The Dove and The Dragon
Chapter 1
Once Upon A Time...
In a magical land, far, far away...
There was a kingdom. An amazing kingdom ruled by a prince.
The prince was very materialistic. He had all he could ever want. Riches. Fame. Women.
No one ever saw the prince, which made him loved by the maidens of the kingdom whenever they caught a glimpse of his pale skin or his ebony locks.
He lived alone with his many servants, for his parents had died of illness years before. His servants spoiled him, and he often took advantage of them.
One dark, stormy night, there was a loud knocking at the large doors of the prince's castle.
The prince answered the door, meeting a hideous old woman on his door step.
She was hunched over, the rain beating down on her back, but she offered a warm smile with kind eyes.
"Your highness," her old voice croaked, "I ask you, out of the kindness of your heart, please allow an old woman such as me to spend the night in your magnificent palace."
The prince hardened his face and glowered at the old woman.
Her smile faltered. "Please, if you fulfill my request, I shall offer you this." she said, and pulled her hand from under her cloak. In her fingertips she held a single rose, not yet in full bloom.
The prince snarled and waved the old woman away. "Off with you, peasant! I shall not have something so hideous crawling around my beautiful palace!" he said.
The old woman clutched the rose in her palm. "Be aware of your tone, boy." she warned.
The prince scoffed at her insolence. "How dare you! Leave now, or you'll pay with your worthless life."
A glow began to engulf the old woman, turning her from an old hag to a beautiful enchantress. Her old skin became young and lively, and her wiry hair was now flowing locks of pink. She was dressed in robes of reds, pinks, and white, the only feature standing out being her eyes the color of jade. The prince stared in awe, cowering back a bit as she looked at him with disappointment and shame.
"You give me no choice. I am Sakura, and I have come to test your kindness and love, none of which you seem to possess." she stated and placed two fingers to the prince's forehead. "You, Sasuke Uchiha, are the age of ten and six. I place a spell on you. The only way to break my spell is to find true love by your twenty and first year of age. If you shall fail, on your day of birth, the last rose petal shall fall, and you will be under my spell for all eternity. And remember, dear prince," she finished, a coy smile spreading across her pink lips. "Things are never what they seem."
With that, she removed her fingers from his forehead. A pounding resounded through his head and his skin began to tingle.
He felt it in his head, his chest, and his limbs. Looking at his hands, he watched them slowly transform into beastly, scaly claws. His heart raced as he called out to the enchantress, begging for another chance to redeem himself. His body burned with the intensity of standing in a furnace, and slowly, painfully, the beautiful prince became a hideous, ebony dragon. His long, slender body slumped against the door, and he gave the enchantress one last sorrowful look.
She disappeared, leaving the single rose floating before him.
He grasped the wretched thing in his claw, and clumsily stormed into his castle, his regal robes hanging from his body in shreds. He let out a vicious roar and the entire castle was engulfed in light, signifying that the spell was now complete.
The prince noticed that his subjects and servants had been transformed as well. They were now all different objects, ranging from candlesticks to clocks to chairs.
Ashamed of his horrendous change, the prince angrily confided himself to his room, where he roared with the thunder the remainder of the night.
"How am I supposed to break this spell, you wretched woman!" he shouted. He shredded the portraits of himself, broke the posts of his bed, demolished his treasures.
"Who could ever love a beast?!" he cried.