As soon as the crowd scattered towards their homes and the guards ran behind the wolf and the princess, Regina left her hiding place. Mulan huffed and whispered in an angry way commanding, almost begging her to stay hidden. Regina ignored her though, all she could think about was Emma. Her own safety was endangered, yes. But Emma was being chased by a huge wolf, for God's sake! So she ran. She ran after Emma, the wolf and the guards. And Mulan ran after her.
Emma turned left and it was already too late to go back when she realized there wasa dead end in front of her. Stupid alley, why couldn't there be a door at the end or something? She stopped running and turned around to face the wolf. She was exhausted and very, very scared. Quickly glancing around she found a piece of wood and grabbed it, shaking it in front of the wolf. The animal had stopped running the moment she did, and was now approaching her slowly. It wasn't growling or anything, it was just looking right in her eyes.
"Go away!" Emma said desperately.
She heard some voices coming from the street and clearly the wolf heard them too because it stopped and looked behind it. Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, the animal changed shape and transformed into a woman. Emma recognized her immediately but didn't have time to say anything because she saw fear in the woman's eyes. So out of instinct, she ducked behind the broken wooden boxes with trash on her left.
"Miss, you shouldn't be here, the wolf is attacking again. Go to a safe place." Emma heard a male voice talking to the woman before joining the other footsteps running up the street, away from the alley. She didn't dare leaving her hiding place yet, her breath was still accelerated, everything had happened so fast. What was she going to say? How would that woman react in this fake world, what did she want? Emma heard new footsteps approaching from the street, less this time, and slower.
"Excuse me, have you seen-" It was Regina's voice. "Ruby?!"
Emma chose that moment to stand up and show herself. A smirk decorated her face when she saw Regina's relieved expression. Ruby, on the other hand, was tense and looked like she was about to transform again.
"Ruby, wait." Emma said.
The brunette turned around to face her, "Emma hide, I'll make sure this woman pays." She urged, and faced Regina again. They were standing 3 meters away from each other, Mulan right next to Regina, sword ready.
"Listen to me, she's not the Evil Queen." Emma walked towards Ruby and placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Please, believe me."
Ruby, an older version than the one she was used to, studied Emma's face and gave extra attention to her eyes, looking for any sign that could tell her Emma was under a spell. Of course she didn't find any of those signs.
"You have 2 minutes to explain what's going on." She said sharply.
An hour later the four women were already in the forest at the other side of the village, continuing their way to the north. With every villager either locked in their house or looking for the wolf, it was so easy to walk their way past the gates without being recognized. The 2 minute summary Emma explained to Ruby about their situation was a mess, but it was somehow enough to convince her and, although with certain restrains, she accepted that Regina was not the Evil Queen. Mulan was sure it had to do with Ruby's animal senses, she could clearly sense the good in Regina.
Anyway, Ruby craved more information so Emma told most of the story to her, trying to make sense out of it. When she stopped talking, her throat dried, Regina asked Ruby why she chased Emma as a wolf and where was Dorothy.
"Who's Dorothy?" She asked. Regina looked at her with a sad expression. In this world Ruby hadn't met the love of her life... But it's a fake world, Regina. She reminded herself.
Promising she would tell her about Dorothy later, Regina guided the conversation back to Ruby and Emma. So Ruby told them that she and Snow White had been the best friends for many years, they met in Ruby's farm when they were young and Snow was running away from home. She had been by her side when Emma was born and when they defeated the Evil Queen. She actually helped with that. When Emma was around 5 years old Ruby used to go in the forest at night to try and learn how to control her inner wolf, and well, the town soon started to talk. They requested meetings with the king and queen asking why, if magic was forbidden in the kingdom, their sons and daughters were taken to jail and this woman wasn't. In vain they tried making people understand it wasn't magic what Ruby had.
"Their anger became distrust and it could have led to a rebellion. They feared for your safety, Emma. Well... the Emma in this realm anyway." Ruby finished.
"So you had to leave" Mulan said, understanding. Ruby nodded. There was sadness in her eyes.
"Your mother and I kept in touch though, and I made little trips to spy on you and see how fast you were growing..." Ruby smiled. "I heard Snow and David were killed by the Evil Queen, who came back... so I was looking for you, I wanted to take you back home. I don't know what to feel, I was so sad because they died... but now I guess they aren't really dead? Because all this... us is fake?" The confusion was evident in Ruby's eyes. Emma Just hugged her and they remained in silence for a while.