Kingdoms

Anafuijia (Japan + Fuji/ forgot the P and added an extra I)

Chigteyazne (China + Yangtze)

Pranisadac (Prussia + Canada)

Rumesica (Russia + America/ did the best I could)

Aulasertwi (Austria + Switzerland)

Sintaypla (Spain + Italy)

Getlanyia (Germany + Italy)

Nisocadir (Nordics + 'ia')

Prologue

"We've got 'im!" A sailor with dark hair and untrimmed beard wearing a white-and-red outfit shouted as he helped another sailor pull a net onto the ship as a boy was struggling in it. The boy was a teenager, around sixteen or seventeen, with ash brown hair that reached past his shoulders and amber-streaked brown eyes wearing a tunic that looked like it was made out of a potato sack and no shoes. "He won't escape now." The other sailor said as they threw the net onto the deck, ignoring the pained hiss and grunt that came from the teen after making contact with the hard wood. The sailors and the boat belonged to a distant kingdom that could only be reached by boat: the kingdom of Anafuijia. Even though the kingdom has an excellent amount of land around the village, the castle and its main village were perched on a half-cliff so that its inhabitants could see the sea all around and any enemy ships that want to start a war.

The teen they found and took prisoner however, was not Anafuijian. He was from a kingdom more inland with a third of it touching the sea that was connected with the island kingdom. The sea that both kingdoms touched was neutral waters since their borders could not be stretched enough to cover water. The teen yelled at the sailors in a strange language before being thrown into the brig and cursing as he slammed into hard iron and realized where he was. He yelled some more before the door was slammed closed, eliminating the only source of light if it weren't for the slots in the top of the wooden ceiling.

"Sail north! We head for Anafuijia by nightfall!" The captain shouted from the wheel as shadows scurried across the deck and shook the small cage with their stomping. He could understand some of what they were saying, his father taught him Anafuijian before this happened. The words he could understand were: north, Anafuijian, and nightfall. They were going to take him to the island kingdom of Anafuijia! The one kingdom with a ruthless king that had a thirst for power and would do anything his only son either asked or commanded him to do. Either way the prince, in his mind, was as ruthless as his father and cared about no one but himself.

In the castle of Anafuijia...

"PRINCE KIKU!" A woman in her late twenties with a sprawl of ginger-brown hair reaching her shoulders and wearing a maid's outfit shouted as she looked through each room for the missing prince. "Prince Kiku, I am not in the mood for these kinds of games!" She shouted as she huffed angrily. The prince was coming of age, the age to be legal to find a wife and be wed, but now the maid that saw him last has to find the insolent prince like he was a child! No prince should act like a commoner, or a peasant, when he's near coming of age!

She looked through each room and as she passed the corner with a medium-sized tapestry of the goddess Amaterasu and her wolf bringing light to the world, she never had the mind to look behind it. If she did, she would've discovered a hole the size of the tapestry and went through it to find a few steps later stairs that would spiral upward until it leads to a platform and on the platform was a door which could only be opened by a key that the prince has with him. The room, which the door led to, was a medium-sized room with silver walls, purple carpeted floor, and one window with pale blue drapes that were parted to each side so that said prince could see the forest beyond.

He had short black hair that reached the nape of his neck in the back but in the front it reached halfway down his face, and soulless brown eyes that stared at the sunset as a pitch black crow flew to him with a piece of paper in its mouth. "Thanks Hikari." He said as she landed on his finger and he took the paper out of her mouth before letting her fly to her cage. He always lets her fly whenever he can get to the room and always at sunset she returns to her friend, never master. He looked a the paper before a "KIKU!" reverted through the castle and up to where he was. Time to see what father wants. He thought as he left the room, locked the door, walked down the stairs, and poked his head to see if anyone was around before coming out of the tapestry and smoothing it down.

In the throne room was a man in his thirties with shoulder-length dark brown hair that looked like it was greased a lot and dark brown eyes that held a thirst for power in them. He wore a silver tunic with a small triangle cut into the collar and had a ruby silk obi hold the two halves of the tunic together, dark red lace up leg pants that were untied at the bottom, and dark gray pirate boots. A golden crown with silver and ruby pieces sat on his head as he stared at the sailors, the same sailors that captured the teen in the sea.

"Kiku." The King, his voice was a deep baritone, said as his son approached the trio. Kiku wore an exact outfit of what his father wore except he had a silver headband with ruby leaves coming off of it instead of a golden crown with silver and ruby pieces. There was an iron cage behind the two sailors, but judging by the way they were positioned in front of it they didn't want the two royals to see what was in it. "These two men scoured across the sea to the neighboring kingdom, and with permission they took what they could find valuable from a village now in ruins and bring the valuables here."

Judging by the pride in his voice, Kiku knew that 'with permission' meant 'raid without warning'. He internally sighed but kept his composure on the outside. Unlike his father who is power crazy and wants every kingdom to bow under the Anafuijian Law, he knows about the difference in the kingdoms and instead want peace between all of them when he's in charge. His mother died when he was eight months old, but he still has her goddess-like beauty from when she was his age. Queen Hikari was next in line for the throne and had a hard time finding a suitable spouse to love dearly and help her continue the royal bloodline. Inuami, however, found this as an opportunity to get his message of world control through.

He created a lie and said that Amaterasu came to him in a dream and told him that he was the chosen one to be Hikari's husband. Almost all of the kingdom believed him, but Hikari, a white wolf that follows her around, and her pet crow knew that it was a lie but the kingdom was convinced so they decided to go along with it. Hikari married Inuami a month after the lie was spread and slowly fell for him, but she still had her doubts. Two years after their marriage Kiku was born, as healthy and wild as a newborn pup.

He loved exploring the castle, which nearly gave his mother heart-attacks whenever she can't find him, and always return in the weirdest ways where most of ways he return is from the potted plant with huge leaves where he rolls down them and gently land on his back while staring at his mother with light-filled brown eyes. Her death was a strange one that kept the kingdom in confusion until Inuami announced that it was now his responsibility to raise his only son, the same son that he secretly wished would share his intentions in the future instead of disappearing most of the time.

He blamed the cause of her death on his son who disappeared and caused her a real heart-attack which was the source that killed her. A few years later when he was six, and learned of the blame of his mother's death, something within him broke and was never repaired. His eyes, that were once filled with light, were now soulless from the belief that he killed his mother. He then later found the real reason of his mother's death: his father paid an assassin to make it look like she had a heart-attack, and from then on he felt nothing for the older man that called himself his father.

The wolf that followed his mother around vanished when her death was announced, but her crow that was close to dying was somehow renewed with life and lived longer than normal crows, in fact it lived so long that people think that it was blessed with immortal life from Amaterasu to watch over his friend's son. No one has heard of the wolf for a long time that they slowly forgot about it and think that on the day the Queen died, it died too.

"Your Majesty," One of the sailors, the same one with dark hair and an untrimmed beard, said as he stepped forward. "We have something here that's better than the junk we could find in that village. Something that might make you really happy." He gestured to the other sailor who reached in the cage and threw whatever was in it out. It was a teenager, around sixteen or seventeen, with ash brown hair that reached past his shoulders and amber-streaked brown eyes wearing a tunic that looked like it was made out of a potato sack and no shoes. Both King and Prince looked at him shocked before looking back at the smug sailors.

"He was trying to escape but we caught him before he could get to the other port," The first sailor said before making the teen look at them. "And Your Majesty look, he's Chigteyaznian." Chigteyazne was the neighboring kingdom that shared the neutral sea with Anafuijia and had one civil war that led to the ruined village to be plundered by the Anafuijian sailors. Both King and Prince looked more surprised than shocked as they looked from the sailor to the Chigteyaznian. The teen just stared at the stone floor instead of looking at either of them.

"Why were you in the ruined village?" The King asked, but received no answer in return and instead got a confused look. "Let me try father." Kiku said before his father could go on one of his rages. "Why were you in the ruined village?" He asked fluently in Chigteyaznian, surprising everyone except the strange teen. "Some things that my mother left was in her home village and I went to get it so that some which she treasured would be buried with her and the rest would be passed down our line," The teen answered truthfully. "I gotten everything that was left behind until these thugs came and I panicked. I dropped everything and tried to swim to the southeast port but... a fishing net caught me."

"He was getting his deceased mother's things when the sailors appeared," Kiku replied as he slowly stood up. "He panicked and tried to swim to the southeast port until the sailors kidnapped him!" The King looked at the sailors, who in turn looked ashamed and sheepish, before looking at his son who was helping the Chigteyaznian to his feet. "You two back to the ship and return his mother's things," The King ordered the two sailors who bowed and left. "Get him to a room for Amaterasu's sake." He said to his son before turning around and left the room.

As the Chigteyaznian was being led to a room, the Prince was muttering under his breath and he could hear the words "bastard", "fraud", and "power-mad bastard". "Is there something going on between you and your father?" He asked as they came across a door. "My father doesn't appreciate what I do at all," The Prince said as he opened the door. "He wants me to follow in his power-mad footsteps! Me! I would follow if he had a reason instead of making me live a life of Hell!" He started crying, which startled the other teen, and then continued. "H-He only cares if I get in trouble, h-he n-never showed any affection to me at all, a-and a f-few years ago I d-discovered that h-he ordered my mother's death!" He was crying so hard that he could barely register arms being wrapped around him or a hand that was stroking his hair softly.

Ning jing de xia tian
Tian kong zhong fan xing dian dian
Xin li tou you xie si nian si nian zhe ni de lian
Wo ke yi jia zhuang kan bu jian
Ye ke yi tou tou de xiang nian
Zhi dao rang wo mo dao ni na wen nuan de lian

Ning Xia tian de jing
Tian kong zhong fan xing dian dian
Xin li tou you xie si nian si nian zhe ni de lian
To Wo yi jia zhuang kan bu jian
Ye to yi tou tou de xiang nian
Zhi dao rang wo mo dao ni na wen nuan de lian

Zhi Liao ye shui liao an xin de shui liao
Zai wo xin li mian ning jing de xai tian

Zhi Liao ye shui liao An xin de shui liao
Mian Zai wo xin li tian ning jing de xai

Na shi ge ning jing de xia tian
Ni lai dao ning xia na yi tian

Na shi ge de Xia tian ning jing
Ni Xia lai dao na yi tian ning

"I-I remember that song," He said as he slowly calmed down. "This dragon always came when I was lonely and sung it to me to help me fall asleep." The Chigteyaznian stared at him before singing again and watched as the Prince's eyes slowly started to close. "My room..." He mumbled before leading the teen into the room with the opened door, and the teen was shocked at its apparel.

It was a medium-sized room with a soft peach ceiling, gentle gray walls, and a pure white carpeted floor. Two huge windows were spaced at each end of the room so that no matter what side of the canopy bed you woke up on, you were always able to see the outside world. The bed itself had four oak posts that held the curtain, which was a calm pale blue, over a queen-sized mattress with silver-and-red blankets and a thin sheet. In the right-hand corner of the room was an ornate spruce dresser with a glass wolf statue on it and a golden cage with a pitch black crow sleeping in it. In the wall on the left side was a birch door, probably leading to a bathroom. The carpet underneath the bed was covered by a yellow, orange, and red rug that resembled the sun.

"This is amazing!" He shouted as he spun around in delight. When he got no answer, he looked around for the Prince until a sight surprised him instead of making him amused. The Prince was asleep with his mouth slightly opened, but it was the position that surprised him. His front half was on the bed while the bottom half of him looked like he was gonna fall off the bed and onto his backside. He laughed slightly as he shook his head before going over to the passed out Prince and gently moved him onto the bed, took his crown off and put it on the dark oak nightstand, and pulled the blankets over him.

"Slept well, kind prince." He said in his broken Anafuijian the best he could to the prince. He knew that the King wouldn't like it if he stayed in the Prince's room, so he left and quietly closed the door before going around to find a room to sleep in. If he stayed in the room a bit longer, he would've noticed a small, but genuine, smile on the Prince's face as he slept on.

"Stay still!" A maid, the same one that searched for the Prince earlier, shouted as she tried to brush the Chigteyaznian's hair but every time she pulled on a tangle, he jerked away from the brush. Kiku watched in amusement trying not to laugh at the scene in front of him. "I've had enough!" She shouted before turning her attention to the turning red Prince as he held a hand to his mouth to muffle his laughing. "You brought him here, so you deal with him!" She shouted as she thrusted the brush into his free hand and stormed out of the room. That was when he started laughing.

"Oh that was funny!" He said between laughs as he held his stomach. "I thought she was going to scream!" The Chigteyaznian looked at him curiously as he continued laughing for a few seconds before calming down. "I don't think she were had fun." His lessons were going good for the first week that he was here. Whenever he said something wrong, Kiku would have him repeat what he said was wrong and then say the correct word or grammar. "Let's just try to get you presentable." Kiku said as he stood behind the sitting teen and switched the brush for a comb.

Using the comb he teased out the tangles he could find in the ash brown hair and then switched it for the brush to gently bring the teased hairs and the rest together. "You have talented hands." The Chigteyaznian said as he leaned into the Prince before blushing as he thought of how he said it. The hands stilled as the Prince figured out what the saying also meant and blushed too. The other teen sputtered as he tried to come up with something else as Kiku went to the closet and looked for something suitable for him to wear besides his homemade, more like frantic-made, tunic.

"Try this on." He said as he handed a folded pile of clothes to the other before turning around and giving the other privacy. As the other was getting dressed, he thought of his mother and of how things would be different if she was still here. "Done." The Chigteyaznian said as he tapped his shoulder. When he turned around to see the other, a servant came in the room. "Your Highness," He said with nervousness. "His Majesty wishes to address you and the Chigteyaznian." Just as the servant left, he sighed which made the other concerned.

"Let's see what he wants." Kiku grumbled as he grabbed the other's hand and led him to the throne room where they first met.

Inuami looked at his son then to the foreigner then back to his son. "Your birthday is in two days," He said in Anafuijian, not caring that the Chigteyaznian couldn't understand him. "So I have an early present for you. I've put in in your room so after you help that-" He gestured to the Chigteyaznian and a flare of anger could be seen in Kiku's eyes. "-then you can look at what I have for you." As the King turned around the Chigteyaznian could see the anger in the Prince's eyes growing by the second and pulled him out of the room and towards his room.

"Dammit!" Kiku shouted as he punched the wall furiously. They were in the room that the Chigteyaznian found and was given, it was a small-sized room with blue-gray walls, carpeted flooring, and ceiling. In the wall across from the door was a window that had two boards nailed to it but light still seeped from the huge cracks. In the left corner of the room was a twin bed with no blanket but a thin sheet and next to it was a battered oak nightstand with a single candle that was slowly burning out. It looked like there was no life in this room even though one was sleeping in it.

"He thinks that he can force me to follow his footsteps," He said as the other gently pulled him from the wall and held him close. "But I won't allow it. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep resisting to follow..." He stared at the other in confusion until he pulled himself away. "Yao." The Chigteyaznian suddenly said out of nowhere. "Excuse me?" Kiku asked as he looked at the other. "Yao." The other said as he gestured to himself. Kiku looked confused until the other tried to explain in a different way.

"Kiku." He said as he gestured to him. "Yao." He repeated as he gestured to himself. That's when the Prince knew what he was talking about. The Chigteyaznian's name was Yao. Throughout the lesson as Kiku helped Yao speak better, they never noticed a samurai with shaggy black hair that reached past his shoulders wearing black armor, without the helmet, was standing outside the door.