Regina's Rose

A Dream and A Lie

Rose's POV
I woke to the sound of stirring in the tent. I've never been a deep sleeper but with Aurora having these nightmares my bad sleeping habits have come in handy. She shot up and I was already right next to her to calm her down.
"Hey, calm down, it's just a dream. I'm right here." I said trying to calm down the younger princess.

She took a few deep breaths but still looked scared for her life.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I questioned hoping it would help.

She nodded hesitantly, fear still in her eyes. "I was in this red room with no doors or windows. But it had these long red curtains and everything was on fire. And it was all around me. A-and there was someone in the opposite corner staring at me." she said ranting and out of breath from her still shaken nerves.

I was shocked but I recovered. I turned around and quickly put on my pink magic bracelet cuff that had some how made it through the portal. I couldn't let anyone know that I knew of this place until I found out the reasons why I knew.
"It's only a dream, nothing to worry about." I said calmly taking the princesses hand in my own to comfort her.

"I don't want to go back to sleep." Aurora said fear evident in her voice.

I peeked out the tent and saw that it was almost day light.
"You don't have to, knowing Mulan she'll wake up any moment now." I said with a soft smile.

"Why are you so nice right now?" Aurora questioned.

"Look. You need someone here to look after you. And though Mulan does great in the physical protection aspect, you need someone her to protect you emotionally." I said calmly with a slight eye roll. "I didn't get either of those until I was 5. So the least I could do is help a princess with a sleeping curse side effect." I said trying to hide my genuine feelings with a neutral face and a shrug.

Mulan lightly shook the tent to wake us up not knowing we already were. I fixed my bed head with magic, and tie my shoulder length curls into a tight slicked back ponytail. God, I don't know what I would do without magic. Doing my hair was a mess during the curse. I remember daring my mother to tame it during the curse and she was defeated by my curls, completely in shock by their thickness. Oh how I miss her.

I quickly pushed my thoughts aside and turned to Aurora. "Let's go, princess." I say to her with a mocking smile.
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So I soon found out that Henry is also in the netherworld with Aurora when he sleeps and that gave us a connection to everyone still in Storybrooke. We came up with a time when Henry would tell us what we should do to get rid of our Cora problem.

I sat down next to Aurora who was laying down, ready for sleep to overtake her. I could tell she was nervous so I slightly combed my fingers through her hair. As she fell asleep, I smiled at the memory of my mother trying to comb her fingers through my hair to comfort me but failing as my curls wrapped around her hand. She was terrified that she would hurt me if she tried to take her hand out. If I never see my mother again, at least we have good memories together, unlike her and my grandmother.

Aurora was peacefullly sleeping as I heard a rustle in the bushes. I jumped up from my spot along with Mulan and Snow, Emma lifted up slowly, clearly not used to the need to be quick in the forest. Scanning the dense forest, I see nothing but hear more rustling. I lift my hand and pull two daggers out of my waistband. I then remove my pink cuff that had been on for the whole day as I tried to keep my emotions at bay. Using my magic without takin my hands off the daggers, I hold two more daggers with my pink magic swirling around them, readying myself for war. As the culprits of the rustling come into view I realize they are the corpses of all those from the safe haven reanimated. Zombies. I saw one eyeing the compass in Emma's pocket before it lunged at her. I used my dagger with my magic to slice off his head, initiating the battle.