It was a rare day of peace within the Enchanted Forest – no ogres destroying villages, no evil witches casting dark curses, and no Dark One making dangerous deals to trap someone into a lifetime of debt. The bright sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves, which had never looked healthier in the many years since the Evil Queen had cast the first Dark Curse and sent so many to the Land Without Magic. A light breeze swept through the trees, gently kicking up leaves and dusting them across the dirt road that had seen so much traction over the ages.
If anyone had been around to hear it, they would have their spirit lifted by the joyful birdsong floating in the air, which was soon joined by a low, gentle, and steady rumble. A rumble slowly growing deeper, louder, more prominent, and aggressive, so much so that it had drowned out the birdsong – not that it would be heard anyway, as the birds had fled, scared by the oncoming storm. A second distinct rumble was growing with it, becoming a heavy thudding, each impact shaking the trees and causing leaves to fall loose and flit down to the ground.
"C'mon, c'mon!" The brave knight urged, revving the throttle of his ferocious steed, begging it for as much power as the mechanised beast beneath him could muster, but it had nothing left to give, already pushing itself to its absolute limit. The rider was doing his best to keep his path straight and true, but with each titanic footfall behind him, that task was made ever more difficult, being shaken and wobbled by the shockwaves.
The behemoth pursuing the knight was managing to keep up with him, thundering along less than 20 feet behind. It swung out its wide arm, ripped a small tree out of the ground and with a mighty roar, threw it towards the rider. Thankfully, the knight glanced into his rear-view mirror just in time, and adjusted his weight over, veering his steed just enough for the tree to fly past him and crash to the floor ahead of him. He rode up and off a bank, sailing over the tree in his path, which was then smashed to splinters as the monster behind crushed it underfoot.
At the horrific crunch of wood behind him, the rider looked back over his shoulder, seeing the overgrown troll he'd been fleeing for days now still keeping up with him. "This is all just a big misunderstanding!" He yelled to the beast, who bellowed something unintelligible in reply. "I didn't know the goats were yours!" The knight shouted, eyes now back on the road ahead of him. "If I had, I'd never have set them free from your farm!"
"YOU MAKE ME LOSE INCOME!" The troll roared back. "NOW ME DAIRY FARM RUINED!"
"In my defence, I thought you were going to eat them!" The knight cried, before quickly leaning his steed to the side to dodge another tree flying in his direction. "And how can you run a dairy farm with just three goats?!"
"HOW I RUN DAIRY FARM WITH NO GOATS?!" the troll bawled angrily, ripping another tree up from its roots to use as another projectile.
"Good point, and I'm still very sorry!" He knew his apologies would fall on deaf ears, but he had learnt many things from his large extended family, one of those things being that you should say what you have to say, even if no one listens.
Not that anyone else in his family had destroyed an independent business by mistakenly releasing the business owner's livestock, but that particular piece of advice was transferrable here. Sure, both his mother and his grandfather had ruined a lot of things in their lives, but they had sought and found their redemption. His other mother and her parents were also guilty of their own dark moments, and they too had been forgiven.
But this? This was totally, completely, one hundred per cent, absolutely, without a doubt, an honest mistake. When he'd passed through the town of Underbridge and seen a troll sleeping in a barn which was adjacent to a small field of three nervous-looking (though on second thoughts, probably just hungry) goats, he'd mistakenly assumed the troll had robbed the townsfolk of their livestock and had penned them in so its next meal wouldn't be escaping. Naturally, his heroic instincts kicked in and he opened the gate and ushered the goats towards freedom and safety from being eaten in the next few hours.
Instead, he'd managed to single-handedly destroy a small business, deny the town of its milk supply, and piss off a creature that was easily ten times his height and could likely grind him into a smooth paste with just its big toe.
Today was not a good day to be Henry Mills.
"YOU PAY, WITH INTEREST!" the troll roared, hurling the tree forward with all its might. Henry's eyes darted to the rear-view mirror, but there was no projectile to be seen. Then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his head to what he'd seen, and watched a tree flying up towards a mountain ridge up above them, flying as fast and as true as if it had been fired from Robin Hood's bow.
Doing his best to keep his motorcycle steady and keep an eye on the road ahead, Henry watched as the tree crashed into the ridge and exploded into pieces. The impact cracked the ridge, causing large chunks of rock and earth to tumble down the steep slope, the landslide ploughing through everything in its way, and coming to a stop a few hundred feet in front of Henry's path, completely blocking the road.
Henry's eyes widened, picturing his impending death as his motorcycle slammed him into the obstruction with enough force to shatter all his bones and leave him so disfigured, his own moms wouldn't recognise him.
"No, I'm not dying today, not like this!" Keeping one hand in place to steer, he quickly reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small, clear bean that glittered with all the stars of all the realms it could take him to. "No second chances. Gotta time this perfectly." He held the bean tight in his clenched fist, ready to throw. "Please don't let me die," he whispered to whatever god or fairy or sorcerer might be listening, before flinging the bean forward with all his strength. If he wasn't as pressed for time as he was, he'd have likely given a lot more thought to where he wanted this bean to take him. However, he had exactly no time at all, and the only thought in Henry's head as the bean left his hand was 'Anywhere but here.'
The bean flew forward, bounced against a felled tree in the rubble of the landslide, and dropped pathetically to the ground. The troll knew what Henry was trying to do, and had found an extra burst of speed, desperate to not let his debtor get away. "Please," Henry whined. He quickly looked back and his blood ran cold as he saw the troll inching closer to him. "Please, please, PLEASE!" he frantically begged, not wanting his end to come at the hands of a troll or the sudden stop coming up ahead of him.
The bean sunk into the ground, and in its place sprang up a bright spinning circle of orange sparks, the inside shimmering and waving, obscuring what lay beyond it. With the portal open, and his escape assured, Henry released the breath he hadn't realised he was holding. He doubled down on the throttle, eager for the chase to be over.
"NOOOO!" The troll howled, and it dived forward, arms outstretched. The tremor of its body hitting the ground was enough to make Henry wobble, and he fought the bike to keep control. The portal was so close now, he could hear the crackling of the sparks. If he was going to die today, and he really hoped he wasn't, it was going to be on the other side of this portal. Though as the troll's outstretched fingers clipped the rear-wheel of the motorcycle, knocking the whole back end of the bike unsteady, it seemed Henry's death was certain.
The motorbike tipped completely, throwing Henry from the saddle, and he closed his eyes tight, not wanting to see what was coming. Then he felt it, the familiar warmth and strange tingle that came with passing through a portal. He had escaped the troll. He had absolutely no idea where he would come out, but his end was not going to come at the hands of a furious dairy farming troll.
The warmth and tingle ended, and Henry flew out of the portal. He fell hard against a bed of colourful flowers and bounced off the soil, flying a little further to crush some healthy green grass. He rolled to a stop and was left feeling like he'd just been through the fastest cycle of the world's largest tumble-dryer. With his head spinning, the crashing and crunching sound of metal as his bike came through the portal behind him felt distant. Luckily, it came to a stop before it could roll over Henry, and as he tried to push himself up, the engine coughed and spluttered, before finally puttering out, leaving a grey smoke rising from its corpse.
Henry had managed to get up to his knees and tried to look around. The world around him was still moving all topsy-turvy, but he could make out a grand building – a castle? – with a pair of (rather blurry) blue and yellow banners draped down its front parapets.
He put one foot against the floor, and with his hands on his knees tried to push himself up, but now that the imminent danger had passed and the adrenaline was leaving him, so was his strength. He was half-way to standing before his legs gave out and he began to fall forward, exhaustion taking over his body.
"Hey!" Out of nowhere, a pair of arms reached out for Henry to fall into. The body the arms were attached to dropped to its knees to lower him more gently to the ground, and the stranger turned Henry over so he could see the face of the man who had been spat out of the glowing circle. The stranger leaned in, a hand on Henry's cheek to keep his head still, and as the blackness closed in around Henry's vision, he could just make out a short shock of straight black-rooted white hair atop the stranger's head. "Hey, yo…..na be o…..Wha…..ur name?" The voice was growing more and more faint.
"Henry… Mills…" he exhaled before finally giving into the fatigue wracking his body and passing out completely.
The stranger felt a knot growing in the pit of his stomach, worried for this Henry Mills who had fallen out of a magic circle and into his lap. "You're gonna be alright, Henry," he said, reaching into the pocket of his distressed black jeans and pulling out his smartphone. His moved his thumb quickly across the screen, then raised it to his ear. "Jane?" he asked, relieved that she had answered quickly. "It's Carlos, I need your mom's help. A man and a motorbike just fell out of a glowing circle on the front lawn outside Auradon University, and he's really hurt. Please, you gotta come quickly," he pleaded, hoping that the fact Henry had gone limp didn't mean that he was now holding a dead body in his lap. "Thank you, just please hurry!" He pulled the phone away, ended the call, and jammed it back into his pocket. "I don't know if you can hear me Henry," he started, flattening a dishevelled tuft of hair against Henry's head, "but help is on the way.