Chapter 14

"You ok back there?" Aurora looks back at Emma for the millionth time of the day, concern apparent on her face.

"Fine. Just fine." Emma mumbles. But this is far from the truth. Lying in the back of a wagon proved to be far less comfortable than it sounded. Though Mulan and Aurora had tried their best to layer the hard wood surface with blankets, they couldn't disguise the bumpiness of the road. Emma could feel every rock, pebble, and bumps of the dirt road that rattled her entire body, sending waves of pain radiating throughout.

She found herself clenching her fist on her good hand, gritting her teeth together to block out the pain. They stop and rest often, but even so, by the time they'd reached their campsite for the night, Emma is covered in a thin layer of sweat. What she wouldn't give for some proper painkillers.

To make matters worse, at every stop, either Mulan or Aurora would continually pester her, saying things such as do you really not remember us, how did you get back here, etc. Emma is thisclose to exploding, to scream at them to back off, to cry out that she does not know who in the hell they are. Additionally, she would like nothing more than to ask them about what they know about her mother, if anything. But she forces herself to bite her tongue. The last thing she needs is to piss them off and be left alone in the cold, dark forest where she'd surely be attacked again.


They have started whispering. She tries to strain and listen in, but the squeak of the wagon's wheels cover up their voices. Every so often, one of them turns around and looks at her, as if making sure that she hadn't overheard them. As if she could over the howling wind and scrape of the road.

Emma doesn't know if she's grateful that they found her. Without them, she surely would've died. Though at this point, death might actually be preferable. After all, she has nothing to live for. No one who cares about her, trapped in this alternate universe with strange people who claim to know her though she's made it clear that she does not know them.

Slowly, Mulan and Aurora help her out of the wagon and settle her in their makeshift shelter, tucking blankets around her. Emma cannot help the burn of tears that come rushing; no one has ever been this nice, this caring. In all her life she has never known anyone to be this compassionate, especially to a total stranger. Vaguely, she wonders if they really do know her. Why else would they be so nice? But she quickly waves away that notion as fast as it comes. There's no way she knows a couple of fairytale characters. What a ridiculous thought.

"We'll stay here for the night." Mulan says as she comes back moments later with a dead animal in her arms. Emma mentally groans, already dreading it's bitter, tough meat and is surprised to find that she recognizes the animal though there's certainly nothing like that back home.

Soon, they have a fire started and the shelter seems almost cozy. Pieces of meat (if you can even call it that) are slowly being roasted. The spicy, pungent spell permeates the air.

Aurora offers Emma a piece, but Emma waves it away. Her stomach is knots and she's barely been hungry since she's arrived here. Her eyes focus outside, where leaves swirl violently in the air, and she shifts restlessly. If only she wasn't injured. Then she'd be far, far away from these people.

However nice they are, Emma knows she cannot trust them. She has experienced far too many painful things in her life to know that people are never what they seem. That everything comes with a price. That there is always a catch. That in the end, she always loses.

Mulan catches Emma's eye. "You can stop looking around. We're safe here." She gestures at the meat. "You should really eat something."

"I'm good." Emma squirms under Mulan's firm gaze; there is something about the woman that leaves her feeling unsettled.

"Relax." Aurora places her hand over Emma's, probably to soothe her, but Emma jerks away from her touch.

"How can I?" Emma snaps. The emotions she's been holding in all day are finally being released. "I'm in stuck in fate's idea of a cruel joke! I don't know any of you people and I have no idea how to get home."

"We're just trying to help…" Aurora protests, but Mulan elbows her and the brunette clams right up. They exchange a loaded look but Emma is too fired up to notice.

"Look, I get that you're just trying to help. And I'm grateful, I really am. But let's get one thing straight. I don't know you. I really don't know who you are. You can quit trying to jog my memory. Maybe I have amnesia and maybe I don't. But either way, it doesn't matter." Emma turns away and glares at the ground.

"You're right." Mulan says slowly after a long pause. "You have every right to be upset."

Damn right I do! Emma thinks furiously as she picks at a knot in the blanket with her good hand.

"I guess we mistook you for someone else. The name Emma must be really common." Aurora adds. Her words have this stilted quality to them, as if she'd recited them. "And we're sorry." She smiles, but it looks a little forced to Emma.

Her tone is a little too chipper, and she turns away to tend to the slowly dying fire. Aurora looks down as well and starts fiddling with a rip in her dress.

Emma stares at them suspiciously for a long moment. "Alright." Her bullshit radar is very fine, and she tells herself that she needs to lie low to find out the truth.

Now that the tension has been broken, Emma accepts a piece of meat from Aurora, who hands it to her with a hopeful smile. Emma returns the smile, knowing that she will need to play nice in order to find out what exactly they know.

"Why don't we start over?" Aurora suggests. "I'm Aurora and that's Mulan."

"Emma." Emma says.

"How did you end up here?" Mulan reaches for another piece of meat.

"I'm not sure." Emma bites off a large chunk of meat and chews the best she can despite her throbbing cheeks. "Several weeks ago I woke up in a large castle like building surrounded by people I didn't know, though many of them claimed to know me."

"Weird." Mulan comments, but her eyes dart quickly towards Aurora's.

"Yeah." Emma agrees. "It was total chaos. People were saying the strangest things, that they were transported by some place called Storybrooke or something."

"Storybrooke, huh?" Aurora asks.

"Sounds odd, right? I thought it was just a dream but there's no way a dream lasts that long." She continues on with her story, detailing everything up until the attack.

"Wow." Aurora nods thoughtfully. "That's pretty intense."

Emma nods. "Now it's your turn. What happened to me? The last thing I remember was being thrown like thirty feet in the air by some big thing."

"It was an ogre." Mulan answers.

Emma snorts despite herself. "I'm sorry, what?"

"An ogre." Mulan repeats. Her face is all seriousness.

"An ogre? Like Shrek?"

"What?" Aurora cocks her head in confusion.

"Never mind." Emma waves her off.

"Ogres are one of the deadliest creatures in this land." Mulan says. "They say that the last thing you'll see is your reflection in their eyes as you die."

As soon as the words leave Mulan's lips, Emma finds herself no longer in their makeshift shelter. She is standing in a brightly lit forest, next to Mulan and a dark haired woman whose chin is startlingly similar to hers.

"The last thing you'll see is your reflection in their eyes as you die."

"The only way to kill them is with an arrow to the eye." Aurora adds.

"Then shouldn't we be, I don't know, not lighting a fire?"

"Emma?" A hand is waved in front of her face.

"Ogres are blind."

"What? Sorry." Emma gasps as she blinks, snapping to attention again, allowing her surroundings to come back into focus. "I just, uh, spaced out for a sec." She says absently, wondering what in hell that had been.

"As I was saying, we were in the forest when we saw the ogre. We were about to run when we saw it was holding onto someone. Mulan shot an arrow at it, causing it to release you." Aurora continues.

"Unfortunately, we didn't foresee that it would throw you in the air." Mulan says apologetically.

"When we found you, we thought you were dead." Aurora says. "We brought you back to our camp."

"Thanks." Emma says, meaning it. "For, uh, saving my life and all. Dying by ogre doesn't sound pleasant."

Neither was being thrown thirty feet in the air, though.

They settle comfortably into their makeshift beds. Another flask of tea is thrust into Emma's hands. She slowly sips it, watching the flickering flames as she allows the tea to slowly numb the throbbing in her body. Emma finds herself growing sleepier and sleepier as the tea gradually disappears.

Out of the corner of her eye, she thinks she sees Mulan throw Aurora a furtive look. But that must just be a trick of the light, Emma thinks as she yawns.

"Have we ever told you about the time we climbed a beanstalk?" Aurora asks suddenly.

"Mmm?" Emma mumbles. "No, I don't think so."

"Well, it wasn't us." Mulan corrects. "It was one of our friends. She and her mother needed the compass to get home to their family. They'd come from a far off land and desperately needed to go back."

Mulan and Aurora begin to weave a tale about their friend who'd volunteered to go up the dangerous beanstalk with an untrustworthy, smarmy mouthed pirate to face a lethal giant.

To Emma, this chick sounded pretty badass. Climbing beanstalks, facing giants, outsmarting a pirate.

As she slowly falls into a deep sleep, images of giants, gold treasures, compasses, and a strange man with a hook for a hand flicker in her mind. That night, she dreams of herself climbing a tall beanstalk alongside a dark haired man. Pointing a sharp sword at a giant. Retrieving a compass and scaling back down the beanstalk, the world spinning violently.

She has the strangest sense that she was the one who'd done all those things. But how is that possible?