Coming home

Appearing in the dark room that was Princess Emma’s chambers, Regina took a moment to acquaint herself with her surroundings. Just like the night when she bestowed her gift to the happy royal couple, the brunette was once again dressed in a robe, hard and ready. Thinking about how this would truly burn the Shepherd King, Regina transported his throne to the middle of the room. With the grace that was born and beaten into her, Regina sat and waited for the “savior” to appear.

Emma entered her home, rattled to her very bones from the odd occurrence in the Dark Forest. She had entered the forbidden home of her "enemy" looking for an adventure, but she was unsure if what she found could be considered an adventure. One moment she was letting her horse drink as she rested, the next she was feeling something. A hard, bulbous, pulsating object against an injured peasant woman’s stomach, and then poof, the woman was gone.

When she had mounted Chestnut and began the two-hour ride home, she thought that maybe she had come across a wood nymph or some other nefarious, beautiful magical creature that the Dark Forest was known for. It had taken entering the main hall after passing through numerous archways and junctions, with her feet taking her straight to her father's study for the blond's breathing to calm. Emma wanted to know more about her experience. She needed that second opinion to help ease the stress in her mind. Her father was the only one she knew to trust. He had been her confidant since the day she was born, surely King James would know what had happened and if she should be worried about further repercussions.

Ignoring the stares she received from the staff and knights at her disheveled appearance, Emma's mind was consumed with thoughts of the maiden. Who was she really? What was she? Was the maiden even a female or human??

Finally, after what felt like miles of White stones, doors, and twists, she reached the heavy oak door that led to her father’s sanctuary of solitude. The blond raised her hand to knock and paused. Maybe she shouldn’t tell him. He would be disappointed if he knew that she had been taking trips to the Dark Forest. He might even be angry with her. ‘And who was to say that what happened with the peasant woman in the clearing by the lake was even real?’ She thought.

Lowering her raised hand, Emma thought more about the actual situation, no longer convinced that what had happened to her actually happened, she turned to descend to her private chambers. One step forward, she turned back to the door and raised her fist again. ‘His advice has always been great when I inquired before, even when angered, but he has never been angry with me’. Back and forth her thoughts turned, and with them her body. With each thought, Emma would shift her body to knock, hesitate, and turn to go down the stairs to her chambers, hesitate, turn, and again raise her hand to knock. The servants moving through the area stared at the princess. Some, like the new handmaidens, stopped to watch their fair princess dance between the stairs and the door whispering to each other about what could be going on, while the guards studiously ignored the situation, keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings.

Shaking her long blond locks, lowering both hand and head one final time, Emma came to a decision to just head to her room. Whatever had happened in that forest was not important enough to chance losing her father. No matter how deep of a connection she felt with that woman, nor the fact that she had broken the law once again to find some adventure. She would leave this alone and head to her chambers with the hope that a short rest would be all she needed to clear her head. Nodding with approval over her own thought process, Emma swiftly moved past the whispering servants towards her room.