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Carved Secrets

S8, E5: Carved Secrets

The next day at the forest...

Hope shot an arrow at a target. Another quality she had from her grandmother was that she liked to do archery and listening to music in the forest to relive stress. More and more arrows flew passed and shot at the same tree, the same target, and the same center.

"Don't waste all your arrows. You might need hours to mend them."

Hope looked behind her and saw the very person she didn't want to see. Wilbur Booth.

"Well, I need them right now. I have a lot of stress to relive, so while you excuse me I'll do my activity without any disturbance." Yes, Hope's words were harsh and Will was going to ask why was she being so, but she didn't care anymore. Now, she was focusing on how to find the Dark One that is threatening her family and friends and all the innocent people.

"May I ask what's wrong? Hope that's not a disturbance," Hope turned around when hearing his joke and saw him smiling.

He is trying to make you feel better, Hope thought. But for now it was very annoying.

"What's wrong is that the Dark One is still threatening the people, and it isn't Rumple," Hope muttered, positioning herself to shoot the arrow.

"Sit down here." Hope turned around and saw Will motioning to a fallen tree, which she uses as a bench. She reluctantly sat next to him. Suddenly he took out a carving knife she had never seen before. The edges looked curvy. That is weird, Hope thought. Will always shows what new carving knifes he got. But this one was not acknowledged.

"What's that?" she asked, inclining toward the knife. Will quickly hid it.

"It's just a carving knife. Just like you, I am reliving stress."

"What stress?"

Will looked at her, not saying anything. Hope then realized his eyes looked different, but she didn't know what it was. Suddenly, white sparks shot out of her hands. Will noticed it, his eyes widening and his mouth open without saying anything. The Will she knew would talk about it, seeing what was wrong and going deeper into it, helping her. But that wasn't the cae when she needed it right now. Hope quickly hid her hands, putting them around her bow and arrows.

"Well, I need to go. I guess you'll just not talk at all, being suspicious," Hope stood up with her things to leave.

Then she turned around saying, "Thanks for wasting my time." She was mad, mad at Will because when she needed her friend so they can talk about her situation and maybe more, he shut her away.

But if she had put in more thought into why, she would have realized he wasn't wasting time at all, just giving her stupid clues.

Back into her room, with the storybook...

She flipped through the storybook. Before, it used to give her relief while skipping through the ancient pages of history. Now, it only reminded her of Will and the stories of darkness. Darkness that will threaten her family.

Hope read the story of Baelfire and his beginning, when the Ogre Wars had begun. She glanced at the illustrations of her late half father at a young age. His brown eyes looked like hers, but lighter.

At that time, Hope really wished to meet Neal Cassidy. The person who had a mission of getting rid of magic. And magic, she was sure, was trying to get out of her.

The more she thought of her wish, the prophesy, Finnian, Will, and her parents, the more brighter the sparks became and the more sparks shot out of her hands. Until the room exploded into the vast brightness.

"Hope!" someone yelled and wrapped their arms around her. After the light cleared, she looked up to see her father protecting her and her mother, looking around for the source.

"Hope, what happened?" Regina, the Good Queen, entered her room and took her hands. Before Hope spoke, Regina gasped and looked at Hope's hands.

"It came from you, didn't it?" Regina asked. Hope nodded.

Killian released Hope and ruffled his hair, "But how? We knew that Hope didn't have magic. She didn't for 16 years!"

Regina smiled, "It's the prophesy. It's happening."

Emma joined in, "But how? The prophesy has been occurring as long as she lived? Why did the magic come now?"

Hope finally spoke, "I just thought of you guys, my friends, the prophesy..."

"Wait a minute, the prophesy!" Regina said. "Rumple said that you will defeat the Dark One!"

"Maybe the Dark One became close to you!" Killian chimed.

"But who?" Emma asked.

Hope had an idea. She grabbed the storybook, which had fallen out of her grasp during the light explosion, and flipped through it.

"This book has all the stories of the people here, and us. It is still continuing, because of Henry," Hope looked at all of the adults with her, "Maybe Henry has a story that can lead us to the Dark One?"

Regina shrugged, "It can't hurt to try. I'll go see Henry."

Emma nodded, "I'll go tell my parents." Both women walked out of the room.

Killian looked at his daughter sadly, "Who knew this would happen, another Dark One and a prophesy that predicts true love?" He groans. "It's like finding your love under pressure."

"Mhm," Hope said. She wouldn't tell Killian about the incident at the castle. Not now.

She needs to fight the evil now. Magic has told her it's time.

Who knew her life just changed in just a few days?

In a tree-filled hill, with a view of Hope's home...

There he saw Hope at a window, looking at the Realms. Wondering how can she stop the Dark One.

Wondering how can she stop him.

He smiled. When Hope Swan-Jones finds out who he was, she will be devastated. As dead as a tree in a forest filled with wolves and birds that eat up breadcrumbs of your tiny supper.

But who knew that he was the most dangerous monster in those woods.

Just a mere human boy who had the opportunity of getting the Dark powers in one normal day.

He looked at the dagger that controls him. Hope will never get her hands on it. Not until she know he actually was.

Until then, he'll be simply carving sculptures until Hope Swan-Jones gives the Dark hope in their mission.

Sniffing out the light.

Until then, he'll be simply carving. Carving sculptures. Carving secrets on a dead tree.

Carving darkness on his wooden, unwooden soul.