Turn Off the Dark

by Brutal_Harrier

Summary:

Eddie is a young dragon born living out his days in the darkness.

Steve is the only son of a lord blinded by his own greed.

~~Can I make it anymore obvious?

Notes:

• For helix_stomper.

Happy summer exchange, got this out a little later than I intended but I hope you enjoy it!! :)

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Things

It was said

There exists a place well within the deep wood untouched by the light of the sun. That land is known to its inhabitants as the ever-dark. For ages, the inhabitants of the ever-dark rose and slept by the unchanging cycle of the solaire stone. It warmed them, and nourished their plants, and lit their days.

 

But outside of the deep wood, under the true sunlight, there was fife, under the rule of the querulous Lord Farquaad who loved jewels of any kind.

 

Lord Farquaad had a son, a dear boy with the heart of a lion who glittered like gold, and this dear boy was heart-matched with his ever-loyal knight.

 

Lord Farquaad knew with certainty that with his loyal knight by his side, the dear boy could certainly traverse the deep wood and reach the ever-dark with ease.

 

But as soon as light-stained hands touched the solaire stone it shattered, shattering a part of the dear boy with it and leaving behind a dimly glowing egg.

 

In the dark

Council meetings under the light of Solaire’s egg were always the worst part of the day.

 

A bunch of sorrowers crowded around a cramped table squinting at maps, scrolls, and tomes in light barely bright enough to see your hand with your arm fully extended.

 

And right there in the center of the whole sad lot there was Eddie.

 

Eddie typically spent his mornings sleeping through to the afternoon out in the wetland. Once enough of the day was wasted he’d trudge through the mud out to where the dusk powder mushrooms grow. After which he’d make his way back home, use his breath to ignite his hearth, and sort his mushrooms into bundles until his followers showed up to hear his latest spun tale. Once the story well, was dried up for the day he’d take up his bundles and make a few deliveries before settling in for the night and doing the whole thing over again.

 

It wasn’t glamorous by any means, but routine is the best you could ask for in this land without sun.

 

But his routine was sadly interrupted on days where his uncle Wayne roused Eddie from his slumber long before he liked to join the land of the waking and ‘keenly invited’ him to take part in the annual meeting.

 

This meeting, like everyone Eddie had attended since the shattering, was centered around the egg of Solaire. Denizens from the far corners of the deep wood gathered together to go over riveting questions like, ‘Why did the shattering produce an egg?’ And ‘How can we entice it to hatch?’ And ‘Does it contain a new Solaire?’ And woe, woe, woe is we. It was exhausting and repetitive and Eddie was sick of listening to it so he just didn’t.

 

But maybe he should have, because perhaps if he had he might have been able to push everyone back towards reason.

 

“It has to be Eddie! No one else could pull this off!” Dustin, a young halfling, insisted from his spot next to his mother.

 

“Eddie can pull what off?!” All the eyes in the room turned to him as the crowd fell silent.

 

Uncle Wayne flicked him on the shoulder with his wing exasperatedly. “Really son?”

 

Dustin rolled his eyes. “Using my compass to follow the egg pulse. You know, just the thing this whole meeting's been about.”

 

“Yeah, obviously…” Eddie crossed his arms. “Uhm, why am I doing that?”

 

Hopper cut in before Dustin could get his rant going. “The egg keeps getting dimmer, and it seems to be connected to these pulses it keeps sending out. If we don’t figure out what it’s sending them to it’s possible we’ll have no light at all by year's end.”

 

”That’s why I attuned my compass to the energy of the pulse,” Dustin stuck his nose up, “you can follow it directly to the pulse’s destination.”

 

“And it has to be me because?”

 

”They won’t let one of us kids go,” Dustin sighed, “and you’re the only non-kid who understands how my stuff works.”

 

Eddie winced at all the pleading eyes directed at him. They all really expected him to follow a compass, wherever it led because it would ‘maybe’ stop the egg from burning itself out.

 

It was a bad idea, a crazy bad idea that was based almost entirely on luck and good fortune and they wanted to send Eddie to pull it off. He should dismiss it out of hand, it had enough stacked against it already without putting it all on his shoulders.

 

It didn’t make sense, and if they were leaving it all on him then the ever-dark was already doomed, and Eddie was opening his mouth to say exactly that when Uncle Wayne put a hand on his shoulder.

 

”We know it’s a long shot Ed.” Wayne gave his shoulder a squeeze. “But this is all we’ve got.”

 

Eddie groaned and slumped defeated. “Whatever, fine I guess.”

 

Thus Eddie was sent off with a compass to guide him and hope that it would lead him to an answer to the people’s troubles. He had no way of knowing where he would be led to or what he would be greeted with at his destination. The only certainty was at the end of his journey life in the ever-dark would be changed.

 

Chapter 2: Beyond the Wood

In the Light

Up on the sheer cliffs overlooking the common people there was his Lordships manor. It had a foundation of gleaming stone and walls of old oak. The manor was filled with glittering jewels of every shade, and shining trinkets of all kinds. 

 

That day, in the receiving hall, young Ser Steven was meeting with his father.

 

“Good Morrow my lord.” Steve crossed one arm over his chest and bent primly at the waist.

 

Lord Maximus Farquaad was fully immersed in examining a sapphire silver necklace, turning it over and over in his hands.

 

Steve rose from his bow and cleared his throat. “Lord Farquaad?”

 

”Now this is a stunning piece, truly befitting of my splendor. Wouldn’t you say so Steven?” Maximus kept his eyes on the necklace.

 

“It’s a fine piece my lord,” Steve inclined his head and waited a moment for further comment. “Was that… what you called me to the receiving hall for?”

 

“Of course not.” He finally set the necklace aside and picked up a paper scroll. “The scholars have something else they want to try on your curse, they wrote it all out step by step to ensure you get through the entire process this time.”

 

Steve took the scroll. “Thank you my lord, will that be all?”

 

”What else could I want from you Steven?”

 

Steve grimaced. ”It’s just that, you told me to postpone the petitions from your people yesterday.”

 

”I did, and you fulfilled that request perfectly.” Maximus had already picked the necklace back up.

 

”My lord!” Steve winced and adjusted his tone. “My lord, you did not say when the petitions were postponed to.”

 

Maximus sighed and set the necklace down again. “Steven tell me, is it the ‘petitioners’ who govern over these lands?”

 

”No, my lord…”

 

Maximus smirked. “And who does?”

 

Steve clenched his fist and plastered a smile on his face. “You do, my lord.”

 

”If there’s an unexpected delay in hearing the petitioners,” Maximus once again reached for the necklace. “Then that is a delay I am willing to abide. You are dismissed Steven.”

 

”….Understood.”

 

Steve stalked away from the receiving hall with his new ‘curse cure’ clenched in his fist. It seemed like conditions in the fife were getting worse and all his father cared about were the new jewels he kept getting his hands on. People were hungry, and malcontent, and sick of their working conditions and the only noble they could get their hands on was Steve.

 

In addition to that every new curse cure the scholars came up with was more undignified and disgusting than the last. Drinking bog water, bathing in onion blossoms, they’d even made him kiss a toad. But his mind just kept getting worse.

 

Steve shook his head and went to unroll the scroll containing today’s torture and found his hands empty. With a start he looked up at his surroundings and realized he had no idea which manor hallway he was in.

 

The walls around him were twisted and gnarled, the floors he’d walked since he was a babe were unsteady, and he had no earthly idea where he was. All he could do was stumble blindly forward completely overcome by mind bending vertigo.

 

It was truly odd this curse of his. It made him ‘directionless’, took away his ability to navigate, be it by memory, by map, or any other method. No matter where he was or what he was doing whenever the curse hit he was lost in every sense of the word.

 

”Stars not again.”

 

Steve turned his head and suddenly found his gaze locked on the distant edge of the deep wood. He’d tried bringing this up to his father’s scholars but they insisted that ‘the words of the cursed held only shadows’. But they also believed shoemaker oil could give a man his hair back so maybe that said something about how scholarly they were.

 

Keeping his gaze locked on the wood Steve was able to take a seat on the windowsill and let his sight linger over the landscape. He wouldn’t be able to search for his scroll, or even navigate his lifetime home until the episode passed so he might as well take the time to have a moment of rest.

 

In the ……dark?

 

Eddie would like to maintain that he’d said from the get go that this plan was misguided. But he’d put on his big boy tunic and set off on his ‘grand quest’ anyway. He’d stepped up to the plate and set off to wander blindly through the woods for the last three weeks.

 

It was dark and cold and with every step he took away from home it just got darker. With each passing day he grew more tempted to just turn around when suddenly he stepped into the daylight.

 

There in front of his eyes the whole word was glowing.

 

The grass was green, the sky was blue, the flowers bloomed in every color he’d ever seen and it was beautiful. It was all so beautiful that it wasn’t until a cloud passed in front of the sun that he noticed the town and the imposing manor house overlooking it.

 

The imposing manor house that Dustin’s compass was pointing directly at.

 

Jackpot.