The Crow Kingdom
“Where. Is. The. Staff?”
The wizard only smiled. His blonde hair matted with blood and dirt. His frail body trying extremely hard to remain standing. His pure white robes, now dirty brown and Kenma had no idea what was sticking onto his skin was that blood or dirt. God, he would kill for a warm bath now. Kenma looked at the warrior dead in the eye, smiling.
“I have sent it, where I do not know”
“You!”
And then all went dark.
Karasuno was a beautiful kingdom. They were deeply in sync with nature and the so-called progressive developments. They were descendants of powerful old crow warriors, warriors who were a part crow and part human, they were feared and respected across the lands but unfortunately feared more.
Crows were beings known far and wide for their intelligence and strength. A group of crows were after all a murder and they could bring down a mighty eagle.
But that was ages ago, centuries if one could say. The crow blood had diluted to great extends. Most of the population were mostly human with slight crow features principally the dark hair and occasional grey here and there. But there were people born with wings or the intelligence but ever since the kingdom fell, no one came forward even if they did have the genes.
People just wanted to be normal. People just wanted to be human.
Everyone was trying to make ends meet. They survived on farming and trade. Most of the people did not have time for patriotism. When they would barely stay alive themselves how the hell were they going to fight for the kingdom.
The young king of Karasuno, Kageyama Tobio. He had been hearing rumours of a war waging between the neighbouring kingdoms and empire of Anixi.
He wasn’t entirely sure. Karasuno had lost their connections with their neighbours a long time ago and they had lost the final contact with the Seijoh kingdom because of a blunder more or less a misunderstanding from Kageyama’s side. It had been destroyed by the young king’s foolishness.
Not to mention, Karasuno was a kingdom nestled between a mountain range and the sea, they didn’t really have a lot of outside connections.
In this period of unpredictability and the marvellous world of magic, screwing up the connections they had with Seijoh and that had been Kageyama’s biggest mistake.
Kageyama had been staring at the crow mural on the walls of the hallways, his ancestors sure had been proud of their heritage.
Kageyama himself was one of the rare crow warriors, wings darker than the night and bigger than his own body. He had powerful wings. He often found the irony amusing, he the king of the crow kingdom and a rarity himself, the elders of the kingdom believed that he would be the king to raise the kingdom again.
And Kageyama wanted nothing more than bringing back Karasuno to its former glory.
Kageyama loved the beautiful crow murals, he often ran his hands across them and absolutely despised anyone who dared called them the fallen crows or the flightless crows. He chuckled, he had been spending too much time with Daichi.
If anyone hated the term the flightless crows or the fallen crows more than him then it had to be the military commander. Sawamura Daichi.
Sawamura Daichi or Daichi-san with love was the military commander of the crow army and one hell of a leader. The people loved him and he was the perfect foundation they needed.
Kageyama often wondered why was he king instead of Daichi-san, the older man even though had not inherited the crow genes but was a beast in the field, skills sharpened by guarding the borders for years and calmer than anyone.
If it was up to Kageyama he would have preferred Daichi-san to lead the nation instead of him.
Unfortunately, fate was not that kind to him.
Kageyama reached the balcony where he could see the soldiers train. Daichi’s voice carried over to him, some of the soldiers were awfully enthusiastic. Tanka and Nishinoya definitely took that crown, Kageyama wondered how Ennoshita had not lost his mind by now.
Kageyama knew that the soldiers being trained were the best, he had to make sure that Karasuno could fly again, even if he died trying.
Now all he needed was an opportunity.
Little did the young king know that the opportunity had already arrived in their little kingdom.
“There is no need to be perfect to inspire others. Let them be inspired by how you deal with your imperfections”
The young farmer remembered the last lucid words of his grandmother. Now she was a senile old woman who rarely spoke, she always sat on her stool in the little corner of their home and prayed with her beads, her eyes were more closed than open but even then she remained with a serene smile on her face.
Hinata thought about the stories… tales surrounding his grandmother.
She was supposedly a seer. The elder, Hinata Yukino was a seer, a future seeing witch. Hinata Shouyo loved grandmother but never for even a second he believed that his grandmother could see the future.
If granny could see the future… then I would never have these ugly scars on my back. Hinata Shouyo thought bitterly.
Hinata sighed, wiping the sweat gathered on his forehead. He couldn’t waste time thinking about some old wives tales. He had to finish removing all the weed from his field at least by nightfall, only then he could make in time to make dinner. He was worried, the rains had been bad this season, he hoped he had enough harvest to feed his little family.
“Shouyo-kun”
Hinata looked up to see his meticulous neighbour staring down at him with kind eyes.
“Kita-san!”
Kita Shinsuke was only a couple of years older than Hinata himself. The man had moved to the Karasuno kingdom only a couple of years back, Hinata had been in his early teens then. Hinata really looked up to Kita-san, the older was perfect in everything he ever did, he never cut corners and Hinata always tried to learn from him, after all, he was his senior.
Kita san was not exactly short but he wasn’t really tall either. He had grey hair almost silvery-white with the tips fading into black, which of course completed his beautiful grey eyes and pale skin, Kita often wore a short Kimono, unlike Hinata who worked with a pair of short trousers and a light shirt.
His Grandmother, on the other hand, wasn’t overly fond of their neighbours. She always lost her smile every time she felt Kita Shinsuke and his partner were nearby. Kita-san had picked up on the dislike a long time ago and he never complained about it or even showed any sort of discomfort.
Has far has Hinata was concerned, Kita Shinsuke was one of the most hard-working and kind men he had ever met.
But Hinata wasn’t stupid. He knew Kita-san’s accent was not from around here, hell he was pretty sure he wasn’t from anywhere in Karasuno. Given the certain usage of words, Hinata was sure that Kita-san was formerly from the kingdom of Inarizaki, the den of the foxes.
And Inarizaki had fallen ages ago.
He knew logically that Kita-san probably had some sort of a dark past, you don’t survive a war without some sort of trauma, but Hinata never pried. Kita-san was a great friend, actually, he was one of Hinata’s only friends, even though the man could be a little blunt sometimes but he never meant any harm.
“Good afternoon Shouyo-kun” Kita-san greeted “I was wondering whether ya would like to join Aran and me in the fields t’ day for lunch?”
Hinata scrunched up his nose, scared he would be intruding “Are you sure?”
Kita smiled at him, well... Kind of. Hinata believes that Kita-san could exactly smile, the man’s eyes just softened, where you could feel him smiling but he was not exactly doing it.
Hinata called it ‘the smile-without-actually-smiling’.
“Aran-kun made a little extra”
Ojiro Aran. another man who had moved into his village at the same time has Kita. Aran looked very much opposite to Kita. He had dark skin which reminded Hinata of the rare occasional chocolate he has eaten and eyes equally has warm. Aran was tall and strong, taller than Kita and waaayyy taller than Hinata.
Hinata knew that Aran had trouble moving around though, it was never mentioned it but Ojiro Aran apparently has injuries that has made his reflexes much slower than it used to be. Aran already had good reflexes, Hinata didn’t want to know how good the man’s reactions had been.
Aran too worked on Kita’s farm. Hinata adored the older male, in their rare spare time he had taught Hinata how to hold himself in a fistfight and to fight with a staff… Kita-san had walked away from that lesson not wanting Aran to teach the younger boy to fight, Kita was some sort of a pacifist, but Hinata had improved immensely and Kita was proud of him.
Aran was kind and cared deeply for him. He was a father figure Hinata never had the joy of experiencing.
Hinata earnestly nodded his head, lunch offered by Kita-san and Aran-san were the best!
“Aniki!”
Shouyo broke into a wide grin has his little twelve-year-old sister greeted him with an enthusiastic hug. Hinata Natsu went to the village school and Hinata was proud of the fact that she was a much brighter student then Hinata ever was.
Natsu was basically a younger female version of Shouyo, the same bright orange hair and the blinding smile and not to mention the same energetic personality. Kita was particularly fond of Natsu and called her Nacchan with love and the love went both ways, Natsu called him Shin-neesan.
The love was shared over their common interest in the flower language, at the age of six, around the time Kita and Ojiro had moved to Karasuno’s tiny village of Yukigaoka.
Like Hinata learned martial arts from Aran, Natsu learned the language of flowers from Kita.
“Ne, Natsu how did you do today?”
Natsu broke into a possibly wider grin “I made your favourite for dinner!” she bragged, much like how the younger Shouyo used to do to his grandmother when he did something particularly new in the fields... Now his grandmother barely even reacted to his stories. Shouyo shook his head, he was never the type to cry over what was and what could be.
“Wow! That’s so cool Natsu!” he said “I can’t believe you are old enough to make me pork cutlet bowls” the older brother faked tears, he suddenly broke into an evil grin “Ne, Natsu… you know what this means?”
Natsu‘s eyes comically widened “No… Nee-chan you promised”
“Tickles!”
The little twelve-year old’s happy shrieks could be heard all over the house.
Far from the pair of siblings, their grandmother looked at the children warmly, a smile barely etched on her face. This was her family, her family which had the curse of the sun.
She wouldn’t trade them for the world.
In the neighbouring house, sat two grown males in their early twenties. Both listening to the happy shrieks of the young girl, both smiling warmly as if reminiscing a long lost painful memory.
The happy laughs reminding them of their brothers.
“They seem happy” Aran stated.
Kita nodded “They are, after all the last of the Sun family, they are quite known for their positivity”
Aran deadpanned “I still don’t get yer sense of humour Shinsuke”
“On a more serious note” Kita’s voice dropped an octave lower and the tension in the room increased “When Shouyo’s curse appears...we will have to take action”
Aran nodded in agreement “We will have to” there was a kind of sadness in his eyes “A part of me wishes that day never comes” he cared too deeply for the Hinata family to wish any harm upon them, even the old hag who seemed to despise the two of them.
Kita did not reply, cause he too did not want that time to come.
Hinata was running.
He did not know what he was running from. He could hear growls from behind… he could feel the soles of his feet bleeding because of the rough earth, his calves cramping up. It hurt, every step he took, his muscles burned. He did not know how long he would last. The trees in the forest were not exactly much help to him.
“Ya can’t run from us Cat!”
Cat? Hinata was not a cat, he was a crow, he had scars on his back to prove that. He had his blood to prove that. Hinata tripped and fell right into a large water puddle.
His reflection... This was not him. This was definitely not him.
An arrow struck to his left barely missing him, the boy quickly got into his feet, running or trying to run even faster. Hinata could worry about who he was later. He had to get out of here, alive.
Something hard struck him behind, sending him crashing onto the ground.
Ow… that really hurt. But over the pain, there was this underlying fear that was seeping through him.
He tried to stand up but his legs finally gave up. He noticed a rather heavy metal net thrown over him, that when he noticed the staff in his hand.
The man whose body Hinata was in began chanting something in some language he did not even know. Hinata saw the staff glow and then disappear, and he was totally panicking but for some reason, it seemed has if Hinata was watching a show. He had no control over what he did but that did not mean the boy did not feel any of the panic.
A tall man walked up to him. Hinata looked up, it was a rather tall man. He seemed has tall has Aran-kun, tanned skin glowing in the moonlight and light blonde hair and dangerous golden eyes.
“Tell me Kenma-kun, where is the staff?”
Kenma? That must be the name of this poor guy in this situation, Hinata felt really bad for his, he wanted to help this Kenma guy, he was frustrated that he couldn’t.
He was only an audience here.
He answered Kenma answered “As you can see, I dont have it”
Kenma has a pretty low voice as if he wasn’t bothered by this life-threatening situation he was put it. Hinata decided he liked it.
The blonde snapped his fingers and his whole palm was on fire.
“If you cooperate Neko-chan, I may not burn you that badly”
Hinata felt Kenma roll his eyes. Hinata did not think this was a wise decision.
“As if I would trust anything that comes out of a fox’s mouth” Kenma met his capturer’s eyes, even Hinata could feel the intensity behind the look. He saw the blonde take a step back.
Fox? That would mean they were former Inarizaki. Would that mean they would know Kita-san or even Aran-san? And Neko-chan…? Would that mean this Kenma dude was part of the Nekoma kingdom? Hinata had so many questions but none of the answers. He was getting agitated.
Hinata felt yanked him back with his hair.
“Atsumu may play nice kitten” a man with a sleepy face but ferocious green eyes threatened “My temper ain’t that good kitty cat”
“Where.Is.The.Staff?”
Kenma grinned. His eyes sharp as that of a tiger
Hinata seriously wanted to give this Kenma guy a good taking on how to deal with people who may kill you if they want to.
“I have sent it, where I do not know”
“You!”
Hinata woke up drenched in sweat. Who was Kenma? Was he alive? Who was the second male? Were they really foxes? Why did he just have this dream?
Did this really happen? All of this seemed too real to be a dream.
He had no answers. Hinata was lost. He hoped that wherever Kenma was he was safe.
Hinata got up from his futon wanting a glass of water and that is when he realised….
What the…
Hinata froze… He could not believe it.
What the hell was the staff from his dream doing here?
Preview to Chapter two
“Did you really not see it? Shouyo-kun or were you too afraid to look”
“I pray you never take a breath without remembering the ones you’ve taken away”
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