Something to tode you over while I finish up Secrets II... ~Gir Out
Once upon a time there were two kingdoms; one kingdom was always shrouded in light. The buildings were colored by every color imaginable. The people there were fierce, brave, and warm, there strength un-matched by any other clan of their race and were kind when not threatened. The prince was said to hold the traits of the sun; strong and brave, filled with passion with a temper that was beyond the blazes of hell, and known to be harsh and strict. The other kingdom was cloaked by a mysterious darkness, blacker then the blackest tar. The buildings were all pristine and white, some a light blue or red or green. The people were light-hearted and carefree, filled with joy, laughter, and weren't the best when faced with war. The prince of this kingdom was said to have been blessed with the very body of the moon; He was kind, calm, his people always came first, and had innocence beyond that of a new-born child. This was something the King always strived for in his son, for innocence made peace of wars. At least, that's what he believed. The two kingdoms had one thing in common: 'to love someone is not to find the perfect person on the outside, but to find the imperfect person whom you can truly see as perfect on the inside.' Both kingdoms strived on this rule that simply stated that love comes from personality, not from beauty or status.
They had no idea that this very rule would be the start of something unimaginable...
"King Teidoll of the Kingdom of Solaris, I have come bearing news on the rival Kingdom Luna." A scribe said, kneeling and bowing his head in respect.
"Please, do tell!" Teidoll said, sitting down in his large gold trimmed throne. Teidoll was the king of the Kingdom of the Sun, or Solaris. He was kind and gentle and very artistic. His one heir is prince Kanda, who is every bit his father as he is weak, and if you know the prince, you know that he is most certainly not weak.
"The kingdom of Luna was spotted rallying forces along the front gates of our castle. I am told that they wish to have a visit, and a conference for the future ritual." The scribe said, having un-rolled his scroll and shown it to Teidoll. Teidoll eyed the letter from Luna carefully.
"So, after all these years Mana finally got a heir.. Funny, I don't remember him being in any relationships…" Teidoll's gaze went hazy. Kanda, who had heard everything, was contemplating what Teidoll said. Surely King Mana wouldn't simply adopt a commoner into the family. That would be degrading. A commoner was not supposed to be a king, or prince, for that matter. Maby King Mana simply got some random woman pregnant in hopes of having someone to continue his line of the throne. Yes, that must be it! Kanda, internal monologue no stopped, gave a satisfied sigh as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the arm of the throne. This looked pretty odd, since he was only a child of nine.
Teidoll suddenly clapped his hands together with a curt nod, scaring the daylights out of everyone else in the room, the closed scroll now in his pocket.
"Yes yes, that would be most lovely! The boys would get along fine, I'm sure. Yuu-kun, please come here. We have to get you ready to meet the neighboring Kingdom."
Kanda regretfully walked over, muttering something along the lines of 'stupid old man, don't call me that!' He waited patiently as Teidoll covered his eyes with silk cloth with his kingdom's crest embroidered onto the front. The guards had left long ago to allow King Mana and his heir into the castle. In the Kingdoms of both Luna and Solaris, it is customary that the two princes never see each other until they have found a lover or reached the appropriate age. This was the case for the Kings when they were mere princes; Teidoll finding a lover and Mana living his days alone, or so they thought. So, when the princes are young, they must always wear a blindfold in public or in each other's presence. They also weren't allowed to learn each other's names until that time. This was based off the code that both of the Kingdoms live by. A brief knock on the door followed by a guard's signal that they had arrived was heard. The large doors swung open towards the arrivals. The gust of wind created by the fast movement of the doors was enough to topple over the small boy previously next to King Mana.
"Whoops, I forgot to warn you about that. Sorry, son." Mana picked up the boy, who then stumbled to the back of Mana's leg and stayed there. Though Kanda couldn't see any of this, he imagined it to be quite a queer sight.
"Well, this is your heir? He looks almost six years old! How did you keep the pregnancy and the boy a secret for all this time?" Teidoll asked, sitting in his throne again with Kanda by his side.
"That's simple, really. I didn't." Mana said with a broad smile. King Mana wasn't exactly right in the head. Some say he's on the brink of insanity, other's think he's just a bit stupid. Either way, he was creepy to Kanda.
"That makes no sense, King Mana. Please explain how you didn't keep it a secret?" Teidoll asked, knowing Mana was ill all too well.
"Hmmm, well, I found this boy on the street, and decided to take him in." Mana said, looking to his heir and patting the boys head.
"Surely you jest!"
"I assure you, I am in all seriousness here, despite my background."
"But, to take in a commoner –and a street urchin at that—its unheard of!"
"And since when is anything I do "Heard of"?"
"King Mana, this is not a simple game. Your taking in a commoner could spell disaster for your kingdom! Do you not see this madness!?"
Mana offered a warm smile, a loving gaze was placed on the boy at his feet, "I see great things in this child, many great and wonderful things. I just know he is right for the position as my heir."
"Mana, words alone cannot assure the success of a kingdom. Your gaze is weak and your mind is ill, yet your heart is always ready to give. Do you understand why it is I argue this? What of the boy's parents?"
"Yes, what of his parents? Should it matter that this boy is from one family or the other?" Mana lifted his gaze.
"Absolutely! For all you know, that could be a Solaris child in your arms! Or worse still, an earth child! Have you no common sense left in that ill mind of yours? And besides, he must possess the ability to shift into Luna's spirit form for the ritual!" Earth children, or earthlings in general, were not supposed to know of, much less be in, the kingdoms of Solaris or Luna. To earth, they were the sun and the moon. Nothing more, nothing less. Though, the occasional earthling would somehow appear in Luna, especially with the Space explorations done by the Earthlings.
"I know for a fact that this boy is pure Lunarian. He has been gifted with the mark of the mood spirit, Dragon, and so he is the rightful heir to the Luna throne just as your son is marked with the gift of the sun spirit, Phoenix! Can you not see that? Or are you as blind as the princes under their blindfolds!?" Mana was calm, despite picking his voice up. He understood that Teidoll was only looking out for the good of the people, so he was not angered.
Teidoll knew this, but no one else did. So, the Solarian guards had apprehended Mana, thinking he was threatening King Teidoll.
"See you at the ritual!" Mana called over his shoulder to Teidoll, who then shouted back in confirmation as Mana was dragged away with his son.
"Not right in the head, that one." Teidoll said, removing Kandas blindfold once the Lunarians were off the premises.
All Kanda could do was nod.
King Mana was on the carriage home, Allen had fallen asleep during the carriage ride and Mana really didn't want to wake him. So, when the carriage was hit by some unknown force Allen felt nothing. That is, until he woke up.
"Mana? Mana! Mana where are you?!" Allen was scared. Flames were everywhere, ignited by the hay and chunks of wood from the crash. He heard a voice call out, he finally found Mana! But, Mana was stuck under the carriage. Allen pulled. He pulled and pulled and pulled until he finally got Mana clear of the wreck.
"Everything's okay now, Mana. Your away from the bad things. Your okay. We can go home. Please talk to me!" Allen was sobbing, weakly tugging at the collar of Mana's coat, trying for a response.
"Allen, my little Allen. Don't cry, just get up and walk away. Don't ever stop walking, okay? Don't ever give up. You.. have to.. promise… me.. this..."
"Mana? Mana! PAPA!" Allen sobbed against Mana's chest, saying yes over and over again. He wanted to make sure Mana could hear him, he would grant Mana his promise, no matter what. He got up and ran about, crying for help.
The roots of his short brown hair began to turn white from trauma. He knew that he would never forget that promise he made Mana.
Never.
"Oh dear me! Come again? I must not of heard correctly." Teidoll said over the Gollum, worry etched his voice as he spoke with the Lunarian guards top general.
"I said, King Mana Walker has died. His heir has severe trauma, so I will be taking over until the ritual begins. See you then." General Cross cut the Gollum communications.
"Oh my! The poor dear… Trauma? Gosh… That must have been terrible… How will he get over it?" Teidoll rambled, voicing what he was thinking as he paced the corridors of the castle. It really annoyed Kanda. Why couldn't this man stay still!? He went out back to practice his sword training to let off some of his anger.
-major time skip—
"Alright boy, you will undergo the sacred Luna and Solaris peace ritual within the day. Do you know how this works? Yes? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. You and the prince of the neighboring kingdom will shift into your spirit forms and be clad in the sacred armor. Once you are finished, you must perform the ritual by completing the harmony maneuver, which is basically you doing various flight maneuvers, some with the other prince, some by yourself, do you understand? Good. After the ritual, you will separate and be sent down to earth as humans to find a lover. You will have one year to do so, yadda yadda yadda… The celestial gods named Cosmo's will guide you. All you must do is follow your heart and not your head or your crotch, got it? Good. Hate saying all that sappy stuff. Now, get out there and shift so we can get this darned pain-in-the-butt-armor on you." Both princes heard similar versions of this speech, although this was Cross's telling.
Allen and Kanda walked out to their separate fields and shifted. Kanda became a large and glossy-feathered phoenix. Bright orange feathers lined the crown of his head and the tips of his wings as well as his tail feathers; the rest was all black, like the ashes of a well-worn fire. His eyes remained their icy blue and the tattoo was outlined in white on his chest, not having changed in shape at all. Dark blue and gold metal plates were placed on his shoulders and chest, along with the sides of his legs. He wore a navy blue helmet with a large carving of the crest of his kingdom in white. His long neck standing stiff, making him look taller then before.
Allen shifted into a shimmering dragon, white scales with a large white main that had tips of brown. His wings were mismatched, one white, the other black. His wings were just above his front legs, which matched the large bird-like claws with scale covered haunches that were his hein legs. His scar remained on his skin, bright red on white. He wore golden armor but his helmet was silver with two black metal horns spiraling from the back, since Allen had none. Allen also had a long neck, which he held in a swan-like arc, but he had a slender frame with sleek joints.
They both walked to the center clearing, setting eyes on each other for the first time. Allen was impressed with Kanda. He gave off a light like no other phoenix did before, not to mention he was huge, even bigger then Allen was. Every aspect of him screamed power and precision. Allen could tell Kanda was a fighter just by seeing his stance, how his feathers laid back to reveal powerful muscles. Kanda thought Allen held a certain grace about him, from Allen's stance to his slow gait and sleek shimmering scales. He hated to admit that he really wanted to see Allen in flight. Was he as graceful then as he was now?
They took up their positions, Allen hovered on one side of the room and Kanda the other. Kanda was pleased to find that, even when hovering, Allen still had that grace about him. Fast yet long rotations of his shoulder joints made his wings move with an unknown feeling, changing from towers of black and white to graceful arcs that traveled down to the shimmering river of scales on his sides. Kanda really thought Allen was the embodiment of grace and beauty.
Allen was a little bit intimidated, why did Kanda keep glaring at him like that? Was he mad? Allen began to feel his wings lock up; the power that radiated of this phoenix was enough to make him go stiff! He quickly calmed himself, working out his tensed muscles in his wings and trying to fly better. He cannot afford to screw this up. Kanda noticed Allen's struggles and, with an internal smirk, curved his head down to better look at Allen. Seeing this, Allen pulled up his poker face and remained as calm as possible.
The dance started. Allen and Kanda flew forward, twisting their bodies to that their claws clashed. They flew up, then turned into a dive. Only a few feet from the ground, they lifted again, spiraling around each other before charging and clashing claws again. Allen flew up then backwards, Kanda doing the opposite until their backs were facing each other in an almost yin-yang formation. Then, they twisted their bodies and clashed helmets before landing.
The dance was done.
A long staircase crashed down to the sea of earth from Luna and a staircase onto a mountain from Solaris. Kanda and Allen bowed, before leaving towards the staircases. When they arrived they were in there human forms, Allen walked down and fell into the sea, Kanda on top of a mountain. They both looked up as the staircases disappeared.
One year, the clock was ticking.