Emma awoke to the stillness of the forest surrounding her and the soft, rhythmic breathing of the man laying next to her. Rising on one elbow, she cast an appraising eye on him. It couldn't be comfortable to sleep in all that leather but he seemed unperturbed. They'd been granted a pair of crude lean-to shelters to camp out in for the night and the interesting slumber party arrangements meant that Killian, Emma, and Regina slept under one and David and Mary Margaret under another.

Emma deftly extracted herself from her blanket and got to her feet, mindful of her companions. Her nose picked up the sent of a fire and she followed it to where she found her father sitting near the campfire, his knees bent and arms hugged around them loosely.

"Early morning?" she asked as she sat down next to him.

"Before you were born," he said without preamble, "I made plans to take you out into the Enchanted Forest and show you how to camp as soon as you were old enough. I was going to show you how to build a fire and a shelter and hunt - well, your mother probably would've been the one to do that - but I was going to show you everything I knew about the land,"

His eyes were focused on the gentle flames of the small pit.

"I won't let Roland learn all those things from someone else other than his father," David said quietly, "Like you had to,"

Emma leaned her head onto his shoulder and sighed deeply. David reached out and put his shoulder around her arms.

"There's still a lot you could teach me," she offered, "Sword fighting on horseback, for instance,"

"We'd have to hide that from your mother," David said with a soft laugh, "It was bad enough when I let Henry drive,"

"Yeah, I haven't forgotten about that," quipped Emma with a grin.

The two sat in silence for a few moments as the fire crackled and burned before them.

"So, you want to tell me about that guy you were going to marry in New York?" David asked, causing Emma to laugh.

"Not really," she replied. David nudged her with his arm.

"I'm pulling the father card on that one," he said. Emma sighed.

"It was something I thought was real," she replied, "We were together for eight months and during those eight months he was a great guy. Henry liked him and it felt right. Then he turned out to be a flying monkey,"

"Did you see a future with him?" her father asked.

"Of course," Emma said, "I saw the whole future - marriage, a house, maybe more kids. It was all there but it was all made-up. It was - a fairytale,"

"Fairytales have happy endings," David said.

"Maybe some don't," Emma replied.

"And what about now? What future do you see?" he asked.

"Going home to my son," she said, "Other than that its a bit blurry,"

"I think my friend the pirate captain begs to differ," said David. Emma sat up and looked at her father.

"Why? What did he say?" she asked. David smiled and shook his head.

"Emma, I know I'm just an old man and all but I know what its like to be in love. It's not what he says, its what he does," he replied, "The man gave up his ship for you and when he got it back he didn't hesitate to plunge straight into danger with you at his side. And despite a questionable past, he's saved my life and yours recently so I'm inclined to give him a little leeway,"

"Are you warming up to Hook?" Emma teased.

"I'm still waiting for the opportunity to punch him in the face and I'll never think that any man is good enough for you," David corrected, "but he doesn't see as terrible as I originally thought,"

Emma looked back over her shoulder at the sleeping pirate and smiled to herself. She could conjure up the touch of his body against hers, the smell of him, the sound of his voice, all from afar. He had taken up residence in a hollow place in her heart that she had once thought long dead.

A noise on the other side of the fire brought her attention back to reality. It was Pocahontas, dressed and painted for battle.

"It is time," she announced.

"Naantam's palace is high up in the mountains. We will use the south pass to get there. I will bring my warriors to her gates but you will have to enter alone," Pocahontas said. Emma nodded in understanding.

"There is a dungeon entrance on the far side of the palace. Use it to gain access and find where Naantam resides," the warrior instructed,

"You must kill her,"

"Kill?" Emma echoed. Pocahontas nodded gravely.

"The Savior is the only being powerful enough to defeat Naantam," she replied, "You cannot risk her returning as she has done already,"
Emma swallowed hard but kept her composure. She was used to tense situations, particularly since she'd found Storybrooke and its residents, but homicide was still a new experience.

"There has been a change in the wind," said Pocahontas, "The chill has returned. She will need to feed again and will be weak until she does. This is our best time to go to her,"

"Then let's go," Emma replied.

The hike to the mountain was strenuous and difficult but Pocahontas and her warriors seemed unencumbered by the burden. They even appeared to be cutting some lenience towards their companions as they stopped and paused whenever the Storybrooke group needed to catch up.

"Why can't we just be poofed up there?" Regina grumbled, grasping for a tree root to hoist herself further up the craggy mountainside.

"No one's magic is powerful enough for that," Emma said.

"And we don't know what could be waiting for us up there," Mary Margaret added.

David and Killian were mostly silent, save for the occasional grunt of strength and gasp of air as they climbed.

The chill in the air became more pronounced and the rocks seemed to grow icy under Emma's touch as they climbed. She realized that each breath she exhaled appeared before her in a visible puff. The cold stung her nose and hit her cheeks with bitter ferocity.

The mountain came to a plateau and the group was staring a few hundred yards back from a vast fortress made, it appeared, entirely of ice.

"We have to break into that?" Mary Margaret asked with just a hint of dubiousness in her voice.

The structure appeared to be born from the mountaintop, set in a bed of steep, jagged rock formations. It glowed an eerie blue-white light.

Pocahontas drew her fur hood, making her appear like a faceless beast in the icy wilderness.

"Come," she said.

Mary Margaret drew an arrow from her quiver and followed after the warrior. David and Killian both drew their swords and Emma caught the distinct glow of deep red emanating from Regina's fingertips.

"I can't kill her but I can hurt her," she said when she saw Emma's eyes.

Emma swallowed hard and trudged ahead towards the great, icy unknown.