Summary: It's AD in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign-styled world with a Lord of the Rings-esque plot . . Chiyo, the princess of Draconia, must embark on a quest to vanquish evil and save the world!
Author's note: I wonder what I was on when I figured out the idea for this story, but whatever it was, I want more! Anyway, when I started fleshing out the story in my mind I realized I just had to write this. So without further adieu, let this severely f'ed up piece of fiction commence!
Disclaimer: I don't own Azumanga Daioh or anything in it. That belongs to Kiyohiko Azuma. Likewise I own nothing I might take from D&D, Wizards of the Coast does.
Please no flames even if this sucks!
Oh, and in case you're wondering, \,,\ //(O.O)\\ \,,\ signifies a break between… sections? What do you call them in English?
\,,\ //(O.O)\\ \,,\
The Guardian
Prologue
"Chiyo-sama"! A yell was heard from upstairs. The redheaded young woman named Chiyo was practicing her combat skills against the castle's many training dummies in its basement to keep her mind away from the weird dreams she had been having for a few months already when she heard her name called. The shouter was Kaori Aida, one of Chiyo's many personal assistants. "Aiee!" Kaori's voice rang again in the room as she came crashing down the stairs.
"Oh, Kaori!" Chiyo exclaimed, dashing to the fallen Kaori, crouching beside her and starting to mumble something that Kaori found strange.
"Cure light wounds!" Chiyo said, and at that moment Kaori found herself perfectly fine.
"You're magic always astounds me, Chiyo-sama" she said, admiration in her voice. Chiyo sighed. Every time she would cast a simple healing spell, everyone in the castle was swooning over her. She didn't get what was so special about it. The priest of the castle chapel could cast much more potent spells that she could, and no one was praising him for his superior skills. Well, as much as anyone admired Kimura's powers, his devotion to his deity was questionable at best.
"Kimura's more devoted to looking up girls' skirts than worshipping any deity" Chiyo thought darkly as she remembered the many times when someone had "accidentally" fanned sudden gusts of wind in her and her friends' general direction and Kimura had "accidentally" tripped on something and fallen face-up under them, even when there was nothing on the floor!
Anyway, back to Kaori. "Why were you yelling for me from upstairs?" Chiyo asked, and Kaori stood up and straightened herself.
"Chiyo-sama, I mentioned you're dreams to his majesty" Kaori said, and Chiyo looked up hopefully.
"You're father says that you absolutely must not pursue them" Chiyo face faulted, and looked down. Kaori continued,
"He says that there's nothing prophetic about dreams, and that you should just forget about it."
Chiyo was disheartened to say at the least. "I..:" She mumbled, but did not continue. Kaori sighed. "Chiyo-sama is just too cute when she's sad" she thought. Then again, their little princess had no way of not being cute. With her long hair tied in pigtails, to her slender figure and short stature. Chiyo had always been short, and she had always been frustrated about it. She was soon turning 18 years old, yet most residents of the castle still towered over her, some much younger than she was. She was over a head shorter than captain of the Royal Knights of Draconia, Sakaki, for crying out loud!
Inwardly she knew that comparing herself to Sakaki's height wasn't really fair, as said person was even taller than most men in the castle, surpassed only by the King, and her superior, the Knight General Masaaki Oyama. The only reason Chiyo did compare her height to Sakaki's was that she was one of her caretakers and personal attendant. The first person she remembered from her childhood was Sakaki, instead of her mother. Her mother, being queen, had always been distant towards her children, not that she meant to, but her duties prevented her from raising crown princess Chiyo Mihama herself. Chiyo spent most of her childhood with Sakaki or some of her other caretakers.
"Hey, don't beat yourself over it" Kaori said. "They're just dreams."
Chiyo didn't take Kaori's reassurances seriously, she never had. Since she had started having those dreams, she was convinced that they did in fact mean something. What, she didn't know.
"I should go to sleep" Chiyo told Kaori, who frowned. "I must wake up early to study divine magic under Kimura-sensei" Chiyo explained, and Kaori visibly relaxed. For the longest time she had been having an odd hunch that Chiyo might sneak away from the castle. For what reason was unknown. She just shuddered, as her worst hunches usually proved to be true… most of the time. She somehow knew this was no different.
\,,\ //(O.O)\\ \,,\
Chiyo was standing in an open room with a marble floor, surrounded by utter darkness everywhere she looked. The only light shone from her lantern. She hesitantly took a step forward, and screamed in terror as the floor collapsed under her and she fell.
There was no pain as she hit the ground. Now she was in a lush meadow with a grand city away from her. She looked into her hand, and saw clutched tightly the necklace she was holding. Instinctively, she knew that she had to get that necklace to the High Priest of the temple in that city.
The scenery changed. She was now walking a mountain path, and she instinctively knew that it led to the city. To her right stood walked a woman she had never seen before, but who seemed oddly familiar. She was garbed in a forest green blouse with a forest green skirt, and was carrying a longbow of elven work on her back along with a quiver of arrows.
Behind them walked another oddly familiar figure, much taller than the either of the two travelers. Clad in a rust red robe with not even a backpack, Chiyo deduced that she must be a sorceress of considerable power. How she came to that conclusion, she did not know. Suddenly, the sky turned black. Chiyo gasped and looked around. The ranger had been tossed to the side of the path, crushed by the impact of her hitting the rocks. The sorceress was helplessly trying to stand from her position in the back, being barely conscious. The ogre they had been fighting had been too much for them. Chiyo gasped in fear as the ogre raised its ugly fists and struck…and she could swear she heard it mutter, "Gardenia."
\,,\ //(O.O)\\ \,,\
"Gyaaah!" Chiyo screamed, falling out of her bed doing so. The door swung open and a tall, dark haired young woman ran inside.
"Chiyo-sama!" Sakaki's concerned voice rang in the open space as she closed the distance between a sobbing Chiyo and herself. Sakaki wrapped her arms around the tiny girl and pulled her into a hug.
"Was it that dream again?" She asked. Chiyo, who had buried her head onto Sakaki's shoulders, tried to nod, but only managed to let out another sob.
"It's just a dream", Sakaki mumbled at Chiyo. She had never been like this after a nightmare before, not even as a child. "It's not real."
"I…" Chiyo said, but was unable to continue. For a moment, neither said nothing.
Chiyo then nervously backed away from Sakaki. "I apologize for worrying you, Sakaki-san" she mumbled. She then lapsed into deep thoughts about her dream. She had never dreamed about the ogre before. It had been huge, far bigger than any depiction of Ogres she had been shown in her life.
"Don't worry" Sakaki said, standing up. "I'll wait for you in the hall" She said, hesitantly backing out of the room and closing the door behind her.
Sakaki knew she wouldn't be getting an answer out of Chiyo. When Chiyo went into thinking mode, she was like a shell, not moving an inch and then suddenly springing into action, yelling "I've got it" and dancing around the castle like a little kid given candy. She smiled fondly at the memories of little Chiyo circling her, animatedly talking to her about what she had been studying prior and what discovery she had made then.
Chiyo arrived to the hallway a while later. They wordlessly set into a pace of walking to the dining room of the castle for breakfast. Kaori joined them for breakfast, and they ate in an unusual silence. Kaori looked at Sakaki, a wordless understanding between them. Chiyo was acting oddly, and neither could figure out why. They would have to take this to the attention of her teachers. The thought of talking to Kimura being awkward, they both decided to talk to Kurosawa-sensei instead. The woman was unmatched in her physique in the castle, and it was said that only Sakaki herself and Knight General Masaaki Oyama were able to match her in combat. Her students included the best knights in the kingdom: Sakaki, Oyama and Kagura, who had been moved to another castle as a leader of its knights.
Draconia consisted of four dukedoms, each with their own noble house headed by the Duke, or in the case of Empyrea, duchess, although its citizens were betting on how long Yukari kept the position. She had been appointed as duchess after her father died, but everyone knew she'd rather spend her time drinking in the bars of the castle town instead of ruling over it.
Of all the dukedoms, the greatest was Valhalla. This was the royal council seat of Draconia. All dukes and possible barons would once a year travel into the Royal Council meetings to declare new laws and taxes or declaring old ones obsolete.
It was that time of the year. All the important people were arriving at the castle, and everyone, most of all the royal family, was busy welcoming them to their two-week long stay in the castle. The king was the most important person, and he had the most power in the council, even if it was mostly democratic. In the case of a tie, the king had the power to choose what to do with their elections.
Chiyo sighed as she mechanically repeated her speech to Duke Damascus, saying that it was a pleasure to have him here and that sort of things.
After all that was done, she was surprised as her mother called her to her room.
"Chiyo-chan" The queen stated quietly. "Come here so I can take a look at you"
The fact that Chiyo didn't spend much time with her mother didn't mean that she didn't love her, or that her mother didn't love Chiyo. She was just busy with other things, as was Chiyo.
"You've grown up so much" The Queen exclaimed. "You're birthday is coming up, very soon. It also means you're training will be over… you will be declared a full-fledged Priestess when you turn 18 years old. I'm so proud of my little girl!"
"Mother" Chiyo said suddenly. "Have you heard of those dreams I've been having?"
The Queen frowned. Of course she had, her husband could go on and on about their Chiyo-chan having strange dreams that worried him.
"Chiyo" She said. "Tell me about those dreams." Not many knew that the Queen was a potent prophetess, a seer without equal. She, better than anyone, knew that Chiyo's dreams did in fact mean something, and that was the reason she had decided to talk to her daughter that day. Prophetic dreams didn't appear to just anyone, and even then only a fraction could decipher what they meant.
As Chiyo explained to her mother her dream from the morning, the Queen could do nothing but frown. She knew that the only one to truly know what the dream meant was Chiyo herself, although she sadly noted that it meant Chiyo must leave the castle one day.
"Looks like the day for you to leave is sooner than I expected, my daughter" she mused.
"Chiyo, you already know what your dream entails" The Queen told Chiyo, whose eyes widened.
"Mother." Nothing else needed to be said. Suddenly, Chiyo jumped and hugged her mother tightly.
\,,\ //(O.O)\\ \,,\
The next morning came quicker than what Chiyo had wanted.
"I want to say goodbye to everyone…" She mumbled as she stood beside the gates of the castle town. "But…"
She straightened herself, and walked. The gates had been opened to allow merchants to travel inside the town; however, all travelers were asked their identity at the gates. She was prepared for this. She only needed to flash the royal signet ring she wore on her right index finger, and the guards would let her leave. It wasn't unusual for one of the royal family to leave alone, as their guardsmen usually went ahead to secure the outskirts of town for immediate dangers.
Since that didn't pose a problem for Chiyo, she set out towards the High Mountains. Her destination was the mountain settlement of Gardenia.
Gardenia was the capital of the dukedom of the same name, the second most influential dukedom of Draconia. It was rules more like a theocracy than like a dukedom, with a high priest governing the daily life of its citizens. That same high priest was the mentor of the castle's very own Kimura. The High Priest was the most religiously influential person in the whole of Draconia, and he was the King's right hand man in council meetings. Apart from them, he and the king met each other regularly to discuss business.
Somehow, Chiyo knew that her journey had something to do with the High Priest. And… she also knew there was something her parents were not telling her.
Either way, she would eventually find out.
\,,\ //(O.O)\\ \,,\
Man, did that first chapter suck or what. The reason to that is that these first few are supposed to be sort of introductory chapters to kick off things. Don't expect anything to happen in the next chapter, it's mostly going to focus on Chiyo traveling the road (and musing about things in the meanwhile) and Sakaki and Kaorin dealing with Chiyo's departure.
And's what's this with Chiyo's father knowing more than he lets on? Who's this mysterious right hand of his, the high priest? Why were the king and queen not named? The answers to all these and more will be revealed… later. Maybe. See you peoples later!