Red!

Pink please~ c: (just got up and started studying aha)

Oops, sorry about the ping!

This is Prince Patrick--the way he used to look.



You see, when invaders conquered the Land of Fiveoaks, old King Colin sold his life dearly in defense of the castle so that Queen Orah, a mage, could perhaps save their children with her magic. By reading a difficult spell from her old mentor's spellbook, the Queen turned her six sons into cobs (male swans) and bade them pick up their baby sister Sondra's cradle and take her to safety.

Patrick and his brothers eventually alighted at the home of a childless couple, who were charcoal makers. The couple adopted the foundling, calling her Svana because of the six swans who took up at the cottage around the same time, and who were protective of the baby girl, who grew up treating them as her pets.

When Svana grew up, her foster parents let her go to the market town alone for the first time, though she wasn't really alone because the swans went with her. On the way back, the six swans insisted that the young woman detour past an abandoned castle. Parts of the building seemed familiar to Svana. Finally, the biggest swan, who was really Prince Liam, her oldest brother, brought her the tattered pages of a spellbook. Svana couldn't read the spell but she could read the description of what it did, and she realized her six pets were actually six transformed human beings. According to the part she could read, anyone could break the spell if they wove shirts out of nettles, one shirt for each enchanted person, without ever talking to anyone the whole time, and then put the shirts on the transformed being or beings.

Svana took the book fragments home with her and resolved to break the swans' enchantment. She explained what she was doing to her foster parents and then set about it, though the nettles stung her hands. One day, Prince Hubert of the nearby Kingdom of Riverwest sees the beautiful, swan-attended woman while out hunting. He is smitten and tries to talk to her, but of course she won't. She refuses to even write, fearing that writing will somehow "count" as talking. Despite this, and despite her apparent common birth (and the fact that he's already engaged to Princess Lynn of Hightower, Hubert courts her and wins her love.

Prince Hubert's parents yield to his wish to marry the strange girl when they see how responsible and thoughtful he has become since falling in love, but King Albert, Princess Lynn's father, is outraged. He bides his time until a year after Hubert marries Svana (who keeps working on nettle shirts every chance she gets). A herald brings to Hightower the news that Princess Svana has delivered a son (a bit prematurely, since Prince Hubert had gone out hunting, confident that his return in two weeks would coincide with the baby's birth--oops!).

Albert's hired thugs sneak into Castle Riverwest and kidnap the baby boy, but are followed by the six alert swans. At daybreak, when the swans can finally see well, they attack the ruffians and drive them away, afterward taking up protective positions around the baby in the clearing where they drpped him. Meanwhile, King Albert, who has traveled more sedately to Castle Riverwest, to "pay his respects," is told of the baby's disappearance and immediately declares that the child's own mother has made away with it. After all, she's obviously a mage--why else is she engaging in strange crafts?

With Hubert gone, King Albert manages to preside over a show trial in which, of course, Svana can't defend herself. Unnoticed, Princess Lynn slips away and rides in search of Hubert. Meanwhile, the swans take turns checking on their sister, and it is Patrick who flies back to the clearing and tells his brothers they must save their sister from hanging.

Just as Prince Hubert rides up in high dudgeon, with an outraged Princess Lynn behind him, Svana finishes the nettle shirts and, as the swans fly up to her, she quickly dresses each one in its shirt and it turns into one of her brothers. Then Svana and her brothers quickly explain to Hubert and to each other what has just happened, and Svana learns her real name and who all these swans are.

But wait! There's a shirt left over. Patrick stayed behind to protect the baby. Alas, Svana/Sondra did not realize one swan was missing until after she had already spoken. Though vastly relieved to learn her baby is alive, she, her husband, and the five princes are grief-stricken by Patrick's fate. According to the book, he can only be changed back if he is changed at the same time as all the others, or if...

And there, the page is burned and unreadable.

Who will change devoted Prince Patrick back into human form? One of his brothers? His sister? His nephew, when the boy grows up? Maybe Princess Lynn? And how can it be done?

Wow I was afraid I was going to miss this, phew. Writing takes a long time. e.e

Yellow and Pink are full of sweet tea!



Blue, Red, Gold, or Green!!

WOO! Actual green this time please!

...*sips at my empty cup*

yellow again :)

red please :3