All characters engaged in sexual activities in this story are over the age of 18.
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Briar Rose: Part 1
Fairy Stories, by their very nature, often contain some kind of fairy. Usually they are colourful, kind little creatures, flitting on wings of crystal like insects, and go about blessing good people with wishes and magical gifts. But true Fairies- the Fey, Faeries, Elves, whatever people choose to call them- are nothing like the benevolent magical creatures of our fairy stories.
True, they are magical. And their magic is powerful and beguiling, but it often yields a twist. A man blessed with pots of gold wakes the next day to find the gold has turned to coal and all his boastful investments have fallen through. A child who chases fairies through a meadow may be lured beyond the bounds of safety, never to be seen again. And a young woman may, by intent or not, make a deal with a Fey-being for a sought-after child. But the cost of such deals are always, always more dear than they may appear.
All of this is to say that the Fey, though beautiful and powerful, are also vain, capricious, narcissistic and cruel. They are not to be trusted.
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In the low sloping foothills of the mountains where the river ran swift and clear through the valleys and gorges, and where the forests grew deep and dark, and the meadows were filled with flowers in the spring, there lay a Kingdom. It was by no means a large, or rich or powerful kingdom, but it was safe from those beyond its borders. Protected by the mountains to the south and the rivers and forests to the north, it prospered.
The Queen of this land, Queen Leah, ruled the land alone. She was a young queen, her father having passed away when she was only eighteen years old and since then she had ruled the kingdom with grace and fairness. She allowed the populace their customs and practices and maintained the moderate tax that her father has employed before her. And so the little kingdom between the mountains and the forest prospered.
Only in one way was the kingdom in any way lacking. Although Leah herself was now twenty-three years of age the kingdom was as yet without a king, and therefore, by necessity, without an heir to the throne. The beautiful and powerful Queen Leah, who had ruled the land fairly and justly for five long years since her father's passing had long since toyed with the idea of bringing a child into the world. But as she also shared this desire with absolutely no desire to take a husband, her desires had cancelled each other out.
Fortunately- or unfortunately- events in her kingdom would soon overtake her when on the anniversary of her fifth year of her rule, Queen Leah's various advisors came to her to discuss the succession. As they approached the throne, they beheld Leah dressed in her full regal garb standing before the throne. She had known that this day was coming and wanted to show her best and most queenly guise to her supplicants.
Although young, Leah held herself with great poise and purpose. She may have been only five feet or so in actual height but the platform shoes hidden beneath her long shimmering green dress combined with the six or seven steps up to the throne, gave her a look of majestic superiority. She did her best to look at the men assembled before her down the length of her sharp but pretty nose and pursed her light pink lips in a look of sincere attention. Her simple silver crown sat atop her long blonde hair and her bright blue eyes, surrounded by their long dark lashes, passed over each man before her in turn as they all bowed.
These men all insisted that she should soon find a husband of good station willing to wed her, or she would one day be faced by a crisis which would surely see her kingdom subsumed by her neighbours, or perhaps fall into anarchy. They asked, in the strongest terms possible, that messengers be sent out across the land to summon princes, dukes, and other nobles suitable to marry a queen.
The queen was extremely vexed by these demands. Up until now these lords had treated her with the respect and obedience that had been due to her late father. They had advised gently when asked, and occasionally made requests that were due to them. But never before had they so strongly all advocated in one voice that she do anything that was not in her will to grant.
Had she not ruled them fairly and justly for the past five years? Why now did her own counsellors turn against her and demand that she be replaced by a man of lesser station? She agreed with them that an heir was vital to secure the succession of her kingdom, and she too shared their desire to see a little prince or princess join her at court. But she would not submit herself to any man, noble or not, to achieve this end. Leah dismissed her councillors, claiming that she must think on their proposal and then retired to her own chambers for the evening.
Behind closed doors, she fumed at the demands. She quietly cursed the name of every man who had stood before her that day and demanded that she subjugate herself to a foreign man, simply for the purpose of bearing him an heir to take her place. If she were to bear a child, it would be hers to raise herself. She would not merely be the vessel by which a new child was born into the world to be raised by anyone but herself. But how to bear a child to be her heir without a father?
An idea came to her. In her five years of rulership she had sometimes visited the peasant folk who lived in the town in and around her caste. She went in disguise, in order to avoid her own guard, and these visits had not been infrequent. She liked to walk amongst her people, to hear their complaints and their accolades, partake of their simple pleasures and share in their joys and their woes. It was by these means that she had managed to keep a steady hand on how her kingdom was managed. If the people were happy and heard then she had little reason to fear their replacing her.
It was also by these sojourns that she had become aware of a pair of nearby women who claimed to have knowledge of the magical arts. Some said that the two were sisters who spoke with devils and made foul pacts with them for their power. Others said that they were actually one saintly being in two bodies and had been sent by the gods for the people's protection and enlightenment. Whatever the truth of it, perhaps this pair of wise women would be able to provide her with the answer she needed.
And so Leah shed her queenly robes, swapping them instead for plain peasant garb. She wore a long dark maroon dress which she cinched around her narrow waist with a simple leather belt. And she swapped her crown and earrings for a modest pale apron and wimple. Without her fine clothes and make-up she looked to be a still beautiful but simple woman of the kingdom.
She used the secret stairs which led down into the town and emerged through a hidden vault in a cellar and from there made her way through the town. Leah had never met the two magical women of which she had heard others speak but she knew that the two of them lived beyond the town walls, in a hut near to the forest. It took a little less than an hour to reach the glade in which the women's little yellow-painted hut stood and Leah approached slowly and carefully, eager not to disturb either woman lest she be turned into a toad or something.
