Hello! EmeraldScale here! This is my first fanfic, so creative critisim is never looked down upon. I hope you enjoy! Also, this is based on the ballet Swan Lake.

Unfortunately, I do not own Hetalia or Swan Lake.

In a far off country called Hungary, there was a kingdom. In that kingdom, there ruled a king and queen. They were fair and just rulers who loved their kingdom as much as their kingdom loved them.

The king and queen had many gifts and blessings bestowed upon them, but none so great as their daughter, Elizabeta. The kingdom came to love this girl, for she was kind to all and very beautiful. Her hair was like golden honey and her eyes sparkled like emeralds. Even at a young age, many men came from far and wide to see if one day, they could take her as their bride.

But one man did not like this girl. Nikolai, a powerful magiacian, was jealous of the girl, for his daughter, equal in beauty, was always shunned away. For his daughter, whose name was Erzsebet, was mean and cruel to all those she met. To get revenge on Elizabeta, he stole her away from her family and hid her deep in the bowels of an enchanted forest, where she could not escape.

When the kingdom found out about her disappearance, there was a clamorous uproar. Many searches were issued, but each one ended up as a failure. Days passed, then weeks, and the searching still continued. Not until those weeks turned into months did searching cease, and Elizabeta was forgotten, only remembered by pictures collecting dust.

When first in the forest, she was scared and cried for anyone to help her. She was also cursed to be a small yellow songbird each day, and could only assume her human form when the sun went down. She was never happy and she barely slept nor ate. Seeing as how life could not go on like this, she decided to summon up all of her bravery and went to search the forest.

Not long after, she stumbled upon a clearing. It had a small brook that flowed through the trees, and many low branched trees that rustled in the wind. She also found a trio of young girls, all around her age, except for a shy-looking girl who looked to be about seven. She introduced herself to them, finally glad to talk to someone besides herself. They all seemed kind, and when she got to know them better, they all became good friends. She learned that they were all locked away in this forest, and that they had been cursed, just as she had.

One of the girls, named Katyusha, was very kind, but very sensitive. She had short blonde hair and a fairly large chest. Nikolai had cursed this peasant girl because she had not let him come into her house when he wanted food. Each night, she turned into what Katyusha called a bluethroat songbird.

Lily, the shy, younger girl, was an heir to the throne of Liechtenstein. She had refused to give Nikolai power over an area of her home country, so she was forced to become what Elizabeta assumed was a dove, although it looked much smaller.

The last member of their group was Natalia. She seemed bitter and malicious, but if you weren't annoying her, she could be quite friendly. The reason she was cursed was the silliest of them all. In truth, Nikolai was scared of her. She was very powerful in her home country of Belarus, and she wasn't very friendly, either. She didn't deserve to be here, and it only made her angrier. Each night, she was turned into a ferocious-looking hawk. In truth, although they'd never tell her this, all the other girls were scared of her in the day, when she turned into a bird of prey.

The girls called their little group the Flock, considering that they all were birds. They each had their own nest in a big tree by the brook. Natalia, having had the longest time being a bird, taught all the other girls how to fly. They settled in as birds, their lives dull and boring. they never tried to go away from the forest, though, because they would get lost or caught. They all feared the world outside of their clearing, every shadow and noise a threat to them. Besides, even if they did get out, they couldn't live their lives as half birds.

Elizabeta spent ten years in the forest, and each night since she was fifteen, Nikolai had asked for her hand in marriage. Now eighteen, she was getting tired of his courting.

"How many times do I have to say no?!" she yelled at him.

Nikolai smiled. "Until you say yes," he answered.

Elizabeta glared coldly at the magician. He smiled back.

"Well, I've never going to marry you, so stop asking!" she screamed at him as she stormed away.

She climbed up into her tree so she wouldn't have to look at Nikolai's horrible face from across the clearing. Man, she hated that guy. Lily called up to her to see if she was alright, but Elizabeta didn't give a response. She was too angry. She just wanted to go home to a place that was fuzzy in her mind. She calmed herself down and got out of her tree when she had seen that Nikolai had left. She walked over to the other girls, where Lily was trying to braid Natalia's hair, much to her annoyance. She sat down next to Katyusha and watched Lily as she repeated the pattern for braids over and over again.

She soon got bored of this, so she laid on her back and glanced up at the stars. The moon washed her face in a silver light, and she longed for the rays of the sun to touch her face. She wanted so many things: her family, the sun, to get away from Nikolai; but those were just silly dreams that couldn't come true.

She sat up and started to talk to Katyusha. "When are we ever going to get out of he-"

Her sentence was cut short as she heard a noise coming from the direction of the brook. She told everyone to be quiet and started to walk towards the noise, her feet barely making a sound. She jumped back at what she saw.

Yay! The first cliffhanger Any reviews are appreciated. Well, anything is nice, even if you just read it. I hope you enjoyed it!

EmeraldScale out!