As promised, this is the start of a story I started 2 years ago but have not finished. A little latter than I thought but I’ve been enjoying my holiday and finally sat down to my computer. I figured, as a New Year’s resolution to write more, I should just post a story and see if I can finish it. 🙂

Please let me know how you like it and if you would like to see more. Inspirations from readers are always welcome as I have not actually finished parts of this. Note that this story will have grammar issues, misspellings, and has not been edited.  I’ve done some editing but not a lot. 🙂 I plan on posting once a week, maybe more depending on interest and whether my characters talk fast enough. This is probably only going to be a short story and I’m not sure on chapters. Perhaps it will develop into more, or even a series.  Not sure yet.  Depends upon the Muses and time.

This was inspired by the Grimm’s fairy tale: Cat-Skin for an anthology of twisted male-male fairy tale stories that never happened. I’ve informed the maker of that anthology that I was probably going to publish on my own.  Here is the start.  Sorry it’s a little short.  This particular story was written in pieces and not in order.  I hope inspiration will come and I can fill in the parts missing.

Elf Magic
©2015

Dedication

Cyma (yes, you) for the initial inspiration and Wando from G+ who helped me with the name Lothohammer, the Human kingdom’s name.

Tags: MM, Romance, Fairy, Magic, Royalty, Kingdoms

“Come here, my love,” Queen Bea said in a thready voice. Sire slowly walked over to his wife, her Royal Majesty of all Lothohammer. She had ruled by his side for 25 years, but now, barely could she lift her hand as she beckoned him closer to her bed side. It had been a marriage of state since he was the heir to his father, King Alum. His family had been ruling the human kingdom Lothohammer for centuries since the elves and the humans had signed the peace treaty in his great-great grandfather’s day after much strife between Lothohammer and the elven kingdom of Elvanwood. Considering they were nearby to each other, it was a good thing to keep the peace. Magic was very much a part of the world, but nothing could be done for the wasting sickness that was killing his Queen.

He reached for her and took her thin hand gently in his left and brushed her beautiful copper hair with his right lightly, saddened that he could not help her now. While it was a marriage of convenience, he had grown to love her as a friend and confidant. She’d had known from the very first that his taste was not towards her. In fact, she had understood that his taste was not toward women in general. It was a secret she had kept for him all these years. They had their one miracle, a daughter, who looked just like her mother, and that was that.

“What is it you want, my dear?” Sire returned from his sad thoughts at the light squeeze of her fingers. He bent closer to her.

“I have something to tell you,” She breathed softly to him. Her face grimaced in pain briefly. “I have seen you with another with long copper hair. Do not marry again unless you marry the one with copper hair. You will have your heart’s desire.” Her breathe hitched with the last of the words, she coughed violently, and finally caught her breathe long enough to say, “I’m so very tired, love. Find the one with the copper hair and more will be revealed. I am ready. Remember–” With a violent shudder, she seized.

Sire held her against his chest, bracing her in her final moments. He murmured to her as the seizure took her away. Once limp, he closed her eyes for the final time, laid her back down, and kissed her forehead good bye. He allowed himself a mere few moments to grieve and then visibly pulled himself together. “Please put together the announcement that the Queen has left this world. I hope that her next one will be better.” Sire turned to the attendant that seemed to never leave his side to ensure his orders were carried out. His right-hand man, with tears streaming down his face, nodded once, bowed to Sire, and left the room to begin this process of informing all of Lothohammer, and beyond, that they had lost their Queen.

The entire kingdom mourned for a fortnight as she was much beloved. While everyone knew of the Queen’s illness, it was still a shock that she was gone. Because her last words had a ring of prophecy, they were written down to be reviewed at a later time. After the official mourning ended, Sire continued to mourn Bea privately and soon was spiraling into a depression that none of his court, advisers, or even his daughter could pull him out. Soon, others noticed the long walks their King would take in the village close to the castle, that he was just moving with blank eyes. King Sire had been ruling their country for a number of years, most of it with Bea. The whole court could do nothing. Some advisers remembered that same prophecy and started looking for the person Bea had foreseen; another woman with long copper hair.

A search was done far and wide for females with long copper hair. None could be found. Except for their daughter, Aeona. She, like her mother, had long copper hair, smooth, slightly dark skin, and a slender build with barely-there hips and long legs. The only difference was her bright purple eyes, eyes that did not match Sire or Bea. Mutterings of changelings and baby snatching had long dodged Aeona, Sire and Bea over the years since Aeona’s birth 25 years prior. They ignored it for the most part.  For a while, the kingdom settled down and accepted that their princess had different eyes. Until the day the Queen had passed, and the prophecy revealed, then the mutterings resumed as some were wont to do.

Aeona herself heard these mutterings and despaired that her father would come back to her. She didn’t know what to do. There were things that were locked in her mind that were slowly coming back to her as the days passed since her mother had left this world. The first was that she was not all that she seemed. The second was that were more, rather large secrets, to come. She was even more frightened by this because the one person she could go to was no longer around. She couldn’t go to her father because a lot of the secrets, she knew, were directly related to him even though she didn’t know what they were yet. She didn’t want to hurt him any more than he already was hurt.