And So It Begins

Peter spent several days hiding in the forest. The Dark One had terrified him away from venturing too far into the strange city, though he was told to tell him immediately if he had found anything new on the boy he had traveled with. Good luck with that, he told himself, a little bit of Pan shining through in that moment.

It was strange. When Weirdo negotiated with him, it brought back his reason, brought some level of him back into himself. He didn't know how to describe his state of mind, and he didn't know anyone who could, but he certainly knew something was going on. Whether or not he liked it was another matter entirely, though on that he could answer that he actually felt kind of nice having peace of mind.

So he learned his way around the forest and left sorting his mind out to the time he had at night, that wasn't devoted to learning the art of survival through trial and error. He also did everything in his power to avoid contact with the magical forces of the town, regardless of moral affiliation. Magic hadn't always had the best effect on him.

He had come to strongly suspect that magic had given him the idea that it would be a fantastic idea to be young forever and have fun for all eternity in a land of his own fashioning, and look how that worked out for him. He was now orphaned, homeless, possibly crazy, and in a strange land, and he had no idea what he was going to do with himself.

Finally, after several days of roaming the forest and working on his survival skills, his mind alighted on an idea. He had gotten Weirdo and the Seer into a realm, be it this one or some other one, or in this realm but times past, and only he had reached his intended destination. That was only because something had intervened. Usually the journey was easy, or so he had been told, but now he had experienced the touch of something more evil than the Dark One.

That was a very serious problem, and it was a very specific magic.

But therein lay the solution. If it was specific to this realm, then it was possible to track down, and then he could find Weirdo and the Seer that way. Since the Dark One wanted to find them, perhaps he could win some favor helping out that way. If he could figure out how the magic in this realm worked, since it was obvious even to him that it was different.

So Peter switched gears and started working out his surroundings on a different level than just trying to survive in them, and he set to work on a spell to get the Seer and Weirdo back.

OUAT

Emma lay half asleep in the room she now shared with her long-lost family, thinking about what Granny had said and the strange version of Robin Hood that it seemed only this town possessed. Her mind started to wonder, and she felt a strange heaviness settle into her limbs. Her already blurry gaze unfocused further, and then she felt something.

It was soothingly familiar, and it conjured up images of ogres and forests and trolls and giants and pirates and castles in ruins. It reminded her of her birthplace, witches, ashes, magical trees, and portals to other worlds.

Then a strange possibility made itself known to her. A portal could be opened to this world, and if it was done in a place that didn't immediately have a corresponding location in Storybrooke, there was no telling where the traveler or travelers could end up. Or when, now that she honestly thought about it.

She found the answer to the question that had eluded science for years, and it was magical in nature. Time travel could be accomplished through a complicated series of tunnels between realms that hardly anyone knew existed.

Startled awake, she reached for the copy of Robin Hood that Mary Margaret had been teaching from. Without fully knowing why, she turned to the tale of the Sensitive.

OUAT

The faded Barrier around Sherwood was at their back when Bae and Morraine stopped to rest. Bae scanned their surroundings and then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to relax as much as possible. Beyond the Barrier, he thought he could sense the Merry Men arming themselves and preparing for war, but he was sure he could feel the Sheriff and his army of demons moving through the woods, keeping their distance.

"That doesn't look good," Morraine said when Bae opened his eyes.

"It isn't. The Merry Men have to come out of Sherwood eventually, and it looks like a storm is brewing." She tightened her grip on the hilt of the sword, and he examined each and every one of the arrows in his quiver, making sure they were all in perfectly usable condition.

"You're going to need new ones someday."

"I'll get them if I can secure the funds."

"All you need is a rope and an unwitting nobleman."

Bae smirked. "I've always wanted to live on the edge as a highway robber."

"I'm sure you did, Bae," Morraine said with a smile. "A life of adventure, always fighting for your life, lawmen at every turn. I'm sure it all must have appealed to you at some point, on some level."

Bae returned the arrows to his quiver, still waiting for the dark forces to close in. "I wasn't picturing something quite so intense, but rather something beyond the village, beyond being the coward's son. What's wrong with a little adventure to fulfill that?"

"Nothing. Nothing in the least."

Bae nocked an arrow. The Sheriff was closing in. "Be ready," he said simply, stepping between Morraine and the energy he could feel emanating from the Sheriff. Sherwood was at his back, he reminded himself. She slipped the sword out of her belt and held it aloft.

Another presence flickered to his left. He threw a glance in that direction but didn't turn his weapon away from the direction of the Sheriff. Then he recognized the newcomer as the benevolent presence that also tried to pull him out of the tunnel Peter had created for them. He wasn't exactly good, per se, but compared to the Sheriff, he could have been a saint. Or a fairy. He wanted to redirect his attention to the newcomer, but he couldn't allow that of himself with the Sheriff approaching them and ready for war.

He exhaled and raised his bow and arrow, peering into the shadows for any sign of the Sheriff and finally spotting the black clouds swirling around the trunks of the trees. The bow and arrow would not be the suitable weapon in this case. He slipped his arrow back into its quiver and his bow onto his back, and he breathed deeply to settle his nerves.

The black tendrils of smoke stopped. "Wow," Morraine whispered.

"It gets worse," he replied.

"I meant..."

"That? I haven't figured out exactly how that works yet."

The smoke surged forward, and Bae pushed back, still keeping Morraine behind him. She kept her grip on the sword and peered over Bae's shoulder at the approaching Sheriff. The man took shape just a yard in front of them and continued advancing, sword in hand. Then and only then did Bae defer to Morraine and turn his attention to the newcomer, part of his attention on the sword fight going on behind him.

The shape of the beggar took shape before him, and Bae knew once and for all that he was not, nor had he ever been, an ordinary peasant.

OUAT

Rumpelstiltskin had sensed Emma's revelation before she could even define what had happened to her, and he slipped into the basement and set to work almost immediately. The spell itself should be simple, but with the magic base being what it was and the circumstances having changed drastically since he set out on this mission, he couldn't be sure.

The one thing he was sure of was that if his son couldn't find his way to Storybrooke, then Rumpelstiltskin needed a way to get to him. This reunion must be accomplished.