sorry for the late update guys. I was out of town and didn't have my computer.

This chapter is a little darker. I have some issues and they are somewhat brought out here. If that kind of thing would bother you, please be careful. I don't want to trigger anyone.

disclaimer: We do not own any of the OUAT characters. Just our added characters.

Extra info: This story has two writers. One of us writes Helena and the other writes Amy. You will notice a difference in how Helena's and Amy's perspectives are portrayed, we wrote them like we ourselves notice/see things. Fair warning: we are insane. Enjoy!

Chapter eight

As it turns out, finding red foxes was harder than Helena anticipated. Well, not harder, she just had to travel farther than she expected. Thinking back, it was not the smartest thing to go running off in a land she knew little about, but Helena was just so happy with her new bow and quiver of arrows, she just did not care. Plus, Snow and Red had let her go without much fuss, which meant they thought she could handle herself. Helena laughed to herself, remembering what Snow told her before she left. 'Just promise me you will sleep while you're gone.' Some people were just born to be mothers. Helena could not decide whether she liked being mothered, since her mother often did not, not this way, or if she did not like it at all. Was this how her children felt? Probably not. They do not feel emotions the same way as Helena. Helena physically shrugged off her thoughts. It was time to see how well her skills with a compound bow carried over to an old-fashioned longbow.

Red had not been alone in, well, never. She had never been truly alone. Yet, now she was and she could not decide how she felt about it. Rieka left to hunt down her payment for a bow she suddenly desperately wanted. Red had been unsure about letting her go, but Snow had insisted that a little time all on her own would be good for the younger wolf. "After all," Snow had said, "She is a wolf, born to run free and wilder than you have ever been." Red had to agree. She felt the wolf inside her ragging to get out every day, yet she did not even possess the knowledge to let it out. How much stronger would the wolf be if it knew she could let it out? Red could not even imagine how much restraint Rieka had to possess. Then Snow left too. She received news that Prince James was to be married, she already knew this of course, but with the date set, and it being so close, Snow had been devastated. With the arrival of James's letter to her, in which he asked her to journey to his castle and tell him she loved him too. If she did, he would refuse the wedding, his father wanted, in favor of marrying Snow. Snow needed little convincing. Red did not regret urging her best friend to go, but she did regret now being alone. The enchanted forest was never silent, especially not to a wolf, but everything seemed unbearably quiet now. No genital murmur of voices, no heartbeats, no steady breathing from another person. All gone. It was very unsettling.

The silence would have been more bearable if she knew when either of her companions was returning, but she did not. Rieka would have been given a time limit by whatever trader she did business with, but she had not seen fit to inform either herself or Snow of that deadline. And Snow could be gone for weeks for all Red knew. Now that she thought about it, it seemed as if her two friends tag-teamed her. One only left when the other was around. Except for the few mornings when they would leave for the village early, Red would wake alone. But they were either back before she woke or soon after. She wondered if there was a reason for this or if she was simply imagining things. What if they were? What then? Should I be mad at them for babying me? I'm the older one! I should be taking care of them. 'but babying you is not what they are doing' Stupid voices. She wanted to be mad. If she was mad, she would not have to focus on how much being alone hurt.

Red did a wonderful job at staying mad at both Rieka and Snow for the next two hours, but when Rieka appeared out of the foliage around the clearing, Red burst into tears and ran to hug her. Rieka was surprised by the movement, but she excepted the hug. Rapping her long arms protectively around the sobbing woman. Though they were the same height Red still felt cocooned and safe. No words were said for several minutes while Red sobbed. At this point, she did not know if she was crying because she had missed Rieka, if she was relieved to finally have someone back, or if she was sorry for being mad at her friends at all.

Eventually, Rieka spoke. "Where's Snow?"

Red sniffed, surprised that was her sister's first question. Not 'Why are you crying?' or even 'What happened?'. Still, she had to answer, "Prince James sent her a note and she left for his castle."

"Ah." That was all the younger wolf said.

Untold moments passed as Red cried and Rieka held her. Still, neither spoke. Until…

"Ready to talk?" Rieka's voice was low

The question almost had Red crying more. It was not that she dreaded answering, but that Rieka had been content to let her get it all out before demanding answers. Even now, Red sensed that if she shook her head Rieka would wait. That kind of patience was difficult to find and usually only comes with experience. Red wondered where Rieka got hers.

"I don't even know anymore." Red choked out. "I don't know why I'm crying."

Rieka backed up and stooped, catching Red's face in her hands and forcing the older woman to look her in the eye.

"Hey, it's okay. That's the beauty of tears. They can be used for so many things. We don't always have to know what emotion is causing them." Rieka's eyes were so soft, blue, green, and gray all swirled together. "Mind telling me what was going on before I got back?"

Red had to take a deep breath before she could speak. "I was lonely first then upset, then worried about you, then angry again, then just really glad to see you."

"That's a lot of emotions. Were you angry at us for leaving?"

"No, I hadn't noticed till now, but the two of you never leave me alone. One of you is always with me. It felt like you were babying me. Like you didn't think I could handle myself. Like Granny." The last part was whispered. Red had not realized that was why she was upset till she started talking.

The younger wolf was silent, Red knew Rieka had never met Granny, but they had talked about her before. She could see Rieka thinking the gray in her eyes over tsking the other colors. The rest of her face was unreadable.

"Do you…do you still feel that way? Or was that just fear talking?"

"A little," Red whispered, fighting the urge to hide her face in Rieka's shoulder.

Rieka removed her hands from Red's face. Dropping them instead to grab the older wolf's hands. She squeezed them gently. "Red, when was the last time you were alone without knowing when someone would be back?"

Red closed her eyes. "Never,"

"Snow and I were both forced to live alone for a while with little to no human contact. We both went through that and got used to it. And we are still dealing with the consequences. It's not that we don't feel you could handle yourself, on the contrary, I believe you are one of the strongest people I have ever met. But we were not made to live alone. We were made to love and to be loved. We were made to have partners in this life. Not to be alone. Snow and I never wanted you to feel that loneliness. If you want to call that babying you can do that, but be mad at me, not Snow." Rieka's voice stayed gentle the whole time she spoke. If Red wanted to, she could have imagined her sister was still treating her like a child. Even talking to her as if she were one, but Red could not hold onto her anger and resentment after hearing the reasoning behind the actions of her two companions. Instead, she pushed her head back into Rieka's shoulder.

The sisters fell back into a routine fairly easily. Helena slept in the cabin, though on the floor, with Red. They would stay together, using the time Snow was away, to teach Red more about being a wolf. Not that Helena knew much, but her instincts told her what to do. Helena also practiced with her new bow. As it turns out, besides the visual differences, a compound bow was very different from a long bow. The draw weight was much more, up to seventy pounds at least. Even with the up-ed draw weight, Helena felt as if the power in the bow was lacking. But the longbow was all she had and she was thankful for it. At this point, Helena was just killing time though. Snow receiving a letter from Charming told Helena exactly where she was in the timeline and now all she had to do was wait for Charming to show up looking for Snow. For a short time, Helena entertained the idea of not changing anything in the storyline, but the mere fact she was here made that impossible. Red would not just follow Charming away from the soldiers like in the original timeline. No, she would tell Charming to go and come looking for Helena, well, Rieka. Which made not changing the scene impossible. Helena decided to just follow the story. If she waited till after Snow and Charming's wedding and after they locked Rumplestiskin up, she could go to his castle, hopefully, to find something that would take her home. Helena knew it would be harder than that, but one thing at a time.

Charming came riding into their little clearing three days after Helena returned from her excursion. Desperately calling for Snow. Coincidentally, Red was the closest to him at the time. Helena smiled as they got to have their moment when they both realized King George had done something to Snow. But Helena could already hear the soldiers approaching them, having followed David.

"Quick," she said, stepping up to the conversing friends. "The soldiers are coming; we have to go."

David nodded, "Get on my horse." But the horse whinnied and backed away from the wolf sisters. David tried to force the horse forward again, but Helena shook her head.

"It's okay, you go. We'll slow them down."

"What will you do?" David asked

Helena could not remember if he knew what Red was yet or not, but she did not have time to explain to the prince what she planned on doing to those soldiers. She took Red's hand and smirked, glad to finally have a reason to act as crazy as she was. "Something insane."

The soldiers rounded the corner. "Go, David! Go now!" Helena said.

David made a strange face but urged his horse onward. Red gripped Helena's hand tighter.

"The full moon will be up soon." She whispered.

"I know. We'll use it to our advantage."

Red had never seen her sister like this. Before, when Snow and Prince James needed help rescuing Princess Leia, Rieka had abstained from the mission. Insisting Red do it on her own, turning the mission into a sort of training session for Red. Now though, it seemed Rieka planned on joining in on the fight and she was excited about it. Her eyes shone nearly all green.

Rieka pulled Red into the tall grass and crouched. "You'll turn when the moon rises, when that happens you will know what to do." Red nodded

Anita only ever mentioned one danger to being a wolf. But waiting for those soldiers to come closers and for the moon to rise Helena now saw two dangers of being a wolf. First, if one did not accept the wolf, it would simply take over during Wolves' Time. The second danger was accepting it too much. Becoming more wolf than human. Giving in to the instinct to kill. The desire for blood. And that was Helena's danger as the beast raged in her chest. Clawing at her insides. Desperate for blood. Blood Helena could not would not, deny it.

As the moon rose overhead, a group of soldiers searched for the two women that had been with the prince. Instead of two women, they found two wolves. It was safe to say that was the last thing those soldiers ever did.

'To take another man's life, that is something you can't shake' Somewhere in the back of her mind, Helena wondered if that Hamilton quote held in another world. But most of her, the parts overrun by the beast, reveled in the taste of blood on her tongue. It was fitting that she should stand here victorious over these poor excuses for soldiers. None of the blood on her was even her own. What good was a soldier who could not put up a decent fight? It just made the fight boring. 'Fighting is for the protection of yourself and others. It is never for hurting people just because you want to.' Helena might have physically staggered when the memory of Mr. Bobby's words struck her. Protect. Protect. Protect. Helena fights to protect, nothing else. Where's Red? Suddenly the blood on her tongue and fur did not matter. The only thing that mattered was Red.

Thankfully Red was not far. Her wolf form sat between two soldiers Helena assumed she had killed. Her teeth were stained red as well. Helena sighed, and with a jerk of her head, she motioned for Red to follow her. Their job, for now, was done. Snow and Charming could handle the rest on their own. For now, the wolf sisters needed to clean the blood from their bodies.

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