Pied Piper

Pied_Piper.jpg|thumb The Pied Piper is a German legend featured on ''Once Upon a Time. ''It first debuts on the fourth episode of the fourth season.

Synopsis
Hamelin, a small town in Germany, is terrorized by a vast horde of rats. Unable to get rid of the rats themselves, the townspeople are at their wit's end until a mysterious piper, dressed in a colorful (or "pied") outfit, arrives in town offering to get rid of the rodents in exchange for a fee of a thousand guilders, or coins. Desperate, the Mayor of Hamelin and the town council agree to the Piper's terms. The Piper immediately sets to work, playing a mysterious tune on his pipe that puts all of the rats into a trance and draws them out of hiding. Continuing to play, the Piper leads the rats out of Hamelin and to the edge of a nearby river, which the rodents all fall into and drown in (with the exception of one rat that survives to warn others of his kind).

With the rats gone, the townspeople celebrate their deliverance, and the Piper returns to claim his promised payment of a thousand guilders. The Mayor and town council, however, now refuse to pay him that much money, and offer him only a small fraction of the amount they originally agreed to. Angered that the city's leaders are going back on their word, the Piper vows to make them pay for such a decision, and plays a new song on his pipe that puts all the children of Hamelin under his spell. Leading the children out of town, the Piper stops before a mountainside that suddenly opens up, revealing a passageway that the Piper claims leads to a magical paradise. Once the Piper and almost all of the children have passed through, the passagway closes, leaving behind only one lame little boy who is unable to keep up with the others. The boy, heartbroken at being left behind, returns home to tell the adults what has happened. The townspeople, realizing what they have done, launch a frantic search for the Piper and the children, but find neither, and the town is never the same afterwards.

Characters Featured

 * The Pied Piper

Locations Featured

 * HamelinPied_Piper.jpg