Chapter 7

Riding fast back to her kingdom, Emma encourages her stallion to push harder.

"c'mon boy! Let's go! C'mon Stanley! HARH!"

Emma pushes the horse as hard as he goes as she starts to think about what just happened.

"I can't believe I actually kissed Regina, she's going to be so pissed once I find her truelove to wake her up. I took advantage of her, even though I didn't know I was doing it till I did it, I'm still going to have to tell her. Garrh! This is so frustrating! Her lips were so soft though, I can't help BUT smile when I think of them. Arrgh! There I go again! Stop Emma! Stop! … What about my magic that pushed me away? That felt different than before. maybe it was because it was telling me it was wrong? Who fucking knows? I've really got to look up a safe word for this shit. Knowing me, I'm going to fucking hurt myself".

Emma slows her pace as she comes up towards the stables. She can see her father and Neil waiting for her outside the barn.

"hey guys, what's up?" she says to them.

King Charming looks up at his daughter as she dismounts her horse, "we were just wondering if we should send out the search party for you" he jokingly says.

"Ha! Ha! Father", Emma says, "I said I'd be back before dark and I am" she whinged.

Emma walks Stanley up to his stall and hands the reins over to the awaiting stable hand.

"he'll need a good feed tonight, I think I pushed him a little too much today" she said to the young man.

"I will ensure he is thoroughly hydrated and fed, ready for you come morning, Princess"

"thank you, Noah" Emma says as she nods her head, making her way back to the men.

"so" Emma says clapping her hands together, "I'm hungry. Let's go eat"

They both laugh at her as the three of them make their way up to the castle.

"mmmmm! This steak is amazing!" Emma says with her mouth full of food.

Charming looks at Emma and frowns.

Swallowing hard, she looks at the father apologetically, "sorry father, it's just so good".

Neil chuckles as he forks a potato from his plate, "I guess they really do teach more manners at farming school".

Emma and Neil both break out into a roar of laughter.

Charming just smiles and shakes his head at the pair.

"We should really separate you two", he laughs "you both are a bad influence on each other".

"yeah, well… you and mother didn't give me any siblings, so I guess Neil here is my substitute" she says as she bumps him in the shoulder, "hey little bro!" she winks at him.

Charming looks up at the pair in horror, quickly noticed by Emma, he fixes his features. "I thought I swallowed a bone, it's alright dear, it wasn't. I'm fine".

Emma smirks at her father and then looks back at Neil. They both start to laugh again.

Emma sits there and just waits for the men to finish their meals. She all of a sudden feels heat rushing through her body and a ghost of a kiss against her lips. "feels like Regina's lips" she thinks to herself and lets out a very loud hum.

"you alright there Em?" Neil asks with concern across his face.

Startled out of her thoughts "ummm, yeah... I'm great" she smiles, "I'm really great"

He looks at her weirdly, "okay?" and continues to eat his food.

"What the fuck was that?" Emma says to herself when she finally gets to her room. She brushes her fingers across her lips and pouts into them.

"fuck magic is so weird!"

Tonight went pretty well as far as the blonde was concerned. Her father didn't make any suggestions of herself and Neil becoming a couple, but who would blame him after calling Neil her brother. He is going to be so disappointed when he finds out that she's known all along but has kept it to herself to save Neil the drama he'd receive from his Father. They ended up talking mainly about her upcoming birthday. Her party is going to be huge! All the neighbouring kingdoms are invited. The royals will be the only ones that will actually attend though, Emma doesn't tend to mingle with the neighbour's commoners. Not that she has anything against commoners, all her friends except Neil are non-royals. Rocking up into their city with the White Kingdom Knights, kind of discourages anyone who isn't wealthy from talking to her. Other than that, life was pretty simple for Emma right now. She gets to come and go as she pleases, has a tab at the local bar and she gets to train with the strongest Knights of the realm. Although she could whoop all their arses, at least they gave her a decent work out. Speaking of which, it's time for bed. Emma has an army of men to beat up before seeing Regina tomorrow.

Emma woke up before sunrise, bright and chipper, ready for the day ahead. She makes her way straight down to the main grounds, being the first to arrive for training. She sets herself into her routine push ups, warming up her body so she is ready to brawl. Shortly after the sun rising, she spots a few of the knights making their way down towards her. Emma knows that instantly the fight will be on once the men reach her. She stands up and starts jumping up and down, stretches her neck side to side and lunges each leg to ensure she is lose enough to kick these guy's arses.

It doesn't take long for the first man to start swinging at her. Emma dodges every hit and sneaks in a quick left hook, hard into the man's jaw.

"I've warned you about raising your guard" Emma chuckles as the man stumbles back a few steps.

She looks at the other 4 and smirks, "anyone else up for another beating today" she laughs.

"Not keen on it today, Princess Charming" one of the knights formally states.

Emma, not impressed, glares at the man. "seriously?". She picks up her sword and draws it from its cover. "I've told you many times, Sir Knight" she says mocking the title, "there are no need for formalities down here".

The man takes his que and draws his own sword as well.

Emma lunges at the knight, he blocks the overhead swing just in time before it hit his face.

"the name is Emma" she says as she throws her sword back and swings at him again, "but I'll let you call me Em" she winks at him.

This is their everyday routine. The knights know that Emma really dislikes formalities, so they take turns in taunting her to get the training under way.

After beating up the first 3 knights, she starts jousting with the 4th. He is a little slower than the others, so Emma takes her time and starts to play around. She begins taunting the man by jumping side to side and throwing her sword from hand to hand. This aggravates him and makes his movements sloppy. Emma can see that he is about to throw his entire body weight into a swing, so she steps out of the way and kicks him over with a blow at the hip. He gets back up and rips off his helmet.

"what the fuck Emma!" he screamed at her.

She laughs, walks back a few steps and bend down into a half squat and begins to throw her sword between her hands again. "what the fuck, what?" she smirks at him.

He drops his sword and starts to come at her, Emma throws her sword to the side too.

They wrestle on the ground for a while, until Emma has enough and puts him in a sleeper hold. "had enough yet?" she laughs.

"Fucking let me go!" he struggles.

Still laughing, Emma pushes the man away from her and stands up.

She runs her hand through her hair "that was fun" she says to him.

"you always have to take it that one step too far" he says to her as he stands up.

"dude! We're training! What are you going to do when it comes to an actual battle?" she says as she places her hands on her hips, "whinge at the enemy till they give you a fair go?"

"you're a cocky little cunt" he yells at her.

This makes Emma break out into a fit of laughter. "okay. Alright. I deserve that … but your moves are sloppy and you throw yourself into swings that don't require you to" she crosses her hands over her chest, "you really need to work on that".

Not impressed by the woman's comments, he raises his fist and starts to swing it towards her.

At that moment, a warm heat starts to rush over Emma's body, taking her breath away "oh fuck" she moans as she closes her eyes and gets lost in the sensation. Her body feels like it's about to orgasm, feeling a huge amount of passion coursing through her veins.

The knight continuing his swing, connects her right in the mouth and busts her lip open.

Her lips start to tingle. A ghost of a kiss presents itself on her mouth, freshly followed by a rush of blood coming out of the cut lip.

All the other knights coming rushing over the woman. Emma just plops herself on the grass and starts to laugh hysterically.

The men all look at each other in confusion, not sure about what just happened.

"you alright Em?" asks the knight that she was just fighting.

Still laughing, she rolls onto her back and shakes her head to herself "that was great!"

Very confused about what was happening, another knight asks her "being hit in the face was great? I dunno Em, maybe you have a concussion"

Emma, still smiling, shakes her head and jumps up to her feet, "it's alright guys, I'm fine. I'm going to call it a day though and go freshen up. I've got shit to do today"

At that, she dismisses herself and walks up towards the castle.

"what the fuck was that?" she whispers at herself, smile still shining across her face.

In the quickest time ever, Emma showered and dressed herself and ran down to the stables. Noah, the stable hand, was waiting already with Stanley ready to go.

"Cheers man" she says and winks at him. In one swift movement she swings herself up on the saddle and darts out of the stables into the forest.

She passes a few gardens that possessed her families crest flowers and decides to pick a handful to take back to Regina.

"maybe it could help her think of me..." she whispered hopefully to herself.

Emma set of in the direction of Regina's castle, setting a steady pace so she didn't wear out her horse.

All of a sudden …

Pure joy starts to evade Emma's senses. It's overwhelming and causes her lip to sting as she smiles a big shit eating grin.

"what the hell has gotten over me today?" she says to herself.

A few moments later, she bites her lip and can taste something sweet in her mouth.

"is that apple?" she questions herself as she swallows, "why does my mouth taste like apple? I didn't even eat an apple today? I ate an orange!" she scratches her head and wonders.

The flavour soon disappears and she shakes her head, "I bet it's my stupid magic again!" she says to herself, "safe word. I definitely need to look up safe words!"

Emma continued her ride to Regina's castle.

Arriving at the castle, Emma hops down from her horse and walks him over to his usual tree.

"here you go boy" she says as she wraps the reins around one on the lower branches.

"I'll bring you one of those juicy apples once I say hello to Regina" Emma says as she brushes her hand through his mane. She walks over to his side and reaches up into the saddle bag and collects the books she has read. Carefully pulling out the flowers, she looks up awkwardly, "fuck! My hands are full".

Emma makes her way towards the door with overflowing hands, flowers in the left and books in the right, she leans half of her left palm against the door and waits for it to glow. It takes a second, but finally does.

"hmmm, usually its instant" she says quizzically to herself.

She pushes the door open by leaning on it.

Stepping into the castles entrance, Emma extends her leg back and closes the door with her foot.

SLAM!
"fuck!" she shutters as she swears at herself.

"hope that didn't awaken the Queen" she laughs at her own joke.

She walks down the hallway and makes her way to the stairs. She looks down at her full arms and sighs, "I better not fall down these fuckers"

Taking slow and heavy steps, she stomps her way to the top.

Walking straight down to Regina's bedroom, Emma notices that the bathroom door is wide open. She scrunches her eyebrows together and frowns, "I swear I closed that"

She shrugs her shoulders and continues down the path.

Hand against the door again, it doesn't glow.

"huh?"

She wriggles the books under her arm to free her right hand and opens the door.

"that's new."

She shrugs again and walks straight towards the desk, placing the books down on the table.

"Morning Regina, you'll never guess what happened to me today! I got hit right in the … !"

Where the fuck is Regina?

Emma rushes to the bed, flowers and books forgotten, she searches the room in a panic.

"Regina?!"

She runs back down to the bathroom, searches in there… nothing.

Emma runs at full speed down the stairs, catching herself before she fell into the wall opposite them. She picks back up speed as she bolts to the back door. She rips the door open and steps out.

"Regina?!" she says in a panic.

Taking a few steps out towards the stairs, Emma quickly peruses the area until she spots a figure under the tree.

"Regina" she says relieved.

The brunette turns her head, smiling the most beautiful smile she's ever seen, "Hello Dear".

Emma swallows hard while thinking to herself "oh my gods, that voice … fuck"

Emma slowly starts to make her way down the stairs, "how, how are you awake?"

Well isn't that obvious" the brunette says while smirking.

Emma falters as she its transfixed by the smirking woman's voice.

"true loves kiss"

Fuck! Emma trips on the last step and falls face first … straight into the dirt.