"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Goldilocks, happy birthday to you."
A smile couldn't help but grace the face of Cressida as she looked around the room and saw the faces of her loved ones, all gathered together to celebrate this joyous occasion with her. Princess Cressida, more commonly known as Goldilocks because of her long gold of sunshine hair - couldn't help but feel like the luckiest girl in the world as she celebrated her twenty first birthday with those who mattered most to her. The celebrations of today had been more than enough but that wasn't even the start of it all as a huge ball was going to be thrown for the entire queendom, to come and celebrate the birthday of their future queen. Looking at the spectacular four tiered cake made especially for today, Cressida was struggling to figure out what to wish for as she already everything she could have ever wanted and more. Her parents Queen Everly and King Caiden were the best parents she could have ever asked for, so attentive and loving. They were Cressida's unreachable idols in many ways. Alongside her parents there were her friends, the people who she had grown up with and could always count on. Along with them there was also her tutor Archibald, a man wiser than all of them put together perhaps the oldest one of them all at 107 years. This day couldn't be anymore perfect with the beautifully decorated music room that had been covered with balloons, streamers and other wonderful decorations. There were gifts everywhere but all that really mattered to Cressida was that the people she loved were here. Restoring her gaze back to the cake Cressida, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she blew out all twenty-one candles to the sound of a roaring applause.
"What did you wish for Goldie?" Caiden, Cressida's father asked with his bright blue eyes glistening in curiosity and Cressida couldn't help but laugh as her father was the most curious person she ever met. Curious as a kitten, always asking a million questions as her mother would say. Always wanting to know everything, could never keep his nose out of other people's business which meant that he was terrible at keeping secrets.
"I can't tell you that otherwise it won't come true papa, you know that..." Cressida teased which caused everyone in the room to laugh, she wasn't going to tell anyone that she wished nothing would change. That her life would stay exactly the same.
"Forgive your father, the older he seems to get the more he seems to become even more silly." Everly quipped as she walked over to her only child and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Happy birthday my darling Goldie, may the stars rain down and grant you all your wishes along with a happy and joyful life."
"What a wonderful day for the entire queendom I must say and now that dear sweet Goldie is now twenty-one, the princess is now old enough to take part in the maze of wonders, a test for all those who would be queen and naturally with my tutorage she will pass just like you did Everly, along with your mother and her mother before..." Archibald Whittiker, an elderly scholar who was at least over a hundred with only one good eye and yet able to see everything said in a bemused manner as he referred to the test that Cressida would soon be forced to take. The maze of wonders like Archibald had stated was a test taken at the age of 21 that was to be taken for every would be queen, to test her abilities and powers to determine whether she was fit to rule. No future queen had not taken the test and once the maze had been successfully navigated, the formal training to become queen would begin. Cressida's mother Everly had taken the maze as well as her grandmother Issa. Cressida didn't know much about the maze, all she knew was that no maze was the same and it would be the most difficult thing she would endure. No would be queen tutored by Archibald Whittiker had ever failed the maze of wonders. Except one. Helena.
"Of course Archibald but we shall leave all remaining talk of Goldie taking the maze until at least tomorrow as today we are celebrating the princess' birthday!" Everly gently scolded with a small smile.
"Yes, your majesty."
Moving away from the cake, Cressida moved around the room and began socialising with her guests as her mother always told her that along with introductions, being polite and courteous were the first steps to becoming a proper lady and a queen someday. Cressida knew that her mother was raising her to follow in her footsteps, a task in which she would not let her daughter fail in. As long as Cressida could remember, her mother was adamant that she would become a firm but fair ruler who would govern over the queendom in benevolent manner and not abuse the powers that she had been given. Not like her Aunt Helena. She was the black sheep of the family, removed from the line of succession because of her increasing abuse of her magic and unwillingness to put others before herself. Cressida had never met her Aunt Helena, her mother's older sister, all she really knew that her aunt, along with her husband Bernard and son Orsen had been banished from the queendom about twenty three years ago after a very bloody civil war. All Cressida really knew was that the three of them were nicknamed the three bears in the history books and it wasn't because of their cute and cuddly nature.
As the party continued to carry on into the early evening, Cressida was enjoying herself even more so. It seemed like everything was perfect but then there came shouting from outside the music room, shortly followed by a loud explosion and the blast sent Cressida to the ground. The large double doors were blown apart and the wall that held them soon started to crumble and in came a guard of some sorts with swords raised. Cressida had no idea what was going on and before she could even ask what was going on, more people were pulling out swords and her own father moved so he was standing in front of her. But even then as she scrambled to her feet Cressida could see as the group of guards or soldiers, whatever they were parted and in walked three people. Two men with dark hair and eyes that almost looked dead black in appearance with cold and ashen expression on their faces. One of the men was older than the other one, who seemed to radiate a somewhat jaded youthfulness. But Cressida's attention soon drifted over to the woman with them, the woman who seemed to be the nightmare version of her mother.
"Kill them. Kill them all."
It was Helena. It had to be her. There was nobody else who shared the same hazel eyes that her mother had except her. It was a family trait and the only other female relative who Cressida had on her mother's side was her Aunt Helena. But Helena's eyes weren't warm and welcoming like her mother's eyes, they were hard, intense and full of anger. Helena seemed to be a very twisted version of her mother and Cressida was shocked at what she saw as she looked at the woman with the matted black hair, who wore a snarl on her face and seemed to be the personification of evil. Before Cressida knew it fighting had started out with people engaging each other in sword fight. Cressida was frozen to the spot and could only stand and watch as the palaces guards arrived to help the fight. Things were moving so fast that Cressida had no real idea of what was going on until she heard screaming. A blood curling scream that sent shivers down her spine and at first Cressida didn't know where the scream was coming from until she realised it was coming from her. She was the one screaming because standing at her feet was her father's head. Cressida had just seen her father killed before her very eyes and now his head lay at her feet. Cressida managed to stop screaming to look at the person who had killed her father, it was the younger of the two men who seemed to be with Helena. It was Orsen. Aunt Helena's son and her cousin who was approaching her with a bloody blade and himself covered in blood. Cressida stumbled back a few steps and swept her hand in a dramatic manner but nothing happened. Orsen was still there. He was still coming towards her.
"Is that all you've got cousin? Pathetic..." Orsen began in a tone of voice that was dripping with glee and Cressida could see that his eyes were lighting up. He was enjoying this. Cressida didn't know what to do as Orsen continued to approach her. She was frozen and unable to use her magic to defend herself. The magic that she had been freely practising since she was a child had failed her. Orsen had killed her father and was going to kill her too. That's what Cressida thought until a palace guard came out of nowhere and tackled Orsen to the ground.
"Run princess!"
Cressida couldn't run, she couldn't do anything except stay frozen as she watched this bloody and horrific scene continue to unfold right in front of her. Her papa was dead as was so many others… Mama. Cressida's thoughts turned to her mother and furiously scanning the room, she saw her mother engaging in a sword fight with three soldiers. Cressida never knew her mother was such a warrior, handling herself perfectly fine against three trained soldiers, using a little magic to even up the fight.
"Well if it isn't Goldilocks, she who would be queen and my little niece who is seemingly grown up for the most part."
"A-Aunt Helena..." Cressida managed to stammer out, managing to somehow to find her voice.
"Indeed." Helena replied in a chilling tone of voice and Cressida watched as her aunt just looked at her in the most disgusting manner, until she became aware of somebody else, someone who was behind her. It was Cressida's mother Everly. "Well if it isn't my baby sister, the prodigal Everly... How nice to see you again sister, so glad that you could join this family reunion."
"Let Cressida go. She has nothing to do with is Helena."
"Nothing to do with her? You are planning to have her ascend the throne... My throne! The one that you stole from me!" Helena shrieked, her features becoming even more distorted with her increasing anger.
"I took nothing from you Helena. You were unfit to become queen even before you failed the maze of wonders. Your failure to compete the maze was just the final confirmation that you were not meant to rule as queen. It is not my fault or Cressida's fault that you were removed from the line of succession and mother had me take the maze and I passed." Everly replied in a clam manner despite the horrors that were surrounding them.
"You brought all of this upon yourself Everly, every drop of blood that my family and I, along with my supporters have spilt is on you. I am taking back my throne and I am going to make sure that I won't have any more of my relatives alive to stop me from taking back what rightfully belongs to me. Starting with that dumb doe eye daughter of yours who you call Goldilocks." Helena snarled and Cressida saw something deep within her mother's eyes harden.
"You will not touch my child Helena." Everly defiantly stated and moments later, Cressida watched as her mother circled her aunt, until she had reached her. Everly protectively standing in front of her daughter and Cressida falling apart as the world that she knew was slowly falling apart around her. Before Cressida knew it, her mother and aunt were engaging each other in a duel involving no weapons. Just the magic that each of them had within them. It all seemed to flash right before Cressida's eyes before there was another blast. Cressida hadn't seen it coming, it knocked her off her feet and away. Scrambling back onto feet, Cressida couldn't catch sight of her mother until a figure in white dashed out in front of her, a whirl of the finest chiffon skirts and jet black hair. Before Cressida could even get one lungful of air, her mother grabbed her hand and started running out of the music room whilst everyone else as in haze of confusion because of the blast. Cressida ran hand in hand with her mother, their feet barely touching the ground as they ran through the halls of the palace. Time seemed to be a stand still as they ran, ran as hard and as fast as they could until they reached Everly's private rooms. They didn't stop running, they continued to run through several rooms until they reached the bathroom and Everly pulled Cressida to a large oversized mirror. It wasn't a looking glass mirror. It was a mirror used for transportation, that method of travelling was developed during the civil war twenty five years ago.
"Mama..." Cressida sobbed, unable to help herself.
"You have to run Cressida, ran as far as you can..." Everly began as she frantically ransacked drawers looking for something and it took Cressida a moment to realise that her and her mother weren't leaving together. She was being sent away all alone.
"I can't mama." Cressida chocked out and her mother turned to her and placed her hands on either side of her daughter's face and forced Cressida to look at her.
"Yes you can and you must. I can buy you a little time to get away before Helena figures out what I've done and comes looking for you. But you have to go Goldie, the queendom's survival depends on you, however you needed to run for now. Helena will come for you, she will hunt you down so she can kill you but I know that she does not have that power. No matter what my sister says, with my death you are the rightful heir to the throne and queen to this queendom. You have power that Helena can't even imagine. You keep the light in your heart and not even Helena, Bernard or Orsen can stop you Cressida."
"It's gone mama, my magic... It's gone." Cressida stated with tear filled eyes before watching her mother furiously shake her head.
"No it's not gone for it can never be taken from you Cressida. It is all in your head. Remember that, no matter what happens it is all in your head and you will find the maze of wonders when you are truly ready to take the test. The maze is not what you think it is, it will test everything you have but you can do it Cressida. I know you can. Failure is not an option for you. No matter what happens, your father and I will always be with you dearest Goldie. Be the woman we know you to be..." Everly said with tear filled eyes as the palace rumbled because of another explosion and Cressida could hear yelling in the far distance. Helena was coming with the others. "You must go."
"I want to stay with you..." Cressida sobbed as her mother let go off her face before walking over to the mirror and placing her hand over it and soon enough ripples began to appear in the mirror. Everly walked back over to Cressida and took her daughter's hand, placing a small compact mirror in it before leading Cressida over to the mirror.
"I know you do, I love you Goldie."
"I love you too mama," Cressida replied and the words had barely time to react when her mother psyched her into the mirror and as she feel in, Cressida could see her mother on the otherside with tears in her eyes. Ready to smash the mirror and ready to die at the hands of her sister.
"Goodbye Cressida, you are in my heart always..."
Lucy Sommers yawned in a rather loud manner as she sat in her favourite booth at Granny's diner about to get started on what could easily be summarised as a months worth of work whilst having breakfast over at the diner. Despite knowing that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, Lucy was very much inclined to skip breakfast altogether as she was currently regretting her choice of first morning meal as she glanced down at the bowl of porridge in front of her. Lucy had no idea why on earth she had ordered porridge for breakfast as she detested porridge, didn't exactly know why she couldn't stand porridge but there was just something about it that she didn't like. Yet here it was right in front of her and Lucy didn't want to risk upsetting or even worse offend Granny or Ruby by sending it back so she was going to force herself to eat it and hope for the best. Lucy hoped that she could force herself to eat the porridge without throwing it back up otherwise it would make for a rather awkward encounter and she would never be able to show her face in town for a very long time. Picking up the spoon settled on the napkin beside her, Lucy wearily took a heard look at it before sticking it into the bowl of porridge in front of her and taking a spoonful of porridge. The moment the spoon was in her mouth Lucy wanted to spit it out as it was like she was eating lumpy cement. But Lucy was going to have to grin down and bare it as there was no way she was going to get all the work she had on her plate today done on an empty stomach. Lucy could barely cook, her finest dish was milk and cereal which wasn't exactly much, not to mention she had barely any food in her cupboards to begin with and she had too much work on her plate in order to take a break and go grocery shopping. Lucy had no idea what had come over her to order porridge but there was no point in dwelling on it for much longer. Putting the spoon back in the porridge, Lucy began idly playing with it until she was distracted by the sight of a talk, dark and handsome man sliding into her booth, taking the seat opposite her.
"Well if it isn't my favourite heiress, if I didn't know any better Ms. Sommers than I would suspect you of living here as the last time I saw you Lucy, you were sitting right here." Graham Humbert, town sheriff stated with a bright grin on his face and Lucy couldn't help but smile as she continued to aimlessly stir her porridge. Her seemingly boring day of checking numerous books for the business and making sure all the books were balanced were brightened up by the appearance of the sheriff and his Irish accent. Plus he wasn't too bad on the eyes. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your porridge?"
"I remember hearing something along the lines of not breaking into other people's house and making myself comfortable by eating their porridge and sleeping in their beds. I don't remember hearing anything about playing with my food, I must have missed that valuable lesson." Lucy quipped in response with a small grin as she traded her porridge for the cup of black coffee next to her.
"Busy day ahead?" Graham asked pointing to the small mountain of files that were sitting on the table beside her, to everyone else it would look like Lucy had brought her office to the diner with her. But it was far from that, back at her house Lucy had countless files of work related paperwork that took up more space than it was actually worth. Her actually home office was too small to handle all the paperwork that Lucy dealt with on a regular basis so she was currently in the middle of renovating half her house to expand the home office. Lucy had the crazy idea of doing it herself. Hence why she was working out of Granny's until the work was done, which would only happen when she had the time to finish off the renovations and given the amount of work she currently had on her plate, it wouldn't be for a while.
"Something like that and then some, it's not the half of it if you believe…" Lucy wearily noted motioning to all the paperwork that she had with her so far which didn't include the meeting that she had with Mr. Gold today. Lucy wasn't looking forward to that in the slightest but her dealings with the elusive Mr. Gold had been going back for as long as Lucy could remember. He was one of the main reasons why Lucy was always so busy.
"It must be so hard owning half the town princess." Graham stated feigning sympathy for Lucy's situation before helping himself to her porridge and Lucy said nothing off it, she motioned for Graham to eat his heart out as she wasn't eating the porridge anyway. Lucy made sure to ignore the comments about owning half the town, as Graham liked making the odd wise crack about the fact that Lucy's mother had owned a lot of Storybrooke and had been quite wealthy until she died. Graham also liked to call her princess which Lucy laughed off as she was no princess in the slightest as princess weren't accountants who were coffee addicts with numerous well publicized family problems. Princesses were young women who flounced around in pretty gowns and sang sweet songs like in the animated movies. They were not people like Lucy Sommers.
"Well unlike you Sheriff Graham, some of us actually have real work to do unlike somebody I know who can get away with sitting in their nice office, with their feet up and eating donuts to your hearts content and being a cop cliché. Besides none of this is do with any of my mother's businesses, our gracious mayor has asked me to find an extra $50,000 in the town's budget as soon as possible. Downside to being the only accountant in town." Lucy replied with a weary laugh.
"Can't sympathise with you there princess or lighten your work load but I do have something to make your day better." Graham began before pulling up a piece of paper from inside his jacket and passed it over the table to Lucy. "One restraining order as requested, it was dropped off at the station yesterday and I was going to drop it off at your place but something came up. "
"Thank you." Lucy replied in a quiet voice as she took the paper, opened it and briefly read the restraining order before putting it down. A part of Lucy couldn't really believe that things had come down to this, that one little piece of paper would keep her family away from her for the foreseeable future. Lucy couldn't help but take a deep breath and sigh as she ran her hands through her hair before placing them back down on the table.
"Your not happy? I thought this was what we wanted princess? I can't make them leave town but those relatives of yours have to stay at least 50ft away fro you at all times."
"No I am happy, this is what I wanted." Lucy replied with a small smile, not sure whether or not she really believed that or not. Things with her family were complicated, Lucy had been estranged with what little family she had left for countless years and it was no secret within Storybooke. Her issues with her family had been well publicized within this small town for as long as Lucy could remember and it never seemed like it was going to end. It was always one thing after the next with Lucy's family particularly with her cousin Orsen who seemed to be the worst of them all with a very bad temper. Things had escalated and most of the time it was pretty harmless until it got to the point where Lucy had reached the end of her tether with her remaining family and asked Graham for the restraining order.
"They come anywhere near you Lucy, you call me okay? That cousin of yours so much as looks at you then I want you to call me. Day or night it doesn't matter, keeping you safe is the only thing that matters to me." Graham stated, all jokes aside and being deadly seriously for once and Lucy nodded her head and forced a smile on her face. "Look, I probably shouldn't tell you this princess but I hate seeing you so sad, so I'm going to tell you something before it gets out to the whole town. You are not the only one currently having family problems as Henry Mills ran away last night and who should happen to bring him home? His biological mother."
"Regina must be thrilled." Lucy idly tossed out in a sarcastic manner, referring to the town mayor who could be pretty uptight at times. No doubt she hadn't been expecting Henry's biological mother to show up here in Storybrooke ten years down the line.
"In more ways than one since I had to arrest Emma for drinking under the influence last night, seems like Emma had a bit too much to drink at Regina's house last night that on her way out of town she crashed into the welcome sign. When I say Regina is thrilled, I mean she is actually thrilled by this new development." Graham explained with a small chuckle and Lucy couldn't help but laugh in amusement, it provided her with mild comfort to know that she wasn't the only one in town with family problems.
"How is it only now that I'm finding out about any of this?"
"Well I think it may have to do with the fact that unlike the rest of us you live in the woods princess instead of town." Graham pointed out and Lucy could afford to laugh. People found it weird that she didn't live in town and instead chose to live in a house that was just on the outskirts of the woods. Lucy couldn't really explain why, she had always loved the woods and found it so peaceful. There was no one there to disturb her and Lucy could come and go as she liked.
"That is great police work, Sheriff. I see my hard earned money is going to such good use on your salary. Keep up the good work Sheriff and I'll see if I can't find enough spare change in the budget to convince Regina to give you a clearly well deserved raise." Lucy sarcastically tossed out and Graham didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm, if he did he chose to ignore it because the fake praise Lucy was sending his way.
"Speaking of my salary, I should probably head back to the station and go make a living, thanks for breakfast princess we should do this again sometime and next time I may finally get you to pay. You call me if you need anything, okay?" Graham stated as he rose and exited the both, placing a ten dollar bill on the table before giving Lucy a familiar grin and making his way out of the diner and Lucy couldn't help but watch him go, that was until Graham backtracked and made his way back. "Oh? I forgot to say this earlier but you had better keep out of trouble princess, I don't want find out that you've been breaking into houses and eating other people's morning porridge as I'd have to arrest ya as an officer of the law and I'd hate to do that to you princess. I don't think those golden locks of yours would survive a day in prison if I'm honest…"