ANOTHER EDIT: THE LINK KEEPS DISAPPEARING. I DECIDED TO JUST TELL YOU THE URL.
EDIT: Added the link which disappeared for some reason. Also fixed Tony's dialogue. Enjoy!
BEFORE THE STORY BEGINS: AN AUTHOR'S NOTE
Aaaaand I'm back with the second chapter of Fantalia! I was really worrying about the length of this, but it turned out to be just fine! In other news, while I haven't posted any of the character designs (busy week, forgive me), I did create the tumblr blog where they can be found. There isn't much on it yet, but I'll post the link anyway.
TO THE BLOG: Well, Fanfiction doesn't like the link, so I'll just tell you the url: officialfantaliablog on Tumblr
Hetalia is owned by Hidekaz Himaruya... but you already knew that, didn't you?
Without further ado, the second chapter of Fantalia!
Once Upon A Time…
"A prince was kidnapped." Feliciano explained. "From the neighboring kingdom. He was taken… by a terrible beast!" with that, he gave a yelp and jumped back behind Lovino, who just rolled his eyes.
"Look, um… what was your name?" Lovino asked.
"Alfred."
"Alright, well Alfred, the king of this kingdom is pretty damn disappointed, believe it or not. So he called upon the fairies to scout out a hero to save this prince. And you seem to fit the bill." This was true. Alfred was the perfect hero, of course. But he was also a skeptical one.
"Wait… so why me? There's got to be other heroes out there." Lovino narrowed his eyes.
"Are there other heroes out there? Yes. Probably. Most definitely. But listen, buddy, I don't feel like tracking down some other dumbo hero when I got one right in front of me." This gave Alfred a pang of… well, he didn't know. It felt like he was useful, yet useless. Special, but replaceable. Something he had never really felt in his entire life until this moment. He frowned at Lovino.
"What if I don't want to do it?"
"Are you saying you don't?"
Alfred raised his hands apologetically. "No way, dude. I'm totally up for it. But-"
"Good." Lovino nodded. "That's it. C'mon, Feliciano, time to go back home." And the water in the fountain froze once more as the fairies of light and dark, brothers on two ends of a completely different spectrum, vanished into the clouds- one leaving a rainbow and the other a storm cloud. Disappearing and leaving Alfred very, very confused. Where was he supposed to go to save this prince? Who was this prince? Was he nice? Who was the monster he was supposed to be saving this dude from?
All good questions. Sure do wish Alfred finds who he needs to ask to get those answers…
Alfred was stumped. Who would even know this stuff? Who would even believe in such silly stuff like fairies?
Psst. Alfred. It's ARTHUR. You should ask ARTHUR.
Alfred paced across the grass. He pondered this seemingly impossible question. Then anger began to rise up inside of him. Who were those fairies, thinking he would do their work while they refused to spare him of the details like, I don't know, WHERE he was suppose to be going? My, that would have been helpful for finding the prince, wouldn't it? But no, for the first time in his life, Alfred felt like a mere puppet, the fairies tugging at his strings. Oh, such were the perils of a perfect hero.
Yo. Alfred. Ask. Arthur.
But Alfred did not seem able to listen in on the narrator, no; he was too wrapped up in the plot of this story.
Alfred. Aaaaalllllfffffrrrrreeeeeddddd. Listen to me. You got to ask Arthur. Do it.
Alfred sat on the edge of the fountain, chin propped up by his hand. How was he ever going to find out?
Go. Ask. Arthur.
Was this simply a quest to go unnoticed?
NO. GO ASK ARTHUR, YOU DIMWIT.
Our narrator was getting rather frustrated at our hero. She did not like the fact that Alfred was simply not listening to him. However, she shouldn't have feared. Someone was listening. Someone was.
"H3y a1Fr3D, Y*u $h0u1D G0 $k aRThuR." Tony told our hero.
Alfred snapped his fingers and gave Tony a wide smile. "That's it! Tony, you're a genius!"
Oh my God.
Tony nodded at Alfred, and the two set off to Arthur's place. Along the way, they had a little chat about the quest.
"So Tony, have you heard anything about a prince going missing?" Tony shook his head.
"n0 a1Fr3D, 1 hAv3n'T H3Ard anYtH1Ng Ab0uT a pR1NC3. HAv3 y0U?"
"No… I haven't. Quite honestly, I don't really like this whole idea of kings and queens ruling our lands." Alfred didn't like the idea of kings and queens? But that's the perfect element for a fantasy story! You simply CANNOT have a fairytale without royalty!
"wHat D0 y0U m3AN bY thaT?"
"Well, why do some people who were born into power get to decide how the public live? Shouldn't the people be the one who make the rules? I mean, we're the ones who are affected by these laws." Gosh, why does Alfred care about politics? He's the hero. He has no time for stupid politics.
"$0 y0U'R3 n0T g0NNa $av3 tH3 pr1NC3?" Tony inquired.
"Of course I'm going to save him!" Alfred glanced at Tony in surprise "he's still in trouble, royalty or not. I just believe that a kingdom should be run by the people. Everyone should be free and equal under the law." Tony nodded, interested.
"V3rY th0UGhTfU1." He concluded.
As they continued their (awfully long, Arthur's place wasn't that close to the town square) trek to visit the old sorcerer, Alfred contemplated what he may think of letting Alfred go off into the dangerous wilderness to save some prince he never met. Arthur was known to be a bit… overprotective of his only human friend, the way a mother bear would be protective of her cubs. But Alfred wasn't a little bear cub. He was the perfect storybook hero, and Arthur just had to accept that Alfred was better than everyone else, therefore no reason to protect him from anything. Alfred could protect himself.
You know, reader, I really hope that you're trying to get yourself to be more like Alfred. He really is an amazing role-model. Just forget his little quirk about actually caring about the government.
Finally, they approached the rather odd house on top of a sloping hill. The long, fingerlike tendrils of the 100-year old willow trees…
What was that, reader? Few willow trees live to be a hundred? Well, that is true, unless magic is involved.
… Grasped at Alfred's threadbare clothing and poked Tony's silvery magical bubble. The grass was overgrown, and massive boulders stood tall. If you looked closer, you would find what appeared to be small, bright colored jewels darting in between rocks and clumps of holly. These would be magibugs, an incredibly rare species of beetle which feasted on the aura a sorcerer gave off.
What? Do you not believe that magibugs actually exist? Well, then I guess you just don't know any sorcerers. Humph.
The house itself was a rickety hodgepodge of all different kinds of wood, tacked on to the walls and roof to prevent the entire place from collapsing. A crumbling deck only made getting to the door more hazardous, and tall, thin stems of grass and other plants peeped through every crack. Dark vines creeped up the walls, and from inside the windows one could see flashes of brightly colored light. Clearly this house was not expecting visitors. The entire place gave off a forlorn feeling, the kind one gets when visiting abandoned buildings.
It may have looked like a dump, but this was a second home to Alfred. He didn't even bother knocking on the door, just casually swinging it open and striding inside.
The interior of the house was, luckily, in much better shape than the outside. Impeccable, actually. The entirety of it was neat and tidy, every single object and instrument having a place. Arthur's living quarters were upstairs, so the first level was dedicated to his practice of magic. While it was tiny, and the walls and floors were a depressing shade of grey, the simple enchantment of all of the bubbling caldrons, the dragon skulls and pixie wings, the large maps with sketches of where certain ingredients for potions could be found, the charts of the positions of the stars on different nights, made up for it greatly. Arthur's house always filled Alfred with an amazement that was different from the one he got when told he was great- it was more of a remembrance that he was a part of something bigger, something more than just him. Was he really all that special?
Of course he was! Alfred's just a little delusional right now. Blame the toxic fumes.
Arthur was, of course, standing at the center table that was covered with deep scratches and burns of an unknown origin, mixing a new potion. The young man stood a few (enough to make a reasonable difference) inches shorter than Alfred, something that often annoyed Arthur. His blond hair was unruly and tousled; a symptom of sleepless nights. The dark bags under his deep emerald eyes proved this even more so. He wore a navy cape, ripped from encounters with ferocious beasts. Held close to his neck by thin black cord was a gleaming silver gem, one of unknown origin to Alfred (he was not a master of gems). However, he was sure that it was had some sort of magical qualities, due to the fact that tiny shimmering pieces inside it swirled with no interruption. Arthur greeted Alfred with a snort, obviously consumed in his work. Alfred suppressed an anxious smile. Tony decided to be wise and wait outside.
"Um, hey, Arthur." Alfred decided to dodge the question. "Ummmm…. How was your day?"
Arthur looked up in suspicion. "Fine," he replied "how was yours?"
"Well, um… ARTHUR TWO MAGICAL FAIRIES CAME TO ME FROM HEAVEN AND TOLD ME TO GO AND RESCUE THIS PRINCE GUY AND OH MY GOSH ARTHUR OH MY GOSH THEY WANT ME TO GO ON A QUEST FOR THEM CANIGOCANIGOCANIGO?!" Alfred couldn't help blurting this out. Floating in the doorway, Tony did the magical-sea-serpent-inside-an-even-more-magical-silver-bubble equivalent of a facepalm.
Arthur blinked slowly, clearly confused. Alfred opened his mouth to say something else, but decided that talking even more would make the conversation even more perplexing.
"Alfred, look, um…"
"Can I go? Please?" Even though Alfred didn't need Arthur's permission to go on the quest, he wanted it anyway. Besides, Arthur had magical supplies that would help on a long rescue mission.
"Look, Alfred…" Arthur hesitated. He knew that Alfred was going no matter what he told him. But he still opened his mouth and said… "You shouldn't go."
What?
"What?" Alfred looked up at Arthur in dismay.
No no no no no no no. Arthur, what are you doing? This boy is an obvious hero. You have to help him out on his first quest. No no no! This was NOT the way the story was suppose to be told!
"I just… I just don't believe it would be safe for you."
What's going on?
Alfred looked just as confused as our narrator. "Safe? But I'm a hero. THE perfect storybook hero. Arthur, this is my destiny."
Exactly! This is his destiny! And Arthur was supposed to help him out! That's how I was supposed to tell the story! Why aren't my characters behaving?
Arthur gave a long, heaving sigh. "Alfred… there's no such thing as destiny."
There is too!
"But… but that's who I am! Just like how you're a wizard. I'm supposed to be a hero."
"First of all, I'm a sorcerer. And I may have been born with special powers, but that doesn't make me a sorcerer. The fact that I use those magical powers does. Nobody is born a sorcerer, or a hero. They work to make that happen."
"Then let me become a hero!"
"You're way too young. You'll die. Wait until you're older."
Alfred felt rage boiling inside him. "What do you know about me? What do you know about destiny? You're just some stupid old man who lives alone on a hill!"
"Alfred-"
"You haven't seen the world! You don't even see the town! What do you know about the world?"
Arthur snapped. "WELL MAYBE I JUST DON'T WANT YOU TO END UP LIKE-"
"Like WHO?"
Arthur stopped short. For a second, a hodgepodge of expressions flew across his face: mostly terror and anger, but also some semblance of grief. His mouth, still open, snapped shut. For a second, he gave Alfred the most pathetic look, begging him to please shut up please shut up please don't make me finish that sentence please Alfred just listen to me and shut up this isn't entirely about you there's something bigger I'm thinking about and goddamn it please just shut up… However, Arthur recovered quickly, shifting awkwardly from one foot to another.
"…Like…like all the other kids I've seen. You're not the first young person to think that they're some sort of epic hero, destined to bring peace to the world. They go out, thinking they'll be victorious and return within a month. Then… then… then they never return. Or even worse, their bodies are brought back by sobbing fairies or spirits. A bloody carcass. An infected lump of flesh. Sometimes, the only thing left of one of these 'heroes' is a bowl of ashes. They're born into thinking they can change something, and the only thing they end up changing is their life, and for the worse. It's a suicide mission."
"But… but why would the fairies come to me if they knew I would fail?" Alfred stammered.
"They don't. They think you're going to succeed. That's the thing about fairies; they always believe that every single hero will live to tell the epic tale of their adventure." Arthur replied.
For a second, Alfred doubted his willingness to go on the quest. Was he just gullible? Too full of hope in himself for his own good? Should he go, and risk his life?
Of course he should go! This is preposterous. He should have just gone without talking to Arthur.
But then there was the fact that the fairies would be watching him. Surely, they wouldn't let a human die on one of their quests. "Arthur," Alfred concluded "I'm going."
"No! Even after everything I just told you? It's dangerous, why can't you get that into your head?"
"The fairies will be watching me. They believe in me. They will guide me. I trust in their judgment. Besides, you can't make me not go." Alfred added. Arthur shook his head on that.
"Of course I could, I'm a bloody sorcerer…" Arthur trailed off. "But… obviously, if you really want to go, then… fine. Whatever. If your body shows up on my doorstep, that's not my fault. Just take your little serpent friend with you."
"Fine, I will." Alfred, still taken aghast by Arthur's lack of support, gave him one last frown, spun around, and walked calmly out the door, Tony following closely from behind. Arthur hesitated, thinking of perhaps talking to him for one last time. But no, Alfred was too stubborn for persuasion.
Don't worry, Arthur. You did the right thing. Alfred will be fine.
"You think?" Arthur replied to our narrator irritably.
Of course! I'll be watching over him.
Arthur frowned. "I don't trust you."
Well, you're going to have to.
Arthur crossed his arms and pouted. "Just- ugh, just keep him alive!"
I will! Besides, he's the perfect storybook hero. He can fend for himself.
"Right." Arthur stated sarcastically.
Oh, don't be such a downer! Trust me! Everything is going to turn out just fine.