#nor can I typically use it in a sentence myself without questioning that I'm using it accurately

[lycorogue]

[image ID:

Tweet by anna (constellationary) [@sweetsubkoo]

The weird thing about reading so much as a child and gaining a huge vocabulary from that is I can't define a lot of words I use, I just...know that they would fit correctly in a specific sentence? Does anyone else experience that?

/end ID]

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  The Dark Curse

Chapter 49:  Tales of the Abandoned

He took Zelena to the forest, just outside the little valley village close to his castle. There was little choice in the matter. Naturally, he couldn't take her to the village outside of Regina's castle! With such a bold statement, she'd just admitted without discretion that she was Cora's daughter. And while Regina was, in fact, married to the King, there were still several problems that could arise if Zelena were to open her mouth in close proximity to her sister. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't be sure what would happen to Regina if she found out that she had a sister. He was just barely managing to get her through this squabble with Snow White he couldn't be sure what would happen if he had to worry about a sister coming into the picture.

No, the forest outside of his castle, far from Regina, was safest. But where to go from there…he hadn't a clue. It had been a long time since he felt he'd been in a chess match with Cora, but at the moment all that came to his mind was a vision of Cora sitting back on her throne with a knowing smile as she said "checkmate" in her seductive breathy voice.

"What are you doing?! Where are we?! What did you do to me?!" Zelena screamed before finally pushing him away. Tendrils of magic leaped at his skin at such an action, and he wanted so desperately to throw something at her that might shut her up, but at the moment when what he needed most were answers.

"Magical transportation. Comes in handy when you need to get from place to place," he explained away instead, watching as she paced in the little clearing looking this way and that, holding her hand to her throat and looking as though she might cry out for help…something she couldn't do just before they'd arrived here. "Oh! That. Let's just say removal of the voice is a magic trick that is typically gratefully learned. Kind of like…this magic!" Into his hand, he summoned a torch for her benefit as he could see just fine. It was like a moth to the flame. The second it sparked to life, Zelena stopped fussing about and came closer to him, her eyes wide. A moth indeed. She reminded him something of moth. Her eyes were big. She was taller than both Regina and Cora were. And hairy. Though, not in an unflattering sort of way. She had vibrant red bushy hair that resembled neither Cora nor Regina nor even Henry, though he knew that Henry would not have been this girl's father. That man…he couldn't begin to fathom who that man might have been. Perhaps someone Cora met while delivering flour or working in the tavern? A wanderer? A traveler? Someone who had a bit of coin to offer, he wouldn't have put that past Cora. Not at all. If it weren't for her cheeks and chin, and a certain sense of cold in her eyes, he would have assumed that even his magic was wrong and she was of no relation to Cora. But magic didn't lie. And neither did the hunger in her gaze as she crept closer to examine the torch in his hand.

"Magic! It's beautiful! Can you teach me?!"

"Not. So. Fast!" he taunted, pulling the torch away when she lunged for it. "I've a few questions of my own. First and foremost…who are you?" he asked pointing at her.

She took a step back, her face dropping and wrinkling as a child's might after they were denied a toy they wanted and instead given a test for it.

"I've told you. I'm Zelena, the firstborn daughter of Cora."

"Yes, yes, you've covered that, now I need to know the rest."

"The rest? What more do you need to know?"

He didn't roll his eyes, though he wanted to desperately. But with her standing there looking confused and scared, and all that beautiful magic flowing freely through her, he didn't think that the smartest course of action. Wherever she'd been, this girl clearly had little access to education.

"Let's start with the basics," he suggested bringing the light forward once more and making her squint. "If you're the firstborn of Cora, then why does everyone believe that her firstborn, and only child, resides in the castle with the King? Where have you been?"

The girl deflated, visibly. Her shoulders slumped, and she looked down at her feet; gone was the pride she had when she announced that she was a child of Cora. What was left was naught but an unassuming, but still very powerful, frightened little girl.

"Over the rainbow…" she shrugged with a small amused smirk.

"Precious, but I'm going to need you to be more specific."

"Oz."

"Oz…" he echoed. The word was foreign, and yet he knew it all the same, from Dark Ones past but also from his new acquaintanceship with Jefferson. He was almost positive he'd heard the boy mention something about it before. Which meant it was more than another land, it was another realm entirely.

"Yes…my father only just told me that I wasn't theirs, you see. He is a woodcutter and a drunk there. My mother died years ago, but I believed they were my real parents until he just…burst out that I wasn't theirs! They found me."

"And how was that? How did you get from here…all the way to Oz?"

"I'm…I'm not sure…I was only a baby, and my father said it was a tornado, but…but I had to know myself so I went to see the Wizard. I wanted to be here, I wanted to know all about-"

"Ah-ah-ah!" he cut off, shoving a waving finger in her face because he had the sense that she was once more leading up to something that he wasn't ready for her to go yet. "Still, my turn."

"Well…when do I get my turn?!" she asked without a hint of demand in her voice. There was only pouting. Older than Regina and yet she resembled a child far more than her younger sister. What had this Oz done to this girl? What had Cora done?

"When I decide it's your turn," he answered, using a response he might have given to Baelfire when he was young just to see if it worked. She acted like a child, would she allow herself to be treated as such? It seemed so, as the response worked to silence her. That was worth noting. "How did you get from Oz to here?"

"The Wizard sent me. He showed me a vision of a woman leaving me in the woods, my real mother. He said her name was Cora and then I saw you teaching Regina and I saw how she was struggling, and I knew you had the wrong student! It's me you should be teaching! I have magic! And he said that here it's not considered evil. Here, magic is a gift, and you are a great Wizard! You could teach me! Because I'm Cora's daughter, don't you see just like Regina! And you…you knew my mother? You knew Cora? How? What was she like?"

He desperately wanted more details, had to have them, craved them really. But at the same time, the look in Zelena's eyes was unyielding. In her mind, she'd answered his questions, and now he would answer her own. It wouldn't be smart to push this too much. He might come off as too desperate for the information. He wasn't familiar with this…"Wizard" from Oz though he knew what he was going to be asking Jefferson the next time that boy came around. He wanted to know how she'd come into this world, but the truth was that if it had sent her from magical realm to magical realm without him detecting a spike in magic, it probably wasn't going to get him to The Realm Without Magic. And even then, with Zelena, it might not be necessary. The girl was powerful. Truly powerful. He could sense it just below her skin, growing more and more frantic just as she grew more and more frantic. Between that and the confirmation from the potion…this was Cora's daughter. Her firstborn as Cora would never have been able to conceal a pregnancy while she'd been in the castle, much less abandon the baby. But for a miller's daughter desperate to improve her station, a baby would have been considered a life sentence. With a child to care for, she never would have moved up in the world, never would have been anything more than a Miller's daughter. And as far as leaving her in the woods…Cora was just cold-hearted enough to do that if it meant her own happiness and dreams would survive. She'd proved that to him the night they'd intended to run away.

"I knew your mother," he confirmed, taking a step forward to walk with the girl a bit. If she didn't work off some of the energy she had, then it could be disastrous, especially because he wanted to see that energy transformed into magic. Just how powerful was she, he wondered. "I was the one who taught Cora magic. We spent much time together before she married her prince and gave birth to your sister, Regina."

"And…Cora never mentioned me?" she asked desperately, her hands wringing in front of her as they walked. The desperation he understood. The reasoning behind continuing to ask him the same question over and over again, only rubbing salt into her wounds, was the confusing part.

"A firstborn daughter? I think that's something I would remember." Though now that he thought about it…she had. They'd talked of her firstborn child often…he'd just always believed it was Regina. Suddenly things that hadn't occurred to him when he'd been seeing Cora were cast in a new light. When they'd been together, she'd been desperate to keep Zelena a secret, she'd have wanted Regina to be the firstborn, to be what he needed her to be. Once they were no longer together, she'd convinced him to change the deal and protected Regina, potentially knowing that she was not what he needed to cast the curse as she was not, in fact, her firstborn. Well…the future had won out again.

"Now, there's a spell, a curse I've been working on for a very long time. Now I foresaw that that curse can only be cast by Cora's daughter."

"That's why you've been training Regina. You thought she was going to cast the curse!" she worked out.

"Until today." The firstborn of Cora was here before him and her power...it was stunning, powerful. It was precisely what he needed. But only if she could control it and be taught. He'd been studying Regina her entire life. Zelena was a new card in the deck. He had no idea of how she'd grown up, no proof other than moving a rock that she could perform magic, he had no idea how she thought, her mannerisms, her motivations. That was all undetermined.

"Shall we see what you can do?"

She smiled. Her breath hitched with excitement as she offered a small nod, and he summoned a black blindfold from the walls of his castle. What he was about to do would be hard; there was no doubt about it. It was something that Regina would not be able to do yet. But the outcome would tell him everything he needed to know about Zelena and the magic that she had inside of her.

"Magic isn't about what you see, dearie, it's about what you feel inside," he said as he reached up to tie the clothe around her eyes, blinding her. "You'll have to dig deep if you wanna pass tonight's test."

"What am I meant to do?"

"Simple. Find me!" He used his magic to transport himself just behind her. "Over here, dearie!"

At the sound of his voice, she automatically turned toward him. He moved again, to lean against the tree that had once been in front of her.

"Close, but not close enough!" he called out, drawing her attention back to him. Magic had a way of sensing magic. It was one of his first lessons. It was the reason he could step into a room and identify objects that were magical against those that were fake. Regina would have this ability, someday, when she'd been working with magic long enough to get the taste, the smell of it. And of course, as the firstborn, he would be willing to work with Zelena now, but if what he'd seen and what he was feeling from her at this moment now was any indication, even without training she was years ahead of her sister. But still, he had to be sure.

"Magic comes from emotion. Simply think of a moment that makes you seethe with anger-"

"And use it to feel the magic. Yes, I've learned that a long time ago." Had she now? "It's hard to pick one. Finding out that my mother abandoned me. That my father never wanted me." She was growing agitated, near the verge of tears at her memories, but he noticed as he took a step in another direction, her body followed his motions. Coincidence?

"Getting warmer," he called before moving to a different spot.

"That my sister got everything I've ever desired. That she didn't even have to try hard. It was all just handed to her. And she doesn't even know what she had!" the girl screamed. He made a motion to move again, but before he could take even another step into his magic, he felt a tight grip close over his forearm, holding him in place.

"Ding Dong," he muttered in triumph and amazement.

She'd done it. And her rambling had let on to far more than he'd needed to know at this moment, but something that would be incredibly helpful as they moved forward. Her motivation. It was jealousy. If her hints were any indication, she'd known she had a sister for only a short time but growing up in poverty, being abandoned, and now seeing the life that might have been hers…that was what made her blood pump and the magic flow. And her magic, it was strong enough from escaping her vise.

Zelena pulled off her blindfold and raised his arm to see she had it.

"There it is. I can feel it in your nails."

"Sorry," she whimpered, finally releasing him. "I lost control."

Yes…and she was capable of so much more if she didn't calm it. Half of magic was knowing when to use it and when not to.

"And now, you need to think of a moment of happiness rein in some of that anger!" he proclaimed, stepping away again. Or not. Her panic had been enough a moment ago, but now, as she cast her eyes down to the ground as if searching for a coin she'd dropped, he could feel her magic swirling again. She was powerful, but easily worked up. It figured. With one sister he was struggling to uncap her potential, with this sister, he could sense that he was going to struggle with containing it.

"What do you think about?" she finally asked, moving eagerly toward him with a smile. He nearly laughed at her remark but managed to hold it in. Laughing would only goad her on, and there was something they needed to be clear about as they went onward from here.

"I'm the teacher. I ask the questions," he insisted as he moved away from her.

"But…if you don't tell me that how will I learn?" she shouted out at him.

A fair point. Even with Regina, he had been forced to reveal a little of himself. But he wasn't about to be honest with her, with someone he hardly trusted. The truth was that when he needed to reign himself in, he thought of Baelfire. He thought of the moment he held his son in his arms for the first time, or the moment he held him during the night and knew that he could raise him on his own. He thought of the moment Bae had called him "Papa" for the first time. And he thought of that look he'd given him whenever he'd promised Bae everything was going to be alright and his son had still trusted his words. But he wasn't about to tell any of that to Zelena, or even Regina. Cora had gotten too close as it was and look how she'd responded.

So instead, he shrugged in acceptance of Zelena's questioning and found another memory a memory that had significance but hadn't been thought of in years. It was a memory that would perhaps make a tether between himself and Zelena so that she might not only consider him teacher, but also similar to her.

"Well, like you, I was abandoned as a child. Some spinsters took us in. We didn't have much. But we got by. Whenever we finished a job, they used to bake meat pie. The entire hovel would fill with the most wonderful smell," he closed his eyes and could see it so clearly in his mind he thought he could smell it as well.

His aunts smiling and fussing over him as they waited for their supper to cool and fawned over his spinning abilities before calling him to the table and handing him his fork. "Go ahead, Rumple…you've earned it!" they would say before he dug in.

"And after they were cooled, they always let me take the first bite. And as the food warmed my body, that was the only time I forgot who I really was. A boy who wasn't wanted by his papa."

The memory faded as he opened his eyes and found himself smiling. He hadn't thought of those days in years, hadn't thought of how delicious those pies had been on how warm he'd felt when they baked it just for him. God…he did miss his aunts dreadfully sometimes.

"Mmm," he glanced over to find Zelena smiling at him, it was hard to miss with her standing right over his shoulder. She was so close it looked like at any moment she might attempt to reach out and touch him and it sent all manner of happy thoughts fleeing from his mind. He'd wanted her to have the sense that they were connected in a way, but now, he worried…perhaps he'd done too good a job.

"Then, I know my moment."

"What's that, dearie?" he questioned, moving out of her grasp to stand before her.

"The moment I stopped feeling like someone who wasn't wanted," she cried with a shake of her head. "The moment you agreed to train me."

He let loose a giggle as he saw something there in her eyes, a bit of something he'd only ever seen once before in a maid who had been more than a bit obsessed with him while Baelfire was around. He'd had to kill the girl before she'd done anything truly harmful, but…that same look was in Zelena's eyes now, tenfold. It was more than a bit crazy. It was madness.

"Train you indeed," he muttered, looking her over, recognizing a delicate situation when he saw one. "Lay low for now, Dearie, keep working on those happy memories…I'll find you when the time comes."