Fanfic: The Ninja and the Dragon-Prince
Sunday, April 13th, 2014 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveThe Ninja and the Dragon-Prince
The world is full of wonderful things. There are beaches with sands of diamond and seas so blue the sky weeps. Mountains so high that they may catch the wakes of stars. Simple flower fields that bring happiness to their beholders. There are soulmates and friends and lovers. There are candles whose flames may weather the entirety of a storm, be they physical or of the heart.
In the kingdom of Americana there dwelt such a wondrous thing. This wondrous thing was a prince, the little child of the King and Queen of Americana. As the child’s nursemaid screamed when she ran from his birthplace, he glowed with a beautiful gold light as he took his first breath. The Queen and King saw this and feared for their child, for there were any number of scoundrels willing to do anything for a prince, let alone a glowing one.
So the Queen and King took their little prince to a far-away tower and left him to be raised by trusted servants. They visited when they could (which was rare) and spoke via letters after the little prince learned to write.
It was a servant who first noticed the oddities. He had been cleaning the little prince’s bedroom when he saw a perfect handprint of gold on the crystal of the window. Then the cook who found a sapphire-set plate, and the priest who nearly fainted in shock when the little prince’s book turned gilded before his eyes. They told the King and Queen and the little prince became that much more a wonder in their eyes.
But gold… gold brings dark, sinuous whispers to the hearts of men. Sometimes things would go missing. Small things. A spoon here, a tassel there. Thefts discovered were quickly reported by the Queen’s ever-loyal advisor, and thieves summarily replaced by men with hearts of iron. But the Queen and King…
How could they resist? Their kingdom was on the brink of war and low on gold. He was their child, they reasoned, and the heir to their kingdom. How could he rule a broken kingdom when he came of age? Sometimes they asked their little prince for a gold necklace or a goblet set with rubies. Sometimes the asked for larger things, like a jeweled sword. The little prince granted their desires in secret and the kingdom prospered.
And then one day, during the prince’s twentieth year, the letters stopped. The Kind and Queen were frantic. They sent more letters, and letters addressed to the servants, but none were ever sent in return. In a desperate push, they sent every available knight to the tower far away. The knights were gone for a long time. Then they began to return, one by one, armor scorched and swords melted. Every knight gave the same explanation: the prince’s tower had been taken over by a dragon, and the prince and his servants were locked in the highest room, out of reach and out of sight.
Distraught, the King and Queen could do nothing. They dared not risk more knights, for times were tense between the kingdoms of Americana and Canadia. They continued to tell the people that the prince was well, to be hidden until he was ready to claim the crown.
Time passed and all was well. But they had a deadline, and it was drawing ever closer. The kingdom’s prosperity slowly began to wane without the prince’s gift. The people began to wonder if there truly was a prince living in a tower far away. Their wonder grew into doubt and question. Americana’s King and Queen needed their prince. They needed the dragon dead and the prince to present himself to the people.
They called upon their strongest knights and told them of the fate of the prince. They told them of the prince’s powers and promised they would be well rewarded if they could slay the dragon and rescue the prince. It was there that a quiet knight by the name of Etho finally learned the tale of Prince Nebris.
*_*_*
Etho was not a normal knight. Oh, he was a fierce warrior like all the rest. He was trained in the art of swordplay like all the rest. He could hit the bull’s-eye with a crossbow perhaps a little better than the rest, and knew a little more about things than the rest. But what really set him apart was the fact that he wasn’t actually a knight. He was a ninja.
A ninja spy from the kingdom of Canadia, in fact. He had been in the kingdom of Americana for many long years, slowly working himself into the trust of the nobility. The kingdom of Canadia had known of the strange circumstances surrounding the birth of the prince of Americana, so the homeless population of Americana gained one more small child. Etho grew up steeped in roadside scuffles and secret training. To a knight-starved Americana, willing to take even the lowest of commoners if they showed potential, he was a diamond covered in a lifetime of dirt, sweat, and blood.
But, of course, this was not common knowledge. So, to everyone save himself, he was just a normal knight who was perhaps a little better at some things than all the rest, even if he wasn’t a lord.
He heard the tale of Prince Nebris and knew this was Canadia’s chance. If they could capture the prince, they not only had one of the most valuable members of Americana in their grasp, but an infinite source of treasure as well. He left the castle early in the morning, before even the servants woke. Luckily, he could move quietly even in his clunky armor, such was his training. He knew he would need it. Against dragonfire there was little his light ninja padding could do.
His sword hung at his waist and his crossbow across his back, but his pouches were filled with all manner of weapons and tools. Anything and everything he could think of that might be even the slightest bit useful against a dragon. Even ninja didn’t know how to fight dragons.
He travelled through forests and over mountains until he finally came upon the Prince’s tower; and the resplendent dragon coiled around it. The dragon was gold in color. Each scale reflected light from the sun, sending patterns scattering across the distance between it and the forest every time it shifted. Its claws were wicked sharp and silver, gleaming as they grasped at cracks in the stone when the dragon sidled its way up the tower to peer into a higher window.
Now that he thought about it, the King and Queen only wanted the Prince. Canadia only wanted the Prince. He could just avoid fighting the dragon at all.
He waited until nightfall to sneak in. The dragon’s scales glowed at night, so he, thankfully, didn’t have to risk a light to make his way across the unfamiliar ground. He kept himself on the side of the tower opposite of the dragon’s great head, wary of those glimmering, moon-sized eyes. When the dragon’s gaze finally left the tower doors, he slipped inside.
The tower was tall from the outside, so he quickly set up the stairs, reasoning the Prince was likely to be kept at the top.
He was just checking his height above the ground (very high) through a window when one massive eye focused unblinkingly on his own. He gulped.
The dragon bared its teeth at him. “I never sleep. Good luck getting down.”
*_*_*
The dragon did not, in fact, ever sleep, as Etho was slowly learning by his eleventh escape attempt in two days. He had tried to find the Prince, to no avail, but the dragon was at the door every time he opened it. He’d tried to tell it that his only goal was to find Prince Nebris of Americana, but the dragon only bared its fangs and said: “You will not find your prince within the walls of this tower.”
His twelfth attempt was met with a fire so hot it burnt his arms, through the metal of his armor, at ten paces. The dragon hurriedly slammed the door shut with its tail and growled low. “Go to the second landing. There is a passage. Find it and you will receive aid.”
Etho, having nothing better to do and in quite a lot of pain from his burns, went to the second landing. Being a ninja and armed with the knowledge that there was a secret, he found the trick torch sconce immediately. He never stopped to think the dragon might lie. Despite clearly having many chances to do so, it had not killed him yet. It was unlikely to lead him to much further danger.
He didn’t expect to find a veritable crowd living in the walls of the tower. The physician, tending to his arms, introduced himself as Jsano, the Prince’s physician. When Etho asked if the Prince lived with them, he merely pressed his lips together and tied the bandage tighter around his left arm.
The Queen’s advisor stood over him as he tested the bandages. He introduced himself as Guude, raising his eyebrow at Etho’s lack of reaction.
“You know of me?”
“The Queen described you well…” Etho said. He didn’t mention that he’d recognized Guude from a sketch in Canadia’s spy notes, too.
The advisor told him of their lives after the dragon appeared. Usually they lived in the rest of the tower, but the dragon had told them to go into the secret tunnels on the day of Etho’s arrival. He ended by telling Etho that they still served the Prince to the best of their abilities.
“What happened to the Prince?” Etho finally burst out, frustrations turning his tone sharp. “Where is he? The King and Queen have sent me to find him, surely your allegiance to the Queen will loosen your tongue!”
Guude’s easy smile grew bland. “Excusing my words, Sir Etho, but I raised that prince from birth. I gave my allegiance to him many years ago. The prince does not wish to leave, so I will not let you take him.”
“But…” Etho considered his words. “You are not attempting to restrain me.”
“Sir Etho, I doubt even you could take a dragon where he does not want to go.”
*_*_*
A dragon. The dragon. The dragon.
The Prince was the dragon. Of course. That’s why he’d never find the Prince ‘inside the walls of this tower.’ Because the dragon was outside.
Etho wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry. He couldn’t complete any of his former quests now, not with a draconic, unfriendly prince with a number of fiercely loyal tenants.
He left the passageway and sank back against the stone wall, hoping for a moment to collect himself. This was, of course, not to be as a giant eye peeped in through the opposing window.
“Enjoy the story?” the dragon, no, the Prince, said.
Etho didn’t reply, lost in thought.
“I think it one my better pieces, really. Lies can be brilliant, but there is something to be said for the truth when it presents itself so fantastically. O magnificent knight,” the Prince named him mockingly, “you interest me.”
He ignored the Prince. I forgot… I forgot what they told me. This time spent among so many arrogant nobles infected me with their petty thoughts.
“I can see you have no wish to speak with me. Tough.”
Treasure all life. Forget no one you hurt, no one you kill, for they have those who love them and you must do their pain proper justice. All living beings deserve this. How could I have forgotten?
The Prince grasped the window frame with one mighty claw. “O magnificent knight, I have the patience of a mountain. You will not wait me out.”
Etho stood, folding himself into a formal bow. “Prince Nebris. Forgive me, I have not paid you the respect you deserve.”
The Prince recoiled, staring down his long snout at Etho’s angled position. “What? Why?”
“I treated you as though you were unworthy of my thoughts. Dragon or Prince, I should not have done so.”
Shaking his head, the Prince quickly withdrew.
*_*_*
Because Etho was faster than most knights and had a decent head start, the first of the rest of the knights approached the tower at the next dawn. By then, the people in the passages had reemerged into the tower, their temporary exile to the secret passages over with. They busied to reclaim their abandoned posts, restrained laughter floating through the halls and generally brightening the tower.
When the knight arrived, Etho was curled up catlike in a chair in one of the library floors. Prince Nebris’ head appeared in the window and he hissed. “You could not have warned me that more would follow you?” He disappeared again and Etho ran to the window.
The knight charged across the open field, his spear held low, deadly tip pointed forward. Etho could see the ridges atop the Prince’s head angled towards the knight and didn’t envy the man as his path was blocked with a line of dragonfire.
“GO,” the Prince boomed. “PRINCE NEBRIS OF AMERICANA DOES NOT RESIDE HERE.”
He punctuated his statement with a violent swipe of his tail, stirring up dust storms even in Etho’s library high above.
“YOUR LIFE WILL BE FORFIT, SHOULD YOU STAY.”
Americana’s lack of knights meant the King had ordered them to escape with their lives, if possible. The knight turned tail and ran. Etho did not hold any blame towards him; there was little point in a hopeless battle.
He heard the Prince grumbling and took it upon himself to ask, “Why did you not warn me away? You clearly knew I was there.”
Prince Nebris glanced upwards. “No has ever attempted as you did. I was interested.” His shifting scales briefly threw a patch of sunlight on Etho’s face, before it flew off to places unknown. “How many?”
“Twenty-eight,” Etho said, without hesistation.
“Annoying,” the Prince replied.
*_*_*
“You should stop calling me a knight, Prince Nebris. I am actually a ninja from Canadia.”
“It seems you have a tale, o magnificent knight. Tell me a story?”
*_*_*
“They would steal MY GOLD?” raged the dragon-prince, one night. “Every piece,” he snarled, “every piece, one of my precious scales. How dare they take it for their own?! They have no more right to that treasure than a thief to his spoils!”
Etho listened quietly, he’d always been good at that. He noticed the missing scale here or there, not enough to make a chink in the dragon-prince’s glimmering coat, but the light patterns were ever so slightly uneven in places they shouldn’t have been.
“I would burn their homes and raze their cities! I would rain justice upon their heads, justice for my lost treasure!”
No, you wouldn’t, Etho thought.
*_*_*
“Tell me, Dragon-Prince Nebris, how long do you intend to keep me here?”
“As long as I must. Your company leaves much to be desired.”
*_*_*
“I heard,” Etho said, carefully, “that you were not always a dragon.”
Prince Nebris snorted, smoke pouring out his nostrils, “I have always been a dragon. They fed you ignorance. Thirty-odd years ago, I was slain in battle. A human child died as it was born in that same moment and our souls became one. The child lived, as did I, deep within until the child found me and our minds became as intertwined as our souls.”
“So you are both; human prince and ancient dragon.”
“Some would argue I am a tool, a thing for making others better.”
“You are no mere thing!” Etho protested, stung by the bitter flash of fury rising in his veins. “You are a person, a living being.”
“The King and Queen would have you think otherwise, o magnificent knight,” Dragon-Prince Nebris said, raising an eyeridge. “Their lust for gold led the child to me. Tell me, what did they promise you in return for ‘rescuing’ me from myself? A kingdom’s worth in gold? The hand of any princess you care to choose? My hand?” He rumbled quietly, doubtless the draconic equivalent of a mirthless chuckle.
“I grew up on the mud-lined paths of your kingdom. Do not think I do not know what some consider inhuman, Dragon-Prince. How many times do you think I was named trash by guards and knights and lords? But I had my own, and they saw the value in all living beings. You are no mere thing, Dragon-Prince Nebris of Americana. You are not a prize to be traded, nor an Alchemist’s Stone to be won.” Etho walked up to the dragon and poked him hard on the snout. “So if you will excuse me, I will take my leave.”
He leaped out the window, past the startled dragon-prince’s shimmering, scaled claws that grasped at his falling form, and slid down the wall, hitting the ground in a roll. He stood and brushed the dust off his ninja clothes.
He walked away from the dragon-prince, and didn’t look back.
Until he heard the thunder of huge paws and felt the ground tremble as the dragon-prince dropped down from the tower. “O magni- Knight. Ninja. Sir Etho, wait!”
It was a gamble. The ancient dragon and the human prince, both Nebris the Dragon-Prince. He turned to face the gilded dragon-prince, tapping his foot expectantly. He could see the walls of pride crack in the dragon-prince’s purple eyes. The dragon who gave his respect to no one, and the prince who never had a need to apologize. The dragon who was alone for so long, and the prince who wanted to feel like someone more than a tool.
“I… apologize. For calling your honor into question,” Dragon-Prince Nebris said, stiffly.
Etho inclined his head. “Thank you.” He hesitated. This would be the difficult part. “Dragon-Prince Nebris, what do you wish to do for the rest of your life?”
The being in question simply looks at him, unaware of the people filing slowly out of the tower behind him.
“You do not want to go back to Americana. Do you want to stay in this tower?” Etho asked. “Pestered by knights and glory-seekers until the end of their days or yours?”
The dragon-prince shook his head. “There is no place for me or my treasure in this world, Sir Etho. I will stay.”
“Do you want to stay?” Etho persisted. “I was told that even I could not take a dragon-prince where he did not wish to go. Surely the same is true for the opposite, that I even I could not stop a dragon-prince from going where he wanted to be. If you want a place, Dragon-Prince Nebris, we will make you a place. Your own, me, and you.”
“Prince Nebris,” Guude spoke from behind the great dragon-prince. “You will always have our swords, and our brooms, and our words. We will fight for you, take care of you, and forge a kingdom out of air and hope for you if we must, as we always have.”
Dragon-Prince Nebris let his wide-eyed gaze rove over all twenty-five of them. He reminded Etho of a child learning just how far his parents are willing to go to support him, except they were his friends. They were granted this sight because his parents gave up their right to it.
“My place…” he rasped out in a soft whisper.
“Anywhere you wish,” Etho confirmed. “With all of us.”
“Alright…” he said, barely a hint of teeth appearing in his smile. “That is acceptable. What will we call ourselves?”
*_*_*
End.
I'm sure the dragon was intended to be like the Enderdragon, but I was thinking Tangled and yeah... Also, characterization is difficult. >.< Also, I'd love to see a comedic version of Elfy's prompt, so if anyone's up for it...
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 09:54 am (UTC)(promises indeed)
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 06:30 pm (UTC)Thank you~ <3
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Date: Monday, April 14th, 2014 02:13 am (UTC)Friendship :D (I had coffee)
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 06:37 pm (UTC)Thanks! <3
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 07:00 pm (UTC)<33
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 07:02 pm (UTC)I was toying with the idea too and while I'm still thinking and in the process of deciding, you've allready written and posted a story *laughs*
The tone is definately diffrent then your usuall writing style, as you said. It's nice to see you having a go at variation =D
Things I did not like so much:
the kingdom of Americana / the kingdom of Canadia <- This right here has to probably be my biggest issue with the story. It was done in a short time, yes, but that name just feels uncreative on so many ways... =(
Yes, it makes sense at the end. And the very last line is not only brilliant but ties this together so nicely and I definately have to applaude you for that.
Still...
But that aside...I enjoyed it =)
There is a nice thought behind all of this and while I think this story would have benefited from just one more day, it was fun to read ^^
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 07:20 pm (UTC)To be honest, those were left over from the first idea I had about it. Nebris was going to be attempting nuclear warfare on Canadia and Etho was going to be sent to Americana to stop him and somehow get roped up into the dragon/prince plot. Unfortunately it didn't work out (would have been much more humor), but I kept the original names. I can see your point, though, they weren't terribly imaginative.
It probably would have. I'm sure there are a bunch of better ways I could have taken this, and I just went with the first the flowed easily. I'm glad it was a good read, even with the not so good bits! Thanks! <3
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Date: Sunday, April 13th, 2014 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, April 14th, 2014 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, April 14th, 2014 02:01 pm (UTC)I haven't read a fic this good in a long time
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Date: Monday, April 14th, 2014 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, April 14th, 2014 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, April 14th, 2014 05:18 pm (UTC)I don't know if I'll write more of this particular DragonAU, sorry. :) Fairy tales have rather set endings, and I've learned not to promise more of things I won't be able to write. If you want to bother looking through yesterday's SFW chat, there's some stuff there that Mew and I were talking about...
I'm not sure what you think it is? It's a magic circle I made a few years ago, back when I was really into RPGMaker. I shrunk it, improved the glowiness, and made it an icon.