The Price of Gold | tom riddle

Chapter 32 - Ash

There was no rain. Just thunder. It crashed and roared, the echoes of the rumbles lingered on like the screams of thousands of children. No pain could be heard from their cries. Just anger. There was no rain to cool the sensation of her scorching skin - That was the storm inside Ostara's mind as she marched down the stone path toward her home.

The door flew all the way open, crashing into the wall.

"Must you always be so dramatic?" Her father fobbed her off.

She moved closer, taking slow steps toward the small, green man, maintaining eye contact.

He inhaled, his gaze softening. "You know."

"I know nothing," she huffed, with her eyes still burning on him. "I know nothing father!" she repeated.

He looked at her with an expression that encompassed both confusion and fear.

"I am almost eighteen years of age, and my whole life has been a lie." Her voice was shaken. "My mother? My father? My aunts? My uncles? My home? My name?!" Her voiced grew in volume with every word she spoke. "I know none of that! I know nothing about myself!" she finally screamed.

"Ostara, can we just please sit down and talk?" He stood, moving toward her, reaching out to touch her hand.

"Do not lay a finger on me ever again!" she shrieked. "You are a stranger to me."

"I raised you!" He turned around and shot back. "I made you the young woman you are today! Do you think you could have lived such a beautiful life if you grew up in the palace?!" For a small man, his voice boomed just as loud as Star's. His anger was unexpected, there was not a sense of remorse found in his tone. "Without me, you would've been miserable!"

"How did you know that?! That wasn't for you to decide! You took my life away from me!"

"I gave you a life! Your mother was vain, your father was cruel. You wouldn't of had a childhood! Don't you see I did this for you!" He shook his frail hands.

"You did this for yourself! You kidnapped me and stripped me of everything in my life. You wanted to hide a princess in these woods! You said my mother didn't want me-"

"She didn't! She sold you for a room of gold!" He threw a teacup across the room.

"You should be arrested for what you've done!" A small sliver of fear glassed over the goblin's eyes. "Or worse, I don't think goblin's belong in prison cells. Perhaps they'll burn you at the stake, maybe they'll even let me light the match."

"Oh, you think you are so clever," he growled. "You want to make a claim for the throne, do you, daughter? You want to fight off an invading kingdom with the little scraps the Kingdom of Dreavaria has left? You want to risk your life? If you come forward to the King about me, you'll have no choice but to ascend to the throne."

She knew he was right. She couldn't say a thing. She didn't want the throne. She didn't want the kingdom. She didn't want any of it - except the family she never had. But it all went hand in hand. "Go to hell, Rumplestiltskin." She climbed the stairs, entering her room she began to pack.

"Where do you hope to go Ostara?" He called out to her. "You cannot leave!"

"Anywhere but here." She shoved what she could fit into her suitcase. "Anywhere is better than the home of the man who kidnapped me!" She descended from the staircase, now facing her father who stood just below the last step.

He looked at her in a way that said his heart was almost exploding. The malice was masked by something softer, love. But Ostara had seen a fair share of facades in her life, something in his expression told her that it wasn't a mask, it was real. "All I've ever done is love you my daughter." His eyes were glassy as he inhaled and took her hand in his own. "You can go wherever your heart desires, but there will be a place for you here, in these woods, with me, should you ever need it." A tear fell on Star's hand as he raised it to his lips and kissed it gently.