Ludwig, for all his bravery, was still pinned against a cliff by both a raging inferno and the 200-some foot tall hungry source of said inferno. If he didn't get out soon he probably never was.
Something tugged on his dishevelled hair and a clear voice bid him up. He deflected another jet of fire with his shield before transferring his sword to his shield hand and began to climb with three appendages as the dragon took its next breath. The rock was rough and hard and held under his grasp.
When he'd reached the top he tossed his sword with practiced ease back to its proper hand and turned to see the dragon lunging at him again; perhaps it thought the fire wasn't working. The sword might as well have tapped its muzzle, not being able to damage it through its tough scales. He scuffled backwards.
The sky had turned a nasty shade of green. The fire below created heat waves, distorting Ludwig's vision. He instinctively knew the edge of the cliff drew nearer as he continued to scuffle backwards. The dragon pulled itself up onto the cliff by its long glittering talons. Its green eyes stood out from the black and its red underside veritably became a beacon. Drawing itself up to its full height it released another jet of fire before immediately lunging at him without giving the prince time to find his balance. To stay on his feet he swung his sword wildly, catching the creature's nostril and finally drawing first blood. It grunted, snorted, and moved back. Seeing its next move he crouched down to brace himself for the fire.
It rammed into him with more force that before, flinging his arm back and making him lose grip of his shield. It flew like a silver snowflake over the edge and out of sight.
"Focus Ludwig", the prince jumped at the sudden voice in his ear. The red faerie hovered by his head, wand out and aimed, "You know what you must do."
He did. In a moment, the realisation hit him like glass clarity. The dragon opened its mouth.
Ludwig drew the sword back as the red faerie began to speak, "Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure. Let evil die and good endure!"
Ludwig moved at the same time as the dragon. The sword left his hand and circled through the distorted air as the giant mouth rushed towards him. He wanted to close his eyes, to wait to die, to tense for the pain of being pierce on all sides by teeth. But when he did he only saw the face of Feliciano, smiling and speaking his name. He smiled back, tears pricking his eyes. He would never see his love again, never be able to hold his hand, to kiss his lips, never dance with him again. He would never even be able to tell him his name. He would continue to sleep for perhaps decades or even centuries, never changing, always dreaming. But someone, he was sure, would happen upon the prince sleeping in his kingdom, fall in love, and awaken him with love's first kiss.
It just wouldn't be him.
The single tear that streaked down his face was blown away in a rush of hot air and a howl. His eyes snapped open to see the dragon look down at the sword in his underside, no bigger than a toothpick to him, but piercing his heart. It ripped at its chest in a vain attempt to remove it as it fell dying. Ludwig began to move moments before it crashed into the cliff with the help of the faeries, leaping from boulder to crumbling boulder until his feet were planted on unmoving ground. The dragon continued to howl as it crashed into the earth below, being buried by the remains of the cliff.
When the rubble and dust finally settled the group turned to look down at what was left of the creature. From beneath the rocks an inky black substance seeped, staining the ground. The dull gleam of the sword, now embedded a few paces away, tarnished to black before their eyes, it having been used for its one and only purpose.
Ludwig was the first to turn and look back at the castle to discover that the thorns were now gone and their path lay clear.
~X~
Antonio gripped the rock wall with white knuckles. He'd seen everything. The pillar of fire and the dragon that emerged from it, the thorns, the cliff, the battle, the demise. His pulse raced as the dust settled and no form moved from the rubble. Instead the one left on the cliff slowly made its way back to the horse and then to the distant castle.
Wide green eyes scanned the landscape leading up to the mountains and then to the roof upon which he was standing. They rested on the rotting wooden door that lead its way down through the damp fortress. He kicked it open as he desperately began to search.
~X~
As Ludwig entered into the castle he was astonished by the noise; or more exactly, the lack thereof. Everyone stood/sat/lie as if sculpted surreally lifelike, but sculpted none the less. If another more pressing matter hadn't been weighing on his mind he would have stopped to examine the phenomenon. Instead he ran to a door that was the base of a tower. It was a good thing he was in top physical condition or he may have not have been able to scale all those steps in one go. As it was, he reached the top panting. The door into the room was above him, leading through the floor into the chamber. He pushed it up.
A draft reached the Germanian prince as he stepped up into the cool blue room. He worried a bit when he initially didn't see the Italian but then he turned to see the rest of the room. A long flat bed sat in the middle of the chamber, draped with pale blue silk contrasting smoothly with the light tan skin of its occupant. Ludwig walked forward quietly, as if not wanting to wake him. He knelt at the figure's side. Feliciano…
Even in sleep he was beautiful. His dress was a lighter shade than the sheets, contrasting even more with the flawless skin. His soft lips were parted and breath gently swept in and out. His lashes were darker than his hair, a lovely auburn in colour. He was even wearing a faint smile. The only thing that was missing, what Ludwig wanted to see most of all, were those lovely warm eyes laughing at him. He leant forward to capture the still lips before drawing back to watch.
At first it didn't seem anything had happened, it didn't work. Ludwig began to panic but then he noticed that Feliciano's face began to flush with renewed blood flow. He wiggled a little as the dark eyelashes fluttered and opened to reveal sparkling honey coloured orbs. He blinked a few times before smiling and throwing his arms around the Germanian with a small exclamation. Ludwig drew the slight figure closer to him, burying his face in his neck to breath in the fresh almost foresty and spicy smell the Italian had.
When he felt the other wasn't about to disappear, Ludwig gently placed hands on his shoulders to pull him back. "Good evening Feliciano. I am Ludwig Beilschmidt and I wish to have your hand in marriage."
Feliciano's face split into an even wider smile and tears formed at his eyes. He placed his hands on either side of the blonde's face to draw him down for a kiss; for confirmation. Suddenly he drew back, smile gone, "Ve, but I am to be married to the princess of Germania. What will I tell the king!"
Ludwig chuckled, "I must have forgotten to mention I am the prince of Germania so I doubt either of our fathers will object." Feliciano let out another joyous exclamation and kissed him again. His lips were just as soft as Ludwig imagined them to be.
He pulled away slowly but continued to hold his hand, "Allow me to escort you down." Still smiling brightly, Feliciano did.
~X~
Gillian woke with a yawn, warm and really rather comfortable, "What the hell happened?"
"You fell asleep, ma'am, literally."
Red eyes few open to see the blushing face of the cute blonde with the violet eyes she was staring at earlier while she now lie in his lap. She grinned at his awkward attempt to stand up while she kept her weight on him. Then a question tickled the back of her mind, making her frown and ask, "Wait, I fell asleep?"
He nodded, "So did everyone else but you would have fallen so I caught you but then you wouldn't let me go…"
She glanced at her hands to see they were gripping his linen shirt. She grinned again and detached one to stroke his red face, "That's awfully sweet of you, liebling, to worry about me so much~"
His face heated up to an almost unbelievable degree at the German endearment but he smiled, pretty much tripling the cute factor. She giggled and was about to say something else to see how red he could actually get, but a deep voice cut through their own little world, "Gillian Beilschmidt! Cease this instant! You are to be married shortly!"
Her smile turned to a growl. As the adorable violet eyed boy moved to get up she linked her arms around his neck and firmly planted her bum in his lap and was about to tell her father where he could shove it but was interrupted by fanfair and the crier, "Now announcing, Prince Feliciano Veneziano Vargas and Prince Ludwig Beilschmidt!" The room burst into applause as necks snapped to the stairs.
Ludwig, still dressed in his travelling garb from that morning, now singed and quite dirty, his hair also a mess, looked as regal as the king as he slowly walked down those stairs, not taking his eyes off the Italian at his side. Feli wore the light blue gown flawlessly, small tiara still perched on his head, and he clung to the Germanian's arms as they descended into the room. For all they cared, they might as well have been the only ones in there.
Gillian stared a moment before jumping up (dragging the blonde with her) and applauding and hooting loudly for her brother and her now non-fiancé. The kings, both Italian and Germanian, also gawked for a while before the Italian king joined Gillian and the rest in the hall. He turned to the still slack-jawed Germanain, "You don't mind, do you? We'll still join the kingdoms. And you're daughter's now free to court (coughmolest) that young man. Everyone's happy!"
The Germanian sputtered, "I… uh… well… What about an heir?" This was out of his control and he didn't like it.
The Italian flapped his hand dismissively, "That can all be arranged in due time. But let them get married first!" When the couple stopped in front of the kings Ludwig bowed and Feli executed and elegant curtsy before running to hug his mother and father for the first time in sixteen years.
Ludwig went to go stand proudly in front of his father, only a light blush dusting his cheeks. He had no reason to be ashamed of his choice. Before either of the men could speak, the prince was glomped by his grinning sister, "I fucking knew it! You have no idea how glad I am you got me out of that one!" she clapped him on the shoulder, "Thanks!"
The two men looked at each other in a moment of understanding as she left, smiled, and shrugged.
In celebration, the band, who was supposed to play only during and after the ceremony, began to play. Feliciano met Ludwig's eyes and smiled. They met on the dance floor and moved much like they did the day they first met, just the day before actually, perfectly in sync and with eyes for nothing but each other.
From a balcony above Francis sobbed audibly into a flowery handkerchief (a gift from Arthur a few years back). The English faerie rolled his eyes, "What now, frog?"
"I just love happy endings!" he wept even harder. Arthur rolled his eyes again. Kiku smiled at them all, quietly wiping a tear away as he watched the couple dance.
After a few moments of quiet, Arthur gasped, "Why is he wearing a bloody dress? Let the boy wear some pants!" With a whip of his wand the dress turned into the horrible suit. While there was an audible gasp from the crowd, neither of the dancers ever noticed.
It was Francis's turn to gasp, "Are you trying to make him a laughingstock? He looked wonderful in the gown!" It was changed back to the dress.
"He's not a princess, you stupid cheese eating surrender monkey!" The suit.
"I'll have you know he asked to wear that! Leave it be!"
For the remainder of the night the two kept switching out outfits, from the red suit to the blue dress, to a white dress or suit for the actual ceremony. Later, when they (inevitably) got drunk, Francis found the American farmer Arthur so fancied and convinced him to take the Englishman away for the night. He did so without question, leaving Francis to molest the partygoers until he stumbled upon a cute Estonian that captured his attention for the rest of the night. After congratulating the couple, Kiku left to go back to the cottage only to find a Grecian man sleeping in the palace gardens surrounded by cats. Thus, where he spent is night napping and talking about the stars. As for the happy couple, they consummated their marriage as soon as they got to the castle and into every available surface that would hold their weight. Can't be too thorough.
Damn that was cheesy.
Yeah, Arthur missed Matthew when he was putting everyone to sleep. XD Poor guy if they hadn't woken up in a few decades!
*gasp!* Oh nos! Lovino!