17 The Elk
It's Snow's birthday. War was raging between the two kingdoms, so the princess's birthday wasn't celebrated with its usual flare. However, Leopold knew that his daughter had been in a low mood recently, so regardless of the war ahead, he commanded a huge masquerade ball to be thrown for the princess.
The halls of the palace were decorated with flowers of all kinds, the fragrant scent affecting the mood of the dressed-up attendees. Although the dance floor was extremely crowded, everyone's spirits were high.
Snow was wearing a gorgeous lace dress. She was hugging his father's arm and trying to squish herself beside the king on his throne and giggling like a toddler. Obviously, apart from Regina, neither father nor daughter felt that such a move would be too intimate for an 18-year-old girl.
The murky air in the ballroom made Regina nauseous. The brunette sat quietly in the queen's throne, staring ahead but not looking, like a pretty doll. She intended to ignore the conversation between her husband and Snow amidst the boisterous music, but one sentence caught her attention.
"Is your new guard not doing her job properly? Where is she?" the king asked.
Snow frowned, "The elk in the imperial garden seems to be more ill than ever. I told her to stay with it. I do not want to see a dead animal when I walk around the gardens tomorrow morning." She side-eyed her stepmother intentionally, scorn dripping from her voice, "Some creatures really don't know how to appreciate the good life in our palace."
Regina turned her head away, pretending not to care about the obvious sarcasm in the princess's tone.
"You should go dancing," The king tried to cheer his daughter up, "No one dances better than you."
Snow frowned, "But those dancing partners are so stupid!"
Regina suddenly spoke for the first time that evening, "Your Majesty, why don't you accompany Snow? Shouldn't the father accompany her birthday girl for her first dance tonight?"
This is obviously a good suggestion, and even Leopold, who has never been interested in dancing, could not refuse it. So he took his daughter's hand and stepped onto the dance floor.
While the king was engrossed in dancing with his daughter, Regina quietly left. She did not leave the palace, but went to the top floor. Because of this, the two guards who were always watching behind her did not follow.
The bedroom and the meeting hall are two independent palaces, connected by a stone corridor between the two. People rarely walk here.
The dark-haired woman opened the cobweb-covered iron door on the top floor with great effort. The biting cold wind blew her face, making her chest tighten. Or was it nerves? Through the inky night, she saw fine snowflakes flying all over the sky. The first snow of this year chose to come tonight without any warning.
Regina had only worn a long silver low-cut satin dress for the ball, it didn't offer any warmth but she had bigger problems than the cold. The dark-haired woman hugged herself tightly as she hurried across the corridor and soon came to the top floor of the palace, bits and pieces of snowflakes hung in her hair and on her dress.
There was an iron gate on the top floor of the palace that connects to a stairwell. The day before, Regina had secretly unlocked the gate. Now she only needs to open the door and run all the way through the stairs to her chambers, change her clothes, and her prepared luggage, then leave the palace.
Most of the guards and servants in the palace were attracted by the ball in the chamber, not to mention there was an upcoming fireworks display after the ball, which drew everyone's attention. Ever since learning Snow's birthday ball plans, Regina had planned an escape on this day. This was her only chance! She might be caught before even reaching the gate of the palace, and might still be found even if she escaped the palace by chance might, but she must try, otherwise she would never forgive herself.
She could be a puppet queen for a lifetime, but she could not let anyone hurt her child! She may look soft and not aggressive on the surface, but on the inside, she is as determined as a lioness guarding her cub.
The heart of the child of the sorceress who spun straw into gold. The most critical material in the resurrection spell.
Although Regina had never thought of herself as a sorceress, for some reason the cloaked man managed to make the king believe that she was the person he was looking for. He never wanted her, only her child. The heart of her son.
In order to resurrect his ex-wife, Leopold would happily sacrifice the life of her child. This was something that Regina would never condone.
The brunette stretched out her arm to push the rusty iron door. What she didn't expect was that the iron door didn't budge at all, she couldn't open it. She took a deep breath and pushed a few more times with all her might, but her efforts were in vain. Obviously, somebody had locked the lock of the iron door again. This completely disrupted her escape plan.
The wind was getting stronger and the snow falling heavier. Regina started to panic. She couldn't go downstairs, but she doesn't want to go back either, so she was trapped on the top floor of the palace. Regina tried to suppress her despair, and she suddenly remembered something. She rushed to the abandoned clock tower. In a hidden corner, the brunette found what she needed — the soft ladder James used to reach her room. The same ladder the huntress once used to visit the queen's chambers.
The ladder was long enough to reach her room, it is on the second floor. Regina had never noticed whether the ladder is enough to reach the ground, but now is certainly not the time to hesitate. The dark-haired woman lifted the ladder to the railing and threw it out. Then, she stepped up over the railing cautiously and grabbed the ladder.
The snow was falling heavier than ever, and the howling north wind swayed the ladder to and fro against the stone walls, Regina's dress was waving wildly in the air, like a bird eager to break free, she grasped the ropes on both sides of the ladder for dear life, terrified of the possibility of falling to pieces.
She dare not look down, but stared at the stone wall centimeters in front of her, as she climbed down with step by step with great difficulty. Because of her nerves, both arms have quickly become sore and her breathing became more and more rapid. Finally, she saw the window sill of her room, and there was her luggage beside the bed. However, she didn't open the windows, and now had no way to get her stuff. She could only continue to climb. Suddenly after a few steps, her feet hit the air, there were no rails left. The ladder has reached its end.
Regina's heart dropped. She turned her head carefully and glanced under her feet, but saw nothing but darkness. She raised her head and glanced at the window sill on the second floor and calculated that she was at least two or three meters away from the ground. In normal circumstances, she could try to jump off, the snow was heavy enough to break her fall. However, now she has to worry about her baby, and whether her pregnant body can withstand the impact of this jump. Just as the brunette was hesitating, a dazzling light pierced the sky, followed by a loud bang, and a colorful firework exploded in the sky. The sudden loud noise startled Regina, and she let go of the ladder, subconsciously trying to cover her ears. Before she realized her mistake she began to fall…
—⋆⋅ ⋅⋆—
Emma walked briskly towards the palace gate, a torch in one hand and the reins of her tall black horse in the other. A guard greeted her before she was even close to the gates, "Halt, who goes there?", his tone was filled with extreme impatience. After all, everyone else was drinking wine and watching the fireworks at the princess's birthday party, but he had to guard the gates out in the cold, he was obviously not happy.
Emma stopped, "I'm going out of the palace." The huntress showed her identification token to the guard. She pointed to the wooden cart dragged by her horse. The cart was loaded with something, covered hastily with rags.
"What is this?" The soldier stared at the pile on the wooden cart with a puzzled face. One corner of the rags was raised high up by two branch-like objects.
The huntress simply lifted a corner of the cloth. It was the ailing elk. It was lying motionless on the wooden board, eyes half-open, lifelessly reflecting the light of the torch. The branch-like abjects are its two big antlers. "I'm taking this big guy out of the palace. After all, the princess likes lively creatures, not cold corpses. If she sees it tomorrow morning, I'm afraid we will all be scolded."
Of course the soldier knew that the princess kept a lot of animals in her imperial garden, so he didn't hesitate to step aside.
The blonde woman took up the reins and just took the horse to walk out a few steps. Suddenly, she heard the soldiers from behind shout again, "Halt!" he strode up, frowning, staring at the bottom of the wooden cart, "Didn't you say that the elk died of illness? Why is there so much blood?" Crimson stains littered the thick whiteness on the ground. Bright red blood dripped on the snow, dazzling and unusual.
Emma gave a wry smile and scratched her head, "Actually," she said. "The elk was dying of illness, but it was suffering. It's so cold in the evening and I have no desire to stay in the garden all night and wait, so I kinda helped it go. To be honest, it was a good thing for it. It won't survive tonight, why not suffer less?" She showed the soldier a bloody gap on the elk's neck, "Only one cut here, I didn't let it suffer for long."
The soldier knew that the only female guard in the palace was a hunter before, and she knew better than him about dealing with animals. "Well, you can go now. And make haste, wouldn't want to stain the ground here more." He waved her on impatiently.
Emma left the palace. She led her horse through the streets and the outer city unhurriedly, walking towards the depths of the woods, and finally stopped by a small lake.
She turned around and lifted the rags. The elk's head hung weakly onto the side of the wheel. The bloody wound on its neck had stopped bleeding for a long time, but there was still blood dripping from the cart. It turned out that there was a bigger hole in the stomach of the elk.
"Coast's clear." The huntress said quietly.
As soon as she finished speaking, a thin, blood-stained arm suddenly stretched out from the hole, and then, a blood-soaked figure rolled out of the elk's belly.
—⋆⋅ ⋅⋆—
A/N: Sorry for not updating for so long… I resumed video editing for a few days and only remembered this story after I realized that my laptop lost half of my Emma Swan scenepacks :'/ Anywayzz I'm still gonna update, but not as frequently as the pace of my first few chapters… hope y'all can understand :D
Also thank you so much for the reviews! I really appreciate them and it makes me happy that y'all like this story!