Regina's purple magic didn't cloak her from predators, so in order to go into town, she had to use more creative methods for disguising herself.
Her face was the centerpiece of every Wanted poster stuck by Snow's magic to the many trees in and around the town. No one was allowed to own a shop in Regina's country unless they kept the Wanted poster in their window.
Being recognized was not negotiable, so Regina had to resort to stealing hooded clothes and masks, sometimes wigs, in order to show "her face" in town. If she could get away with stealing face paint, she did some not-so-artistic things with it. It was okay to stand out, to look weird or even ugly. Provided no one realized she wasn't a clown but a wanted woman.
This time, she'd tripped over a branch and fell to the ground, hitting her eye real good on a stone. She had a nice purple eye as well as a cut lip. Beyond that, she'd slipped into a rich woman's home and stolen a purple hooded cloak with ivory flowers which she knew the owner wouldn't miss. Just from a hunch and it being buried in the back of her extremely-full walk-in closet.
She'd also stolen a pair of high heels she had to walk real slow in (they were slightly too big on her, a half size or perhaps a whole size larger than she normally wore) and a very blue dress.
Since she hadn't found any face paint in the vanity on her quick scan, she'd rubbed dirt on her face instead, giving herself a dirty appearance. She'd also rubbed her hair in some twigs before putting the hood over it, to make herself look extra bumpy under there.
She didn't have money, but she wanted some normal conversation. Just to talk to people. If she got any food, she'd have to steal it. But right now, what she desired was to hear rumors…and not for selfish reasons—i.e. to make sure the queen wasn't sniffing near her current hideouts or to protect herself in any way. She merely wanted out of her own head and to escape the constant need to protect herself from danger.
Her life was not mentally healthy, but she had to do what she had to do to survive, and that required her to not trust people not to rat her out.
As Will the Puppy Dog Eyed Man had proven.
In her disguise, she strode into town, carrying a battered basket she'd found discarded in a river. She'd had to let it air-dry. She had no intention of using it as more than a prop.
A one-eyed woman named Henrietta sidled up to her. When the woman smiled, Regina saw the older, brown-maned woman was also missing several teeth. She walked with a limp, as if her leg had been broken and never healed properly. Regina couldn't help hoping it hadn't been a husband of hers who'd given her the bad leg.
Because the woman had a warm, friendly face. Regina didn't mind thinking of it being a riding accident that led to the bad leg, but it made her so uncomfortable to think of such a sweet-faced—even if battered—old woman being mistreated in her youth.
"Do you need a discount at the market?"
"Um," Regina hedged, smiling proudly. "I think I can manage."
"You look rundown. Like you've seen better days." The elderly woman fondled Regina's stolen cloak. "This is silk, but you plainly haven't had time to bathe…and you have splinters." She gripped Regina's hand in her gentle one and caressed the skin around the splinters Regina hadn't realized she'd had. But Regina had had a couple of them for weeks without knowing it. They were so tiny and had buried themselves expertly in her flesh.
"You should tell the merchants to put any food you need on my tab. I'm Henrietta, by the way."
Regina realized Henrietta was plucking into her flesh. She couldn't feel anything though. The inch-long nails on her weathered hand were proficient at the task she'd assigned to herself. Regina stopped in her tracks and watched with a gaping mouth.
The first genuine kindness she could recall being given by a human.
A shiver threatened to rise up and down her spine at a thought which had occurred to her.
If this woman knew who she was, she would likely turn her back on Regina quicker than a seal could splash into the water.
That or, Regina felt sad at the thought, she'd turn her to Queen Snow's authority faster than one could say, "She saved her own neck."
When she'd finished plucking the splinters, the one-eyed stranger patted Regina's back in a maternal way—a way which the orphan was unaccustomed. "Now you take care, dear, and don't you forget to tell them to put it on Henrietta's tab." She then walked off, evaporating into mist so smoothly that Regina pondered if she'd made the woman up.
Stumbling on her way, Regina cocked her head through the hordes of people. Surrounded by enemies, she knew. The only solid comfort she had was the feeling she could trust Robin Hood. The only solace she'd ever have on even the brightest of mornings was his soothing presence.
Even though he always beat her to her raids. It wasn't his fault he was a better outlaw than she was—a better bandit than she could dream of being. She never held it against him because she knew he wasn't doing it on purpose. It was just—great minds think alike. The two of them had much in common in demeanor.
He was lucky he had an army of Merry Men at his beck and call. She doubted that man knew what loneliness was. Even so, he opposed the Queen with everything he had in him.
On a stolen horse he rides…
Regina very much wanted him to stay alive. Because right now, he was the only human she believed in.
There was a man lying in the street, his eyes shut tight and groping with his hand. He looked the worse for the wear, so Regina stooped close to his exhausted face and gripped his hand to help him up.
"Ghosts!" he moaned weakly. "Ghosts and vampires and boogeymen! All chasing me…" He opened his eyes to slits when she helped him to a sitting position. The next instant, his eyes were wide as saucers. "WITCH!" he bellowed then wrestled out of her limp hand and took off running in the direction Regina was facing at top speed.
The people going about their way who were perturbed by his outburst glanced at Regina. She shrugged. Nobody glanced at her twice.
Shaking her head, she rose from the crouch she'd dropped in and slowly ambled several yards away, numb and embarrassed she had to be part of that weird scene.
Wanting to escape the feeling all bluebirds were ogling her (which was paranoia; not a bluebird was in sight), she ducked inside a shop without checking the sign first.
Her nose nearly slammed into a hardcover book. There was a shelf that was much too close to the door. It was covered with hardcover books, most with brown spines. Briefly, Regina admired the comely lack of dust.
The light in the shop was midnight purple. When Regina struggled away from the front row of books to the only walkway beside the shelf (to her right), she saw there were several floating white bursts of light shaped like stars. They traveled through the air. Everything they touched became white. The bursts rejected the purple coloring.
When Regina strode to the counter in the back, a couple of the stars randomly traveled on her body.
There were seven large shelves, all full of books. By the time Regina reached the cashier, she'd glanced at several titles. These titles caused her to infer this was a magic book shop.
There were so many she couldn't even begin to comprehend how so many got published. Much less, how so much magic could exist in the world.
The shop owner reminded her of a very large newt standing on its hind legs. He wore glasses with such thick lenses that she would not have been able to make out his eyes even if the lenses weren't so incredibly filthy. How he saw through the glasses was beyond Regina's knowledge.
Around his neck, he wore a pure silver chain with a yellow-orange sun-shaped charm.
"Hello, dear," he beamed. "I see you brought some magic."
She cocked her eyebrow at him. "What?"
"You have purple magic."
She'd thought he was guessing. His statement made the blood drain from her face. She no longer felt safer in here. Her identity suddenly seemed exposed in this extremely crowded shop. She shuffled her stolen high heels, instantly aware of aching around her ankles. Aching she had been oblivious to only seconds before.
"But you don't know how to tether your magic. Here." He reached his hands up and arched his long, spindly fingers. A grey book sailed for his grip. He groped it then stroked it.
Regina couldn't help but to notice one of his fingers was missing on his right hand.
When he handed the hardback to Regina with a big, newty smile lacking teeth, he murmured, "Here's something to help you get started on controlling your magic. Intended for novices born with magic in their blood."
"Oh," she stammered. "I-I h-have no money."
"I know," he answered patiently. "I require no payment."
Regina blinked in stupefaction. She couldn't speak at first, nor did she look at the offered book. The book which sat abandoned on the desk.
The newt guy didn't seem to notice because at that moment a man with vibrant red hair and a pointy face came slyly in from the storeroom. This man, dressed in khaki pants and a white short-sleeved shirt and bearing quite a lot of red hairs on his arm, reminded Regina of a fox.
He asked the newt several questions in a lowered voice before returning to the backroom. By the time he left, Regina had found her voice.
"But magic always comes with a price."
"Not for this time. Enjoy it. If you want more, come back. Spreading magic delights me more than denying people simply because they're defying the queen and can't work as anything but an outlaw."
The hairs on the back of Regina's neck were crawling. "Well, thanks," she said but not like she meant it. She didn't trust this man any more than she trusted…virtually anyone.
He had a nice demeanor, and in this case, she wasn't sure if it was past history that made her nervous with any human—or if her intuition was warning her.
Against her better judgment, she cradled the book in her arms. Looked down at the cover.
In a glass dome at the center of the book were two scaly eyes. Purple dragon eyes. Opening and closing, as if something living were inside the book.
She was so startled, she dropped it. Another fox-man, this one dressed in black leather pants and a long-sleeved dark blue shirt, came out of the back. A crescent moon burst of light washed over him.
With him distracting the bookseller, Regina left the book on the floor, wrenched off her high heels, and ran from the shop, letting the door swing shut behind her.
She nearly tripped on a small child walking under her. A child so small and active it was the size of a newborn baby yet behaved like a toddler. Regina would have thought it a dwarf child, except dwarves hatch from eggs fully grown. She tried to apologize to the mother, but the woman was half Regina's size and didn't even see her when snatching her child up.
Upon watching the way the mother moved, Regina realized they were hobbits. Like dwarves, she'd never met one in person, but she'd heard how they like to keep to the ground and in haste seemed to shuffle their feet more than lift them. No full-sized human—or whatever Regina was to hobbits—could move so swiftly on the foot shuffle.
After putting the shoes back on, she let the crowd move her in a great wave until more room surrounded the cobbled street. She found herself staring cross-eyed at a writhing fish held in a lanky woman's hands. The woman had a thin face but large eyes filled with the fetish of gold.
The woman's accent was hasty and rough-sounding. "One million shillings for this beauty! Take this fish home, cook it, and you'll have a meal you remember fondly for the rest of your life! These fish are mighty tasty and unforgettable! If you don't believe me, you simply must lick!" She proceeded to show Regina.
Smiling slightly at the absurdity, Regina replied, "I haven't any money."
"Oh, nonsense! Everybody has money!" she cooed, doing her best to look innocent all while picking someone's pocket right under Regina's nose.
"No, my dear. I haven't any money. I'm in town merely looking for a walk. My husband controls our assets."
The hawker dropped her angelic act and began ignoring Regina. Regina decided to go on her merry way.
Five more steps, and she nearly tripped over a man sitting on the sidewalk in front of her, cross-legged and with a turban. "Sorry," she began, lifting her foot to step around him.
He began to cough horribly. She hesitated, thinking she might have to use the Heimlich maneuver on him.
As she was about to stoop down, he began to puke in a catlike manner. An arrow with a numb tip ejaculated from his mouth.
He brightened instantly. "I was looking for that!" He cleaned it off with a wet washcloth then embraced the skinny arrow lovingly.
Regina couldn't stop herself from giggling, so she covered her mouth with her hand. She wasn't trying to ridicule him, but he looked amusing hugging an arrow.
When she walked off, she felt someone snuggle up to her. It was a red-faced woman with sparkling purple eyes plainly in need of vomiting up juicy rumors.
Aside from those eyes, she was dressed in a hot red dress, heart-stoppingly red lipstick, and such high heels with skinny heels that looked to be made of something fragile that Regina was impressed they weren't snapping out from underneath her.
"I haven't seen you around before!" she said with the air of someone who'd tried to share the most recent rumors with multiple people and been shot down with "already heard it."
"Oh," Regina hedged. "I'm from another country. Gaston is my King, yanno…"
"Fascinating, fascinating!" the woman replied with the tone that showed she wasn't listening but wanted to hoodwink Regina into thinking she was. "Have you heard? There's a rumor in St. Johnsonburg."
"Er, what? Rumor? Isn't the town just full of them?" she beamed. "Townsfolk looking for the juiciest news to take their mind off their own problems?"
The red-faced woman gave Regina a funny look, which made her step wrong, miss putting her heel down correctly, and she almost fell to the ground. Her nose came close to the sidewalk before she managed to straighten up.
"Do you think this world needs a savior?"
Regina tilted her head. "A what?"
"A savior."
"What's a savior? It's not like people are going around, chopping fellow citizens up for fun. Roasting them in cauldrons. I mean, this isn't a perfect world—such thing doesn't exist. But…you can't tell me we need a 'savior'."
The red-faced woman licked her teeth and smirked smugly. "Well, a lunatic might."
"A what?" The words that crawled so freely from this woman's lips startled Regina. She would've liked to be prefaced more if she was going to hear her accuse some faceless person of being a lunatic.
"A ticking Luna moth," the woman replied sluggishly, as if she thought Regina was brain-damaged.
"Who thinks we need a savior?" Regina's heart was stopping. There was a book floating around for centuries suggesting when the world got a female savior, they were doomed to experience the worst times ever. Only the savior could save them all, and everyone had to believe she would lead them from their sorrows. Or else, the blood would rain in something called The Black Death.
It was a children's fable, but a part of Regina had always feared it might come to pass while she was alive. A part of her believed someone in ancient history truly had the inner eye to see hundreds of years into the future. It was a stake pounding on her heart.
This woman was bringing her nightmares to life.
The woman shrugged with shiny eyes full of glee. "Some nutjob stashed away in a tower."
"Rapunzel?"
"Nah. The castle on an island, but it might as well be a tower."
"Oh."
"Yeah, she came to town calling herself a savior. Queen Snow White wanted none of that, so she shut her up tight, as is good and proper." She snatched a bottle of beer off a cart, twisted the lid off, and threw some to the back of her neck. "Refreshing!" she said to herself in a fond tone. Then to Regina, she murmured, "Maleficent's girl is watching her. You know. The one Queen Snow White made her slave."
"Ah…"
A large crowd came and carried the red-faced woman off. Regina went in a different direction down a different cobblestoned street…
…and stepped right into a pile of horse dung.
Someone gripped the collar of her borrowed blue dress. Squeezed so hard that Regina nearly lost consciousness, thinking whoever it was had recognized her.
Until she heard a low rasp of a voice hiss, "The savior! The savior has come! The pain shall end!" The person shook Regina, who gripped the palms at the stolen dress' collar, attempting to pry them loose.
The woman's companion scratched her hands off Regina. "Cool it, Shasta! This woman's minding her own business, she doesn't want to hear about a savior. Least of all, a captured one."
The two of them went on their way, a man with a fuzzy hat that had what looked like a raccoon's tail hanging from the back, and the scrawny, tall woman dressed in what appeared to be a brown coat made of a dragon's skin.
Regina shuddered at the thought, ripped up the too-large shoe with horse dung, tossed it in a garbage bin. On second thought, she added the other one, realizing she'd rather go barefoot than one shoe on, the other off.
With her empty basket, she continued on her way until a man with wideset eyes grabbed her up in his arms. She tensed up from the neck down and gave him a death stare.
It was a vampire.
Sotto voce, he hissed, "You're her, aren't you?"
She could tell he knew exactly who she was. Wanting no one else to overhear, she answered simply, "Yes."
"I've got something for you…but you'll have to give me something in exchange."
"Blood?" she guessed, not afraid at all. A little neck pain was nothing next to dealing with humans.
"No…I'd like a night enjoying your company."
She knew exactly what he meant by "enjoying her company", but she wasn't sure if what he was offering her was good enough for that. "And what is this thing you intend to exchange for this?"
He smiled like the sun setting. The sunlight glinted off his extremely white teeth. He pulled a chain he had tucked under his black shirt and held it out to her. It was a vial with black ashes in it.
"Fairy dust…bad fairy dust. It will turn an enemy into something small enough to be squashed."
She reached out and fingered the vial, glowing in excitement. "I can use it on her."
"The evil queen," he encouraged. "I, for one, wouldn't mind if that's where her reign ends. She got her guards to kill all my kind that lived in the caves close enough to this country."
"Why are you around then?"
"Because I hold a job. I'm the best florist this town has to offer—and Queen Snow knows this. Otherwise, she woulda killed me too."
"Alright," Regina beamed. "One night with me coming up."
She had no other way to repay him. Being a bandit, she had no money. Not unless she beat Robin Hood at a raid for once.
And that was about as unlikely as her purple magic turning every body of water in the world into chocolate syrup machines.
