A/N: I have decided to make it a flashback/dream chapter. I hope you like it.
My friend and his son have left town. They didn't even say goodbye. How could they do that? I thought we meant more to them. I have to get over this because I still have my two younger brothers and Morain to take care of. I work at the bakery still, and my family is still living with my boss. It has been rather boring since Bae and his father left. I guess that is to be expected, though, with Rumplestiltskin becoming the Dark One. Morain and my two younger brothers were afraid of him. If Bae even remotely got hurt his father would overreact. I heard that he turned a man into a snail and stepped on him because Bae fell in front of the man. I felt that I owed Rumplestiltskin a great debt. He supported me, comforted me, and he brought my sister back to me. There is no way I would ever be able to repay the kindness he has shown me.
"Ava!" Someone ran into the bakery screaming my name. They looked like they had seen the dead walking. "Someone claiming to be an enchantress has entered town. She has your brothers and sister." I bolted out of the bakery out towards the place that Bae and his father used to live. Once there I saw my siblings kneeling on the ground in front of a woman. Their hands were restrained behind their backs. They saw me and immediately started sobbing.
"I'm sorry." All three of them kept saying over and over. The woman behind them was a stranger to this town. It was not uncommon to have travelers occasionally pas through town, but they never took captives.
"What do you want?" I asked the stranger. Her head was bowed so no one could see her face. The hood of her blue-green cloak casted a shadow dark enough to hide all of her facial features. A soft giggle came from that darkness. For a split second it reminded me of Rumplestiltskin. But, he was gone, and unless he knows how to change his shape, he was not a woman. "What…do…you…want?" I say again.
"I know what you want, and I can give it to you." She finally answered. Her voice was like the most beautiful song I had ever heard.
"That is not what I asked."
"Isn't it, though?" What did she mean by that. "I have come to make a deal with you, child." I shifted uncomfortably where I stood.
"What deal could you possibly want to make with me?" I had no clue what she was talking about. I don't need anything. I have a job, a home, and people who love and respect me.
"I know everyone's deepest desires. I know what you yearn for most." She paused finally picking up her head. The shape of her face was visible, and she was beautiful. "You wish for everlasting beauty so you may find your true love." My jaw felt like it would hit the dirt, and my eyes went wide. How could she know that? I have never told that to anyone. "No one told me of your wish, girl. I simply know when I am needed. There is a price for this beauty that you seek." I was finally able to close my mouth and squint my eyes as my brow furrowed.
"What is the price that you speak of?" I would have to think carefully. Rumplestiltskin went mad with the power that magic had given him. It is likely what has happened to this woman, as well.
"It is actually more of a choice. You come with me and I only kill your siblings, or you refuse to come with me and I destroy this whole town including you and your siblings."
"How could I choose either option?" It was a loose-loose situation. "Either way you kill my siblings."
"Well, of course. If I take you under my wing you can have no baggage. I can't have you coming back here searching for family if you get scared or give up. If you choose to come with me you must have no safety net." Either way I loose my family. I could feel tears coming to my eyes. Could I really choose to be selfish.
"She will go with you." It was Morain. I looked at her as the first tear fell. "She has gone through so much, and she deserves to find her true love. To find someone who will do anything for her, and protect her 'til their dying breath."
"Morain, I can't."
"But, you must. Either way she will kill us."
"It looks as if your sister has spoken for you." The enchantress says with a smirk. "Don't worry. They won't feel a thing." She waved her hand above my youngest brother, then my oldest brother, and Morain was the final victim. I fell to my knees after Morain fell to the ground; unmoving. I could not stop the tears and sobs coming from me. I heard someone running towards me. "Not one more step, baker. She is going with me, and you and your town will never see her again." I couldn't do anything. I couldn't move. I felt like my life was over. I had no more family or friends to run to. I was lifted off of the ground by the woman, using magic. Now, I couldn't move even if I wanted to.
"Where are you taking me?" I whispered as my emotions calmed. We were already quite a distance away from the town.
"My home. Once we are there, we can begin your training."
"What training, I thought you were going to give me everlasting beauty?" There's that giggle again. "What's so funny?" She stopped walking and looked at me.
"You must learn how to give yourself eternal beauty. To do that you must learn magic."
"I don't want to learn magic. It turns good people dark." The woman smirked at me.
"You won't be thinking of it that way once you learn what I have to teach you." Then with a wave of her hand we were inside a dark cold room. "This, my dear, is where you will be kept." I was finally able to move on my own, and I nearly fell to the ground. I caught myself on a table in the middle of the room. "I will come here and teach you everything you need to know about magic." I looked around the room. There was a small bed with a nightstand against one of the walls. Two of the other walls had bookshelves covered in books. The final fourth wall had two doors. One was orange and the other was green. "On the other side of the green door is a simple bath and a place for other bodily functions. Think of it as an outhouse that is inside." That is strange that an outhouse room would be inside unless we were in some sort of castle. "The orange door is a way for me to get in and out of the room, and once I trust you enough, maybe you will be able to venture through it." So that is my exit.
"Am I a prisoner? This room sure feels like a cell if I am unable to leave." The books and the table made it less like a cell, but I didn't feel free.
"Goodness no." She laughed. "I simply have an enchantment on the door. Once I rust you and you are able to destroy the enchantment you are free to go. It is more of a way to motivate you to learn more, my child." She is smart, but I will try to find a way out of here, even if it or she kills me.
It has been quite a while since the enchantress, Mika, has taken me. I have learned a lot of the magic from her, but I feel like she is keeping something from me. We started talking about normal things about a year after she took me. I told her about the rest of my family being victims of the Ogre War, and I also told her about Rumplestiltskin and his son. She had actually heard of Rumplestiltskin and how he became the Dark One. She warned me to stay away from him. She warned me that he might not even remember who I am, that he might kill me on the spot. That is when I asked her to teach me about transforming or shape shifting. It took a lot of convincing, but she agreed to teach me.
About a year after I started to learn shape shifting magic I finally got the hang of it. That same day, Mika rushed in stumbling. She slammed the door shut and collapsed to the floor. I rushed over to her.
"What happened?" It looked like she was writhing in pain. Her hands were covering up a wound that was bleeding. I removed her hands to see a slash across her stomach. I tried to heal it with the magic she taught me, but it was no use. Whatever weapon did this it was not normal. "What kind of weapon did this?" She looked up to me.
"A special sword. The poison cannot be cured with magic." How is that possible? I thought everything could be cured with magic. "The sword and poison are from another realm." It's like she knew what I was thinking. I heard a chick and I looked to the door. It opened on its own. I looked back to her. "You must go. The people who did this will come to make sure I am dead. I have taught you enough to survive. You must lay low. Make sure no one knows who or what you are. You will eventually find your true love. I promised you that you would get everlasting beauty to find that person, and I have given you the ability to do that." I just stared at her. She slipped a pocket watch out of one of her sleeves and placed it in my hand. "This is what gave me my youth. It stops you from aging as long as you have it on your person." I could tell, as soon as it left her hand, that her skin began to wrinkle. I looked up to her face and she looked to be an old woman. "Now go." She pushed me away and with a wave of her hand she used her last bit of magic to turn me into a parrot. I flew out the door and past the mob running towards the enchantress.
I flew as far as I could and when my wings got tired I landed next to a tree. I tried to change back into human form, but for some reason I couldn't. Maybe I was just tired. I flew up into the tree and fell asleep on one of the high branches.
I woke up and felt well rested so I tried to turn back into human form. I tried and tried, over and over. I just couldn't do it. I started to panic, but I thought of something. Maybe the Dark One can help me. So, I started to search for Rumplestiltskin. I went town to town resting on windowsills and listening to gossip and storied about the Dark One. No one knew where he resided. They all just said that he appeared to those who were desperate enough to make a deal with him. Does that mean I am not desperate enough to need him?
I had been traveling a while when I got to this coastal town. Not many stories of the Dark One here, but I decided to stay a little longer in case something did come up in someone's conversation. I hung around the tavern in this town, and I guess I was not paying that much attention because all of a sudden I was trapped in a net of some sort. In my parrot form I could not use my magic to help me. I flapped my wings around trying to get free. I got so tired that I had to stop struggling. My captor brought me to the docks and onto a ship.
"What are you doing?" A feminine voice called out.
"We caught it in town." The woman came over and grabbed the net from the man. She looked at me closely, and I thought she looked rather familiar.
"She's beautiful." Then she turned around and started talking to a man. "Killian. We have a pet now." She walked up to this man named Killian.
"As you wish, my dear." His smirk was genuine. These two were in a relationship, and it looked pretty strong to me. I would even go so far as to say that it was true love. "We shall need to make sure that this little birdie doesn't go anywhere." He walks away only to return with a cage. It was golden in color and had a small perch hanging from the top. I was taken out of the net and placed on the perch as the tiny door closed. I got comfortable because I knew that I would be spending a lot of time in this cage. But, I would try to find a way to escape from this cage and this ship.
A/N: Hope you liked it. I would love to hear what you think of my OC and the story itself.
