AU: Where Emma didn't get transported to Storybrooke but instead was transported to an unaffected world in which she grew up. I would say more but I don't want to give away any of the story!
A/N: I do not own any characters from OUAT PS:
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Emma
Her lungs were burning but she didn't slow down.
She couldn't slow down.
Not while they were still out there…looking for her.
Making sure she got punished for her crimes, as if just letting her live her life as it was now wasn't punishment enough.
It hardly felt like it, but today was her seventh birthday. A day that for any other child, of any other family would contain a celebration! With presents and hotcakes and maybe even a special candle for her to blow out and make a wish on.
Such a celebration has only ever been something she could dream about. She was a worthless street rat that lived off the crumbs leftover by the wealthier patrons of her town, she never had a family to give her presents or to make her hotcakes or light up a special birthday candle just for her.
But this year she was determined that it should be different. That she was going to get her wish whether the powers that be liked it or not.
So she may or may not have stolen a candle…
…and maybe a hotcake…or two.
Emma quickly stuffed one hotcake in her mouth ignoring how the fresh-from-the-oven desert burnt the inside of her mouth and made her eyes water, instead choosing to relish in the unfamiliar sweetness that sent a rush of energy through her as it dissolved on her tongue.
The other cake, she awkwardly shoved in her pocket as she ran. Its heat warming her both inside and out.
Suddenly, she spied the silhouette of her pursuers appear a few feet away from her against the brick of the towns tavern. Without thinking twice she jumped behind a pile of broken crates and held her breath as the men that had been chasing her walked by.
Whether she held her breathe for a several seconds or several minutes she couldn't tell you. All she knew was the relief she felt once they had passed, following a route that would lead them nowhere.
…well…nowhere near her at least.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she scurried out from her hiding spot and towards her favourite spot in town, a little cubby at the docks.
She would be safe there.
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She was nestled into her little nook just under the dock, the water almost skimming her feet as the lady that lived on the moon pulled the tide towards her. She wistfully let one of her small hands rest on the hotcake that was figuratively-and maybe even a bit literally- burning a hole in her poorly woven pocket, telling herself it was unwise to eat it now and that she should be clever and save it for another occasion.
Maybe I should just save it for my next birthday and save myself the trouble of finding some in a years' time, her thoughts a mix of anger and sadness, both laced with regret and sarcasm.
At seven her attitude was already one of despair, self-pity and self-loathing. It was a constant cycle of negative emotion that she just couldn't rip herself away from.
First it was…
I'm all alone in this world.
And then…
What did I ever do to them! What reason could they possibly have for leaving me alone in this cruel world?!
And finally…
Probably because I'm a monster. A beast of a child. And who could ever really learn to love a beast?
Anyone else that had been treated the way she had would have given up a long time ago.
But not her.
There was something in her that kept her going, a force that propelled her further even when there was no one to hold her up.
She still had a child's faith.
Something so pure and fathomless…it was one of the most powerful forces in the world, right up there with true love and unbreakable kinship.
It was the only thing that kept her going.
Emma clutched the candle she stole tightly in her small hands. It was her birthday present to herself from herself as she didn't have anyone who cared about her enough to give her one themselves.
She reached out, lighting the wick of her candle with one of the torches that lined the docks and helped the crews load the cargo on their ships after dark.
She loved the feeling of the small flame flickering next to her face, the heat turning her cheeks slightly pink with its warmth.
How she would love to share this…her birthday…with someone. With a family.
The moment she found out it was customary to make wishes on ones birthday she had wished for a family. One that would love and cherish her, and fight for her if it came down to that.
But in all her years of wishing they – her family – never came.
This year she deduced that maybe it wasn't from her lack of wishing, maybe it's because she was missing a key ingredient, rendering every and all her past wishes pointless.
What did every other kid have on their birthday that she didn't?
A candle!
But now, she had one!
She couldn't keep the grin off her face.
Finally, after so many years of pointless wandering and petty thievery she was going to get a family. She would meet her mother and father and they would tell her how much they loved her. They would also tell her a grand story of how they were separated! One involving dragons, mermaids and other worlds that she couldn't even begin to describe! They would tell her how they never stopped looking for her, that they never gave up hope of finding their little girl, how they would count down the days until they once more came together…as a family.
Emma didn't even realise she had been crying until she saw a tear drop silently from her face into the ocean. The waves swallowing the evidence of her sadness whole and giving her nothing in return for her troubles.
You don't need to cry any more, Emma, she told herself fiercely. Clutching at the candle with all her might, determined that this was her defining moment.
She was about to voice her wishes when she saw the family she had stolen the food and candle from approach the dock. She couldn't believe they had actually bothered to search for her this long and this far.
They must have realised she had evaded them and doubled back.
She had just stolen from them one too many times.
She leapt up on the dock.
She didn't have much of a choice. She could have stayed in her nook but she would have been found. During the day she was a chameleon blending into her surroundings with ease, but at night her reflection glowed on the water's surface. It would have given her away instantly.
There were not many boats docked at her little town. A couple of fishing boats and several more paddle boats that would give her no protection from the eyes of her pursuers.
There was only one ship that would provide the safety she needed, she believed she had vaguely heard some of the crew talking about it when she had been hidden in her nook.
It was called something like the…
Collie Nudger?
Froggie Fiddler?
Jolly Rodger?
Regardless the name was not important right now!
Her immediate safety was.
Without a seconds thought to what kind of people possibly inhabited the ship she ran up the plank connecting it to the dock and dove behind some barrels of what she assumed was gunpowder.
Her eyes frightfully flickered between the barrels and her lit candle and she knew despite how much she wanted to bask in the glow of her new possession she had to extinguish the flame.
She brought her lips as close to the candle as she could without burning herself and whispered softly "I wish for a family. I wish to be loved".
And with that…
It was lights out.
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Hello lovely readers!
I just want to thank everyone who bothered to click on the link and read this story! I hope you enjoyed it thus far and I have so much planned for the future, involving a little Captain-duckling bonding before she becomes a swan ^_^
Please drop me a review or follow/favourite if your ready to see what happens next!
Happy reading!
XOXO
Wisteria Clove