Prologue
Once upon a time, not too far into history that it was forgotten, a young nation began to live a cruel life. He would conquer any nation he deemed worthy to be taken, and would be a cruel master to them. Only two people in his life scared him. One was his little sister, but that can be saved for another time. The other was his boss.
One night, on the night the first snow of the winter fell on the lands belonging to the nation, a knock came at his door. Irritated that the uninvited visitor would arrive just as he was settling down to dinner, the nation moved and threw open the door and peered down at the haggard old man at his feet.
"Please, oh mighty nation…" the old man begged, "Please… allow me a place to stay the night, out of this dismal weather…"
"What would I get in return, da?" The mighty nation asked, peering into the snow then back at the man.
"This simple rose of ice… promised to never melt" The old man produced a rose of pure crystal ice and offered it to him.
"A rose of ice? I have enough ice in my home to carve thousands myself. Be gone" He closed the door on the old man and turned to go back to his dinner. Little did he know, the beggar man was the only other man he feared? General Winter. Seeing there was no compassion in the nation, even for his own people, General Winter cast a curse on the nation and his lands.
Months past before the mighty nation knew of it. It first began when the spring months arrived, yet the horrid snow he detested refused to melt, or stop falling from the cloudy grey skies. Finding it odd, one day he decided to travel to a neighboring nation, to see if they were having the same funny weather, but when he reached his boarder, a great gust of wind picked up and blew him back a few feet. Try as he might, the nation could not cross his boarder.
"What is wrong?" He called to the skies, wanting to understand the forces at work at the time.
"You and your land are cursed, Russia." General Winter appeared before him, holding the ice rose. Realizing what he had done all those months ago; Russia began to fear for his existence, and begged General Winter to reconsider the curse.
Laughing, the mighty general shook his head, "You must learn to love someone with no malicious intent to your love. It will teach you to have compassion for others. Only then will the winter stop, and you will be free. Oh, and they must learn to love you in return, one sided love does not count."
Handing the rose to Russia, General Winter laughed once more, "The petals of this rose will melt, one by one… If you cannot break the curse before the last one melts, you will never escape this winter."
One more laugh from General Winter, and he was gone in a sweep of wind and snow. Russia looked down at the rose and began to throw it, but stopped. If he broke it, he would be stuck in the winter forever. He began back to his house, where he knew Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would now be waking up. He would have to tell them of his curse, and hope they would help him find a way to break it.