The Steam Realm was his least favorite place. Period. He'd been to a lot of places in the Enchanted Forest, been all over their realm, traveled to Neverland and a Land Without Color and London and was intending even to go to a World Without Magic, but this place…this was the worst place he'd ever been to. It looked like London, the London he'd been to when dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but it was dank and sinister in a way that London wasn't. It was daytime, but the sky was black. All around him he could smell fire, weapons, sickness, and most troubling of all, rotting flesh. He arrived in a forest community, one that was armed to the teeth against something he couldn't possibly understand until he'd turned around and come face to face with a corpse. A living corpse. He'd seen a great many things in his time, but few sickened him like this…thing, walking around on two legs; if he could even call them that. He was decomposing. One of his legs was missing a chunk of flesh so that he could see right down to the bone. He was missing two fingers on his right hand. His jaw was slacked open as if he couldn't close it. One eye hung from is socket by something reddish-gray while the other was fixed on him. He was so horrified he just stood there as he advanced, too stunned to run away, until-
A metal arrow darted past him and embedded itself within the last good eye the creature had. It had happened so fast he'd stood there yet again in stunned silence as the creature dropped to his knees then completely down to the ground. A child, no more than nine, in tattered clothes, ran around him and up to the creature. He pulled the arrow from his eye, pocketed it in a small quiver, then set to cutting his head off with a crude axe when he finally looked up at him. The boy gasped and it was only then that he realized he bore a striking resemblance to this particular monster, with his scaly skin and greasy hair. As the boy struggled to get another arrow he managed to make himself disappear into the tree line. He had magic in this place, not sluggish like it was in England or even in the Land Without Color. It was an interesting observation, but he wasn't in the Steam Realm for observations, he was there to find someone.
The Seer was beginning to talk to him, frequently and rapidly. He wasn't sure if he'd just forgotten how annoying she could be because he'd shut her out after being afraid she might put something in his head about Belle, or if she was just getting agitated because something was going to happen. But one thing was very certain, this time, he was going to listen when she spoke. He just hadn't realized that when she'd given him instructions yesterday, this place was where those instructions would lead. He stayed in the village for a few days, using glamor to help hide his cursed appearance from the villagers. He learned what this place was and soon learned that there were some curses even less appealing than his own.
The Steam Realm was a world in the midst of destruction, the stuff of nightmares. Unfriendly werewolves, beings called vampires that drank the blood of their victims, but most terrifying of all a creature that everyone called "the undead". They were beings infected with some kind of disease that forced them to feed on the flesh, specifically the brains, of other humans. As the disease ate at them, their bodies decomposed right along with their minds until they craved nothing but flesh. The only way they could be killed was to be beheaded, but steel arrows could temporarily stun them. It was good information to have.
The village he was at was one of the last of its kind, most people, in order to avoid the monsters, had gathered in cities with great walls to keep the creatures out. For the most part the cities were safe places but miserable. This realm knew about magic, but blamed it for most of their woes. Magic was not permitted within the cities and neither were the monsters. He shrugged as someone warned him against going, telling them that he was only a visitor.
"No one visits here," he was informed by a very confused young woman.
"Well, there's a first for everything."
And there was. The Curse that was coming for him was the reason, the first that drove him to this place, for there was someone he needed to see. Because the truth was he wasn't the first visitor they had here, there was another, and that was the man the Seer wanted him to see.
A law about magic couldn't keep him from doing it, and once he passed the stringent laws in order to get into the city, he was able to use an old spell to find his furry target…though, not so furry at the moment. Just dirty. He worked at a plant in the city, one that created coal and helped stoke the fires that made the steam. He found him there, getting off work, black dust clung to the creases in his skin no matter how hard he wiped at it with a cloth, and then…he cast his gaze to the sky, looking up as if he could see the moon through the black and smog. No one could see the moon, not even him…but he imagined that his new asset didn't need to see the moon to know what phase it was in. He could probably feel it.
"You don't belong here, dearie!"
The second the man stepped into his home he used magic to take himself inside and met him in his pitiful little kitchen. The man was quick. He pulled a knife from a drawer, tossed it in the air, caught it properly, and…he'd already used his magic to get to another place in the room for his own protection. A knife wouldn't kill him, not that knife at least, but he didn't particularly need the distraction.
"Nice try, but it'll take more than that to rid the world of me."
The man gasped as he turned to face him. He eyed him with distrust, looked him over, and then lowered the knife, but certainly didn't put it away.
"It would seem you don't belong here either...Dark One. What do you want?"
"Ooh! I do love it when I make an impression across the realms."
"Only with me. My father was of your world, he told me stories, it nearly killed him!"
"Ah, but you're not of my world!" he pointed out. "You're not even of this one. Tell me, who's idea was it to come here, yours…or his?"
The man opened his mouth to speak but instead just ended up breathing hard before he took a step back. "What's it to you? What do you know about me? What are you doing here?"
He smiled. "Interesting that you have questions. I have questions too. It's what brings me here on business, your business. Tell me," he pulled one of the little wooden chairs out from his small table and sat down in it, his back straight, his gaze unflinching in his direction to show interest. "How did a werewolf such as your father find his way to a small little Realm Without Magic, in a place called 'The United States of America'? And, for that matter, how does his son, also a werewolf, go from this United States of America, to a small city called London?"
He crossed his legs, then folded his hands and placed them on his knee, and raised his eyebrows. He was trying to be inviting, but the man just stood there, his gaze challenging his own. He had to force himself not to roll his eyes. He knew who he was, but only from stories passed down. He wasn't as frightened as someone from their world might be. That didn't work so well for just getting the individual to talk, but he did have some experience with this. He just had to find the right deal, and fortunately, he brought it with him in the form of an old deal he'd long since put behind him.
"Very well…I seek information, information on the land your father once immigrated to, information concerning the place you once called home. In return…this coin, has been infused with a solution which allows he who possesses it to ignore the harmful effects of the moon's rays. So long as you keep it in your pocket, you will remain human. Drop it…" he let it clatter to the table where it promptly rolled off and with a bit of magic settled right between the toes of his boots, "…and you'll become the monster that I assume forced you to move here."
With a gasp of desperation, the man dipped down to scoop the thing up, but he recalled it back into his palm. "Ah! You only get it when my questions have been answered."
"What kind of questions?"
"Well I've just told you-"
"Yeah, questions about America, but…what do you want to know? It's been ten years since I left, if you want an opinion about Jackie Robinson joining the Dodgers, I left before the World Series. If you want to know what's in spam, so would I! I didn't know Truman, I had no secrets of state!"
"Is any of that important?" he questioned, trying to figure out what in the hell he was talking about. It was like he was speaking another language.
"I don't know! It depends on who you're talking to, that's why I need to know what you want to know!"
What he wanted to know…about his new and future home…a million and one things. He wanted to know what a truman was and why Jackie Robinson needed an opinion about joining people who dodged…whatever they were supposed to be dodging. He wanted to know what was in spam and what it was. He wanted to know where Baelfire was, but he knew the chances of him knowing his son personally there were slim because while he knew that there was a dark haired man who knew Baelfire and this man had dark hair, they weren't one in the same. So…the question wasn't what he wanted to know, but rather, what did he need to know. What did he need to know about where to find Baelfire? Why had the Seer sent him after him? What was going to help him in the curse?
"Storybrooke, Maine, United States of America…do you know where this place is?"
"The United States of America is a country, most people just call it America or United States, or USA for short, just depends what part of the country you're from. Maine is a state up North…it's cold a lot…it's practically Canada. I've never heard of Storybrooke, but I assume it's a town."
"How big is this…America?"
He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head looking overwhelmed and confused. "Forty-eight states total…millions of people I guess, I don't know, geography wasn't really my thing when I left."
Geography. The Curse was going to take care of that for him. He didn't need to know that, especially not before he left. He needed…he needed security. He had a plan with his potion from True Love to one day bring magic to that place and when it was there it would be a great resource. But before it arrived, he needed other resources to make up for it. In a world without magic, he needed power. How did a world without magic maintain that? What did he have to do to get power?
"How is power allocated? Who is in charge?"
"The President? Congress?"
Meaningless words.
"In a town like Storybrooke, an ordinary town, who would be in charge?"
"The police? Probably a Mayor? Or…well…I suppose at least technically."
"Technically? Who has the power? A mayor or police?"
The man smirked and blew a huff of air out of his nostrils. "There's no magic there so the powerful are those who have the most; most land, most money, most influence. Wherever this Storybrooke is…I'm sure it's just like every other place there. It's run by the people in charge, sometimes those people are who they seem, other times they're not."
"So if one wanted power there…?"
"Find yourself some cash, make sure you own your own land, don't rent, have a nice cushy job like a lawyer or a business owner, and then be sure to make friends in high places. And then bet on the Dodgers because my opinion is that Jackie Robinson's gonna make them fucking famous! Anything else you want to know?"
Suddenly he wasn't in the kitchen of the man's home anymore. Suddenly he was in a desolate place, on a lake of some kind. No…he wasn't on the lake, he was on a dock. There was fog all around him, a boat attached to the dock, and in front of him a single person he had been watching so long he would have recognized her even without her hood. Snow White.
Go now! The Seer ordered. She searches for you, for a way to forget! She must forget. She must forget so that she remembers. Go now! Or all is lost!
"Hey!" And just like that he was back in the kitchen, the voice, his vision, had ended, but his heart raced with anticipation. Another trick of the Seer's, one that she used to impress upon him the importance of time. She'd told him to come here for useful information, now she wanted him back in his own realm to meet Snow White. She wanted him there now. One of these days he was going to have to press her for a schedule.
"Anything else you want to know, or can I have that?"
Oh. He'd been nearly up and ready to leave when his voice summoned him back and reminded him of where he was and what he was doing. And the Dark Ones were there, striking magic into him, reminding him of the deal he'd made with the werewolf and the coin he still held in his hand, the coin he'd made just for this moment like he'd made Granny's cloak.
This moment…
"Go" said the Seer. So he went. "Talk" said the Seer, so he talked. "Go," she'd just said again…but had he talked all he needed to? In the new world, material possessions would be his power. He needed money and influence, he needed land and to be his own boss, not magic. But of course…if he had magic, that might put him heads and tails above the rest. He wanted no surprises. He needed no surprises.
"When they call it the Land Without Magic…"
"It's mostly true. No magic, at least none like what you're used to. But they have belief and miracles. Sometimes it's just as strong as magic, sometimes less. Belief in werewolves was enough to keep my father and I changing, at least until he died, hunted down like a monster. I wished for a world I'd belong…ended up here. I didn't realize my kind here were monsters and everyone would be afraid of me like they are, that I'd have to hide as much as I do."
"Ease your conscious…" flips the coin at him. He catches it in one hand and looks it over.
"Will this thing really work?"
"Hold tight to it next full moon, and you'll find out. One last thing, how did your father get to a Land Without Magic. It wasn't a fairy perhaps, was it? A bean, maybe?"
"Don't know," he shook his head. "My father took me when I was three, I have no memories of going, and when I asked, he never told me."
He didn't press the issue, not what he was as close as he was to getting things the way the Seer had always promised. In fact, from where he stood now he was almost certain that if he'd told him how it was done, he probably wouldn't have done it just out of a fear that he would mess up what he had, nearly a century and a half of work, all for a wild goose chase. He had to remain focused, and at the moment, that meant finding Snow White.
Welcome to the seventh section, a section I have entitled: The Snow White and Prince Charming Section! Original, I know. This is the second to last section and it's about an average sized section, maybe the same size, roughly, as the Regina Section. Hopefully, after reading this chapter you get an idea of where we are in the timeline with Snow and Charming. We'll seem more of them in the next chapter, or at least we'll see one of them in the next chapter.
Thank you Jennifer Baratta, Grace5231973, and Alarada for your very gracious comments on the last chapter as we wrapped up the former section. I know that starting us out with the Snow White and Prince Charming Section in this chapter might seem strange, but there are reasons for it and I'm hoping that after you read this at least one of those will be obvious. Without Belle, Rumple is less distracted and realizes he needs to learn the currency of the land he is going to. This is why he knows to ask Regina not for a place on Storybrooke City Council but rather for land and money. A less obvious reason to send him here, specifically, is because in Moments Beyond Rumple brings Belle and Gideon to this realm while they search for the cure to his curse. He seems fairly familiar with it so I was searching for a way to introduce it for the future and it all just sort of worked out. I hope you can see the need for it and are ready for some Snowing. Peace and Happy Reading!