The Dragon Prince

Once, in the city of Radiant Garden, there lived a King and Queen. The people of the city loved them dearly, as King Tidus was a good ruler (and not unreasonable with taxes), while Queen Yuna was as kind and gentle a woman as anyone could wish for. The one thing that cast a shadow over the monarchs was the fact that they had no heirs. This was the one thing that they longed for more than anything else in the world, and as the years went by, the Queen became sadder and sadder. One day, as she was taking a walk in the castle gardens, she was so overcome by grief with her situation, that she sat down on a bench, and began to weep.

She didn't know how long she stayed there for, but after a while she became aware of a rustling in the undergrowth, not far from where she was sitting. Wiping away her tears, she looked up in time to see a strange man emerge from the bushes. He seemed to be quite young, and had the most unusual hair she'd ever seen; unruly red hair that had been caught back in a long ponytail, and under his eyes were a pair of tattoos that marked him out as a soothsayer.

Needless to say, the Queen was quite shocked to see the soothsayer burst out of the bushes and she began to rise, before she stopped and the reprimand died on her lips. A small boy, no more than five years old, was clinging to the soothsayers back. The child was asleep, and had the same flame red hair as the young man. Upon seeing the boy, the Queen promptly burst into tears again, and the soothsayer almost fell-over in shock. The man awkwardly set the child down on the grass, before slowly turning to face the Queen. Standing by the child, he shifted his weight nervously, from foot to foot. He waited for the Queen to compose herself, before speaking.

"Erm… it looks like we've got a bit…aha…lost. I'm not from round here… If there's anyway I can help you, just name it…but I was only trying to find out how to get to the centre of the town and…" He fell silent as the Queen gave a strained smile and held up her hand.

"It's alright. You should be glad it's me you ran into, and not my husband," She ignored the young man's strangled laugh, and pressed on. "Your staff and tattoos show that you're a soothsayer- correct?"

The man nodded. "Yea. Me 'n my brother just moved here- the name's Reno." He paused for a second or two, before adding hasty "m'am" at the end of his introduction.

The Queen laughed. "I may be willing to overlook this little... indiscretion, if you can tell me something. My husband and I have been childless for far too long- tell me if there is a way that you know of that will help me to become pregnant."

Reno blinked. "Pregnant."

"Yes."

"You…want to get pregnant."

"I'm pretty sure that's what I just said."

"Right- I can work with this" Reno pulled a battered, leather-bound book out of his bag and began flicking through it, muttering under his breath. He suddenly stopped at a page, and quickly read it. Then he frowned, and read it again. Shaking his head, he shoved the small book back into the bag, and looked up at the Queen. "Looks like this one's pretty easy to solve. You've just got to eat two onions when you get back home, and in nine months you'll have a pair of sons, real handsome ones. But they gotta be fresh onions- nothing else'll work."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off as a loud shout came from behind him. "Reno! Look!"

Reno turned round to his brother, who was awake and pointing to something high up in the trees. "Hang on a second, yo. Can't you see I'm talking to the nice lady?

He turned back to the Queen, a sheepish expression on his face. "Sorry about Axel. He-" Reno stopped and stared. The woman he had been talking to moments before had disappeared. Turning his head, he could see her running towards a bend in the path. He called out to her to wait- she hadn't heard the rest of the instructions, come back, stop- but she disappeared around the bend in the path. Reno stared at the bend for a few moments, before shaking his head and walking back to his brother. "This ain't gonna end well, yo. Not at all."

After listening to the advice that the soothsayer had to offer, the Queen had become so excited that she couldn't wait to try it. The moment that his attention had been drawn to the child, she lifted her skirts off the ground, and in a very un-ladylike manner, ran as fast as she could back to the palace. She ignored his voice calling after her, and soon she had rounded a bend in the path, his voice gradually faded away.

Upon arriving back at the palace, she ordered her servants to bring two crisp onions to her immediately. When the two onions were brought to her, she was so eager to follow the soothsayer's advice, that she ate the first onion immediately, without even stopping to peel it. Unsurprisingly, it tasted horrible, so the queen decided to take more time with the second onion- carefully peeling the layers of skin off before eating it.

Sure enough, as the soothsayer had said, the Queen became pregnant and after nine months had passed, she was ready to give birth to a pair of twins. The King, and many of the palace servants had gathered outside the Royal Bedchamber, all eagerly awaiting the birth of the twins.

All of a sudden, there was an ear-splitting scream from inside the chamber. The assembled servants and King became alarmed, as the scream had not been the cry of a baby- it was the mid-wife screaming in terror. Indeed- the Queen had given birth to a male child- but not a human one.

The Queen's first born son was a dragon- a long serpentine body twisted into coils, and it hissed at the midwife from the floor where she had dropped it. The dragon had no wings- but a set of limbs with ended in taloned feet sprouted from its shoulders. The dragon made a high pitched keening noise, and began to try to crawl back over to the Queen who was staring at it in horror and revulsion.

Making up her mind, the Queen waited for the dragon to reach the bed before leaning down and picking it up. Then, with both hands she hurled it as hard as she could out of the window, and into the forest that surrounded the palace- the same one that the soothsayer had gotten lost in nine months previously. Exhausted, the Queen sank back down onto the bed, where she gave birth to another baby- a perfectly healthy, normal human child.

Years passed, and the young prince grew from a child, into a handsome young man. With his long silver hair, and turquoise eyes, Prince Riku was considered to be one of the most handsome young men in the entire kingdom. At the fine age of twenty, both of his parents had both advised him that he should now be entertaining thoughts of marriage. Riku agreed with them, and though he searched, a suitable bride could not be found for him.

Puzzled over this, the King and Queen decided to send him off on his own to find a bride. Although he was not pleased by this turn of events, Prince Riku set off through the forest. He hadn't been riding for very long, when all of a sudden a huge creature appeared on the path in front of him. Riku's horse reared up in fright, and he was thrown roughly to the ground. The dragon, for that was what the creature was, stared at the prince, with stern blue eyes that seemed to be able to see straight into Riku's soul. Riku found himself unable to move, and could only sit there as the dragon approached him.

The creature was- as Riku described it later on, to his horrified parents- "like a snake with legs". It was as tall as the surrounding trees, and its scaly hide was a periwinkle blue colour. The dragon's claws were as long as a man's forearm, and when the dragon opened it's mouth, Riku could see that it's teeth were as long, and sharp, as sabres.

"Welcome to the forest, brother-mine." The dragon's voice was low and hissing. "I've been following your little…search for quite a while now." Riku frowned as he heard a dark chuckle echo through the trees.

"I'm sorry- I don't see what's so funny about it."

The dragon glared at him, and was silent for a few minutes. "And here I thought I was being polite. I visited you today, because to be perfectly frank, I tire of your pitiful attempts at finding a bride." Here, Riku tried to say something, but the dragon ignored him and carried on speaking. "Do you know why you can't find a person to marry?"

Riku instantly became quiet, and stared up at the dragon curiously.

"It's quite simple really. Haven't you ever wondered why older siblings are married before the younger ones?" the dragon looked down at Riku- bearing its teeth in a parody of a smile. "I can tell you now, little brother, that you will not marry until I have obtained the true love of a willing bride."

Once it had finished, the dragon turned and disappeared into the forest- leaving Riku to sit on the path and wonder what had just happened.

After Riku arrived back at the palace, there was complete pandemonium. The King and Queen were horrified, as they had hoped that they would never see the dragon again. Riku had demanded to know exactly why the dragon had referred to him as brother, and the Queen was forced to tell him about how she had met the soothsayer, and that the dragon was in-fact, his older twin brother.

Over the next few weeks, there were various meetings called between the king and the politicians. During the meetings, they discussed the dragons demand, and possible solutions.

It would do no good to try to kill the dragon prince, as it was argued that he might survive and take some form of revenge against the city. Likewise, they couldn't marry him to a peasant as he was a member of the royal family- it just wouldn't be appropriate. So after many weeks of thinking and arguing, it was decided that the dragon should be married to the daughter of one of the local Barons.

The girl, Kairi, was completely appalled at the idea of being wedded to the dragon prince, and refused to even think about going through with the marriage. But no matter how much she cried and begged her father, he refused to listen to her, and plans for the wedding-day were made.

On the arranged date, Kairi was dressed in a fine wedding gown, and she was brought to a cave in the forest, where the dragon was waiting. When she set eyes on her future husband, Kairi began to tremble and tried to pull away from the courtier who was leading her towards the dragon prince.

When he saw this, the dragon roared in anger, and announced that he would not marry the girl as she was not a willing bride. Kairi was thankful for this, but the King and Queen were not.

They appealed to another local Baron, who agreed to let his daughter Naminé marry the dragon. Unfortunately, the same thing happened. Upon seeing her intended husband, Naminé grew afraid and also tried to get away, and so she was rejected by the dragon prince.

After this the King and Queen sent both young women and young men in a bid to find a willing partner for their dragon son. But, the dragon rejected every single one of the young nobles. This continued for several months- every person presented to the dragon was rejected because they were 'unwilling', and after a while, the King and Queen began to despair of ever marrying off their eldest son. So they decreed that every village must send a young man or woman as a possible bride for the dragon prince.

It was beginning to look as if Prince Riku was never going to be able to marry.

A/N Welcome to my first foray into Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. Please feel free to leave any comments- I hope you enjoy =)