Chapter 9: Shadows of the Past
"… Come…" In the faint shadowy hallway, he could see a certain figure before him, a white hue and almost invisible. Arthur could have jump and scream upon seeing the pale person in front of him but his voice just won't come out.
He soon found himself standing face-to-face to the person. The person didn't seem to mean any harm to him. He has pale white face with a depressed expression, time has marked on his face as well.
"If you're wondering… What lies beneath these castle walls…" The person said, gestured a room that suddenly came out of nowhere, the pathway were also brightly illuminated.
"There are many things people might not known… And there can be more than one truth that was hidden in this country…" He said solemnly. "But some things cannot be avoided… Because of humanity…" He continued. "Once a country full of romance… And a country filled with fantasy… Nobody knows the truth behind this."
Arthur looked into the room trying to make out the scenario in the room but it was just pitch black dark like a black hole.
"But when a person does not learn his mistake… He will repeat it forever… That's why things became unavoidable…" Arthur looked at the person, confused, but dare not to ask a question.
"If your heart is pure enough… If you could be honest of yourself… If you could truly know about yourself… You will understand everything… It's up to you to believe in it or not, the destiny is in your hands all the while." With that, he vanished, leaving a stunning Arthur gazing into the room of emptiness.
If your heart is pure enough… The person's words echoed in his mind. He took a step into the room, then another, and another… His vision was soon brightened up. He shielded his eyes for a moment before finally able to comprehend the scene before him.
It was a room, literally like a room filled with children's stuff. He looked at every stuffed toy that has been chewed off with cotton littered all over them, the wooden toys that was once created by a person's skilfulness were covered with a layer of dust.
The picture before him distorted a little and Arthur could feel his head was spinning. When the dimension returned to the way it was, Arthur noticed something… Different. The toys were no longer old and dusty, the walls and floor has been neatly polished and in the middle of the room sat a young boy who was not more than 10 playing in the middle of the room.
The boy's hair was blonde just like his but was long and wavy like silk. He has royal blue eyes that shine like sapphires. He happily played around his room, unknown to the world outside.
Arthur watched as the boy played with his stuffed toy. The toy has gotten stains of dirt somewhere, which somehow angered the boy. The boy soon thought the toy is filthy and ripped the fabric apart without any mercy. Arthur sweared that this boy probably could ripped a human in the same way and tossed them aside like nothing had happened. He witnessed the boy threw away the abandoned doll onto the floor, pieces of fabric and cotton forming a heap of trash. The boy continued to rummage through his toys, tossing and throwing unwanted things all over the place creating a mess.
Arthur tried to call out for the boy to stop him but the image before him faded and he found himself standing on the hallway he was once before. Both sides of the hallway was illuminated by faint incandescent light, barely enough to light up the dark pathway before him.
He took one of the candle from the hallway and proceeded further into the hallway. Under the darkness, he could hear a faint creeking sound, like someone is crying in there. He wanted to run all the way back to his room but he could care less when his curiousity take over him.
He continued walking down the hallway, passing flights of stairs that stretches endlessly in his path. The more he proceed, the sound has gotten more audible and he somehow noticed the faint light from the end of the staircase.
At the end of the stairs lead to another hallway. Both sides of this hallway is surrounded with waterworks. Clear, still water laid undisturbed at each side, not making any movement or whatsoever.
A large marble but worn out door greeted him at the end of the hallway. He stared at the door for moment before taking a deep breath, preparing for the worst to come. He grabbed the door handle with one hand and a candle in another, making a creak sound as he pushed the aged door open, entering it in the process.
There was no candle light in this room, neither was a ray of light. The furnitures were not in any better conditions as the rest outside. However, there's only one thing that had caught his eyes, a single white rose that stood in a glass jar illuminating a holy hue.
Arthur stood there watching the flower in amaze, never had he seen such a beautiful bloom in his hometown. Captivated by its beauty, he took several steps closer to the glass jar containing the flower to take a better look at it. From different angle, he could see the white rose changed its colour from time to time radiating different aura, such an unnatural beauty.
He was now standing a few inches away from the glass jar, completely absorbed in the beauty of the rose. He realised that even if the rose looks pretty but it is starting to wilt. The stem has become thin and was unable to support the flower itself, the leaves were drooped and were practically bowing their head, the white petals are dropping slowly, one-by-one as time passes by.
Arthur stretched out his hands as an attempt to remove the glass jar so that he could touch the rose but before he could do it, he suddenly felt the room began to rumble a little.
The calm and still waterworks that surrounded the room suddenly turned into a torrent, forming waves and tides making the water surface rough. In the darkness, he could make out the huge waterfall at the end of the room making gushing noise in the room.
Arthur retreated his hands as he scanned around the room, trying to make out the source of the noise but he couldn't locate it. He wants to rush to the door and escape from here but the moment he turns his back to face the door, a creature had blocked his escape.
That creature was ten times taller than him. It was covered in green slimy skin with huge red eyes with slits on it. Huge tusks can be seen from its jaws. The creature was now in four legs, preparing to pounce at Arthur at any time.
"F-Francis?" Arthur strutted but the creature just grunted back without replying and he could feel that things were worse than what he had thought.
"Kiku, have you seen where Arthur is?" A panicked Elizabeta rushed on the hallway and met up with the nine-tailed fox who was also running out of breath.
"That's what I'm looking for." Kiku replied. "He's just with me a few minutes ago but when I bring him back he was gone."
"How can that be?!" Elizabeta exclaimed. "How can he just begone when he's with you?!"
"What's the commotion here?" Ludwig and several other servants who heard them talking walked up to them. "What happened to Arthur?"
"I hate to say, Ludwig. It seems like Arthur-san had gone missing." Kiku said with a grave and worried expression in his eyes.
"Ve~ He couldn't have run away, could he?" Feliciano asked as well.
"Aiyah, where's that stupid ahen?" Yao suddenly came up with the matryoshka doll at its side. "He's suppose to come for dinner, aru!" The dragon stormed, trying hard not to spew any fire.
"Oh, I don't mind eating his food. Afterall, I love my Yao-yao's food, da?" Ivan said (somewhat) jokingly, unaware of the atmosphere they are now in.
"That's what we are wondering too." Kiku said. "Arthur-san has gone missing."
"Where do you last see him?" Ludwig asked.
"On the way back from the library." Kiku said. "I remembered him standing before the west wing asking me what leads to there. I told him not to go in there…"
"Mein gott, he couldn't have gone in there?!" Ludwig exclaimed.
"Sup dude, if you are all wondering where Artie gone to, no worries cos' the awesome hero saw him just now." Alfred suddenly came out of nowhere.
"Al, this is serious. Arthur may be in trouble." Matthew tried to remind him but went unnoticed.
"You saw him, aru?" Yao asked.
"Yep. Francis gave him a biiiiig surprise and now they are having fun playing all over the place in Francis' room." Alfred said, failing the read the atmosphere.
"He WHAT?!" All the servants widened their eyes at the little sparrow statement.
"Al, I-I think y-you're wrong…" Matthew whispered, trying to tell Alfred about their situation.
"Take us to him!" Elizabeta requested.
Alfred and Matthew soon found themselves flying among stairs and hallway, being chased by the servants, like two birds trying to run away from a hunter. "Mattie, why are we supposed to do this?" Alfred asked. "Because Arthur is in trouble and need help." Was Matthew's reply.
"This is not fun at all. Afterall, I'm the hero and I should be the one to save Arthur instead."
Matthew had to swallow down a chuckle after hearing Alfred's statement. He just don't know how to read the atmosphere and he's cute whenever he's happy. Matthew just love his brother too much to hate him.
"Get out!" The gigantic creature roared as he pounced towards Arthur. Arthur managed to barely avoid the attack, wounding his right ankle in the process. He hissed in pain and he struggled to stand up.
Francis, in his giant figure form showed no mercy towards Arthur as he tossed the furniture all over the place. Arthur tried to run away from the beast attack but his leg failed him.
Francis soon launched his attack at him. Arthur dodged just in time, falling onto shards of broken glass, he could felt pain in his body and blood flowing out from it. This time, he was completely numb lying on the ground, his mind was spinning and his vision blurred.
"Your highness, stop!" Lucky for him, Ludwig and the rest came just in time. Ludwig, Ivan and Yao came up to stop the beast from revolting further while Kiku, Feliciano and Elizabeta quickly went to help Arthur.
However, Francis was too strong that even the three of them could not hold him down. With a single slash, Ludwig, Ivan and Yao were being thrown aside like garbage. Elizabeta created a spider web made of ice as an attempt to block Francis from getting close to them but the ice was just to fragile to witstand the creature's claws.
Yao quickly came up to shield Arthur as Francis attacked him, leaving a little wounds on the dragon's body. "How dare you do this to a dragon, aru?" Yao asked as he swung his tail that sent Francis flying the opposite direction.
Ludwig, Kiku, Ivan, Yao and Elizabeta managed to surround Francis but never have they known that this was a trap of Francis. As Arthur was left unguarded, the beast leaped up and charged towards Arthur and a vulnerable Feliciano. Feliciano screamed in fear and managed to scramble to the side in time but Arthur ended up being pushed into the waterworks. Francis was about the grab Arthur when Yao managed to get hold of him by wraping its dragon tail around it and Elizabeta managed to immobilize it by freezing his legs.
"Your highness, hold yourself!" Ludwig yelled but to no avail. The creature growled and manage to breakfree from Yao and Elizabeta's grasp and charged them instead but he stopped halfway.
"You have injured many people already." Lukas suddenly appeared with Mathias and Emil by his side. Lukas then mumbled some enchantment, forming magical chains that hold Francis still. The creature struggled with all his might but the attempt was futile.
"Tilbake til din normale selv!" Lukas commanded in his language. In split seconds, Francis had shrunken back to his little frog body, lying half-conscious on the floor.
"Ugh… What happen…?" The frog said groggily as he sat up.
"It's a full moon night, your highness." Mathias explained.
"You should know how to hold yourself!" Ludwig lectured. "You'd almost killed Arthur just now!"
"Wh-What?!" Francis suddenly snapped out from his daze, he looked around but noticed Arthur wasn't with the crowd. "Mon dieu… Where's Arthur?"
It was then all the occupants finally realised Arthur's disappearance. Feliciano who was terrified of the incident just now managed to regain his senses and told them, "We need help! Arthur has fall off into the waterwork just now."
"Where?!" Elizabeta asked, afraid for the worst to come.
"Th-There!" Feliciano said gesturing to the part where Arthur had just fallen off.
"Damn, that way leads to the moat at the bottom of the castle!" Francis cursed as he leaped into the water. "If we don't hurry, the creatures down there will eat him!" The servants were surprised at his reaction but decided to save that for later, Arthur is their top priority for now.
Arthur could felt his body being pulled downward by the strong water current. He tried to oppose the current and swim back to the surface but his injuries drained his strength away. He felt his water entered his lungs, he wanted to take a breath but only ended up filling his mouth with water.
The prison underground was surrounded by green, slimey water that could make people choke at its smell. Many crocodiles and sea serpents lived beneath the darkness, awaiting for prey to fall through so they can enjoy a good meal.
Arthur could make out the eyes of a crocodile or a serpent eyeing at him. He tried to struggle but his legs failed him. In the end, he closed his eyes as tiredness take over him, resigning his dark fate to god.
Francis swam all his way down the pipe to the moat. In his own size as a frog, it is impossible for him to carry Arthur alone. Luckily, Michelle has come all the way to help him as well.
They tried to push Arthur out of the water to the bay but with the creatures eyeing Arthur as their target, it would be hard for them to do as what is planned. So, Michelle will have to distract the crocodiles and serpents while Francis will help Arthur.
"Desole, mon cher." Francis said as he tried to push Arthur with all his might. "Please hang on a little longer, s'il vous plait…"
Everything seems alright until when one of the serpents realised their plan and went after Francis and Arthur instead of Michelle. "Francis, look out!" Michelle called out but was too late. The gigantic sea serpent swam towards them and bit the frog's leg. Francis yelped in pain and tried to hold himself while keeping Arthur at safety distance away from the serpent.
"They are over there! Hurry!" The rest of the castle servants who had rushed to help came running down the dungeons to assist them. They noticed Francis in the middle of the moat, trying to balance an unconscious Arthur in his arms as he tried to get out of the serpent's grasp. Everyone don't dare to make a move, afraid that a single movement will hurt anyone of them.
It was all of a sudden, the sea serpent let go of Francis and the frog bounced back a little. The serpent did not show any sign of wanting to hurt him, it just swam to the surface and laid at the bay. It seems that Roderich was playing some music so that he could take control of those creatures while they fled to safety.
The rest of the servants and Michelle quickly went up to help Francis carried Arthur on shore. "Great job, Roderich." Elizabeta winked at him. Roderich stopped his music and scowl.
"I would've said, your highness. You sure make a lot of noise today." Roderich complaint. "You completely ruined my mood in composing."
"Please stop, Roderich-san. It's not like we want this to happen." Kiku said. "Now that everyone is fine, we have to take them to rest."
Roderich just scowl. "Seriously, his highness sure lack in behaviour. Someone must teach him some manners."
"That's enough, Roderich!" Ludwig yelled. "If you can talk so much, why don't you teach him instead?!"
"Please stop!" Elizabeta and Kiku pleaded. "Both Arthur and Francis are injured, we have to help them." The two of them stop bickering once after listening to Elizabeta, albeit reluctantly.
"Ve~ Your highness, you are injured." Feliciano said as he noticed the wound on Francis' little leg.
"That can mind later. How's Arthur?" However, Francis cared for Arthur more than he cared for himself, which surprised the servants again.
The little frog takes several quick leaps towards the unconscious English prince. He noticed how pale Arthur's complexion were and there were cut and bruises with blood flowing freely from his body. Guilt gushed his vein, he should have hold himself back so that Arthur won't got hurt.
"Somebody help me to carry him back!" The frog ordered as he tried to lift Arthur who was almost ten times bigger than his size. The servants were surprised at his words but did not complain and helped him to carry Arthur back to his room.
In his dreams, he found himself in the midst of a beautiful country. This wasn't England, the buildings and cultural of this place is a lot more different from his country. He saw people walking among the bustling streets, selling their food and products.
The scene changed as he found himself in a castle. He realised that this was the castle he was living in but more lively and well-maintained. In the dining table, he saw a young boy with long blonde flaxen hair, wearing the clothes of the upper class sitting among a crowd of noblemen having lunch together.
Everything was alright, until the boy suddenly slammed the table and stood up. The boy was muttering something but he can't hear what he said. It was obvious that the boy was angry, perhaps with his food. The father of the boy scowled at his son but was ignored.
The scene changed again and he found himself in the room he was previously in. There was no waterwork in the room and the furnitures are well-furnished than how it looks just now.
He saw the boy, in his late teens by now, dashing into his room, fear can be seen clouded in his eyes. There was a flash of lightning and he saw the young man screaming and struggling in pain. He was too scared to make out the scene before him and the lights blinded him.
"NOOO!" Arthur found himself woke up with a start. Sweat beaded his forehead and he could feel his heart thumping in his chest.
"Oh, you're awake, Arthur-san. We are so worry about you." Kiku and Lukas was sitting next to his bed with worry expressions clearly visible in their eyes.
"What happened?"
"You entered the west wing and get attacked by Francis. Luckily, Lukas managed to heal you with your magic or the injury will be fatal." Kiku said.
"That remind us, somehow. His highness condition has gotten worse." Lukas brought the topic.
"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, confused.
"Well, ever since the curse begin. Francis-sama's condition will collapse on every full moon." Kiku explained.
"At first, he just felt himself being a little depressed but when time comes, he soon felt so sick that he cannot leave his bed. The worse is to come five years ago, where he found himself gaining the features of a monster." Lukas told them. "He would isolate himself since then, trying to hide his appearance from the public. By now, his episode is far worse than before. He has transformed completely into a monster and having that behaviour of a beast."
"That can't be…" Arthur muttered under the sheets.
"I can only predict one thing. His highness may have tried to fight the demon living inside of him." Lukas said.
"You mean, Francis-sama feeling is trying to overcome the beast within him?"
"Ja. Since his highness was cursed of his behaviour, the beast inside of him was taking the form of his initial behaviour. Now that Francis is trying to betray his initial feeling, the beast will awake to stop Francis' advance."
"I think I understand what you mean. Since the beast within his highness will get stronger under the full moon, Francis will felt himself being drained and have his conscience taken over by the beast. Whenever Francis wants to make a change, the beast will hurt him."
"Indeed." Lukas nodded his head in agreement. "From how I have observed, his highness constant struggle with the beast had been slowly draining the life out of him."
Arthur was silent, surprise that he felt a little sympathy towards the frog. Why would I fucking care for that bloody frog?! He asked himself, realising that he was having a war with himself as well. He cannot tell, why his heart ache when he think about that frog? He has never experience this before. What was that feeling?
"Say Mattie, it seems like they have feeling for each other. Do you think that our plan has finally work?" What the three failed to notice was the two little birds eavesdropping their conversation at the window. "I'm such a hero! You know, the scene of Francis and Artie just now are sooo amazing. If it wasn't because of me, then they won't care for each other at all."
"Al, stop it. Everything happened just by coincidence, not because of you."
"Oh, c'mon, Mattie. Because I, the hero will make sure the two of them fall in love and have their beautiful kiss under the full moon so that we will return back to normal and live as humans!" Matthew could only sighed at Alfred's cranky jokes as he wished everything to be settled down as soon as possible.
xXx
I'm sooooo sorry for not updating for a while. I have been involved in my school drama not long ago. I am glad that it is finally over and I can finally continue with this story again. Thank you for being so patient, I love you all so much!
Semester break has finally come but I was flooded with homeworks and projects, again… :( But I promise I will try to update this story whenever I have the free time to do so.
It seems like Arthur and Francis finally have feeling for each other. Yay! XD! Shall I write a more romantic fic for the upcoming chapters? Please send in any of your suggestion. I'm sure Froggy Francis will be very romantic that Iggy will completely fall to him.
I just have to write the ending of this chapter. Oh Alfred, you're as blunt as ever but so cute that people can't help agreeing with you. You are my hero of the day! So, what do you think Alfred has in his mind?
Once again, thank you for reading! Love you all so much! Remember to leave a review. TQ! :3
Translation:
Tilbake til din normale selv [Norweigian]: Return back to your normal self