A/N: This is the original version of In The Telling; mostly the same as in the Enchantments Contest, but without trimming necessary to get it down to 10k words. Some paragraphs will make more sense now, I hope. (and some will make less, but that's par for my course.)

Twilight characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. Fairytales belong to the people who told them first.

In The Telling

Once upon a time, there was a little house in the woods. Except that this house was not-so-small, and was, in fact, rather large. It had shutters on the windows, and Everyone knew that long ago, the house had rung with the laughter of children and the pattering of happy feet.

Then, one by one, the house went empty, went silent. Some said the House was haunted. Some said that they had seen a glint of gold hair in a broken window. Others said that they had heard a manic giggle floating in the air. But in all the Kingdom Princess Bella alone knew that the House wasn't haunted at all. Inside, there were two lovely sisters, who'd taken her in once when she was lost in the forest. Their names were Rosalie Red (even though she always dressed in all the colours of the rainbow except red) and Alice Wonderful (and she was Wonderful) and they were beautiful. Even her own mama wasn't as beautiful as them, and Queen Renee was the fairest in all the land! 'Or else.' That's what the Mirror said anyway, smiling, even though Princess Bella didn't know what it meant.

Princess Bella couldn't look in the Mirror, even though the Mirror was always nice to her. She thought that the mirror was just making fun of her, when it called her Beautiful. She wasn't anything like Beautiful, she thought, which made her name really ironic. She was most Ugly Duckling in all the Kingdom. She was all gangly knees and skinned elbows, and birds could well nest in her hair. She was nice to all the maids, and all the maids were nice to her. Most people loved Princess Bella. They even kept an eye out for her when she was going out on walks, and promised not to tell her father, the Swan King. The Swan King was so overprotective of her, he wouldn't even let her out of the palace. Luckily Jacob the stable-boy who worked with the King's hunting wolves always snuck her out whenever she wanted, and let her play with the wolves whenever she wanted as well.

Sometimes, when Princess Bella was feeling particularly brave, she'd sneak into the forest and visit Rosalie and Alice. She visited them again and again week after week, after months, years even, and though Princess Bella had grown a little bit and boys looked at her now, Rosalie and Alice didn't change one bit. Although people still called the House haunted and looked at each other in fright, Princess Bella didn't find one thing wrong about it. It wasn't falling apart, only looking like it was on the outside, or in a room that Rosalie and Alice couldn't use anymore, because the house was so large and they could only use so many. They cooked and cleaned whenever Princess Bella was around, and they probably had to cook and clean all the time they lived there, the house was so big. There were places that they didn't clean though, and when Princess Bella saw the size of the cobwebs, she nearly fainted in fright, until Rosalie carried her away.

Princess Bella turned sixteen.

Her mother the Queen had been planning to marry her off a long time ago, Bella knew, because she paid attention to her lessons. They needed to pacify the commons – oh, not the ones in their Kingdom, because the people of Forks loved their Swan King so – but the commons in Port Angels, just across the mountains. They were rising in rebellion against their King James, and her father the Swan King was worried that the unrest would force King James to expand his Kingdom through force, to give his commons the blood they wanted. And the nearest, easiest Kingdom to fight was just through the mountain passes, to the Kingdom of Forks. So the best way to turn King James' attention elsewhere was to marry Princess Bella to King James, so that he wouldn't attack Forks.

Princess Bella turned eighteen.

In less than a year the fighting was almost over; her father the Swan King was the best ruler that a Kingdom could have, and the starvation that followed King James' invasion into Forks was the worst that Forks had ever suffered.

The negotiations with King James had fallen through. He had come with an entourage to pick up his new blushing bride the week after he heard about the proposal. Simultaneously in the dead of night he kidnapped Princess Bella and launched the attack, slaying and conquering the whole of the outer provinces of Forks. But even as Forks lost all hope, their beloved princess gone kicking and screaming, then limp, on the back of a horse and war looming bloody on the horizon, He came.

He came as a Prince should, a Warrior with the Sun, green eyes blazing fury behind a black mask with gold stripes.

He came as a Warrior should, sword aloft, thundering down on his foes with his Wolf under him, cutting one of King James' Knights down.

A Great Bear beside him, they charged into the traitorous fray.

As the Moon went around the sky they toyed with his opponents, letting them feel the fear that Princess Bella felt when they stole her away from her family, and took her with Him, letting her sleep behind him as he rode. The Great Bear pacing him, his wolf took her past the villages of Forks, down a back trail, and to a not-so-little house in the forest.

The door was already open, and Alice stood in the doorway, anxious to see Princess Bella again. The Warrior lifted the Princess off the back of his wolf, scarcely thinking of her as he did. As he passed his burden over, the Great Bear shifted into a hulk of a man, laughing and clapping him on the back. As the Warrior ventured to crack a smile, Rosalie Red appeared in the doorway and fairly flew past Alice, into the former Bear's arms. The Bear took Alice's burden from her, kicked open the closing door, and walked inside. He looked like a father, and the Warrior was glad. He and Rosalie deserved this chance.

Alice had still not gone inside. When he met her gaze again, he was startled as always to see how deep her eyes were, how understanding of his pain. Go, her eyes said, and un-mocking, the Warrior went.

As his wolf trotted into town men admired him while they stepped back from him, women swooned even as they feared, and children stared wide-eyed, awed and unknowing.

"Who is the King here?" he called in velvet tones, and the women felt dizzy.

"The Swan King," Jacob Black, the stable-boy, more than well-built himself, the boy-next-door, everyone's favorite son, favorite brother. "Who is it who asks?"

The Warrior, with the stripes of gold down the mask on his face like the claws of a glorious lion said, "The man who has saved his daughter and will save his Kingdom."

All around him he could hear the minute ripples of confirmation and denigration, whispers and murmurs spreading out. His eyes remained fixed on Jacob Black, son of a blacksmith, stable-boy and Keeper of Wolves, until Jacob's eyes turned away. So reminiscent of a Wolf himself, he did not look down, but looked up at the castle. "The Swan King lies this way."

The Warrior leaned back against the side of the tower's railing, his eyes flicking around the room. Queen Renee was obviously distraught and King Charles worried, but both had agreed to his scheme. What else was there to do? King James, the lone survivor of his entourage, had fled to his own country through treachery to his own men. He had stabbed one of them in the back and used the ensuing confusion to vanish into the night.

Some accused him of sorcery, citing how he appeared to flee back to his Kingdom in the blink of an eye, but the Warrior thought it was more likely fear that dogged his heels.

"Citizens of Forks!"

Events proceeded quickly, the Swan King drawing hushed crowds as he told them of what the Warrior and he had planned. Sorcerers were gathered, and rejected, as their powers and knowledge proved unsuitable. They, instead of being angry, simply gathered their own resources together and contacted the one sorcerer who had both the knowledge and the power to pull off this implausible scheme.

His name was Jasper Whitelock, and folk said he was the bastard son of some god. He looked like one, tall and blond and blue-eyed, strong enough to lift a full-grown Wolf with one arm without thinking twice about it. But it was his knowledge of Old Spells for one so young that got him his name, Whitelock.

Whitelock twisted his fingers together in the Tall Tower. It was a Tower he had had the citizens of the Kingdom construct. The tallest Tower for Kingdoms around, it had no door. Whitelock had taken one white hair from his own head and set it to grow, and grow it did, branching out into a vine that dug into the cracks between the set stones. Jasper Whitelock climbed the vine with ease, watching the assembling crowds below. All along the Kingdom, all the citizens felt a particular urgency, to put down what they were doing. All the dogs stopped barking, the wolves and horses lifting their heads towards the Tower, wherever they were.

King James' soldiers felt an unfamiliar fear. When they tried to push forward their hands went numb and their weapons dropped from their hands. They saw ghosts, were plagued by nightmares and impossibilities. Only when they fled across the border back to their own land did the nightmares and impossibilities stop, and there they stayed. They stayed because of the brilliant sight that split the skies in the centre of the Kingdom they were trying to conquer.

Jasper Whitelock had climbed to the top of his Tower, standing on the open platform. He looked around at the citizens gathered around him.

"People of Forks."

His voice was soft, but cut through the noise of the crowd effortlessly. All people in the Kingdom heard him, no matter where they were.

"Your King has called you."

The silence in the square could have swallowed several dozen flies. As it was, even in the summer, the air seemed chill, and not a single sound was heard but the ruffling of clothes and hair in the sudden breeze.

"He wishes that you sleep," Jasper Whitelock said, his eyes scanning the horizon restlessly. "He wishes that you put down your lives and sleep for a while, until the Kingdom is safe from others until a generation has gone by. He wishes that you sleep, so that no more lives will be lost to King James' predation on the border, so that no more hardship will be suffered. I have the power to lay you down and protect you where you lie. But I ask: Is this what you want?"

The noise from the crowd startled him, his head jerking upwards at the thunderous assent. His eyes met King Charles and Queen Renee, their eyes passionate and sympathetic. He could not delay them a moment longer.

"Very well." Jasper Whitelock closed his eyes, his hands tracing unfamiliar symbols in the air.

He spoke Four Words, and Great were their Power.

The world went white.

The world went black.

When Jasper Whitelock opened his eyes again, all the Kingdom was encased in crystal. The people on the street were asleep, lying together in their families, content. The King and Queen were together, comfortable and smiling. All across the Kingdom, citizens sat where they were, sleeping with smiles and supreme confidence.

Jasper Whitelock used the last of his power to send him down to the ground, where not even the manure smelt of anything, anymore. As he sank to his knees, patterns of light flickering behind his eyes, he saw the Warrior break out of his frozen reverie and walk towards him. Jasper wasn't surprised. Not with this Prince, this Warrior.

The Warrior lifted his mask. Then there was just a man supporting him as Jasper stood, his knees weak.

"Jasper Whitelock," the Warrior said, "Is there anywhere you would go?"

Jasper Whitelock looked at the Warrior and said, "Has she been waiting for me?"

And the Warrior said, "All her life."

Jasper Whitelock said, "Then...take me to her." He closed his eyes, and the darkness began to rush up upon him.

Faintly, before he drifted away on the black tide, he heard the man upon the Wolf say, "Alice will be glad to see you."

Jasper Whitelock smiled.

Princess Bella never turned nineteen.

Well...strictly speaking, she did. But time doesn't pass, as people would measure it, in that not-so-small house in the woods.

Princess Bella woke up one day when sunshine shone in the window and hit her in the eyes. Rosalie Red was cooking breakfast and a Bear was watching Rosalie Red with warm eyes.

Princess Bella scrambled away from the Bear in fright, hitting her head on the wall behind her bed. The fright only worsened when the Bear turned to look at her in half-shock, and worsened still when the bear suddenly fursploded and a hulking bear of a man took its place.

"Rosalie!" the Bear cried in a deep voice. "The Princess is awake!"

"Well," Rosalie Red said primly as she turned to regard Princess Bella with mock-stern, laughing eyes. "You certainly took your time."

And Princess Bella realised that she was safe, truly safe, because Rosalie would never let the Bear harm her if she looked like that, and promptly burst into tears.

Alice swarmed into the room, all sorts of wonderful at once, and jumped on her bed, offering her linen to dry her eyes.

"Princess Bella!" she said, smiling broadly.

"Bella, please," Bella said, wiping at her eyes and hugging her first friend. "Just Bella now. I'm no Princess, because I was married off to King James, but I'm no Queen, for we never consummated our marriage. Just Bella, now."

Alice hugged her again, which was all kinds of wonderful because no-one had hugged her much before, and Rosalie smiled at the two of them fondly. The Bear man lumbered out of his seat and sat down promptly at the edge of Bella's bed, making Alice and Bella squeal as his weight launched the two of them airborne for a second. While Alice shrieked and pummeled the Bear man playfully, Bella watched him warily until he picked Alice up by the scruff of the neck and put her down gently, then took Bella's hand and kissed it.

"My name is Emmett," Emmett said, and Bella grinned brilliantly. She flew to hug him, because she thought he wouldn't push her away, and she was right.

"Prince. Prince Emmett," Rosalie Red emphasized from behind Emmett, smiling indulgently.

"Yes, yes, that's right my dear!" Letting go of Bella, Emmett seized Rosalie Red and spun her around. "And a right pair of fairy-tales we are!"

A groan from the other room stirred Alice from where she sat, smiling warmly at the three of them. Alice flew into the locked room that Alice had never let Bella into before. Itching with curiosity, Bella slid out of bed and tested her feet. They seemed to be fine.

The sudden uprising in squealing from the other room only drew her attention further. Even Rosalie and Emmett suddenly seemed curious, lost as they were in each other. Bella tried one step, two, and when no pain reached her, she fairly ran to the other room, tripping over the masterfully carved table as she went. Rosalie Red followed her, grace on two feet, while Emmett ambled after, dimples on his face flashing an easy smile.

The silver key for the door lay at her feet, and Bella unlocked the door. Conscious of Rosalie and Emmett's presence behind her, Bella held the doorknob and her courage in her hand. The door swung open silently, without a trace of a squeak. Bella prepared herself for horrors behind the door. As much as she trusted Alice and Rosalie, she had heard tell that bloody massacres had occurred in this house, a vast culling of the happy people who had once lived here. And...it was the one room that Alice never let her go in.

Bella screamed.

Along the walls in a long corridor hung rows and rows of human faces, wrinkles and all, etched into a permanent scream. Their jaws hung empty, without lips, teeth, or tongue, while their eyes were sightless. They hung limp, simply skin sacks...but there was no smell.

Emmett rushed into the room, wrapping his arms around her. He sniffed the air for a predator. Bella snuggled into the protection of his body, feeling safer, but when she closed her eyes all she could see were the sightless stares of the faces judging her, all the way down the hall.

"Jasper!" Alice's petulant voice came from somewhere up ahead. "You change it back right this instant!"

"Right away, m'lady," a smooth voice said to Alice's giggle, and Emmett released Bella from his grasp. Bella tried to hide back into his arms, but the faces melted away, to be replaced with tiles made of some kind of pearlescent material. Alice was sitting in a man's lap, her arms around his shoulders, almost directly in front of them. She smiled up at him. 'Jasper' smiled up at the three of them too.

"Oh, Princess Bella was awake? Alice, why didn't you warn me?"

"I did, you pig. And it's just Bella, now. You were 'busy'."

"Awright, awright," Emmett broke in. "We don't need any more details about what 'busy' means."

"Well, Bella?" Jasper said, looking up at her with a twinkle in his eye and a tug at his hair. "Will you forgive me?" He smiled at her. Then pouted.

Bella tried to look furious, but gave in, giving him a tentative smile.

"Yes!" Jasper said, grinning. "I'm Jasper Whitelock, by the way."

"Oh!" Bella said, sinking to her knees. "I've heard of you! You lived in my father's Kingdom, right?"

Jasper's face suddenly shut down. The life behind his eyes closed off, as though they were windows, flung shut.

Rosalie cleared her throat behind Bella, who was slowly beginning to worry.

"Your Kingdom, Bella..."

"Yes?" Bella asked with her heart in her throat.

When they explained the situation to her, Bella asked to be left alone. After Rosalie and Alice coaxed their men outside to 'talk' to them, Bella curled up in the bed Rosalie and Alice had given her the first time she had arrived in their house. Hiding her face in the blankets, Bella cried.

Alice came back into the house first, sliding between the covers to hold Bella. Bella shook and cried into Alice's arms, weeping fiercely.

"Bella. Bella, listen to me." With red rimmed eyes Bella looked at Alice.

"This house once held a happy family; a father, a mother, two daughters and a son. They used to play here, happily laughing and filling the halls with stomping feet. And though they're not here anymore, I think they would have wanted you not to cry. This is a happy house, Bella. Don't cry...shh, shh..."

Alice rocked Bella in her arms until, hiccuping, Bella fell asleep again.

In a Kingdom far to the West, the Warrior fought great battles astride his loyal Wolf. He searched far and wide for the treasures that might one day woo the love that his sister had prophesied for him. He found no love in these Kingdoms, only maidens who swooned for him and matrons who mothered him. He found treasures beyond price, in vast amounts; while he kept enough to keep all of his family in good health, he gave the rest away. His Sword, ever mirror-bright and sharper than a dragon's tooth, trickled gemstones with every cut, cleansing the lands far to the West of monsters foul and vicious. His legend grew yearly in leaps and bounds, until all knew the Warrior with the three gold stripes. Wars ended when he drew near; feuds that festered for a thousand years burst into the open and were cleansed from record, rebellions against usurper kings rose and were successful, traitors against rightful kings were scoured and erased. When the time came and ten Bandit Kings sent their 'Armies' of bandits against the Warrior, all seemed lost: Then the Warrior put down his Sword, and raised a Bow.

Streams of Arrows flowed from his Bow, a Torrent of Arrows, pounding and pummeling the Armies one by one. Thieves by the scores died, feathers pinning their grabbing hands to their chest. Murderers by the dozen expired, Arrows with razor-bright tips beheading them with ease. Rapists clutched themselves in agonies of pain, assassins drowned themselves with rivers of blood, highwaymen learned the true treasure of life: Life itself. And then there remained but one Army of Bandits.

The Warrior but looked at them, proud and tall, and they killed their Bandit King and rose up one of their own, a Merry Man, and melted away into the Forests of the Kingdom to the West.

The Warrior unstrung his Bow, and sheathed his Sword. He climbed on his Wolf, and bade the Wolf return home.

But alas! On his way home, the Warrior had not seen one thing: A Sorceress had him dead in her aim, a Sorceress who saw for herself the man behind the mask. It is one thing to have a Warrior – it is quite another to have a Man. But she saw also that the Man he was would reject her with ease. Much simpler, much better then, to trick him.

In the midst of night, a sylph flew to where the Warrior slept. The Wolf raised his head, sleepily, blinking yellow eyes at what appeared to be empty air. The sylph reached for the Warrior's food unhindered, touching three of the rosy red apples that He had taken from the Kingdom to the West with slender tendrils. The sylph coiled the apples up in its wind, and took away to its Mistress three golden apples.

When the Warrior awoke and drew his first breath of the chill air, he broke his fast with a hunk of bread and cold cheese before striding to his Wolf and beginning the day's ride home.

But though the Sorceress had planned on keeping him that day, no Sorceress can foresee everything. Listening to his instincts, the Warrior turned off the path that he had chosen the day before and broke through the bracken. And not a second too soon: a carriage enchanted from a pumpkin, an anxious Princess Angela riding in it, tore away from a nearby Kingdom, the enchantment fading quickly.

And so the Sorceress bade her time, and planned.

The Warrior made it home to the Not-so-small House in the middle of the Woods without further incident, plunging his unmasked face and ungloved hands into the ice-cold water of the trough at his home.

A sudden, shocked gasp had him look up, his eyes meeting a Princess waiting at the door. She was neither Alice, nor Rosalie, but her beauty was unmatched.

Under the shade of a maple tree, its leaves red and falling around them, the Princess took a step towards the Warrior who had saved her, their hands raising to touch each others'.

"Princess Bella," the velvet voice, raspy and cracked from disuse, croaked her name.

The Princess smiled at him, her teeth white and even, every part of her perfect to his eyes. She smelt like the fruits in season in the Kingdom To The West; the strawberries sweet in the bush. The Warrior smiled slightly, a crooked smile that he noted made the Princess' breath hitch, thinking that with Alice's vision, Jasper's power, Rosalie's will (and ability to coerce Emmett into digging soil for them), they might very well have persuaded strawberries to grow in their House.

"Just Bella," the Princess told him. Her voice was quiet, with a hint of vibrancy and abruptly the Warrior had no more idea what to do. He had never stuttered before...but he would if he attempted to speak.

So the Warrior unbuckled his Sword, and leaned the scabbard up against his Wolf's side. He pulled off his suit, smoothing the wrinkles out of the tunic and leggings that lay underneath, and let the Man take over.

"B-Bella," the Man said, managing to stutter only slightly, "My name is Edward."

"E-Edward," Bella repeated, and abruptly fell silent, her blush growing to tint her cheeks a charming shade of pink. Edward's heart skipped a beat.

They stared at each other in completely absorbed silence that grew warm around them, even as the breeze picked up and swirled a dervish's dance around them, spraying a spiral of leaves about them. Bella reached out her hand to meet Edward's, her smooth hands to his sword-callused palms, until they met with a shock, like touching too cold or too hot water, that tingled through their bodies. Green eyes locked firmly on brown, Edward changed his grip on one of Bella's hands and brought it slowly, excruciatingly, to his lips.

Bella hissed in a breath, but did not – could not – break away from Edward.

"Bella. It is a pleasure to meet you." Edward was still not satisfied with his voice, but at least it was better than a moment prior, cracking and squeaking like an adolescent fresh into manhood.

For herself, Bella could barely think straight. Her hands...she could feel his breath, hot and even, on her knuckles, but Edward did not seem to want to let her hand go. In truth, she did not want him to let go, either. She bit her lip, searching for words, then licked her lips, searching for courage. "It is...a pleasure to meet you also."

Edward could barely think straight. He was a Man, a Paragon of one, but he was also a man, and she was his undoing. "Bella..." he breathed, and let their hands fall. Chilled, he looked at her and was warm.

"Edward," Alice's voice from the doorway didn't break his gaze from Bella. Bella, though, turned away. Amusingly scorned, Edward looked up to meet Alice's gaze, startling at the compassion that Alice held inside her eyes. Compassion, and contentment.

"Edward? Oof." Jasper walking into Alice from the doorway made him smile. Jasper was groggy, as though he'd just gotten out of bed, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "I suppose you're the reason that Ali—"

"Not one more word."

"Yes, Alice."

Edward laughed. Bella stared at him blatantly, which made him laugh harder while a warmth bubbled up inside him. It felt good to laugh and be clean, after all the blood and grime of years of war.

"Edward!" Emmett barrelled out of the house, knocking Jasper aside and lifting Alice gently out of his way. He collided with Edward, the same Great Bear that fought with him to save Bella. Bella, he noticed, was smiling fondly.

"Oof." Edward may have been a Warrior of no little renown, but Emmett was himself a legend in the Kingdoms of the North, who wrestled with bears. The man who turned into a Bear when his loved ones were in danger, the Beast who was tamed by the beauty, and the Man who was cursed to be a Bear who saved the two sisters when they'd befriended him. He had legends written about him, Emmett the Bear. He was also very strong, and very heavy. Edward was almost knocked to the floor.

"Edward." Rosalie Red stood in the doorway, the beauty herself, her travelling hood slung over an arm. "Alice was getting beside herself – we were about to head out as a search party."

"As you can see, Rosalie, I'm fine." Edward smiled at her, his crooked smile, taking in the four of them – his family – and Bella off to the side, someone he'd like to know better...maybe for the rest of his life.

"CAKE!" Emmett cried, pounding into the house. Alice began to follow, her feet equally as fleet, when Edward stilled her with a touch on her shoulder. Laughing, Jasper and Rosalie followed Emmett. Bella looked at Edward with a broad smile on her face before entering the threshold of the house.

Edward watched Bella enter the house, before turning to look down at Alice, meeting her mischievous gaze.

"You knew. You knew I'd find her at home."

In Alice's eyes, he could read a thousand full stories, from beginning to happy ending, telling of contentment and compassion and joy, and family and love, before she reached up and patted his cheek.

"Yes. Why else did you think we made you dig the plots behind the house the last time you were home? For rampion?"

She turned and entered the house, little imp light and fleet on her feet, while Edward blinked at the door and groaned, rubbing his eyes. Minxes hadn't even had to rely on Emmett. He'd done it himself.

The scent of strawberry wafted out of the house, and Edward took in a deep breath. He wouldn't regret the work. No, not at all.

He turned back to eye his wolf, who'd already padded behind the house with his sword. Down the backwoods trail he gazed, as the happy sounds of a reunited family filtered through to him. Bella's laugh, unfamiliar but very welcome, rang out above the others, and he felt something align in his body. Yes...here was love. Here was family. He left his mask and suit in the grass next to the pump, (unwanted, unneeded) ducked under the lintel, and went home.

King James didn't give up on the Kingdom of Forks, but turned his head to other matters. Spreading his Kingdom out beyond the fast-flowing rivers on the other borders of the Kingdom, he conquered Kingdom after Kingdom, always sending an expedition a year to 'deal with Forks'. None of the soldiers could make even a dent on the crystal that encased Forks, and went home in failure to be cycled through the units on the front-line of whatever war King James was fighting that week.

But Bella had not forgotten the Kingdom of Forks either. Weekly, Bella asked Jasper whether he could restore the Kingdom of Forks to its normal self. Weekly, Jasper shook his head no.

"Bella, the Kingdom of Forks is still not safe. Besides that, the working to put all of Forks into its stasis drained me almost completely of my power. Being here with you all, my family, has a chance of restoring it. But it will refill slowly, if at all, and I may never get enough power back to reverse the spell."

Always, Bella's eyes would fill a little with tears, and Jasper would turn away, ashamed.

Two years into Bella's deliriously happy stage, otherwise known as Edward's return home (or perhaps more? Who knew? The time outside passed differently from the time inside the Not-so-small House) Bella opened her mouth to ask Jasper again, before Edward cut her off.

"Bella," he said. "Whether or not Jasper can or cannot restore your Kingdom to their normal self is negligible; he set a condition. He said—"

"'That when the Kingdom has been safe for a generation, that you will awaken,'" Jasper finished, rising from his meditation.

Bella looked between the two of them, beginning to radiate hope. "Does that mean..."

"It means," Edward said, sweeping her and her squeal up into his arms, "That after I rid the world of King James, you and I can have a baby, and when he grows up enough, your parents will get to meet their grandchild."

"How are you so sure that our child's going to be a 'he'?" Bella said.

"Well," Edward said, momentarily nonplussed. "I suppose I assumed." His eyes wouldn't meet Bella's, who was glaring at him. "Er," Edward mumbled, trying to find sympathy with his family. He found none. All of them were laughing silently at him.

After a moment, Bella tugged her arms around him, burying her head into his defined chest. "Please don't get yourself killed." She joked around, but was serious.

"I won't. Am I not the Warrior of the West?" He was serious, but joking.

"Bella," Jasper said from the floor, "He won't be alone. We'll all be going with him."

"All of us? I?" Bella said in confusion, going limp in Edward's arms. "Me? Hold a weapon? Jasper – you've seen how embarrassingly clumsy I am. With a weapon I'd be lethal to you."

"True, true," Jasper agreed, grinning at Edward's scowl, before handing her a small vial. "This is why you're going to heal us when we're crying for our mothers." He grinned. "This is the only vial from the Healing Fountain, far to the South. Only one drop can heal almost lethal injuries; it is in an unbreakable bottle, and no more than one drop can flow at a time. I figure that you could do this, Bella."

"Okay," Bella smiled and hugged Edward closely. "When do we start out? I want to see my parents again."

The day that six warriors took the field against the Cruel King James is a day that poets sing about.

They intone the saga about the Great Bear Shaman that transformed and thundered down to scatter an Army.

They sing praises to the woman warrior who filled the air with grey-fletched geese before she charged down beside him, wielding a sword longer than her arm.

They sing odes to the sneakiness of the Thief-Imp, little lithe fleet feet, dancing around soldiers with daggers flickering silver serpentia, in and out of chinks in armor.

They chant in awe to the power displayed by a sorcerer once named Whitelock, who burst thunderclouds and flames, sent howling winds and torrents of muddy water, slammed knights together and tore the earth asunder with his magery.

But the love stories they sing the most are of the Prince who returned in the nick of time to save his Princess, riding a Wolf twelve handspans tall, Sword burnished and glittering like diamonds, his arm a pillar of marble that guarded his Princess from all harm. And when that arm faltered from exhaustion and a sword slipped through, the Princess kissed him and dripped one crystal clear droplet from her vial, and her Prince awoke, refreshed.

They took the field from the Cruel King James, standing above the corpses of the Cruel King's army, triumphant and flushed. It was then that they noticed the Cruel King James, waiting for them with hatred in his eyes, directed at the Princess.

"Bella, I won't let him get you," the Warrior murmured, and the others all closed ranks about her. Bella doused them all with drops of the Healing Fountain, until the vial ran dry; she closed her hand around it and dropped it into the darkening grass, the sunset painting the field red with a deeper color than blood.

"Okay," she said, and stayed still.

"Princess Bella," King James' voice rang out across the field. "I believe we have a marriage to consummate." Beside him, his Queen Victoria smirked at her, and behind them a blonde woman eyed the Warrior with avarice in her eyes.

Edward unsheathed his Sword, and lost himself beneath the Warrior. He took off a gauntlet, and deliberately flung it at the King. His strength was such that the gauntlet hit King James in the face, breaking teeth. The King narrowed his eyes at the Warrior across the field.

"Am I to assume then that you want to challenge me, fool boy?"

"For the insult that you implied to my lady," the Warrior from the West said, "Yes. Now. With swords."

"Well, well, well. Princess Bella! You've found a boytoy. Very well, boy. Pick your field and begin."

The Warrior looked at the Great Bear, who nodded. Transforming, the Great Bear heaved corpses left and right, clearing a space to fight in. Meanwhile, Whitelock the Sorcerer had met the blonde woman's gaze. Careful, he leaned in to whisper in the Warrior's ear: "Be careful, Edward. That woman is a Sorceress of no little Power. Try not to make eye contact."

"I'll be careful," the Warrior replied absent-mindedly, donning a spare gauntlet that his lady pulled from his saddlebags. His wolf eyed him sceptically, and he smirked at it. It turned its yellow eyes away.

"First blood keeps the woman, boy." Edward seethed at the Cruel King's words, but the only sign the Warrior showed was to tighten his lips.

Drawing his sword, the Warrior stepped into the ring as King James did. They circled each other at the edge of the dueling ring for a while, eying each others' technique, preparing, analyzing. The Cruel King feinted, but the Warrior did not react.

In a moment, both saw a glint in the other's eye and sprang, blades clashing in the center of the ring.

The sun had almost completely gone down while the Warrior and the Cruel King dueled, blades ringing on each others' as they fought to gain the upper hand. The Cruel King smashed at the Warrior, utilizing great strength and reach alongside treacherous ways. He struck at the Warrior's back, kicked his legs out from under him, aimed for the groin. The Warrior fought honourably, but quickly as a cobra, weaving his blade into an impenetrable defence with silver darts of offence.

Whitelock the Sorcerer and the Sorceress raised their hands almost simultaneously, lighting globes of mage-light. But where the Sorceress' sphere remained steady with light, Whitelock's flickered, denoting his current smaller capacity for power and the power he had already drained on the battlefield. In the ring, the two warriors continued to battle.

Here: a chain link missing, the corner barely chipped away by a brutally beating back of a sword. Here: a strap snapped in two, from a cut swifter than the wind itself. Finally, the Warrior slipped up; his foot caught on a small rock in the middle of the ground and he lost balance for a moment. That slip was enough for the Cruel King to close in on him, sword raised to gash a long cut in his arm.

The Seer, however, watched in triumph as the Cruel King grew ever closer...closer...and then the Warrior whirled and flicked the tip of his blade across the side of the Cruel King's cheek, drawing blood.

"There," the Warrior said. "Honor is satisfied. Do you relinquish your claim on the Princess now?"

The Cruel King's eyes narrowed. When he spoke, his voice was no longer mocking even as the blood began to flow down his cheek. "Boy. I have changed my mind. We fight to the death. If somehow you defeat me, you may have the waif. But when I kill you – I will enjoy having your lady over and over again while your impaled head watches."

Behind the King, the Sorceress made a short, sharp movement, as if drawing a weapon, and the Warrior looked over at her reflexively. His head went blank; his muscles seized up.

The Cruel King barrelled into the Warrior, knocking him to the ground. Raising his sword, he drove the tip directly into the Warrior's armour above his heart, pushing down with all of his strength to get through the Warrior's armour. The Warrior, in his last gasp, cut deep into the Cruel King's side. Only the tip of the Cruel King's sword penetrated the Warrior's heart, but beat by beat the Warrior's heart was slowing.

In the last gasp of the Sun, the Warrior and the Cruel King lay locked in a steel embrace. The Cruel King was dead, at long-last dead, but the Warrior was on the cusp of death.

Emmett pried his brother away from his opponent, pulling out Edward's sword from the Cruel King's corpse. Queen Victoria dragged her husband away alone. Emmett lay Edward's sword by his side, rested his great paw on Edward's forehead, tried to look past the great blade in Edward's chest. Ever-calm Jasper wrung his hands, unable to heal his friend, while Rosalie found herself in tears, rolling silently down her cheeks. Bella had flung herself next to Edward already, holding on to his hands tightly. As Edward talked to her in fading tones, Alice rose from her place, dry-eyed, and approached the Sorceress.

"You can heal my brother, but you will ask for a price."

The Sorceress looked down her nose at Alice, haughty for a moment. "Yes."

The other four sucked in their breaths, turning to look at the Sorceress and Alice; the Sorceress was a Queen of their hearts, at the moment.

"What price?" Jasper asked.

The Sorceress, blonde with red tints in her hair from the setting sun, pointed at Edward, dying.

"I want him."

"Do it," Bella said. "I would rather Edward love her and be alive than be away from her and dead."

The Sorceress pursed her lips and blew gently into her hand. A seed formed. She dropped her handful to the ground. In the blink of an eye an apple tree had grown. The branches were ripe with golden fruit instead of rosy red - no, green apples. The branches leaned down to reach the Sorceress' hand, who plucked the apples off, one by one.

Stalking over to Edward with long strides, she gripped the hilt of the Cruel King's Sword and pulled. The tip of the sword, previously stuck fast, slid out of Edward with a small sound, and the wound abruptly began to bubble with blood.

The Sorceress bent with one apple in her long fingers, bringing it up to Edward's nose. As he breathed in, his eyes opened and he breathed in deeper. He opened his mouth and bit into the apple.

The wound closed with a suckling gulp, mending until there was nothing but unblemished skin. Edward took another bite of the apple, then another, and another, until there was nothing left. The Sorceress handed him another apple. He bit into it as he stood, standing without a trace of the fatigue that had plagued him so during his duel with the Cruel King.

"E-Edward?" Bella ventured, smiling tentatively.

He ignored her, his eyes filming over until there were nothing but grey cobwebs in his eyes where once jade statuettes would have vanished. "Tanya," he groaned, his voice liquid caramel, and took one step, then another, towards the Sorceress. The apple in his hand vanished in short order, and the Sorceress crooked a finger at him, leading him to under the apple tree. Bella, despondent, sank to her knees and tortured herself with watching the hot glances that Edward had only given to her before. As the leaves sank around them to form a miniature bower, Tanya shot Bella a triumphant glance, before she leaned in to accept Edward's kiss. Bella closed her eyes, not wanting to dwell on the pain any longer.

When Bella opened her eyes again, they were gone.

She did not cry. She had had enough of crying. Picking herself up, she oriented herself to face home, and began walking. The other four trailed her, as a line of ducklings follow their mother.

Where was he? Where...was he? A good question. Edward leaned up against an oddly familiar wood of a house, hand curling around familiar marks. It seemed as if memories were about to surface, bubbled as if they would, and just as suddenly sank into a mire. No, but a Man finds out more by doing. Edward pushed open the door, fighting the feeling that something was wrong. Shouldn't there be laughter from inside, warmth and the comfort of a body wrapped around his? Brown eyes and strawberries? But no, perhaps that was just a dream.

Stroking the apple tree outside, he entered the house.

Pausing at the door, he realised suddenly that there were two women waiting for him in the oddly familiar dining room. One had blonde hair, and legs that went on forever. No – too tall. One was childish, with black hair in unmanageable spikes. No – too short. Both smiled at him welcomingly, welcoming him with crooked fingers, enticing him to draw nearer. No...not them. Wasn't there...a third? His brain conjured up the feeling of a woman pressed up against him, head tucked into his chest, just right, just the perfect height.

The two women swarmed him, the blonde one's hand grabbing at his arm. No...too rough. The small one clung to his shoulder. No...too smooth. His mind, working overdrive, conjured up the feeling – soft palms on his with rough fingers, rough from washing dishes – one of the only activities they'd let her do. Her grip, her hands, not smooth, not rough; just right, just the perfect texture.

They chattered in his ear, welcoming him 'home'. The blonde one spoke into his earlobe – no, her voice was too low, too sultry. The black-haired one asked him what he'd like to eat, though her eyes spoke volumes of a different sort. No...her voice was too high-pitched, innocent to the point of mocking it. His mind remembered her voice; not high, not low, innocent but alluring because of it. Just right. Just the perfect sound.

Perfect height, perfect texture, perfect sound. Finally his mind obliged by giving him a picture of a brown-haired lady. A beautiful woman, vibrant with life. Beautiful. ...Beautiful. Bella.

Bella. Bella. Bella. Bella.

Edward rushed out of the house, his green eyes abruptly focusing again. He ignored the gnarled, drooping apple tree as he tore down the road.

He came back to himself, feeling muscles that had not moved in days twitch, and opened his eyes. Tanya was just easing the shirt off him, revealing the very bottom of his stomach.

Bella. Bella. Bella. Bella.

"Bella," Edward breathed, his first word, and Tanya looked up, startled. She let his shirt fall.

"Bella," Edward hissed, taking a step back from the blonde woman. "What have you done to her? What have you done to me?"

The blonde woman looked completely shocked, standing there with her jaw hanging open. Finally, she shut her jaw and narrowed her eyes. "Only what you wanted."

Memories flickered back to him, Bella's face shocked and sad above his, clutching his hands and pleading with him, "Don't die, please don't die, you promised me you wouldn't die..."

"I was dying, Tanya," Edward said roughly. "I wasn't in any state to make good decisions."

She looked taken aback, then narrowed her eyes again. "You rejected your precious Bella when you came with me. She's surely moved on with her life by now, found a new playmate. Perhaps...your precious brother, Jasper? Maybe Emmett instead. I'm sure that she'd find them—"

"Shut. Your. Mouth."

Edward dressed himself with short, sharp movements until he could delay no longer. He faced Tanya without much emotion, even without contempt. "I am not yours, Tanya. Find your amusements elsewhere."

Eying the window, he vaulted out from it, holding on to the railing and seeking purchase on the snow-slippery bricks. Finding a handhold, he climbed down from Tanya's tower, seeking a way home through the direction of the constellations. Behind him, he left a Sorceress stricken with fear, who with her enchantments all spited by the man who rejected her, slowly dissolved into twining pillars of marble and salt.

For twenty days and twenty nights Edward trod the snow of the Kingdoms in the North. On the twentieth day, his wolf found him shivering cold in a small cave. His wolf padded in, gave him a look of such mock despair that Edward laughed with cracked voice, and sprawled heavily across Edward's lap. Well...at least he was warm now.

For forty days and forty nights after that, the wolf bore him down past the Kingdoms to the North and into the borders of the Cruel King, until its knees were weak and its steps unsteady. The new King, King Marcus, bore Edward's arrival no mind, concerned with the shoddy state of affairs the previous King had left him. Eventually the wolf shuddered to a halt, looking at Edward with its gaze pleading.

The wolf had been a free creature once, before it ran afoul of Rosalie Red. Really, that woman was a danger.

Edward shoved at its side, and its exhaustion was such that it let him push it over. It fell onto its back with its paws making little circular motions at the sky. Amused, Edward scratched its belly and pretended to look away when the wolf glared at him. Rolling back to its feet, it assumed a fond pose before trotting off into the undergrowth. Edward stayed where he was until the last sight of a flashing tail disappeared, then turned around and began the long walk home.

With Alice's proud help and Rosalie's scathing advice, Bella birthed a beautiful baby girl without complications. One look at each other and Bella and Edward blurted out each other's mothers' names, the names running over each other.

"Renee," Edward said, "And Esme. Reneesme?"

They took one look at each other and both said, "Nessie," at the same time. They weren't stupid.

With zero pomp and ceremony, Edward took Bella with him to his family Kingdom. There, his father married them with pride in his eye, and Esme – and most of the Kingdom – fell in love with their King's grandchild.

Nessie turned seventeen.

Her mother had the beginnings of wrinkles in the corner of her eye, and her father was beginning to be slower than he had been when she was born. Both of her parents still had more laugh lines than anything else, and she had had a happy childhood with her four uncles and aunts, with occasional visits to her father's parents. All of them doted on her, and she tried to learn everything from them. How to chop wood, how to stable horses or feed the wolf when he dropped by, how to bake cakes and keep them away from Uncle Emmett, how to fight with a sword or a bow, how to keep Aunt Rosalie occupied with minor things so that she wouldn't pick up on the bigger things that she was trying to hide. Aunt Alice taught Nessie that one.

One day, she slipped out of the house. There was a curious longing in her bones, one that drew her down a path that her parents and aunts and uncles had never taken her. She didn't bring anything with her. For some reason, she had never felt the need to bring anything. Aunt Alice always foresaw what was going to happen, so she was always prepared for anything: If Nessie ran out of food, or got cold at night, Aunt Alice would leave food or a blanket along the way. She'd get the wolf to come back, and load him up.

Down the backwoods trail Nessie went, her bare feet digging into the healthy grass. At the end of the path, the wolf waited. His golden eyes stared directly into Nessie's, before he lay down, snuffling into the grass. Nessie wandered over to him, running a hand over his fur. For some reason, she had always felt drawn to the wolf. Perhaps it was simply that her father and this wolf had had such a close bond.

The wolf nuzzled against her hand, and began to get to its feet. Wary, Nessie pulled her hand away. The wolf's eyes opened again, then dropped back into the grass. Nessie blinked.

"You want me to ride you?"

Solemnly, the wolf nodded.

"But you've never let anyone else but my father on your back! Not even my mother!" Okay, so that wasn't strictly true, but...

The wolf eyed her again, managing to convey with one twist of its muzzle what would take Aunt Alice days.

"Oh, alright then." Nessie acted grumpy, but she was secretly thrilled. She'd never gotten to ride the wolf before. She grabbed a handful of pebbles to mark the way in to show her how to come back.

Swinging herself up, Nessie got her grip on the wolf's shaggy fur. With a leap, he was off at an easy lope, headed down a path that she had never been on before. Nessie leaned into the wolf, smiling into its fur. She didn't know where the wolf was going, but she wanted to enjoy the ride.

Far away, up the backwoods trail, Alice sat up with a silly grin on her face. Jasper, who had been otherwise distracted, sat up with a grumpy look on his face.

"What's the matter?"

Alice's smile, if anything, got even wider. "Jasper. The Kingdom. It's time."

Jasper scrambled out of their bed, already reaching for a shirt. "Now? These events are really convenient..."

"EMMETT! EDWARD! ROSALIE! BEEEEELLA!"

Doors slammed as the other four poked their heads out of their respective, coupled rooms.

"What?"

"YOUR KINGDOM! IT'S BEING UNFROZEN RIGHT NOW!"

Bella's eyes grew wide and Alice clearly heard the rustling of clothes from inside Bella's room. There was a pause, and then Edward stuck his head out of the room at the same time as his wife.

They both gasped, "Nessie!" before the sounds of clothes rustling redoubled.

Alice giggled, then started looking for her own best clothes. Wouldn't do to look shabby as the official relations of the King's new son-in-law.

Nessie rode the wolf, racing along the trail. Up ahead of them in a clearing began the glints of light, like sunlight dancing on the waters in her trough. As the wolf ran, the crystal walls began to get more and more frequent, until the wolf was racing through the centre of what had to be a huge city, all sheathed in crystal. The wolf climbed crystal-encased stairs and bumped a wall with his nose, suddenly stopping in place. Nessie jerked, almost hitting the wall with her nose, but stopped herself in time.

The wolf suddenly sat, making Nessie fall off. The girl glared at the wolf, who stared at the wall with peaceful indifference.

The wolf poked the wall again, this time nudging a nodule that Nessie hadn't seen before. Was it...was it a rope?

"Do you want me to climb the wall using the rope?"

Solemnly, the wolf nodded.

Nessie grabbed on to the rope, pursing her lips as she realised that the crystal wasn't smooth like she thought it would be, but rough and grippy, like the rope would have been. She looked up to estimate how high she'd have to climb, and nearly fell over. Wow, the tower went on forever.

She sighed. If there was one thing that her parents had taught her, it was just to get stuck in. Nessie anchored her legs to the rope, and began the slow crawl up the tower.

When Nessie was a quarter of the way up the Tower, the intrepid six were already halfway along the trail, no-one running faster than Bella.

When Nessie was half-way up the Tower, the six of them were in sight of the wolf, who was regarding them with a "what took you so long?" expression.

Jasper took one look at Nessie, striving her hardest to get up the Tower, and smirked. Plucking one hair from his head, he grew a gnarled staff from it. As his family crowded around it, he snapped his fingers and they were on top of the tower, looking out at the Kingdom of Forks.

Bella looked over at where her parents were frozen, content and happy together, and smiled herself, casting her arms out to the wind. Just a few more moments and finally, finally everything she had ever wanted would be true.

When Nessie finally hauled herself over the side of the Tower, helping hands lifted her to her feet. Nessie stood, brushed herself off, and glared at her Uncle Jasper, who was smirking unrepentantly at her.

"You...argh!"

"Yes? Do I hear my little monster speaking?"

Nessie turned away from him, refusing to talk. "What is this place?" she asked her mother instead.

"This?" her mother said, hugging her tightly, "This was where I was born."

"What, here?" Nessie and Emmett both said at the same time, then high-fived each other.

"No," her mother said, with a wry twist of her lips. "Here. This Kingdom."

"Ohh." Nessie looked all around her, taking in the quiet city. "But it's all...crystalline."

"Blame Jasper," her mother said, hiding a smile under her hand. Uncle Jasper looked indignant. "Why are you all blaming me today? Is it Pick On Jasper Day, or something?"

"Edward," Aunt Alice's voice rang out, high-pitched and demanding. "Did you bring it?"

Grumbling, Nessie's father got into his costume, still fitting perfectly into a skin-tight suit with a black mask. On the suit and mask, three golden stripes, like a lion's clawing, nestled in the corner.

"Rosalie?" Nessie's mother asked. "Anything to say?"

"Bring it," Aunt Rosalie said, quirking a small smile.

"Alice?" Nessie's mother asked. "Is it time?"

Aunt Alice closed her eyes, Seeing. "No...not yet...not yet...now. Jasper!"

Uncle Jasper was already tracing gestures in mid-air, summoning his power. Uncle Emmett placed two beefy hands on his brother's shoulders, and transformed into the Great Bear. Within his eyes power drained from him, until Uncle Emmett lost control of his Bear form, sinking to sit down on his butt. Aunt Alice pulled him upright through main willpower, trusting him to Rosalie Red's embrace.

"You're all kinds of wonderful, Alice," Nessie's mother said softly, and Aunt Alice smiled.

Jasper Whitelock bent his head, his whitening hair flaring in the sudden breeze. His four words, when they came, were a mere whisper, lost in the rising winds.

The world went black.

The world went white.

When Nessie could see again, a loud cheer resounded from the roofs, bouncing and echoing. Before the shout could die away, the cheer only grew louder, louder and louder until Nessie was bowled over by the force of it. Jasper plonked the staff down in the middle of the Tower, and all seven of them reached out to touch it. Jasper flicked them towards the King and Queen.

Despite landing almost at the bottom of the involuntary dog-pile, Bella extracted herself from her family to throw herself at her parents. Despite the wrinkles – Bella had almost more than her mother, though much less than her father – she grinned like a little girl.

Her parents, laughing just as much, enfolded her into their embrace.

"Mother? Father? May I introduce to you my husband, Edward," Bella said, and Edward took off his mask to shake his father-in-law's hand, raising an eyebrow when the Swan King glared at him protectively.

"And my daughter—"

"WHAT?"

"Charlie," Queen Renee said, "Calm down. We don't know how long we've been sleeping."

"Like I said," Bella repeated, slightly irritated now, "My daughter Nessie, seventeen years old."

"WHAT?"

"Charlie," Queen Renee said, "Calm down. At least we know now the minimum we've been sleeping."

"Aren't you the least bit worried that this boy knocked up our daughter seventeen years ago?"

"Listen to yourself, Charles!" Renee snapped. "'This boy's probably older than you by now." She ignored her husband's protestations of how that was worse especially because being an older man, he must be –

Turning back to Bella, Renee squeezed her husband's hand until he wheezed. "Why did you call her Nessie again, love?"

"It was originally Reneesme, but we felt that was too pretentious," Edward said, embarrassed. "It's the shorter form of your name and my mother's name, Your Majesty."

"I like it!" Renee said, squeezing her husband's hand tighter when he opened his mouth to say something. Instead, he went a certain shade of puce before subsiding.

"As long as you treat her well, I suppose it's all very well."

A side of Edward's mouth twitched upwards.

"Now go tell our granddaughter that we want to meet her."

Edward and Bella walked out, hand in hand.

A moment later Nessie stumbled into the room, her eyes more than slightly stupefied before she responded to the twin hugs that Renee and Charlie met her with.

"Nessie?" Renee asked. "Are you alright?"

"Grandma," Renee hid a wince, "I met a really good looking boy, just outside! Down in the stables. He says his name is Jacob Black, and he's really cute, and he likes wolves just like I do!"

"Jacob Black," the Swan King grunted. "A good lad. I trust his father. One of the best blacksmiths in the Kingdom, and a good advisor as well. Do you know, he used to be best friends with your mother."

Nessie's face contorted into a look of disgust. "Granddad I don't want to know. He's my age, not my mother's!"

"Well, technically," Charlie Swan began, before Nessie cut him off. "So tell me, Granddad, what do you do around here?"

Nessie turned twenty-nine.

"Edward," Bella said, poking her head out of their bedroom, white hairs beginning to streak her head, "I'm worried. We're packing, and the way that Alice is going around looking at everything says that this is going to be a final goodbye to our House."

Edward rubbed his head sheepishly. "I figure that Nessie'll need the House soon, as pregnant as she is with Jacob's fourth child. She can't fit into that house that your father set up for her, not with how rowdy the kids and pups are."

Bella went cross-eyed for a second, long enough for Edward to sweep her up in a kiss.

"It still scares me, how young my father and Jacob are now, compared to us," Bella said when she broke away.

"Will you regret marrying me then, Bella?"

"Never."

"That's nice to hear," Edward said.

Still lean and graceful, but distinguished now with greying hair instead of the bronze he had had twenty-nine years ago, Edward crossed to his Sword on the wall, taking it down. It had never needed polish, but Edward did it now, stroking the cloth and the oil over the blade.

"Bella?" Edward asked when his wife finished packing. He lifted her sack and carried it out the door with ease.

"Mmhm?" his wife said, leaning in to kiss him.

Edward started to say something, then broke off as Nessie stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

"Hi, Dad. It's nice to see you."

"It's nice to see to you too, Nessie," he kissed her on the forehead, then walked over to shake hands with Jacob.

Bella hugged her daughter firmly, then hugged Jacob. "Best friend," she whispered to him. Jacob, hugging someone old enough to be his mother and yet his age, poked her in the side. "Best friend," he whispered back, and pushed her towards Edward.

Bella picked up Nessie's third child, Claire, making kissy noises as Claire giggled. Claire's wolf cub, Quil, gambolled at her feet. Claire squirmed to be put down so that she could chase her wolf, and Bella smiled.

A final goodbye, huh. She went through all of her grandchildren, making sure to hug each one tightly and kiss them on the forehead. Edward, she saw, had been picking them up and throwing them until they squealed.

Finally, as Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper made their final goodbyes to Nessie and Jacob, Edward drew Jacob aside quietly. Bella stepped forward to hold her daughter herself.

"Mom?" Nessie asked, her eyes wide and sad. "Is this the last goodbye I'll get to say to you and Dad?"

Bella leaned in so that her forehead touched her daughter's. "I think so."

Nessie wrapped her arms around her mother and snuggled into her shoulder. "Mother...I will miss you every day I'm alive. Goodbye...goodbye." One of her tears ran down Bella's cheek, and Bella held her daughter for a little while.

She broke the embrace and kissed Nessie on the forehead. "Be good, baby girl. Be good to Jacob, okay?"

"I will, Mom."

Bella looked over at Jacob, who looked back at her. But all things that could be said had been said between them already.

Edward hugged Nessie tightly, talking to her softly before standing back.

"Goodbye, Nessie," he said, and Nessie looked lost, lost until Jacob hung on to her. Edward took a step back towards his wife, then fumbled for her hand. The couple took steps backwards together, like children in a spring meadow, to join their family again.

Out of nowhere, Edward's wolf showed up with fur as white as snow. He looked at everyone with practiced resignation, and everyone had to laugh. Slowly, turning away from Nessie and Jacob, Bella and Edward walked hand-in-hand with their family, down the backwoods trail and turning just before they hit Forks' main city.

Nessie waved and waved until they were out of sight, before turning to Jacob.

Sam, Emily's pup, rushed into the house, followed quickly by Claire and her brother Seth and their wolf cubs, and after almost a hundred years the Not-so-small house, which was in fact rather large, was filled with the sounds of children laughing and the pattering of happy feet on the stairs.

Nessie stared down the long, empty backwoods trail again, watching how the clouds of dust shifted. The sunlight played on her long ponytail through the shifting canopy of the maple tree above her, its red leaves floating to the ground.

"Jacob?" Nessie said, pressing her head into his strong chest. "Love me – stay with me forever."

Jacob looked down at his wife, and listened to the sounds of his children and their pups playing through the house. Happiness and joy, contentment and compassion; family, and love.

"Always."

The Woods of one of the Kingdoms to the East broke into a new clearing, where a river seemed to flow out of nowhere down to gather in a clear pool by the grassy bank. Edward turned to Bella.

"Here, Bella. Here is the last secret of my family."

"What is it, Edward?" she said, trying to see out of dimming eyes.

"This is the Fountain that my father found and only told Rosalie and Alice, daughters of his heart. He never told me everything about it...but then, I was much younger than they were."

"What is it?" Bella repeated. Edward was being very vague.

"Uh...I'd rather not say until I know what you'd say," he said, divesting himself of his shirt.

Bella glared at him, but started to make herself ready for the swim. She would follow him anywhere, after all.

"Do you know that in the Northern Kingdoms, Emmett is well known as the Great Bear Shaman? He's the subject of almost four myths from vastly different times. Alice and Rosalie are the subjects of about three fairy tales. Again, from several different times. I won't even get into how many my father or mother are in. Suffice to say that in one shenanigan, he lost all his clothes and had to make up a reason for not being in them somehow." Edward peeled off his shirt and Bella, even after all of their years, paused in her own preparations to stare.

"TIMBER!" the waters splashed everywhere as a wrinkled Emmett barely attempted to dive into the pool. Rosalie, greying at the temples, shook her head and dove in after him, cutting the water sleekly. Alice splashed Jasper with the water, who shook his head at her and forced the water back in a wave with his own powers. She came up spluttering, making sure to kiss him while taking him backwards into the pool. Waiting for the most opportune moment, the white-furred wolf slammed into the water at full force, making sure to splash the four in the water but keeping Edward and Bella dry. The four in the water laughed at the Wolf, combining forces to splash it.

"We have to be careful though," Edward was continuing, "Because this is the first time, once we both get in that pool, we can't have any more kids together."

Bella laughed at him, gesturing down at herself. "Do you think that I'd be able to have any more kids anyway?"

Edward leered. "Oh, I'm sure you'd manage."

"But Edward," Bella said, "What is this?"

Edward stopped and turned to her.

"The Fountain of Youth."

Bella stopped. Breathed in deep. Breathed out. "So after this...if we both go in...we'll be young again, but we'll never have kids again?"

"No," Edward said, looking guilty.

"Edward," Bella said fondly, reaching up with a wrinkled hand to rub his cheek. "You're giving me a choice to never have kids and stay with you only up until one of us dies, or to never have kids and stay forever with you. What sort of choice is that?"

"A bad one," Edward said, closing his eyes. Bella crooked an eyebrow at him, and lifted a hand to his chin.

"No," Bella said. "An inevitable one." She walked towards the pool, shedding her clothes as she went. Edward followed, his brain full of cobwebs. Even at their age, Bella was still beautiful to him.

Standing at the edge of the pool, Bella invited him in.

"In case you didn't get it, I want to spend the rest of forever with you, you doof."

She held out her hand to him. When he grasped it, she pulled them both into the water.

Lemon. Grape. Mint. Chocolate. Orange. Apple. Passionfruit. Fig. Pomegranate. Coffee. Cinnamon. Caramel. Banana. Strawberry.

Each gulp that Edward drank tasted different. He'd never been in before, after all, and his father had never told him anything about it.

Strawberry. Bella. Edward broke the surface, grinning like a madman. Still holding on to Bella's hand.

Under the water, Bella looked up at the sunlight and the trees and Edward, clearly delineated through the incredibly clear water. The light was strong. She closed her eyes and let herself float to the surface. Still clutching Edward's hand tightly, Bella opened her eyes.

His hair was messy bronze, and his eyes an incandescent green. His lips were perfect.

"Bella." Edward hissed, eyes bright with another emotion Bella recognised in herself. His voice was perfect.

Bella pressed her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, stronger than in years. He was perfect.

"You're beautiful," Bella whispered to him. "And I'm just an ugly duckling."

"No, Bella," Edward said, his eyes promising the world to her. "You've become a beautiful swan now. And you're always beautiful to me."

Bella knew that Edward would never, never make fun of her like that. So she believed it. And she smiled. Edward's breath hitched.

"Smile for me like that the rest of our lives?" Edward whispered, holding her tightly and letting them drift away from the splashing and fun that their family were having.

"Now and forever," Bella promised.

THE END