A/N: I really hope those who have started reading and enjoying this continue to do so :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Chapter 1)

Book 2, Chapter 2

It had been a magical night, attending her own coming out ball, and Emma couldn't deny she had enjoyed it in a way. Being treated like the royalty she was didn't exactly get old. She liked having what she needed and wanted, having people take care of the boring tasks around the castle, though there were times when she would rather be normal herself.

A great many men had tried to sweep her off her feet at her ball, dancing her around the floor, promising her gifts and a glittering future. Emma couldn't have been less interested if she tried. She liked certain aspects of being a princess, but being married off to some prince or nobleman from another kingdom didn't interest her at all. She liked boys, of course she did, like any other girl who was becoming a woman, but she had never met one yet that she cared to flutter her eyelashes at. Somehow Emma couldn't imagine wanting to be that girly anyway.

Prince Matthew, son of her parents' good friends, Frederick and Annabelle, was a nice guy but always seemed like he had a stick up his butt, Emma thought. Prince Nathanial, son of Thomas and Ella, was incredibly sweet, but way too bashful to ever interest Emma at all. The list went on, a series of young men that were either too weak-willed or too stuck up to win the heart of the fussy princess.

It didn't matter, both of Emma's parents assured her she was under no obligation to marry any of these men, or anyone at all if she didn't wish it. Still, Emma knew they would be disappointed to have their daughter never find true love, and she was pretty sure she wouldn't want to go through her whole life single either. She just wasn't sure how she was ever going to find the right kind of man, since no prince she ever came across really appealed at all. The servants were out of bounds, that was a given, and even then Emma was only friends with a few of the young men around the palace, none of them appealed to her in a dating kind of way.

"If only it was as easy as in books," she said to herself as she hiked down the trail into the forest, her bow and arrows slung over her shoulder.

In novels she had read, the men just seemed to have appeared in the woman's lives, swinging in to be the hero or something equally as romantic. Emma wouldn't mind playing the hero to some unsuspecting man actually. She knew she was capable, but at the same time, it might be nice to meet someone who could take her breath away.

The tale of her parent's courtship had no doubt spoilt Emma's vision of relationships. It had all been so dramatic, romantic, and complex. There was peace in all the lands these days. Regina, who had once been known as the Evil Queen, was locked safely away without her magical powers, and the imp they called Rumpelstiltskin, the supposed Dark One, had not been seen in ten years at least. The ogres had been beaten back, the giants were extinct, and so peace covered all the land.

Emma felt bad for wishing that, just for a little while, they didn't have complete calm and understanding amongst the kingdoms. An adventure might be nice, a battle that would require the fighting skills she learnt so well from her parents, but nothing positively ever happened in the Enchanted Forest these days.

Sighing and then starting to whistle a happy working tune she had learnt from the dwarfs, Emma moved further amongst the trees and set up a target for her archery practice. Her mother was supposed to come with her, but Queen Snow had urgent business to attend to, some confusion over payment for last night's ball apparently, and so Emma had come out alone. Technically, she was supposed to have guards escort her when she went so far beyond the castle walls, just to be on the safe side, but everybody had seemed so busy and Emma had been to this spot a hundred times before. Besides, it wasn't as if she wasn't battle ready should she get into trouble, she was armed and everything.

The target set, she paced out a decent distance and then pulled out her bow. Setting the arrow in place, she lined up her shot and fired. Slightly left of the bullseye was pretty good for the first arrow of the day, and the second was even closer to the centre. Emma grinned and pulled back for the third shot. A rustle in the trees stopped her from letting the arrow fly and she swung around to face the trees behind her. Someone or something was there, she was sure of it. Looking left then right, she kept her arms up, ready to let the arrow fly if she must. She never shot a real target before, an animal or a person, and she didn't intend to start now unless she was really in danger. That remained to be seen.

"Show yourself!" she called into the forest when something seemed to move in the shadows.

Suddenly a small deer shot out of the undergrowth and tore off into the distance. Emma was so startled the arrow shot from the bow, thankfully off to one side and nowhere near the poor frightened animal that had startled her. When a yell went up, however, she wasn't so relieved.

"Oh my God!" she gasped, realising she must have shot somebody with her wayward arrow, at least that was how it seemed.

Emma considered rushing into the trees to see what damage she might have caused but then thought better of it. This could easily be a trap, somebody pretending to be hurt so she would venture where she shouldn't and get herself kidnapped or attacked. Another cry of pain made her decision for her. She had to go and investigate, but she would be smart about it. Putting her bow back over her shoulder, Emma went for the knife that was sheathed at her boot. She held it backwards in her hand, hiding it from sight but battle-ready in case she was being double-crossed. Slowly she crept further into the forest towards the sound of a stranger in distress.

"Hello?" she called.

A rustle in the leaves made her turn left and then she saw him, a figure on the ground trying to get away, even with an arrow lodged in his thigh. Emma felt sick.

"Hey! Stop!" she urged the man as she hurried towards him, sheathing her knife, sure now that this really was somebody in trouble and not anything like danger. "Please, let me help you," she told the injured man.

He turned a little as she crouched down and reached to help him, and then like a blur he pounced. Emma was completely taken off guard as the man pinned her to the ground, but was ever more surprised by the fact he didn't seem angry or crazy, he was smiling at her.

"Get off me!" she yelled in his face anyway.

"You promise not to try to shoot me again and maybe I will," he said smartly.

Emma looked down at the man's leg, even as she struggled against his weight holding her down. There wasn't a scratch on him. He had been holding the shaft of her broken arrow to his thigh, making it seem as if he were hurt, and all so he could what? Have his wicked way with her? No, that didn't seem to be it. If he wanted to hurt her or take her forcefully, he'd be doing it by now. All he really seemed to want was a promise that she meant him no harm.

"I wasn't trying to shoot at you," she insisted. "I don't want any trouble, it was an accident!" she explained, looking up into the face of this mystery man.

If she were not so intent on getting herself free, she might have noticed how cute he was, in a dark and scruffy kind of a way, at least. His eyes were light brown and danced with amusement at her struggles that were getting her nowhere, until finally he gave in and released her, sitting back on his haunches as she pulled herself up and away.

"Y'know you scared away my dinner too," he said as he got to his feet.

Emma frowned at that.

"You were going to eat the baby deer?" she asked, apparently finding the idea distasteful.

"What? Are you like a vegetarian or something?" he countered, almost certain she wouldn't be.

After all, she was out hunting in the woods, she had to have the same kind of plan that he did, capture and kill something to take home and feed a crew of people. He certainly didn't believe a woman like her would be out here alone in the forest. Not that she didn't seem capable in some ways, it just didn't seem all that likely.

"I eat meat, I just..." Emma faltered when she realised how dumb the sentence in her head really was.

Of course she ate meat, and that included venison, she just never had to see it alive so soon before it was on the table for dinner. This guy seemed quite prepared to shoot the animal, deal with it as necessary, and then cook it up to eat. She wasn't sure why that made her squirm, but it did. Not that she was going to show weakness to this guy, especially not after the way he pinned her once today already. She had to be strong.

Getting to her feet, pulling herself up to her full height, which barely equalled the stranger's own, she shook her head.

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

"No, you don't," he smiled, her attitude apparently having no effect on him at all. "But you could do me the favour of helping me find something around here to feed my friends with, since you scared off my only prospect of a good meal," he considered, looking in the direction of the deer that had run far, far away already.

"How do I owe you anything?" asked Emma, almost laughing at the suggestion that she did. "You got your own back on me, pretending you were hurt. You scared the crap out of me, jumping all over me..."

"Hey, I wasn't exactly being a gentleman, but you gotta admit, you had it coming!" the stranger told her, scoffing at her apparent high and mighty attitude. "You almost shot me!"

"By accident!" she countered, and yet she knew it was still pretty bad.

His smiling eyes proved he wasn't actually angry with her, more amused by her terrible argument. If she had truly injured him, no amount of apology or calling it an accident would have saved him from pain or death. The fact that he was fine made it a moot point anyway, and so perhaps it wasn't so strange that their childish petty bickering led to laughter in the end.

"Are you always so indignant?" he asked her, chuckling.

"I don't know, are you always so impossible?" she retorted, biting her lip as she tried not to grin.

He didn't get a chance to answer her question when they heard a sound, like a bird call but different. Immediately, Emma was on her guard, reaching for a weapon.

"Easy," her new acquaintance urged her in a whisper. "There's no danger. That's my friend trying to find out if I'm okay," he told her, cupping his hands around his mouth and making a whistling sound of his own in reply.

"Okay," said Emma skeptically as soon as he was done. "So, what? You live in the woods?" she checked, apparently a sarcastic comment, until she realised maybe she was right.

"For now," he shrugged. "Why, where do you live?"

Emma opened her mouth to answer but then changed her mind. She didn't think telling a guy she just met, who lived in the woods and seemed poor as a church mouse, that she was in fact a princess that lived in a castle.

"Let's just say my house has actual walls and a roof," she opted for eventually.

"Uh-huh," he nodded along with the careful answer, understanding why a young woman out alone in the woods might be wary of a stranger. "I guess you're not going to tell me your name either?" he asked.

It wasn't that Emma didn't want to. Honestly, this guy was all kinds of cute, and funny too. She liked him already even though they just met, and didn't that just seem crazy even inside her own head? Still, if she gave her name she might be asking for trouble. As much as her parents wanted her to see all people as equal and worthy, regardless of rank in life, they didn't always return the favour. This was the first person Emma had met in a long time that didn't automatically recognise her as royalty, and it was actually really nice.

"That depends," she considered, smiling slightly. "Maybe if you tell me your name, I might tell you mine."

The stranger smiled widely at that, and yet he too was wary of giving his name either. He was never sure how many would recognise the name Baelfire as the son of the former Dark One, and so with almost everyone, he used another name entirely.

"Neal," he said easily.

"Neal?" she echoed the unfamiliar name. "As in on your knees?"

"For you, m'lady?" he countered, quirking an eyebrow as he dropped in a low bow til his knee touched the forest floor. "Of course."

She giggled at how dumb he was being, but didn't really feel as fun-loving as she seemed. He genuinely didn't seem to know she was so much more than the lady he was pretending to worship, and she feared him realising her royal status if she gave her name. It shouldn't matter, but somehow she just didn't want him to know.

"So, does my lady have a name?" he prompted when she was silent too long.

Neal got to his feet and watched as his mystery girl's eyes darted about, as if looking at him was a problem all of a sudden. She had to have a reason for not wanting to share her name, though she could easily make one up as he had. He hoped to have something to call her when he saw her again, and he definitely planned on seeing her again if he could. It was strange, a feeling he couldn't explain that made him just know he was supposed to spend more time with her than some brief meeting in the forest today.

"Are you okay?" he checked, reaching out to her, but she backed up a step just as a loud voice echoed through the trees.

"Emma!"

She winced at the sound of her name, hating that she had been given away, and by her father of all people. Surely he had come looking for her when he realised she had gone out without the protection of guards and now her cover was blown. She glanced back at Neal and saw the shock on his face.

"Emma?" he checked. "You... You're the princess?"

She hated that he knew, sure that meant her chances of ever seeing him again were lost, but it was too late now. All Emma really cared about was getting away from him before her dad caught them and got entirely the wrong idea.

"I have to go," she said quickly, hurrying away.

"Hey, wait a second..." Neal tried to stop her but she slipped through his fingers too easily.

"Don't let them see you," she turned back to tell him, and then she was gone from sight.

Neal thought about following her regardless but realised that would be stupid. Instead he slunk back into the woods where he had come from, wondering if he really would ever see Emma again, and what could ever really happen between them now he knew she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

To Be Continued...