My first Hetalia story, I hope you like it!
A PLACE LONG FORGOTTEN
A question humans often asked the personified countries is,
How did you become a nation?
Some didn't know, some did. We the ones that did always gave the same small smile before saying 'we just appeared.' The one's who didn't gave the same response without the little knowing smile.
But who would believe that? That people just miraculously appeared out of nowhere?
No, it all started a long time ago. In the time of Pangea. When the world was one.
A tribe of people were all crowded around a fire. A couple hundred of people where there. Young and old, tall and short, dumb and smart.
Our people the nation tribe were as a general whole very wise. We knew things. Things like the fact that immortality should it be bestowed upon someone it wouldn't be a gift.
It would be a curse.
We of course weren't forced to make any decisions regarding that particular subject we thought no more of it.
But one day a young woman and a young man came across our tribe. The women was tall with hair like golden wheat, eyes like the sky, skin so smooth it resembled the flat surface of a lake on a calm day, so tanned and beautiful , her lips like rose petals. Her hair fell around her shoulders every which way, unpredictable like nature. She wore a low cut animal pelt dress that fell mid thigh. It was open on either side of her and tied by a weave of bark, it fell nicely on her showing her feminine features ever so nicely, around her neck was a pendant or jewels or bright colours. She wore no shoes but around her ankle she wore an anklet of flowers.
She flashed a grin her eyes held a predatory glint when she declared herself to be Gaia, mother earth. The man was the very opposite then the wild beauty he was with. His clothing unlike hers were very crisp. He wore a long sleeved white wool shirt and black pants that fell to his ankles with leather shoes. His grey eyes looked out over the tribe his black hair was pulled back into a strict pony tail his face was stern as he declared himself God, father to all men.
We were awed by the two strangers, we offered them our finest beds and our finest food. The man accepted this like it was expected and the woman denied it with a smile and said she would rather catch her own food and sleep under the stars surrounded by the sound of nature watching the stars.
They stayed a couple days and we found them to be amazing.
The women for her willfulness and unpredictable nature.
The man for his knowledge and restraint.
Having thoroughly awed us they came before our elders or the wise ones and said that they had a proposition for us. We all gathered around the fire that night and listened intently to their tale.
They said they saw a future where people would declare land as there own, name it and build huge communities much like our tribes. The man said the communities would help since every man needed to submit to rules, the women said these communities would hurt since every man wanted to have people submit to them. Though they both agreed that all the lands on earth needed a person to rally behind when morale was low or when rules needed to be changed.
By this time the wise ones were cautious. They were intrigued by the idea that people would think that land belonged to them, but something they believed wasn't quite right...
The rest of us were hooked there telling of the future a future they would never see caught them up in sadness and pride. Sadness for never getting to witness these glorious inventions or moments. Pride for knowing that there race would be capable of such greatness.
But then they asked.
They asked if they would like to be the ones that kept the people of the future strong, and there rules fair. Would they like to be there when all these marvellous things would come true.
We all jumped to our feet agreeing before we even understood what we had just agreed to.
Our wise people tried to warn us, they truly did. But we were so caught up in the shiny future they told us lay ahead.
Mother nature, Gaia, smiled when we agreed twirling us around in the air giving tight hugs making us laugh with joy kissing everyone once on our foreheads.
Father to man, God, just nodded and watched as mother earth gave hugs and kisses before walking up to every one and whispering in each of there our ears.
When he reached me he whispered in a tongue I didn't know at the time but know now as English
'peace' he repeated it in another language I didn't know then but do now as French
'paix'. He also whispered it in a number of other languages. The First Nation languages, but as I can no longer remember them there variation of peace fled my mind to, though I still remember the gentle way it rolled off his tongue.
I know now he was telling us our future goals. What our countries would strive for more then anything in the language we would speak. At the time his words confused me greatly. I looked over at my brother America as God spoke in his ear, he looked just as confused as I did. I didn't know him as that at the time. We spoke a different language. A much more complex and yet much simpler language it wasn't taught it was spoken from the heart and it just rolled off your tongue. His name at the time is something I can't right as where the names of everyone else. Which is why I settled for using the names I know them by now.
When the hugs, kisses and words had been given the two stood before all of us. The woman said
''Today you will fall asleep.'' Smiling at us we watched still awed. ''You will fall asleep and wake up in a different place. You will wait for what will seem like forever, but one day a people will come on your land. You will guide them, help them grow into a strong and proud people.'' The man nodded.
''You will help them create a community, help them win there battles and you'll begin to meet one another again.'' He gave a smile for the first time ''And you will find me in them. You may or may not remember us, you may or may not remember the other here,'' He said swiping an arm across the crowd ''but you will find comfort in those you won't quite remember then but will know well now.'' The two smiled and we all smiled too. The wise ones were standing behind us shocked. Three stood. We called them the crone, the mother and the maiden. They walked forward in unison. A young girl, her mother and her grandmother.
''You have given a rose to children without warning them of the thorns.'' The grandmother said sadly. The mother and daughter nodded.
''The grief, the loss, the wars, they will always be in pain.'' The mother wept. The daughter barely older then an infant said
''They will cry, you will make them cry.'' her eyes were hard when she said this. The strangers wore twin looks of surprise.
''But they will live for so long.'' They said ''They will see so much.''
The three females nodded
''That they will'' The grandmother mused.
''They will always feel torn, they'll have to fight one another!'' The mother cried
''They will have lot's of wounds.'' The little girl said sadly holding her mothers hand.
And suddenly I understood.
We were not being offered a paradise but a hell, just like the wise ones had always told us. I thought for a moment of my future now.
And I fell.
I fell to my knee's reaching for anything, anything that could offer me the smallest sliver of comfort.
I found a baby polar bear, my pet I'd found abandoned in the woods sometime last week. Clutching it I held it as close to me as I could and my brother knelt to try and understand what I had just understood. I looked up through tears to see who else had understood.
Russia fell too, crumpling in half grasping at the first thing he could.
A sunflower. He plucked it from a small field of them to his right.
Belarus fell beside him clutching his arm. China fell to clutching a panda he and Japan had adopted some ten years ago. Greece found a cat, France found a rose one that the wise ones used as a symbol of love and Australia found a koala that had tagged along when China and Japan found the panda.
The others watched a bit confused. But the seven of us understood.
We understood just what we had walked into.
Other around us wore looks varying in degrees of understanding and confusion. Some understood partially others understood fully. Like Romano and Spain. They were beside one another clutching a nearby wheel barrel full of tomatoes. North Italy found a strip of white fabric while Netherlands looked down at the tulips in his hands confused.
Soon Russia started to laugh, Belarus and I followed quickly after him, Greece chuckled sadly this coaxed France, China and Australia to join in. I couldn't remember what happened after that but I do know that Gaia and God left and the wise ones tried to explain to those who hadn't realized on their own what they had just agreed to.
That night the seven of us met out in a clearing deep in the woods. We knew that we wouldn't see one another for a long time so we all tried to make the best of it.
''We will never forget'' I said I stared into there eyes. They nodded
''Never.'' They said. We all clutched our new comforts, watching the fire till it burnt out. Ignoring the cold and the damp and the lack of light we sat around where the fire had once been.
''Do you remember when America and England fought for so long that they fell asleep and kept yelling at each other in there sleep?'' France asked in a light tone. I laughed
''Ooh yes, they didn't believe us at all when we told them what happened the next day.'' The seven of us laughed and started to tell one another stories.
''Remember that time-''
''It was hilarious when-''
''I almost died when-''
We retold all these funny stories laughing once we started running out of them we started telling sad stories. Then once we ran out of those just random things we remembered. We continued desperately clutching at ideas as best we could telling tales and repeating different stories in hopes that we wouldn't fall asleep, that our future would change.
It didn't.
We told stories retold events until the moon hit the middle of the sky.
Then people started to fall asleep.
Australia was the first, then Belarus,then France.
And then me. I grasped desperately for strings of consciousness that slipped through my fingers.
And just like Mother Earth and Father to Man promised I woke up. In the woods feeling different. I could feel the wind rushing through the trees, a fox crawling out of it's home, an owl landing on a tree a fish swimming in a lake, I felt this as if it were all apart of me.
And then I remembered.
And now it's thousands and thousands and thousands of years later. Sitting in a clearing with a fire built in the middle. Surrounding it were Russia, Belarus, China, Greece, France, Australia and me. I had invited them with out an explanation paid for they're flights to and from their home lands, in hopes that they would except, as is evident they did.
We all stared at the fire for what must have been an hour, occasionally tossing a log onto the mass of flames I finally got my wits together and enough courage to ask
''Did we forget?'' I asked this quietly not looking at any one person. The silence was deafening. I almost gave up hope until France asked quietly
''Do you remember when America and England fought for so long that one day that they continued to yell at each other that night in their sleep?''
And everyone suddenly broke into a smile. And we retold the same stories we had told that night so long ago but this time we weren't frantic we were calm and happy.
Because now we knew we weren't alone with these memories of a happier time, of Pangea.
When the world was one.
Was it any good? I just came up with it out of the blue.
Please let me know!