Morning came and with it, a somewhat bleary eyed Aurelia. Her gorgeous blonde locks were in a tangled mess and her emerald eyes had lost their luster, turning gems into unpolished rocks. Purple bags hung clung onto the wrinkles under her eyes, the ones that appeared to due lack of sleep.

She looked like a mess.

It was morning and she had just woken up from a poor night's sleep so she had plenty of reason for her less than lack luster appearance.

It seemed perfect timing that as soon as she finished dressing that there was a knock on her door.

"Come in!" She grunted as she ran a brush through her bed head.

It was of course her best friend. Aurelia greeted him with a somewhat tired smile, which Lucas returned with a questioning look.

"Aurelia, are you feeling alright?"

"What? Yes, I'm fine." Aurelia waved her hand in dismissal.

Lucas didn't look convinced. "You kind of freaked out last night."

Aurelia sighed and threw the brush onto her bed. "I know. I know! It's just- I've got a lot on my mind."

"I could tell-" He barely was able to finish his thought.

"I think something is wrong with me, Luke." Aurelia looked at her hands, remembering the tingling from last night.

Concern flashed across Lucas' face. "What? Nothing's wrong with you, Aurey-"

"No something is definitely wrong with me." Aurelia stated. "Do you have the map?"

"Uh yeah?" Lucas pulled the mystical map out of his pocket. He unfolded it so they could both see triangles for mountains and lines for paths pop up. "See? Nothing too out of the ordinary. I mean it's a little freaky how the lines move by themselves, but-"

"There's more to it." Aurelia had to show him.

Shaking, she grasped the map.  It happens instantly. The ink began shifting around to form new moving images.

Lucas' eyes went wide. He looked between Aurelia and the map, only to find that Aurelia's eyes had glazed over, silvery.

"What the-?"

The figure was once again a short elf like man. He was alone this time, sitting in what looked like a cave. It was a nice cave though, but as it was a simple picture it was difficult to tell.

What he was doing was frightening. He was looking at a map very similar to the one they were holding. That wasn't the frightening part. The frightening part was what he was looking at.

The scribbles were tiny at this point, too hard to see.

The map was supposed to show them what they needed to see, right? That was what Nyel had said. So maybe if she just focused

The picture grew, taking up more space on the page.

Mr. Gold's map showed two figures that were divided by a line down the middle of the map, which showed that the two figures weren't in the same location.

One of the figures was a young woman carrying a heavy bag of flour. The other figure on the other side of the line was a young man hiding from the world surrounded by books.

It was unsettling because them knew who those figures were. It was them.

Only Aurelia heard the words he was mumbling to himself.

"Yes, these two. They'll help me out. They fit nicely." A wicked smile crossed the figure's face.

Aurelia shivered and dropped the map.

"What was that?" Concern bleed through Lucas' voice. Aurelia looked back at him with worry.

"I think- I think this entire adventure has been manipulated by Mr. Gold." Aurelia couldn't believe herself as she said it. What if making a deal with him only made everything worse for Atharia?

"I don't think he counted on us getting that map. That's our advantage." Luke told her.

"So we keep going?" Aurelia bit her lip.

"We've come this far. We won't fall for whatever tricks he has." Lucas tried to assure her.

Aurelia didn't seem convinced. "We've got to help Atharia. We'll just have to be careful about our deal. We can't make any mistakes, but we also just can't turn around."

Lucas nodded. "Exactly! Now we should probably get going on our journey, don't you think?"

It was Aurelia's turn to nod. "Yeah, there's no time for wasting. Let's get to it."

She masked a smile, but deep down she was thinking. Why had he been watching the months ago? Why were they chosen? For their strive to help the kingdom, perhaps? What did the word Rumpelstiltskin mean?

This was not what she signed up for.