Wolves had been a part of Graham Humbert's life for as long as he remembered, watching over him like his own brand of guardian angel, but now with his it was arm in the jaws of one of his fondest friends it hurt like hell. He'd seen this beast reared from a pup, fed it when it was weak and protected it from the dangers of the enchanted forest, never expecting that it would come back to bite him (quite literally).
Up to that point he'd trusted the creatures more than humans It was as if his friends had scented blood and some primative part of her brain had switched off.
It hurt like hell in more ways than one. He squirmed against Areleth's grip, a cage of teeth around his wrist, and groaned. The sound bleeding from his lips like blood from a slash to the artery, thick and fast it blubbed from his mouth even when he tried to stop it.
"Please..." he pleaded around the involuntary gasps of pain. "Let me go"
Even with the pleas there was no relent in the torture. In the dark Regina watched on and even smirked. Wearing all black she should have disappeared, yet her teeth glinted like a deadly pearl necklace. Graham scolded himself for falling for it, and yet knew exactly how he'd become a victim. He hadn't seen the scar that perched on top of her lip before, that elongated her mouth into an even more malicious grin. It was a crooked smile for a crooked queen.
"It's not me you need to be asking Huntsman, it's your pet." the brunette said, referring to the animal, and making him wince. He'd never call her anything but a companion, or friend, even family. The word Pet implied that he had some kind of dominance over her, some kind of ownership.
"You told me she was obedient. It's a shame that your confidence was misplaced." Her voice betrayed no sympathy at all.
"It's not" Graham protested in a tremoring voice. "You did something to her, used some sort of damn magic."
It was Regina's turn to look uncomfortable. She stepped into the cold pool of moonlight, her cheeks ablaze. Only her discomfort manifested itself in a kick to his face. With a grunt Graham crumpled to the ground, arm still very much trapped in the jaws of Areleth who seemed waiting with baited breath to bear down, and bite.
"It's true Magic has it's uses." the queen said and began prowling around like a wild cat, predatorily purring every word "But it's too expensive for me to warrant using it as a petty punishment. Power hasn't got anything to do with it either. I have your heart in a box that I could crush if I wanted to. I just want to know why you let Snow White go when you knew damn well I wanted her dead" That was it then, she was toying with him.
The wolf took it's chance and snapped it's jaws closed. The queen kicked her now as well, the shock freeing the huntsman from her grip. The two gasped now free from one another, but confusion still reigned
"If you won't answer me however," The Queen continued "I might be tempted to find that box again and dispose of you once and for all for all the trouble you've given me."
"No!" Graham finally gasped.
"Oh?" Regina smirked again. "Then tell me. Why. Free. Snow. White." The punctuation of the last sentence was doubled by slaps to the face. Stinging all the more with the hand of rings she used to batter him.
"I... I felt-" Graham said, attempting to speak through a now bloody nose. He could taste iron, the metalic tinge of iron swirling around his mouth.
"What? Sorry?" Regina guessed. She ignored his pained expression.
In response, the huntsman turned his eyes to the ground and the queen had won. She laughed, harsh and mirthless. She was a hayena, her giggle tinged with confusion, and fear.
"I should have known, I should have listened when they told me. I heard rumours but thought that it couldn't possibly be true, a huntsman, a man of blood and fire who mourns for his prey? How on earth have you survived so long feeling all that guilt?"
"I understood that was how I must survive. So I survived, in the most honourable way I could"
"Honour? Where is the honour in scavanging for food among the mud and dung of the forest?"
"It's the right thing, the truest way to live. No greedy, self serving humans would interrupt my life and I would be living as I was raised, at one with the world, peaceful, not trying to destroy or rule everything I came into contact with. Or to push everyone away"
That last point was perhaps too far. Bordering on invasive, but Graham knew that his words were blasphemy, and were absolutely illegal. As she had what was essentially a self destruct button burried somewhere in the royal tomb his life was more than likely going to end at her hand anyway. She might as well understand what was going on. Understanding might make her kind, might turn her head in the right direction, it was a nieve hope. But it was all he had.
Even clinging to this insane notion he knew what to expect. He expected her to fill with rage, for her skin to turn hot and her hand to pierce his chest again. So he closed his eyes after his monologue, and waited, waited for the pain, or more hopefully the end of the pain.
This wasn't what he got.
Instead she knelt beside him, lips a mere few feet from his ear, Areleth entirely forgotten had slumped into a corner. She was panting now and licking desperately at a crimson claw mark on her chest. Perhaps where Regina had attacked to turn her anger onto anyone she might see.
Speaking of the queen, there was a different energy emenating from Regina now. The Huntsman had been among animals enough to understand the animal brain of humans, to feel their animalistic urges. They were slightly more subtle than that of wolves, but... if you were attuned, highly obvious. Easy to notice as clouds on a rainy day.
"Brave. Fiery, and not afraid to stand up to your queen. How interesting" She purred, malice replaced with something else. Regina planted a harsh kiss, cold as marble on his lips. "I might have use for you after all." Then she kissed him again, but this time with hands. With rawkish, desperate pleading claws she pressed herself onto him. A kind of lust that he'd never felt from anyone but the most savage of creatures washed over him. It was all he could feel, as the ice turned to heat. Like heat, it burned.
Regina looked at herself in the mirror, and pulled a comb through her hair. She'd overturned glass, too ashamed to see his face, or to hear his judgemental drawl about what had just occured. Something in her wanted to talk, the rest to deny it. The huntsman was certainly an interesting individual. Like nobody she had ever met before he was unafraid of her. It was an intriguing sensation, if not entirely comfortable. She thrived on fear, on power and yet this nobody who she'd pulled up out of the mud treated her like an equal. As if she and him were the same. He seemed to draw out the base in her too, as if all the frustration anger and confusion melded together to create something far more potent.
That was wrong, that was not how a peasant should treat her queen. She knew it, and she knew the rest of the kingdom would know it. So she had to hide it. There was no way anyone would respect her if she let the secret slip.
Graham fumbled through the trees, awkward legs now seeming to find every knot in the undergrowth. Tripping, stumbling, almost falling flat on his face yet he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't stop till he was as far away from Regina as possible. The taste of her breath lingered in his mouth, but unpleasantly, bitter as wild horseradish. He grew more and more exhausted as he carried on, deeper and deeper into the forest. It was as if the place which had once felt as a second home to him was now finding all sorts of ways to befuddle and confuse him. That tree definitely had more branches than the last time, and that one seemed to have shed all it's leaves. Just like his wolf companion the forest had turned. Thinking there was nothing to do but turn back, as darkness had begun to fall, something caught his attention. Something was carved into a nearby trunk, something which seemed to call his name.
It was a door. Built into the base of the tree, odd Graham thought how have I not noticed this before? Then pushing the he felt himself falling into darkness, a new strange air wrapping around his limbs.