SHATTERED LIFE'S NOTES:
Haha, hey guys, guess who is back aftersomanyyearsohmygoshimtheworstpersonthathaseverexistedintermsofupdates. Well anyways, I just don't know why I stopped with the story, it just kinda happened. Next thing I knew, it was close to two years since I did anything. Boy, does time sure fly by. It's really hard to type on my old Mac since I got a new Windows computer last year so I constantly make errors and when I want to delete something, I always press the 'equals' button instead of backspace. It's really frustrating. I do not know if anybody is still following this story but I'm going to end this once and for all, either by my lonesome or with others behind me!
In this chapter, all the contestants finally arrive in the Kingdom of America. With so many competitors, tensions rise and the battle begins!
P.S. While I'm typing this, my freaking cat keeps freaking moving in his sleep and stretching and curling into a ball and asfdbhndfhnlfp;lfnaadorable!
The bustling port city of Baltimore was always a lively place- fishermen talking to fellow people of the practice, street vendors exclaiming their wages for their products, and fresh bread filling the cold, winter air. The streets were always crowded during any time of the year with people walking casually to their destination and kids running through the throng of pedestrians and today was busier and nosier than ever.
Everybody crowded before the huge, black, foreign ship that was docked on their port. Everybody kept questioning as to what was happening and why was it here out of all places. Curiosity intensified when, all of a sudden, royal guards started to say to move away when a carriage came into view. Civilians could only see a short, black-haired man come out of the carriage only to be followed by a much taller man who had silvery-blond hair.
"Wow~! It's so lively here, right Kiku?" Ivan stated in awe at the huge crowd that was starting to accumulate more in numbers.
Kiku lifted up his head and saw that it was indeed what Ivan said. "Hai, it seems so, Ivan-san. Unfortunately, this is more attention than I am comfortably with." He only heard tidbits of voices here and there but most of them were questioning as to who they were and why were the royal guards here.
"Oi, oi, it took you guys long enough to get here!" A voice yelled out.
Both Ivan and Kiku looked up to see who was the owner of the voice when their eyes landed on a man of average height and sandy-blond hair coming down from the ship. Before Kiku could respond. screams erupted from the crowd below when they realized who it exactly was and interrupted Kiku.
"AAAHHH! IT'S ARTHUR! ARTHUR'S BACK!" Arthur could only flinch when the audience screamed out his name in a high-pitched shriek. "ARTHUR! LOOK AT ME, ARTHUR!" A huge crowd of young girls pushed their way into the front to have a chance of touching the Prince of England with their own hands but were, unfortunately for them, stopped by the royal guards.
"It seems like you have quite a number of admirers, Arthur-san." Kiku said when Arthur approached towards the two princes. Kiku could only look in disdain when he spotted out of the corner of his eye, a prepubescent girl biting the arm of a guard when he tried holding her back. "Yes, quite a number of rabid admirers, if I might add."
"Ufufu~ It seems like to me that little Kiku is jealous!" Ivan half-sung as he poked the Japanese emperor's cheek as a way to emphasize his supposed immaturity. His comment was only met with a polite request to please stop what he was doing. Ivan didn't listen and continued poking the smaller man's cheek. "It's okay, Kiku. One day, you'll have your own set of fans that are willing to bite other people for you!"
Kiku swatted Ivan's hand away and quietly exclaimed to please stop treating him as a child and that he was older than Ivan by two years and that he would rather have no fans than people like them. They both kept going back and forth while Arthur watched, all of them not noticing the rest of the contestants come down from the ship.
"First we hear tons of girls screaming," Antonio said while standing next to Arthur, "and now I hear Ivan and Kiku bickering. What a way to be welcomed into America!" Antonio spread out his arms as he shouted out the last part.
Ludwig was next to join Antonio and Arthur's side. "Definitely not the way I wanted for us to be welcomed but it is to be expected in a kingdom as vibrant and-" Ludwig saw a young woman fighting her way through the crowd to get a better look... "... colorful as America." Ludwig finished with a bit of strain in his voice.
Before the rest of the princes could join in on the conversation, a yell from a royal guard intervened in their little reunion.
"Everybody, go-!" He grunted as he held off a group of girls. "I don't k-know how much- we can handle anymore!" He stumbled backwards a bit as they were growing stronger. "Just, go! HURRY! Get inside the carriage!"
Everybody saw in horror as the royal guards were being pushed more and more into a corner. It wouldn't be long before they couldn't take it anymore. With the guard's warning in their minds, everybody ran and hopped inside the carriage in which Ivan and Kiku came on, with Ivan being first to make sure nobody sat on his sleeping cat. Once Francis shut the carriage door, the coachman, with a swift whip of the harness, commanded the horses to begin running and off they were.
The coachman could see behind him as the guards gave way and tons of girls running behind him. He once again whipped the harness multiple times to signal the horses to go faster while the inhabitants inside the carriage prayed that they would soon give up. Fortunately, after 5 minutes, the fangirls gave up after running at top-speed for five continuos minutes and soon left them in the dust. Both the princes and the coachman sighed in relief and continued on their journey at the same speed.
Francis averted his eyes away from the window and opted to glare at Arthur. He just pointed at him and said, "I blame you for this."
Before Arthur could retaliate, the coachman shouted out that the trip to the capital would be an hour long ride and to relax and enjoy the ride. Everybody fell silent as they made their way to Libertas Castle in Washington D.C.. The place where the one person who could determine their future was located at.
After a half-hour long of awkward silence accompanied with the dual purring of both Ivan's and Heracles's cats, it was surprisingly Heracles who broke the ice.
"It's a good time as any..." A pause. "...to introduce ourselves, right?" Everybody agreed that there was no harm there and proceeded with Heracles's idea. "I'll... start. Γεια σας, my name is Heracles and I am the Prince..." He paused for a bit with a thoughtful look overtaking his face. "... or more accurately, the King of the Kingdom of Greece. It's a pleasure."
Ludwig was the second to introduce himself. "Guten Tag, my name is Ludwig and I am the Prince of the Kingdom of Germania. It's an honour to meet you all."
"Konnichiwa, my name is Kiku and I am the Emperor of the Empire of the Sun, Japan." Kiku bowed down his head. "Please take good care of me."
Such modesty, everybody thought.
Ivan was the next to introduce himself. "I am sure you all know me but I will still introduce myself. Privyet, my name is Ivan and I am the Prince of the Federal Kingdom of Russia. Oh, and just a warning, it would be unwise to make an enemy out of me!" Ivan just giggled. The others made a mental note out of that.
Arthur just awkwardly coughed and tried to ignore the ominous aura emanating from the Russian prince. "Hello, I am Arthur and I am the Prince of the United Kingdom and no, believe me, the pleasure is all mine." After he finished, it took all of his willpower to ignore the snickers from the French prince sitting right across from him.
"Such a mundane greeting from such a boring person. Luckily for you all, I'm not like him." Francis flipped his shiny blond hair. "Bonjour, my little lovelies, I am Francis from the Kingdom of Love, France! Please do not cry when I win the heart of Alfred. It is very clear that I will emerge victorious! After all, petits enfants ne devraient pas jouer dans le domaine de l'amour." (1)
"Stop speaking in frog, you... you... bloody frog!" Arthur glared at Francis. He didn't understand what he just said but he was clearly insulting them.
"Honhon, quite a vocabulary you got there, Arthur. I'm surprised you even knew more than two words that weren't 'prick' or 'tea'!" Before a fight ensued between Arthur and Francis, a voice rang out.
"¡Oye, oye!" Apparently it was Antonio. "I still haven't introduced myself. You can get back into your little pelea once I finish, okay?" Both Arthur and Francis sat back down and huffed at each other. "Hola, amigos ¿Qué tal? My name is Antonio and I am from the Kingdom of Spain, el reino de la pasión." As a way to emphasize this last part, Antonio spread out his arms and accidently hit Arthur in the face, earning a snicker from Francis and an irritated growl from Arthur.
Ludwig sighed in exhaustion. He couldn't believe he was in this type of situation. In order to save his kingdom from collapsing, he has to successfully woo the American Prince, Alfred who was notorious overseas for being oblivious to the atmosphere. Throw in other suitors who are also competing and it's not going to be an easy ride. Ludwig was interrupted from his thoughts when Francis spoke up.
"Just a quick question for Ivan and Kiku." Both Ivan and Kiku looked at Francis. "I was wondering how you came here so fast. We basically came around the same time but both you live father out than the rest of us." Francis saw Kiku pale and put a hand over his mouth. This reaction elicited a smile from Ivan.
"It wasn't exactly an easy ride like the rest of you probably had. Not only did we travel in a ship that was traveling at dangerously high speeds, causing the ship to bounce on wave after wave-" Kiku groaned quietly. "-making all on board sea-sick but once we docked on San Francisco Bay, we had to jump carriage to carriage, all traveling on speeds previously thought impossible. We went through a great ordeal just to get here on time to meet with the rest of the gang!" The rest couldn't believe what they were hearing. Their case of mild sea-sickness coupled with weak storms seemed like a pleasant walk in the gardens compared to Kiku and Ivan's journey.
Kiku took his hand off his mouth and regained his composure. "I am sorry for my rude behavior earlier but everything you heard was right. Also sharing a cabin with him..." He glanced at Ivan for a short second before reverting his eyes back at the others, "...it can exhaust a person."
No arguing there.
Suddenly they all felt the carriage stop.
"We are here! Your Royal Highness', please exit if you will." The coachman hollered out.
Everybody stayed still. Nobody moved a muscle or glanced around.
This was it.
They were here at long last.
Just outside this carriage was Libertas Castle, capital of the Kingdom of America. Outside of these doors stood their future and quite possibly their doom. For once since they've met, they realized their situation. When they all introduced themselves in the beginning, it was just a friendly and ordinary pass-time. Though once they open these doors and leave, they will be competitors-and no longer companions- and it will all one for one's self.
"I am proud to say that I will be the first to say this to you all so: Welcome everybody to the Kingdom of America, land of the free!"
Everybody looked at one another and decided that it was now or never. They all looked to Francis and with a quick nod, Francis nodded and held his breath. He slowly turned the knob and opened the door.
SHATTERED LIFE'S FINAL NOTES:
I finished! Yeah, whoo! I don't know why I am so overly excited! This is the second chapter as you can see and it is DRASTICALLY different from the one I wrote years ago when I was in middle school. In my middle school, we had an extra class that was either an elective or a remedial class and I got an elective. True to my Hispanic roots, I got gardening… much to my disappointment. Instead of slaving away on hot "spring" days outside, I stayed inside and worked on this story. To give an estimate of how long this story has existed, I wrote it in the beginning of my first-half of 8th grade and now I am in the second-half of my 11th year. Yeaaaaaaaaaa… so four years ago.
I included the fangirls because I noticed that a good majority act that way when royalty comes over, especially if it's the English Royal family for some reason. It's the only one we seem to recognize more than the others hence why they freaked out over Arthur.
In their introductions, each one says 'hello' in their native tongue so you pretty much know what they said except for the few exception:
(1) Little children shouldn't play in the field of love
Tidbits of Antonio's speech:
Oye: Hey!
pelea: fight
Hola, amigos ¿Qué tal? : Hello, guys! How's it going?
el reino de la pasión: the kingdom of passion
I guess this is it. Once again pardon my language, English was not my native tongue but I'm improving! Expect the new chapter either Thursday or Friday! I am going to be extremely busy with tests coming near and the new Common Core test next week. Apparently it's going to replace state tests (for me it's the CST) or something. I don't know but we're going to take it on computers instead of on paper.
Until next time!
