1. Something Amiss in Avonlea
Belle discovered when she was a child, just learning how to read, that the imagination could be a powerful tool. Most girls in her land were not taught how to read, especially when they were not of the nobility, and so Belle might be counted lucky in that regard, to be born a noble and the only child of her father, so that she would have to learn how to read and write to manage her father's estate when she would one day inherit it. However, there was an unexpressed understanding amongst the adults in her father's inner circle that Belle would only have to manage her father's estate until she was wedded, possibly to the son of the local baron, Gaston, but Belle did not know any of this at the time. She just knew that she had an important task ahead of her as her father's heir, and so she would have to be prepared for it by studying and knowing as much as she was able to of the world around her.
After she had learned the fundamentals of reading from her tutors and realized that there were a lot more books in the world than the ones that her tutors showed her, she went out in search of any other books that were available to her, and found the castle's small library in the study usually occupied by her father and his advisors. However, whenever they weren't there, or too bothered to pay any attention to her and shoo her away, she would sit in her father's reading chair and pick out one of the two dozen volumes that were then available. It didn't matter what sort of book it was to her, history, geography, engineering, agriculture, law, philosophy, science, math or mythology—all she would do was try to fathom the large, incomprehensible words on the pages, hoping that they might make sense. She first looked upon reading as a puzzle that had to be solved in order to gain understanding of the words, a challenge that she had to surmount and overcome if she wanted to be smart and understand the world around her.
But after a while, when she began to get used to reading the large words and understanding their meanings, she sank deeper into her father's chair and laid back, reading for as long as she could by dimming torchlight and sunlight until it grew too dark for her to read anymore. For as the challenge became easier to surmount, she realized the pleasure that could be found in reading, whiling away countless hours in imaging the world beyond her home and understanding that it was much larger than she had anticipated. It might even be too large for her to surmount and fully understand, when not everything could be found and contained in books when there was so much out there to experience and explore, but that was okay. She still had a tool at her disposal, a weapon almost, which served as a guide to understanding the basic principles of her world and maybe even imagine others beyond her home.
For as Belle got deeper into reading, and started ordering more books to build up the castle library, she began to imagine those other worlds in simple terms at first, an extension of the words themselves in black and white outlines of ink and paper that showed a mere shadow of other worlds and places. But then the picture grew more complex as her mind began to wander, and drew deeper into her reserves, for Belle began to see, hear, feel and even smell these other worlds; eventually, Belle even learned how to step through into them. For by the time Belle grew into a young woman, unknown and unobserved to the rest of the castle inhabitants, who could not even fathom such power, she had developed the magical skills necessary to cross over the boundaries between realms. For hours at a time, Belle vanished from the castle, and usually she was not even missed until quite a bit of time had passed, leading to small, frantic searches. Whenever she did reappear, they would scold her for hiding and then send her on her way again, believing it to be inconsequential enough.
Belle herself did not fully understand what she was doing, what the consequences of her actions might be, but it amused and thrilled her to be able to travel in such a style and experience the worlds beyond her own when being cooped up in her father's castle and grounds was boring, to say the least. She wanted to have these adventures and explore, and now she was having them without anyone knowing, which seemed to be the perfect thing, most of the time. Every once in a while, when Belle traveled somewhere and stopped to admire the view of an alien place under an alien sky, she sighed to herself and wondered what it would be like to share this with someone, maybe Gaston or her father. Of course, they probably wouldn't appreciate it in the same way, and they might be angry with her for running off like this when she should stay in the castle, mind her manner, and face her responsibilities, but someday, she hoped that someone besides herself could appreciate this.
"There is something strange going on here." Rumplestiltskin murmured to himself, idly weaving straw into gold to while away the hours and consider the problem he had seen start to develop, not just here in the Enchanted Forest, but in other realms.
It began innocently enough, an outcropping or drop or two of power here or there, nothing that could be noticeable to the untrained eye when these drops caused little to no fluctuation in their surroundings. But then surges of power appeared, ripping holes into the boundaries between realms, scars that would not heal or seal up properly when whoever made them had not even thought about them properly, it seemed. He had seen nothing like it before, not the power and ill-consideration.
Even Jefferson's hat, a portal between worlds, was set at a designated point with secure, straight-forward entrances and exits between, doors that opened and closed, sealing off and plugging any holes when not in use, always conserving magical energy with rules and limits for usage. Not even the Mad Hatter was mad enough to misuse his hat, and even if he wanted to, there were safeguards in place. Whoever was creating these holes, these portals, was a maniac at best, bent upon destroying worlds, ripping them apart, and causing general chaos, and an amateur at worst, for an amateur had no idea of what he or she was doing wrong, innocent to a fault, and a maniac was fully aware or at least conscious enough to understand that what he or she was doing was wrong.
He knew how to handle the maniacs, kill them before they got powerful enough to challenge him and destroy what he was doing, though there was little chance that they would have succeeded. But the amateur…killing the amateur was probably the simplest thing to do, especially when they didn't know how to control their power and defend themselves, but he knew that the wisest thing to do might be to control the amateur, let the amateur have his or her way awhile, understand and grasp their powers, and then let the amateur fall under his sway. It had worked for the most part on Cora and Regina until they had turned into maniacs…perhaps killing the amateur might be the best solution.
He had to find out where that magic was coming from before…he heard pounding on his castle door and sighed to himself as he got up, transported himself downstairs to the Grand Hall, and answered. "Rumplestiltskin, what have you been doing?" Regina asked.
"I? Nothing, dearie, that could cause you such distress." Rumplestiltskin remarked as Regina entered the Grand Hall, and he closed the door behind her. "You know that I would not have caused such a fuss if I could help it. I would have been careful, not careless. I, too, have been noticing that something strange, amiss is stirring, and we need to figure out what is going on here before someone else does." Rumplestiltskin sniffed. "It's beginning to affect this world as well. Have you seen the ogres amassing on the boundaries?"
"I have." Regina frowned. "It's one thing to hear about them in old stories from the First and Second Ogre Wars, and quite another to actually see them hanging around, waiting to attack."
"Yes, I know, I was there." Rumplestiltskin remarked, recalling his fight against the ogre hordes. The one good thing he ever did as the Dark One, to save those children like his son Bae.
"You were always there since time began." Regina joked, rolling her eyes. "I haven't got a standing army, you know, to fight off these ogres like in the old days, like you could have. Most of my guards are busy controlling the population and searching for Snow."
"No luck there?" Rumplestiltskin asked.
"No luck, unless…no. I haven't come here for that." Regina said, eying him. "I'm not making deals with you today, imp."
"I didn't ask." Rumplestiltskin said.
"I can hold off the ogres from my castle and most of my lands, keep them away to the outer wilderness, but some of the peasants are still going to get caught and eaten by them." Regina said, shrugging. "I'm not complaining, sometimes it's nice to lose one or two peasants when I can't stand them, but it's not going to help my standing with the peasants. I need them to side with me, especially if Snow is going to make a stand against me."
"Sounds like a tongue twister." Rumplestiltskin remarked.
"Very funny." She crossed over to the outside doors. "Whoever is doing this, creating these portals, bringing back the ogres with their foul, wretched magic, has a lot to answer for, Rumplestiltskin. And I shall see to it that they pay." Regina insisted, opening a door and turning back to him. "You might want to stay out of my way, unless you get blamed as well." She marched out of the Dark One's castle, slamming the door shut behind her.
Rumplestiltskin shook his head. "I've got to find that portal-hopper before she does…" He muttered as he sensed her vanish in a puff of smoke, once she was outside of his magical boundary. "And I think I know how." He grinned to himself and transported himself to his map room, to a unique view of the kingdoms in and around the Enchanted Forest. "All right, where are the ogres amassing, and who is calling my name?" He asked himself, examining the map before he found the sweet spot. "Avonlea." He grinned. He could feel the magical energy welling up there, attracting the ogres as well. "Perfect, it's got the right mix…somewhere in Avonlea, there is a sorcerer or sorceress who don't know what they are dealing with and they will have to face me. Call my name, for I am coming." He vanished from his fortress in a puff of smoke.