Once We are Descendants

Chapter 73: A Bit Bizarre

The group from the Isle begins walking down the street with Emma, Killian, Crystal, Rumpel, Snow and David also in tow. The rest of the kids stayed behind to help with the research. Whitney and Simon agreed to watch their alternate brother Neal; it was pretty amazing that Snow and David were willing to entrust their son with children they barely knew, but that was the Charmings for you, trying to see the best in everyone and being so trusting immediately.

Rumple leads the group with most of the Storybrooke crowd behind him and the kids from the Isle bringing up the rear.

Harry and Crystal walk next to one another but avoid eye contact. It felt awkward between the two of them; while the daughter of the Dark One knew of Harry's attraction to her, she couldn't be sure if he was serious about it or not. Perhaps he just did all this to get attention and was just flirting with her as pirates often do. She knows she can't get her hopes up, especially if they were going to be leaving soon. Meanwhile, the son of Captain Hook had no idea how to approach even talking to a girl, let alone make a serious connection with them. He didn't know how to go about doing this and, surprisingly, it was difficult for someone who on the surface appeared to be confident. He turns back to lock eyes with Jay a few times, wanting some kind of advice to fill the awkward silence between them.

Evie brings up the rear of the group, being deliberately slow so she would not be seen.

She concentrates extremely hard and then flips her hand upwards. There's a sort of spark inside of herself and instantly, a small ball of blue flames floats in the palm of her hand. It wasn't much bigger than the wick of a candle and glowed a royal blue colour. The daughter of the Evil Queen stops and takes a step back in surprise, but the shock quickly vanishes when she becomes transfixed by this little ball of magic. It flickers just like a campfire and the colour seems to reflect the sunlight, making such a beautiful shade of blue. She smiles in awe at this power and feels excitement building inside her.

She wiggles her fingers slightly and the ball of fire flickers in reaction to the movement of her hand. It seemed to get a bit bigger, almost to the size of her palm now.

She lets out a small laugh.

"Hey, Evie..."

Mal turns to talk to her best friend, but the surprise of suddenly being confronted breaks the girl's concentration and startles her.

The orb of fire flashes outwards as the blue-haired teen jumps. The fire leaves her hand and goes towards her friends.

All Evie can do is let out a noise of shock and fear as the fire heads towards them, but all of sudden, Mal holds up her hand in a defensive position and creates a purple shield that protects both her and Jay. Once the two sources of power meet, it creates a sound and wave that echoes outwards, catching everyone else's attention.

"Mal...!" Evie gasps in horror, trying to fight back tears. She runs to embrace her friends. "Jay! I'm so sorry!" She instantly feels awful for playing with magic and nearly hurting her friends. Her arms wrap tightly around them.

"What happened?" Emma asks, confused by the wave of energy.

Evie's cheeks flush a shade of red and she looks down at her feet.

Jay speaks first, while still wrapped in Evie's arms. "Mal wanted to ask Evie something and the next thing we know, there's blue flame coming towards us."

"But I blocked it with my magic," Mal adds, trying to shift out of the prolonged hug of her best friend. Evie was squeezing much too tight for her liking.

Emma looks at Evie, who seems beyond embarrassed and fearful of what just happened.

"Were you playing with magic?" the blonde asks.