I promised Snow that I would see her again in the future. When I have to say goodbye to Regina she tells me that she would not tell of my magic or my identity as long as I did not tell any of the life debt. I assured her that I would not use the life debt against but she told me that she would have to pay it one day even though I didn't want her to.

I travel back to the camp alone although Regina offered to have me accompanied by some soldiers. I was afraid that her soldiers would tell the camp of my true identity, I am considered to be dead still. When I get back to the camp the first person I see is Cliff.

He was on sentry duty when he heard me approach. The second he saw me he ran to give me a hug.

"Angel, I have missed you. How is your back?"

I do not want to leave his hug but I know that I have to report back to the general. He had heard of my injury from the message I had sent to the general.

Cliff helps me back to camp by supporting me as I walk. Although I know that I am safe in his arms I still am wary of the other soldiers. They appear to have suffered a great deal in battle since I have been gone. To the others it appears that Cliff is helping another soldier walk to the general's tent but I know the reason that he is holding me is that he does not want me to leave his side again.

When I get to the general's tent I realize that there is something wrong. He is lying in his cot with some healers around him. The second he sees me and Cliff he orders the healers to leave so that it is only the three of us left. Cliff has let go of me even though he stays close to my side.

"Captain Cliff you are relieved of your duty for the night get some rest."

Cliff refuses to move from my side. The general does not try to push him further instead he gives him a new order to have Cliff fetch a lieutenant that I do not recognize the name of. He refuses to leave me, I want to tell him to go but I would expose myself and I cannot even try to give him a hint. I just wait for the general to give me my orders. The general yells for a page boy and orders him to get the lieutenant instead.

Cliff stays by my side the whole time even though I know that he has probably lost his status as a captain. He does not want to leave me again. After the general sent the page boy off, he turns his attention back to me.

"Master Sam I would like to speak with you. Could you come closer so that I can talk?"

I start to walk towards him I sense Cliff starting to move with me. I do the one thing that I never thought I would do, I use my magic to keep him frozen in place. I know that he would be mad at me but I wanted to go to the general by myself. Before Cliff can make a sound against me I keep his mouth shut. I feel him fighting to try to get past my spell but it is useless.

I do not want Cliff to follow me to the general side. He is close to death I have the feeling that he wants to speak to me alone. I slowly walk to the bed and kneel by the general. He looks at me with a glimmer in his eyes and then glances at Cliff.

He slowly leans towards me and yanks off my cap, my reddish brown hair falls out around me. I knew that I should have cut it but when I lived in Regina's castle I did not have to disguise myself.

"Hello, Angel it is good to see you again. You might not remember me but I remember you, you always wore that necklace in your father's castle. I could never forget it."

He had me frozen with shock. I didn't realize that my spell on Cliff had worn off until I saw his sword pointing at the general's neck.

"Cliff, do not hurt him."

"General, you had requested to speak with me."

I turn and see the lieutenant that the general must have had the page boy fetch. He has dark brown hair with skin the color of wood. When he notices me next to the general with Cliff he immediately draws his own sword.

"So this is the reason that you requested me to join your camp. I never thought of seeing another woman warrior in my lifetime."

"Let me explain Captain Cliff. I promise you that I mean no harm to come to you or Angel."

The general is weak but I have the feeling that Cliff doesn't care. I reach over and grab Cliff's arm.

"Cliff, please for me. If he wanted to do anything to me he would have told my father already."

Cliff slowly relaxes and puts his sword back into its sheath but he grabs my hand tightly.

"Lieutenant Ling, I am in no danger. Why don't you three grab some chairs and I will tell you my story."

The lieutenant puts his own sword away and brings a chair over to the bed. Cliff lets go of my hand only long enough for him to grab two chairs and put them by the bedside as well. He grabs my hand once he puts the chairs down. I sit in the chair closest to the general.

"Well, Angel as I said I knew that it was you the second I saw your necklace the first time I saw you. You might not recognize my face but I was the guard stationed outside your door the night that you ran away. I suppose that I should have checked on you after Belle left your room but I suspect that there was nothing I could do to stop you from running away. You were raised in that castle and probably knew passages that the servants have forgotten about."

Now that I look at him and think I recognize him as that guard that I saw when Belle entered my room that night.

"If you know who I am then why didn't you tell my father?"

"Why are you not afraid of me telling your sister? After all you two were nearly inseparable. Unless she knows that you are still alive. You are a crafty one Angel. You would have had me fooled if you were not wearing that necklace. You managed to confront your own father and still not be recognized. But I suppose he does not know you as well as he should. He was always focused on the military especially after your mother passed away. In fact you remind me of him in a way."

"How so?"

"Both of you put your minds to something and stick with it no matter what. You two want to make sure that the Ogres are gone, am I right?"

I knew that he was right, my father was always focused on military strategies whenever I would see him. Especially now that I was his messenger when I was sent to the castle Belle would tell me that he did nothing more than plan in the war room around the clock.

"You are correct. But the one difference between me and my father is that I am my own person. I chose the life I have right now and I don't think I want to go back to living under him. I have helped people without using my title."

"That is true Angel, I have heard the stories of Sam and I believe that you have earned a new title for yourself. But I wonder who else could have known of your identity."

"Only Belle, my sister."

"And I suspect that Cliff has known about you for some time. He was not at all shocked when I revealed you. He has refused to leave your side since you came back."

I look at Cliff and I see a cold look in his dark eyes. He is still holding my hand.

"He does."

"The way he looks at you is like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time."

"If you have nothing else to say then I believe that Angel and I should be leaving."

"Wait Cliff, let me introduce you to my lieutenant. Lieutenant Ling this is Captain Cliff and Angel."

"It is my pleasure to meet you two. I do not want you to be afraid of me, I promise you that I will not reveal your identity. You are not the first woman I have seen in armor."

"Who was the other woman that you knew?"

"That is a story for another time but I believe that the general has called us here for another reason."

"You are correct Lieutenant. I am no longer fit to lead this camp. I know that this is a huge burden to put on you Angel but will you take my place?"

I am shocked that he asked me to be a general. The only one who could bestow the honor of a general was either a noble or a general if there is an emergency.

"I am not even the proper age to be a knight let alone a general. Why not let Cliff or Lieutenant Ling become a general. I am nothing more than a runaway girl."

"There is a reason I chose you. You are more than you know, the scouting trips that you went on were the most successful I have ever known. You have taught the men a great deal even though you could not talk to them. You may not have been fit to be a noble but you are meant to lead your people. Besides you can no longer be a soldier with your injury."

I know that he is trying to help me decide but I am still confused. I feel Cliff still holding my hand. I look into his eyes and see the black in them. He is trying to tell me that he will follow me wherever I go, he doesn't want to lose me again. I could easily turn the general down and runaway with Cliff but I knew that I would be abandoning my people.

Rumpelstiltskin asked me one day when he was teaching me magic outside the castle walls.

"Why do you want to learn battle spells dearie?"

"I want to learn how to defeat the Ogres. My mother was killed by them and my father does nothing but plan. I do not want to see anyone hurt by these monsters again."

"You are an interesting person Angel. I will teach you but be wary there is only so much that magic is capable of doing. Sometimes you have to have more than knowledge, you have to have faith."

Cliff knew my choice even before I told the general. Staring into his eyes I knew that he was trying to tell me that he would wait for me no matter what I chose.

"I accept this honor general but I have a request, I must take this role as the mute boy named Sam and Cliff must be one of my Lieutenants."

"I expected nothing less from the soldier named Sam. I told you that I had a sense about people, I knew that you are well-suited for this role."

As time passes I still remain the soldier named Sam but I take care of the general during his sickness. Lieutenant Ling helps me to find medicinal herbs that he knows of to try to help the general but it is pointless. Some of the herbs can only be found in Ling's homeland a great distance away. I expose to Ling my ability to use magic in order to try to grow some of the plants with my magic.

Eventually the general nears his deathbed and he announces to the camp of mine and Cliff's promotions. After the general passes the camp turns to me for guidance. Although I am unable to talk I use Cliff and Ling to communicate my plans.

Time passes and my army is recognized as being one of the best under Sir Maurice. I have chosen a select few lieutenants who know of my true identity but they keep it a secret. The only ones who know of my magic are Cliff andLing. Ling has become a good friend of mine even though I think Cliff get jealous sometimes.

One day when we were planning in my tent one of the page boys enters. He is one of the few who know of my true identity so he is not surprised to see me with my hair down talking to the others.

"General, I just received news that Sir Maurice is to come to the camp within the hour."

I should have guessed that my father would have had to come soon. It has been some time since I became general and I suspect that he wants to come and meet the mute boy Sam, the general. I hear noise outside the tent and I quickly put on my cap that hides my hair.

I watch as my father enters the tent and walks towards me. I see the others trying to look to me for guidance, they have always followed my orders but they are at a lost.

"It is my pleasure to meet you General Sam. I suppose that I should have seen this day coming from the first moment I met you. You may be a mute but that doesn't mean that you haven't been able to lead an army."

I want to laugh in his face. When I was younger he told me that I would never be able to become anything, I was destined to live my life as a misfit. If only he knew the truth.

"I know that you cannot talk to me but that doesn't mean that you should forget your respect. I order you to take off your cap this instance."

I should have known that he would not have forgotten formalities. I decide to do something to surprise him. The others inside the tent were trying to find some kind of plan in me but even Cliff could not have stopped me.

"I apologize, Sir Maurice but I it has been a while since you have seen me without a cap."

I take off my cap and let my hair spill out. The reddish brown surrounds I and I look into my father's eyes. I thought I saw a brief flicker of something in them before they turn cold.

"Angel, I should have known it was you."

The others are surprised at my reveal but Cliff tries to step between the two of us.

"Cliff, I can handle my own. Let me talk with my father."

He steps back but stays close to my side.

"I have lived my own life without you in it. You told me that I would never be able to help my kingdom but look around. I have become the youngest general in your army and I lead one of the most skilled militia. I ran away from you not from Belle, I could not live under you anymore so I decided to leave."

"You are no longer a general in my army Angel. You have lived under a false name."

"I have not lied, I took the identity of Sam after I ran away. As far as I am concerned your daughter died the day she ran away. If you want to strip me of my rank fine then I will leave, I would love to see how many soldiers will still fight for you after I am gone. I have accomplished more in my time as general against the Ogres than you have in your time as a ruler."

"How many of you will still follow her if she is stripped of her rank?"

All of the men around the table walk to stand beside me.

"They have known of my true identity for some time now."

"Sir Maurice, I have served for her for some time now. She is no less a soldier than me. Her gender does not faze me, I have fought with another female before and they should be feared even more than the men."

I want to laugh at Ling's joke.

"If that is how it must be then you are to follow my orders as your ruler."

I want nothing more to use my magic to show him that he cannot order me around but I know that if he found out about my magic he would probably banish me from the kingdom and never let me see Belle again.

After he leaves I decide to drop my identity of Sam. The one person that I did want to find out about me now knew. That night I ordered all of my troops to gather for an announcement.

"Angel, you do not have to do this. You can remain Sam, I will still wait for you."

"Cliff, my father was the reason that I had to take a new identity. I believe that he is going to spread word to the kingdom of my identity. I would rather tell my own men the truth. I do not want to be thought of as a coward."

"You are not a coward, you are my Angel. You fell from heaven and hurt your wings on the way down."

I can't help but smile, he told me that my back was injured after I came back from heaven even though we both knew it was from the Ogres attack.

"Attention everyone, your general has an announcement to make."

I hear Ling introduce me and I walk into sight.

"You can leave if you wish. I will still be your general if you will follow me but I will not call you a deserter if you decide to leave. I have lied to you for that I am sorry. My name is not Sam, it is Angel. I was born the daughter of Sir Maurice and the sister to Belle."

I lift up my hood so that they can see my face. My hair is still in the same style since I took off my cap. I look around the camp to my men.

"I knew ye were a woman. No man can give them Ogres a wrath like ye general."

I look around at the men and I notice that almost none of them are leaving. I see a few turn and leave but the rest are staying. They start to bow to me. I turn to face my lieutenants and see that they are bowing as well. Next to me is Cliff and he lets go of my hand and bows to me.

"Thank you for accepting me as your general. I promise you that I will not stop fighting the Ogres until those beasts will leave our kingdom."

Time goes on and I become Angel once again. The war rages on and although my army is one of the best we still cannot stop the advancing Ogres we are forced closer and closer to the kingdom.

One day I am about to give up hope. My camp has nearly been destroyed by Ogres who ambush us again and again. Although I have used the book I still am unable to defend the camp. We are pushed up against the castle walls and in another day the castle will be overrun by them.

"Cliff I do not know how much more of this we can handle."

"Angel, do not give up. You told me that you would not stop fighting until your kingdom was safe."

"I do not see any hope for us of winning this battle. Even with the book we are still powerless against the brute force of the Ogres."

"Sometimes using your head gets you nowhere. You just have to have faith."

Cliff's words remind me of what Rumpelstiltskin told me when I was younger. I hear shouting outside and run outside prepared to fight. But when I get outside I do not hear the cries of battle instead I hear shouts of joy.

"What is going on out here?"

"I have no idea Angel. But I suspect that the battle has turned in our favor. Look the Ogres are retreating."

I was surprised at Ling's words but he was telling the truth. For some reason the Ogres were retreating almost as if they were afraid of something. I thought I sensed magic in the air but I didn't care. We had managed to win.