Emma awoke with a start and made to sit up, but fear kept her still after the initial impulse faded. Eyes wide and heart pounding, she surveyed her surroundings with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety, unsure how she arrived there. The last thing she knew was icy cold and agony, and so this… this was a change. Once sure nothing intended to maul her, the blonde sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. She sat in an old-growth forest with trees whose trunks she couldn't wrap her arms around without the help of at least four people. Birds chirped overhead and she thought she saw a doe wander through the thick, green underbrush. The blonde exhaled a deep breath as she gathered her hair over one shoulder and tried to stand. The ground felt cool but damp and the air thick with humidity, and had she not just spend a terribly long time in sub-zero temperatures, she would have had the nerve to be irritated. Though nature seemed to be abuzz with life, the woman couldn't find anything she actually recognized. Sweat beaded on her forehead and dripped down her back, which made the leather and wool she wore feel oppressive and tight. Gods, where was she?
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a flash of red, and the blond whirled towards it swiftly, but it disappeared quickly. Hope surged through her veins as she jogged towards where she saw the bright color in the sea of green and dark brown, but her heart sank when she found nothing. Red. Emma saw the woman last while she bled out against a log in the snow. Red left her there. An uncomfortable mixture of terror, anger, and longing boiled in her stomach at the thought. Terror because she was dying and confused and wanted nothing more than to have someone hold her and tell her she would be okay. Anger because the brunette left her there, cold and scared and alone. Longing because she wanted nothing more than to bury her face in the side of the woman's neck and inhale her scent and shut out the world. Emma felt her eyes burn with tears as she slumped against a tree, defeated. She wanted to go home to her family. With a soft moan, she rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms and then stared blankly around the forest.
She saw it again. Just there. Not about to lose it this time, the blonde threw herself to her feet clumsily and raced to where she saw that flash of red. Emma caught her foot on a root but managed to keep her balance just barely as she rounded one of the goliath trees to find nothing. Well this was infuriating. She walked further around the tree and suddenly found herself facing the woman she so desperately wanted to see. Brown curls spilled over the red cloak that draped the woman's shoulders and she smiled at the blonde, who reacted by crashing into her arms and sobbing.
"Stop l-leaving me," Emma begged as her hands tightly grasped the other woman's upper arms. Red cupped the sides of the blonde's face with her hands and kissed her gently without so much as a word in reply. The shorter woman laughed quietly into her mouth and tugged on the brunette's hair gently, just to hold onto something, to be sure this wasn't a dream. However, Red's lips turned icy and the kiss broke a second later. When they parted, two white-fletched arrows protruded from the taller woman's chest in mirror of the wounds Emma sustained in the snow-covered forest. Swan feathers. Emma felt her heart leap into her throat. The wolf-woman's lips moved soundlessly and she gave Emma a pained, sad look before her green eyes rolled up and she collapsed. Horrified, the princess moved to catch her, but ice burst from the arrows and sapped all the warmth from her lover. A scream ripped from her throat as the ice rippled from the woman's fallen body and across the forest floor, freezing and destroying everything it touched until it returned Emma to the forest where she lay dying. It was an out of body type experience, where the blonde saw herself motionless against that log, bloody and defeated. Over the log, her mother appeared, and before the princess's eyes, the dark haired woman's face and body marred with sword wounds. Her father appeared next and burns licked across his skin, following the pattern of the invisible flames that consumed his body. Emma charged at them, but they too crumbled and froze on the icy underbrush before she could reach them. Everything spun and Emma tripped and sailed towards the snow beneath her.
"Emma!" The blonde awoke with a start and tried to sit up, but every bone in her body protested and she sunk to something soft instantly. Her eyes opened and she blinked slowly against the dim light of the cabin. Whose cabin? Part of her told her to be afraid and to look for a weapon, but the logical (and exhausted) part of her said she was warm and alive and not in a prison, and so she was safe. It took her a minute to trust this fully, but a familiar face rewarded her patience. He leaned over her with a look of concern on his face, but it faded as he saw the princess open her eyes.
"There you are," he said with a characteristic puppy-dog half-smile. The huntsman grabbed a hand-carved wooden chair and placed it next to the bed with the back to it, and then sat on it backwards and rested his forearms along the top. He placed his head on his arms and chuckled, regarding her lazily. "'Bout time you showed up," he added. Relief flooded Emma's body instantly. She was well and truly safe.
"I called you Graham, once," she remarked softly after a lengthy silence as she studied his face. The huntsman nodded once, still grinning a little.
"You still can, if that makes you feel better," he said. The blonde managed a half smile and huffed as she stared at the ceiling. A thought struck her and she suddenly started to panic all over again. The nightmare flooded her senses and she forced herself upright despite the agony that shot through every inch of her body. Two arrows, swan feathers, cold.
"Red, where's Red?" she demanded, voice strained. The man shushed her and forced her back to the bed with a strong hand on her shoulder. He motioned to the end of the bed with his other hand, and Emma peered towards her feet to see a large, dark brown wolf curled next to her legs. Her head faced the top of the bed, ears relaxed and eyes closed. Emma noted the scrapes across her face in the same place as those she saw on the human. She saw further cuts through the thick fur, and it stuck up in places where she took particularly hard hits. Emma frowned and made to reach for the animal's nose, but her hand relaxed when she realized the wolf didn't lay within her reach.
"She wouldn't leave your side, and the bed's obviously too small to fit both of you," the man explained, "She hardly moves."
"Is the okay, though?"
"Just fine. You know her. Takes a lot more than some guys with sharp things to knock her down." The huntsman chuckled and shook his head before he stood from the chair. Emma's eyes followed him as he walked across the one-room cabin to the fireplace and poked a kettle over the fire with the toe of his boot. It moved lethargically, a sign that something stewed in it.
"Hungry?" he asked.
"…Yeah, actually," Emma answered after a second's thought. As carefully as she could manage, she pushed herself into a seated position, but the intense pain that shot through the left side of her chest and her left arm forced a whimper from her lips. She immediately took weight off the arm and tucked it against her stomach. The huntsman cast her a glance through the corner of his eyes as he scooped something from the kettle into a little wooden bowl.
"You won't be able to use that arm for a long time," he said gravely, "Or really, you won't be able to do any sort of intense activities for a while, not with your side like that." He returned to her side and handed her the bowl carefully, and then settled onto the chair again, resuming the same position he took earlier. The blonde peered into the bowl and sighed. Soup. She took a sip and eyed the man in the chair who watched her expectantly. It wasn't the best meal she'd ever eaten, but after consuming cold, charred rabbit and air for the past week or so, she couldn't complain. Minutes passed in silence as Emma finished the soup and handed the bowl to the man, who simply placed it on the floor. Now able to reach the sleeping wolf at the end of the bed, Emma brushed her fingertips over the animal's muzzle. She leaned forward a little more, doing her best to ignore the way her side protested, and stroked between the wolf's ears until she saw a pair of gold eyes staring back at her. Emma grinned, and instantly the wolf tossed herself onto the floor and grew into a tall brunette in a shimmer of gold light.
The huntsman leaned out of the way as Red threw her arms around the blonde and buried her face in her neck. Emma hissed and winced, but returned the gesture the best she could with an aching body. After a few seconds, the two parted reluctantly, and both Red and the huntsman decided it best to make Emma lay down again. (Emma protested, of course. I am not a child! she'd said. Both ignored her.) Once settled, the brunette shifted to a wolf again and hopped onto the bed to resume her position next to Emma's legs. After she paced a few circles, the canine flopped onto the mattress with a huff and placed her head on one of the blonde's calves. Her eyes closed and sleep quickly took her, once again leaving the princess and the huntsman in silence.
"How long was I out?" Emma asked at length. The man ran his fingers through his hair and arched his eyebrows in thought.
"Four days, almost," he answered, and then nodded to himself as he recalled the number correctly.
"…What's happening?" The blonde was almost afraid to know the answer, but this was important. Right now, her knowledge of the situation said someone burned the kingdom and soldiers in white who sported a bear's skull sigil tromped through the forest. Emma's blue eyes widened and she moved to sit again, concerned, but the man waved a hand to silence her before she made a sound.
"It's enchanted. You can't find this cabin unless you know where it is," he said in answer to her unspoken worry. Satisfied, the blonde nodded and relaxed as she awaited answer to her initial question. "She's called the White Witch, hails from far north. Charn, I think Regina called it. The curse in Storybrooke harmed her in some way, and now that she's regained her full power, she's exacting her revenge," he explained. Emma digested this silently, brow furrowed and gaze on the ceiling. Charn, White Witch.
"Wait, Regina? Is she-"
"I dunno, Em," he said with a shrug, "When they sacked the castle, Regina came here, said you were out here somewhere fucking your girlfriend." A sly grin passed his lips momentarily and Emma scowled. Regina would be so blunt in a situation that demanded seriousness. The huntsman continued before the princess had a chance to reprimand him for his words or complain about the sorceress-queen. "I haven't heard from her since then, though." It was his turn to crease his brow. "Something must have happened or the northern forces wouldn't be roaming through here so easily."
The fact that someone possessed the power to capture-or worse, kill-Regina worried her. Since the end of the curse and the truce called between Snow White and her step-mother, people began to soften their views towards Regina. It was difficult at first, but the woman wasn't her mother, and people realized she could use her power to help rather than hurt. She wove magic like a knight wielded a sword. Downing her wouldn't have been easy.
"My parents? The dwarves? The fairies?"
"Nothing. I don't know, Emma, I don't." He sounded exasperated for the first time, and the blonde frowned. He was just as worried as her; fear of the unknown did nothing for one's nerves.
"So… what do we do," Emma asked softly. The man she called Graham regarded her seriously for a long time, mouth on his hands that clutched the top of the chair where he sat.
"You have to get out," he answered solemnly. The princess carefully rolled onto her side and stared at him, incredulous. She couldn't run!
"Graham!" she hissed, using the familiar name, "My parents could be dead and you're telling me to get out? To just leave them?" She felt her voice raise before she heard it and quickly silenced herself after she glanced at the wolf sleeping near her feet. The animal still dozed peacefully, and so the woman's light eyes returned to the huntsman's.
"Yes."
"Gods be damned, you want me to just forget this even happened? I'm not a coward!" she barked. This time, one of the wolf's ears flicked and she shifted in her sleep, her subconscious aware of the impending argument. The man suddenly stood and swung the chair out of the way with a startling display of power. He pressed the blonde to the bed and put his face inches from her to force her to stare into his eyes. Taken aback, Emma's lips parted as a surprised squeak left them.
"Emma Swan, you listen to me," he growled, "You and Red are in no position to go marching into this outmanned Gods-know-how-many to one. You are injured and emotionally strained. Your allies are scattered or dead. I am telling you to do the brave thing and live instead of running down there to die like some sort of fucking hero," he continued. Emma couldn't argue, just stare. She searched his eyes until he released her with a bear-like noise that came from somewhere deep in his chest. The tall man stalked across the room to the fireplace and folded his arms as he watched the small flames curl around the charred logs within.
"You'll leave in three days," he said softly, "Once you're strong enough to sit a horse. You and Red will head south and stay there."
"For how long?" Emma asked while she regarded the wooden wall on the other side of the room. She didn't particularly want another argument.
"As long as it takes." The huntsman grabbed a coat lined with fur, a light gray cloak, and left without another word. For her entire life, Emma Swan ran from her problems until all that running landed her in Storybrooke. Even there she tried to flee every time a challenge arose, but she overcame it eventually. Now that mindset entrenched itself into her thought process, and so the thought of running again didn't sit quite right. He asked her to leave almost all her family and her new life, and for what? For how long? As long as it takes. Emma sighed and rolled onto her back. After she allowed thoughts to race through her head for long enough, she succumbed to sleep.
Again, the white-fletched arrows stuck themselves in the brunette's chest and Emma howled, helpless as she watched them freeze the woman and everything she ever loved in this world until it all died. White swan feathers. This was her fault, all her fault. Powerless, the blonde simply screamed as she shook the woman's cold, lifeless body. Wake up, wake up, wake up! You're leaving me again! You're leaving me alone and it's my fault! Wake up!
And she did. Emma collided with wakefulness violently, shaking and crying and covered in a cold sweat. In the fury of the nightmare, she must have kicked the wolf, who now stood on the floor near the blonde's head. A second later, the dull shimmer revealed the tall brunette, and Emma reached for her with both arms as sobs wracked her entire body. Red sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms gently around the princess so as not to hurt her further, but the blonde was beyond caring. She clutched her lover's torso with every ounce of strength she could muster, even though it drew an involuntary shriek of pain as the movement disturbed the wounds on her left side. She didn't care anymore, even though her body practically begged for stillness to quiet the pain. The brunette made soft, unintelligible comforting noises and rocked Emma gently until the shaking subsided somewhat. Red's skin against the blonde's clammy body felt warm and reassuring, and when some of the tension left Emma's body, she managed to lean away slightly to eye her lover in the dim light.
"P-please don't leave," she implored. Red's eyebrows arched sympathetically as she cupped the side of the other woman's face and brushed away a few tears with her thumb.
"I'm not leaving you, Ems," she said sweetly, and then placed a delicate kiss on the woman's forehead. The blonde tugged on her hand gently.
"Don't leave," she repeated at a whisper.
"It's a little bed, I can't fit here as a human."
"Please." That one word spoken with such hurt and fear shattered the brunette's heart, and without another word, she curled into the small bed with the half-panicked woman. It was true, they hardly fit. Red had to lay on her back and Emma curled up half on top of her just to squeeze onto the tiny mattress, but it instantly put the princess's mind to rest. Her head dropped to Red's chest under her chin and her eyes closed. The wolf-woman draped her arms over the other's torso, mindful of her wounds, and sighed deeply as she allowed herself to drift away as well.