Chapter Text
Now this story starts in the kingdom of Corona, and their royal family: The Graces.
A handful of years after their first born, Courtland was born the family announced that the queen was with child once more. The people celebrated the news, holding parties in the joy of the royal family growing.
Suddenly, as all things happen, the queen grew ill. The doctors made haste of the situation, trying everything to cure the her. After weeks of trial and error, nothing seemed to help her condition- yet they were able to find what was causing her illness.
"It seems that the baby is not doing well, and is leading to you suffering along with them." The doctor took off his spectacles. The king took his wife's hand, an attempt to comfort in such a turn of events.
"If this continues, it can lead to you being in extreme pain." The words stung to hear for both the king and queen.
"We don't have any solutions at the moment, because we do not know what is causing this- but I promise we are looking for anything that can solve this." The doctor encouraged.
Courtland heard this from down the hall. He often made an effort to sneak and hear things he wasn't supposed to- but this was different. This was devastating. There had to be something he could do. Anything, he couldn't just sit around and wait as his mother & baby sibling were at risk.
The whole next week he studied different herbs and medicines, looking into their properties and how they helped the human body. Night and day dragged on, yet he couldn't find a cure if he didn't know what was causing the problem in the first place.
Then while looking over books to find more herbs to study he came across something. A book with a purple spine, gold accents laced all over in various patterns.
Setting down the books he previously was carrying he grabbed the purple one off the shelf. The title read, Legend of the Sun. Court cracked the book open.
Once upon a time the Sun wanted to give a gift to the earth, and so a single drop of sunlight fell down from the heavens. And from this drop grew a magic golden flower. It had the ability to heal any illness or injury. It lives on the White Wall Cliffs, for any to use or keep close.
The story continued on, but Court was stuck on the first page. He realized what this could mean, there could be something out there that could completely fix his problem- but was it even real? Could this just be a fairytale? He knew where the White Wall Cliffs were, he could retrieve the flower himself.
He had to try at least.
In the night he left his room, sneaking down the halls of the castle. The torches lit the corridors dimly. Making his way down to the stables he collected gear he had left out during the day. A torch, a map, and a cloak to hide himself in the night.
He quietly walked down the stable's pathways, looking for his horse. Finally he found him, a deep gray horse with white spots in its coat.
"Lets get going Monarch." Court creaked the stall door open, grabbing the saddle from the wall. He quickly put it on, then pulled himself onto the horse.
Finally, he started making his way towards The White Wall Cliffs. The kingdom of Corona glowed under the moonlight, only interrupted by the light coming from windows & torches. Court had never seen his home in such a peace like this, even while on his nightly walks through the garden.
Reaching the bridge that brought the kingdom to the mainland he kicked his stead into high gear, now not having to be quiet to hide himself. The moon lit the bridge full, yet the other side was almost completely consumed by the darkness of the night. Court pulled out the torch he had prepared and led his horse to stay on the right side of the bridge. In an attempt to be efficient he held the torch against the brick.
In a moment the light sparked to life, just in time as Court made his way into the forest.
Slowing down his horse for a moment Court grabbed out the map, just assuring he knew where he was going. Once he was sure he continued going high speed.
Hours passed yet he couldn't find the flower, and with sleep tugging at his eyes Court was almost ready to give up. He pushed through for the time being, he had to.
Something began to glow in the distance. Court snapped toward it, yielding his horse once he got close.
He had finally found it.
Its petals glowed in the night, in fact all of it did. The accents of magic whispered on every part of it. Court quickly extavated it from its place, being as careful to not even cut a root.
Storing it away in a sack he returned to Corona as fast as possible. There was no way anyone would deny that the flower had an innate power, they had to believe him.
A few were skeptical, but every doctor agreed it was worth a shot. Court watched as they gave his mother the soup that contained it.
The next few days he stayed by his mother's side, trying to help in any way with her recovery. Though he had done all he could truly.
"If I do get better it will be all thanks to you, Courtland." His mother ran her fingers through his hair.
"I just couldn't sit and watch you suffer mother." Court looked away, tears pricking at his eyes.
"Hey," The queen gently held Court's face, pulling him back to look at her. "Everything's going to be alright. I'll get better in no time." She wiped a tear that had began to fall from his face.
And she did, over the days she made a speedy recovery thanks to the magical properties of the flower. A few months later the family was pleasantly surprised to see that the queen had actually given birth to twins! Courtland had the honor of choosing their names. After lots of deciding, he went with Colton & Ryland Grace.
The moment the two were in his arms Courtland fell in love. he vowed to himself to protect his siblings at any cost, forever and always.
In memory of this event, the king & queen decided to have a lantern day, where in the night everyone in the kingdom would release lanterns into the sky for all to see. The lantern's glow reminded Court of the glow of the flower- it was like watching hundreds of them fill the sky.
Over the first few months Court easily bonded with the boys, taking any chance to spend time with them. Many of the castle's staff even joked that if you couldn't find him, there was a sure fire chance he would be in the twin's room.
The happiness that the twins brought to their family overflowed into the kingdom, and all felt like a dream.
Until that dream ended.
Now that flower wasn't just there, unused for all that time. It belonged to someone, that someone was Mother Gail. Now that it had been taken from her, she planned to take it back.
On a stormy night she snuck through the castle halls, swiftly moving to not be seen by any guards or maids. Eventually, she had made it to the twin's room. They had even gone and made it easier for her by marking the door, Baby room.
She creeped over to the matching cradles, and she began to sing a song.
"Flower gleam and glow~ let your power shine, make the clock reverse- "
One of the cradles glowed in the dark. Gail grew closer, reading the name on the blanket that covered the baby. Ryland Grace. She then took out her scissors to take a piece of her flower back.
"Bring back what once was mine.. "
As the glow of the baby's hair shined onto Gail, her body seemed to regress. Her hair converting back from silver to brown, and her hands seeming to lose all signs of age.
"Change the fate design.."
As Gail made a cut, the strand turned a deep brown- and the magic ceased. There was no way to get a piece of her flower back.
But what if she took the whole flower?
Gail scooped up the baby from the cradle, resulting in a cry. She could hear shuffling in the halls, they had heard her.
The balcony opened into the night, and she realized that would be her only chance of escape. Gail ran for the railing, carrying herself up along with the now weeping baby. Right as the door slammed open she leapt into the night.
Courtland saw the cloaked figure drop from the balcony, he ran to try to locate where they might have fallen- but the darkness had hid them.
Colton began crying, almost as if he had known what had just happened too. His older brother went to his cradle to comfort him. Court picked him up, soothing Colt. He felt tears fall down his face.
The king and queen ran in a moment later, accompanied by guards. Only to see their eldest hold one of the twins, while the other cradle was left empty.
The kingdom searched and searched to find the lost prince, but the prince was yet to be found.
Though deep in the forest stood a tower, held up by study bricks and covered in never end vines was their dear prince Ryland. Gail had raised the boy on her own, keeping him locked away to never be seen again.
"Take back what once was mine,"
Gail brushed through the boy's hair, and the light permitting was bright enough to light the whole room. She was once more using her flower's magic to regress her appearance.
"What once was mine.."
Gail had finally gotten her flower back, but now this time she was determined to keep it hidden from the world.
"Why can't I go outside mother?" Ryland asked, still letting Gail brush through his hair.
"The outside world is dangerous. Filled with the worst kinds of people, you must stay here- where you're safe darling." Gail put the brush down, the light that once shone from Ryland's hair now fading away.
"Do you understand flower?" She got up from her chair, looking down at the child.
"Yes mother." Ryland's eyes stayed fixated on the fireplace.
While Mother Gail could keep nearly anything out of that tower, there was one thing she couldn't keep away.
The sky.
Every year on his birthday Ryland would sneak out to the one window that the tower had, and see the thousands of lanterns fill the sky. He sometimes wondered if they were specially for him.