I Know The End || Killian Jones

𝟷𝟷 - 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚍

storybrooke, maine

— WHEN AJATRI WOKE, SHE WAS SITTING ON THE FLOOR, CURLED UP, LEANING AGAINST THE COUCH. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes with a groan, frowning in confusion before the previous night came back to her. She looked down at Grey's crochet blanket in her hands, splayed over her lap. She must have fallen asleep holding it. Even as she rubbed away the dry tears on her cheeks from when she'd returned home, she could already feel her eyes burning with the threat of new ones. Swallowing hard, she got to her feet and made her way upstairs for a shower and a change of clothes.

When she finally stepped out the back door into the morning sun, her hair still hung damp over her back. It was a refreshing feeling, and she decided to latch onto it as she faced the woods, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She could hear the birds, and the breeze that brushed gently across her face. She could smell the earth and the trees and the small woodland creatures that scurried through them. Anchoring herself in the [peace they created, she reached inside, searching for a dark, prowling beast. When she'd first been cursed, her transformations were uncontrollable, as she later learned they were intended to be. As time went on, though, and she learned to live among the wolves, Akela also taught her to control her changes. But she now realised this wasn't the same thing. This was more than ;lack of control. Something was wrong. Something was missing.

Gritting her teeth, she turned and stormed back inside, making her way through the house and towards the front door. As she passed the living room, though, she paused, her eyes settling on the bow above the mantle. Fearsome thing... she could remember building it like it was yesterday. She'd been sitting on the high rock with Akela as he spoke to her about the balance of the Jungle, and she'd been carving out the wickedly curved design as she listened, determined to be able to fight with a weapon even without her transformative powers.

I made it myself with my dad. She remembered telling Emma. It was true, even if her memories had been false. It's just for show, really. Aja strode across the room, stopping before the mantle to lift the bow reverently from its stand, feeling the weight of it in her hands again, running her fingers along the familiar and deadly string... She grabbed the quiver, slinging it over her shoulder. Not anymore.

°

It didn't take long for Ajatri to arrive out front the last place in Storybrooke she wanted to be. But as she glared out the window at it, she knew she needed to be here. No matter how she despised it, she had questions, and there was only one person who could answer them.

Gold looked up from whatever he was examining on the front counter as the bell over the shop's door jingled with Aja's entrance. "Well, well. Look who the wolf dragged in." His lip twitched. "So sorry about your boy, Miss Hope, but I'm afraid I'm not even close to interested in helping you retrieve him."

"As if I'd trust you with his life." She glared back. "No. I have questions, and you're going to give me the answers I want."

He shrugged. "Everything comes with a price."

"I've already paid it. You cursed me when I owed you nothing. Consider this me letting that go."

"Am I supposed to be grateful?"

"If you're smart." She stalked across the floor, leaning against the counter to glare at the Dark One. "I can't turn. Why?"

"Whatever do you mean, dearie?"

"I can't transform." She hissed. "It isn't working. If it was, last night might not have happened, and I'd still have my brother. Now you're going to tell me why and you're going to tell me how to fix it."