Hello again! I am happy to hear you are enjoying the story :) The next one will be the start of things changing between the two and I will be sure to post it before I go camping in the middle of nowhere and disappear for a week! I hope you enjoy this chapter and I do love reading all of your reviews :)
Aurora often glanced over her shoulder at the suspicious brunette who knew a lot more about them than they knew about her. All she knew was that her name was Regina and she had a sharp tongue. Aurora did not trust her as Mulan did and as she trailed behind Mulan away from Regina she eyed her sword.
Regina was quick, she had proven that when Mulan had initially gone after her so Aurora figured she would just have to be quicker. The woman brought the wraith there and it took Phillip from her or his soul as she so claimed. She looked at the sword again. Regina was behind her on her left, David behind her on her right, and Mulan just askew in front of her. In one swift movement she pulled Mulan's sword out and spun quickly to hit Regina but the woman simply let her coat fall from her fingertips and lifted her arm so her forearm stopped the flat side of the sword and she glared at her through cold dark eyes and a mouth set in an angry scowl.
She felt intense fear at the woman's hard stare and the fact that she didn't even flinch or waver at the heavy sword that she had swung with great force didn't calm any of it.
"Aurora!"
"No," David caught Mulan and held her back as she fought him to get free, "let her get it out of her system or she won't knock it off. Regina won't kill her," when she stopped fighting him he let go and hoped that Regina wouldn't prove him wrong.
"You think a mere sword can kill me?"
"You took Phillip!"
"Again with Phillip! He's not dead!" She growled and Aurora swung the sword again and Regina blocked it once again with her other arm this time and then spun the blade hilt over tip, ripping it from the princess' grip and taking it in her own and resting the tip against her jugular. "I am so sick of everyone trying to kill me! One would think that after all the failed attempts people would give up! And then to be given such a foolish and inexperienced child is just an insult to my name," she spat and removed the sword from the girl's throat and without breaking eye contact with Aurora, she threw the sword so it stuck in the ground at Mulan's feet.
She took two steps closer so she was practically touching the princess as she pulled her lip back in a snarl as she hissed at her, not at all oblivious to the way she was tense and vibrating with fear, "I could kill you with a wave of my fingers. If you're going to try and kill me again at least make it a challenge!"
She was absolutely terrifying and it felt like her dark eyes looked right through her and bore holes in to her very core, her snarl shaking her to the bone, and the way she loomed over her had her trying to stop quivering in fear and find her breath again. "Phillip is gone because of you," she managed to get out through her fear clenched jaw.
"Fighting me isn't going to get you anywhere," she spat and leaned further forward causing the princess to step back, "you either waste your time trying to kill me or you channel your anger in to getting him back! Be grateful that you have that option princess."
"Like you would know what I feel!" Aurora snapped angrily and took half a step forward to regain the ground she had given up.
"I know exactly what you feel!" She screamed and the girl flinched but Regina did not lower her voice, "it hurts! It feels like it is the end and that you will never recover! That the only way you can have peace is to kill the woman you believe caused his death! You can feel yourself spiraling down in to darkness but there is no one that cares enough to catch you!"
Regina glared at her, she had revealed a little more of herself than she had intended and she had to force herself to stop so she wouldn't continue on and work herself in to tears, "hunting me will do you no favors."
"How do you know that?!" She was yelling now and the brunette still didn't flinch, "killing you would allow my wounds to heal! I could get him back and we could live in peace!"
"I know it won't work because I have been hunting the same woman for years! Decades! I am falling apart at the seams!" She screamed and brought her hands up between them and tensed her hands and fingers so they shook, "there is no point to it! It is not worth it in the end!"
"I am not you!"
"What makes you think that you are so special you won't fall into the same destructive path?!" Her chest was heaving with frustrated breaths, the both of them worked up with their screaming. The princess had no answer but Regina didn't move back and she kept her expression the same, expectant of an answer from Aurora. She received nothing so Regina answered for her, "nothing."
Any tension left in the air was shattered when the loud roar of an ogre was heard as the large creature charged through the tree line toward them. Regina didn't so much as bat an eye and she watched as David and Mulan ran toward it.
Regina stood entirely relaxed and her head followed the princess when she jumped and cowered off to her side and a little behind her. She held her gaze with her brow furrowed when wide blue eyes looked at her. Regina simply shook her head and lifted her hand to motion at the large beast David was yelling at to distract it from Mulan who was waiting for a good shot, "it's just an ogre."
"Just an- are you serious?!" The brunette's expression remained disappointed in her reaction and almost confused, "these creatures have ravaged our land! How can you be standing here without a hint of fear in your eyes?!" She shuddered at the loud roar from the ogre but the woman remained unfazed, as a matter of fact there was now amusement in her expression.
Regina shook her head slowly, her voice low and laced with laughter, "you still have no idea who I am do you," she smiled at the girl's confused expression and then turned her attention back to David and Mulan. She was growing impatient.
"Hey!" David yelled and when the ogre looked his way once more he shot a glance to Mulan who had her sword ready. He hated how inconvenient ogres were to kill when you didn't have a bow. He started yelling again and ran backwards to lead the blind ogre closer to Mulan but before he could get much further the ogre's enraged roar was cut off and forever silenced when a tree was launched over David's head and in to the ogre's eye and skewered its head, forcefully knocking the creature backward in to the tree line on the edge of the clearing.
He stared at it for a long time with Mulan, confused as to what exactly had just happened. After a few long seconds of staring at the dead ogre he turned around to where the tree had come from and found Regina standing irritably with Aurora whose mouth was open in shock.
"Are we done then? I am growing rather bored with this."
David laughed quietly and shook his head, "only you would find ogres a bore."
"And now it's dead which makes it all the more ridiculous that we are all still standing here," she sighed and shook her head slowly, "can we continue on now?"
"Does her majesty know the way?" His voice filled with exaggerated politeness as he smiled in irritated amusement and pushed his arms out at his side.
"If I was told where we were actually going then yes I would," she had her hands on her hips and her head pushed forward with her eyebrows raised.
"Your maj- you're the queen?!" Aurora looked her over in shock and Regina only glanced at her irritably over her shoulder before looking back to David and Mulan. It made sense really, when they had found them in the beginning the two of them were arguing about her bringing people and land to another place, Regina had mentioned Malificent's name as well. It would certainly explain her hot temper and the way she could have you fearing for your life with one glance through harsh dark eyes. Not to mention the ability to effectively use magic she had just shown.
"Call me 'evil' and I'll tear your throat out."
David sighed and shook his head, "definitely not helping your case with that statement there Regina."
"Shut it Charming," she hissed and shifted her weight, "I am in no mood to have your voice grating on my ear drums."
"I suppose you wouldn't like to hear a 'thank you' then?"
"Well you can always give that a try."
With a shake of his head David laughed under his breath and motioned to the ogre with his arm, "thank you Regina for finding it in that dark heart of yours to save us the time and effort of having to kill this ogre ourselves."
Regina smirked and tucked her chin in, "I do not appreciate the sarcasm dear."
...
David fell in step with Regina and watched as she moved her hands over her forearms, a soft purple glow in the palm of each hand as she moved them over her injured forearms one at a time. Only the left one was cut because when she had blocked Aurora's second blow he noticed she didn't get the flat side of the sword but instead got hit with the sharp edge before it was rotated to rest on the flat side. She hadn't flinched though when it happened which he found rather impressive seeing as how she had clearly not used magic and the blow to her right arm left a nasty bruise that was already turning her soft skin purple, "why didn't you use magic?"
"I didn't need to," she looked up at him irritably and then continued with her arms, "it wouldn't have done me me any good anyway, Mulan's sword deflects magic."
"How do you even know all of this? How is it possible to keep track of everything in your head?"
"Unlike you, I actually use my head to think instead of just hitting things with," she deadpanned and let her right hand linger over the deep cut on her left arm to assure it healed properly.
He shook his head and breathed out his nose and let her comment slide this time only because he wanted to know something else, "what you said to Aurora, did you mean it?" At her irritated huff of air he elaborated, "that hunting Snow all of these years wasn't worth it? That you wish you hadn't started to begin with?"
"I didn't say I wish I hadn't started."
"It was strongly implied."
"I drove myself in to madness chasing that stupid girl," she pulled the sleeves back down on her white shirt, the left one cut and stained with blood and then roughly pulled her navy blue blazer back on and flipped her hair out of the white trimmed collar, "I never wanted any of this," she snarled and pulled her blazer straight.
James furrowed his brow thoughtfully at her and asked quietly, "what did you want?"
No one had asked her that question and now it was too late and it made her heart ache painfully, her voice quietening and softening a lot more than she had hoped for, "I wanted to love my stable boy..."
David found himself frowning at her reply and studied her as her mask faltered for a few moments and he felt a sad and broken warmth flow from her. It was like a punch in the gut and he discovered it was a little harder to breathe for those short moments. It was the first he had seen of her humanity. Well the first he had seen as himself and not as Storybrooke David. Even when they spent time together during the curse it was hard to read or feel anything off of her but for these few moments were different.
He knew for a fact that she didn't mean to show him that and two steps later the mask was back and her bitter tone had returned. He didn't really know why but he flinched at her next words.
"Doesn't matter what I want though now does it."
David sighed quietly through his nose, "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know, Regina," he was answered with a scoff and a single cold and disbelieving laugh. He simply shook his head at her, not wanting to start yet another argument. Especially one that he would only have the stubborn brunette infuriating him further. He moved his gaze over her once again and judging by the way she held her tight jaw he was lead to assume she was having a bit of a furious tantrum within herself.
"Can I see your hand?"
"Do you have eyes?"
David physically bit his tongue to keep himself from retaliating and instead kept his voice tight with pent up frustration, "may I see you hand?"
"No."
David closed his eyes with an irritated huff and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Regina."
"What?" She snapped hotly and glared at him sideways.
He fought to stomp down his bubbling anger toward her hostile behavior and keep his tense voice from expressing such disdain, "I just want to know that if through this unfortunate travel arrangement you had managed to rid yourself of the wraith's mark or if we had to add a wraith to our list of things to be wary of."
Regina opened her mouth to hiss her reply but was stopped mid breath by Mulan's calm voice.
"There can only be one person marked by a single wraith at a time. In marking himself Phillip took Regina's place and unintentionally saved her and was killed or...lost his soul rather instead."
This woman had pure dumb luck. But he wouldn't dare say it with the ears of Mulan and Aurora listening so as not to upset either of them with Phillip's predicament, "I would still feel better if I saw your hand."
"I am not in the business of making you feel better."
David laughed irritably under his breath and fell back in to the habit of treating her like an object he did not care for rather than a human being and snatched her left wrist up and lifted it to his eye level to find that her palm was indeed free of any mark. She ripped her arm back to her side and his irritated blue gaze met an absolutely seething dark brown one. Her jaw was clenched and her lips were pulled back in a snarl and then he said the wrong thing in the wrong tone, "thank you."
With a deadly cock of her head she slipped the toe of her boot under a good sized stick and tossed it up to her hands and jabbed him hard in the stomach causing him to drop to his knees with a pained huff. Anger clenching her fingers around the stick she bent down so she could look him in the eye, "don't touch me," she hissed viciously and threw the stick back to the ground in front of the winded Prince before standing up straight and stepping away.
Aurora moved closer to Mulan and whispered nervously and disbelievingly, "you still think it's a good idea to bring her to the safe haven?"
Mulan nodded at Regina who showed no anger toward her only a frustration with David that had been toned down significantly. She turned on her heels and continued leading the way with Aurora close on her heels and Regina a few strides behind leaving David to pick himself back up, "she hasn't hurt anyone. She has kept her word and I intend to keep mine. She is perfectly fine until someone provokes her so just don't do so. Consider yourself lucky. She could have killed you."