Memories

Lost Memories

Regina was charging forward on her horse, needing to get away from the mess that was her palace and her kingdom and the insanity of everything that was going on in the Enchanted Forest.

It was all coming down on her. Everyone that was out for her blood was closing in on her. Perhaps if she hadn't listened to her late father and had cast the Dark Curse, she wouldn't have been in this position now, she figured. But it was too late to think like that.

The Charmings had ganged up on her by creating an army right under her nose, without her ever realising what they were up to. Before she knew it, they had her cornered and chased her out of the Dark Palace, giving her no chance to fight back.

Now, here she was... On her horse and running for dear life. She kept on going until she could no longer see the Dark Palace, or anything else of her or the White Kingdom. Her vision was blurring slowly as tears of anger filled her eyes. As she tried to wipe her tears away, she suddenly was whipped off her horse by a thick branch, effectively hitting her head and leaving her unconscious between the autumn leafs on the forest soil.

~*~

Emma was just making her rounds through the forest, deciding to make a slight detour from her usual path; when she suddenly saw a horse coming to her.
"Wow... Hey, easy there." She tried to calm the horse down as it was clearly distressed. She climbed down her own horse and moved over to try and calm the other down by rubbing his nose and neck. "What is it? Where is your master?" She asked and the horse started moving, looking over its shoulder to where it first came from. Emma got up on the horse and took the reigns of her own horse as well. "Show me." She said and they took off in the direction of where the Queen lay.

Once the blonde got to the body, she didn't immediately recognise her. Emma could tell it was a woman and probably from a noble family if her attire was anything to go by, but her face was covered in blood, hair and leafs. She jumped off the horse and checked if the woman was still alive. She was breathing, slowly, but still breathing. She then check the wound on the woman's head and sighed. It was terribly swollen with a small enough cut, but it just bled terribly like most head wounds do. She then lifted the lady in her arms and put her on top of the horse unceremoniously before getting on as well.

Emma's first priority was to get her to a safe place and out of the cold.

~*~

Emma took the unconscious brunette to her cabin. The blonde might be royalty, but she liked the peace and quiet of the forest. She didn't want anything to do with the White Kingdom, not after raising hell to get rid of the Evil Queen. She agreed that the Evil Queen wasn't the most benevolent ruler and that her ways weren't right most of the time, but that didn't mean she agreed to trying to gang up on the woman with thousands and to have her killed at the same time. Emma believed in diplomacy and she believed that the Queen could be reasoned with if someone were to just actually listen to her.

After all, the Evil Queen's reign was perhaps with a firm hand and plenty of fear, but aside from all that, her subjects were well fed, had a roof over their head and a job. The economy wasn't doing bad either, so from that standpoint, her parents were absolutely wrong about the Queen. It's not like she didn't care about anyone but herself, it's that she held onto a grudge pointed at, back then, a teenager with an awfully big mouth.

Emma quickly carried the woman inside and put her on the bed before getting some water to clean the wound on her head. The blonde sat on the edge of the bed as she cleaned the blood off the woman's face. As she was wiping at the blood, she slowly realised she knew this person.
"Regina...?" She frowned as she looked at the woman's blank face. Her eyes were closed as she was still unconscious.