The Ones Who Wander

Dragon of the Kingdom

Okay, here we go! This chapter took longer than I thought it would because it just kept getting longer and longer, but I didn't want to cut it. But anyways, the good thing is that it is finally here!

Huge thank you to geminalupus who not only did a lot of reading and editing for this chapter but also reminded me that I'm not used to writing anything higher than K+. So, I intended to rate this as M from the beginning, but then my train of thought was something like "Nah, T is just fine" followed by a panicked "Abort, abort, this is an M". So yes, I'm changing the rating to M just to be safe.

Also, if you're reading this on AO3 you'll probably have a good idea of what the warnings for this story will be, but if you're not, here it goes: as I said, this will be a very long work, so I'm not very sure about when things will start to heat over, maybe around chapter 6 or 7, once we get to know the children and their stories better, but for now I want you to be aware that, of course, there will be a lot of abuse going on, both past and present. There will probably be nightmares and flashbacks.

Three of the children's stories revolve around rape. Two are girls, one is a boy, the three of them are underage. One of them is only harassed, but the other two are not lucky enough to get away. On the bright side... none of this will be very graphic, there will only be mentions of the past sexual abuse.

There will be an underage pregnancy, there will be scars, especially cigarette-burn marks and of course, the emotional ones. We'll probably also have self-harm and suicidal thoughts. There will be domestic violence and a lot of emotional manipulation.

Again, this is just a long story about child abuse and overcoming said abuse.

I really cannot think of any other trigger warnings right now, but if I do I'll tell you. Please, if you think I should include anything else or if you want me to put a specific mark when these things happen, I can do that, just let me know.

For now there's just a bit of drama and fighting with Maleficent, so I think you'll be safe

Okay, this will be all for now. Please enjoy!

Dragon of the Kingdom

There were a lot of things that had changed since they'd been in Auradon, and while that went without saying, there were times in which Evie couldn't help but be surprised at how different their lives were now.

It was curious, when she'd started hanging with Jay, Carlos and Mal, she'd thought her life couldn't have been any better. Yes, she still had to go home to her mother and food was scarce, but now she had someone to talk to, someone she could rely on, someone she trusted, and while that was a word rarely heard in the Isle, Evie didn't mind going against the rules if it meant she could keep those people close to her.

Now, Evie was actually convinced that things couldn't get better―she had her friends by her side, a boyfriend who loved her and thought she was beautiful regardless of the color of her lipstick, a dry and cozy place to call home, and food ―that wasn't rotten― on her plate.

Some things they were still getting used to. Jay, for example, had made a habit of holding the hand of the one who was walking next to him ―usually Carlos― whenever his fingers twitched with greed.

It wasn't perfect, not yet, and more than once Jay had asked her to distract a princess while he retrieved her bracelet. It wasn't perfect, but it was something.

Carlos, too, had made it a goal to overcome the fear of not being "good" enough ―fear that, of course, had been engrained in his system by none other than Cruella de Vil― and had started attending the group study sessions of their class.