AN- Hi there. The first three chapters are three parts to one fairytale, but the beginning set's up the parent telling the story. Do not worry about the name Luka- it's something to do with my other fanfic, A Death Note Carol. It isn't relevant to the fairytale.

Enjoy :)

Mary Kenwood was a Lioness, no better than a Lioness, she was a Sphinx. No one held her down, bought her down, rained on her parade or put her under their thumb. She wasn't just a Lioness, she was also an Eagle; this Lioness could fly baby, and God help the fool that tried to stop her!

Mary, like so many free creatures, died quite young and quite tragically.

Live Fast, Die Young… as Nick Romano said.

Mary Kenwood had many reasons for being the type of creature she was, but when boiled down to its most basic atom, the reason was because of a fairytale her single parent mother had told her just one time as a child. She had forgotten the story itself as an adult, though its moral remained. She and her mother fell out, starting with the belly button piercing she had gotten at thirteen. The whole relationship had gone downhill from there.

With the drama and death the Kira case caused, Mary finally decided to go back to her home town in Colorado Springs to talk to her mother. However, due to the whim of a teenage god, she died on the way. No one knew who she was, as she had no I.D. on her, fake or otherwise, at that time. So she was buried as a Jane Doe in a small graveyard in a little town called Coal Creek.

Two years later, Mary's mother died alone in her house, without either of them ever apologising to the other even though both were sorry.

When a five year old Luka had been getting his fairytale, Mary had been a sniffling ten year old.

She was sitting on the kitchen stool as her mother snipped off copious amounts of her pretty blonde hair. The nasty kids at her school, led by that snot bag Gregory Filch, had put bubble gum in it. They had tried washing out as much as possible, but it was not enough.

As she cried quietly to herself over the twin misfortunes of having her hair cut short and knowing that school and the same kids awaited her tomorrow, he mother had a strange stroke of creative energy. Kissing her child's head, she began to tell a tale that slowly stopped the sniffles.

"Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a Prince. Even though he was the handsomest Prince in the entire world, he was cold hearted and indifferent. His land was barren and covered in snow and ice. But there were no snowball fights or snowmen, no festivities of any kind.

The Prince was hard and cold and serious, like a shard of ice. Every girl in the land wanted to marry the Prince and melt his icy heart."

"Why?" Asked Mary, "to make the snow go away?"

"Unfortunately no," continued mother, slyly snipping away more hair and praying her second born remained distracted. "They wanted to marry him 'cause he was totally cute!"

Mary laughed at the expression; it was the sort of thing her teenaged big sister would always say about boys.

"Well, one young girl, a pretty little milk maid called Misa dearly wanted to stop being a boring old milk maid and become a Princess; Even better if she got to marry a cute Prince. So she travelled all the way to the Prince's Ice Castle to beg the Prince for his hand in marriage.

"Well," said the Prince from his throne of ice, "I suppose a wife may be suitable of a man of my position. But why should I choose you over the other girls?"

"Because Misa dearly loves her Prince!" Cried Misa.

After conversing a little with his raven headed councillor, the Prince decided this wasn't a good enough reason.

"Well if you love me," he said, a slight smirk being the only thing to change his frozen facial expression, "then you will not mind completing these three simple tasks. They are to prove your worth. If you pass them, I will grace you with my hand in marriage."

Misa nodded enthusiastically.

"The first challenge is I want you to collect for me the precious gems known as The Shinigami Eyes."

"B-but they're guarded by a big scary dragon!" She cried.

"Well, if you do not want to marry me…"

"No, please Misa will go…"

And she did.

She walked for a day and a night until the ground turned black due to the scorched earth. This part of the Kingdom was known as Fireland, because of all the flames the dragon would breathe out. No one ever went there but a few daring thieves who had heard of the Dragons lair being filled with treasures, in particular, the fabled Shinigami eyes. The thieves had entered the Fireland, but none had ever returned.

However, Misa was determined to be brave for her Prince.

She walked through the blackened land, until she saw a massive hill. There nothing all that amazing about a hill, but this hill was smoking, as if there were fire inside. Well, it was common sense (or uncommon nonsense) that a smoking hill must have a dragon inside.

"Now to get in."

As she thought this, walking around the hill, looking for some sort of gap or hole, she suddenly fell through the floor.

With a yelp she hit a mini mountain of gold coins. She gaped. All around her was gold and silver and jewels. There was more wealth and riches here than she could of ever imagined. There were a few strange things as well. There were little mechanical birds made out of silver that would catch mechanical mice made of gold. They had little jewels for eyes and crystals for claws.

Walking through this strange habitat, Misa heard loud slurping and burping noises in the far corner. She followed the sounds until she saw it, the dragon. It was a lot prettier than she'd imagined. Its body was long and slender, like a serpent. Every scale was a pale golden colour. Its eyes were a crystalline blue.

It had been noisily slurping at some sweet smelling brown liquid. Misa was not sure what it was but, despite its sweet scent, it did not look very attractive. Licking its lips and rounding upon her, the dragon lazily blew out small puffs of fire watching them with some pride and arrogance.

"Wow, that's impressive!" Cheered Misa. "How do you do that?"

"I am the Lord of Fire," huffed the dragon. "Why are you here, don't you know what I do to thieves?" He gestured elegantly with one of his arms (that also could be forelegs) to a number of small piles of charred human bones.

Misa tried not to run screaming. "Well, yes, but you see I'm not a thief. I'm a buyer. Girls love to shop you know. Is there anything you would like in return for me taking the Shinigami eyes?"

"The Shinigami eyes?" Repeated the dragon, suddenly and magically holding two large red gemstones in his claw. "These are precious." His beautiful blue eyes rolled towards her small figure, "extremely expensive. I do not see what a small milk maid can offer me."

"Well, I notice you have lots of mice and birds," she smiled before adding tentatively, "but I'm sure you would like…real living things more."

The dragon snarled and wrapped its tail tightly around itself. To Misa, it looked as if he were hugging himself.

"It all burnt up didn't it?" Asked Misa . "I bet you didn't mean to…but you destroyed it all. Are you lonely now? Is that why you did not kill me immediately?"

The dragon lowered its head, so their eye levels were equal. "They only came," he gestured to the bones, "to take my things, the same as you. No one stays. I just wanted to show them that I was as bright and talented as they are, but I ruined it all. Now I'm stuck here, in this little hill, all alone forever."

"Who are 'they'?"

"The other dragons of course."

"Well, maybe I can convince them to come visit you."

The dragon raised its head. "If you can do that, then I will give you the Eyes, no problem."

"Deal!"

Climbing back out of the hill, with some help from 'The Lord of Fire,' Misa brushed herself off and headed for the mountains. It was the only place she knew of where dragons lived, aside from the infamous Fireland.

She was very tired from all the walking, but she had to keep going. Her Prince was waiting after all.

When she reached the mountains and was relieved to find them covered in long, grass. Though it was coarser than what she had at home, this was better on her feet than all that hot, hard earth. She began to climb, grabbing tuffs of the grass and heather to haul herself up the increasingly vertical edge. Little grey bugs that looked a little like blue bottles kept sweeping down to look at her before zooming away; as if trying to get an agreed opinion on her. It was highly irritating.

As she hauled herself up to the precipice, she saw a dragon waiting for her. She nearly fell back in alarm, but halted herself from doing so at the last second. Had she of fallen back, she would have fallen back down the mountain.

The dragon was small and squat compared to the Lord of Fire. His eyes were half lidded and a scary pure black that contrasted to his alabaster scales.

"The dragon down there," she pointed, "is sorry for his behaviour. He really would like you and the others to visit him once more."

"No." Answered the white dragon flatly and with a flick of his tail, threw Misa back down the mountain.

Misa screamed as she fell to what should have been her death, however, out of the heavy mist beneath her, a red dragon flew up and gasped her in its mouth before flinging her (quite roughly) up onto its back. She lay attempting to get her breath back, as the creature landed softly on the blackened floor.

Sliding off him, she bowed and thanked it for saving her. This dragon was big, like the Lord of Fire, but had green irises surrounded by a yellow coloured sclera instead of white. However, it still looked quite pretty, as it matched the creature's general colour scheme. It also had a heavier body, more like a lizard than a snake, and two heavy wings on its back (which she was infinitely grateful for.)

"Is he really sorry, and really lonely?" The dragon asked without any introductions or acknowledgment of her thanks. She nodded and the dragon looked eagerly at the distant smoking hill.

"Do you really care what that moody white dragon has to say anyway?" She questioned, hoping her defiance had not been too much (but the thing had tried to kill her…)

The red dragon nodded.

"You're right. I don't care. I'd rather go into exile with him than leave him all alone. Besides," he smiled, "I like smoke. I'll do better than visit, I'll stay with him."

At the Ice Palace, everyone gaped in amazement as the little (and rather stupid,) milk maid arrived with a small bag and a big grin.

The Prince merely raised an eyebrow.

"Your Majesty," she blushed, "I give you the Shinigami eyes!"

Taking the jewels out of the bag the audience cooed in awe. The dark haired advisor took them and analysed them momentarily before nodding to his Prince.

"Well done Misa," the Prince smiled stiffly. He was out of practice. " Now for your next test."

" I don't get a kiss?"

"No."

"Wah-? I-I mean...oh...Not even a break?"

"Not if you want to marry me."

Quietly she sighed as the Prince commanded, "you are to go into the East and get for me The Seed of Rebellion."

"What!" Gasped Misa. "B-but…no one even knows what it looks like!"

However, the Prince and his escorts were already leaving the throne room.

So what choice did Misa have but to obey?