Notes:
so this is a thing that i've been working on.
this is the prologue, and it's here because this story is quite a complicated concept and there are some things that you need to already know when the actual plot starts.
please bear with me. i will try to post a new chapter wednesday/thursday every week. and i hope you enjoy xx.
EDIT JULY 2020 - the epilogues (yes i wrote 2. one for each godforsaken year i took to upload them) are now POSTED!!!!!!!!! so if a fic rec told u somewhere that this story is 209k, that's without the epilogues. x
: prologueSummary:
Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.
(Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who's got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.)
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for .)
Chapter Text
When Louis is 13 years old, humanly speaking, his mother sits him down and tells him about the world.
She takes him aside after he's done bathing in the rippling spring stream with a couple of other elves and fairies. It's a wonderful day, really, wind clear and soft with sunshine and warmth, gently stroking Louis' honey tinted skin and nipping at his sensitive wings.
Louis likes spring a lot. He likes the way everything seems to be bursting with color, eager after being held down by the cold winter for so long. He likes the way the other elves and fairies' eyes turn brighter with enthusiasm and their cheeks turn the color of cherry blossoms when the snow melts away. He likes the way the waterfalls and chirping birds sound in the evening tranquillity.
He also especially likes to come with to the human forest on the other side of the hole in the big oak tree and play pranks on gullible humans. But that one he doesn't really speak loudly of in front of the grown creatures.
It is this oak tree, that his mother and he sit under when she explains how their world—our world— works. Or rather, worlds. How our worlds work.
"There are not only us and the humans," she tells him. "The nymphs and the elves, the fairies and the pixies, the trolls and the goblins, all the good and all the bad creatures in this forest—we are not the only kind apart from human beings. Our worlds are not the only ones to exist."
And Louis is unsurprisingly quite confused, seeing as he's never met or even heard of anything else, so his mother smiles gently at his furrowed brows, and continues speaking in a melodic voice.
Louis learns that there are several different universes coexisting, containing different creatures who are assigned different jobs.
Firstly, there are the Gods; the Gods of Olympus, the Gods of Asgard, and the Gods of Pantheon—but that's quite a mouthful, so commonly, they're just named the Three. Millions of years ago, they all thought they were alone on their grounds—that their empires were the only ones in the universe and that they held all the power possibly attainable. When these three suddenly grew tired of being alone and wanted to extend their powers and create a new world, and realized there were other forces right around the corner with the same abilities and wants, things got very heated very fast.
Louis' mother gestures vividly as she tells the story of the big war in the beginning of Time; the era where they had yet not served the title as Gods. She spoke about how there were three different willpowers from three different worlds with the same excessively short tempers and intense want of ruling, and how as the leaders for their own people, Jupiter, Zeus and Odin saw no other way than to fight in cold blood for their entitlement to create life.
So they did. They fought, and they slaughtered, and they wounded. It was an age where even Day and Night stopped occurring to hide away from the viciousness below, making the warriors lose the concept of time. They never even stopped to sleep, or to eat, and they did not even realize that as time went on, they were slowly killing themselves, rather than each other.
Two out of the three who later proved to put an end to the war, were Eirene from Olympus and Pax from Rome. The two of them shared the opinion that war and violence were nothing but awful things and refused to participate, and in that, combined with their intelligence and diplomatic reasoning, they found a mutual understanding in one another. They came to the conclusion that they had to stop this, because if somebody didn't, it would never end.
Eirene and Pax then went to find Idun, a beautiful and kind-hearted goddess from Asgard who was the custodian of Asgard's Tree of Golden Apples, in search for a way to stop the war. Idun, who was more than happy to help, told them about a place called Mímir's Well in her part of the world. She insisted they hurry to get there, because unlike the Olympians and the Romans, the gods of Asgard cannot only die from murder, but also from age, and time was quickly running out.
Mímir's Well is a place that, for unknowing souls, in the easiest way is explained as the Well of Wisdom. It was said if you drank the water from that well, you would be the holder of all the wisdom in the world. Idun meant that if they could get the leaders of the Three to drink this, they would surely come to their senses and declare peace.
There was only one catch; you see, Mímir's Well wasn't a free trade, it wanted something in return. To be exact, it wanted the eye of Asgard's leader.
So what Eirene, Idun and Pax decided to do, was to call Night back to guard the warriors for them during their journey. When Night arrived again, everyone on the battlefield immediately fell into the deepest slumber, just now realizing their absolute exhaustion. The three goddesses tip toed their way over to the sleeping Odin, assuring that there was in fact nothing that could wake him up. When they considered the coast clear, they opened Odin's eyelid, and they carefully pulled the eye out from its spot. They succeeded with bringing it with them all the way to Mímir's Well, offering it for a filled horn of the powerful water, they brought the water back, and proceeded to pour some in the mouths of Zeus, Odin and Jupiter.
And as expected, when Day poked her head out again and they all woke up, the leaders of the Three did not want to fight anymore, for they realized how pointless it was, their refreshed and open minds filled with ways of how they could make things work by cooperating.
After this, Idun became a symbol for both youth and knowledge, Eirene and Pax were appointed as the goddesses of peace in Olympian and Roman worlds, and the three of them had the worlds' greatest gratitude.
And so, Earth was made. The Three decided to split Earth by the two countries that would later be called Greece and Italy between the Olympians and the Romans respectively. These places were also named the origins of the two Godly worlds. Zeus and Jupiter were assigned heaven and earth, Poseidon and Neptune were assigned the waters, and Hades and Pluto were assigned the underworld.
They didn't want the humans to possess the powers of magic, as they were afraid it would make them too powerful. Instead, they created another world which they called the Village of Grimm where fairy-tales would originate from and where magic was allowed. The idea was that said fairytales would be known on Earth, raise the humans and exist with them in the form of stories and folklore—that way, even if the Earthlings couldn't do magic, they would still believe in it from an early age, hope for it, yearn for it. Because magic works that way; it must be believed in to exist. Grimm became the property of the Gods of Asgard, and as did Wonderland, where the human's imaginations and dreams would be produced. They also split the Greek, the Roman and the Norse godly empires into separate worlds, so they wouldn't have to share the space anymore and avoid conflicts.
Louis listens with wide eyes and chin resting in his palms. It's like a bunch of fictional stories, he thinks. A bunch of adventure tales about heroes and wars and missions, and he's so fascinated by it.
"But what are we?" he can't help but wonder when his mother is done talking about the Gods.
"We are helpers of all of the Three, but we belong to the Gods of Asgard. We keep nature clean and blooming, we help the seasons change in Grimm's Village and, if necessary, northern parts of the human world. We are myths on Earth and welcomed workers and visitors in Grimm. This oak," she nods to the tree by them, "is the portal to Grimm. This is where you'll go when you start working in only a little while. There is a similar one far on the other side of this forest that leads to Earth."
"But... can't we go to the other worlds? Aside from Grimm and Earth?"
"Well. I mean, I suppose we can," Mother looks hesitant. "But portals to other places than the ones we are meant to travel to cause mostly nothing but trouble. They only go one way, you see; when you've gone from one portal to the other world, you can't go back through the same one. You'd have to go and search for the next and risk getting stuck."
She pauses for the words to sink in, and Louis understands this is a caution; he is not supposed to look up any other portals. He won't, he swears. He might like pranks and games, but if his mother tells him something is dangerous, he listens.
"Besides," Mother continues. "There are few worlds that are supposed to have access to more places than their own; humans mustn't go anywhere. Not the ones in Grimm, not the ones on Earth. The ones in Wonderland are supposed to stay where they are as well, and the Gods of the Three don't leave their empires very often. It's their helpers who do all of that. The souls of emotions and nature and such. Like us."
"But mother, why have we never been to Earth? If we have a portal and we're supposed to go there, why don't we?"
"We also have certain restrains, Louis; us living in this part of the forest, we are assigned Village of Grimm, not Earth. Every helper's body has a way of adjusting to our environment to prevent us from causing problems in places we don't belong in. And do you remember what Earth does not have?"
Louis nods. His mother confirms his thoughts.
"Earth doesn't have magic. The only magical thing they have, are the portals, and those are impossible for a human to ever find. The creatures born in the Earth part of this forest, the creatures that are meant to help Earth, they are the ones who can still go there and remain magical. You and I, cannot. As soon as we'd go through that portal, we would take a human form, and we would stay so until we go back here. We only function, Louis, in places that hold magic. Without it we are useless."
Louis has to admit; this is a lot to take in. And he's quite disappointed, honestly, to know that there seems to be no way to meet any other creatures than the ones in the forest, and the humans of Grimm.
Louis would much rather spend time with someone from Wonderland, or Olympus. He wants to learn more, he wants to know and talk and listen, he doesn't want his mother's stories to end and he finds himself, to his surprise, desperate to achieve this knowledge in some way.
"Is there really no way to meet creatures, you know, from the other places?" he asks tentatively, biting his lower lip hopefully. "This is all too exciting, mother, I need to know more. I need to see it for myself—are you saying that's impossible?"
His mother is quiet for a moment, before she replies.
"There is one way."
And Louis' face instantly shines up like a thousand suns, wings fluttering excitedly.
"Oh, please tell me! How? Where? Could I...?"
"There's a school for helpers and the like, University of the Three, and it's built like an Earthly college. It's a meeting place for all of the Three's creatures that have connections to Earth or Grimm and are lusting for more global knowledge about each other and the humans they are to help and serve. Although it is voluntary. Many prefer to just stay where they are."
Many, in Louis opinion, are fools.
"Oh mother! You have to let me go! When can I go? Can I go soon?"
His mother laughs and ruffles his hair.
"You are still too young, Louis. But if you so desire, you may go there when the time comes."
Louis lifts a couple of feet above the ground, that's how happily his wings are fluttering.
"Thank you so much, Mother! Thank you a thousand times, I love you!"
~
When Louis returns to the stream and his friends, he's got a smirk on his face that says I know something you don't, and he's never wanted anything more during his sunny, idyllic existence, than go to University of the Three.
Notes:
comments and kudos make me smile :D
also if you want to be a beautiful, lovely soul you could always find me at my tumblr @a-bit-extraordilarry. i am extremely lonely on there and i will literally love you forever if you talk to me.