Starlight

21

"It's all so different." Hook said truthfully. He knew the Dark Jungle was an unpredictable place at the best of times. But he had no idea it would have grown and changed so drastically.

"You were gone a while." Aoife said from her crouched position on a boulder. Her arms were crossed over her knees and her chin was leaning against them. "Things change, not for the better." She frowned and zoned out. Snapping out of her thoughts she narrowed her eyes to David. "Are you an idiot?!" She asked, her snapping caused Regina to smirk, clearly she agreed with her words. "You cannot, and I mean cannot, go walking into that jungle proposing to search for Henry. You split up, and that's it, end of story."

"Aoife is right," Hook said. "The Dark Jungle is not a safe place to travel. There is a path which diverts around it however." He proposed, only to receive tired looks. "Or we can set up camp?" He rolled his eyes and moved away from the group.

Clicking her tongue Aoife jumped down from her boulder and walked after him. "They don't trust you." She stated, not that she was surprised. He was a pirate after all, best liars since mermaids and all that.

"That's ironic because since when did anyone?"

"I did." Aoife patted him on the shoulder. "I would trust you again. You were a good friend, Killian, you honestly were."

"Just a friend?" He smirked.

"Hey, nah-huh, none of that now. I'm still angry with you."

"Oh well, you know what they say about anger." Hook glanced at her quickly as they walked into a clearing which would be suitable for camping for the evening. "Anger is love disappointed."

"The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart. The less capable you are of loving in the present." Aoife countered and crossed her arms.

"Is resting really what we should be doing?" Regina's voice cut through the silence which had entered the clearing.

Hook turned and looked at her. "If everyone wants to survive long enough to find him, then yes, resting is what we should be doing."

----

"You seem to be getting great pleasure from doing that." Aoife looked up at Mary Margaret, blinking slowly she watched the short dark haired female sit down beside her. Aoife was humbly sitting jabbing at the fire harshly. "Anyone we know?"

"Excuse me?"

"Most people when they do things like what you're doing, they're envisioning someone." She smiled kindly, Aoife's expression was one of childish anger. She was annoyed over something, and Mary Margaret could just about figure out who and why.

"I may be poking his eye out." Mary Margaret smiled and nodded awkwardly. "I think he'd look even more piratey with an eye patch." Aoife's honesty made Mary Margaret laugh. "Maybe a peg leg too?"

"You don't mean that." Mary Margaret said after calming her laughter.

Aoife shook her head. "Of course I don't. I'm angry at him, but everyone do things for a certain reason. It hurt to be abandoned, but I survived, I will continue to, I'm rather good at surviving." She smiled a little triumphantly.

Noticing the pirate in question walk over, Mary Margaret stood and left them to it. "Can we have a normal conversation which doesn't result in an argument, or high sarcasm?"

"Sure." Aoife twirled the stick in her fingers. The end of it was still burning slightly from being in the fire. Didn't fill him with confidence, and it didn't signal that she meant what she said.