A Moment of the Past

In a world almost parallel to ours, Four Kingdoms stood. One was the Majestic Fire Kingdom and the other was the Powerful Ice Kingdom, whereas the rest were the Fairy Kingdom and the Nameless Kingdom. Both the Fire and Ice Kingdoms were the nearest to each other, thus they were great friends.

Now. at this very moment, the Ice King was pacing restlessly around the throne room, awaiting the news of the birth of his first child. Soon, the hurried footsteps of a maid could be heard from the corridors, eventually nearing the room. The doors eventually burst open, a haggard and drenched midwife rushed forward and announced, "Your Majesty! The Queen has given birth to a Princess!". The Ice King beamed with delight and thought to himself, "It is time.", he then hurried off with the midwife to the Ice Queen's quarters.

As soon as they entered the Queen's quarters, the Ice King immediately hurried towards the Ice Queen's side. Seeing how exhausted she was after giving birth, he bent down and kissed her forehead, telling her to rest. He proceeded to carry his newborn Ice Princess from her crib.

"What should I name you?" the Ice King thought to himself. Just then, one of the maids exclaimed and pointed towards the scenery outside, "Your Majesty! Look! It's finally snowing!". The Ice King then turned to look out the window and noticed a snowflake softly touch the floors of the castle, with others following along.

The Ice King smiled and announced, "The arrival of the First Princess brought snow back to our Kingdom, thus she shall be named Snow." After his announcement, everyone began to cheer for both the Ice King and his newborn Ice Princess. The Ice King then continued with a decision to host a party for the birth of his first child and everyone in the Ice Kingdom, as well as the other Kingdoms were invited to celebrate as well.

Let's pause for a moment shall we? Dear reader, you must have certain queries about the story up until now, am I right?

Like, "Isn't this the Ice Kingdom? Isn't it supposed to snow everyday?"

Well, you're not wrong, and in fact the Ice Kingdom did use to snow everyday. However, as soon as the Ice Queen became pregnant, the Kingdom stopped snowing with only little ice around and it only began snowing again when the Ice Princess was born. Alright, back to story.

The Ice King was a Man of His Word, as the moment he announced that he were to host a party in celebration of the birth of his firstborn, everybody at the Castle began working extremely hard to plan the event and invitations were sent to the Fire Kingdom, Fairy Kingdom as well as the mysterious Nameless Kingdom.

Suddenly, a thought struck the Ice King, it was time for him to pay a visit to the Book of Fates. The Book of Fates was a very special book that records the fates of each of the Four Kingdoms in that universe, and only one person of each Kingdom could access it. For this instance, from the Ice Kingdom; the Ice King, from the Fire Kingdom; the Fire Queen, from the Fairy Kingdom; the Fairy Princess and from the Nameless Kingdom; the No-Man.

Strangely enough, the Book of Fates enjoys changing the people who could have access to it and only those with a print of a star on their palms could access it. Which means when you are no longer accessible to the Book, the mark on your palm would vanish. The Book of Fates also has one other rule, which would be that the accessor would only be able to see the fate of their own Kingdom and can only share the information with their other half (legal husband or wife) and that if anyone were to expose and break the secrecy, their whole Kingdom would immediately fall into ruins. The Book is also only to be accessed when either a Royal is born or when the Kingdom is in grave trouble.

The Ice King rode his Ice Horse and headed towards the Forbidden Forest, inside the Cave of Life and Death, where the Book of Fates resides. The Forbidden Forest is located in the middle of the Four Kingdoms, making the Book accessible to them all.

Upon reaching the cave, the Ice King dismounted his horse and slowly entered the cave. Deep inside the cave, there was a golden stone podium and upon it stood the Book of Fates. As the Ice King walked closer, and stood at the step before the podium, four coloured crystals emerged to the cover of the Book, each representing the Four Kingdoms. The Ice Kingdom; an Aquamarine, the Fire Kingdom; a Red Quartz, the Fairy Kingdom; a Rhodochrosite and the Nameless Kingdom; a Serpentine.

The Ice King then hovered his palm above the Book of Fates and the Aquamarine crystal began to glow brightly. The Book of Fates soon opened up to the pages which belonged to the Ice Kingdom. There is wrote:

As the snow falls, the Healer comes forth, bringing Prosperity to the Kingdom. Once Purpura* forms, the Healer would vanish and doom would reign until the return.

After reading, the Ice King closed the Book of Fates, his facial expression turned dark and he silently returned to the Ice Kingdom. He knew what that meant and what was to come, however there was nothing he could do. Their fate was inevitable as the invitations have already been sent out and it would have been rude to withdraw them, which could also result in the collapse of peace where the four Kingdoms have cultivated all these years.

The Ice King entered his throne room and sat thinking about the Prophecy, he was so deep in thought that he did not even realise his beloved Ice Queen's presence. "My King." she called out, the Ice King jumped a little due to the shock but recovered quickly and replied, "Yes, my dear?" The Ice Queen approached and sat next to him, asking, "Are you alright? You seem really bothered." The Ice King gave a small smile and nodded, whilst holding the Ice Queen's hand in his palms lightly caressing, reassuring her with his actions.

In the end, he still could not bear to bring himself to tell his Queen about the prophecy as he did not wish to burden her with his worries.

Meanwhile, at the Fairy Kingdom…

"Your Highness! The Ice Kingdom has sent an invitation." the fairy maid said whilst handling the party invitation to the hands of the reigning Crown Princess of the Fairy Kingdom. She opened the envelope and smiled to herself saying, "Finally, the time has come. I can finally avenge you, my dear Brother."