"Papa, why do we have to come so far into the forest to find trees?" the little blonde girl asks as her father goes through a strange looking ritual to find the perfect tree to chop down. "Why can we not use the ones closer to home?"

"Because, Gretel, we aren't allowed to. You see, when your Papa was young he met a magical fairy while he was chopping wood in the forest." The father says tapping his hand against another tree trunk, smiling as he found the perfect tree to chop down. "And she got really angry when I chopped down a tree. She said that she could feel the pain of the trees that I chopped down, but we need fire to keep ourselves warm, right?"

"Right."

"Well, she taught how to tell different trees apart, now we all get what we want." He finishes, swinging his axe against the tree trunk.

Tripping over a bag of dried flower leaves is very embarrassing, tripping over said bag and yelling profanities in your empty store is just the slightest bit less embarrassing. "Hello, this is The Green Fairy, Eirys speaking." Eirys says yanking the phone off its hook.

"Hey, Eirys, this is Mary Margaret." The usually happy-go-lucky school teacher's voice had an odd flavor of nervousness mixed with worry. "I was wondering if you could make some food and bring it over, you know, for a little chat."

Eirys glances up at the clock, the late afternoon meant that there wouldn't be too many customers. "Yeah, I'll be there in thirty minutes, any reason why you suddenly want me to come over with food?"

"No reason," she says it a little too hastily. "Well, Emma said she wants to talk with us, so I thought that we could make something for us to eat? And I guess I'll see you in thirty minutes then." She clicks off before Eirys could interrogate her any longer.

Eirys stares suspiciously at the phone trying to guess what Mary Margaret was plotting. She quickly punches the number to a familiar sullen man next door. "Hey there Mr. Gold, it's Eirys."

There is complete silence on the other end. "What do you want?"

"How rude." Eirys frowns, the conversation tilting off the path she had planned it to take. "Why would you think I wanted anything from you? What if I just wanted to know how your day's been going?"

She could practically hear him making his usual 'are you serious?' face at her through the phone. "Since when is that ever the case?"

"Touché, but that is not the point today. Today, I need you to come over and taste some sandwiches; I got some new flavors and everything." Eirys explains knowing that using food is the easiest way to get Mr. Gold to do what you want him to do. "And, in case you're wondering, it's for a little get together with Mary Margaret."

Mr. Gold sighs, pretending to be think it over, even though Eirys knew that he had already decided. "I'll be right over."

And as it turns out, when he said he'd be right over, he meant right over. Within minutes of putting the phone down, Mr. Gold was already over and sitting comfortably in his chair, eagerly awaiting the promised food. "So, why do you make everything with cucumber?"

"Cucumbers are good, why not use cucumbers?" Eirys counters chopping up more thin slices of cucumbers and mechanically making more avocado, mayonnaise, and cucumber sandwiches. "Here, try this one; it has no cucumbers in it."

Mr. Gold bites into it. "Honey apples and bananas, it's actually not that bad." He says downing a glass of milk afterwards. "It's a bit on the dry side."

"Whatever," Eirys replies, as she secretly spreads less peanut butter on the other honey apples and banana sandwiches. "Maybe I should bake something like a carrot cake?"

"Only if you plan to share," Mr. Gold replies reaching for the third flavor of sandwich, a three cheese grilled sandwich. "How come you never make these types of sandwiches when I come over, all I get are cucumbers."

Eirys rolls her eyes, pouring hot orange tea into canisters for transportation. "Don't eat too many or else I won't have enough to bring to Mary Margaret's. Oh, and I need you to take care of any of my customer's that might come over."

Mr. Gold merely shoos her towards the door the clock ticking closer to the designated meeting time. However, when Mary Margaret said that Emma had something to tell them both Eirys merely assumed it had something to do with Henry and Regina, but no, it did not. "Mary Margaret, what is going on here?" Eirys whispers, watching the hungry kids practically inhale the sandwiches.

"I don't know Emma just brought them here." And Sheriff Swan was busy doing sheriff stuff like figuring out who these children were and why they didn't have any children.

"Do either of you know them?" Emma asks, making sure to keep her voice down to a soft whisper as the children continue to eat like they never saw food before. "Do they go to your school?"

"I've seen them, but I had no idea that they were homeless." Mary Margaret says shaking her head sadly. "None of us did."

Emma had found a folder with their names. "Eva and Nicholas Zimmer, apparently their mother was a woman named Dory Zimmer, she died a few years ago. No one seems to know her or remember her."

"And the father?" Eirys asks.

"There isn't one," Emma replies reading the file. "At least not one that they know of."

"What did social services say?" Emma makes a face that Mary Margaret seems to recognize immediately. "You didn't report them."

"I report them, I can't help them." Emma explains.

Eirys nods. "The system isn't very reliable, and they're so small, they'll get eaten alive out there where families are paid to take in foster kids. But what are you going to do, adopt them?"

"I want to look for their father, they don't know him, and so he might know that they exist." Emma says she had a very odd optimistic view of the world. She automatically knew the worst possible situations, yet believed that she could somehow fix everything.

"And you think that if he knows, he'll want them." Mary Margaret says rationally.

"I don't know." Emma explains, "But I do know that it's hard enough finding a foster family to take in one let alone two. It's their best shot or—"

"We're going to be separated?" Eva asks.

Eirys had been doing some weird looking dance trying to tell Emma to shut up, but of course, her little crazy dance was done in vain and now came that awkward moment when all the beans had to be spilled.

"No, of course not." Emma assures.

Mary Margaret had agreed to let the children remain at her place for the time being while Emma looked for their father. "You could go and dig up their birth certificates, I'm sure the father's name has to be written on there." Eirys suggests before driving back to her little flower shop.

It's not usually strange when people go missing. Some of them just runaway from their nagging wives, some go on journeys to faraway places, and others might become food for the wild beasts of the forests. However, it's very strange that children should go missing especially when they are all last seen at one particular place with one particular woman.

"So you think the queen is kidnapping these children?" Bae asks pacing around the tree, it wasn't often that they were offered a job that didn't involve him being Ivy's most 'trusted' assistant.

Ivy shrugs, she was never really good with mysteries. "It's a possibility, but use would she have for children, they are hardly good sources of labor, unless she eats them." Ivy shudders at the very thought of eating children.

"Well, I suppose I'll go and try to dig something up on this little matter then." Bae says walking towards the edge of the forest, stopping right before he steps out. "And why, might I ask, are you following me?"

There are many things Ivy couldn't do well; one of such things was being sneaky. "I just want to know where you go when you leave the Fairy Grounds." She tried her best sad pleading look, letting her eyes tear up a bit, and her lower lip sticking out and quivering like a leaf. "Please let me go with you."

"Very well," Bae sighs never standing a chance against that face. He leads the way down the dirt road away from the nearest village. "And don't you dare tell anyone about this."

Ivy silently follows Bae down some twisted turns in the path trying to figure out where they were going. Of course, nothing could have prepared for what she was about to encounter. "You live here?"

"Yep."

"In this castle." And it is a beautiful castle with intricate tower designs and well maintained stone structures. "And you go to the Fairy Grounds, why?"

He shrugs pulling the door to his castle open. "In you go," the inside of the castle is just as impressive as the outside. There were brilliant tapestries on the walls, lush rugs covering the floors, and sparkling rare artifacts shown off on pedestals. Before Ivy could wander off and explore the castle, Bae ushers her off to the main dinning room. "Even if I have all this stuff, I can't eat any of it."

"So you're just using me for the food." Ivy says critically sipping the steaming tea Bae had set in front of her. She had admire the beautifully crafted tea cup, it's hard getting good quality items in the Fairy Grounds, but it was even harder to trade for them.

"It's not like that." Bae says, finding that he was in a loss of words to explain his situation. "Sometimes even I need a friend to talk to." If Bae could be bought by food then Ivy could be bought by playing the sad soul that she saved.

Ivy sighs, she never was good at staying mad at people. "Very well then, however, we still have to figure out why the children are disappearing. You said you'd dig around for information."

"Well, as it turns out," Bae says waving his finger around. "I know who we should be looking for, the Queen."

"The Queen?" Ivy repeats unable to find a connection between an evil queen and poverty-stricken children. "Why would the Queen ever need to employ children when she has an entire army at her disposal?"

"Because, dearie, they can do something that adults can not do." He gets up and walks to one of his many bookshelves. "Do you remember the area that all the children seem to be last seen?" he pulls a rolled up map from its resting place and spreads it out on the table.

Ivy looks at the crudely drawn map. "Right here," she points to a small patch of green representing one of the many forests under the Queen's rule. "What's so special about the forest?"

"Well, for one, it's not just a regular forest." Bae explains. "In that forest lives a blind old witch whose house is made of delicious sweets."

Ivy nods letting the information soak into her head. "So, if the blind witch covers her house with magic then the Queen can't get in, but if the magic doesn't affect children then the Queen just has to kidnap children and send them in." it sounded like a full proof plan. "But why would the Queen want to break into the blind witch's house?"

Bae shrugs. "Who really knows what that woman is thinking?"

"So how are we supposed to stop the Queen? It's not like either of us could enter the house and those children who never come out are probably being fried alive and fed to hungry dogs!"

"I wouldn't say that they're being fed to dogs." Bae says catching sight of the green hue of Ivy's face. "They're probably being used as little servants, cleaning and cooking, stuff the children would be good at."

Ivy quickly nods finding that idea to be better than hers. "Well, I can't see how we can do anything to remedy the situation; expect to help her next victims in and out of the candy house."

Bae suddenly remembers something. "I heard that a woodcutter's children have gone missing, or rather the entire family has just disappeared." The whole situation just screamed of the evil Queen's meddling. "Perhaps we should go to the blind witch's candy house and see if we find some children?"

Of course they could have just walked to the forest like normal people who wouldn't frighten two little children to the point where they trip over their pants, but dealing with Bae meant that they wouldn't be doing anything close to normal. Instead of traveling over ground to the forest, Bae decided that it would be best to just use magic to travel. And of course they would land right in front of two starving looking children who stumbled over themselves when they tried to run away.

"Oh, no, don't be afraid, we're here to help you." Ivy says trying to calm the hyperventilating children. "My name is Ivy, I'm the Flower Fairy, and this is my assistant, Bae."

Eva and Nicholas really liked sweets, especially cookies. "I knew it was a good idea to bake cookies, Mr. Gold wanted me to make carrot cake." Eirys smiles as she decorates another sugar cookie with a pink and blue flower. "Aren't they the cutest cookies in the world?"

"Thanks for the cookies." Eva says licking the frosting off her fingers.

"Here I want to show you guys something." Emma says carrying her box of things to the kitchen counter. And out of the box comes a white and purple blanket with her name embroidered on it. "It's my baby blanket. It's something I've held onto my whole life. It's the only thing I have from my parents. I spent a lot of time with kids like you and all of us have something we hold on to."

Eirys claps finally understanding the motive for bringing out the baby blanket. "So you want to try and tack him down using something they could have kept from their father."

"I might have something." Eva admits, "But if I give it to you, you promise we'll stay together?"

Emma nods and Eva reaches into the pocket of her donated sweater. "A compass?" Emma looks at the brass circular object.

"Our mom kept it. She said it was our dad's."

"We can ask Mr. Gold if he's ever seen something like that." Eirys says finishing the decorations of the last cookie. "It looks like something he would have sold in his shop."

"Did you ever find them?" Eva asks right before Emma starts for the door. "You're parents?"

"Not yet, but I'm going to find yours."

Mr. Gold's shop is as dusty and lack of customer presence as always. "Emma, Eirys, how lovely to see you both. I don't usually get so many customers at one time. What can I do for you, Sheriff?"

Emma puts the compass down on the counter. "I'm looking for information about this compass. Do you have idea where it could have come from?"

"Well, look at the detail." Mr. Gold went off into his own little antique world for a few moments, admiring the nice jeweled setting of the compass. "You know, despite the unfortunate shape it's in, it's a very unusual piece. The person who owned this obviously had great taste."

"So naturally they would buy it right here," Eirys concludes not knowing any other place where a person could buy something of that caliber. "Do you remember who bought it?"

"Let's see," he wanders over his box of records "but as it just so happens, I do keep extensive records." And in no time he's holding the card with the customer's name on it.

But when he did not give it to Emma immediately there had to be a certain agreement made between the two of them. "What's your price?"

"Forgiveness,"

"How about tolerance?"

Mr. Gold shrugs, "one has to start somewhere, and the compass was purchased by one Mr. Michael Toleman."

"I don't suppose you bothered to get his address?" Eirys asks even though she knew that he wouldn't. Mr. Gold rarely ever saw the same customer twice. And of course, Mr. Gold shakes his head with that same taunting smile on his face. "I don't suppose you need any help convincing the father to take in the kids."

"Don't worry about it." Emma says turning to leave the store like a woman on a mission. "I'll convince him one way or another."

Eirys glances back at Mr. Gold after Emma leaves the store. "There's nothing written on that card is there?" He reveals the blank card with a mockingly guilty face. "Just what are you planning, Mr. Gold?"

"So the Queen is going to find your father if you get this black satchel from the blind witch's house." Ivy summarizes after Hansel and Gretel tell their story. "What's in the bag?"

"We don't know," Gretel replies, the sun just starting to set. "She told us to go in when the sun goes down and that we aren't supposed to eat anything."

"Maybe if you leave the window open, I can fly in if you need any help." Ivy says slowly as if she was trying to convince herself that the plan would work. One could never be too sure about the powers of a witch. "We'll wait our here for you, ok?"

Hansel and Gretel nod, silently walking towards the house. Hansel was the one who needed to be watched as he was more likely to fall to the temptations of the house of treats. "What do you think is happening?" Bae asks when the window suddenly closes and the locks fall into place.

"I don't want to know." Eirys says pacing back and forth, it seemed like ages before Hansel and Gretel come flying out of the door. "Whoa, it's ok, she's not chasing after you, but we should probably leave just in case."

"Well I suppose the mystery of the missing children is now over." Bae says watching the children disappear down the road towards the Queen's castle. "What do you think was in that bag?"

Ivy shrugs, not bothering to try and understand the twisted mind of the Queen. "Let's just say that I don't really want to know, nor do I have the energy to find out." The entire day of just waiting around and doing nothing was surprisingly exhausting. "Do you feel that?"

The sudden burst of window flying up towards the castle screams of angry magic. "Looks as if someone didn't do what the Queen wanted them to do." Bae says watching the wind fly into a tower.

"I hope Hansel and Gretel are ok," Ivy says knowing that the two kids were probably not ok and that their father could possibly be in a worse situation. "Maybe we should go talk to the Queen?"

"And ask her what? That you want her to let the children go?" Bae asks shaking his unruly hair. "Sorry, dearie, but the Queen doesn't let anyone go, ever."

"In the end you couldn't convince him to take back his children?" Eirys asks a spoon of banana pudding in her mouth. "What did Mary Margaret say?"

"She says that it might be for the best." Emma replies clearly not liking the situation the kids were in. And she is probably angry at the father for abandoning his children. "Regina is making me take them to Boston and they're going into the foster system."

Eirys shakes her head. "That sounds like a bad idea, remember what happened when Ashley tried to go to Boston? It seems like whenever we try to leave, something bad happens, what if you or the children get hurt?"

"You do not honestly believe Henry's story are you?" Emma asks.

"Hey, I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning and read that our sheriff and two children were killed trying to leave Storybrooke, I mean, at least wait until morning. The wet roads are giving me the creeps."

"Sorry, the mayor's orders." Emma sighs, the time social security were expecting the kids was drawing closer and closer with each passing minute. "Isn't there anything that we can do?"

"Besides trying to convince Michael to take in his kids?" Eirys asks, "I don't think so, besides kidnapping them and hiding them somewhere, but we really can't do that."

Emma sighs once again, clicking her cell phone off. "I take it that the conversation between Miss. Swan and Mr. Toleman didn't go so well." Mr. Gold says scooping another hearty bowl of banana pudding.

"I guess not all stories have happy endings then." Eirys says finishing her first bowl of banana pudding. "It seems like such a waste to just throw all these bananas away. I wish Eva and Nicholas were still here, I could feed them banana bread, and banana cookies, and banana sandwiches."

"I'm still here," Mr. Gold puts in, though his stomach probably couldn't handle all the bananas Eirys had managed to get her hands on. "Where did you get all these bananas anyways?"

"I won a raffle thing at the market." Eirys replies peeling more bananas, "So, I'm making banana bread for Mary Margaret's class and then I can send you home with a loaf or two, right?"

Mr. Gold shrugs he wasn't very picky when it came to eating food. "Perhaps you should give something to Miss. Swan; I doubt she's very happy with the outcome of the children's situation."

It seemed to be the trend of tripping over ones feet in order to get to the phone. And the fact that Mr. Gold would just stare at her in the most mocking way did not help the situation. "Hello, this is the Green Fairy, Eirys speaking." Eirys blew stray pieces of hair from her face.

"Hey, it's me, Emma."

"Emma, how are you, don't worry about a thing I'm making banana pudding, banana bread, and banana chips so come over whenever you feel like having a heart to heart chat." Eirys says stashing the left over bananas in her fridge.

Emma laughs. "No actually, he changed him mind. He's taking the kids."

"That's great news." Eirys says, wrapping her warm loaves of banana bread. "I'll send over some banana bread, and I bet the Eva and Nicholas like banana pudding. It's great that everything worked out."

"Yeah, so, I guess I should leave you to making your banana stuff, then." She never was really good at saying good-bye, and with that, she clicks off.

Eirys happily puts the phone back. "Strange things are happening now that Emma's here, wouldn't you agree?"

"Of course," Mr. Gold says taking his banana bread. "I can't wait to see what happens next."