"Please," the man wheezed, clutching at the pirate's arm as he struggled against him. "Have mercy."
"Well, since you asked so nicely."
Hook tightened his vice-like grip around his neck, twisting his head slightly to the side as he listened to the quiet, raspy breaths. Just as he was ready to finish him off, Hook was interrupted by a fairly loud whooshing noise and a blast of purple smoke. He looked up with a smirk as he saw the enraged face of a dark haired witch storm towards him.
"What do you think you're doing?" Regina demanded.
As she extended her hand towards the pair, Hook felt the man being ripped from his grasp and flung into nearby barrels. Aside from some minor bruising and a damaged ego, he looked as though he'd make a pretty fast recovery; as much couldn't be said for his companions laying unconscious on the ground.
"What does it look like?" Hook smirked, gesturing at the bodies on the ground. "I'm getting your attention."
"By murdering my guards?" She snarled.
"Well, technically they're not dead." Hook nudged one of the men before strolling towards Regina. "Not yet, anyway. They're just getting a well deserved nap for all of the hard work they've been doing for you, Your Majesty."
Though Regina tried to maintain her anger, her façade slipped slightly out of admiration for his handiwork. She usually prided herself on hiring the best soldiers the land had to offer, yet his pirate had quite literally taken down six of her men single-handedly. He may be rash in his decisions and annoyingly dedicated to his quest to find this bar wench, but the man knew how to fight.
"No more stalling." The Queen ordered, straightening her spine and eyeing up Hook. "Why did you call for me?"
As Hook unhooked the silver gauntlet from his belt, he noticed Regina's eyes light up with curiousity and wonder. She immediately strode over to him, swiftly the piece of armour from him and examining it with her hands. After a few minutes of staring, Regina eventually put on the glove, holding it up towards the sky and admiring it's glint in the sunlight. Hook could only imagine that she too felt the warm, pulsating feeling flowing through her hand when a smile crept onto her face.
"You have no idea what you've found, do you?" Regina murmured.
"That's what I was hoping you'd tell me."
"This," said Regina, stepping closer to Hook so that he could get a better look at it, "is Merlin's gauntlet. Rumour has it that this object is enchanted with magic that will lead you in the direction of your one true weakness. The closer you are-" Regina paused to turn her back on Hook, aiming her hand towards the forest depths "-the stonger the pull."
"Do you think it can help me find my maiden?" Hook asked quickly, moving to stand beside Regina. "Will it lead me to her?"
Regina frowned. She had never been a fan of the 'true love' lark, and it was becoming increasingly sickening the more time she spent around the lovesick pirate. Her only hope was that she could endure his intolerable whining long enough to find a shortcut to her own happiness – making Snow miserable.
"If she is actually your one true weakness, then yes." Regina then narrowed her eyes as she stared up at the pirate. "How did you manage to obtain such an object, anyway? I can imagine it was heavily guarded."
He shook his head, touching some of the metal palm. He couldn't feel the buzzing, but he knew it was there. "It was lying in Rumple's castle, empty and alone. Smee and I simply took the damn thing and left."
Hook staggered back as Regina suddenly recoiled from him in horror, making the gauntlet disappear in a puff of purple smoke within the same instant. Despite his angered protests at potentially losing control over the one object that may proved to be his vantage point in obtaining the girl or establishing a lead in his hunt for the crocodile, Regina continued to ignore him, trying to think of all the ways she could save her skin if Rumple were to ever confront her about it.
"Do you really think that the Dark One would leave such a powerful object unattended?" Regina said, spitting her words out like fine knives. "What kind of amateur do you think he is?"
"One that has vastly underestimated us," Hook retorted, sighing heavily. "Look, are you going to help me or not? Because I'd much rather be sent on my merry way and have you stop wasting my time that could be better spent searching for something that's actually going to be useful."
Hook watched as her anger turned into surprise, which then melted into deep thought as she eyed him up and down. He began to feel the hairs raise on the back of his spine as she began circling him, but managed to keep a steely composure, even when she trailed her hand across his back before settling on his chest. Even if his posture didn't give him away, his heartbeat surely did.
They stood there for a few seconds, but Hook could count each of his heartbeats, each breath he took as she stood there in front of him. The electric running through his veins definitely signaled that he was having an adrenaline rush, but he didn't register the feeling entirely as fear. He'd felt fear when he was a boy and his captain stood over him with a whip in hand. Though this women was potentially more dangerous than a thousand men with whips, his natural instinct told him that she wouldn't harm him – he was more terrified of that thought than the witch herself.
"Tell you what, I'll cut you a deal," Regina said eventually, backing away and taking Hook's adrenaline rush with her. He looked at her clearly and intently as she spoke. "If the gauntlet leads you to the girl, then we'll arrange some form of payment for you wasting my time. If it leads you to your crocodile, then you've just earned yourself a powerful ally who could really use a permanent tracker on him.
Hook watched hesitantly as Regina poofed back the gauntlet and handed it to him.
"Take this with you." Regina pulled out a small, wooden cylinder about the size of her thumb. "The moment you arrive at the location it's guided you to, blow onto this. It'll allow me to see where you are so that we can decide on our next step."
"And if it's neither of those things?" He asked.
"Well," said Regina with a smirk. "I guess we'll just have to find out."
The Evil Queen then flexed her wrist, surrounding herself in a swirling cloud of purple smoke and vanishing. Hook looked around at the bodies of royal guards surrounding him, listening to their groans, unsure of what exactly he had just let himself in for.
"How much further do you think it is, Capt'n?"
"For the last bloody time, Smee," Hook growled. "I don't know. All I do know is that we have to keep walking until something happens, or until I find my greatest weakness."
Since leaving Regina, Hook had been wearing the gauntlet in hopes of finding the trail's end. He had sailed as fast and as far as he could on the Jolly Roger, but only got so far before he started losing the warm, pulsating feeling in his hand, meaning the rest had to be travelled by foot. Deciding it best to keep his frailities hidden from his crew, he instructed his men to keep guard over his ship as he ventured out with Smee.
Though Hook would have preferred travelling alone, having a companion there did have his perks. He was adept at navigating the seas and running a tight ship, having only had to deal with the occasionally rowdy sailor with no signs of mutiny so far, but Hook knew Smee was far superior when traversing forests and villages. Despite his incessant ramblings, he was glad to have the man with him to tell him when he was about to wander into a swamp or unnecessarily climb that really big hill.
Besides, the wee fellow wouldn't have lasted five minutes alone with the crew on that ship.
"Have you ever been in love, Captain?" Smee asked quietly.
"Of course I have," Hook exclaimed, frowning at the question. "What on earth made you ask that?"
Smee went quiet for a few minutes as he thought, then replied: "Are you in love with the girl?"
For a moment, it was as if the gauntlet had spread it's warmth and pulsating sensations throughout his entire body, encapsulating him in a pleasant glow as he speculated the thought of finding love in this girl; especially as he had suffered such heartache with Milah.
"Let's stop here for a moment," Hook muttered. He drew out a map from his satchel and handed it to Smee. "Make sure we're on the right path."
After mumbling his obligences, Smee backed up against a tree for leverage and started calculating their position. Hook observed the strange sense of calm he perceived from being in such a quiet section of the forest, surrounded by dozens of different shades of green, with splatters of colour ebbing out from the overgrowth. Though the trees covered the majority of their view of the sky, something that always made Hook feel slightly uneasy about when feeling lost, he did admire the way some light managed to slip through the leaves and create a speckled pattern on the forest floor.
Experiencing a beauty so odd to him caused his mind to slip back to the women at the bar, reminding him of how the green flecks in her eyes shone above the flicker of a candle. It also reminded him of how she spoke about the woods in her hometown, how she somehow always ended up back there when things started to get particularly rough.
"What if this thing doesn't lead me to her?" Hook said, touching the cold metal exterior with his free hand. "What if I can't find her?"
Smee stopped scratching on the paper as he looked up, the corner of his mouth pulling into a small smile. "Maybe it means she's your greatest strength."
The pirate sighed. "I just want to know that she's safe, that she's out of the Dark One's clutches."
"I-"
Just as Smee was about to reply an arrow flew out towards him, narrowly missing his arm and catching on his sleeve, pinning it to the tree he was leaning on. As he panicked and tried rip himself free, Hook immediately drew his sword and took a crouching stance, half hiding behind a nearby tree and scanning the forest ahead of him.
At first, he could see nothing but the usual rustle from leaves and wildlife, hearing only the rapid panting of Smee as he finally yanked himself free and clumsily drew his sword. They waited for what seemed like the longest time, shoulders heaving with heavy breaths as they tried to compose themselves from the sudden attack. When a long enough time had passed, Hook had barely peered out from the side of a tree when another arrow shot past.
"Show yourself!" Hook yelled, taking a deep breath as he swung himself out of his hiding place, despite Smee's wide eyes and rapid shaking of his head. "Face me like a man, you coward."
Hook's eyes kept flickering around the overgrowth, searching for any sign of movement. Eventually, he spotted a dark, hooded figure emerging from the trees. Their bow was outstretched and aiming towards them, prepared to fire at an instant. It was only when their aggressor tilted their head backwards to let his hood fall, revealing his face as he took his stance at the edge of the clearing, that Hook realised it was a man.
"Who are you?" The man called out, adjusting his aim ever so slightly towards Hook's chest.
"I'm a bloody pirate, mate - an angry one." Hook yelled. "And just who do you think you are?"
When the man opened his mouth to answer, arrows suddenly started falling down from the leafy roof of the forest. The men all dodged out of the way as they all hit the ground at different angles. Hook noticed this grimly, figuring out that whatever group was after them had them surrounded. He was about to yell at Smee to start running when the man they encountered suddenly tackled Hook to one side, just as another arrow flew past and embedded itself in the tree.
"I'm Robin Hood," he said. His face was flushed and slightly out of breath, but there was a smile that stretched right across it. "And this is what you would call an ambush."