Flashback 20

by Schammielynn

As we walked through the street, I made sure my hood was up so people wouldn't stare at the obnoxious platinum blonde that was my hair. We rounded one of the corners, and I suddenly felt the hood drop off.

"Terence!" I smirked as I realized he had yanked it off. I instantly went to grab it to put it back on, but he held it down.

"What are you doing?" I giggled.

"You're hair is pretty. Don't hide it. It's very you."

I blushed again, "Thanks."

"Celadon Cafe," he sighed as if it were like home. "Hasn't changed a bit."
"Yeah?"
The bell chimed as we walked in, and I ordered a small breakfast while Terence requested nearly half of the items on the menu.

"You might want to get the rest of it while you're at it," I prompted him. He smiled as he gathered his plates and sat down at a booth.
He began to bite into a breakfast sandwich while I just sat and stared at him, taking in the sight of him. Had it not been for the steaming hot coffee mug in my hands, I might have started to ice the table.

"What is it?" he asked.
"Huh?"

"You're staring. Has it happened?"
"Has what happened?"
"Did I suddenly turned attractive while I was away? Please say yes. It's all I've ever dreamed." He batted his eyelashes playfully, then began to pose with his coffee mug. "Maybe I could go into modeling."

"You weren't ever unattractive," I clearly avoided his gaze and tried to eat without admitting that, undoubtedly, puberty had been very good to him.

"You're too kind."

The silence took a place in our meal while both of us ate, and my mind began to wonder. What had he been though? What had Dorothy done? And who were the others?
"Terry?" I began. "What happened out there, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Of course I don't mind. You know I'd tell you anything." He leaned back and began to poke around at the food on his plate, as if he wasn't sure where to begin. "Well, when I first got sent out, it was pretty cool. I mean it was scary, sure, but cool. I was actually useful to these older soldiers who had all this experience, and they didn't just push me aside because I was an orphan kid. The thing with me all happened at once about a year in. Apparently during some battle between us and some of Zelena's flying monkeys, I overexerted myself while running around getting water for the soldiers and I zonked out. They thought I had been wounded, but it wasn't the case. Not only was all the metal I was wearing really heavy for a 14 year old boy, but something was wrong with my heart that had never bothered me before. They seemed to think it was something that was getting worse as I got older. When that battle ended in the forest, they packed up and left without me, saying there would never be a place in the army for me ever again, and there was nothing that could be done to heal me. They didn't like taking faulty people into battle with them."

"That's awful," I commented. "But you weren't crippled or anything. Why didn't you come back?"
"After they left, it turns out the flying monkeys weren't actually gone, and a few of them got to me on the way back, leaving me to rot. I wouldn't have made it if Leo hadn't gotten to me. He got me out of there and patched me up as best as he could given his circumstances. At one point in his life, he had been created by the good witch of the North as part lion and part human to keep the monkeys at bay in the forest, but Zelena didn't like that so much and not only took his courage, but his home as well. But he did what he could for me, and had it not been for him, I wouldn't have made it through the night. In my condition though, there was no way he and I could get back to the Emerald City, especially with the higher security. So we lived among the forest for a while. Until Dorothy."

He looked at me as if mentioning her name might spark something in me, but I hardly cared. I just wanted to know what made her so special and why he never came home.

"Under the weirdest circumstances, she got into Munchkinland by tornado, and landed on the magician from another land. The witch of the North told her that Oswin was the only way home, and that sparked her journey. She had no idea of Zelena until there were multiple death threats along the way. I think that would have thrown any teenage girl back to the start to cower and hide, but not Dorothy. She kept going. Then she met the Scarecrow, Sawyer. He was cursed into a scarecto watch over a cornfield forever, as the witch knew that few people still traveled on the Yellow Brick Road, and nobody would dare pay attention to a lowly scarecrow."
"But Dorothy did?"
"Yep. Again, she defied Zelena and got him down from the post. They were really close friends by the time they reached us. They found me stuck by a tree that I had been trying to get apple from, but my injuries kind of held me up there. She and the scarecrow found a

wheelbarrow to push me back in, and then the witch of the North realized that I would hold them up. So, knowing that Dorothy wouldn't leave me, she healed my injuries, but said there was nothing she could do about my heart."

"I'm assuming Leo came along too."
"Yeah. Everyone came to Oswin with a reason. Although I wasn't sure if Oswin was still the wizard or not by the way people were talking. In the curse, Sawyer had lost all of his memories of basically everything, and he wanted those back. Leo wanted his courage, and I wanted my heart back to normal so I could be useful again. Dorothy just wanted to go back home."

"So that got you here?"
"Yep."

"I had no idea…" Somehow, these stories of people's lives that I'd never even imagined kept popping into my life- first, Aly and Oswin's years ago, and now Terence and his friends'. All I could do was ponder about my own insignificance, and hope that I still mattered to them in someway.

"Hey," he grabbed my hand from across the time. "I would have come back in an instant for you if I knew I could have made the journey. I thought about you all the time."

"Really?"
He dug around in the satchel that was on his back and pulled out a very worn book. I felt tears spring to my eyes at the sight of it, in disbelief that he still had it. "See? Toldja."

His boyish smirk that always made me smile as a kid still had the same effect, and I couldn't believe I had managed without him for a year.

"Glad you kept it. I would've killed you if I never saw that book again," I said jokingly.

He laughed, "Why do you think I came back to give it to you?"

"So how are you feeling? I mean are you okay now?" I changed the subject, genuinely hoping the answer would be that he was fine.

"Never better. Especially knowing that you're okay."

I did my best not to blush again, and sipped my coffee. "Same goes to you."

The mushiness vanished as he began to launch into an interesting tale of what it was like traveling with the army, to how great of a friend Leo was while they were in the forest together, despite the fact that he was scared of most everything. I couldn't possibly be jealous of his new friendships. He'd never had any incredibly close friends here in the Emerald City, so to hear that he'd met those three was heartwarming.

We came back to the palace a few hours later after going in and out of stores and walking through the gardens together, mostly just talking about our lives and wondering what the other planned to do next now that Zelena was defeated.

"I want to go say goodbye to Dorothy," Terence said. "See if she needs any help with anything."
"I've got to talk to Oswin. So I'll see you at the balloon lift-off?"

He nodded and waved as he walked up the stairs and to Dorothy's room. I walked down into Oswin's study, and he was still looking frustrated.

"Has your face been like this all day? What's wrong?" I asked and he spun around in his chair.

"Hey Essie," he gave a half-hearted smile.
"Hey." I plopped down in the chair in front of him and he kept writing, ignoring my question. So, I pointed a finger and froze his pen.

Glaring at me, he muttered, "Not funny."

"No secrets, remember?"

He sighed, "No secrets. Right."

Oswin collected a group of papers and stacked them together all neat and orderly, putting off his explanation.

"I've been looking into some things."
"Uh oh. What kinds of things?"

He looked up at me and guiltily admitted, "You."

"Me? What about me? Have I done something?" I panicked, and my magic reflected it. It had been a while since my emotions had been on this much of a roller coaster, and it was very clear that day that my magic hadn't been completely mastered yet.

"Elsa, no," he said gently. "I mean your real parents. I wanted to know where your magic came from."

I didn't say anything and just willed my ice not to spread any further.

"When you came to us, your Munchkin parents only knew that you came from the Enchanted Forest, and then were sent to Oz while you were only weeks old. There are quite a few people that had magic in the Enchanted Forest, but none that were powerful enough to pass it onto their offspring except for a few people. When Zelena attacked you at the camp and the many other times, as well as her hatred towards the family, and you specifically, I knew something was going on."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"I looked into Zelena's past after Aly died and found out that she had a sister, Regina, who was powerful as well. One of the times that Zelena had harassed me in Oz, before Aly and after Anna, she spoke of you like she knew you."

"Oswin, I don't get it."

"Regina, was pregnant and had a baby around the same time you would have been born. Cora, Regina and Zelena's mother, had sent Zelena to Oz due to what seemed like some deep family issues. After looking into many different things, magic or not, I began to think that Regina's baby wound up in Oz as well, as a result of similar deep family issues."

I felt my throat tighten, "What are you saying?"

"Regina, is your mother. Zelena had the same mother, but a different father, so you're related to Zelena. You come from a very strong family of magic, Essie."
"How long have you known?"

He paused, "Well…. I…"
"How long have you known?"

"I've had my suspicions since she targeted you at the camp, but it wasn't until yesterday that I knew for sure."
"Why didn't you tell me your 'suspicions' sooner?!" I cried.

"I knew you'd react like this. I wanted to wait until I knew for sure."
"React like what?" I shouted. I made a gesture, and ice began to shoot out in every direction and Oswin flinched. "Why would you keep the truth about my birth mother from me? What if there was some way I could have found her? What if…. Why did she give me up?!"

I whipped my arm out again and the neat stack of papers flurried to the ground in a cold breeze, Oswin flinched again, his voice broken. "I'm so sorry Ess."

I took a deep breath, close my eyes, and absorbed the information. Zelena was my aunt. This Regina or whoever she was my mother. The worst of the situation was Zelena, and I was more upset about that than anything else. I inhaled again and willed the ice that was incredibly ready to shoot out of my hands to disappear, as well as the snow and breeze that was around the room to melt. This wasn't Oswin's fault, and at least he had told me fairly soon after he knew for sure.

When I opened my eyes, he was gone.