “Oh, well it can’t be that hard.  Most would love to be able to clean messes with magic, instead of the traditional way,” she spoke and Rumple smirked.  “So how do I start?”

            “Close your eyes and imagine the mess being erased,” he explained.

            “That’s it?” She asked pleasantly surprised.

            “Yes and repeat: Erase this mess from my sight and make this room once again right, but do it slowly, not all at once, and the more mess there is the harder it will be to make it disappear,” he warned.

            With a confident smile Belle closed her eyes imagining the mess being cleaned up and repeated: “Erase this mess from my sight and make this room once again right.”

            She opened one eye and to her delight the corner she focused on was spotless. “You know, I think I could imagine doing magic without having to close my eyes,” she pointed out with a proud, smug grin.

            “That is true, but for beginning magic users, it helps to close your eyes so you can see the magic being performed by you in your head more easily,” Rumple replied matter of fact.

            She repeated the spell and imagined cleaning the whole laboratory, but her concentration began to wane each time she did it and she felt exhausted, drained of energy.  She grimaced as it took more time for her to imagine and mean the spell as she recited it, but determination and pride kept her going.  It would be ridiculous to quit over being exhausted from cleaning.  If Charlotte and Elizabeth could continue cleaning the old fashion way she could clean with magic.  After finally finishing her task, Belle slumped to floor feeling an overwhelming sensation of sleepiness.

            “As you can see, the more magic you use the more it drains you of energy.  It doesn’t matter how simple the magic is, it can exhaust you,”  Rumple explained feeling a little guilty for forcing her to exhaust herself, but in his experience it was the only way to instill this particular lesson, though his students in the past would still overestimate themselves.  That of course wasn’t the only lesson he wanted to instill in her as soon as possible.

            “What exactly were you doing that created this disaster?” He asked handing her a cup of tea he just conjured up.

            “Um, I was trying a spell,” she muttered trying not to look at her teacher, but accepting the cup, “thank you.”

            “You cannot perform spells without my supervision, or at least permission, until I know you can handle the magic,” he lectured sounding rather exasperated.

            “Yes, I know,” she muttered taking a sip of tea.  It soothed her but it also healed her exhaustion.

            “Then explain to me why you did the spell?” he asked.

            “I was bored and thought I would try some magic,” she admitted, “I’m guessing it’s pointless to say I won’t do it, because you won’t believe me until you see it?”

            “Yes, that, but also how do I truly know you’ve learned your lesson?”  Rumple questioned leaning against the table.

            “I don’t know, I guess my word in this case wouldn’t be good enough,” she said with a tone of uncertainty and offense.  I think I know what the lesson you wanted to teach.”

            “What lesson is that?”

            “That magic can drain you of energy,” she answered, hoping that was the one he wanted to hear.  It had to be right?

            “It isn’t just about being drained of energy!  You may have only released some animals: birds and rabbits, and turned yourself into a dog, but magic can do worse damage than that.  If you had lost control something more horrifying could have happened.  You’ll probably only learn that lesson if you learn it the hard way,” he continued in resignation.     

            Suddenly, Belle’s cheeks rose and her mouth turned upward as she stared down at something at Rumple’s feet.  “Oh, he’s so cute,” she exclaimed.

            Rumple’s own mouth turned down as he realized she was once again distracted and looked down at a straggly, dark brown little bunny twitching its nose as it sniffed his leather boot.  He picked up the bunny by the scruff of its neck. 

            “Wait,” Belle protested, “don’t get rid of him. He’s adorable.”

            “He’s scruffy, why would you want to keep him?”  Rumple asked, his brow rose with genuine curiosity.  Most would throw this creature out wanting a bunny that was much prettier to look at.

            “It’s the ones that don’t look as ‘pretty’ that are the best ones,” Belle said as if this were obvious.

            Rumple just shrugged. “Alright fine, but you take care of him and clean up after him.  I don’t want to find him hopping around or leaving me little presents.”

            Belle scooped up the bunny and gently stroked his fur.  “I’m a grown woman Rumplestiltskin.  You don’t have to remind me of the responsibilities of taking care of a pet.”  Rumple constantly talking to her as if she were a child was aggravating.  She deserved to be spoken to as an equal, maybe not equally matched in magic, but equal as two human beings.  She wasn’t his child after all, but maybe he thought of her in that way, as if she were his child, because he was close with her mother.  That bothered her as well, him seeing her as a daughter, for some odd reason.  “Why should it matter if he sees me as a daughter?  Maybe I’m worried I’ll let him take my father’s place in my heart, but why would I?”

            “Why don’t you use this as opportunity to practice conjuring, by bringing forth a cage for the creature,” Rumple suggested

            Belle nodded following the steps he gave her for conjuring.  It took her a few attempts as conjuring the right size cage for the bunny to be comfortable wasn’t easy, and just like with the cleaning, conjuring exhausted her. Once the perfect, spacious cage was erected Belle, with a satisfied smiled, placed the bunny inside the cage. 

            “I think I shall call him Frik, named after a gnome in one of my favorite childhood stories.”  She kissed Frik, and scratched the back of his ears, than the bunny proceeded to pound his foot on the cage floor making rapid motions.  This bunny was going to be just as annoying as his new pupil was, but at least his human pupil wasn’t the nightmare that Zelena had been.

           

A/N: Who recognizes the name Belle gives the bunny?