Mai could see him trying not to laugh and huffed. "I haven't been this clumsy at it since I was a child," she grumbled, plucking a stray feather out of her hair.

"Don't worry too much about it," Jefferson said, reaching out to take the feather from her. He set it aside on his work table. "It's fine. I'm sure you'll get it to work out soon."

Mai snorted quietly but tried not to worry.

"So what now? We didn't exactly learn what we wanted to."

"But we did learn that it takes a lot of magic to jumpstart a portal from the Storybrooke side," Jefferson replied. He touched a couple of the hats. "More magic than the average practitioner would have."

"But apparently there are ways around that," Mai said, looking at him. "So I suppose the trip was not a loss, really."

"It wasn't a loss at all," Jefferson agreed. He grinned a bit. "Just... not what we expected, that's all. Though we probably should let Snow White and the Prince know about things."

"Probably." Mai pouted a bit as a thought occurred to her. "And I didn't get to see the Jabberwocky again before we left."

"Once things get straightened out, I'll make sure we go back," Jefferson soothed. "Though why you want to go back to see that beast is still beyond me."

Mai shrugged. "It's nice to be able to talk to birds," she said. "And the Jabberwocky was more intelligent than most of the birds around here."

"The Jubjub birds are a lot less dangerous," Jefferson replied. "They tend to congregate in the borogroves, I'm sure we can find you some."

"Excellent." Mai grinned, and then paused for a moment. "Oh, so, since I'm here a lot, you should probably know. Back in the Enchanted Forest, I kind of had a few birds that hung around. Well. Some were always around, some came and went. No more than a few flocks."

"A few... flocks?" Jefferson asked, blinking. "What constitutes a flock?" Because that seemed like an important thing to know.

"Depends on the breed. Pigeons can have flocks of a hundred, but that's kind of unusual. Hawks and things are loners, and sparrows and those types usually keep smaller flocks, twenty or so maybe?" Mai shrugged.

Jefferson was quiet for a moment, just considering that.

"Just keep the dangerous ones away from Grace, alright?" he finally said. He cracked a bit of a grin. "I expect she'll love the littler ones."

"I wouldn't let anything hurt Grace," Mai agreed. "Besides, it may not happen here. I don't know yet."

"We'll see if it does," Jefferson said. "In the meantime, we should probably go and talk to Snow and the Prince."

"Right." Mai shook herself a bit and headed for the door, since everything was in order. Time to go talk to people. Or hopefully let Jefferson do it.

Jefferson followed her, closing the door of the hat room behind him and locking it. He kept it locked whenever he wasn't in there; the hats were just too dangerous to leave unsecured.

"Let's head to the diner first," he suggested. "I bet someone there can tell us where Snow and the Prince are right now."

"It would surprise me if someone didn't know where they are," Mai said with a little snort. She fell into step next to him.

Jefferson couldn't help but smirk a bit at that.

"True," he said, nodding. "They do seem to have a finger in every pie recently, don't they?"

"Yes indeed." Mai was quiet for a few moments as they walked. "Gold, too. He knows more than anyone, I think. Or at least he thinks he does."

"Right," Jefferson replied. He'd rather not go back to Gold if he could help it, but he would if he absolutely had to. "For now, Snow and David first."

Mai nodded and started walking again.

A day or so later, everything seemed to be normal. As normal as the town ever got. Hook was back in the library, sitting reading quietly sort of near Lydia. He was still keeping an eye out for her, and he'd decided that she was fun and he liked her. So spending time with her was a plus.

Mai, on the other hand, was with Grace, heading back from picking up a few groceries. They were heading back to Jefferson's place, and then Mai would head home and find something to do.

Suddenly, there was an inhuman shriek, and a horde of flying monkeys filled the sky as the town was rocked by what seemed to be an earthquake. The streets cracked, and some of the less sturdy buildings started to crumble. The monkeys began to pick at the people who ran out of the buildings, carrying them away.

Lydia wasn't able to get out of the library before a section of the ceiling collapsed, blocking the exit.

Hook was also trapped in the library, but he reacted quicker, going straight over to Lydia and making sure she was alright.

"Lydia?"

Parts of buildings fell, and Grace nearly got hit by some falling rubble. Mai pushed her out of the way at the last moment, not quite fast enough to get out of the way herself. She ended up flat on her back, blinking blearily at the building that had crumbled around them, with Grace pale and shaking but unharmed next to her.