Once Upon A Time: Chapter 9

Chapter 9
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The Air of Burgess was crisp and cool, the gentle smell of Autumn filling the air, matched with the changing leaves.

Noah breathed in the air as he walked, follow Jamie down the sidewalk of the small port town towards the school.

"So, whats this thing with your mom anyway?" He questioned, tossing the bright red apple between his hands as he took up a quick pace next to the young brunette.

"its not about us, Its about her curse." Jamie said, the two crossing the street, Noah instinctively putting a hand on the boys back to guide him across the the walk.
He still didn't understand this odd, motherly feeling he got around the kid...

"We have to break it."
Noah came out of his thoughts, and snorted slightly at the kids words.
"Luckily, I have a Plan!"
"Oh, do you?"
"Step one, Identification! I call it operation Cobra!"

Noah raised an eyebrow at the boy.
"Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairy tales"
"Exactly! its a code name, to throw the witch off or trail."

Noah sighed, taking a deep breath.
"Okay so to recap, everyone here is a fairy tale character, they just don't know it."
"Thats the curse's doing, time here has been frozen, well until you got here-"

Noah nodded slightly, lifting the apple to take a bite.

"HEY!" Jamie snapped, making Noah jump, stopping before he could fully bite in.

"what?" the dark haired Male questioned, teeth still partly breaking the skin of the fruit.
"Where did you get that??" Jamie demanded.
Noah blinked at him, pulling the almost bitten apple from his mouth in confusion.
"from your mom-"
"DON'T EAT THAT!"
Jamie snatched the apple from his grasp, tossing it over his shoulder and onto the ground behind them.

"but, but food......" Noah sighed, looking behind him to watch the Apple roll down the sidewalk.

He hadn't really eaten yet that day......

He turned his head back around, letting out a small pouty huff, his breath slightly visible in the cool air.
"Okay fine, No Apples.
So what about everyone's pasts?"
"They don't know. Ask anyone here Anything about their pasts. Its all a haze to them."

"So.....for 21 years, these people have been walking around, in a haze, not ageing and with horrible memories stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious?" Noah questioned slowly, finding the words leaving his mouth making less and less sense.

"I knew you'd get it!" Jamie beamed, Noah shaking his head slowly at the kid.
"Thats why we need you, you're the only one who can break the curse."

Becaaaause I'm the son of A dragon trainer and a Winter spirit?"
"Exactly, you're the product of true love! And we have the advantage, my mom hasn't figured out who you are yet."
Jamie slowed his walk, pulling off his backpack.
Noah watched him unzip it, the boy glancing around to make sure no one saw.
He then pulled out a collection of Large, worn pages.
"I tore out the end of the book, the part with you in it."

Jamie handed the pages to Noah, pointing at the picture.

Noah sighed, looking at the image.
A younger man with bright white hair, carrying a baby wrapped in a black sweater. He held a blade in his other hand, his shoulder wounded rather badly.

"See the sweater? Thats yours! It even has 'Toothless' written on it!"
To prove his point, Jamie tugged on the corner of Noah's sweater, pointing out the warn, embroidered letters.

Noah had to admit, it was the exact same sweater....

He sighed, shaking the feeling off.
"Kid, I told you-"
"The hero never believes its them at first, if they did it wouldn't be a very good story."
Noah looked at him for a moment.
"Jamie..."
"If you need proof, Take them! Read them! You'll feel something! You may of been a baby but you'll remember how it felt! Just

whatever you do, don't let my mom see those pages."
"Why not?"
"If she realizes who you are......It'd be really bad."

Noah swallowed, nervously rolling the loose pages up. He didn't like the fear laced in the kids voice when he said that.....

If, and thats a big if,
IF this was all true,

What would she do to him....?

"I gotta go," Jamie broke Noah from his trance.
"but we'll meet up later so we can get started!" He grinned, rushing towards the school building.
The kid looked back, flashing Noah a large grin.
"I knew you'd believe me!"

Noah crossed his arms.
"Hey!" He called.
"I never said I believed you!"

"Why else would you be here~?" Jamie laughed, running past the tall brunette standing near the door, and rushing inside.

Jay blinked, watching Jamie rush past him inside.
He turned around, raising an eyebrow at Noah, who was slowly walking closer.
"Nice to see his smile back." Jay chimed, Noah laughing slightly.
"I didn't really do anything-"
"You stayed."

Noah flushed slightly at the knowing smile Jay wore.
"Does the Mayor know you're still here?"
"Ohh yes." Noah snorted, shaking his head.
"What is her deal? Shes not exactly a people person, how did she get elected?"
Jay sighed, giving a shrug, watching a couple more kids head inside.
"Shes been mayor....as long as I can remember."

Noah blinked.
That fit the 'haze' theory awful well....
"No ones been brave enough to run against her." Jay shook his head slightly.
"She inspires quite a bit of, well, fear, and I'm pretty sure I only made that worse by giving Jamie that book, now he thinks shes the evil witch."

"....Who does he think you are?" Noah asked suddenly.
Jay blinked, slightly surprised by the question.
He flushed, rubbing his head.
"Oh, its really silly I mean-"
"Hey, I just got five minutes of Silly, lay it on me."

Jay breathed a laugh.
"He thinks I'm Hiccup, The dragon Trainer."

The Color drained from Noah's face.
Everything went almost numb, he could only stare blankly at the slightly taller male.

'those eyes.......the hair type, the freckles.....

Everything matches up perfectly.......'

'but we're almost the same age that couldn't be.....

'but.......'

'i remember those eyes......'

"goodbye, Toothless."

"Who does he think you are?" Jay asked, smiling slightly.

"i.....I'm not in the book..." Noah breathed slightly, shaking him self from the odd trance.
Food. He just needed to eat, he was hearing things and thinking weird because he was too hungry.

"hey uh, can I ask you a favor, Jay?"
"hm?"
"Gothel mentioned the Kid was in therapy, do you know where I could find the doctor?"


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*Knock Knock Knock*

Noah gently pushed the large wood door open, peeking into the small office.
"Hello?"
"Just a moment, please come in!" A young woman's voice answered from another room.
"Please make yourself comfortable!"

Noah pursed his lips gently closing the door behind him as he entered, eyes taking in the therapist main office room.

The room was painted a soothing blue color, not too light not too dark, easy on the eyes.
The carpet was a nice green, again a very soothing shade, it was also soft, almost feathery.
The room had a pretty oak Desk, along with a very soft looking blue sofa and some matching seats. The wall behind the desk held an amazingly painted picture of a humming bird.
He also noted some long pretty feathers in the flower vase on the desk.

The room gave Noah a slight dentist-office vibe, with all the soothing colors and relaxed atmosphere.
He would admit he felt relaxed when he stepped in, noting that instead of that creepy chemical smell, the air smelt slightly of lavender, not too strong, just enough to add that little something extra to bring stress to an ease.

"Sorry I wasn't expecting anyone- Oh Noah!"
Noah turned to the women walking in from the back, who smiled warmly at him.

Tianna walked towards him, holding up a certain paper with Noah's face on it.
"I was just reading about you! Let me guess, here for a little post-traumatic-stress~?"
She giggled slightly, setting the paper down.
"That diagnosis was free by the way~" She winked.
Noah laughed a little, finding even Tianna herself seemed to give off a very comfortable vibe.

She was very pretty, the multicolored feathers in her bun of brown hair suiting her well. Now that Noah had time to really look at her, he could see stray locks of curly brown hair falling around her face, framing it, making her magenta eyes look big and sparkling.

"heh, well I'm actually here about Jamie."
Tianna's smile dropped a bit.
"I know you want to help, but I really can't talk about-"
"I know I'm sorry" Noah sighed shoving his hands in his pockets.
"I'm just worried about him. At least answer one question for me?"

Tianna's face softened.
"What is it?"

"this fairy tale Obsession, whats causing it?
I mean he thinks everyone is a character in his book, thats a big, crazy."

Tianna gestured to let Noah sit, taking her seat across from him.
"I, I hope you don't talk like that in front of him, you are right, but the word 'crazy' can be very damaging, especially to a young child.
The stories, they're his language. Hes too young to understand how to convey complex emotions, so this is how he communicates.
From what I've seen from our sessions here, hes using the book to help deal with his emotional problems."

Noah blinked in surprise.
"But he only got the book a month ago, has he been seeing you longer than that?"
Tianna's eyes gained a bit of worry.
"Yes, yes he has."

"So its Gothel, isn't it."

"His mother, shes a very complicated woman. And over the years, all her attempts to bring her and Jamie closer have backfired on her.....A cornered Animal tends to panic, and often lashes out in anger as a defense."

Noah's eyes fell to his lap.
"I see..."

Tianna smiled, standing and walking to her desk.
She flipped through a couple of folders, before pulling out a rather thick one.

She turned, gently handing it to Noah.
"Why don't you, read over the file. See what I mean."
Noah blinked in surprise, looking up at her.
"Why are you-"
"He talked about you a lot. You're very important to him, and I can see he is to you as well."

Noah smiled slightly, taking the file from her.
"thank you."
Tianna smiled.
"Anything to help Jamie, hes a good kid."

She walked Noah to the door, letting him out.
"Oh, and Noah?"
Noah turned his head to look at her.
"Be careful how you handle Jamie's belief system. We want him to see reality, but loosing Imagination and Innocence would be devastating, He needs both of them to grow up into a healthy adult."

Noah nodded.
"I understand, thank you."
"anytime."

Tianna smiled, closing the door as Noah left.
Her smile vanished, face twisting.

She didn't want to do this.
but she had no choice.....

Pushing herself from the door she quickly moved to the phone, dialing and waiting for it to pick up.

"Hello?"

"You were right, He was just here."

"Did he take the file."

"Yes....." Tianna chewed on her lip.
"How did you know he would come here?"

"Well~"
Gothel chuckled darkly.
"I'm the one who gave him the idea~"