True to his word, as soon as Hunter finished speaking with Sophie, he put back on his seven league boots and took the few steps necessary to return to Mehrdadstan. He'd been gone long enough to meet a few people and acquire a gift for Scheherazade.

Armed with the purple box, he strode into the palace, seven league boots careful place in his pocket again. He knew to search for Scheherazade in her garden, and went for it immediately, ignoring the guards and advisors who still seemed to dislike him. He didn't care; they didn't matter. His queen did. He stepped silently into the palace gardens, smiling at her form seated near the jasmine. He smiled. "Sometimes I think I go away just to have to experience of coming home to you," he offered by way of salutation.

After being instructed by the wizard Howl on how to use the castle's door to travel, Arthur stepped through the shop door into Mehrdadstan, and blinked in the bright sunlight for a moment.  After getting his bearings as much as he could, he made his way up the street toward the palace, intending to pay homage to the local royalty and possibly gain their loyalties.  At the very least he hoped to get them to pledge not to interfere. 

As he wound his way through the streets and the marketplaces, he thought of home.  His home.  Camelot.  There were so many things that were so very different about this place, and yet the same.  The treachery.  The intrigue.  The caliber of people who made up these lands. 

As Arthur made his way up to the gates of the palace, he hoped silently that the rulers of this land were just.

Smee hurried along, his heart racing and his mind on fire. He couldn't wait to tell the Cap'n what he had discovered this afternoon. It was something that would change their lives and make their persuit of Peter Pan even easier. A little sanity, a little bit of their old lives back. He rushed to the door of James Hook's home and knocked impatiently on the door, still being corteous to not bust in on the Cap'n if he were in the middle of something. "Cap'n, I bring more than exciting news!" he announced.

Hunter was not the kind of man who liked being cooped up. His spirit liked to travel, and lying in a bed - no matter how posh - while he recovered from his stab wounds was absolutely trying his patience. He had quicker healing than anormal man, but it wasn't quick enough.

Scheherazade made it better - and worse. She told him stories, her voice compelling, soothing, and entirely captivating. She teased him with kisses, touches, and caresses he couldn't quite follow through on, not without reopening his wound. She kept him wanting far more than she ever had, and it was maddening at the same time as entirely welcome.

( It didn't take long for her to ask about his affliction, how he came to be both man and wolf. )

Tied to the same wooden chair, in Hook's basement, for weeks now had left Curly hopeless. Curly was beginning to believe that Hook and Smee were right in that no one was coming to save him.

His head leaning onto the back of the chair, Curly didn't shift his gaze from the ceiling when he heard the basement door open and footsteps descending the noisy stairs. Taking in a pathetic sigh, Curly spoke lazily, "I still don't know anything and I cannot help you in your quest to kill that Pan fellow that you speak of. Now leave me alone."