Author's Notes: Guten tag! I would like to note before I begin that this is my first story on this site, and so if I uploaded it, or did something wrong please tell me, I'd like to know! ^^ As someone who enjoys author notes, I will be writing short notes at the beginning and end of the story's chapter. Feel free to ignore them if you wish, but I prefer if you read them.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, I wouldn't be submitting this here if I did would I?

Intro: Off to Slay the Beast

The wind blew through the yellowing grass that had pushed up on the edges of the road, little used at this time of year. The damp earth was packed down as hooves quickly thudded against the ground, kicking up pebbles and forming a small dust cloud behind the lone rider and horse that travelled at a faster than a walk but slower than a gallop. The horse started to slow under the heavy weight of its well armoured handler and the man's traveling gear.

"Come on Tony, I promise we'll stop when we get to Annabeth." the blonde knight said to his horse. "We'll be there before dark. Can't be far now." he reassured the steed as he ducked in the whipping wind that seemed determined to push the two back. The hooves continued their rhythmic thump against the path as the horse carried its rider along the road.

Alfred slowed his steed to a halt outside of Annabeth's only inn and pub; The Albino Hawk. Alfred smiled at the sign that moved back and forth in the now dissipating wind. "Now ain't that a name for a pub and inn?" the knight commented as he patted his tired horse's neck before tying Tony up outside to the porch post and heading inside.

The knight opened the door to a ring of a bell that announced his arrival. A tall albino in simple clothes was drying a mug as he walked out from the back and stood behind the long counter that ran from one wall to another with a space at each end to walk between the back and the pub's main room. "Hey! Alfred! Man, been a long time since you came this far out! Missed my awesomeness did ya?" said the man as he smiled and put the mug down and threw the cloth on the back counter behind the counter.

Alfred grinned and sat down in front of the owner of the rightly named Albino Hawk. "Dude, it really has been a while hasn't it?" The bartender moved to grab Alfred a drink before Alfred held up a hand, "Here on business. Sorry, Gilbert."

The other frowned as he put the beer bottle back. Gilbert was technically working and his brother had his eye on him after the last four times. "Aw, come on! You're always 'on business'! When are you gonna stop by like you used to?" he protested as a serious blond head poked out from the back room.

"Gilbert Beilschmidt! Finish with these dishes!" he said. The man could be described as tall with blue eyes and slicked back hair. Both the man and Gilbert had accents, but the serious blonde's was more pronounced. "Move, or I am feeding Gilbird to Aster!" The bartender huffed and walked back through the doorway, "Bruder! Come on! Can't the awesomeness talk to his friends every once and a while without unawesome results!"

Alfred continued to smile at the two brothers, "Ludwig, why is he the owner of the pub and you aren't?"

Ludwig let out a sigh and started, "I have no idea, bu-"

The door's bell ringed and a voice floated over, "Ludwiggg!~" A shorter red head with a strange curl that bounced with his movements ran straight at the bartender and ran around the counter to hug him.

The blonde's cheeks dusted pink as he pushed the excited other off, "Feliciano, I am working." Ludwig's accent pronounced the 'w' in working as a 'v'.

Feliciano turned to the knight who was still seated on one of the stools, watching his friends' antics. "Ve~ Alfred! You came to visit!"

As Gilbert finished the dishes and Feliciano started cooking up food for the evening crowd—and after Alfred brought some of his things up to one of the inn's rooms—the knight headed out to walk around town and get a few last minute things for his quest. He stopped by the general store and got a few provisions. He would be heading into a densely forested area, surely finding food wouldn't be hard in a place with so much green.

Alfred walked around town, smiling and waving at the people he passed, people he knew and strangers alike. He soon reached the end of the main street that ran through Annabeth and turned down one of the thinner side roads that lead eventually lead out to the surrounding farms and small country houses.

As he came closer to the edges of the town he stopped in front of a small two story house with smoke coming from the chimney and a goat tied up in the small front yard. Alfred grinned at the crooked hand painted sign next to the gate. The sign read "Antonio's Tomato Garden".

Alfred opened the gate and glanced over at the chickens pecking next to an open window to the left of the old cobbled walk way that lead to the front door.

"You bastard! I told you not to let the chickens out!" yelled someone from on the other side of the door.

"But Romano, Señor Churro looked lonely!" a man reply from closer to the window. Despite the obvious anger in the first man's voice, the second seemed calm and rather cheery.

"He's a goat dammit!"

"A lonely goat~"

"AND HE'S GONNA STAY THAT WAY!"

Alfred knocked on the door before the argument escalated and located the goat in question. Señor Churro was still continuing to eat at the patchy grass that covered the front lawn. One of the chickens was pecking around in a flower pot too.

When a couple of seconds had gone by a smiling man opened the door half way, peeking his head out, "Hola!" He had curly dark brown hair, bright green eyes, and wore a simple farmer's shirt and trousers. He seemed to be holding something—or someone—back on the other side of the doorway.

"Bastardo! Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

Alfred being ever one to not sense when he should keep his trap shut and come back later said, "Hey dudes! My friend Feliciano told me this place had good food!"

The man that had been holding open the door couldn't stop it as a shorter auburn haired and amber eyed teen finally got past him and opened the door wider so he could get a good look at the intruder, "You know my fratello?"

Alfred noticed the angry guy had a curl like Feli's, only his was on the other side of his head. "Who? Feliciano? Yea, he's the Albino Hawk's cook." This meant that this guy was Lovino Vargas. Alfred hadn't meet many people in Annabeth besides the Albino Hawk owners and the cook, so this was his first time meeting Feliciano's loud mouth brother.

The man with curly hair ran past Alfred and out to the yard, successfully cutting off the conversation, "Señor Churro! Come back! Regresar!"

Alfred turned as Feliciano's brother ran past him, cursing all the way. "Antonio! Get back here you fucking bastard!" Alfred laughed loudly as Antonio tried to bring the runaway goat home.

"Lovino, come help me!~ " Antonio pleaded while he continued in his attempts to drag Señor Churro back to Antonio's Tomato Garden.

After Lovino and Antonio managed to get their goat tied up again and Lovino calmed down enough to actually carry on a conversation without yelling; the three went out back to the largest garden Alfred had ever seen.

"Gilbert wasn't joking when he said you guys really like the dirt…" The loud blonde mentioned as he looked out at the countless rows and rows of vegetables and plants. Maybe half of the rows were just tomatoes too.

The angry teen and the older man picked some herbs that Alfred would need in case if he got hurt or ill. They told Alfred which plant was which and what they did, but the knight wasn't paying any attention, so after asking Antonio what they were for the fifth time, Lovino wrote down the information down and tucked the folded papers under the piece of twine that held each bundle together.

Antonio invited Alfred to stay for dinner, but it quickly got shot down when Lovino protested and Alfred said he already promised Feli that he'd eat with them.

"Adios!" Antonio called out the door as he waved to Alfred, who was shutting the gate and heading down the road. "Hasta luego!"

Alfred soon returned to the Albino Hawk with herbs and dried fruit. He threw the two bags on a table in his room before heading back down to the pub on the main story. Upon sitting down on one of the stools once more he glanced out the window at the darkening sky.

"Sure you're going to try and stay sober?" Gilbert asked with a smirk.

"Well, I guess just one drink for old times won't hurt."

The sun rose and Alfred groaned as the warm rays reached him through the window. He threw the blankets over his head, but the sunlight still shown through the fabric. "Why can't the light just shut up?" He moaned as he turned over and rolled off the bed, hitting the ground with a thunk.

A knocking noise came from the direction of the door and Alfred didn't bother to move from his place on the wood floor in a tangle of sheets.

"Ve~ Alfred, are you going to be out for breakfast?" came a voice that Alfred assumed was Feliciano. Apparently he'd stayed the night because Alfred could have sworn that he didn't usually cook breakfast for the inn. Then again he had a raging headache and it felt like the world was plotting its revenge for those shots and pints of beer last night.

Alfred's voice was muffled by the wood floor and the sheets when he next spoke, "Only if I can have bacon and eggs and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee, Feli." He still hadn't moved an inch toward getting up however.

Feliciano giggled from the other side of the door, "Funny, that's almost exactly what Gilbert, Ludwig, Antonio, and the tailor Francis said when I asked them what they wanted!" He skipped down the hall to the stairs that lead down into the kitchen. The cook waved a wooden spoon around as he went.

Eventually Alfred could smell the aroma of bacon and sausages from the kitchen below, causing him to quickly throw on some clothes and trudge downstairs.

When he got there several other people had beaten him to Feliciano's cooking. Gilbert, Ludwig, Lovino, Antonio, and a man with wavy shoulder length blond hair sat at a round table in the corner. There were two empty seats left—one between the serious German and Lovino, and one between Antonio and the stranger. Feliciano came out of the kitchen with a plate of bacon and set it down among the other dishes already on the table. Alfred walked over and sat down next to Antonio while Feli sat next to his brother and Ludwig. He was very happy to see his mug already filled with steaming black coffee.

The man with the wavy hair turned to look at Alfred with a grin, "Bonjour." He had stubble along his chin and blue eyes. He also only had on a long, slightly too big white shirt.

Gilbert paused in shoving food down his throat to say, "Alfred, this is my awesome friend Francis. Keep a look out fo-" he was interrupted as Alfred's eyes widened a bit and he grabbed Francis's hand in an iron grip, putting it back in the man's own lap. Gilbert continued without a moment's pause, "Francis has wondering hands."

Francis just smiled and Alfred edged his chair away from the barely dressed man with a nervous laugh before continuing to eat a large portion of the food set out on the table. "Ohononon~" Smirked the French man," Just let me know if you need me to-" he paused, looking the knight up and down as he shovelled more food than thought to be humanly possible into his mouth. "Take some measurements..." He finished suggestively as he took out a length of yellow measuring tape from somewhere within the billowing folds of his shirt. He and draped it around his neck, then reached over as if to drape it over Alfred's, when a yellow projectile hit Francis's face.

A splatter of eggs slowly slid down the perverts face, having come from Gilbert's direction. "Like I said..." the agitated albino continued, fork still in mid-air. He didn't need to finish his sentence, but that didn't stop him from mumbling something about how un-awesome Francis was acting. Usually he didn't mind his friends hitting on the inn's guests, but Alfred was a good friend to most of the people at the table, and be damned if he didn't come back around for drinks because of Francis.

Francis at that point had flaunted out of the room crying something about "mon dieu! My beautiful face!" Alfred shivered. The creep was already starting to get on his nervous, but it was just one more reason to get on with his quest as soon as possible. As much as he liked visiting the citizens of Annabeth, there were some things that he could go without.

"Ve~ Ludwig, do you like the wurst I made?" Feliciano asked happily, ignorant to the occurrences of the last few minutes. He seemed to be the least effected by the drinking last night. Alfred looked back at his other visits to Annabeth and realized he'd never seen Feliciano truly have a hangover. Was he immune or something? That would be a pretty awesome superpower, immune to hangovers.

Alfred was jerked out if his thoughts when Lovino started snapping at Antonio after he commented on something about the rude teen making a good blanket. "I was drunk you bastardo!"

The two continued a one sided argument until Feliciano cut in, "Ve~ Alfred, you said something about a quest last night?" he asked Alfred over the din of Antonio and Lovi.

"Mi lindo tomato pequeño-"

"QUIT FUCKIN' CALLING ME THAT!"

"You know you like it~"

"Do not!"

"I have to object, mi tomate."

"OVERRULED! Now shut up and eat your damn breakfast!"

Alfred cleared his throat, "Yea, I have a really important quest from the High King himself! One only a hero could complete!"

Ludwig was calmly eating his breakfast despite the havoc occurring that seemed to happen whenever a large number of the citizens of Annabeth came together for any period of time. He asked their guest, "What is this 'quest'?"

Antonio paused in his continued argument with a now tomato red Lovi and turned to the knight beside him to listen to Alfred. Gilbert—despite still cramming an obscene amount of food down into his mouth—also looked up in anticipation of the answer. Francis came back from the kitchen and sat down as well.

Alfred's eyes travelled around the table slowly and he leaned in for dramatic effect, "I've gotta go slay a dragon." He sounded almost proud of the dangerous task.

This caused a loud outbreak from the others around the table. Feli gasped and looked over to his brother to proclaim, "B-but dragons are scary!" Lovino appeared equally terrified. Francis glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Alfred, "ohon~ Vraiment?" He asked before taking a bite of a croissant. From Alfred's left Antonio had a look of surprise, "Oh, seriously?"

"Yea, ya know the one that's been rumoured to be plaguing the south-eastern towns?" Alfred smiled and leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head, "Yep, I'm gonna go out and bring back its head! I'll be a hero!" He puffed out his chest, subconsciously trying to look manlier.

Even Gilbert had stopped eating at this point to stare at the knight. His fork missed the food on his plate and hit the edge with a loud clank. "Was?! That's awesome!" he said after a pause.

Ludwig seemed surprise by now, and Feli's golden eyes were wide as he clung to his brother—who pushed him off—before Feliciano moved to wrap his arms around Ludwig instead.

"Mon ami, such a daunting task!"

"What if the dragon came here?! Ve~ Luddy what would we do! Che cosa abbiamo intenzione di fare?"

"We'd kill the damn thing! Feli, quit hanging off that potato bastard! Ora!"

"Pero, it would eat Señor Churro…"

Alfred talked over everyone else's voices. "Dudes! Calm down! I'll be a hero and kill it before it has a chance to get anywhere near Annabeth!" he promised to his friends. Yep, Alfred was going to be the heroic knight in shining armour of the fairy tales. Saving damsels from wicked scary dragons! He could do this. He knew he could. He was a knight, a hero he could do this. Slay a dragon? Pfft. No problem.

"Alfred," Ludwig seemed to sigh more than say the name, "This isn't just some errand that the king is having you carry out. You're not going after some petty criminal that stole from the royal courts."

"Ja ja! Dragons are a pretty awesome force to be messing around with!" Gilbert interjected. Ludwig tensed a little and closed his eyes for a second, taking in his brother's idiocy before continuing, "What I'm trying to tell you is, be careful. Gute?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Alfred said, waving a hand at them and rolling his eyes, "Stop worrying. A trained knight like me will have no problem."

While the Vargas brothers—plus Antonio—cleaned up breakfast, and Feli made food for the day's guests at the inn and pub, Alfred started packing up for the long journey ahead. He was stuffing a shirt in amongst his pack of clothes. Ludwig knocked on the opened door, standing in the doorway with Gilbert behind him.

"Alfred." Ludwig said and the blue eyed blonde looked up with a smile, "Oh, hey guys."

Ludwig and Gilbert walked into the room, Gilbert leaning against the unused desk, and Ludwig walking toward the knight with a cloth wrapping something in his hand. Alfred looked down at the small bundle, "What's that?" he asked the brothers.

Ludwig handed the cloth to Alfred, "It's a sort of… wishing you well present."

Gilbert spoke up—not being able to hold his tongue for long, "it's a most awesome me- Ow!" He rubbed the spot where Ludwig had smacked him upside the head. "Dummkopf, let him see for himself."

Alfred hurriedly uncovered the object. He stared at the present in his palms before picking up the strings attached to it and holding it up for the Albino Hawk's owners to see. The gift was a medallion hanging on three simple pieces of string (three to insure that it would not easily fall off). It was silver in colour and metal, with the imprint of a hawk holding a whip its beak and a sword between its talons. There was a ring of olive leaves surrounding the hawk. The words along the edge were in two different languages, but Alfred understood neither. Ludwig spoke up, "The top is in Gilbert and my home language. It says 'Wir für unsere Überzeugungen zu kämpfen' translated to 'We fight for our beliefs'. Feli told me that the second part is in his language. I don't remember what it is though."

"Probably something awesome! Kesesesesesesese~" Gilbert said, ruining the seriousness of the moment. Alfred laughed good-naturedly and Ludwig hit his brother's shoulder.

After Alfred tied the metal around his neck and let it fall under his shirt he put on a thick, brown jacket with a fuzzy collar. He slung his main bag over his shoulder while Ludwig grabbed the other one and Gilbert travelled ahead of them, talking about something that neither of the other two was honestly listening to.

Feli met the three at the bottom of the stairs. He smiled at Ludwig before telling Alfred he would meet them outside with some provisions he'd prepared. Ludwig watched the cook leave before following Alfred out to his horse, who was tied to the porch post. Tony was laden down with more packs this time. The saddle bags were full, and it took Ludwig a second to find room for Alfred's final bags before he secured the two to the horse. "Are you sure that you won't be condemning your horse with so much luggage?"

Alfred laughed at the comment and patted his horse's neck, "Nah! Tony'll be fine! Besides, I gotta be prepared!"

Ludwig nodded before giving Alfred a salute, "Auf Wiedersehen Alfred. Come back soon." He turned and went back into the pub and inn.

Alfred called after him, "See ya Ludwig!" He turned back to Tony and was just about to swing a leg over and get up in the saddle before Feliciano came running out of the doorway.

"Ve!~ Alfred! Wait!" he called to get the knight to turn around and look at him, "You can't leave without provisions!" The red-brown haired teen held out a bag that smelled of pasta and tomatoes. "Here~"

Al smiled at the cook and took the bag before ruffling the Vargas boy's hair. "Thanks Feli, I'm gonna need these." He tied the bag to the saddle and was about to swing into the saddle before he remembered something, "Hey Feliciano?"

"Sì?"

The blonde smiled and pulled out the medallion that he had been given. "Do you know what this says," He pointed a finger to the words across the bottom, "and what it means?"

Feliciano looked at the words quietly for a moment before smiling up at his friend and exclaiming, "It's part of the town's motto!~ It reads 'e onorare la pace'. In Common that means 'and honour the peace'!" Alfred had already forgotten what the first part of Annabeth's motto was, and it must have been obvious because Feli added, "The entire motto is 'We fight for our beliefs, and honour the peace'. Ve~ it's the Annabeth town motto!"

"Sounds like a pretty good motto to me." Alfred replied. He looked up at the skies above. There were a few puffy white clouds, but otherwise the skies were an endless blue. He smiled at Feliciano, "See ya soon Feli." He said before digging his feet into Tony's side to tell the horse to start moving on their journey once more.

Feliciano sniffed, "Ve~ Come back and tell us how you killed the dragon one day Alfred!" He waved his hand high above his head as Tony and his rider trotted down the main road. "Addio!"

Soon the fair haired knight couldn't even see the grey-brown roofs of Annabeth. His friends were far away, and he was set out on a quest that made for legends and fairy tale stories.

Author's Notes: I'm very excited for this to be my first ever fanfic, and my first story on this site. Please tell me if there are any spelling errors, or the translations were incorrect. I only have a limited knowledge of German and Spanish, as well as google translate to help me with the translations. ^^" I know every author asks, but please do review! I'm new to the writing world and the only way for me to get better is if I get feedback from my readers!

Translation Notes: (there are a lot in the intro, but don't worry, in later chapters there won't be so many!)

Fratello: Brother (Italian)

Regresar: Come back (Spanish)

Mi lindo tomato pequeño: My cute little tomato (Spanish)

Vraiment: Really (French)

Was: What (German)

Che cosa abbiamo intenzione di fare: What are we going to do (Italian)

Ora: Now (Italian)

Pero: But (Spanish)

Auf Wiedersehen: Goodbye (German)

And lastly I would like to thank my good friend, who I call Nihon or Affe. She kindly let me give here my drafts and eagerly awaited updates. Without her support and comments I would have never even finished the introduction, let alone be as far as I am! To my knowledge she doesn't have an account here on fanfiction, but she does have an account on deviantart, go check her out! Her username would be: ABlueLotusDesigns

Danke Nihon!