1) Shanna Mills, yes that was the Con-dor! Thanks for noticing!
2) Sorry about the long wait I was not in the mood to write and I almost abandoned this story. Hopefully I will not.
-/-
An almost claustrophobic fog begins to settle around the marshlands.
As it does it begins to slowly hide the waiting army on the kingdoms doorsteps.
Emma however is unbothered by its hinderance. It's a small nuisance but also a great cover if she chooses to launch an attack of her own. Her smile widens as she thinks of finally being rid of the nuisances on River Run's boarders.
"What are you thinking about?" Regina asks after noticing Emma smiling to herself.
The two women are currently on Regina's bedroom terrace. Emma is sat between her wife's legs as the brunette runs a brush through the blondes wild golden mane.
"I'm thinking about how good it feels to be between your legs." Emma quips.
"Is your mind always in the gutter my Queen." Regina answers playfully as she starts massaging Emma's scalp with some of fragrant oils she has on hand.
"Mmhmm." The blonde moans without answering.
"Emma?"
"Yes my Queen?"
"I am sorry about earlier? When we... if I upset you?"
Emma sits up and turns to face her wife. She pulls the brunette almost to the edge of the small bench.
"Never ever apologize for that. If anything we should not have been intimate so quickly after what you had suffered through."
"But I needed..I needed you. To feel you close to me." Regina almost cries.
"I love you so very much Regina." The blonde says sincerely as she leans forward and presses their foreheads together.
"As do I." Regina replies, tilting her head to the side to hungrily take Emma's lips between her own after a moment.
It is Emma who pulls away first.
Breaking their kiss as Regina chases her lips.
"We should not...your father will be here soon. I know you wish to speak to him. I doubt he would like to walk in on me violating his only daughter." Emma says as she reluctantly pulls away from Regina with one last peck to the brunettes kiss swollen lips.
As if on cue there's a knock on the large wooden door.
Henry is without an entourage, something Emma finds strange as she's almost never without one.
"Come, Regina is on the terrace." Emma says as she walks the king back to his daughter.
"Father!"
"My princess. You seem much better." He says happily observing a more lively version of his daughter that he had seen yesterday.
"I feel much better." Regina replies as her father takes special interest on the bruises along her arms."it doesn't hurt much." She reassures him.
"I can't fathom what horrors you must have gone through." Henry says as he steps forward to hold his only child close.
"It is nothing compared to what my mother-in-law has been through I'm sure." Regina replies as she gazes softly at Emma who visibly grimaces at the thought of her mother suffering.
"I will give you two some privacy." The blonde says stepping away.
"No. Emma. Stay. I simply wish to know where mother is?"
"Your mother is locked up in the east tower for crimes against the crown. She has plotted with Leopold to ensure your demise, and also your Queen Emma's, among other things." Henry replies after taking a deep breath.
"What?! That's absurd! She would never hurt me!"
"I thought so too but she herself has admitted to doing so to me without coercion. Her motives, well she says at this point she can not see clearly what they were but mainly she wanted to hide your magical abilities. Leopold, him I do not know his motives other than wanting to hurt you, Emma."
"Father. No this can't be, Emma please make him see reason."
"My love, I believe your father speaks the truth. Such treason in our kingdom would require death but I have left your mothers punishment up to your father and yourself."
"Emma I..." Regina starts before the blonde steps forward and engulfs the lithe woman who's sobs are almost silent.
"Do you wish to speak with her? It will give you more clarity." Her father poses.
A muffled "no" comes from where Regina's face is buried in Emma's chest.
"Regina maybe..."
"No, Emma I do not wish too." She says agitated, stepping away from the blonde. She's so tired of crying the last few day. She can't readily accept or deal with such betrayal at the moment.
Another urgent knock sounds at the door while the three silent people observe each other. It's a guard from the front gates.
"Your majesty my apologies but there has been word of an attack on two villages close by and our outposts on the way has been destroyed."
"And the culprit?"
"The guards on the outpost and the scouts have said the same. It is Leopold and an army riding into the already settled encampment."
"Any idea of the number of men in his charge?" Emma asks.
"They're saying 200 on horseback another 700 or so by foot. The ground shook as they rode through the villages."
"King Henry gather your council at once I will be there shortly." Emma commands, alarmed at the situation.
"Yes my Queen." He replies before he leaves.
Emma steps back into Regina's bed chambers as soon as Henry leaves.
"Regina. My love, will you be okay for a bit while I tend to this? Emma asks softly as she nuzzles the silent woman's cheeks.
"No! Leopold is here? He means to start a war Emma and soon."
"It was always going to end like this Regina. The have refused every parlay from your father to find common ground."
"Emma, how many times am I going to have to witness you face danger?"
"Regina, please..."
"Em..let's go home." The brunette begs but quickly realizes that it's futile.
"They are raiding villages and causing chaos outside the palace. We can not leave until this is settled." Emma answers before she plants a quick kiss on her now silent wife's lips as she leaves. "Worry not my love. Rest, I will be back soon."
-/-
Across the marshlands a determined king has ridden into his encampment. His only son who's held this position for far longer than he thought the boy would, rushes out of his tent to greet him.
"Father, you're here?"
"The time is now. Gather the men."
"Father are you sure? This seems futile." Daniel replies but quickly realizes that his father will not hear any council from him.
"Daniel! I said gather the men."
"Yes father." The compliant young man replies. He notices the soldiers that his father has brought with him are from an ally he does not recognize but he'd dare not question the older man right now.
Leopold steps down from his horse. He walks to the rivers edge. Looking across to where his enemy is. River Run is engulfed in an ominous fog that he had taken advantage of to march a larger army against Emma and her allies.
"Your time has come. As soon as I find a way in, you and all that you covet will not even be a footnote in history when I'm done with you." He muses to himself.
-/-
Emma meets ups with Henry and his very small council similar to the one she has.
They're all in disagreement at what is actually happening outside the gates of the city until the guards who had seen Leopold's small army move through the woods and the villages devastation, confirms the information.
"I have sent for reinforcements. They will be here tomorrow." Emma reveals. "We need to keep an eye on them from all sides until then. Has there been movement from George's encampment?" Emma asks realizing the gravity of the situation as she continues her questioning.
"Not as far as we have seen. Certainly nothing like the looks of what was seen today." Henry replies.
"Then we wait. I want eyes on the main roads into the city. Send your best scouts. I want the ramparts covered from all sides. As soon as reinforcements comes I want aide sent to the villages attacked, to look for survivors. Right now we still have the high ground. Let's keep it that way." Emma commands.
"It will be done."
"Henry when you have a minute I would like a word in private." Emma asks as the room starts clearing out.
"Of course. Walk with me."
"I was wondering if it would be possible that I speak with Queen Cora?"
"There is no need to ask. You can, whenever you please."
"Thank you Henry." Emma replies. She turns to find her mother practically sprinting toward her.
She hugs the older woman. A bout of sadness almost overwhelms her when she notices her mother predominately gray hair.
"We've lost so much time." The blonde thinks.
"Any word of your father?"
"There has been none. I promise you will see him soon." Emma says surely.
Snow hugs Emma again satisfied with her child's answer.
"Everyone seems on edge. Is something the matter?"
"This kingdom has been under siege since my marriage to Regina. There are two armies waiting for the opportunity to attack. Soon they will try to breech the walls."
"But why? Who are these men?"
"King Leopold and George. I may have stepped on a few royal toes in my search for you."
"Those old fools are still alive?"
"Very much so."
"Maybe I should speak to them?"
"I do not think that is wise at this point." Emma replies neglecting to mention that her father is currently being held captive by one of the two Kings.
"Fine. How is my daughter in law?"
"She's as well as can be." Emma say looking at the ground studiously avoiding her mothers eyes.
"I wish to see her soon."
"She is, hopefully resting but as soon as she's awake I will let you know."
"What troubles you?" Snow asks sensing tension in Emma's voice.
"I have brought so much conflict into her life." Emma says shaking her head as she leans heavily on the table in front of her. "I can see she's tired."
"That you have brought conflict into her life may be true but what ruling monarch doesn't encounter conflict during their time?"
"This much in so little time?"
"Oh Emma. Have faith in your love. Trust that Regina will not leave your side."
"Wouldn't she?"
"Emma? Where is this coming from? Are you feeling well?" Snow asks as she presses the back of her hand to Emma's forehead. "You feel feverish. Maybe you should get some rest?"
"I can't." Emma replies thinking of the turmoil they are currently engulfed in.
Snow notices something else in Emma's eyes. A wildness. Creeping paranoia. Like...him.
"Emma...?" She says tentatively taking her child's face in the palm of her hands.
"I have to go. Shall I accompany you back to your room?" The blonde says stepping back from her mothers curious eyes.
"No I am fine." She says stepping forward, engulfing Emma in a warm hug. "I do love you so very much."
"And I you mother.
She finally leaves Snow to find her wife however when she gets there, Regina's chambers are empty.
"The queen is in her garden." Her handmaiden let's Emma know.
"Her what?! She should not be anywhere out side!" Emma shouts to no one in particular. "Take me to her!"
Regina is exactly where the young woman had said she was.
The beauty of the garden is lost on Emma as she seethes.
"Regina?! Why...are...you...out here?" The blonde notices her wife's eyes are transfixed on the tower above as she walks towards her.
"Regina?"
The Queen snaps back to reality on hearing Emma's voice.
"Regina what are you looking at?"
"Mother."
It dawns on Emma that this is where Henry has been keeping Cora.
"Do you wish to speak with her?"
"No." Regina replies almost robotically.
"Why are you out here then? It's dangerous."
"My guards are with me."
"They were with you in the Dark Forest and you still got captured." Emma almost hisses in a low voice.
Regina is a bit take aback by Emma's tone.
She senses the exasperation Emma is expelling.
"I feel safe here. Very few people know of this place. It's hard to see even on a clear day." She explains to the blonde who's now kneeling in front of her holding her hands.
"Regina...you've said I keep putting my self in danger but you do too."
"Emma..."
"You can't just go wandering about while an army marches against us."
"It's not like I'm out side the walls of the castle. I am safe here." Regina reiterates.
Emma, not wanting to fight with her wife when things are so tense around them relents.
"Fine. Please can we please go back inside."
Regina agrees. She stands with Emma's help to be taken back to her chambers with only a glance back a the tower that houses her mother.
-/-
Night falls on River Run. Everyone is on edge. There is nothing they can do but wait for an attack that might not occur until daylight.
As Emma paces, Regina sits close by.
"My love please stop you are making me dizzy."
"They can attack at any moment we need to be aware of every move."
"Our guards are on full alert. Emma, look at me." Regina stops the blondes pacing. She takes the taller woman's face in the palms of her hands. "You need to rest. I need to rest. Please let's go to bed."
"I...Regina..." the blonde looks down and then to her armor and newly cleaned weapons laying close by. The sword she had taken from the dungeon covered now in the finest leather. She feels a surge of energy course through her. "You go, I cannot."
"What use will you be if you are exhausted when the sun rises and you have not taken rest?"
Emma struts back to the edge of the balcony. She can see her soldiers milling about. Even they are sleeping in shifts. Nothing has come about so far so maybe Regina is right. She knows however, with how amped up she feels right now if she goes to bed sleep will be the very last thing on her mind.
"If tonight is my last night alive then I shall spend it with the one I covet the most." She thinks before she abandons her pacing to a more pleasurable task.
-/-
"Majesty we cannot see in this fog and the moment we light any flames we will be made. It is impossible to breech the walls tonight."
"You are right." Leopold concedes after thinking. "Besides, these marshes should not be waded through without light. There are things here that are worst than any man can comprehend."
"I shall retire for the night then?" Daniel who's standing close by asks after breathing out a sight of relief.
"Very well." The older man says as he continues to stare at his target. "Soon."
Daniel in the mean time takes a detour to hand a small parchment off.
"Make sure she alone sees this." He says to the maiden hand chosen by Cora herself to relay messages in and out of the kingdom when she had needed to be discreet. "If the seal is broken by any other than the intended recipient I will have your head. Understood?"
"It will be delivered Majesty but not until morning when the fog clears or the soldiers will kill me on site if they can not recognize my face." The maiden replies before she scurries off.
Even now he hopes that she will listen. That they can stop this war with minimum bloodshed.
He takes one last look at his crazed father. "How far would the man go to win?" He wonders.
"One more day and this will all be over." The young prince hopes as his tired body finally falls into a restless sleep.
Across the way the woman who could have been his wife is currently being disrobed by her wife.
Emma has stripped them both of their garments. The blonde stares lustily at Regina. The naked goddess before her is mesmerizing.
"You know when I said come...to bed...this isn't...exactly what I meant...mmmhmm Em..." The brunette pants out as Emma easily picks her up and presses her against the closest wall.
Emma's strength makes the ache between her legs increase to almost an unbearable throbbing.
She feels the blondes thick appendage come to life pressed against her slit. In turn she wraps her legs even tighter around Emma's slim waist to try and rock her center against the hardening monster she aches for.
Even in a hazy lust Regina realizes that Emma fully intends to take her right here on the open terrace.
The blonde senses her hesitation. She sees Regina looking around and quickly understands that the brunette wants privacy.
Without putting her down Emma takes her to their bed. She lays her down flat, pressing her entire length against Regina's heated core.
"Better?" Emma asks after she abandons her task of sucking on Regina's pebbled nipples.
The brunette nods without missing a beat.
Emma lays a deep kiss on Regina's plump lips before she starts sliding southwards.
She kisses all the way down to Regina's pubic bone. She doesn't give her wife a second to adjust to her before she flattens her tongue and glides through her soaked folds.
"Em-ma..." The brunette pants out trying to shut her leg close.
The blonde grins mischievously before she starts teasing her wife. She uses her tongue sparsely around Regina's clit making the brunette agitated as she rocks her hips upward in an attempt to get more contact from Emma's eager tongue.
"Someone's impatient?"
"Emma...please."
The blonde inhales Regina's heady scent as she glides her tongue through her wetness once more before taking her Queens clit into her warm mouth.
Regina arches off the bed. Her slim fingers gripping Emma's golden mane tightly as she rocks her hips creating a mind numbing sensation that spirals her into her first orgasm of the night.
Emma laps greedily at the warm honey slowly dripping out before she slides back up Regina's heated body.
Her toes curls as Emma's thick shaft slides slowly through her folds.
The blonde teases her entrance until an impatient whine from Regina spurs her into action.
Emma's slips into Regina's warmth.
Taking shallow stokes, she waits patiently until the beauty beneath her adjusts to her girth.
Emma leans down and kisses Regina's plump lips. Slipping her tongue into her wife's mouth she begins to pump her hips, taking Regina faster and deeper.
Regina can feel her orgasm approaching once more. She tries to hold off to prolong the mind numbing sensation of Emma thick shaft pounding into her but she can't.
Emma grimaces as she feels her wife's nails dig into her back.
She quickens her pace when she feels the tell tale flutter of Regina's pussy just before the brunette clamps down on her cock.
Her orgasm lasts until her nails have scraped from top of Emma's muscular back all the way down to her ass.
Emma sits up on her knees.
She waits for her wife to recover.
A warm hand reaches for her. It lands on her taut, sweaty torso.
There's a satisfied smile on Regina's face.
Somehow she managed to switch their position and before Emma knows what's happening, Regina's atop of her.
The brunette starts riding Emma's cock. She rolls her hips while urging the blonde Queens hands up to squeeze her breast.
Emma both hates and loves this position. On the one hand she does minimal work as the brunette bounces on her creating the most sublime sensation she has ever felt. On the other hand the sight of Regina over her is enough to almost make her shoot her load prematurely.
The warrior Queen easily overpowers Regina as she rolls and switches back position causing her love to squeal happily as she does.
Regina reaches for her again but this time the blonde pins both of her hands above her head before she starts fucking the smaller woman as hard as she can without hurting her.
The brunette is quite aware that she can't coherently say what her racing mind is thinking. The pain in her lower abdomen is raging and she wants to tell Emma what she needs to cum but she can't. All she can do is concentrate on Emma's muscular frame and the loud slapping sounds their bodies makes as they meet in heated need.
Emma adjusts her weight. She slows back down and starts taking shallow strokes. She knows the head of her cock is hitting exactly the spot Regina needs her to hit for her to cum. It's only a minute before she stiffens and floods Emma's shaft with her warmth.
Emma helps her to turn over when she catches her breath and gains control over her shaky limbs. She faces the terrace as the sun begins to rise. The fog has begun to clear and she can see the encampment across the way.
She feels her wife take hold of her waist as Emma resumes fucking her.
"Mmmhmm! Em..yes!" She rasps out as Emma's bares down on her needy pussy.
The blonde reaches for Regina's hair as she pumps her hips in time with her lover pushing back onto her.
Dawns light gives Emma a most pleasing view. Her wife's lithe body is flushed and covered in a light sheen.
More importantly, she is mesmerized by the tiny woman beneath her accommodating both her length and girth.
Regina is so wet that her invading dick causes her wife's pussy to make the most unladylike squelching sounds.
"How am I so lucky? To behold such a sight." Emma wonders as her glistening shaft disappears into her wife's exquisite pussy.
Emma feels her own release approaching. She lets go of her wife's hair much to Regina's dislike.
The tan woman feels one of the blondes hands slip to her right shoulder as the other holds tight to her waist before the blonde resumes pounding into her.
"Emma...I'm..don't stop.." she commands just before her orgasm leaves her shaking and voiceless.
Emma herself who was on the verge of release finally cums deep insides Regina's heated core. She reaches forward and pulls Regina flush to her. She tilts her head to the side to kiss Emma who in turn slips her tongue in Regina's mouth pulling back a little to gently suck on the small scar on the smaller woman's lips. "I love you." Emma pants out.
"I love you too Em."
Laying them both down, her still hard cock finally slips out of Regina.
Spent and sated they both drift off into a restless sleep after soft "I love you's" are said again until they waken to an urgent knock sometime later.
-/-
The rising sun gives light to a rapidly approaching rider. They are speeding hastily towards River Run's heavily guarded gate.
"Halt! Who goes there?"
The rider yields and removes their hood.
"My name is Fa Mulan. I am a member of Queen Emma's Royal Guards and I have an injured woman that the Queen herself has charged me with protecting. Now, open the gates!"
-TBC
