Oh, dig my shallow grave
It's not me you'll save
'Cause I'm a lost cause
I'm a lost cause
.oOo.
I don't bother to get up when Aurora screams. It's just a nightmare. Get over it. Instead I remain where I'm seated high up in a tree and continue throwing the few knives and daggers I have at another tree nearby each one hitting the target I carved and sticking. It's a distraction. It allows me to try to forget about the raging fire inside of me. It works a little, but it is still snowing and every time I walk on an ice bridge over to the target to retrieve my weapons I feel as though I'm about to collapse. After five repetitions I climb down and jump to my feet shakily.
"Are you okay?" I turn to see Mulan.
"Sure," I mutter walking towards the shelter they set up.
"Doesn't look like that to me."
"What does it look like?"
"It looks like you're on edge and about to doom the Enchanted Forest to a permanent winter."
"Well you're not entirely wrong."
"Hey," she says grabbing my shoulder turning me around but she winces and takes her hand off of me as a layer of frost starts to cover her hand and move up her arm. I frown, I didn't mean to do that. I focus on it and try to melt it and my frown deepens. I grab her wrist and it finally melts when I touch it but it makes me weak. I lean against a tree and try to get over the wave of dizziness before I kneel on the ground with my head in my hands. "I might know what's wrong."
"Doubt it," I say between gritted teeth. "I don't even know warrior, and I've been around for far longer than you."
"Well, in my land there was a legend about a group who could wield the powers of winter. They were terrible and cruel, went around and froze people's hearts. Those who's hearts were frozen, they died. They became colder than ice, if you came into contact with them you would burn yourself from the cold."
"Was there nothing to stop it?" I ask bored.
"Only the person who put the ice in their hearts could remove it."
"So you're saying, I froze my heart?" She nods and I shake my head. "No, I wouldn't do that. The only thing I freeze about myself is my memories and that's so they remain in tact."
"I'm only saying what I see. I think it'd be different since you have the powers yourself but I don't know how."
"I'll take first watch, get some sleep," I mutter so done with this conversation. The worry radiating from her makes me want to slit her throat, but I'm supposed to be good right now.
"That's no fair!" Al calls out from the snow bank.
"You're just jealous!" I yell back cheer fully jumping into the snow as well as Al climbs out of the snow bank.
"Am not!"
"Are too."
"Do you want to build a snow man?" He asks lying down next to me.
"No. What is with you and your addiction to snow men?" I ask closing my eyes and reveling in the sun.
"Hey, snow men are cool," Al defends.
"Yeah, sure..." I say pausing. "What's it like being normal?"
"I have no idea go ask someone else I'm too cool to be normal."
"Yeah you're right you're a loser. I'd better go ask James or Sarah." I tease. "But you know what I mean. What's it like not having to worry about your emotions every five seconds? What's it like being allowed to be furious?"
"Boring most of the time. At least you always have something to do," he says.
"Yeah but you can't ever just lose it."
"But you can always build a snow man."
"Snow men aren't cool Al, get with the times. People are building forts nowadays. But forts and snow men are too easy," I muse.
"For you. You used to love building snow men."
"We were eight," I point out.
"Has it been eight years?"
"Doesn't feel like it."
"Wait what's going on? I'm lost," I ask while the group talks about shit that makes less than no sense to me. Yet again I haven't exactly been making an effort to understand.
"Aurora can communicate with Henry through the dreams the sleeping curse brought on. She's going to see what Henry can do to get help from Gold." Emma answers poking the fire with a stick. It's too hot I back away and move my hands to my temples massaging them as the snow that has followed me almost constantly picks up in a perfect circle around me.
"You should've told me. I know just what to say to get Rumple to help." I say with a sigh leaning against the tree Aristo was inconspicuously hiding behind.
"Well you weren't here were you?"
"And that's my fault?" I ask my temper soaring Aristo giving a quiet snort behind me and I blinked realizing the whole clearing became a giant icicle farm in a matter of seconds.
"Kali?" Snow asks worriedly from under the shelter. I breath in and out looking at the destruction I caused then frowned at the thing of icicles surrounding Emma. The ends sharp and extremely deadly looking. I jump when someone grabs my arm and out of habit a knife is popped out of my sleeve and held against the person's neck as I hold them against the tree the already deadly clearing becoming that much more volatile.
"Kali, calm down," Snow coaxes from behind me. What she's saying makes sense and I manage to slip the knife back up my sleeve and take a step away from Mulan who was only trying to help calm me down but I can't make the ice melt. It just pisses me off more when I will the icicles to retreat and they don't. Aristo pushes his head against the back of my shoulder and I turn around to face him. He's his own person, my horse. He snorts again in my face and I squeeze my eyes shut raising my hand to pet his muzzle but freezing when I see it. My hand is covered in ice. Scratch that, my hand is ice. I hold it against my face and it doesn't seem cold. It feels like it's burning up. Like I stuck my hand in a volcano or something. I turn around and face the clearing and black out as soon as I see the deadly ice encasing Emma. The ice that I caused.
I stumble over to her laying a hand on her frozen shoulder before I collapse.
"You're a witch," the brown haired boy yelled in my face.
"I'm not a witch!" I say back tears streaming down my four year old face. I don't notice the frost gathering on the grass that grows into ice which sprouts little icicles which grow to be a hazard. I only just turned five what do you expect?
"She's a witch, we should burn her like they do to witches," he yells pointing his stubby finger at me as his friends join him all looking at the village we weren't far from before looking back at me.
"No! I'm not a witch." I continue to cry as the ice continues to grow.
"She's using her witchy powers on me!" The little freckled boy screams pointing to his leg which was sure enough covered in ice that continued to grow with my hyped emotions.
"Run away," another screams. I turn around and run. My silvery blond hair flying behind me being tussled by the wind. I don't slip on the ice...but the little boy does.
"Cane!" I turn when I reach camp and wish I didn't. A dark haired girl in her teens is hovering over my assailant. There's blood dripping onto the ice which remains and only continues to grow. What kind of seven year old calms down at the sight of a dead body?
"Kali! What's wrong?" Al asks coming running from inside camp. He freezes when he gets to me taking in the scene before him. "Come on let's go see your Dad," he says softly ignoring my tears and grabbing my hand pulling me into camp with him ice spreading from my feet.
I bolt up breathing hard and fast. Where the hell am I? My mind searches frantically for the answer when I see Emma, Mulan, Aurora and Snow talking on the other side of the meadow which is still covered in ice but the hazardous icicles have disappeared. They seem to come to an agreement and glance at me before Snow walks over carefully.
"Kali?" She questions softly. I shake my head and sit up wincing at my headache and looking at my hand. So the frozen hand thing wasn't a dream. Yay. "Kali we need to move out. Are you okay?"
"Sure," I mutter checking my weapons quickly. Everything's in order except for one thing. "You guys still want me to come?"
"Kali what's going on?" She asks instead of answering.
"I don't know. I can't control it like usual. Hell I can't have a proper conversation without it snowing, " I say in exasperation gesturing to the snow lightly falling. "Do you still want me to come with you?" I ask again.
"Of course," she says immediately. I know they voted and I'm guessing the two princesses agreed I should come with but Mulan and Emma thought it was a bad idea. "Come on," she says a minute later waking towards Emma and the rest of them. I shouldn't follow them. I almost killed Emma yesterday. Granted I have no idea what the hell is going on with my powers but still. Aristo nudges me and I shake my head and get up off the ground and walk towards the group following them silently ignoring the chutes of pain running through me.
"How close are we? Henry could already be there waiting in this nether world," Emma says an hour into our hike.
"No we planned to meet back there in two hours," Aurora defends and I roll my eyes. This is what's been happening the whole hike. I've almost killed them all at least five times.
"Well you're not going to leave him waiting," Snow says.
"Yeah but what if-" Emma begins.
"Up there," I say tiredly cutting her off.
"Relatively safe high ground," Snow reviews. "We'll set up camp there. Aurora, you'll settle in and find Henry, get the information we need from Rumpelstiltskin. We do this fast, in and out, it's still dangerous out here."
"No dip Sherlock," I mutter my life would be so much easier if I was a psychopath. I know sociopath isn't an option. Walking past them and observing the area carefully choosing a perch and climbing up quickly drawing my bow and notching an arrow.
A few minutes later I frown at a unknown noise in time to see the walking dead appear. I fire a few arrows and then decide the non-magical humans might know what they're talking about when it comes to zombies. I climb down and draw my katana beheading the undead left and right. Throwing a knife and saving Snow as she takes on four before cutting off another's head as she fires an arrow saving Emma. I should start freezing their asses but I can't. I don't know if I could control it and definitely know I'd probably hit Emma or Snow. I look around the small clearing and see Mulan and Aurora are missing. I nod at Emma when she says something about making a retreat and follow a few steps until they're gone. I sheath my katana and wave an arm freezing the five zombies remaining before stumbling after them.
"You still in one piece?" Emma asks breathlessly, slowing down at the rustling in the bushes in front of us. Snow draws an arrow and I take position to throw one of my knives another in my hand. I throw it and yell a warning when I see it's just Mulan and throw a hand out like I could catch the knife after it left my hand. I close my eyes and wait for the sound of it hitting it's target. I don't miss when it comes to throwing knives.
"Kali," Snow says setting a hand on my shoulder. I open my eyes and breath a sigh of relief seeing a wall of ice about as tall as me with a ray sticking out encasing the knife in solid ice about an inch away from Mulan's face.
"Shit," I mutter and fall to the ground hearing Aristo whinny in the distance.
"Dad!" I yell running towards him not caring about the other guys he was talking to. He said something quickly dismissing them and kneeled to the ground as I came running, Al hot on my heels.
"Kali, honey, what happened?" He asked worriedly running a hand through my hair calming me. I just sobbed into his shoulder. "Al what happened?"
"I-I wasn't there for the whole thing. But... but, Cane and some of the other kids were calling her names and Kali was crying and the ice kept spreading and there were these icicles popping out of the ground and... and Cane ran and he-he slipped on the ice. He...he's... he's dead sir." Al forces out, shaken much more than he let on. My dad's hand froze as he ran it through my hair before continuing the action as he spoke.
"Kali, is this true?" He asks quietly. I nod against his chest.
"Th-they we-were ca-calling me a w-witch," I said sobbing. "Th-they we-were gonna burn m-me."
"Oh honey," he said gently without any judgement. "Come on, it's almost bed time," he says with a sigh picking me up when I refused to let go.
"I'll uhm see you tomorrow Kal," Al said.
"No, come with us," my Dad said curtly walking towards our tent with me peeking over his shoulder through tear filled eyes as my friend looked at me questioningly. I nodded a small nod and he nodded back following us.
"Oh my god," I mutter seeing that once again, I'm strapped to the back of Aristo. I move to untie my wrists and my eyes widen at my hands. Both of them are blue. Lovely. I give up on the knot and move my foot grabbing a knife from my boot and cut the rope and slid off Aristo, not on purpose. I cuss and then push myself off the ground cussing when I hear the sound of wings. I glare at the crow as it lands on Snow's shoulder and starts cawing. I raise a hand about to test my accuracy on the annoying bird when Snow says wait stopping both me and Mulan from doing anything too rash. The crow flies away and I decide it's open season on birdies and move my hand sending a ray of cold at the bird. As soon as it hits the crow it drops to the ground revealing a now detailed ice sculpture of a crow. The raise in my body temperature is a small price to pay.
"What the hell was that?" Emma asks.
"What happens to things that annoy me," I say picking at my nails with my dagger.
"Cora," Snow replies ignoring me. "We have until sun down to bring her the compass. If we don't...she'll kill Aurora."
"Great give me the compass," I say holding a hand out. Emma stares at my hand shocked and I roll my eyes. I'm not turning into a smurf.
"No give it to me," Mulan says immediately.
"Hold on you two. Give us a minute to consider it." Emma says turning her attention away from me.
"There's nothing to consider. A compass is not worth Aurora's life." She fires back.
"We need a plan to get back Aurora and get back the compass." Snow cuts in.
"My vow to Phillip was to protect Aurora. That promise is all that is left of him. So it shall be done," she says grabbing the compass from Emma's hands. I sigh and cross my arms so over this shit.
"I climbed a bean stalk for this you go get your own!" Emma yelled and Snow cut in trying to break them apart.
"Enough!" I yelled and immediately they stopped. Maybe it was because shards of ice appeared everywhere breaking the layer of ice that formed on the ground and acted as walls keeping them from running. Or maybe it was the icicles that sprung up around them like daisies. I guess we will never know. "You are acting like three year olds," I scold my hands curled into fists at my sides.
"Give us a few hours please. If we haven't defeated Cora by then you can have the compass," Snow says calmly, ignoring the icy death trap the clearing has become.
"You can't hope to defeat her! We no longer have access to the dark one's assistance," Mulan says.
"Because I'm not an extremely powerful immortal stuck in her teens that can give the dark one a run for his money," I say sarcastically. This earned glares which I ignored. "Don't hate me because I can kick your ass."
"Actually we might be able to contact him. Not that you aren't terrifying Kali, but you haven't been too reliable as of late." Snow says and I shake my head walking in the direction of my horse an exit forming in a large shard of ice making my head burn with another headache. I should kick her ass for underestimating me my thoughts beg. But deep down I'm a nice person and she's somewhat bearable when she isn't being miss goody-two-shoes.
"Scarlet!" I turn away from Aristo and back toward the frozen clearing seeing Emma. I nod and follow her as she follows Snow and Mulan around the clearing sing the exit I made. "So you're turning blue," Emma begins falling into stride next to me.
"Sign me up for the smurf convention," I mutter.
"Do you know why?" She presses.
"If I knew, I would stop it, however I don't so I can't. Blue may be my color but I look so much better in black and white." She frowns deep in thought. I feel like quoting Sherlock but decide not to. I miss home enough without reminders.
"What's your story?" She asks later.
"Be more specific. I have lot's of stories."
"Who were you back here?" She elaborates nodding at the forest surrounding us.
"Well, long story short, the myth of vampires is based off of my roots. I have no clue as to where they got the blood drinking thing from, but the soulless part I sort of understand. However I am the only one who can literally freeze someone's head off. The only person who could ever do something like that I've heard. I was friends with your father, or rather I tolerated him. I only babysat him because I wanted to get out of this damn realm. Now, I'm tired of reminiscing. I've got a lot of memories and most are quite dreary. I'm already on edge, I wouldn't be so confident as to increase the pressure." I said increasing my pace and leaving her behind.
I helped cut through the undergrowth Mulan missed following her closely as we hacked a pathway for Emma and Snow to follow us.
"Once we cross this ridge, we'll be near the woods of the dead. The last of the poppies have taken seed there." Mulan's voice rings out clearly.
"Was it used as a graveyard or is it haunted?" I ask my boredom showing.
"Does it matter?" She asks and I roll my eyes.
"No I'm just bored. Remember, salt and burn the bones," I add absently.
"Where's your horse?"
"I don't know. Aristo does what he likes." I say absently frowning at the bush I just hacked at. It was starting to freeze.
"It's getting worse?" Mulan observes not turning to look at me.
"If it was your business warrior, I'd tell you." I snap ending the conversation as an icicle broke off of a tree and landed a foot to the right of where Mulan was standing. A foot off from killing her. "Shit," I cuss. My ice doesn't break unless I want it to. I don't want to kill anyone and I think I showed enough power today to get the point of 'don't mess with me or you'll be a chunk of ice' across.
"Kali, I think you need help." She says watching the icicle warily.
"Astute observation, but I don't like help." I mutter storming in front of her and hacking at the undergrowth with new found fervor.
"It's beautiful," Snow says as we stop in front of the red flower.
"Great let's destroy it," I say with an eye roll looking at the trees for a perch but find nothing helpful.
"I'll use my dagger to crush the seeds, we're doing this the old fashioned way." Mulan says pulling out a dagger. I sigh and sit down against a tree observing the arrows in my quiver fixing the points on a few as she makes the dust. "The powder's nearly ready," Mulan says about fifteen minutes later.
"How long will it knock miss sunshine out?" I mutter as I come across a broken arrow. It's almost broken in half but some idiot tried tying it together with string. Last time I borrow a quiver of arrows from amateurs.
"How long will the effects last?" Snow asks ignoring my not so nice take on the same question.
"Difficult to say, maybe an hour. Not much," Mulan replies.
"We don't have any chloroform sorry," I say sarcastically throwing the broken arrow at a tree which turns to ice as soon as it gets hit. I'm not trying freeze everything in my path. In fact I'm trying to stop the snow that's constantly surrounding me. I may or may not be failing. Who am I kidding I'm lucky my colleagues aren't chunks of ice.
"I shouldn't need much time as long as Henry's in there when I am." Snow says confidently.
"I'm right here," Emma says comfortingly making me want to puke. "Say hi to my son for me."
"Tell him to go to my studio and look through my portfolios and give the important pieces to Gold. This part is kind of sort of important so please, it will be helpful as to the future," I say. She nods and Mulan gets up walking over to her with the powder in her hands. She kneels down and blows softly the powder successfully knocking her out.
"Well not that this isn't positively entertaining, but I'm bored so I'm going to go throw things and try to not kill you all." I say fifteen minutes later. Mulan and Emma nod and I walk into the forest drawing my katana. I clear away some of the underbrush and kick the dead branches away so there's an area big enough to mess around in. I pick up a branch and throw it away in the woods my eyes catching on something silver. I frown and bend down clearing away some of the dirt. There are bones and tattered remains of clothing. Well they're called the dead woods for a reason. I kick the bones away from the bit of silver before bending down again and brushing off the dirt. I bolt up and back away my eyes wide and winds whipping around the clearing. I trip and fall backwards and look to my right. Shakily I pull out a piece of worn and deteriorated leather with destroyed characters from an ancient language.
I squeeze my eyes shut and a tear falls. Cold and somehow not ice. I brush it away and crawl to the sword the leather sheath dragged in the dirt with me. I reach down and poke the sword making sure it's real. I wish it wasn't but at the same time this would've happened at some point. More tears fall and my hand finds the hilt of the sword. A simple blade, incredibly sharp and a little off balanced. I remember when I was able to lift this sword. I was so proud. It didn't stay in the air for long though. More tears fall as I lift the sword into the air. I stand shakily and wipe the blade off on my jeans. It's undamaged. The hilt needs to be re-wrapped but other than that it's exactly how I remember it. I slip it through my belt loop and look around for a rock. I move to the edge of the clearing and remember what Rumple said to me all those years ago.
Two shadowless bodies. My father and Al. I grimace at the bones that are most likely my fathers and start clearing away more of the brush. I see a skull and push dirt over it digging a shallow grave for the remains of my father and best friend. I find a rock nearby and clear off the ice covering it the laziness I submerged myself in gone as I dug out the rock and rolled it over. I take out the length of leather that used to be my father's sheath and place it in front of the rock. I concentrate on letters and phrases and suddenly a light blue tinted ice appears on the rock glittering in the sun. Rest in peace, the language on my katana as well as English. I walk a few steps out of the clearing and see some wild flowers growing in a small little patch of sunlight. I shake my head and cut some walking back and placing the assortment of purple, yellow, blue, and white flowers, all brittle from the frost covering them, on the excuse for a grave before nearly running out of the clearing falling at one point breaking into tears the forest around me covered in ice and snow.
I eventually pull myself together and get off the ground and rub my eyes. The area around my is covered in ice. But I don't feel anything. I feel empty. I stumble back in the direction of Snow, Emma, and Mulan I get there and Snow and Emma are having some intense moment so I manage to roll my eyes and ignore them. Mulan is absent though.
"Where'd Mulan go?" I ask my voice not the same but they both jump at my presence. Emma quickly searches her pockets her eyes going wide looking around her for something. "Don't tell my you lost it." I mutter without emotion.
"What?" Snow asks confused.
"The compass is gone," Emma says.
"Let's go get it back," I mutter and look for a trail. I run when I find it, Emma and Snow hot on my tail. As soon as I see her I throw a knife from my sleeve letting it chop a few hairs off her head before it embeds itself in a tree. Mulan immediately stops but Snow still fires an arrow hitting the same tree.
"That was a warning shot. Try to run and I promise the next one won't be." Snow says but I just wave a hand and a weak wall of ice appears in front of her.
"How did you find me?" She asks and I scoff.
"Honey I've been around for ages. People that attempt to steal from me rarely get the chance to run but when they do," I pause and smile walking around to face her. "They don't get far."
"All we want is the compass," Emma says and I nod for her to turn and face them.
"Very well." She says moving to grab something from her waist but Snow and I know better even though Snow's slower to act on it. My other knife is popped out of my sleeve and I'm holding it against her throat.
"Give me the compass!" Snow says like she's gone made, her bow notched and ready to shoot aimed at Mulan.
"And seal Aurora's fate?" She questions but is cut off by my dagger drawing a bit of blood.
"We learned how to overpower Cora. Once we get what we need, we will defeat her and Aurora will be free," Snow states.
"Another journey. Just as I predicted there would be, our best chance to save Aurora is to make the trade now." Mulan reasons but Snow was hit in the head or something. I'm an emotionless immortal and Emma has no say in this.
"Not gonna happen. Without that compass we can't get home."
"Then I hope you're prepared to kill me." She fires back and I sigh.
"I thought you were smart. Ah well c'est la vie." I removed the knife from her neck and she turned to ice as I raised my hand in the air prepared to end the warrior's life.
"Stop!" A voice cried out and I rolled my eyes as Aurora appeared.
"Okay, don't take this the wrong way but how the hell did you get here?" Emma asks asking the question I was asking myself.
"Unfreeze Mulan!" She demands and I roll my eyes. "I said unfreeze her." I rolled my eyes and waved a hand the warrior thawing withing seconds.
"Aurora," the warrior gasps and then looks behind her. "Were you followed?"
"I-I don't think so," Aurora says lightly. "Cora may know I'm gone but she didn't see me escape."
"How did you escape?" I ask suspicious.
"It was Hook. He let me go," Aurora said. I frown, Hook was smart and more complex than he looks. Something was up, he wouldn't cross Cora unless he knew he would get something from it. Right now it looks like all he'd get is his own grave. But who knows.
"Why?" Emma asks immediately. I do wonder what happened on top of that bean stalk.
"Because of you," she says. "He said he wanted to prove to you that you should've trusted him. That if you had trusted him, you could've defeated Cora together. That the two of you could've gotten the remains of the wardrobe, without him you'll have to go up against her all by yourself. He only wants to help. I think he may care for you." I observe her quietly and carefully. Something's up with her. I don't know her but I know Hook and he would never say something like that. "Did you find a way to stop Cora?"
"Yes." Emma answers carefully holding tightly to the compass.
"Where are we going?" She asks.
"Somewhere I haven't been in a while," I answer being vague.
"Okay. Lead the way," she says and I nod for them to go on ahead and pull Mulan back.
"Something's not right. I don't know Aurora but I know Hook and he wouldn't say anything that sappy or confirm the end of his life."
"Okay, I'll keep an eye out." She says and I purse my lips. "Where'd you get the sword?"
I walk away instead of answering drawing my father's sword and taking the lead from Snow.
So long chapter, long wait, sorry. Hope you liked the chapter. Even though there were a few bodies in it. By the way, I've solidified Kai and Al's roles and hate spoilers so good luck getting any details about them. But Kali's back in control even though she is still in a cold place.
leelee1028, Kali and Hook's relationship is a little too complicated for their own good.
The Lady Geek, yes, same as Bellfire only like a day later, and I'm waiting for the end of season three to decide on the last one.
grapejuice101, they have what I'd call a flirtationship. Not romance but definitely more than friends.
Lilly, wait and see. MWAHAHAHA and the only thing I'll say is he is more important than you are imagining but not in some senses.
Thank you all for reviewing it warms my heart and made me want to finish this chapter faster. I actually put it before my HW and that's saying something cause I'm a goody-two-shoes in school.