Starlight

18

Standing on the shore, Aoife watched confused as Baelfire was escorted to land. Felix looked at her plainly and some Lost Boys stopped her from getting too near. Baelfire looked at her sadly. "Did you know?"

"Know what?" Aoife replied and that seemed to be enough to make Baelfire's gaze soften before he was whisked away from her sight. It seemed he was shooting his anger at the wrong person, Aoife was well and truly in the dark. She was confused.

Looking up and frowning Aoife's eyes widened as she watched the sight of the ship sail away. Felix stepped forward and stood next to her. "That's what I meant all along, you know?" He looked down at her. "You can't trust pirates." At this he looked from Aoife to Baelfire and then back again.

"Where are you taking him?" Aoife's eyes narrowed as the ship got further and further away. She would think over just what she was seeing when she figured out what was happening with Baelfire.

"You know too well." Felix replied. "You try and stop us, you'll regret it."

"I don't think I have much else to regret right now." She said while turning on Felix. Jumping past him, she dodged out of the way of one of the Lost Boy's attack. She got close to Baelfire, close enough to clutch onto his jacket before being roughly pulled back. Screaming and flailing her arms she was flying backwards, far away from Baelfire who called out to her and ran forward a few paces to try and get her. Looking over her shoulder she wasn't surprised in the slightest to see dark hands gripping onto her cloak. Being dropped she had a hard time trying to slow her fall. Eventually wrapping herself around a branch she looked up to see the Shadow disappear.

Hearing a distant call, Aoife looked around. Scrunching her nose up, she sat up on the branch. She was alone, again. Rubbing her eyes she wasn't surprised, or she was, slapping herself on the forehead she cursed herself for believing in Hook's words. What possible reason did he honestly have to keep her around? She rolled her eyes at the obviousness which he'd pop up with. Standing she climbed down the tree. Her boots crunched on the leaves beneath her feet. Seems she was here, in a new part of the Dark Jungle, she may as well explore and set up camp for the night. She couldn't travel back to the shoreline, even if she tried, she wouldn't be able to see Baelfire. For the first time, in a long time, Aoife felt useless.

----

There were many places admittedly that Hook would rather not revisit. As his long time enemy stood in front of him in the harbour of Storybrooke, Hook couldn't ignore the deep set dread that was appearing within him. Even as Rumplestiltskin – known in this world as Mr Gold – stood facing him directly, a stern expression on his face and asked: "Are you done trying to kill me?" Hook narrowed his eyes in return and begrudgingly nodded. It was bittersweet to agree to such a thing. For the sake of one lone boy, he would set aside his grudge.

Gripping onto the wheel, Hook watched as the water beside his ship began to swirl and glow a faint green. The portal to Neverland had been opened, and the dread which he was previously feeling, got a whole lot worse. He had tried to forget about the cursed island, and ultimately he had failed, miserably.

The group present left Storybrooke in the day time, but arrived in Neverland at night. As usual, the brightly shining stars shone out from the blanket of darkness which made up the sky. Hook looked to the layout of them, they had shifted in positions quite drastically. He had never paid that much attention to how the setting of them was vastly different to the ones back in the real world.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Emma had voiced out loud, as if Neverland could be confused for any other place. Neverland was unique, horrifyingly beautiful in its own way, but no place was like Neverland.