The Enchanted Forest – Present Day
A twig snapped, and Azure whirled around, reaching for the dagger tucked into her boot. She relaxed, rolling her eyes. "For the gods' mercies, Aurora, you are going to get us all killed."
"I'm sorry. I've been lying in a glass coffin for years, there were no twigs to break." Aurora glared at her.
"Stop the bickering, you two." Snow called back, quietly. "You argue just like sisters."
"Close enough." Aurora replied, and Azure let out a giggle. "We've spent enough time together over the years. At least, when the years actually moved. She spent enough time in my kingdom growing up, following me around to the point that I asked my mother to lock her in the tower a few times."
"You only asked her because you got caught locking me there yourself when I was eight." Azure grinned. "It's lucky for you that I had no magic or I would have conjured frogs into your breakfast porridge. My mother even caught me looking in a spell book when I got home after that visit, trying to find something mean to spell you with the next time I saw you."
They approached a small clearing, slightly overhung with a light veil of branches from the trees. Snow looked around briefly, and turned to the group. "Shall we stay here tonight? The light is growing dimmer, and I think it's best if we continue our travels tomorrow."
Murmuring their assent, they set their belongings down. Azure began gathering wood for a fire, while Snow began a slow walk around the clearing, taking in every leaf, every tree, every small blade of grass as if setting a protection boundary around it.
"I'm going to see if I can capture something for our supper." Mulan made her way through the brush quietly.
"There's nothing left." Aurora watched Mulan go. "She knows that she won't find anything in the hunt, but she won't give up."
"She's coping." Emma replied, gently. "We all cope in different ways. Even warriors."
"You have the same warrior spirit as Mulan." Aurora tilted her head at Emma.
"Self-preservation. Not a warrior." Emma shook her head quickly. "Then again, maybe it's the same thing."
Within an hour, the darkness had settled over the forest, Azure had gotten a fire burning, and the four had eaten the meager ration of berries that Mulan had found. It wasn't enough to fill their stomachs, but it was enough to stave off the weakness from hunger that had threatened them throughout the journey. Snow offered to take the first lookout shift, so the other five settled into their pallets near the fire. Emma and Mulan dropped off quickly, and Aurora fell into a fitful sleep, but Azure stared into the fire for an hour before getting up quietly and joining Snow.
"Can't sleep?" Snow moved over on the stump to make room for Azure, who sat down next to her.
"I keep thinking about her." Azure refused to look at Snow. "I don't want to think about her. But the thoughts won't go away, no matter how much I try to force them down."
"Because she's your mother." Snow put an arm around Azure, who leaned into her shoulder. "Because you've had years and years away from her, and no child should be separated from their mother for that long. Because no matter what, you still love her, just as she loves you."
"When she sent away before your wedding for the last time, I said so many terrible things to her. I wanted to hurt her. I thought she'd change her mind, and when she didn't, I told her that we'd no longer exist to each other." Azure hung her head in shame. "So when she sent for me at Prince Phillip's castle the next month, I was still angry at her, and I wanted those words to be true."
"So you ran from your protectors." Snow nodded. "She knew. Did you know that she'd cast a protection spell on you before she sent you to Phillip's? And although you hid everywhere in the forest, running from shelter to shelter, every fairy, magical creature, and royal army watched out for you?"
Azure glanced up at her in surprise. "She knew I was going to run away? She did all of that?"
"She had an idea." Snow smiled. "Remember, you were the first non-fairy child born to a fairy mother. She always had to try to stay one step ahead of you because she had no idea what to expect. So if she seemed overly protective, she had good reason."
"And I spent that last year before Regina enacted the curse running from her, while she was trying to help save the Enchanted Forest."
"I was one of her spies." Snow grinned, teasingly. "When you came to visit me and James those few times, I'd send a messenger to her immediately. You never saw her, but she came to the castle and was able to strengthen the protection spell around you. She never gave up hope that you'd come back to her, but she was willing to wait because she could still protect you."
"There's something that I don't understand, though." Azure twisted her hands in her lap. "She began to send me into hiding years before the threat of Regina's curse. What was she protecting me from? No matter how many times I asked her, she would only tell me that the danger was coming. When I was little, that was enough for me to obey her without question. But then as I got older, her answer wasn't good enough for me. I still don't know what the danger was. She expected me to do as I was told with the same explanation – the danger. But I needed more than that." Azure turned to Snow, pleadingly. "Please, Snow. If you know, if you have any idea, what was the danger? Who was the danger?"
"I wish I could tell you, Azure." Snow hugged her, helplessly. "I honestly don't know. It was the one thing that she would never talk about, she would never explain the danger. She said that Esme was the only person who'd known about it, and Esme had taken it to her grave."
"Esme." Azure glared at the ground. "I was only eight when she died, but I remember how she treated me. She hated me for what I was, for being half-fairy, and my half-fairy side had none of the gifts of the fairies. Why would Mother tell Esme about the danger and not you? She never trusted Esme."
"Your mother never told Esme. Esme discovered the truth on her own when your mother became pregnant with you, although your mother was sure that she'd been told by the only other person who knew – your father." Snow realized that she was getting into threatening territory. "She always suspected that Esme had something to do with the danger."
"Do you know who my father was? My father is?" Azure asked, her head spinning. "I know that he had something to do with the danger, which is why my mother wouldn't tell me who he was."
"Blue never told us the name of your father." Snow told her. "But yes, he and the danger were intertwined. From your mother's story, I never quite understood if your father caused the danger or if the danger followed him. All I remember is that she swore that he would never find you, that she would keep the danger from you by keeping him from you. "
Azure was silent for several minutes, taking in all that Snow had shared with her. Her breathing became so even and deep that Snow wondered if she'd fallen asleep, until Azure spoke again quietly. "I was wrong. I spent so much time being angry with her for wanting to protect me and I hurt her so much."
"Azure, what happened in the past is where it belongs to stay. In the past. When we are able to return to Storybrooke, she won't care about any of that. All she'll care about is that you've come back to her. I promise." Snow paused. "Azure, I need to ask you something." Azure nodded. "How did you and the others end up in that…place? Why weren't all of you taken to Storybrooke with the rest of us?"
Azure's demeanor changed, and she looked away from Snow as she spoke. "I don't know the exact reason. All I remember is that I'd gone to Phillip's castle because I'd heard of Aurora's affliction. It was the last time I saw my mother, and I wouldn't even speak to her, but she begged me to secure a horse and go to the water at the edge of the Enchanted Forest. She said that I would be safe from Regina's curse there, and as soon as she was able, she'd come to get me. I don't know why I chose that one time to heed her instructions, but I did. And when I arrived, it seemed as if there were preparations being made. Magical preparations, with more fairies that I'd ever known in my lifetime making them. I only recognized a few. Not long after I set foot on the land on the water with many other refugees, I looked out over the Enchanted Forest and suddenly, I saw it."
"Saw what?" Snow asked, anxiously. "What did you see?"
"It started so far in the distance that I thought I was imagining it, but the longer I stared, the more I realized that there was something happening. The center of the forest was spinning, like a cyclone, and all of a sudden, it turned black and began to disappear, just as if something had dragged the forest into the black and was swallowing it whole. Everyone around me began to panic, but we could do nothing, just wait for the blackness to engulf us." Azure took a deep breath. "Then I saw the fairy dust fall over the land on the water. It fell so thick that it felt as if we might choke on it. I didn't see who covered the land with the fairy dust. All I know is that it went on for at least an hour, and when it began to grow thinner, we saw that the blackness was gone. And so was any life in the Enchanted Forest."
Snow embraced Azure as tears began to fall from her eyes. "You were in a protection area."
Azure nodded, struggling to speak. "None of us knew why we were chosen to go to the protection area. I thought she'd sent me there because she'd be there. But the days passed, and she never came. No one did. And we all thought that Regina's curse had killed everyone else and we were the only ones left in the realm."
"And now you know that it's not true." Snow smiled, tearfully.
Azure suddenly stood. "I'm sorry. There's just so much to take in. And I need some privacy –" She gestured towards some nearby bushes. "Thank you, Snow."
"Be careful and return quickly." Snow called after her quietly. Azure nodded with her back to Snow.
Azure made her way several hundred yards from the camp when an arm reached from behind a tree and grabbed her, clamping a hand over her mouth. She struggled against the restraint, only relaxing when she heard "It's me, Cora.". As soon as she'd stopped struggling, Cora let go over her, and Azure turned to face her.
"Why are you here? It's dangerous!" Azure whispered, angrily. "What if they see you?"
"I won't be here long enough." Cora smiled, deviously.
"I can't do this, Cora. We need to find a way for Snow and Emma to go to the other realm with us. I won't be your spy any longer, and I won't leave them behind." Azure was firm. "I no longer want or need revenge on my mother. I just want to be with her. Perhaps Regina feels the same about you."
"Oh, darling girl, you say this as if you have a choice." Cora laughed. "While you've been tagging along after the merry band of misfits, I've discovered how to get one of us to the other realm. And since I'm not entirely comfortable with being the first to try out the process, you'll be the one to test my theory." She pulled a small bag of fairy dust from her satchel. "All this time, you held onto this fairy dust when you could have given it to Snow White to go through the wardrobe. Did you tell her that? Did you tell her that you've been holding back on her?"
"You wouldn't dare tell her." Azure hissed angrily. "I wasn't intentionally keeping it from anyone, I wanted to find a way for all of us to return without having to choose."
"And now you don't have to." Cora's smile twisted into an evil grimace. "I know which curse my daughter used on the Enchanted Forest, and between my magic and this fairy dust, I believe I know where the inhabitants have gone." She reached into the bag and took out a small handful of the fairy dust. "Don't be afraid. I've added an enchantment to the spell – if it works, the enchantment will create a portal somewhere in the forest – and all I have to do is find it. It will remain open for only two days, so I'll have to make sure that I find it before they do. Once that portal has closed, that will destroy any chance for return by anyone here. I will do what I have to do to ensure that I find it before they do."
"No!" Azure screamed, as Cora threw the fairy dust over her with one hand and unleashed a torrent of magic from the other. She felt the air around her go black, start to spin, and she struggled to claw her way out of the darkness, without success. Within a few seconds, she felt her body slam into something solid and hit the ground. She moaned, rolling to her side, a pain shooting through her head. Finally, she managed to sit up without feeling as if she needed to vomit and slowly, gingerly, she opened her eyes.
What she saw was not the Enchanted Forest. It wasn't the land on the water. It wasn't like anything she'd ever seen before. She was in a small alley, looking out onto what appeared to be a town, people walking back and forth in clothing that was foreign and strange. But she knew.
"I'm in Storybrooke." She whispered. "The spell worked. It really worked."
Pulling herself to her feet unsteadily, her head still pounding from hitting it on the ground after her journey from the other realm, she began to scan the people walking by, looking for a familiar face. She didn't want to just walk out into the street, knowing that her long dress would immediately draw attention to her. So she waited. She'd waited over 28 years, another few minutes couldn't hurt.
