Fairy Tales

Shrek awoke, much more slowly this time. He could feel a pressure on his chest. When he opened his eyes he saw his wife was leaning against him. She was sleeping; her arm tucked under her head, laying on him as if he were her pillow. How long had he been unconscious? For a second he panicked, thinking the mist had gotten her too. But he realised quickly that she was too perfectly positioned, she was laying comfortably; she didn't collapse. He allowed himself to calm down, it was almost peaceful watching her sleep. He gently laid a hand on her back. Shrek knew he missed her, but the feeling hit him full force as he stroked her hair and she began to wake. "Fiona?" he spoke softly, sitting up. He looked around, no one was there, no one but the two of them.

"Shrek?" Fiona blinked at him for a moment. "You're okay!" she threw herself at him, hugging him tight. "I missed you," she mumbled into his chest.

"I missed you too," Shrek held onto her, though he continued to look around them. Everything was far too real now he had seen the person who was potentially behind it all. He rose to his feet, Fiona following.

"I thought that... that creep did something to you!" relief was strewn throughout her voice. She pulled him into a kiss. Shrek wrapped his arms around her. For a second he let himself forget that he didn't want her to forgive him, that he didn't want her to miss him. But it wasn't long before his wife broke the kiss very suddenly, and pushed him back away from her, expression hardening. "You let our children float out to sea?" she almost shouted at him, "You left them unsupervised on a ship? What were you thinking, Shrek?"

"I uh," his world crashed around him, yet again, "I'm sorry," he let his gaze fall to the ground.

"Sorry? Oh great, I'm glad you're sorry," she was mad. She was as mad as he wanted her to be. "Because now we're on a crazy rescue mission when we should be putting the kids to bed!"

"I know!" he sighed, "I know."

"And who knows if they're even alive, Shrek? Who knows what that creep has done to them!" she faltered a little, shuddering, "I just want our babies back."

"I know, I do too, but..." Shrek paused, realising the implication of her presence, "But yer not supposed t' be here!" He knew very well how dangerous the situation already was, and now his wife was here too. It was just another person for him to worry about.

"Neither are you," she shot back at him. "Neither are they! But here we are."

Shrek took a breath, but confusion suddenly overtook everything, "How did you even get here?" She rolled her eyes at him in response. He shook away the confusion, his thoughts giving into reason, "Fiona, go home. It's not safe here," he pointed back down the path.

Fiona scoffed at his words, "Yeah, I know it's not safe here, and that's why I am here!"

"It's my mess Fiona, so I'm dealing with it!"

"They're my kids!"

"Our kids. My mess. Go home!"

"No!"

"Fiona!"

"Ha," his wife smirked at him, "Even if I did want to go home, I don't know how."

"What?"

"I'm staying,"Fiona turned away from him, looking at the path, "Sorry about that." She took confident strides away from him.

Shrek stared at her for a moment, trying to breathe away his frustration. He shook his head, muttering to himself. He then looked at the path she was walking down, and then looked at the one behind him. Shaking his head again, he couldn't help but smile. "Fiona?"

"What?" she impatiently turned to him.

"Yer goin' the wrong way."


Artie was slumped against a couple of crates, he gently pushed a bottle away from him and the smooth rocking of the boat would send it rolling right back to his hands. He had been doing it so long even Donkey was laying, his head rested on his front legs in relative silence. Every so often they would hear an odd splash and the trio would snap their heads up and sigh as nothing had happened. Artie finally looked to the sky, it was slowly beginning to change colour. It had been so many hours, he only hoped it wouldn't be all night too. There had been small conversation between Puss and Donkey, but Artie didn't listen. He always had to listen to people it seemed. Now everyone had left him alone, he was content to just get lost in his thoughts. The young adult had spent a lot of his childhood alone with his thoughts, it was sometimes nice to return to them.

Donkey sighed resoundingly, "I'm so bored."

"You don't say," Puss shook his head from the crates he was laying upon, his tail dangling onto Artie's shoulder.

"I don't know how people can live on boats, yanno. There's nothing to do!"

The cat stretched and then stood, "Well, there are better people to talk to than you, burro." Puss pounced away leaving Donkey muttering to himself.

Eventually the animal trailed into silence, Artie looked away. Donkey finally sighed and shuffled closer to the young King, "I'll tell ya the truth, I think I'm the most bored out of everyone here," he nodded curtly.

Artie swept his gaze around all the people in various states of relaxation and sleep, or small talk. Though his eyes fixed on Elena. She was sat with the captain. "Well, no offense Donkey, but I'm not worried about you..."

Donkey followed his gaze, "Yanno, if I could call my baby out here, she'd fly her back right now."

"Can you?" he was more hopeful than he wanted to be.

"Nah, she's far, far away an' all that."

Artie smirked and gave a small laugh. Those jokes had gotten old, very old, to the young king. Perhaps being out on the sea for so long had reset his humour. Though when he returned his gaze Elena was looking right at him. Perhaps she had been watching him for a while. She probably hated the way he was sat, he was ignoring everyone too. It wasn't what a king was supposed to do at all. Edmund had all but given up with him.

There were occasions Artie questioned whether it was a good decision for him to become king. The mannerisms didn't exactly come naturally to him. His aunt seemed impossible to him at first. She was in control of herself all the time. She seemed to be comfortable sitting in the most rigid straight up way. Perhaps that's what happened when it was your whole life. Though Fiona was so different, as far as Artie was aware it had been Fiona's whole life until Shrek changed things. Perhaps Fiona was an example of a royal being set free of their responsibilities. Perhaps they were all secretly wishing they could run and slouch and eat where they liked.

Artie's thoughts were brought to a close when he realised Elena was excusing herself. He quickly looked away and found himself silently praying she didn't intend to join him. That's a real good sign, he frowned.

"Well, nice chat Artie, but I'm gonna leave," Donkey picked himself up and scurried away. The king shook his head at the animal. He didn't move from where he sat as he heard her approach.

"The sun is setting."

"Mhm," Artie looked away a little. Silence followed. He then heard her gently lowering herself to the wooden deck. She delicately sat next to him, knees stuck together, her legs gently tucked behind her. She smoothed over her dress and planted a small smile on her lips.

"Is everything okay?" Artie asked, watching her carefully.

"Yes," she replied simply, placing her hands in her lap. She looked down, her cheeks blushing a little.

Realising she was embarrassed, he scrambled to find a topic he could talk about, "I can tell you about Far Far Away if you like?" Artie offered after a moment of awkward silence. She looked at him, her interest captured. "What it's like in the castle and stuff."

She nodded at him. He smiled at her. He felt his heart begin pounding, not for a bad reason either. She was trying.

"Well, my favourite sitting room overlooks the gardens. I watch everyone working, it's kinda peaceful when there's so many responsibilities, you know?" it was a rhetorical question but she nodded anyway. "You can watch the sunset from there. I guess it's my favourite because it's Aunt Lillian's favourite. She likes to read there."

"Do you spend a lot of time with your aunt?" the princess seemed genuinely curious.

"Yeah, I guess. It's just the two of us really. It can get quite boring sometimes, that's why I made friends with some of the staff," he paused as her smile faded a little, "Don't pull that face," he laughed, as surprisingly her mouth twitched into a smile too, "they're cool, you'll see. There's Reynor, Theo and Arvin and there's Abbey... They're all nice people, I promise."

Elena nodded concomitantly. Though her attention was elsewhere, "Does your aunt miss her husband?"

He looked at her for a moment, he realised she was very interested in Lillian; it was who she was probably going to spend a lot of time with. "Yeah, he died a few years back so she doesn't talk about it much. That's why they had to come find me to be king," he peered at her, she was interested in his words, watching him carefully, "I didn't actually know any of them before they picked me up from the school. I knew I came from royalty, but I figured everyone had forgotten about me, no one ever got in touch," he shrugged, "My mum died when I was little and everything was lost when she went. They said I'd been to Far Far Away as a baby, and Fiona had spent the whole time playing with me," he laughed, "but that was the last they ever saw of me."

"Doesn't your aunt get lonely?" Elena's voice was soft and concerned.

"Yeah, I'm busy most of the time, but she's not," he saw the hope alight in her eyes. "She lives for when the family all visit, or when she goes to visit them."

"Is..." she paused, "Is it strange for her?"

"What?"

"That, you know," she looked a little sheepish, "her family are ogres?" Elena bit her lip.

"Oh," Artie shrugged a little. He supposed curiosity in the subject was better than none, even if she didn't like the response. "She never talks about it like that, so I guess not. She lets Fiona do what makes her happy, that's what she said to me. And she loves the kids so much, she doesn't stop talking about them."

"Is it strange for you?" his previous response didn't seem to matter to the princess.

"No..." Elena immediately seemed a little confused, "Well it was a little weird at first," Artie didn't want to lie to her, "But, it's only weird if you make it weird I guess," he shrugged honestly at her, "They're just people, they only look a little different and live a little different. That's all."

Her brow creased in confusion, though she didn't move. Artie opened his mouth to question her thoughts but someone else's words interrupted him.

"Oh hey!" Donkey trotted over to them, it seemed no one else wanted to talk to him either, "You telling stories? I'm the best story teller there is!" he boasted, "What'd you wanna hear about, Princess?"

Elena seemed to recoil a little, "I-um?"

Artie glared at the animal. Though he seemed oblivious.

"Say, how much d'you know about my ol' buddy we're waiting for, eh?" Donkey cocked his head at her.

"The ogre?"

"Yeah, big green guy, that one," the animal grinned.

Elena glanced to Artie hesitantly. Artie just rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "I know that he rescued Princess Fiona, they married, th-"

"Ah see, she just knows the facts," Donkey grinned at Artie.

The young king couldn't help but chuckle, "Here we go," he spoke beneath his breath. He caught Elena's eye for a moment, she smirked at him.

"Hey Puss!" the animal called over his shoulder, "We've got some stories to tell!" he then turned his attention back to Elena, "Well Princess, I bet you've never heard about a fairy tale like this!"


Shrek would've been wrong if he said he wasn't happy Fiona was with him. It made walking all that much easier. They didn't share much conversation but her presence was comfortable for him. She had already confirmed that the mist didn't affect her. Though when she asked what happened to him, he found himself lying. It was an automatic response. It made him a little uncomfortable with how readily he hid the truth from her. But, he just wasn't ready to tell her about his past. She had asked about his upbringing and his family several times over their marriage and he had found different ways to change the subject every time. Shrek had been mostly living under the assumption that he could hide everything from her forever, though he was beginning to realise that probably wouldn't be the case. Still, now, in the middle of this island with the kids gone, it wasn't the time.

"Why do crazy things like this have to happen to us?" Fiona broke the silence. She sighed, looking down. "I didn't want any of this royal attention to affect them," her brow creased, "They don't have anything to do with whatever this is."

Shrek put his arm around her and they slowed their pace. She leant into his embrace as much as she could whilst still moving. "Well, yer a princess, they're royal too," Shrek ventured, "It's a magnet fer this kinda thing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fiona jerked her head away from him a little.

"Yanno... Like the curse... you in the tower," the ogre shrugged, "In all the storybooks, it's always royalty."

"You're trying to tell me we're living a fairy tale right now?" Fiona asked incredulously.

"Well, yah, I guess," Shrek responded simply. "We were when I rescued you, right?"

"I don't like that," she shook her head.

"Oh neither do I," Shrek didn't want to think about what else could happen to the kids... That was if they all got away from this experience.

Fiona seemed to share his thought, she shook away his arm and they picked up their pace. "It's a shame this place is never ending. I feel like we should be running."

"That's a great way t'run out of-"

"Shrek!"

The ogre turned in response to his wife's sudden yelp. She was staring in horror at her hand, or her lack of a hand. Shrek grabbed her arms and held onto her. Slowly, her form was fading away. The ogre very quickly realised there was nothing either of them could do.

She suddenly met his gaze, "Find them," she spoke urgently. "Tell them I love them." Shrek nodded along with her instructions. "I love you." She gave him a small smile.

"I love... you... too..." Shrek suddenly found himself holding onto nothing. He dropped his arms. Once again he looked around him. Clearly that was why the mist didn't affect her, why the mysterious man wasn't worried by her presence. Merlin had only put a temporary spell on her. On the one hand Shrek was thankful, he didn't want her to be at risk too. But on the other, he was alone with his thoughts again. Sighing, the ogre continued on his way. He tried to keep the pace he had going with his wife, but it was difficult walking on his own. He returned to his paranoid checks over his shoulder and to the ground, looking for any signs of the mist. He tried to tell himself it wasn't necessary, whether it took him by surprise or not, it would still get him. But the ogre couldn't help himself. It was like an old instinct.


When Fiona arrived back in the castle room, the first thing she noticed was the closed curtains and the candles lighting the room. She had been gone hours, though it didn't seem so on that island. The ogress felt hollow. It'd been two days that her children had spent in that awful place. She had experienced what their captor could do. He had probably done something to them. They were probably hurting and cold and alone. And she couldn't help them. The thought was unbearable.

Her mother leapt up at her sudden appearance. But Fiona's attention was elsewhere.

"What happened?" she turned her burning gaze to the wizard who seemed to have just woken up from a nap.

"The spell wore off," he grinned at her, "How was it there? Gloomy? You were in the right place, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was in the right place, but I wanted to stay," she stepped with purpose off of the giant shield.

"Woah woah," the wizard leant back in his seat. "You didn't say you wanted to stay. You just said you wanted to see. It's an honest mistake. Ha, there's no need to get angry about it."

"I want to go back," it was all Fiona could do to not throw the tiny man across the room.

Merlin feigned a yawn and stretched, still trying to keep his distance from the ogress. "Look at the time," he looked down to his bare wrist, "I should get to bed." He scrambled up and hurried himself out of the room muttering about witches.

Fiona shook her head, taking a deep breath. She hadn't encountered this so-called witch while she was there. She could only hope that was nothing to do with her children. Though, Merlin's reluctance made her uneasy. He was supposed to be powerful, and yet he seemed scared of having anything to do with it. Or perhaps it was just him. She sighed, putting her head in her hands.

"Is everything okay, darling?" the voice alerted her to her mother's presence.

Fiona sat down, shaking her head, "Everything's so hopeless."

"What happened?" her mother was so calm. It almost frustrated her.

"There was a man who had magic. There's mist that keeps sending Shrek to sleep, which means he's taking longer to find them. Not that you could find them, it's just one dirt path!"

"Fiona," Lillian gently sat beside her "I know it's difficult..." she hesitated, "When you just have to wait for destiny to take it's time. You tried, darling. Everyone knows you tried."

The ogress sat in silence. She wasn't sure about her mother's words. When it came to her children, trying wasn't good enough. They had spoken before about her inability to wait. But considering the situation as a whole, Fiona's options were limited. There wasn't much more her mom could do than stay calm and try to offer reassurances. Luckily, that was one of her mom's strong suits. Fiona often succeeded in being confident and in control, but having to rely on others to be of any use at all was pushing her to her limits.

"They'll come back to us in no time," Lillian gave a small smile, "We can take them to the market and the park. It would be nice for them to become familiar with the kingdom now they're a little older. Oh, and I suppose they can decide what they'd like to do for their birthday. They're old enough to have a say now."

Fiona listened to her mother's words with apprehension. She couldn't help but think back to her discussion with Shrek on the island. While they were royalty, they were in danger. She didn't think so before, but clearly she was wrong. As much as she loved her kingdom, she loved her children more. "Mom..." Fiona broke the silence, "I don't know if we can come back here. I mean, the birthday parties are fine, the odd visits... But staying here, they're targets. I just... I don't..."

"Fiona," her mom's voice was suddenly serious. "If Arthur doesn't have children, one of them will be crowned heir to the kingdom. They must be involved."

"I know! But you weren't there mom, you didn't see it. The man... He knew about Far Far Away, he knew about me... I don't know why but there's something more here. The more attached to the throne they get, the more danger they're in. I can't..."

"...Darling..."

"A witch cast a spell on me when I was little, it changed my life. All because I was a princess. I don't want to put them under the same risk. That's if I get to see them again," her voice was small. She desperately tried to blink back the tears.

Her mother considered her in silence for a moment, "We should go to bed, you need to sleep, Fiona," Lillian's voice was firm.

The ogress narrowed her eyes at her mother, "I can't sleep... I can't do anything mom." She wasn't about to be sent to bed like a child.

"Well, you can try," and yet her mother seemed determined to do so. "Darling, you're exhausted. You've been there, you've seen what's going on. The best thing you can do is be ready for them to come home." Lillian began to stand, but Fiona instinctively grabbed at her arm.

"Wait..." her face creased up. In truth, Fiona was tired, she was exhausted. It all seemed to wash over her at once. But the thought of returning to that bedroom alone made her want to stay up all night anyway. There weren't enough candles in the whole kingdom to make her feel safe tonight.

"What is it?"

Fiona sniffed, "I don't want to be alone," she spoke quietly. A tear spilled over her cheek, she roughly wiped it away. She hadn't spent a night alone since before the triplets were born. It had been a push spending the past two nights alone. But that was before she knew her children were stuck on an island with a man who could hurt them in ways she couldn't imagine. She felt more helpless than when she was in the tower.

"Oh, darling..." Lillian returned to her seat, pulling a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed the tears from her face.

Fiona turned away a little, "It's okay, I'm sorry," she sniffed, wiping her hands under her eyes. Only Shrek really knew about her fears of being alone, and she liked it that way. But at that moment in time, Fiona found herself with no choice.

"I used to wipe your tears all the time when you were little," Lillian smiled softly at her, "Can you remember that?" Fiona shook her head. "Oh, darling, you remember that little toy cat you had, you loved it so."

"The one with the pink ribbon and the bell?" Fiona allowed a small wistful smile to cross her face.

"Yes, that one. Sir Jingles you called him," they laughed together, "You played with him so much one of his paws fell off," she smiled, "You came crying to me, oh you were heartbroken," she took her hand, "So, darling, I took a handkerchief," she held up the one she currently held, "and I wiped your tears one by one." She held the cloth to Fiona's cheek, catching another tear. "It's very special, moments like these, because you will do exactly the same thing to little Felicia, when she's grown up..."

"But-"

"Have faith Fiona."


AN: Had trouble structuring these chapters, everything's very choppy and switching from person to person. I'm sorry about that!