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.

The tips of her fingers tingled.

It was an unfamiliar feeling though she knew it just the same as she had always known it. There was something amiss, something awry in the atmosphere and despite it worrying her greatly, Ororo was curious by it as well. She wondered at the signs there, the unseen clues and markers. She wondered if anyone else felt them like she did and she doubted that thought instantly. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She glanced around at her surroundings. There were young people talking and laughing. Some were curled over books, or in small groups studying in the grass. The environment was welcoming and familiar but not one she knew. This reminded her of Xavier Institute, and perhaps this was some different version of it. These youths could be mutants, she could be surrounded by people that knew the struggles. But she was nothing if not cautious. It wouldn't be wise to just approach them and begin asking such loaded questions. What if these people had never heard of mutants before? What if they hated mutants? Wanted to hurt them...or her...no it was much safer to assess the situation first.

Ororo had woken up in a dorm room. There had been a vacant, empty bed across from hers. It seemed that she had not been assigned a room mate as of yet, which was alright with her. The campus itself was large, vast and filled to the brim with life. Her blue eyes did another sweep of the quad, searching for anyone she might recognize. She knew she probably stuck out, her white hair, dark skin and blue eyes were all significant factors of her makeup and they tended to be more recognizable because of their uniqueness.

The modern clothes she wore had been provided to her. But she was without her lock picking kit, which was unsettling. She could get by without it, but it was like a security blanket of sorts. She felt incomplete without it nestled close to her body, concealed from sight.

"Oh my god, I love that shade! Who does your hair?" A girl nearby inquired. Ororo forced herself to smile, and lifted her fingers to the long white strands. "Oh, um, I don't have anyone that tends to it." She replied, hoping that was a sufficient enough answer. "So that's your natural color? Wicked!" The girl breathed, grinning. "Catch you later!" Then the girl was gone, leaving Ororo looking confused. She wasn't a stranger to teenagers and odd lingo, but this whole thing was just weird.

Her hand slipped from her hair and in to a pocket of her tight-fitting crimson colored skinny pants, and she withdrew what looked like a class schedule. Was she a student here?

Making her feet move, the cork wedges she wore made light pattering noises as she moved down the sidewalk towards the front of the institution. She needed to get to the bottom of this. She needed more information and the Faculity office seemed like a good place to start.

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.

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It wouldn't be the first time that Aurora had woken up in a strange bed. It took walking around the room and staring out the window to realize that this wasn't Storybrooke. In fact, this didn't look like any realm that she remembered visiting or even hearing about. Maybe it resembled some of the moving pictures on that enchanted box back in Storybrooke, but this was something different. Her clothing was also not the dress she'd been wearing when she fell asleep in Mulan's tent, and her crown was missing.

Was this another curse? If so, who was the culprit? And why? She sighed and made sure she was properly dressed before she ventured outside the room. The clothes in her closet resembled some of the things that she might have worn in Storybrooke, though the fabric was lighter and the clothes themselves showed more skin than the long sleeved shirts and pants that fit better to the chillier weather in the town. She layered enough to protect her modesty and then she set out to explore. She wasn't sure if she should hope that Mulan would be here or not. She also wasn't sure if there was even a chance that her husband and child might be here.

She eventually found her way to a large room containing a buffet of food. A man who looked like he worked here gave her a little bow and a gesture. "Help yourself, ma'am."

Aurora looked over the spread of food, which could have put some of the palace feasts to shame, then she looked back to the man.

"How much?"

He shook his head and waved a hand dismissively. "It's all paid for with your stay. Eat as much as you'd like."

Aurora frowned in confusion, but eventually helped herself to a plate. It was only once she'd sat down and started staring at the food that was heaped there that she had to wonder if the food was poisoned. It wouldn't make much sense to go to all the trouble of bringing her here only to poison her, but it did cause some hesitation as she looked over the colorful pastries and ham that she'd picked out. Her stomach rumbled in protest to her hesitation. It had been awhile since she'd eaten.

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.

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