In no way, shape, or form do I own Once Upon A Time. I'm just chilling out in the 'verse, making a little story up as I go along.
"But he's the bloody Author. Why the hell are we the ones that have to do all the leg work?"
"Because he's too busy authoring the damn book to be able to actually create what to put in it. Now stop complaining and go see if you can find that flag we left yesterday." Declan glared hard at Stella before finally stomping off to look for the golden fabric he and his compatriots had tied around a tree as their marker for where to start exploring again. The four person team was on an expedition of Storybrooke's most northern woods, creating a map of the town for inclusion in the latest edition of the Author's book. As always, the overt leadership of the party had fallen to Stella, partly due to her control freak needs, but also because she was genuinely the best sorted for it out of all four of them.
The sound of a shutter clicking behind her caused Stella to turn her head quickly, Xavier giving her a pleased smile from behind his camera. "Star light, star bright…"
"Oh quit it and help Dec find that stupid marker so we can hurry up and finish this. We're already a day behind since SOMEONE just HAD to spend most of yesterday cliff diving." Both of them expected some snarky reply from the direction Declan had gone earlier and when none came they exchanged small looks of worry before starting to head over towards where the brown-haired scout had been.
"Don't go blaming-" Turning around in fright at the unexpected voice, Stella swung her arm out to attack whatever it was that snuck up behind her. Her forearm collided with the side of Declan's head, causing him to tumble from his position of hanging upside down from a low hanging branch and landing flat on his back on the forest floor.
"JESUS CHRIST DECLAN, STOP DOING THAT!" Stella yelled at the man before she and Xavier helped him up, his eyes seeming a bit dazed from the knock to the head he'd just taken.
"Well your father needn't worry about you not being able to defend yourself."
"I'm sorry, you know I get testy out here. You never really know what you're going to find next." Xavier helped Declan stay steady as Stella looked him over, despite his protests and declaration that he'd found something much better to look at just on the other side of the hill. "Well you don't appear to be bleeding from any orifices, but just to be sure I'd better—"
"Bloody hell woman, I find some sort of forest grown Stonehenge and all you want to do is see if I got an oweie!" Stella stopped in her examination and looked probingly at Declan, the expectation that he'd tell her everything keeping her from having to say another word. "That's how I got up in the trees, I just climbed up one and easily hopped between them all to get back over here. You gotta see it love, the trees look all knocked down and propped up against each other, but they aren't… they grew that way."
Without a second thought Stella turned towards where Declan had headed earlier, the knowledge of something unique and unseen by her own eyes propelling her forward.
"Shouldn't we wait for—" Xavier started to ask as he turned back towards Stella's Range Rover to see if the fourth member of their little team was heading their way.
"He'll be along in a second." Stella answered, waving off the question as she moved along.
To say that Declan's words had far underrepresented the Treehenge was an understatement. As soon as Stella's eyes laid on it, she felt the air disappear from her lungs. The area seemed to radiate magic… something she knew she should avoid but couldn't help but head closer to. She wasn't surprised that Declan hadn't recognized the magical energy that permeated the area. He wasn't the most sensitive when it came to noticing these type of things, however she knew that Xavier would feel it immediately, just like her.
"Holy Hell, what is this place?" She smiled at Xavier's mystified exclamation, the question one she held as well. As she moved closer she started to make out a dais in the middle of the formation, markings inscribed along side it. It took her a moment to decode the characters, her mind going through the different alphabets of the Enchanted Forest before settling on the language used by the Fairies of the Gailifi Valley.
A stitch in time saves nine
"What does that even mean?" She muttered under her breath as she placed a hand on the trunk of one of the strangely grown trees. She wasn't much of a dendrologist, trees and everything around them were Declan's area of expertise, but even she could tell something wasn't quite right about them.
"I don't think getting closer is a good idea Stells." Xavier warned from just behind her, his voice startling her slightly. "This all feels… wrong."
"I know exactly what you mean. I feel like I've been here before, but then again it all seems new." Back from where the three came from they could hear the sound of someone making their way towards them. Declan called out to the other man, letting him know they were on the other side of the hill, the flag they were looking for old news now.
"I swear Dec, I think you have some sort of ADD. You just can't stay on one thing for—what the hell?" In unison Declan, Stella, and Xavier turned to see the reaction of their friend at the foreign sight they'd found. At the same time something else too was taking in the final person's presence and finding that the missing piece of the puzzle had slid into place. Before the quartet could even recognize that something terribly magical was going to happen, the dais came alive, the stone transforming into a beam of blue light that appeared like it could be seen from the stars themselves, or at the very least Storybrooke proper.
At the very moment the dais turned, so too did the heads of most of the residence of Storybrooke. The light brought with it suddenly remembered memories of years ago… the answers to questions that had eluded the town for two decades.
In the middle of unlocking his shop's door, Rumpelstiltskin's hand immediately froze in action before he forgot the door all together and stared up towards the north, his newly gained memories stopping him dead and filling him with that hot sort of sensation that left you numb in its wake. Words seemed to escape him at first, but as he started to hear the sounds of feet hitting the pavement behind him, a single word finally seemed to come to mind.
No
Stella felt the pull before she could even recognize what was happening. As her boot-clad feet sliced through the layer of fallen leaves, she had the thought to throw out her arms to try to grab hold of something, anything, to keep her from being dragged into whatever hell the beam had in store for her, but by the time that entered her mind, the chance to save herself was gone.
And so was she.
Declan and Xavier, the closest two to her, could only think to stare at the space their friend had been. The fear for their own safety, along with the horror of what just happened, paralyzed them for a moment.
The man on the hill, however, was all action.
Prince Neal was his father's son. Without a thought he came charging down the hill, running towards the beam that had just stolen Stella right out from under him. As he came upon the ray he jumped almost gracefully into a dive that would make an Olympian jealous, falling headfirst into the lighted abyss. The remaining two men stood there silently for a moment, taking in what had just happened. They finally met eyes and shared a look between them. They already knew what they'd have to do, duty-bound to follow Stella into whatever trouble that faced her.
It was Xavier that moved first, making sure his backpack was secured tightly against him. They each carried one, lovingly referred to by Stella as the "Oh Shit!" packs. They held what each person deemed to be their absolute necessities in any emergency situations, the sort of things that fit to each of their unique survival skill sets. In his run to the beam, Neal had dropped his, and Xavier knew he needed to grab it for his friend.
"Some days I wish we never took that stupid oath." He proclaimed loudly to Declan as he swung Neal's pack onto his shoulder rather uncomfortably. Finally moved to action, Dec grabbed the carabiner Neal always kept on his bag and attached it to Xavier's, hoping that ogre-forged steel would be enough to keep the two items together in whatever sort of forces laid in front of them. Giving his friend a firm pat on the shoulder, Declan stepped back, allowing Xavier the room to look around at the forest for one more brief moment before he, like a captain going down with his ship, saluted Dec and then jumped into the beam.
The last remaining, Declan too took a moment to check his pack before turning his back to the beam and surveying the woods he knew so well (except for, maybe, the part he was in just now). Taking a deep breath, he threw his arms out from his side, as if he was welcoming the still rising sun in for a hug.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow." He proclaimed to the land before he pushed off from his toes and fell backwards into the abyss, the light surging back down into the stone with him, leaving no sign it had ever been at all.