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The Guardian	By : RavenGuardian Category: M through R > Once Upon A Time Views: 1279 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time and I make no money from this fiction. The character of Raven is an original character but any resemblance to any other character or person living or dead is purely coincedental.

Chapter List
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Eight days have passed since I saved Storybrooke and so far no one has come out to the woods to see me. I can't say that I expected anyone on the list to show up but I did think that someone else would, that someone would try to discover who I am. I'm not sure if I want that to happen or not, it's complicated.
"Hello?" a woman's voice calls and I jump from the tree I'm sitting in, dropping to the floor in front of the blonde woman I met the other day. "I followed a map out here, I'm looking for the woman who calls herself Raven. It would seem that I got myself turned around because no offence, but you aren't her. I didn't think I'd run into anyone else out here but I'd appreciate some directions if you know where she is. My son has been begging me to come and talk to her for a week. I finally give in and then I have to convince him to stay behind and now it looks like I'm lost. Sorry, I don't think we've met, my name is Emma, Emma Swan, I'm the Sherrif of Storybrooke. You don't need to worry, I know that Raven woman is scary but I don't need you to take me to her. I just need you to point me in the right direction and I can come and get you on the way back, no one should be out here alone. The town is a lot more accepting than you could imagine, we'll find a place for you. Storybrooke is a pkace where those who don't belong can find a place. Everyone is welcome there, even Raven would have been, though I might have locked her up until I knew that we could trust her."
"Which is exactly why I am out here," I inform her. "I have spent a great many years locked up and I do not intend for that to happen again, it would seem as if I have lost the people skills I once possessed. Another reason that I am out here. I know that I look very different from the woman that you met in town but I assure you, I am the same woman. Reversing the curse forced my to lose my ability to hide, hence the fact that people are remembering who I am. It also stripped me of my ability to cast glamours, which is why you are seeing what I really look like now. I know you would rather be looking at the other me but unfortunately I no longer have a choice in the matter."
I know what she saw and what she sees now. When I was in town she saw a beautiful woman with chocolate brown eyes and flowing jet black hair. Her body was stunning, a physique earned by hard work and near constant fighting. Now she sees a ruined mockery of that vision, covered in scars that rip through almost every inch of bare skin. My lower left leg, entire left arm and my left eye are missing, my hair cut ragged and short. Chunks of it are missing completely, revealing the scarred scalp beneath but now she can also see that I'm not human. A pair of horns sprought from my head, wings from my back and a tail, all displaying the same kind of damage as the rest of my body.
The only thing keeping me upright is magic. Fortunately I have learned to compensate but that doesn't make any of this easy, neither does the look on Emma's face. She looks at me with such pity that I want to punch her in the face. The only reason that I don't is because I don't think that she knows that she's doing it, I turn away from her.
"What happened to you?" Emma asks me softly as I touch the trunk of the tree. "This kind of damage, you should be dead, even the pain that you must be feeling should be enough to give you a heart attack. No, you know what?" A staircase forms on the tree trunk. "I shouldn't have asked, I'm not one of the people that you're connected to and I'm guessing that this is more than a little personal. You'll talk to the people that you want to talk to about it when you want to tell them. Henry wanted me to ask you a few questions, we can stick to those for now. In fact there is one thing that he wants to know above anything else. He wants to know how you are connected to Neal, the man that you referred to as The Runaway. He's Henry's Father and I think that he's worried that the people here could be your enemies, Neal almost died recently."
"I do not mean harm to any of the people on that list," I sigh as I begin to ascend the staircase. "This is a long story and we should at least be comfortable while I tell it, I do not mean to harm you either. The man that you refer to as Neal, before he was in the enchanted forest his name was Sage. Seeing as he is Henry's Father I can assume that he will eventually tell the boy what he is learning. Sage, Neal, is my eldest son and the others have similar connections to me. One of them is the love of my life and the others are my children, oh, and Rumplestiltskin is my brother. He's my twin brother actually, he has a kind of natural immunity to things like this so he remembers a few things. I doubt he knows much more than I have already told you but I am about to tell you something that he does not know. You asked me about the scars, he does not know about them either. As far as he is concerned one day I just disappeared without a trace, the others will believe the same. The truth is that I was taken because I am the only person in all of the worlds that knows the location of a weapon powerful enough to destroy worlds. I have spent the last thousand years in a cell being tortured for that information, these scars are just reminders that I managed to keep my mouth shut."
Flashbacks threaten to invade my mind, snippets of memories from that place. I have to fight hard to stop myself from getting lost in them but I manage to shove them back. I lead Emma into a treehouse that grows out of the very tree itself. This is where I have been living since something pulled me out of my prison cell and dropped me in the middle of the woods.
"Make yourself at home," I tell the woman as she appears through the hatch in the door. "You need not worry about upsetting me when asking about the scars. To me they are badges of honour, I only ever kept them hidden because I knew how other people would react. I never had a problem with the world seeing what I am. It is the world that has always seemed to have a problem with me, that is why the thing that I valued the most was my ability to hide."
"There is one more thing," Emma sighs, with a weight that tells me that this is important. "The man that you described as The Hunter, we think he was called Graham here. In the enchanted forest he was known only as The Huntsmen, the problem is that he's dead. Two years ago his heart was crushed, he's buried here, I can take you to pay your respects if you like. I'm so sorry that I have to tell you this, all I can do is hope that we're wrong. The Hunter was one of the harder people to identify, I thought it might be Robin Hood."
"I am well aware of his condition," I assure Emma softly as a look of shock and pain crosses her features. "You knew him, maybe even cared for him, it should gratify you to know that he can be restored. Most practioners of magic will tell you that the dead cannot be brought back to life. The rest are likely to be necromancers who want to create an army of zombies, which would turn out just as badly as you imagine. Graham is different, he is a twin and twins in my family have huge amounts of power. As long as one twin survives the other can be resurrected, truly ressurected. Very specific conditions have to be met but once they are I can and will bring him back. When I do both he and The Storyteller will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Together they will rival the power of The Dark One and they will do it without the assistance of a mystical dagger. The time is not right yet, there are still a few things that need to fall into place. If you want to be there when I cast the spell I have no objections, I can inform you when the time is right."
Emma doesn't seem to know how to react to this and I turn my back on her. A fire burns merrily in the hearth, contained by magic and I set about making two cups of coffee. Emma seems filled with nervous energy and after a few moments she surges to her feet. It's clear that she wants to have a look around the relatively large space and I give her a nod of approval. I watch the woman out of the corner of my eye, there are a few things in here that could be dangerous. She pauses as she comes across Rumplestiltskin's dagger hanging from the wall. She shrugs and moves on as I finish making the coffee, realizing that I have no milk. I hope that she'll accept the brew as it is and hand her the steaming mug as she smiles her thanks.
"This is the last thing that I'd expect to find in here," Emma chuckles, running her fingers over the keys of my piano. "I was about to ask if you played then relaized that would be a dumb question. I don't suppose that you can be much of a player with only one hand, oh, I'm sorry, that was a little tactless. Who am I kidding?" she snorts, shaking her head but something else has pulled my attention. "I know that you told me that you aren't ashamed of your injuries. That doesn't mean that I should make jokes, I'm sorry, it's just that you make me nervous, which is kind of strange. People have never really made me nervous but you certainly do which only makes me more nervous. OK, so that might not be strictly true, Graham made me nervous and so does Killian sometimes and Neal. That's a completely different kind of nervous though, kind of a tingle in the pants nervous. I'm starting to feel like I need to shut my mouth because I just realized that all of the men I'm talking about are on your list. Graham is The Hunter, Neal is The Runaway and Killian is The Pirate. You have made it very clear that all of these people mean a lot to you, I'm pretty sure that they're the only reason that you're still here."
"EMMA!", a familiar voice shouts from outside.
"You should go," I say softly, my heart breaking as the voice continues to call for the blonde. "You do not need to say anything, you are the one that he is calling for. He will never find you up here, the last thing we want is for him to think that you have gone missing while searching for me. I do not want to have to deal with an angry mob that wants to lynch me. I would ask you for a small favour though, I would like it if you would give this to him, he will understand what he means. None of what I have told you today is a secret, you may repeat any of it to anyone. It might even be easier if you do, it will stop me from having to repeat myself. Here, I believe that the boy might like this, I do not even know why I made it, he can have it if he gets some use from it."
For Killian I place a small bag made of velvet into her hand and for the boy there is a large package wrapped in brown paper. I open the hatch in the floor that serves as both entrance and exit. I activate the spell that reveals the staircase even though it isn't really needed on the way down. We're no more than ten feet in the air so I usually jump but I won't force Emma to do the same. I step back to allow Emma to descend the staircase, ensuring that it disappears behind her. The hatch slams shut behind her and I go to the window. I know that I shouldn't look out there, I know how painful it's going to be to see his face but I just can't stop myself. Emma seems to be arguing with the pirate about something but I stop myself from listening in. I see Emma push the bag I gave her into his chest and he barely manages to get his hand on it before she storms away.
After a few seconds of frozen silence the pirate looks at the bag in his hand. He opens the bag with the use of his teeth and tips the contents into his palm. He gasps as he inspects the small object in his hand, the bag fluttering from his open mouth to the ground. His fingers gently close over the object as his eyes scan the treetops, he must know that I'm up here somewhere. He'll never be able to see me from down there, this place isn't hidden by magic just nature. The question is whether or not I should let him know that I'm here. I'm just not sure if I could handle the look on his face when he sees me, i don't know how he would react.
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The Guardian