In A Boy's Dream (Epilogue – Part 2)

Corbin was not happy, and he was making that fact abundantly clear. Cauthrien was trying yet again to get him nurse, but he was having none of it, pushing his head away and wailing. Aislin had crawled into their bed a few hours before, complaining that the crying was keeping her awake, although it certainly wasn't waking her now. She was curled into a ball at Cauthrien's side, sleeping more soundly than the rest of them.

"Let me take him for a bit. I'll take him for a walk."

"Would you?" She looked up at him gratefully and passed their screaming son up into his arms.

Teagan settled the boy against his shoulder and then bent down and kissed her. "Try and get a little rest. We'll be back soon."

Teagan bounced Corbin lightly as they walked, murmuring to him as they went. "Where shall we go, hmmm? Far enough away that your mother can't hear you." He made his way downstairs where they wandered the hallways for a while until settling on the library. Teagan sat down in one of the plush upholstered chairs and patted Corbin's back rhythmically. "It's all right. Do you want a story?"

Corbin cried.

"I'm going to take that as a 'yes,' okay? This was always your sister's favorite." Teagan leaned back in the chair, adjusting Corbin on his chest.

"Once, there was a young man and a maiden, and they loved each other very much. Their love was so strong that it drew the attention of an evil witch, who cursed them in her jealousy. By day, the two were forced to take the form of swans; by night, they turned to stone until the light of the sun released them. One day, the maiden had swum too far out into the center of the lake and the sun set before she could get to shore. She turned to stone and sank down to the bottom of the lake where it was so deep that the sun could not reach."

Teagan paused to kiss the top of Corbin's nearly bald head. The babe had settled down into snuffly whimpers, punctuated by the odd shriek.

"The young man was devastated. As many times as he tried to dive down to reach her, the water was just too deep. At the end of each day, he would collapse exhausted on the shore until the stone claimed him.

"The witch had a daughter, and she watched the young man's hopeless effort, day after day, and she took pity on him. She told him that there was a way to break the curse and rescue his love, but that he must remain faithful to his maiden for the rest of their lives or the curse would fall upon them once more.

"The first day, she brought him a handful of seeds that she sprinkled in the grass near the shore. She used her magic to make them grow into a ring of small, white wildflowers. 'These blossoms shall protect what you need to grow.'

"The second day, she brought him a shell that had been used to capture a rainbow. 'This shell shall be used to water what you need to grow.'

"The third day, she brought more seeds that she pressed into the earth inside the wildflower ring. 'These seeds shall grow into the flowers needed to break the curse. You must water them every day with the shell, without fail, or everything shall be lost. One more day, and they shall be ready for you.'

"The fourth and final day, she brought a book. As she read from the pages, a powerful wind blew across the lake, gathering the clouds up in a spinning spiral that twisted down to touch the inside of the circle. When she closed the book, the wind vanished in an instant. "Now, it is up to you.'

"Each day the young man carried the shell to the edge of the lake in his beak, filling it with water and carrying it to the precious seeds that lay buried within the ring of wildflowers. Summer faded into fall, fall into winter. Luckily, it wasn't cold enough for the entire lake to freeze solid, but he did have to walk far across the ice to reach the one tiny patch of open water that remained. In the spring, his heart leapt to see tendrils of green beginning to emerge from the ground."

The babe had grown quiet now, and Teagan angled his head to see if he was asleep. Wide blue eyes met his. "Staying awake to hear the end? I don't blame you.

"By early summer, there were clusters of buds on the stems, and the witch's daughter came to visit him once more. 'You have done well,' she said. 'Tomorrow, at dawn, the flowers shall bloom. You must eat the stars at their center and they will make you human once more, granting you the strength to rescue your maiden.'

"The next morning, as the witch's daughter had foretold, clusters of five-petaled blue flowers were in bloom, with one tiny yellow star in the middle of each one. He carefully nibbled a few and his feathers fell away, his wings shrunk back into arms, his body lengthened. Without another thought, he waded into the water and dove down deep, his muscles stronger than they had ever been before. His chest hardly ached when he reached the bottom and pulled the stone form of his maiden to the surface where she transformed back into a living swan. The young man gave his maiden some of the stars to eat and she, too, became human again. They wept and rejoiced in each other's arms until long after the sun had set when the witch's daughter came to see them one last time.

"'You have been faithful, and your love is true, so there is one more gift I shall bestow upon you,' she said, handing something to the young man. 'This is one of my mother's greatest treasures. Guard it well, and it shall bring you good health and happiness for the rest of your days.'

"When she had gone, the young man and his maiden examined what the witch's daughter had given them; it was a polished stone of apple green, carved into the shape of two swans with their necks intertwined. They kept the stone with them always and they lived long happy lives filled with much joy and laughter. They died peacefully in their sleep at a very old age, still wrapped in each other's arms.

"However, when the lovers' children placed their bodies on their pyre, a strange thing happened. A woman, who the children did not know, appeared and asked them about the special green stone. She had come to complete the final part of her gift, she said, since the young man and his maiden had remained faithful to one another to the end of their days. The woman—it was the witch's daughter, of course—took the stone and cast it into the flames of the pyre and the spirits of the young man and his maiden were drawn into the sky over a golden bridge to join the stars as a reward for their lives well-lived."

Corbin was asleep and Teagan spent a few moments tracing over his tiny nose, his cheeks, his hands with the tip of his finger, wanting to savor this moment of closeness with his son. He extracted himself carefully from the chair, so as not to wake him, and padded softly back upstairs. The light from the damped-down fire was just enough to see by as he placed Corbin down in his cradle at the side of the bed and watched him for a moment. "Happy endings do exist. Even if you have to make them yourself," he whispered to him, bending down to kiss his forehead.

Teagan crawled into bed next to Cauthrien—not that there was much room for him—and shook his head at Aislin who was sleeping on the other side, her arms and legs extended at wide angles so that she was taking up over half of the large bed by herself.

Cauthrien opened her eyes sleepily and smiled at him. "Bann Teagan."

"Lady Cauthrien." He returned the smile, brushing her lips lightly with his thumb.

She kissed him softly and pulled him close.

He was a lucky, lucky man. There was no doubt about it.

A/N: Saga, I really hope you liked your story. A super big mega thank you to Josie Lange for taking the time to beta read this for me. I appreciate it (and you) so much! Thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following along (thank you for your support, Judy!).