Once Upon A Time ~ Book 1

Chapter 28 - The Mine

The villagers crowded around the puppet show in the market square. The crowd cheered and clapped, happily as a puppet princess came onto the little stage.
"I wish, I wish, but nothing changes!" cryed the puppet.
The crowd laughed.
"I wish I was better at wishing." the puppet went on.
A little boy with red, curly hair sneaked through the crowd, quietly.
"Alas! Will no one slay this fearsome dragon and win my hand in marriage?"
The boy took some gold from a woman's bag.
Another puppet appeared on the stage. He was a Prince in shining armer. "I will slay the fearsome dragon, my lady, or did trying."
The boy cut a whole is a man's bag and took from it a shachel.
"Then goodbye, dear Prince. It was nice knowing you." said the princess.
The boy slipped his hand into a man's pocket and took silver from it.
A dragon appeared on the stage.
The crowds gasped and giggled.
"Who dares destroy my sleep?" said the dragon angrily.
"He went that way." the Prince said nervously.
"Then I shall go that way."
"Very good idea, you go that way and I'll go......."
The boy then sneaked away, again and chambered into a gypsy carraige.

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The little boy sat outside the carraige, in the country side. He gathered the gold and silver together.
"Careful. Careful." said a man, standing next to him.
"Don't let those coins roll away." said woman who also stood with them.
The woman also had curly, red hair and wore a tattered dress. The man also has tattered cloves, a hat with canvase wrapped around it and blond, shoulder length hair.
"No. They might disappear." said the man. He took a coin, and it disappeared from his hand then he took it from the woman's hair. The adults chuckled.
"Look at that." he said.
The boy picked up a little cage, with a little green cricket inside. "A cricket. I love crickets." he said happily.
"Crickets are trouble. Noisy bugs." said the woman, as they rooted through the stollen objects in front of them.
"But they get to do whatever they want. Hopping from place to place. They're free."
"You're free." said the woman.
"To do what we want." said the man.
"To be who you are." she said.
"And you are who you are." he said.
"Well, maybe I want to be something else. Maybe u don't want to steal. Maybe I want to be good."
"All that from a cricket?" asked the man.
"Told you, trouble." she said.
"'Good' is another word for 'weak'" he said.
"Let us do the thinking for you." she said.
"Thats what parents are for." he said.
"To help you."
"You are who you are and there's no changing it, Jiminy. Right?"
"Right." he replyed.
"Right. Problem solved." he chuckled again.

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Henry sat in Archies office. He stared at Archie as he scribbled down some notes in his book
"You weren't always a cricket." said Henry.
"I wasn't always......." he said a little confused. "Oh, right." he placed his book and pen down."Because I'm.......... Because you think I'm Jiminy Cricket. Why do you think that, Henry?"
"It's just because of who you are."
"And who am I?"
"You're a conscience. You help people see right from wrong."
"So all the crickets in Storybrook, they were once people, too?"
Henry stood up. "There aren't any crickets here. Listen."
He walked to the open window and listened, but only the hooting of an owl could be heard. "Maybe it isn't late enough."
"There's never been crickets here. You've just never noticed."
"So you think that's proof that there's a curse?"
"Yes, but I know that's not enough. I'm looking for more."
"Henry, look, I asked you this once before and you said you'd think about it. Why do you think it is so important that this is real?"
"It....... It just is."
"All right, well, keep thinking about that anwser, Henry. Cause I think there's something buried there."

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Emma stood in the sherifs office holding up a deputy uniform.
"A tie?" said Emma. "You know you don't have to dress a woman as a man to give her authority."
"So you think you can get people to do what you want in that red coat?" asked Graham.
"I'm getting you to do what I want right now." she threw the uniform in front of him.
"Well at least wear the badge." he said holding up a deputy badge. "Go on. Take it. If you really want to be a part of this community, we have to make it official."
Emma took the badge and pined it on her belt.
Then suddenly there was a bang and the room shook, Emma held the desk to keep her balance.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed.
Dogs barked and car alarms wailed.
Then in a sudden all of the phoned in the room began to ring.
Emma looked at her badge.

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People crowds around the abandoned mine in Storybrook.
Builders and mine workers investigated around the mine, while everyone panicked and watched.
The Mayor parked her car near the mine and got out. "Everyone, step back, please!" she shouted to the crowd.
"Is that a crater?" Ruby asked the Italian man. She stood next to the mine, confused.
"No, there were tunnels, old mines. Something collapsed." he replyed.
Regina walked towards Graham. "Sherif, set up a police perimeter." she demanded. "Marco, why don't you help they're department." she said to The Italian man. "Miss. Swan, this is now official town business. You are free to go." she said to Emma.
"Well, acually, I work for thetown now. " said Emma.
Regina looked to Graham, inquringly.
"She's my new deputy." Graham explained.
Emma smiled.
"They say the Mayor's always last to know." said Regina.
"It's in my budget." said Graham.
"Indeed." she looked back at Emma. "Deputy, why don't you make yourself useful and help with crowd control."
Emma looked at Graham, then walked away.
Regina took one last, disgusted look and Graham and walked away. "People of Storybrook, don't be alarmed." she called out to the crowd.
The crowd drew their attention to their Mayor.
"We've always known this area was honeycombed with old mining tunnels. But fear not, I'm going to undertake a project to make this area safe, to rehabilitate it into city use."
Henry and Archie joined the crowd.
"We will bulldoze it, collapse it, pave it."
Henry pushed through the crowd and walked towards Regina. "Pave it? What if there's something down there?"
"Henry, what are you doing here?" she said quietly, grabbing his arm.
"What's down there?" he asked quitely.
"Nothing. Now step back."
Henry backed away.
"In fact, everyone, please, please, step back. Thank you." she called to the crowd and ushered them away.
The crowd stepped away and began to leave.
Regina bent down and picked a piece of glass from the ground. She looked at it for a moment, thoughtfully and placed it in her coat pocket.
"What was that?" Henry whispered to Emma as he looked at Regina.
"Henry, enough." said Regina walking quickly towards him.she took his arm and walked away from Emma.
"Listen, this is a safety issue. Wait in the car."
She turned back to Emma and Graham as Henry ran to the car. "Deputy Swan, sherif, cordon off the area."
Emma rolled her eyes and looked at Graham.

Henry sat in Regina's car, alone. He looked around quickly and sneaked out of the car.
He hide, slightly behind the car. "Hey, Archie, over here." he called to Archie who stood near by.
He ran to the sherifs car and Archie followed. Emma noticed Henry and also followed.
"This requires all of Operation Cobra. Both of you." he said quietly.
"I didn't realise I was in Operation Cobra." said Archie.
"Of course you are. You know everything. We can't let her do this. What if there's something down there." his eyes darted between both of them.
"They're just some old tunnels." said Emma.
"That just happened to collapse right after you get here? You're changing things. You're weakening the curse."
"That's not what's happening."
"Yes, it is. Did you do anything different today? Because something made this happen."
Emma looked down at her deputy badge.
Regina walked over to them. "Henry, it'll you to wait in the car." she said.
Henry walked slowly to the car.
"Deputy, do your job." she said to Emma.
Emma turned and walked away.
"Dr. Hopper, a word, please." said as he began to walk away.
Archie turned and walked back.
"Okay. We're done with this."
"Excuse me?"
"My son. We need a new treatment plan. Everything I do he thinks is part of some horrible plot. I can't cover up a safety hazard without him thinking I'm hoping something. How am I hiding something terrible in an old mine? How is any of this logical to him?"
"He's got an amazing imagination."
"Yes, that you let run rampant."
"Well, I think it would be wrong to rip away the world he's constructed. I'd rather use it to try and get........" he stared, before she interrupted him.
"Sometimes I think you've forgotten. You work for me. You're an employee. And I can fire you. This is my town. You will lose your office, lose your house. I can cut you down to size until you're a tiny shrunken little creature." he teeth were gritted in anger. She grabbed his umbrella from his hand and held it up. "And this will be the only roof over your damn head."
He hesitated. "What would you have me do?"
"You take that delusion out of my son's head.........and you crush it." she threw the umbrella back at him and walked away, leaving Archie at a loss of what to do.