Robin could see the fog of breaths ahead of him breathing ahead of him. Getting to their campsite was taking a bit longer than usual because the typical paths were covered in snow and difficult to read. When the party finally reached their site it all had collapsed and fallen apart. Some trees had fallen on tents and makeshift canopies due to the snowstorm. The same green foliage that used to camouflage and insulate their homes now laid buried deep below the snow's surface. The people of Sherwood Forest were devastated. They were not prepared for inclement weather such as this. What were they to do? All of their tools and supplies were hidden in the snow.
"What now?!" shouted a man. "Are we just supposed to wait for the snow and ice to melt?"
"We've never had weather like this in Storybrooke," said another man in their group. "There was no way of knowing to prepare for something like this."
"The snow witch, Elsa, is to blame for all of this," said Marian softly. The rest of the men turned to look at her; her words were just audible enough for them to hear what she had said.
"What?" said Robin, holding Roland up on his shoulders to avoid his little body from getting lost and wet in the deep snow. He moved in closer to Marian to hear her better.
"In the convent we learned from her sister, Anna, that Elsa was the one who conjured this storm," Marian looked up into the sea of faces and addressed them publicly, "Again, we have royals and people of power trying to rule over us. We did nothing wrong to this Elsa. There was no reason for her to attack us. That's what this is. This is an attack on us and our livelihoods."
"But we've nothing to fight against this beastly cold mistress," called out another man in their group.
"That's not true!" argued Marian, her voice taking on a more authoritative tone. "We have fire! We have our bows and our wits! Let us show this Ice Queen that she does not rule us. We rule us!"
A few men cheered after Marian's comment. With her inspirational words, she was quickly turning the mood of the people from despair to motivation. She continued, "These are our homes, our kingdoms! Our kingdoms have been attacked. And as queens and kings of our kingdoms we must defend what is rightfully ours! Come with me!"
"Yeah!" roared out the crowd in enthusiasm. Men were making torches from the spare wood they could find from their shattered homes. People were ripping pieces of dry clothing and wrapping it around the ends of these pieces of wood and lighting them on fire with lighters they had in their pockets. People were walking around the broken camp for whatever weapons they could find.
"Marian!" shouted Robin. "We are not handling this situation wisely. There are things about this foe we still don't know about. We need to go back to the convent and find out more about this Elsa."
"You can go back to the convent with Roland if you so desire," she said with a scornful look, "but the rest of us are not going to wait idly by for the royal family to do something and continue making poor decisions on our behalf. That is not us. That is not who we are."
There was a look of fire in her eyes that Robin never noticed before. It was fierce and frightening and it left him speechless. She turned away from him and cried out into the crowd, "Anna spoke last of Elsa's whereabouts toward the highest point in Storybrooke. That's where we are heading." Men from the camp finished collecting their torches and artillery and followed Marian, leading the mob to storm Elsa's home.
… …
"…and that's the tale of The Lost Kingdom of Arendelle," finished Mary-Margaret to her daughter. Hook, Regina, Henry and Emma sat nearby as she told the tale.
"The way it was explained to me, the moral of the story was obedience and the consequence of not listening to your parents." Her snide remark made everyone's heads turn disdainfully. "What? The two sisters lost their parents and were left to figure things out for themselves, ignoring the advice of their parents in the process… and of course not thinking of the consequences to their actions." Regina looked scathingly back over at Emma. Emma looked away, trying not to look hurt by her last statement.
"I'm just finding it ironic that there are fairy tales in the realm of Fairy Tale Land. I thought that all fairy tales came only from Fairy Tale Land. I thought you guys were pretty much the only original ones," Emma thought, perplexed.
Mother Superior dropped by, happening to eavesdrop on the conversation and touched Emma's shoulder as if calmly alerting her of her presence, "Emma, there are as many fairy tales as there are fairies. And there are as many fairies as there are stars in the sky. You, yourself, right now, are a living fairy tale. Every creature, being, entity that is alive or not alive has its own tale to tell. The problem is, not all are recorded so we don't ever hear everyone's. I think you're still too accustomed to the world outside of Storybrooke. The Enchanted Forest is your Fairy Tale Land because coincidentally, there are tales that come from a realm that happen to have fairies. Is it so hard to believe that tales from our realm have derivations from other realms as well?"
"I suppose… other realms… portals…" Emma thought. Something was clicking in her head and couldn't quite put her finger on it just yet. Mary-Margret gently laid her hand on her daughter's knee. "What is it?" her mother asked.
Emma's eyes appeared as though they were focused on the ground, but thoughts were clearly passing through the forefront of her mind. "I can't help but believe this is my fault..."
"I could have told you that," said Regina nonchalantly. "And quite frankly, it wouldn't surprise me."
"Mom," interjected Henry, "You're not helping." At Henry's honest statement, Regina decided that Henry was right and that it was best to reserve her strength and keep her mouth shut. "Go on Mom…" said Henry looking at Emma encouragingly. He smiled at a stunned Emma who looked back her son gratefully. She resumed her thought process.
"It can't be a coincidence that Hook and I arrived from the time portal and the next day this Queen Elsa shows up. We were really careful to not alter anything from the timeline." Emma thought back retracing her steps. "If it wasn't for Rumplestiltskin returning the clothes we borrowed…" All of sudden, Emma felt closer to an explanation as if an epiphany was just bubbling to the surface, "Killian…" she immediately turned looking for him. She found him sitting just behind her, studious and reserved just waiting for the opportunity to be helpful. Her eyes made contact with his. "When we were in Rumplestiltskin's castle, he put us in that weird room with no doors or windows, you had accidentally touched an item there…"
"Yes, but as you recall, I had set it down. Besides, I had only brought back one item, and it was that lass you insisted on bringing back with us."
"I know, but that time portal had some pull to it. It may have sucked it or another item from that room as well."
"The Dark One did say, right before putting us in that cursed place, that it was 'Someplace safe… Somewhere even he didn't go because the magic was either too dark or too unpredictable for him'. It may very well be possible that's how Elsa made it into Storybrooke, Swan."
Just then Snow's cell phone started going off. "It's Ruby!" Snow flipped open her cell and answered, "Hello?" They could hear Ruby's murmured voice on the other end. While everyone waited with bated breath to hear news from Ruby, Regina pointed out, "That could also explain why our favorite imp has been conveniently M.I.A. He must have done something to incur her wrath on us. And Elsa did mention wanting to speak with him before cursing me."
"Yeah, and I still haven't heard anything back from Belle all day either," agreed Emma.
"Mmhmm. Oh! Ok, thank you! Ok, I'll tell the others." Mary-Margret flipped her phone ending the call. "Ruby said that Belle arrived magically inside the lobby of the Bed and Breakfast. She's suffering from hypothermia and is now bed-ridden, but before that she managed to communicate that Mr. Gold had sent her to get help with Elsa."
"If Mr. Gold needs help, that can never be a good sign," remarked Emma.
"Aye," concurred Hook.
All of a sudden the convent doors flew open. Robin walked in carrying Roland on his shoulders. When they entered the church's warm room Robin had set him down and Roland ran straight for Regina giving her an unexpected hug. "Roland!" Regina said out of surprise. She looked up at Robin, making his way toward the group. "Robin!" her heart skipped a beat out of the welcomed surprise. "Why is your hair all white?" asked Roland innocently, looking up at her.
Regina was at a loss for words, but Henry gladly answered for her, "She's sporting a new look."
"What's going?" ask Mary-Margret. "What happened?" asked Snow's daughter.
"The rest of my group departed only moments ago," Robin said trying to catch his breath, "Our camp had been decimated by the snow storm caused by Elsa. I'm afraid they're heading to confront Elsa right now. I insisted that they come back here for more information, but Marian insisted and led the charge."
"What's their plan? To shout angry plights of injustice into the wind while carrying torches and pitchforks?" Emma asked with pure sarcasm, hoping that people didn't still resolve to cliché archaic ways.
"Yeah… that pretty much sums it up," Robin replied simply.
Emma rolled her eyes and heaved a stressful sigh. "Great…" she said exhaustively. "Come on, guys. Let's go stop a mob," Emma stated getting up from the pew. They all took her cue and got up to follow suit following her down the aisle. Henry and Regina stood up together.
"I think I might stay," she said to her son.
"Ok Mom," he said as he hugged his mother. She returned the affection by kissing him on the head saying, "I love you." Henry buried his head in her chest, hearing the cursed heart that beat for him. "I love you too," he said lovingly back. They parted and Henry left his adopted mother for his birth mother on their quest to stop a mob. Their group all walked hurriedly down the aisle and out the convent doors leaving Mother Superior, Roland, Robin and Regina left in the church.
"Mother Superior," called out Robin. "Could you please look after my little one? I would be forever in your debt."
"Yes, of course. It would be our pleasure," assured the Blue Fairy. Blue walked over to Regina who sweetly offered one of Roland's hands leading him to the kitchen. Blue whispered something into Roland's ear, then Roland excitedly shouted back at his father, "Bye daddy! We're gonna get hot chocolate!" and with his other little hand, he waved 'goodbye' toward Regina. Regina smiled lovingly, waving courteously back as Roland exited the room into the kitchens. The two left the atrium, leaving Robin and Regina to share the silence that now fell upon them.
"Am I to assume that we will never speak to each other ever again?" asked Robin extending his hand toward Regina.
"I thought you're still with Marian," she said coldly, standing there looking at his hand. His gesture left her feeling hesitant, fighting the natural temptation to automatically take it.
"People change," he said giving her a warm smile. "Besides, if I even have a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of this alive, I'm going to need your magical abilities to save my hide."
"Mmm," she teasingly scoffed at him, looking down at his hand and finally taking it, "Bows and arrows not cutting it for ya?"
"A grown man should know when to admit to himself when he is in too deep, and I…" he caught Regina by her waist as her knees buckled and was falling forward toward him. She was clearly in no shape to do any climbing, but if she were to spend her last moments wisely, like Anna, she too would rather be with the ones she loved. She regained her balance and was finally able to stand up on her own again. He knew she was too proud to say thank you or apologize. So to eliminate her awkward moment, he defused it by finishing his sentence and played it off as if nothing had happened, "…I am in too deep."
"You're in too deep?" she asked skeptically. He nodded plainly and honestly. "I'll let you know when you're in too deep."
"Well then," he said offering the crook of his arm, "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to let me know when that happens?"
"Sure," she said smiling back at him.
Thanks to Grace5231973 for reviewing! I know that the previous chapter wasn't popular, but I felt it had to be done. If you're going to pull the bandaid off, pull it off quickly and get it over with. You know what I mean? On a side note, I did want to let everyone know that I may not be able to post new chapters this coming up weekend. I'm going hiking. To... I don't know... step away from my computer for a moment and actually enjoy nature. Maybe breathe some oxygen. I heard that's good for the brain. But I'll be back. I'll try to post something if I can. But I doubt it if I can't even think straight from being too exhausted. But we'll see. I hope to talk to you guys soon!