Once We are Descendants

Chapter 38: Dizzy's Discourse

Meanwhile, back in the hospital while stuff was going down at the docks.

Snow hands a tired Neal to Charming, while Belle sits down, still feeding Gideon from a bottle and Gold stands by as well. All of them had heard the commotion with Regina and then Hook sword-fighting with one of the teenage pirates; in fact, it had been Snow and Charming's job to calm down the rest of patients after either Crystal or Regina made the fight disappear. They also had to deal with Whale's tirade about the chaos that this town brings.

Once everything has died down, Dude comes scampering out of his master's hospital room, bone still in his mouth and his tail wagging frantically. "Mmmmph," he says.

"What was that?" David asks, still a bit weirded out at the concept of this dog talking. He was a farmer and shepherd for the longest time and never once had he seen a talking animal... with the exception of Archie the cricket, of course.

The dog drops the bone onto the floor. "They're gone! Carlos, Jay, Evie, Mal, Harry, Ben, Jane, Doug, Crystal, Hook-man, Emma, and Evie's mom, they're all gone, vanished in a puff of gray smoke."

"Evie's mom?" Snow asks in confusion.

"Gray Smoke?" Gold questions.

"That dark-haired chick, Gina."

"Do you mean, Regina?" Belle offers.

"Yeah, that chick, the one who had a break down after meeting her daughter from another world... They all vanished in Gray Smoke."

"Are you sure it was gray smoke?" the Dark One inquires. He's puzzling over who of those with magic teleported with gray smoke. Regina and his daughter had purple, Emma had white. The only one who had the gray smoke for teleportation was him and that is because he is the Dark One.

"I'm a dog, I'm colour-blind I can't see colours, you old creepy man! Try and keep up here!"

Gold bites his lip at the insult but chooses to ignore it.

"But they're gone, they used magic and they're gone."

"Calm down Dude," Snow says gently. "I'm sure they're okay; I think either Emma, Regina, or Crystal just teleported them out of the hospital to avoid anyone getting hurt."

"But when will they be back?" the mutt asks.

"Not certain," Gold says. "Who knows how long that one-handed nuisance would like to wage a fight like that?"

Belle slaps her husband on the wrist and glares at him for the derivative comment. While Gold and Hook were likely never going to be considered friends, they still have a begrudging respect for one another despite their long history. Gideon has begun to fall asleep in his mother's arms again, clinging to a ringlet of her hair.

Dude hops up on the chair next to Belle and begins sniffing the baby's head. "This one smells different than Neal," he observes, giving the toddler's light brown hair a quick lick. Gideon twitches slightly at the odd feeling but sighs contently. Gold reaches down and forces the dog's nose and mouth away from his son's head, growling deep in his throat as he does so, to warn the animal away from licking his son again. Belle, however, is much more lenient, she holds her son a little bit closer for Dude to take another sniff. She personally adores animals of any kind and thought the presence of a talking dog to be fascinating and entertaining. She was debating the idea in her head that their family could someday get a pet, once her son was older that is. She'd seen the way David, Snow, and Neal interacted with animals at their farm whenever Snow had invited her over for tea, and to see the happy look on Neal's face as he ran around the yard with their dog Wilby was priceless.