The Prince and The Witch: A Divergent Fairy Tale | ✅

Chapter 1: Welcome to Dauntless

Once upon a time the land of Chicago was divided into five factions – Abnegation, the selfless, Amity, the kind, Candor, the honest, Erudite, the smart and Dauntless, the brave. Together they worked and lived as one and helped each other whenever they needed. The king, Marcus and his wife, Evelyn, had a son they named Tobias. He was a handsome lad that was desired by all the girls in the kingdom. But he wanted to prove himself and so he joined the warrior faction, Dauntless. He trained to be a soldier and started from the lowest rank: private. He didn't mind. He was never spoiled by his parents and taught what was valuable and what not.

At the age of sixteen each youngster gets to choose a faction to learn a trait and become a valuable member of society. Tobias chose Dauntless because he wanted to prove that he is more than just the heir to the throne, he is a man and not a boy living in his father's shadow. Along with other his age, both males and females, he trained hard to become a soldier and defend the kingdom from all dangers, may there come from the outside, where wild beasts lived or from the inside.

He was mocked and treated as if he didn't belong there, everyone knowing that he is the king's son, but Tobias didn't care. He kept to himself and worked hard. He had only two friends, three if you count his instructor, Amar. His best friends Zeke and Shauna were both born and raised in Dauntless and they didn't care who he was before he joined them and they wouldn't care after he left, for he would be their king one day. But not everyone was like that. A young man, who joined them from Erudite, Eric was his name, mocked him and spread rumors, well they existed before, that the king mistreated his son. Marcus was rough at times, but he never laid a finger on either wife or son. Tobias couldn't stand the denigration but knew that if he complained officially he would only stir things up even more. He denied the accusations and whenever Amar put Eric and Tobias in the ring to fight (which he did quite often) Tobias won every single time.

Soon the training was concluded and Tobias ranked first and it had nothing to do with his father. He was proud of himself for doing something on his own, without any help. The faction leader, Max, was so impressed that he appointed Tobias to train future generations. He even offered leadership to the young prince, but he denied it. He wanted to go through all the stages and feel like he really earned the title. Max reluctantly agreed, even though he insisted that in all his years he never saw anyone more fitting to fill that position than Tobias.

For the next two years the young prince worked hard and was focused to become a good soldier. He often declined his friend's invitation to meet with a nice looking female, explaining that he wasn't interested in any romance. He had a mission and he had to stick to that. Zeke, being a silly one, made fun of him, not understanding how someone could deny himself the pleasurable things in life. On the other hand, Tobias couldn't understand why Zeke sought the company of those girls, when a real woman was right there looking at him he only saw his mother look at his father. He wished that one day he would find a girl who would look at him just like that. Not with desire, but with love and respect. He often found himself sitting with Shauna down by the river in the chasm, where they were shielded by prying eyes talking about the future about their hopes and dreams. He was an only child and Shauna was like the sister he never had. They both confided in each other and for the life of him he couldn't understand how his surrogate brother couldn't see how much this girl was in love with him. But he promised her not to tell a word. And that's what he did.

Today was another Choosing Ceremony. Tobias was curious to see how many youngsters would choose this faction. How many of them were brave enough to become soldiers, warriors, protectors? The Dauntless initiation started fairly soon. His nemesis, Eric, was on top of the Dauntless building where all initiates have to climb, as a first task. The next task is to jump into a dark hole without knowing if they will survive the jump or not. Little did they know that at the bottom was a safety net that would catch them.