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It was a cold night, which was common in storybooke but the events of that night weren’t common and they hadn’t been for a long time.
Two girls , most likely teenagers appeared in a seemingly chosen at random street. They were clearly not from there, they might’ve worn modern clothes but the way they wore them was just slightly off. They each carried a backpack that was made out of linnen , it looked like it was crafted by someone that knows what traveler’s want. It looked durable , like you could wear it in most types of weather and environments. Each of the backpacks had a name engraved on a little bronze plate. The blondes read the name HOPE and the brunettes read the name ARROW. The girls walked on a quick pace , they might have not exactly known where they were going but they definitely knew what their goal was. The street was dimly lit by merely one lantern. Hope and Arrow used that to their advantage, they didn’t want to be seen.
Fourteen years ago.
~ “I don’t want this.” Regina had walked -more like ran- up to the highest tower in the palace after her coronation. The smile that she had put up faded from her face the second she walked out the gigantic doors. Nobody had noticed. Of course nobody did. Nobody ever did. And Regina still hadn’t gotten used to it. The emptiness left in her heart after she left a room. That feeling came back after Emma left her life , after Henry didn’t talk to her every day anymore after Zelena got married and moved away. After she was alone once again. She didn’t want this. She just wanted to be loved. She never cared about being the queen. Of course Snow White was too busy with herself to notice that. Emma, the Emma that she hadn’t seen for over a decade did notice and followed her up the stairs.
“Regina, wait!”
She kept running.
“Regina,please…”
She stopped ant turned around to look into Emma’s pleading eyes.
“What?”
Emma walked up closer to Regina now that she had stopped running.
“You don’t have to.”
“I was elected!” Regina said bitterly
Emma rolled her eyes in a way that made Regina feel nostalgic about their time together.
“You didn’t even know you were running , just tell Mary Margret I’m sure she’ll understand…eventually”.
“Okay , I’ll tell her.” ~
Dawn in the small town appeared as fast as the night had fallen. Hope and Arrow had settled on a park bench the night before.after fighting about paying for a place or sleeping outside. They had to save money because who knows how long they would still be travelling. Arrow kept saying she had a good feeling about this place so they should spend some of the money they have. Hope disagreed arguing that Arrow also said that about the last four places they went to. “Goodmorning sunshine.” The blonde just sighed “after coffee.”
“C’mon we should really hurry up.” Hope whined “whyyy!”
“Because.”
“Because…?”
“Yep.”
So they stood up from the bench and walked through the park.
“Have I told you i have a good feeling about today?”
“Only like twenty times.”
Arrow is already glad that this universe has coffee , during the time she’s known Hope she’s learned that hope functions on coffee. Quite the opposite of the brunette herself , she’s always bright awake. They both joke about it but they’re well aware neither is a good thing.
They walk out of the park , somehow it’s hard to tell what season it’s exactly, some leaves are bright green and others are falling down.
“Beautiful park right?”
“Hope , we know each other way too wel to make small talk.”
“Do we though?”
Hope had come to realise that they knew little about each other , despite the time they had traveled together.
“We talk , but never about important things.”
Arrow sighs. “I know , we’ll have time for that later.”
“Later?”
“Yeah , some day.”
“I hope so.”
They jaunt out of the small park , into the more crowded town area.
The town seems homely , yet unwelcoming.
“We should ask someone for directions I think.”
“Probably.”
A couple of streets later they see a man that’s walking his dog.
Hope walks up to him.
“Hello sir , I was wondering where you can get coffee around here.”
“Just at the end of the street , around the corner there’s a nice place called granny’s.”
“Thank you a lot.”
“You’re welcome.”
They part ways as Hope and Arrow stroll into the direction the man showed them.
“He seemed nice.”
When the duo looks around the corner they indeed see a building with a sign that reads ‘granny’s’ on it.
“Wonderful.”
The building somehow seems much older then it looks to Hope.
Arrow holds the door open for her , when it closes behind her the little bell above the door ring loudly.
Nearly everyone in the small diner turned around to look at them. A grey haired lady with her hair put up in a bun walked towards the brunette. “How can I help you today?”
“Can I have two lattes please?”
“Coming right up.”
Hope has been observing the diner since they walked in. She noticed that most people were too busy with themselves to notice the two newcomers in town. That would be helpful ,ignorant people.
The second thing she noticed is that everything in the diner ,from the wallpaper to the tables to the chairs, was clearly much older then it was supposed to look. And the last thing she noticed before Arrow bumped into her again was the calendar on the back wall…fifteen September. Hm , she had no idea that it had been this long…her eyes kept lingering on the calendar until Arrow shoved a cup of hot coffee in her hands. “There you go!”
“Thanks.”
The brunette looked at the spot where she’d been staring “did you see something there?”
“No ,it’s nothing.”
“Wonderful.”
They stepped outside, it was more chilly then Hope expected. “Is it possible that it’s even colder then it was tonight.”
“I don’t know , but it definitely feels like it.”
The girls walked for a while , silently sipping their coffees. Hope spoke up first. “This coffee is great.”
“That’s good to hear.” Arrow smiled. “But we should move on from our coffees and start doing something, I think it would be smart to start at the library.” Hope nodded. “I agree , those are usually helpful.”
So they walked for a while , and right as the clock tower struck Nine o’clock in the morning the doors of the library opened. The library was located right below the clock tower. “Odd place for a library right?” Arrow nodded. The floor had tiles and the walls were white , there was a coat rack but it was cold so they unanimously decided to keep their coats on. The blonde and brunette walked right up to the counter, behind that was a short woman that smiled at them. “Not a lot of people visit the library anymore, I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.”
“We hope so too.”
“Well go ahead and just look around.”
“We will , thank you so much.”
The library wasn’t large but they didn’t expect much judging from the outside .
“We’ve seen a lot of impressive libraries on our journeys, this is not one of them.”
Hope cleared her throat. “Says miss grew up in a gigantic castle.”
“Ha-ha very funny.” Arrow secretly did find it very funny.
“So , where should we start?”
“I’m not really sure.”
Hope grabbed the first book within a hands reach and started reading it.
“Hm , a book about the migration patterns of tropical birds I’m not really sure how that could help us.”
“Well ya never know.”
Nonetheless hope puts the book back on the shelf.
About an hour later the pair is sitting around the one table in the library surrounded by open books.
“Hey , I don’t know about you but I need a break.”
“Agreed.”
“Shall we go for a walk.”
“Why are you speaking all fancy.”
Arrow points at the pile of books in-front of her and whispers. “It’s not me …the books are making me do that.”
Hope laughs “c’mon let’s go.”
They walk out of the library into the entrance hall ,the lady sitting at the counter has now disappeared.
“Strange…”
Hope notices something that she didn’t see before.
She pricks Arrow in her side with her elbow.
“That’s an elevator.”
“Um…cool.”
“No , im saying that it’s an elevator but there’s also stairs right over there.”
“Just a thought maybe it’s for people with disabilities or elderly people.”
“No , no that’s not it…we’re going in.”
“We’re? Nu uh , I care about you a lot but- Hope interrupted her.
“I’m not going alone.”
“Alright.”
Hope touches the elevator and the doors immediately open.
“I’m telling you , there’s something going on here.”
“Alright then , let’s have one look but after that we’re out of there.”
“Okay.”
The duo steps into the rusty and clearly old elevator.
“If i die in this thing Hope , I swear I’m coming back to haunt you.”
Hope presses her lips together to stop herself from laughing.
“Got it.”
The elevator only has three buttons , one to open the doors , one to close them and one that makes the it go to the floor below. No button up , and no emergency button.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yep.”
Arrow hesitantly presses the button that makes the doors close. And so the doors close , slowly and with a whole lot of noise.
When the doors are closed there’s barely any light except for the bit shining through the slit between the doors. Arrow presses the second button , that makes the elevator go down. It makes a similar sound, like the door made. It’s a slow elevator, there’s also no light at all. Arrow can still hear Hope breathing even though the elevator is loud. Arrow is holding in her breath out of fear. And then it stops, and all they’re hoping for is that it stopped on the floor below not just in the middle. Arrow presses the button that’s supposed to open the door. And the squeaky doors open. Surprisingly it isn’t entirely dark, the hallway-that looked more like a cave to their surprise- was dimly lit by torches hanging on the wall. “I guess you were right , there is something going on here.” Hope steps out of the elevator first and Arrow quickly follows.
A disgusted expression forms on her face
“I know this is cool and all but the architect of this place sucks.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well a cave under a library under a clock tower isn’t smart , you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out.”
“Okay , you’ve got a point there.”
“I know I do.”
They walk through the large cave Side by side.
The torches on the wall light up as they walk deeper into the cave.
“Y’know I don’t think there’s anything but cave down here, we should go back.”
“Just a little further alright?”
“Okay then.”
And so they walk through the deep cave system, the cave becoming narrower and narrower.
“Hope , I don’t think we can go much further.
“Yes we can.”
Arrow carefully grabs Hopes arm.
“Hope , listen to me you’re going to hurt yourself if you go further.
“I won’t!”
“Hope look around , we’re slightly lost and we’re going to get stuck.”
“Then you stay here and I go on!”
“I’m not going to leave you behind.”
Hope sighs.
“I’m sorry.”
Arrow lets go of Hope’s arm.
“I’m sorry too but I don’t think I can do this anymore.
“What do you mean”
“I mean that I give up , we’ve been doing this for over six months and I’m sick of being optimistic when we’ve not made any bit of progress”
“But..”
“This wasn’t even what I was planning to do , I’m doing this because I care about you but I don’t want to spend the rest of our life looking for people that might be dead. “
“They’re not dead!
“No…no I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that of course they’re not dead.” Arrow sighs again , she wants to help hope but she doesn’t know how to.
“Hope , I care about you so much and you care about your parents so of course I want to help you.”
“What’s the problem then?”
“The problem is that we have been travelling from real to realm for six whole months, you need a break you’re only fourteen!”
“Fifteen.” Hope corrects Arrow. When she sees the confused look on her face she explains.
“Todays my birthday, September eighteenth.”
“Oh hope , I’m sorry you didn’t get to celebrate it with your family.
“You’re also family , sort of.”
“Well we should’ve celebrated it today , but we won’t , we’re going to find your parents and then celebrate it.”
Hope smiles broadly.
They stand there for a few seconds until Arrow leans agains the wall and slides down to sit on the floor. “If we ever get out of this damn cave.” Hope holds her hand out and pulls Arrow back up.
“I used to be a real mess y’know?”
Arrow looks at her , confused on how this helps the situation.
“I would lose things from time to time , small things like sea shells or rings , replaceable things but my parents would always make me look for them. I’d ask them why , and I’d always get the same answer.
This might be replaceable , but one day you’re going to lose something that isn’t and we want you to learn that you should always find those irreplaceable things , even if you lose them. “
“I didn’t Really understand it back then , but now I do. We have to find my mom and dad. I’ve been tought to not just give up the things I care about most , so we will find a way out of here and we will find my parents. Besides I’m not dying in a stupid underground cave !”
At the end of Hope’s hope speech Arrow smiles and rolls her eyes. “You’re right, your parents were right.”
The blonde and brunette start walking pack through the torch lit cave , back in the direction of the elevator.
“Hey…look at that !” Arrow looks down at the floor , where’s Hope pointing at.
“Footprints?”
“Okay are you also super duper scared right now?”
Arrow scrunches her face up a little. “Yep…”
So they run , not thinking about anything but getting out of there without losing each other.
The elevator was closer than either of them expected. Even though there’s not a button on the outside of the elevator it’s still there and its doors are wide open.
Hope presses the close the door button at least a thousand times before the doors finally close and the elevator goes back to the library.
Arrow is actively holding her breath until the doors open back in the entrance hall to the library and clock tower. But when Hope looks around she sees the librarian sit at the counter again with a look of surprise on her face. Hope pulls Arrow along , and so the running begins again. Only when they’re three blocks further they stop running and start nervously laughing. “You gotta admit this might’ve been the strangest day in months. “
“Definitely , you know what I could use?”
“A coffee?”
“A coffee!”
The duo walks to granny’s, this time in a slow pace because they’re sick of running.
In the meantime, whilst they’re relaxing the librarian makes a phone call. “There are new people in town. And they went downstairs. I thought that you would like to know that.
Chapter two
A year ago
Hope and her parents traveled the realms , usually.
But it was Hope’s fourteenth birthday. so Emma and Killian decided to go to a large island with a low population. Going to places like that was like camping ,but instead of sleeping in a tent they slept on the Jolly Roger.
Hope loved birthdays. The first few birthdays she’s had she spent with friends of her parents and family. She has no memory of that though , it kind of bothers her. But she knows that it’s rough on her mother. She lost so many things there. So many people. She told Hope that she’d rather leave it all behind. And so she did. Hope does wish that she could someday meet her other family , her grandparents, her nephew, her half brother. But for now she’ll just focus on her , her mom and her dad. They had spent most of their day in the small town on the island. Hope bought a few clothes and they had lunch. In the evening they sat by a campfire on the beach. Her parents gave her a necklace. It was gold and had a compass as a charm. She thanked her parents as her dad carefully attempted to put the necklace around her neck. Which didn’t go smoothly Hope expected that since you know , he had a hook for a hand. Her mom ended up having to assist him. Hope leaned her head against her mothers shoulder. “Thanks.” It was a faint whisper but loud enough for both of her parents to hear. “Aye.” Emma sighed. “Well it’s getting late, And you , not so young lady should go to bed. Hope rolled her eyes but didn’t protest any further. Killian put out the fire with a bucket of water. On the ship Hope rushed to her cabin. She opened a wooden door with a golden plate on it , the plate read her full name in beautiful cursive letters. Hope quickly changed into her pyjamas and brushed her teeth. She braided her hair as fast as she could and jumped into her bed. Right then her parents entered the room, they kissed her on her forehead. Right as they were about to leave Emma turned around. “Oh I forgot to ask ,you want a bedtime story?” Hope sighed deeply. “I’m not a child, I don’t need to hear fairytales anymore.” Killian scoffs “don’t need fairytales anymore ? You’re quite literally a fairytale character!” Hope sat up a little straighter in bed. “Yeah , a fairytale character without a fairytale.” Emma took a step closer to Hope. “You’ll get to live a fairytale, but let’s just focus on living safely for not okay?” Their daughter nods. “Fine.” They smile. “Goodnight honey.”
The door of Hope’s cabin closed with a loud thump. She tried to fall asleep, but she simply wasn’t tired. The blonde looked outside through the porthole, at the water slowly moving, at the stars and at the soft moonlight. Some of the stars are falling from the sky. Hope can’t help but wish on one of the brightest stars that she ever saw. She wished for a life outside of her parents , she loved them but it was isolating. She meets people but can’t even remember the rest of her family. Eventually hope does fall asleep , listening to the ticking of the clock in her room she slowly drifts off into a haze of imagination.
That night hope dreams of adventures, friends , love and a specifically irritated dragon.
When Hope blinks her way awake the first thing that she notices is that it’s later then that her parents would wake her up usually. She only had to take a small glance at the clock to tell the time. Well that’s Odd is her first though.
The blonde has a bad feeling about today. One of those bad feelings that you feel in your gut and sits there uncomfortably until it fades.
Hope immediately puts on baggy breeches , boots and a hooded tunic. She clutches the compass at the end of the necklace she got from her parents. She opens the door of her cabin and walks onto the deck as quiet as she can. When she sees multiple objects lying on the ground in pieces she clutches the compass so hard that it surprises her that it didn’t shatter. There are scratches on the floor. Hope desperately hopes that it’s a joke. She calls out for her parents “MOM! DAD!…where are you.” She starts running around the Jolly Roger trying to look for her parents. “Please let it be a joke…”. The blonde try’s to calm herself down by breathing , panicking won’t help. But deep down she knows that it won’t help. She won’t be calm until she finds her parents. She’s red from crying and here hair’s a mess. She opens up the cabin where her parents sleep. “Please…” she doesn’t see them. Not anywhere. She has to face it. Her parents are gone . And she has no idea what could’ve happened. She collapses on the bed. She knows her parents had enemies. But that was years ago , that was why they didn’t go to the place Emma used to call home. For Hope’s safety. I guess it wasn’t enough. The girls brain goes straight into survival mode. She grabs her backpack from her room and starts putting the most important stuff in it. Just in case she has to run , just in case she really loses everything. But she waits. Hours pass until she admits that her parents were taken. And she’s alone now. “Okay , a plan…I need a plan.” And so she decides to go into the town she and her parents were in yesterday, to ask if anyone has seen her parents since then.
Nobody has. She tries again. And again. She finds a photo in her pocket, she starts showing people the picture. But she’s scared , she doesn’t want people to think that she’s all alone. She uses a few silver coins to buy a leather bound journal. She’s still scared. She’s fourteen and all alone. She has no friends , doesn’t know where her other family is. Her parents would never leave her ,she knows that. But somehow that’s worse than that they did leave her ,because now she knows that someone or something was after them. And she know that it snuck up on her parents ,they weren’t fools and if they noticed anything they would’ve prepared Hope. But they didn’t. She tries to think back ,anything could help. But she knows that they didn’t leave. They were torn away from her.
Hope returns to the Jolly Roger as the sun begins to set. She half expected her parents to be there ,with dinner and an apology. That they just left a note that Hope didn’t find ,that it was just all a prank. But instead she found an empty deck. However someone had clearly been there ,looking for something. Hope herself perhaps ? She takes a deep breath, at least tries to. The lump in her throat keeps her from feeling relaxed. The heavy headed feeling she woke up with this morning didn’t disappear. She grabs a pack of matches and lights up two lanterns. She locks everything that she can possibly lock and closes all of the curtains. She’s terrified of someone knowing that she’s there all alone. She makes dinner ,burns it by accident and decides to just scrape off all of the pitch black pieces. She lies down on her bed. She’s too nervous to sleep and she knows it. Hope clutches the compass again “where are you.” She says it so quietly that even if there was anyone with her they wouldn’t have heard anything. The blonde opens the journal she bought. She writes the date at the top. The facts ,her assumptions ,her plan. The journaling helps ,it helps her remember something. Her parents have a safe. They haven’t mentioned it in years ,so Hope hopes it’s still in her parent’s cabin. She lights another lantern and carefully opens her door and sprints across the deck towards the cabin that belongs—well belonged to her parents.
The room is still messy ,not that what Hope’s doing is helping. She opens as many cabinets and as many drawers as she can. And then she finds it , all the way at the back of the highest cabinet in the room. A small safe. It’s made of a Smokey charcoal grey coloured metal. It has a lock on it ,of course it has a lock on it. It’s a safe. The girl thinks for a while. What could possibly be the code? Are there any hints that she could think of? She looks around the room hoping for a clue to magically appear. It doesn’t. Okay…how about her birthday. She twists the lock until it has all the right numbers. It somehow worked. The blonde chuckles a little as a tear runs down her cheek. Her parents are so predictable. The safe didn’t open easily ,it had clearly not been opened in years. When it finally did the small smile on her lips faded away immediately the safe appeared to be empty on first glance. She furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed that there was something in there. Her hand reached out to the small paper laying there ,in the safe untouched for years. The paper felt rough ,more like parchment the the paper Hope thought of. Her hand rubbed over the letters. “What’s that supposed to mean…” the note was completely empty besides eight words. Look at the map behind the desk ,Hope. There were some coordinates on there too 71.735938236740° N -66.946481667309° W. Odd…okay so behind the desk…the desk is surprisingly lightweight so she barely struggles with moving it. There’s a map taped to the back of it. The blonde looks at her nails ,she hopes that they’re sharp enough to peel the tape off without damaging the map. She peels the tape off as careful as she can and manages to get it off the back of the desk with no more than one small rip in the fragile paper. She shoves the desk back quickly and sits down at the desk. The map isn’t that large ,even rolled out. She opens the top drawer there’s a ruler In there. Before starting to figure out the coordinates she looks at the main land on the map. “The wish realm” she gets goose bumps.
Okay—so that’s where Hope is heading to tomorrow.
The Wish Realm.