Damn it all.

Cuu opened his eyes; finding himself amidst a clearing in an unfamiliar woodlands, with his wounds and dismembered arm now suddenly repaired. The moon lay overhead, as full as could be, with the sounds of howling echoing in the distance. A young blonde woman in a white, hooded cloak emerges from the trees, peering at her surroundings with keen, amber eyes; the four-point star eyes of a storyteller.

"Melion? Are you there?" She asks; seemingly oblivious to Cuu's presence.

In response, he moves towards her; asking. "Who... are you?"

The sound of wet footsteps rushes behind Cuu, as a large, inky creature rushes towards him. He turns, reeling back a fist to fight back; only for the beast to pass through him like mist. Wide eyed and confused, Cuu turned back to the girl, who embraced The Wolf.

"My love, are you sure tonight is the night?" The woman asks.

The shadowy beast shakes off the inky exterior of his form, becoming a tall, handsome, yet scarred man; with flowing black hair that seemed to swirl like the Ink he had casted off.

"Yes, my dear Margo." His voice... it was The Wolf's voice. "Lord Arthur will have my hide if he catches us now. Let alone your father..."

...

Dorothy slumped over in the chair at Cuu's bedside. She had done the best she could to mend his injuries, and ****-fed a good portion of her grandmother's potions down his gullet. She would have even tried to recover the man's lost arm from the field, but when she had found it, it had begun to melt into yet more of the messy, black ink. Every breath from Cuu was accompanied by a prayer from Dorothy; a prayer that her fate-bound friend would live through this hellish ordeal.

Her mind wandered as she watched over Cuu, wincing each time his bones would snap, crackle, and pop back into place. She hoped that Mister Baldur and Miss Shesh had made it to Gran's house. She hoped that those fiendish loansharks would never, ever show their faces again. She hoped that the Hood would speak up...

It hadn't spoken in hours.

"Please..." She whispered, clutching her cloth companion tightly. "Something. Anything. I can't be alone right now."

...

Pearl winced at the pain stinging at her leg. First her rib, now this. Handsome found the shack that Doc had spoke of; dragging her off to get comfortable while her shattered leg pieced itself back together. She rested on a dinning chair, her leg propped on another; wrapped in thick wads of cloth after the old crone (presumed to be this "Gran" Doc spoke of) tended to her injury. Handsome sat at the closest exit, eyeing it with murderous intent; foil at the ready.

"Its almost sunrise." Pearl said, startling her companion.

"Aye." He replied; keeping his eyes off her leg as he turned to her. "You think the Doctor and her dog are... safe?"

"Aw, sentimental?" She smiles, vanishing from view as she speaks. "I'm sure Doggy can handle those three. He's terrifying, whatever he is."

A wooden spoon impacts Pearls head, getting a hiss of pain out of her mouth as the crone comes into view. "My dearie is fine; her little dog, too. Trust me, I'd know otherwise."

...

Cuu watched on curiously as his great burden embraced the woman in the white hood. The two were startled by a rustling in the woods, as a young man emerged from the thick greenery. His eyes were a direct match to the hooded woman, as well as the same blonde hair; an axe that shined with the light of the moon at his side.

"Get away from her." The man said. "My sister isn't yours to chew on, dog."

"Carver..." The Wolf growled; ink dripping from his mouth already.

"Stop it, both of you!" Margo demanded, putting herself between the two men. "Carver, I already told you; I want this! I want to see the world father taught us so much about! I want to see it with him!"

"He's a monster, Mags." Carver gripped his axe tighter; his reader's eyes giving him a clear vision of the devilish aura surrounding the beast.

"A Tale chooses its own path." Remarks Melion, his hands tightening into fists; his knuckles cracking. "Or did dear daddy Percival never teach you about free will?"

...

"He won't wake up. Not yet."

The first words Dorothy had heard from The Hood in hours; words she had never wanted to hear. She yanks the cloth free from her body, tossing it aside. She wanted to scream, to burn the damned annoyance to cinders, to stomp on it until the living cloth stopped moving.

"Of all the things to tell me! Could you choose anything more obvious!? Is the sun rising!? I can't be sure! The magical, stupid, red napkin hasn't told me yet!" Dorothy kicked over the chair she had been sitting on, half tempted to start using it to pointlessly bludgeon the damned Hood.

The cloth lay limp for a moment, then swiftly wrapped itself back around Dorothy; speaking as it did so. "He will not awaken, but not from fatigue or injury. He is bearing witness."

The Doctor of the simple, little town of Antiquity, flustered as she was; asked a simple, little question. "Witness to what?"

The Hood replied, but not in the faint tones of its wispy usual self. Instead, it bore the voice of a woman. A young woman, who once dreamed of seeing the world alongside a big bad wolf.

"My creation."

...

Cuu stumbled back as the two men clashed; tooth and claw against sharpened silver. There was a flash of light, blinding him as he fell back. He fell for what felt like an eternity, as the sounds of battle rang hollow in the distance. Cries of rage, pain, and lamentation mixed in a cacophony of screams, swirling in Cuu's mind as he finally impacted a sea of ink. The black mass swallowed him whole, quickly filling his lungs; drowning as he had in so many nightmares. The ink then began to flow out of his body, and away from where he lay; clearing the way for the world to be seen once again.

And what he saw, was ****.

Laying limp in the middle of the field was Margo; Melion looming over her with black, inky tears dripping from his cheeks. Her hood, now stained with with her blood, had begun to turn a familiar shade of red. Looking around, Cuu found the limp, crumpled body of Carver; his axe stained black with ink. The same ink poured forth from the body of Melion as he held his lover in his arms.

"Why... why did you stand between us!" He cried, his powerful lungs bellowing forth storms that parted the very clouds.

Once fully dyed by her blood, The Hood parted from it's old body, grazing the cheek of it's love as it flew off; dragged into the night sky by winds of The Wolf's great breath.

"Damn this world! Damn it all!" Melion rose to his feet, setting down his love's body as his eyes turning a crimson shade. "Damn it all!"

The Wolf howled to the Moon, and eclipsed it's being in naught but Ink. The ink dripped freely, falling down towards the beast; a tidal wave of black swallowing all Cuu could see. There was, once more, nothing but an endless sea of shadows; darkness wherever Cuu turned. For another eternity, there was silence. There was peace.

And then, there were words; words written in a color that Cuu could neither recognize, nor describe.

"Fate is Broken by the click of Ruby Heels; a wish made, a price paid, and a Queen returns to Oz."