My not so amazing French rears it's head once again. Thanks so much kitaklaw for the French corrections!

So basically, in my head cannon, Nations who do not have a mother and father nation (who are born like human babies) gain their senses one by one, just like humans do while in the womb, except you know... outside the womb... Yeah. Sounds kinda strange when I write it out, but whatever.

Either way, this is my piece for the first prompt for nations never die on deviantart .

It's an awesome group, that I really suggest checking it out. All the writers and artists are super talented, so I'm super honored that I got to join!

The first sense that came to her was hearing. From within her there was a constant rhythm of thumps that marked time. There was also a soft, if slightly less constant hush. There were other sounds too, quite like the hush from her chest, fainter ones, sometimes accompanied by rustling sounds, but sometimes these soft sounds morphed into howls. They came and went, like the little pitter-patters. Sometimes they last for more time then she cares to keep track of. Sometimes they passed by her quickly, faint, loud then faint once again. Other sounds came only from herown mind. Sounds like heartbeat, breath, breeze, rain, animal. Sometimes she can correlate the sounds her mind calls "words" with the sounds from outside; other times, the words are slippery and clumsy, they slip from her mind before they can come forth from her in what her mind calls a "voice". Animal in particularly is hard, because the pitter-patter of an animal is just like rain's pitter patter at first.

The second sense is touch. Now heartbeat is accompanied by a little push within her chest. A pulse that travels from her center to the farthest reaches of her body. This new thing is something her mind calls a feeling. the feeling a thump. Breeze and breath tickle her skin, they are soft and insubstantial, but also rather pleasant. Breath also causes something within her to fill and empty, which causes her outside to move as well and mind says that this is kind is called rise and fall. Touch also solidifies the animal in her mind. They are part soft (mind says this feeling is called fur) and part hard (mind says claws sometimes, teeth at others. Those words slip from her often). However Rain's touch is odd. The initial tap is quick, and it leaves a slick something on her skin, but after rain is gone it lingers against her. Her mind calls rain, wet and the little after rain damp. Then far after rain is no longer there, and she is dry.

The third sense is sight. It is easily the most enlightening, and infuriating sense yet. Whereas, all her other senses had come in a sudden moment. One moment without feeling, the next moment with it. Sight came in steps. Waiting with an incomplete sense was probably the most unpleasant feeling. Her mind calls the annoying tightness and just ready to burst feeling impatience.

The first bit of sight that she receives is something called light and dark. Light comes from something called "sun" and when the light hits leaves that have yet to fall and what they are attached to (this is called a tree) it creates something that is "dark" called a shadow. Some shadows move along with the leaves, others only move when the sun moves across the thing her mind calls sky. That movement of the sun is called day. The beginning of the day is sunrise, the end is sunset. After the sun goes away, a dim thing rises in it's place, and this is called "moon" the little bits of light that shine in the dark sky are "stars". In winter the nights are long, and in the summer the opposite is true.

The second thing that sight gives her is shape. Parts of trees are thick and cylindrical (this is called tree trunk) and other parts extend from it, thick at their beginnings, and spindly at their ends. These are branches, and leaves are attached to them. Leaves themselves come in many shapes, but she is given no words for the irregular shapes. Rain starts as something called a droplet, but when they hit her, or the ground (which is something called flat) the shape is lost. Her body too is made of shapes, these are called arms legs fingers toes head hands and feet.

The third and final part of sight is called color. It is almost overwhelming. The world is filled with so many colors! Her body is called tan, her hair called brown. The ground and trees are called brown as well, but they are different browns. These different kinds of browns are called shades. Leaves are green in spring and summer, but in fall they turn slowly into beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange. When they fall to the ground they are brown as well. Sky is blue when it is not raining, and sometimes there are strangely shaped white things called clouds. When it rains the sky is filled with gray. The sky is by far the most beautiful during sunset and sunrise. The sun is red , the sky is yellow , orange , blue , and purple all at the same time. The display makes water run down her cheeks every time. The water from her own body is called tears. They can signify a feeling called happy, but can also signify it's opposite, sad.

The fourth sense is smell. Now she can smell the ground. This scent is called earthy. The breeze caries the sweet smell of flowers, berries, and rain smells soft and damp. There are many scents every day; they are hard to describe, and so a lot of the time she doesn't pay attention to it.

The fifth sense that comes to her is balance. This sense gives her for the first time, the ability to move just like leaves and animals. At first she can only wiggle her fingers and toes, move her head from time to time. Eventually she can sit up on her own, as well as bend her arms and legs. After sitting up she learns to move on all fours like the animals, but her mind tugs at her, and tells her that this is not how she should be moving.

You have to legs it tells her

You must use them properly It says

She wonders what properly is and why moving on all four of her limbs is so terrible, but non-withstanding, she does notice something. The end of every animal's leg is the same. Paws. But she has hands and feet. Hands can grab things whereas feet cannot. So hands and feet didn't have the same function. If hands were meant for grabbing, then what were feet for?

It is at this time she learns to kneel. Kneeling is when she balances on the halfway point of her legs called knees, and her hands don't touch the ground. She got the idea from seeing an animal go up on its back legs. But then something occurs to her; her hands are able to grab, but her feet cannot. That must mean that they have some other purpose. Then she does something on something called an impulse. She moves her hip so her foot is flat against the ground. Now it is a simple push to get her other foot on the ground and-

Oh! she was on the ground again? Well... not exactly... she is still on her feet, but she barely has any weight on them. She is pressed against a tree; the rough bark has made her skin break and red leaks through. It's not a nice feeling. It is sharp, and the red liquid smells strange. Sharp and scary. This liquid is blood. The feeling is pain. The action that caused it was tripping; the confusing moment that had been too quick for her to comprehend what was happening was called falling. But for some reason she tries walking again, this time just around the tree so that she has something to lean against in case she falls again.

Eventually she trusts her legs enough to take her to one of the berry bushes. She's wondered for quite awhile what berries felt like. These ones were soft, and when she squeezed them red liquid came and stained her hand pink. The red stuff is called juice, and this particular berry is called raspberry. The juice makes her hands rather sticky, so (once again) on impulse she drags her tounge across her stained skin.

This is how she discovers her favorite sense. Taste. Berries are wonderful against her taste buds, and her mind calls that feeling tangy. Tears are salty. But this introduces hunger, and thirst. She does not want to leave the clearing where she has lived her entire life so far, but there isn't water enough or berries enough to satisfy her here. A couple of tears run down her cheeks as she looses sight of the clearing, but the sadness is slowly replaced by curiosity at the new types of trees, berries,grasses and animals she finds as she wanders.

This is when she learns the harshness of hunger in winter. There are no berries to eat, and food is scarce. She learns to hunt, and she learns to gather and store while food is plentiful. This is called preparing.

Another curiosity is when she finds another like herself. he is taller, and his hair looks like sunlight and eyes like the sky. He is called France or sometimes Papa. He is called a boy, whereas she is a girl. His hair settles just above his shoulders, a clean scent emanates from the sun colored locks, and they sway animatedly with his movements. So much unlike her own which hangs around her, limp and dirty. That is until he shows her something called a bath, and he runs something through her hair called a comb, which takes away all the "knots". After the bath, and the hair combing, her hair bounces and shines like his, and she wraps her arms around him, (this, she is told is called a hug). She likes hugs quite a lot, even if they do make her feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, and she receives many of them from France.

France travels with another boy, a smaller one. He is called Canada, but he is also called brother. He has wonderful eyes that remind her of the sky just as the sun disappears, a wonderful shade of dark purple. He tells her that their eyes are the same color, but she cannot believe that her eyes could ever be half as wonderful. But since Canada insists, she decides that she may as well hope that he is telling the truth. His hair is between her brown and France's pale blonde, and it bounces and frames his face in a way that simply makes her heart melt inside of her. Her mind calls this sensation love. She feels it around France sometimes, but the feeling isn't quite as strong around him as Canada.

Then there is a last curiosity. France is France, or Papa, even sometimes Francis, Canada is Canada, or Frère, or Matthieu, but her mind has given her no word to describe herself as of yet.

"Papa?"

"Oui Chérie?" (Yes dear?)

"What am I?" France blinked.

"What do you mean by that?" She pouted.

"J'ai des mots pour vous appellez, et j'ai des mots pour appeller Canada, mais tu m'appelles 'chèrie' seulment... est qu'il y a un mot pour m'appelles?" (I have words to call you, and I have words to call Canada, but you only call me 'chérie'... is there a word to call me?)

"Tu veux un nom?" (You want a name?) Her mind tells her that yes, name is a word that you can call yourself, and a way to tell others who you are. This is what she was looking for, so she nods vigorously.

"Hm... D'accord... un nom pour toi... Est-ce que tu aimes le nom Acadie?" (Alright... a name for you.. do you like the name Acadia?)

Acadie. That feels right against her tongue... so very right. It is the easiest word that she has ever learned. There is no moment of struggle in it's pronunciation, and it cements automatically in her mind. It is at this moment that she realizes that she is complete. That there is much growing, but no more basics to gain. no more senses to discover, and more then that She understands all of the sudden that she is a nation, a land represented in a human body...

And most of all she understands that she has finally been born fully into the world.