This is just a little story that I've been working on. I think the more I work on it the better idea I'll have of just where it's going haha. Let me know what you think. This is kind of a background chapter to the story. The actual story will take place after the events of season three, excluding the Frozen piece.

The Enchanted Forest pre-curse

The raven haired young woman stepped into her mother and step-father's cabin only to be stopped by the ominous feeling that lingered inside. Her step father, Erik, sat at the table with a half empty bottle of gin next to him.

"What did you do," the girl whispered as she slowly set down her basket full of goods that she had just traded for at the market.

"Your mother," he snarled. Before he could say another word, the young girl darted into the large bedroom to find her mother's fragile form sunk deep into the bed. Where once her mother had been like a porcelain doll with features that stood out to everyone, she now looked old, grey, and devoid of the laughter that her daughter could hear throughout the cabin on a good day. The young daughter could barely recognize the similarities between mother and daughter. The pale skin now looked greyish, her dark green eyes now seemed foggy, and it was all happening too fast. It had been only a couple weeks since her mother had gotten sick, Erik hadn't bothered to do much about it since he said that they had little money to spare on medicine that might not work. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with her, only that it would spread to the rest of the family if they weren't careful.

"Mo-mother," the young girl questioned as she kneeled by her mother's bedside.
"Celeste? Is that my daughter, Erik? Oh my sweet," her voice was nothing but a whisper as her frail hand searched for her daughter's face.

"Mother…mother please I'm right here," Celeste said trying to choke back the tears as she prepared to watch her mother die in front of her. Clearly, her mother's husband didn't seem to care as he was still sitting in the main room of the house drinking away at the gin.

"Celeste, I need to tell you…tell you where to find him. You need to know who he is." Celeste watched in pain as her mother tried desperately to sit up and reach for the drawer of her bedside table.

"Mother please stop, le-let me help you."

"There's a picture in there of a young man," her mother whispered between coughing fits, "You need to find him…find Killian. Tell him Loretta wanted you to meet him."

Killian? Celeste had never had that name before, but looking down at the picture she couldn't help but feel some kind of connection to it. The picture revealed a stern looking man covered in leather and a slight scruff that covered the lower half of his face. Now that she took a closer look at him; the hair color, the jaw line, and the thinner frame. It all looked very familiar.

"Mother…..is this?"

"Celeste, this is your father, your real father. Please get out there and find him. I can't leave you parentless." Before Celeste could begin to cry, she felt the familiar cold grip on her shoulder and turned back to face her stepfather.

"Don't worry Loretta," he whispered, as the grip on Celeste's shoulder got tighter, "she always has me."

"No Erik, let her go…..she has…has to," but her mother never finished the sentence. Instead, the light slowly drained from her eyes and her chest ceased to move up and down. Before Celeste could even comprehend what was happening, Erik had grabbed her off the floor and flung her over his shoulder. Kicking and screaming, she watched as the figure of her mother disappeared from view.

"LET ME GO. YOU CAN'T DO THIS. YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER," she screamed as she felt herself thrown out onto the dirt. Before she could even begin to check for scratches, Erik had picked her up again and slammed her body into the side of the house.

"If you think for one second I'm just going to let you walk away then you must be dumber than I thought. I saved you and your whore of a mother. If it hadn't been for me you two would have been sitting on the side of the market begging for pocket change. Now look what she's done to me! All I have is a disease ridden house and a bastard who doesn't know her place," he spat before pushing back towards their small horse and wagon that sat by the side of the road. "I'm not about to let you go wandering off before I get some kind of use out of you," he muttered and looked towards the small lantern that sat on the side of the wagon.

It didn't take but a few seconds for Celeste to realize what he was going to do and she quickly sat up to try and grab the lantern before he did. But she was too late. Erik grabbed the lantern and threw it against the side of the house. It hit the dry grass sitting next to the house, and within seconds Celeste was watching her house begin to burn.

"We need to get out of here," her step father said casually as he pulled Celeste and himself into the wagon and grabbed the reigns of the horse. As the wagon began to lurch forward, Celeste lay down on the wagon floor and pulled out the picture that had been crumpled and stuffed hastily into the top portion of her corset.

"Killian….Loretta sent me to find you. Killian…..Loretta sent me to find you," she muttered to herself over and over again. It wasn't too long before she was beginning to doze off. Erik and Celeste never heard the warning about a possible threat to the kingdom, they never heard the warning bells of imminent threat making its way through their part of the forest, and Celeste never noticed the purple smoke that soon enveloped her and her step father as they were transported to a brand new place.