I was re-watching season one of Once Upon A Time just recently and I got to wondering what happened to all of the ordinary people of the Enchanted Forest when the curse was cast. There are lots of kingdoms in the fairy tale world, all full of ordinary people just living their ordinary lives- hundreds, maybe thousands of people who just up and disappeared when the curse was cast. They clearly aren't all in Storybrooke, so where are they?

Here is what I think might have happened.

Title comes from 'Underground' by the late great David Bowie

Heard About A Place Today

There was a story spreading through the Enchanted Forest. A tale told in taverns or around camp fires, always spoken in hushed voices. A tale told to children as they lay in bed before succumbing to sleep. This story was about a land far away from their own, inhabited by goblins of all things; a land which would offer safe haven to the desperate, lost and lonely. The story stated that to reach this land, one only had to wish themselves there- using the right words of course, but nobody ever knew these words.

For the most part, this story was disregarded as a pretty tale, but nothing more. Until that is, the news began to spread of a terrible curse, cast by the Evil Queen, Regina, which would whisk them all away to a place where there were no happy endings. The tale of the land of the goblins became a beacon of hope for many of the people of the Enchanted Forest.

And then, almost a year after the threat of the curse was first mentioned, the sky darkened to a haunting, swirling purple and the alarm bells began to ring across the land. Peasants huddled in their homes, terrified of the impending curse, and whispered many variations of:

"I wish I knew the words to take us to the Land of the Goblins."

And in answer, although many would swear that the words simply came to them, came the exasperated retort of: "I wish the Goblins would come and take you away, right now. That's not hard is it?"

And even as the horrible mass of curse-magic came tearing through the settlements of the Enchanted Forest, many voices calling out as one, said:

"I wish the Goblins would come and take us away, right now."

And then, they were gone.

And I think that's your lot. Please leave a contribution in the little box