Chapter 3
Emma' POV
"Here." Regina said, passing the magic cloak to Emma. The cloak itself was black and soft. For some reason Emma got the feeling that it would suit the girl very well just like the red cloak suited Ruby.
"Thank you Regina." Emma replied and she really did mean it. Regina was becoming a different person and no longer seemed like the Evil Queen anymore. The Evil Queen and Regina were becoming like two different people more and more as each day passed.
Also, Emma new that Regina was dealing with heartbreak over what happened with Robin Hood. Every time Emma thought about it she felt a deep stab of guilt going right through her heart. She knew that Marion coming back was her fault but she could not have just let her die. Emma wanted to help Regina get through the heart break and she thought that she would be able to help apart from the fact that Regina did not like Emma at all.
Emma and the others set off to find the young girl that may or may not be a werewolf.
Normal POV
Mia was in control as she felt herself change just outside of her hideout. She was no longer in fear of herself as she had been once, a very long time ago. Instead now she was proud of her other self but she knew that she had to keep it a secret.
Back in the Enchanted Forest people used to hunt her kind. She never had a pack which meant that she was even more alone and in even more danger from the hunters than other werewolves. She did not even have a non-were to care for her. She had been a lone wolf for a long time, even if some of that time she did not know it as she had been under a curse.
She had been under the dark curse both times that it was cast. She only knew that it was cast two times because she had once heard a group of hikers talking about it as she hid in the trees. To her the time between the curses did not matter especially since she had stayed on her own when everyone had returned to the Enchanted Forest.
When everyone arrived in the big clearing in the Enchanted Forest she had run off before they could group up. For some strange reason Mia thought it was vitally important for her to be alone and of no one to discover who she was or what she could do even if in Storybrooke even though the people where different here.
Being in the world without magic, thinking that they were different people than to who they actually were seemed to make people more accepting to things and other people.
Seemed, Mia thought as her paws pounded against the dirt as she ran. There is no way of knowing what goes on inside some else's head. No way of knowing if they are pretending to put on an accepting attitude and then betray you.
Mia pushed the bitter memories out of her head before they could even really form. It was all in the past but she had learnt her lesson and she was never going to make that mistake again if she could help herself.
She stopped for a moment to think about what she should do now. After all, the moon was not even in the middle of the sky yet. She heard a twig snap somewhere behind her. Probably just another animal, Mia thought. Dinner.
With that she turned and pounced in the direction that the sound had come from her mouth watering at the thought of a warm meal. She was stopped short though, by a black material that was suddenly draped over her.
She felt herself change back into her human form. What? How is this possible? Some one knows I am a werewolf! With that startling revelation she tried to shrug of the material, figuring that it was what was making her change. She felt hands keeping the material on her and she heard people talking but she was in too much of a panic to know what they were saying.
In her panic she fainted. When she awoke she was back at the station and in that barred room. She was in a bed at the back of it and no one else was in sight. She was taking in her surroundings when the door to the room opened an in stepped Emma, Snow White, and Prince James. She growled as best as her human form allowed her and glared at the three people on the other side of the bars.
"You're up." Snow stated. What was it with these people and stating the obvious?
"How did you get me to change into my human form?" Mia asked or more likely growled.
"Magic. The cloak you are wearing allows you to turn back into your human form whilst the moon is still up." Prince James told the scruffy girl.
Mia quickly got out of the cloak but she did not change back into her wolf form. "It is morning right now so that is why you cannot change back." Emma said. Can she read my mind? No. That is impossible.
"We are going to take you into the other room now so that you may answer a few questions of ours as you seem willing to talk to us now." Emma said. She was right. Now that they knew she was a werewolf Mia did not see the point in not answering their questions. As long as they were not anything too personal.
That is when Regina arrived. "If you are here, then where is Henry?" Emma asked her.
"He is fine. He is at Snow's apartment with Hook." Regina assured Emma that her son was alright. "Now are we going to interrogate the beast?" Regina asked the others, acting like Mia was not even there.
"Regina!" Snow gasped, seemingly outraged at Regina's comment.
"Regina she is not a beast." Emma told her. Then she turned back to Mia and said. "We are only going to ask you a few questions so that we can figure out what to do from here on." Mia nodded her consent to Emma and they took her back into the little room with the table and chair. Both Regina and Snow stayed in the other room.
"Do you have anyone to care for you?" Prince James asked gently. It seemed that they were going with the gentle approach now.
"No, your majesty." They were being polite to her so she might as well respond properly and politely as well.
The prince chuckled and said. "Look. You can just call me David or Charming."
"Charming?" Mia repeated.
"Snow gave me the nickname and it caught on. It is what I am called in the fairytales here." Mia stared at him blankly, not knowing what a fairy tale is.
"How have you gotten food and clothes to survive?" Emma asked.
"I took them."
"You mean you stole them?" Mia nodded.
"Who are you in the Enchanted Forest?" David asked. To this Mia did not reply. It was too personal and she did not want to share.
"What about here? Who are you here?" Emma asked with sympathy in her eyes. Mia did not know why the sympathy was there though. To this question she also did not answer.
"Ok. You can stay in the cell until we figure out what we are going to do next." David told Mia. They put her in the cell but Mia does not care as she is beginning to get sucked into a memories;
She had just lost her parents from disease that her mother had but then her father got it as well. When they died Mia had run to the next town and went to the house of some old family friends. When they saw her tearstained face they knew what had happened. "It is okay. You can stay with us." They had told her. A few weeks later though it turned out that they had lied as one night, when it was a full moon, they were all walking back from a day trip out when an animal leapt in front of them. It looked like a wolf but it was so large that Mia was not sure. The others ran off and hid but Mia was frozen to the spot from fear. The wolf lunged at Mia and latched onto her shoulder with its claws and teeth. Then it let go and ran off. The next month Mia blacked out and when she woke up she was in the middle of the forest. She went back to her friend's home and was told that she had turned into the animal that had attacked them the month before.
"What will I do? What will I do?" Mia had cried. Her friend's said to follow them and they walked for three days, taking twists and turns. They eventually arrived at a hole. "What is this?" She had asked her friends.
"It is your new home." They told her. They then left. Mia had never gone this far away from her friend's home and she was lost. Her friends were not really her friends after all. They had abandoned her. She stole from the town her home was located near and every full moon she would be very afraid of the animal that she would turn into until one night she decided that the wolf was not going to be in control, she was. That night she stayed in control and although she knew the wolf did not like it, it went along with the new arrangements. She hunted for food from then on and by the end of wolf time she had enough food to last her the whole month. She did this every month from then on and did not steal unless it was necessary or she needed new clothes.
That was two years before the first dark curse was cast. She had kept herself in seclusion so much that she did not know what was going on in the world.
When she got to Storybrooke she was down in her hideout and had an older brother but he died of disease when he did not want to be taken to hospital as even back then they both did not like other people and did not trust them. Mia had no idea who her older brother was because she had never met him before the curse was cast. They stole back then as well although no one really noticed it.
Just then Henry came through the door and both Regina and Emma started to ask questions like: "Where is Hook?", "I told you to stay there, why did you not stay there?", etc. Henry told them that Hook fell asleep and he snuck out to come here. After he told them they both then started to tell him off but he ignored them and instead came and stood right at the other side of the bars. Mia then came and stood before him.
The adults looked on as Henry stared into her eyes. They were both of around the same height so it was easy to make eye contact. "Hi." He said.
"Hi." She said.
Henry then turned around and said to the adults: "I think she should come to school with me." All the others looked at him with gaping mouths, except for Mia who did not really know what school was.
"We will have to discuss this." Regina said and Emma, Snow, Charming and her all walked into Emma's office.
Henry distracted Mia from listening in with her enhanced hearing by offering her food. "Hungry?" He asked offering her a half eaten sandwich.
"Thank you." She replied, taking it and eating it quickly. Then the adults came back and let her out of the cell.
"We have decided that Henry is right and we should try having you going to school." Emma told Mia. At this Regina just grunted and walked out taking Henry with her as if she did not approve after all.
"But we are going to need your name." Charming said.
"Mia. My name is Mia."
