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super-ion · 1 year

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Apple & Spindle

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, two children were born on the same night.

One was the child of the king and queen, who were beloved by their subjects. They had tried and failed to conceive for many years and were overcome with joy at the arrival of the baby. The entire kingdom rejoiced and on the child's first birthday, emissaries from neighboring kingdoms, both human and fae, arrived to pay respects to the royal family. Late in the celebration, an uninvited guest arrived - a fae creature, ancient and wicked. The fae lord cast a curse upon the child to prick a finger upon the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into an enchanted sleep from which there would be no awakening. Try as they might, no human magician or fae sorcerer could break the curse. Devastated as they were, the king and queen resolved to raise their child to adulthood in hopes that one day, someone would find a way to save their child.

The second child was born to a widow. Grieving her lost wife, she spilled three drops of blood on freshly fallen snow and beseeched the spirits of the forest to give her a child. The spirits were moved by her pleas and nine months later she gave birth. The woman loved her child with all her heart and they were happy. One day the woman chanced to meet one of the court magicians, a witch of some renown. They fell in love and were soon married. Scarcely a year later, the woman took ill. She begged her wife to take care of her child and though the witch was indifferent towards the child, she consented. Shortly thereafter the child's mother passed away, leaving the child alone with a stepmother who was cold and distant.

The two children grew, not knowing that their fates were entwined…

Briar sat at the vanity in his room and examined his hair in the mirror. The barber had tried his best to fix the damage, but there was only so much he could do with so little. His mother had of course been furious, but Briar had acted alone in hacking off the long curls that had haunted him for so long. With his blond hair now boy-short, his head felt delightfully light. He tossed his head and gave himself a nod, it could use some work, but it was definitely an improvement.

He stood and began working through some of the exercises he had seen the squires working through. His parents granted him plenty of leeway in his pursuits, but his mother balked at the idea of him training with the pages and squires. The last time he brought it up she had fallen back on the excuse that it was "unbecoming of a princess".

He scowled at the memory and made a particularly aggressive lunge towards his imaginary opponent. There were days when he felt as if his parents' affection would smother him. He couldn't exactly blame them, he had only been afforded eighteen years and they were determined to make the most of it.

He just wished they could see beyond the beloved daughter they saw him as. He wished they'd let him live.

A clatter at the window interrupted his thoughts. He spun as the window swung open and a figure tumbled ungracefully to the floor. The figure moaned softly in pain before painfully standing, then froze at the sight of Briar.

He looked familiar and it took Briar a moment to recognize him as the boy who always sat with the court witch Hilde during court dinners. He had always looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

The boy, Briar thought it was a boy at least, looked to be about his age. He was scrawny, not quite grown into his gangly limbs. Despite a black eye and tear streaked dirt smudged on his cheeks, there was an ethereal beauty to him. Beneath the dirt Briar could make out pale skin, red lips and startling green eyes.

"Can I help you?" Briar asked, not really sure what one asked to a stranger who tumbled in through a third story window.

The boy blinked.

"I'm sorry!" He stammered, "I was… I mean I didn't know anyone was in here."

Briar cocked an eyebrow.

"The candlelight didn't give it away?"

"I was trying to get to the library."

"There isn't a library in this tower," Briar said, narrowing his eyes.

The boy made a miserable groan and dragged his hands across his face.

"How did you get in here?" Briar asked as a thought occurred to him.

"I climbed," the boy replied as if it weren't obvious.

"No. I mean, how did you get past the wards?"

"The… wards?"

"This tower is warded against intruders. No male may enter unless he is of royal blood."

The boy took on a greenish pallor and a whole gamut of emotion played out on his face. He opened his mouth but all that came out was a strangled squeak as his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Briar dropped his practice sword and lunged to catch the intruder, barely catching his head before it hit the floor.

***

Rose came to on a bed that was far softer than it had any right to be.

The jumbled events of the evening came back to her and her heart sank. The pack of her fellow squires had tricked her. She'd been desperate for any reprieve from their torment, so she'd gone along with their dare. Instead of a library, she had fallen in through a window into the chambers of… oh no…

Rose scrambled to sit up but froze. The princess was lounging on a chair, watching her intently with impossibly blue eyes. For once, rumor proved true, the princess had in fact cut her hair down to almost nothing. She was wearing a men's shirt, slightly too large, and trousers. She was tapping the blade of a dagger against her leg, a far cry from the bored looking girl that Rose had seen at court.

"I have some questions for you," the princess declared."You'd better have some answers."

She deftly flourished the dagger with the practiced skill of someone with too much time in their hands.

Rose swallowed.

"You didn't call the guards?" she asked meekly.

The princess grimaced at the fact that she'd been thwarted in asking the first question, but quickly recovered with a cocky smirk.

"Not yet. You falling through my window is possibly the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me. Let's say I'm curious. Now… you're the witch's son, are you not?"

"Stepchild," Rose replied curtly.

"But you are a boy?"

Rose's stomach twisted.

"I… I don't know."

The princess made a thoughtful noise and leaned forward.

"What's your name?" the princess asked.

"My name?"

"Yes, what would you like me to call you?"

Rose's mouth went dry. The way she asked it made Rose think she wanted more than just the name she had been given. The way the princess studied her gave her the impression that she wanted the name Rose whispered to her reflection in the mirror when she was alone, the name she wrote in the margins of her notes before blotting the whole thing out with ink, rendering it illegible.

"Rosamund," she whispered. "Or Rose, I guess."

The princess's face split into an incandescent smile that made her heart flutter slightly. She slipped the dagger into a boot and offered a hand to Rose.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Rose. My name is Briar."

Briar. Rose couldn't recall ever hearing the princess referred to by that name. Why would…?

Oh… oh!

The hair, the men's shirt, the name. The princess was like her, but the other way around.

Rose cautiously took her (his?) hand.

"His royal highness, prince Briar?" she asked.

For a beat, she worried that she had overstepped or perhaps broken him. He stared at her wide eyed before his grin somehow widened even more.

He helped her to her feet.

"Do you want to get cleaned up?" he asked.

She caught her reflection in the mirror behind him and grimaced. She was a complete mess. She nodded gratefully.

***

Briar rushed about his room, tidying up the worst of the haphazard mess. A girl was in his room, fallen right in like some fairy story.

And she was like him. She knew what it was to have to pretend to be someone. She knew what it meant to be burdened with a name that didn't fit.

The door to the adjoining washroom opened and he stopped in his tracks. She had scrubbed the dirt from her face and combed back her damp hair. He had thought her pretty before, but scrubbed clean, she was beautiful, even with the black eye. She was wrapped up in a silk robe that he had offered her. He had hated the pastel pink when the robe had been given to him, but she looked radiant in it. She was looking down upon it and feeling the silk like it was the most beautiful thing she had ever worn.

She noticed him staring and she immediately hunched her shoulders defensively. It was a gesture of someone who was terrified of being seen and judged.

He reluctantly tore his gaze away and gestured to a tray of fruit.

"Are you hungry?"

Staring at her feet, she shuffled over to the bowl and plucked an apple.

"Thank you," she murmured as she sat down.

He sat across from her and tried his best not to stare. From the corner of his eye, he did notice her casting curious glances at him.

"So… um…" he began, suddenly tongue tied.

"So." she replied, biting into her apple.

"Do you fall into towers often?" He asked, grasping at anything to break the ice.

She stared at him for a moment before she burst into laughter.

"No, not usually," she replied.

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen, but I'll be fourteen next month."

"Oh! My birthday is-"

"We have the same birthday," she said flatly, looking away from him."

He cocked his head. Of course she knew when his birthday was, especially if they shared one.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring down the mood. It's just I'm not the biggest fan of birthdays… not since…"

She left the rest unsaid. He knew enough that he felt he had a pretty good idea.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I myself have a complicated relationship with birthdays."

She perked up, a bright spark of curiosity in her eyes.

"So it's true? You're cursed?"

"Yep. When I turn eighteen, I'm supposed to prick my finger and fall asleep and never wake up."

"How does it not crush you? Knowing what will happen?"

He leaned back and shrugged.

"Can't really do anything about it. Believe me, a lot of people tried. So I just try to make the most of the time I've got."

She peered at him like he was a puzzle she wanted to figure out.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked.

"You've done little else since we met," she said with a small smile.

"What were you doing climbing the tower anyway?"

She stared at the apple cupped in her hands.

"It was a dare. The other boys…" her mouth twisted in discomfort. "...there's a group of boys, other squires, that make my life difficult. I suppose I don't act manly enough for their liking. I thought if I took on a dare, they'd back off just a little. I didn't know about the wards on the tower. I think they meant for me to fail..."

Her eyes widened.

"Oh god, they probably saw me fall in. What are they planning on doing to me now?"

She looked suddenly so miserable, sitting there. He had to say something.

"But there are girl squires and knights and stuff. I mean, there are two guardswomen just down the hall"

"Yes, but there aren't any…" she gestured helplessly at herself, "people like me in the knights corps. At least not that I've ever heard of."

She hunched her shoulders in a way that made her look like she had a shameful confession. She took a breath and chewed her lip.

"I don't even want to be a knight," she said finally.

He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees.

"Then why do it?" he asked. "Why be a squire if that's not what you want?"

She met his gaze.

"Because sometimes it's easier to just go along with what people expect."

He considered that. He knew the feeling, the nagging suspicion that if he just acted like the princess everyone expected him to be, life might be simpler. But such an existence would be suffocating.

"Easier maybe, but not better," he murmured.

She gave a little half shrug.

"Alright, but if you could do anything, be anything, what would you do?" He asked.

She startled slightly at the question and he wondered if anyone had ever asked her that before.

"I don't… I suppose I might be a scholar… or…" she wrung her hands self consciously.

"Or…?"

She steeled herself.

"I think I'd want to be a magician."

He felt his eyes widen. He had met his share of magicians in his life, human wizards and fae sorcerers, and watching them work had always been wondrous.

"But your stepmother-"

"Hilde and I aren't close," she said crisply. "She doesn't want anything to do with me. I very much doubt she'd take me as an apprentice."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she replied.

He leaned back, contemplating an idea that had started taking root.

"Rose, I think I might know a way we can help each other."

She tilted her head curiously and regarded him.

"I'm in need of… of a lady's maid. I've managed to scare off the last three, much to my mother's displeasure. You could take the position. I'm very low maintenance, it wouldn't be difficult work. You wouldn't have to be a squire any more and my mother would be satisfied."

Her eyes widened and she stared at him as if he had sprouted an extra head.

"I could get you unlimited access to the royal library." He added, playing his trump card.

"Oh… I don't know," she said, despite the envious gleam in her eyes. "I mean, I don't think they'd hire a…"

She grimaced.

"A boy," she finished flatly.

"Nobody's going to believe you're a boy if you walk out of this tower," he replied. "Believe me, the wards on this place are rock solid."

She chewed on her lip. He desperately wanted her to agree. He hadn't had a real friend in a very long time.

"Okay," she said quietly.

His heart leapt.

"Okay? As in, you'll do it?"

She gave him a shy smile and nodded.

***

The guards barely batted an eye when Briar emerged from his room with a guest. Rose was fairly certain one of them had given the other a knowing smirk that had made Rose blush furiously.

He escorted her down the tower to the majordomo's office to secure Rose's position as the princess's new lady's maid. The thin little woman eyed her dubiously before shrugging and producing the appropriate paperwork.

Rose was even more surprised when she produced two dresses in the color of the royal livery. The prospect of having dresses, even if they weren't technically hers, made her head spin. The thought of wearing them openly only further convinced her that her life was careening out of her control, into some strange, wonderful new direction.

From there the two of them walked to the wing that housed the magicians' quarters, guards in tow. Briar chattered affably the entire time about nothing in particular, almost as if he were trying to distract her from the gnawing anxiety in her belly. In any event, she found it charming and somehow comforting.

They reached the door to the apartment that she shared with her stepmother. He gave her a bow as he bid her goodnight which she returned with an awkward curtsey. She caught herself smiling after him as he disappeared around the corner.

Opening the door, she steeled herself, it was late, but her stepmother kept odd hours. Of course, Hilde was sitting next to the fire with her back to the door. Rose heard the crackle and scrape off a page turning and she crept towards her room, hoping her stepmother was too engrossed with her book to notice her.

"The captain came by looking for you," Hilde said from behind the high back of her chair. "It seems that you disappeared after your training exercises."

Rose let out the breath she'd been holding. Might as well get this conversation over with.

"I'm not going back," she said. "I done being a squire."

Hilde turned to look at her with one of her perfect eyebrows arched.

"Oh? And what exactly will you do instead?"

"I have a new position, attending the… the royal family."

She didn't mention the draw of the library or the royal tutors.

Hilde's gaze pierced into her. Rose desperately wished for this conversation to be over, but she stood her ground.

After what seemed like an eternity, her stepmother shrugged and returned to her book.

Rose continued to her room, closing the door behind her. She flopped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling, replaying the events of the evening. Finally she rolled onto her side to face the tiny portrait of her mother that sat on her bedside table.

"Hey mom," she whispered. "I made a friend today."

#transgender #fairy tale inspired #trans fairy tale #my writing #fantasy #this is actually an older thing I wrote on AO3 and abandoned and I really wanna motivate myself to finish it

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flurpsie · 1 year

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Puss n Boots oc because I’m cringe and free ! I loved Shrek as a kid and I was always put myself in the movies because I adored the way they handled fairytales and etc… little me couldn’t believe how they got away with it because I thought Disney created the story of Snow White and Pinocchio and etc etc lol…

Anyways here’s the boy who cried wolf ! Or what I he is in the future! The young man, who I’m gonna call Shep, was a orphan who lived in a village that heavily relied on the sheep that stayed there. They had the fattiest juiciest meat, the softest wool that you could ever touch, and were gentle and sweet to the folks who resided there. Shep was always getting himself into trouble,and because of that he was the oldest who resided in the orphanage. He would swipe coin from others pockets, sleep during lessons, and would cause trouble for the people who lived in the village. The headman, who grew tired of young Shep’s games put him in charge of watching the sheep as a punishment, hoping that the young boy would learn from his actions. But that wasn’t the case. He lazed about in the field as the sheep grazed, not taking the job as seriously as he should. One day, news found it’s way into the village of a wolf sighting. Shep took this news and decided to roll with it. Thinking it would be a funny joke, he screamed out for help, claiming to have seen the wolf himself. The villagers clambered over, pitchforks in hand, but no wolf to be seen.

A week went by, and Shep did the same thing. Hollering about seeing the wolf. Once again, the villagers ran towards the commotion to find that Shep was lying once again. He thought that was simply hilarious. The villagers, annoyed by his antics, went right back to their homes. Well, the wolf did end up coming. Shep screamed and yelled for help, but no one answered his call, believing that this was just another trick. The wolf, allured by his hollering, attacked, leaving young Shep mangled and bloody, unable to use his right arm, nor his right eye, both maimed. The wolf of course didn’t waste time on picking off the sheep one by one, and once it was done, he was nice and full. Those that did survive managed to escape, running hightailed into the woods.

Shep awoke to his wounds being tended, though that was the only kindness the villagers were willing to give him. He was the reason the prized sheep were gone, and now the villagers had nothing else. He was forced to leave, exiled from his village. Now, he seeks out the wolf that ruined his life.

Shep normally keeps himself afloat by grifting, occasionally doing crappy chores to keep coin in his pocket. Though sometimes, when he is feeling adventurous, he tries to collect bounties.

Shep is a very cunning man, he’s very good at telling lies and influence others to feel sympathy for him. He tries his best to keep his stealing to a minimum, only snatching coin from others more well off. Other then that, he’s a very chill guy, often seen laying in a field with a flute in his lap. He dreams of someday finding that wolf and wearing his fur as a coat…. He’s pretty much still a wip !! Mostly made him because um infatuated with Jack Horner lol and wanted a outlet cool cool

#puss n boots the last wish #puss n boots #shrek oc #shrek movie #pussnboots #fanart #art #oc #fairy tales #fairy tale art #fairy tale inspired #jack horner

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