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today-only-happens-once · 6 days ago

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YOOO that’s wild. Love the world building here! I have so many questions… why are they beefing lowkey? Or like, skittish around each other suddenly? 👀 elements of this remind me of Merlin in the best kind of way

From Dusk til Dawn - Ch. 2

Previous Chapter - Masterlist - Next Chapter

Virgil was nimbly moving from tree to tree, checking high up the trunks for mushrooms. The best mushrooms grew just after days that were especially wet or humid and if he was lucky he’d find some extra delicious ones he could take home. He didn’t mind when the rotation put him on gathering duty, he was finally getting near what would be his full height and his consistently growing limbs had only made climbing easier. He could maneuver from tree to tree like it was nothing, versus when he was younger and he was always a little worried he would fall to the ground when he didn’t reach the next branch. Now he didn’t even really need to jump to move to the next one, he could generally grab the next tree’s closest limb without letting go of the previous one. He’d gathered quite a few freckled pixie cups and velvet rosettes from up high and all he had left to do was to check low. The best prize of them all grew on the ground, but it was a much rarer find.

Once he felt he had enough, he scaled down and began walking through the tall trees, checking around their bases for the delicacy he hoped to find. They were more likely to be found a bit further from home, seeing as they were quickly collected if they ever sprang up nearby. It was getting a little close to daylight, but he wasn’t a scared child anymore. He had a much better sense of direction and as he had grown his eyes had gotten much better at dealing with the light.

This was easily the worst age Roman had ever been. He was nearly fully grown, but still not quite there, so the benefits of adulthood were still out of his reach. He couldn't earn any prowess jewelry or even craft his sword until they knew how big he’d be. He was still considered too young to be a real part of ruling despite being the heir to the throne. But he was also not young enough that he could just play around and do whatever he wanted all day. He had to be mature like an adult without the recognition of being one.

He’d done amazing in the distinguishing ceremony for his age group, a gauntlet of tasks to help the young adults of the kingdom see where their main skills lie and help them make choices on what they wanted their professions to be, but now that that had passed all he could do was wait. Since Roman was the prince and he wouldn’t really be selecting who in the kingdom he’d like to try training under, it was mostly just to show the rest of the kingdom that he had the skills to lead them. He was exceptionally strong, even for a race of people who could go toe to toe with creatures several times their size, but that didn’t matter yet. His diplomacy, tenacity, and knack for strategy didn’t matter yet.

He’d proven that, despite the fact he would only keep getting stronger as his body continued to grow, he was already stronger than members of the guard or hunting group that had qualified for their positions with flying colors. But because he wasn’t of age yet, he was stuck doing Inbetween Tasks. Inbetween Tasks were what his age group had to do before they were old enough to do real work, but were no longer considered young enough to have no responsibilities. Today the inbetweens were helping the gatherers. Supposedly so they could get an idea for the lay of the land, to help them learn the look of the plants they could and could not eat, and some third thing he’d tuned out because he was thinking about how he wanted to get his real sword. But no, even though he was royalty, his blade couldn’t be forged until it could be made proportionate to his size. He did want a perfect weapon made just for him… But couldn’t he just use a spare one for now? All he had was a tiny knife, barely the length of his forearm, that he was supposed to use for cutting plant stems.

He had meandered off into the woods with his basket, going further than necessary somewhat to get some space to himself, but mostly so no one would notice he’d left way too early so he could get his gathering done. The sooner he got a basket full of hydra berries and wild direstalks, the sooner he could go home and find something more fun to do. Probably sneak into the training yard and run drills with the practice swords until he was caught and told to go do something else. Again. For the fourth time this week.

Virgil’s sharp eyes zeroed in his ultimate prize a few paces away, just a few trees past the clearing that marked the nearly half way point of the forest, a small satisfied smile growing on his face. He’d been close to turning in, prepared to count the few handfuls of gleaming gills he’d found as the crowning achievement of this trip. With his long quick steps he strode over to the ebonybells, leaning down to begin carefully removing the perfect black mushrooms from the soil, hopefully in such a way that would encourage them to grow back soon.

“Whoa! Hey! What are you doing? Don’t touch those!” Virgil heard from over his shoulder, his head quickly turning to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. Roman had called out to the stranger, picking up his pace once he saw them bent over a patch of gloomy black mushrooms. Everyone knew that black was not a color for food, what was this guy doing? The slender elf turned at the sound and spotted the larger one coming toward him quickly, his nimble fingers placing the few mushrooms he’d already cut into his basket in case this became about which of them would be taking the lion’s share of his find.

The both of them stopped short when they fully saw the other, having to justify the person they saw before them. They each had a somewhat vague recollection of that time they’d met another elf child amongst the trees, but it had been years since then and the image of the boy they’d met had distorted in their memories over time. Especially seeing as it had been back before their eyes had developed fully and they could barely see in a less than optimal amount of light.

Virgil was half convinced it was a dream, honestly. Seeing a strange little elf when he was so scared in the forest? That had probably just been his brain softening the end of a nightmare.

Roman had just figured that his overactive childhood imagination had filled in the features of the other child in a weird way when his eyes weren’t able to provide all the details.

They hadn’t talked to anyone else about it, neither of them wanted anyone to know they’d gotten any help that night.

Roman’s slight shock wore off first, his main concern was the fact that this guy seemed to be trying to kill himself with that toxic fungus. He zeroed in on the basket he held in his hand, it was chock full of speckled devils, reaper’s roses.. Even liar’s gold. But the worst of them was what he was picking now. “What are you doing?” He asked again.

Virgil raised an eyebrow. “Gathering mushrooms? What does it look like?” He responded, gesturing to the ones before him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was.

“Those are deathcaps, you shouldn’t even be touching them.” Roman responded, completely bewildered that anyone would touch those dreadful things. Nearly all mushrooms were toxic, but deathcaps were certainly called deathcaps for a reason. At least this guy had gloves on.

“Deathcaps? These are ebonybells, I've never even heard of deathcaps.” He responded, finally moving from a crouch to fully standing, now that he knew he wasn’t going to have to defend his prize. It was very clear this stranger wasn’t going to try and fight him for them.

Roman blinked as the slender elf before him seemed to just keep getting taller and taller, his eyes traveling upward as he rose to his full height. He’d never met anyone so tall, the gray skinned elf had to be nearly a head taller than he was and he was one of the tallest in his kingdom. “Ebonybells? What are you.. Wait. Are you.. Didn’t I meet you once before? Your name was, uh.. Virgil, right?” He suddenly asked, the memory he thought he imagined suddenly making much more sense. “...So it is you, the kid from that night. Roman. I.. I thought I’d dreamt that.” Virgil admitted, studying the young man before him. He was very short and thick for an elf, if it wasn’t for the fact Roman’s muscular arms were probably thicker than his own legs were, he’d have assumed he was much younger than himself. That and the memory of them being about the same size once. He should really focus on that bit more so than thinking too much about the musculature of the elf in front of him.

“Yeah.. Uh.. Anyway, whatever. Those are poisonous, you should leave them alone.” He reiterated, pointing at the black mushrooms.

Virgil just raised an eyebrow, looking at his basket and then back to him. “No? They definitely aren’t, I just used the last I had to help prepare a dusk delicacy feast not three nights ago.”

That had Roman’s eyes widening, pausing for a long moment to take in what he’d just heard. “...Did you just say.. Are you a.. You are a dusk elf?” His mind was reeling, there was no way that story was real, let alone somehow about an elf who looked like this. He’d been prepared to admit to himself that Virgil was kinda cute about a moment ago.

Virgil had no clue what this guy’s issue was. “Yes? What’s the problem?”

Everything Roman had ever been taught was bouncing around his mind, trying to justify what he was looking at. He didn’t even almost know how to respond. “What are you then? I’ve never seen anything like you before.” He was starting to get a little over this, apparently something was at hand here and he didn’t like that he was clearly out of the loop.

He answered without really thinking about it, his mind still somewhere else. “I'm, uh, I’m a dawn elf.”

That had Virgil’s expression immediately matching Roman’s. A dawn elf? Right in front of him? In real life? This guy was supposed to be the creature from their scary stories? The horrible, evil monsters who’d kill them as soon as look at them? This was.. This was just an elf. Different from himself in key ways, but still clearly an elf.

Sure, Virgil was definitely very tall and rather slim, his ears noticeably longer than any Roman had seen before. But his head was certainly a normal size. And his eyes were honestly beautiful, sparkling violet, not big black voids in his face. Roman did have pretty big hands, but they weren’t like bear paws. While his skin was undeniably red, it was a light shade you might see in a soft sunset, not the blood red of a wound. And his shape was not familiar, but he never doubted for a moment he was easily something somewhat similar to himself, nowhere near an orc or a troll.

They were staring at each other, trying to reconcile what they were seeing with what they’d been warned about for years. This was somehow what he’d been taught to fear, this young man who’d helped him once - for no reason beyond the fact that they’d happened to meet.

It was the dawn elf who eventually broke the silence, golden eyes peering up into violet ones, hoping for understanding - and mercy. “...I am going to go home. I... I’m not going to tell anyone about this, I… I just want to go home and.. Be normal. Okay?” The other slowly nodded. “I... Will also not talk about this. I’m... I’m going to go too.” Roman took a long steading breath, not breaking eye contact for a long moment while he prepared to do one of the very specific things he’d been told to never do under any circumstance. After a long pause, he turned slowly, showing Virgil his unguarded back. If he was going to kill him, he’d have no obstacle in accomplishing that. He was showing trust and he hoped beyond hope he wasn’t a fool for doing so.

No arrow ever flew. He just walked away, the dusk elf eventually losing sight of the dawn amongst the trees.

#sanders sides #prinxiety #fic rec

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today-only-happens-once · 7 days ago

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Stahhhp this is so cute. I’m also very intrigued by this world building 👀

From Dusk til Dawn - Ch. 1

Prologue - Masterlist - Next Chapter __

Roman’s eyes snapped open and he immediately rolled out of bed, his bare feet silently landing on the rug. The one he’d dragged next to his sleeping place the night before specifically to dampen the sound. Thankfully his chambers were far enough away from his parents’ and grandparents’ that they really wouldn’t have heard anyway, but when you were doing something you definitely weren’t supposed to be, there was no such thing as an overabundance of caution. With quick steps he raced to his dresser to pull out one of his garments, hurriedly sliding it on and tying it. He was getting better and better at the special knots and traditional folds, though he’d had less than a year of practice, finally being allowed to do it for himself at his most recent birthday. Once it was fully on, he made his way to his window and climbed out, scaling down the outer castle wall to the best of his ability. Thankfully the stonework had enough natural texture that his little fingers could find handholds easily enough, and he’d been strong enough to support his own weight since before he could even walk. The sun was definitely not up yet, making the area darker than his eyes were suited for and skewing his sense of the colors around him. But that wasn’t a problem, he didn’t need fine detail to get to where he was going. He raced to the edge of the courtyard and crawled up the section of wall that had the big chip in it, the slightly jagged edge it provided was more than enough for him to find the purchase necessary to hoist himself up and over the wall.

The amount of time that passed between his eyes opening and his little feet landing outside the kingdom wall felt as short as a single heartbeat. He was really out here. He’d really done it. He’d never been outside the wall at this time. His heart was racing and he glanced around quickly, as if to be sure he had really managed it without being caught. He took off into the treeline at a sprint, riding his adrenaline, ready to find his prize.

It had only been a couple days since he and the other kids around his age were taken by his best friend Remy to see a big purple flower he had in his room. There had been stories about them existing, growing only on the very far edge of the woods, but none of them had ever seen one. They were the frightlights, flowers that only bloomed in the dark, their glow attracting the dangerous creatures of the night.

Remy had been boasting about his bravery, a very valued trait in their kingdom, by showing off the flower and telling them all that he had gone and gotten it all by himself. The main problem with that story was that Roman knew Remy’s mom was one of the kingdom’s traders. The traders had just come back yesterday from a mission and now, coincidentally, his best friend had a frightlight to show off. The young prince knew she must have brought it back and gave it to her son, and now Remy was using it to show off. Unfortunately, while Roman was willing to only alert Remy that he was aware of this deception via a knowing glance - not wanting to expose him in front of the other kids, he was not at all able to resist being goaded.

“I thought you were the bravest one in the whole kingdom, Roman.” One of the other kids said, turning to him.

“I am!” He quickly asserted, his hands landing on his hips with confidence. “I’m the prince! Princes are brave, everyone knows that!”

“Then why haven’t you gotten a frightlight yourself? Remy did it, and he’s not a prince.” Another added.

Roman turned to look at Remy with fire in his golden eyes, watching as Remy’s own widened. They both knew the truth, but Remy was still his best friend. While he wouldn’t make his friend out to be a coward in front of the others, he would simply never back down from a challenge.

“Just because I haven’t yet! I definitely could, it would be no problem for me.” He asserted.

“Then why don’t you go get one?” “I will!” And now here he was, running into the woods. He knew that the flowers didn’t grow close and it had to be picked before the sun was up, or it would close and not be nearly as impressive. That would be unacceptable.

Virgil was sniffling, looking around with concern. He’d lost track of the direction he’d been going in, and the tree he usually used as a landmark wasn’t where he thought it was supposed to be. He’d been out playing and now it was getting light out, and the lighter it got, the harder it would be for him to get home. This was bad, his mom would be so upset with him when she found out. Or maybe he’d never even make it home, maybe he’d get eaten by a monster and never get back to get in trouble in the first place. Oh that would be worse, so much worse. He took a deep breath in, trying to remember the rules they always went over about being in the forest.

Come home before the moon mirrors start to close, if they were closing then the sun wasn’t far behind. They also grew more densely just outside the kingdom, the more he saw the closer he was. The bats were his friends, they would lead him back toward home when it got light out. They were nice and they slept when he did, also inside the kingdom’s cave system. So if he could find the bats, follow them. The better trees were closer together, and closer to home, the ones with the purple leaves. He figured he needed to focus on finding the moon mirrors, that would be his surest sign that he was going the right way.

He looked up, still hoping to find the big tree he usually used as his landmark, but as the night fled, so did his ability to really tell colors apart. Were these the purple trees? Or the greener ones? If they were greener he was only getting farther from home. He needed to... His ear twitched and he immediately pressed himself back against a tree to make himself harder to spot while he focused on listening. He could hear something rustling in the leaves. And it was getting closer. Was it the bats? No, it sounded much bigger than a bat and it was definitely on the ground, not in the sky or the trees.

Roman emerged from between two bushes into a small clearing just before the trees started to get much closer together than before. He remembered being told that the green ones near home were green because they were further apart and got more light. So these darker ones must mean he had to be past the halfway point of the woods, getting close to his goal. He was continuing on when he heard a sniffling sound that stopped him in his tracks. He was brave and he was on a mission - but helping others was always the most important, most princely thing to do.

“Hello? Is someone there? Don’t be scared, I promise I’m nice!” He called out, trying to peer through the darkness between the trees, squinting his eyes.

“Um.. Hello?” A small voice responded after a few moments, another little elf boy peaking around a tree to see him.

Once they caught gazes, they stared at each other for a moment. It wasn’t easy for either of them to see in this light, but they were certain they’d never seen the other before. They knew that multiple other kinds of elves existed even if they never really saw them, this boy must just be from some other kingdom.

“Hi! My name is Roman! Are you lost? Do you need help? If you do, I can help you! I’m a prince and it’s my job to help.” He offered, still trying to make out more details of the boy that was timidly approaching. He seemed really skinny, Roman hoped he wasn’t sick, that would have been sad. He also seemed sorta gray? He subtly glanced down at his own hand, he was actually kinda gray too in this light. That explains that part, at least. “You’re a prince? I’m.. Me too, I'm Virgil. Um.. I’m trying to get home. I’m lost.” He admitted, slowly coming closer to the other child. Virgil thought he was a little funny looking. He was kinda stocky for an elf and his ears were really short and barely seemed pointy at all, but maybe that's just what elves looked like where he was from. “Oh no, well, I’ll make sure you get back! Umm, so, I came from that way.” Roman turned to point back to where he’d been. “And I ran in a straight line. So you probably aren’t trying to go over there. Want to walk with me that way? Maybe we’ll find your home. Oh! And we can find the frightlights together! That’ll make you feel braver.”

“Frightlights? That sounds scary… But, um, okay. Yeah, let’s go that way.” He nodded slowly, moving to come close enough that they could begin their walk side by side.

“Yeah! They’re supposed to be really scary, but it’s okay. There’s no need to be afraid if we go together! I’ll protect you, I'm really really strong, I promise.” He asserted, a big smile on his face. The other boy seemed very confident, enough that it actually made Virgil feel a little better. So he just nodded, staying beside the other boy as they made their way in what was hopefully the direction toward home.

Roman wanted to tell him all he knew about the frightlights and the monsters they attracted, mostly the scary nightflyers and their sharp teeth that they used to drink your blood, but he already seemed really scared and that really felt like it would just make things even worse. So for now he just stayed near him, making sure he didn’t feel alone out there in the dark woods.

They only had to walk for a couple minutes before they found a softly glowing flower, stopping them both in their tracks.

“There’s one!” They both said at once, turning to the other with a smile. Virgil was glad to have finally found a sign that he was actually moving in the right direction, Roman was ecstatic to have succeeded in his quest. “Wow… It really does glow bright. I wanted to take one home to show my friends but... It’s already closing up.” Roman said, crouching to look at it more closely, his tone a little disappointed.

“Yeah, they don’t like the light. But you can get them to open a little bigger before you pick them if you do this.” Virgil knelt before leaning in and cupping his hands around the moon mirror, blocking any light with them as well as his body. Roman watched as the flower opened up more, the big petals spreading out.

“Whoa.” He said softly.

“It’s better when it’s really dark, but here you go.” Virgil explained, picking the flower from the ground and holding it out to Roman.

“Yeah, that makes sense. And thank you!” Roman carefully took the frightlight and cupped it in both hands, looking it over before looking back up at the other boy. “Are you feeling better?” Virgil smiled, nodding. “Yeah, this is a good sign. I can make it home from here.” All he had to do was keep going that way, he knew he’d find more and then he’d be home.

Roman smiled back, he knew that finding the frightlight would make him feel braver. “I’m glad. I’m gonna take this home, but maybe we’ll see each other again! I play in the woods all the time.” “Me too, maybe we will! Bye!”

“Bye!” And with that, they headed off in exactly opposite directions.

#fic recs #sanders sides #roman sanders #virgil sanders #prinxiety

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