Hello, and welcome to my entry for the Captain Swan Supernatural Summer 2019! This au combines two story ideas I've wanted to explore for a while. 1. What if CS existed in a Tolkien-esque, LOTR world? 2. What would have happened if it was Killian rather than Neal that Emma ran into when she was stealing the bug? Huge thank you to my beta, blackwidownat2814, to clockadile for the amazing story and chapter art, to kmomof4 and cssns for putting this event together, and to the ladies in the CSSNS chat who have helped me think through this story. If all goes well, I should be posting every Tuesday, and the story will have approximately 18 chapters plus the prologue and epilogue.

Prologue

King Charming of Misthaven sat gingerly upon his bed, careful not to jostle his family. His wife, Queen Snow White held their daughter, scarcely a half an hour old. Slipping an arm around Snow's shoulders, Charming bent down and then placed a gentle kiss against the baby's downy head.

"Snow, she's beautiful," he said in awe, running a finger softly across the baby's wisps of blonde hair, taking in all the features of this face, so new to him and yet already loved beyond anything he could imagine.

"We did this, Charming," she smiled up at him, tears in her eyes. "It was our love that brought her into being. In this world full of magic, sorcerers and elves, dwarves and dragons, I've never experienced anything this miraculous."

Charming felt the tears well in his eyes and let them fall as he leaned down and kissed his wife.

How could he possibly do this? How could he give them up? It was asking too much. He was but a man, after all. He didn't have the strength of his wife's elven people. How could he put them through a portal?

Snow reached up with her free hand and caressed his face, smoothing away his tears with a gentle thumb. "I know what troubles you, and I don't pretend I don't share your concerns. Twenty-eight years without you...it will be an agony. How can we survive this?"

Charming felt his heart breaking, but he knew he must be strong-for his wife, for his daughter, for the entire kingdom that was looking to their royals to provide them guidance through these turbulent times.

And so he took a deep, ragged breath in and let it out. Pasting a smile he didn't feel upon his face, he leaned down and kissed Snow once more. "What's twenty-eight years, when we have eternal love?"

Snow tried to smile, but Charming saw the storm clouds brewing in her eyes. "Will it always be like this? Constant struggle against the evil forces that want to tear us all apart? Charming, we finally defeated the Dark One, managed to trap him in his castle, and yet he's still able to destroy our lives; he still manages to gain followers. What hope does good have against the malice of such evil?"

Charming gestured out their bedchamber window. "Look at the sky, my love," he said. "The night has fallen and at first glance, the darkness looks absolute, but if you look closer, the darkness doesn't reign supreme. Thousands of stars shine through, providing their light, guiding the lost and weary. When we fight against the darkness, we are like those stars-hope, light, promise of a new dawn. And so we'll keep fighting until the stars are all alight."

Snow smiled up at him through her tears. "You're right. We fight, and we have to hope that one day good will defeat the darkness."

"And our tiny savior will be the one to strike the death blow, if the prophecies are to be believed," Charming noted.

"She'll be the best of us all, our tiny Emma."

Snow yawned, and Charming took their daughter, placing her gently in her cradle, urging his exhausted wife to take her rest, before he laid beside her, holding her close and relishing the peace of the night.

But peace was not destined to last until morning. As dawn's first rays began to paint the sky with pale pastels, Charming woke suddenly, aware of the clanging of the alarm bell, the shouts and sounds of running below, the distant shout of the dwarf, Grumpy.

"The curse! It's here!"

No! It couldn't be! It was too early; they weren't ready!

Careful not to wake his sleeping wife and child, Charming sprang from the bed, threw on his clothes from the day before and left his chamber, sprinting for the great hall.

The council was already assembled at their round table-elves, dwarves, men, fairies, the werewolves Granny and Ruby, and there at the place of honor, was the wizard Merlin.

The sight of the wizard made a chill run down Charming's spine. Merlin had assured him he would be away until the time of crisis was upon them.

"What news from the village?" Charming asked by way of greeting. "Surely the shouts I'm hearing cannot be true."

"I'm afraid they are," Merlin said gravely. "The curse has been enacted. We have scarcely an hour to prepare ourselves."

"No," Charming insisted, "It's too soon. Our intelligence was clear we had several weeks yet before the Dark One would have the strength to enact his plan."

"Our intelligence was wrong," Graham, commander of the king's guards, stated angrily. "It's coming; the cloud of the Dark One's malice is already visible in the east. We must enact our plan now."

"But we can't," Charming insisted. "Snow gave birth only hours ago. She's far too weak to travel realms. We must hold it off. Surely our shield will hold-"

"The shield has already been breached," Granny said starkly. "I'm afraid we have no choice. We must act now."

"But-"

Merlin stood, commanding attention with his quiet strength. "I'm afraid the situation is far graver than even you know, Your Majesty. With only a portion of the sword at our disposal, the portal is weaker than we accounted for. It can only support one."

"One?!" Charming shouted, getting to his feet. "But my wife and daughter must both go through!"

Merlin shook his head. "Impossible. Without the rest of the sword, we cannot strengthen the portal enough. The child must be sent through on her own."

Charming banged his fist upon the table. "No!" he shouted. "I will not send my newborn daughter through a portal to a foreign realm where she will be defenseless. I cannot!"

"If you do not," Merlin said, voice still calm and impassive, "then all is lost. Misthaven will fall, the Dark One will regain power, and his reign of terror will consume the world."

Charming remained resolute for a moment, before the fight drained out of him, and he fell back to his chair. "But without her mother to guide her, how is she to survive? How is she to keep the dagger secret and safe? How is she to know of her destiny? How is she to return to us when the time is right?"

Silence reigned in the great hall for a moment, the gravity of the situation evident on every grim face. Finally Graham got to his feet.

"We must rely on those outside of the curse's purview to do what they must to guide her towards her destiny. We must trust our fate once again to them."

True smiles graced a few faces as the realization set in. There was yet someone who could get to her when the time was right, someone who would move heaven and earth to protect his home and his people, someone whose righteous anger toward the Dark One was strong enough to stand the test of years, decades, realms.

Grave though the situation may be; all was not yet lost.

Charming called for parchment and ink, hastily scribbling a note before folding it and embossing it with the seal of Misthaven, then, whistling for one of Snow's birds, he tied the missive to it's leg.

"You must be quick," Charming said. "Take this message to Killian Jones."