Hey guys! First, an apology- For the few people reading Porcelain- That story is currently on hiatus, for a GREAT reason. My best friend Clara's birthday is coming up, and I'm writing this story as well as another one for her. I'm really sorry... Second, I need you guys to help me. If you see ANY mistakes (grammar, spelling or otherwise) please point it out to me! I need this to be PERFECT for her! PEEEERFECT!
I apologize once more... But please help me out. Please. (BTW- this infamous Clara- which isn't her real name- is known as Clara-bear6. So go check out her story! It's real good!)
On to the story!
Disclaimer-I don't own anything from OUaT blah blah blah. Blah.
Chapter 1- To Save A World- Heroism
Aesir Norse
A thin, gaunt figure sat up from the pile of broken glass. Her dirt-smeared face and sunken eyes peered out from behind long, raggedy brown bangs. She wore thin but sturdy-looking metal shoulder pads, iron boots, chest plates, and black gloves. There was an empty weapon holster on her left hip; strangely enough, the gun was shoved in the back pocket of her jeans. You could just see the hilt of a knife in her boots if you looked hard enough.
A pale hand riddled with thin, white scars reached up to tuck the offending hairs behind her ears. She took a few cautious and surprisingly soft steps forward. To any onlooker, it would appear that she had taken a misstep. A portal opened in the ground and a girl exploded from it, coughing and kneeling on leaf covered jungle floor.
The girl had dark auburn locks, pale, dead fish-eyes and a slightly curvy figure. The armored girl sized the other girl up while the fish-eyed teen stared mournfully at the ground.
The armored girl stuck her hand out and introduced herself, "Norse. Aesir Norse."
Aesir waited patiently as the other girl slowly extended her hand and unhappily murmured, "Grayson Rose. You can call me Rosey." Rosey spoke slowly, with a practiced sound to her words, an almost knee-jerk reaction.
Aesir walked past the girl, a handful of footprints lightly embedding themselves in the ground before she turned as asked, "Are you here for the cure, then, as well?"
Rosey blinked and Aesir felt a small swell of pride from eliciting the look of surprise on Rosey's face: she already knew emotions wouldn't be seen often on Rosey's apathetic countenance.
"Yes," she responded, her words carrying the slight tearful tremor that Aesir was quickly starting to associate with the girl.
Aesir nodded, "We might as well help each other."
Rosey nodded slowly, but not reluctantly, before following Aesir farther into the forbidding jungle without question.
"...What's your cure for, anyway?" Aesir inquired, looking over her shoulder briefly at Rosey. When she was met with silence, she was filled with the sudden need to fill it. "Alright, I'll go first. I mean, you don't have to tell me, but... I'm from Norborough. We've got a big war goin' on back home. Ever heard of the zombie apocalypse?" she paused to see if Rosey would answer, "That's kinda what's goin' on. We've got people coming down with all sorts of shit. We've got people who turn into zombie-things, people who get bit and just die, and strange diseases that just destroy the people who get sick. No cures for any of them, nothing to slow the process, no nothing. Not only that, but any placed that isn't overrun by zombies or full of rotting sick people is war-torn by soldiers like me, and gangs. So, I heard of a place where I could find a cure. And I came."
The only sound was of Rosey's lightly thudding footfalls. Then she spoke, "I just came to forget something... My to-be-fiancée, he was..." she choked on her words a little, forcing them out in a tightly controlled voice, "He was killed while shopping for a ring... an armed robbery."
"I'm sorry, Rosey, I... I can't say I understand. I never had time to have someone like that. But... If I did, I'm sure he wouldn't want me to be so sad about him. Then, I'm sure he wouldn't want me to forget either."
Shortly after, they stumbled upon a girl whom appeared to be having a tea party with a small rabbit and dead bird. The rabbit's foot was missing, just a bloody stump remaining.
The girl was cheerfully humming to herself as she poured some scarlet colored liquid into her cup.
"..." Aesir hesitated before finally stepping towards the little tea table and softly greeting her, "Hello. Who are you?"
The girl looked up, her piercing but faded jade colored eyes distant and clouded. Her platinum blond braids fell over her shoulders. Aesir's stomach clenched when she recognized the flecks of blood adorning half of her face and staining her braids scarlet near the ends.
"Who are you?" she grinned a little, her demeaning then changing ever so slightly as she then greeted them, "Good morning, I'm Tessie. Who are you?" She blinked owlishly.
"I am Aesir, and this is Rosey." Aesir introduced herself and the other girl to Tessie.
"Pleased to make your meeting. Tea?" Suddenly she dropped the pot with a clash, causing the poor rabbit to flinch and wiggle in its chair.
"This isn't tea!" she shrieked, outraged. Aesir took a moment to ponder on what she took the red liquid to be, anyways. Cranberry juice? Pomegranate soda? Red mojito?
She turned to her rabbit and apologized profusely for 'the great inconvenience she had caused him'.
Aesir cleared her throat, "Would you like to come with us? To find the cures, I mean," Rosey nodded in reluctant agreement and Aesir turned to her, assessing to subtle shift in her mood.
Tessie grinned widely, "Of course!" she picked up and the rabbit and walked over to them, still grinning madly.
Aesir decided that her grin was not something she liked. It was too big and showed all of her sharp, pearly whites. Her eyes were too big, the whites of her eyes to small and slim rings.
They traveled through the jungle, Aesir leading, then Tessie, and then Rosey. As they walked, Tessie chattering amicably with her rabbit and filling the silence, destroying it before it could even start to fall over the small group.
Night fell and the rays of light that helped them see the protruding roots and stones that could trip them up dissipated quite suddenly.
"Maybe we should make camp, stop for tonight. We've been walking for awhile and I'm sure everyone is tired."
I built a fire, while Rosey dragged logs and Tessie painstakingly and slowly built a lovely, strong-looking tent.
Tessie sat down immediately under the tent, while Rosey and I sat on a log near the fire.
Rosey looked over her shoulder at Tessie, who was still coated in blood. She was stroking Phillip as talking to him softly. I doubt she noticed it- I commented on something she had said to Phillip and she looked at me like I was crazy and asked what I had meant.
"She's a nutter. We shouldn't bring her with us, she'll probably get us killed." Rosey muttered depravedly, the fire not being the only thing burning in her eyes.
I turned to her and said sharply, "She's just a kid! Look at her, a little girl with her bunny."
Grayson jumped up, pointing at Tessie and Phillip, "A little girl?! Is that what you think she is?! Look at her! She's coated in BLOOD, for God's sake! It's in her hair, her clothes, all over her face! And her little bunny? Its foot was RIPPED OFF! Knowing that 'little girl', she was probably the one who did it!" Grayson yelled angrily.
Tessie stared at me.
"Look, we should all just calm down and go to sleep. It's getting late, and its safe to say our nerves are a little… frazzled." I spoke at last, gesturing a little with my hands.
The next morning, we walked and walked, spending only a short amount of time hunting for food and picking berries.
Night fell once more, and the ground roots blurred into the ground and the sun disappeared behind heavy clouds. However, the swift fall of darkness made it easier for them to see the fire that they would've missed before.
Tessie gasped, her perky spirit long since returned, "Look, Phillip! Lookie~ There's a fire!" she joyfully exclaimed. Aesir's head whipped around so fast that she might suffer from whiplash. The fire glinted through the gaps in the branches.
Aesir pointed towards the fire, "Good job, Tess. C'mon, let's go over there." She then pushed through the branches, pulling a low one back and holding it for the other two girls. Tessie tripped through the jungle happily, followed closely by Aesir and Rosey, who was glaring at the receding girl's back.
Aesir laid a heavy hand on Rosey's shoulder, "Calm, girl." She smiled reassuringly down at her; something in her mind telling her there was a good bit of bad blood going on here that Rosey was associating Tessie with.
Walking out into the clearing, Aesir was immediately stopped by a dagger being held at her throat. Her hands went up and linked behind her head, "Whoa there, man, we aren't here to harm anyone. Just wanted to see if anyone could help us. We saw the fire and figured..." she trailed off as a boy walked forwards- tall with raggedly blond hair poking out from underneath his hood.
He motioned with his hand and the knife dropped from her throat and Tessie's loud complaints died down as the boys backed away from her.
Rosey stayed silent.
"Follow me," he said monotonously and Aesir looked back at the two girls and nodded before following him.
The boy, whose name Aesir learned was Felix, led them to a large tree house where his 'leader' resided.
"I had a leader back home."
"What happened?" Rosey asked, probably out of politeness.
Aesir cleared her throat, "He was assassinated. Bled out on my shirt and everything. He told me to come here."
"Oh."
Their little walk ended when they reached the base of the tree house and Felix motioned towards the ladder. Aesir climbed up first, then Felix pushed in front of Tessie and climbed after Aesir, then Tessie and Rosey.
Aesir opened the hatch for the trap door of the tree house and pulled herself up, Felix following closely after her. A tall, light brown haired boy sat on a hammock near an open window, playing panpipes idly.
Felix walked over to him and said something before the taller boy stood up and walked towards him. Just as he was about to say something, he was interrupted by a loud cry-
"Aesir!" Tessie wailed, "Rosey hit Phillip!"
Looking down the hole in the floor, Aesir saw Tessie clutching Phillip, what she identified as her dwarf hotot bunny-friend, and Rosey glaring heatedly at her. Aesir sighed and smiled apologetically at Felix and the other boy before calling down to them, "Rosey, don't hit Phillip, Tessie, please, just bring yourself and Phillip up here. And try not to kill each other while you're at it."
She stood back up and turned to the boy, who was looking at her amusedly, "They friends of yours or something?"
Aesir shrugged, "Just met them today. We help each other. Looking for the same sort of thing and all."
Rosey pulled herself up from the ladder with a grunt and glared down at the forest floor, "She's not coming up, she says that it might hurt Phillip, stupid little-" she turned to Peter and her features froze, her mouth hanging comically wide. Aesir gave her a nudge and raised a hand to her jaw, pushing it up gently.
Rosey's eyes were locked on Peter with something akin to shock in her lifeless eyes.
He smirked, "Peter. Peter Pan. Now," he turned back to Aesir, brushing off the shocked girl, "What did you say you were here for?"
"The cure- well, a cure, something I'd heard about. It's supposed to help my people- my world." I told him.
He raised an eyebrow; "You're all here for the same thing?"
I shook my head, "No, no, I was told that the cures would manifest according to the person's need. I'm for a cure for the sickness my people are suffering from, she needs a- a memory wipe or something, and I think Tessie needs something for, I dunno, either Phillip's foot or for a return to the land of the sane."
He took another lazy step forwards, "So, where'd you here about the cures?"
"The leader of my legion told me to go get the cure from here before he died. Said that if I got it, we could duplicate it and get rid of our problem back home."
He nodded, a small smirk twisting his lips, "I'll help, on one condition." I nodded,
"Alright, what's your 'condition'?" Aesir asked, crossing her armored arms across her chest.
"You tell me how you and your friends got here."
Aesir blinked, then laughed, "Wow, cures must be pretty goddamn easy to come by out here. I came through a mirror, what about you, Rosey?"
She shrugged, "I don't care enough to remember..."
Sighing, I turned and walked back towards the hole and called down to Tessie, "Tess, how'd ya get here? To the island."
"I fell asleep!" Tessie shouted gleefully. I turned back to Peter and shrugged, "She says she fell asleep. Dunno what she means, but... I'm sure it's pretty damn literal and I'll slap myself for not getting it earlier."
Peter chuckled, "Maybe you and... Rosey... should think a little harder."
Bristling, I snapped, "What, Tessie says she fell asleep and that's more plausible than me coming through a mirror?"
He nodded, "Precisely."
I glared at him, "I'll prove it to you. Hold on a bit."
As I walked through the jungle, having left Rosey, Tessie and Phillip back at the camp, I wondered how long it would take for us to get our cures. I mean, my world, as tough as they people there were, couldn't last forever against more than three incurable, violently terminal diseases.
And I couldn't hold out forever, either.
Violently, incurably terminal.
"Peter!"
Peter turned to see Aesir jogging back into camp, her short, brown hair swaying due to its shortness, though her bangs were down to her chin, framing her thin face.
"I got it!" I waved the large shard of glass, thankful for my sturdy, bulletproof gloves.
I slowed down to a walk and handed him the piece of glass, "See? I went through this, but it broke after I got through."
Peter examined the glass, turning it over in his bare hand and yet not cut or scraped. "Well," he started, "Looks like you came through the Looking Glass," He smiled, "not only that, but you're imagination is far more... active, than I originally thought it to be."
I gave him a look, throwing my hands in the air, "I give up. Never mind the fact that I just gave you my portal and all. Who cares, right?"
He chuckled.
She sighed.
"Can we just go now?"
"Sure, Aesir."
"So, this is it, then." Aesir said, looking over to Peter.
He smirked, "This is it," he paused, "You don't sound to impressed."
Aesir looked a little dubious, "What, are you trying to impress me or something?"
He chuckled a little, but said nothing to that, only motioning for her to follow him farther into the cave. Aesir, Tessie, Phillip, and Rosey followed closely behind. Aesir spotted something- a row of not yet rotted corpses, propped up against the wall. There was one that appeared to be a boy, a child of one of the women next to him. There were eight larger bodies there as well, four of which were to be women.
"What happened to them?" she inquired. "They look frozen. Like they haven't even gotten a chance to rot."
Peter smiled a twisted, maniacal smile that I hadn't yet seen on his face, and he glanced meaningfully at Rosey, "Their hearts broke," he commented casually, "And thus, stopped beating."
Rosey made and strangled noise and ran ahead of the group. Tessie shook her head at Peter and said something to Phillip.
We entered a large room with a high, arching ceiling with glowing spear-like columns protruding from the floor and connecting to the ceiling
In the center of the room, there was a little stage-like thing. On it were three stands. Each held a special item.
Aesir stepped towards an amber vial.
Chapter 1 Fin
Next Chapter:
Chapter 2- To Save A Heart- Heartbreak
Grayson Rose
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~Songbook12