August

Bae stirred, his dreams interrupted by the faint touch of the overt use of magic somewhere across town. He rolled over, willing the faint impression to leave him so he could get some sleep, but a lot of good that did him. The impression began to bug him incessantly, until he threw off the covers, marched over to the window, threw it open, and dropped to the ground below.

The impression was slightly stronger, and he had a better sense of direction. He followed the sensation down Main Street, pausing only briefly to get his bearings. He turned a corner and wove through side streets, following the feeling of magic in use.

The sensation was strongest at a brick building with window-lined walls, particularly on the south side of the building. Bae stared up the side of the wall, particularly the series of ladders, stairs, and platforms that made its way to the roof, still following what he was feeling.

Several floors up, he stopped on a platform. The window was closed but the curtains were open. A wooden figure lay on a bed, with a woman in black standing over him, her head bowed so far that she couldn't see whether or not her lips were moving. Bae turned his gaze toward the wooden figure, who seemed from his perspective to be the size of a normal human. Who carves a person out of wood, anyway? he wondered, unless it was intended to be a life-size puppet or display object. But if that were true, then why was it lying in someone's apartment?

Numerous absurd and obscene thoughs crossed his mind briefly before he successfully quashed all of them, no matter how humorous or how much they made him shudder.

The woman looked up, and Bae ducked. The feel of magic in action ceased to trail through the air, and when Bae dared to peek up again, he thought he saw a sly smile on the woman's face as she turned away and walked out of the apartment, leaving the wooden figure on the bed.

The figure stirred, and Bae jumped and shot back before mentally swearing at himself. "Why am I surprised?" he muttered. He looked back at the window, beyond which the figure continued to move, as if getting up after lying prone for days or weeks on end in sickness, which may have happened. It was a conscious being, made of wood. Okay, Bae thought, I've been covered in weirder.

He tapped on the window.

The figure turned toward him, revealing a wooden, blue-eyed face. Human being made of wood, Bae thought. Getting close to the other weirdness I've experienced, but not quite. The wooden man walked over and opened the window, allowing Bae to enter, which he did reluctantly.

"So, kid, what're you doing outside my apartment?" the wooden man asked.

"You...you talk?" Bae rasped.

"Uh...duh."

Bae looked around and then sank into the nearest chair, at a desk with a strange, blocky object on it. "You're a walking, talking wooden man."

"I think we established that." The man folded his arms across his chest, allowing Bae to notice the joints.

"You're a walking, talking puppet."

"And you're pretty slow on the uptake."

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind. You didn't answer my first question. What are you doing outside my apartment?"

Bae took a deep breath and gave the human-sized puppet a once-over. This had to be the first time he truly considered telling a stranger about his gift, but there was no sense in lying about it, especially when he didn't even have a half-decent excuse to use as a substitute for the truth. "I'm a sensitive," he said. "I can feel magic."

"So you're here because you felt magic?"

"Yes, in use at that. It woke me from sleep and led me here."

The man nodded slowly, regarding Bae dubiously. "I was out cold, as good as dead," he said. "Who was using magic?"

"A woman dressed in black. I didn't get a good look at her face, but she did seem pretty smug when she was done and in the process of leaving."

"Did she have dark hair?"

"I think so."

The man let his arms fall to his sides. "The only woman fitting the description of dark-haired magic user that I know, besides Regina, is the Blue Fairy."

"You know her, too?"

"Yeah, she made me a real boy, so long as I was brave, truthful, and unselfish. How do you know her?"

Bae paused. "Well, I have this relative who's a magic user, except he's...evil. I came to her for a way to remove his access to his powers without killing him."

"You mean your father?"

"How do you know?"

"A Merry Man told me."

"What did he look like?"

"She. Kinda baby-faced, long blonde hair." Bae frowned. "Recognize her?"

"She was a friend of mine, back in my home village. Where did you meet her?"

"She disguised herself and said she had to get me out of the city and onto an island-bound boat as soon as possible. Some Stromboli fella was trying to get me to do some song and dance for the city nobles, said it would make him rich."

"What did he look like? Brown hair, brown eyes, a fondness for dressing in yellow?"

"Yeah."

"Then Stromboli doesn't exist. That's Prince John, and he was about to kill you."

"Wait, Robin Hood's Prince John?"

"Yep. You're a strange case, you know. Usually children taken to Sherwood are dumped in the forest and left to fend for themselves, but since you're a living sideshow puppet, I assume he took a special interest, wanted to study your habits a bit. I'm not sure where the island part came from, but islands typically are safe havens."

The man backed up and took a seat on his bed. "I've gotta get this straight. If I was sent to a city, how come it looked so..."

"Shabby? Well, have you noticed certain denizens walking about in dazes?"

"Yeah, come to think of it."

"The prince created Sherwood to entertain him. Roughly half the people in the city are trapped in their own little worlds. The other half are forced to watch the prince's sick games, or worse: participate in them. You, being such an interesting case to him, were also trapped in your own world, and others were probably forced to watch. The prince wanted you to work, wanted to watch you closely and perhaps entertain his courtiers with you. When you let him down, which was inevitable, he was going to kill you.

"A child in the city is remarkable, so word did, inevitably, reach us. We sent our best in to retrieve you. The illusion probably didn't break until you were out of the city."

"And you know all this how?"

"This was the first mission they went on after my arrival. They talked a lot about it afterward, M and her escort."

"M? That short for anything?"

"If she wanted you to have her name, she would've given it to you. Names are powerful, after all."

"Okay, makes sense." The man leaned back slightly and studied him, pursing his lips. A wooden man can purse his lips? Bae wondered, knitting his brow. "Whatcha thinkin', kid?"

"Just that if the circumstances were different, I probably would've passed out by now, but I've been covered in wraith, so it's really no surprise that I'm holding a conversation with a magical puppet, initial shock aside, of course."

The man smirked. "I like you."

"Thanks. I think I like you, too."

"Well, that's good. If your father's some evil magical being, I don't want you hating me. I like my bodily arrangement exactly as it is, save the fact that I'm a puppet."

"I won't tell him. I tend not to."

"Thanks." The puppet put his hand in the space between himself and Bae. "Call me August."

"Bae," the boy said, taking the wooden man's hand. Then he paused. "You...you feel faintly like...like a deal with...with Rumpelstiltskin."

"What?"

"All magic comes with a price. You might not even know yours." Bae blinked and took a breath to steady himself. "It's strange. She didn't weave a price into the spell." He pulled his hand back. "I'd be careful if I were you." He stood and walked toward the window. "I need to go."

"Okay, kid. I'll see you around."

August waved and watched Bae slip out of the window. After he closed it after him, he turned to the apartment door. That Bae kid sure acted strangely when they shook hands, but then, he said he was a sensitive, and the only reason August was walking around right now was because of magic, which led the kid to his apartment in the first place.

He walked over to the bed and lay down, covering his face with his arms. He hadn't been up more than ten minutes and he was already exhausted. But he couldn't let himself sleep. He had to figure out how he was going to get back to his life.