Everbloom

Events happen in the books and the misguided benevolence of the fairy queen has her reward the heroes by “setting everything back the way it was” before all the death and destruction, but it goes too far and changes Lena back into a Naiad too, back to the lake where she dwelled, back to her old ways of caring so very little for humans and their company. Our protagonists plead with her to come back. They beg her to remember their time together and the love she felt and expressed towards them. She laughs them off. She even laughs them off when they ask her to think what her husband would’ve wanted. To think about his violin. They try to play it for her. It could never be the same but they try because they love her. She says she doesn’t care anymore and doesn’t seem the slightest like she doesn’t mean it. She’s happy with her sisters again. Happy once more to drown our protagonists if they lean just a little too far forwards, something utterly unthinkable for her character before this. More plot happens and the situation in the sanctuary becomes so dire that a failsafe triggers and a memory of her husband Patton appears as a clone of himself from when he set the failsafe, ready to fix the dire circumstances as best he can. He learns what happened to his wife, what she’s been forcibly changed back into, how her feelings have seemingly irreversibly been changed back the way they were, and doesn’t even think twice before he calmly and confidently strides forth to the lake. He takes up his violin and rows out on the boat to the middle and politely asks her sisters if he can talk to her. When they decline and tell him she doesn’t care about him, he smiles and begins to play.

The air fills with music. The sisters panic and squabble, telling each other to stop her, that he’s not really there. Seconds after he begins playing, despite all the efforts of her sisters, she leaps from the depths and lands in his arms, changing back to the way she was. No hesitation, not the slightest fleeting doubt before tossing away immortality a second time just to be with him again. It took nothing more than the sound of his playing that she never forgot no matter what to bring her back to land. The memory of the love and happiness between them was simply that powerful that it could move her that way. And reader, that destroys me. Oh it tears me asunder I tell you. Can you imagine her in that moment? Peacefully ignoring all the worries and cries of humans she no longer gives a shit about. She’ll outlive all of them. And then music. Her heart begins to hurt and sing with a song it never forgot and she looks up, up at the sunlit shadow of a boat far above her. A heartbeat passes while she listens, it can’t be him. Even as she’s asking herself is it him, is that the music of the man I loved, she’s swimming. All doubts fade away just moments after she draws the slightest bit closer, she knows the timbre of her husband’s bow against the strings. Her sisters are trying to hold her down, to stop her, to drown her in her promised and now returned immortality and she doesn’t want it. She wants to see him again. All of this happening in less than a minute, mind you. That’s how deeply she missed him, long outliving him after he passed away forever ago. They can’t hold her. Nothing could stop her from reaching him in that moment. It DESTROYS me okay, can you imagine love like that? This memory clone of him was only around for 3 days and she gave up immortality just to have him back for even that long.

My favourite relationship trope will always be “no matter what’s happened to me, no matter what I’ve become, I will always return to you. Your scent on the wind, your voice beneath the din, your eyes in the light will call me back to you forever and always. There is nothing that is mine that I wouldn’t give up for you. There is no spell or drug or threat or lie or promise or heaven in all the world that could ever make me turn from you. I could resist you no more than the apple on the branch could resist your hand. Reach for me and I will tumble into your arms again and again.”

DO I HAVE ANY —

Let me introduce you to my fanfiction.net page, where I’ve writtenprobably over 100k words of Brackendra fluff which was born from my hc’s. ;)Kidding.

LOL these two are like my favorite subject!!!

Ummmmmm I’ll make this one about Brackendra and post another onein the near future about Kendra specifically. :)

Soooopicture Kendra as an adult with a lot of these. I do hc that they didn’t startdating until Kendra was atleast 18-ish.

1. Bracken and Kendra just like to be near each other.  Theydon’t have to be talking - Bracken will read over Kendra’s shoulder, theysquabble about the rate at which pages are turned, etc.  Or they can justeven sit next to each other and feel peace at that.

2. Kendra introduced Bracken to hot chocolate with candy cane init and he fell in love. (Bracken has a sweet tooth.)

3. Bracken enjoys dancing.  Not club-style, but more likeballroom-style. He frequently asks Kendra to slow dance with him after dinner.

4. Bracken and Kendra are both early risers, Bracken moreso thanKendra, and she often wakes up to the wonderful smell of breakfast cooking.

5. One of their favorite pastimes is to sit next to each other ontheir back porch at twilight and watch fairies fly about while drinking tea andtalking about their day.

6. Kendra is a frequent visitor to the fairy realm, where Brackenlikes to introduce her to everyone he knows. He’s proud to call himself hers.

7.Holidays - Kendra loves todecorate. Bracken loves to help her. He lifts her up so that she can put thestar at the top of the Christmas tree becauseshe’s short. The first time he did it, she asked him what he was doing and hesaid that he was helping an angel get to the top of the Christmas tree. Shepretty much melted.

8.Bracken and Kendra are planners. Bracken enjoys taking Kendra out into naturefor hikes and picnics and such, and Kendra likes taking him into the city. Theyboth enjoy the theater - musicals, operas, ballets, plays, etc.

9. Theylike to travel the world together.

10. Bracken is a gift-giver,and he’s really good at picking things out that Kendra will love.

11. Kendra likes to make thingsfor Bracken (usually food).

12. They enjoy cookingtogether. Bracken doesn’t cook a ton, but the few things he does cook, he can make excellently. Mostof the time he does the prep work – chopping of vegetables and such – whileKendra cooks. She’s not a master chef by any means, but she enjoys being in thekitchen.

13. Long walks are their jam. Whensomething is bothering one of them, they’ll ask the other to join them for awalk (or one will just leave for a walk and the other will join them).

14. They both love spendingtime with Kendra’s family.

15. I have this hc that they eithercan’t have kids, or they were only ever able to have one kid. (Thanks, DNA.) Theyboth want children, and the lack of kids is hard for them to swallow.  Sometimes one or both of them just feelhopeless, but over time they come to a sort of acceptance that it’s just not inthe cards for them.  (Yeah, I know I’vewritten a few things with them + a baby girl. I couldn’t help it.)

16. Related to #15, they doteon their nieces and nephews. Seth eventually has kids, and Bracken and Kendralove to babysit.

17. There’s a definite mutualrespect between Bracken and Kendra. They each value their time with the other, howeverthey also value time alone or with other people or just apart from one another.  They trust each other implicitly andunderstand that they need to have their own separate friendships apart from eachother.

18. Their first post-marriage fightwas about the ice cream in the freezer. Bracken had eaten it and Kendra wasdisappointed when she went to pull some out. It was a stupid fight and theyboth laughed about it later.

19. Bracken proposed to Kendra.However many times I write a proposal story for them, that’ll always be thescenario. He proposes to her. (It’s not always the guy that proposes to thegirl for my Fablehaven hc’s, but for them… yes.)

20. Kendra sings to herselfwhile she’s doing things. Bracken loves listening to her. It always brings a smileto his face.

Kendra lifted a beautiful circlet out of the water, wrought of a metal like radiant silver and inlaid with pristine gems, including a large white jewel in the front. The details were exquisite, the circlet formed by multiple strands in a perfect simulation of woven vines. Kendra knew instinctively that she had never held an object nearly as valuable.

My crown, the Fairy Queen explained.

I grab feminine Bracken and shake him in front of u, begging u to understand my vision.

Prompt: Make a short comic from the book

Reminder - Brackendra day will be upon us shortly! :)

Winter solstice: December 21, 2020

Words: Inspire, Gondola, Dance, Statuesque

Colors: Pink, Sky Blue, Silver, Mint Green

“What have I told you about listening to your instincts more? It’s smart. Do it.”

“How have you possibly survived this long?”

“I won’t stay long. I just had to see you.”