The Alchemist's Amnesia

Part nine:

Hook Foot woke up in the middle of the night to something glowing. He blinked once, cleared his vision. It was still there. A small, pink sphere was floating above everyone. Sitting below it, her white blond hair flying in ever direction, was the witch.

It had only been a few hours since Rapunzel had allowed the new additions to the team. Hook Foot still wasn't sure what to make of them. He knew that Juniper reminded him of a younger version of Cassandra, and that she and Varian were close. She seemed nice enough. But for the life of him, Hook Foot couldn't get a read on the witch.

"I know you're watching me." The witch said. "It's okay. It's not like people don't stare when I use magic." Hook Foot supposed there was no sense in trying to hide it. "Sorry." He said awkwardly. "I've never seen magic before." She smiled slightly. "My name is Clementine." She said. "But everyone calls me Clem."

"I'm Hook Foot." He said. Clem snorted with laughter. "Seriously?" She asked. "That's your actual name?" Hook Foot nodded. "That's not very inventive." Clem said. "Your parents must have been completely out of creativity." Hook Foot rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I didn't really know them." He said. "My brother and I grew up in an orphanage."

Clem frowned. "Hey, knowing my parents, you might have been better off an orphan." She said. "My mother left when I was a kid, and I've been told she likes trying to take over kingdoms in her spare time, when she's not going after the eternal library. My dad...I have no idea how to describe him, other than he's nuts. My brother is the only normal member of my family." Hook Foot smiled. "Well, I guess we both come from not so great places." He said. Clem smiled back. "I guess so."

For a few minutes, both of them were silent. "So, why were you headed to Var Daros?" Hook Foot asked. He wasn't sure how to tell Clem, but the place wasn't really the tourist destination everyone thought it was. Clem shrugged. "Can you keep a secret?" She asked. "You seem like a nice enough guy." Hook Foot nodded. "Sure." He said. "And thank you." He wasn't sure what Clem's secret was, but it couldn't be anything too bad. "We broke out of prison."

Hook Foot was sure that his jaw was on the floor. "What?" He asked. "Why?" Clem laughed softly. "Yeah, your jaw hit the floor when I said that." She said. "But it wasn't anything big." She shrugged. "Well, kinda. I'm not really sure how to say it in a way that won't get certain members of this group upset." Hook Foot wasn't sure he liked where this was going.

"Juniper used to be a handmaiden for Queen Arianna." Clem said. "At a social event, she got cornered by a prince from another kingdom. He tried to hurt her, and Juniper stabbed him in self defense. The royal advisor didn't listen to her, and she got sent to prison." That sounded terrible. Immediately, he felt bad for Juniper. "You have to promise not to tell anyone, okay?" Clem asked. "Juniper doesn't like to talk about her past." Hook Foot nodded. "I promise." A thought occurred to him. "Wait." He said. "If Juniper was in prison because of that, how did you end up in prison?" He asked. Clem grinned. "That's pretty easy." She said. "I stabbed the royal advisor."

Before Hook Foot could stop himself, he started smiling. Rapunzel probably wouldn't approve of Clem stabbing someone in revenge, but she was a very idealistic person. Hook Foot didn't live the charmed life the princess did, and he understood that things worked a bit different for people who didn't live in the palace. He wasn't going to judge. There was something about the way Clem said it that just made him want to laugh.

"My mind doesn't work like everyone else's." Clem said. "I was diagnosed at an early age with something, but I don't care to remember what. Because of that, they went easy on me for the sentencing, though, and I was in a much less secure cell. It was kinda easy to break out, to be honest. I hate being treated as different, but this time it wasn't so bad. The only time ableism works out in my favor, eh?" Clem said with a snort of laughter. Hook Foot could relate.

"Do you want to know something weird, though?" Clem asked. "I could have sworn I saw someone who looked exactly like that guy in the prison." That's when Hook Foot realized she was pointing at Varian.

"Ah." Hook Foot said. He didn't want to lie to Clem. She was being nice to him. Hook Foot wasn't the kind of guy that girls usually talked to. Normally, they stayed away on the other side of the room whenever he was present. But he was also Eugene and Rapunzel's friend, and he didn't want to say anything that'd cause trouble for the little alchemist. Now Hook Foot too was getting drawn into the web of secrets.

"Yeah, there's a few people around that look like him." He said. Clem snorted with laughter. "Sure." She said. "Blue streaks in their hair and everything." Hook Foot frowned. Maybe lying to Clem was more difficult than he'd imagined. "Okay, look. He was in the prison. But he doesn't remember it, and we don't really want him to. I don't think it was a particularly fun experience."

Clem nodded. "Oh, yeah, ours was awful. Especially after that girl blew up and everything." Hook Foot wasn't sure if she was being serious. "What?" He asked. "Someone blew up?" Clem nodded. "She was a dragon girl or something, and she could make fire, but I don't think she could control it. It caused a massive explosion that allowed us to escape, but it took down some friends of ours." Clem said sadly. "With Andrew gone, Juniper and I decided to head our own way, and do our own thing. We didn't want to be tied down by the past."

Another thing Hook Foot could relate to. Clem smirked, thinking of something. "You know, I'm really glad we didn't stick around Corona right now." She said. "Why?" Hook Foot asked, slightly alarmed. Clem just grinned. "Well, I think the king was using the dragon girl to blow people up on purpose." Clem said. "Dragons overcharge when you give them too much sunlight. And when she came down to check on us, she looked ready to explode, and she didn't know why. So I may have decided to tell her what was going on." Clem smiled gleefully. "Oh, she did not look happy about it."

A shiver ran down Hook Foot's spine. "You're telling me that you sent an angry demi-human after the king?" He asked. Sure, Hook Foot wasn't a big fan of the king. He'd heard some not so flattering stories. But he was still Rapunzel's dad, and Hook Foot wasn't sure how the princess would take the news.

"Yeah, I just had to get that off my chest." Clem said with a grin. "I have an idea." She said. "How about you don't tell anyone about what happened in Corona, and I don't tell your alchemist buddy about the fact that he can't remember he was in prison." Clem extended her hand to shake. "Deal?" She asked.

Hook Foot shook his head. "Clem, if you sent someone dangerous after the king, someone has to know about it." He said. Clem stuck out her tongue. "You're no fun." She said. "Look. Whatever happened, there's no stopping it now. And besides, the king was the one who lied to the dragon girl about how her powers worked, and it killed my buddy. I'm not sorry I told her the truth." Clem said, looking pointedly at Varian. "Lies always have a way of coming to the surface." Clem grinned up at Hook Foot, back to looking all innocent. "So do we have a deal?"