AN: Here's the next installment of my story. Have fun! :D
The little hut she stayed in was a quaint little home. It wasn't much, but what it lacked in riches and grandeur, it more then made up for it in coziness.
Swan was enjoying her stay, and while she was slowly healing she got to know more about her new roommates. She was told more and more about her friend's life and through him, his son Bae's. Bae wasn't around much; he was outside with his friends usually. He never spoke to her, but she was fine with it. She wasn't going to push him into talking to her. She knew the signs. She knows, she's gone through that phase before. It was too difficult to deal with, losing a mother, so he engaged himself with others to ease the pain. The two of them are hardly ever together, but that's fine anyway because she gets along with his dad, who in her opinion was better company anyway. Sure she'd help Bae out if he ever wants to talk, but she won't push him into talking about his feelings, until he's ready to.
Ah yes, her new friend that helped tend to her wounds, has even taught her a bit on learning how to spin wool. She wanted to do something to help out with. She isn't a freeloader, and so he taught her. She is fascinated by it, a quick learner. Between them is comfortable silence as they both work. They talk at times, getting to know each other little by little. Swan tells him about how she used to be a thief before she came into town. She talked about the way she grew up and she had to move from home to home and never actually having a family. Her host ended up eventually opening up about his time in the Ogre Wars, and that he was sent home because of an injury.
Thinking about the war conversations she pauses in the middle of her working and speaks softly. "Stiltz?" Ah Stiltz, which is the name that she's taken to calling him, much to his exasperated sighs every time she says it, deep down she knows that he's grown on it.
"Yes?" He stops what he's doing and pushes his medium length hair behind him. His warm dark eyes landed and focused on her own green eyes.
"I don't want to pry much, but what happened to you on the field? I mean, you don't have to answer if it's too difficult. I know the soldiers who fought in war back home don't like to talk about it much. I am here for you though, if you need anyone to talk to."
A sigh escapes from the man in front of her. A long moment passes and she thinks it's too painful for him to answer and is about to get back to spinning when her friend finally answers her, his voice soft, in pain. "I was posted in front of this prisoner who ended up being a Seer." His eyes looked at her, yet they weren't looking at her, more like he was seeing something that wasn't there and not focused on her.
"She said my actions on the battlefield would result in my son being fatherless." His vision returns and he's looking at Swan in the eyes. "After some of the things she said had started to come true I made the decision to listen to her. So I wanted to go home, to be there for my unborn son and my wife. I crippled myself, and for the result of my actions I'm labeled as a coward." Rumplestiltskin closes his eyes, the past being a little difficult of him to actually talk about.
Thirty seconds later Rumple feels arms around him, and for the first time in years someone has touched him, held him. His arms go around his friend in a tight hug and he doesn't let go, he just basks in the feeling of someone being there for him. "No. I don't think you're a coward. You did what you thought was best. No one knows the future. The future is a fickle thing. It's all Cause and Effect. I'm sorry your decision has given you this grief. It will pass, in time."
She leans back and looks at her friend. "Whatever happens, I'm told happens for a reason. We may never know the reasons for our actions, or how those actions will affect us. You wanted to be there for your son. That's more than what I had. I never had parents. Bae is lucky to have a father that would be there for him."
Rumple looks at his friend and he smiles a genuine smile. He hasn't smiled a true smile in many years; his last smile was when he held his baby boy for the first time. "Thank you Swan." He looks around, a bit embarrassed, "Let's get back to work, shall we?" Swan takes the little brush-off in stride. She smiles back and they both get back to work in companionable silence.
Two weeks later Emma finds herself fully healed and jittery. She isn't used to staying in one place for a long time. She's used to being shuffled about from home to home, and it's ingrained into her. It's a difficult habit to break. This morning she had talked with Stiltz and Bae and explained that she was going to go explore the world for a while. That she isn't used to staying still. The two of them understood.
So here she is standing in front of her home, Rumple and Bae outside with her. "Here you go dearie." He hands her a sack and continues to talk, "You'll always have a place to stay when you come and visit." He brings Swan in for a hug and kisses her on the cheek. "Be safe! Here." He brings out a small dagger he had hidden behind him. "It's not much, but it should be sufficient enough so you can defend yourself."
Swan's eyes go wide in surprise and she examines the dagger. It's a worn looking weapon, not fancy at all. The handle wooden, and has a small swan carved on it. Her eyes start to tear up, this is the greatest gift she's ever received! Sure she got the VW Bug but that's because he wanted her to forgive him through gifts, so she assumed. This was the first present anyone has given her, and she has nothing to give him in return, and she says that exact thing. "Thank you Stiltz! I don't have anything to give you though."
He waves her fears away and speaks. "Being there for me was the greatest gift I could've asked for. I don't need a thing! I can be happy knowing that I'm not alone in the world, that I have a friend I can count on." He brings her in for another hug, tightens his grip then lets her go.
Bae then walks up to Swan and for the first time he actually speaks to her since she's been there, "Thank you for being a friend to my Papa." He then smiles at her, hugs her, and then let's her go.
"No problem kiddo. I'm here for you as well kid." She smiles back at him, then waves one last time to her roommates and turns around and walks into the woods, her new dagger at her side, and her piece of driftwood turned walking/beating stick in her hands.
"Ahhh!" Emma screams, running from a pair of wolves that were chasing her. They are huge! She had noticed that she was being followed a few hours after leaving town. She's breathing hard, adrenaline had pushed her far longer than she thought capable, when suddenly she shoots forward, tumbling onto the ground. Her stick flew from her hands in front of her. "Oof" she grunts as the air gets knocked out of her.
She gets to her knees and she sees she's surrounded by two wolves, each one growling at her. Hunger clouds their eyes, and she knows she's in trouble. One lunges at her and she moves to her side and grabs her stick, smacking the wolf next to her. It connects to the wolf's skull with a resounding crack. She doesn't have time to feel joy for that hit, for the other wolf jumps onto her chest, crashing her to the ground. Grabbing her dagger off her side she doesn't have time to think when the wolf that was on her chest goes in for her throat she reacts, the dagger stabbing into the wolf's neck, and the wolf lands on her, motionless.
She isn't safe, she's trapped under this dead wolf and she feels the wolf she smacked earlier, tearing into her exposed leg that wasn't under the wolf. She cries and a burst of light shoots out of her sending the mauling wolf into a tree with a sickening thud, and slides down it, not moving.
Emma lays there under the wolf for a while, her breathing getting easier and lighter, her chest not huffing with exhaustion. The bad part of the adrenaline residing means that the pain in her leg comes back full force. She groans in agony. 'I have to move, I can't stay here.' She shoves the wolf that was laying on top of her off of her, and looks at her mutilated leg. 'What do I do?' She thinks to herself in a panic. She touches her shredded leg and winces. 'Please, please, please.' She thinks to herself. Her unvoiced plea, her deepest wish and desire was answered. She watched in awe her hands shimmering gold and the shredded skin repairing itself.
Five minutes later she's staring at her repaired leg. Not even a scar was left over. She stands wobbly to her feet and is amazed that not even an ache was present. Her clothes though, they've seen better days. Her woolen tan leggings, one leg is torn were her leg was attacked. There was a tear in the knee on the other leg from when she biffed it onto the forest floor. Her dark forest green shirt has seen better days, but at least it's intact. She's pleased to notice that her black cloak wasn't torn.
She walked over to her stick and picked it up, while putting her dagger back to her side where she kept it last. She continued her journey, looking for a place to camp, or stay for the night.
Dusk hits and exhaustion hits Emma, when she finally sees smoke from a fire. She knows it's not wise to trust every stranger, but she's willing to try and risk it, if only for a place to stay tonight. She quickens her pace and comes across a camp with two figures. They're arguing loudly, something about magic. There's an older man, old but good looking, like Patrick Stewart who in Emma's opinion is probably never going to age. The other man that was there was an older looking man, but grizzled and really gnarled looking. "For the last time, I'm not going to help you! You have only yourself to blame for the curse you're stuck with! I will not help you for your foolishness Zoso!"
"Then die!" The crazy looking old man said to the Patrick Stewart looking one. A flash of lights crash into each other and the two start throwing magic at each other. It looks like the Aurora Borealis of light shows between them.
Emma, with all of her luck sneezes, which in turn has one of the lights shoot straight at her in reflex. Her world got smaller, and smaller. She blinked looking at the two gentlemen who stopped fighting and they both stared at her. The one named Zoso laughed then disappeared in a flash of light leaving Emma alone with this other guy.
He just looked at Emma a few times without blinking, but then a few moments pass and he started to walk over to her. He stops a few feet from her and he's towering over her form, and he ends up bending down with a grin on his face. "Well well, who are you little one?"
'Little?! Who is this guy?' She attempts to yell at the man and the noises coming from her mouth are little chips and not at all her voice. She gulps and finally looks down at herself. She's covered in… Fur? 'What?' Her eyes widen in surprise as she notices her hands are small paws and her feet aren't hers anymore.
The man in front of her does a little hand wave and poof a mirror appears in his hands and she sees her reflection staring back at her... 'NO! Can't I ever get a break?! What is with this crazy ass dream place!?' What's looking back at Emma is a squirrel. Like Rocky and Bullwinkle, not the moose, the squirrel.
"Come, my little pet. You'll be my new familiar now." He says while picking her up and putting her on his shoulder. "You have nowhere else to be, so why not come with me, hmm?" He speaks with a deep voice of velvet. "I am Merlin."
AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter; it was really fun to write. I have a lot of ideas planned for this story. It will be long, but not too long, I promise it'll be a fun journey :)