Gah… I think I've way to influenced by the Dealing With Dragons series by Patricia Wrede. What can I say? It's a good series and I love it. It's going to influence quite a bit in this fanfic. Hmmmm… but I don't own it. Neither do I own Digimon. Which is a shame. A damn shame.


:. .:

Chapter I – The Prince

"I've already told you, no!"

A young boy nearing his eighteenth birthday had nearly shouted. He brushed his hand through his messy golden blond hair, while resting his head on the other. His elbow leaned against the arm of the royal throne upon which he sat. He wore grand robes, fit for royalty, with a gold crown on his head, and a green cape to accompany his green and gold clothes. His ocean blue eyes glared in a way at the green eyed boy in front of him. The brown-gray bowl-cut hair of the younger boy stayed in place as he made a dramatic swoop with his arm pleading to the blond in front of him.

"Your Majesty! If you would just please come to your senses!"

"I said no, and that's final! Now, please Iori, can you just back off?" The once glowering eyes, turned into a more pleading stance. The green eyed, younger boy named Iori stared at him for a moment or two. After those, he dropped his gaze and sighed.

"For now, I will do as Your Majesty pleases. But, if you can please, please remember, that we only have a couple months before your day of birth... and that you will need a wife in order to receive the crown," Iori huffed as he started to turn away.

"Well, if everything was going as planned, I wouldn't need to receive the crown!" the young blond started, as his hands dropped. He started, slightly exasperated, "If my brother had just come back from that quest, then I wouldn't have to be here, in this stuffy castle, in these stuffy clothes, with these stuffy people and their stuffy customs!"

"Yes... and who knows what happened to His Highness, the Prince..." Iori sighed, raising a hand to his face to rest on his chin.

"...I know!" the young boy's pleading face turned a more joyful one.

"What, Your Majesty?" Iori turned to face him once more, looking in the blue eyes, starting to get a bad feeling. Not knowing what it was, he was just inclined to ask. However, once he saw the glint and heard the plan, he immediately was against it.

"What if, I go on a quest myself, in order to find my brother? I'm sure, that way, I'll be able to find a princess with a sound head on her shoulders, though that is wishing for too much, that I'll be able to rescue and marry! And if I can't, then at least I can find my brother, and he can receive the crown and get all of you people off of my back once and for all!" The boy's eyes were dancing all over the place. He leaned back and sighed, wishing he had thought of it earlier, and was exceptionally pleased with his plan. Of course, it was shot down.

"No! Who in the world would run this kingdom, if you aren't here, Your Majesty?" Iori's eyes were met with another glare from the blue eyes.

"You would Iori. I trust you. You're the Royal Advisor and you're reliable and smart, and I know you would do a good, if not better, job than I would at running this kingdom for a few months while I'm gone," the boy said softly to his friend all too seriously while staring at him.

"No way, Your Majesty! I would need to be there in order to make sure you are not doing anything... un-princely-like!" Iori shouted at the boy, trying to keep his calm.

The boy stared at Iori and broke into a laugh, "Un-princely-like! Me? Iori! I've known you your whole life, and you've known me for just as long! When, in heaven's name, do I not do things un-princely-like?"

Iori sighed once more. He saw the twinkle running through the Prince's eyes and decided that this was one of those times, when all he could do, was just go along with whatever crazy scheme the Prince had. The Prince was a sound, young man, with a good head on his shoulders. He lightened up everything, and was one of those people that, even though you just met, you could trust with your life. He wasn't very traditional, or customary, or any of those things that a Prince should be. He loved his sparring lessons, but instead of studying manners and what Princes should do in situations, he was off studying magic and history. Even though Iori did think it was ridiculous whether a Prince should learn how long it should take to wait to save a Princess from a flame ogre, or what specific manner a Prince should kiss a sleeping Princess, it was traditional, and the Prince sitting before him needed to know them! He should not be bothering with what happened in the Kingdom of the Sky Island in the Year of Gizalle, or where the Caves of Lightning were! Those were things that needed to be stumbled upon in a quest, and you can't possible know! A Prince needed to know exactly what to bring with him, in order to get people to tell him those things on the quest! Not learn it himself!

But, this is why Iori trusted the Prince. He wasn't traditional. In a way, Iori thought himself to be breaking from tradition as well. All his life, he was spending time cooped up, learning what a Prince should and should not learn, for he was to advise and lead them on the greater path. However, he knew the Prince had a great path ahead of him as well, no matter what tradition and customs said. However, one custom that did need to be followed was the one for which they were arguing not too long ago.

The Prince had denied all hundred or plus girls brought before him in the past two months. Princesses, maidens, it didn't matter. No girl in this kingdom would do for the Prince. They were all too giggly, or dimwitted, or air-headed, or... the list could go on! Iori couldn't even remember all the things the Prince said about the girls after they left, but he did have a point. He did have to admit, he probably wouldn't take any of those girls either. Now, if only there was a way to have the Prince meet a girl and fall in love...

"Alright."

"What?" The Prince's head turned slightly back to Iori. He had gotten bored while the younger boy stared off into space, and his eyes wondered around to the cobweb that he didn't notice before. Now, he stared at Iori in front of him.

"I said, alright," Iori said up to the Prince, smiling. He saw the big grin on the Prince's face as the blond jumped from the throne and grabbed the small Advisor into a big hug.

"Thank you Iori! I knew you would come through for me!" The Prince said, swinging Iori around. Iori laughed and struggled as the Prince put him down.

"Yes, I will come through for you, if you don't kill me first!" Iori said, grinning. He loved when the Prince was happy. It didn't happen too much now the rest of the Royal Family was gone. He felt a push on his head, and hands on his shoulders, and watched as the Prince ran through the doors of the throne room. He looked himself down and up and noticed that the Prince's crown and cape were on him. He laughed in a slight shock and happiness, and started to take them off.