Wakfu
Worthy of the Crown
Chapter One
To Be A King
a/n This takes place after season two. If you haven't watched it that far, go do that, because there will be spoilers, and it is really worth seeing.
The many peoples of the World of Twelve plowed their fields, hunted their forests, and built their cities on solid rock, barely conscious of the fact that their world was not one of land, but of water, a few isolated peaks piercing through the endless sea. The world as a whole was like that as well, an island soaring through the infinite, almost empty, space.
It wasn't always like that. Once, before the Ogrest flooded the world with his sorrow, the world was a drier, gentler place where the followers of the Twelve Gods, from the fierce Sacrier to the avaricious Enutrof, blamed themselves for their misfortune and not a legendary calamity. Back then, they could walk or ride from any major city to any other. These days, they had to sail across the blue, or, in Yugo's case, zaap.
Yugo the Eliatrope fell upwards and downwards, but always forwards. He drew small, blue portals, the signature ability of his race, and threw them into his path, redirecting his momentum, but never breaking it. His brother, Adamai, the white dragon, flew beside him.
"Look, Yugo, land!" Adamai called. "I can't believe that you managed to zaap the whole way."
"I can't believe that you wouldn't—let me ride on your back," Yugo replied, his words interrupted by his own portals.
"It's good exercise," Adamai replied lightly, defying gravity with supernatural ease. He could shapeshift into many different forms, many of which could fly and some that didn't even need wings. "You'll build up endurance this way."
Yugo didn't respond, and instead focused on the shoreline which stood as the border as his second favorite place in the whole world. Adamai had a point, as usual. Yugo was the only Eliatrope in the world and he had a destiny that he would not hide from. No one, not even Yugo himself, knew what he was capable of, and a time when no one was actively trying to kill him was as good a time as any to test his limits. If that meant making a simple journey nearly impossible, then so be it.
Yugo reached the shoreline more quickly than any ship or eagle and collapsed on the beach in exhaustion. "Yeah!" he said triumphantly, punching the air. "Made it!"
Adamai hovered some thirty feet above the ground before he joined his brother. A single massive tree stood in the middle of the Sadida Kingdom, towering over the forest like any other tree towers over a field of grass. The Tree of LIfe had nearly been destroyed along with the entire Sadida people by a Xelor with an artifact of the Eliatrope people. Adamai smiled wryly. The World of Twelve would soon have more than a few Eliatrope relics to deal with. He dropped to the ground next to Yugo.
"I never should have doubted you," he said.
"I wouldn't have minded," Yugo replied. "How long did it take us?"
"Forever," he replied with an exasperated sigh. "It would have taken Phaeris what, half an hour?
"In his sleep," Yugo laughed. "We still have a ways to go before we catch up to him."
"Well I'm ready whenever you are, bro."
"You're right, we can't stop now. We're almost there!" Yugo stood up more quickly than he should have and the blood rushed from his head. Zaapping the entire way across the sea left his knees feeling weak and he wasn't used to using that much Wakfu out of a fight.
Adamai sighed and transformed into a scaraleaf. "Just get on my back and I'll carry you the rest of the way." Almost was a relative term, and while they were close enough to see the Tree of Life, they were also close enough to see the surrounding mountains.
Yugo looked up. "Really?"
"Sure," he said. "Besides, you're an Eliatrope. People expect you to arrive on the back of a dragon. Though I reserve the right to make fun of your weight."
Yugo jumped through a portal and dropped onto his back. "Deal."
WWW
In all their travels, the Brotherhood of the Tofu never turned away from someone who needed help. Bakers, merchants, small towns, no one was too small to go unnoticed or two great to be ignored. Often those they saved had nothing to offer more than their gratitude, but once the Brotherhood of the Tofu had managed to save an entire kingdom, and the Sadida had never forgotten them.
"Look! Up there!"
"Is that Yugo?"
"With that hat? Definitely!"
Yugo waved to nearby Sadida children, gripping onto one of Adamai's horns as his brother flew upside down. They didn't have time to stop and chat with locals, though. There was someone they wanted to see.
They flew through a palace window and Yugo jumped off Adamai's back, landing in a boardroom. Prince Armand and King Oakheart Sheran Sharm poured over a map in the middle of the room, and neither showed much surprise at seeing the boy and his dragon.
"You're back, Yugo," Armand noted calmly. "I thought things were a bit too quiet. Adamai, always a pleasure."
Az flew out of Yugo's pocket and started flying around. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Yugo asked.
The king sighed and relaxed into a majestic armchair. "I needed a break anyway." He turned to his son. "We never had much of a navy anyway, and if they prove hostile, we'll deal with them on land."
"Then that's that, then," Armand said. He turned to Yugo. "You're here to see Amalia, I take it."
"Yeah, is she here?"
"I certainly hope so," he said. "I'll tell her you've come."
Armand walked out of the room, his posture uncharacteristically slumped. Yugo frowned. Armand had always seemed proud and confident, but now he just seemed tired. "Is everything alright, your Highness?"
"Yes, yes," the king assured him. "Diplomacy and politics wear one down is all. The only appeal of war is that it is more straightforward than tariffs and trade embargos. But a king can't take the simple road all the time, nor should he. But enough about that, Yugo. What brings you here? And how is Alibert doing? Well, I hope."
Yugo grinned. "Better than well! He knows how to make bread!"
King Sheran Sharm raised an eyebrow. "Oh. I assume he couldn't before?"
Yugo shook his head. "No, but then I ran into the greatest baker in Amakna, and when I got back home I passed on everything he taught me, and Papa Alibert hasn't burnt it since." He beamed with pride. "Which is great because Grougal does that for him now." Moving away from the Sadida Kingdom hadn't made the baby dragon any less of a handful, and it took none other than Phaeris the Powerful to keep him in line.
Yugo sat down into a chair that was too big for him. "Hey, what you said about being a king...do you think that Armand will make a good king?"
"Armand? Yes, I believe he will. He has much to learn, but he has much time to learn it." He smiled wryly. "I don't intend on dying soon."
Yugo smiled, but he didn't feel it. He had too many questions that he couldn't answer, some he wasn't sure had answers. "What makes a good king?" he asked softly. Adamai caught his eye, but didn't say anything.
The king shrugged his shoulders. "Well, the king has to be in charge of everything and everyone comes to him with their problems and expects him to solve them, so to be a good king, you have to be good at everything."
Yugo frowned. "Oh."
"But that isn't very helpful," King Oakheart continued, stroking his thick, green beard thoughtfully. "There was a council a few months ago while you were seeking Shinonome's Dofus. The leaders of the world came together, everyone from the Cra Matriarch to the Xelor Timelord. All of them were...effective rulers, though I wouldn't turn my back on some of them. It helps for a king to be intelligent, but the Iop ruler manages. Kings are usually strong, but in times of peace they seldom find the need for it. Most weaknesses can be covered by the support of those loyal to the king, but the one thing that can't be covered is the king's ability to understand who is trustworthy, and he must also understand when he needs help. He also needs to understand the needs of his people." He paused thoughtfully. "Yes. What a king needs most is an understanding heart. For that alone there is no substitute"
Yugo looked up. He had expected something more like courage or a keen mind. "Really?"
The king nodded. "But you can't always choose what you're good at, so you just do your best and hope it works out."
Yugo smiled. "If it means anything, I think you're a great king." The best Yugo had ever met by a long shot. In the end, that was why Qilby could never be the king the Eliatropes needed. Even after everything, people, lives, and entire worlds were insignificant.
King Oakheart laughed. "Well, my kingdom has survived me so far. The real test is to see if it can survive my heir."
The door opened and Amalia stepped in. "If this is about the carnivorous plants again..." She stopped when she saw Yugo. "Yugo! When did you get here?"
Yugo grinned widely. She hadn't changed a bit. "I just got here. I'm bringing the Brotherhood of the Tofu back together."
a/n I've been wanting to do a Wakfu fanfiction for ages. I'm not that thrilled with the first chapter, but you have to start somewhere, and I'd rather have it make sense than start in the middle of an action scene. I'll go into more detail about the background and what happened between now and the last episode in later chapters. Anyway, let me know what you think.