Chapter Text
Rumpelstiltskin never should have gone through the Spider Woods.
He’d known it was a bad idea. He’d known that taking the High Road was safer, even if the other townspeople frequented it and shunned his presence. He could handle their jostling and insults, their beatings and theft. He’d handled worse, after all, and he had enough of his earnings tucked away in his shoes and belt-pocket that losing the small amount in his coin pouch would not be too great a loss.
But the Woods were so much more peaceful - no one dared follow him into their shadowy depths - and he’d traveled them for so many years without incident…
He’d grown over-confident, too sure of his own safety among the trees.
And now…now he would not survive to regret it.
The telltale signs of the forest’s inhabitants; long strands of white webbing in the trees, gauzy sheets of silk stretching between the plants, and occasionally beasts trapped in fibers of silk stronger than any man; were usually huge and noticeable, the webs built right out in the middle of game trails or suspended in the trees above and easily avoided by anyone with the presence of mind to look up. The spider-folk, driders in the language of the north, spidrens to those from the west, were not usually subtle creatures, preferring a quick kill and stupid, slow prey. Though they had the upper body of humans and only the lower half of spiders (much like centaurs, but combined with a very different animal), they had no interest or attachment to their thinking cousins, and their languages were completely different. To them, humans were nothing but prey that was too small, too clever, and too fast to be worth the effort of hunting.
Which was why, when his staff snagged on something at ground level, Rumpelstiltskin thought nothing of it, merely flicking his good foot in a practiced motion to get rid of whatever pebble or root was in his way. It was only when that foot landed on something sticky - something that stretched- that he realized something was wrong.
Having his good foot trapped made him stumble and he tripped, keeling sideways towards the nearest tree. His staff did nothing to support him, remaining firmly stuck to the ground. And when he hit the tree, the breath whooshing out of him in a pained yelp of surprise, the hand that automatically shot out for support landed against a sticky silk sheet that gave with an odd stretching sound, until his hand was enveloped up to his wrist in white webbing.
Stone cold terror washed through the spinner as he stared at his trapped hand in dawning comprehension. There was no web above or in front of him, but when he looked down and looked hard, there were silvery filaments crisscrossing the forest floor and stretching up the trees along the path in front of him in a familiar geometric pattern; some threads hovered overhead, passing between the trees as if to make a tunnel, but there were not enough to catch the eye of a traveler. The web was all but invisible this close to its edge; the thick white strands that made up the body of the web were still meters in front of him, but the thin, sticky border had been laid out like a trap.
All of the blood drained from Rumpelstiltskin’s face and he yanked backwards, hoping against hope that the impermeable spider-silk would be weaker so far from the center, but it did not release him. Instead, all his thrashing did was pull him off balance and, with one hand stuck a meter off the ground and his good foot stuck to the ground, there was no way he could remain on his feet. He felt himself topple with the utter certainty of his own doom, unable to keep himself from landing hard.
His free hand wasn’t free for long; on instinct, it came forward to break his fall as he landed on his knees, just barely keeping him from smashing face first into the forest floor. Unfortunately, that left him with both knees and his second hand trapped further inside the unbreakable web.
“No.” He whimpered, tears beginning to pool in his eyes. “No, nonononono…!” He couldn’t die like this - He had to get home, to Bae! His son needed him!
He thrashed in fear, accomplishing nothing but getting himself more stuck. Twisting his hands and arms simply let the web trap him to his elbows, and awkwardly shuffling his legs caught his calves and feet just as badly. But still he struggled desperately, unwilling to give up even as he exhausted himself. After an hour, he finally paused, bracing himself as best he could. He was panting hard and trembling from exertion, but no closer to getting away than he’d been at the beginning of his struggles and despair drew racking sobs from his chest along with his gasps for air.
It was in that moment of semi-silence that he realized he was not alone. It was nothing so simple as a sound or a sight that gave it away…it was a creeping sense of awareness where the hair on the back of his neck prickled. He flinched, eyes widening in terror, before he glanced over his shoulder, unable to stem his morbid curiosity even though he knew he would probably find the agent of his death.
He was correct.
A female of the spider-folk stood mere meters away, the first two long legs of her arthropod lower half resting delicately on the tap-lines of the web, which he hadn’t realized he’d disturbed with his thrashing. Her upper body was unclothed and striking - flawless pale skin and long dark hair framed a pretty face with curious bright blue eyes watching him like…well, like one might look at a rabbit in a snare that was intended for the stew pot. The rest of her was lost in shadow, but Rumpelstiltskin did not notice. He went completely still under her focus, some deep-rooted primal instinct telling him that moving would get him killed.
She cocked her head, considering him for a long moment, then made a low clicking sound and suddenly she was there, a single undulation of her many legs bringing her within touching distance. Rumpelstiltskin flinched back with a yip of surprise and overbalanced, falling onto his side and hopelessly entangling his entire body. In a mindless panic, he instinctively tried to role away, instead getting the webbing on his free side and accidentally pinning himself on his stomach, splayed with all limbs spread out like a sacrifice…or a fly in a spider’s web.
There was that same low clicking noise of satisfaction and a shadow fell across him as she stepped up to - and over - him. A massive spider’s leg landed next to his shoulder and he knew she was on top of him, her body positioned exactly over his, ready to …to…
Before he could finish the thought, something small and sharp pierced the exposed back of his neck and he whimpered, knowing he was poisoned even before his fingers and toes began to go numb, feeling quickly draining from his limbs. His mind started to spin and his vision tunneled and then went black. The last thing he registered before falling unconscious was the satisfied humming of the spider-woman, and the feel of warm silk wrapping around his legs.
Belle was quite pleased with her first catch of the night. Her father had always told her that two-legged prey was not worth the effort, that they tasted bad and had almost no meat on their bones when compared to the far tastier bears, deer, and flying snacks, but she didn’t care. She was curious. She’d never seen two-legged prey up close before. Normally, she wouldn’t let such a self-indulgent desire get in the way of her hunting, but it had been a good month; she had enough cocooned prey stored in her home-web to last the season. She could spare some time for her curiosity.
It had taken her much longer than she’d expected to catch one of them; they were rare in her territory, and the few times they came, they were quiet and watchful and avoided the game trails her normal prey used. She’d learned through experience that normal webs would not work on them; they were too clever to fall for the same tricks as four-legged prey, so she’d decided to try something completely new, something no one - not her kind, nor any type of prey - would expect. This ground-web-tunnel was the result.
And it worked.
She’d been ecstatic when she felt the tap-line vibrate from her position further in the forest and up one of the trees, but she’d remained still, hoping it wasn’t a false alarm. Then the two-legged prey started to struggle and she knew it was hers. She watched as it tired itself out, knowing it would be easier to complete the hunt once it stopped moving. Its quiet yelps and whimpers, punctuated by occasional soft barks, surprised her - she hadn’t known two-legged prey could make noise at all. She’d almost felt bad when her prey finally collapsed from exhaustion and it came time to end the hunt. Those big liquid brown eyes - so much more expressive than normal four-legged prey - seemed to beg her for mercy and had it kept looking at her like that, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to take it down. But once it was pinned facing away she found it easier to administer the immobilizing bite and get down to the business of cocooning her prize.
She didn’t inject enough venom to kill it; what would be the point of that? She’d put so much time and effort into catching one of the elusive beasts that killing it right away felt like a waste. Once she had it safely tucked away in her home-web, she might not even eat it - it looked just as lacking in meat as her father had warned and she had plenty of four-legged prey and feathered snacks to keep her satisfied for a while- but she intended to find out everything she could about the strange creature while she had it. It took a lot to satisfy her curiosity, but now she finally had a two-legged beast of her own to study to her heart’s content.
With a happy croon, she finished the cocoon, pulling the final sheet of webbing snug with a sharp jerk and a satisfied pat on the finished product- it wasn’t as tight as she would use for four-legged prey; two legged-prey was much too fragile to break free from even the weakest silk and a tight cocoon could smother it - and used the serrated barbs on the backs of her first-ankles to detach the cocoon from the web. She easily lifted her prize from the ground and settled it on her lower body, pulled snug up against her back where her upper back formed a right angle with her spider abdomen and she could feel the faint warm pulse of its heartbeat against her bare skin even through layers of silk and cloth. A final thin layer of webbing bound it in place at the juncture of her first set of legs so it wouldn’t fall.
Content that her prize had been firmly secured, Belle set about re-weaving the parts of the web that had been disrupted. Once it was re-set, she turned back towards the forest, intent on checking the rest of her webs. Maybe she’d have a few more cocoons to add to her cargo before the night was out. If nothing else, she could at least add a few four-legged prey to her burden, to fatten her larder a bit more.
The proudly satisfied spider-woman slipped silently back into the forest bearing the unfortunate spinner, now reduced to an unrecognizable bundle of white silk. Behind her, the forest quickly returned to normal, completely undisturbed by the horrible scene that had played out on the picturesque trail.
A simple notched wooden staff laying abandoned in the brush was the only indication that it had happened at all.
Notes about this universe:
-Belle releases Rumple from his cocoon when she has a confined space set up for him in her living area, letting him roam around her ‘home’ so she can better satisfy her curiosity about humans.
-In the beginning, Rumple (who is completely terrified) thinks she’s keeping him alive to fatten him up and eat him later. After a while, he begins to think she wants to keep him as a pet.
-When Bae finds out what happened, he decides to rescue his papa.