At the bottom of the hill, Emma leaned over her True Love, "Are you okay?"
"How can you ask me that?" Regina looked up at her stable girl and burst into tears. "I thought I'd never see you again."
Emma smiled, "I told you nothing would happen to me. Why didn't you wait?"
"Your ship was attacked by the Dread Pirate Swann, who leaves no survivors," Regina explained. "My mom accepted a marriage proposal from the prince, and honestly, I was too depressed to fight her."
"She wants what's best for you," Emma consoled, "Even if she doesn't know what that truly is."
"I will never lose hope again," Regina vowed, "My Savior."
Emma blushed, "Ah, yes, the kidnappers. I did say I will always save you."
The princess lifted her head up, her lips a hairsbreadth away from those of her stable girl, allowing herself to melt into a long overdue kiss. Her hands began to explore…
"Aw, moms, hello, kid in the room!" Henry shouted at the storybook.
David chuckled, "They can't hear you, Henry."
Henry scrunched his nose up, "But they're outside. My mom would never. That's just unsanitary."
"Sometimes, when two people are in love," David started, before changing his mind, "Yeah, I think we can skip ahead."
"I'm happy my moms found love with each other," Henry explained, "I just don't want to see all the details, you know?"
"I know. So, Deadly Desert or the Emerald City?" David asked.
Henry thought for a moment, "Deadly Desert. I don't want to skip too far."
The princess looked across the lengthy desert with its noxious fumes, "We'll never survive."
"Nonsense, love. We have dumb positivity on our side…plus a bit of magic," Emma whips her hands up, closes her eyes for a moment, and conjures a flying carpet.
Regina looks at her, impressed, "Wow, this is genius!"
"If you touch the sand in the desert, you turn to sand," Emma warned. "So this will ensure we don't touch it."
Emma gets on the carpet first and holds her hands out for Regina, who gently tests it before climbing on and sitting next to her stable girl.
Regina asks excitedly, "On to the Emerald City?"
"Aye, my princess. My men were given orders to dock my ship at the port in the Emerald City, so that is where we shall go," Emma replied. "As sure as I am the Dread Pirate Swann."
The carpet began to fly across the desert with the princess holding on to her stable girl for dear life. Desperate to distract herself, the princess inquired, "So, how does one go from being a stable girl to a pirate captain?"
"It's a long story, but the basics are that the former Dread Pirate Swann wanted to retire and needed a successor. I happened to fit the bill. It was easier to strike fear in our enemies if I kept the same name as the five pirate captains before me," Emma explained more fully. The wind grew stronger, and as they struggled to breathe, Emma tilted the carpet further upward to avoid the poisonous gases as much as possible. Noticing a sandstorm starting to form in the corner of her eye, Emma yelled, "Hang on!", closed her eyes, and prayed for her magic to work.
Shortly afterward, she could feel the warm glow of her magic encircling herself and her True Love, creating a powerful barrier between them and the deadly sand. She focused on the feelings of protection and love until they had reached the end of the desert and the carpet was finally able to land. Emma reached out apologetically, "I'm sorry. If my teleportation skills were better, we could have gotten free much faster."
"You saved me," Regina said simply. "We survived the Deadly Desert and will meet your ship in the Emerald City. I have faith in you, my love."
The couple's happiness was short-lived as Prince Leopold and Pan appeared before them on horseback with dozens of soldiers carrying crossbows. The prince called out, "Surrender! We have you surrounded. Return the princess to me, and my men just may spare your miserable life."
Emma held her head high, "The princess belongs to no one. She has her own free will."
"If I return to you, will you promise that she remain unharmed? She has been helping me run from my kidnappers," Regina bartered, knowing they were outnumbered with no weapons. "She is a sailor and needs to return to her ship in the Emerald City."
Emma turned to her, "We could go back to the Deadly Desert and stay there. They couldn't follow us."
"Crossbows can reach far distances, so they wouldn't have to go into the desert to kill us. Emma, I can't lose you again," Regina insisted.
The prince conferred with his advisor and said, "Very well. She would be returned to her ship, unharmed, as a gesture of goodwill toward my future bride."
"Regina, we can fight them," Emma reminded her.
Regina looked into Emma's eyes, "You found me once, and I know you will find me again." Turning to Leopold, Regina continues, "If I find you have broken your word…"
Prince Leopold promises, "May I be tried in open court as an oathbreaker and lose my claim to the throne."
Looking back at Emma one more time, Regina gets on the horse behind Leopold, and they ride away.
Pan turns to Emma, "Come, we must get you to your ship."
"We both know that is a lie," Emma said pointedly, before looking up and noticing his hands, "You have six fingers on your right hand. Someone was looking for you."
Upon hearing this, Pan knocked her out with the hilt of his sword, muttering to himself. He looked up to his men, "What? We can't have her knowing where we are taking her."