NOTE: In honor of how much I'm borrowing (ahemstealingahem) from Merlin, all magic spells in this fic will be in Old English. There will be a translation and the episode each spell was taken from at the bottom.

Remember, we are still in flashback here!

Chapter 5

Deep in the Northern Woods.

Luna Koizumi stared at the gateway between the Magic Realm and the Human with contempt. She trained all her life in the isolated, cold Fuji Mountains to prepare to rule the Magic Realm one day— only to be rejected. Fine, she thought, if I can't rule the Magic Realm, there are plenty of ways to gain power in the Human Realm. Alice was so calm and peaceful, it was sickening. The people of Alice Kingdom had been coddled for too long, Luna decided.

Just as her mind began forming plans for usurpation, she noticed a strange glow in the lake. As if all the murkiness had melted away, the lake turned crystal clear. Luna could peer into the water and glimpse at the palaces and treasures that the magical folk basked in; the mountains of wealth that should have been hers. Then she saw the mirage of a young servant girl with long dark brown hair with a stupid-looking face and dumb expression of awe. Luna immediately realized what was going on. The Magic Realm was accepting that servant girl as heir.

"No!" Luna cried. Power burst free from the sorceress and threw the calm waters into a tumult. Then something curious happened. The glowing ceased and every ounce of magic she put in the water was reflected back at her. Luna was thrown deep into the woods by the force of her own magic. She landed on a patch of fallen leaves and numbly rolled up.

"You can't do this to me!" She cried out to the skies. "I was destined to be QUEEN!" She screeched and raged at the innocent trees around her. When she finally cooled down her eyes turned towards Alice Kingdom. "I will become Queen."

Today, Natsume had given Mikan the day off. Since her father was busy doing research in the house, Mikan spent the day with Yuka and Kaoru Joo-sama. Apparently, Kaoru Joo-sama and her mother were on first name basis now. She watched the two interact and swore the two acted like childhood friends. She was happy for Yuka. She didn't have an arrogant young Prince to deal with.

Currently, Kaoru Joo-sama was hearing out the complaints and ailments of the villagers. It was in these moments that Mikan thought if she were ever to become a queen, she'd want to be just like Kaoru Joo-sama. Then she blushed, realizing that meant marrying Natsume. Lately, the idea didn't sound so bad. Mikan giggled mentally at the thought.

The next villager was a bit strange. It was a woman dressed entirely in a black coat. It was thick like she had come from the far north. What was strangest of all, was that she wore a hood to conceal her face. As if sensing Mikan's thoughts, the woman removed her hood.

"Your Majesty, my name is Luna Koizumi and I am the greatest sorceress to have hailed these times. I've come to offer my services to the crown." Mikan paled. It was just as Serina-sensei predicted. Luna Koizumi had come to Alice Kingdom. Mikan tried sending warning signals to the queen, but Kaoru Joo-sama's eyes were on Luna.

"Koizumi-san, I can see that you are not from these parts. Tell me, do you know how my people feel towards magic?" The queen inquired composedly. Luna frowned.

"How could they feel anything but reverent? Magic is power, it is might! Commoners should bow before it, much like the crown." Luna answered resolutely. Wrong, wrong, wrong, her words are all wrong, Mikan thought. Magic was life itself. It was a majestic force of nature. Magic, not the one who used it, was meant to be respected just as the Earth and Skies were respected for bringing the crops and the rain.

"I see. Shall we ask these villagers how they feel? Go ahead, you needn't be frightened to express your opinions." Kaoru Joo-sama encouraged. She had a special connection with the villagers of Alice, one based on mutual respect.

A brave farmer stepped up first. "Our world has enough evil in it without adding magic to it, your highness. There's no room for magic in Alice Kingdom." Three women cringed in hearing that opinion. The villagers all piped up in agreement and began chanting, "No Room for Magic. No Room for Magic. No Room for Magic."

The queen held her hand up and the villagers silenced immediately. "There, as you can see, there is no room for Magic in Alice." Kaoru Joo-sama answered monotonously. Luna Koizumi turned red in humiliation and turned to storm out of the throne room.

"You'll regret this." Luna snarled and left. Mikan turned to Kaoru Joo-sama pleadingly. "Go," the queen mouthed to her. She bowed and ran after Luna.

"Luna! Luna Koizumi!" She yelled across the halls. She caught Luna in a secluded part of the castle, just before the exit.

"What do you want peasant?" The sorceress snarled at her. Mikan halted and stared back at her defiantly. This seemed to surprise Luna, as if the idea of a normal human standing up to her was unfathomable. Mikan pulled her hat off. Her hair tumbled past her shoulder and hung freely at her waist. Luna's eyes widened in recognition.

"I'm Mi-"

"I know who you are, servant girl!" Luna snapped and stalked forward threateningly. "I know the Magic Realm will never accept me as its queen, but I'll be damned before I let you take the Human Realm from me as well."

Though she was surprised, Mikan didn't show it. "I won't let you do that. Alice Kingdom is under my protection. I will never let you take my home."

"How cute." Luna sneered. "We shall see who the better sorceress is in the end. Prepare yourself servant girl." With that Luna Koizumi hissed a spell and disappeared in a whirlwind of dust and dirt. Mikan had to hand it to her. She sure knew how to make an exit.

Mikan found Natsume, deep in thought, staring aimlessly into the fire. He had isolated himself from the other knights. After the night they had, Mikan couldn't blame him. They received word of an attack in Eastern Woods and acted as quickly as they could, yet they were still too late. The entire village was leveled, nothing but carnage and destruction was left. The survivors were less than a hundred.

Mikan sat beside him. "You can't blame yourself Natsume. There wasn't anything you could have done." Blame me; she wanted to tell him, I should have sensed something. Natsume stared back at her with dead eyes.

"They're my people. They depend on me for their protection and I let them down. How can it not be my fault?" Natsume replied gruffly, his voice thick with emotion. He ran his fingers through his hair and covered his face in frustration. Mikan was silent for a moment. If Natsume continued to shoulder the blame every time someone died in an attack, he was going to run himself into the ground. Mikan knew this. She needed Natsume to realize it somehow.

"Sitting here and brooding over it won't do those people justice Natsume."

"What would you know about it?" He snapped hotly. Mikan cringed. Everything, she wanted to say. Despite the queen allowing her to freely use magic to protect Natsume, she knew that other sorcerers and sorceress in Alice Kingdom were suffering from being deprived of that same freedom. Every time, she let the villagers continue to believe that magic was some evil, she was letting her own kind down. So everything. She knew how Natsume felt.

"Enough to say the moment you stop moving forward is the moment you've truly betrayed your people." She told him softly. Natsume stared back at her in wonder. Her eyes never left his, and as she watched the flames flickering and leaving glowing patterns on Natsume's clear, pale skin, she felt mesmerized. Natsume suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

"Err, Yukihara...your hand." He coughed gruffly.

"Hmm?" Mikan said distracted. She then noticed that her hand was on his knee. She removed it quickly and shrank back in mortification. "S-sorry sire."

"You're quite something." Natsume shook his head.

"Excuse me?"

"One moment you're hiding behind Kaname for protection, next you're jumping to my defense. And every time I start to believe you truly are an idiot— (Mikan glared at this)— you go and say something like this. You're a mystery Yukihara." Natsume murmured, then, seeming to realize how open he'd been with his manservant, Natsume quickly backtracked. "And the mystery is that even in a man's body, you're such a girl sometimes."

Mikan deadpanned, clearly not amused. Of course, the dense prince would ruin the moment by resorting to insults. She was used to Natsume calling her a girl and obviously she wasn't offended by it. Natsume cleared his throat a few times and then suddenly he smacked Mikan on the back.

"Well, thank you, I guess." He said still quite flushed. Mikan wondered if he realized he was still "patting" her back. It was starting to hurt. A lot.

"You're. Welcome. Sire." Mikan coughed in response. The night passed awkwardly but lighter than it had begun. That was enough for Mikan.

"NATSUME!" A cry echoed through the dense forest. A large wolf-demon snarled menacingly, fresh blood dripping from it's jaw, an unconscious man under its paw.

"Acwele!" Gold swirled in the sorceress's eyes and sent the wolf flying back into the foliage. It's neck collided with a trunk and snapped instantly. When the fire in Mikan's eyes died down, she quickly knelt down next to the prince. Peeling the armor off, she saw the full damage of the wolf's bite.

Choking back a sob, she went through the first aid training her father gave her. She had a poultice for cleaning the wound in her small medical bag. Natsume moaned in pain when the cold liquid entered his wounds.

"Just bear with it, you stupid fox prince." Mikan whimpered, her hand hovered over the broken tissue and exposed arteries. Gold filled her eyes again, "Ahlúttre þá séocnes. Þurhhæle bræd."

The Hyuuga Prince inhaled sharply and then...nothing. Nothing happened. The edges of the wounds even festered from the magical interference.

"No, no, no, no, no Natsume, open your eyes, please!" Mikan sobbed. It didn't work! Her magic didn't work! She wasn't strong enough to save him. "This can't happen! You can't di— sleep here, you perverted fox! I didn't even tell you— Natsume, oh kami, SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Amidst the sobs, the mountain side began to rumble. It trembled and shook as if it was a stone titan awakening from slumber. A boulder crumbled into dust, causing the sorceress to cover the prince with her body. From the cloud of dust, a head emerged and with it a deep, formidable voice:

"Who dares to make such a ruckus in front of one's home." The creature hissed and smoke blew from it's nostrils. Ancient gold eyes stared down on Mikan. "Humans. I should have known. Mannerless little creatures, they are…"

"Y-you're a dragon…"Mikan breathed in awe, momentarily forgetting the injured man in her arms. "I thought they were extinct."

"You're a human. I thought they were moronic." It mocked her. Mikan contemplated retorting, but the short staggering breaths against her neck reminded her of the injured prince, cradled against her chest.

"Help me. You're a creature of magic, right? Help me heal him!" Mikan begged. "I tried, but my spell wasn't strong enough...or maybe I'm not good enough to protect him. But I can't lose him, you have to help!"

"I do not have to do anything." The dragon roared furiously. "Only the High Sorceress of the Magic Realm has any right to demand service of me. I do not bow to the whims of humans." Hot air fumed over the sorceress and the prince.

"Ryuu-san, I'm sorry, I really don't have time for civility. My friend is dying, please help me."

"My name is Kumajirou, young one." The dragon, Kumajirou, examined her with an unreadable expression. "This human man is important to you?"

"More than my life," Mikan answered without missing a beat. Kumajirou continued with his pensive observation. Mikan made herself busy keeping pressure on Natsume's wound and measuring his heart rate while the dragon assessed her. It's slower than it should be, Mikan thought in alarm.

"I sense a great power in you— the likes of which I have never seen before. And you have yet to reach your full potential..." Kumajirou suddenly spoke. "You intrigue me, young one. Just this once, I will make an exception."

"You'll help me?" She asked hopefully. Kumajirou nodded and gestured for the sorceress to come closer. He opened his jaw and a brilliant white-gold light washed over Mikan.

"Do you understand, young sorceress?"

"Yes…" Mikan breathed in awe. She looked at the dragon reverently once and then crouched down next to Natsume. Kumajirou gave her a spell, the most powerful healing spell she'd ever seen. Her hand hovered over his wound hesitantly. What if it still didn't work?

"Have faith."

"Ic þe þurhhæle þin licsare mid þam sundorcræftas þære ealdaþ æ!"The words slipped from her tongue instinctively, as if she was reciting from an inherent power. Warmth filled the forest floor and the debris from the rockslide quivered from the sheer magic in the woods. The deep bite marks on Natsume's shoulder began to repair; the blood flow ceased and little by little, the skin and tissues closed up, scarred, and then smoothed out as if the wound was never there to begin with.

"A-amazing," The sheer power was almost breathtaking. Mikan looked up at the dragon who was watching with a satisfied expression, and dare she say it, even pride. "Arigatou, Kuma-san."

The dragon only harrumphed in response, opened his wings, and took off in the sky. Mikan watched the magnificent creature soar through the air, humbled and then startled. The spell Kuma gave her was nothing short of miraculous and yet the creature claimed that Mikan had yet to reach her full potential. What was her full potential?

She looked down at the now healed prince and sighed.

"Now, how am I going to explain this to the stupid fox prince?"

"Prince Natsume, we have no doubts now, sire. The rumors that Luna Koizumi has joined hands with Lord Kunoji of the Demon World have proven true." The war councilor, Shuuichi Sakurano, reported back to Natsume grimly.

"As we speak, she marches for Igarashi Palace from the Southern Woods, your highness. Our man just reported a sighting, he estimates there are—" Ruka paused during his report. Natsume's eyes flared in his direction.

"How many Ruka?" He asked sharply.

"An army of 10,000 demons your highness. We have them outnumbered in weapons and men, but the strength is still 3 to 1 in their favor. It would take a miracle to..." Ruka trailed off, not needing to finish the rest of his sentence. The grim news stifled the spirits of the men. Though they were the finest trained knights in all of Alice Kingdom, no knight wanted to walk into a battle they were guaranteed to lose.

"Fighting an army three times stronger than our own with no guarantee of winning? Sounds like fun. Count me in." Kokoro Yome's sudden interjection disrupted the falling morale. Natsume actually chuckled and soon the knights joined in as well. Mikan swelled with pride. The men that Natsume trained were prepared for this ultimate moment of truth. Speaking of truth…

"Perhaps not a miracle. Perhaps what we really need… is some magic." Kaname suddenly suggested. The laughter ceased and the knights all looked at Kaname with gaped jaws. Natsume shot the blonde-haired knight a look that meant explain and Kaname did.

"They have a sorceress on their side, Sire. If we could fight fire with fire, we might have a chance of winning this." Kaname's eyes kept drifting to Mikan pointedly. Mikan panicked, Kaname was going to get her killed! Yet another part of her, a more rational side, told her that this was also her moment of truth. If she didn't tell him now, there was a chance she never would.

"From where in all of Alice Kingdom could we possibly get a sorcerer to fight on our side now?" Natsume shook his head, dismissing it as a fruitless idea.

"You already have one." Mikan spoke for the first time. All eyes fell on her and she fought the urge to shrink back. Natsume raised an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about, Yukihara?" He asked. Mikan, after taking a deep breath, smirked and gestured to herself.

"You're looking at your sorcerer."

"Really, you?" Natsume deadpanned and turned back to his men to plan a "real" strategy.

"Cume thoden." Mikan murmured softly. A powerful whirlwind formed from seemingly nowhere, raising the knight's capes high above their heads. The gust swirled around them, with Mikan in the center, unaffected. She then released her fingers and the wind dispersed. Natsume kept his back to Mikan, but from the way he tensed she knew he believed her now. "I'm sorry I hid it from you Natsume, but I did it to protect you. I used my magic for you."

He didn't respond. The entire encampment fell silent. Mikan sighed. She knew Natsume would be upset. She had two years to tell him the truth but she kept her magic a secret anyway. He probably hated her.

"You can't forgive me, I know that. But at least, allow me to take care of Koizumi. Worry about your men Natsume— sorry, Prince Natsume." She bowed and dismissed herself. She wasn't going to stop protecting Natsume just because he'd come to hate her. No, he'd become far too important to her. As she left, two sets of footsteps followed her. It was Kaname and Sakurano.

"I'm with you, Mikan-san." Kaname nodded, his hand rested on the pommel of his sword, it was glowing softly. It was a spell Mikan had taught him when he first found out about her magic. She nodded her head in thanks and turned to Sakurano.

"Serina-sama asked me to pass this to you. I think I understand why now." Sakurano told her, a hint of reverence in his voice. He had the vial of water from the Northern Woods. Mikan grimaced. Well, it was only a matter of time. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself to take on the role of High Sorceress of the Magic Realm.

After Yukihara left, Prince Natsume was left frozen for a fraction of a second longer, when an urgent piece of information stole his attention away from his manservant.

"Prince Natsume!" A panicked knight hastily ran into the war chambers. He was red from exertion."Lord Kunoji is bringing a second army from the North! We're being attacked on two fronts!" The knight then passed out.

"Shit." Natsume cursed, punching his fist through two inches of pure birch wood table. The knights took a step back, not wanting to get caught in the prince's wrath. Natsume gritted his teeth. He could think about that lying-so-called-best-friend/manservant of his later.

"Kaname, Sakurano, follow Yukihara. Do whatever he needs and take some men with you." The two knights nodded in understanding, hurried to follow the sorcerer. "Bring him back alive!" Natsume called after them.

He then turned to the rest of his knights to revise their battle strategy. No one mentioned the incident that just took place and if the prince was slightly distracted, no one commented on it either.

"Hoshio, Tono, Kitsu, Hayami and Hayate, you five will go with Ruka to the South. Tsubasa, Koko, Yuu, Mochu, you four will accompany me to the North. Fight hard men! We will not let the demons take our kingdom today!" Natsume then raised Hiryu in the air. "For Alice Kingdom!" He initiated the battle cry.

"For Alice Kingdom!" His knights echoed back to him.

(Unbeknownst to Natsume, at that moment, he won the complete and utter devotion of his men for as long as they would continue to serve him. Yukihara was as special to the knights of Alice Kingdom as he was to Prince Natsume Hyuuga. Yukihara was the physician's son. With all the injuries the knights accumulated in the past two years, they'd come to enjoy Yukihara's cheerful personality and being spoiled with his stew when they were confined to the infirmary beds.

The knights weren't exactly blind to the prince's special friendship with the servant either; unorthodox as their relationship may be, they agreed that Natsume was a better man since Yukihara came into his life. So for their prince and his faithful manservant, the knights of Alice Kingdom were more than prepared to lay their lives down in battle.)

Meanwhile, Prince Natsume was preparing himself to battle with Lord Kunoji. It was an inevitable battle that he'd seen coming for many years now; Kunoji had, for reasons unknown, targeted the Hyuuga heir from the moment he was born. Natsume had known for some time now, the recent increase in demon attacks was Lord Kunoji's way of saying "I'm still here and I will kill you someday soon." Whatever Kunoji's reasons were, today was the day that Natsume would avenge the people of the Eastern Woods.

Kumajirou the dragon is actually Mr. Bear. But it's weird to use Mr. Bear in this fantasy world so Mikan calls him Kuma-san.

All spells and translations are taken from Merlin Wiki.

Acwele: translates to destroy or kill. Used in S01 E07 The Gates of Avalon & E11 To Kill The King.

Ahlúttre þá séocnes. Þurhhæle bræd: translates to cleanse the sickness, heal thoroughly the flesh. Used in S02 E13 The Last Dragon Lord.

Ic þe þurhhæle þin licsare mid þam sundorcræftas þære ealdaþ æ: translates to I heal you thoroughly from your mortal wound with those special powers that are ancient. Used in S03 E05 The Crystal Cave and S05 E07 A Lesson in Vengeance.

Cume thoden: translates to come whirlwind. Used in S01 E10 The Moment of Truth.

Okay, I swear it's a complete coincidence that the last spell is used in Mikan's moment of truth is also from the episode titles The Moment of Truth. I picked the spell after I already wrote the scene haha!

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