Her Lost Father

Chapter 1: You Are Now Entering Storybrooke

Prologue
(Set about 15 years ago)

Kathryn was afraid. Her family had had almost no money. What else was she supposed to do? She worked at the mill, but that wasn't enough pay to support her younger sister and mother. So she went to the tavern to see if she could make money there. Before she knew what was happening, a handsome pirate was paying her to spend the night with him. She accepted, it wasn't like she was gonna turn down that large amount of money. It was fine, and she and her family lived a little more comfortably for a while. But it only lasted about a month. She found out that she was pregnant with the pirate's child. She couldn't face her family so she decided there was only one thing to do; go to the sorceress Cora. She didn't know why, but even though there was a Dark Curse that ripped everyone from their homes in the Enchanted Forest, this corner of the land was spared. She made way to Cora and begged with her, pleaded with her to send her to a new land, and give her new memories. Well as it turned out, Cora owed Kathryn's father a favor. He had done a great deed for the enchantress before he died. Cora sent the Kathryn away, and when she woke up, she had no memory of her old life. As far as she knew, she was a happily married woman named Katie Hart who was expecting her first child with her husband, Kermit. And so she gave birth to her daughter, whom she named Maya. She didn't know why she called her Maya, but it was actually the name of her mother she did not remember. The baby's middle name, Penelope, was after the sister that was erased from her memory. She only time she remembered the life she'd lost was in her dreams...

--
(14 years after Maya was born)

"You artists," Riley complained as Maya lay on the forest floor, looking up at the glimmering stars as she sketched the sky while Uncle Shawn lay next to her with his camera snapping pictures of the stars, "Do you ever stop?" Riley asked.

She sat on a log next to Zay, and Farkle and Lucas sat opposite to them. The crackling fire they were all sitting around gave a warm glow. Shawn had offered to take the kids on a camping trip in Maine. They were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but it was perfect. None of them had really seen the stars since Texas, and Maya's pencil hadn't stopped moving over her sketch pad since the first twinkling light had come out.

Suddenly, she popped up. "Riley," she said, "I have to use the bathroom. Can you come?" Lucas smiled, "Why Maya? You can't handle the forest at night by yourself?" Maya shot him a look. "You really wanna play with me, Ranger Rick? Cuz I have all night." That got him quiet. Riley joined her friend. They walked on a paved road for a while, but then, in the middle of it, Riley's sharp eyes saw something in the dark. Maya was using the bathroom, but Riley called out to her anyway.

"Maya! Come look at this!"

Maya emerged from the bushes, "Oh honey. Did you see a fairy? A magical moonbeam pixie? An elf? Or, better yet," She took a pause and then added dramatically, "a unicorn?"

Riley stooped down to pick something up of the road. "I don't know peaches. All I know is I found this weird little piece of paper in the road."

"Lemme look at it," Maya said snatching it from Riley's hands. "What is this? Greek? Arabic? Egyptian? Defiantly not English." Maya said with a frown. Riley inspected the paper in Maya's hands for a second before saying, "Let's ask Shawn. He might know."

--

"Pst!! Riles!" Maya whispered forcefully to wake her sleeping friend. Riley rubbed her eyes, "Honestly Maya. I know you like to go to bed late and all, but it's like, 2 in the morning." She grumbled. "Get outta bed. Right now. Hurry, get some clothes on." Maya said quietly. Riley didn't ask any questions as she got out of bed and pulled on a baggy sweater and some overalls. She pushed aside the flap of the tent and emerged to see an already dressed Lucas, Zay, and Farkle.

"Guys what is going on?" Riley asked. The blonde took a breath, "Well, since Shawn didn't know what the writing on the scroll meant, Farkle and I went to go walk back to that place where you found it, Riles. We were looking for clues." Maya explained. "And then," Farkle interrupted, "we were walking on the road with the scroll, and a sign appeared. Like, out of nowhere. It just appeared. We took a couple of steps back and it vanished. We walked forward and the sign along with a spray painted line across the road appeared again." Farkle whispered.

"The sign said, 'Now Leaving Storybrooke'." Maya murmured, "And I say we should go back and look for this 'hidden town' called Storybrooke."

"But what about Shawn?" Lucas and Riley said at the same time. They looked at each other in the darkness and blushed. "We'll have our phones if he needs us." The blonde said, trying to ignore the pain she felt when Riley and Lucas looked at each other.

Farkle noticed everything, from the awkward blushing to the pained stare from Maya. The genius's mind was racing. Things had been shaky since New Years, and the trio of kids still had no idea what they were doing. Riley had just started to forgive Farkle about a week ago. He knew it might have been the wrong thing to do, but he had to let Lucas and Maya know how Riley felt. It hurt. But now he shook all these thoughts away. "So are we going, or what?" He said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, let's go," Zay said. They began to walk down the road. Suddenly, they couldn't walk anymore. There was like an invisible wall, blocking them from entering. "I don't understand... What are we doing different from last time?" Maya asked, her brow furrowed. They thought for a moment. "The scroll," Farkle said suddenly, "We had the scroll last time we tried to go in." The brunette girl produced the scroll from her bag, gave it to Maya and with that, the blue eyed girl marched forward, leading her friends. Riley, Zay and Lucas were astounded. Farkle and Maya were right! They walked down the road past the town line.

It took them a while, but eventually they made it into town. Everything was an eerie quiet. The friends looked around. It seemed like a normal town besides the fact that it was literally hidden by like a... Cloaking spell? They all (excluding Riley, who was pretty much in La La Land at the notion of being in a magical town) knew that was impossible. "Hello?" Zay suddenly called, breaking the silence. His voice reverberated around them, echoing until it met their ears shortly after he called out into the night. "... Should we go back?" Lucas asked. "No," Farkle said firmly, "I want to know how they cloaked this town. It must have been some illusion to bend the way the ultraviolet rays hit the back of our retinas, thereby messing up the visual cortex of the brain. But then, how would that affect the fact that we couldn't get into town without the scroll?" The scientist questioned. "Duh," Riley said. Everyone turned to her, surprised. Science was not the bunny-farmer's strong suit. "It's obviously magic. How can you people be so blind?"