Hello, friends! I'm sorry it took me so much longer than it has for most of this summer to update. I had a very busy week, and then my family went on vacation with no WiFi. But I'm back now and hopefully can get some more chapters done soon. I have another busy week toward the end of this week, but I'll do my best to keep chugging along.
Until then, I hope you enjoy!
Witch Hunt
One Year Ago
Emerlyn finally slid off of Prince Charming's horse to walk alongside the others, starting to take her mind off of some of the things weighing her down as she watched Robin Hood's son, Roland, play toward the front of the group while they followed his father to Sherwood Forest, just behind Regina, Snow, and Charming as they devised a plan to get into the castle.
The teen couldn't make herself pay attention to the kniving adults. She just wanted to take her mind off everything she could. At least until something began shrieking overhead, and everyone jumped to be defensive.
Emer rushed to scoop up Roland.
As the flying creature turned back around to swoop at them again, Regina grabbed the teen and the young child and pulled them out of the way.
It swooped back around to dive at them again, this time seeming to aim its sharp claws at Regina.
Emer still held onto Roland to protect him as Regina stood in front of them both with a smirk and a statement of, "Not so fast."
She cast a spell that enveloped the monster in purple smoke, brought it to the ground, and turned it into a stuffed gray monkey.
Emer slowly released her hold on Roland, smiling at the young boy. "Are you okay?" She asked softly.
He nodded slightly, and Emer stepped back as Robin Hood rushed over to scoop up his son.
The sight of a father loving their child that much made Emer sick to her stomach.
"See?" Regina said as she picked up the new stuffed animal and strode over to Robin and Roland. "Not so scary." She presented the stuffed monkey to Roland with a smile. "Now you have a new toy."
"Thank you," Robin said with a small nod as Roland took the soft toy in his hands shyly. The thief looked at Emer next. "Both of you."
Emer nodded slightly before she turned to keep walking. She just couldn't look at them anymore without nearing tears again.
"Thank you, Regina," the teen managed to get out quietly without her emotions boiling over before the group started moving again.
She wished her heart wouldn't hurt so badly.
One Year Later
"Papa!" Emerlyn said when he met them to try and figure out what was going on. She rushed to his arms, grabbing him in a tight hug. She'd been so worried about where he was, if something had happened to him in the year they couldn't remember.
Killian caught her quickly and easily, pressing his face into her dark hair to hide the shocked expression on his face. She really couldn't remember. She didn't know that he'd left her, that they were separated for another year. A year of her life he would neer get back. A birthday he missed, the first birthday he'd ever missed where she had truly aged.
He would never ever forgive himself for that, even if he felt like his reasons were just. He'd hoped to be back by her birthday, able to give her a whole family.
He'd been wrong. But he wasn't going to leave her again. He had to make up for lost time all over again.
"Okay," Emma said as she walked down the stairs where the others waited, Mary Margaret, David, and Killian standing behind Emer in her chair as they closed her star journal when Emma started talking. "Henry's asleep upstairs. If he wakes up, you guys are helping me with the case, okay?" Emma sat down on the couch as she began her barrage of questions. "So what the hell happened here? I mean, besides the obvious." She motioned to Mary Margaret's swollen belly.
"We don't know," Mary Margaret said simply. "We watched you drive over the town line with Henry. Regina started to cast her spell to take us all back to the Enchanted Forest, and then… everything went black."
"And the next thing we remember is waking up in our beds like it was any other morning in Storybrooke," David finished with a small, confused head shake.
"Except it clearly wasn't," Mary Margaret said with a motion to her very pregnant stomach. "And besides this, Emer was with us, too. She woke up in our guest room."
"Almost harvest time, but you can't remember the planting," Killian teased as he looked at David. "It's bad luck, mate."
"Ewww," Emer grumbled with a disgusted frown back at her father.
Killian did at least manage to look a little sorry at his daughter as her reaction pulled a quick laugh from him, and he kissed the top of her head.
"Clearly, a year has passed," Emma interrupted, pointing them back in the direction of their mystery. "I was in New York, I know that it did."
"And we don't know where the hell we were," David replied with a small sigh. "We don't even know if we left Storybrooke."
"Aye, you did," Killian said suddenly. "I was with you all."
Mary Margaret looked at him with eyes growing hopeful. "In the Enchanted Forest?"
"Regina's spell brought us back," Killian explained. "We spent a brief time with a prince and princess named Phillip and Aurora."
"So why weren't you with us when we woke up?" Emer asked as she turned to look at her father with her dark, thin eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
He sighed a little. He couldn't lie to her. It would only make it worse when their memories came back. But bloody hell, this was going to hurt them both. It was another promise he'd broken. He just hoped Emer could find it in her heart to forgive him one more time. "Because I made a stupid decision. I thought I could find the Jolly Roger and find a way to be the family you needed, but I knew the journey would be perilous, so I left you in safe hands with the Charmings. At least I thought they were safe hands until now. But the last I saw of you, you were making your way to Regina's castle."
Emer felt all of the color draining from her face. He'd left her again, after he promised he wouldn't. Why did she still expect him to keep his promises? He was a pirate, after all. Not the man he was when her Uncle Liam was still alive, when she was still with him. So much had changed, Maybe too much.
She wasn't sure how to stop the angry, betrayed tears starting to fall down her cheeks, so she just looked down so none of the adults, her father included, would see how lost she felt once again.
Emma, naturally, either didn't notice the Lost Girl's sudden sullen silence, or she didn't care. "And now you're cursed," she said with a small sigh. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
Mary Margaret shook her head as she thought it all through, a hand resting softly on her swollen belly. "Regina seems as clueless as the rest of us. I'm not sure she was involved in this."
"So she says," Emma replied simply.
"I don't understand," David interjected quickly, looking at Hook. "If you left the Enchanted Forest before the curse, how did you know to find Emma and come to Storybrooke?"
Killian laughed a little. "I left my daughter in the Enchanted Forest with you lot. Do you honestly think I wouldn't be keeping tabs on what was happening there? A bird landed on my ship's wheel, instructing me to retrieve Emma and bring her back here. There was a small vial of memory potion tied to its leg."
"Who sent it?" Mary Margaret asked in surprise.
Killian only shrugged. "I assumed you did, to send me a way to help my daughter and the rest of you."
"Message via bird," David commented as he turned back to his wife. "It does sound like you."
Emerlyn jumped as the door swung open violently, and Grumpy and a second dwarf—she could never keep their names straight—barged in the house. "We lost another one," Grumpy announced. "We're down to five now."
"Four, actually," the other dwarf corrected as he caught up to the storming dwarf in front. "Bashful's not answering."
Emer wiped her eyes quickly so none of the adults saw the tear-stains on her cheeks. Now was not the time for that.
"Wait," Emma interrupted quickly, brow furrowed in confusion. "What is going on?"
"Thank God you're back, sister," Grumpy said quickly, expression wide-eyed, but his tone was a little relieved.
"It's not just our memories that are missing," Mary Margaret explained solemnly. "Ever since we woke up, people have begun disappearing."
"Whoever cursed us is picking us off one-by-one," Grumpy added quickly.
Killian found himself gripping the chair his daughter sat in a little tighter. She was not going anywhere without him for the foreseeable future, whether she was angry with him or not. Whoever cast that bloody curse was not taking his little girl away from him again.
"Who exactly is missing?" Emma asked in shock.
"Aside from those dwarves, we're not sure," David admitted, his hands on his hips as he tried to come up with any sort of strategy. "There's been a lot of confusion over the past few days. It's been hard to keep track of everyone."
Emma let out a heavy sigh before she looked up at her parents again. "Wait. Neal, is he here?"
"Well, we haven't found him yet," Mary Margaret said, careful to add the ending conjunction to keep Emma's hope alive.
"So he might've been taken, too," Emma said simply.
"Smart money's on yes," Grumpy said with a small shrug.
"Leroy," Mary Margaret scolded quickly.
"He'll turn up, Swan," Killian assured, his voice gone softer and a bit more guarded at the mention of the Dark One's son. "He always does."
"Some folks are starting to set up camp in the woods at the edge of town," David was quick to inform. "Neal might be there."
"Or he may not have gotten swept up in the curse at all," Mary Margaret pointed out.
Emer found the last point made by the dark haired princess a little farfetched, but she wasn't going to say that out loud.
The Savior pushed herself off the couch. "There's only one way we're going to figure all this out. We need to get your memories back."
"How are we going to do that?" Mary Margaret asked with a surprised tone.
"By figuring out who took them in the first place," Emma replied simply.
One Year Ago
"What the hell was that thing?" David demanded at the crowd gathered around him. It was a motley crew to be sure—the Charmings, both he and Snow, Regina, all seven dwarves, Belle, Neal, Granny, Robin Hood and Roland, who was still clutching his new stuffed toy, and finally the Lost Girl herself, Emerlyn.
"The same kind of monster that attacked us on our journey here," Snow White said quickly.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say it looked an awful lot like a monkey," Grumpy the dwarf pointed out.
"A monkey with wings?" David asked in disbelief.
Emer was starting to think she remembered picking up a book from the library in Storybrooke that had something very similar inside, one of the few she'd had time to glance through. But what was it called?
"Yes," Regina said suddenly, like she'd had a realization of her own. "That's exactly what it is."
"Okay," Neal said with a voice pumped full of confusion. "You're acting like that's normal."
"Actually it is," Belle said simply, though it was a sudden addition. "But not here. There's only one land that has creatures like that. I've read about it. Oz."
Emer remembered then. It was a strange book—yellow brick roads, tin men, scarecrows, lions, good witches and wicked ones. And definitely flying monkeys.
"Oz?" Snow asked in disbelief. "That's a real place?"
"The bookworm's right," Regina answered. "It's quite real. And if our simian friend is any indication, then I think we know exactly who's taking up residence in our castle. The Wicked Witch."
Emer bit her tongue to keep herself from asking if the lady would actually be green. Two hundred years on a jungle island with no one but teenage boys wasn't exactly good for manners.
Grumpy had a similar question. "We talking East or West?"
"Does it matter?" Snow asked as she looked in the direction of the castle. "Neither one sounds good."
"One you drop a house on," Grumpy explained to the princess. "The other you toss a bucket of water at."
Emer almost found it in herself to giggle at the explanation, but she wasn't quite there yet.
David glanced at her when he saw her crack a smile, and that seemed to make him feel a little better before he turned back to the Evil Queen. "So, Regina, what exactly are we up against, besides green skin and a pointy hat? What did you do to her?"
Emer's curiosity led her back to the same question she had before. Was the Wicked Witch really green?
"This time? Nothing," Regina snapped, a little offended at the idea that she caused all of their problems. "Never met her."
David blinked in surprise before raising both eyebrows. "This isn't a personal vendetta? Shocking. Okay, then, Oz aside, we stick to the original plan. Arm up, then attack." He turned back to Regina. "Assuming you can get the shield down."
"You don't need to worry about me," Regina told him simply.
Emer wanted to volunteer to help, but she was afraid the queen would want little to do with the Lost Girl, magic or no, so she stayed quiet.
Snow White did not have the same reservations. "I'm coming with you."
"No," Regina shot back quickly. "This is a one-woman job."
Snow looked at her in shock as she walked away. "What? Against the Wicked Witch? She has flying monkeys, who knows what else."
"I don't care if the Lollipop Guild is protecting her," Regina snapped as she turned to look at the princess again. "I can lower that shield on my own."
Snow White nodded slowly after a moment. "Then we'll be waiting for you on the other side."
Regina turned to walk away, alone.
Robin Hood looked around the group uneasily, shifting back and forth as he held his son in his arms.
One Year Later
Emer stood between David and Killian while the group investigated the apparent kidnapping of one of Robin Hood's merry men. She found herself sliding a little closer to David. She hadn't spoken a word to her father since the truth was revealed that he'd left her again, but her tears had dried and she wanted to help find the missing townspeople. At least it would be a good way to take her mind off of things.
"This…" Robin Hood told Emma quickly as his breath puffed out before him in the chilly winter air. "This is where he was taken."
"I wouldn't step over that line if I were you," Emma said quickly, jogging forward a couple of steps to halt the thief from going any further.
Robin looked up at her with wide eyes. "You think Little John was carried away 'cause he attempted to cross that line?"
"Yeah, makes sense," David agreed, standing in his usual hands-on-his-hips thinking pose. "The dwarves where out checking the line to see if anyone was coming or going when they disappeared." He turned to look at Robin Hood. "What exactly took Little John?"
Emer turned to hear the explanation, too. She'd read a few new books in the confusing days in Storybrooke before Killian and Emma had returned. Simple things like myths and magic and what this land considered fairy tales. Maybe she could offer some assistance.
"We didn't get a good look," Robin Hood said a little desperately, "some manner of beast with wings."
Emer sighed a little, which let out a chilly puff of air from her mouth. A beast with wings did little to narrow down the search. It could've been any number of things. A griffin, a gargoyle, a greek sphinx, and about a hundred other things.
Emma, though, seemed to have an idea. "That sounds a lot like the monster that attacked me in New York."
"You mean the monster you were gonna marry?" Killian asked with a tauntingly raised eyebrow.
Emerlyn rolled her eyes. Now was not the time, and she was so done with his pining. He was never going to have enough, she realized that now. She would never be enough family for him.
David, on the other hand, looked at his daughter in shock. "You were gonna marry someone?"
Killian looked at David with a confused expression that wrinkled his nose and brow. "Did you just miss the part where I said monster?"
Emer let out a high-pitched whistle that caught everyone's attention, and had both David and Killian wincing a little from their close proximity. "Can we focus, please?"
Robin Hood looked at her thankfully before he looked back to Emma. "We need to find Little John."
Emma nodded in agreement. "It may lead us to everyone else who's gone missing." She turned to her father. "David, take him and the rest of his…"
"Merry Men," Robin finished for her.
Emma nodded once, like that did not help with the weird factor she was dealing with. "Right. Them. And run a search grid, and see if you can find any sign of the missing guy."
Killian looked at her with a furrowed brow. "You're not joining us, Swan?"
Emer rolled her eyes again. Couldn't anyone in this town function without the Savior? Her father was the absolute worst for it. She hid her deep frown as she adjusted the scarf around her neck.
"Not yet," Emma replied with a small sigh. "Regina was right. I'm not gonna figure out who's behind this curse by talking to people one by one."
"What are you gonna do?" David asked quickly.
"I'm gonna talk to everybody," She said simply as she walked away from the group of men and Emerlyn.
Emerlyn searched the woods like she'd never left them, scaling tall pine trees and ducking under branches and peeking into holes that none of the adults could fit their way through.
Killian, despite the current rift between the two, never let her get out of his sight while he searched too.
They hadn't found anything substantial yet. A few broken tree branches in some of the shorter trees, like someone or something had flown through roughly, but little else.
At least until David shouted, "Guys!" and picked up a leaf with blood on it.
Emer dropped from her tree to take a closer look.
"He was dragged," Robin announced, his finger leading them down the path his trained tracking eyes had found. "He's there!"
The group took off toward Little John, where he laid unconscious on the cold ground.
"Is he alive?" Killian asked quickly as he stopped just behind Emer while the Merry Men rushed to Little John's side.
"Barely," Robin replied quickly as he looked over the wound on the large Merry Man's shoulder.
"Let me help," Emer said quickly, stepping forward and kneeling beside Robin Hood. "I can heal him."
Killian looked extremely apprehensive about the idea as his daughter started to hum to relieve pain and eventually close the wound. "I've never seen a bite like that before." He was anxious to pull his daughter away.
"Me neither," David said slowly as he knelt beside the others.
Robin Hood didn't seem overly concerned with it, or he was just too distracted to notice as the wound began to close as Emer sang her sea song.
"Okay, help me get him up," the thief said as the Merry Men began to push Little John to a sitting position.
Emer's eyes were wide. "I stopped the bleeding, but… the wound wouldn't close the rest of the way. He needs help I can't give him."
Emer rushed into the hospital after David and Hook, watching as the doctors got to work. Why didn't it work? She'd never found something as simple as a bite that she couldn't heal. What kind of creature was responsible for this?
"He's going into shock!" One of the nurses announced quickly as Emer, Killian, and David stepped toward Little John on the gurney as he began to convulse.
"We need to sedate him," Doctor Whale ordered just as fast. "Fifteen milligrams of propofol."
Killian had stepped in front of Emerlyn, like he was going to protect her from… what? It's not like she could catch a seizure. Maybe he was just trying to keep her from seeing the violent reaction.
She personally thought hearing it was worse as Little John grunted and groaned as his body shook the gurney so hard it rattled while the Merry Men tried to hold him down.
He started screaming before Whale ever touched him with the needle.
And then he sprouted a tail.
Emer stepped back in shock, her hand finding the first thing it could to steady herself as her blue eyes went as wide as saucers. What she grabbed just happened to be her father's hook.
When he felt the tug, he turned to look at her with concerned blue eyes of his own. When he saw her shocked, almost fearful expression, he pulled her close to his side. He didn't care if she was angry or not, she was his child and he would always protect her.
The human screams morphed into inhuman shrieking as the tail that seemed to have a mind of its own slapped the needle and syringe from Doctor Whale's hand.
"Bloody hell," Emer whispered in shock behind her father.
As the tail swung around and knocked Robin, David, the nurses, and the Merry Men to the ground, crashing into shelving, Killian ducked with Emer, and pulled her into his chest to shield her from the violently swinging new appendage. Then he repeated her sentiment, much louder.
The scene calmed after another orderly was knocked away, and everyone watching in shock as the shrieking turned to squawking, and standing on the gurney before them was a black-winged monkey that stood almost as tall as Emer.
The wide eyes around the entire room seemed to be a shared consensus, as Killian pushed Emer behind him again. Despite how upset she was with him, she still knew in her heart that, if he was protecting her, she was completely safe. She didn't try to pull free.
"Okay," David admitted breathlessly. "I didn't see that coming."
The monkey let out another loud shriek before pushing itself off the gurney, shoving open the hospital doors, and soaring out the window with a crash of broken glass.
"What the hell was that thing?" David asked in shock as everyone in the room stared at the broken window.
"Don't look at me," Whale said breathlessly. "I'm a doctor, not a vet."
Emer's blue eyes were no less wide. Flying monkeys, she thought to herself slowly, ever her thoughts drudging with shock. That wouldn't have been my first guess. Or second. Or one-hundredth.
One Year Ago
Emer wished she'd snuck out alongside Robin Hood. All of this watching and waiting drove her crazy, especially when she had nothing to do except think while she waited. And nothing good was coming from her thoughts right now.
She looked up when Grumpy shouted, "It's down!"
David turned to look at the gathered group behind him and nodded once. "We move on the castle. Now!"
Emerlyn stayed close to Neal's side as they started forward, wordless to her old friend. She was saving her words, her voice, her magic. It was her greatest weapon. She didn't know if they'd need it, but if they did, she was going to be ready.
They had a new home to fight for.
One Year Later
Killian, David, and Emer rushed into the apartment with wide eyes, finding Regina, Mary Margaret, and Emma inside.
"We need to talk," David said quickly.
Emma glanced toward Henry, who sat on the couch playing a handheld video game.
"I'll distract him," Emer volunteered softly. She honestly didn't want to talk about what they'd just witnessed anyway.
Emma looked at her with a grateful smile before the Savior ushered all of the adults outside.
Emerlyn moved slowly toward the couch where Henry sat. "Hello," she called softly, trying not to startle him.
Henry jumped anyway.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, her small smile turning up her freckled nose just slightly as she tucked her dark waves of hair behind an ear. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't," Henry assured quickly, clearing his throat and putting down his handheld game at the sight of the pretty girl in front of him. And, boy, did Henry think she was pretty. Her dark waves of hair were long, layered down to the middle of her back and showed just how thick her hair was. Her blue eyes were light and soft, like a clear cool lake to dive into. She was small, a little short and thin, but she looked like the adventurous type. Sparse freckles covered her face, the largest gatherings across her nose and cheekbones before they spread onto her forehead, lips, and chin. She was the prettiest girl Henry had ever seen, he was sure of it. And her voice was… magical, in a musical way.
"I'm Emerlyn," she introduced softly, smiling at him and blushing at little at his staring. "Emerlyn Jones. But most people just call me Emer."
"I'm H-Henry," the teenage boy managed to stammer out around his blush as he realized that she'd caught him staring at her.
"It's nice to meet you, Henry," she said with her tone unchanging from soft. "Can I sit?" She motioned to a spot on the couch beside him.
"Yeah," Henry said quickly, moving pillows so she could sit beside him.
"Thanks," she said as she settled on the couch. "So what are you doing?"
"Just playing a game," Henry told her as he put the game away. "Nothing really important. So, where are you from, Emer?"
"What?" She asked in surprise. Of all the questions to get, that wasn't the one she expected.
"Where are you from?" He asked again, no less kindly. "I'm gonna guess it's not from around here with an accent like that." He seemed to realize what he sounded like when he mentioned her accent, and quickly turned to clean up his mess. "Not that it's a bad accent. It's a really cool accent that I like a lot."
Emer chuckled a little, blushing again. "Thank you, I guess. I suppose it's just a product of my father having it, though. I've lived in Storybrooke for most of my life. I don't really remember where we were before that." The lie came easily to Emer, as much as she didn't like them. If it was to help Henry, she'd let the lying, pirate side of her come out. Like father, like daughter, right?
"So is it just you and your dad?" Henry asked after his own fit of blushing had started to subside.
She nodded, tucking her dark hair behind her ear again. "It is. My mother died when I was a baby. It's been just my father and I ever since."
Henry hummed a little. "Kinda the opposite of me. I never knew my dad, so it's just been me and my mom."
Emer couldn't help but smile a little. "Sounds like one whole fit."
Henry grinned. "I guess it does."
Silence fell between the for a moment before Emer thought of something that would most definitely carry conversation between the two. "This may seem a bit random, but I've heard from your mother that you like reading, and I've been looking for something new. Do you have any suggestions?"
Henry's hazel eyes seemed to light up. "I might have an idea or two."
Emer explained her situation, that she'd mostly ready classic novels or myths, and was looking for something a bit more modern for her next literary adventure. In truth, she'd been reading as many stories as she could about the people in this town to try and learn as much about everyone as she could. She'd managed to at least skim most of the fairy tales, Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan—which had almost hit her a little too close to home. Thankfully the author had gotten a few things wrong—and many more. Maybe Henry could suggest a few more to help out, or even just books she thought she might find entertaining.
They were quickly swept away in a conversation about books and movies and music and all sorts of entertainment that Henry wanted to share with her. And all kinds of entertainment that Emer would be happy to see or read or listen to as long as Henry was doing it with her.
Maybe this curse wasn't such a bad thing after all. It did help her get to know Henry in a way she hadn't had a chance to before. And who didn't want a new friend?