Also Titled: A Rather Depressing Beginning

It is a time of dread…

Seers have foretold the birth of a child who will bring about the downfall of the powerful King Ivan. Seizing all the pregnant women in the realm, the wicked sorcerer king vows to destroy the child when it is born…

It was murky in the dungeons of Ivan's castle and the thin wail of a newborn child could be heard echoing off the walls. In a small cell, a woman watched apprehensively as Natalia, Ivan's younger sister, inspected her baby.

Outside of the cell, a young man with chin-length, choppy blonde hair and mint-green eyes walked by with a basket of laundry, but was forced to pause because several guards were blocking his path. The young man glanced inside the cell disinterestedly.

"It's a girl…" Natalia muttered in her thick accent. She ignored its cries and ran her eyes over it, checking to see if… there! On her arm! A dark pink birthmark showed clearly against her pale skin. This was the child, the child that bore the mark! She thrust the babe back into her mother's arms and hurried out of the cell. One of Ivan's mages met her.

"The omen is true!" she whispered. "I must tell my big brother." She hurried off, the guards and mages following her. There was no way the woman would be able to leave, not in her condition.

The mother wailed and clutched at her child. She caught sight of the young man still standing in the corridor. She reached out one desperate hand to him.

"Please help me!"

The man flinched and looked behind his shoulder. Was she really talking to him? "I… I cannot," he mumbled.

"Please! They're going to kill her!"

The man took a step inside the cell and peered at the helpless infant. What could he possibly do? If he took her, he'd have to run away, far away, far from Ivan and his evil, all while caring for the infant. But… he couldn't just let her die. And if this child could really put an end to Ivan's reign… He set down his basket and pulled out some clothes. He wordlessly held out his arms for the baby and the mother, guessing his intent, smiled gratefully and gave her to him.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" He placed the baby inside the basket and covered her with a few cloths before picking it up and hurrying out the door.

"Wait! Please, tell me your name," the mother called.

The man paused. "Vash. Vash Zwingli." The mother watched him leave, this time crying tears of relief.

Vash was very careful; he checked both ends of every hallway before moving and he never paused nor tarried.

Suddenly a loud voice called, "Stand aside for King Ivan!"

Vash stepped to the side and bowed low, praying the baby wouldn't cry. Ivan, a giant of a man with silvery blond hair and eerie purple eyes, barely glanced at him before sweeping past him to the cell. Vash waited until they had safely passed before bolting. He shuddered as he passed one cell that held Ivan's foul hunting dogs. They were huge beasts that grew higher than a grown man's waist and had a distinctive ruff of thick matted fur on their otherwise bare bodies.

Finally, he reached the courtyard and, after bowing to the sentries at the gate, left Ivan's castle for the last time.

Back in the cell, the mother clutched a bundle to her chest and glared defiantly at Ivan as he entered. "You cannot stop the prophecy!" she yelled.

Ivan merely smiled. "This child will have no power over me." He turned to one of his mages. "Start the ritual." He grabbed at the bundle and, after a moment, threw it to the ground. Now everyone could see that it was only a pile of rags.

"Where's the baby?" he hissed. Natalia suddenly remembered the laundry boy.

"There was a man! He–"

"Find that baby, Natalia," Ivan commanded. "Use the dogs. Bring her back to me alive!" He shoved her out of the cell.

"Your reign of terror is at an end!" the mother yelled. "She will come back and she will finish you! My baby will finish you!"

Ivan walked out of the cell. "Kill her," he told one of the guards.

Vash was surprisingly good at hiding from Ivan's dogs. He knew the mountains around the castle well; he'd grown up in them his whole life. He found food for himself in the forest and traded game for milk to feed the baby. Several months went by, in which the girl grew a crop of blonde hair and her dark blue eyes turned light green. Vash grew very fond of her; he even bought a blue ribbon in a village for her hair. As they got farther from Ivan and the mountains and into the warm southern forests, Vash's worries about being captured grew lighter. But that unfortunately lead to complacency…

It was as he was sitting by the fire and preparing breakfast that he heard it. Two sharp barks that seemed to linger in the air. Far-off howling answered it. Ivan's dogs. The baby looked at Vash curiously as he scrambled to put out the fire and grab her. He sprinted through the forest, stopping every few minutes to listen for the dogs. There was no doubt about it; they were getting closer. He wouldn't be able to escape, but there had to some way to protect the baby.

He caught a glimpse of a river through the trees and an idea struck him. He ran towards it and looked along the riverbank carefully. He found a mat of reeds, grass, and sticks and pushed at them until they loosened and floated on the water. The baby whimpered as he laid her on the mat and pushed it out into the river. The dogs were so close now.

The last the baby ever saw of her first protector was him waving his arms to get the dogs' attention and falling as the first one struck. Then a bend in the river carried her away.

Welp, here it is, the story I've been working on and hinting at for a few months. Like the title says, this is the Hetalia version of the movie Willow so disclaimer, disclaimer, blah de blah. I am neither George Lucas or Hidekazu Himaruya. Obviously. And no, I'm not gonna put a disclaimer every chapter. That's stupid.