Chapter 15: Operation kill the queen

I am so so so so so sorry for not updating in such a long time! I really didn't know what to write and I am very busy with school and other stuff. A new update will come soon!

They walked into a palace made of emerald, Taylor had read about it. It looked like the palace that was to be found in the land of Oz. It was like... a replica.

"You take this arrow and put it amongst your own ones, the queen will come by with her carriage in this part of the woods, between now and two hours away. She always makes a stop between those two roads." Zelena showed Taylor a point on an old looking map, "She's going to her winter palace."

Taylor got an arrow pushed into her grasp. This has to hit Regina, then she wouldn't be able to move and Zelena would have the chance to kill her. Then there would be an end to all of these miserable happenings and Taylor could be with her sister again, and Rumple.

Zelena took her place at the large dining table, She snapped her fingers and the cups in front of them were filled with hot tea. "Drink girl, you'll need the warmth later on."

Taylor took the cup and saw how the steam emitted from the little cup, she would need the warmth Zelena had said. The queen wouldn't go to the winter palace for nothing. It was freezing outside, even now you could see the snow slowly falling down onto the ground of the woods.

"What do you actually want from her? Of the queen, I mean." A silly question, perhaps she shouldn't have asked her that one.

"What do you want from her?" Zelena replied in answer.

"She took the only good thing that life gave me, happiness." Taylor took a sip of her tea, she could taste the herbs and was clearly enjoying the warm beverage.

"Then we have something in common, darling." was the only thing Zelena replied, Zelena... Where had she heard that name before?

"We must go, we don't want to be late." Zelena said suddenly as she stood up and grabbed her cape on her way over to the big double doors. Taylor managed to follow her before Zelena rushed out of them. She had taken an apple with her, a green one of course. To eat? Taylor had no idea.

Later

They sat high up in a tree in the upper part of the forest beside the road. Taylor could see her breath in the cold air.

"What if she doesn't stop her carriage and come out?" Taylor asked.

"She'll get out, believe me."

"What if I miss her?"

"You're not going to kiss her, stop asking questions you fool..." Zelena swallowed the rest of her words, "You just cannot miss her, okay?"

Taylor nodded and thought deeply, that behavior... It seemed so much like someone else. But she couldn't place her finger on who that someone else was. Zelena forced a smiled towards Taylor's direction, to reassure her that there was nothing wrong. She wanted to rant at the young girl, to tell her that she's been nothing but dimwitted and foolish, but she didn't.

"Hush now, get ready." Zelena whispered as she stared at the road, the carriage drove by and indeed, It stopped. A woman with her black hair pinned up, stepped out of the carriage, her black dress gleamed beautifully and looked even more elegant surrounded by the white snow which decorated the side of the road.

"Can't we go faster? I have other things to be doing besides sitting in this thing!" cried the queen to her guards dressed in black.

Taylor couldn't help it as her mind began to wonder... Regina had the power in this land. If Regina were to die, Zelena would take her place and she suspected that Belle would still not be freed.

"Shoot that arrow, now."

Taylor didn't make a move.

"Did you not hear what I just said? Shoot the arrow!" but it was too late, the queen had already began climbing back into the carriage again and before they could stop it she was driving away once again..

"What have you done?! The only chance to remove that bitch out of my life is ruined, thanks to you. You will regret this..." Zelena grabbed at her throat and Taylor began to gasp, searching for air. However Taylor managed to reach around and grab the arrow and in one swift movement she pushed it into Zelena's chest. But before Taylor knew it, the witch had disappeared in a cloud of green mist, as if she had never been with her in the tree.
It was then that Taylor realized she no longer had a grip on the tree and within seconds she was falling down hitting all the branches from the highest point of the tree down to the lowest until she reached the hard ground.

She heard a voice, far away. It felt like that time when she was drowning, when she was younger. The time she played in the garden with her sister Belle. And then she saw the face of the boy who saved her for water, heard the voice slip further away and all too soon it was gone.

Taylor woke up in a king sized bed, a thick blanket laid over her cold body. The cape she had worn, lay folded on the nightstand beside the bed and her hair wasn't stuck in the French braid anymore. Her wavy hair fell down her onto shoulders.

She stepped out of the bed and she realized that her back already hurt as she took her first steps through the unknown room. It ached even more with every step she took. What had happened to her?

"Good morning, my love." she heard a voice from the kitchen. It was Killian. That made everything more clear, she was on Killian's ship, but how she had gotten there was the main question.

"What... what happened?" Taylor grabbed the table beside her as she steadied herself feeling herself about to fall and Killian came to her out of concern, he put his hands on her hips to aid her, which made her look down and to his warm hands.

"I have no idea what you were doing in that tree, but you fell out of it. You're lucky Taylor. Very, very lucky." he swallows, as he thought of how the outcome could've been so much different.

"I remember… I had the most stupid idea that was to kill the queen, well it was Zelena's idea and I went with it."

"Who is Zelena?"

"I haven't exactly found out yet... But there's one thing I know for sure about her and that is that she's filled with anger and hate."

Taylor suddenly felt her arms buckle beneath her causing her to fall into Killian's waiting arms. "I think it'd be better if you go and sit down." He said as he picked her up and laid her down onto a couch, put a cup of tea in front of her and sat down beside her.

Taylor watched the steam of tea raise from the cup, much like she had in the palace of Zelena.