Not Until We Are Lost

Warm, so warm, and peaceful. The warrior felt as if she were back at home, long before the great war with the Huns, before she took up her father's armor, before she even had to worry about marrying some stranger. It was winter, and she was snuggled up under the bed things. The feeling didn't last long; reality kicked her escape in the teeth as the part of her who cared so deeply for a certain princess demanded she reach out for the other woman, only to find her gone.

Mulan jumped from the bed as if she'd been attacked. Her hand grabbing whatever was close, which turned out to be a strange red and white striped curved stick statue by the bed. She could and would make anything a weapon to protect the people she cared about and loved. She looked around and realized that she was alone in the room. A strangely decorated room. She looked down at what she was wearing to see she had the same strange striped sticks on her clothes and little round things with similar red stripes.

With as much speed as possible, the warrior dressed in the clothes she found, noticing that they were meant for cold weather, and headed out to see what was going on. She had met dwarves and pixies, but she was not at all prepared for these creatures. The way they smiled was almost unnerving.

"Where am I? Where is Aurora?" She didn't exactly grab one up and shake it - she wasn't that much bigger than the smallish creature - but she did have the do not mess with vibe going.

Lois thumbed through the small notepad she was holding in a palm. She had been carrying one since she could remember and used it only for notes on observations. The lined pages were filled to the brim with notes; the penned letters might look like some kind of code to an outsider or an onlooker, but the journalist knew every section of every line and could find any tidbit of information in a second.

Since coming to this place, Lois had been keeping meticulous notes on her daily activities, the environment and anything that might seem suspicious. The notebook was almost halfway completed, and the reporter was getting no further in to the story than when they had arrived and first begun. She didn't like that she was being held up for a reason beyond her control. She needed to get with Clark and pick his brain about anything he might have seen on his nightly flights.

And then Lois sighed softly and smiled to herself at the thought of Clark. There had been a secret there, one Lois intended to keep, but something they shared now between them. He was Superman! Of all of the people in the world he could have been, Clark had chosen a persona completely opposite his normal stature. She understood it, and it was still flooring her. But she smiled about it anyway and then made herself get back on track.

"Focus, Lois..." She breathed to herself.

She was standing in the middle of the hallway, talking to herself like some looney, unaware how crazy she might look to anyone else shuffling down the corridor. In one hand she held a small iced coffee, and the other still held the notebook. Her shoulders were bearing the weight of her shoulder bag with her assortment of textbooks, papers, etc., while also holding her purse. Sometimes beneath the strain she felt a bit like a pack animal.

A swift turn, and Lois managed to run right in to someone whom she hadn't seen there before. She dropped her notebook and reached out to steady the person she had bumped, "Oh gosh! I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying much attention."

Strange. The world they were in was very different from the two she'd been in before. It wasn't bright and sunny, not like the island had been. It wasn't rolling and salty as the ship. It was comfortable, and there were many people. They were students; no one was running for his or her life. No one seemed to be worried about anything more dire than the "kegger on the weekend" and getting into "PoliSci 405." Mulan understood none of it.

While the clothes on the ship had been more what she was used to, the clothes provided to her at this place of education were at least modest if not all that familiar. She did find a few things with what looked like her family's dragon Mushu, a symbol of protection. She also found a few things with Disney and her name as well as Aurora's. Nothing more than their names, but that was a little strange. She did not know a Disney.

Aurora was her bunkmate once more, or roommate in this case. The princess was allowed modest clothing here as well, and once they had done a search through their rooms, they'd gone exploring. Somehow they managed to find food and information, which did alleviate some concerns, but they'd yet to see/meet anyone from before. Were they in this new world alone? Was this all some nasty trick by the Darkness?

That night, after chancing the communal showers to get cleaned up, Mulan settled into her bed which was decorated with this Disney stuff in reds and golds. Aurora's Disney stuff was varying blues and pinks. Mulan curled up under the red covers, only sleeping there because the things had her name on them.

Some time in the night she was back in the forest. She didn't know how she'd gotten there, but it finally confirmed a fear - this was all the Darkness' doing. They were under its spell. She started running, her sword drawn. Where was Aurora? Where was the princess who'd fallen asleep with her, curled up by the horse to wait through the night? Had she lost the woman already?

"Aurora!" Her yell wasn't loud enough to wake people in other rooms on their floor, but it might wake the woman in the other bed.

Aurora wasn't sure if she would ever get used to traveling across realms against her will. It wasn't unheard of where she came from and it wasn't her first, nor likely her last time. That didn't make the experience of waking up in a strange place any easier. It didn't take long to discover that she was on a boat. At least the clothes that she'd been given were more proper than at that resort. She had a full skirt and a bodice to go with her top. She looked more like herself, even if the clothes were of a lesser quality than the dresses she usually wore. She would take what she could get at this point.

She was worried about her husband and child, of course. But she was also worried about Mulan. She'd left the warrior in the forest without even getting to say goodbye. Had Mulan been brought along too and they simply hadn't found each other? Or was she left behind to wonder where Aurora had gone?

Maybe it would be a relief. She knew that she'd gone to Mulan and asked for more than she had a right to. She knew that she'd put an unnecessary burden on the other woman. And yet, she couldn't see herself trusting anyone more.

There had been someone barking orders on deck a few hours previously. It had at least given Aurora a chance to figure out where she could help the most. She pitched in as she could, though she wasn't exactly the usual type for hoisting sails. She still gave it her best effort and manned the sails as needed. For now, there wasn't much work required in that department so she simply waited and watched those who came and went on the deck. Maybe she was hoping for a familiar face. Maybe she just wanted to know more about this strange group of people. From what she could gather, they were from a hodgepodge of realms and so far she hadn't come across anyone from her kingdom or the neighboring kingdoms. It made her a little wistful for home or even for Storybrooke, and certainly for the forest and the warrior who'd taken her under her wing more than once.

Mulan didn’t know where the cat had gone as she didn’t try to keep him tied up with her. She wasn’t going to try to keep the cat if it didn’t want to stay. Windows were open for it to come and go as it wished. She had walked the resort as long as she could, deep into the night, and she didn’t find anything. The warrior allowed herself sleep, finally. Just a few hours.

Waking up, she thought for a moment, she was back in her home. Mulan thought for a moment that maybe it had all been an awful dream. All of it. She felt an ache at the next thought that the one she’d been looking for was gone. That was enough for her to wake fully, and she rolled over to see the window and the fluttering curtain. The smells were not of her home, neither was the room.

She sighed softly. Got dressed in another outfit that was all too inappropriate as far as she was concerned. Tankini and board shorts. A pair of slip on shoes - none of those sandals for her. She started for the food; Aurora wasn’t food obsessed, but Mulan hoped she’d need to eat. That she was looking after herself. That she was actually in this strange place.

( Read more.... )

Mikey woke up curled on a pillow, nobody else in the room. Nothing smelled like the birds, nothing smelled like the dog, either of them, and nothing smelled like Niks. It all smelled like, well, honestly nothing. Maybe that should have disturbed him, but he really didn't care. His stomach was telling him that he needed something to eat, and that was the most important thing.

Jumping off the bed, he discovered that the doorknob was round, and he had no desire at the moment to shift forms to be a boy and take care of it, despite how monumentally easy it was for him to go back and forth. Instead, Mikey opted to jump out the open window. He landed on soft grass, and took a moment to eat a bit of it. He'd throw up later, but that was okay. That's what grass was for.

The sleek black cat trotted around the building to where the smells of food were coming from. He had no idea where he was, though he was aware that it was another beach. Not the same beach, though. He remembered what he'd done wrong the last time, and opted to stay in the shade of the building. He could run out and play in the sand later, once he was full and well watered.

Before he got to the source of the food smells, Mikey came upon a pair of legs. They were irresistible, and he immediately rubbed himself against them, meowing softly in joy.

Philip and their baby were gone. Aurora was frantic. They’d been whisked away to another realm in Philip’s quest to break the curse on their son, and now she was alone. She didn’t do well with being alone. With no one to talk to, she tended to mutter to herself. She had to find a way to get to the. She knew that Philip had meant to leave her behind to keep her safe, but she was getting awfully sick of being treated like a breakable damsel in distress.

“You fall into one enchanted sleep and he treats you like you’re made of porcelain,” she muttered to herself.

She had managed to get back to the enchanted forest. There was a lot more that could be done from there. Once there, she set off in search of the one person that she could rely on. Well, she thought she could. Though truthfully, she was still a little put out that Mulan had decided to leave them when she did.

Robin Hood’s band of merry men had given her some idea as to where the warrior woman was keeping herself these days. Though admittedly, a decent amount of time had passed since they’d all been cursed into Storybrooke, so she might have moved on.

“Please be here, please be here, please be here,” she said quietly as she moved through the forest. It wasn’t yet dark out, but she was losing daylight a lot more quickly than she’d expected.

( Read more... )