- Sterek AU -
When crown prince Derek Hale was a boy, he begged stories off his mother The Queen come bedtime. To help him sleep, he would claim rather fervently, so that she could never refuse; though the truth of it was that this time with her, these stories, were what he most looked forward to during the day. Having a mother as a queen meant cherishing any time spent together. It helped, too, that no one else could tell stories as expertly as his mother did. And his favorite of the stories she liked to tell, was the one about the old forgotten people who could once fly. “They had wings,” Talia would say, firelight crackling behind her shoulder in the golden hearth, “Wings that could span the breadth of an entire horizon.” In these stories the winged creature is always too trusting, too unaware of the greed that plagues mankind and so finds themselves in the company of thieves. These thieves would lull the creature into a complacent sleep, then cut and take their wings for themselves. This was often the part of the story that Derek grew heartsick over. Imagining the naive creature waking to find their beloved wings clipped and stolen. But his mother rarely ended a story on a bad note. The ending was this: After learning the true nature of men, the now wingless creature began wandering the lands in search of a redeemable soul. Someone to bring back what was rightfully theirs. “A favor,” Talia had whispered, burning orange light contrasting with shadows across her face, “That was the reward for returning their wings. A favor no king or queen could replicate - a favor that couldn’t be bought with all the money in the world, or taken by the most powerful army.” Derek lost count of how many times he begged this story off his mother. But as all little boys must, he grew up. He became too old for children’s stories, and forgot the legend in favor of studying war strategies and tactics. He stopped believing. Until he met a boy who claimed he could once fly.
For @sterekweek-2022 - Day 2 // Dungeons & Dragons ♥
