Who: Ellie Morgan & Charlie Archer What: It's a long way back, Charlie gets some company in the woods. Where: Somewhere between life and death. When: Forward dated to late Monday night, June 26th 2017 Warnings: None Status: Incomplete
It wasn't that Ellie had been holding out on everybody intentionally with something else that she could do that she didn't want to try to explain. It was more that she didn't want to get anybody's hopes up in case what she was thinking about, had been thinking about since everybody but Charlie woke up after their fevers, didn't work the way that she thought it would. After all, Jaenelle had only ever ventured into the Twisted Kingdom to find someone. That was different than going into an unconscious mind, even if the other person had been Blood... which Charlie wasn't. Charlie wasn't human, but he wasn't hers. Partly, Ellie had been afraid that she might hurt him if she tried. What she was, it was something different. Something that was a little hard to take even for people who belonged to the same world as Jaenelle.
Charlie was a wolf, though, wasn't he? Under the skin? Jaenelle had always known how to talk to wolves.
She still waited until no one else was around in the Clinic. Until it was late at night, and the people that were still there were busy tucking into their paperwork. They'd just done their checks. Unless something went off, they wouldn't need to come look in on Charlie for a few hours, still. Ellie didn't know if a few hours would be enough for what she was doing, but she was hoping that they would be too afraid to try to wake her, if it was obvious that she was in the middle of something sort of witchy. There weren't exactly that many magical healers around the Clinic at all, and Ellie had made sure to time things so that none of them, the ones that officially belonged at the Clinic, were there. Nobody had realized that Ellie was there, either,with the sight shields she'd put on to conceal her until she was sure she was completely alone. She dropped them, after the nurse had left, sat down at Charlie's side and rested her hand on his.
It might have been a better idea to let somebody know that she was going to be there, and that she was going to be trying something different. Ellie knew what she was doing, though. She would know it, if she was starting to hurt Charlie. She would know it, if she was starting to get so turned around that she was in danger of not being able to find her way back. She didn't think that was going to be a problem, though. She'd never had any problems finding her way back, before, no matter where she'd wandered that would probably give her dad heart attacks just thinking about it.
In the end, it was exactly as easy as shucking the human trappings and stepping a little to the side. Well, a lot to the side. A lot more than she would have had to, if she was trying to slide into the mind of anybody who was Blood. It still wasn't all that different, really, not once she edged her way over far enough. Charlie was a Fable and... well... they'd always called Jaenelle the Living Myth. It was sort of related, right?
She wasn't human, in the woods that she found herself in. Ellie wasn't exactly surprised by that. It was only the body that was human, the shell that housed her. Anywhere else, anywhere outside the body, she looked like what she really was. Her hair was the same gold as always, but it wasn't quite hair anymore. Not quite fur, either. A narrow strip of it traced down her spine, ended in a small fawn's tail at the base of her spine. Her legs changed, below the knee, into dainty golden-furred things, with a horse's hooves. Her human hands had catlike claws, her ears came to a delicate point. Her face was still her own, still the Ellie Morgan that Charlie would recognize, except for the tiny spiral horn in the center of her forehead. And the eyes. They were still blue, just as blue as they'd ever been, but there was something ancient about them. Something haunted. She was still Ellie Morgan, but she was Witch, too. She was Witch, most.
And she was naked. That was probably something that she ought to fix. Charlie was a wolf, but he was also male, and males could get strange about seeing people naked when they weren't supposed to.
All it took was a thought to clothe herself in a loose shift of black silk that covered her from sternum to mid-thigh, and another to arm herself with an Eyrien bladed stick. She didn't know what was waiting for her, here. Charlie's mind might not be a nice place, deep down. She wouldn't, couldn't, judge for that. Hers was dangerous, too, if you didn't know where to step. It didn't take much to send you tumbling into a pit.
"Charlie?" Ellie started off through the woods, careful of her step but unafraid. There might be frightening things there, there might be monsters, but there weren't very many things that were scarier than her.
The last time Bigby had been here, Blue had called it ‘heaven’, but Charlie wasn’t so sure he agreed with that line of thinking. If anything it was more like a haven, for fable animals and other monsters like him. The woods that Charlie inhabited were vast, seemingly endless. Maybe they were. Charlie had lost all concept of time, in here, the sun still rose and set but he had stopped being able to keep track. He had no idea how long he’d been here, for all he knew, it could have been years, back in the land of the living. Hopefully it hadn’t actually been years, but it was hard to tell. He only knew that every day here in his haven eventually ended and a new one began, just like on Earth. Time continued to pass whether or not it passed in the same way that time had when he was alive, and here, time didn’t really matter. It felt as endless as these woods, endless and inevitable. Time existed here but it had no meaning, just like these woods. Charlie was meant to spend all of eternity here, in peace, presumably. He wasn’t supposed to worry about something as small and insignificant as time anymore, now that he’d crossed over.
Charlie wasn’t actually clear on that part, whether or not time was the same here as it was for the living. Bigby had been gone for a few months, in real time, but in the woods? It very well could have been years that passed him by before he’d been able to find his way back. Charlie hoped that if it was going to be one way or the other, it would be like that for him. That he wouldn’t miss years of Andrew or Abigail’s lives, the people he cared about the most. Maybe it wouldn’t matter, in the long run. They were both immortals like him, and Abigail was a fable herself. If he was at all lucky, they’d have at least a thousand years together once he finally woke up. Even getting half of the time with Abigail that Bigby had gotten with Snow sounded better to Charlie than most things did, he wasn’t asking for much. Just more time with the people he loved, after spending so many years in self-imposed isolation, before he’d joined Camelot.
He hated the idea of missing too much, back home. He hated that he was missing any of it now, and yet he was still here. He hadn’t made up his mind yet, so he was stuck. Paralyzed equally by the thought of missing out on the lives of those he cherished most, and the horrifying thought that he’d destroy them with his return. After all, Charlie had been warned that finding the way back wouldn’t be easy, and for all he knew there was no omnipotent force trying to manipulate the Big Bad Wolf in this life, but he couldn’t know that for sure. The people he’d killed when he’d first returned from the great beyond as a wild, rabid beast once more still haunted Bigby, the friends he’d slaughtered while he was under the control of some sort of bullshit balance between light and dark, once he’d found his way back. In the end it had taken the interference of his son to break the leash that had been on him, and Charlie didn’t have a family. What if he came back that same, rabid beast, and there was no one able to tame him? Charlie couldn’t bear the thought of mindlessly murdering the people who had trusted him during his lifetime.
So he was taking his time, despite how anxious he was to get back home. To get back to her. No matter how much he wanted it, though, he wasn’t willing to risk it if there was even the slightest chance that it was going to turn out like the last time. The Big Bad Wolf had been evil, but Bigby was not, and neither was Charlie; if some meddlesome, all-powerful force that likes to fuck with people just to tip the scales sometimes wanted a piece of him, they could go ahead and eat shit. Charlie wasn’t anyone’s puppet, and he refused to be used as one. Even if it meant never seeing Abigail again, or not being able to talk to his brother one more time. He would stand his ground, even if it pained him to do so. Which was why he spent most of his time in this place in wolf form, relieving himself of the things that plagued his human mind and letting his animal instincts take over, spending most of his days running through the woods and hunting smaller animals for food. It was a simple life, but it was better than the worst case scenario.
After catching a late breakfast of disappointingly lean hare, Charlie had taken to a lengthy run through the woods, not stopping for hours. They were the son of the North Wind, after all, so running out of breath wasn’t really a problem, and neither was exhaustion when you were basically a god with limitless endurance. He ran until he burst through a clearing and landing on all fours, almost immediately coming to a halt as he spotted a… mostly familiar sight. The extremely large wolf covered in black fur sat back on his haunches in surprise and cocked his head to the side in the form of a question. Ellie?
"Hi, Charlie." Maybe Ellie should have felt stranger than she did about somebody seeing what was under her skin but, well, Charlie wasn't human here, either. If there was anybody that she knew that couldn't say anything about it, it would be him. Besides... she was too busy being relieved to even care about that for a second. Her grin was entirely her own, even if she'd never been quite so happy to see anybody (except Freddie, if they'd been parted for a while, but that was different) before in her life. She threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around his enormous neck, ignoring the fact that she wasn't sure how Charlie, as a wolf, felt about enthusiastic hugs. He'd just have to understand that none of them were actually sure that they'd ever be talking to him again, and that hugs were only to be expected. She held on until the fur tickling her nose almost made her sneeze, even if it was completely unfair that she could still do something like sneeze when she wasn't actually in a physical body. That seemed like it should be the kind of inconvenience reserved for being stuck in that physical shell, not for here. Wherever here was.
She did have to pull back, though, eventually, and look him over. Even as a wolf, he still looked like Charlie somehow. Something about the way he'd tilted his head to the side, something in his body language that still made him seem like the person that she knew. "I wasn't sure this was going to work," she confessed now that she was there and it obviously had. Even when she'd found herself in the woods, she still hadn't known for sure that she'd be able to find him. The woods were dark and deep, after all. She could have searched for days and still never found Charlie, and she didn't have days. She still had to worry about the body, and whether it was alright. Whether it had enough water. And if they separated the body from Charlie while her mind was still somewhere else, she might never have found her way back. Again, she wasn't going to tell anybody about that. Not even Charlie. He'd known her family, and her, long enough that he'd probably feel like he had the right to tell her that she was being stupid. She couldn't actually argue about that one.
Explaining what 'this' was didn't seem all that important. Obviously she'd managed to track down his mind, or his soul, or whatever it was that you called it when you were a Fable like he was and you were wandering around as a wolf in the woods. Metaphorical woods? Ellie wasn't even sure how real this place was. Jaenelle had been a lot of places, and seen a lot of things, that people had told her weren't real. Parts of her still hadn't been sure what had been them lying, and what had been her mind lying. The Twisted Kingdom wasn't a real place, after all, and Jaenelle had walked there just as easily as she had in Terreille, or Kaeleer, or Hell. These woods were probably something like that, except... not madness. That was reserved for the Blood, she thought, that particular realm. This was something different. Maybe something that was just for people like Charlie.
She looked around again, now that she was less focused on finding and more on finding her way out. "It's nice here." If you had to be stuck somewhere while you were in a coma, Ellie thought this was probably a good place to be. Peaceful. Quiet... well, quietish. Not too quiet, that wouldn't be any better. Just normal forest sounds. A perfect place for a wolf, if that was how Charlie was choosing to spend his time. Or if that was the only form he could take, here. That was the kind of question that could probably wait until they'd addressed the more important things, like how Charlie could get back, or if he could get back at all. No matter how much Ellie wanted all the answers, she was at least capable of prioritizing. She wasn't actually as silly as she pretended to be, sometimes. It was easier for people to think you were silly than to see deep enough to realize you were something else entirely.
"Do you want to stay, or can you not find the way out?" Either way, Ellie was prepared to figure something out. She was pretty good at persuading people to do what she wanted... okay, pestering people into doing what she wanted. She wasn't going to force him, though. Not Charlie. Maybe someone she'd never have to see again, but that still needed to snap out of it, but it would be better for everyone if Charlie left the woods because he decided to, not because Ellie turned the full force of Witch on him. If he couldn't find the way, though... that was easier, in some ways. Harder, in others. She couldn't lead him out all at once, if he was lost. That wasn't how things like this worked. It took time. It took waiting until you were ready, because usually if you couldn't find the way, there was a reason. The body wasn't ready, or the chalice—the mind—needed longer before it was healed. There was only so much Ellie could rush that.
Charlie didn't actually mind hugs, though he hadn't exactly been expecting that kind of greeting, at least not from Ellie. He and Ellie were familiar enough, in the same way that Charlie was familiar with all of the Morgan's because as head of reconnaissance he'd always made it his business to know too much about everyone while most people hardly knew anything personal about him. Except maybe Daniel, of course, but when you were leader of an entire organization like Camelot, you had to be a little bit more clued in than the rest. Charlie had gotten used to that sort of one sided intimacy that he had with most people, the years he’d spent with the CIA had conditioned him for it long before he joined Camelot. Even that part of his life already almost felt like an entire lifetime ago, since Charlie had been here in these woods. The Charlie that existed here wasn’t the same Charlie that had been the head of Camelot’s Reconnaissance department, the one who’d given up his solitude in exchange for a family. He was more like an echo of that version of himself. That Charlie was in the past, but he was also in his future, depending on the path he ended up taking.
The notion that no one really knew him as well as he knew them didn't bother Charlie as much as it might have bothered someone else. It was a lonely way to live, but that loneliness had settled into him years ago. It was meeting Abigail that had upset the solitude he’d grown so comfortable with, suddenly making Charlie rethink that lifestyle enough to let her in. It was always going to be Snow that was his exception. Charlie had known that from the second he'd become the reincarnate of Bigby Wolf. No one had ever been the exception before but now that he was Bigby, it was always going to be Snow. It was always going to be Abigail, and just the brief thought of them caused his insides to twist. He missed Abigail, and Bigby missed his wife. Charlie had never had a chance, even if he hadn’t taken to Abigail as much as he had, but he often wondered if the fates that had been handed out to fables actually carried over into next lives. If he’d been as destined to find Abigail as Bigby had been to find Snow. Of course, their lives were almost entirely different now up to a point, with a few very glaring similarities. The only difference in Charlie’s death were the circumstances surrounding it, and that he hadn’t left a wife and seven cubs behind. No, Abigail wasn’t his wife, and mostly for her benefit Charlie had tried to downplay just how much he still thought of her that way anyway thanks to Bigby. He missed her like you might miss a limb, something that was a part of you.
It was the hug itself that really threw him. The only one who’d ever been brave enough to hug Bigby in his wolf form before had been Snow, pregnant and fearless as she clung to his huge neck the way Ellie was hugging his now. It immediately jogged both of their memories with a sharp pang, disorienting Charlie while Bigby’s thoughts grew even louder in the back of his skull. Charlie was not a small wolf, all things considered. He was roughly the size of a not yet fully grown elephant, with a coat of thick, black fur. He was so big that the smallness of Ellie in comparison, able to fit her arms around his neck at all, was comical. Charlie chuckled, somewhat unnatural sounding coming out of a wolf’s throat, and bowed his enormous head forward to let her get a better hold on him. He didn’t mind it. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed genuine, human contact until now, with Ellie Morgan of all people clinging fast to his neck. Funny that a lone wolf like him would actually find himself missing being touched, after all these years. Just goes to show that even the most stubborn of beasts could change, given the right circumstances and motivation. He’d found that in Camelot, in Abigail. He wasn’t the same man or beast anymore, thanks to them.
Once Ellie released him and stepped back, Charlie could see more clearly just how human she wasn’t here. That was interesting. Charlie wondered if it was just this place, or if it had to do with her magic, as little as he actually knew about it. These woods tended to bring out the animal in you, which was why Charlie had mostly been roaming around as a wolf. Not that he couldn’t shift back to his human form if he wanted to, but it somehow didn’t feel right here. He wondered if her family knew her in this form, the hooves and the cat-like claws and the furry tail. It suited her, somehow, even though he’d never seen this version of Ellie before now. Charlie’s yellow wolf eyes looked her over carefully, taking in the sight of a girl he’d seen and then at the same time never met before, wondering silently to himself for a moment if she was even real, or if she was a vision the gods of the woods had sent to him. Hopefully it wasn’t that she was dead too, and had come to him postmortem like Blue had. Something told Charlie that wasn’t it, though. Nothing about Ellie Morgan screamed ‘death’ or even close to it, she seemed just as alive as she always had, with a few new upgrades.
“It’s complicated.” His mouth was open, though it didn’t exactly move when he spoke. The words came out of his throat with virtually no movement from his massive jaws, but Ellie would be able to hear him just fine. Speaking as a wolf was always a little strange, though maybe not half as strange as it was for the people hearing him. After a short pause, Charlie pushed himself onto four legs again and started padding around her to make a slow, full circle in the small clearing before turning his head over his shoulders back to her, tail moving between his legs as he then turned around and padded back to her. “How did you get here?”