Once upon a time, over a century before the Evil Queen, Regina, unleashed the dark curse across the Enchanted Forest, but long after peace had been settled upon in first terrible Ogre War: there was a woman who lived in the cottage that was neither well-known or easily found even though it sat near a village not too far from the land's snowy mountains. The woman was from an ordinary family where both her mother and father—now passed some years—were once cabbage farmers who reaped a comfortable life in the business of their crop. Although they were only simple farmers, and on the outside, their daughter, Norah, appeared to be a simple girl, she was, in fact, extraordinary.
Norah did not know just how extraordinary she was, but she did know that she was different than her parents. She was different than the other children in the village and in her adult life she knew she was different than any other person she had met. Norah's parents had known, too, but they hadn't loved her any less for it. In fact, they loved her even more so.
But even in her differences from all the other people she had known, she was always lost. Norah had always loved her parents, and she never once doubted their sincerity. Neither had anyone in the village treated her with distaste when she was working the fields or selling cabbages from her cart in the market square. Norah was never met with unkindness, but that was not to say she had never encountered those who had exchanged unkind words. Anytime Norah had encountered an injustice, she did what she could to set things right.
In her kindness and her difference, Norah was still alone. Both her parents passed away and had left her alone. Eventually, the people of the town had gone. The Ogre War had reaped the town of able-bodied boys and girls to fight. The village soon forgot of the cabbage farm and the young woman who had lived there for an unnaturally long time. The village forgot because eventually, there was no one left to remember. Her loneliness became a crevasse across her mind and across their heart. Norah did not know why her life, although she lived it so well, was so numbingly empty.
Norah did not know that all magic came with a price.