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Once upon a time, there was a kingdom that lay on the border between the ice of the mountains and the waters of the sea.
A trading nation, they received visits from ships all over the world and their people grew rich from the bounty that the sea brought them. Their royal family was kind and good, ruling with a light touch and a gentle hand, and their King was blessed with four sons.
But, unknown to all the people, the princes hid a terrible secret.
One of them, the second son Tobirama, had manifested powers over water and ice.
When he was young, the prince had seen this as a gift, making up games and using his abilities to bring joy to his siblings. But there came a day when he'd accidentally hurt his younger brother, Prince Itama.
The prince had healed, taking no lasting harm, but forever after bearing the scar of white locks amongst the brown of his hair.
Tobirama, seeing what his powers had brought, came to believe them a curse.
Freezing his own heart, he grew cold to his family, avoiding them ever after and isolating himself from them. Even as, hidden in his own rooms, he cried bitter tears for the fate that the gods had inflicted upon him.
In the end, princes Itama and Kawarama resolved to respect his choices, leaving him alone, with only his brother Hashirama still insistent that he join them.
But Tobirama always refused, as pale and frosty as a winter without a spring.
When their parents died, Hashirama ascended to the throne, as was only right, with princes Itama and Kawarama as his right and left hands. The populace whispered about the missing prince, but none dared mention his name, for grief lay heavy on their beloved king's shoulders at the sound of it.
So things went, and so might they have remained, except for one thing.
A dragon came to the kingdom.
Breathing fire and flame, it melted the glaciers and flooded the harbour.
The people, panicking, fled the cities and ran into the woods, while Hashirama and his brothers rode out to meet it. Left alone to guard the kingdom, Tobirama waited for their return, but only Kawarama and Itama came back.
From their account, Hashirama had been taken, carried away by the dragon.
The returning people grieved their king, and the city was draped with the black of mourning.
However, one person, one man, refused to give Hashirama up for lost.
Tobirama dressed himself all in white, named Itama regent in Hashirama's stead, and walked out alone into the mountains to face the beast.
What happened after that, no one knows.
But Hashirama came home bearing the scars of flame on his palms and a secretive smile, took the throne back from Itama, and ruled wisely and well for many years.
Even now, the people who live in the mountains say that, high on the glacier, there is a castle made of ice, ruling a kingdom of frost, and guarded by a dragon that protects the sorcerer who dwells within.
But those are the stories of peasants and woodsmen, and the people of the city pay no need to such tales. Instead they speak of the new ambassador from the Land of Fire, a man with wild dark hair and fire in his eyes, who has come to woo their King.
The end.