The Enchanted Forest,
200 or so years ago

In a small, dirty hovel where straw litters the entrance and screams fill the air lives the Stiltskin family. The little town holds their breaths for everyone knows - the Stiltskin's baby is here. Rumplestiltskin grips his wife's sweaty hand as she cries out in pain once again. Milah screams one final time, her head laying back in relief. The midwife takes the newborn and carefully bundles the crying babe before handing her to Milah's waiting arms. Her cries quiet at the gentle soothings her mother whispers in her ears.

"She's a beautiful, perfect little girl," the nurse's lips twist up into a grin at the two new parents, "do you have a name in mind?"

Milah's petal-like lips let the name stumble off her tongue, "Calypso Stiltskin."

Calypso Stiltskin, the nurse repeats in her thoughts, "a beautiful name, Miss."

Rumplestiltskin takes the fragile babe from his wife's arms, a mad grin spreading across his features that make his eyes shine with some new kind of pride.

"Your Papa's here, Princess. I promise to love you and protect you forever, my daughter."

Calypso had been born the same harsh winter that the ogre wars truly began. The fighting had started early on in the mountains, but now the orges had set their sights on the entirety of the Enchanted Forest. War soon broke out across the lands and blood watered the grounds as the ogres pursued the retreating armies. Luckily for the new little family, the small coastal village the Stiltskin's called home would remain untouched from the fighting and the bloodshed for years. However the village did have a large port, and soldiers came in and out every minute of every day.

Small Calypso grew up to the sounds of thudding feet as they marched onward to battle and happy streets that rang with cheers and chatter of people unscarred from war. She grew up a princess in her papa's loving eyes and Calypso grew into a young lady as her mother taught her everything she would need to know in life, in home, and in work. At four or five years old Calypso loved every chance she got to work with the wool or help her mother bake. She thrived at the opportunities she got when she could run through the cobblestoned town center and laugh at every delight it held in store.

Except several years had passed and the war was still going. Most assumed it would never end, and even more feared that the orges would win. Calypso saw things change as she got older. The way more soldiers began coming into port and the sounds of her town began to dull with each day that the war carried on. Calypso even saw her mother begin to fret over the smallest things, and little did Calypso know that Milah was worried for her future. But oh something changes when she sees the dull glaze in her father's eyes switch to proud determination.

"Milah! Cali! Look I've been enlisted!" Rumplestiltskin hurries into his home, grin widening as he held the enlistment order, "Now I'll no longer be known as the village coward!"

Six year old Calypso runs to her papa and dances around him chanting, "Papa's going to be a hero! Papa's going to be a hero!"

Milah hurriedly throws a shawl over herself, as she stands. Rumple swoops his daughter up into his arms and spins as she laughs like little bells dancing in the wind.

"That's right dearie, I'm going to make you proud of me."

Cali snuggles up close to him, chin digging into his shoulder as Rumple hugs her.

"You're already the best Papa in the whole forest."

Rumplestiltskin wouldn't hide the massive smile that overtook his features as he set her down, his gaze traveling up to Milah's anxious eyes.

"Don't worry, Milah. I'll be fine and the pay will be more than enough to support you two until even after the war is over."

"Or until you're dead," Milah's eyes quickly darken with panic and quick, painful thoughts.

"I'll be fine, I report to the front for training in the morning."

"No. Rumple, I've heard of the stories. The front, it's a brutal place."

Calypso looks up between her papa and her mother, confusion in her eyes. But as a child she never could understand why her mother never wanted her papa to go out and fight.

"Oh, Milah, I know, I know. And I can't say I won't be frightened. But this is the chance I've been waiting for. All my life. You know, I've lived under the shadow of my father's actions for far too long now."

"Just because your father was a coward doesn't mean you are," Milah's voice softens, calming herself with all her hopes to keep her husband home.

"Oh, I know that," Rumple almost scoffs, he couldn't believe that he wasn't just like his father. "As do you. But to the world? Fighting in this war finally gives me the chance to prove that to everyone else."

Calypso hugs her Papa's leg tight, realizing that he has to leave and that her brutal reality is that he might never come home. Just like her friends down the street. Just like the little boy who stopped playing ball with them after his brother was announced dead. Like the soldiers who go through port and out into battles, and many never pass through their port again.

"Go," Milah smiles despite holding her tears from running down her cheeks, "be brave. Fight honorably."

"Oh, gods, I love you."

"I love you, too."

Rumple steps to Milah, Cali still holding onto his leg as he hugs his wife.

"And when you return, we can live the life we've always dreamed of. We can have a big family."

Rumple kisses his wife's forehead as he steps back from her, "I will come home, Milah, I promise."

Rumple presses a kiss to Calypso's forehead as he leaves the hovel. Dread fills Milah's chest as she collects Cali in her arms, holding in her sobs that threaten to shake her to her fragile core. Milah can not keep her mind from thinking up every horrible thought that could very well happen, what could very well become of her husband, and what could very well become of Calypso and herself. 'Will he die in this recklessness and leave me a widow. Will he leave me with my daughter and our unborn child that he yet knows nothing of. What will his rash moment make my daughter?' And so, Rumplestiltskin left with the rest of the recruits that night, heading for the training camp near the front lines for there is no turning back from what is to come.

Agonized screams echo with the growls of the orges on the front. Blood and bodies had turned the farmland and forests into uninhabitable wastelands and graves. The cries of men and boys sent to fight for the cause surround all in the dimly lit camp that Rumplestiltskin resides in. Soldiers groaned out in pain, with limbs missing and breaths running out, they had returned barely living which stoked the fear in Rumple's heart.

"Soldier!" Rumplestiltskin jumps at the commanding voice of an officer behind him, "me?"

"I'm needed at the front," he grabs Rumple's shoulder and glares into his timid dirt colored orbs, "you are to guard this crate with your life."

The Commanding Officer's gloved hand points towards the covered wagon beside them.

"What's under there?"

"A prisoner that can help us turn the tide against the ogres. Careful, it's a tricky beast."

"Yes sir," Rumplestiltskin nods hurriedly and throws up a salute as the officer takes his blade from its sheath and runs off into battle. He steps closer to the crate, turning his back to it to stand with command. A voice, cracked and sickly, calls from beneath the expanse of canvas on the cart.

"Rumplestiltskin."

Rumplestiltskin turns quickly to the crate, nervous curiosity plagues him like a child who knows nothing of what they have stumbled upon. One wonders if Rumplestiltskin would ever change what he did next - for as he uncovers the prisoner he was only meant to guard, fate twists to fit a design that will bring disaster. The eerie voice belonging to a young woman, and Rumple couldn't help stating that she is only a child. 'She must be double Calypso's age.'

"Please," she wheezes, "I haven't had a sip in days."

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm a seer. I see all."

"No, no, no, that's not possible. You must have overheard someone speak."

The Seer smirks, eyes missing from their sockets that have been sewn closed, painting a gruesome memory in his head, "Rumplestiltskin, the son of a coward, raised by spinsters, scared of ending up just like his father. Left wife and daughter behind for glories untold. Did I overhear that? I told you. I see all, even what is yet to pass."

"You mean the future? You can see the future?"

Rumple knows not the feeling blooming in his chest. Grinning madly the seer answers, "indeed, I can, including yours."

Oh, she has done this so often now, and she knows that she will speak to him about his future for she saw it. She has seen what he will become.

"No, no, no. I won't indulge this-this dark magic."

She almost laughs at his refusal, 'he does not need to know what I have seen him becoming.' Still this moment has run in her head far too many times and she knows what she will tell him, that it will move the future to where she has seen it.

"Even if what I see concerns your wife? Milah?"

The Seer taunts, her voice like the sweetest honey drawing in the most naive of flies.

"Why?" Panic prickles in his gut, "has something happened to her?"

"Give me water," she demands once again. His hands shake the cup in his rashness, "here. Slake your thirst, witch, then speak of what you know of my wife."

"She is already with child."

"I know that I already have a daughter, child!"

"You do not listen! Milah is with child at this very moment."

"I'm to be a father to two?"

"Your wife will bear you a son, but your actions on the battlefield will leave him an orphan and your daughter knowing much loss and loneliness."

"I'm gonna die? No, no, no. You-you must tell me how I can stop that happening."

The Seer smirks proudly as she sees the pieces fall into motion, "you can't."

"Then I'm done helping you."

"For now. Someday you'll help me again."

"I'll bet Milah isn't even pregnant. You just said that so I would give you water, and now you're trying to trick me into deserting."

"You shall see. Tomorrow. When you see the army ride cows into battle, you will know I speak the truth."

"Cows? And who's going to man the catapults? Milk maids? I have had enough with your fiendish lies."

"There is no escaping it. You will have a son, and your actions will leave both your children fatherless."

Rumple covers the crate, anger rushing through him at the lies of the child in the prison. He will always love his daughter, he may one day have a son after he returns home, and oh, he will not die until this war has long been over.

Calypso's seventh birthday passed quite slowly to her. The day had been boring without her papa at home and her mama could do very little as she was nearing her due date. Cali was excited to become a big sister to the baby, but was terrified of what may happen if something went wrong. Calypso also saddened knowing that her papa wouldn't be home to meet the baby until the war was over. Yet Calypso found relief in knowing that her papa was still fighting somewhere.

A month and a little while longer and the day is here - the baby is coming. Calypso runs as fast as she can to the nursemaid when her mama first gasps in pain and tells her to hurry. Now Cali watches with fearful, wide blue eyes as her mama cries out as she lay on back. Cali turns to biting her thumbnail as he mother screams again, but this time Milah's head lays back in relief and Cali grins at the sight of the babe.

The nursemaid carefully places the baby in Milah's arms before beckoning Cali to them from where she wobbles on a wooden stool in order to stay out the way. Milah has her eyes on her little baby boy as he lets out a soft cry in her arms.

"What is his name to be, Miss?"

"Baelfire Stiltskin," Milah smiles at the feeling sparking in her chest as Baelfire yawns with a tiny squeak. She is already willing to do anything and everything for him. Calypso cuddles up to the two and gently brushes his little dark hairs straight.

Looking at her daughter who is fascinated with her little brother Milah feels a pride sweep through her before asking, "would you like to hold your brother Calypso?"

Cali's eyes widen and she bounces her chin up and down, "yes, Mama!"

Milah moves her son into her daughter's arms, "keep his head up, dear."

The nurse then helps Milah before checking Baelfire one last time. They leave Calypso holding her brother. She is mesmerized, the small baby gurgling in his sleep. Taking his small hand that rests in a fist, Calypso's lips twist upward as she looks at his little fingers. Baelfire's breaths are barely strong enough to knock over a piece of straw, but flutter gently in a soft rhythm.

Milah returns from seeing the nurse out the door and sits with a heavy sigh with her children, for for the first time in all the months since Rumple had left to go to the front she felt unworried for their future.

The moment is crashed into by the front door bursting open. With it comes Rumplestiltskin sporting a bloodied, broken leg and Milah's peace is dashed into pieces as she sees her husband.

"Milah! What's his name!" Calypso sets Baelfire in his bed and runs to her Papa.

"How?"

"Papa!"

"What's his name?"

"Baelfire," Milah looks at Rumple, disappointed and disgusted, for she now believes the rumors could be true. Calypso is examining her father's angled foot in the dirty bandages.

"Rumple tell me it isn't true, they say that you injured yourself so you'd be sent home," Milah looks to his eyes only to find him looking anywhere but towards her.

"Well yes, but I'm here for you. And Cali. And Bae."

Rumplestiltskin adds, taking Bae in his arms. Milah only huffs and leaves the room. Rumple has become exactly what he has always seen himself as, the village coward. He has forced Milah into becoming a coward's wife. And his children are going to carry the same burdens that he has had his whole life.

"It's alright my princess. I'm here, Papa's here, Bae. I'm always going to love you, I'm never going to leave you, and I will always protect you."

And oh, if only fate was kind...

old author's notes
[ ➤𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫... 𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐢'𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭?➤
➤𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐥! 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞➤
➤𝟗-𝟐𝟗-𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎➤

BAHAHHA - okay so this chapter is definitely changed up because this time around we actually see parts of the Seer aNd wE gEt a pReDiCtIoN. For my rereaders y'all may be like - what the heck Katie why would you go and do this to us and my first time readers are probably like - and why is this important?
I'm actually have a lot of fun with adding layers to who Calypso is and I'm excited to rewrite the rest of SimH and include the things I wish I had included last time!! 4 - 18 - 2021 ]

author's note!! oh my goodness!! I forgot how much I really put into the foreshadowing and stuff in this chapter. and like- the fact that so many of y'all at this point know nothing!? like ahhhhhh.

this is the beginning of Cali's story in full and it's such a big part of who she becomes. she's not a little noble girl, she's a peasant child raised in an area of war and soon to be treated as an outcast for her father's choices. there's even some forms of foreshadowing to what will become of Cali's relationship with Milah, and even more so of how her relationship will be with Killian.

I hope y'all like it <3 5/25/22