#sandqueen

This was the first time Death offered to refuse her gift to a mortal (it would certainly not be the last, though)! But in order to do so, she made Dream promise that he would explain everything to Nada and get her explicit consent!

Nada has been avoiding the Dreaming, because being in her beloved's realm and not being able to be with him was too painful, so when she saw him waiting for her in her balcony, she thought she had accidentally fallen asleep and into his domain.

She had not. Dream had come to the Waking World just to see her and make his proposition: an endless existence in exchange for his endless love and the protection of her kingdom from the forces above!

Nada, dutiful but also in love, could not see a single downside in this agreement. So, she accepted!

For 10.000 years, Nada lived, and under her immortal care, her kingdom survived the passing of ages! They did not expand, though, but that was of no importance. They were self-sufficient, prosperous, and more advanced than any other society that had existed and still existed.

For 10.000 years, Nada loved Dream, and he loved her back. They dated and got married. They balanced each other quite perfectly, and though they never ruled each other's kingdoms, their influence could be sensed on both sides!

As a token of his love, Dream gave Nada a gift, a companion that would always watch over her and be a bridge between their worlds: His trusted raven, Jessamy!

For 10.000 years, things could not be better for the King of Dreams and the Queen of the First Men. But then, Dream was captured.

His capture caused many consequences: Perpetual sleepless, perpetual insomnia and perpetual sleepwalking. Queen Nada, unfortunately, found herself a victim of perpetual insomnia.

The following 100 years were torturous and almost drove Nada into madness, but she refused to succumb. She had to remain strong for her people!

Dream was gone for 100 years, and for 100 years, Nada remained hopeful that one day he would return and save her from this living hell!

For 100 years, she waited, with Jessamy by her side, the one reassurance that he was still around somewhere and a reminder to remain hopeful!

When he finally returned, with modern clothes and a pouch of sand, but no ruby and no helmet, she thought she was merely hallucinating again, so without much of a thought, she batted the hallucination away in hopes it would vanish like all others.

Instead, she accidentally found herself slapping Dream of the Endless in the face. He was incredulous, and she was mortified, but soon, all those feelings were replaced with deep yearning and love!

They missed each other like crazy but Dream had much work to do. He had to leave for Hell to find his helmet, then find his ruby and finally start the reparations on his much damaged realm. Nada, on the other hand, needed to sleep, so he gently laid her down on her bed, kissed her forehead and crafted the most perfect dream she could muster.

Before finally fall asleep, Nada told Dream she had never once given up the hope that he would come back for her. She did not know that, but her words ended up saving his life in Hell!

Other important details:

Matthew still becomes Dream's raven because Lucienne insists he takes a raven with him in his journey and he refuses to call Jessamy and leave Nada alone;

Dream and Nada remain married so he never had any of his following lovers. He is still Orpheus' father, but only because Calliope dreamed about him and wanted him to be real, so Dream helped her with that. So technically, he is as son of Morpheus as Daniel Hall is :P But he does love Orpheus all the same!

Nada and Calliope are good friends, and the Endless Quen has a good relationship with Orpheus! She was invited to his wedding!

She has also met Hob! Dream introduced them after he finally told Hob who and what he is and felt more compelled to share more personal info with him, which include the fact that he has been married for 10.000 years to the queen he made immortal, lol!

Nada is still captured by Azazel (and Jessamy too, so she can't warn Morpheus)! Once Dream saves her and shoves the demon into the jar he offers to give him a crueler punishment, but Nada says that one was fine (she still shook the jar for some looooong minutes though, she's not immune to some well deserved retaliation)!

I'll be meshing this AU with my upcoming Protector of the Dreaming Lyta Hall AU (and make some alterations on my Retired Dream & Apprentice Dream AU) so they are all part of the same timeline. So don't worry, I will not widow Nada! (She will also play an important role in the Lyta AU)

Sorry for making you suffer with the insomnia disease, Nada, but hey, rules of the blog, if you're gonna become a main girl, you gotta get the main girl treatment, so you gotta go through at least some of The Horrors™🫣

Plus, I needed a way to keep some of her most iconic feats and moments, her unwavering hope and of course ✨️Le Slap™✨️ even if in a different context!

Oh, and I also brought Jessamy back cause bring girlies back to life and give them a brand new roles is straight up my specialty, lol!

Anyways, I think I covered everything, but let me know if there's some info you'd be interested in or if you've got any suggestions on how to improve this AU! (Soon there will be fanarts)👀💕

Once there was a beautiful queen.

[No]

She was very beautiful, and very wise, and all her people loved her.

[No, this isn't- ]

And the beautiful queen lived in a tall tower, and one day she looked down, and she met the eyes of a handsome stranger.

[No, this isn't the story]

And she fell in love with the stranger and she saw that he loved her too.

[This isn't how it goes]

And the next day the queen had all her men, and all her women, and all her people, and all the birds search the city for her stranger. But he could not be found. So she swallowed a magical berry of pure flame [no] that grows on a tree on a mountain on the sun [this isn't right], and the berry [scalding flaming burning inside of her] took her right to the side of her true love.

[This is not the story]

And she saw that he loved her too.

She saw that he loved her very much.

[This part. This part is true. It just doesn't make the rest better.]

And their love was strong and their love was true and the berry was burning inside of her [yes] and she knew that it was right [no], that it was meant to be [no!], and then they both

[no]

They both

[don't say it]

They both lived happily ever after.

The beautiful, wise queen, the ruler of the first people; the queen who ruled wisely and who ruled well and who was beloved by her people; and who lived in a high tower and was all alone and who had no man who was worthy of her; who looked at human mortal men and wanted more; who chose more for herself and will be paying for it for eternity [no! that isn't the story either!]; who burned with want and burned with love and burned with desire and then burned [no. no, don't say it]; who loved and was loved in return; who ate the berry of flame and was transported to the side of her true love-

And the man [he wasn't a man] with stars in his eyes, the handsome stranger who stood at the bottom of the tower and looked up at the beautiful queen-

Happily ever after.

They lived happily ever after.

[Really? Where? In his kingdom? In hers? Who had to step down? Who had to sacrifice? Who had to give up - their duty, their responsibilities, their people, their crown - for the other?]

She lived happily ever after as the Queen of Dreams-

[no]

He lived happily ever after as the King of the First People-

[of course not]

She lived her mortal life as the Queen of the First People, and she was beloved and wise and beautiful and strong, and worthy of her people, and worthy of herself, and worthy of her responsibilities- and then, at the end of her mortal life, she ascended to the Dreaming, to rule with him, as his queen, forever?

[If only]

Well why not?

[That is not the way the story goes]

Well what if it did?

[The sun? The fireball?]

Ah, right.

So they were living happily ever after but before they could fully get around to making that happen, they were spending some time madly in love as a mortal and an Endless, which is very forbidden, and so the sun-

[Yes]

The sun threw down a ball of flame-

[This is the way the story goes]

And then the beautiful, wise queen-

[Yes]

Her city was-

[Go on]

Her city was fully destroyed and she knew it was her fault and she knew she couldn't go on.

[Yes]

She knew it was her fault and she knew she needed to pay.

[It wasn't. She didn't.]

No, but she thought she did.

[So she paid with her life?]

In some versions of the story, yes.

[In this version?]

In this version she lived happily ever after

[No!]

Fine. In this version she died. And then things got worse.

[Yes]

And the man-

[Yes]

The man who was her true love-

[Yes]

He-

[Say it]

He put her in hell-

[He put her in hell]

And he left her there for 10,000 years and then he finally came to get her out-

[10,000 years]

But by then hell was closed and the man [he wasn't a man] was given the key and everyone wanted the key and the beautiful queen got kidnapped and trapped in a void monster demon to be used as a bargaining chip-

[This is the way the story goes]

And the man [not a man] outsmarted the demon and rescued the beautiful queen and they lived happily ever after-

[Come on]

She slapped him and then they lived happily ever after?

[Come on]

She slapped him really hard?

[10,000 years of hell]

Ok so there isn't a hard enough that she could slap him? But they're both willing to try?

[Ooooh, honestly, there's a thought]

She will inflict violence on him until he is worthy of her forgiveness?

[Will he ever be worthy?]

Does it matter? If they're enjoying themselves?

[Are they?]

Maybe that's the way the story goes.

[I don't think so]

He can't be worthy of her forgiveness.

[He can't be]

He tells her he loves her. She tells him to kick rocks.

[This is the way the story goes]

He apologizes. He means it. He cannot be forgiven [some things are unforgivable] but he apologizes anyway. She does not forgive him. She does accept his apology.

[Does she?]

Mostly because she wants to move on.

[Move on to?]

Her future. There's a big world out there.

[One that she cannot possibly be equipped to navigate?]

She navigated hell.

[True]

She navigated hell but she doesn't have to anymore. She is beautiful and wise and strong and brave and beloved and everything a fairly tale queen should be. But she is also alive. In the here and the now. Stepping over the threshold of the Dreaming into the rest of her life.

[And will she- ]

She just might-

[Don't say it]

If there's anyone who can it's her-

[No]

Yes. This is the way the story goes.

[Can it?]

Why not? The beautiful queen-

[Yes]

The beautiful queen-

[Say it]

The beautiful queen lived happily ever after.

[And the man? Her true love? Do they ever reunite? Even in dreams? Could that be the way the story goes? In some versions? Perhaps?]

Perhaps.

But the main story is that the beautiful wise queen-

[Yes]

The beautiful wise queen lives happily ever after no matter what.

[This is the way the story goes.]