Lost in Storybrooke

Chapter twelve

Racing out the front door keeping my eyes on the swirling black cloud over the forest, I strap my sword around my waist knowing that I will need it. I start sprinting towards it before it disappears.

Whether it's Blackbeard trying to escape or calling reinforcements, we can't let them get away. He must have had the beans with him all along and finally found a way to charge them up. We are in big trouble here.

We can't let him get away nor can we letting him bring anymore of his lackeys here to cause trouble.

I don't need to glimpse behind me to know that everyone is hot on my heels, chasing after me. I can hear several pairs of foot steps following close behind me. I take the short cut that I found weeks ago that takes me straight to the woods without needing to go through the town. We don't want to cause a panic.

I keep my eyes on the sky, trying to calculate the location of the portal. I know that portals don't stay open forever and so the clouds will disappear when the portal closes.

I focus on my breath while I run, ensuring that I don't tire myself out too quickly. Usually I'm not used to running long distances, but since my time on Neverland, it has became apart of the norm as it's a good way to keep your stamina up.

I dare a glance behind me and see only Will, Emma and Hook have followed me out. Regina must have stayed behind. She doesn't exactly strike me as the running type. Will and Emma look fine, while Hook looks a little tired out from all the running. Emma chases people for a job and Will... Well I suppose he runs on a regular basis to help maintain his physic.

The clouds begin to fade as we reach the edge of the forest, so I slow to a stop. Everyone catches up and looks extremely puffed out. Even I'm feeling a bit out of breath.

A swirl of purple smoke appears next to me for a second, then Regina stands in it's place. She has her arms crossed over her chest and looks quite irritated.

"Running? Why did you all take off running? Emma and I have magic which could have gotten us here instantly," she says, looking at us as we are all stupid.

"Yes but then I may not have had the chance to figure out the exact location of the portal so we can find where Blackbeard has gone to," I say to a little too much attitude which earns a slight glare from Regina. I let out a sigh to calm my annoyance.

"So you have an exact location figured out?" Will asks me after a few seconds of silence. "Cause I have one too."

We compare calculations and they are very similar which gives a good idea of where we should head to. I pull a map out of my back pocket which I keep there just in case. Habit I learned from my father. Need to remember where we buried our treasure of course.

Will and I mark down our locations and they are pretty much right on top of each other. Regina looks at the map and nods before teleporting us all there with a flick of her wrist.

Obviously she used her own magic to track the portal because the location she has dropped is littered with a dozen pairs of footprints all headed in the same direction.

A hunt!

Oh this is going to be fun!

I take off running in the direction of the footprints, careful to silence my steps as I go. A handy little trick that Peter taught me, that I also taught to Will. He notices my shift and suddenly changes his gait to follow suit.

Everyone is loud and this time Regina is running along with us. A smile grows on my face as this reminds me of my time in Neverland. I became rather good tracker and hunter whilst on that island. I had brilliantly experienced teachers.