Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 3)

Ch.3 Mira

"COURTLY JESTER!" the loud voice of the Queen of Hearts was heard through the card castle.

"I'm right here!" Courtly said in the throne room "And now my ear is bleeding!"

"Ms. Jester" the queen said with a stern look "Did you finish cleaning the dining room?"

"Yes" Courtly sighed.

"Good, now clean up the horses pen".

"What?!" Courtly gasped.

"You heard me, off with you now".

"But your Highness, I've done way too much work today, can I please stop?"

"Let me think about that" the queen said sarcastically "Uh, no".

Courtly gave a growl as she stomped out from the throne room.

"Uh, your Highness" Chase Redford entered with a worried look "Don't you think you're going a bit overboard with Courtly's punishment?"

"I'm not going overboard" the queen assured "I'm just giving what she deserves".

"Yeah and it's way too much, give her break".

"All right fine" the queen sighed "This will be her last work for today".

Down at the horses pen, Courtly used a shovel and scooped up the horses business and into a cart. Out of all of her punishments the queen has given her, this one would have to be the worst so far. Her shoulders were aching, sweat dripped down her body, and the foul stench made this job harder. But as she was scooping, she didn't noticed a girl standing in the doorway with a sneaky smile on her face.

"You tired?" she asked.

Courtly turned and saw her with a surprised look.

"Uh, who are you?" she asked.

"The name's Mira" the girl said with her sneaky smile "Mira Shards, and you must be Courtly Jester".

"Yes...?" Courtly said with an unsure look.

"Don't ask how I know your name, I don't want to explain everything".

"Well uh, I've never seen you here before" Courtly said.

"Oh I'm just exploring this place, and I couldn't help but notice you cleaning up after these horses".

They watched as a horse did it's business onto the hay as they cringed with disgust.

"Well this is my punishment" Courtly said with a sad look.

"You've been a bad girl?" Mira smirked.

"Like really bad, this is the 5th punishment I had to do today, today I've cleaned the Men's room, I've cleaned the dining room, I had to give the Queen of Hearts a foot massage, I had to do this job that I do not wanna talk about, and now I have to take care of this dump".

"Hmm" Mira tapped her chin "Why don't I take care of this?"

She then shot some magic out of her hands as all of the dump disappeared.

"There" she smiled as Courtly's eyes widen "All cleaned up".

"Wow" Courtly said surprised "That was amazing".

"Yep, well now that's done, it's time for me to go".

"Hold on" Courtly stopped her "Before you go, I just wanna say that, you look really familiar".

"I do?" Mira smirked.

"You look like Raven Queen, daughter of the Evil Queen".

"Really?" Mira said with a sneaky smile.

"Yeah, oh I hated that chic" Courtly grunted "She nearly killed me".

"Oh really?" Mira said amused.

"Yeah" Courtly sighed.

"Well then, I'm sure it wont happen again, maybe. But I should get going now".

"All right, and uh, thanks for helping me".

"No problem" Mira smiled as she went out of the pen.

But as she was walking, she didn't notice Alice watching her from behind a tree.

"Just as I thought" she said to herself.

Mira continued walking until she came to an empty field.

"Okay" she said to herself "I think it's time to go to Storybrooke now".

She then started to form a ball of purple light in her hands while chanting a spell. After she had finished chanting the spell, she used the ball of light to create a portal in front of her. She then gave a sneaky smile.

"Storybrooke" she said "Here I come".

And with that she stepped through the portal as it closed up. After watching the portal close, Alice who was watching from behind gave a small gasp before running to get help.

Mira found herself on a road in the woods, wondering if she had made it, she looked around but saw no sign of life. But as she looked down the road she spotted a sign, she went to it and read 'Welcome to Storybrooke'.

"I made it" she smiled.

She then walked pass the sign and headed down the road. She soon came upon the town of Storybrooke, she noticed that no one was around. But just in case she was going to run into some people, she felt she needed to change her look.

"Let's see" Mira said "I need to reinvent my look to blend in with today's teens".

She then went behind a tree to make sure no one could see her as she started to chant a spell. Her dark magic surrounded her as she continued to chant. And soon after the magic had disappeared, her look had changed, sh went to a shop and saw her refection on the glass. She saw that her hair was now black, her eyes were brown, and she was wearing black skinny jeans that were tucked into some black knee high boots along with a white shirt with a poison apple on it.

"Ooo" she said amused as she admired her new self "I am so rocking this new look".

After she admired herself some more, she realized she needed to find her daughter. She then spotted a man coming out from his shop, she realized that it was Mr. Gold, the owner of an antique store. She figured he could help her so she went up to him.

"Mr. Gold" she said as he turned to her.

"Oh" he said surprised "Hello".

"Can you tell me what day it is?"

"It's Monday".

"Oh it's a weekday" she finally realized why no one was around "So everyone must be in school now, would you please tell me where the high school is?"

"You new here?"

"I am actually".

"Well then, it's down the street, and then you turn left, it looks like a castle so you can't miss it".

"Oh thank you".

"Hey uh, you look really familiar, have we met before?"

"Maybe" she smirked "Maybe not".

And with that she walked away, leaving Gold with a confused look, wondering her the new girl reminded him of.