In Other Worlds

The leaf

Gold slammed a hand down on the counter of his workshop. The Black Fairy, his mother had taken his Belle away, and his Son was gone to the gods know where. The night before, Gideon had faced Emma upon her return from the Wish Realm and lost. He'd fled before Gold could get to him, and jumped realms through a portal- back to the Dark Realm he had no doubts.

Then he and Belle had gone to the wishing well, and finally she had accepted they had to work together to save Gideon. She had made her wish... and they had retired home, made fragile amends and... well, at least one good thing had come from that night as he remembered the time they'd shared under the covers.

At first dawn, he'd awoken to find her sleeping soundly next to him, and his heart had sung. He'd brought her breakfast in bed and given her a rose, and they'd hugged and cried for all that had managed to come between them, vowing not to let it happen again, to talk to one another, to fight for one another and more importantly, save their son together. They'd spent up until the afternoon making preparations to venture into the Dark Realm, avoiding the commotion of the rest when it appeared that the Evil Queen had in fact turned back into a human after Gideon had left- and was causing all sorts of mischief.

Then... his mother had appeared in the very room he stood in now and taken Belle right before his eyes, freezing him with goddamn Squid Ink, so she could laugh in his face as Belle screamed. He'd been released just a split second before the portal closed, but had no time to get through it.

He had though, had chance to reach his hand in and pull back.... a leaf. A single leaf off a tree that existed nowhere in this realm or the enchanted forest. And he knew that the Dark Realm's twisted trees grew no leaves... so where, oh where had she taken her?

He'd begged the help of others but had been shunned- The Saviour wanted nothing to do with him even if Prince David had been sympathetic to his plight. So he'd returned to the shop, pouring over books and had examined the damn leaf in a thousand more ways than he'd even thought possible- to no avail. The leaf did not speak of where it came from; although he had enough knowledge of it by now to damn well near replicate it and the entire tree it had previously been residing upon.

Gold dug his nails into the wood, closing his eyes and attempting in some way to regulate his temper lest he set the damn thing on fire and trash his shop to pieces (again)
No. He'd find a way to open a portal and use the leaf to guide it. He hated having no clue what lay on the other side- but was relieved to find that the land DID have magic- so he wouldn't be entirely powerless over there. His Dark One powers had the uncanny ability to adapt to whichever magical land he visited, something most enchanted forest sorcerers could not boast.

He sighed, picking up the leaf in his hand. Even it's colour was odd, green to first glance but upon closer inspection it shimmered blues and purples. It was indeed beautiful, and so obviously created by magic. The very cell structure of the leaf seemed made upon it, like it grew, breathed and thrived off magic alone.

He plucked a small, flat leather pouch from a drawer in the work bench behind him, and carefully placed the leaf inside. He knew that the leaf wouldn't last long now, without its land it had already begun to wither and fade. If he were to find Belle, it had to be soon. He'd never be able to find Gideon without her either, it felt so cruel for her to have been ripped from him so soon after they'd finally begun to make amends. 

Now that he'd deduced his way to make the portal take him where he needed to go, there was the small matter of actually creating a portal.
He had the beginnings of a plan- he knew Regina had a magic bean, one she'd hidden it from the others, from the Wish Realm's version of himself... All he had to do was convince her, or better yet, trick her into giving it to him.

Hey guys! So this is just a little intro. Cool stuff to come :)
Enjoy!