Maybe it's All About Timing

Danielle Ch5-Part 1

The man, or deity rather, stepped out from the shadows of the willow tree with a mischievous grin, his gaze fixed on the wailing creature. He let out a sly chuckle and said, "Do you think of me as mad? If you've read the prophecy, you know I can't hold that creature. We must proceed with the plan - Azure. Do you, have it?"

As the fairy gazed down at the stolen princess in her arms, Blue noticed something: the infant's soft olive skin began to emit a luminous golden glow, while her chubby cheeks and tiny nose were tinged with a soft rosy hue due to her persistent cries.

He was right.

"Indeed, I do," she inquired, "what of you?"

"Of course, Azure, you should be well aware by now that I always keep my word, especially on something as significant as this," he said firmly.

Blue nodded curtly, knowing what had to be done, taking a deep breath, she gently placed the crying infant back in its basket. With a swift wave of her hand, a powerful fairy's wand appeared in her grasp.

But not just any ordinary powerful fairy's wand. No, this wand belonged to a woman whom Azure had known since birth, someone that she despised with every ounce of her being—the Black Fairy. Not that fraudulent Fiona, mother of Rumpelstiltskin, but someone much more powerful: Jezebel, the woman who gave Azure her birth name and the woman who abandoned Azure to live a failed life as a human—her own mother.

"And the body?"

The fairy's eyes shone with an ominous gleam as she held the powerful dark wand up to the star-studded night sky. With a deafening crack of thunder and lightning, the lifeless body of a young man appeared before them.

The wand began to radiate an eerie glow as the fairy moved it in an arc over the lifeless young man's body, summoning his spirit back from the depths of the Netherworld and restoring it to its corpse.

In a sudden jolt, the corpse's eyes flew open as if startled by its newfound life. His eyes and mind were somewhat fuzzy as he peered up at the two figures hovering above him: a woman in a blue gown with an outlandish hairstyle and a man dressed in a dark black robe with... 'Is that fire?' blazing blue hair. But then he heard a faint, desperate wail and turned his head to the source. He saw a basket cradling a... 'Is that a baby?'. Its small body was illuminated in a warm golden hue. He was utterly confused.

He abruptly sat up, feeling a palpable combination of fear and anxiety flood through his body.

Suddenly.

A flood of memories rushed to the forefront of his mind: the stables, his plan with Regina... His declaration of love for her. He had proposed to her. They were going to escape together, but then... Cora caught them. Regina's mother had taken his life. Cora ripped his beating heart from his chest and crushed it to dust. They were so close. They had planned to elope and start their own journey, but it was too late.

He gulped, feeling his breath clog his throat like a lump of coal, unable to take in a single molecule of air... But he is dead; why would he even be breathing? His mind raced, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar surroundings. 'Where am I? Who are these people? Is this the afterlife? But why is there a crying, glowing baby?'

He frantically scooted his body back on the ground, attempting to keep his distance from these two strangers, as his mind raced in turmoil.

But his desperate attempt to get up and run away was futile as the man with hair blazing with electric-blue flames firmly grabbed him by the shoulder, quickly jerking him out of the state of chaos in his mind and forcing him to rise to his feet.

The deity chuckled as he saw the look of puzzlement on his weak nephew's face. "I know what you're thinking," he said with a sly grin. "Where the hell am I, and who the fuck are these two?" He wrapped his arm around his nephew's shoulders. "Allow me to put your mind at ease and introduce myself. I'm your Uncle Hades, the God of the Underworld. And this lovely lady here is Azure, a fairy who has kindly brought your conscious spirit back from a little place called the Netherworld."