Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 13)

Ch.27 Lucky charm

(Flashback) As soon as Justine and Nathan made it to the portal, they both stopped as they turned to each other.

"You can make it back right?" he asked.

"Of course I can," she replied with a small smile "It's just straight ahead."

"Okay then," he smiled "You know I gotta say, it was fun showing you around."

"Well I did have a good time," she smiled back "And uh, even though I wasn't able to meet your parents, tell them I say hi."

"Will do."

"And um, maybe the next time we see each other, you can help me practice my dancing."

"Really?" he remarked.

"Yeah," she nodded "And don't worry, if it makes you feel any better, it'll just be us alone, we won't have to do in front of our friends."

"Well even though I would like to face my fear of dancing in front of others, I think I would like to start off small."

"In that case," she smiled when a thought came to her "You wanna know a little secret?"

"What secret?"

"When I was young, I used to get really nervous whenever I was about to dance in front of an audience, so in order to calm my nerves, I had a lucky charm."

"A lucky charm?"

"Well I don't really consider it a lucky charm anymore since I'm more confident now, but I always wear it with me whenever I'm dancing to remind myself what I'm passionate about."

"And um, what is this lucky charm of yours?"

She gave a small smile as she reached the top of her dress to pull out a pink ribbon that had been loosely tied around her neck.

"A ribbon?" Nathan remarked.

"Yes," she replied while taking it off "This ribbon came off of the very first outfit I wore during my first dance practice, and ever since that day, I became more and more confident whenever I dance. And now, I think it's time for you to feel more confident."

She handed it to him "I want you to have it."

"What?" he gasped "No I can't accept that."

"You have to," she smirked "It's my order. Make it your lucky charm."

Nathan just froze while staring at the ribbon. And after seeing how serious she was in offering it to him, he gently took the offering.

"And if you don't want anyone to see it," she added "Then wear it where no one can see it."

"I- I don't know what to say" he mumbled.

"Perhaps a thank you would be nice."

"Right," he replied with a small smile "Thank you."

She returned the smile and added, "Well then, I should get going, I'll see you at school?"

"Perhaps," he shrugged in a smirk.

After bidding farewell, Nathan watched as Justine stepped into the passageway and disappeared into the dark. He then turned to the ribbon in his hand, seeing that it was his 'lucky charm', he squeezed it tight while thinking of his wonderful friend who was willing to give him what made her confident in her dancing.

__________

After finally getting what he needed from the Nutcracker realm, Noah made his way back to Ever After where he climbed up the mountain that contained a dark cave consisting of the large Sand Clock that was frozen in time since it wasn't letting any of the sand on the top fall to the bottom. But turning his attention to a flat boulder and using it as a table, he pulled out the gold and silver leaves he had stolen from Justine's castle along with a Krakatuk nut as he placed those items on the boulder.

Needing to open up the nut, he picked up a large rock piece and swung it down onto the nut, cracking it open to reveal the large nut inside as he took it out and brushed the shell away as he began to circle the nut with the leaves. Now that he was ready, he cleared his head, closed his eyes, and began to focus while waving his hands over the items. Keeping his focus on a point, he could feel the magic working and the energy rushing through him while keeping his hands over the boulder.

After a moment of the magic working, Noah felt a gush of wind brush past his face as he opened his eyes to find a bunch of people all wearing tan colored hoods over their heads to conceal their faces.

"Don't be shy," Noah sneered "It's only me."

They took their hoods off and stared at him with their surprised eyes.

"Well isn't this a nice reunion" he continued to sneer "After many years of being gone, I have finally brought you all back."

"If it's been many years," one of the girls spoke, "Then why are you still young and handsome?"

"Oh I'm flattered," he chuckled "And to answer your question, I've been hiding, hiding in a realm where I never age."

"Neverland?" a guy guessed.

"Well it's part of it, but I don't wanna explain too much."

"Well then-" another guy spoke, "How exactly are we back?"

"Thanks to me, it wasn't easy to obtain these items but I got them anyway. And now that you all are back, we've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Question-" a girl raised her hand, "What year is this?"

"I don't know," Noah shrugged "I lost track. But it doesn't matter, what matters is there's a certain item we need to get. An item of great power and destruction. Now you may be wondering what this item is and why we need it, well let me tell you, we obviously need this item to destroy something. I won't say what, but I will say that it will be very important for our future.

But unfortunately, we aren't able to use this item without my sister's help, and apparently, this resurrection spell isn't strong enough to bring her back. But that doesn't mean we won't stop looking for a way to bring her back. And once we get her back no matter how long it takes, everything is going to change for these characters, and everything will be just the way we like it. There will be no turning back."