Killian winced in pain as the fingers squeezed onto him, but he lifted his leg just enough to give Clara a rough kick to the stomach, jettisoning her from the grasp she'd only half been in. He could see her, bent in pain, just inside the cave, as he was pulled out into the open air and held up for the snarling ogre to examine. There was a crooked smile on the scarred face and Killian tried to work his hands free, knowing if he could just get his sword, he might stand a chance.

It howled into his face and he grimaced, offering a light, "Hello to you too, mate."

"HEY!" Clara barked and he glanced down in time to see her swing a large tree branch deftly at the ogre's ankle and the beast recoiled, stomping backwards and then reaching down to try and catch her.

"What are you doing?" Killian managed to growl.

"What's it look like," she huffed back. He rolled his head around to try and see where she'd gone, but the ogre was turning in circles, leg swinging out at the pesky brunette who moved faster than it could. Running aside, Clara shouted up, "Can you get your sword?"

With a laugh, Killian replied in frustration, "Would I have been able to, our new friend would be a finger short and you'd be paying me a compliment as I stood in victory over its lifeless body."

"I'd be yelling at you," she grunted, "For kicking me in the stomach."

"Hey," he hollered back, "I might have saved your life!"

Clara ducked under the foot that swung out to hit her, "Lot of good that did."

Rolling his eyes, he informed her, "You could have hidden in the cave."

She offered a huff of amusement before declaring, "Let you get ripped to pieces by an ogre? Not a chance."

With a smile, he asked, "Wouldn't have anything to do with that kiss."

"Maybe," she replied sharply, as she moved in a circle around the giant creature that spun and then stumbled slightly. "Maybe not – I wouldn't just leave someone to die."

The words stung more than they should have and Killian worked again to try and free an arm from the tight grip he was in, a grip that had loosened in the ogre's effort to catch Clara. "Not everyone is worth saving," he told her loudly out of frustration.

Clara stopped abruptly and yelled at him honestly with a shake of her head and a frown, "You're worth saving."

And in that momentary pause, the creature caught her with the broad side of his foot and sent her sailing through the air into the bushes just beside the cave. Pulling his sword free, Killian shouted her name and then swung the sword roughly at the wrist holding him, slashing through the skin and sending blood spilling out onto the ground as it released him, fingers having gone lax from its tendons being cut.

It bellowed in pain, other hand coming up to clasp around the wound as Killian rushed to the bush, pulling Clara up by her arms and hoisting her over his shoulder to run into the forest, away from the ogre now alerting others to their presence. They would think they were villagers – their enemy – and his heart thudded loudly in his chest at the idea of what half a dozen ogres could do to two humans.

Tear them to bits, he knew.

"Clara," he cried as they neared a river, turning to look at her closed eyes and then swinging his head back in the other direction to listen to the stomping of feet coming at them. He clenched his jaw, and rushed towards the water, wading in back first as he pulled her over and let her body float against him into the frigid waters as he stepped deeper and deeper with her clasped against his chest. His feet barely touched the floor as they reached the middle and he took a breath, releasing his hold and letting them begin to drift away.

If they were lucky, the ogres wouldn't realize what they'd done and simply cross the river and continue their rampage on and they could simply float their way to safety, despite it taking them off course. Not that he knew what his course was, Killian thought to himself with a smile as Clara began to stir, screaming at the sudden shock of being in the water.

"Calm down," he murmured in her ear, "It'll do you good to have a soak – you're going to be smarting from that kick."

Her teeth were clattering when she replied in a hushed voice, "Which one?"

Frowning, he strengthened his grip on her as they continued drifting, both eyeing the blue sky in the gap between the trees, Killian occasionally turning to make sure there were no dangers just upstream. Because in the forest, one never know where dangers waited. He smiled at the thought, because people talked of the ocean as a treacherous thing, but he knew that treachery existed everywhere and every time. It existed in his heart, placed there as a reminder to be cautious of all things.

"How long do you suppose, until we reach the ocean?" Clara asked lightly.

He glanced down at her as best he could, chin dunking beneath the cold water to watch her as she continued looking up at the trees over them, completely relaxed against his body. "I don't understand you," Killian admitted.

She smiled, small and shy, and her dark eyes turned for a second to catch him staring, and she shrugged, "I'm not really that complex."

Feeling the sigh she released, he knew that she believed her words in the worst way. "Why risk your life…" he started, letting the words hang warmly between his lips and her right ear as her fingers tightened their grip on his arm.

"Why risk yours?" Clara replied meekly. "We make the world as simple or as complicated as we want it to be, Killian. I've had enough complication and the simplest explanation is… we risk ourselves because we're good people. People who don't run when others are in danger." She giggled and nudged her head back into his chest, "And maybe I like you… just enough to keep you around."

He laughed then, feeling his heel hitting clumps of grass and knowing they were nearing a shallow spot on the river where they could make landfall. "You're quite a bit more complicated than you could ever imagine," he breathed.

Clara smiled, turning to supply, "You don't have to say you like me around as well."

Chuckling, he pressed his chin into her temple as his heart thudded faster because he didn't mind her around. He was beginning to wonder just how badly things could turn out if they didn't find the blue fairy. Or any fairy. How bad could life truly be if she continued pretending to be his wife? If maybe one day she decided she wasn't pretending anymore. Killian closed his eyes and sighed.

"I do enjoy your company," he admitted quietly, wincing because he expected, at the very least, a joke, but his words were met with silence and, he noticed, they'd stopped moving.

"Caught me self a pirate on land – how's that for luck."

Killian opened his eyes quickly and found himself staring up at a group of men laughing down at them, one holding a sort of harpoon caught in the fabric of Clara's dress, just at her breasts, keeping them both in place. Two of the men splashed into the water at their side and wrestled them up onto the embankment. Killian shouted when they pulled Clara away from him and he stepped forward, ready to fight, but he was struck in the side of the head, sending him to the ground.

"Captain Killian Jones," one muttered in his ear just before he lost consciousness, "You're going to take us on a little trip."