Genre: Fairytale AU 

Characters: Irene as the Elf Queen, Wendy as the Winged-Elf, Joy and Yeri as the Elvish princesses 

Sequel to Shouting into the Void, Wings of Passion

They have been together for the past five hundred years and it is the first time they are like this – shoulder to shoulder, watching plumes of smoke rise into the sky. The severity of the Ogres’ encroachment into their borderlands had made Irene, the Queen of Elves accompany her troops into war. As with all matters, her lover, Wendy the Winged-Elf was by her side. However, the Queen wished that there were more right by her side, her daughters for example. Her daughters who were very much like her lover – born with jovial disposition and gods cursed or blessed them, with wings. Wendy, the Winged-Elf was the last of her kind until the birth of her two daughters, borne from the Elvish Queen. Each as talented as their parents and perhaps even more mischievous.   

It was not unexpected for the Princesses, Joy and Yeri, had been conceived by the magical union between the two strongest elves in the continent. They were the first pair of elves born to the Queen who had laboured for three days. Wendy would often retell this story to her daughters about how Irene had gone into labour amidst their journey to subdue Vearys, the shapeshifter who had fallen to the dark side and who could transform into a giant Onyx Serpent. The shapeshifter had stolen forbidden Elvish magic, massacring whole towns and devouring travelling elves. Irene’s thoughts had travelled back to a time when Wendy was retelling the story to their daughters.

As Wendy began to re-enact their journey and dramatic encounter with the shapeshifter, Yeri’s curious eyes grew rounder, and she asked many questions.

“Why did Irene and you fight the serpent when she was pregnant with us?!”

To which Wendy chuckled and Irene’s face flushed.  

They had sent several legions of the army to deal with Vearys, but it was too elusive and had magic that was far too peculiar. It was prophesised, that only Wendy and Irene wielded magic that could subdue the creature. The Oracle however, had not defined when would the evil serpent be subdued. Irene had been carrying the twin elves for nearly three years, it was thrice as long as the gestation duration of other elves, but the physicians were unable to judge when the queen would be giving birth and so the Queen had decided to not wait any longer.

“Ooooh! Our Queen Mother is so brave!” Yeri chimed.

“Or reckless! Mother, we could have been eaten!” Joy, complained.

Yeri thought about it for a while and nodded her head. “Right, we could have been eaten!”

To which Wendy guffawed and gave her twins a knock on their heads. “We were planning to offer you two as tribute to appease the serpent.”

Yeri and Joy huddled each other in horror, a theatrical behaviour that they have learnt from Wendy. Irene only shook her head in defeat at her children’s antics. Despite their proclamations, their daughters had climbed into their mothers’ embrace as the story continued.

“What happened after, Wendy?”

“Well, it was a gruelling fight with Vearys, as you have read in your books. This was what your Queen mother and I did…”

To engage their daughters even more, Wendy had resorted to performing the actions. To which, her Elvish princesses had “ooh-ed” and “ahh-ed” to, especially when Wendy’s magic had ricocheted off the walls in a shower of colours.

“Predictably, Vearys was defeated.”

Joy and Yeri clapped in delight.

“And… not so