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A Knight's Journey

Summary:

After Uncle Kenny stormed the royal castle and killed King Grisha. Prince Eren goes on a journey with knight Levi, to prepare him for taking his fathers' place, where they run into dragons, griffons, mermaids, titans, unicorns, and many more creatures. While running from Kennys' henchmen the pair find themselves.BLAH BLAH BLAH okay yeah you get the picture.

Notes:

I wrote this story/fanfic as a school report so forgive me if parts of this is not quite up to standard, I was in a rush to finish it and it doesn't help that it is 1:00am. But hey, my teacher liked it, along with some of my friends(MORE LIKE EVERY FRIEND THAT READ IT) so I thought that you guys would enjoy it too.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Laying in my king sized bed, my limbs tangled in with the sheets, the sun robs me of my sight. Willing my legs off the side of the bed, I try to stand up; thanks to my slumber my body is weak. My legs are wobbly but I somehow manage to walk/stumble to my washroom that is bigger than most; but I suppose it is fit for the prince of a kingdom. Going through my normal morning routine, I get into the bath one of the maids has prepared for me just moments before i woke up. I get out to dry before my skin gets all pruny and attempt (attempt being the key word) to dry my reddish brown hair, with one of the many towels that has been prepared. I brush my teeth, and walk back into my oversized room to get dressed into my normal attire that consists of a white button up shirt, khaki jeggings that are surprisingly very durable, and an orange-ish tan midriff jacket. Once I become king of Maria, I will add my family sword that holds the lives of the people, and the responsibility to protect every single one of them to my belt.
While I am waiting in my room for one of the maids to come lead me to the dining hall, I hear a ruckus outside my balcony window. Curious, I go to the landing careful to stay close to the doors. I peek my head out into the morning light to see a huge mass of people scattering the grounds, each one shouting their own profanity. Straining my ears, I can hear one voice above all the rest saying that he is the rightful owner of the crown, and the leader of the people. Scared, I sneak back into my room. I grab my dagger, covered in jewels, and gold, that I received from my father, King Grisha, on my twelfth birthday. I rush out into the blood covered halls heading towards the throne room. Along the way, I am met with several armed guards that protect me from oncoming assailants. Sadly, every single solider dying in the process of protecting me, but they knew the price in working for the royal family.
Turning the corner, I almost collide with my adopted sister, Mikasa. Taking one glance at each other’s face and nodding with a grim face, we rush towards the throne room. We reach the room guarded by several of my father's most trusted soldiers, without a moments' haste they let us through. Only to be met with the sight of mother, Queen Carla, cowering behind father with a sword in his hand, exchanging a few choice words with Mikasas' blood related uncle, Kenny. Mother spotting us, she rushes us to her side. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot one of the maids that I've seen around the castle (I think Petra was her name.) gesturing for us to hide behind the thrones' as father deals with Kenny. As we gather around her, she expresses her relief that we are still alive, she saluted the nation's' salute (for addressing royalty and higher ups, where you put your right fist over your heart and left behind the back), and opened up a propped door, that leads to a servants' hallway passage. It opens up to allow servants to travel about the castle unnoticed. Telling us to follow the passage to behind the stables where we must escape through the forest and to another country to seek shelter, and disappear.
However, just as she finished speaking, we could see pain all over her face, as a sword passes through her chest. When she realized what happened she fell to the floor, blood pooling around her body. My mind not processing anything, I hear a ringing in my ears as Mikasa is screaming, and crying for me to run. But I just stand there and watch as my mother is crying over my fathers' decapitated body, telling us to find a knight called Levi. My mind finally catching up to my body, Mikasa and I rush into the opened door. Only to realize that Mikasa is being pulled back into the throne room by her long black hair, out of fear for me, her little brother, she kicked the passageway door closed unable to be opened from either side without the knowledge of the secret handle. Stumbling through the dark hallways only with a few candles to light my path, I make my way outside to the stables where the stable hand, Marco, was preparing a pair of horses. Noticing that i was the only one to make it out of the passages, his face dropped to one of solemn pity. With a little help from Marco, I mounted, Heichou, my horse that I received as an alliance/business gift from a neighboring royal family, his saddle bags packed with supplies to help me on my journey/disappearance. After thanking Marco for all his help and services to the crown I start on my journey into the forest to disappear.
Just as I am about to reach the tree line, I see a knight covered in armor, riding a big black steed that is loaded up with supplies in its saddle bags. He motions for me to follow him, as we race through the forest. After a while of riding we arrive at a river that is covered by all of the trees. Getting off of his horse, shorty started to introduce himself as the knight that King Grisha had decided was strong enough to protect his heir to the throne, and that his steeds' name was Knox. Levi said that it was his job to keep me safe from the followers of Uncle Kenny, but in order to do so. Eren needs to go on a journey throughout the three countries that contain the population of the people that he would possibly one day rule over, and winning them over and gaining their support would help him rule a lot easier. Over several weeks’ time Levi and Eren have been on the run from Uncle Kenny's' followers, fending for themselves for their ever dwindling supply of food and their need of shelter. Coming upon what appears to be a vacant cottage, and Eren not checking their surroundings trotted right up to the front door, almost knocking on the door. However, before his fist touched the door, Levi snatched his hand in midair. Reminding the helpless prince that the owner of the cottage might not be too friendly to strangers and much worse be a follower of Kenny's'. Distracted by the young prince, Levi didn't realize that they already alerted the owner of the cottage of their presence, with their loud voices.
Thinking that the two travelers were too preoccupied with each other to realize her presents. She stepped out from behind the tree that was once shielding her from their view; in the same moment Levi shushed the oblivious prince of his rambling. Drawing his sword and pointing it at the stranger's' neck, Levi startled the expecting stalker. With an uncomfortable silence between the trio, the stranger spoke up introducing herself as, Hanji, the owner of the cottage. After realizing (more like forcing from Levi to apologize) that she had been rude to her guests that she promised to answer any questions they have, along with giving them supplies for their journey. It turns out that Hanji was a wizard, and that she knew a lot about the two travelers that mysteriously shows up on her doorstep. She also tells them that they will need a unicorn's horn that was blessed by phoenix ashes, to prove that Eren is the rightful ruler of Maria. Thanking Hanji for her help, the two head out to the mountains where there is a lake, that unicorns are rumored to appear in the dead of night.
Tiring out from their long ride Levi finally gets fed up with Eren's' complaining, and they decided to make camp in the shelter of some worn down rocks and brush. After eating some of the fresh bread and salted meat from Hanji the two decide that it is time to rest. Bedding down on the opposite side of the cavern, Eren starts to quake with the realization that he is most likely to be the last survivor of the Yeager family line, and that he will have to claim his rightful place on the throne. Biting his lip, Eren tries to muffle his cries, so Levi won't see him when he is most vulnerable. Despite his futile attempts to quiet his cries, Levi takes notice and drags Eren to his side at attempting to comfort him. Wrapping his arms around Eren, Levi can feel him shaking, and he can feel the young prince's tears drench his shirt. A few minutes pass and Eren has stopped shaking and his cries have turned silent. Worried, Levi lays Eren down on his cape gazing at his "sleeping" form and leans down and places a gentle kiss at the corners of Eren's' eyes wiping away his tears. Suddenly Eren's' arms wound their way around Levi before he could move away, trapping him in the arms of his true love. Giving up deciding that he should just let Eren do as he pleases, Levi relaxes into Eren's' hold on his body.
Deep in their slumber, Levi didn't realize that there was a major problem surrounding them. Woken up by a not so gentle nudge, Levi opens his eyes to four giant faces staring right back at them, mouths open so you could see what or who their previous meals were. Scared out of his skin, Levi shook Eren awake and placed a hand over his mouth so he couldn't scream. Terrified beyond belief Eren and Levi raises to their feet, obviously terrified that they might die. Levi reaches for his sword at his belt; before he could even draw his blade, the monsters before them spoke. Introduced themselves as Annie, Reiner, Berthold, and Ymir. Reiner complaining that he was so hungry, Ymir saying that we shouldn’t be here in their territory, Annie bending down smelling us, and Berthold hiding behind Reiner, scared as to what we are going to do to him. Annie finally speaking up saying that they are a dying species called Titans, and that this is their territory. Ymir remembers hearing about a bounty for two well-dressed travelers on the run from the crown, with greed in her eyes, she dreams about the reward for the captors of the travelers. Reiner finally giving up in just staring at us he decides that he is getting really hungry, he suggests that we run if we want to live. Taking the hint, Levi throws me on Heichou, and he jumps on Knox and suddenly we are almost soaring across the rocky, uneven land with four titans on our heels. Suddenly the Titans stop chasing after us, not taking the chance of it being an ambush we keep on running away. We can hear Reiner shouting that we better watch out for the Dragons, Griffins, and Mermaids on our journey, and the rest of them laughing at us for being so foolish.
After about an hour of riding we come across a big tree that has a giant nest that was on fire in it. Realizing that it was a phoenix’s nest Levi climbs up the tree to find it empty with only some ashes in the middle of it. Gathering a handful of it in one of his empty water sacks, he climbs down the tree to continue on their journey. Happy that their journey is halfway over, and if getting a unicorns' horn was just as easy, Eren would be sitting on his throne in less than a weeks time. After a few more hours of riding, they come across a cave that has feathers and claw marks scattered about the ground. Not paying any attention to it a shadow passes above them. With their eyes not focusing enough it appears just to be a trick of the eyes, however out of the corner of their eyes they see another blur, accompanied with the sounds of wings beating through the air. With a cocky laughter in the air the winged beast’s voice echoes through the air questioning what their business is with a great creature such as himself. After he lands behind them, with a loud commanding voice he booms for them to state their names and tells them to turn around to face him. Eren tells him his real name but Levi lies and says his name is Arthur, with a questionable tone the winged beast introduces himself as the last Griffin called General Pixis.
Then he states that he has heard of Prince Eren and the knight that has been assigned the role of his protector named Levi. Astonished, with the knowledge of this old wise Griffin, Eren informs him of the king's’ death. Surprised by the words of the prince General Pixis offers his help to the duo in reaching the lake that sits somewhere on the mountains that separate the three countries of Rose, Maria, and Sina. Accepting his help, the two traveler climb on General Pixis’s’ back. Worried about our horses, we ask Pixis if he could either leave our horses with Hanji, or if we could leave them with him. He told us that we could take them with us it would just be a while for him to bring them to us. Telling the young adventurers to hold on tight, as he starts to run along the ground nearing the edge of the cliff, then suddenly he jumps into the air, and they are flying in the air faster than the speed of sound. In a matter of minutes, the group is nearing the part of the mountains that the lakes are full of magical creatures. Slowing down we come to a soft landing on the hard, rocky ground. Turning to see us off, Pixis warns us that we must not follow the beautiful song of the mermaids, for they will lead us to our deaths. Thanking Pixis for his help in our journey. After Pixis leaves them with their horses they continue on our journey to the lakes of magic.
Riding through the rough terrain the duo reach an open field by nightfall. Once they eat their dinner that consists of wild boar and herbs, with some water, watching the fire they hear a rustling in the distance, along with the sound of splashing water. Curious, and hopeful that they have found the lake that unicorns roam, they sprint to where they heard the noises. Hiding in the shadows of the trees and brush, they watch quietly as a mermaid is singing to bring out the magical creatures of the forests, to play in the water. Among the group of creatures there were wild Horses, Phoenixes, Centaurs, Unicorns, Spirits, Yokai, and a few woodland elves.
After a few minutes, some of the younger and more curious creatures noticed the presents of the two strangers. All at once the creatures disappeared into the forests; only a single unicorn stayed behind. The unicorn introduced himself as the keeper of the forest, claiming to know all about them and their journey. He asked a single question, which was “What is your name, and how far will you go to keep that name?” Eren answered that he is the Prince of Maria and that he will trade his life for his kingdom. Pleased with this answer the unicorn’s’ horn suddenly started to glow. Telling Eren to take hold of his horn, the horn emitted the brightest light, and then suddenly was in Eren’s hand in the form of the most beautiful pure white sword any of them has ever seen.
Suddenly all of the creatures came out of hiding, all of them jumping and cheering “Long live Maria!” Before anything else could happen, all of the magical creatures of the forest all created beautiful armor for Levi and Eren to wear. Along with taking their horses Knox and Heichou and turning them into Winged-Horses, other known as Pegasus which were creatures of myth, dressed in the most beautiful armor. Before they left the unicorn told Eren to cover the sword in the ashes of the phoenix that they had previously collected to maintain its strength to help them in conquering Uncle Kenny and his minions. Thanking all of the creatures of the forest, Eren and Levi mounted their steeds and flew off towards the central capitol of Maria, where the castle was located.
After a few hours ride, Knox and Heichou needed a rest so Levi and Eren landed on the side of a mountain were a cliff was big enough to make camp on. After about an hour to rest they heard a loud rumbling and soon the cliff that they were on started to give way. Knox and Heichou both flew up into the air to avoid falling; Eren was on the edge where it started to give way first and suddenly he was falling. Seeing this, Levi rushed towards him, grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto level ground. In order for Levi to rescue Eren he had to switch places with him, it was his job to keep Eren safe; Levi thought that it didn’t matter if he were to die. Thanks to the help of Knox Levi was not at the bottom of the cliff, he was on a ledge ten feet down from the landing they were previously on. Refusing to think that Levi was going to die, Eren made a wish that Levi would be right by his side. A few long seconds pass with no answer, and Levi decides to tell Eren that he loved him, and then let go and fall to his death. After hearing this confession, Eren knew now that he won’t let Levi leave him all alone. Eren mounted Heichou, and had him fly down below, where Levi was hanging. Eren told Levi to trust him and let go. Scared at first Levi made up his mind, that he was going to trust the one that he loves and live for him. So he let go of his crumbling hold to fall into the arms of his Prince.
Once Levi was sitting comfortably on Heichou with Eren, they flew up to another sturdier ledge so Levi could mount Knox. With both of them safely on their Pegasus, they decided to go and see what caused the rock slide. When they finally got a good look at the culprit, it turned out to be a dragon as big as the royal stables at the castle. With the unicorns’ horns’ sword Eren gained the courage to defeat the beast that caused them so much heart ache. With the help of his true love, Eren was able to plunge the sword into the heart of the dragon. With the dragon dead or dying, its corpse starting to disappear in a haze of steam.
Eren and Levi soared through the skies back to the wizard's’ cottage to see if she could help them return home without being noticed by Kenny’s fiends. On their journey to Hanjis’ the two of them steered clear of any ground, except when they needed to rest and eat. After about a day's ride they arrived at Hanjis’ cottage. Going right inside and making themselves comfortable in one of her spare bedrooms, awakened later to her loud and obnoxious screeching. After Hanji finally calmed down the trio sat down for one of Hanjis’ home cooked meals, which consists of almost every type of meat in the realm. After Hanji heard the story of their travels, she decided to aid them in not only their journey to the castle; but also to help defeat Eren's’ adoptive sisters’ uncle. With Hanjis’ help in gathering all of the magical creatures of the realm and her portals a hoard of magical creatures ravished throughout the capitol in search of Kenny. Riding Heichou and Knox the trio launched an attack against the capitol and with the help of the people that Uncle Kenny had mistreated, seizing the land surrounding the castle was easy enough. A group of Titans broke down the gate and a west-wall of the castle.
With masses of creatures filling the halls killing everyone of Kennys’ soldiers throughout the castle except for everyone who seeking shelter in the throne room. No matter how hard everyone tried, they couldn’t break through the doors. After a silent pause Eren and Levi knocked on the doors, and not a second later the doors opened to reveal Kenny sitting on Grisha's’ throne, with his crown on his head. Cages were lining the far wall, and inside was the soldiers that wouldn’t follow under Kenny's’ rule. The queen was on a leash that was in Kenny’ hands and Mikasa was all bruised and bloody on the ground where she was beaten by his soldiers.
You could still on the ground you could see pools of blood where father and the maid were killed. Pure hate and anger flowed through the Prince's’ veins as his grip on the magical sword grew. The sword emitted a bright blue-ish light causing everyone in the room to freeze. As Eren's’ hatred grew more and more Levi could see Eren shaking from all of the power that the sword gave off. Irrationally Eren rushed towards Kenny on the throne and slashed his arm. Screaming Kenny was released, the swords power decreasing from all of that energy it drew from Eren. Countering, Kenny tried to break through Eren's armor; Levi prevented him from coming any closer to his beloved. While Kenny was distracted with Levi, Eren came up from behind him and pierced him with the sword through his gut. After Kenny could feel the pain, he slowly slumped to the ground. Staring at his cold lifeless body, Eren dropped to the ground in pure joy. Levi rushing to his side to comfort him, while the other creatures helped release the soldiers. Eren soon rose to his feet with a little help from Levi, after setting the Queen, and Mikasa free. Everyone soon got to work on cleaning up the castle, and making it presentable for the royal family.
After several tiring weeks of restoring the country from the havoc Kenny had caused, everything started to go back to normal. The only thing that is not restored is having king Grisha restored back to his rightful place on the throne; instead Prince Eren will have to fulfill that role. On the day of his coronation Eren felt as if he wasn’t prepared to take his late father's’ place. With Levis’ support throughout the ceremony Eren gained the confidence to try and provide the hope that was once lost, back to the people of Maria. After the ceremony Eren finally felt the whole duty of the ruler of a country, not only will he have to support the people; he will have to protect them, even at the highest cost, his life. Once Eren was pronounced king, Levi felt as if they could never have the chance to be together; with very little convincing on Eren's’ part, Levi worked up the courage to ask Eren to let him stay with him for the rest of their lives. Of course Eren was ecstatic at Levis' request, that he agreed without even letting Levi finish his trail of thought.

Notes:

I added the part of a business gift about Japanese gift giving etiquette. So here is the actual meaning of the exchange. Business Gift Giving Standards: The exchange of gifts is a central part of business etiquette. It’s common and expected to exchange gifts when doing business with Japan and this always takes place at the end of a business meeting.
Here is the website I used: http://www.cloud9living.com/blog/its-outside-counts-japanese-gift-giving-etiquette-101/