open starter: m/nb, 21+ (age gaps welcomed) @indiestarter muse: Aislin Thornwyck plot: Every generation, Y/M - a dragon or an incubus of great power, or something similar - demands the kingdom sacrifice the second eldest daughter of the monarchy. The year has come again, and Aislin is the selected sacrifice…despite the great power she possesses.
Aislin stood in the center of the sacrificial meadow, looking around in a fury as her powerful emotions stirred up a wind, rattling through the trees yet barely touching the livening up flowers surrounding Aislin’s feet. “You won’t have a captive in me, I will not be afraid of you!” Aislin called out, her hands becoming dark as if blood was pooling there as she began to feel all the beings that had died in the meadow and surrounding forest. Every tree, every animal, and even some hunters and prior victims of the monster that was coming to take her away.
“Show yourself so we can work this out! There must be another option to appease you that doesn’t cost a life!” Aislin added, being braver than she actually felt. Soon, deer skeletons and mouse skeletons that’d become reanimated surrounded her protectively, chittering and looking in a specific direction as to warn Aislin that was where Y/M was coming from. She lessened her powers, hands returning to normal, and the animals returning to their proper resting places.
“You’re a coward! Taking victims of young women! If we run out, shall you take the elderly or babies next?!” she challenged the monster that was approaching, her anger boiling her blood. In truth, she’d known her fate for most of her life, and had delusional thoughts that romanticized it. Perhaps she could love the monster, and redeem them for the centuries of required human sacrifice they demanded. It’d be like Beauty & The Beast, or some other fairytale of a maiden and a monster falling in love.
Aiden had been keeping the surrounding area vibrant and prosperous for as long as he'd been here, it was simply a byproduct of him living in the area and having a prosperous hoard. So when he started taking the sacrifices it wasn't because he wanted to it was because they were offered and he added them to his hoard until their natural lives ended so that he had a companion and then he took them back to the sacrificial meadow and let them pass naturally. He wanted company and he attacked anyone that preyed on the weak and helpless, usually killing them in the same meadow so as not to contaminate his own home.
So when the powerful woman that was set to be his next companion started screaming at him and showing her power he approached slowly. Letting her expend her anger and relax before finally appearing. "You know nothing of me or what I have done for this place and yet you insist I am the monster. Did your little show of magic tell you that they all died naturally at the ends of their lives. The women I cared for and protected and treasured until their ends. Sure, many have died here when they attacked those who couldn't protect themselves, but that is all part of the deal I made to protect this place," he informed her simply.
"If you do not wish to come with me then don't. Stay away and hide. But I can give you a beautiful and long life in my company and care if you wish. You can use your magic freely and never be judged. Or you can go back home, no harm will come to this place and none have ever been forced to my home unwillingly. So do not call me things that do not pertain or I shall not be so nice."
