I sat down hard in the chair. Dead? Ivan? How could that be possible?
"But… he's Ivan. He can't be dead, can he? He always seemed so… invincible. Immortal." I muttered, as Natalia turned slowly away.
"We were going to search for him, but… the Baltic States and Poland blocked it off. They told us it was too dangerous." She looked down. "We're all scattered around the world now. Those of us who survived."
"But… why come here? You hate me." I asked. I must admit that at this point, my mind wasn't much on the subject. It had drifted off into thinking about the presence of my little brother, Golden Horde. No longer being an entity, he's easily killed. What if he's dead? What if he's gone from this world? No no, he can't be. He's too strong for that. But not as strong as he once was. My mind snapped back to attention as Belarus continued on.
"It was either you or Lithuania. I'm not going over to Prussia for help, and I'm sure as hell not going to go to America. It's even worse there then in Moscow." She sighed. "You're our only hope… help us."
I blink. "I have a feeling I've heard that before, but that's beside the matter. What do you need help with? And how do you know I'll give it to you?"
"We need help gathering up a force to destroy North Korea. They're the only land on the planet still in one piece, and that's not going to fly." Natalia straightened her back out, Yekaterina still sitting quietly in the corner. My eyes light up as she continues on. "You're the master strategist, aren't you? You stood under Genghis's reign for thirty years, and we need your support in fighting the enemy if we want to come out of Pyongyang alive. And by the way, you're going to help either way unless you want your guts spilled out where you sit."
I gulp. She has a major physical advantage over me. She's well rested on her journey to find me, whereas I've been stranded in my desert for god knows how long. I can't fight Ukraine off, much less her. If I pick a fight here, China would be taking my territory in half a minute, assuming he's still there. It's a much better idea to take her offer and manipulate it later.
"I don't have much of a choice, now do I…" I mutter, crossing my arms, trying my best to look sore. "I'll take your offer. But first, you have to lead me to the survivors. I want to help recruit them myself. And er… we have to go west! Yes, west. We need the western powers before we can make any assault on North Korea."
Natalia gave me a suspicious glare, Ukraine chewing her fingernails in the corner.
"Fine… but I'll warn you now. Any funny business and you'll find yourself back here with less limbs than you started with. Zrazumieŭ?"
"Za. Let's get started then." I say, standing up. "Do you have a map?" Ukraine unfurls a map and places it on the table. I move my finger across it, tracing a path. "We can take the old Silk Road trade routes up to Turkey, crossing through Kazakhstan and Russia. From there, we'll go to Greece and grab Bulgaria and Romania. Then we'll take a quick sweep through Poland and the Baltics, make a quick stop at Moscow if we can, and then go up into the Nordic countries. Iceland will be with Norway, I suppose, so we don't need to bother going there. Heh. Then we'll go from Denmark to Germany, which is going to be a real fun trip. In fact, while we're there, I want to find someone who I think can help us…"
Belarus leaned down next to me and tilted her head. "Who are you talking about?"
"You'll see when we get there. I plan on bringing all the Germanics back with us. Hesse, Saxony, Bavaria… even that little Kugelmugel guy. They're all indispensable in a battle. After we round them up, we can go down to Hungary from Austria. From there, we'll go to Italy—"
"Excuse me? Explain to me why we're going to bring those useless imbeciles with us? Cannon fodder?" the Belarusian asked, raising an eyebrow. I smirked.
"Isn't it obvious? Not only are they going to be our chefs, they're going to be protected by Rome's blessing! We can't lose with them in our army. Also, this reminds me. If we find Rome, we'll bring him with us. Any other Ancients, just ignore them. If it's you-know-who, you can kill him." I chuckled, though I twitched slightly at mention of him.
I'm not going to go into any great detail about him for reasons that I'm not going to divulge if I don't have to.
"Anywho, from Germany, we'll round up the rest of Europe to the west and make a journey to the Americas. I'll be damned if Canada's dead, I can still feel his mines running. Barely. Not sure about Cuba or America though." I paused. "We're going to need to get to the end of Europe first before we continue planning this."
"It's only going to take a few days if we ride on horseback, if I'm doing this math right." Natalia commented. "We'll have to go through China to get there though, and he'll notice us too. He's much more sensitive to people traveling through him these days. A bit cracked too. Yao hasn't been thinking right since Macau and Hong Kong died."
My heart drops like a rock. Dead? Not those two! They've been around since forever. I had some fairly good times with Macau, at the very least. China would be insane at the pure thought of their disappearance.
"We'll have to be careful then." I say in a semi-hoarse voice. "I need arrows so I can hunt and fight. The only use I am to you otherwise is that I know the lay of the land, and that might not even be the same. I mean, look outside! I don't even recognize this part of the Gobi!"
Yekaterina sighed. "It's a city in the Dornogovi province of your home, called Sainshand. This is all that's left… s-sorry."
I felt my heart tearing away. Sainshand? My grandson? Does that mean that my daughter is dead too? No. No, no no no no. This cannot be happening. Tears form in my eyes, but I hold them back.
"H-how… how can h-he be… gone?" I muttered, my voice hoarse. Belarus turned away coldly while Ukraine started to sweat. I turn to her slowly, my body shaking. "How l-long… have I been unconscious, Ye-Yekaterina…?"
She bit her lip and sighed. "I-it's been… give or take… two years."
I fell out of my chair and let the tears flow. Belarus gave me a surprised look but did nothing to stop me. My wretched sobs were torn from my throat. I forget so easily how connected I am to emotion on occasion. All my past territories reinforce that feeling. And they're doing it right now too, but even thinking about this makes another wail rip out. I felt a hand pat my arm, but I didn't bother to look up. All I thought was that Yekaterina's hands seemed to be a bit smaller than I thought they were.
Suddenly, my environment changed. I heard yelling, and I saw shapes rushing around the ger. I moved my glasses out of the way to brush the tears from my eyes and see clearly. Belarus beckoned to me, holding her knives in her hand while Ukraine held a pitchfork fearfully.
"Come on. We have company."
Really touchy chapter for Mongo this time! Either way, let's run through a few quick translations:
Za: Mongolian for "Yes"
Zrazumieŭ: Belarusian for "Understand"
Also, before I get called on it, please look at the title before you criticize me for having him knocked out for two years!
Reviews, please! 8D
