Chapter 6

Missing

When Emma woke up, it was extremely dark out. She looked around her and saw only vegetation she knew were from the forest she had ran into before trespassing into Forbidden Village. Confused, she got up. She was suddenly dizzy, she also felt much taller than before. She looked down at herself and gasped.

It couldn't be.

She hadn't the hood and dress she had worn before. Now, there was a gown on her body. She was in awe for the dress was more than beautiful. It was made of feathers, white and golden feathers that stuck to her upper body and flared almost at her knees. Was this her body? It couldn't be either. She had not yet developed such womanly curves. She reached up with hands that looked more aged than hers and felt her hair. It was longer, she noticed. It reached below her breasts, almost reaching her waist. She looked around, saw nothing but darkness and felt nothing but despair.

Home. I need to go home, she thought. She began to walk, feeling lost. Follow your instincts, Emma, her mother always told her and so she did.

The cabin was not far, she realized after walking for a while, but something made her stop in her tracks. She kept hearing noises, familiar notice. Her mama had taught her how to know what lurks in the distance by sounds, which is why she knew she was about to be attacked. She jumped back when a wolf appeared in front of her, standing defensively. This wolf she knew well.

"Mama!" The wolf froze where it was. "Oh, Mama! I was just on my way home." The wolf just stared, taking her in. Why didn't her mama just take her home? Was her mama so angry?

Emma ran to her mama and hugged her hard.

"Please, mama. Something terrible has happened to me." Emma noticed her voice was also different. Deeper, stronger. She must look different to her mama too. "Look at me, it's me, Mama!" The wolf's eyes met her daughters and she howled. She believed her.

Emma got on her Mama's back as much as this new height would allow and off they went. Soon, they were at their cabin and Emma's breath came easier. She feared how her parents would take the news…what the Dark One had done. How was she to tell them about the curse? Would the curse last? And what exactly had happened to her?

As they got in the cabin, Emma looked for her Mama's hood and placed it over her. Red turned into her human self again. She stood and fastened he hood. Emma was not prepared for the look her mother gave her then.

It was as if she didn't know her, as if Emma were a complete stranger.

"Emma," She said in a choked voice. Red's blue eyes were filled with tears and she tried hard to get enough air in her lungs. "My little girl," She whispered brokenly.

"Mama, what is it? Do you already know? Why are you hurting, mama!" Emma asked, trying to take her mother's hands, but she moved away and began to search the house quickly. Emma's heart squeezed painfully. Did her mama not want to touch her? "Mama, please."

"Loo—Look at yourself, Emma." Red said, giving her a small mirror. Emma looked from her mama to the mirror on her hand and raised it, only to drop it, sending shattered pieces of it flying everywhere.

"No!" Emma said, her fear becoming real. She felt different because she was. "Mama, I'm…"

"You're a woman, Emma….how did this happen? You're father and I have been worry sick about you and now I find you—I find you like this. This was dark magic. Who did this to you, Swan?" Red asked her daughter, tears running down her face. Emma wept too, shaking her head, wishing this were all a nightmare.

Emma just looked at her nearly broken mother, not knowing what to say. She took a breath and conjured strength.

"Mama, I have been cursed by…by the Dark One." Red stopped breathing all together. Her baby girl…how could this be?

"He cursed me for attacking him on accident…I used magic, Mama! I didn't know I had magic. And now he's put a curse on me." Red just took in her daughter and the gown of feathers and the swan-shaped figure that took place on the gown's middle.

"What did he do? Why are you wearing those feathers? " Red asked, not quite understanding what she would have to do. Because she would get her daughter out of this, she vowed herself.

"I don't know…I—" Emma paused and looked down at herself again, then looked at her mother. Everything was coming back to her. "He said…he told me that I'd be a swan. I remember it Mama. It was so painful. He turned me into a swan and he told me something about being a princess?" Her mother stiffened further and shook her head.

"Dark Ones lie and maniputale, my child." Ruby whispered, taking her daughter's hand and sitting in the nearby chairs. "How did you turn into a swan if you're a girl…a woman right now?" Red asked, wiping at her daughter's tears. She might have the body of a woman, but she remained a child to her.

"He said something else…he said 'If day light shall come, a white swan shall too. The only thing worthy of killing those wings will be the grace of the moon'." Emma said, chills appearing on her skin at the memory of the beast's voice. Ruby nodded.

"Of course..." She said. Emma seeked her mother's eyes.

"Mama, you know something? Have you heard of this before?" Emma asked. Ruby shrugged.

"Emma, look at your mama. I'm a wolf." Emma nodded, recognition hitting her like a bucket of ice cold water. "Wolfstime is brought by the moon and that is my curse. You're a swan by the sun, which is yours."

"Perfect opposites." Emma whispered.

"How will we ever destroy your curse? I imagine a hood will not suffice." Red said, looking defeated.

"We will find a way, mama. We must find a way." Emma whispered before the door to their cabin was thrown open.

"Did you find her, my love? Did you find our daughter?" Graham asked breathlessly, looking around before his eyes set on his wife and daughter. "I thought you'd be out finding Emma and yet you're here with—who is this?" He asked, anger darkening his features.

His father did not recognize her. Emma's heart hurt further.

"This is Emma, Graham. Something terrible's happened." Red explained. Shaking her head. The huntsman walked closer to Emma, eyes disbelieving. "She's been cursed by the Dark One. He…he did this to her."

He bent on one knee and looked her in the eyes for a long time. Emma could not hold back her tears when her father shed one, too.

"I could never forget those eyes." Graham whispered brokenly. "But you weep for something else, my lady. Did you make a deal? I want to know what has been done to my child." The huntsman said, taking in his daughter, making sure she was not harmed.

"He said I'd be a swan during the day and would be back to myself in the night." Emma whispered as her father wiped away her tears.

"You disobeyed us. You left didn't you? The Dark One doesn't come to villages like this unless there's a deal to be made." Emma looked down, but her father gently forced her to face him. "Answer me, Emma Swan."

"I did, Papa. I left and I went into the Forbidden Village and now….this has happened." She whispered. She knew her father well enough to know that he was as broken as he was angry.

"How could you do this, Emma? We warned you, we told you and you just left? How could you be so careless?" He asked in a gentle voice, his body shaking with anger and his eyes filled with pain.

"Graham, it's not her fault." Ruby defended. Graham nodded.

"I'm sorry, Papa. I truthfully am." Emma whispered at her father who's eyes did not leave hers.

"I shall go make a deal with him to undo this. There must be something I can give him." The huntsman said, causing both women to yell "NO!"

"And how else do you suggest we do this? Ask the only other sorceress we know? The Evil Queen will not do us any favors." Graham said furiously, standing and pacing. "I shall find the Dark One and I shall get him to undo this. If he won't, I will kill him. Then I will take his power and be able to help you, Emma."

Her parents began to discuss heatedly, for the first time in all of her life. She stood and watched as the two people she loved most tried to find a way to fix her. To fix what she had broken.

She sobbed and watched until the pain became unbearable.

"I'm sorry for this, Mama and Papa. I love you both." She whispered before closing her eyes and concentrating. Within seconds her parents had fallen on the floor. It had worked. They were both unconscious. She hoped the magic she had used had only made them fall asleep, as she intended.

Emma was leaving now. She was leaving them and never coming back, not until she fixed this. She had broken their happy endings and she had to fix them. Somehow, somewhere she'd find a cure and if she didn't, she'd brace herself.

This was her fault. She would save herself and save them, too.

Kneeling to kiss both of their foreheads, she plucked two feathers from her gown and placed them over their chests. It was a symbol of hope. When they were to wake up, they were to see the feathers and know that Emma would be alright. That she would save herself.

Shedding a tear and kissing them again, she left.

Days, weeks, months and years passed. Emma was a beautiful swan in the daylight and herself during the night, just as the beast had told her. Emma looked after her parents, who went to every witch or sorcerer in the land all of them said the same thing "You can't use Dark Magic to fix Dark Magic, unless it is the same sorcerers doing. The only answer is a kiss of True Love."

Emma couldn't stand seeing her parents suffer. She noticed they both wore the feathers she had given them on delicate chains around their necks. She visited them, at night, and watched as her mother cried upon her father's chest, but as always, her mother would sense her and she had to flee.

Emma looked and looked for places to live. Where could a daytime swan and a nighttime woman possible live without raising any questions?

But she found herself lost and as always, when the moon began to fall, Emma's transformation began. White and golden smoke surrounded her as her dress became her skin. The gorgeous swan fled, tears falling from its eyes.

Her broken routine stopped on day, for she had found the place she knew she'd call home: a lake. The lake was beautiful, crystal clear, but what caught the swan's attention was not the water, but the swans swimming in it.

Dark swans, light swans. She wouldn't be alone.

Despair had begun to settle in and she had convinced herself the curse would consume her, this is why the lake had such importance. It was to her as those feathers were to her parents: hope.

And so it was that Emma Swan swam by day and walked night, always accompanied by the dark swans that lived at her swan lake. She has become very familiarized with her magic, too; the power had taken its place inside her and she learned to master it. With time, the swans began a pattern; they would follow Emma. She was beginning to feel like one of their own, like their leader.

One night, Emma Swan sat silently looking at the lake and its swimming swans.

"Starting to lose faith, dearie?" Rumpelstiltskin said, coming up behind Emma.

"Never." She answered, not caring enough to turn around. One of the dark swans made its way to Emma, settling it's neck on her lap. She caressed it, caring for it as she felt they had for her.

"The swans are quite friendly, aren't they, Swan Princess. You should be friendlier towards them as well." The man said, sitting down next to the princess.

"You curse me and expect me to care enough to 'mingle' ?" Emma said, patting the animal on her lap gently, giving the sorcerer a venomous look. He gave her a dark chuckle.

"Ah, dearie. You lied to me. You are losing hope…and that light magic you've been using won't last forever." Emma looked at him, attentively now.

"What do you mean, beast?" Emma demanded, not wanting to let go of the one thing that make her feel hopeful, complete: her magic.

"White magic is based on hope and faith, dearie. The longer the time trying to fix something, the more you lose that hope and faith. The light will rapidly become darkness and when that happens completely, your death will arrive." He gave her a little bow. "Until me meet again, Princess." He spit before leaving and with him, more of her hope.

She sobbed, clinging to the swan before her.

The Evil Queen woke up with the same ache in her heart that she had been feeling for years. What the hell was happening to her? She could barely stand these days.

She didn't know why in the past couple of years she had been feeling like her death was upon her.

She left her bed and walked to her guards' resting area to check on her loyal pets. She has seen a great change in the huntsman over the years, but today his features gave her a chills. She remembered a long time ago when the huntsman had sobbed loudly to his loyal friend and her guard, August.

"She is gone, August, our swan!" Regina had obsevered long enough to know that both men were hurting immensely, but so was she.

What had happened to Emma?

Regina had thought the worse and ran to her gardens, feeling as though if the child had died, so would a part of her. She sat on her throne every day after that, trying not to care of weep for someone that was never hers. She often visited her garden and the lake that she'd hidden for herself. It was calming and soothing to watch the dark swans she had placed there in memory of the child she hadn't seen any more, but lately something had changed. Not all swans were black, one of them was white.

The Queen no idea if it had changed or if this one had somehow found her lake.

She's heard legends of a light swan that would rule, a queen. She often humored herself into thinking that swan was the legend she'd heard of. The Swan Queen.

Today, the Evil Queen watched as the white swan, not noticing her, got out and shook the water out of its feathers. All the dark swans followed suit, doing the same. A Swan Queen, alright, thought the Evil Queen with a sad smile.

Emma was tired of being a swan, of being followed that day. She longed for the moon to finally rise. She loved the lake and her companions, but she absolutely hated having to be trapped inside a body that did not belong to her.

Regina looked harder at the swan and noticed the strangest thing: the swan was crying. Did swans cry? She shook her head in disbelief and kept staring at the peculiar creature, until the pain in her heart became unbearable once again and sadness delved deeper inside her.