Author's Note: Hello everybody! Welcome to Shattering Magic, and if you have never read my story, you can stop reading the A/N and skip right down to the good stuff. If you have read this chapter before keep reading. Now before any of you who have already read my story complain, this chapter has been almost completely edited and doubled in length. My beta the lovely, Nimphy-Ryuu-chan, has told me everything that's wrong with my writing and together we made it better! Yay, teamwork! Ok, just reread the chapter, it's good this time.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my idea

"You are going completely against your father's wishes."

"I know."

"He will get angry."

"I know."

"He will get angry at me too."

"I know."

Berwald watched as the young prince Lukas settled onto the branch of a pine. Needles brushed against his face in greeting and the tree gently yielded to accompany his weight. The smell of the pine surrounded him, bringing back memories of falls spent collecting pinecones. He balanced on the bark like a bird, unsettling only a little snow causing it to fall towards the ground. It landed in a small pile next to Lukas's advisor causing him to move back in case of more falling snow.

They were occupying a tree on the edge of a clearing covered in a blanket of snow. The frost had spread across the land, turning it into a white, blank slate. It looked desolate of life, but both hunters knew that they just had to wait. Berwald surveyed the clearing, looking for the tale tell rustle of life and he knew that the prince was doing the same above.

The land was truly magnificent, especially when it was gilded in winter's silver touch. From the tree Lukas could see over the tops of snowcapped trees and towards the icy ocean, vast and violent. Its waves were as foreboding as they were dangerous, but they hid some of the most precious items inside its watery depths. Behind Lukas was the Spine of the Earth, a huge mountain range that seemed to go until the horizon's end. None of Lukas's people had ever been over the Spine and Lukas would prefer to keep it that way. This valley was the only place he had ever known. It was beautiful, powerful and terrifying, but the snow-covered land was his home and where he felt at peace. All he needed was his family and his home. He knew that all his people felt that way.

Lukas sat with an arrow notched and purple eyes gleaming. He closed his eyes and breathed in, slowly letting the magic surrounding him wash into his body. At first it felt like he was drowning. Magic poured into him and sent a tingling sensation all the way to his bones. It turned his blood cold, almost freezing it until the magic took a sudden change in temperature igniting his blood and lighting it on fire.

The magic settled inside him, filling him with energy and power that came with it. His body was a container for the magic and it coiled within him ready to be tapped into. Lukas could feel life surrounding him. Everything was held together by the magic, it was the link underneath independent lives connecting them in an intricate web. The frost with its hidden, mystic presence touched everything, but didn't take a form itself. The trees, sleeping giants avoiding the frost in hibernation, but waiting for the sun to bring them back into the warmth. The animals, each individual, but completely relying on each other in order to survive in the vast tundra they called home… He could feel all their magic in its ever-present and intimidating force. However, through all of its force, magic was a lullaby. It serenaded him to sleep at night and comforted him with a warm presence that he could always fall back upon. There was nothing in the world that made him feel smaller, but there was also nothing in the world that made him feel so at peace. He quieted his mind and narrowed down the magic, reining in its scope so that he could only feel the magic in the clearing. Even then, it was almost overwhelming.

Lukas felt the presence of the magic pressing against him from all sides. Then he felt Berwald touch his mind, relieving the burden and easing the pressure of the magic.

"Thank you." Lukas said silently, knowing that even though no words were spoken Berwald could hear him perfectly. The man below just nodded

Every one of Lukas's people was born with the ability to connect with magic. They opened their mind allowing magic to influence them and in turn they influenced magic. The ability allowed them to sense and connect the minds around them. They could also control magic and ask it to do their bidding, but every favor comes at a price. At many times the price could cost more than just the person's life and affect the omnipresent, but delicate web of magic causing detrimental consequences.

Suddenly, another mind entered the clearing and both the men focused their attention. The mind wasn't human; it was more simplistic and based used instinct rather than reason to keep it alive.

A deer slowly walked into the field. It almost pranced because it had to lift its legs out of the snow and keep itself nimble.

Lukas moved silently and fluidly, raising the bow and holding the shaft of the arrow eye level, aiming at the heart of the deer. In an instant, the arrow went flying and the bowstring strummed. He felt the arrow move in the air and, with the magic surrounding, he felt the animal's life flicker. Death came quick as the deer was brought down in a single shot and its magic dispersed into the air.

Both men were silent for a second, before Lukas began to climb down from the pine tree. He descended his way down branches, and set his feet on thick boughs that could hold his weight. Once he reached the bottom, Berwald approached the deer and Lukas went to retrieve the arrow.

"It was a nice shot, your highness." Berwald said as he began to heave the deer onto his shoulders. "Hopefully, the size of the deer will influence the anger of your father." His face didn't show emotion, but the slight tone of his voice showed some sarcasm.

Lukas's face remained blank except for a small twitch in his smile.

It was another characteristic of his people. Their faces showed almost no feeling and they kept their emotions calm. Many times they hardly spoke at all, using communication through the mind rather than speech. People within the clan could easily tell emotion because they had grown up around still faces, but outsiders could not. Emotion, though not told on the face, was at the utmost importance for Lukas's people. Emotion was considered something sacred and only shown to people that one trusted completely. It was a quiet force, but truly intimate and beautiful. It was the reason why his people kept their faces still, instead speaking with their minds and eyes.

The two made their way back home, surrounded by silence and magic.

Snickers went around the camp. All of the soldiers were anxious and hopped from one foot to the other to release some of the energy. Matthias just smiled at his troop and flashed a wink. They really were the best people he could ask to go into battle with him. Every one of them was familiar with war and willing to give their life for their prince and captain. They didn't treat Matthias like a royal or a pompous stuck up snob. They treated him like one of the guys and that was the best thing in the world. He just loved being able to escape from being a prince and break out from his luxurious birdcage. Sometimes he just felt like his father was trying to kill his fun. The only time he really made it out of the stupid palace of boredom was when he got to go fight.

Ah, the battle. It had to be the best thing ever. It got your blood pumping and your heart racing better than any beer on the planet. The rush of victory was awesome. The thrill of striking the first blood and feeling a monster crumbling under his touch was a feeling he craved for almost every night and day. The rush of battle wasn't his only reason for an attraction to the battlefield. No, his real joy came from knowing that by striking down an enemy he made his own country safer, his country that he loved almost more than himself. It was almost like he was one with his people, because he felt so in tune with the kingdom that he would one day rule.

"When do you plan to attack?" Matthias had been dreaming of battle when his second-in-command's voice behind him shattered his little dream world. He turned towards the man, quickly finding him despite thick forest foliage and shadows from the trees.

His second was a tiny scrap of a man named Tino. He was the kindest person Matthias had ever met and his face held a childlike innocence, giving him a gentle air. He wasn't what you would expect for the prince's right hand man or the person to fight through numerous battles, but he was the best shot that Matthias had ever met. He had even managed to outshoot the prince himself, even though if someone were to ask Matthias about the shoot out Matthias would insist that he won instead of Tino.

Matthias pretended to think about his second's question and looked at the sun as if he could tell time from it (everyone in the troop knew he couldn't: navigation was Tino's job for a reason).

"After consulting the spirits of the sun and the stars," Tino almost face palmed. "I have decided that we should go to battle now."

The whole troop cheered, laughing and raising their flasks full of beer to their captain. Matthias raised his own and they all chugged the golden drink. It was a sacred pre-battle ritual observed by every man.

The past two months Matthias's troop had been scouting a large area, slowing picking it apart and trying to locate the nest of the monsters. The area was heavily wooded and covered in deep snow making it hard to gain any territory. They had faced blizzards, climbed mountains and walked across ice-laden lakes all in search for the nest and about a week ago they had found it. In that week, they had been circling the valley where the nest was and steadily preparing for an attack on the monsters.

The Norges were the true bane of the earth. Every Dane was taught to hate them from birth because of their blood thirst. The Norges had no feeling, no emotion and were just cruel killing machines. Matthias had only met one once in his life and it terrified him so much that every detail of the memory was scorched permanently into his brain.

He had been on the battlefield conquering a small village of a neighbouring kingdom. The battle hadn't been that hard or brutal and his troop was counting it as an easy win. Really, they were more worried about getting out of the summer heat then they were about fighting the villagers. That was until the village unleashed their final weapon.

The monster itself was beautiful. It looked like a pretty girl with long, blonde hair and the fairest skin Matthias had ever seen. Her eyes, though. Her eyes were deep cerulean that scorched with a hellfire so vicious that Matthias stopped in his tracks. The hatred that those eyes showed even though the face was blank unnerved him until he felt like the monster's very gaze burned him. Nobody had ever looked at him with so much hate before and the eyes began to cause terror to lace through his veins. The gaze was like an omen or a knell ringing in a grey sky, warning about coming destruction.

The air pressure dropped suddenly and he felt the warm air begin to chill. His breath began coming out in wisps and his sweat froze against his skin. The cold radiated from the air. The ground seemed to churn under him, forcing him to widen his stance, so he didn't lose balance. The earth kept shifting and when he looked down he saw that it was laden with frost. His eyes shot back to the monster and he felt stupid for taking his eyes off of it. It had begun to move taking slow, deliberate steps and leaving a trail of ice in its wake. It was like a panther, sleek, fluid, equally beautiful and dangerous.

Then one of Matthias's men attacked. He launched himself at the thing with a sword raised. The monster didn't blink an eye. It dodged, and kicked a foot out, causing the man to fall. The monster was upon him in an instant and held the front of his shirt in a delicate hand. The air grew thicker and colder. The monster raised its other hand, and the wind rushed to it like a dog coming at the call of its master. Its face was completely emotionless, but Matthias saw a sickening triumph in its eyes. He could only watch as the air continued to gather towards the monster, raising around it and growing in size. Then, the monster drew the hand controlling the wind over the chest of the man and the gale began pushing down. His chest bent in as the bones in his ribcage were slowly broken and crushed. His face was the picture of suffering and he was desperately trying to breathe but the weight against his chest kept him from drawing a breath. He was trying to move limbs, but they were also being pressed to the ground, so all he could do was stare at Matthias, his captain, begging him for help. Matthias couldn't move. His terrified body wouldn't listen even as his mind screamed to help his man. All he did was stood transfixed as the man suffocated and his body was reduced to a flattened heap.

Then, the monster looked at him and gave him a smile that would haunt him for the rest of his life. The monster had just finished torturing a man, yet it still had the gall to smile. Matthias felt fury course through him, breaking the terror that froze him, and he launched at the monster. Around him, his men attacked as well, each with their weapons raised and revenge in their eyes. They all surrounded the monster, but the monster's wind kept forcing them back and away from its mistress. Matthias knew that no matter how many times they attacked the monster was still able to protect itself and keep them from landing a blow.

In the end, the battle against the blasted creature was long and bloody. The monster had crushed many more men, but some soldiers had managed to break through the gale and attack the monster directly. Those hits weren't enough, even though Matthias could see that it was severely injured. The blade of Tino's knife eventually claimed the life of the beast when he managed to slice open the side the monster's neck. The end of the beast was almost as bad as the beast itself. The wound wasn't enough to kill it instantly, but Tino cut open a vein and the monster began dying from blood loss and suffocation. He knew it was a monster that lay dying, but when Matthias looked at the beast all he saw was beautiful girl in obvious pain and agony, as she died a slow death. The suffering in her eyes almost forced Matthias to comfort her in some way, but the more he looked at her the more he could see his own friend's death. The girl was not a girl, it was a monster. A monster in human form, but a monster with no feeling or no heart. Something brutal and incapable of love.

Matthias shook his head trying to expel the disturbing memory of the battle with the Norge. He had to focus. He couldn't let one memory shake him up, not now when his target was straight ahead. The nest of the monsters was only a few hundred feet in front of him. He could vaguely see their camp and his eyes caught on the motion of the monsters moving about. Just seeing so many of the beasts caused shivers to run up his spine and what he really wanted to do was just turn around and head home. For once, leave a battle and let the monsters continue their own happy existence far away from him. But letting them live, meant letting them continue to be a danger for his own country. He couldn't do that. He had to exterminate all the Norges, so that his own land could live in peace.

He shifted his battle-axe in his hand. The handle was warm because of how hard he gripped it and the sharpened blade glittered slowly when it caught the sun. It was comfortable, familiar and had served him many times before. It would serve him again.

He hefted the battle-axe over his shoulder and caught the attention of his troop with a quick snap of his fingers. Immediately, he felt ever eye on him as his men waited for him to give an order. Slowly and silently, he moved his hand in a circular motion, signaling his men to begin to fan out and surround the nest. The soldiers instantly moved and disappeared into the trees, each taking their designated position. Then, they began to move in and the nest was quickly coming into view.

It wasn't what he expected. He had thought the nest would be some kind of cave or gaping hole in the earth, maybe with some blood splatters for effect, teeming with monsters. No, the monsters seemed to have an organized society with homes and stuff. It almost looked like a quaint village. It looked like so many small towns Matthias had visited in his lifetime, but he knew that this nest couldn't be like any of the villages his people called home. The monsters weren't civilized and they couldn't establish order. This place was just a nest, not a home, because monsters couldn't have homes.

Matthias heard someone come up beside him and he looked down to see Tino standing tensely with his knives clutched tightly in his hands. The man looked up and smiled at him, but Matthias could easily see it was forced. His second was just as nervous as he was and he had every right to be. Tino was there with him when they had met the she-monster.

The battle would have to begin soon or else his men would begin to get fearful. Each of them had either been at the battle with the she-monster or had heard terrifying tales about it, so leaving the men to think about the horror of the monsters was not the best idea. His men were bravest of the brave and they had proven that by accepting to come with Matthias on this quest, but the Norges were enough to make any man weak to his knees.

Matthias gave a shrill whistle, a signal to catch the men's attention. After a short pause, he whistled again, two short sounds then a long one. Now all he would have to do is wait five more seconds and then would attack.

3... 2… 1…

And they charged. The monsters didn't seem to know what was happening and Matthias's troop was able use that to their advantage. They came from all sides and forced the monsters to stay in their camp. Swords rushed to meet skin, and blood flew into the air. There wasn't the sound of metal against metal because the monsters still had yet to gather their weapons. Instead he could hear children crying and screaming. It didn't matter that they were children. Matthias had to make sure that every one of them was killed regardless of age or sex.

He heard a scream coming towards him and looked to see a young child running from one of his men. The man had a bloody dagger raised in one hand and the other arm was reaching out to catch the small monster. The tiny monster had tears dripping down its face and was crying in a language Matthias didn't recognize. The child was running towards him with its arms outstretched. He felt the its small body slam against his leg and its fingers grasping the fabric of his pants. It buried its face into his pant leg and the tears began seeping through so he could feel them on his skin. He knew that these beasts were deadly, but how could he be afraid of one so small. A child was a child, despite its species. Matthias felt his heart constrict and guilt settle into his stomach like a rock. He couldn't bring himself to look down at the young monster. If he saw those begging eyes or the face pleading for help he knew that he would not be able to bring himself to kill the monster. Instead, he slowly brought his hand to his hip, searching for the hilt of his dagger. With the other hand he rubbed small circles in the child's back and tried to calm the monster down a bit. He found the dagger and gently raised it to the child's neck. He heard a gasp when he smoothly slid the blade across the monster's throat, killing it instantly. The small body slumped even more against his leg and Matthias carefully moved it to the ground.

He hated war when it was something like this. Battle was supposed to be full of adrenaline, a constant rush and a heart-lifting victory. A battle was two sides clashing, both fighting for their honor. Battles were not meant to be fought with children. Children were put on the earth to be loved, not thrown into a battle against trained warriors. They were innocents in every way, too young to fully understand the evils of the world.

Matthias felt anger swell inside of him, rising up like a tidal wave. Things weren't supposed to be this way, yet fate had seemed to spit in his face. He was angry at the circumstances, he was angry at fate and, most of all, he was angry with himself.

He released his anger in the only way that seemed fit on a battlefield. He killed. All he could see was red as he roared and swung his battle-axe. Fear didn't seem to exist any more, in fact he didn't feel anything at all. His head was focused on one thing and that was extermination. He saw figures of the Norges trying to fight back, but he was merciless, killing them with swift blows. His blade whistled through the air and he swung it like it didn't weigh anything at all. Matthias panted and he began to feel himself coming to his senses. The blade, which had just seemed weightless, now felt like a ton of bricks. He risked a glance behind him and saw a trail of bodies butchered beyond recognition.

Suddenly, he felt the air change and the temperature plummet. He scanned the area and looking for the source. He saw many Norges gathered into a group, seemly centered around one beast in particular. He recognized the leader of the Norges exactly when he saw him. He was one of the largest Norges and basically emitted power. It swelled around him, a raw force just like the one with the she-monster, but this one was much stronger. It moved with him and lowed with his every motion, waiting to be used. His eyes were purple and held the same poisonous blaze that the she-monster's had. The pure hatred and rage of a beast.

Matthias felt all the bravery that had been fuelled by his anger vanish. He could never fight this thing alone. He probably couldn't fight, even if fifteen men helped him. The leader was too strong, Matthias could see that before the fight even started.

"Tino!" Matthias shouted and he searched for his second. Tino appeared almost instantly at his side with weapons ready. He had sweat and blood dripping down his face, but he still managed a small smile to his leader. "Set the fire." Matthias said. Tino nodded and moved towards where the troop had set up explosives. Matthias, although he could be a pretty obvious person, wasn't stupid. Faced against so many monsters with just his troop he would never win, so he had to conjure up a plan and seeing the leader's power, he was so glad he did.

He felt the fire before he saw it. The heat swelled around him and lit every house in the Norges's land. The flames licked the sides of the houses, eating at the wooden doors and the thatched roofs, cutting off any means for escape for a monster inside. The roofs began to cave, weighed down because of the ashes. Eventually, they fell in completely and the fire blazed inside of the homes. Anything caught inside would be incinerated.

Matthias refocused his attention on the leader of the Norge. It didn't move a muscle and seemed frozen on this spot. Its eyes were transfixed on the fire as it ate the monsters. Matthias could almost see pain in those hateful eyes, but he knew he must have imagined it. These people didn't feel anything, not even pain. He rushed towards the leader swinging his battle-axe. He expected to be hit and crushed by the air surrounding him, but all he felt was the axe hitting its mark. The sensation of his axe tearing through muscle was common for Matthias, but for just once in his life the feeling was foreign. The leader still had his eyes to the fire and the dead that lay all over the camp. The eyes were now wide, blank and empty. Slowly, the leader turned its head towards Matthias. It stared at him with a look Matthias had only seen a few times in his life; it was the look of someone that wanted to die. He watched the leader's life slip away, the pain slowly fading from its eyes.

The leader fell and hit the ground, just an empty shell of what used to be terrifying. The monster used to hold such horrifying power and was able strike fear with a gaze. Matthias had had nightmares about meeting the Norges' leader and now the source of his fear was lying in its own puddle of blood. Matthias began to back away from the body. Something was off, something felt so wrong. The leader hadn't even fought back against him; nothing that powerful would go down without a fight. Matthias shuddered as guilt began to rear its ugly head again, but he blocked out the feeling though. He had come do a job, and the job involved death, so he would just have to deal with the guilt. He couldn't keep looking at the body, so he turned around to see that the whole camp had been annihilated. Everything was burnt to the ground. The houses were reduced to rubble and were barely recognizable. The bodies of male, female and young monsters were scattered through out the camp, some of them burning because of the fire. Red stained the snow creating an eerie effect of a village washed in blood. No monster had survived, that was clear to him. Their job was done.

"Men!" he shouted and his soldiers quickly came to him. They lined up and Matthias silently took role to see if anyone was missing.

He first counted his soldiers. They were all there, except for one. He felt himself freeze. Then slowly he counted again, this time saying each soldier's name under his breath. He hadn't been wrong the first time, he was still missing one man and he felt a rock drop in his stomach when he realized who was missing.

"Tino isn't here." He whispered. His troops were watching him closely. They could tell that something was wrong and they murmured to themselves.

"Tino isn't here." He said louder for the soldiers to hear. He was panicking now, but desperately trying to keep a straight face for his men.

"Find him." He commanded and the men spread out trying to find the boy, and hopefully not his corpse. No, Matthias couldn't think like that. Tino had to be alive, it just wasn't possible for him to be dead. He would never let himself be killed in something as trivial as a battle. He was Tino! What would be able to kill Tino? An emotionless, heartless bloodthirsty monster, that's what.

"I'm here, Matthias, you can stop your little mental break down now." Matthias whipped around and saw Tino softly laughing at him. Instantly, he ran over to the man and put both of his hands on his second's shoulders, before searching him for injuries. Tino was tired, Matthias could see it in his eyes, and he had a few cuts here and there, but he was fine. Once he knew that Tino wasn't going to die any time soon, he wrapped his arms around him, giving him a bone-crushing hug.

"Don't you ever scare me like that ever again! That's an order." Matthias pulled back to look him in the eyes and Tino smiled at his captain.

"Calm down, Matthias. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, so you don't have to worry. Okay?" Matthias scrunched up his face and mumbled something about always worrying under his breath. Tino rolled his eyes at the childishness, but couldn't help feeling bad for making his captain worry.

"Captain," he said catching Matthias's attention. "I brought something for you." Instantly, his eyes lit up and Matthias looked curiously at his second. "Come on." Tino began leading him away from the Norge's camp. A few of the men tried to follow them, but Matthias waved them off and told them to begin burning the bodies of the dead. He had no idea where Tino was going or what he was going to show him until he saw two figures tied to the truck of a tree by ropes.

His breath caught in his throat. He wasn't afraid, just surprised. Why would Tino leave two Norges alive when they had killed off all the rest of them? What was special about these two? He carefully approached the monsters, taking slow deliberate steps.

The first one was a tall, hulking figure that looked strong enough to snap a man in two. It didn't have the same aura of power like the leader and the she-monster, but it still held a menacing strength about it. It was blindfolded, but seems to be staring straight. Matthias was struck by the stillness of the monster. It seemed so composed like it wouldn't deign itself to struggle.

The monster next to the tall one began to move and tried to break free. Matthias took another step forward and looked closer at the second monster. When he got a good look at the Norge's face, it nearly took his breath away. Even though it was bound and blindfolded too, Matthias could tell it had a beautiful face. Its skin was perfectly white as if it had been kissed by the cold and flawless as if it had never seen hardship or trouble. Its hair was a golden blonde, but not a bright yellow, the color was soft and subtly accented by the pale skin. Its body was lithe and slight like a bird's, but Matthias knew there was monstrous power in it. Power surrounded the beast just like the leader's did, but it didn't intimidate Matthias so much. Now that almost the whole monster population had been exterminated in a single sweep, the power didn't seem as scary, more like a fairytale that used to scare a child. Why did these monsters have to look so human? It would be so much easier if they were ugly, but no, they were beautiful.

"Why didn't you kill them?" Matthias asked almost silently. At his voice, the beautiful monster instantly stopped struggling and went as still as its counterpart. It seemed to be glaring at him, even though Matthias knew that the monster couldn't see through the blindfold.

"I know that sometimes you take captives." Tino said with a smile. Matthias couldn't help but smile, too, maybe he could use this to his advantage.

He did love presents after all. Why not bring back something he could gloat with? He could showcase them to his people and to his father. He would be known as the man who conquered the monsters and these two captives could be living proof. Anyways, if anyone could tame these heartless beings, he knew that he could.

"Tino, I think I will keep these captives. They could prove very useful, don't you agree? Let's bring them back to the camp. I'm sure we will have a lot of explaining to do to the troops" He began heading back to camp, smiling the whole way about how awesome it was that he was bringing back captives.

A/N- Thanks for reading! Please review!