5Disclaimer: All recognizable characters don't belong to me. They belong to Disney and Square Enix. Everything else is mine, please respect that. I am not making any monetary or other profit through this.
Treasure Hunting: Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty
Chapter 1: The Legend
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess in the prosperous Queendom of Kalinth. The queendom was peaceful under the royal family's long reign, but greed and lies lurked in the shadows. One day, a spy from a neighboring kingdom was discovered within the castle, and a plot to assassinate the Crown Princess and overthrow the queendom was revealed to the royal family.
In order to protect the throne and save the country, the queendom's young prince disguised himself as his sister and took her place. Dark magic planned for the princess instead struck the young prince, which resulted in his petrification.
Because of the prince's sacrifice, the princess was able to evade the plot and rally troops to defeat their foes and save the queendom. After the victory, attempts to wake the prince from his stony slumber were made, but none could rouse him. Giving up hope, the princess, having been crowned Queen Naminé, had her heroic brother's body relocated and sealed away in a hidden place for safekeeping.
The Queen went on to bring the Queendom of Kalinth to a state of even greater prosperity that lasted for hundreds of years.
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Axel had read Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty, in all of its many forms, with all of its many additions and exclusions, more times than he could keep track of. The legend always gripped him. Even the more ridiculous versions that turned the enemy kingdom into a race of mountain apes led by a dragon always captured his attention.
He remembered the first time his father had told him the story, when he was five and they were traveling through Kalinth in search of a magic mirror. His father told it so well that he could have made a living as a storyteller. At the end of the tale, he had practically leapt out of his seat in the carriage, asking his father where Queen Naminé had hidden the prince. His father had laughed at his enthusiasm and proclaimed that he was sure to be a treasure hunter too if he was already asking questions like that after only being told an ancient legend. Then his father told him that he didn't know of the prince's whereabouts. Nobody did.
Upon hearing that, his five-year old self had hastily claimed that he would find the prince one day, and from that day forward, finding Kalinth's Sleeping Beauty had been the driving force behind Axel's career as a Treasure Hunter.
AN: So, that was my first attempt at posting a fanfic. How'd it go? Don't worry, the next chapters will be much longer. This is more of a prologue really. A teaser, perhaps? On a side note, this story is rated M, not MA. There will be violence and (eventually) romantic scenes, but nothing explicit. If you were looking for explicit, sorry, I know people post that kind of stuff under M sometimes rather than on a site that allows MA, but this isn't it. Anyway... Positive or constructive reviews will be appreciated, even only smiley faces! Flames will be ignored, so don't bother! ;)