25.
Regina sighed and settled on her huge sunflower yellow bed, complaining in her head about any and everything that stood out. She despised the yellow bed and wanted to lie in her purple one with thousand thread count Egyptian silk. She hated the brown cupboard and missed her platinum-plated ones.
"Your Majesty, your bath is ready." The servant bowed deeply and helped her out of her clothes and sink in the pearly bathtub. God, she missed her polished emerald bathtub. Perhaps there were more reasons for her to behave brattily but the situation was that Odile was three bedchambers away from her.
It was unacceptable! Regina huffed and blew away the vanilla foam angrily. Cynfael copies the motion and Regina gives him foam hair and foam beard, he nuzzles on the side of her head until she does the same to her.
Regina and her little dragon ends up with a huge white beard and mustache while Cynfael also gives his long tail a beard like a little weirdo he was.
By the time Regina had removed all the dirt and grime and god knows what from her hair, she was hungry and in desperate need of some real food. Not the charred she cooked by herself.
Humming to herself the servants helped her in loose clothing (her maids were horrified but they did not show it. Queen wearing loose clothing was practically unheard of) Regina breathed in the smoke that was being soaked by her hair and left her bath chamber with a big smile on her face.
"Oh." She gasped and grinned at the sight of her wife sitting on her bed. "I thought we were supposed to meet at lunch?"
Odile titled her head far too left and cocked an eyebrow, "just wanted to see my wife." Odile lifted a finger and the note a couple of centimeters away from her wife's dainty fingers scorched silently and the particles fly away. Odile's smile widened.
Regina's ring pulsed but she shook it off. She walked towards her wife and stood in front of the sitting blonde who was leaning back on the bed. "Missed your wife, did you?"
"Oh yes," Regina recoiled half a step when Odile sat up abruptly from the bed. "I missed you so much, dearly."
The queen blinked at her seemingly too-smiley wife. Regina's ring pulsed harder, singing her finger a tad bit, "ow."
"What is it?" Odile looked at her hand in a caring manner.
"The ring." Regina rotated it for some relief. "It's kind of burning."
"It does that sometimes, don't worry."
Regina froze but did not look at her wife. Odile never brushed her pain aside. Perhaps she was more tired than she was letting on, yes.
Odile stood up, swiftly and gripped Regina's waist harshly, and looked deeply into her eyes. There was something Regina could not recognize but she unsurely smiled.
The ring seared.
"I have missed this so, so much."
"What-" before Regina could even think of anything, a flash of porcelain closed in on her and dome-shaped cochineal hit Odile straight in the chest.
A loud animalistic off resonated and Odile was thrown back and tossing right off the bed, near the window.
"I didn't do it!" Regina speedily spoke. "It came from the ring I think?"
"Then remove it, I will see what's wrong with it." Odile shrugs off the dust off her shoulder, materialized the small pouch, and motioned for Regina to take it off.
She paused. Her memory reminded her;
Odile cupped her face tenderly, "Listen very carefully, Regina. No matter what happens. No. matter. What. Do. Not. Remove. The ring."
Regina looked up with her brain whirring at the soft smirking Odile. There was something very wrong with her wife.
She tested, "Odile? Can you teach me the dragon magic tomorrow?"
"Sure, sure. Why not? I'll teach you everything. Perhaps Dark Magic is something you'd be interested in?" Regina's eyes silently flashed before she could call her magic out something whizzed past her with a loud screech.
It was Noodle. But bigger? And scarier?
Her vision dipped and swam as she held her head, there was a pinprick of pain somewhere but Regina clenched her fist and hurled a fireball (she doesn't remember being taught that) towards the window.
For one second, just one, their eyes meet briefly.
The one thing that gets ingrained in her brain is the sight of her wife with one leg on the rim, about to dive out, casting Regina a look of complete hunger.
Her eyes flashed viridian and the smuggest side smile her face could've pulled off. A maniacal look in her eyes and eyebrows arched to maximum capacity. For the first time in her life, real fear kicks in and Regina flings a fireball at this person.
This is not her wife. Regina shakes her head but the image claws its way in her and eats away at her.
The imposter who wore her wife like second skin gets frozen mid-jump by Noodle and Regina pitches a dark fireball- no one notices her eyes changing to onyx and the color of her fireball darkening- at this imposter for taking the form of her wife.
Regina watches in utter satisfaction as the figure chars and gets reduced to a pile of slithering black goo which seeps into the ground before Regina can have a closer look.
Noodle hoots at her and produces a glass of milk and honey. Regina then realizes how parched she is, her throat is dry and she feels exhausted. Maybe she shouldn't have used so much magic when she was angry.
She almost trips over an unfamiliar heavy rectangular book but pays it no mind, she will look at the gold-bordered book later.
Drinking the contents of the crystal, Regina slips in the bed while Noodle stays in his bigger size (her barely-fits-in-the-palm owlet is at least the size of an ostrich). She has questions, my god she does, but her eyes droop when Noodle hoots in rhythm and pushes her into the dreamland.
Noodle sits on the window and screeches in high frequency, above the threshold of human comprehension, alerting Odile that an incident took place.
()
"How did this even happen?" Odile swirls the brandy around and looks at maleficent.
"I have no idea. But we need damage control." They both touch the broken bars in the maleficent dungeon and purse their lips.
"It was simply a bloodhound, right?" a nod in reply. "How did an ordinary bloodhound even do this? It's ripped, it's not burned or bitten. Ripped!"
"Maybe we can find something in the books for this. I'm sure-"
"I've read all of them, there's nothing about this." Odile slumps back in her chair once they have materialized back in the throne room. "You're certain your little pet project didn't do this, right?"
"Her name is Lucy." Maleficent chuckles and pats the Dark One on her arm, "and you need to stop doing pranks on her."
"It's better than being tortured and skinned alive by me." Dark One points out. Maleficent toasts in reply but they both pause.
"Lily is still unsuccessful, is she?"
"Don't worry. It takes time."
"It didn't with you."
"I was given the power by God of Fire." Odile shoots back. "Hers has to nurture with time and lots of practice."
"How about a race? Let's see how well your dragon has grown, shall we?" maleficent smiles fondly and squeezes Odile.
By the time Odile hears the screech of her newest addition to the Swan clan, they are on flight and Odile is quick to bid farewell with a soft, "bye, mom" and continues flying over the mountain and the clouds, tearing through the air in worry.
When Odile reaches the summerhouse and transforms back, there are still dragon scales on her right side of her hairline but Odile pays it no mind and knocks on her wife's door.
One glance and she notices her forearm still with darkest blue scales and Odile takes a deep breath.
The door is magically opened by Noodle, Odile steps in tentatively to find her wife sitting in front of the fire. The sight of Regina creating and extinguishing onyx fireballs in her hand is the least of her concerns when there is a faint smell of magic lingering. It does not belong to any of the two.
"Regina?" Odile whispers in a voice you would use on small animals to stop them bolting. The Queen's head swivels in her direction and Odile's eyes widen at the oncoming bolt of thunder (she will interrogate her wife later about that) and ducks out of the way.
"Regina what happened?!" Odile jumps back and splays her hands out in a pacifying manner but the red face of her wife does not look like the anger is going to evaporate anytime soon.
"You!" the threatening growl resembles something of a wounded lioness and Odile smacks away all the fireballs directed at her.
The onyx of her wife looks impossibly close to deep purple and Odile was more worried than before.
"Regina, whatever it is…" Odile speaks softly, gently. "I'm sorry. Now can you tell me why you want to scorch me alive?"
Odile lets Regina toss her on the wall. Odile will not hurt her wife, in no world will she do that. Odile stops breathing when an invisible hand wraps around her throat. A soft mutter, "it's me."
Regina levitates her off the wall and wants to trap her so bad that vines slither out of the wall and entrap Odile, her face turning red.
"How dare you try to con me?!" Odile shakes her head at Noodle when lifts his feathers, he did not need to get in between them. Odile could protect herself.
"It's me." Odile whispers when Regina is close enough and still speaking, to her everything sounds like a jumbled mess when all she's doing is staring at her wife's eyes.
"It's me, Emma."
Regina pulls back like she has been electrocuted and mouths the name, her eyes turn watery. As if she's realizing just now where she is and who she is trying to attack. Anger truly blinds people.
"I am sorry. I don't know why-"
"It's okay." Odile soothes her, like a safety blanket. "It happens sometimes. Concentrate on trying to free me. You want to free me."
Regina tries and Odile coughs out a small splat of black blood on the floor when the vines tighten. "I can't!"
"Listen to my voice. Think about something that makes you happy. You want to free me. Think about the one thing you want more than anything right now."
Regina, hyperventilating tries and tries until her body collapses on the ground and soft arms encircle her.
"You did well. Sleep well, baby girl." The last thing she remembers seeing is Odile smiling down at her, her teeth still stained with black blood and scales on one side and one of her eyes resembles a lizards'.