ᴘᴇʀꜱᴇᴘʜᴏɴᴇ | once upon a time [ EDITING ]

- ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀᴠᴇ.

— ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀᴠᴇ.

It had been a few days since Presley had separated from Snow White, Prince Charming and the others. Her days were spent riding horseback or walking besides the trusted animal to relieve it of his burden. She barely got any sleep, the water and food that Prince Phillip and Aurora offered everyone who had arrived in the Enchanted Forest was running out and there was not even a hint of civilization in sight. She could count the amount of people she saw until now on one hand. Presley had to find a town or something quick if she did nog want to run out of her resources.

Around her the landscape started to change too. She had left the forests behind for sloping hills with only grass and the ground was slowly transforming into mountains and stone. Presley did not have a plan to go anywhere specific. Maybe her excursion was not really thought through, but anything was better than hanging around with the others in a castle while not doing anything to uncover her secrets. She had to continue moving, or else.. what was left? Wallow in self pity and grief over Felix' death and the loss of Emma and her newfound friends? Be angry at the world for the rest of her life? Drink and smoke herself into a delirium until she could no longer think? This seemed like the most healthy option of all, if you think about it that way.

Presley pulls on the reins of the horse, signaling to stop. She slides off the back of the stallion and keeps the reins in her hand. There was still such a long way ahead of her, but she would not give up easily. The landscape around her slowly turns into more of a stone scenery. The sun had heated the stone and now it was searing under her leather clad feet. Due to the heat she ran out of water even quicker and the thirst made her not hungry at all.

Another few hours passed of just walking. Foot after foot, shuffling on and on. She could sense the horse was getting tired too. Soon they would have to find a place to replenish, but there was no such place in sight anywhere. Eventually Presley reached the mountains and left the horse behind. Up on the mountains it would only slow her down and the risk of the stallion breaking something was too high. So, she send it back the direction where they came from and told it to find some woods. As she starts to climb the mountain she was hopeful that she would find civilization in the valley behind it.

At least, that was her hope until she heard a noise.

It did not sound like footsteps. More likely an animal than a human, though she could not pinpoint which animal it must be. Presley feels eyes resting on her and that did nothing to soothe her nerves. Every muscle was tightened and her ears perk up to catch every other sound in the environment. Slowly she turns around and finds a pair of gleaming little red eyes staring at her from between the twigs of a barren bush. "Oh, fuck this," she groans out as she reaches for the dagger that Charming had gifted her.

The animal growls lowly. She hears hooves scrape over stone and the noise of sniffing. It probably detected her scent and was ready to rip her apart. Great fucking luck. The bushes begin to rustle and, as if it were a canon ball, a wild boar launches from between the barren, dry twigs. Presley watches as the animal was coming closer, but she knew that if she stepped aside now the boar would only correct its direction and attack her. But if she waited..