Author's Note: Yay, more historical fics about Eastern Europeans! I didn't go into very much historical detail with this one, but you still gotta know what's going on.
The Forest Brothers were a guerrilla force that formed in the three Baltic States during 1940-1941 when they were being occupied by Soviet Russia. Their intent was to kill Soviet soldiers to slow or even totally stop the spread of Russian influence into their nations. Obviously, Russia hated them and killed every single one they could find, most were even tortured beforehand. The Latvians had the largest force in terms of numbers, but the most successful and well-armed were the Lithuanians, using several types of machine guns that Estonians and Latvians didn't use/have. The Lithuanians were also more determined, stabbing, assassinating, and even poisoning their targets. Their name comes from the fact most hid out in forests up in trees to kill their targets.
This story takes place in December 1941, close to when most of the forces were dying out due to Soviet Russia wining, although they were briefly revived in the late-40's and early-50's.
For reference, Lithuania is 18, Estonia is 16, and Latvia is 14 in this...
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"We are all going to die up here. Any questions?" I stated, staring the two of them down. It was literal in a way, since I had the habit of towering over most people in my life.
"Hey, what happened to the cheerful, positive Lithuania? He'd probably tell us to do our best up there." Estonia joked, adjusting the gun on his back.
"He's sick. Sick of the threatening Soviet rule!" I answered, picking up my own gun. "Now, one of you help me carry this stuff up into that tree."
"Yeah, I miss him too..." Latvia said quietly, looking away. I pretended I didn't hear him and started climbing up the tree, trying my best to keep my boots secured into the worn trunk. It was harder than it looked, since my boots were covered in melting snow from the ground below, and I even slipped several times. Luckily, this tree had deep groves in it that I could snugly fit my hand into to catch myself. As soon as I reached one of the tallest branches, I motioned for the other two to climb up after me. They did and soon settled in two branches a bit lower than mine. I checked their bags to make sure they had the supplies we needed.
"Okay, check your supplies. We need a bag of food and drink, and another of ammo and other weapons just in case these break." I ordered, throwing open the bags. I mentally checked off ammo and weapons, and also food. I cut open the last bag but found only more food. "Where's all our drinks? Estonia, you were in charge of them!"
"Calm down, I got them." He unbuttoned the top part of his coat and several vodka bottles tumbled out. They started free-falling towards the ground, and without even thinking, I launched myself off my branch, catching the five bottles in both of my arms and hitting the frozen ground hard. A sharp pain shot up in my stomach, but I quickly rubbed it off. I handed the bottles to Latvia, since his branch was the closet to the ground, and climbed back up to my own branch, albeit a bit slower than last time. After I leaned against my branch, I decided to jog everyone's minds.
"You guys remember what the mission is, right?"
"I remember. We hide up here in this tree, and then we assassinate any Soviet guards we see walking by. Even better if they're a high-ranking official." Estonia said.
"And if we see Russia himself?"
"That's easy!" Latvia piped up. "We just run like hell." All three of us quieted down after that and took to watching the ground below us.
"This is boring! Why don't we talk about something?" Latvia suggested after a long moment of quiet. There weren't even any animals making noise tonight, which struck me as odd. There was always some sort of noise here in Vilnius.
"Okay, what should we talk about?" Estonia answered, looking up from his sniper.
"What about some poetry? It's one of my favorite things to read, and-"
"NO!" Estonia and I both answered at once. "What about our history?" I smiled.
"No way!" Estonia and Latvia said at once. "What about technology?"
"No!" I declined.
"Let's just admit us, the three of us have absolutely nothing common. Why did we even agree to do this?" Estonia asked.
"You know why. For our history, for our sovereignty, and for our independence." I answered. We started watching the ground again.
"What's your favorite season?" Latvia suddenly asked after several more moments of silence.
"What kind of a question is that?" Estonia demanded.
"We might as well answer it. It's way too dark to properly watch for anything anyway." I slumped back against the branch and breathed out, watching the cold air sweep my breath away.
"I suppose I like the spring. Everything is reborn, plus it's not too cold or too hot." Estonia said.
"I kinda like the fall because it's fun to play in all the leaves!" Latvia smiled.
"I like this season, winter. It's cold and nobody fucks with you because of the temperature." I said. The other two just stared up at me in disbelief. "What? It's true." I breathed out slowly. The sun had just set, turning the threatening dark sky into an alarming black.
"It'll be even colder now that the sun's set..." Estonia commented.
"Maybe we shouldn't have picked different branches." Latvia said. "You know, so we could've snuggled together?"
"We'll be fine, we're all bundled up." I stated, and that put an end to that.
#######
It had only been two hours later when we heard footsteps approaching our tree. We all scrambled to get into position. "Can you see who it is?" I whispered to Latvia, leaning upside down so I could talk to him.
"I can't...their uniform blends into the darkness." He stated sadly. Estonia and I looked at each other in alarm.
"Shoot them! That's the uniform of a Soviet officer!" I ordered, causing Latvia to freak out slightly.
"Okay, okay! Just don't yell at me!" He pointed the gun at the badges that were shining in the moonlight and fired.
"Oh shit, that's loud!" I slipped from my branch and almost fell out of the tree, but caught onto a branch near the bottom and quickly pulled myself up onto it.
"Come on, let's go see who we killed!" Estonia stated excitedly. He started climbing down excitedly and Latvia followed after him.
"Aren't you coming with us?" Estonia asked, waving up at me.
"I think I'll just stay here." I answered, slowly climbing back up. He shrugged.
"Suit yourself."
"Whoa, it is a Soviet official!" Latvia said with glee. "I actually killed one! I didn't think I could!"
"Now, what do we do with the body?" Estonia asked.
"Leave it! The snow will cover it up! Either that or it'll just rot on its own." I yelled back down at them. I was currently rummaging through Latvia's pack for a bottle of vodka, preferably an empty one. I finally found one and popped the top off and started gulping it down.
"Hey! You can't just drink all our vodka like that!" Latvia climbed up the tree after me, and I kept jokingly holding it just out of his reach.
"I'm not even holding it that high!" I laughed and kept drinking from it. I climbed up a bit higher to get away from him.
"He's right, that vodka is supposed to last us the whole night, considering we'd get sick from the water flowing around here." Estonia said.
"I know that, I'm drinking it so I can use the bottle." I tilted it so I could drown it faster.
"Oh, never mind then." Estonia climbed back up the tree as I finished the bottle off.
Latvia climbed down onto his own branch and suddenly froze up.
"What's wrong?" Estonia and I asked, but Latvia put his finger to his lips. We both glanced at each other and lowered ourselves on our branches. I looked down and saw the imposing form that could only belong to one man below us.
"It is a cold night for birds to be out," The man noticed cheerfully before doing a bird call. We all looked at each other in panic before Latvia put his hands up to his mouth and mimicked it. "Ah, there is a bird up in that tree! Must be a very cold bird. Won't you come down, little birdie? I'm sure my hands are warm enough to warm you up!"
Latvia just repeated the bird call and tried his hardest not to shake so the branch wouldn't wobble. I tightened my grip on the almost-empty bottle so it wouldn't slip out of my reaches and shatter on the ground below.
"Suit yourself, little birdie. I hope you do not freeze in this cold weather." The man chuckled a bit, as if he told a funny joke, and slowly trudged on his way.
Only after two minutes did we all let out our breath and sit up on our branches.
"That was way too close," Estonia noticed.
"I don't want to be captured! I like freedom too much!" Latvia cried.
"Yeah, so do I, so you two be quiet!" I finished off the weak vodka and let out a loud burp, which made Latvia giggle.
"You're so vulgar, Lithuania." Estonia rolled his eyes.
"So? Better burping it out than puking it out." I shrugged.
"He learned it from Poland," Latvia suggested.
"Don't say his name again!" I warned. "Now, who will take first watch?"
"I will." Estonia instantly perked up, which made me wonder what he was so excited to do.
"Good. I'll take second, and Latvia takes third. In the morning we'll most likely pack up and try to find a better hideout than this tree. We'll have to move closer to enemy territory, but sometimes we have to take risks." I commanded.
"Sometimes you scare me, Lithuania." Estonia said, and I smiled a bit.
"Why? Because I want to be free?" I teased.
"For as long as I've known you, you've had a strong sense of determination. You've always wanted to make a name for yourself. You always wanted to be the best country in this region. Look what happened. You never stopped, and you ended up ruling the world."
"I don't own it anymore."
"If you tried, I bet you could."
"I've lost my edge. I'm not scary anymore."
"You're kidding, right?" We both laughed. "You know how to command an army, and right now, that's all we need."
"Yeah, but with Russia hunting us, I don't know how much longer we can last." I looked around.
"He can hunt us all he wants, but he'll never get us." Estonia proclaimed. "Not while we have sniper rifles and cheap vodka!" We both laughed again. "Speaking of which, why did you need that bottle in the first place?"
"To piss in, duh!" I laughed.
"Be quiet, you two! I'm trying to sleep!" Latvia yelled at us, and we both sunk down on our branches.
"Goodnight, Latvia." We both said.
"Goodnight Lithuania and Estonia." We didn't hear anything else from him, so I figured him to be asleep. Estonia slipped off of his branch and started checking the ammo in his gun.
After I filled the bottle up, I hurled it far away from me and loosened the strap on my back a bit so it wouldn't chaff up on me as I slept. The strap held my gun, and I hoped it wouldn't fall off as I slept. I leaned against the trunk and fell into an uneasy sleep, expecting nothing but nightmares.
###########
"My little birdie, I caught you!" Russia smirked, roughly grabbing my wrist. I woke up and loudly screamed.
"Russia! No! Let go of me!" I roughly wrestled with him, but he soon pinned my arm behind my back and made me cry out in pain.
"Do not think I let you go that easily. All those other countries I own now, they planned rebellions again me. But did they win?" He smiled at me before violently shaking me. "No they did not!"
"Russia..." I cried, feeling my eyes fill up with tears.
"That's Sir Russia to you now, little birdie. I already have the other two in my car, all I need is you."
"I'll never be part of the Soviet Union!" I protested through my tears. He simply shook me again. "Never, never!" I spat in his face. "Bitch, don't you understand what we stand for? Freedom, history, and sovereignty!"
"You just made a terrible mistake..." Russia growled before slapping me. "I don't care what you stand for, it's all over now. I own you, bitch!" He slammed me against the tree. "Now get in the fucking car!"
"You'll never own me Russia..." I barely managed before blacking out.
#############
"Lithuania, Lithuania! Wake up! You're having a nightmare!" I woke up with a start and saw the worried looks of Estonia and Latvia staring at me. Latvia still had his hands on my shoulders, and I assumed he was the one shaking me awake in my dream.
"You also managed to fall out of the tree, but other than a bruised side, you seem to be fine." Estonia pointed out.
"God, did I scream? If I did, I'm so sorry. I had a dream where Russia captured us..." I trailed off, then stared at the two. "Grab our stuff, we're moving ou-" I was cut off by a sharp pain in my side, and I hissed and grabbed it.
"Must be a bad bruise," Latvia noticed unhelpfully. I glared at him, and he shrunk away and started gathering up our stuff. I slowly stood up and tightened my grip on my side.
"I can't believe I was foolish enough to fall out of that tree...a Forest Brother is no use injured!" I decided before Estonia tossed me several guns.
"Hide those in your coat and let's go," He directed, and I did as told. My height required me to wear an extremely large and giant coat, which the three of us used to our advantage. I could hide anything in there. I made sure all of our supplies were concealed tightly in their coats and clothes since we would be walking in broad daylight, and after finding them satisfactory, I started leading the way.
I led them deeper into the forest, looking around carefully for any hideouts we could use. We kept our footsteps steady and our breath quiet for fear of being too loud and attracting attention, but after a while it became apparent that attention still managed to find us.
I motioned to the other two, and the three of us positioned ourselves behind trees and I peeked behind it to see if the approaching footsteps were from another Forest Brother or from a Russian official. I pulled a mortar out of my coat and prepared to throw it when the man held his hands up.
"Don't fire at me! I'm just a friend!" He stated, coming into the light. I slipped the mortar back into my coat, and both Estonia and Latvia lowered their guns.
"Your uniform! You're fighting for the Latvian resistance!" Latvia announced happily, running up to him.
"Yes I am! We're already a pretty large number, but there can always be more, right?" The man grinned a bit.
"But I thought a majority of them were arrested by the Germans?" Latvia asked.
"That's why you have to be clever and evade them." He looked at the three of us. "Any particular reason why you three are in this forest to begin with?"
"We're looking for some shelter! Do you know of any?" Estonia asked, and the man nodded.
"It's pretty close to Soviet territory, but just lay low and you three will be alright." He started leading the way and motioned for us to follow. I unstrapped my gun from my back and followed him, still worried about running into a Russian soldier. He led us through the forest, and the trees started to get thinner and further apart from each other. The sun grew higher and higher as we walked along and shined through the bare branches of the trees.
"Hey, Raivis." I poked him, using his civilian name since we were around one of his citizens. "You like poetry, right? Why don't you make one up about the scenery around us to make the walk go a little faster?"
"I'm up for some amusement too," Estonia chimed in from the front. Latvia shrugged and looked around, trying to get a feel.
"Dead trees, skeleton trees,
They remind me of what is inside.
Cold snow on the ground,
It surrounds me and freezes my heart.
Unable to love, I am nothing more
But another one of those skeleton trees
Black, dead, frozen.
They cannot love, as I cannot.
Who froze my heart?
I shall never know." His breath floated out of his mouth on the final line, as if his own soul decided to exit his body. The three of us simply stared at him.
"I really needed to hear more about death in the middle of a war zone, Raivis!" I yelled at him.
"What? It was the best I could do on short notice!" Latvia yelled back at me.
"It didn't even rhyme..." Estonia put in.
"Yeah, you call that a poem?" I gave Latvia a dirty look, who gave me one back.
"A lot of poems from Japan don't rhyme!"
"So? We're not in Japan, now are we?"
"Be quiet, you two! You might attract the attention of the Reds!" The man snapped at us, which shut us up and made us continue walking in line. After a few minutes, though, the man stopped walking and told us to be quiet. He reached for the gun on his back. "Be still, I think I hear something." The three of us looked at each other in worry and hid behind trees. He hid behind a fourth one, and we all sucked in our breaths when we saw two Russian soldiers walking into the forest. I pulled out one of my poisons and aimed it at their feet, trying to get a good angle so it would instantly break when I shattered it.
Latvia pulled out his gun and looked through the spyglass to try and aim at the smaller man's chest, and Estonia pulled out one of his throwing knives.
I took a deep breath and launched the poisonous gas at them, causing the bottle to shatter at their feet and surround them in a bad-smelling cloud that would partially hide our movements.
"Now! Go!" I directed harshly, and Estonia popped out from his hiding place and threw his knife at the taller man, nicking his knee. Latvia nodded and shot at the others chest, directly hitting him and knocking him down. Estonia pulled out his own sniper and fired several rounds into the tall man's stomach, and as soon as we saw him fall, we darted away. "Run, run, run! They might come after us!" I commanded, soon running ahead of everyone else.
Just as I had feared, I heard heavier footsteps gaining on us, and I quickened my pace even more, ignoring the feeling of my heart getting ready to explode in my chest. "Split up, split up!" I heard a shot fire out and grabbed Latvia, soon falling and hitting the ground on top of him. Several more shots echoed, and then Estonia walked over to us and whispered to us we were fine.
"You guys take this very seriously, don't you?" The Latvian Forest Brother asked us, placing the sniper back on his back. I stood up and nodded, then gave a hand to Latvia. "Luckily, we're almost out of the forest. Just at this forest's opening is the hideout I told you about. Sadly, I can't take you there, but you three seem like you know your way around a forest."
"We'll be fine." I promised.
"It was really nice meeting you!" Latvia smiled and shook the man's hand.
He waved us off, then vanished into the black trees, giving the illusion he had been consumed by them. I shuddered a bit at the thought, then pulled my hood down further on my face and silently led the younger two Baltics along the trail.
##############
We kept very close to the trees, just in case we had to quickly hide behind them and assassinate more Russian officials, but thankfully, no more came back this way. I had rising concerns that one or both of the men we shot down earlier had managed to recover and get reinforcements, who would certainly outnumber the three of us greatly.
I had been so consumed by my thoughts that I didn't even realize we had stepped out of the forest, and I smiled slightly at how still the environment was here. The spare grass was still dead, of course, but several hills had built themselves into the ground and some had fresh powderings of snow on top of them. I even heard the quiet babble of a small creek somewhere nearby, and the sun was almost at its usual high point in the sky. Several clouds were scattered around it, which made me worry that if might snow later, something the three of us were woefully unprepared for.
Estonia ran over to one of the hills and knocked on the top with his knuckles several times, then motioned for us to come inside. something we listened to.
The hideout was way too small for someone like me, so the minute I walked inside, I banged my head on the low-hanging door frame.
"Ouch! That hurts!" I announced, dropping to my knees in a corner. Latvia dropped to his knees next to me and produced a small kit from his coat.
"Speaking of pain, let me see your side." He directed shyly, and only after another wave of pain washed over me did I finally remember my bruised side. I hissed in pain and unbuttoned my coat, folding it up nicely in the corner so nothing would fall out, and then I opened up both my military jacket and shirt, revealing a blackish-blue bruise on my side. It was larger than I thought, but at least nothing was rotting near it yet.
Both Latvia and Estonia hissed in pain when they saw it.
"That's a bad bruise..." Latvia noticed as he poured some vodka out onto a bandage and tenderly wrapped it around my side.
"Ouch! That vodka burns!" I hissed.
"Don't be a stranger to pain, you've fought in many wars!" Latvia encouraged me, still tightening up my wrap. Estonia had lost interest and had started rummaging through our bag of food for something all three of us would agree on eating. He eventually gave that up and started cutting up potatoes and beets on the muddy floor with one of his knives. "Alright, you're all set!" Latvia smiled, looking quite proud of his handiwork.
"You did a very good job tending to my wound, Latvia!" I praised, smiling back at him. I hurriedly threw my shirt and jacket back on, but left my coat in the corner since the small hovel had quickly grown warm.
Estonia had gone out to get some water from the creek to boil the vegetables in, and Latvia was drinking a bit of vodka straight from the bottle. With nothing else to do, and not wanting to make my bruise worse, I simply took my knives out from my coat and started polishing them, even though they barely had seen any action.
Estonia came back with the water, and Latvia hurried to help him stir the vegetables into the boiling water as Estonia himself added spices.
After a while, my knives were polished and I put them back in my coat. I crawled over to the large soup pot and smelled the stew inside, finding the smell to be surprisingly savory.
"No bowls, but we do have spoons!" Latvia announced, handing one to each of us. He also took a swig from the vodka bottle and passed it to Estonia, who did the same before passing it to me. I simply set it down and started eating my stew, feeling very hungry after all the walking.
As we ate, Latvia suddenly gasped, and we all looked over at him. "We never said Grace!"
"I don't think God is our main concern right now. I swear to him and to you that I will make it up after all this is over." I promised.
"What's over? The war or this rebellion?" Estonia asked, and I shrugged.
"Both, hopefully. This war has already been going on for two years now..." I trailed off and continued eating, taking a swig from the vodka bottle whenever it came to me.
"Let's not eat anymore, let's save the rest for later!" Latvia said, holding his body protectively over the soup pot. "We're all full, right? So there will be no temptations!"
"Whatever." I shrugged and crawled back over to the corner with my coat in it. Latvia put our spoons back in the bag, but since there was no place to store the half-full soup pot, we simply left it there in the middle of the room and prayed nobody would accidentally knock it over in the dark.
"How do you think Belarus and Ukraine are doing?" Estonia randomly asked.
"They're probably being spoiled by Russia right now. He would literally die if it meant he could give those two the world." I answered, laying on my back.
"He spoiled us too, back in the day of his empire. Remember? He made me the most advanced of his nations, so I got new technologies way before anybody else!" Latvia gushed, crawling over to me.
"Yeah, and Finland was a nation owned by him back then. We never shared a room, but we still had the most riveting of conversations back then." Estonia laughed to himself a bit, remembering.
"I fucked everybody." I said calmly, making the others glare at me. "Just kidding! I just fucked Poland. We were so close back then, and then, it all went away..." I sighed, wondering what happened in such a short amount of time.
"Let's admit it, the Russian Empire was the best time of our lives." Latvia said, and we all nodded. "We could do whatever we wanted, when we wanted. No rules..."
"I want to go home. Forget all of this running and pissing into vodka bottles and eating out of a soup pot! I miss my place!" I lamented.
"But we're in Vilnius!" Latvia pointed out. "We're the ones who should be homesick..."
"Wow, the sun sure set fast, didn't it?" Estonia asked, looking out through a crack in the door. "I nearly forgot it was winter!"
The three of us grabbed our coats and bundled ourselves up in them to keep us warm, although I had to remove all my knives first so I wouldn't get stabbed in the middle of the night. There wasn't any room in the hideout, so we distanced ourselves the best we could while keeping our heads relatively close together.
"Wait!" Latvia jumped up and threw on his coat. "I need to stand watch for Russians!" He slipped his sniper on and stood by the door, keeping an ear out for approaching troops. Estonia simply shrugged and fell asleep, but I had trouble due to my thoughts returning to the nightmare I had last night. I hoped it wasn't a prediction of the future and just a bad image.
###############
Just as I managed to shut my eyes, I woke up to Latvia urgently shaking me.
"What is it?" I asked in a groggy tone, feeling around for a knife I could throw on such short notice, assuming us to be under attack by the Soviets. "Are we being attacked?"
"No..." Latvia admitted, and I relaxed.
"What is it, then?"
"I really have to pee but it's too cold outside and I can't see anything in here! Can you please help me?" He asked in an embarrassed tone, and I nodded and crawled out from under my coat.
"There's an empty vodka bottle around here somewhere..." I wondered, feeling around the muddy floor blindly with my gloved hands. "You were the last one who drank it, do you remember where you put it?"
"Over in front of the pot," Latvia pointed in the direction he thought it was. I rolled my eyes and crawled over there slowly, having my hand out and ready to grab anything I touched. I felt my hand close around something circular and grabbed it tightly, pulling it.
"I found it, Latvia!" I announced, only to have something slap my hand away.
"Why did you grab my leg? I'm trying to sleep!" Estonia snapped.
"Why are you sleeping so close to the soup pot?"
"I am? I must've moved in my sleep." He shrugged, as if he experienced stranger things. "Anyway, here's the empty vodka bottle." He handed it to me, and I gave it to Latvia and crawled back to my coat.
"Ummmm...I'm nervous..." Latvia admitted, crawling back with me. "I'm afraid of the noise..."
"You'll be fine." I smiled a bit to reassure him, then wiped it off my face when I realized he couldn't see it in the dark anyway. "Nobody's around here." I slipped into my coat and pulled my hood up over my face to conceal my eyes better.
"Alright..." Latvia breathed, still unconvinced. His need had won, however, and I could make out the very faint outline of his figure unbuttoning his coat and undoing his pants, and then I covered my eyes to give him some privacy. Despite my blindness, however, I could still hear the sound of liquid being poured into the bottle, and he handed it back to me and quickly buttoned his coat back up and hurried back to his post.
"Don't worry, I'll get rid of this." I promised, standing up and going outside.
"Please be careful! We're almost in Soviet territory!" Latvia worried, but I simply winked and told him I'd be fine. I softly shut the door and made my way over to a clear area far away from our hut and hurled the bottle as hard as I possibly could, resulting in it flying far away. I felt proud of myself and was about to head back inside when I felt someone come up behind me and grab me with gloved hands.
"Little birdie..." It said cheerfully in an icy voice, and I knew who it was in an instant. Still, I remained perfectly still and held my breath. "I caught you! Did you think you could outsmart me?" His grip on me tightened. "Let me see if I caught the right one!"
I felt Russia's hands fly up to my head and force my hood down, then those same hands took off my military hat and ran themselves through my long brown hair. I nearly flinched, but kept myself still.
"You are! Only my birdie could have such pretty hair like this." He put my hat back on my head, but left my hood off. I expected him to molest me and leave, but instead, he shoved two of his fingers into my mouth, making me gag. "You don't eat very much anymore, do you, birdie? I'll take care of that! Out we go!" He pulled his fingers out of my throat, the sudden force shocking me so much I doubled-over and vomited. "You moved!" He cheered, then kicked me to the ground.
"Russia..." I moaned, looking up at him.
"Do you three honestly think you can defeat my forces? I don't care how many of your citizens support this cause, there will always be way more of my men than yours. And with Ukraine's and Belarus' combined forces, I am unstoppable." He threatened. "Get off my land."
"Never...!" I stood up weakly and glared at him, and he glared right back.
"You always were an arrogant one..." He made a move for the gun on his back, but I made an even quicker move for a knife I wore on my thigh.
"Leave us alone!" I threatened him, slashing his leg with my knife. I only managed to rip his pant leg and draw a bit of blood, but it was a small victory in our ongoing war with him. Once he noticed the blood on his leg and on my knife, I grinned and licked it.
"Sometimes, I feel like your bloodlust will end us." He said in a strange tone, making me throw my knife at him. He dodged it, but when he lunged for me, not only did I dodge, but the pain in his leg slowed him down. He held it and gave me a dirty look. "This isn't over, Lithuania! We'll meet again at some point, count on it!" And with that, he shambled off into the distance, hopefully never to be seen again.
In that moment, it suddenly dawned on me that I had won in a fight against Russia. Sure, it was a small fight, if it could even be counted as one, and I barely wounded him, but it was major progress on the road to preventing Soviet takeover. I won a fight against Russia. I was covered in vomit, recovering from a bruised side, and was depraved of both sleep and a decent meal, but I had won. In my shock, I promptly fell over back into my vomit pile and passed out.
###########
I woke back up in our hideout to the other two finishing up their soup for breakfast. My coat was hanging up on a wire dangling from the ceiling, and every so often a drop of water would fall from it, proving that they had washed the vomit off.
"Hungry?" Latvia offered me my spoon, but I waved him away.
"I met Russia last night." I commented, making the other two glance over at me in barely-hidden fear.
"What did he have to say?" Estonia asked.
"What did he do?" Latvia also asked.
"He said we can't win against his large army and how he'll be back here to make us sorry, possibly tonight. He also gagged me and induced vomiting and messed with my hair." I shuddered at the thought. "I cut his leg with my knife though."
"Good job." Latvia praised quietly.
"We'd be wise to listen to him and get off his land." Estonia said, standing up. I gave him a dirty look.
"Are you suggesting we just give up? For one thing, we're not even on his land! We're next to it!" I insisted in anger. "Secondly, we formed this movement so we could prevent Soviet expansion in our nations, and so far, it's worked. It won't work if we just quit now, though, will it?"
"Fine, but this hideout isn't safe anymore. Russia knows we're here now, and will likely be back later with a large army." Estonia explained. I slowly stood up.
"So? We'll hide somewhere else then, maybe up in the trees again. We're still in the wilderness of my capital, but if push comes to shove, we can hide out easily in the main city." I carefully lined up all my knives and poisons, then started slipping them into my coat again.
"Why not? It might be fun to visit the city!" Latvia gushed, and I nodded.
"Then it's settled. Pack up guys, we're going to the city!" I grinned.
#################
Since it was early in the morning, most of my citizens were still at home, either sleeping or preparing for work or school. I envied them for taking it so easy in the middle of a war, but then again, they felt protected under our military. They had nothing to worry about.
"Does anyone have any money? I want to buy something." Latvia asked, but we both shook our heads.
"We probably should keep quiet around here. Not only are my citizens mostly unaware of the Forest Brothers, but we also have Soviet guards all over this place." I cautioned, pulling my coat a bit closer to my body.
Despite our best attempts, however, we soon went our separate ways in the city, and I soon found myself in a more run-down part purely by accident. I kept my senses alert for traces of Soviet officials, and neglected the rest of the city around me. That soon backfired, however, when I didn't hear someone's warning from a window above me and got a canister of garbage dumped on top of me.
"Hey!" I yelled, more in shock than actual anger.
"Sorry, but I told you to move out of the way." The woman snapped at me, simply closing her window afterwards. I shook off as much of the garbage as I could and hurried away, walking on the side of the street rather than the sidewalk from that point on.
I kept walking until I felt some hunger pangs and searched around for something I could eat since I had no money. As I searched, I suddenly heard the screams and cries of a young girl nearby, so I ran off in that direction.
I found a mother standing protectively in front of her children as a man touched the gun on his back. I sucked in a breath when I realized it was a Soviet official, and I quickly pulled out one of my knives.
"Take me, but leave my children! I couldn't bare for them to grow up and spend their entire lives in a prison!" She pleaded, still staying in front of her children.
"You've been arrested from an accusation against you that suggests you have been mingling and gaining information from a Swedish citizen, and you admitted to these , your entire family must be sentenced to an undetermined amount of time in prison." The man recited professionally, sounding very much like he's had to say this exact thing several times today. He probably has.
"You can't arrest Mommy for talking to Aunt Elsa!" The little boy protested, making the soldier finally look down at the kids.
"Where is your father?" He asked sternly.
"My husband is off fighting for the German Army. He left just a few months ago, so as you can see, it's just me and my children." The woman said proudly, staring the officer down.
"If you refuse to cooperate, I can just as easily make you." He threatened, and the instant he grabbed the gun on his back, I advanced on him, running past him and cutting the back of his leg with my knife. I stopped running and looked back at him, finding him loading up his gun and aiming it at me.
"Run! Leave us alone!" The woman yelled at me, clearly not wanting me to get shot, but I ignored her warnings. I pulled out my own gun and aimed it back at him, making him flash me a dirty look.
"You think you're so cocky, you little bitch? Just leave me to deal with my own affairs and you can deal with yours." After this, he fired at me, which I quickly spun to the right to dodge, and fired right back at him. I missed, but did manage to take quite a bit of his sleeve with it and make him bleed there. He swore in pain and tried shooting at me again, but the gun simply clicked.
I smirked. "Didn't check to see how much ammo you had left?"
"Cocky little shit!" He slung his gun back on his back and instead pulled out a knife. "I'll end you!"
I did the same. "With a good old-fashioned knife fight? Count me in!" At that, I ran at him and tried to slice his chest, but he simply dodged and nicked my cheek, making blood run into my mouth.
"Ouch...!" I moaned before spinning around and doing the same to his other arm. "How dare you ruin my handsome face? It's my best asset!" I noticed the woman's daughter giggle a little at this, and I flashed her a smile.
The Soviet officer gripped his knife tightly and tried to drive it into my chest, but I grabbed his wrists and managed to struggle with him, and he ended up ripping up part of my coat, causing a bottle to fall and shatter on the ground. His eyes widened at the discovery of my uniform.
"You're...a Forest Brother! And a Lithuanian one at that!" He tried to drive his knife into my chest again, but I continued struggling with him. At that point, I also held my breath since the bottle that shattered contained a poisonous gas that could slowly but painfully close up one's throat once inhaled.
"That's right. It just takes your breath away, doesn't it?" I smirked and ducked, releasing the officer's grip on me. I spun around and kicked him hard in the back, knocking him over and knocking him out. I thrust my knife into his back and forced it out, making him bleed out. Afterwards I flipped the sweat out of my hair and lit up a cigarette. The woman stared at me in shock, but the two children started to clap for me.
"What kind of a stunt was that?" She demanded at me, and I blew smoke out my mouth in response. "You could've gotten yourself severely injured, or even killed! Just what were you thinking?" She continued to demand, and I simply shrugged.
"I saved your life, did I not? If it wasn't for me, you and your children would've been locked up in the Gulag!" I shot back, taking a long drag of my cigarette.
As I was smoking, the woman's daughter came up to me. She was very beautiful, with strawberry-blonde hair and the bluest eyes I had ever seen on a person. She smiled brightly at me. "Ignore my mother, I think you did a great job. Thank you for saving us from that Soviet!"
"Why thank you, Miss...?"
"Elena. I know I look young for my age, but I'm seventeen! Almost eighteen." She smiled proudly.
"Wow, almost my age!" I smiled back at her, and a wintery wind blew past us. Her hair blew past her face, and I sudden got an image of the same girl in a golden court dress, dancing clumsily on a ballroom dance-floor. "Hey, do you believe in reincarnation?"
"What's that?" She asked with a curious tone in her voice.
"It's the belief that when a person dies, their soul is reborn into another person to live out that person's life. An old friend of mine told me he believes people who died too early and too cruelly in history get to relive their lives as normal people." I explained in a serious tone.
"What a romantic notion!" Elena sighed.
"Do you know anything about the last Russian Tzar and his family?"
"Only a little. I remember his youngest daughter the most, probably because she did whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She was a princess, but it didn't matter to her. I feel like I can really relate to that, in a way. Plus, she had a younger brother, just like me." She smiled at me. "Why do you ask?"
"When I was younger, I saw a picture of her in an old textbook and instantly fell in love..."
"I suppose you think I resemble her, don't you?"
"Maybe a bit. I can see traces of her in your eyes."
"Elena!" Her mother called, instantly shattering my illusion. The girl in front of me was just another citizen of mine.
"I have to go back inside. I really liked our discussion though, and I hope you can stop by at some point! Maybe when the war is over?" She offered, and before I could accept or even decline, she had gone back into her house, my last image of her were her cascading locks of hair, neatly pinned back with a blue ribbon.
Afterwards, I realized I still had my cigarette in my hand, so I tried my best to finish it off as I walked around the crummy city, avoiding as many emptying trash cans and other unpleasant wastes being dumped down on top of me. My smoke was gone too quickly, so I simply threw it on the ground and stamped it out with my boot, then continued walking, turning down an alleyway.
This particular alley had clearly seen better days, with the ground being littered with stray bits of garbage and sewage, and I even made out some dented or broken guns laying about that their owners clearly thought were beyond repair. I turned over to a nearby wall and fumbled with my coat buttons a bit, wanting to take them off but not wanting all my weapons to fall out. Finally I just made do with the bottom half of the coat being open, then unzipped my pants and pulled it out, aiming a slow but large stream of urine at the wall. The time I had to hold it wasn't long, but I still sighed a bit as I felt the pressure lessen and leave my body. I quickly placed a knife inbetween my teeth and hurried to finish my piss, anxious of any Soviet guards that may be around still.
It finally ended after several more seconds, and I spit out my knife and redressed myself, running out of the alley and keeping my eyes peeled for any more Soviet officers. After I heard a scream, I darted in that direction, expecting to find another family with young children pinned up against a wall somewhere.
Instead, I found both Estonia and Latvia pinned up against the wall, Latvia struggling with the man, who was clearly trying to take his knife away.
"Guys!" I said in surprise, making everyone look over at me.
"There's more of you?" The soldier demanded, letting go of Latvia and shoving him to the ground and advancing towards me. "Although, I guess you've already had a rough day. I can tell by that cut on your face!"
I wiped the blood away and tightened the grip on my knife. "Shut up, asshole!" I demanded, running towards him and jumping behind him, pinning one of his arms behind his back. "Luckily, I know of one way you can shut up." I smirked and slit the man's throat, causing him to fall over. I smirked again at my work, then ran over to check on Latvia.
"Damn, Lithuania, will you stop getting yourself injured for just one day?" Estonia demanded, and I jokingly stuck my tongue out at him.
"Luckily, Latvia is fine, just shaken up." I pulled him up to his feet, and he kept staring at the cut on my face.
"You look like you got in a knife fight!" He decided.
"I was in a knife fight, earlier." I grinned a bit. "Stupid commie didn't even check how much ammo he had left."
"Come on, we gotta get out of here. There are too many Soviet soldiers around here for my comfort, and you clearly have had one too many close calls." Estonia said sternly, walking away.
"I agree with him. Plus, it's getting dark and we have no money for a hotel anywhere." Latvia said, running after him.
I sighed and agreed with them, running to catch up with them. "I guess we're sleeping up in a tree again tonight."
"Comfy." Estonia groaned, holding his neck.
And thus, the three of us got the hell out of Vilnius.
###########
We picked a tree far away from the city, almost near city limits, which was almost all farm-land where, hopefully, nobody would think twice about looking for us in. The tree we picked out was small and low to the ground, but the branches were thick and would hide us relatively well, despite all being bare.
I climbed up first to the very top branch, while Estonia and Latvia stayed near the ground. We were all worn-out from our day in the city, so we didn't talk much, we just assigned Estonia to our look-out position and fell asleep.
We were roughly awoken by the sound of Estonia's sniper rifle ringing out, and we both pulled out our rifles, laid down on our branches, and scoped out the scene, looking to see what Estonia was attacking.
"False alarm! It was just an animal!" Estonia announced to us, but Latvia looked at me in doubt.
"What kind of animal is active in the middle of the winter, at night?" He wondered, but I simply shrugged and put my gun back on my back.
"What will happen if Russia catches us?" Estonia asked, and I froze.
"Are you telling me you're giving up?" I demanded hotly.
"Of course not! I was just wondering, it seems he's getting more hell-bent on capturing us, if the large amount of Soviet soldiers in Vilnius today were any indication."
I nervously chewed on my thumbnail, despite it being covered by my glove, as I thought about it. Almost as if on some sort of cue, we heard a cheerful whistling, and we all laid perfectly still on our branches.
"The sun just set, so it's still a nice night for a walk, huh?" Russia asked, clearly to just himself. "I think I heard from someone that here in Vilnius, there's a species of bird that can withstand these hostile chills! However, they're very violent." He grinned at this and stopped under our tree, looking up and trying to spot us. I saw a glint of silver and felt my eyes go wide as I realized Latvia pulled out a knife of his. Taking his cue, I pulled out some poisonous gas, trying to get a good aim in the dark.
Latvia sat up on his branch and threw his knife at Russia, aiming for his neck but missing him, the knife landing at his feet. All three of us noticed this and silently swore under our breaths, realizing our cover was blown.
Russia simply grinned and picked the knife up, inspecting it. "What an odd thing to fall out of a tree! What use does a bird have for a knife?" He turned it over, finding nothing, and tossed it aside, then pulled out a gun of his own.
We all backed up on our branches and only stopped when we hit the much-bigger trunk, afraid of Russia shooting at Latvia and hurting him or blowing our cover.
Russia fired into the tree, barely missing Latvia and making him lose his balance and fall out of the tree in front of Russia.
"LATVIA!" The two of us screamed in shock, jumping out of the tree and landing by his side. The three of us landed on either our backs or our stomachs, but we all could place the expression on Russia's face: triumph.
"Look, I caught three birdies! I shall take them home and take good care of them!" Russia put his gun up and roughly pulled us to our feet, looking us over. "First, however, you must give me all your weapons. I can't have my birds playing with them and hurting themselves, right?"
The three of us angrily unclipped our snipers from our backs and threw them at Russia's feet, but instead of smiling, he kept staring me down.
"All your weapons, please." He commanded again, making the other two stare at me as well.
I groaned. "Fine, whatever." I unbuttoned my coat and opened it wide, revealing it to be laced with about a dozen knifes and laced with several bottles of poisons.
"Lithuania, how did you even do that?" Latvia asked in amazement.
"I really hate those damn commies." I answered, before tossing my weaponized coat into the gun pile as well.
"Perfect! Now we can get going!" Russia smiled and roughly pulled us to our feet, then threw us under a tarp in a cart.
"What, no car?" I smirked.
"All of my soldiers get around by horses. They're very fast." Russia answered simply before getting on his horse. "Now stay under that tarp and shut up. I don't want to hear anything from under it. Don't even move. You'll know when we get there where we're going, so don't ask."
"But what if I have to pee?" I asked, partially serious. Russia just gave me a dirty look.
"You better hold it then!"
"What if I can't?"
"Damn it, Lithuania, I don't have time to answer all of your stupid questions! Just stay under there and shut up!" He pulled the tarp over us again and rode his horse fast, knocking the three of us down to the floor and making the ride bumpy. It didn't help that the whole cart was made sloppily out of wood, so all the bumps were magnified about a thousand plus.
"I don't feel so good..." I pulled myself onto my stomach and crawled over to a corner slowly and loudly puked into it, even finding that task difficult from all the bumps we were forced to endure.
"Lithuania!" Latvia cried in concern.
"He's just suffering from motion-sickness," Estonia shrugged, but I could hear the worry in his voice as well.
I kept puking until there wasn't anything left in my stomach, then I took to hurling bile up instead. I could tell Russia was getting annoyed that I wasn't laying down and acting like baggage since several times his hand would end up smacking the back of my legs under the tarp, but I barely processed it. After I was finished, I struggled to catch my breath and flopped down on the wood, still moaning from all the pain the bumps and jerks were giving me. Some of the vomit managed to leak through the cracks and drip onto the ground below, and staring at it gave me an idea.
"Guys, the wood is really unstable and badly put-together. I feel like if we put all our strength together, we could break the bottom of this thing open and escape!" I whispered to the other two excitedly.
"That just might work," Estonia decided, looking at the wooden boards.
"That's why you're the smartest of us!" Latvia beamed.
We instantly got to work on unscrewing any loose nails and pulling up rotten floorboards, eventually weakening the floor enough so that I could push my foot through it and break it. Sure enough, it worked.
"Come on, jump!" I commanded.
"The cart is moving way too fast, we won't make it!" Latvia panicked.
"I agree with him, I'm not risking it." Estonia agreed.
"If we don't jump now, we'll be forced to live with Russia!" I sighed, noticing their fear. "I'm scared too, but we've fought Russia's men for how long now? If we could handle that, we can handle a small jump onto the road." I ran my hand along the cut on my cheek and motioned to it.
"Alright, but, can you please hold my hand? I'm still afraid." Latvia asked nervously, and I nodded.
We all held onto each others hands tightly and Latvia shut his eyes. "On the count of three!" I commanded. "One, two, three!"
We all jumped out of the large hole we made and let go of each other, hitting the dirt hard and rolling for a while. After we stopped, I sat up and smirked.
"We made it! We did it!" I cheered, helping the two up.
"Now let's get the hell out of here before Russia notices we're gone!" Estonia suggested, and we all nodded and darted off in different directions, thinking if we split up, it'd be harder for Russia to find us.
###################
We all ended up meeting again at the first tree we hid out in together several nights ago, and I leaned against it to catch my breath.
"We did it! Here." I pulled out some cigarettes and lit them up for them, then passed them around. Latvia choked on his a bit.
"What do we do now? Russia's just going to come after us again." Estonia asked.
"Then we keep running from him and fighting. Can't you feel the spirits of all our citizens fighting off Soviet soldiers? As long as that spirit lives on, we will continue to fight with them!" I cheered.
"Yeah! Russia will never tie us down!" Latvia smiled, slowly taking a drag of his smoke. He choked again.
"And if we do end up captured?" Estonia persisted.
"Then we continue fighting against him like our citizens. I'm not frightened of him, and you guys shouldn't be either!" I answered.
"See? I told you you're a good motivator." Estonia smirked, and I jokingly punched his arm.
"Shut up, I am not. But thank you anyway." I blew smoke out my mouth.
"Look, all the stars are out tonight! Let's see if we can find any planets or constellations!" Latvia said happily, climbing up the tree and standing up on one of the lower branches.
"I bet I could identify some for you," I offered, climbing up to sit next to him.
"It's such a nice night too. It's not even really that cold, it's just right." Estonia noticed, sitting on the other side of Latvia.
"Hey, is that Jupiter?" Latvia asked, pointing to a star that was bigger than everything around it. I nodded. "Wow, looking at the stars really makes you notice how much bigger everything around you is."
"I know." I blew my smoke out my mouth again and watched it float away into the air. "Now come on, tell me if you can see the North Star!"
"Sure! It's right there!" Latvia pointed to it. "It always points north, no matter what. It's useful for sailors and things like that."
"It's always visible at Russia's place," Estonia pointed out.
"Can we snuggle together to stay warm?" Latvia asked, and I smiled. He promptly cuddled with me tightly, a small smile on his face. I looked over at Estonia.
"Don't be shy, come on in here!" I teased, pulling him into the hug too.
"Hey, you made me drop my cigarette!" He protested, but once he wrapped his arms around Latvia, he stopped talking and simply leaned into him.
"I'll try to find the Milky Way..." I told them, looking up at the night sky once more.