The Magic Within ↠ Once Upon A Time

[Chapter 97] The Only Way

Finally, here's the next chapter! Only 4 more to go!

~~~~~

~Henry's POV~

"How does someone lose a baby?" Mom (Regina) exclaims. The purple smoke emulating from her magic floats up into the air. As quickly as she manifests it to consume us, it disappears without a trace of magic left. Mom's (Regina's) magic leaves us at the front yard of our home.

"I'm sorry," Terk profusely apologizes to everyone as if she were the one to misplace Neal. Despite being in awe of the magic that consumed us, since she takes a quick glance at the house that wasn't there before, her anxiety is geared towards the missing baby.

Tantor, on the other hand, looks around. He's in disbelief with Mom's magic.

"There should've been a closer watch on him."

"Terk, it wasn't your fault," Melody interrupts her. She pats Tantor's side to gain his attention back but to also signal for Terk and Grandpa (David) to come down from Tantor's back. "Like David said, you guys just got there when you realized Neal was missing."

The door to our house was left ajar. Gorillas continue to circle around the yard, just like Melody and I left them, but I see a few trotting inside the home. I can only assume that some believe Neal could be hiding somewhere in the house. However, he only just learned to crawl. There's no way he'd be able to get out from a crib and crawl his way out the house.

As soon as she sees gorillas shuffling from inside the house, Mom (Regina) mumbles under her breath about the possible mess littering inside.

"Why would you two just leave them alone?" Grandpa grunts after sliding off the elephant's back. As much as his anger wasn't meant for us, his stress needed to be pent off to someone besides himself.

"David, it's not like I left them inside a tree and hoped for the best," Melody snapped, almost matching his tone. There's no resentment in her either, but given the direness in our case, there isn't much room for putting blame on anyone. Both their intentions could be in the right place, but it's not fair to start a fight at this time.

"We trust the gorillas protected them the best they could," I intervene.

Melody starts walking towards the house. Some of us follow her. "I know gorillas are more than capable of protecting their own, and babies are no exception. Human babies... there's really no difference. Neal and Robin would've been perfectly safe and healthy with them, and had something happened sooner, someone would've come looking for me."

"With Sabor back, we protect the younglings fiercely," Terk explains. "No one would ever lose their sight of them."

"Which is why this could've just happened." Melody passes through the front door with Terk and I right behind her heel while the others follow. Before she can move farther past the front entrance, another gorilla blocks our path. Its large body blocks us out like an impenetrable wall. I can't not be surprised by the built of these animals from the Forbidden Jungle.

"Roka?" Melody calls, almost to ensure it's him. Again, I can barely tell the difference between any of them. Call me ignorant, but they all look the same to me. Silverback gorillas barely leave any room for distinction.

The gorilla looks away from the others that rummage through the house to acknowledge us.

"I'm assuming Bam gave you the heads up. So, what happened?"

The gorilla loosens the tension from his shoulders, blowing out a low sigh. From the stuffiness in the air, everyone in the troop holds some guilt in this. "Bai was the one who was watching over the young ones. She and the other mothers were inside to keep all the younglings safe."