Chapter 4: The Kindness of Strangers

The sun had just inched past noon when he noticed a rather odd pattern in her behavior. When someone gave her a compliment or praised her work...she was shocked, without fail. Every single time someone acknowledged her presence, complimented her work, smiled or waved at her...she looked like she wanted to cry.

Every time she fumbled about or messed up on something...usually the simpler tasks...she would start apologizing profusely like they were going to yell at her for making a mistake. Everyone made mistakes but this reaction...it was a preconditioned response. When they told her it was fine, she insisted on fixing the mistake or doing something to make up for it.

Some of the other villagers had noticed what he had and they started to encourage her, offering to help her, to teach her, to add to her already long list of skills and abilities. The look on her face...it actually hurt to look at her. She honestly couldn't believe how they were treating her. It made her quite skittish and nervous too.

Watching his beautiful and talented goddess act so timidly, so unsure of her actions, not knowing how to respond to their kindness...it made him wonder. He had heard how those two women had spoken about her...surely they would not do so right in front of her? What of her land, was anyone kind to her or...Killian almost believed that the Crimson Savior was actually a slave back in her land.

He had seen many things in his travels and studied a great deal about the human condition through observation and the conclusions drawn from those observations. The way the ginger reacted to positivity, it was very similar to the way slaves and prisoners would react after being confined for so long. He could scarcely believe that someone so beautiful and kind would be treated so harshly.

Why?

Why was she this way? Who hurt her so deeply and so much that when the slightest bit of attention was directed towards her, she would freeze in shock? Why did she act like she was invisible, that she wasn't meant to exist? His need for vengeance rose up along with the darkness of his heart...he needed to know why, so he started asking about her, using the gossip biddies to find the answer and find it he did.

Back in her land, she was barely acknowledged and most commonly ignored by most of the denizens of the town she lived in...Storybrooke. It was the place that Kora wanted to journey to and where the Crocodile awaited. Everything he was hearing about her life there either broke his heart or left his head in chaos.

The red headed savior spoke highly of a man called Mr. Gold...he knew him as Rumplestiltskin, the Crocodile, the very man he wanted to kill which was why he was so confused. The way she spoke of him...he was kind. The Dark One had been kind to her, looked after her, always acknowledging her existence, deliberately seeking her out just to check on her wellbeing, spending time with her and conversing with her when no one else would.

She spoke at length about the Crocodile, never mentioning his true name or his more color moniker, the Dark One. She spoke of them walking by the sea, talking for hours, teaching her about this world, preparing for any eventuality...he did everything within his power to make her feel at home, that there was at least one person that genuinely cared for her and had even stated directly to her that his life would never be the same without her.

That sounded nothing like the man that had cut off his hand and crushed Milah's heart. So different...almost like they were completely different people altogether. He sounded nothing like the bastard that manipulated the Evil Queen into casting the Dark Curse...and it only got weirder from there.

She apparently lived with the Evil Queen and that said Queen hated her yet nearly crucified someone for suggesting that she move to a new abode and away from the Evil Queen. From the way the red head talked about her...well he was conflicted.

He had personally met the queen of the Enchanted Forest...a bit sleazy for his taste and completely bonkers...but she did not strike him as the type of person that would allow someone she despised to live under her roof, to break bread with, or associate with them at all...but she did and was enraged at the mere thought of someone taking her away from her.

That was two very different reactions and on opposite sides of the emotional spectrum; hate and love to be exact. The ginger nearly lost her temper when someone figured out she had been talking about the Queen of the Enchanted Forest, her magic sizzling and crackling around her in warning...a warning that said individual heeded and promptly ran away.

Then later on she spoke of a man called Graham, the Huntsman if memory served him correctly. She had saved his life, restored his heart, and he attempted to look after her but could barely stand to be around her. Again very radical behavior… especially since he owed her a life debt!

This woman had gone above and beyond to protect this man and he treated her like she was some sort of repulsive creature that constantly repeled him away from her, doing anything and everything to get away from her presence. It was his reaction that made her think that something was wrong with her, that maybe she wasn't supposed to exist in that land, and for that reason, she jumped into a portal in the hopes that she could have a fresh start.

He could understand why...after being treated like an undesirable or just flat out ignored...hell he would have jumped into that portal. What the hell was wrong with those people?! How could they do such terrible things to someone so genuine and warm, someone that cared so deeply and so much that she was walking up to every single person in the encampment just to talk with them? She wanted to know their names, their stories...too kind...just like Liam.

The Crimson Savior held so much hope and love within her heart, even for those that hated her and mistreated her. She chose to care and so few cared for her in return. What will he choose; revenge for the past or a future by her side?