based off dinostrology . tumblr post / 121680352215 / princesses-gemini-virgo-libra-pisces-knights
AN: I know, I know, I'm supposed to continue Ice and Stone but I have defected to another gay singing fandom. I still love Negitoro and writing negitoro but this hell has utterly consumed me.
Also, this is rather... crack and crap. I wrote it on a whim at 2 am, like I usually do.
I apologize for the inactivity and I hope that none of you feel offended by this poor attempt to create a story.
NicoMaki and hinted... other ships.
A Knight's Prophecy
Rumour has it that there was a princess with hair as bright as summer's rays, eyes as blue as the ocean, trapped in a tower in a castle guarded by a ferocious black fire breathing dragon. The princess sent out letters requesting for help, and those seeking wealth, honour, a bride, fame, or just wanted to gain acknowledgement went forth, either to slay the beast or to rescue the princess.
And few return unscathed. Some died, of course. But those who return alive claim that the huge dragon attacks them the moment they step near the castle, its ferocious roar sending a good half of them scuttling off. The dragon has then been known for its good eyesight, ferocity, and cunningness, since it constantly stole cattle from nearby farms without being noticed at all.
And in a certain kingdom, there lived a noble family who have served as knights for many years. Regardless of the gender, every member has been an excellent fighter, defender, guardian. And now, the Nishikino crest was currently left in the hands of the only descendant - Nishikino Maki. The Nishikinos have a speciality; other than being excellent sword masters, they are also a little hard to get along with and talk back without restraint. And all of them have red hair, in different shades. And throughout many generations, the fiery red had not dulled.
Nishikino Maki however, resented the fact that she was born to be a knight. While she excelled at slicing, stabbing, and utterly decimating every single practice target or the occasional practice partner, she liked to sing and play all sorts of instruments more than anything. She would sneak away to the top of the mountain to gaze at the plentiful stars filling up the vast sky and strumming whatever instrument she had or just humming a made-up tune.
But in the daytime, she patrolled the streets, making sure that everything was safe, and apart from the usual gamblers squabbling, there was hardly any unrest in the kingdom. She went through years of training and education to stroll in the streets and glare at people. Great. Maybe they should have let her know how the real world was like.
And this time,she strode along the street as usual, her left hand resting on her sword handle just in case. It wasn't necessary for her to draw her weapon, but just in case. And also, she had always imagined herself drawing the sword in a cool/cute manner. Nishikino Maki the daring knight. Nishikino Maki the angelic knight. Which was better? Her thoughts were broken when an angry yell burst from the alley.
"You cheated, you!" "That's too many times you've won, you whore!"
A nervous laugh was heard before the other angry gamblers continued their insults. Maki sighed. It was the same thing, some good gamblers would win and the others would cry foul and start a short-lived verbal spat. She was about to ignore it but a smash was heard and she drew her sword upon the sound of shattered glass.
As usual, her instincts were on the dot. A clearly drunk and furious sore loser had broken a glass bottle and was about to attack the winner with it. A few others grabbed whatever they could find, the rest unable to do anything.
Someone holding a long wooden stake rushed towards the winner who was wearing a hood, but Maki's sword sliced cleanly through the wood, stopping an inch before the man's knuckles.
"That's a little hasty, don't you think." She smirked, and the man dropped the stump and left, running into his companions, who jerked back and followed suit upon seeing the bright blade.
The drunk man growled and unlike the others, charged forward instead of retreating. Maki crouched down and dealt a low kick, sweeping him from behind his ankles, causing him to crash and land on the ground, the shattered glass now stabbing his face.
He howled in pain, and Maki glanced at the retreating figures, stepping harshly on the drunkard's back. "Assault, drunkenness, and to top it off, a stupid attempt at attacking me." She grinded her heel on the howling man, and turned to look at the winner, who bowed in gratitude. Maki glanced to make sure no damage was done, before waving the winner off.
"That one always wins. You know that." She grunted. It was always the the one with the hood or the one with that weird moustache. It was always the weird ones.
The man growled and Maki sighed, wondering how she would get him to the constables. He cursed and she slapped his neck with a chop, knocking him out.
She was tired of all of this. She had made up her mind.
"I want to be a bard." Maki confessed to her mother, aware that the ringing clang of metal against metal and shouts were unpleasing to her ears, and it would be nice to have a change for once.
"You what?" Her mother sighed. "Your father will be back soon. We want the best for you, even though we think differently. You should speak to him, Maki." She loved her daughter so much, but knew that her emotions would overcome her rational thinking. Her husband was one who could separate his feelings from judgement.
"I am aware of that. I just want to know if you support me." A door closed.
"Support you of what?" Papa Nishikino entered, placing his broadsword on it's usual holder.
Mama Nishikino looked at both of them uncertainly, already taking a step back as Maki took a breath
"I want to be a bard."
After 2 hours of discussions, a speech, and several proposals, Maki had not reached a consensus with her family, who believed that she was 'too young' and 'too naive' about the dangers of the world.
"If you travel, who's going to protect you?" She mimicked her father's nagging, as she took the path straight towards the notorious castle.
The biggest bad out there was currently the dragon. Save the princess without dying, and she would shut her parents up. Thinking about it just made her angrier and angrier. Who did her parents think she was? A kid? Sure, Santa acknowledged that by giving her gifts every Christmas, but she was growing and she could defeat the whole guard team. The whole ROYAL guard team.
"Urgh." She scowled as she hastened her pace, her frustration growing with each passing minute. She had never lost a match. She even defeated her father with a single wooden sword when she was 7. It was a fair match. Santa had praised her for that in his letter, and at least he displayed some recognition.
She huffed and marched on in an allegro pace, the weight of her armour not slowing her down. She would find that castle (done), get the stupid princess and maybe defeat that deplorable dragon.
The Dragon reared its scaled head sleepily, and darted out from behind the castle. It flapped its black (but clean) wings, and the breeze from that action ruffled Maki's hair.
Maki either didn't notice it or didn't care, simply tucking her hair back into position, and the Dragon was furious. Ignoring the famous and feared Dragon! Ridiculous!
The Dragon knew that those the Dragon killed (mostly accidentally) were those who belittled the Dragon and ignored the Dragon. But the Dragon didn't really like to kill. Blood was hard to clean up and if you think that humans were actually tasty, the Dragon would be obliged to give you a lecture on the unappetizing taste of human meat. In fact, the Dragon took a liking to grilled meat now because of various circumstances. But now was not the time. Now was the time to put on the best show the Dragon could.
The Dragon snorted and let out the most impressive roar the Dragon could summon.
Left, right, left, right; Maki continued without flinching, her polished boots pressing into the stone path.
The Dragon exhaled and two long grey streams of smoke came out from the Dragon's snout, diffusing in front of the knight.
The red head still stormed forward, and the Dragon was getting irritated. This Knight was so indifferent, it annoyed the Dragon. Time for the show-stopper. They either fought or fled at this point.
The Dragon let out a jet of fire, intentionally missing the knight as a warning.
Maki either loved being almost barbecued or could no longer care, her steps set in a rhythm that the Dragon was catching on to.
The Dragon swooped down, another spew of fire aiming for Maki. Maki just stepped aside, climbing the rocks that blocked out the fire like arpeggios.
The Dragon extended the Dragon's smooth but obviously dangerous claws, eager to cut into the knight.
Maki displayed amazing footwork, dodging and swerving to the entrance of the castle like how she ran her fingers over the lute.
The Dragon agitatedly flew in after the knight, aware that few had simply walked in like that. And none had charged in without being singed. The tempo of the knight had not stopped, and it seemed to be gradually increasing.
Maki muttered under her breath about annoyingly unnecessary hindrances and looked up to locate the tower (and the annoying dragon)
The Dragon felt extremely bothered for an unknown reason, and roared again, landing opposite the knight, who danced around the Dragon with firm but graceful footsteps that the Dragon admired. The Dragon froze and flicked the Dragon's tail before spewing more fire.
Maki leapt over the Dragon's long tail (much to the Dragon's amazement and disappointment), and crouched to avoid the fire, all while keeping her beat.
The Dragon was mesmerized but snapped out of it, crawling after Maki - gracefully, of course, and snapped at the redhead's heels.
Maki realised she had to run, and ran straight for the tower, hurtling herself in a reckless jump. She landed at the bottom of the stairs after crashing through the flimsy wooden doors, getting up in time to avoid being burnt to a crisp as the Dragon hurled another ball of fire at her. Not that she cared, of course. She was too angry to care about anything. If her parents were concerned now, GOOD! Okay, maybe she felt a little guilty. Not that much, just a little bit. Lesser. yup, that much.
The Dragon was now tailing her from outside, but the Dragon didn't want to destroy the tower, and headed for the top of it.
Maki went up the stairs in her original pace, no longer seeing the need to speed up. The black lizard was a wimp, and she could take 10 of them at any time.
The Dragon sneezed and set an unfortunate bird on fire.
Maki finally reached the last door, panting slightly because she had been going at a constant pace since she left her house.
She knocked on it and waited before opening it politely. She didn't care for the princess but she cared for manners. Probably. She entered, eager to get it over with.
"Oh, you're finally here. I saw your fight with the amazing, terrifying, legendary Dragon. Those were quite some fancy moves."
A short girl with equally short twintails stood with her back facing Maki, who looked around the pink room with a pink canopy bed, complete with several pink pillows and pink sheets. the whole room was pink, which was a shocking contrast with the grey tower.
"Well, aren't you going to say something, my apparent Knight in shining armour, my hands...ome.. savio-" The girl turned around, and froze, her mouth hanging open after seeing Maki, who was still rather taken in, and taken aback by the gaudy décor.
"Huh." Maki looked at the runt, who had amazingly familiar red eyes, an obnoxious aura, and black hair. Wait, black hair? red eyes? This could only clearly mean one thing!
"You're not the princess." She stated bluntly, at this point, vexed that she might have possibly been on a wild goose chase. Or that the rumours about the princess were false and the princess was actually this ... this spoilt child in front of her. She nearly drew her sword and sliced everything in the room. She twirled her hair agitatedly, and missed the girl's look at her.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you." The black haired girl started, and she was blushing. "There isn't just one princess, there are two, and I'm with them, and we're all gay, I mean, they're both too gay to be rescued, sorry, I mean, you look cute, not as cute as me, of course, but you have no way of competing with them. I'm also kinda that Dragon who attacked you and I'm so sorry, I wouldn't have done it if I knew you were so hot and-" The girl froze, realising she was blabbering on and on. Her face flushed, rivalling the ripe red tomatoes that Maki loved.
"Er. You're the Dragon? And you -what?!" Maki twirled her hair, and looked away, feeling the same way she did when she was 5 and got stuck in the chimney waiting for Santa and was finally rescued by her parents.
The black haired girl growled angrily and smacked her face. "Damnit, why do I do this, years of concealing my secret identity and this." She blushed and her panicked expression seemed to activate something in Maki.
She suddenly remembered that stupid fortune telling she received from a hooded traveller some years ago. And she had laughed it off, but now that prophecy rang clearly like an unwanted alarm in her head.
'Ah, you're a great knight. Knights fight dragons. You meet a dragon and you will want to f-'
Maki coughed.
'-k the dragon.'
She had assumed it meant to destroy the dragon, but this... this...
Maki growled. "This whole thing is stupid. You're stupid but stupidly cute. I'm stupid! Why did you say that, idiot!" She squatted down and gripped her hair, too embarrassed to say anything.
"Who asked you to look so damn hot that I blanked out?!" The black haired girl retorted, covering her face and leaning against the wall
"Don't look at me!" Maki screamed, feeling despair and shame take over her logical thinking.
"I wasn't even looking at you!" The black haired girl shouted back.
Maki got up, legs spag- wobbly but still able to move. "What do you want now, you idiot!"
"I want your name!"
"I'm Nishikino Maki, you're rude for not introducing yourself!"
"I'm Yazawa Nico! And you're equally rude!"
Maki held her head and staggered away, face still red. She... she couldn't stay here or she might die from embarrassment, or even worse... fulfil the prophecy.
"I'll be back again so don't you run away, you coward! N-not that I want to see you, but I need to t-take revenge! That's right! I'll see you in two days!"
She ran off, but heard Nico's reply as she nearly tripped down the stairs.
"Don't be late or you'll regret it!"
She fell down the stairs, but her groan was in frustration, not pain. Telling her parents she wanted to be a bard was way easier compared to telling them she f- fell for a dragon.
End
A sequel? I don't know, maybe there will be one. Who knows.
I'm just kidding. I planned out backgrounds and character relationships, of course I might continue this story. When I feel like it. Someday.
If you were too lazy to venture into the tumblr post, let me simplify it. It was a horoscope post about princesses, knights, and dragons.
Maki got the knight and Nico got the dragon. Instead of reblogging and simply scrolling past it, I got an idea. I still don't know how to feel about this.
Thanks for reading yo.
