Chapter seven
"You have to allow the magic to flow through your body, allow it to become just another part of you and then you should naturally be able to bring it forth to cast a spell," Regina explained as she looked through a magical tome. Looking up, she saw her blonde student flicking small pieces of paper across the table, and raised her eyebrow, "are you even listening?...Emma!"
Emma's head snapped up from her position at the kitchen island and she pouted under the disciplinary stare she was receiving from her girlfriend, "what's up, Gina?" she asked innocently.
"Why aren't you listening?"
"I was totally listening," the younger woman protested, quickly pushing the pieces of paper away.
"You were not even looking at me," she scowled.
"I didn't want to get distracted," Emma protested.
"What?" Regina asked with an exasperated sigh.
"If I looked at my hot girlfriend, I would obviously get distracted," she retorted with a somewhat wolfish grin.
Regina rolled her eyes, even though she had a small smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, "you have to learn to use your magic Emma."
"Why?" the younger woman whined, and made her way around the island to place her hands around the smaller woman's waist.
Regina brought her hands up to her girlfriend's neck, and replied, "we don't know for sure that Pan will stay trapped in that box, we need to be prepared. It's not as if you learned much in Neverland."
Emma sighed dramatically and pulled Regina closer, "Pan is trapped, it will be fine, and I'll have you know that I can now light a candle."
"I'm sure that will terrify the next villain that comes along."
Emma pouted again, and Regina leaned up to capture her lips, which made her smile goofily before she shook her head and pointed out, "we've had a few of these lessons, and I haven't learned anything. Obviously you're not a very good teacher," she teased.
"Even the best of teacher's fail with unreceptive students."
"I'm not unreceptive," the blonde whined and pulled Regina even closer, "I just need a less hot teacher so I don't get distracted."
"Or maybe you could stop being a hormonal teenager."
"You forget Regina," Emma smirked, and placed a kiss on the woman's pulse point, just before whispering close to her ear, "I have seen you naked."
Regina moaned slightly, before quickly pulling back, "I'm being serious, you have to learn."
"Serious, huh?" Emma asked with a quirked eyebrow, and she placed another kiss on the other woman's neck, causing her to let out a small breath of resignation.
"I suppose it can wait," she sighed, and crashed their lips together, before swirling purple smoke transported each to their bedroom.
Emma tentatively walked into Regina's vault and smiled fondly at how many times she had been called a 'child' in this building, before it turned into a pang of sadness. All she wanted was to have Regina back, and if she were being honest, spending time with Tamsin had become a close second to that. But instead of being with her children (though being around Henry was a bit odd since he had taken to asking how 'Regina' is), she was heading into a magic lesson with the Queen of Hearts.
The blonde quickly took a steeling breath, and entered the vaults main room where she found Cora casually flicking through a book.
"You're late," she commented, and snapped the book shut.
Emma looked down at the time on her phone, and sighed, "by ten minutes, come on Cora," she laughed nervously.
Cora rolled her eyes, and beckoned the blonde over to the counter that she was standing in front of, and asked, "so what do you know?"
"Party tricks," Emma said timidly, before making small fireworks appear above her hand.
"How useful," the older woman said sardonically, and pushed the book towards her, "do you at least know elfish?"
Emma shook her head, and Cora sighed exasperatedly, "this is going to take longer than I thought."
Two hours later, Cora had given the saviour an introduction to magic, explaining the different schools, and demonstrating a few basic spells.
Finally, she said, "what type of magic do you think you would be best at?"
Emma shrugged, and replied, "light magic."
"I meant sub-type."
"Sub-type?" the blonde winced.
Cora scowled, and pinched the bridge of her nose, before replying, "I just explained this, Emma."
"It's only been two hours," she retorted, "I need to process."
"You won't have time to process in battle," Cora ground out.
"I usually have a gun...or a sword, I don't find magic that helpful," Emma said sheepishly.
The other woman raised an eyebrow, before a thought suddenly occurred to her and a huge grin adorned her face.
"What are you planni..." Emma began, before she was enveloped in bellowing smoke and found herself in one of the forest clearings. "Cora?" she asked tentatively to the woman standing on the other side.
"Prove to me that your magic is unhelpful," she called and waved her hand.
The first thing that Emma registered was that she was suddenly holding her father's sword, which reassured her for a moment before she heard a little spitting sound.
Clutching the sword tighter, she refused to look away from the ground for fear of what she might find in front of her. After a few moments a crescendo of hissing and spitting began to fill the clearly, and she looked up to be met with a symphony of earth shattering roars.
Instantly, she vaguely recognised what it was, but she couldn't quite place its name.
It resembled Maleficent's dragon form, with a few major differences. For one thing, it was much smaller, but still towered over the saviour, for another, there were no wings on its back, and last but not least, it had three heads!
All three of its mouths began hissing as it approached the stumbling blonde.
"All you need is a sword, remember?" Cora called, and Emma nodded, quickly finding her footing, she stood her ground.
At the last moment, she dodged to one side, coming up on the monster's left, she slashed for all she was worth, managing to cut off all three of its heads.
With a sickening plop, the three heads fell to the ground, and Emma let out a breath of relief, placing both hands on her knees, "told you," she called.
Cora didn't respond, and Emma was about to look over at her questioningly, before she noted movement next to her.
Her head snapped back towards the beasts writhing body, noting that the heads had disintegrated, she turned back to the body, where the neck stumps were beginning to elongate. Emma tried to grip the hilt of the sword tighter, but it suddenly disappeared and looked at Cora incredulously.
Finally, each of the necks sprung up to reveal two new heads upon each of them, and the blonde finally realised what it was.
"A hydra, are you kidding me?" she called.
"Who doesn't love classicalism?" Cora retorted.
"People who have their swords stolen."
"Bring it back then, just clear your mind and command the object back into your hand."
The blonde jumped away from the six snapping jaws and began to back away from it, "you expect me to clear my mind?"
"I expect you to be able to use your magic in any situation; you have no idea what you could face."
Emma's back hit a tree and she let out breath of shock, watching as the beast came ever closer, she pictured the weapon she needed and almost begged it to appear, but nothing happened.
"Cora, I can't do this, just get rid of it," she called desperately.
"Use your magic or die," the older woman replied firmly.
The hydra raised its clawed hand, trapping the saviour against the tree, and all six of its heads roared, savouring in taunting their prey.
"You have to allow the magic to flow through your body, allow it to become just another part of you and then you should naturally be able to bring it forth to cast a spell."
Emma's eyes widened as the familiar words came forth in her mind. With Regina's voice urging her to cast the spell, she felt an unexplainable calm overtake her body. Just as the beast was about to begin it's feast, an explosion of light sent it sprawling across the forest floor.
With a flick of her wrist, the sword returned to her hand, and with one swift move Emma sliced off the six heads.
"Impressive," Cora called and walked over to the prone body, "but if myths are to be believed you have one more task to truly defeat it."
The blonde nodded, and shook her hands, before bringing each of them up and taking a deep breath. The smell of burning flesh filled the clearing and a moment later, she looked down to see all of the necks sealed, unable to regenerate.
Cora clicked her finger and the corpse disappeared.
"Not as hopeless as I thought," she chuckled, as the blonde went to lean against a tree.
A/N Sorry this update took so long, I have no excuses I was just being lazy haha but I hope this chapter makes up for it XD
Reviews would be much appreciated :)