SwanQueen Oneshots

Life In Colour

She concentrated hard, her hands extended in front of her, eyes locked on the target. Her fingers tingled, small sparks flying from their tips but fading in the air seconds later. A frustrated huff came from beside her.

"I'm trying," Emma growled.

"Try harder," Regina replied tersely.

They'd already been out in the forest for close to two hours that afternoon. It was a weekly meeting after months of incessant pleading by the sheriff. Regina had finally relented and agreed to tutor the young woman in the art of magic. The lessons so far had been met with limited success and already the mayor was unsure whether Emma even had any natural magical ability she could harness and control or if she was just wasting her time.

"You know telling me to try harder doesn't exactly help," Emma said, wiggling her fingers which were still feeling a little electrified. "I mean, it's not exactly a detailed instruction. What exactly am I supposed to be trying to do?"

"I told you," Regina sighed. "You're supposed to be concentrating on that tree and moving it towards us. Pulling it, I suppose."

"How?"

Regina cast around for the right word to describe the feeling which filled her up every time she performed that particular spell.

"It feels kind of like you're glowing, like you're attracting the object to you," she said eventually. "Imagine you're a magnet and you're lighting up with power and the tree wants it. That's why its coming towards you."

"A glowing magnet," Emma frowned. "Right."

She turned back around and repositioned her hands in the air, pointing towards the tree. She closed her eyes.

Concentrate Swan, she thought. Glowing. Magnets. Attract the tree.

"Open your eyes," Regina snapped. "You need to see the object clearly, otherwise you'll be casting your magic all over the place and I'll have to tell Henry how his mother got buried under a pile of trees because she wasn't able to pick just one."

Emma narrowed her eyes at the woman beside her before turning back to her target. Her fingers ached with effort now and she knew she'd soon have to break. But she tried once more, her mind thinking magnetic, glowing thoughts. The soil around the base of the tree cracked, mud spurting up into the air as a hot pulse shot through her arms. She whipped her head around to look at Regina whose eyebrows were raised in surprise.

"Keep going," she encouraged, stepping towards Emma.

She did, her effort redoubled now she could see some progress. Slowly, bit by bit, the tree creaked and groaned as it began to edge its way towards them. Emma smiled widely and felt the magic flowing white-hot through her veins. Suddenly, the tree began to gather speed, almost flying through the air towards the two of them, a huge trench gouged in the soil as it went, branches whipping through the leafy foliage as it raced along.

Regina appeared out of nowhere, knocking Emma's hands out of the way and shielding the two of them with a protection spell. The tree smashed into the invisible barrier and shattered into thousands of pieces. The forest was silent once more.

Rubbing her head, Emma looked up from her place on the ground and gasped. She scrambled to her feet and stared around, wide-eyed.

"Regina?" she said, her voice trembling with nerves. "What the hell just happened."

The older woman didn't answer. Instead, she stepped carefully over to a nearby tree, her fingers reaching out to touch a leaf, running her finger across its surface. Next she turned her face up towards the sky, blinking in the bright light. When the sun became too much for her eyes, she looked at the woman standing dumbstruck in the middle of the clearing.