27Once Upon A Stormy Night Author's Note:
by Gwin Gold
This is a crossover fanfiction about what I think would happen if some of the OUAT characters were teleported to Ferryport Landing (from the book series by Michael Buckley). I imagine they'd be thinking, "Oh, come on, these people can't be the real fairy tale characters; they're obviously imposters!" while the Ferryporters would be thinking the same exact thing.
So, this is what I imagine would happen if OUAT characters (I don't know who it'll be; Mr. Gold for sure, and probably others as the story progresses) were teleported to Ferryport Landing.
ALSO! In this version, people have been brought back to life and/or found since magic returned to Storybrooke. Which means Baelfire (who I'm simply saying is fourteen years old, because it's too much of a pain to do all the math and figure out how old he'd actually be; besides, this is fanfiction, anything can happen) is alive, well, and living with Belle and Mr. Gold. Graham (who I actually haven't seen before, since I was introduced to the show at the very end of the season) has come back to life, and August Booth is no longer made of wood.
Enjoy!
-X-X-X-
In a wonderland
Of fireflies and fairy tales
Of bright stars and silver sails
With flaming flowers that brightly blaze
With swirling clouds in violet haze
That's where you'll find them.Gwin Gold - "Fairy Tale Land"-X-X-X-
Chapter One
Thunder Crash, Lightning Flash
*8*8*
The way it happened had been strange in and of itself.
The residents of Storybrooke had been going along with their daily, positively normal lives (well, not so normal now that Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin had brought magic back). It had been a rainy night; not that it bothered anyone.
Well, at any case, the rain had become a storm, and the storm had eventually become a dark, swirling vortex up in the sky.
And that, dear Reader, is where we shall begin our tale.
*8*8*
"Listen to that thunder, papa," Baelfire said, gazing out of the window of the new house Mr. Gold had purchased once he found Belle and Baelfire were both alive and well. "It reminds me of back home, in Fairy Tale Land."
"I know, Bae," Mr. Gold said. "Come on over here and help Belle do the dishes, will you? I have some taxes to do, and if I don't get started now, I have a feeling I'll forget all about them."
Baelfire complied, walking over to the sink and drying the dishes as Belle washed them. Gold made his way into his office.
"Bae, your fifteenth birthday is in a month, isn't it?" Belle asked, rinsing a plate under steaming hot water and then handing it to Baelfire.
"Yes, it is," Baelfire answered.
"Do you have anything in particular that you want?" Belle inquired.
Baelfire was quiet for a minute, thinking. "Not that I can think of. I'm just happy having Papa back. And living with him and you."
Belle smiled. "Well, I'll try and find something special to get you."
Baelfire grinned back. "Thank you, Belle."
They fell into a companionable silence. When the dishes were finished, Baelfire went into the living room and sat next to the window, so he could watch the rain pour down.
Belle sat down on the sofa and began reading a book.
Everything was peaceful...
...until the explosion.
It wasn't actually an explosion, of course. It was an extremely ear-splitting crash of thunder, so loud that it shook the house. The lights flickered, and then went out, throwing Baelfire and Belle into darkness.
Belle screamed, and Baelfire stumbled his way through the blackness, trying to find her. "Papa! Papa!"
"Bae! What happened?" Gold's frantic voice came from somewhere in the back of the room. "Hold on, let me get the flashlights."
A few seconds later, a shaft of pale light cut through the shadows. To Gold, it revealed Belle huddling against the couch, Baelfire crouched protectively next to her.
To Baelfire and Belle, it showed Gold's face, lit up by only a faint glow from the flashlight. And it was a face both of them were relieved to see-he would protect them. He knew what to do in situations like this.
At least, he let them believe that. But when it came to deafening roars of thunder and power outages, he was rather out-of-his-element.
"It's all right, it's just a storm," Gold soothed, going over to his family and kneeling down next to them. "The lights will be back on in no time. Until then, we can pretend that we're out camping in the woods, and our fire just died down."
In all truth, pretending like they were doing anything didn't make Gold feel any better. But it always seemed to help Baelfire and Belle, so he said it anyway.
"But it's not a normal storm," Baelfire whispered, his eyes fixed on the window. "Can't you tell? Can't you sense the magic?"
Gold did not reply, watching streaks of lightning flash across the sky. He had sensed the magic, as soon as the storm had come. He hadn't mentioned it in the hopes that Baelfire and Belle would not notice.
But they had.
"That doesn't mean anything." Gold attempted to calm them. "We're in a house that's full of old, magical items."
"Papa," Baelfire said, with all the sternness of a parent talking to a child. "Don't try and hide the truth from us. The magic we sense is not coming from our house."
Curses. Baelfire had always been an obeservant lad.
Gold sighed. "You're right, boy. The storm is either magic or was brought down on us by magic. But we'll be all right, you'll see."
Looking at the fear on the faces of his wife and son, he could only hope that they believed him.
*8*8*
Meanwhile, other people were becoming worried about the sudden storm.
Henry, who was now living with Emma, was in his bedroom. He didn't like the thunder, or the lightning, or the sound of the rain pounding relentlessly down onto the roof. It all brought a sense of foreboding into his heart.
Finally, he jumped out of bed and headed into Emma's room.
She was awake, and sat up as soon as he entered. "Hey, kid. What's the matter?"
"I don't like the storm," Henry replied, frowning. "I'm not scared of it; for some reason, I just don't like it."
Emma sighed. "It's just a storm, Henry."
"But it's bad! I don't know how it is, it just is!" Henry exclaimed.
"What book did you read before going to bed? Did it begin with 'it was a dark and stormy night'?"
"I haven't been reading ghost stories!" Henry protested. "I can feel it!"
"Henry, if the fact that Mr. Gold-no, I'm sorry, Rumpelstiltskin-brought magic back to Storybrooke is giving you nightmares, then I'm going to tell him to devise another curse."
"It's not giving me nightmares!" Henry burst out. "Why do you never believe anybody?"
"Because I believe in logic, and being afraid of storms isn't logical," Emma pointed out. But then she sighed. "Okay, look. I used to be scared of storms when I was little. My foster mom at the time took me out on the porch and made me watch the rain and lightning. After that, I had an admiration for storms rather than a fear. Come on, let's go outside and I'll show you there's nothing to be afraid of."
Henry's brow furrowed, but he followed Emma towards the door.
*8*8*
Back at Mr. Gold's home, things had gotten worse.
Baelfire's kitten, a fluffy little silver-furred creature that he had named Raine (after his friend, Morraine), had been hiding under the sofa.
Unfortunately, after a particularly earth-shaking explosion of thunder, it had shot out from under the sofa and tore around the house in a panic.
Baelfire chased after it, but to no avail. Finding no safety from the loud noises inside the house, it took the only other escape route left-it darted out the cat door and into the night.
Baelfire reached for the doorknob.
"Bae, no!" Gold shouted. "Leave the cat, she'll find her way back in soon enough!"
"We can't just leave her out there!" Baelfire cried.
"But-" Gold tried to reason with him.
"You don't have to come; I'll find her myself." With that, Baelfire opened the door and disappeared into the stormy night.
Of course, Gold and Belle followed. Both were so worried about Baelfire, they didn't notice that the sky above had become a deadly-looking, swirling vortex of blackness...
*8*8*
"See? There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just a lot of rain and a lot of noise," Emma said, gesturing at the stormy surroundings outside their house.
Henry frowned, clearly still uneasy. He glanced up, noticing that the brewing clouds above looked an awful lot like a vortex of some kind.
And that was when a soft melody began to play from out of nowhere, and a spicy scent of peppermint and cinnamon filled the air.
Before Henry could even think of saying, I told you so!, he and Emma were yanked up into the sky by an invisible force, disappearing into the vortex.
*8*8*
"I found her!" Belle called, picking up a wet and bedraggled Raine, who had been hiding under a bush.
Gold and Baelfire went over to her, and Baelfire happily took his kitten from Belle and hugged her to his chest.
"What's that sound?" Gold asked as they were walking towards the house.
"It sounds like...music," Belle mused, frowning. She sniffed at the air, detecting the scent of peppermint and...was that cinnamon?
Just then, they heard Baelfire cry out, and the two of them spun around, identical expressions of terror on their faces.
Baelfire was gone.
"Bae!" Gold shouted, in a panic. He started forward, frantically scanning the yard with his eyes. "Bae, where are you? Bae!"
But then he and Belle were pulled into the vortex.
-X-X-X-
Author's Note: That was a lot of fun to write! :) I hope you enjoyed reading it; in the next chapter, we get to find out just what happened to dear Mr. Gold and his family, as well as Sheriff Emma Swan and Henry.