Collaboration between Ghost Shadow, Ursa Minor, Yoshiskittlez, and Tanderbolt
The sun had sunk well below the horizon by the time the group reached the refugee camp. Thanks to the combined talents of the armored woman who was able to keep them heading in the right direction and Knox taking to the front of the group as he had the best eyes for the darkness in the destroyed forest, the group was immediately welcomed into the well-hidden area with the small lit torches set up around the base.
Nodding her thanks to the man who towered over her, the armored woman gestured towards the fire pit in the center of the small camp where a large cauldron was sitting up above open flames, a watery stew simmering deep inside; an indication for the group to help themselves.
“The Evil Queen’s curse took everyone from The Enchanted Forest and dropped them into a new land.” The woman said to Snow, confirming what her previous Queen had related to her not too long ago. “Except here.” She went on, sitting down on a log bench before the fire, grateful for the warmth of the fire that contradicted the otherwise chilly atmosphere of the forest. “No one knows why we weren’t affected, but we are all that’s left. But as time goes on, more and more of us go missing. That’s why I was out when I found you, looking for a small scouting party that never returned…” She stopped to clear her throat. "The Ogres are picking us off, one by one..."
After taking it all in, Snow said "Do you know anything about the rest of the area? If the castle is still intact, that would be a good place to defend against the Ogres. If that isn't an option, then the only other good solution is leaving the forest for another realm. There aren't nearly enough people here to wage war on the Ogres."
The woman shook her head no with a somber expression.
"That was the first place we looked. Your castle; all castles in the area, including The Evil Queen's...there's nothing left but ruins. I'm sorry."
"Well, there goes my afternoon naps..." The Cat put in carelessly as he seemed to float aimlessly through the air, disappearing in a wispy smoke before appearing again on the ground, taking a few moments to lick his paws clean before looking up at the armored woman curiously - as if trying to read her.
Sharp sounds came from Knox's hands as he cracked his knuckles, gazing upon the camp fire dully, deep in thought. Back again, like waking from a nightmare in which you couldn't let yourself enjoy and be...'happy'...wide awake, and all you want to do is fall back asleep. Letting out a breath, a portion of his dark aura swirled around in the air like thin smoke when it was met with his warm breath, weak. There was a creeping feeling that it had to do with that...
"It's far too late for anything 'afternoon', at this point." Absently answering to the cat's self commentary, if someone would have told Knox a day ago that he's be journeying alongside a floating cat, he'd have insisted at you see some sort of specialist. Thinking on the nocturnal activity standard for real cats, "As well, you'd feel much too energetic to stay asleep."
"I still want to examine it for myself, there's definitely some things that can be salvaged from it. Are you the one in charge of the camp?" Snow asked, ignoring Henry's quiet jape.
Again the woman shook her head no.
"We have no hierarchy here, with everything that's been going on, there hasn't been any need..." She paused to watch the small, round man getting pushed to his knees before the fire (obviously a prisoner or deserter in their small group) before speaking again. "You might try speaking with Lancelot. He's become somewhat of an unspoken leader around here. If your keen on talking to someone 'in charge' it would be him."
"Lancelot's still here? Glad to hear that he is safe, he's the one who married me and Charming. I'll talk to him, and see if we can't get things a little more orderly around here. What was your name again?"
The armored woman nodded once, and though she kept her face firm there was a flash of what could be hurt from the former Queen's words; that she and the others were incapable of keeping things 'orderly.'
"Hua Mulan." The woman said sounding almost bitter. Had times been different, she wouldn't have taken Snow's words so harshly, but one could never be too careful during these times. "He should be in his tent, I'll see if he's available." She said getting up from the log bench and turned to leave.
XXX
Ending her little dance with a rather clumsy pirouette, Jill stumbled through the last bit of trees before jumping out of the bushes rather conspicuously. A large sack was slung over her shoulder, and there were a number of leaves and clods of dirt stuck on her person.
Passing by the campfire area, she skidded to a halt and back stepped to peer over at the newcomers curiously, blinking a few times before also noticing Mulan taking her leave of the group. In the blink of an eye, “Ay!” Followed by a sharp whistle to catch the armoured lady’s attention, Jill made a swift underhanded toss, the sack hitting the woman’s shoulder. “’Eave wa’—” Half way through, sticking an unwashed pinky into her mouth, “—you can’t eat.” With a little salute, Jill jogged on in there.
There was a noble-looking woman in this group of newcomers, so remembering some of her upbringing, and keeping them in mi—“AH!” Wide eyed, and just straight up pointing at the floating colourful furred cat with no pretences to hide the wonder and fear, “Ith ma’hic?!” Reaching into her leathers, Jill whipped out a thin wooden doll-like amulet with feathers badly stuck on it, holding it out to the weird cat, “Ohr…ah ‘ou a god?!”
The Cat appeared slightly confused at first as a...for lack of a better word, strange woman approached the group, not even bothering to say hello before beginning to ramble about magical cat gods.
Feeling quite pleased with himself for appearing so regal to this stranger, the Cat made a special point to slowly start fading away until he was no more than a literal floating head, eyes, mouth, teeth, and all.
"A god, you ask? Why, that's all a matter of perspective. Tell me, my dear, are you mad?" He asked her nonchalantly, his head spinning around slowly as the rest of his body once again appeared, defying gravity as he levitated at her eye-level.
Gasping at the cat's body disappearing, Jill made the mistake of following the head's spinning motion...making herself dizzy. "Mahd? Wah mahd?" This cat being kind of answered like a regular magicker...but there weren't many of those she could compare 'em to.
"Mad is an occupation, I like to think...no, wait, hold that thought, a state of being, yes. You're mad, most like, I'm mad, we're all mad. It's what makes things fun." The Cat replied with an even wider grin as he rambled on about strange philosophies.
Trying to make sense of this all in her head, there was a minute of internal deliberati--"Wai'...am I a god 'oo?!"
"Not that I'm aware of, and a good fortune that is." The Cat responded to her question in a somewhat insulting manner, stating the mildly veiled jape at her intelligence as though it was commonplace banter.
"Tell me, Mad One, do you have a name? Or perhaps two?" He asked, switching topics lightning-quick onto something more productive.
Subconsciously, Jill covered up her neck a bit more and shifted her knee-high boot clad feet a little uneasily, shaking her head like a small child caught doing something wrong, "Uh uh..." Pausing, hesitantly, she stuck her thumb in her mouth, "I'm just Jill." Saying this slowly, her own wide eyes avoided the cat's.
"Well, hello, 'Just Jill'." The Cat greeted in a friendly manner, spinning his whole body upside down as he spoke.
"You can call me the Cat, for simplicity's sake. However, any strange name longer than three syllables should suffice to garner my attention." He added in a half-hearted tone, his pupils shooting down (or up, from his perspective) to Just Jill's boots, which seemed to hold a lingering residual of magic to them...most curious.
This new stranger made Snow wary, she didn't know her background or trust her character. It was best to be cautious around a person under these circumstances. "Henry, we should focus on the most important matters, like developing a plan. Also, it would be helpful if you filled me on what you know of Storybrooke, I haven't seen much outside of the hospital."
The Cat, apparantly quite irritated that his enigmatic mysterium had been ruined at the drop of his Storybrooke name, turned towards Snow, tilting his head to the side.
"Oh come now, Snow, nothing wrong with a little fun now and then, eh? World's already gone to ruin, nothing left to save. Might as well make the best of it!" He said in a strangely jovial tone, as though the Enchanted Forest's destruction had glossed over him, not compreheding in his mind.
"But if you insist...you wish to learn of Storybrooke? Where do you want to start?" He asked, tone becoming serious in nature as he knew Snow would be in no mood for jokes at this time.
"Start with whatever you think might be useful. We need to find a way to depose Regina and install either Charming or myself, I need to know what stands in our way."
"My dear girl, you know the answer to that question well enough. You have the Evil Queen and the Dark One fighting a cold war for power while us little ants scurry off to do our work. If you wish to truly rule Storybrooke with your...charming husband, you need to get rid of the titans, easier said than done." The Cat replied simply, finally landing himself on the ground and sitting back on his haunches, tail swishing from side to side.
"Well, at least they're against each other now. Should be easier than it was back here in The Enchanted Forest." She stopped talking when she saw Lancelot emerge from the tent, quietly followed by Mulan and a man Snow hadn't seen before with a thick head of black hair and pointed features.
"Snow?" A heavily armored Lancelot approached the group with a white smile, contrasting his dark features brilliantly in the flicker of firelight and extended his arms out in a welcoming embrace.
"Lancelot, great to see you. There's a lot to talk about, ranging from what we should do next to what happened to the rest of the Enchanted Forest." She hugged him, happy to see someone else she could trust.
Lancelot took back a respectable step from Snow and let his arms fall back to his side after their quick embrace, his left hand staying on the hilt of his sword, no doubt a habit engrained into him from one-too-many mishaps.
"Mulan told me briefly of what she has spoken to you about, but I'm afraid what she says is true." He vaguely gestured over to Mulan with his free hand, and though the woman had followed Lancelot out of his tent, she was already busying herself about the camp, ensuring that those left in the camp had what they needed. "This is all that's left of the Kingdom." Lancelot continued. "The Ogres have been merciless, and as their numbers increase, ours dwindle down next to nothing."
"Have hope. Even if this area is lost, I know of place that will be much more accomodating, if I can find a portal back. We could use people like you in the land without magic."
"A portal?" Lancelot scoffed, but then straightened up the very moment he realized that it could have been taken offensively. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you that portals in our land are very few and far between. But I trust you Snow, if there's one out there, we'll find it." He gave a curt nod before looking over to Jill who had been busy emptying the gunnysack of whatever it was that she found into the pot of stew. As the breeze picked up, the smell of it's contents wafted into the air causing many noses to scrunch in repulsion, but it was all they had.
From where Knox stood by the fire, motionless, he listened in quietly to the talk as the warm glow cast over him, seeming to highlight his aura and make it parts more sinister than the reality. It was true about all this chaos, as night he could feel the disturbances of the land now under his domain...but the talk of portals interested him more. The one they travelled through hardly sounded like the first, and wouldn't be the last.
"Help yourself." Lancelot addressed the entire group, gesturing towards the pot over the fire. "It's not much, and not too satesfying, but it will fill your belly. Now if you'll excuse me Your Majesty, I must retreat back into my tent for the night, there is still plenty of work I have to do."
As Lancelot walked away, Snow said "Alright, I look forward to seeing you again in the morning."
"Old friend of yours, then, I take it? I never cared much for soldiers; they like drawing their swords too much." The Cat put in nonchalantly once Lancelot was out of earshot.
"Now, thinkers on the other hand, myself included, they are the true paragons. A tongue is just as deadly as a sword to those who know how to wield it." He added in an affable manner.
Jill turned from mixing her foraged pieces into the soup, and gave the magical cat a funny look, before sticking both index fingers into her mouth to speak in a rather half garbled manner...but much less so than normal, "I know aw la'yee 'hoo could sw'woah swo'wds..." Removing both fingers after a moment of consideration, and replacing it with a thumb, "...two on a good day."
Snow ignored the other woman's intteruption and said "Now that we have a moment, I'd like to say how glad I am to see you again, Henry. How were those years for you? Did you fear for your life?"
"Oh, just the same-old same-old, really." The Cat replied in a genuinely warm tone, veiling the fact of how much he had missed her.
"I escaped death numerous times, made more than a few deals with the Dark One, became human again, then got sent back to Wonderland before going to Storybrooke." He summarized quickly, not bothering to go into the minute details of his various adventures.
She smiled at his cheerful demeanor, but changed her expression when he mention the Dark One. "You made deals with him? What kinds of agreements? I need to know this, these could cause serious problems later." She said with an indignant tone
The Cat's grinned twitch slightly, how could she not let these politics go to simply converse with an old friend?
"Personal deals, nothing I can't handle. They're between Rumpelstiltskin and myself. But as long as I'm here and he isn't...then I guess I don't have much to worry about." He added in a nonchalant manner once again, clearly lacking any sense of fear or worry over any 'favors' the Dark One could ask of him.
"You always have to worry about him. Henry, I have some trust in your judgment, but I find it hard to trust you if you hide things like this from me."
"Snow, it was a deal with him that got me turned into a cat in the first place." The Cat finally confessed in a tone harsher than he intended, finally breaking up the illusion that it was the Queen of Heart's doing as he had told Snow the first time they had met.
"I know you mean well, my dear, I really do..." He began, his tone leveling as he spoke, "But I've been self-sufficient for a long time. You have enough to worry about besides silly old me."
"You're not on your own anymore, and I will worry about you just like I worry about everyone else I care about." Snow replied staunchly.
The Cat (for once) held his tongue, instead letting her words run through his mind. "Thank you..." He said sincerely, if not awkwardly, unsure as to whether it was the right thing to say or not. The only people who he could tell genuinely cared about him were Alice, Snow, Heather, and one more...an associate he hadn't spoken to in months...Jefferson.
The Cat appeared to become puzzled as he recalled the former portal-jumper from memory. Though the Cat was too cold to call Jefferson a real friend, the two of them were close.
'I wonder if he managed to escape this madness...' The Cat thought lastly to himself, becoming lost in his own thinking as concern, real concern, struck him.
"Tomorrow we'll be putting your survival skills to good use, we're going back to my castle. I have some documents I want to retrieve from there, they are very important." Snow said, with a resolute tone in her voice.
"Exploration, eh? I can't wait..." The Cat replied, seeming to come out of his thoughtful reverie as an almost mischievous glint entered his bright blue eyes.
