Title: Colourful breeze

Disclaimer: ABC owns everything Once Upon a Time and I don't own a thing.

Characters: OC, Regina/evil queen, August. W. Booth, Emma, Henry

Summary: A distraught boyfriend comes to Sherriff Emma for help in finding his missing girlfriend. She was last seen near the woods. Henry, however, can't even find these characters in the book.

A/N: G'day there, this is my first story for OUAT; I hope you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying writing it. Forgive me; I've only seen halfway through season 1. Now it's airing in Australia. WOOHOO!

I'm used to writing crime and not fantasy, so I hope this story packs plenty of thrill and suspense.

Chapter 1

If a tree falls in the woods...

Fairytale land

It was early morning when the dark horns sound. The distress call echoed throughout the whole of the land as the enemy approached the Evil Queen's fortress. Armies gathered on the two hills over looking the valley. Arrows came flying from both directions but the warrior continued to charge through the open countryside, towards the Queen's fortress. It was as though he was unstoppable. Invincible, perhaps.

Meanwhile in the Queen's castle a guard burst through the door to the Queen's bedchamber, huffing and puffing and nearly out of breath. The Queen was facing her mirror on her chest of draws. The guard hesitated while he held the door handles at first when he mentioned to the Queen; "He's in the building, your highness. What's your plan of action now?"

The Queen turned around with a look of sheer horror on her face.

"I...where are all the guards, and why have you locked the door?" she asked.

"They've all been defeated. And I think you know the answer to that, my queen."

The guard said, smiling wickedly. He then slowly turned around and faced the pale woman and slowly lifted the helmet off of his face.

"You!" the Queen exclaimed as she fell back onto the chest of draws, with a wide-eyed expression.

Regina Jumped as she awoke from the terrible nightmare. Luckily it was just a dream, she thought. It was 3am and she was too afraid to fall asleep again. She decided to get up early instead.

She quietly wandered down the passageway of her massive and beautiful house, and carefully opened the door to Henry's room. She just wanted to check up on him. And there he was, so peaceful and happy. Oh how she wished he were always happy, especially with her. But he never was. This tore her apart. All she wanted was to be loved by him, she couldn't care less about anyone else loving her; it was just Henry's love that she craved. She knew she would stop at nothing to get it. She carefully closed the door leaving a small gap just big enough for the light to shine in. Regina was great at remembering tiny things like that. She knew it somehow helped him feel safer. Perhaps he needed that tiny little light to help him see when he was constantly surrounded by darkness.

Down in the kitchen, Regina made herself a coffee and turned on the TV to help her clear her mind. It did little help. It only made her think deeper about her dream. She started to question whether her dream was instead a memory. While flicking through channels for hours, she watched the sun come up. She knew it was nearly time for Henry to get up for school. She packed his bag for him and instead of getting him breakfast decided she would surprise him with a big breakfast at Granny's. She zipped up his Incredible Hulk bag and looked over at the TV again, this time the news was on. She turned up the volume slightly to hear it. The news story was about a missing girl in her 20's. Regina formed a frown the second Emma came on talking to the camera. Regina cringed at the sound.

"...If you know any information please contact my office with the number on your screen now."

"Emma!" a little voice shouted from the doorway. It was Henry. Regina was quick to grab his attention.

"Hey Henry! What do you feel like for breakfast? I was thinking we'd go over to Granny's on the way to school. Whattaya say?"

"hi. Umm I don't know. I'm happy to just eat here, I don't feel like going to Granny's."

"Would I persuade you with the latest Avenger's movie, direct to DVD?"

"Direct to DVD!" His spirits suddenly lifted, "Wait, how are you going to get it?"

"I don't need to get it Henry. I've already got it for you!" She had big smile on her face while she showed him the DVD. He was quite taken by it. It worked, he was persuaded.

Sherriff's office

7am

Emma yawned fiercely and poured coffee into her Boston Red Sox mug. She was still getting used to the hours of being a Sherriff, they certainly weren't as flexible as when she was a Bounty Hunter. She was missed her old job, sometimes. Being Sherriff at least guaranteed payment even if the day was a 'quiet' one. Mostly they were quiet days in lil' ol' Storybrooke. But there were the unpleasant quirks of the job; these involved babysitting offenders behind bars, more often or not, the ones that had to sleep off whatever they had been drinking. And then there was the paperwork. Oh the glorious forest that managed to increase on her desk, no matter how many hours she put in to doing it.

"Sherriff? Sherriff Swan? Excuse me?" asked a young voice that entered the office.

"How can I help?" replied Emma stirring her coffee.

"I have some information about that missing girl, you spoke about this morning. I only just found out about her missing person's report"

"Ok, sure... I'm sorry, what was your name?" She sat down in her big leather chair.

"It's Jack. Jack Matherson," he pulled a blonde cowlick out of his face.

"Ok. Mr. Matherson, please, have a seat"

"So who's the girl that's missing, when was she last seen?" she scribbled a pen on a note pad to get it working, ready to write.

"My girlfriend. She...she was in the woods... In the... Reneé she-" He started getting faster and faster in his description.

"Ok. Mr Matherson, slow down, it's all right. Just take a deep breath and take your time. So your girlfriend..."

"Her name is Reneé Russell. It's been 3 days since I've seen her. And this is very unlike her to go without telling someone where she is."

"Ok, are there any problems at the moment in her life? Such as work being stressful? Are you two having relationship problems?"

"If you're suggesting she's suicidal, you're out of line, Sherriff."

"Sorry, I'm just following procedure. Please, go on," said Emma.

"Work is very stressful, she works in real estate. Sometime's she feels as though she's under her father's shadow. It's her Dad that doesn't want us to be together.

"Ok, so not going so well in the daddy department. What else can you tell me about him? Is that why you think she's gone missing?"

He's a politician from some city, far away. Senator Steve Russell is his name."

"Ok. I'll make sure I do some more research today"

"But I really don't know why she's missing! This really isn't like her!" He started to get upset. Emma handed him a tissue and waited for him to compose himself.

"Where nearly done for now, Mr. Matherson. Where was the last place you saw Reneé?"

"Near the woods. I went looking for her myself. I'm a Biologist, you see, and I've been studying the areas near Storybrooke. They're too wild, even for me. I still don't know my directions. I even got lost for a while, when searching for her."

"Alright. But I don't know the woods any better than you do, I'm afraid, but I'll get a search party happening. We'll try our best to find her, Ok."

"Ok. Thank you so much."

"One last question, where does she live?"

"Savage Street."

"Ok, where's that, sorry?"

"It's two streets past Mr. Gold's shop"

"Soon, we can start searching."

"The sooner the better. I've asked Mr. Gold for some elevation maps of the area, but he won't give them to me. Are you able to get some sort of warrant or something?"

"I'll see what I can do. Hang in there, Jack."

A/n: Thanks so much for reading! I hope Regina's dream was easy to picture. I dreamt it myself and wanted to put it in my story. It will make sense later on in the story. There are most likely plenty spelling errors and grammar issues because this was written at 3.30am

Q: If a bear craps in the woods and there's no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?