Greetings! Is everyone else ready for September 29 to hurry up and get here?
So my plot bunnies have been hopping lately. (And I don't mean the bunny my mom brought home today and won't let me name Plot. :/ ) And I know I keep promising to update my other stories, but this one wouldn't let me go. It's a two-parter, and takes place during our heroes' visit to Neverland.
I'd like to point out there is a TEENSY spoiler alert hidden in this first chapter. It doesn't give away anything important, and most of you probably have already seen it. If not, you might not even be able to tell it apart from the rest of the stuff that I've made up about NL. I'm just trying to avoid as many spoilers as I can, yet this one I couldn't resist throwing in there!
So, enjoy!
Emma shuffled through the dense underbrush behind Hook and Gold, with David, Snow, and Regina trailing behind her. The shade of the trees did little to shield them from the pressing heat and suffocating humidity that made it feel like she was swimming in a bowl of hot soup.
Neverland was at the same time similar and extravagantly different than the Enchanted Forest. They were both laden with magic that you could just feel, and both gave Emma an uneasy feeling of displacement. But Neverland was strange in ways that made the Enchanted Forest seem like Hoboken.
There were flowers that smelled you, fish that swam in puddles above your head, and grass that looked like each blade was colored by a kindergartener with a whole box of crayons at his disposal.
Where they were traversing at the moment appeared fairly normal, in fact it was a lot like the tropical areas of Florida she'd visited, but Emma knew that any moment now they'd run into a tree that talked or something crazy like that. Or worse, a Lost Boy at Peter Pan's command expertly wielding a bow.
Never, not even after learning her mother and father were freaking Snow White and Prince Charming, would she have believed that she'd one day be living in fear of freaking Peter Pan.
"Not much farther," Hook called back. "We'll reach a copse of trees where we'll be relatively safe until morning."
"Joy," Emma mumbled. Both her body and mind were completely exhausted, not that anyone else was much better. She knew if she didn't stop and rest she'd likely drop, but it was so hard to stop moving when Henry was still out there, alone with that idiot and that psycho bitch.
"Careful where you step, Dearie," Gold, or Rumplestiltskin, or whatever the hell he was chirped back at her. "Don't drag your feet that way, never know what could be lurking beneath our feet!" he emphasized his words by twirling around to face her and gesturing flamboyantly with his hands.
Emma really hated this latest incarnation of the pawnbroker. Okay, so maybe he filled out a pair of leather pants surprisingly well, not that she liked to dwell on that, but the mannerisms and creepy (er?) way of talking were grating on her. Regina had informed her that this was the 'real' Rumplestiltskin, leather pants and all. All he lacked was shiny greenish skin.
Now shiny greenish skin she'd kind of like to see.
She dragged her feet through the leaves in spite, which was admittedly childish, hearing David snigger behind her. Her legs were just too tired to lift that high. When she stubbed her toe on a rock, she swallowed a curse so not to prove the prissy bastard right…until that rock suddenly flew up and came right at her face.
Emma let out a most undignified shriek along with that curse and leapt back, trying to wave the insect-like creature away. From somewhere behind her David yelled, "What the hell?!"
It was the size of a cantaloupe and had six legs, two sets of wings, and three pairs of angry-looking eyes. Emma drew her sword and swung at it, barely registering Hook screaming at her not to let it bite her.
She wasn't about to let anything bite her, but the damned thing was fast, and with an angry hiss it dodged her sword and sank its sharp, inch-long fangs into her arm just before Gold was able to turn the thing into a puff of smoke.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, and almost as soon as it started, Emma was standing with her sword still in her hand, panting for air and wincing at the sharp pain in her arm.
"What the hell was that thing?" David demanded while Snow gently lifted Emma's arm to inspect the wound.
Emma looked up at Hook, waiting for the answer, and her stomach lurched at the horrified look on his face. "It bit you," he said.
"Yeah, it bit me," Emma growled. "Now what? Was it poisonous?"
Hook nodded. "I'm afraid so, lass, very. I didn't even know there were any of those damnable things left on this island. I thought the Lost Boys wiped them out ages ago."
"Well, what is it going to do to Emma?" Snow asked, her voice wavering with panic.
Hook rubbed the back of his neck, and Emma hated the way he was looking at her, like he was preparing her eulogy.
"I've only heard tales, never seen it firsthand. The venom works quickly, coursing through the body as it makes its way into your head."
Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Is it…fatal?"
Hook looked like he was going to be sick. "Aye."
"Well we have to do something!" David exclaimed while Snow let out a cry. "Gold! You can heal her, right?"
Gold was already waving his glowing-purple hand across Emma's arm. "This type of poison is completely foreign to me," he said grimly. "It's a strange mixture of magic and nature. I don't know how to cure it. If I was at home with my potions and books maybe…but here…"
This can't be happening, Emma thought. Henry had already lost his father, she couldn't let him lose her too! Not over something as stupid as a bug bite! She glanced over at her mother, who had turned a frightening shade of white – and not the white she was named for. This can't be happening.
Hook marched over to her and took Emma's arm from her mother's, brandishing a knife.
"You're gonna cut my arm off?!" Emma cried, not even pulling her arm back. If that's what it took…
"No, lass," he said, using the knife to cut the bite wound open. "Ever been bitten by a snake?"
Emma didn't know what he meant until he quickly brought her arm up to his mouth and started sucking on the wound, turning his head away to spit out clear liquid. She cringed in pain, reaching out blindly and feeling her father's hand encase her free one. She squeezed tightly.
"Will this save her?" Snow asked.
"Can't hurt," Hook hissed, and Emma realized his face was contorted in pain.
"Are you okay?!"
"This shit burns," he managed, shaking his head as if to rid himself of it.
"Here, let me," David said, taking up Hook's place.
"Wait, wait," Emma tried to pull her arm away, but David held fast. "Hook, this won't hurt you guys will it?"
"Only if it gets into the blood," Hook said, rinsing his mouth out with Regina's water.
David stopped when what he was spitting out was nothing but blood, then vigorously washed out his mouth.
"That should work, getting the venom out, right?" Snow asked, wringing her hands.
"Only time will tell," Hook said. "If it doesn't, you'll begin to feel lightheaded, Swan. You'll grow feverish and achy, as if you have the flu. But the worst part…"
"Don't leave us in suspense," Regina snapped impatiently.
"The Lost Boys called the creature a Nightmare Bug. They call it that because the poison attacks your mind, most specifically your memory. In your last moments you are forced to live through all of the worst moments of your life, all of your fears, all of your nightmares. They said that the boys who were bitten were mad by the time they died."
Emma had seated herself on a log and was looking at her still-angry wound, her heart going out to those poor little boys who had to die that way.
"And there's nothing else that can be done?" Snow asked.
"I feel fine," Emma insisted. "My arm still hurts a little, but I think getting the venom out did it."
Snow touched the back of her hand to Emma's flushed cheek, and Emma's heart sank at the look in her mother's eyes.
"Emma-honey, you're burning up."
Emma was trying to ignore it, brush it off as her exhaustion, but she felt awful. Her whole body burned, and she felt like she could pass out. "No," she said, furiously shaking her head. "No, this can't happen…No!"
"There HAS to be something we can do!" David exclaimed. "I will not just sit here and watch my daughter…" his voice cracked and he trailed off before he could say the word.
Hook rubbed his face. "The only ones who would know what can be done are the Red Skins."
"The who?" Regina asked.
"The Red Skins, the natives of this island. They've lived here longer than Lost Boy and pirate combined. If anyone has an antidote, it's them."
"Well, where do we find them?" Snow asked.
"They're nomadic, with at least a dozen different camps across the island."
"Of course they are," Gold muttered. If Emma didn't know better, she'd think he looked kind of worried about her.
"Can either of you find them with magic?" David asked Regina and Gold.
"This isn't our land," Regina said, crossing her arms. "We don't know this place, or these Red Skins."
"Even we have our limits," Gold said, more gently.
"Then we'll split up," David said. "Hook'll give each of us directions to one of the camps. We'll find them."
"I don't know if it's a good idea us all going out alone," Regina said.
"Emma is dead if we don't try," Hook reasoned. "There are five that I know of that aren't all that far from here," he brushed away a layer of leaves then knelt down and began to draw a map in the dirt.
"Regina, you backtrack the way we came, back toward the beach. Follow the shore west and you'll find it at the foot at the cliff. You can't miss it."
"Can we trust you to actually try and find them?" David asked.
"Do you have a choice?" Regina shot back and spun on her heel and disappeared into the forest without a backward glance.
"I'm staying with Emma," Snow declared, brooking no argument.
"But if we split up we'll cover more ground," Emma said. It made sense to her, but everyone else just shook their head at her and went back to the map.
"Take Emma east," Hook said, pointing at his map. "The way we were headed. I know that there is one at the lake, and it's closest."
Snow examined the path he indicated and nodded, then moved to help Emma stand. Hook assigned Gold and David a destination and everyone split ways.
"If there's a way, we'll find it," David promised.
"I know," Emma said. "But you guys have to promise me something else."
Her parents nodded.
"If this doesn't work, if we don't find a cure? You guys have to promise me you won't waste any time in continuing on to find Henry."
"Don't talk like that," Snow said shakily. "You're not going to die. We won't let you."
Emma hated to argue, but she knew that this was a last ditch effort, and that she really didn't have a chance. "Just promise me?"
David put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "We promise, Emma. Now go, and be careful."
He hugged Snow, but held on to Emma longer. Tears prickled her eyes when she thought that this could be the last time she ever saw her father. She'd known him – really known him – for far too short a time. There was so much left unsaid between them, she wasn't ready for it to end. She turned her head into his neck like she had when they were in the mine, and inhaled.
"I'll meet you at the lake," he said, giving Emma one more long look, then ran into the woods.
Emma looked over at her mother and gave her a weak smile, hoping to look confident. "Ready?"
Snow's eyes were haunted, but she returned the smile and took Emma's hand then nodded, leading the way into the forest. "A short delay," she said, holding a branch up for Emma to duck under. "We'll have you all better and back to looking for Henry before nightfall."
"Right," Emma said, wishing she could just curl up into a ball and sleep. "Right."