Chapter One
"Attention!" The leader of the Kingsguard, Sir Rokunami yelled. "Look alive, the King and Queen are coming!"
The heavy oak doors to the armory were pushed open to reveal the broad shouldered King. His eyes swept over the room of the castle knights and he turned his nose up with a sniff, like he'd seen something particularly disgusting. A beautiful blonde woman trailed after him, lips pursed and chin raised. The bright pink dress she wore was enough to make any man flinch.
The King, Sasunaru Phantomhive spoke with a solemn tone, "We have called for you today with regards to a very pressing issue. As you all know, our daughter, Princess Emily, was abducted last night by a monstrous dragon that breathes fire and wreaked havoc at her betrothal feast. We would like two of you to embark on a journey to Fairy Tail Hill and retrieve our princess, so she can marry Prince Suzaku. You will be heavily rewarded with 2 million jewel and the honour of becoming a Kingsguard, so who shall it be?"
The room fell into a tense silence. Incredulous glances flitted between the knights as they contemplated the mission they were given. The ferocious dragon dwelling atop Fairy Tail Hill was known for burning those who dared disturb him alive. Many grave troops had made the lethal march up the hill in the past. There had been no survivors.
No one dared to move a muscle, but the Knight, Salta Joestar. He was a tall fellow with curly brown mops on his head and a straight face, "I'll do it sir!" He looked around, wondering why no one else would raise their hands. Surely, this was an honour and quite worth it. Well, at least, he thought so.
The soldier next to him, hit him with his elbow coughing, "S-s-suicide." And started to cough again.
Salta just frowned and stepped in front of the commander of the Kingsguard. The commander beckoned for his son, Sawney Rokunami, to step up, "My son will prove to everyone that he can be a Kingsguard. He will not fail in his conquest, because the Rokunami family does not fail."
Sawney stood next to Salta, sizing him up. The bored expression on his face seemed as if it was set in stone. He tried to offer a courteous smile, but it only ended up as a scowl. Sawney had jet black hair and dark skin, he wasn't a tall as this Salta, but he was up there. This made Sawney kind of upset, which made his face seem even meaner to Satla. Salta simply looked back to the King and Queen as Sir Rokunami dismissed all the other piss poor Knights.
"So, what exactly happened to the princess, my lord and lady?"
Queen Gale only sighed dramatically, "It's a terrible tragedy, really. She was supposed to marry today."
~Yesterday~
The castle garden bushes rustled under the weight of a lean young man as he attempted to sneak past the castle guards making as little noise as possible. He failed. He ended up having to singe the guards to a crisp in order to get by. What could he say? Stealth was not his forte.
Princess Emily sat in her garden. She wore what any commoner would. What else is one suppose to wear in the gardens? She picked beautiful flowers, even making herself a crown. The day was beautiful and her golden hair flowed in the breeze. She was content and unaware of being watched by Judas the Dragon, who was perched behind a tree. He'd come to see the grand feast tonight, but instead he found a singing beauty in a garden of many flowers. His face was as red as the fire he breathed under his shock of salmon hair, and he was about to come from behind the tree to speak to her, before seeing the King and Queen approach her in anger.
"EMILY!"
The princess jumped at the livid tone, startled out of her reverie.
"Emily Phantomhive! What are you doing here!? You have your betrothal feast tonight to celebrate the marriage we have arranged! And you are nowhere near ready to be presented as our princess. No real princess would waste her time singing commoner songs in such haggardly clothing when she has a very important dinner to attend!" Her mother's voice was shrill in her ears. Emily winced. Lectures were always the worst.
"You know how important our concordance with the Kururugi family is. They are funding our entire war effort! If you fail to impress, we will be left in shambles." The King scoffed and set a firm arm over her shoulders, steering her back into the castle.
Emily looked at her feet, almost being brought to tears by their words. She didn't want to marry this Suzaku Kururugi and she certainly didn't want to be treated like a child, but there was nothing she could do against the King and the Queen. She looked behind her and noticed the fiery hair behind the tree, but it was too late for investigating.
Judas was appalled. The Princess had looked so happy a moment ago, he was sure her life was perfect. However, it seemed like these royal parents of hers did quite a number on her. It was startling to see how quickly her face crumbled under their words. Not that he could blame her. Parents like those could make even his fire go out, he imagined. But he had no time to waste on such pointless thoughts.
The feast was tonight. Judas slinked back into the shadows and hurried away, having gotten what he came for. He would come back tonight to break into the grand feast he'd been hearing about for so long, and finally get his hands on all that glorious food. His mouth watered just thinking of it. Judas hurried off, and broke into a run when he was far enough away. Large, heavy wings ripped from his back and streamed behind him. Brilliant red scales emerged from his pores, and his sharp fangs flashed in the sunlight as his wings caught the wind and lifted him into the air. Judas had always loved his dragon form a little bit more than his human body, despite the hatred he received for it. He pumped his wings faster, relishing in the feeling of his chest swelling with a freedom he just couldn't find tied down to the earth. He flew a thousand feet in the sky, his golden eyes sparkling with mirth. He just couldn't wait for the feast and to see the princess again.
Later on that evening, the castle received a surprise guest.
"DRAAAAGONNNNNN! RUN!"
The grand dining hall descended into chaos. Guests were screaming in terror and scrambling for the exit in their tailored suits and poofy skirts as Judas thrashed behind them. He let out a roar more savage and bloodthirsty than any of the paper-and-glue counterparts that the civilians liked to wear on Halloweens. Within two minutes, Judas had cleared the entire room.
With a cheeky grin, he began clawing the food off the table and tossing them through the broken windows and into the burlap sack he'd set beforehand. With a loot like this, he wouldn't have to bother hunting for days. He was sizing up the beautiful sweets arranged on the other end of the table when he caught sight of a painfully bright pink skirt peeking out from under an upturned table. Apparently, Judas wasn't as good at clearing a room as he'd thought.
He edged over to the skirt and pulled away the table to reveal a quivering young woman, with her eyes screwed shut in fear and hands curled tightly around a butter knife in what he could only assume self-defense.
"P-P-Please don't hurt me!"
Her voice shook wildly and hot tears were spilling over her cheeks. Judas tilted his head, considering her carefully. Sugary syrup was spattered over her dress, and the spilled wine soaking her hair made her look like some kinda fairy food princess. But he could recognize that face anywhere.
It was the girl from the garden. The one with the golden hair, and the nasty parents. The one who sang more sweetly than the birds that chirped below him when he flew.
And here she was, a quivering shell of the person he saw before, he mused. Sitting in a tight-fitting dress she didn't like for the sake of a marriage she didn't want. Her beautiful voice forever silenced under the weight of uncaring parents she didn't deserve. It was quite the tragedy. Tragedy wasn't really a good look on her.
Without any warning, he hauled her over his back with one swipe of his claws before grabbing his precious sack and leaping for the sky. Before Emily knew it, they were airborne.
Now, of course, she screamed. What would any person do? She was sure the dragon would burn her alive or fatten her up with all the foods from the feast and eat her. She contemplated jumping off, but thought otherwise when she saw the treacherous drop below. There really was no way out, was there? She'd be stuck living for however long the dragon let her stay alive in a grimy cave away from her parents, never to set foot in the kingdom again. She thought she might cry.
She thought of the parents she left behind, probably scrambling to pull the feast back together. Surely, her rescue wasn't as important to them as the ambassadors from the all across the kingdoms that could potentially help with the war effort. Her heart sank a little. Some days you just couldn't win.
"Sing for me." The dragon said in a raspy voice.
She was in no position to decline the beast. She held onto him, looking up into the sky, "I want what I left behind me, I trip when your name reminds me~ Those days when things were new. Those days when I had you. Oh take my hand and remind me…"
~Now~
"So, we need you two to hurry. The Kururugi family is all we have so we don't lose this war." The Queen stated.
Salta Joestar and Sawney Rokunami were given the golden armor of a Kingsguard. They weren't familiar with each other, really. Sawney knew Salta as the potty-mouthed arrogant Canadian and Salta just thought Sawney would grow up to be as mean as his father. Salta struggled with the armour. It was heavy and bright, plus he had no clue how to put it on, Sawney, however, was a pro. He had the whole thing on and he had a bag of foods for the trip. He turned Salta around and helped him with the rest of his armour, "Don't get me killed, Joestar, alright?"
Salta frowned and yelled with blasphemy, "I'm Salta Joestar of thee Joestar clan. How could you possibly think that yours truly could ever fuck up on a quest as easy as this? If anything, you should be worried about not getting me killed. Sure, your paps-"
Sawney covered his mouth and growled, "I hope you don't always talk this much."
Salta slapped his hand away angrily and walked through the castle doors with Sawney. The other guards waved them off and all of them chanted together, "Suicide! Suicide! Suicide!" They only shut up when being yelled at by Sir Rokunami. He gave Sawney a hard hit on the back and whispered, "Don't come back if you don't have the princess." Then let go of him.
Sawney stumbled a bit, then scowled, walking with Salta. The two were hardly the dream team. The only thing they seemed to have in common was that they were both brave males in the same armour. Salta had olive skin, which was already beginning to turn tan from the rays of the sun. He wished it was nighttime, where the sun departed under Mount Collage and lit up the sky with beautiful blues and oranges. The Mountain was quite far off. It was, at least, past Fairy Tail Hill and was, certainly, the tallest Mountain in this world. It was made of art so beautiful, it would drive a man to stay there forever and die. A few men had already done so. They say, the best collage lies at the top, but it's an impossible journey. Hell, people say slaying a dragon is impossible, but this was ludicrous.
Sawney walked ahead of Salta. He was really bugged about this mission. Salta must've really needed the money or he was a fool to Sawney, but it didn't matter. The last words he'll probably hear from his father was to not come home. Sawney scoffed and turned back around, "Could you walk any slower, Joestar?"
Salta rolled his eyes, "Meh, I'm not really all that eager to travel through the forest of Ooglies. I was hoping they'd give us a wagon or some horses."
"The only thing they decided to waste on us was this fake armour. We're expendables and they're expecting us to die." Sawney replied, solemnly.
"Wow, you really should lighten up. We're gonna kick that dragons ass, get some mad cash, and have whatever we want, if my name isn't Salta Joestar of th-?"
"I get it, alright!" Sawney couldn't help but smirk a bit at the boys enthusiasm and he walked alongside him. To be honest, Sawney wasn't all that happy to go into this forest either. Why, the Ooglies were these big fat green creatures that didn't even have the proper decency to put on clothes, let alone have some type of hygiene routine. They had menacing black eyes and always looked like they were about to unleash a mighty sneeze. You'd better hope they weren't gonna sneeze either, it's poisonous to all creatures and fatal. The only few people that know the cure are hostages in the Meme Center. This is the place the Ooglies lived and kept their slaves that would soon be turned into Memes. They used the Memes to fight all their enemies.
The creatures dwelled here and came out at all hours of the day. It's practically impossible not to encounter them when travelling through this forest, which was also a pain in everyone's rear.
The man who created the Ooglies, Mitchell Kosmos, lives even farther than Mt. Collage. He probably sits in his freakish castle making more nuisances for the world. Just about every problem you can think of here was caused by him, except for the war the Phantomhives are in now. Kosmos, however, works with the opposing sides, which leads back to the many many problems.
It was evening and the boys had been lucky, so far, in their travels. They'd been able to stay out of battle with the Ooglies and there was still a ton of food. This, of course, made Salta even more cocky, "I told you this quest was gonna be easy. No Ooglies, new armour, money, and food! Pfft, and you doubted me."
Sawney put his hand up for Salta to stop talking. He looked almost forlorn, squinting into the ominous darkness and trying to listen closely.
"What is it? You think it's an Ooglie?" Salta was shut down again by Sawney clasping his palm over his mouth.
Sawney stood and was quickly knocked down by a foot in his skull. It was the foot of a girl in all black. You couldn't even see her, for the night became pitch dark quickly in these woods. Yelling came from behind Salta as another girl in all black knocked him out with stern kick to his cranium, "Debby Rickey! I told you countless times not to just attack our victims! Yes, we're bandits, but we have to be stealth as well!" Sawney grabbed Debby's foot and slammed her down into the hard earth. Vya Okumura was livid. No one touched Debby! She could see perfectly in the night as if she were one with the bats. The purple highlights of hers shined in bits and pieces of the moonlight, but her face was not revealed. She gave Sawney a kick with her black heeled boot into Sawney's jaw, knocking him out completely.
"I guess their luck ran out, Vya, right?" Debby said with a devilish grin, blissfully unaware of her impending scolding.
