Really wish that there was more fanfiction to this show. Well, guess I'll have to make my own… with a large amount of new lore!
Do please share and like. If you do, leave a review telling me what about the story you like! They are the biggest motivator to make me write more of the story!
Enjoy~
In the thick forests that surround the capital of the human kingdom of Katolis, a hooded Katolis guard trod through the wet mud, a scarlet red cloak keeping the rain off of them in the cold night. They were making their rounds through the forest before returning to the capital to rest, a crossbow resting on their shoulder for protection.
A snapping of branches stopped their march, and honed reflexes kicked in as they spun their crossbow around to point it at the noise.
"Who's there?!" The guard demanded. "Declare yourself, in the name of King Harrow!"
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" a cloaked figure, a girl if their voice was anything was to go by, stepped out of the foliage. "I am simply travelling to Katolis, I wish for no trouble."
The guard sighed in relief, relieving her crossbow away from the girl. If only slightly.
"Why not travel by road? Surely it would be easier than coming through a forest?" The guard accused.
The girl chuckled, "I have always liked the forests more than the roads. However, I must admit that I am a bit lost, so would you be so kind as to direct me to the capitol?"
Now relaxing but remaining alert, the guard nodded. "Follow me. My patrol is almost done, and I am heading back to the city now."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"You're welcome, miss… I'm sorry, but I seem to not have gotten your name."
"Oh, my name is Sigrid. Sigrid Von Beatrix." Sigrid smiled; her fangs almost invisible in the rainy night.
/\/\/\ FOUR CROWNS /\/\/\
As the city street bustled with people under the pleasant morning sun, all signs of the previous night's rain gone, the attention of many a passer-by was caught by the jangling of metal tools affixed to a large backpack and carried by a very short girl.
This stocky girl had bright orange hair, tied up into braided pigtails, freckles spread out all across her face, a tooth missing from her cheery grin and dressed in blacksmith's cloths.
"Man, theyah's nawthing like the sun aftah a lawng time undahground!" The short girl stated, using her hand to shade her eyes as she looked at the blue sky, dotted by lofty white clouds. "Pa really should let me go out more."
The girl was knocked out of her thoughts as she had to quickly sidestep out of the way (which wasn't an easy feat with a heavy backpack, despite how strong she was) to dodge a man chasing after a …glowtoad? The girl double-checked to make sure that she wasn't seeing things.
"Huh. Didn't know they ev'n had glowtoads in Westahn Xadia." The girl remarked as she stared after the odd pursuit.
"To be fair, you don't know a lot of things that don't involve metal." A new voice said to her. Turning around with a smile, the girl turned back around to spot a figure in a drawn dark blue cloak with a golden rim, a hand on their hip.
"Sigrid!" the girl cried.
Sigrid chuckled. "Hi Mossy, how are you?" she asked.
"Eh, pretty alright. Pa finally let me crawl outta the hole we call home." Moselyn replied.
"You have to admit, dwarven architecture is pretty cool." Sigrid pointed out as she began to walk alongside Moselyn.
"Bah, you've seen 'em once you've seen them all." Moselyn scoffed. "Sure we build em well, but it gets boring aftah a while. Plus it's great to feel the sun's wahmth rathah than the fawge's."
"I still don't get why you lot all like the sun. It's hot, glare-y, burns and weakens my magic." Sigrid complained, absent-mindedly drawing her cloak forward a bit more.
"Pah!" Moselyn barked a laugh out, "That's just you vamps. It's what you get faw staying indoohs too lawng."
Sigrid grunted and turned away from her short friend, pouting. This only got another laugh out of Moselyn.
"Let's just get back to the forest, okay? It's shadier there and we need to get going." Sigrid began walking faster.
"Aw, what's the rush? Bit a time in the sun will do you good!" Moselyn called after her friend, running after her.
"Ignoring you!" Sigrid called back as the pair broke into a run, laughing all the way to the forest.
/\/\/\ FOUR CROWNS /\/\/\
"…and that was the last time he forgot to feed the worgs. Seriously, there were at least a dozen of them chasing after him!"
Moselyn laughed along with Sigrid at the storey she had just told as they moved through back through the forests surrounding the capitol, going along the river that ran by the castle so that they could reach the eastern side and continue their trek from there.
"So, did you tell your father I was arriving?" Sigrid asked.
"Oh yeah, my dad loves seeing you. Theyah's no prawblem." Moselyn nodded.
Sigrid raised an eyebrow. "...So, you did ask him."
"It... may have slipped my mind," Moselyn admitted. Sigrid sighed and pinched her brow.
"Mossy, what am I going to do with you?" Sigrid Groaned.
"Love me like youh best and only friend that I am?" Moselyn proposed. Sigrid chuckled at her stout friend, unable to stay mad with her.
"Okay, but you have to promise that..." Sigrid began, before abruptly cutting herself off.
"Oi, Sig, what's going..." Moselyn was going to ask before Sigrid Put a hand on her mouth and made Moselyn crouch with her.
"Shh, someone's coming," Sigrid spoke quietly. "And they're using the trees..."
Moselyn nodded and Sigrid took her hand away from their mouth. Squatting in the shrubbery, Moselyn herself also began to hear the brushing of leaves and the creaking of branches. A whoosh was heard overhead and a white-black blur sped past.
"What was that?" Moselyn asked, hushed.
"A Moonshadow elf. An assassin." Sigrid answered, fearing the implication of any elf being in Western Xadia, let alone a Moonshadow one.
"A Moonshadow elf?!" Moselyn whisper yelled. "What is one of those doing over here?!" Moselyn continued, voicing what Sigrid thought.
"I'm not sure... but they may be attempting to exact revenge for Avizandum and his son's murder."
Moselyn gasped. "If that's true, then... then that would mean an all-out war between two sides of Xadia!"
"And most likely our own being drawn into the conflict as well." Sigrid continued. "We have to stop them."
"Right." Moselyn nodded, taking her bag off and reaching inside of it and taking out an item.
/\/\/\ FOUR CROWNS /\/\/\
"Hey, you swept the leg!" Callum exclaimed as he watched the white-haired elf just take down two guards.
"What?" Rayla asked, completely confused as to what the brown-haired human was yammering about.
"Uh, uh, nothing..." Callum stammered. He then awkwardly began to scoot away through the doorway next to him before breaking back into a run, Rayla taking after him with her arms behind her, ready to swing. Dashing up the spiralling staircase with Rayla hot on his heels, Callum tried to call for help.
"Lord Viren! Claudia! Anyone!" Callum cried out as he pushed the door open. The only response given to him was a kick in the back by the perusing elf, causing him to tumble to the floor.
"You don't have to die," Rayla stated, walking in after him and approaching slowly with blades at the ready. "There are only two targets tonight."
"Wait, Two? What do you mean?"
"I'm here for the king. And I'm also here for his son, Prince Ezran." Rayla clarified.
"You can't. That's not fair. Why would you hurt someone who's done nothing wrong?" Callum questioned.
"Humans cut down the King of the Dragons, and destroyed his only egg, the Dragon Prince," Rayla said, pointing a sword at his throat. "Justice will not be denied."
"I see," Callum said, deciding something. "Then you found me. I, am Prince Ezran."
Rayla sighed, steeling herself. "Then I'm sorry. I'm sorry I have to do this. I don't want to, but I have to."
"But why?! You know that it's wrong!"
"Assassins don't decide between right and wrong! Only life, and death."
"That's very clever and all, but come on, really? How does killing me solve anything?" Callum continued, partly to stall for time, partly because he was truly interested in her answers.
"This is justice!" Rayla said passionately to the human. "Humans attacked us, unprovoked!"
"So it's okay for you to do the same thing?" Callum asked, knowing quite well that the murder of Avizandum was not completely out of the blue, but not mentioning it in the hope to cause the elf to reconsider.
"Well, no. It isn't the same thing, because we're attacking... provoked." Rayla punctuated her point by pointing a sword closer to the human's neck.
"Then it's a cycle. You kill me and another human will get revenge on the elves. It won't end!" Callum explained.
"I couldn't agree more."
Both Callum and Rayla's heads whipped to the sound of the new voice standing at the entryway to Viren's study. One tall and cloaked, wisps of ashen black hair dangling out. The other was short, had frizzy orange hair and was aiming some sort of one-handed... something, at Rayla.
"Drop the swords ya leaflover." The shorter one ordered in a heavy accent, signifying that the other one had spoken before.
"Sorry, can't do that," Rayla said to them. "Kind of need them for this." She pointed the sword near Callum even closer, so that it was almost pressing against his neck.
"And we can't let you do that." The cloak one spoke again, swishing some cloak aside. "It'd cause a war that would span the entirety of Xadia."
"Oh, please, like that would happen." Rayla scoffed. "Humans are divided, even if one of their kings died, the rest wouldn't care."
"...But it would give them an excuse." Callum figured out. "If you kill me, then they'd use it as a reason to justifiably go to war with the elves."
The cloaked girl smiled, pleased with the human's deduction.
"Psst. Callum."
Everyone turned, confused, to the painting that inexplicably spoke.
"Shh, go away," Callum told it.
"I found something." The painting continued.
"Are you talking to that painting?" Rayla asked, still bewildered.
"That's not normal, right?" the short girl asked the cloaked one who shook their head.
Callum chuckled nervously. "Uh, why would I do that? 'Cause, it's not a good time." He directed to the painting.
"Is it because you're with some girls? I don't really understand that stuff. Dad says he'll tell me when I'm older."
Rayla, not impressed, moved over to the painting as she kept her weapon aimed at Callum and an eye on the girls, who did likewise with the shorter gripping her device firmer. Grabbing the side of the painting, Rayla pulled it out and much to her suspicion, it swung open on hinges to reveal a small tan-skinned human boy.
"Uhhhhh... Jelly tart?" Ezran offered.
"Kid, get out of here," Callum told them, standing up.
"Callum, what's going on?"
"Callum?!" Rayla exclaimed, sternly looking at the boy in question. "You said you were Prince Ezran! You lied to me!"
"Okay, how is that any worse than trying to kill someone?" He asked.
The short girl blinked. "I... am very cawnfused heeuh. who's doing what when?"
The cloaked girl facepalmed.
"Have you met Bait?" Ezran asked suddenly, holding up a yellow and blue creature with a face that looked very grumpy. "Hello to my little friend."
The cloaked girl gasped. "Glowtoad."
True enough, the toad... lizard... thing began glowing brighter and brighter. Callum and Ezran had already looked away as soon as Bait had begun glowing. Rayla, wasn't as lucky, however, and was painfully blinded to a point where she had to drop her swords and clutch her eyes.
The short girl, despite looking at it the entire time, was entirely fine. Her friend could say otherwise. Even with putting her hand up she still seemed almost as affected as Rayla, hissing, thrashing and clawing at her eyes as some tears of pain came through.
"Callum follow me!" Ezran said, "I have to show you something. You two can come to." He looked to the other girls.
"Thanks." The short girl said, taking her friend's hand and leading them through the secret door, shoving Rayla into a desk on their way over and the cloaked girl bumping into the doorframe since she still couldn't see.
/\/\/\ FOUR CROWNS /\/\/\
Elsewhere, inside the castle:
"No. I won't hide in the body of another, while someone else dies paying the price for my decisions."
"Two hundred men and women are ready to fall protecting you tonight, but you won't let one soldier sacrifice their life for you?"
"It's not the same. I would rather die a king than live as a coward."
"Ah. So, that's what this is really about."
"What are you talking about?"
"Pride."
"No, I already told you the problem. It's that... that necrotic magic."
"Dark magic, and yes, it is. It's clever. It's brilliant. It's practical. It will save your life and many, many others."
"It's a shortcut. We may not pay now, but we will pay the blood price eventually. What do you think got us here? Necrotic magic!"
"You're acting stubborn and ungrateful."
"Should I be grateful that you destroyed that dragon's egg? Thank you for starting this unwinnable war? Thank you for angering the dragons and the elves so much that tonight they are here for my life? The only surprising thing about all of this is that the Vampires haven't jumped at the chance to take vengeance on us for desecrating their sacred traditions!"
"What is done cannot be undone. I am offering you a path forward. Your discomfort is understandable. You don't feel right trading your life for another's. But know this, every one of these men and women would gladly trade their life to save yours."
"...Would you, Viren?"
/\/\/\ FOUR CROWNS /\/\/\
"Where are we going?" Sigrid asked as she was dragged through a tunnel, she couldn't see on the account of still being blinded from the earlier flash.
"Don't know!" Moselyn replied. "Oi boys, wheeuh ah we going?"
"This way, I need to show Callum something!" Ezran answered.
"Well, that helps," Sigrid grumbled.
Then, Rayla's echoing voice called through the tunnel. "You're only making this worse!"
"How?!" Callum called back. The group turned a corner to follow Ezran, only to run into a dead end.
"Oh great! A dead-end! Just like we'll be pretty soon!" Callum said sarcastically. "What do we do now?!"
"Time for a puzzle." Ezran smiled as Moselyn and Sigrid caught up.
"Oh good, I think my sight's coming back," Sigrid noted, rubbing her eyes.
"Okay, Rock, rock, stone, rock, stone, stone. Rock, stone, rock, stone, stone..." Ezran said as he pressed each rock and stone.
"Wait, what's the difference between the rocks and the stones?" Callum asked.
"Ugh! You made me do stone instead of rock." Ezran grunted in frustration before returning to the combination.
"You know, theyah is actually a lot of differences between rawcks and stones," Mosely stated. "Faw instance a rawck..."
"Not the time Mossy!" Sigrid yelled, speaking towards Callum instead of her friend.
"Okay, got it!" Ezran declared. As soon as he did, a spiralling stone staircase began to open up beneath them, each of them moving out of the way except for Sigrid who was still partially blinded and fell down the stairs.
"Waaaaghhh!" Sigrid exclaimed as she tumbled down the stairs and out of sight.
"...Huh." Moselyn finally said after they had all watched Sigrid go. "Didn't see that coming. You alright down theyah Sig?"
A pained groan floated up the stairs.
The three remaining people then ran down the staircase to meet Sigrid at the bottom and dusting herself off. Once they were all off the staircase, Ezran pushed a small statue down which cause the staircase to fold back up, sealing the entrance.
"All right, I think my sight is really back now," Sigrid said, blinking and shaking her head slightly.
"Uh-huh..." Callum nodded to her. "And you're sure that'll slow her down?" He then asked Ezran.
"No way. It took me over a month to figure out that combination." Ezran said in confidence. Just as he did, however, the staircase rumbled, and then began unfurling down with Rayla riding the bottom step. "Wha...? But, how?! It took me over a month to figure out that combination!" Ezran Repeated in dismay.
"I just pressed all of the ones with jelly handprints." Rayla smugly smiled. Ezran facepalmed at his mistake, ironically leaving a handprint of jelly on his face.
"You aren't harming the prince." Sigrid declared, putting her arm in front of the two boys protectively.
"You're really defending them?" Rayla asked. "Look around you. This place is proof enough that there's nothing in humans worth sparing."
"It sounds like you're assuming that I'm not one." Sigrid frowned.
Rayla chuckled. "Really? Light sensitivity? What is unmistakably a Shadowcrest cloak? I can even see your fangs when you speak."
Sigrid sighed. "Guess you have a good eye then. No point in hiding it." Sigrid brought her hands up to her hood and drew it back, eliciting a gasp from the princes. Poking out of Sigrid's ashen black hair were two enormous bat ears, extending over the of her head.
"There? Happy?" Sigrid asked Rayla.
"Not really. On the account of that, you should be hating this place far more than you are now."
"I have more important things to worry about," Sigrid said, taking a step back towards the princes.
"You should want vengeance just as much as I do! Hate them just as much as I do!" Rayla screamed at her. "Why are you protecting them?!"
Sigrid took a deep breath and sighed. "You're right. I do hate a lot of humans because of how they defiled our sacred arts. But even though I hate the things some humans have done, I hate the war that could happen even more so, which is certain to come if you kill the Prince. And I can't let that happen."
"Yeah!" Moselyn agreed pumping a fist in the air.
"So you will listen to me and S̸͈̳̊̅̆̇͝T̷̬̳͔̎͆̃̉̿͜O̴̢̢̡̨̥̭̺̅́͒̃̕P̷̜̉̂̓͒!" Sigrid ordered, a certain power flowing off of her words, dark shadows whipping around her and causing a wind to appear from nowhere.
Suddenly, Rayla felt it very hard to stand up. Like some sort of pressure was forcing her body, even her very mind, to bend to its will and submit to its intense gravity. Her swords dropped almost instantly, practically magnetizing to the floor. It was using all of Rayla's willpower to even kneel at this point, grunting all the while with the effort to retain some semblance of standing up.
"Wait! Stop! There's something I have to show all of you!" Ezran ran up and Tugged on Sigrid's skirt.
And, as abruptly as it appeared, the force was released from Rayla who gasped as much air as she could, panting from the experience.
"What did you want to show us?" Moselyn asked tilting her head.
"This," Ezran said, whipping off a cloth that covered...
"Is, Is, is that... what I think it is?!" Sigrid asked in disbelief.
"It... it can't be!" Rayla coughed, still trying to get her bearings.
"The egg of the Dragon Prince," Callum observed, as entranced by the shimmering blue egg as everyone else was. "It wasn't destroyed."
A few post-story things.
Moselyn's accent is Boston.
Vampires are quite powerful, but lose said power in direct, bright light.