Chapter Text
The trample of snow, the howling of hounds, the pounding of her heart, her poor baby's own cries inadvertently guiding said hounds to them. She wanted nothing more to stop and soothe him but she couldn't. If she stopped they would catch up. She had to keep running.
She cursed herself for not listening to her wife. She should have never sought out Erik's estate in Europe for help. If he wasn't there, there was no way they would help them. She knew the attendants would turn her away if he wasn't there…but she was desperate. She and her wife needed a safe place with their son, and she hadn't expected the staff to release his hounds upon her! Who would do such a thing? It was not as if they knew who she was! They hadn't even seen her face yet…
And so here she was, dogs practically nipping at her heels as she ran with her son through the woods in the dead of winter, begging for this nightmare to end.
Eventually she came to the edge of a cliff hear a waterfall, an old rope bridge spanning the gap the river created. She began carefully crossing, the planks creaking too much for her liking but disregarding them as she had little other choice for safe passage.
“Awwwwwwooooooooo!”
She looked over her shoulder in horror to see the dogs burst through to the clearing by the cliff. Having to slow her pace, the fox hounds had caught up to her and quickly swarmed the bridge. She screamed as they pushed and bit at her, causing her to stumble back. She just barely managed to keep her footing and she raised the basket with her baby above her head to keep their jaws away from him. There was nowhere left to run… cold rushed over her as she realized she and her child would die here.
Snap…snap snap… the woman glanced around in fear, keeping the basket just above her head as the dogs bit at her and tried to tackle her. The bridge… the ropes were snapping! It was too much weight.
Snap SNAP SNAP! CRACK!!!
The air filled with terrified howling and yelping as the left side of the bridge fell through and the dogs all fell to the river below, hitting the water below with heavy crashes. The woman screamed and grabbed onto the still secure side of the rope bridge hoisting herself up…only to realize in horror she had let go of the basket containing her son.
She looked down in horror, watching the basket fall and disappear into the mist coming from the waterfall and she screamed.
….
NEIN!! MEIN SOHN!! NICHT ER!” Rogue sat up in her bed screaming, causing her roommate kitty to phase through her own bed with a shout.
Rogue gasped, glancing around clutching her heart. The room was dark, but warm. Luxurious curtains draped over the windows and prints of Alphonse Mucha works hung over her bookshelves and dresser, on top of which sat a wooden Raven on a skull Remy had carved for her for Christmas. She wasn't in some strange winter forest. She was in the mansion.
“Oy vey! What the heck was that, Rogue?!” Kitty cried as she crawled out from under her own bed.
And she had woken up her roomate…great…
“Rogue? Rogue are you alright?” A voice from behind the door said. Warm electric light filled the room as jean stood in the doorway in her gown and bonnet, a look of concern on her face. Lady Ororo was not far behind her. Scratch that, she had woken up everyone in the lady's dormitory. Rogue blushed in embarrassment.
“Are you alright, child?” Ororo said, entering the room, “we heard screaming…”
“I think she had a nightmare,” Kitty offered.
“No,” Rogue said without thinking. She blinked for a moment, before realizing what she meant. “Ah mean…. Ah think it was more than that…i think it was a memory Ah absorbed…that poor baby…” she continued. Ororo placed a hand on her shoulder. “... Ah think ah need to talk to the professor…” she says, “the baby…he was blue…ah think…ah think ah saw Kurt as a baby…”
Ororo and the two other girls looked at her in shock before glancing between each other in concern.