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'FIRSTBORN'
By: stellar_dust

She dreams.

She is a sailor's daughter, and if she can but spin tales of rough straw into golden rational reports for eight long years, the king has promised to wed her to the handsomest, craziest prince in the land.

She despairs, for she loves the prince, but lacks the skill, and fears her father's wrath; and when a wizened gnome with glittering eyes and smoking ears offers aid in exchange for a trifle - her firstborn son, she agrees.

Eight years later, her son is born. The gnome returns for his due, but she loves her son, and fears she may never have another. The gnome has grown to love her from afar, and takes pity, saying if she can but guess his name, she may keep the child.

She wakes, wild-eyed and sweating, shouting "Spender! CGB Spender!"

She goes to the crib, and cuddles her firstborn against her chest. She cries for her child, and herself, and her missing prince - and because she knows in her heart that her dreamself answered wrong, and cried out "Rumpelstiltskin."

THE END

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DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Carter's. And Grimm's.