kinkfest | Chasing ever afters [Odin Sphere, Mercedes/Ingway, T] (Reply)

Title: Chasing ever afters
Rating: T
Warning: True ending Spoilers
Word Count: 1,826
Summary: Some princes and queens don't live up to the fairy tales, especially one who might succumb easily to fate.
Prompt: 28 – Odin Sphere, Mercedes/Ingway: fairytales – “We could’ve found the happy ending if we’d just keep on looking.”

Once upon a time, in a kingdom, there lived a prince.

There was none left to guide him to Ringford, yet he had entered the Fairy’s forest with utter determination to betray his father fuelling his every step, clutching Titrel desperately until his nails left half moon shaped cuts on his palm.

It didn’t take the fairies very long to capture him. In fact, the one that first found him was very young—obviously at awe on her initial view of a human boy.

Blinking her eyes repeatedly, the fairy hovered above him, examining his features. “You don’t have wings.” It wasn’t a question.

He was propped against a large tree, feet failing to carry on and his breathing ragged, but he could see the fairy just fine, her tiny wings a pair of gossamer sheets that flapped gently as she glided above him. “Indeed. But you do. I suppose asking for a ride to Ringford Palace is too much?”

The fairy’s chest rose indignantly. “And who dares to even ask?”

“I’m of the fallen kingdom of Valentine. I seek no hatred from the Vanir,” he paused and slid down the tree trunk, relaxing in her presence. “I only wish to meet Queen Elfaria.”

“State your business, and I might take you to the queen. Make a foolish request and you will regret it, human.”

“’Tis unfortunate, as I’m inquired to give an item to Her Majesty myself,” he stared at her, willing the pleading in his voice, “Please.”

It seemed to have taken a graduate effect, as the young fairy’s eyes softened considerably.

“You may follow me,” she turned his back to him and hopped off the ground to take off towards the forest. “after you wipe away your tears.”

It was only when he touched his face that he realized he had been crying.

He bowed his head at Elfaria, presenting his grandfather’s ring in both hand. When she bent down to examine the ring, something along the lines of her face creased with worry. One of her lillipats observed it carefully before returning it to Ingway, and informed the Queen. “It is the one, Your Majesty.”

Elfaria eyed the ring, torn by the feeling of dread and disgust. “What do you have in mind by bringing the key to my people’s destruction into my forest, Prince of Valentine?”

He took a deep breath. “Queen Elfaria, ‘tis my wish to present this Ring of Titrel to you and your kingdom.”

A whiff of Edelweiss filled the air as she turned and bent down, the tips of her bright hair sweeping down in to Ingway’s face. He didn’t try to push them away, and returned her stern look with the last bit of his royal dignity. “What do you wish to accomplish?” Elfaria’s tone was unnerving and demanding, as Ingway felt his twelve year old knees buckle under her watch.

“Your victory,” he started slowly, cautiously choosing his next words, keeping the trembling to reach his voice. “will be the Demon Lord’s defeat.”

His anticipation wore down as the name did not have the estimated result on the fairy queen, but Ingway hold his relieved breath when she finally rose to her full height, holding her ash staff closer. “I see you have chosen the lesser of two evils,” An elegant smile graced Elfaria’s lips at last. “Very well. I shall take your present.”

Ingway raised his hand, letting Elfaria closing her cold, long fingers on the ring. She stared the jewelry for awhile, scrutinizing it like a piece of object taken from the street, and regarded him.

“It is said that one of royal blood shall act in manners of their blood. In return, I will promise you one thing. When all hope is lost, you can always count on the Vanir’s royal blood to heal you.” She held her fingers up to her lips. “Such great power will be granted to you once.”

The trip back was shorter, as the young fairy guided Ingway to the forest’s exit this time. Silence filled between them, and she hovered ahead of him, wings flapping necessarily, slowing down when Ingway paused to catch his breath.

“I do not know what you’re crying about,” she said suddenly as they were nearing the forest’s edge. “but do remember that the dead will return to the sky and the earth.”

An awkward pause at first, as Ingway considered if this was the fairy’s way of consoling him. The last of his grandfather had been seen amongst the commotion, long ears flapping with the Cauldron-stirred storm, furious curses for a blood-traitor sailed out of his snout like endless spell-chanting. He wondered if Valentine kept his precious crown even in Endelphia, or if his menorah will eternally be the brightest among his people.

Unable to bring himself to give her a smile of gratitude, he nodded his head instead. “Thank you for directing me here,” he paused and looked at her, waiting for the introduction from the fairy girl.

She raised her chin, the bow Tasla lowering dangerously in her tiny hands. “Princess Mercedes, daughter of Elfaria.”

One day, the prince was cursed into a frog by an evil magician.

The most noticeable aspect of his new form was his newfound appetite for flies.

Ingway had seriously considered extending his tongue (never, never in his life considered that as an ability) when a certain insect flew an inch by his nose. He stopped resisting the temptation after the fifth fly buzzed pass.

It seriously needs more mulberry sauce, was all he could think of as the insect slid down his throat, still buzzing its cry for help. But he’s never been a picky eater.

Making his way out of the Titania sewer maze was easy. It was the streets that proved to be quite a feat, from all of the shady characters parading down the corner of the city’s alleys, most of them were sorcerers’ who-unfortunately-saw through his curse immediately. They’ve all approached, back hunched and twirling their silver beards, and offered him different remedies—and when he flat out refused, most of them whipped out numerous fire spells. The nicer ones had launched flying sabers.

There was only so much mixture that a frog’s stomach can take, and fifteen bottles and one hundred curses for Urdzur later, all the Metamorphosis potions he had forcibly chugged down came out from where they came into. Staring right into the webbed digits of his green fingers, he let out a deep sigh. One or forty five gulps didn’t make a big difference, and he’s desperate for a cure.

Fairies feed with the phozons. It’s one of the reasons they feared the Cauldron so—for them, it was a devilish creation that robbed the very reason they breathed and lived. But remember this, Ingway, for that very reason; they hold the special power to break curses. A kiss from a great fairy will erase any curse that no potions could.

This was the time when he remembered his mother the most.

A distinct whiff of spring blossoms was in the air, and he finally noticed a new comer at the forest. Belial has been restless for sometime, as if sensing an imminent danger. Right at the time, the new fairy queen emerged from the depth of the forest, taking a little hopping step each time she walked. The enchanted dragon let out a soft grunt and settled himself as Beldor chanted another spell—it must have sensed one the Psyphers was near.

The bow Tasla always has a thirst for frog blood, and so he mentally prepared himself as he hopped towards the pond to the oblivious fairy queen, initiating his plan B.

As a frog, the prince assisted the new fairy queen and helped with the rebuilding of her kingdom. As a reward, the queen bestowed the frog with a kiss, returning him into a prince again. The queen asked him to stay, to be by the queen’s side.

‘Do not leave me,’ she said, with all the pleading a queen could gather.

In truth, the prince had a terrible plan. He knew of his fate and planned to destroy everything. He promised the queen of their reunion in the future, but he never promised them to be together.

He did not tell her that they were just not meant to be.

Through the beast’s blood eyes, he thought he saw a pair of wings. But the desire to feast on flesh gnawed him in the gut, stopped him from having a thought of his own other than the hunger.

The silver lining is somewhere out there, Ingway. We just have to find it, he could hear his mother’s whisper beneath the loud beating in his ear drums, but his prey was barely escaping again from his claws, so he bared his fangs and attack—

I’m tired of chasing my endings, he thought to himself, the taste of his assailant’s blood like steel in his mouth. He told her they’ll meet again. He had smiled and gave her hope. He, who had given up all hope and himself.

Mercedes, Queen Mercedes, happily ever afters do not exist, especially for someone like me. It is not for someone with a cursed fate such as mine.

For a full second he could feel himself grimacing at the memory, but the beast’s last thought was interrupted by another magician’s chanting, and he stopped thinking altogether.

The prince took a spell to morph himself into a ghastly beast in order to exact revenge on the man that had ruined his family’s life, wrecking the forest where the queen lived. The forest burned and the fire ate the fairies and people alike. When the fairy queen arrived there, he was already defeated by another knight, freeing him from the beastly form. But the queen was too late, for the prince had taken his last breath. The queen shed a tear for him, for the forest, for her people, and their future.

“What happened after that, Aunt Velvet?”

Velvet sat at the edge of the child’s bed, and caressed the long hair with her paw. “The queen’s tears extinguished the forest’s fire.”

“And then? And then? And then?”

“It turns out the prince is reunited with the queen in the end.”

“Did they live happily ever after?”

She resorted with a smile this time. On the bed, her niece waited with anticipation. “In the queen’s place stood a giant tree with the prince as the core, child.”

“If he had stayed with the queen or if the queen had begged harder, they could have been together earlier. They could have live happily ever after,” the child pouted.

“Perhaps so, darling,” Velvet felt the edges of her pooka mouth curving into a small smile, at a chance of her brother’s happiness. She leaned down again, this time to kiss her niece good night. “Perhaps we--they just don’t try hard enough.”