The Curse and the Traveler's

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Gwendolyn felt herself growing in strength as the woman that battled with her fought for control of what tiny shreds of her existence remained.

The room filled with the noise of the crashing door, but the troll continued his work. He glanced at the battling zombie like figure of Derek and the strong-willed Prince. His eyes filled with hate, but he held the serpent’s fangs to Serena’s porcelain neck. He watched the woman’s body grow paler and knew that her spirit, her essence was slowly being “drank” away.

“Soon my love. She is fighting you, I know this, but she is weak. She is unwanted and you are loved. Come Gwendolyn. . . you will. . .you must be the victor.”

Serena knew it was almost over. She was losing a battle she couldn’t win and for a moment a rush of memories filled her mind. There had been so many times her life had been in jeopardy. Times she had played on the highest points of the castle and stumbled, one or the other Princes had saved her. There was the time she’d ventured into the training grounds and almost met the other end of a blade, again, she was rescued.

The feeling of being wiped out continued to eat at her and she could almost see the serpent drinking her fluids from her body and she becoming nothing. There was something though, a moment of weakness that she felt in the power of Gwendolyn and she knew it was David. He had come for her and she tried to muster up the energy to reach him one last time.

“David. I’m here. David there is someone inside me. . .David, I can’t win. I’m sorry. Tell everyone I’m sorry.”

Gwendolyn breathed deep for the first time in over a thousand years. “She is too weak to fight me any more.”

 

[poohlive]

"No... NO!"

He didn't quite understand the concave of visions inside the room. A troll, a snake, the way Serena's eyes changed from dull and dreary to powerful. None of it seemed to make any sense, but the way things had been going so far, this is probably what he should have expected. The minute things started making sense, he would be sure that...

Derek, on top of him, grabbed at him, forcing him down to the cold stone floor below. He felt like a ton of bricks on David, the air being pushed out of his lungs.

"Let go of her," He cried out, struggling, trying with all of his might to get free. Derek was on top of him, and had the upper hand.

Damnit.

"Stop! Please stop. Serena. Come on... I don't know what it is, but please fight it, stop it. You knew about this place, you could read the book. You are the chosen one! Serena! Remember? Please, someone's supposed to remember. I'm trying here."

His muscles strained, veins popping from them as he struggled uselessly against the undead.

"Serena... please."

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Gwendolyn laughed and slid from the cold slap of rock. Her eyes shot daggers at the young Prince and her smile was full of the sneer that her lover had come to enjoy so many years ago. She looked to him now and reached out to touch him, only she couldn’t quite get her hand to reach. “That bitch is still in me. I thought you said she’d be gone. I can still feel her. You lied to me?” she shouted to the surprised troll.

She looked to David and sent a ball of heat into his chest, knocking him and Derek against the wall. “She is still here, but she is finished. Her mind is weak as is her Spirit. You did this to her.”

Gwendolyn slowly advanced, each step bringing her another small victory over the young woman that was battling inside her. “You don’t love her. Max doesn’t. Skye doesn’t. Not the way she’s craved all these years. Do you not know why she was chosen? Max was chosen because he is the eldest. . .” She saw his surprise.

“Yes you fool. He is the eldest son. He was the chosen son, and his woman Skye was the link to his heart. They have lifted the fog, but you fool there is more there was always more. Serena’s family has lived in this world and served this kingdom for thousands of years. She is a descendent of the Fairy Queen and yet she never knew it. Even now, she doesn’t believed me. I can feel her doubt rolling through my mind.”

Laughter cackled about the room as Gwendolyn continued. “She had this need in her to marry. It was one she didn’t know she had, but it was there. I had a need to see her dead. With her dead she would be an empty shell for me to take a hold of. That is why she is still in here. I have to share this space with her. We tried to kill her. Forcing her to live out dangerous tricks, walking the walls of the castle, playing rough like a lad, even forcing her to wed that,” she pointed at Derek, “but she showed fight didn’t she. She killed him. . .but with the help of my lover’s skill. . . Derek walks again.”

She reached out and grabbed David’s neck. “Do you want to know how you could have saved her?”

“You simply had to love her. But you didn’t, not really. You told her, she was a silly naive girl, with a crush. You wanted her to grow up. To stop being childish. She wasn’t good enough and now she knows. . .she never will be. She’ll never be good enough for you. You’ll never desire her. Love her the way she deserves. That is okay though. I will. I will love possessing this body and tormenting her little mind with dark deeds and she will see it all. She will witness me bathing in the blood of my enemy and in the end. . . she’ll be destroyed, not dead and not free of me, but destroyed.”

Gwendolyn released David and let him drop to the ground. “Come my love, let us copulate this union and begin to awaken the others.”

“David. . .please. Please kill me. . .kill her David. I do not want to see what she has in store. Kill her so that I too will die. Please. . .don’t let her live. You said you’d do anything for me. I’m in here and I will die with her, but David to die would be freedom from a world that no one should live in. . .I do not have the power to beat her. So I beg of you to grant me this request. . .Kill me.”

Serena’s voice was weak and breathy. “There was a saying in one of the books you brought back to me. . . ‘To die would be a great adventure’. Give me my adventure, David. I’m ready to go.”

 

[poohlive]

Pain, shock, and realization hit him deep inside. He could only stare, aghast at what was happening around him. It was like in a dream, some nightmarish story that happened after the fairy tale. Instead of being the sweet kind story one told children to help them go to sleep, this was the dark twisted version of the truth.

It didn't surprise him that he was not the eldest, not anymore. Why should it? Everyone had lied to him, betrayed him, and pushed him to become this person he was not. Even Skye, even Skye had tried to change him, make him more like...

Shivers went up his spine.

More like Max.

Derek was still on him, holding his hand like some insane lover. Serena, or whatever was inside Serena now held him with some horrible tangle of webs.

And the troll, the troll just looked on in amusement, as if he were actually watching the story unfold instead of being part of it.

"Serena, no..." Tears fell down his eyes now. How could she think such things, how could those wild ideas come to her? It was insane. She was the girl he needed right now, she was his rock. He came all this way to save her, to only have her die, in his own arms?

What love is that? What kind of person would he be destroying the one woman who loved him, the one who cared? Serena was the only person to stick by him through everything, thick and thin, make sure after all this time, he was still here, beside her.

He needed a fucking weapon. Just one sword, and this could all end.

"You talked of ancient magic, didn't you Serena? No wonder you could do all those things, you had blood, rich magical blood. Royal blood. Blood even thicker than my own. I'm not even the chosen one, Serena. Look at me, I'm some cast off..."

He moved up to Serena, no, she wasn't Serena. She was some hybrid of Serena and someone else, good and evil forever dancing within her eyes.

"I told you, remember? I said if things were different, if I weren't destined you would be mine, you could be mine. My sense of duty for everyone overcame my own passion, my sacrifice for this land was in vain, so I could sit here today as useless as any other day."

He brought his free hand up to Serena/Other's face, caressing her. He kissed her on the lips, hard, tasting her for the first time. He could feel the fight, the determination. This was not a kiss from before. This was her kiss, all for her.

Her first real kiss, her last real kiss. David's kiss of death for a friend...

For a lover.

But it was magic too, hadn't it always been? Weren't there kisses drowned in magic? Every time they kissed miraculous things happened. People were healed, saved, mountains were moved. As if, their joining could destroy the world.

Or save it.

God, he hoped that they could save it.

When he brought his hand away from her, reaching down to her stomache, one long thing blade was revealed. A sword, tainted in magic, flowing freely from it as it flowed from Serena's body. Mostly Serena's body.

He held it in his hands now, the bringer of death, the source of destruction. A sword in his hand. In one quick slice Derek was off of him, writhing and spasming in two places on the floor.

He looked into mostly Serena's eyes, already sorry for his actions.

When he ran into her, it didn't even make a sound. The blade slid in, as if it were sliding out with a quiet whisper. Only this time, instead of appearing it disappeared into her flesh.

He gave a cry as he held her, the sword deep inside her, cold and foreign against her organs.

Tears fell from his eyes as he looked at Serena... mostly Serena, and kissed her one final time.

"I did love you," He whispered, easing her to the floor, "I always loved you."

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Serena felt the stab of the sword as did Gwendolyn. Both screamed. The sound ricocheting around the room. Yet it was over in a heartbeat. The troll stood there. He looked confused where seconds before he was elated, thrilled to see his love returned to him. Serena, his Gwendolyn now lay dying on the ground. Serena, too. Both creatures gasping for breath, neither one gaining the upper hand.

Magic poured from the wound that the sword created. A thick odorous mist of darkness seeped from Serena and spilled onto the ground. It sunk into the crevices and what happened next was seen only by the eyes of a troll that would later take his life, to save himself from his enemies hands.

He watched in disbelief as the spirit of his Gwendolyn rose from Serena and passed through David, linking them together even more than the kiss itself did. She hovered over them, and then suddenly burst into a splash of black dust that covered them both. He cried out and fell to his knees and yet the Prince kept his lips to the woman, his whispered words fell on the troll’s ears, yet he knew they were lies. This Prince was not in love with this woman. . . it was then that realized what it had been. It was never about love or power, right or wrong, it was all about sacrifice.

David loved his friend. Loved Serena for her kindness, compassion, beauty and even her oddities and when she changed he too changed. He took her life, as much as it pained him, because it was what she begged of him to do. He saw the first breath of life erupt from the woman beneath the man and he screamed his rage. His hands moved to the dagger on his waist and he dragged it down his wrist and then up his arm. He continued to tear himself apart with the weapon, until there was no strength in him to go further. Only then did he fall to the ground, his blood as black as night oozed from him, to spread out.

Serena’s fingers moved, timidly at first and then slowly along David’s spine. Her hands moved to his hair and her lips parted, she drank in the breath he exhaled and she whimpered. The room started to shake and light cascaded over them as two beings appeared, one troll of great size and one fairy of great beauty. Both held hands and though they resembled Gwendolyn and her Mate, they were full of peace.

David and Serena were lifted up, a great wave of colors cascaded over them. Each one was healed and their energy replenished. They were transported with no sounding of the trumpets or great “Hurrahs” to the throne room where they were left holding hands and staring at whomever was in the room.

“Thank you,” the two beings whispered simultaneously. “Your families have been tied together for generations. Max and Skye. David and Serena. Your love for each other whether it be intimate or friendship was spoken of thousands of years ago. Your curse is free. No more lies, or half truths. Go now. . .David, Serena chose your mates wisely, your next steps in life may prove more difficult. Max and Skye will live a long and happy life ruling over the Kingdom.”

The beings bowed to the assembly and vanished.

Serena’s eyes were wide with fright and confusion. She turned to David and stared at him. Her hands ran over her stomach, and she felt no wound. Her fingers lifted and traced her lips. “Thank you,” she whispered to him. She wanted to say more, but wasn’t sure she could or even what she would say. She had questions that the beings should have answered, but didn't.

Magic, was a confusing thing. Half truths and curses that are never understood, but are left for others to break. She looked around wanting answers, wanting to demand them, but there was no time for her to speak. They were both pulled into embraces by their parents.

A great feast was called and Max and Skye were ordered to be found and told that the young couple had returned.

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The End ​

Thanks for reading Curse of the Travelers'