This took far too long -.- Good news though only one chapter left cause this is a very short story.


Time passed and soon the village was left barren of its children. The once happy village was left shroud in depression that seemed to grow with every passing day. Being the only child left Ivan was guarded like gold, he was never allowed time to himself. As much as he liked the attention he wished the other children would come back and he wanted to go back to the forest. He wanted to visit the flower patch and pick more beautiful flowers to cheer everyone up. He wanted to find a sunflower to brighten his house. Since the beast returned he hasn't been able to visit it and his house was left without flowers, something that hurt him more than the loss of the other children. Even though he considered the other children his friends the flowers were always cheering him up. They just looked beautiful and waited for him to pick him so he could smile. They didn't call him names. Since more children started disappearing more also started harassing Ivan, they blamed him for the others going missing. Some convinced their parents that it was his fault and for a week it appeared that he was going to be exiled. That was until the elders stepped in and made everyone see sense. Ivan was a child; there was no way he could have influenced who was taken. There was no way he could have control over the beast. That was until that one fateful day he finally escaped the adults and made his way back into the forest.

One morning at dawn Ivan awoke to the sounds of birds singing outside his window. Excited he scrambled to the window and pulled back his curtains. Outside he saw three blue birds playing on a shovel his father had left in the garden. Quietly he snuck out past his father who lay sleeping in a makeshift bed beside him. Once outside he raced towards the birds who fled when they saw him coming. Giggling to himself he gave chase after them until eventually they came to the edge of the forest. As if egging him on they paused and flew above his head causing him to giggle more but then they disappeared into the trees. By now Ivan was too caught up in his excitement to heed any previous warnings he had gotten about the forest. For the first time in a long time he was happy and he had gotten to play. So without a second of hesitation he followed them into the trees and soon found the old path he always used to visit his favourite clearing were the flowers grew.

Deeper and deeper he ventured into the trees until all signs of the village had disappeared behind him. Soon he came across the clearing, gasping in delight he threw himself into a large bunch of daisies that grew not far from the path. Rolling around in joy he gazed up at the sky. It was in this one area that the sky was visible and for as long as Ivan could remember he never saw a cloud ruin the perfect blue that hung above him now. There were days when he wished he could have stayed out all night to watch the stars but that was impossible. His father always came for him if he stayed out too long. Pushing himself up from the ground he gazed around. The clearing was carpeted with more flowers than Ivan could name, however he did notice something different. The sunflowers he loved were gone. Sighing he stood up and went to look around the outskirts of the clearing. He knew it was unlikely considering that they normally grew in the very centre of the clearing but he had to try. When he gave a sunflower to anyone he would light up at the joy in the others expression. So now he wanted to find a whole bunch of them to cheer everyone up. Lost in his thoughts he didn't notice a dark figure following him. That was until he wandered too close to a tree covered in mistletoe.

Seeing the boy come closer the figure backed further into the shrubbery it was hidden in. However a twig snapped when it stepped back causing the boy to move closer. Cowering against the tree the figure waited until the branches shielding were whipped back. The boy gasped in shock and fell back to the ground, whimpering in pain as he collided with the clearing floor. Sitting up he rubbed his elbow and stared wide eyed at the figure. Expecting the boy to attack or flea the figure awaited his fate, instead however the boy smiled.

"Do you like this place as well?" he asked. The innocence of his question and the complete lack of fear shocked the figure. It could only press its pointed ears closer to its head and lower its eyes at the question. Unable to talk back to the boy, it could only hope that body language was enough.

"Yay I'm glad someone likes this place too," the boy cheered and jumped to his feet and once again moved closer to the figure. "it's really pretty here and I wish I could come here more but... the adults are scared of this place." His voice trailed off as he thought of what his father would do if he discovered Ivan had wandered off. There was a chance Ivan would never be allowed to leave his side again, and worse than that he was afraid of what his father would do. He hated his father's temper.

The figure looked around the clearing and nodded slowly. It still remained hidden in the shadows, afraid of how the boy would react if it were to leave.

"Hey want to come out of there and help me pick some flowers?" Ivan asked in a desperate attempt to push past his doubts.

The figure shook his head and retreated further into the shadows.

"Please... I just want someone to play with. I'm tired of being lonely I just want a friend."

The figure froze, it didn't know how to react. If it came out of the shadows the boy would run away or hurt it, but if it stayed in the shadows the boy would get even sadder and for some reason the figure didn't like seeing the only friendly face it had seen in almost a century cry. A few minutes passed until eventually the figure stood up and slowly made its way into the light. Patiently it waited on a scream or something to indicate the boy was afraid, instead it was met with silence. It looked at the boy who smiled back at.

"Yay does this mean we're friends now? My name's Ivan and I live in the village not far from here!" Ivan almost yelled in glee.

The figure continued to stare at the strange boy completely perplexed by his reaction. It had gotten used to humans fleeing in terror, not this. This both overwhelmed and excited it.

"You're pretty strange though... are you a wolf," Ivan inquired and finally took the figures form into consideration. It looked like a bulkier version of a large dog, it's fur was pitch black aside from streaks of amber and green running down it's back. It's eyes were a bright red the seemed to glow now it was in the light and below that set its mouth. Monstrous yellowing teeth showed between black lips in an unnerving smile. The figure shook his head at the question. "Ok so not a wolf... you're a lot bigger than any wolf I've ever seen before. Are you a dog then? I heard about huge dogs from an island country far away from here." Once again the figure shook his head. "Hmm then can you give me a clue?"

Glancing around the figure caught sight of a path of dirt to their left. Walking over it stared at it trying to figure out how to communicate wheat it needed to say. Trudging through all his memories of how humans communicated he came across one memory. Slowly he raised a huge paw and started tracing out a word in the dirt. Ivan watched in awe as the word was spelt out.

"Monster," he said once the figure had finally finished. "You're not a monster."

The figure stared at him for a moment before prodding his paw back towards the word.

"No you're not. A monster would have eaten me by now. You might look scary but I'm still alive so you're not a monster," Ivan replied with a small giggle.

The boys innocence and naivety baffled the figure. It was true he hadn't killed the boy but it's not like he hadn't killed before... the figure forced those memories from its head and brought his focus back to Ivan. Startled the figure froze at realising Ivan had now closed the gap between them and was now petting the fur on his back. Unable to move the figure remained in that spot until Ivan started scratching. Before it knew what was happening the figure rolled onto its back and stretched out begging for Ivan to scratch its tummy. Giggling Ivan happily obliged.

"See you're not a monster, but you need a real name... how about Kolya? I like it, from now on you're Kolya and we're going to be friends!"

Gasping for breath the newly dubbed Kolya struggled to its feet and moved away from Ivan who had by now divulged into a fit of laughter.

"Want to help me pick flowers? I want to make everyone back at the village happy again?" Ivan proposed after gaining his composure again and looking lopsidedly at Kolya. Unable to refuse Kolya pushed past Ivan and started rummaging through the flowers until it found a small blue one with more petals than either could count. Looking over it attempted to smile at Ivan instead created an awkward grimace. Ivan laughed at the face but none the less ran over to pick the flower. Grinning in victory as he did so. They spent the next hour or so finding and picking the most beautiful flowers in the clearing until Kolya nudged his head against Ivan and forced him to look at the sky. The sun was visible meaning it was noon and time Ivan had to leave. Sighing the boy gathered the flowers they have picked and started on his way back to the village. Kolya following closely behind. Once near the outskirts of the forest Kolya stopped.

"Why are you stopping?" Ivan asked and raised a brow at his new friend. Kolya only shook its head and lowered it to the ground. "You don't like the village?" Once again Kolya shook his head. Seemingly understanding Ivan nodded and smiled. "It's ok I'll come back tomorrow and we can play then!" Kolya looked up and saw the eager look in Ivan's eye and nodded slowly. To say it wasn't excited by the prospect of having someone to share its time with was an understatement. "Ok I have to go now but I'll be back at the same time tomorrow!" Ivan called and raced off further down the path. Kolya could only watch the boy's small retreating back until it too decided to make its way back to its home.

Unlike Ivan's village which had plenty of people to spend time with Kolya dwelled in a small cave by itself. The only time Kolya normally met others was when it hunted or worse still it was commanded to go into the village. Trudging past the small stones that littered the entrance Kolya made itself comfortable near the back of the cave and settled down for a nap. Try as it might it couldn't ignore its surroundings. Small scraps of fabric strewed the cave floor and bits of jewellery glittered in the low light. It tried to imagine that it really was small stones littering the entrance to the cave but it wasn't. They were small bones of what Kolya knew were children Ivan had considered friends. Ivan would never believe the new friend he had made was a monster. In fact the worst monster Kolya had ever known throughout its long hard life. Kolya was the beast the plagued the village and the forest. Kolya was the reason Ivan was lonely.


Reviews? Opinions on what's going to happen? Opinions on Chibi Russia's character? Any feedback is amazing ^^

Also if anyone gets annoyed by referring to Kolya as an 'it' there is a reason that will be shown in the next chapter and as for the name I just took the kolkolkol Russia always says and found a russian name with that XD Woohoo google!