This is an AU where Henry is not needed and Peter Pan is not Rumple's father. I hope you like it!
Third Person POV
Theres a girl walking through the forest. Her name is Kate. If you asked her to tell you more about herself, she wouldn't know what to tell you.
She had woken up on the forest floor, groggy and confused. She sat there for a while, trying to dig through her mind for memories of, well, anything, but nothing came to her. She realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere with that, though, and decided to walk around, maybe find some other people to help her.
It's been a while since that happened, and she's getting bored. All she sees is trees, and bushes, and trees, and vines, and trees. Also, trees.
"Ugh!" She suddenly grunts in pain. With a searing pain coursing through her brain, she grips the hair near her scalp and doubles over in pain.
It only lasts for about ten seconds, but to Kate, it feels like hours. After it's over, she composes herself, and takes deep breaths to calm herself down. The actual pain of the headache is gone, but there's a strange feeling that overtakes her afterwards, kind of like a weird aftertaste.
Then, images of a meadow rush into her mind. The images are like skittles when you accidentally drop an open bag of them and they all fall out and you're like, 'crap!' and then you don't know what to do with yourself because they're all over the place.
Yeah, exactly like that. *shrugs*
The images are overwhelming to a point where she's almost dizzy with them, and she tries to focus on something else. She spots a flower on a nearby tree branch. There is a vine that grows up from the ground, wraps around the tree and eventually comes to a stop where the flowers blooms from it. It's a blush pink color, and is like a rose. She can't help but feel almost.. connected to it, in a way.
The flower works as a distraction for a while, but soon enough the images come back to her, and she can't help but want it. Once she makes up her mind that she needs to get to that meadow in some way, the strangest thing happens.
Blush pink petals, like the ones from the flower she was just looking at, just appear out of nowhere and start circling her. They swirl around her until she can't see the trees anymore, only the petals. She knows that at this point, she should be panicking, but strangely enough, she isn't.
The petals float away from her delicately and disappear into thin air, just as they had come. Kate looks around and her jaw drops. She's in the meadow, and it's even more beautiful in real life. It has almost unnaturally green grass, which is dancing and swaying in the wind. There are flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors scattered all over. There is a forest in the shape of a giant horseshoe around her, with two small mountains on either end. In the opening between the mountains is an ocean, which she can smell the sea breeze of despite being as far away as she is. The beauty of the whole place is breathtaking.
She would've stayed there for the entire day if she weren't abruptly struck with a feeling of vulnerability. There wasn't even any reason for it, yet it was still there. She frowns, trying to decide what she could do next. C'mon, Kate, you can think of something, she thinks. Ooh, got it!
She does a little dance thing to display her happiness. When she finishes, she closes her eyes and concentrates. She concentrates on the flower she had seen before she came to the meadow. With her eyes closed, she notices how awesome it feels to have the petals lightly brush up against her skin and the soft breeze that lightly whips her hair around. It also smells awesome.
When she opens her eyes, she smiles brightly and does another jig. (Haha, jig, what a fun word)
She's back in the forest, right next to her flower. She walks up to it and holds her nose right above it, breathing in its sweet scent. It smells exactly like the petals that surrounded her earlier.
"Who's that?" Kate hears someone cry. They're quite far away, and Kate can't really see them because of the overgrowth of plants. The one who shouted sounded like a young boy, Kate guesses about twelve years old.
"I don't know, probably an animal. Let's shoot it!" Another voice exclaims. Okay, I'm just gonna.. go... Kate thinks to herself before taking off in the other direction.
She can hear some of their shouts of joy from behind her as they chase after her. She runs and runs. And runs. She also trips, but mainly she just runs.
She falls to the ground because of a tree root sticking up from the ground. She groans and looks around frantically. The mysterious boys are getting closer, she can hear it. She looks at the tree that the root which tripped her belongs to and finds that the tree trunk is open like a small cave. She crawls into it frantically and pulls her knees to her chest to hide herself completely. She holds her breath as the boys stop on the other side of the tree.
"Where is he?" She hears one of them ask.
"It was probably just an animal, anyway. Pan didn't say anything about a new boy," the other offered.
"I guess. It sure looked like a human, though. C'mon, let's go. It's getting dark."
Kate waits until she hears their footsteps leave the immediate vicinity to start gasping. I don't think I like this very much.
She stretches her legs out and makes herself more comfortable. The boys were right, the sun was begininng to set, and she is super tired. It doesn't take very long for her to fall asleep.
...
Peter Pan is sitting on a log on the edge of camp, sharpening a dagger. He doesn't seem very interested in the dagger, though. He seems deep in thought. That is, until Chase, one of the newer Lost Boys, yells from across the camp,
"Pan! We saw someone! While we were out hunting, we saw a new person!" Peter chuckled sinisterly, laughing at his foolishness.
"No, you have made a mistake. The shadow didn't get anyone." Chase shrugged.
"Just telling you what I saw." Peter then went back to his dagger, and his thoughts. Then Chase interrupted him again.
"Oh, also, we found this." handing him a beautiful blush pink flower. Peter's face suddenly became pale. He abruptly stood up and left camp. He had to find this person. He hadn't seen that flower for a very long time.
...
Kate wakes up to a ray of sunshine hitting her face through the opening in the tree trunk. She yawns and crawls out. She takes a few steps forward. She places her arms on her stomach as it grumbles in hunger.
"Hungry, love?" She hears from behind her. She spins around and sees a boy. He leaning against the tree she was just in, his arms crossed. His clothes are made out of a bunch of green scraps, which she finds odd. Other than his outfit, he's quite handsome. He has swimmable green eyes and shaggy, but still tame, mousy brown hair. Everything about him physically is very attractive to Kate, but there's something about him that makes her uncomfortable. It might be the fact that he's smirking.
He chuckles, "What's your name?" She doesn't answer him. She just stares at him blankly, trying to decide what to do. He stops leaning against the tree and uncrosses his arms. His smirk disappears and a devilish glare replaces it, "Fine. I'll start. I'm Peter, Peter Pan." He bows mockingly.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Kate," she says sweetly. He smiles, but his eyes are filled with malice.
He takes a few steps forward and looks her up and down, "Charmed."
Then a Lost Boy hits her in the back of the head and knocks her unconscious. She falls forward into Peter's arms. He hands her to a blonde boy who just walked into view.
"Felix, take her back to my tree."