Fables #33

Spring falls on the Farm, and the wolf cubs have started flying around in formation with the birds. Watching them from below, Mister North informs Snow White that her children need to start their training, to learn to shapeshift, saying that if she waits too long, they'll be stuck in one form forever. Bigby never liked him and refused to learn, choosing to remain a wolf like his mother, and if Snow hadn't cut him with a lycanthropy-stained blade centuries ago, he'd never have been able to change into a human form at all. North wants his grandchildren to at least be able to change from human to wolf form at will.
A commotion in the town square attracts their attention. Reynard the fox tells Snow that Mary's little lamb had died. Beast and Prince Charming were there with Doctor Swineheart to determine for cause of death. Suffocation, just like the other four victims they found. When they lament that there is still no suspect, Mister North says matter-of-factly it's a wild Zephyr. A living gust of wind like his attendants, except it can't take solid form. It likes to feed off the air inside a person's lungs, considered a tasty delicacy by others of Mister North's kind. A wild one, however, doesn't understand about the results of carelessly taking all the air leading to the death of the individual it strikes. Normally, wild Zephyr's are killed at birth, though North admits that some do slip by. Prince Charming believes the wild Zephyr could be a secret weapon left behind during the Adversary's attack on Fabletown. He leaves Beast on the Farm to find a way to capture the Zephyr and kill it, while he heads back to Fabletown to convene a war council to draft plans to strike back at the Homelands. Mister North offers Beast his assistance in tracking the wild zephyr down, by sending his three attendants to search.

Snow White later gathers her children up and takes them to see Mister North. She asks him to begin training them immediately. He offers to do it as soon as he catches the rogue Zephyr, but Snow insists it be now. After all, he said the longer they wait, the greater the risk that they wouldn't be able to transform. She adds that with an invisible killer on the loose, her kids would likely be safest with him.

Beast goes to see Rose, hearing from Stinky Badger that she wanted to talk to him. She had just got done trying to comfort Mary when Beast walks up. When they're alone, Rose asks Beast why he fired Flycatcher, who loved his job. Beast replies he can always come back to work for aw regular age instead of community service. But that won't do, Rose explains, because of Fly were just allowed to quit on a whim, he'd be obligated to do just that so he could return to the Homelands to search for his wife and kids. Clara heard from Vulco that even now, while working at the I Am the Eggman diner, Fly spends his off hours asking around for any information on a gate to the Homelands that was still open. Rose demands that Beast leave now to arrest Flycatcher, on any made-up charge he can think of, before Fly does something stupid.

During the drive back to Fabletown, Prince Charming tells Beauty over the phone to break into the sheriff's office and retrieve all files on the spies that Bigby had to keep an eye on Fables that lived abroad. He had some real work for them. Elsewhere in Fabletown, at the Brannock Tavern, Edmond Dantès shares an ale with Thrushbeard as he mentions Jack leaving town.

That night, in the guest room on the Farm, Snow waits. A voice calls out to her "Mommy?". He found her. Her seventh child, the one she didn't know she had, the wild Zephyr. Snow says she's sorry for leaving him behind, then makes him promise not to take any more air from people. Even though outside air tastes bad, he agrees, asking if he can stay with her now. Tearfully, she tells him he must leave, or he'll be killed. She opens the window and tells him to go find his father, Bigby. He'll protect him. The Zephyr leaves, apologizing to Snow for being a bad boy.

Aweek later, life at the Farm goes on. No new murders have been committed, and North and his gusts have stopped actively looking for the killer, for now. The wolf cubs celebrate their first birthday. Snow serves them each a cupcake, leaving a seventh plate out as part of a new tradition, which she promises to explain to them when they're older.