5I don't own OUAT. I suddenly got this idea, and I just had to write it. Apologies to anyone who is reading my other stories (operation save mom, can a family be a home et cetera) I promise I am still working on those!.
Emma Swan had seen a lot of shitty and weird things in her life. One foster parent liked to collect the creepiest dolls ever- not just the ones with the big eyes and the creepy, bigger smiles but ones that had gruesome injuries. Some kids she knew from the street played a game that they called 'how long can you', and consisted of stuff like putting your hand into a fire or holding your breath or only eating one type of food. And so on. Eighteen (or actually fifteen; she had been with a family until she was three) years in the system, several years in prison and the last years working as a bailbonds person had made sure that Emma was familiar with shitty and weird.
But this was really shitty, and really weird.
Why the hell are there trees? I live in New York, there are hardly any fucking trees and definitely not in my block. That was pretty much the first thought Emma had when she opened her eyes again, right after the world had turned into a rollercoaster ride. Or one of those games where you run circles and then try to walk. It was right after she had wondered 'how the Hell can I feel hangover when I didn't even drink last night?'
To which the answer was 'you're probably dead'. At least, that is the first answer she had for suddenly standing in the middle of a fricking forest. With trees that probably had fancy Latin names she didn't know. And she hadn't really spent much time in forests , but weren't you supposed to hear birds chirping and see squirrels and have this happy, calm feeling?
Because this felt more like a horror movie honestly
Great. Either some jerk knocked me out and this is some weird hallicunation or dream- or there is even something weirder going on. Emma treaded towards the first tree, carefully touching it. It was - just a tree. Nothing weird about the wood beneath her hand, nothing unusual at all.
Nothing, apart from the fact that it shouldn't be there.
Wait. Isn't a thing you can't read time in dreams? I need a clock. Except she was still in the middle of a forest, that somehow managed to have chills race down her spine despite the fact that the sun rays were turning the leaves pretty colors and that nice smell there sometimes is after it has rained.
There was a word for that - petrichor. Which Emma only knew, because one of the nicer families had actually cared whether she got good grades and she had gottten a dictionary and the order to learn a new word each day for christmas. Before she had been sent away, again.
She repeated it in her head now, in a weak attempt to distract herself enough to not feel jumpy as Hell. Petrichor petrichor petrichor. She clutched her hand around her gun, carefully stepped over a branch, and strained her mind to remember something, anything to keep her from this feeling she was starting to have. She vaguely remembered one of the girls she shared a home with for a while, breaking down once. She got a bag to breathe in and she kept wheezing into it, barely able to even hold it her hands were trembling so badly.
Emma has that feeling now, and it is weird. She isn't easily scared. And for all the running she has done, she is far more likely to react to something scary with punches, than she is to run. So why the fuck-
Fuck Fuck Fuck . The gunshot is unnaturally loud in this place, and Emma's hand is sort of trembling so even if she managed to shoot in the direction of that sound, she probably still hasn't hit whatever horror monster made the so-
She stumbles back, and rests her back against a tree. Still clutching the gun, she tries to remember what the people used to say to the girl prone to panic attacks. Breathe in deeply? Breathe through your nose and hold it? She is trying any of these when she waves her arm wildly and only barely manages to keep in a scream at the sound repeating.
What is that?! It sounds like the goddamn Spinosaurus roar from Jurassic- Oh gods, no. Emma kind of felt like choking on air while at the same time laughing hysterically, before she reminded herself that 'that sound is probably not even what a real spinosaurus makes. We have no idea what dinosaurs sounded like. Also- the likelihood of there being dinosaurs somewhere is probably really tiny'.
Which of course left her with some creature that sounded like a large, carnivarous animal, trapped in the middle of a forest that was somehow creepier than every scene from The Ring.
She looked at the gun in her head. Okay, pros of turning the safety pin on: not accidentally shoot myself, and possibly even kill myself. Cons of turning the safety pin on: possibly being eaten by some sort of nightmare.
She sighed, then slowly turned it off before creeping forward. It is ridiculously difficult to not just start running and never stop running, or at least not stop until she is far away from whatever hellhole this forest is in. But she is pretty sure that would be stupid. It never saves the people in horror movies anyways.
She is not sure whether she prefers this deathly silence to the spinosaurus roar. It might be a bit of a tossup, really. So she starts to try to distract herself again, naming random facts she happens to know (she once had to stay a couple of days in a library and she read a lot to not focus on how damn cold it was)
Last shake o' the bag is Victorian slang for 'youngest child'.Emma tightened the hold on her gun whenever she passed another large tree, despite the fact that they were seemingly absolutely ordinary ones. She also made sure to never actually come too close to any roots- as far as it was possible, of course
There were really too many fucking roots here. Predicting the death of Henry the eighth was punishable by death. She snickered once, then nearly jumped as she could swear she saw something move. She quickened her pace, careful to watch the ground as she moved through the forest.
She thought she saw something, something that looked suspiciously like a house. Ancient Greeks declared their love for a woman by throwing an apple at her. Please let that be a house, of someone who has like a machine gun or a tank or whatever is needed to kill that thing behind me. She quickened her pace even more, until she was nearly running
She felt her heart rate speed up even more when her foot got caught by something. The moment she felt the wet earth beneath her hands- and heard the spinosaurus roar or whatever it was- she pushed herself up and sprinted the last distance between her and the house.
Vultures can turn a dead body into a skeleton in under five hours. Great, I just made this even more freaky. She nearly slammed into the door, pulled with all her weight and immediately slammed it close when she was inside. Which was when she slowly turned around, I need a table or something else to barricade this door - and-
Stared at , well everywhere really. The walls were chocolate - not just a pattern, but actual chocolate. Chocolate with silver little balls that had her stomach rumble softly. What the - she spat out the handful of candy she had immediately taken from a table next to her, discovering it was stale and kind of gross.
She was just debating whether being in this weirdass place was better or worse than facing whatever was outside when there was the familiar sound of glass breaking and she only barely managed to avoid being killed by a flying stone. She automatically allowed herself to fall, and pretended to be unconscious.
As soon as she heard the footsteps, she lurched and half-slammed the person against the wall. Only to immediately loosen her grip when she realized it was just a girl with a fierce scowl and-
" Kid! Jesus, stop that " she explained when the girl immediately tried to kick her. She darted backwards, holding up her hands. " I am sorry I grabbed you, but you don't need to hurt me".
"Leave us alone! " she snarled. Emma quickly grabbed her hand when she tried to put another stone in the sling she had in her hand. " Hey, don't use that thing on me. That's lethal, you know".
The girl snorted. " That is the point".
"Surely you're not just going to kill a stranger?"
" You're no stranger. I know what you are?".
" What I am?".
" Yeah. You're one of the queen's guard, meant to keep my papa aware from me" the girl was good at pretending to be careless, Emma would give her that. She was just not good enough; Emma noticed the slight wobble in her voice.
Before she could find some way to comfort the girl, she rolled her eyes and said "Don't think the foolish garments will make me think you are just a traveller".
" I think I might be actually" Emma said, slowly letting go of the girl. She glanced at the sling. " Can you put that away?".
" No".
" Okay, fine, just don't use it on me".
" I am not swearing to anything, I still believe you are a guard".
" If I am a guard, why am I just talking to you and not doing anything? And really, who is this queen".
She is kind of insulted by the girl's expression, but she is also kind of amused. " The queen. You know, the reason the whole enchanted forest is unbalanced and these things keep- ".
" Wait, enchanted forest? ".
Emma still thinks this is all not real. Surely it can't be.
The girl - Gretel, and what the fuck- sighs. " Hey!" Emma snaps, rubbing at the sore spot on her arm where she just got pinched really hard. The girl just shrugs and leans back against the table.
"It is all real. We're really here".
" In a cursed land- ".
"Realm, yes".
"Where there is a queen who has magic, which is a thing here- ".
" Well, not really. Not anymore- the queen controls all the magic now" Gretel frowns. " I think she even controls the magic of all the villains".
" Because that is apparently a thing she can do. And this queen has also given everyone amnesia".
" I am not sure about that part. It is kind of extremely dangerous to go anywhere- with all the curse has changed- but I think some have forgotten everything and some have had their memories replaced completely? ".
"Yeah, sure. If that is the case, why do you still have your memories".
Gretel clenches her jaw and looks away. " The queen wanted me to live with her. I think this is supposed to be a sign she would be kind to me. And- never mind".
" No, tell me. If I am stuck in this hallucination, I may as well hear everything".
" It is not a hallucination".
" None of this is possible!".
" If it isn't possible, how come it is there?".
" I hit my head. I am probably in a coma or whatever".
" In a what?".
" A coma. It is - " Emma tries to think of a proper metaphor, and finally shrug and says " It is like sleeping, but far deeper".
Gretel nods. " Sleeping curse, got it".
Emma rolls her eyes. " Not everything is about curses".
" Here it kind of is"
" Well, then you break them" Emma says, shrugging. She still thinks this is a weird dream or whatever, but she also thinks the look in Gretel's eyes is painfully familiar. And she can't stand that; no one should feel like that.
" Break them?".
" Yeah. Curse can be broken right? What do you need to break them?".
She scofs. " True love".
" Uh okay, something else perhaps?".
She shrugs. " It is the only thing I know off".
" Like what, you kiss someone and there is curses breaking?".
"No , I think it's like- you can have true love with a friend, or a family member or " she pulls a face " The person you want to be wed to. But you have to have a true connection- you have to really know them and it has to be mutual. And true love is similar to magic or is magic, so then it could do pretty much anything".
" I have never heard you could share true love with a friend"
Gretel shrugs. " Not everyone falls in love, so it makes sense" she is still looking away, and Emma thinks she understands why. " Besides, from what I've heard- friends are great".
" Don't you have friends?".
"No. Just my brother"
" That's good too, right? I mean, having a brother sounds pretty good"
Gretel shrugs. " He is a moron, sometimes. But we used to be really good friends"
" Used to? ".
Gretel stands up. " If you really are not a guard, I can try to get you to the neutrality border".
" Neutrality border?".
" The villains and heroes are scattered, but there is border where anyone is safe. From there on you could get a horse and travel to queen Snow. I am not sure- I do not know how much she remembers, however".
" Yeah that - actually I probably should go home- except I don't really.." Right. This is a hallucination. Not anything real, because that is impossible.
" You do not really, what?".
Emma sighs. " Never mind kid. Where do you need to go to?"
" Sorry?".
" Where did you last see your family? We will have to find them first".
Gretel scoffs. " You can't".
Emma slowly gets up. " I think I can actually- finding people is kind of what I do".
Gretel slowly turns around. Emma kind of expected it, but it is still awful to see her eyes are slightly puffy and red. " I have been searching for my father for ten years. And I never even found a trace off him".
" Perhaps the queen has him".
" That was the first place I looked".
" Hm. What kind of clues do you have?".
" Clues?".
"You know,when did you last saw him? Why did he leave?".
" He did not just leave . She took him".
"The Queen. Well, isn't he in her bedchamers or something then?".
" My dad would never- "
" Her bedchamers are probably the most secure place. And it is probably the last place you or anyone else looking for your father would look ".
" Oh. That is actually a good idea".
" Thanks" Emma drily said.
Gretel stares at her. " So you are offering to help me find my dad?".
"Yes, sure ".
" It will be dangerous".
" Yeah, I get that".
" You might get hurt".
" I have gotten hurt before. Didn't stop me then".
"And if the queen somehow discovers you are helping me- ".
" Kid. You are not going to change my mind".
Gretel doesn't smile, or say thank you, or even look happy. She just offers her hand, slowly. Emma takes it. " If you get into trouble, I am not saving you".
" Fine by me".
So that is how Emma nearly gets eaten by an ogre.
It might be one of the most embarrassing things ever, having to be saved (and scolded by) a girl. A girl who somehow manages to jump on a freaking ogre's back and slip a knife in his neck ( that's not enough to kill them, just to temporarly paralyze them).
" Run!".
" I thought you said you paralyzed that thing!".
" Yes, but they recover really quickly".
Emma stumbles and nearly humiliates herself even more when Gretel pushes her. She catches her, glances back where that thing is slowly starting to move again and starts printing. Next to her, Gretel is slinging stones at their pursuer with deathly accuracy.
Emma curses and runs back when she sees Gretel actually stop and calmly take another stone from the pouch around her middle. " GET AWAY FROM HERE" Emma yells, wildly grabbing for the girl at the exact moment she shoots-
and the ogre is hit in its ugly eye.
Emma immediately stills, only moving again when the pain in her shinbone registers and she slowly lets Gretel go. Who immediately glares at her, rolls her eyes and stomps away. Emma is pretty she just muttered 'useless'.
Taking one last look at that thing ( it is still kind of terrifying even when it is obviously dead), Emma folows the girl. She might even be right.
They don't really talk much while they walk through this forest. Gretel had safely gotten them to the neutrality border, where they had gotten two horses and Emma had pretty much spent the entire ride clenching her thigh muscles and nearly cutting her hands on the reigns she was holding on to them so tightly. Now there in another part of the kingdom, supposedly halfway to where the queen's castle is.
Gretel suddenly goes right. " Should we leave the path?" Emma calls after her, glancing at the darkness and the plants growing everywhere. Going that way pretty much means cutting your legs open- even if you are wearing your best pair of jeans.
" Yes. Just follow me".
Emma sighs, then rolls her eyes and follows Gretel. It only takes ten minutes, but she gets caught on giant thorns (except those look like warts. Do thornes have those?) thrice and her jeans are more or less ruined at the end of it. She runs to catch up with Gretel.
" What is this place" she breaths. The 'path' they had just taken had been dark and gloomy, with the only light coming from eyes around them. This is a clearing, with strange flowers everywhere and soft chirping and a really good smell. Emma's stomach immediately starts to rumble: it smells like pancakes. Or waffles.
" You will see" Gretel says, grabbing Emma's hand and pulling her along. She pushes open the wooden door from the house Emma hadn't even notice at the same time that she calls out "FRIENDS AND FOE ALIKE FEAR THE SHARPNESS OF THE STONE".
" Ah Gretel" a voice says, before an elderly man arrives, smiling at Gretel. Who actually returns the smile. For a millisecond. With a twist of her lips. But still. The man gently claps Gretel on her back. " What can I do for you?".
" We need a sword. And some fitting garments".
" Does she need to be able to fight".
" Yes" Gretel sighs. " Although I fear you will have to teach her".
Emma rolls her eyes again, but then just smiles as the man laughs joyeously. "Always good to share knowledge, Gretel".
Gretel just plops down into a chair and shrugs. " Good luck".
And Emma glares, thinking I can fight. Because she can. She has taken selfdefence classes, and lived on the streets several times. She knows what to do when someone has a knife, when someone just uses fists, when there are two or three or even four people trying to fuck you up. She knows how to deal with desperate people, and near-psychopaths.
Turns out, she doesn't know how to deal with a sword. And neither of these two people will allow her to just use her gun. Of course, Mason is a lot nicer about it than Gretel ( who cracks nuts, and throws the non eatable parts at Emma's head), but still. It is a good thing Emma likes exercise or she would seriously hate the world after the hours they train.
"You will not be staying here for a fortnight?".
" No. We need to keep moving".
" Okay" Emma only barely catches the sword when it is thrown at her. " She is a quick learner, so you should be able to avoid being killed. I will get the equipment".
" Equipment?".
"Yes. You will need other clothes, perhaps a dagger. Things like that" Mason quickly returns , throwing a pouche at Emma that she only barely catches. He chuckles.
" Is that all you require?"
Gretel nods. " Yes. Thank you".
" You haven't even seen what's inside this thing".
" I do not need to. Mason always choses the right things".
"Fine".
Gretel nods at Mason. " Goodbye. Thank you for your hulp ".
" Do not forget you have a friend here, Gretel".
She doesn't even reply, just walks away. As Emma says her own goodbyes, she wonders again what exactly has happened to her. Gretel has lost her family- but there seem to be even more hurt than that.
But she can hardly talk to her about that ( and she isn't the type for emotional talks anyways)
Turns out that being thrown head-first into an insane world with half human-half lizard things and dark knights and gnomes (or whatever) is the best way to get pretty good at sword- fighting
Emma puls back and thinks 'hallucination hallucination, Gods it is just a hallucination'. But she can squeeze her eyes shut , and there is still a thing that shifts from all these faces she would much rather forget, things that made her run. Always run.
" I thought magic wasn't real"
" It is. The queen controls it. This is the queen's " the queen's monster. Gretel's voice is a mere whisper, and she is pale. She glances at the small group of villagers behind them, shaking her head. She touches Emma, very briefly. " Watch" she whispers, in that same voice.
She does. The villagers- she doesn't know how to describe them. Half of them are smiling -but those smiles make Emma flinch and take a step back. The other half is just repeating motions, nearly robotically.
The first person that talks to Emma, is nice and chatty and keeps talking about her tasks and what a good day it is and how they will surely have a nice day and 'oh really, my lady, you must talk about your adventures'. Emma tries to explain she isn't actually a knight, but they're both led towards the largest house and sat down and offered refreshments-
It should be nice.
It really, really isn't.
Their host pours steaming tea over her own hand, and hardly blinks. There is a lady with a very sweet smile, who casually throws a knife at a fly that is annoying everyone. There are people with blisters on their hands, and manure on their faces. A boy starts to tell in a story and blinks dazedly when he is halfway- looking around him like he is waking from a nightmare. There is man with raggy hair, and sparkling skin that keeps giggling, and muttering rhymes to himself.
" There was something dearie, something was. Something was, and never will be again. Gnawing, gnawing it gnaws. Was it , was it a man?"
Emma nearly chokes on her drink when Gretel whispers " some people lost their minds because of being halfway into remembering, and halfway into nothing"
Emma would really, really like to run but she is stuck at a table with people with crazy or empty eyes, cruel smirks or fake smiles that stumble over words a lot. She kind of feels like these people are going to rip their skins off, and reveal they're demons. Or something.
She nearly screams when he clutches at her arm and leans in. His breath smells sour, horrible. "Oh dearie- would you do something for an old man?".
" Depend on what".
He giggles again, actually clapses his hand. "Names! I deal in names. Would you give me yours?".
" You deal .. .In names".
" Yes yes. Pretty names. Ugly names. Bad ones and good ones. Give me yours".
" He doesn't know his own" it is a young man across from her who tells her.
" Okay, but why would you- "
She grits her teeth when the man slams his fist on the table. "Name!" she has to keep herself from punching him when he leans in even closer. His teeth seem to be rotting. " Please, please dearie give me your name".
She hesitates, then shrugs. " Emma".
" Emma ".
She wrenches her hand back when he grabs it. He giggles again. "Such a lovely name. Such a lovely... " Emma's hand automatically reaches for the hilt of her sword when the man suddenly seems a lot less unbalanced than before ( how does he seem more dangerous than when he is unbalanced?). " princess".
Emma laughs awkwardly. " I am not a princess. Definitely not".
" Snow, and Charming, looking for their little Emma. Snow, and Charming looking for their little Emma" he giggles again. " But she isn't little anymore! No" the moment he growls, Emma jumps to her feet and pulls her sword.
" She isn't little, isn't little anymore. The time has gone, the time has come. Blood will be spilled, the queen will be killed" he giggled again.
Emma grabbed Gretel's hand and hauled her up. " I am not staying around this lunatic one more moment. Come on". And she stomps away, with the giggles and chants of that man in her ears &
people nearly reverently whispering- or also chanting, it is almost like a ritual- 'Emma. Emma. EmmaEmmaEmmaemma".
Of course, the past should've warned her for something like this. Because Emma has never been able to outran bad things. And maybe it doesn't happen immediately- it doesn't. Maybe they even manage to travel a lot- see a lot, also a lot of things Emma did not need to see- before it happens.
She seems like an ordinary woman. Smart, pretty, helpful. She smiles at Emma and laughs when she sees Gretel's scowl. Her skin is very hot, and she gently pulls them towards her home. Perhaps Emma should've been more careful, considering it is a castle, but she is hungry and her back aches from the nights sleeping on cold earth so really, it seems all too good to think about things like 'why did the queen give this woman something that seems like a good life' , and are that 'skulls in the corner'?
The woman laughs, low and deep, and gives Emma more wine. It is the first time she has seen wine here, and she usually doesn't drink wine but it's good. It's good and they're both warm and the woman seems the first person they meet that doesn't make Emma's skin crawl. Gretel keeps tugging on Emma's sleeve "E-emma, that's bones. That's bones and that's - that's clawmarks" she whispers but it doesn't make sense to Emma. What bones? What clawmarks? What rusted armour?
She never giggles. But she sort of does when she tries to stand and her wozzy head has her stumbling- right into the arms of the woman. "Hey "she mutters, and blinks. Alcohol has never made people's eyes glow like that before. It's pretty.
" You really are pretty" the woman whispers, bending towards her.
" Thanks.. Hm I guess" she mutters, blinking. It is all kind of hazy, and maybe she is already dreaming? There is smoke around this woman. Her breath smells like ash. " Regina will be so glad when you're gone " she thinks she hears.
She wrenches her eyes open. " Wha- " she numbly glances down at the pain that registers through the haze. The woman is holding a needle, the tip of it buried into Emma's skin. The world is rapidly darkening - apart from the edges, where there are flames.
The last thing she feels is lips against her temple. The last thing she hears is Gretel's furious shout. Then darkness &
fire