Prompter: DominusTempori
Prompt: "Story time before bed" with Johan and/or Clara, and, as many of the kids at whatever ages as you see fit?
Originally posted: 26 April 2015
Notes: 1188 words; takes place not too long after the twins move out of the nursery; Johan is sixty-three, Clara forty-four, Sterling seven, and Maglina five, while Seren is still incubating
"Papa, can you please read us a story?" Maglina asked, her green eyes going wide as she pleaded. "Please? Please, please, please…?" She bounced up to her father as he came in the nursery to make sure she was in bed, mimicking the stuffed bunny she had in her arms. "Can you please read us something? Something new?"
"Maggie, Papa has read us everything," Sterling noted as he climbed into his bed. He slid underneath the blankets and smoothed out the bedspread before settling down. "He can't read us something new unless we get a new book."
"Oh… I want a new story," Maglina pouted. She didn't seem to notice that she had been scooped up and placed atop her bed by the chuckling Marquis.
"Your brother's correct: I can't read you a new story," he said, "but what I can do is tell you a story. A true story."
The little girl gasped in surprise. "Oh, that sounds like fun! How about it Sterling?"
"Okay, I guess," Sterling shrugged. Maglina squealed in delight and catapulted off her bed, scuttling over to the other side of the room and flung herself into her brother's bed, joining him under the covers.
"This way we can hear it together!" she grinned. Sterling gave up, having woken with his sister clung to him, despite having gone to bed alone, too many times to properly protest anymore. The Marquis sat down on the edge of the mattress and waited for the kids to quiet down.
"Once upon a time…" the Marquis began, only to be cut off by his daughter shoving her stuffed bunny in his face.
"Malcolm needs kisses before he can sleep, Papa," she insisted.
"Kisses come after the story," he insisted, gently pushing the grey bunny down to her chest. "Now, once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, there lived a fair and noble maiden who was the pride of her father's country. Not only was she beautiful, but she was quick-witted and strong. She was his only child, and because of that he trained her to rule his lands at his passing."
"…like Lena?" Sterling asked. The Marquis nodded.
"Yes, she was heiress to the kingdom like your sister is heiress to the marquisate. Now, this maiden was courting a kind, fair, and handsome man. They were very happy, and one day planned to wed and rule her father's kingdom together."
"…but what happened?" Maglina wondered. "Something always happens!"
"That it did—a mean, old ogre laid siege the kingdom, demanding the king's most precious treasure in exchange for leaving the kingdom be. The poor old king tried offering the ogre gold and jewels and rare paintings, but the ogre wanted nothing of the sort." The Marquis paused the story, watching the horror spread across his children's faces. "He wanted, instead, the maiden princess for his bride."
Sterling's eyes went wide and his eyebrows shot up into his forehead, while Maglina gasped. "What did the king do?!" she asked.
"He protested, but his daughter consented," her father explained. "Her duty from the day she was born was to the kingdom, and if that meant giving it up in order to keep it safe, then she was prepared to do so. The ogre and the princess were wed the very next day, with all of court in attendance.
"Except, when it was time for them to share a bed for the first time, the ogre did something that surprised his new wife: he slept away from her, not touching her at all. She remained a maiden, which is most unusual for a bride. The next day she was whisked away to the ogre's castle high in the mountains, to be his queen at his side."
"Is that where they laid together?" Sterling pondered. "Queens aren't queens unless they lay with their husband, right?"
"No one knew that she hadn't laid with the ogre, so nobody was the wiser," the Marquis said. He sighed, accepting that his young children had a vague understanding of how a marriage was created. "The ogre showed his maiden bride how to run his lands so that she could in his absence, and that he would have no problem once it was his time to return to the earth. 'Let the human lord find a new heir,' he said. 'I have the best the lands can offer.'" He made his voice low and rumbly for the ogre's voice, causing the children to giggle.
"What happened then?" Maglina yawned.
"Well, time passed, and the king adopted the kind man his daughter had been courting, making him his heir," the Marquis said, pulling the blankets closer to the children. "The first thing the new prince did with his newfound position was to ride off towards the ogre's castle to make sure his beloved was alive and safe. He rode as fast as his horse could travel, arriving at the gate just as the sun was setting. The prince was met at the gate by the ogre, who seemed frail and weak instead of the grand intimidator he was only a few years prior."
"What did he say?" Sterling asked. "The ogre."
The Marquis nodded, a slight smile twisting his lips. "He welcomed the prince with open arms, offering him food and shelter for the night. The ogre reunited the prince and the princess, offering his wife her freedom. She could return to her father's kingdom if she wished, and the ogre's lands would revert to her upon his death."
"Did she leave?" Maglina murmured, nearly asleep.
"No, starlet. She kissed her former love on the brow and said she was where she belonged. The ogre had treated her with much respect and admiration, and as kind and loving as her prince had been, her husband was the one she fell in love with. As she declared her feelings, a bright light enveloped the ogre, melting away his warts and skin, leaving a handsome lord in his place."
"Had he been cursed?" Sterling asked as he too closed his eyes.
"Yes," his father affirmed. "He thought he would die an ogre, without love and happiness, but with the unexpected affection he received from his wife, he changed back to his human form. The lord and lady ruled their lands for many years afterwards, and ended up with many children as well. The prince eventually found another to marry, and they were always welcome at one another's table for as long as they lived."
Waving his hand in front of his children's faces, he confirmed that they were completely asleep. After giving a kiss each on the brows of son, daughter, and bunny, he snuffed the lamplight out and drew the curtains before retreating beyond the door to where his wife was waiting for him. She was sitting up in bed, large with child and reading quietly to herself.
"What took you so long?" she smirked as her husband readied for bed. "I was about to send a search party."
"Just telling the children a bedtime story," he explained. "I think they enjoyed it."
"Now that's good."
