A/N: Sorry for the shortest update ever and for the long wait. It has been long, eventful days. I'm only updating this 'cuz I miss you guys and I had a few minutes today to finish this. I could write more, but I really don't have the time to do it today (nor in the next month). Thank you for reading! I love you support!
"We're lucky to live every day. Life is a gift meant to be enjoyed and shared." (drbeachblonde)
"No need to worry, love. I won't cause you any harm." He assured her, though his eyes told something entirely different. "Now, what would you say about going on a ship trip?" He smiled and took another step.
"No, thank you." She said as she stepped back without breaking eye contact.
He chuckled and took one last step forward, trapping her against a giant rock wall.
"So I'm gonna rephrase that: you will go on a ship trip with me, love."
The woman smiled wickedly at the pirate and then chuckled deviously.
She might have gone crazy through the time she spent alone in the forest, but that didn't mean that she wasn't afraid. It was quite the opposite, actually: she was terrified. However, as the leader she was taught to be, she played along with all the cards she could. She wouldn't let him know her weaknesses. She wouldn't let it show her fear.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Can't you understand the meaning of the word 'no', dear?" The sarcasm rolled all over her sultry voice as she mocked of her threat.
The man smirked at her and stepped even closer. His rum breath caused her to feel nauseous.
"How lovely. She not only can speak, but she's also sassy. I kinda like that."
The woman looked at him unimpressed.
"That's all you got, pirate? I fail seeing how you could get a woman with those comments."
He chuckled and leaned in to whisper closer to her ear. The Queen closed her eyes in despair, knowing that he couldn't see her face. She had to think fast to escape him.
"Oh… Don't be like that, love. I just want to spend some time with you."
"And I don't want to spend any time with you." She retorted in a voice that was braver than she actually felt.
In the moment the Queen finished her sentence, the man placed one thigh between her legs and forced them apart. He pressed his hips against hers and placed his hook under her chin.
"I don't think you have much of a choice." He whispered. "If you be a good girl, I can help you. However, if you even think about screaming, this will only caught my crew's attention. Do you want them to watch or even participate in this?"
Her mind went back to her marriage night. She felt weak and helpless under his touch and threats. He smelled like sweat, rum and old letter. Her memories played many nights on repeat. Her heart raced up. Her palms sweat against the cold rock.
And then, everything happened so fast she barely could process what was going on.
A buzz cut through the forest silence and then a loud grunt came from the man, who fell over the Queen with all his weigh. They both ended on the ground as she struggled to get him off her. He started screaming in pain as the woman got up and tried to run away without even glancing around to thank her savior.
A hand grabbed the brunette's ankle, causing the woman to fall on the ground hands first.
"Not so fast, whore!" The man snarled through gritted teeth.
The Queen kicked his face and tried to crawl away from him. He hissed but didn't let go of her. The pirate used his hook to avoid her attacks, craving the sharp point of it on the woman's calf. She screamed in pain as the blood started flowing through the soft skin. He pushed her closer to him and, even wounded, he was stronger than her.
The captain mounted on top of her as she struggled to break free. He grabbed her throat and started squeezing it, causing the air to come out from her lungs. She gasped and reached up, trying with all of her strength to hit him somehow.
Just when she was about to give up and closed her eyes, the heavy weight of the pirate was pulled off her chest. The woman immediately reached for her throat, relieved for being able to breathe again. Not waiting to understand what happened, the Queen got up and ran away. The burn on her throat and the excruciating pain on her leg were almost more than she could bare, but she moved as fast as she could.
For the next few moments, she heard fight sounds coming from her back, but all she cared about was to get as far from that as she could.
And then, there was a scream.
"Wait!"
That voice… It can't be.
"Regina, wait!"
She didn't look back, afraid she had had a hallucination.
She could hear the steps of the other person coming closer and closer, no matter how fast she tried to run. Everything ached. Her eyes filled up with tears.
A heavy weigh collided with her body and, a second later, they were both on the ground.
The Queen tried to struggle for freedom but strong arms restrained her movements. A soothing voice whispered near to her ear.
"Calm down. It's me."
Even then, feeling the touch and the warm body under hers, she couldn't believe what happened.
"Regina…" The pleading finally started to work as the brunette woman slowly stopped moving. "It's okay now…" The voice reassured her.
"How… How do you know my name?"
The chuckle filled her ears as pale hands caressed her arms.
"You are the Queen. Everybody knows your name."
"So why did you ask me it?"
"I've never asked your name, Your Majesty." She hugged the woman who still lay on top of her.
"I thought you were dead." The brunette leaned in the embrace as her voice finally cracked.
"It's not so easy to take me down, you know? I've been through harder battles than a couple of Ares' soldiers." She tried to sound amused, but the brunette could sense something else there.
"I still don't know your name."
"Emma."
The Queen rolled to her side to meet those precious emerald eyes that she missed so much. It felt like a dream. It looked like a nightmare. The dirty blonde hair fell around the young warrior's beautiful face. The fair skin was covered in blood and dirt. There were wounds all over her arms. Her clothes were ruined, ripped in several places. Pink lips were so dry that they bled at some points. She carried a sword, a bowl and a quiver. Regina could see the dagger attached to the pale thigh by a letter stripe. The muscular legs had many bruises of all colors and sizes in many different places.
"What happened to you? Where is your bag?" The Queen asked with a frown.
"We can talk about that later. Now, we have to get out of here. I hit him on his ass, but I think he'll soon find a way to track us." The blonde said as she got up. The younger woman offered her hand to help the Queen, who sat on the ground with a confused expression on her face.
"You hit a man's butt with an arrow?" The brunette asked incredulously.
The warrior just shrugged.
"I don't like killing. Plus, you were in danger."
The Queen took the pale hand and started laughing, which earned a smirk from the Knight.
"Let's go, Your Majesty." The blonde mocked and tugged the other woman's hand as she tossed the bag over her shoulder.
*The Fire Bird*
They walked until the sun started to disappear on the horizon. The Knight wanted to treat the Queen's wound first, however the brunette didn't allow them stop. She hissed in every step she took, but she couldn't stop. She wouldn't stop: she had to walk as far away from that man as she could.
There were moments when they talked and even laughed a bit, but for the most part of their journey, they remained in silence. Both women thought about the several days they were apart from each other. They also thought about where they could stay at night and what should they do to keep safe.
Seeing the Queen's struggle to walk, the blonde positioned the brunette's arm over her shoulder and supported her as they went on with their journey.
It was hard to think with all the injuries they had. It was hard to focus with the exhaustion.
However, it was even harder to not think about all that had happened in the past days.
The walk was a hard one. The forest was dense and the ground was no longer regular. There were abrupt ups and downs and they had to grab the trees to keep steady. There were many loose rocks and mud from the previous storms. Sometimes they had to crouch and support their weighs on their hands to keep moving.
If the path alone wasn't already difficult enough, the women had to do it caring two bags along. Not to mention they were starving and thirsty.
Any mistake could be fatal at that point.
It was a big relief for both of them when they found that place to spend the fast approaching night. Another storm announced itself as the day lights started to fade away and the first droplets made their way across the tree tops.
As risky as it was to sleep in a cave, it was even worse to sleep without any kind of protection.
It was cold and dark inside there. There was no wood or straw to make fire. They couldn't see a thing, so they found each other's hand and sat down slowly. They tried to think on a solution to their problem, but nothing seemed to work.
Until the Knight whistled.
They waited and waited.
Nothing happened. It was just them, the darkness and the silence.
The Knight sighed and shook her head in disappointment. A sound caught her attention and she stared as the Queen rubbed her temples.
"How's your leg?" The blonde asked quietly.
"Marvelous." She snapped in a sarcastic response.
Green eyes rolled in annoyance, but she said nothing. The warrior turned to her bag and looked for something in there. It was dark and she could barely see, but the tips of her fingers were enough to distinguish what she needed in that moment. A small smile crossed her lips when she found a piece of cloth and a flask of water. There was just a little rest in there, but it would have to do. Silently, the Knight kneeled in front of the Queen.
"What are you doing?"
"Taking care of that wound."
Without any other word, the fighter cleaned the brunette's calf. The woman hissed and retrieved her leg. The Knight sighed and simply grabbed her ankle to keep her steady.
"Stop moving."
"It hurts!" The Queen whined.
"You don't say! I thought the blood was here just for beauty purposes!" The blonde tightened her grasp on the woman's ankle and worked the best she could using just one hand and without being able to actually see what she was doing. When the wound felt as clean as it could be in those conditions, the Knight ripped a strap of her shirt and tied it up around the open flesh.
Both women sighed in relief when that job was done and adjusted their bags so they could be used as pillows and lay on the ground with their hands linked. None of them spoke for a long time. In spite of how tired they felt, none of them could sleep. They closed their eyes, because it didn't matter to keep them open when they could not see. They were freezing and there was nothing they could do to warm themselves.
"What happened?" The husky whisper sounded so loud in that space that both women were startled by it.
"I stopped the guards back in the cabin and tried to track you down. It wasn't easy to find you because of the rain… Every time I thought I was about to find you I lost the track." The Knight told her.
"That's not all of it, is it?" The Queen asked.
The blonde chuckled and subtly moved closer to the other woman. "Nope."
"Will you tell me the full version of the facts?" Despite sensing the motion, the brunette did not comment about it.
"Nope."
"Why is that?" The Queen frowned.
"There are things that should remain unknown." Her tone left no room to arguing.
It was amazing how that girl was able to stand up to the Queen. Even after all that time, the brunette couldn't understand how the warrior could do that so easily. It was disturbing, yes. But also refreshing.
No matter how what they had been through, it seemed like their conversations would always push the Queen to the edge of her emotions. It was extreme and, yet, comfortable, as weird as it sounded.
"What now?" The brunette asked.
The Knight didn't answer right away. There was a long, unsettling pause before she answered.
"I don't know."
*The Fire Bird*
At first she thought it was a dream. A nightmare, to be precise. The moans and groans she heard mixed with the ugly shadows on the cave's walls caused her sleepy imagination to jump to conclusions. And then, something hit her hard on the chest and she finally woke up. The lack of oxygen made the Queen to gasp and clench her fists over her stomach, desperately fighting for air.
She looked around and tried to find out who attacked her. It was still dark, but the first sunlight made it possible to distinguish a body beside her, convulsively shaking on the ground. It took her a few seconds to understand what was happening.
The brunette immediately sat up and reached for the woman on her side. She tried to hold her arms and legs, but she was too strong and moved too fast. The second idea she had wasn't all too comfortable, but she had to try something. The Queen got on her knees and approached to the blonde. She grabbed one of her hands then straddled her, sitting on her stomach to prevent possible kicks. The brunette hissed as she felt pain spreading on her leg.
A fist met her jaw a second later. Hard. She grunted in pain and fought to grab the said fist. It was quite a battle, given the fact that one of them wasn't conscious and the other had just woken up.
"Wake up!" The Queen commanded in a firm voice.
The woman beneath her, however, did not compelled the request. She kept struggling and saying things that the brunette couldn't understand.
Damn it! Why does she have to be so strong?
"Emma, wake up!" She spoke louder this time.
This time, green eyes shot open widely as the blonde kept shaking under the Queen's weight. Her breath was fast and she looked terrified. She looked down to her restrained wrists and then to the face woman above her. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Little by little, the Knight calmed down and relaxed.
"What… What happened?" She asked. Her voice was hoarse and she felt uncomfortable.
"I think you had a nightmare?" Dark eyes studied the warrior's face. "Are you ok?"
"I guess…" The answer was uncertain. A thin shin of sweat covered her forehead and she still shook a bit. She then looked down to the Queen and back at her eyes.
"What?" The brunette frowned.
"Ahn… Well…" Green eyes averted from the older woman's face.
"What are you nightmares about?" The older woman asked quietly as she released the Knight's wrists.
The blonde looked at her. Her features were filled with all kinds of emotions: curiosity, sadness, fear, panic… Pink lips pursed into a thin line as the young warrior considered the question and the possible answers.
"Blood."
"What? Where?" Brown eyes scanned the Knight's body, searching for any injuries. The fair woman chuckled at the reaction and shook her head.
"You asked about my nightmares. Most of them are about blood." The woman explained with a serious expression. She looked at brown eyes, admiring the red, orange, yellow and purple shades that painted the Queen's marvelous face at that early hour. It was beautiful and gave her some kind of peace.
The simple idea to be able to do this one more day, to be alive in that moment, was something to be grateful.
How many times had she missed moments like that because of battles? How many times had she not even bothered to see the beauty of life?
The woman inhaled deeply, a cold breeze brushing her cheeks in the cave. A small smile took place on her lips as this peaceful moment filled her mind and body with pleasure and joy.
"Are you afraid of death?" The brunette's voice perturbed the silent moment.
Green eyes snapped open and quickly focused on the woman in surprise. The Knight opened her mouth to speak but couldn't actually form the proper words. She then frowned as she realized something new about herself.
"No." It was an honest answer. "Not death in the usual sense of the word, at least. I fear losing friends, people I love. And I fear slowly giving myself to darkness and sadness. That would be a way to die, you know?"
A dark brow arched in contemplation.
"What about you?"
"What about me?" The Queen asked confused.
"Are you afraid?"
"Of what? Death?" The blonde nodded and waited. The older woman shook her head as the wind blew her short hair. "No."
"How so?" The Knight regarded her with genuine surprise.
"People are afraid of what they don't know. I've seen death too many times to be afraid of it."
It was a hard confession. Even more now, after she actually started to think about her past and to wonder about the perspectives for the future. She had seen death closely: she had watched her fiancé die. She had caused her husband's death. She had ordered plenty executions and watched every single one of them. Her mother and her father had also gone, both in front of her.
She had nothing to fear when the subject came to be death.
"So what are you afraid of?"
The woman swallowed hard and averted her gaze from the blonde's features. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. She had never admitted that before and she couldn't quite believe she was just about to say it aloud.
It was just a word. A short one. However, it was also a heavy, thick one.
Her voice came out in a strange whisper as she blinked away one single tear.
"Happiness."