Claude’s POV

The war started 2 years after Claudette and I were born. The war between all supernatural creatures; the angels and demons, the dragons, the werewolves and vampires, the shapeshifters, and us, the fairies. I am Claude, first prince of the fairies along with my older twin sister, princess Claudette.

Now 4 years into the war, Claudette and I are 6, the age of maturity for us fairies. On our sixth birthdays, we start exhibiting our fairy traits—there are 4 different kinds of fairies; Nature fairies with green hair and green eyes, ice/ water fairies with blue hair and eyes, fire fairies with red hair and eyes, lastly, dark fairies, you can already guess what color their eyes and hair are—because me and my sister are twin, we are both fire fairies, taking after our mother, the flame queen. Since the moment we turned 6, many assassination attempts have been made. While Claudette and I were packing food and water, someone appeared in the shadows, they were wearing a maid’s emblem—a bronze colored oil, smeared across the forehead—we didn’t think too much of it and thought she came to help us. Her hand started shining blue, she was casting a spell, she extended her hand, revealing a magic circle, it shot out ice darts at us, making us fall back. We tried using our magic but we weren’t strong enough, one of the darts whizzed past me and I felt a twinge of pain as a warm, red liquid streamed down my arm and dripped from my finger tips.

My sister ran and stood in front of me, shielding me from the rest of the darts, but she wasn’t getting hit too, which was odd. “Good job, protecting your little brother.” I heard my mother say.

We watched as our mother battled the witch in front of us. Our father pulled us away and handed Claudette the bag of food we had been packing, “Claudette, take your brother and hide, go to the badlands, the vampires wouldn’t dare to go there.” Our father, the ice king said in a rushed tone, "Rogan will meet you there." he continued. Rogan is our childhood, our mothers were best friends.

“I love you.” My mother smiled softly and hugged us. We didn’t even notice that the battle was over.

My father touched his hand on her shoulder telling her to let us go. She pulled away, tears streaming on either side of her face, “Go and be safe, we’ll come find you when the war is over.” She said, casting a barrier spell—her specialty—on us.

Claudette pulled me away as soon as she was done. After a few hours of running, the red light around us diminished, telling us that we were out of her reach and she couldn’t watch over us anymore, but we kept on going. We stopped on the way to drink water and we used our powers to hunt. We got so close to the badlands, we could see it without having to squint.

We heard a voice behind us, causing us to stop in our tracks, “Now what are you two fairy runts doing all the way on this side?”

We turned to see who or what it was and my body froze, all I could focus on was the blood dripping from the side of his mouth while my sister rushed in front to protect me, shooting balls of fire out of her hand at the vampire that was already lunging towards us. He pushed past her like she was not even there at all, running straight at me, I could feel his blood lust enveloping me, I saw my impending death, my lifeless pale body, devoid of blood. I was about to accept my fate when my sister got in between us and she was bitten instead.

“Agh!” The vampire cried out, his fangs retracted and his skin started melting, turning into a tar-like substance and sticking to his bone. I watched him screaming in pain, begging for my help like I could do something about it.

I finally noticed my sister's body, lying on the ground before me, her ragged breathing scaring me half to death. I carried her the rest of the way to the hide out.

“Claudette, there’s some water and food here, I’m going to go out and look for someone to help.” I said but didn't get a response, that was normal because she was unconscious.

I went out of the bunker and walked around, tripping over stones and broken tree branches—the badlands are waste lands from the beginning of the war, it was a beautiful oasis where the dragons resided but I don’t know what happened, the dragons suddenly disappeared, I could tell which remains where waterfalls and the great big trees where the dragon used to fly around, I wonder what it would be like to fly around in the sky— oof.

I tripped on the root of one of the scorched remains of a great tree, I opened my eyes to see my hands buried in green of the leaves… grass? I looked up and saw a field of grass and a strange person laying on it. Though I sensed no negative energy from him, I still didn’t approach him, what if he was a vampire? I suddenly remembered how much my sister had protected me since before, she shielded me from the witches icicle darts, she protected me from the vampire and now I’m thinking of running away from helping her, shame on me. My legs started moving, approaching the strange man.

Levi’s POV

“Brother come on, we have to keep searching for the twins.” Luther, my little brother, whined as I took my seat in the patch of cool grass.

“Calm down, we don’t even know what they look like, I don’t even care about this war, I just want to sleep.” I said.

“Ugh!” He groaned, “What kind of prince are you?” he mumbled as he walked away.

I waited till he was out of sight before going to sleep, just when I was about to drift off into the world of darkness--where no dreams existed-- I felt a gentle nudge at my side, I opened my eyes to see a little fairy child, his bright red eyes staring at me intently, his hair that should've been red to accentuate his eyes were dyed black. I inspected the cut on his arm and instinctively licked my lips, feeling the hunger that I'd held back since the war started, well up in me. The little boy, seeing this, jumped back, I could smell the fear on him.

He stood up in front of me, clutching his chest, "P-please save m-my s-sister." he stuttered.

I ignored him and laid down with my back to him. He nudged me again but this time, not as gentle as before.

"Please, I'll give you my heart if you save my sister." he begged.

I sat up, intrigued by his offer--a fairy's heart is their most prized possession, they only give those up to someone they love and want to spend eternity with and he would give me that to save his sister-- I turned to him, expecting to see the same orb of red light resonating pure magic that all fire fairies had, but was met with a bright heart light that shone the different colors of the rainbow so vividly. I held it in my hand, feeling the waves of his emotions hit me all at once; His fear of me, of his sister dying, his overwhelming desire to save his sister, his desperation to get back home, to see his parents, I was feeling every single thing he'd ever felt since he was born.

I felt the fairy's hand on my face, it was wet. "Why are you crying?" he asked.

He continued to stare at me as I pressed his heart light back into his chest, "Only give this to someone you love."

"What about my sister?" he asked, worried that I had just refused to help but I was more worried that I could still feel what he was feeling.

"Tell me what happened." I said, "I'll see what I can do."

He held my hand, trying to pull me up but fell to the floor from the force of not being strong enough and I chuckled. I stood up and we walked side by side towards the badlands.

"We were attacked by a vampire on our way to the hideout." he said.

"But you approached another one so easily." I commented.

"It wasn't easy." he pouted. "Why do you have golden eyes?" he asked, "The only vampire I met had green eyes."

I sighed, "Much like fairies, vampire eyes tell our status, purple eyes is for nobility, green eyes are for pure bloods, blue eyes signifies half bloods, and gold eyes stand for-"

"Royalty?" he chimed in. "Wouldn't royalty also be pure bloods as well? What are half bloods?" he asked.

"I'll explain when the war's over." I smiled and patted him on the head, rubbing the black dye all over my palm.

I didn't notice it when we reached the badlands, I stopped at the edge while he kept walking. He realized that I wasn't by his side anymore and ran back to meet me, "Are you okay?" he asked, "I remember my father telling me that vampires wouldn't come here, why is that?"

"It's hot." I gulped.

I could practically see the heat emanating from the ground, if I took one step, I'd burn to death. He held me hand and pulled me before I could say anything.

"Quick, she needs your help." he pulled me farther into the land.

I was looking around and nothing was happening--I'd heard tales as a kid that vampires who entered here never came back, that was a lie-- I looked at my hand that was being held tightly by the little fairy boy. Was he protecting me?

When we got to the cave, I saw the barrier spell around it but he didn't seem to notice it and walked in with ease, probably because he was still protecting me. We went deeper into the cave and only stopped when I saw a red-haired girl laying on the floor and a blue-haired, older boy sitting next to her.

"Rogan!" he called out, letting go of my hand and running to him.

The blue-haired boy hugged him tightly, he noticed me and glared, a magic circle appeared over my head, pouring scalding hot water on me.

"Wait Rogan, stop. He's here to help her." he said.

The attack seized, I walked over to her and knelt at her side. I saw the bite mark on her neck and the blackened veins from the venom polluting her blood, I lifted her up to my neck to my mouth to suck out the toxins.

While they dressed her wound, I sat outside the cave, admiring the heat that resonated out of the earth, the dragons disappeared a 5 years ago, leaving this land like this, plagued to never give life again. I used to imagine what the dragons were like, big-winged creatures soaring the air, I want to fly too.

I heard his voice, snapping me out of my thoughts, "How come you didn't burn?" he asked.

"What?"

"The vampire that bit her, melted down to the bone." he explained.

"I'm royalty." I smiled.

"What's your name?" he asked, taking a seat next to me.

"What's your name?" I returned.

"I asked you first." he whined.

"I'm older." I teased.

He looked visibly upset and I was about give in when he spoke up, "I am Claude, crowned prince of the fairies." he stated.

I stared at him, unable to tell if what he said was the truth or a lie.

The magic circle appeared over my head again and I pulled him under with me, the water wasn't as hot but it served its purpose, the black dye washed away. Now I could clearly see the resemblance and I knew.

"What are you gonna do now that you know?" The blue-haired kid asked, "Are you going to kill him?"

"Don't be rude Rogan, he's my friend." he looked up and smiled at him.

"Friends." I whispered, it was the first time someone had said openly that I was something to them, "I won't." I said, rubbing the rest of the dye out.

I stood up and ran away as fast as I could, I saw my brother standing in the field, looking around until his eyes finally met mine.

"Where were you?" he asked angrily, "Did you find the twins?"

I hesitated, "No." I lied.

"Useless." he spat.

"Hey, that's no way to talk to your older brother." I rested my hand over his shoulder, pulling his body down with all my strength and laughed.

"Whatever, mother's waiting." he chuckled.

I looked towards the badlands from my room in the castle and I made a vow to myself, I would never forget those red eyes and that rainbow heart light. Never.

150 years later…