Short stories.

The prophecy.

Based on a dream 07.15.2022

Long ago, there were mages and monsters and humans, who mainly tolerated each other for resources and the safety of their kingdoms. There were many royal families, but for the sake of the story, we'll focus on the Human and Witch royal family. Now it was never sure what went down between the two, but in the end, the Human royal family and their land got cursed. The royals would suffer and their people would no longer understand others, No one could leave the kingdom or the land it resides on. The way to break the curse was for the Crowned human to fall for a witch, and for the witch to fall for them back. No spells, no potions, no lies, Just love. This was 2 thousand years ago, and the family is still suffering from the curse.

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"You do understand what this story means correct?"
"Yeah, that in order for this curse to be broken, the crowned royal has to fall for a witch." The Prince sighed.
"Yes, we hope it would be soon," The prince rolled his eyes.
 "Come on, you know that's not gonna happen. Remember?" He pulls out a book. "The Witches hid moons ago, and most killed other witches. The other witches separated and hid. There's no way that it could happen now." The King put his hand on his son's shoulder,
"You must have faith, Leo. Who knows, there have been sightings of wild magic recently." 
"I don't understand why you must Bother me with this story every year," The queen smiles behind her fan. 

"My King. You needed to check on the royal guard for tonight." 
"Right that's my cue," He ruffles Leo's hair. "See you later bud, love you." He kisses his wife, "Love you, Darling." 
"Love you, dad."
"Love you, Dear." The King left, Leaving the Queen and Leo in the room together. 

"Ready to hear the story at tonight's remeberation?" 
"Ugh. Again!"
"Don't worry, if you don't fulfil the prophecy, you can tell your crowned story every year this day." The prince Groaned, making her chuckle. "You'll get used to it after your child is 4."
"I don't wanna wait that long!" 
"Trust me I didn't either." the two sat in comfortable silence before the Prince spoke up.
"Mom, did your parents pressure you into trying to break the curse?"
"Many times, there were even times when they tried to kidnap witches to bring them here." Leo looks at her in shock. "But it is how I met your father, He was one of the few people who broke out the witches and lead them to safety." The queen said smiling at the memory. 
"My Queen! We need help with the decorations and The confirmation on the celebration plans!" The queen sighed, 
"I guess I have to go now, Don't worry about that prophecy. It will fulfil itself in time."
 "Thanks, mom."
"No problem honey, now you may go out, but you must be back at least an hour before the celebration."
"Yes, mom."
"Oh and one more thing?" He looks at her. "I love you."
"Love you too mom." The Queen left, leaving Leo to himself. Leo looked up at the ceiling in his room. 

Tonight marked the night of the curse, why did they hold a celebration? Don't know, but it had been a tradition for years, despite it marking the day of the curse it was usually a joyful night. Leo got up and got changed into 'civilian clothing', but honestly to him and his dad it was normal clothing, he got dressed in a nice turquoise hoodie, a black shirt, and dark blue jeans. He looked at himself in the mirror. 'nice.' He smiled to himself, grabbing a small satchel with essentials, The prince just ran through the halls, everything was being set up for tonight but saw something in the distance, and while curiosity kills the cat, satisfaction brings it back. 
The price ran towards the lush green hills that surrounded his soon-to-be kingdom. He smiled as he ran through the overgrown field.  the field turned into a forest, which he gladly went to explore. He then reaches the small river that separated the forest and an unexplored abandoned part of the forest. This river marked off the kingdom's boundaries, no one could go past it, This river surrounded the whole kingdom! The prince sighed and sat down in front of the river, listening as the water flowed by and the wildlife around. 

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"Wake up!" 
"Ow! Okay! you didn't have to do that!" 
"What else were they supposed to do?"
"Yeah, Yuki you can sleep through anything." 
"You two suck." 20-year-old, Yuki said. 
"Yeah yeah, I guess you don't want any berries I found." 
"What?! No! Please, Gwyn, I'm hungry!" 
"Be more respectful then!"
"Alright you two, calm down."
"Yes, Momma Moire." The two said. They all quietly laughed, yep this was them.

 Moire, a 32-year-old Vixen, Gwyn a 25-year-old Eurasian Magpie, and Yuki, a 20-year-old human that the pair found. They all live together in a small tree house village that was abandoned by witches, parts of it were burned and it was only their house that was still intact.

"Don't call me that please, I'm not that much older than you two."
"Yea but you are like the parent to us." Yuki nodded as Moire rolled her eyes. Yuki got dressed in the clothes they had in the small house they lived in, they often found clothes in other houses in the village, as well as in the river for some reason. Yuki went down to the kitchen to eat,
"Yuki! are you going out again today?" Yuki nodded, 

"I heard of a discovery from one of the deer yesterday, apparently that kingdom nearby is doing something in the forest on their side, I wanna check it out to see if there is anything we need to worry about." 
"What why? you are one of the last of us that should even go there!" Gwyn exclaimed.
"I have to agree, we all know of that land's curse, and you are one of the last people to even go there. If you get affected by that curse-"
"And what do you want me to do? Let someone else go?! We both know that if one of the other animals or even you guys went, The citizens would all hunt you guys. I would rather be trapped there than have anyone get hurt." Yuki said, 
"Even Doren?" Yuki thought about it. 
"He's a maybe." They all laughed, the three finished breakfast and then went on with their day.

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'Such a pretty view...' Leo thought, as he sat near the river. He looked toward the edge to see a small bunny,
'so cute!' Just then the rabbit just fell into the river, and he quickly rushed to grab it, only to fall in after, He gasped for air as he held the rabbit closely, He saw an old bridge and tried to grab for it only to be pushed under the water, he reached his hand out only to feel something grab his hand, pulling him towards the shore. He was pulled onto dry land and gasped for air as the figure who helped him out took the rabbit and made sure it was okay... 

"Come on bri, why would you do that?" He heard the person say, he looked towards the figure, who had their back to Leo. they had brownish hair, wore exploring stuff and had small little bags. He saw the rabbit move and jump out of the person's arms, he saw them smile. 
"Hey- uh." He turned towards Leo, They had dark brown almost black eyes. "Um- Thanks for pulling us out of the water." 
"Oh- Ah no problem..." They said, scratching the back of their head. ' I can't talk to people, it's much different than the animals of the forest.'
"So...." 
"Yea..." 'This is awkward..' The two of them thought. 
"Why are you out here?" The boy asked. 
"Oh- I- ah." 'What do I say?' "Just relaxing. You?" Leo said, smiling. 
"Oh, I'm from a neighbouring town... I heard about an event that's going on later." The other said. 
"Oh! The remeberation." 
"remeberation?" 
"Yep, have you heard of the story that surrounds this place?" 
"Yea, the curse right?" 
"Y-Yea, but I mean we don't call it that..." 
"Oh okay?" 
"Anyways If you are planning to go to the remeberation festival, then I know a nice place!" 
"Sounds nice," The other smiled, "I'll think about your offer." Leo felt slight heat go to his face but it quickly died down. 
"C-Cool." The other stood up. "Wait!" They looked back, and Leo stood up. "If you want to take my offer my name is Leo." He held out his hand for the other to shake. 
"Leo huh?" They looked at his hand. "Yuki," Yuki said, shaking Leo's hand. Yuki let go and dissapeared into the forest leaving Leo there in that patch by himself. 

"Leo!" He turned to see Aldis, a gaurd around his age. "Dude! The heck man?" Aldis said, smacking him at the back of his head playfully. 
"Whats wrong Dude?" 
"Its 40 till! we are litterly 15 minutes away!" Leo's eyes widdened. 
"Crap! Mom's gonning to be so mad!" He said running out of the forest. 
"No time to run dude!" Aldis lead him to one of the palace horses. They jumped on the horse and galoped towards the palace. Getting off the horse, he ran strait towards his room. 

"Leo hun?" He heard his Mom call from the other side. 
"Changing mom!" He called, getting into a nice dark blue suit. He opened his door, to see him mom standing outside. 
"What happed to being an hour early? What happened to your hair my dear?" 
"I fell into the river, but I was saved by someone traveling for the festival," He explained,
"Is that what took so long?" he nodded.