CHAPTER EIGHT
THE WORLD'S END
Emma feels as though she's thrust herself into a Pirates of the Caribbean movie plot - or perhaps the plot was based on some lost writing of Walt Disney. Of course, there's no organ-playing squid Davey Jones, though her ex's father was, apparently, a massive asshole in keeping with the general tradition that everyone in this world must have at least one truly awful parent.
The seedy crew that Killian has acquired since his resignation from the navy are not remotely thrilled at the idea of sailing around the Cape of Dumarlone to the Dragonfields of Zorn, though having Ursula to guide their way appeases them some, and the mer-princess joins them aboard the Jolly Roger for the most treacherous part of the journey.
They reach The Jaws of Zorn on the third day, the strange compass from Anton's vault pointing the way to jagged rocks that jut up from the surface of the sea, many laying just bellow depending on the tide and the cause of many shipwrecks, some of which still remain, the skeletal frames of broken ships protruding from their pierced resting places.
It takes a full day to traverse them, even with Ursula's help, and it's there that she leaves them, before a sudden rip tide yanks them forward and toward the roaring of a massive waterfall.
As with portal travel, the ship's enchantment keeps everyone aboard the ship, though just barely as they free-fall for what feels like minutes and plunge into the sea.
There's no sensation of actually submerging, however, just the strange ripple of magic as the ship breaks through, from one plain of reality to another.
The full moon has become a blazing hot sun and in the distance up ahead is a seemingly endless expanse of blinding white sand. The Dragonfields of Zorn, and somewhere beyond, Wayland.
Only Mulan accompanies her, her trusty enchanted sword in her grip. Emma carries Lily's dragon claw, and though there is no sign of any dragons when they set out, she quickly is relieved to have brought the talon as the sand ripples and they emerge like giant, wingless legged snakes, pale white and red-eyed with razor sharp teeth. For miles the magical reptiles stalk them but rarely attempt to strike.
When at last they reach the end of the salt flat they come to desolate mountains with an ornate door cut into the base. In a gloved hand, Mulan removes the wraith medallion that once marked Philip, and inserts it into a notch. Instantly the ruins illuminate and the door simply vanishes - though as soon as they pass through the empty space the sunlight is gone, the door soundly in place with the "key" rolling on the floor to rest against Mulan's boot.
She retrieves it as Emma's eyes adjust to a nightmarish fun house. Mirrors cover the walls, different shapes and sizes, as far as she can see... though there's no indication of how seeing is possible unless the mirrors somehow create their own magical light source. Her father once described his using a sleeping curse to reach her mother in the Burning Red Room from this place.
But they aren't going to the inter-dimensional chat room for post-traumatic sleeping curse suffers.
"If her soul is trapped here, it will be in one of these mirrors," explains Mulan as they walk. "Break the mirror and her soul will be released. You must be quick to capture it, or it may move on."
Mulan had already explained that part. She and Aurora had trapped Philip's soul in the medallion, since it had marked him. Emma has brought the swan keychain, because Belle had said it was enchanted by true love to traverse realms in spite of curses - but equally so because she had given it to Charley not terribly long ago when her daughter was feeling down, teased for the umpteenth time by her "cousins" that she wasn't brave or heroic like they were. Emma had given her the necklace and told her that it had been given to her "by someone who was very brave, even if it wasn't the bravery of fighting dragons and saving damsels in distress". He was brave because he loved more selflessly than anyone she'd ever known and gave his life so that many families could be happy."
Of course, her daughter had asked if he had been happy, if he'd had a family. She had to tell her daughter that once, he had been happy, for a short time, but fate had been cruel to him and he'd never truly gotten to have the family he deserved. It had become an unintended lesson that the heroes did not always win - that sometimes, for no good reason, they just threw their moral code out the window and became as selfish as the villains. As honest of a lesson as it was, it had broken Emma a little, remembering how starry-eyed and optimistic Henry was a child and managed to hang onto into adulthood - so much like his father. Charley had been cursed with her cynicism, her inability to look beyond the unfairness of life to see the hope for something better.
But Emma is trying. She is trying to have that hope, to cling to whatever bit of it might reside in the stolen trinket clutched in her hand.
She just has to have faith that it carries enough to bring her daughter home.
AN: This chapter started with such blatant rip-off of At World's End, which wasn't even a good movie, IMO. Why do they keep making those movies? Johnny Depp in pirate clothes is not that hot to overcome sitting through terrible movies. Damn it, Disney, stop being a greedy pimp and come up with something new!