"She's late, isn't she?" Saphira asks sitting on her cloud, scanning the sky for a clumsy fairy in pink. "I don't see her anywhere."

Ivy sighs, picking at the green dress she wore, thee were so many other things she could be doing at that moment. "I'm sure Nova will be here soon, she's a little uncoordinated after all." And sure enough, they soon hear the screaming voice of the super uncoordinated young fairy, Nova.

"Easy, easy does it." Nova still needs to work on her landing skills. "Careful, remember, fairy dust is very important, it powers the whole world. And this is the year supply."

Nova nods. "I know."

"And, next year, you'll be doing this alone." Ivy says brightly.

But Nova doesn't look happy at all. "I'll still be picking up dust? I thought I'd be a fairy Godmother by then." Usually fairies with gift granting powers would go through a simple phase of doing menial jobs while under an apprenticeship from a fairy Godmother before they are promoted to the status of fairy Godmother.

Saphira laughs, "Oh, Nova. You really are a dreamer." Ivy tosses her a dirty look. "You're journey is just beginning. Now, can you get the dust home safely?"

Fairy dust is dropped all over the world; whenever a fairy flies they drop their magic into the earth. Then it trickles through the ground and usually settles in some rocks below the earth. The dwarves would mine the rocks, crush them, and reform it into fairy dust.

Nova nods. Saphira sighs, spreading her blue tinted wings and flying off. "Don't worry about it, Nova. I'm sure you'll become a fairy Godmother before you know it." Ivy reassures, "now, let's get going."

"Guess what's coming up?" Eirys asks scooping honey into her teacup to sweet her apple and ginger tea. "Mr. Gold you aren't even listening to me." She snatches the snickerdoodles away from Mr. Gold's grabby hands.

He scowls. "Oh, let me guess. Miner's Day?"

"Exactly, I'm going to help Mary Margaret sell candles, it's going to be so much fun." Eirys says enthusiastically, not letting the rumors about Mary Margaret get her too down. "I'm going down to help later today, a lot of volunteers dropped out because of Mary Margaret."

"You'd think they'd be in it for the fundraiser." Mr. Gold says. "Bring me back a candle or something."

Eirys pouts, putting the snickerdoodles back on the table. "You don't want to come and help? It's a Storybrooke tradition."

"I'm busy with work." Mr. Gold replies, though Eirys suspected that he just didn't want to do any work today, or any other day. "Maybe I'll drop by to visit when I'm done."

Or it could have been the cold; Mr. Gold is not a winter kind of person. Outside is actually quite chilly and Eirys pulls her blue knitted hat over her ears and walks down the street. People are already bustling around, working on lights and stands, and everything else that needed to be done.

"Oh, Eirys, over here!" one of the younger nuns ushers her over. "What was that thing that you told me before about dreams and stuff?"

"You can do anything as long as you can dream it?" Eirys asks, it was a long time ago when the two of them met, they weren't really friends. Astrid and the other nuns would always help out for Miner's Day and Eirys always helped out. They got along.

Leroy, the custodian seems to be actually having a normal conversation with Astrid, how rare. "You really believe in that?" Perhaps he has taken a liking into the young woman, it'll be good for him.

"Of course, look how easily you fixed the lights." Astrid says, the lights were nicely done, not something one would expect from Leroy. "I believe that you can do anything." She brushes some white flakes from his face. "I, we, should be getting to the volunteer center. It was very nice to meet you Leroy."

Astrid clumsily tries to lead Eirys through the crowd of passing people. "Well, aren't you happier than usual?"

"No, of course not." She denies it way too quickly. "I mean, I just met him, and he helped me. Of course I would be happy. It saves me a lot of time trying to fix that thing."

"Yeah, Leroy doesn't help anyone." Eirys says, Astrid leading them in a large circle. "He's the town drunk, he doesn't do anything but make people angry."

Astrid glances over her shoulder. Leroy seems to be busily making his way through the crowd. "Then why would he help me?"

"Why indeed?"

Eirys frowns, there weren't that many people helping this year. "Oh Eirys thank goodness you're here." Mary Margaret says, even though this is supposed to be a happy celebration, she looks absolutely miserable.

"I see you could use all the help you can get." Eirys says, there are loads of boxes of candles. "I'll take a box. I'm forcing this down Mr. Gold's throat for not helping this year."

Then the most unexpected person comes whistling through the door. "Hey, sister, where can I sign up?"

"You don't want to sell candles." Mary Margaret says, "You made that very clear at Granny's this morning." Not unlikely since Leroy tends to speak his mind about things, and that meant, everything.

"Maybe I saw the light or something." He says glancing over at the conversing sisters. "And by the looks of it, you can use all the help you can get, even if it comes from me."

Mary Margaret sighs frustratedly. "You can help me sell candles, but there will be no swearing, no drinking, and I'm calling all the shots." She shoves a clipboard into his arms and returns to her work.

"Is everything ok?" Without Eirys noticing, Leroy had walked over to a very depressed looking Astrid.
She shakes her head. "No, I'm a complete idiot. We get a certain amount as a budget every month, and it's always monitored carefully. Except for the fact that I spent it all, on helium, and we can't pay the rent."

"So you'll make it all up when you get your next stipend." Leroy says.

"The stipend isn't until next month; the rent is due next week." Astrid says. The nuns really did have it hard since the only form of income they really had were the candles they sell on Miner's Day.

"So how do you need to sell?"

"Like a thousand." That might have been an exaggeration, but it did come close. Mr. Gold is not a nice person when it comes to rents. And the nuns don't get much money in the first place.

"How many did you sell last year?"

"Forty-two." Astrid answer. "Most of which, Eirys bought because her electricity blew out around Miner's Day last year."

Yeah, forty-two to a thousand is a very far jump. The other option is possibly begging Mr. Gold to cut them some slack, but even Eirys couldn't get him to do something like that. "And then we'd get kicked out and get reassigned, which means we'll probably have to leave Storybrooke."

"No, you won't."

Mary Margaret glances over at them.

"You want to know why you only sold forty-two last year. Because you didn't have me." It might have been better if Leroy didn't get involved with this project. "This year we're going to sell all of them."

Even Mr. Gold couldn't buy all the candles the nuns had. But Astrid seems happy at the thought of it, so if they could do it, everything should be ok. "Um, this isn't working." Eirys points out as the people walking past the stand doesn't even give them a second look.

"You're right, we should pack it up." Leroy says, even though he wasn't really doing anything in the first place.

Mary Margaret looks at the shorter man. "What, now you're quitting?"

"If the customers aren't coming to us, we go to them." Leroy says. "And since they don't like us, they'll pay us to leave. You can just go your own way." Leroy says to Eirys as if noticing her for the first time. "Unless you want to destroy something to join us."

Eirys rolls her eyes, "I'll go this way and we can meet back here or something." Walking around with boxes of candles, going door-to-door to see if people want any, is not the best way to spend ones day.

"Oh you poor girl, doing this all by yourself." Thank goodness for the old couples in the neighborhood. "We'll take a few, I've got a book club later this week, I need some flowers to brighten up my living room."

"Oh yeah, I can totally arrange something for you." Eirys says tucking the money into her pocket, making a mental note of the order, which she may or may not remember by the time she gets home. "It'll probably be done the day after tomorrow."

Eirys flips open her phone, pushing the number one, the speed dial number for Mr. Gold. "Hey, Mr. Gold are you done with your work yet?"

"I refuse to help you with your candles." Mr. Gold replies, trying to multitask with whatever work he wants to do. "But I suppose I could buy some later."

"Don't worries I already got your usual amount of candles," Eirys says. The phone beeps. "Wow, you're unexpectedly very popular today."

Mr. Gold pushes a button and the line stays quiet for a while. "I'm heading out now, is there anything else you need?" The clicking of his cane on the ground and the brisk pace that he's walking means something interesting must have happened.

"Yeah, do you think you can write something down for me? Write, 'flower arrangement for book club day after tomorrow' and just leave it on my desk." Eirys shuts her phone off before Mr. Gold could refuse her request. "I suppose I should get back soon."

The likelihood that Mary Margaret and Leroy actually sold any of their candles is almost slim to none, which means they would be back at the volunteer center by now. "So, how did everything go?" Eirys gratefully accepts a cup of steaming hot chocolate. "I hope that you were enjoying the cold more than I was."

Mary Margaret looks at the clock. "Well, Leroy lied to Astrid and now he's trying to get the five thousand dollars worth of candles."

"Well, I have a hundred or two here." Eirys says digging the crumpled dollars and checks out of her green coat pocket. "So I guess that's only four thousand and nine hundred dollars left to get?"

"Saphira what are you doing?" Ivy asks following sleepily after the glowing blue fairy. "It's practically the middle of the night."

Saphira stops, "Nova's running off. I have to go stop her." And then she zooms off as fast as her little wings could carry her.

Ivy just stares at the residual blue light of her friend. "I'm sure Nova knows what she's doing. She's not as clumsy as everyone thinks she is." Ivy returns to her house, crawling under her covers and dozing off again.

Dreamy, the dwarf that Nova spilled fairy dust on. Dreamy and Saphira talking in the forest, Dreamy and a decision with Nova, Dreamy and his dwarf brothers together in the mines, the first time Dreamy and Nova are out together. Images of the earth flow easily into Ivy's head, mixing with her dreams.

"What are you two doing up here?" Eirys asks, following Mary Margaret up to the roof of some building. "Have you guys been drinking all night?" She could practically taste the alcohol on Mary Margaret's breath.

"Oh, please don't do it, Leroy." Mary Margaret says. Leroy, standing on the edge of the building, drinking plus the compromising situation he's in. Yes, it's very understandable to come to the conclusion that Leroy was going to kill himself.

"I'm not going to kill myself." He replies as if that is the stupidest thing anyone could suggest doing. "What are you crazy? I could hit someone." He's actually worried about hitting someone during his suicide. "Do you know how much damage I could do, I am solidly built?"

Eirys laughs under her breath, "Wait, so what are you doing up here?"

Leroy takes an axe out. "I'm going to get my money."

And before anyone could say anything else, he whacks the electrical box on the lightpost nearest to them. Hence the reason why he was on the roof. In a matter of seconds, all the lights lit for the Miner's Day celebration go dark, leaving its party goers in the dark. "What are you doing?" Mary Margaret asks standing back up after ducking.

"I'm selling candles, sister."

"I'm not giving back my candles when you run out of candles to sell." Eirys says as the people start to mob the empty candle stand. "I think I'll just stand around and look like I didn't have any part of this."

"I wonder what happened tonight." Mr. Gold says popping up behind Eirys. "I was working in my shop when the power went out. I suppose I should buy a candle."

Eirys pulls a yellow cylindrical candle from her bag. "I had to hide them, people are getting crazy for candle because of their way weird black out." She lights it with her own candle. "Happy Miner's Day, Mr. Gold."

"Stupid snow, I hate this weather." Ivy complains loudly, wrapping her traveling cloak closer around her body as she tramples through layers of underbrush and snow. "I hope they didn't do anything stupid."

Ivy accidentally gets her foot caught in a tree root and with flailing arms, she tumbles out of the forest and down a small slope. Lucky for her, she only slide a few feet, unlucky part is that she slide a few feet in snow. "Hey, are you ok?"

Red is all Ivy can see. "Who are you?"

"Oh, everyone calls me Red," her youthful face starts to appear through Ivy's haze. "And this is, Mary." There is something very familiar about Mary that Ivy didn't have the time to think about.

"Ivy, I'm supposed to guide a hunting party. Or rather I was supposed, last night that is." Ivy explains, getting up and brushing her clothes off. "I got caught up in a small storm and couldn't get here until today. Did anything happen?"

Red shakes her head. "I haven't heard anything, but they did go out last night. The wolf took out a dozen or so cattle. We're just about to head inside, after we get some water, of course."

The three of them walk to a nearby well. "Let me help." Ivy says yanking on the rope attached to the bucket. "It's not frozen is it?"

"No, but it looks kind of weird." Red says, "Hey, Mary, come look at this water." But Mary just stares straight a head of her. "Mary, is something wrong?"

They let go of the rope, letting the oddly red colored water fall back into the well to go and see what Mary's looking at. Red, and more red stains all over the ground, along with weapons and torn off limbs, the bodies of hunters, the hunting party that Ivy was supposed to lead the night before.

"With Ivy, we can have the beast surrounded and we can kill it, at last." It's one of the only survivors of the massacre; he had gone off a different route from the others and was able to escape. "Last night was the last massacre, tonight, we kill it."

"You cannot do that." Red's grandmother says. She walks to the center of the meeting, telling her story of her encounter with the wolf. How the wolf, a different one back when she was a child, tore the throats of her six older brothers and her father. And all she had left in the world to remember then by is the pink scars of the wolf's teeth on her forearm.

"You're granny is kind of intense." Mary says as they sit on Red's wooden bed. Ivy sits cross-legged next to Red and the three of them form a loose circle.

Red nods as if she's used to it. "Yeah, I sometimes feel like a rat in a rat's trap, you know." She glances through the open door to see if Granny had overheard her.

"And you feel like this trap is keeping you from the person you love?" Mary asks.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Well, there were some very unsubtle exchanges back there." Ivy says simply inspecting the ends of her hair. "Very stealthy, I wouldn't suspect a thing."

Red looks at her cloak. "His name's Peter, we've been friends forever. But lately, it's a bit more. What about you two, anything special in your lives?"

"Besides work and more work?" Ivy asks. "Please, if only I could meet someone interesting. All the ones I know are just, no." The idea of being that close to a male fairy is just impossible, there was no one who caught her eye or stood out from the crowd. Everyone is just like everyone else, just so ordinary. "But if I do, I want someone who is not ordinary."

Mary shakes her head. "Not for me either, I don't think that's in my future. You're lucky Red, to have this."

Red nods, leaning closer to the center to tell them a secret. "Lately we've been talking about going away together. But I don't know I don't ever get to spend any time with him. "Granny's too scared of the wolf to let me out of her sight. I mean you saw what the wolf did, sometimes I wonder if she's right."

"Oh, she's right about the wolf, but she's wrong about using it to keep you here." Mary says.

Red glances between the two of them. "Do you think that's what she's doing? We should kill the wolf."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Ivy asks rolling off the bed. "I thought we all concluded that the wolf is very dangerous. What are we going to do up against something that hunting parties can't even take down?"

"They hunt at night, if we leave now we can catch it while it's sleeping." Red explains, grabbing her cloak. "Listen, I'm not going to let her lock me in here forever. I'm going to kill it with or without your help."

"So how are the job searching going, Henry?" Eirys asks popping her head into the empty sheriff's station. "Any luck helping Ruby find a job around here?"

Henry shakes his head, scrolling down on the website. "How about riding a bike and taking things to people in a little basket?"

Ruby shakes her head. "I'm not that good at riding a bike."

"How about going on foot and taking things to people in a little basket." Eirys offers holding up her little empty basket. "Like what I did, I just delivered a flower arrangement."

"I don't think that's a real job." Ruby says. The phone next to her going off again. "Why does the phone keep doing that?" in the time that they have been there, the phone must have gone off quite a bit.

"Non-emergency calls get routed to a machine when Emma's out." Henry explains, going through the list on the computer again.

On the next ring, Ruby takes the phone up. "Hello, sheriff's station how may I help you? Yeah, I'll let her now when she gets back."

There are apparently a lot of things that people call the sheriff's station for, especially the non-emergency stuff that can be solved by simply thinking things through. "Hello, oh, hi Ms. Ginger. No that's not a prowler, that's just Archie's dog, Pongo. Just feed him a vanilla wafer and he'll quiet down. Did you still want to talk to Emma? Ok, glad I could help."

"How's it going you guys?" Emma asks making her presence noticed.

"Except, I can't do anything." Ruby explains her heading falling backwards.

"That's not true, I just saw you with the telephone." Emma says, even though Ruby just shakes her head as if it were nothing. "I've got some money left in the budget if you want to help out a little."

"Oh, yes, please." Ruby says standing up. "I can do things like answer the phone and help out. Is there anything else you need done, organize, file, cleaning up? Please let me be useful."

"Well I'm swamped with this Kathryn Nolan case so if you don't mind getting lunches, I would never say no to a grilled cheese." Emma says.

Ruby starts to head to the door. "Want anything Henry?"

"He ate at school, I remember because I made sandwiches." Eirys cuts in before Henry can ask for some junk food that his mother wouldn't let him eat on any other day. "But I could go for a hot chocolate if you don't mind."

Mary Margaret stumbles in through the door. "You want anything, I'm buying?" Ruby asks. Mary Margaret shakes her head and Ruby leaves.

"David's in the woods, something's wrong with him." Mary Margaret says. "I mean, he just looked right through me, like he couldn't even see me. It's like he was a different person."

Emma and Henry trade looks; this has something to do with Henry's story book. Which means that they are going to do something about it?

"I found another one." Ivy calls to the other two girls. They had been following large dog looking footprints through the snow. And speaking of snow, it had started to fall, dusting the tops of their heads with the wet white powder. "They look kind of strange, don't they?"

Red inspects the footprint, "it almost looks like its half wolf, half boot print."

"That's not normal." Mary says, even her clueless tracking skills could tell her that much.

"No it's not." Red agrees as they follow the bloody foot prints. "It's like it back half wolf, half man."

Ivy stops walking. "Aren't we getting awfully close to the cottage?" By then, the animal prints had totally turned into human boot prints. And over the fresh snow is a single trail of footprints straight to Red's window. "Red, could it be Peter?"

One look at her face confirms it, "Red, has he been at your window?" Mary asks.

"Last night, before the killings." Red explains. "He didn't join the other guys in the hunt."

"I'm sure he wouldn't ever hurt you." Ivy reassures. "But when the wolf takes over, there's no telling what he's capable of."

"What about tonight's hunting party?" Mary asks because despite Granny's warning, they will still go out and try to hunt the wolf. The massacre the night before fuels their anger and their will to fight.

"They're going to kill him." Red says, "Or they're going to be killed by him." Either way, people were going to die. "What should we do?"

"Tell him." Mary says, turning towards Red. "If he doesn't know, tell him, if he trusts anyone it's you."

"You think I can save him?"

"You can save everyone." Mary states.

Only Ivy seems to have misgivings about this theory about the wolf, but Mary and Red seem totally convinced about it. "It'll be dark soon, and Granny will worry if we don't return soon."

"Oh, this is so bad." Red mumbles, she seemed to be dealing with the shock of Peter being the wolf quite well. "Oh, Mary, Ivy, this is really bad."

"Then do something about it." Mary says, the final push to help Red do what she needs to do to save everyone.

Henry slides his story book into a draw in the computer desk, locking it up tight. "You know you could let Ruby do a little more, she's Little Red Riding Hood." With her name and the fact that she wears quite a bit of red, she could be Little Red Riding Hood.

"The one with the little basket?" Emma asks, obviously not totally buying the fact that Ruby is Little Red Riding Hood. "Yeah, she's totally BA."

"She is, but she just forgot how cool she can be." Henry says leaving just as Ruby is coming back with Emma's food, drinks, and a small Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate.

"Hey is something wrong?" Eirys asks taking a sip of the cooled hot chocolate. Ruby doesn't appear to be as cheerful as she was when she left to go get the food in the first place.

Ruby shrugs, taking a sip out of the straw of one of the drinks. "I'm just picking up food like I always do. It's what I know best, after all."

Emma seems to come to a conclusion about something. "How about we pack things up and eat in the car. I need to do a little wilderness search and I need your help."

Emma snatches the drink out of Ruby's mouth as she hurriedly packs everything up. "I'm sure I'm just going to mess everything up like I always do." Ruby says.

"No you won't."

"Good luck you two." Eirys says heading out the door. "Thanks for the hot chocolate, Ruby!"

"Wait, hold on let me get this straight, Red is the wolf?" Ivy repeats stomping through the forest with a lantern right behind Granny and Mary.

"Yes, her mother was the wolf until a hunting party killed her, I had hoped that it skipped over her, but when she turned thirteen it started." Granny explains. "I paid a wizard for that cloak, it keeps her from transforming, but of course she doesn't wear it and she's found a way out of the house."

"Then what about that story you told?" Mary asks.

"That was her grandfather, he marked me that night." Granny says and everything falls into place. The way it all started, Granny and Red's mother must share the same genes. "I'm tracking her by smell; I still have it while the rest of it has faded."

Ivy points through the trees. "I think she's over there." Granny nods handing Mary her lantern. "Are we going to kill her?"

"Silver tipped arrow will drop her." Granny says raising the bow she carried. "We're approaching from the down slope so we should have a chance." They creep slowly through the snow, the sounds of Red feeding on Peter grows louder as they appear out of the forest to the clearing.

Mary accidentally steps on a twig lying hazardously on the ground, giving away their element of surprise. Thankfully, Granny is a good shot and they manage to get Red under the red cloak, turning her back into a human. "What happened, where am I?"

"Granny, look over there." Ivy points to the red flickers through the trees, the hunting party's torches, heading straight towards them. "We have to get her out of here."

"So, they made up and you are back to being your lonely self?" Eirys concludes after hearing the story from Emma about Ruby going back to the diner. "I'm sure everything turned out ok, they get along quite well, most of the time. So, did you guys find David?"

"Yeah, well, he kind of hit his head." Emma says. "But Dr. Whales said that he's going to be ok. He might have to go to Archie for some memory stuff."

Eirys nods. "It seems to be happening to him quite a bit, you know with the coma thing and now this. Well, I hope he gets better; give him my regards if you see him?"

"Sure."