Ted sat at the dinner table with his mother and grandmother. He poked his weird jello-like food with his fork.

Wait a minute thought the Once-ler. He couldn't help but notice how familiar the two women at the table looked.

"Ted, honey, don't play with your food" said Mrs Wiggins.

The Once-ler realized Ted's mother looked a lot like Norma. She also looked a bit like-no. It couldn't be Daisy. Could it?

"You either mom" said Mrs. Wiggins as Grammy Norma bounced some Jello in the air and it landed in her mouth.

That stuff looks disgusting thought Astrid.

"So...Mom. Do you happen to know if there's like any place where I could get a real tree?" asked Ted. Grammy Norma reacted a little.

Mrs Wiggins was confused. "Ted, we already have a tree. It's the latest model"

"Yeah, but I mean like, a real one. That grows out of the ground" said Ted.

"Really? You'd rather have some dirty, messy, lump of wood that just sticks out of the ground and does what? I don't even know it's purpose" said Mrs Wiggins.

Several people, especially children, giggled at that.

"Look what we got! It's an oak-a-matic!"

The Lorax rolled his eyes at that. The names of inventions these days were getting less and less creative.

"The only tree with it's very own remote". She pointed the tree outside. "Summer, Autumn, Winter, and disco!" she said as the tree started shining light and playing old music.

Mrs Wiggins started dancing and singing along.

Both on-screen Ted and present Ted covered their eyes in embarrassment.

"Before everyone asks, it's a type of music from the seventies" shouted Jack.

"So, anyway" said Ted. "Let's just say I need a tree. Where would I go? What do I do?"

"Then you know what?" asked Grammy Norma. "You need to find the Once-ler"

The Once-ler's family was a little confused. Of all the ways he could've been brought into this weird story, it was that.

The other main characters in the front row smiled. The first mention of the other protagonist from the Lorax sitting next to them.

The Once-ler himself however, he was starting to think that the two women just might be Norma and Daisy. They were just about the age his ex-wife and daughter should be.

Ted looked at his grandmother surprised. "The-the what?"

"Mom, it's not really time for one of your, you know, magical fables, okay?" said Mrs Wiggins feeling uncomfortable.

Present Mrs Wiggins was feeling very uncomfortable too. Here they were on screen discussing her father acting like they'd never met him, and Ted was sitting in the front row with him probably having no idea that they were related.

"Oh, that's right, I forgot. I'm old and can't even remember to put my teeth in" said Grammy Norma.

"Stand down, that's not what I meant" said Mrs Wiggins.

"No really I forgot my teeth" said Norma.

Most of the audience laughed.

"Would you be a dear and go get them for me?" she asked.

Hiccup mind was boggled by someone forgetting their teeth. Sure, Nightfuries could retract their teeth, but not remove them. How on earth could a human do it?

Ted seemed to hear his thoughts for he leaned over to Hiccup and said "They're fake. It's for people who've lost their teeth".

Mrs Wiggins let out a sigh. "Sure, Mom" she said as she left. Immediately after Grammy Norma took out her teeth and popped them back into her mouth.

"Mom!" said Mrs Wiggins.

The Once-ler smiled.

"That was pretty clever" said Jack laughing.

"Okay, here's the deal. The Once-ler is the man that knows what happened to the trees. You want one, you need to find him" said Norma.

O'hare shifted in his seat a little.

The Lorax wondered what the Once-ler would really be able to do to help.

The Once-ler's family wondered why it had to be him. There had to be a hundred other people who knew what happened, right?

Ted glanced suspiciously. "The Once-ler. Mm-hm. Okay, Grammy, is this a real thing that we're talking about now?" he asked.

"Oh, he's real alright!" said Grammy Norma.

There. That was the last bit of evidence he needed. The Once-ler knew that Ted's grandmother was his ex-wife Norma, she'd proved that. So then the mother was his little Daisy all grown up. Wow, time sure does time fly.

But that meant that Ted was…

"Well, where can I find him?" asked Ted.

Norma seemed to disappear and reappear behind him, giving Ted a jumpscare. She clapped her hands and the lights turned off.

"Far outside of town, where the grass never grows, and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows" Norma recited spookily as she walked in a circle around Ted.

That sounds horrible! thought Anna.

That's perfectly accurate thought the Once-ler.

Technically it wasn't that far outside of town, he could even see Thneedville from his window. But distance and time are always relative depending on what you're talking about. He was sure that to the boy who'd never left Thneedville those few miles felt like quite the journey.

But Norma's description of the land was dead-on. Honestly, he was lucky that some occasional grikle-grass grew in the ruined soil.

Norma made some spooky wind noises and continued talking. "And no birds ever sinng, expecting old crows"

"She's probably also talking about me" mumbled the Once-ler under his breath earning a strange look from Jack.

On top of the literal crows, he'd certainly refered to himself as an "old crow" a couple times. So he couldn't help but wonder if Norma's statement about the crows had two meanings.

"Caw" yelled Norma as Ted jumped.

"What the heck!" said Jack.

Norma caught him. "Whoa, would you quite doing that!" asked Ted annoyed.

"That's the place where the Once-ler lives" said Norma enthusiastically.

"Why would you…" asked Hiccup as his voice trailed off. The Once-ler knew Hiccup was wondering why he'd choosen to live in such a wasteland.

He also knew Hiccup was intelligent and had realized that the movie would probably eventually explain it.

"Sorry, that's awful" whispered Elsa.

"Wait, outside of town?" asked Ted.

"I take it you don't leave often?" asked Jack.

"Never" said Ted.

Norma's voice over was heard as the screen cut to Ted in his bedroom emptying a jar of coins until he had three nickels. "People used to say if you brought him fifteen cents..."

Then the scene cut Ted opening a drawer and grabbing a rusty nail. "A nail..."

"Why do we even have that?" asked Mrs Wiggins whom nobody really heard.

Ted shines a flashlight on a really old snail. "And a great-great-great grandfather snail, he'd tell you everything".

Tell them what? wondered the Lorax. About the way the trees used to be? About what he did? About me? To be fair the it is named after me he thought.

He knew it'd been thirty years, but he wouldn't have imagined the version of the Once-ler he knew becoming rumor who would tell a cryptic story for a bunch of weird objects.

Ted smiled, having everything he needed.

"I don't remember asking for any of this" said the Once-ler. Then he thought for a moment. "I think I might've asked for fifteen cents at one point. But never a nail or the snail".

He tried not to laugh having just realized how ridiculous that sounded.