This is my official warning: This is a Slow Burn and I mean SLOOOOOW Burn. The outline is already made, so I definitely know how slow it's going to be. The updates will be steady but about a week between.

Stumbling through the thick forest, a pair of bloody nobles clutched to their swords. Behind them, the sound of horses and clattering armor thundered and encouraged them to force their tired bodies farther. Of course, the soft crying from the child safely tucked into her father's embrace helped.

"Charming." Snow White breathed: aware that, in her condition, they wouldn't outrun the mass behind them. She already loved her crying daughter but she wished, with all her soul, that the child had chosen a better time to be born. As was, they'd barely cut the cord when Regina's men had appeared and forced the sore and exhausted mother into a manhunt.

Charming clutched his daughter when she started to fuss. Obviously the newborn was hungry and displeased being jostled about just moments after being born. Yet, despite a healthy few screams she'd made when she was first born, she was being perfectly quiet. He had never loved a being more.

"There!" Charming grinned at his tired wife. "That must be Maleficent's cave."

"Maleficent?" Snow shrieked. "The new dragon mother? Yes. Let's just waltz in. I'm sure that will go over well."

Charming made haste to the cave. "I heard the village people over talking at dinner. They said that she'd been shot down."

"Do you believe that?"

Charming paused. "I have to." Looking back, he gave her a resigned smile. "We don't have any other choose."

Snow nodded. "You're right. Who knows what will happen if Regina gets a hold of our little Emma."

With that scary thought in mind, the Charmings entered into the mouth of the cave. Listening, Charming mumbled, "I think we lost them." He surveyed the cave home around him in search of a flash of teeth or glitter of scales.

"I don't think anyone is home." Snow announced. She saddled up next to her husband to smile down at the bundle in her arms. "Hello, Little one. Your life is going to be full of adventure."

Charming chuckled.

A clash sounded somewhere into the cave. Aware that something was looming behind him, Charming whirled around with his sword drawn. The blade sank deeply into the defenseless egg behind them.

Charming withdrew his sword quickly. From the broken egg shell, a green goo fell to the stone floor. For a moment, the two Charmings could see the shape of a baby dragon but, without the egg, it took a shudder and disappeared into a watery puddle onto the floor.

Being a fresh mother, Snow found herself tearing up. She grabbed her husband's forearm. "It's okay."

"I just…"

"Maleficent is dead." Snow comforted. "The egg would have died without her warming it up"

"Yeah." Charming shook his head. "Yeah, you're right."

Another clash sounded within the cave. Charming turned to flee but, looking upon Snow's flushed and shaking frame, he knew that their running was over.

"There is a river just left of here." Snow breathed. "If we reach that, we can out swim her men."

"But Snow…" Holding his daughter close, the King refused to even think about subjecting his newly born daughter to the cold river. He started to look around. "We can hide her here then come back once the danger has gone. We will have to be swift."

Peering around, Charming walked to the broken dragon egg. "Only an idiot would mess with a dragon's egg." Snow shot her husband an amused glance.

"But they'll see its been tampered with." Snow gestured to the gaping hole. "You, my Darling Kind, have made quite a mess."

"Yes but…" Digging through his pockets, he pulled out a potion, "I also have made quite a friend."

"The potion." Snow said in surprise.

"The one King Arthur gave us." He shook the vial. "It fixes anything that is broken."

Wrapping Emma in her white, embodied blanket. They both kissed her forehead and stared down at her daughter. She was mere hours old and she was already being stuffed into a dragon egg for her own safety.

Putting the baby at the bottom of the dragon's egg, they said their goodbyes one more time before dumping the vial over the egg. Within moments, the gaping hole was gone and all was left was a perfectly intact egg: one that Regina's solider would see and, because of the friendship between Maleficent and the Evil Queen, would leave it be.

"Think they'll see this?" Charming gestured to the green goo of the dead fetus.

Snow smiled. "If they are working for Regina, I can promise you that they aren't that smart."

Sharing a love struck smile, they departed: knocking over things to create enough of a noise to draw Regina's men away from the egg and back into the woods. Then the two nobles disappeared into the forest: the river their destination.

Maleficent growled at a squirrel peering down from the branches. She debated shooting it down with a stream of fire but her protesting back reminded her to save what remained of her strength.

She hated the village people. She had just been flying and, feeling a little hungry, had stopped to pick up a cow. It wasn't even a particularly healthy cow but the village people had been outraged and shot her from the sky.

Her wings had sustained damage, so she'd spent the next four hours hiking back towards her cave, egg, and healing potions. It was rather irritating to have such an abundance of magic but having black magic's restrictions which meant it couldn't be used for healing reasons.

Coming into her home, she could smell that people had been in here. She could smell obsidian armor that Regina's men were adorned with. She relaxed. Regina's men would only be in there if they had to and wouldn't touch anything if their life depended on it.

Walking to her egg, she froze. The egg was intact but, lying next to it, was what had once been her baby. Now, a common misconception about dragons would dictate that she'd loose her temper and destroy half the land. But, the sad truth was, most dragons died before they were hatched.

Dragon young had to be constantly attended to. Their eggs had to remain at an exact heat: if it was too hot, they'd die and, if too cold, they'd perish. Dragons lost over 90% of all eggs they'd hatched and Maleficent had long accepted that. She'd hoped this egg would hatch but she'd been prepared for this exact scenario.

She leaned down and poked a finger into the green goo. It sparkled with magic. She hoped none of Regina's men had direct contact with it. This amount of pure magic was very unpredictable.

She drug her tired body over the mantle place. Her healing potions glittered in the flickering light of the fire place. As she reached for a potion, she thought she heard a thud. She paused. Who would be unlucky enough to stumble into her cave when she was in such a state?

Passing it off as a fragment of her imagination, she plucked a green potion from the mantle and swallowed the bitter concoction in one go. She hissed as the potion raced through her veins and repaired any of the damage.

Eyes closed, she heard the sound again.

Curious, Maleficent eyed the egg. It was wiggling and the thumping sound was definitely coming from inside. She walked over to it. Circling it, she confirmed that it was unbroken and stared at the egg. She hadn't been this baffled in a very long time.

She drug her long nails across the egg's rough surface. The egg stopped wiggling and the sounds stopped. Then there was a raping sound from inside. It was as if someone was knocking at a door.

Without preamble, Maleficent drove her fist through the eggshell. The entire shell shattered in its entirety and, from her egg, spilled a naked girl. She definitely wasn't a dragon. Her hair was a golden yellow, her skin ghostly pale, and her eyes a calm and inquisitive green.

"Who are you?" Maleficent demanded. "I have a hard enough time carrying a baby to term without interference."

The girl clutched a blanket. She wasn't clutching it to her chest for modesty reasons, Maleficent noticed, but just because she could. She didn't need it to cover anything. The girl only looked to be 13 and hadn't quite developed anything that would draw the dragon's eyes.

Awkwardly flinging her limbs about, the girl attempted to sit up. Maleficent wondered if the girl had ever done it before. Finally, the girl seemed to give up, laid on the ground, and let out a shrill cry. Her nose crinkled, mouth fell agape, and her fists grabbed onto the blanket as she had an honest to goodness tantrum on Maleficent's floor.

Aghast, the dragon grabbed the girl's flailing wrist. "What are you? An infant! Stop that unsightly behavior."

The girl grabbed onto Maleficent's forearm and her body arched up. The girl's eyes turned a blinding white and, to Maleficent's dismay, she felt the girl inside her mind. It wasn't an overly aggressive intrusion but the dragon was unable to shove the girl out.

Finally, the girl's released the dragon's wrist and flopped back to the ground.

Maleficent backed away from the girl while she rubbed her temples. She had forgotten how unpleasant it was to have someone poke through her mind.

"Stop that unsightly behavior!" The girl commanded.

Maleficent blinked: hearing the words she had just said being spoken back to her in the same infliction, she'd used. The girl sat up with a sudden grace of a feline and stared down Maleficent with cool and detached eyes.

"Excuse me?"

The girl raised her head. "How dare you be so disrespectful in front of a dragon?" She sneered up at the dragon. "I'll allow you to live since you don't obviously know who I am."

"I'm going to guess your name is…Emma?" Maleficent questioned: eying the name written across the blanket.

"I am Maleficent." The girl snarled. "I am a dragon with the power to bring the world to its knees!"

The dragon blinked before scowling. "You Pheasant. Just because you stole my memories, does not make you anything more than you are!"

"I am a dragon." The girl said dangerously. Her green eyes flashed: daring this strange woman to disagree with her.

Maleficent sighed. "I'm bored now." She held a hand out to the girl and the girl was suddenly jerked into the air. "You'll life with be rather disappointing. Having my memories will make you think you are me but, the sad truth is, you'll never be."

With a flick of her wrist, she set the girl tumbling down the mountain and deep into the forest. Knowing herself, Maleficent knew the girl would return for revenge. Still, a mentally disabled 13 year old girl with grand illusions of being a dragon wasn't something for her to lose a moment's sleep over.

Finally coming to a stop, the thirteen year old sat up. She scowled and attempted to fix the mess that was her hair. Looking down at herself, she curled her nose up. "How unsightly." She put her hand over her body and was surprised to see that she wasn't suddenly clothed but remained naked.

"Thief." She shrieked. "A thief has taken my magic. They shall be slaughtered like the useless swine they are."

"You have had something stolen from you, aye?"

Emma whirled to face the man that had emerged from the trees. He was dressed in loose fitting furs, had a head of unruly black hair, and held a whip in his hand. Emma saw the whip. She remembered seeing that whip when she'd been in dragon form and eating a man with such a whip. He had been a slave trader.

"That's funny. See cause I like to steal stuff." The man laughed and grabbed a rope connected to his belt. With a sharp jerk, he pulled a line of tied women and children from the brushes. They were a fearful bunch and Emma compared them to a field of sheep she was about to fry.

Turning her head up, she scoffed. "A slave trader is lower than even those he trades." Eyeing the mass of trembling and dirty figures, she sniffled. "You are a maggot among pigs."

The man's massive jaw fell agape. It was clear that he had never been spoken to in such a manner. A little boy snickered. The man whirled around as if to strike the boy but the little boy just straightened his back and pulled a face.

"What did you say to me, Little Girl?" He eyed the naked woman uninterestedly. Many slave traders used their wears as they saw fit. Good slave traders never did. Seeing the unmarred skin and innocent look that the girl sported (when her mouth was closed), the slave trader searched the nearby woods for a guardian of some lurking about. He wasn't lucky enough to stumble upon a helpless girl was he?

Another trader appeared behind the group of captured souls. He was much younger and seemed almost scared of the bound people. The older trader handed off the rope slowly. Emma arched her eyebrow.

"If you plan to capture me, you'll find yourself sorely outmatched."

The man just laughed and lunged forward. He gathered the naked girl in his arms. Emma, frustrated that she hadn't changed into a giant dragon, kicked about for a little until she was suddenly bombarded with the man's memories: as she had been with Maleficent's.

She went limp. Two lifetime worth of memories fought inside her head.

"Lot of fight, you had." The slave trader snorted. He tossed the girl at the group of slaves. The slaves all twisted their bound hands to catch the flying girl. It must have been five or six different pairs of hands touching her at once. Her brain nearly exploded with the sudden onslaught of forigen memories.

Was her name Jack? Kahlan? Phillip? Eric? Sebastian? Dalton? Aerial? Aurora?

Was she the daughter of a horse breeder? A stable hand? Nobility on her aunt's cousin side?

Emma's body convulsed before falling limp. Her head was filled with knowledge and pain that weren't hers. She felt her heart stretch a hundred different ways as she found herself loving more people than one person should.

One of the slaves slipped off a ratty cloak and draped it over the unconscious girl.

"Pick her up!" The slave trader insisted. "I can hear someone coming. It might be that queen!" The slave trader wasn't sexiest. He didn't care that a woman ruled the land. He just cared that it was a monarch with a particular dislike for the slave trade. He'd lost two different sets of cargo ever since Regina had taken the throne.

A boy, not much older than Emma herself, picked up the unconscious girl. As soon as he'd settled her weight, a pair of soaking wet people burst from the trees. Both groups were genuinely surprised to see each other.

Snow gave the slaves an exasperated look. She had finally lost Regina's men and only wanted to return and get her daughter but a hero's work was never done. The Charmings had the moral standing that did not allow to turn their back on these people in need of help.

"You get the slave trader and I'll free the slaves." Charming told his wife. Snow darted towards the large man. The younger slave trader instantly dropped the slaves and fled. The older trader's eyes widened as there was suddenly a sword pointed at his throat.

"Swallow too hard and you just might get cut." Snow warned.

"Damn women." The slave trader groaned. "You gals are ruining a very respectable profession." Shaking her head, Snow placed a sharp kick to the man's temple. He crumpled to the ground.

"Snow…"

"Oh, I didn't kill him." Snow said. Then she saw what Charming was holding. It was Emma's blanket. The blanket they'd left with their helpless infant and should not be in the possession of a notorious slave trader.

"Where did you get this?" Charming demanded at the unconscious body. Snow looked sheepish for a split second before whirling onto the slaves.

"Is there a baby here?" She asked harshly.

The slaves shook their head. "This girl brought it with her." One of the slaves pointed at Emma. She still wasn't completely coherent but her mind was slowly shifting and sorting the memories until she could function.

When her mind calmed enough to make sense of her surrounding, she found herself face to face with a black haired woman.

"WHERE DID YOU GET THIS BLANKET?"

Emma gaped at the woman. She had so many responses built up that she couldn't choose one.

The only thing she could do is jump to her feet. The cloak fell and Charming instantly looked away: feeling a mortified blush settle upon his cheeks. Emma was just overwhelmed. The only thing that she recognized was that blanket the woman was holding. It wasn't an intense recognition: just a dull throb of familiarity.

She lunged forward and grabbed the blanket. She surprised the woman.

"Give that back." The woman snarled. The woman lunged forward. Emma made a startled noise. It was half human and half dragon: a sound so fearful that it bordered pathetic. Charming grabbed Snow before she could tackle the girl.

Charming had heard the noise. Maybe it was the fact that he was a newly appointed father but he felt a flash of protectiveness towards the naked girl.

"Come on, Snow." Charming pulled his wife's arm. "We have to get to Emma." The woman's eyes flashed over the girl's face. If her infant wasn't where she'd left her, she'd be back to find this girl. Her eyes flickered down to the blanket but decided her infant was more important.

The pair disappeared.

Emma staggered about as the peace in her head was broken. She fell to her knees.

Who was she? Jack? Kahlan? Phillip? Eric? Sebastian? Dalton? Aerial? Aurora? Did she like tomatoes? Yes. No. She was deathly allergic. Her fingertips pressed harder and harder into her temple until she could feel a stinging pain over the thunderstorm in her mind.

She was almost certain that she was about to be consumed. Then she felt wet against her cheek. It numbed the swirling thoughts.

Opening her eyes, she met a long snout with brown, curious eyes peering down at her. Many memories came to the forefront of her mind. Wolf.

If her memories had had their way, she would have run. However; she didn't. The wolf wasn't a pup nor was it an adult. It was just a small wolf with overgrown paws and a toothy smile. Under Emma's curious eyes, the wolf nearly wiggled at out of its skin.

The wolf, very clearly a boy, darted forward and placed a quick nip on Emma's shoulder. It was an invitation to play but Emma squealed at the sudden and sharp pain. Startled by the girl's shriek, the wolf darted into a nearby thicket with his tail tucked.

Emma thought the wolf was gone but, moments later, it ran back. He ran at Emma and, right before reaching her, he took a sharp turn. It took Emma a moment to realize that the animal was playing.

Hearing the pearls of laughter, the animal returned once again. This time, he threw himself into Emma's lap. Emma wasn't bombarded with his memories like she had been by everyone else's. The wolf's memories were simple: socialization, eating, mating, and sleeping. Despite their simplicity, they were overpowering. They quieted the thunderous human thoughts.

Sitting up, Emma let out a playful huff. The male, delighted at Emma's sudden playfulness, began to bounce around. Emma followed suit. A person would be surprised to learn that wolves didn't have a language but they spoke with everything they did.

Bumping and bounding about, the two didn't see the rest of the pack watching. Their heads kept cocking from one side to another. They were confused by this creature who acted like a wolf but was most certainly not so. His litter mates instantly rushed forward.

Emma didn't fear it. She knew the little black wolf leaping at her throat still hadn't managed to catch her first rabbit or that the massive sandy colored wolf had a bad back leg that prevented him from spinning to fast. As they clashed, the collection of children rolled about. A few yelps and the young wolves quickly learned that this strange creature was easily hurt and gentled their bites.

The adults watched. Besides a slightly anxious mother, they were at ease with the creature. Breaking free from the pack, and loaded with nearly four wolves worth of memories, Emma bounded over to the adults.

She submissively approached the alpha pair: licking her licks, rapidly blinking, and yawning to show her harmless intent. The two alpha wolves: an older grey male and a slightly larger whitish female both snarled at her goofy approach.

Emma laid on her back and whined. The two snarled over her and Emma continued to whine and shrink away. Satisfied with her response, they turned and walked back into the brush. The pack followed after. Running by her, the young wolves brushed against her and began to bite at her naked flesh.

Emma knew the alphas hadn't given her an invitation to follow and following would be seen as a hostile and improper action. Maybe being able to steal the memories of those she touched was a good thing.

The alpha male looked over his shoulder at her. Letting out a huff, he officially offered the strange pup the option to follow. With that, Emma rushed after the pack. Her thoughts were filled with the gentle sound of nature. The hurricane that was human memories were finally quieted.