Emma stared blankly at Smee, not wanting to understand his words. Still, the man had a horrified look on his face and even though he was across the room, she could see he was shaking.
"Smee, where are they?" Hook asked, his voice serious. He was already shuffling around his cabin, picking up maps and his sword, obviously preparing for a fight.
"A few miles east, my captain. But they're coming, they're turning everything in their way into dust."
"Do we have time to set sail?"
Emma looked between the men as they spoke, and tried to stop her stomach from turning. Ogres? Freaking ogres? She was still woozy and couldn't trust her own two feet, how in the hell was she supposed to fight an ogre? Especially more than one?
"We won't even have half of the cargo on ship by the time they come."
Hook cursed, bowing his head in thought. After a few moments of stretched, tense silence, he looked up, his face determined. "Then we fight," he said and Emma realized that in that moment, he was looking like the Hook from the future. Even so, he sounded like him and had the same fiery look on his face. If the circumstances were any different, she would have laughed. Ogres were turning his poor soul around.
"But why come for us?" Smee asked a question everyone seemed to want the answer to.
"Rumpelstiltskin," Emma said. She wasn't sure until the word was out of her mouth, but when she said it, it made all the sense in the world. Hook sent him a message. He hated Hook. He wanted the ogres to turn them into a pancake. She noticed the slightly confused look on Hook's face. "It has to be him. We pissed him off and now he wants to make us pay. Bastard has a dumb sense of humor," she muttered, throwing her feet over the side of the bed. She stumbled around for a bit, before regaining her balance. She grabbed a knife and its sheath, before turning to look at the two men who stood silently in the doorway, watching her.
"Now, does one of you two know how to kill an ogre?"
"First, we get them away from the ship. They'll tear it apart if they come near it and it's quite self-explanatory why we can't let that happen," Hook said, drawling out. His crew was huddled around him and the map he had laid out in front of him. After announcing they'd be fighting the slimy bastards that were approaching them, Hook began to work through their fighting tactics.
"As miss Swan and I conceded, the easiest way to kill them would be to run an arrow through their heart, which is exactly what we're going to do. There are crossbows in the-"
"Excuse me, captain," one of the men interrupted, raising his hand like a frightened schoolboy, making Hook roll his eyes, "but where is Emma?" the rest of the pirates looked around, his words making them realize she was nowhere in sight.
"Miss Swan is somewhere where she won't be causing us any troubles. Do you have a problem with that?" he asked, his eyes glinting menacingly. The man quickly shook his head, and Hook kept his glare steady for another second, before nodding sharply.
"Now, back to the plan."
...
Emma struggled against the rope that once again found its way to her wrists. She tried to wriggled her hands out, but after a few futile tries, she sighed, slumping in her spot. She only stopped struggling when she felt the pain from the rope burns she caused.
"Hook!" she screamed, straining herself to look at the hatch above her. "You son of a bitch! Hook!"
After she had told him everything David taught her about planning in the little time they spent together in Neverland, Hook decided it would be best if she was somewhere where she wouldn't "kill anyone", as he had put it. He said she wasn't even supposed to be on the ship, considering the possibility of her sinking it, which was a bit crazy in Emma's opinion. She knew that weird crap followed her, but she didn't have luck that bad. But Hook swiftly knocked her out, and Emma remembered feeling like a wiener, which probably meant he flung her over his shoulder, and carried her to the same place she was before.
Below the damn deck.
"Don't be an idiot, I can help!" she yelled, hoping he'd get some common sense knocked into him, but no such luck. He remained stubborn and pig-headed, just like he was when Emma first met him.
She groaned, letting her head fall back in defeat. She could hear the noise the ogres were making, they were getting dangerously close, she could tell. The feeling of helplessness spread through her, pushing out the fear. She wanted to go out there, she wanted to fight. The idea of Hook thinking she couldn't handle it unsettled her. She took down a freaking dragon, surely she could handle an ogre.
She shook her head. Who was she kidding? She still saw double when she tried to stand or if she held her breath in for too long. Hook was probably right. This time, she couldn't handle it. She'd probably end up splattered all over the deck. She let out a troubled breath, her hope flickering when she thought that maybe that's why Hook kicked her below deck. Maybe he didn't think she couldn't hold her ground in a fight with an ogre, maybe he knew she couldn't, since she could barely walk.
Maybe it mattered. Maybe she did.
But as the ropes loosened and eventually fell off, freeing her hands, she jumped to her feet, ignoring the nausea that washed over her. Screw him and what he thought, she wasn't about to let them all get killed because of her.
Lucky for her, she still had her knife on, and she quickly made her way to the deck. She burst out just in time to duck from a boulder that wheezed past her head and struck the cabins, making wood planks fly everywhere.
"Holy crap," she breathed out. Looking around, she saw four ogres raging around, and Hook's pirates clinging to them like they were Christmas decoration. She saw one with half a tree in his hands, using it as a club to wave around and try to strike the men surrounding him. She noticed his eyesight was terrible, and he kept coming up blank, hitting the dock he was on instead of men.
She was about to go and help take care of him when in the corner of her eye she noticed something else. Turning around, she saw that Hook was taking on an ogre all by himself, something Emma considered to be incredibly stupid. He ducked from the iron bar in his hands, and tried to stab him with his sword, but the ogre swung his hand, hitting him with force and pinning him to the mast.
Emma didn't even think when she saw the ogre was about to beat him to death, she grabbed her blade and threw it, closing her eyes, praying that she had at least some of David's skills. She cracked an eye open only to see an ogre sprawled on the ground, her knife sticking out his back, right where his heart was. She caught Hook's eyes, who was staring at her with a slightly stunned look. He ripped the knife out and handed it to her when he reached her. She took it a bit hesitantly, not sure where he was coming from.
"Guess you'd make a good pirate," he said.
She almost smiled at his words. "I've heard that before. Should've left you to die, though."
A smirk stretched his lips, "Next time, I'm using iron handcuffs."
"Can't wait," she smirked sarcastically.
He opened his mouth to retort, when a crash got their attention and they spun on their heels to look for the source. Two ogres were smashing their fists into the ship, the force of their blows slowly making the wood collapse and crack.
"No!" Hook yelled when he saw what they were doing, a furious look settling on his face. Emma grew grim too, feeling more than irritated that they were destroying the ship she spend the last few weeks on and was starting to see as her home for the time being - until they rescued Henry.
They both ran to them, Emma grabbing a sword on her way. Hook jumped on one of the ogres from the deck, and Emma jumped on the dock, drawing the attention of the ogre. He turned to her, and huffed.
"Wow, you're ugly," she said, taking him in from head to toe. His height cast a shadow on her and he looked like he ate things bigger than her for breakfast, which was slightly discouraging. His skin was sickly pale, grey even, and it only made his black eyes stand out more on his large head. Greasy hair fell on his face, casting shadows on it, which only made him look scarier and angrier.
She charged at him, trying to cut him below his ribs, but he swung his fist, which was about the size of Emma's head, making her duck. She got behind him, and managed to strike him just above his waist, making him howl in pain. His eyes flashed when he turned around, and Emma swallowed thickly, realizing she only managed to piss him off more.
She moved out of the way when he thrust forward to punch her, and backed away when he tried to kick her. She looked around, panic filling her chest when she saw that she was nearing the edge of the dock. If he kept coming, she'd have to jump in the water or she'd end up about as dead as they come. She evaded another one of his punches and stabbed him in the shoulder, feeling slightly proud of herself as she did so. She couldn't wait to tell the story to Henry.
If she lived long enough, that is.
A few minutes later, she was taking over the advantage, but was growing weaker and more tired with every step she made. Her strength was quickly leaving her, and before she knew it, she was finding it hard to stand. Her knees gave out for a split second, but even that was enough for the ogre to grab her by the neck and press her to the side of the ship.
"No!" she heard Hook yell and she looked at him, tearing her eyes away from the ogre. She heard Hook yell something but couldn't register what, the feeling of the monster in front of her slowly breaking her neck enveloping her. Hook wasn't paying attention to his own opponent and Emma could only let out a strangled scream when the ogre knocked him down, placing his foot on his chest, pinning him to the ground.
Her vision slowly blurred as the seconds ticked by, both of them trying to struggle but not really getting anything out of it. Spots clouded her vision as the oxygen slowly left her lungs, and she sure it was the end. She'd die as a chew toy for an ogre.
Then, she saw the ogre move his other foot to Hook's neck, the attention of snapping it clear to her. Fear made her stomach churn and twist. His eyes locked with hers and the helpless look on his face made every thought fly out of her head. She felt something boil in the pit of her stomach, and it spread through her like wildfire, making her fingertips itch. It wasn't long until she realized she was burning up, and it soon got too much to handle.
She screamed when the heat got too high, and before she knew it, the ogre was flying twenty feet in the air, falling straight into the ocean. She stared with wide eyes, forgetting how to breathe as she tried to figure out what just happened. Did she use magic?
The idea shouldn't have scared her as much as it did, she used magic before, but that was to use some stupid chalk to draw invisible lines. This... this was something completely new. Something she hadn't seen either Gold or Regina do.
This was dangerous.
She slowly rose on her feet, and the ogre backed away from Hook with a scared look.
"Yeah, you better run, buddy," she said, thanking dear God he was leaving on his own account. She didn't want to hurt him and even if she did, she wouldn't know how. Hook obviously didn't share her opinion, because as soon as he was on his feet, he ran his sword through the ogre's heart, making him fall to his knees with an empty look on his face. The dock shook a little when he hit the floor boards, and Emma stared at him with her mouth hanging open.
"Why did you do that?" she demanded. "He was about to leave!" she couldn't believe she was defending the thing, but Hook's heartlessness set her off.
"The Crocodile would have done the same thing to him, except it would have been a lot more painful," he said, wiping his sword with his coat.
Emma could tell he was lying and making excuses, he just wanted to make the ogre pay, but she felt too weak to argue with him over it. Instead, she settled for grumbling under her breath. "That's right," she muttered darkly, "I forgot you were still a heartless bastard."
"What was that?" he asked, looking up.
"Nothing," she growled, pushing past him roughly as she made her way to the ship.
After they got rid of the ogres' bodies, Hook's crew, along with Hook and this time Emma, huddled together to decide the aftermath. It was a unanimous decision that they all wanted to leave this particular realm, the whole thing with the ogres shaking the pirates up. They all wanted to set sail the second the Sun went down and Emma wasn't sure how she felt about that.
Shortly after, she sat in a hammock she claimed -it was the same one she slept in during their search for Henry- and tried to sort through her thoughts. She was interrupted when she heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up and she saw Hook walking towards her. He had a rag that looked somewhat clean and a bottle of rum in his hand. He pulled up a crate in front of Emma and settled on it.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "What are you doing?"
"Your arm," he said shortly as he soaked the rag with rum. "It's making my crew run away in bloody tears as if they were toddlers. But honestly, love, it's a bit disgusting," he admitted.
She looked at him as if he was crazy, completely lost. What in the hell was he talking about? She followed his eyes that were glued to her upper arm, her eyes widening and stomach churning when she saw what he was staring at. She had a huge gash on her arm and her whole damn limb was covered in dry blood, making it look completely and utterly horrifying.
"Oh my God," she managed.
"I'm honestly surprised you haven't passed out from blood loss by now," he said, pressing the rag slowly to her wound. Emma hissed in pain and jerked away, only to get pulled back to her spot. "Stay still," he commanded, moving the rag gently up and down her arm.
"I didn't even realize I was freaking dying," she muttered. She tried to move her arm but realized she couldn't. "Damn it, it's numb."
"Surprise, surprise," he mumbled as well. Emma saw he was concentrating on her wound, and felt slightly grateful for it. Now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, everything her like hell.
She threw him a sideways look, "Did you get beat to a pulp?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I've had better days, but I'll survive."
"Too bad."
He smirked at her but kept his mouth shut. A second later, he pushed on the wound, making Emma gasp in pain and grab the first thing she could reach, in this case, his coat, and grip as tight as she could. "What the hell, Hook?"
He glanced at her, "Pirates never play fair, Swan. You might want to remember that."
She scoffed, deciding the best course of action would be to just ignore the moron. Silence fell upon them, and they both got lost in their thoughts, although Hook's were apparently more dangerous than Emma's, who was thinking about hot showers and a good cup of coffee. "You didn't peg me as a sorcerer kind of type," he said.
"That's because I'm not."
"Didn't seem like it at the dock. You threw that monster away like a joke. Why didn't you do it before?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"Because I can't do it!" she shouted, his pushing finally getting the best of her. "I have no idea how to use magic and the only reason I was able to do as much today was because..." her voice faltered, and she came to a stop. She didn't want him to know the real reason. Seeing him get almost killed was obviously enough for her to go all-Cora on everything, and she didn't like the idea.
"Because?" he asked, looking up. She met his eyes and clenched her fist. She felt as though as he could read through everything she said, which unnerved her.
She drew in a sharp breath, "Because..."
Sorry for the delay, dearies, but I've been wrapped up in school work. Damn midterms and whoever invented them... I hope you like the chapter, I think it turned out okay.
Leave a review below and let me know. Reviews are love, just like Snow White and Charming, Nutella and I =)