Happily Never After

Chapter 3:The Beanstalk

Little did Robin know that Jack had been eavesdropping her conversation with Rumplestiltskin. As Robin reentered the pub, Jack went out.

“Rumplestiltskin,” Jack said sternly.

“Now you must be Jack,” Rumplestiltskin said. “Your sister has said so much about you.”

“Is it true,” Jack questioned? “You plan to take our farm and Marian’s life if you don’t receive your payment?”

“Correct, my dear,” Rumplestiltskin said. “You’re a fast learner.”

“How can I pay you all Robin owes you,” Jack asked.

“If I tell you, there’s something I need in return from you,” Rumplestiltskin explained.

“Name your price, and I’ll do it,” Jack stated.

“Very good,” Rumplestiltskin said, pleased. “There is a beanstalk growing up into the heavens—only maybe a two-day trip from here. Up there, there is a multitude of treasures. However, the fortress is guarded heavily by a giant.”

“I’ll do it; now name your price,” Jack demanded.

“As I’m aware, your father is absent,” Rumplestiltskin said.

“Yes, why,” Jack inquired?

“I need his hat,” Rumplestiltskin stated. “Believe it or not, it has some value to me.”

“I will bring it at once,” Jack agreed.

“Very good,” Rumplestiltskin said. “Very, very good.” Jack took the wagon and quickly rode home to retrieve the hat. Thankfully, her mother was sound asleep. Jack quickly found the worn top hat.

“Ten quarters, never understood that,” Jack said to herself. She took the hat and rode the wagon back to the pub. “Rumplestiltskin,” she called! Rumplestiltskin immediately appeared.

“Why thank you, my dear,” Rumplestiltskin said, taking the hat from Jack. “Now I believe you have a journey to be making.”

“I won’t let you down,” Jack said. “Robin’s debt will be paid.”

“I’m counting on it, my dear,” Rumplestiltskin said. Jack returned the wagon back to the farm, packing nothing but a satchel with a few items for her voyage.

“You up for a trip, Penelope,” Jack asked her steed—who wasn’t really a steed at all: Penelope was a mule. Jack straddled Penelope’s saddle and began onward on her journey to the beanstalk. She rode day and night, hardly getting a lick of sleep. By the end of the second day of riding, Jack had reached the beanstalk. She pulled the spikes she had packed in her satchel to climb the overgrown stalk up past the heavens, just as Rumplestiltskin had foretold. “I don’t see a giant,” Jack said softly as she reached the top. There stood a shining castle. Jack could only imagine what treasures awaited her inside. She crept into the castle through what could only be described as a mousehole. “I hate to see the mouse that made this hole.” The hole was the size of an average human, so the mice must’ve been huge.

Jack searched through the castle until she came across a room: a treasure room. Jack quickly got to work filling her satchel and sacks with all the gold and jewels she could. She heard the the flapping of wings, which caused her to look up, there stood an enormous goose. There was a chain on its ankle.

“Easy there,” Jack spoke softly to the lovely goose. “I’m going to free you, okay.” The goose cooperated, allowing Jack to unlock the chain with two pins she had in her hair. As the goose stepped forward, Jack noticed a nest of golden eggs.

“You lay golden eggs,” Jack said. “This is perfect.

“Who dare enter my castle,” a voice bellowed through the bricks of the castle!

"Okay, Miss Goose,” Jack said, straddling the goose’s back, “I’m going to need you to fly us out of here.” The goose, thankful that Jack had freed her, wasted no time flying through the empty window frame and back below the clouds. “Follow us back, Penelope.” Jack returned to where she had first met Rumplestiltskin. He stood there waiting for her arrival. “Rumplestiltskin, I brought you back all the treasure I could along with Miss Goose here. She lays golden eggs. Surely this could pay off Robin’s debt.”

“You imbecile,” Rumplestiltskin said. “Golden eggs, what a waste of treasure!”

“Rumplestiltskin, please, you’ve been paid,” Jack pleaded. “Please don’t take the farm. Please don’t take Marian’s life.”

“Oh, I won’t,” Rumplestiltskin said. “But I won’t not do anything.” Rumplestiltskin disappeared in a cloud of emerald stars and apparated back to his dark, secluded castle. “How about, no more double life. No more Robin of Locksley, just Robin Hood.”