[He goes quiet and shifts, so Matthew is between his legs. They're too old to be so close; but this is like when they were little. They used to sit like this back then, too.]

Once, there was a beautiful queen, all alone in a glen. She was beloved by everyone who met her, but her father was a terror, a giant who could jump from Ireland to Scotland in one bound.

[This is one of their father's stories, kind of. This is something Niall told Declan on a dark night drive, and Declan didn't tell him to stop.]

And then there came a man - clever and cunning. He heard about the queen but he knew that her father could gut him and eat him for dinner. So he used a secret magic his father taught him, and caught her in a web in a dream.