Once upon a time, in a small, but beautiful and prosperous kingdom, there lived a strong and hard King, who ruled alongside his fair and kind Queen. They ruled together in perfect harmony, their subjects adored them, and the kingdom of Berk lived in tranquility. But the King and Queen were missing something. So when the day came for the King to stand before the people and announce his wife's pregnancy, the kingdom rejoiced. They were soon to have a little Prince or Princess!

But the Queen fell deathly ill.

In desperation, the King sent out a search party, hoping to find a mystical, magical flower legendary throughout the land.

As the story told, there had once been two warring factions that ruled the land, one human, and one mythical. They fought for a reason no one could remember, and destroyed all land around them in attempts to quash the other. Until one day, a child wandered into the forest. The child was met by a young mythical beast, a dragon, with eyes the color of the child's favorite flowers leaves. The child told the dragon so, and a bond was formed.

They met in secret as the years passed, slowly coming to learn of each other's title. The child was the heir to the humans, while the dragon was the heir to the mythical beasts. As they grew, so did their feelings for one another. They fell in love.

When it came time for the human heir and the mythical heir to be married off to another, they came to their parents with a revelation. The child wanted no other than their dragon, and the dragon wanted no other than their child. Slowly, hesitantly, the rulers consented, tired of fighting.

The day came for the two to be joined in marriage, and both kingdoms rejoiced, for now there was to be not two kingdoms, but one, ruled by the two children who overcame the odds. But their love was not to be. The sky grew dark on that day of most joyous occasions, and suddenly, silver streaked across the sky, leaving a deep red in its wake. The human child lay, bleeding, on the altar, the dragon screeching over its lost love. It had been a human to kill the child, one bitter that the fighting would end. The truce would continue, though… But the dragon heir would not.

With a mournful cry, he took his own life, proclaiming his love for the lost child.

Tragedy… and yet, where the dragon had taken his own life, sprouted a flower, one black as night and leaves of the most beautiful, soft green. And a legend came to be. That upon the death of the dragon, all his love poured out onto the soil, and there grew the flower. Able to cure any illness, stop death in its tracks, even… reverse death.

And so the King sent out a search party to hunt for this mystical flower, hoping beyond hope that it existed. The people held their breath. Until a joyous cry rang out. The flower had been found!

Plucked, it was given to the Queen to drink in a delicious tea. The Queen grew strong, and soon gave birth to a beautiful baby boy with eyes that shone with courage and hair as black as coal. The King and Queen wanted to commemorate the day, and so when night fell, they sent flying a paper lantern, made to look like a beautiful, black dragon. A way of thanking the one who had created the flower and saved the Queen and Prince's lives.

But their happiness was to be short-lived.

Unknown to all, the flower had been hidden and hoarded by a woman who used it to keep her beauty and youth. Vain and greedy, the woman would not go without her precious flower. She stole into the Prince's room, hoping to take just a lock of the boy's hair, which glowed like starlight when she sang. But as soon as the hair was cut, it turned a deep brown, different from the rest of his locks. She realized she had to take the boy.

And so she did. Stealing the boy away, she hid him in a tower, away from all eyes of the kingdom, never to let him out.

But the King and Queen never gave out hope on finding their son. Every year, on the Prince's birthday, the entire kingdom would send out paper lanterns to float on the breeze, each shaped like a dragon of legend. While the Prince was lost, hope was not…

"Mommy, why can't I ever leave the tower?"

"Because there are bad, horrible people out there. I love you too much to let those people hurt you. Do you understand, flower?"

"…Yes, Mommy…"

Green eyes looked up to the window every year, though. And watched, as the dragons sailed by…

A/N: Heya, all! I know, I'm updating here! With a Toothcup story!

But something to know: I will finish this story, no matter what! I swear.