"Children of Lir" by Emily E. Weichbrod

It took over a year to finish this...but I think it is finally done! Lir was lord of the sea in Ancient Ireland, in the time of the Tuatha de Dannan. He had four children. His first wife died while giving birth to the two youngest children, however, and Lir eventually married her sister, Aoife. Aoife became jelouse of her sister's children, however, and turned them into swans. They were cursed to swim as swans for 900 years, 300 years each on different lakes. To end the spell, they had to hear the bell toll for the new God of Ireland. At the end of the 900 years, a holy man visited the lake and spoke to the swans. Upon learning of the curse and how to break it, he tolled teh bell of the church and the curse was broken. But as the children returned to human form, they also began to age the 900 years spent prior and died soon after the spell was broken. This is ment to be at the point of transformation.

*Edited to fix contrast problems