"That's kinda cute, are you trying to look like a portrait?" Henry asked.

"No dork, I smell something strange. Can you smell it Sydon?"

Sydon sniffed as well then wrinked up his nose.

"It smells like something's burning."

"I think it's coming from over there."

Thorton started off into the forest with Sydon hot on his trail.

"What are you doing?" Henry asked disbelievingly. Was this the same cat who had told him just that morning not to gown down strange roads, and now he was racing off into a strange forest, where there was no road?

They didn't even answer his question, but just kept right ahead stopping every few seconds to sniff.

Henry watched as they dissapeared behind a tree, talking about this strange scent.

Then shrugged and followed, not wanting to be left behind. The cow didn't seem to have a problem with going into even more greenery to snack on, so he pressed forward, always keeping an eye on at least one of the cats.

They walked like this for several minutes, going deeper and deeper into the woods. Henry glanced back and groaned upon finding out he could not longer see the road. I hope they can smell their way towards home too, he thought, when the cats stopped behind a bush peering around it.

Henry, after getting a warning from Sydon to, "heavens sake be quiet!" crept up beside them, and looked towards the center of a rather large clearing.

He blinked, then blinked again, it was still there. He turned to Sydon.

"Am I really seeing the same thing as you? "

"If your seeing a little man wearing a ridiculous hat, whose head would not reach your waist because he's so short, sitting in front of a hut that is just his size and staring at a spinning wheel, then your seeing the exact same thing I am seeing." Sydon helpfully answered.

Henry nodded

"That's what I see, alright."

Thorton glanced at Sydon,

"That smell is coming from that little hut."

Henry sniffed then stuck his tongue out. "That smells horrible."

Suddenly the little man threw his arms into the air with a cry, jumped off the stool he had been sitting on, and ran into the hut. A few minutes later he came running back out again, carrying a smoking pot in two hands covered with oven mitts.
He ran towards the edge of the clearing, Henry was glad to see that it was not in their direction, and dumped whatever was in the pot onto an undeserving bush. Then he covered his nose with one of his oven mitts and was in the process of going back into the house, when he stopped and looked at the pot he was holding in his other hand. Then quite suddenly he flung it into the surrounding trees, and ran inside.

He came back a few moments later and sat back down on the stool again. He stared at the spinning wheel for a moments then sighed and studied the dirt below him.

" I wonder who he is."

Henry looked down at Sydon as if expecting an answer, but didn't get one.

That's a first, he thought.

Henry's question was soon answered however.

The cow, who had eaten all the greenery she cared to, in this area decided now would be the time to complain about it. She gave a very long, very loud, moo, making everyone jump in surprise.

The man jumped to his feet and stared towards them.

"Who's there?"

Henry looked down at Sydon, not sure what to do.

"Who's there?" the man repeated, and since Sydon hadn't said anything Henry stepped into the clearing.

"Me."

The man nearly jumped out of his skin.

"My goodness, I wasn't expecting anyone to actually be there. I thought it was just my ears playing tricks on me. Who are you?"

"My name is Henry, and I was just taking a walk with my..."

He looked around him for Sydon and apon finding that he had remained hidden aloung with Thorton, blushed and mumbled.

"I was taking a walk with my cow, and happend to come across your little house here."

The man looked at him sceptically.
"Uh huh, and do you always take walks with your cow?"

Sydon hidden under a bush, put his head in his paws, too embarrassed to continue watching.

"Well not all the time, this is actually the first time I have ever taken a walk with my cow."

Henry blinked a few times then stuck out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Henry."

The little man looked around him as if expecting a trap then he very slowly walked up and shook Henrys hand.

"My name is Rumpelstiltskin although nobody would believe it if you told them."

"What do you mean?"

"Take a seat."

Rumpelstiltskin pushed the stool towards Henry who sat down obligingly.

"I am actually Rumpelstiltskin the Three-Hundred and Fifty-Fourth, or at least so they say. I doubt the rumours however."

He sighed.

"You see my father before me, and his father before him, and his father before him, and his father before him, and..."

"Okay I think I get it you don't have to say all three-hundred and fifty-four."

Rumpelstiltskin nodded

"I was hoping not. Anyway all those old dead people that are said to be my relatives knew how to spin straw into gold... and I don't."

"Why on earth do you need to spin straw into gold?"

"Oh, that's a terrible predicament. You see everytime a Rumpelstiltskin is old enough, be it me, or my father before me, or his father before him, or his father before him, or,"

"Yeah, his father before him, I get it."

"That always go find a princess in distress who is supposed to be spinning straw into gold for her terrible king of a husband. Have you ever realized how many terrible kings who force their poor wives to spin gold out of straw there are in the world? Why there's at least five-hundered fifty-four! One for my father, and his father before him, and his father before him, and,"

"His father before him. Yeah I get it."

"Anyway, so I go find this queen in distress and tell her I'll spin her straw into gold if she gives me her first child."

"Why did you tell her that if you don't know how to spin straw into gold and why did you ask for her first child?"

"Because, that's what my father did, and his father before him, and his father before him, and..."

"His father before him, yeah I get the picture."

"So now I have to spin this lady a mountain of gold and I can't do it."

"Didn't you father ever teach you how?"

"Yeah, watch."

Rumpelstiltskin stood in front of the spinning wheel, and grabbed a piece of straw.
He started the spinning wheel and then to Henry's utmost amazment he squinted his left eye, stuck his tongue out, and started to wiggle one ear.

Nothing happened.

Rumpelstiltskin stopped and stared helplessly at Henry.

"You see it's helpless, he has told me a million times before I have to squint my eye a different way, but I've squinted it every way I can imagine. I just can't get gold!"