Snow White did not have Seven Dwarves who helped her in her time of need. Instead she had a family of monsters and snakes.

"Come back!" the Caterpillar called after her. "I've something important to say."

This sounded promising, certainly. Alice turned and came back again.

"Keep your temper," said the Caterpillar."

The snakes whispered in her ears as she walked to the home. There was something wrong in the town. All the people were gathered in the center of the town and there was someone there. Someone important was speaking.

Caroline raced to the center of the town and sighed when she saw who was standing there. Standing in the center of town was Yngvar who laid down the body of his daughter on the ground. Her dress was drenched in the red of her blood.

There was a large hole where her heart was supposed to be and Caroline gasped as she watched the man cry out.

"Who did this? Who did this to my daughter?" Yngvar howled. It was hard to watch the scene. A father in distress and a daughter gone too soon from the world. Caroline knew what it was that he was seeking.

There was something called the wergild. When someone was murdered, the family could seek financial compensation from the killer and their family. He wanted something, anything to make up for the fact that his daughter was gone from the world.

Caroline tilted her head. She remembered that Yngvar's daughter had some talent for magic. Her magic was in the matter of growing things. Ayana was going to teach her how to bless harvests and protect the plants and kill the weeds that got in the way. But Ayana was not here.

It was then that Caroline remembered the words that Ayana had told her before she left. There was someone out in the world that was hunting witches. Caroline remembered what she heard about the Salem Witch Trials and how innocent women were hunted down and killed for the thought of being a witch. But this community revered witches. They liked witches and the magic that came with it.

Then was it someone that wanted the magic of witches for themselves.

That was something that was more feasible to Caroline. Ayana had never told her outright, but there was magic and things of a darker nature. This was probably something that had to do with those darker magics. And that meant that whoever Ayana had left was not far. They were here.

Caroline called the snakes to her. People around her whispered as snakes came from the forest and hissed at the people. Caroline whispered to the snakes. They understood the language.

"I want you guys to keep looking out for the person who killed Yngvar's daughter. There is someone who is hunting witches and I think trying to steal their powers," Caroline said to her companions. The snakes hissed their agreement and then they disappeared.

Caroline rose in that moment and saw everyone looking at her. She sighed and straightened her back. She walked through the crowd and they parted for her. She walked straight for Yngvar and knelt down beside him. She pressed a hand against his own and she nodded at him.

"I will find out who did this to your daughter. I will tell some of the snakes to go and find Ayana. She will know exactly what to do," Caroline said with a solemn look on her face. Something in the man seemed relieved at the thought and Caroline looked down at the girl.

She had a talent for magic. And she was killed, Caroline sighed and closed the unseeing eyes of the girl. She rose from the ground and looked out to the crowd around her. Everyone was looking at her, but Caroline said nothing as she walked away from the crowd.

There was going to be a funeral, but Caroline knew that she had to return to the cottage and examine some of the spells that Ayana had left behind. There was no telling when the snakes would be able to find Ayana. They were not as fast as a horse. And they needed some explanation for what was going on sooner rather than later.

Caroline walked into the hut and saw Klaus standing outside. His shirt was off and he was chopping wood. Caroline felt her stomach twist into knots. There had to be something about the Mikaelson genes because everyone in that family was gorgeous.

Her eyes dragged down the flat expanse of his stomach. His shoulders tenses when he brought the ax over his head. When he brought it down the ax it cut clean through the wood. Caroline felt her face flush. She turned away from the handsome form of Klaus and walked into the cottage.

She went straight for the bookshelf where Ayana kept her grimoires and looked through them. There had to be something. Anything to help her find out who was harming the young witches. Caroline flicked through the book, looking over everything. There had to be something.

Caroline found a dream spell. She would need a lock of hair from the woman and then would have to gather some herb but it was better than nothing. Caroline walked out from the house in order to see Klaus still chopping wood.

She flushed again, but then shook her head. Now was not the time to be distracted by the handsome man chopping wood. She sighed and then marched her way over to the forest path. She needed to figure out what was going on with Yngvar's daughter and the person going around killing witches.

Klaus kept cutting the wood. The repetitive action soothed something inside of him. But even the chopping of the wood could not stop the humming of his mind.

Thoughts swirled through his head. Was he ready for this? They said that he had a talent for the sword, but would that be enough to keep him alive?

Was Father right?

That was the question that loomed over him the most. The thought that his father was right about the fact that Klaus was worthless. Was his father right that he could not enter the gates of Valhalla. The very thought made something shudder in him. He wanted to be worthy of something. He wanted to be worthy of acknowledgement.

But what did it say about him that even his own father did not want to acknowledge him and his achievement.

Klaus lowered the ax and stood there panting. He had chopped so much wood and was going to have to lug the pile of wood to the pile on the side of the house. Klaus began that long and arduous process. He lifted as much as he could into his arms and then made his way over to the wood pile that sat in the corner of the cottage.

Repeated the process trying to quiet the thoughts that were piling like the wood in his mind. He wanted nothing more than to be rid of these thoughts but he could not help them. They were trapped in his mind like a hive of angry bees. They buzzed around in his head and every word that they uttered stung him in his already fragile ego.

"Niklaus?"

Klaus stopped what he was doing. He dropped the logs into the already overflowing pile and turned to look at his brother. Elijah stood there looking no worse for wear, but there were significant bags under his eyes.

"Elijah," Klaus said in way of an actual greeting. Elijah took that moment to cross the space that was between them and walked forward to hug him. Klaus hugged his brother back. At first it was a half hearted hug from Klaus, but then something broke in him some kind of dam.

He clutched his brother closer to him and tried to hold back the tears. If anyone believed in him then he was glad that Elijah did. He was Glad that someone out there in the world loved and cared for him.

Klaus pulled away from his brother. He remembered what his father said about embracing for too long and shook his head. Elijah gripped him by the shoulders and looked at him. His eyes roved over his body looking for any cuts and bruises.

"Where have you been? Mother and I have been worried sick about you," Elijah said as he checked Klaus. Klaus shook his head.

"I was with Caroline. She found me after… She brought me to the cottage that she and Ayana share. She said that I can have the room as long as I pull my weight in chores." Klaus said, gesturing to the wood and everything around him.

"That's good. Thank Freya," Elijah said with a nod to the wood pile. "Mother was worried that something would happen to you since you left the house and bid me to give you this."

Elijah pulled a small necklace from his pocket. Sitting there was a nondescript necklace. It was nothing more than a leather thong with a wolf tooth attached to it. Klaus reached out and touched it.

It was something and showed that his mother was thinking of him. But Klaus felt anger burn within him. He wished his mother would do more than just send his gifts after the fact. She was a witch. She had studied under Ayana and yet all she could do when Mikael was yelling was duck her head and close her eyes. He wanted more from her and she had failed him at every turn.

Klaus spurned the gift. He turned his head away and walked to the lumber pile that was waiting for him. He shifted the lumber and started to stack it in such a way that it would not topple and fall to the ground.

"Niklaus…" Klaus heard Elijah sigh, but Klaus shook his head.

"No. She does not get to watch that man throw me from my own home and then send some paltry necklace as some sort of peace offering," Klaus said. "She is our mother. She is supposed to fight for us against people that we cannot fight and she does nothing."

"You know mother is-"

"Is what? Suffering? Does she not think that we are also suffering? That we are also in pain. I don't see why she stays with a man that so clearly disdains one of her children, but I guess I will never understand the mind of a slave."

"Niklaus." Elijah's voice was sharp. "Do not call our mother that."

Klaus said nothing and kept his eyes on the towering mountain of wood before him. What did it matter what he felt? What his father felt and thought meant more than him and his safety and wellbeing. Klaus shook as he placed another log on the tower.

"I'll just leave this here then," Elijah said. And then his brother walked away.

When Klaus could no longer hear Elijah and his footsteps, he rose and looked toward where the chopping block was. Elijah had placed the necklace there. Klaus picked it up and held it in her hands.

What was the point? Why had mother even bothered to make a necklace for him in the first place? If Mikael knew that he was giving anything to her then there would be hell to pay, but Klaus sighed and shoved the necklace in his pocket.

He knew that Elijah was just trying to keep the peace in the family and their house needed harmony more than anything. He would find his brother and apologize for what he had said. He sighed and turned back to the wood pile that he had built.

That would be more than enough firewood for a while. He needed to find something to do and fast. Idle hands and what not. Klaus went inside the house and grabbed his sword. It was time to practice.

Caroline went to the house where Yngvar was keeping his daughter. She had the spell book in her hands and looked around the space. She needed just a bit of hair and then.

Caroline pulled the dagger from her belt and then sighed. She apologized as she cut away some of hair and shoved it into her bag. The moment that she was done she raced from the house as thoug ghosts were chasing her.

Though she had seen many dead bodies in the time that she spent with Ayana, it did not making seeing them any less terrifying. They were scary things seeing people without the spark of life in them. And something about it made Caroline think that it was unnatural to be dead.

Once she left the house she walked into the woods in order to do the spell. The sun was setting, but it was not a full moon that night. The wolves would not be out and so she would be safe from them for a while.

She sighed and set her things out. She grabbed the hair and the candle and began her spell. She muttered the words under her breath and brought the hair towards the flame. As the hair burned, Caroline kept the image of the young woman in her mind's eye.

The air shifted. And caroline was no longer in the clearing with a candle but in a dark and dank space.

"Please, no more," Caroline said, but it was not her voice that escaped her. It was Yngvar's daughter's voice. Caroline touched her face and her hands came away sticky with blood. "Please."

The woman was cloaked in shadow and all Caroline could see was the cut of her white teeth against the paleness of her skin. Okay they were working with someone with pale skin. Yngvar's daughter struggled against the chains and Caroline could feel the itch and burn of her skin. She had tried this many times before and each ended with the same result.

The woman neared her with the knife and Yngvar's daughter scurried away from the knife but it was getting closer and closer and-

The knife pierced her skin and Caroline screamed. The pain of being stabbed was nothing compared to the laughter of the woman. Caroline screamed as she was stabbed again and again the struggle fading out of her along with her blood.

Caroline felt an anger and hatred so hot that Caroline knew that it could scald someone. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and rip the person that had done this to her into shreds. Suddenly Caroline jumped forward with a hiss.

Her hands wrapped around the astral projection of the woman who had killed Yngvar's daughter. Caroline's hands were no longer hands but were claws. Her black claws reached in and drove into the skin of the woman.

"You want to play with monsters," Caroline heard herself say. "Be wary because monster's bite back." And then she ducked down and bit at the woman's side. The witch killer let out a howling scream and Caroline dug her teeth in deep. She wanted this woman to feel the pain and also to receive the mark.

The woman screamed and cried out and when Caroline pulled away she smiled.

"You're mine now."

Caroline was sucked back into her body and gasped. She could taste the metallic twang of blood on her mouth. She checked herself. She was not bleeding anywhere. But there was blood in her mouth.

"Emmie," Caroline called out. The ghost figure of Emmie appeared before her eyes. The ghost tilted their head, her acid green eyes staring at her. "What was that?"

"That was the Marking. You gave her the Mark of the Haunted and now you can track her wherever she goes," Emmie said with a large grin.

"But how did I mark her when she is not even here?"

"Spirits linger. Especially when they are murdered. You used the connection and anger in that girl's death in order to find the spirit of the witch killer that did this to her. Simple magic for you."

"I see," Caroline said with a dip to her head. Another thing that set her apart from the other witches. "And when will you tell me what I am?"

"When you are ready." With that Emmie disappeared from her sight. Caroline sighed. She knew better than to push.

She rose from the ground and put out the candle. She smiled and walked back toward the cottage. If she was ever going to learn what it was that she was then she would need to master her magic. Emmie said that was the only way to learn, but then how could she master her magic. She was only good at offensive magic and anything else that she tried ended up blowing up in her face.

Caroline tilted her head as she considered what she could do.

"Hyah!"

The sound of panting and rhythmic beating got Caroline out of her thoughts. She walked over to the sound and peered behind a tree. Standing there, once again with his shirt off, was Klaus. He stood there with his sword in his hand and was practicing his forms. His body moved so lithely in the space that Caroline could not help but be mesmerized.

It was then that Caroline got the idea.

"Hey," she called out as she walked into the glen. Klaus stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "Uh, thanks for chopping all that wood."

"You are welcome. Just trying to do my part," Klaus said.

They both stopped and looked at the ground. Kol was usually the buffer between the two of them and without him there they did not know how to speak to one another. Caroline shook her head.

"You're going on the next raid right?" Caroline asked, looking at him.

"Yes I am," Klaus said with a tilt to his head.

"Let me help you train," Caroline said with a grin.

"Excuse me?"

"I can help you train for the raid."

"You cannot wield a sword."

"I know that but there is going to be battle witches aren't there. My magic is more inclined to battle magic. I can help you prepare for that," Caroline said. She knew that some witches went into wars and battles and that they helped warriors. Her magic was strong and she knew all the attack magics. She would be the best person to teach him how to avoid the magic."I can teach you how to counter spells."

"You would do that for me?" Klaus said looking at her as though she had reached out and touched the sun.

"Of course. I want you to be as prepared as possible. And this will also help me."

"How will it help you?"

Caroline sighed and lost some of her bravado. "I need to find out what I am. Only one person seems to know and she won't tell me until I am ready. So I'm going to get ready by practicing my magic. See we both win in this arrangement."

Klaus considered her words and something shook in Caroline in anticipation. Klaus nodded his head.

"Okay. I'll let you help me."

"Great. Let's start tomorrow. Now come on, the sun is setting."

And so the two of them walked towards the cottage, not knowing that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship for them.

Author's Note: Another chapter down. How do you think training with Klaus is going to go? How do you think Caroline is going to do with controlling her magic. It has already hurt Klaus once. Let's see if she is better 12 years later. Lol