I need Lambert/Milena in a Shrek AU.
Just imagine with me:
Duke de Roggeven insults a powerful wizard (we all know he would - he'd be lucky if it was only ONE) who then curses his daughters. All three of them.
(ETA: he pissed off Yennefer. Probably insulted her mixed elven heritage and/or her inability to have kids, so she went "alright. Let's see how you feel when YOUR daughters are inhuman and infertile monsters.")
By night, each of them transforms into a different non-human humanoid: Marta is a succubus (all her lust for power and a crown turned into a different kind of lust - and we'll pretend that succubi *can* live without sex, but they feel sick and hungry the whole time), Marika is an elf (still elegant and pretty, but inhuman enough to shock everyone - Marika didn't piss off Yennefer), and Milena is a witcher (Yennefer saw her strength and kindness and went "this suits you.")
Marta, of course, spends the entire time being FURIOUS at being some "sex obsessed half goat! I am the daughter of a DUKE! The ELDEST DAUGHTER! How dare she!" Marika isn't happy, per se, but she privately goes "it could be a LOT worse. I'll take it." Milena actually enjoys her new abilities - she's so strong! Her senses are much sharper! - and the eyes are rather pretty.
After being COMPLETELY HORRIFIED that his daughters (well, mostly Marta) are cursed to become non-humans by night, Duke de Roggeven locks them in a castle guarded by a dragon and then pretends that he's sent them abroad to stay with distant relatives.
Meanwhile, Marta is getting on EVERYONE'S last nerve with her constant bitching, Marika is trying to keep their lifestyle as pleasant as possible, and Milena...
Milena befriends the dragon. She thinks Villentretenmerth is fascinating, and when she learns that the three ladies who showed up to help the sisters are also dragons, she wants to learn as much as they can teach her.
(Marta refuses to acknowledge any of them. "I will not consort with beasts," she sniffs hautily, and locks herself in a private bedroom every night before sunset.)
So! Back in Redania, Duke de Roggeven has convinced everyone that Yennefer's line about "whoever breaks the curse will gain a treasure greater than gold or gems" means that they can gain literal treasure (and/or magical treasure) by rescuing and marrying his daughters, and not - to take an example COMPLETELY at random - their true love as a bride.
(Yes, true love is the cure. Of course it is.)
So the asshole king of Kaedwen hears about the supposed princess and holds a huge tournament - and Lambert shows up because "that fucker dumped a bunch of refugees in our mountains, the fucking bastard. Who does that?!"
Jaskier, being one of the refugees - and also a bard who can sense the potential for a good story - insists on coming with him. They 100% do the "Donkey won't stop singing until Shrek snaps at him to shut up - and then he hums" scene.
About five times.
(Geralt and Eskel either stayed home to help Vesemir manage the refugees or hang around the Kaedweni court to remind the king of his promise - and make sure he doesn't get any even WORSE ideas.)
(Lambert REFUSED to stay in Kaer Morhen when Vesemir was being bossy - "I get enough of him riding my damn ass during fucking winter, NO GODSDAMNED WAY." And his brothers very sensibly refused to let him stay in court longer than absolutely necessary because, uh, they've MET Lambert and they know exactly how badly it would go. So he gets rescue duty by default. At least the princess will be happy to get to Ard Carraigh and away from him. They send Jaskier with him to try to temper some of his, uh, Lambert-ness.)
Anyway! Lambert and Jaskier arrive at the tumbledown castle guarded by a dragon, and Jaskier is immediately like "oh how wonderful! How majestic! Look at that wingspan!" And Lambert is like "...remember how we're here to fight the bastard? We have to GET PAST HIM to rescue whatever noble bint got stuck out here."
Jaskier pouts.
Villentretenmerth finds all this terribly amusing, especially since he recognizes a witcher when he sees one. So he sticks his nose in their camp and asks (rumbles) "what makes you think that even a witcher can defeat the greatest and oldest of dragonkind?"
So Jaskier introduces them - as dramatically and fancily as possible - and states that they are here to rescue the princess.
Milena creeps out from Villentretenmerth's wing. "We are the daughters of the Duke de Roggeven, and there are three of us. I hope you will still take us home?"
Villentretenmerth sighs. This girl. Always getting underfoot. "I will let you take the ladies with you - but you must convince them to leave freely. If they refuse - now or later - I will take them back."
"He sent THREE girls to some remote fucking castle? Fucker. Yeah, I'll take you all. Jask, let's find 'em and get out of here."
So Milena leads them up to the tallest tower where her sisters spend their day. I can't decide if I want Marta to do the whole "sleeping beauty waiting for a kiss" thing (assuming that JASKIER is her princely rescuer and Lambert is just there as a guard.) If she does, she'll get a rude surprise when Lambert shakes her awake and tells her to pack anything she's taking with her, they're LEAVING.
So the guys get the ladies and lead them out - pretending to ignore the hissing and squabbling that said ladies are doing behind the men's backs - and are unhappily surprised AGAIN because not only are their rescuer(s) NOT a prince and his retinue, they don't even have HORSES.
The dragons, of course, are watching this with amusement...and no little relief at getting rid of Miss Complainer the Eldest.
I'm gonna say it takes less than two days for Marta and Lambert to have a truly nasty fight. She wants a horse. A private carriage, really, but she'll SETTLE for a horse. Purebred, obviously. And fashionable new dresses, and BATHS, and food cooked in an actual KITCHEN, and a private bedroom from sundown to sunrise, and...
Lambert is just like "look lady, I don't get any reward until I deliver you, I don't have the coin for any of that, and I wouldn't waste on stupid fucking luxuries if I did."
This does not go over well. At all. There are very angry words shouted about his lack of preparation, decorum, breeding, proper dress...the list is endless.
Lambert gives exactly zero shits.
Milena is watching the fight with interest - she finds him FASCINATING - and Marika is mostly trying to stay out of it. She agrees with Marta on most of the points - their tower-castle was reasonably comfortable, certainly more so than this long hike back to civilization - but also, freedom.
If only they were returning home instead of to a strange country...
Which is about when Villentretenmerth - as the human Borsch - walks into their camp, accompanied by the three dragon woman who have been tending to the sisters. "Marchionesses. Wolf. Bard. I warned you I would take the ladies back if they wished to leave your company."
"The TOWER is better than staying with this BARBARIAN," Marta sniffs. "And Father arranged for marriages for Marika and I already!"
(She knows she gets the crown prince - and she knows that Kaedwen's king is a murderous asshole. Being queen doesn't count if she's not alive to enjoy it...and she won't have allies there to help her plot regicide. She's ambitious, not stupid.)
Somehow, it works out that Borsch and his friends take Marta and Marika back while Lambert and Jaskier continue to Kaedwen with Milena. There is ABSOLUTELY a scene where Lambert is out hunting when bandits try to attack the supposedly unguarded noblewoman and bard, and Milena thoroughly kicks their ass.
Lambert runs back just in time to be HELLA aroused impressed at Milena. Jaskier is already composing an ode to her.
They arrive at Ard Carraigh. Stuck up knights send for the king, who pretends he's a decent person long enough to carry Milena off on a fancy horse. Half an hour later, just as Lambert is moping about losing his new friend, his brothers arrive and go "quick, where's the lady? We have to get out her out of here!"
A very confusing but short explanation-argument later, Eskel and Geralt are chasing after Lambert as he storms the royal palace BY HIMSELF, because like hell will he leave Milena to that monster!
The confrontation is absolutely the most dramatic thing Ard Carraigh has seen in decades, with the witchers storming in just after Milena is crowned but before she can kiss her new husband...
...whom Lambert immediately punches in the face. "HOW MANY WOMEN HAVE YOU KILLED?!? HOW MANY, ASSHOLE? Did you even bother to COUNT THEM?"
Everyone gasps. Eskel and Geralt keep the guards back with drawn swords.
"NO MORE! I *WILL NOT* let you murder Milena for your sick fucking games!"
The king tries to splutter something, but Lambert takes his head off before he can get it out.
And then the sun sets.
And Milena...changes.
Scars from her training with the dragons, greater muscles than any noblewoman should have, and her eyes...
She shrieks - not at the king's death or the witchers' violence, but at her own secret coming out. She's hidden it for so long, and so carefully...she'll never survive this. The Kaedweni court will turn her out, if they don't execute her with her (very briefly) husband -
And then Lambert takes her hand.
"Milena? Are you...okay? Did they hurt you? What happened?"
"I'm CURSED! My sisters and I are cursed - for years now!"
He looks at her. "Y'look fine to me. It suits you."
"Really?"
"I wouldn't lie to you. Never have, never will. And I think you look - good. Really good. The dress is kinda silly - "
Milena giggles. She thought the same thing, when her maids were lacing and buttoning her into the massive thing.
"But YOU are gorgeous. Always have been."
"You still like me? Even..."
"As mutated and scarred up as I am? I'd have to be a fool not to. You're the bravest, strongest, most amazing woman I've ever met."
And she kisses him. She has to, can't hold it back.
(Cue the curse breaking - and leaving her as a witcher.)
Obviously there's cleanup, but Milena IS the queen, and is suddenly betrothed to the man who killed the murderous previous king - so it works out.
And then Villentretenmerth comes back.
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Continued Wolflord Lambert Shrek AU
(now with less Shrek crossovers)
So initially I thought Marika would be in charge after Lambert and his impromptu witcher army goes to save her (and y'know, also gut Velen), but I'd forgotten my previous idea for her.
So rather like in the Accidental Warlord AU (from which I am shamelessly ripping SO MUCH), Marika finds herself and her family horribly shamed after the disaster that her sister causes.
(Getting herself and the crown prince - her new husband - both turned into sex demons is a different kind of "you can't come back from that" than plotting to kidnap and torture the Warlord's consort, right hand, and sister-in-law, but...same effect.)
So Marika turns to her younger sister for help. While in her sister's court - however wild and uncouth, it is technically a court - Marika meets some of the nonhumans that the previous and unlamented king of Kaedwen dumped near Kaer Morhen.
Specifically, the elves. And their king.
Lambert and Milena are setting up an independent kingdom for the various non-human populations in an unsettled bit of territory in the Blue Mountains, and Marika finds Filavandrel to be surprisingly...kind. Polite. Almost courtly.
He remembers the days when elves were more than a hated group of nonhumans - when they had their own cities and culture and life - and he is happy to share it with a young half-elf who seems interested.
(At this point, everyone in Kaer Morhen knows about the curse. The witchers sympathize with having her body changed without her consent, and Lambert's only reaction is to spend an hour yelling at Yennefer for "cursing the wrong fucking person! You don't fuck with someone's kids when it's their pissant of a sire who offended you!")
When the elves and dwarves and others have their new capital built, Filavandrel invites Marika to stay there. "I cannot promise a true court, as in the human lands, but it will be more decorous than the witchers' keep," he tells her.
It's only a few months later that they invite Lambert and Milena to their handfasting.
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