On the road, he encountered a pretty girl wearing a blue-and-white dress, white stockings, and black shoes. She had a white bow on top of her pale blonde hair. She stared at him as he went past her, and for some reason, her gaze gave Ivan a feeling of unease.
Further down the path, three friends were chatting casually. The one Ivan recognized was of medium build, with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. He'd met him once, long ago, when he was still under the Tatars' rule. Ivan had told him that when he was more powerful, the man would become his friend. But Ivan knew that just one friend wasn't enough. Why not make all three of them his friends?
He approached them in quick strides. The familiar one immediately recognized him and exclaimed, "Hey! It's you! I'm glad you escaped from the Tatars!" The other two glanced up at Ivan and questioned their friend, "Who is he? How do you know him?" He answered, "I met him a long time ago when we were still kids. He was under the Tatars' rule then, but I guess he's free now." The other two expressed their relief that Ivan was free, and the three walked on.
But Ivan blocked their path.
The familiar one asked politely, "Would you mind moving to the side and letting us pass?"
"Yes, I would mind," Ivan replied with a smile.
The color drained from the familiar one's face. Ivan took another step forward until he was right in front of them. At this point, the smallest of the three friends, who looked like a child, started quaking to his shoes. His tiny knees knocked together. The tallest of the three placed a reassuring hand on the little one's shoulder, though he himself was struggling not to show his fear.
"Be my friend," Ivan commanded, smiling pleasantly. "Be my friend and I'll let you pass. Reject my offer and-" -his face darkened- "-I'll kill you."
The familiar one mustered all his courage and said between chattering teeth, "W-we d-don't w-want to b-be f-friends w-with s-someone l-like y-you." He winced, preparing to be hit, but Ivan didn't hit him.
Ivan hit the smallest member of their trio.
Or rather, Ivan picked the poor boy right up and stretched him between his hands like a baker stretching dough.
The boy was hysterical. He wailed and moaned, calling for help to no avail. His friends were petrified with fear. They wanted to help the lad, but they were afraid of the consequences of attacking Ivan.
The tallest one finally spoke up. "Okay, okay! We'll be your friends! Just put poor Latvia down!"
Ivan complied, then addressed his new friends. "Follow me! We're going to build a new house! Oh, wait, I need to know your names first."
"L-Latvia," the child stammered, looking at the ground.
"Estonia," the tallest one mumbled.
"Lithuania," the familiar one muttered.
"And together, we are the Baltic nations," they said simultaneously.
"Oh! So you're nations too!" Just like Ukraine, Ivan thought. "Perfect," he chirped cheerfully. "Would you perhaps know of an isolated place where I can build my house?"
Lithuania piped up. "There's a large area of land near our territories. As of now, it's unoccupied. If it were lush and green, people would definitely live there. But everyone who went there froze to death."
Ivan beamed indulgently. "I have endured the cold all my life. It should be an ideal place to have my house! Lead me there, then."
So the Baltics led their new friend, or rather, master, to his desired territory. The whole spot was one big tundra. There were no living things in sight. Even the organisms found in the Arctic were nowhere to be seen. The common question in the Baltics' heads could not have been clearer: "He wants to live here?"
"Okay," Estonia announced. "We've led you to your new turf. We'll be going no-"
Ivan cut him off. He shook a gloved finger, as one would do to a naughty child. "You're not going anywhere just yet. Not before you help me build my house!"
"B-but…" timid Latvia stammered. "W-we don't have big coats like you, so we'll f-freeze to d-death!"
"Oh, that's right!" Ivan exclaimed. "That's why I have extra coats!" He rummaged around in his coat and managed to pull out three coats in small, medium, and large sizes.
Shock filled the Baltics' faces. How could he fit all that in his coat? They were so dumbfounded, they got nailed by the coats when Ivan tossed them to them.
The Baltics started putting the coats on, but froze in place when they witnessed Ivan taking a pickaxe out of his coat. "We're dead," whispered Lithuania. "Goodbye, Eduard and Raivis."
"Farewell, Toris," the other two replied.
The trio braced themselves for the killing stroke, but a minute later they opened their eyes and found themselves still intact. Ivan looked puzzled. "Why are you just standing there?" he asked. "Your coats are only half on. Ufufu. You look so funny!" He smiled good-naturedly. The arm with the pickaxe did not move.
The Baltics hesitantly put their coats on, all the while keeping an eye on Ivan's pickaxe.
When everyone was bundled up snugly, Ivan commanded, "Okay! I'll collect some wood with my pickaxe! You will choose an exact location for my home and plan out the dimensions!"
"But won't you need help carrying the wood back here?" Toris questioned.
"I can do it by myself," Ivan assured them. Something about his tone and the conviction in his eyes told them that he could.
The three friends commenced marking an outline in the snow. Eduard sketched out a blueprint of the structure on a spare piece of paper that he kept in his pocket. As they worked, all of them cursed their rotten fate. Lithuania took out his beloved violin and played a sad tune which reflected the Baltics' mood.
Ivan returned in a matter of ten minutes. He held a whole tree under each arm. The Baltics could only gawk. Poor little Raivis was so stupefied, he fainted on the spot. "Let me see the plan," Ivan demanded. Estonia handed it over. Eduard gulped nervously and waited for the verdict. He was sure that if Ivan didn't like the plan, he would whack him upside the head with a tree.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ivan chuckled and declared, "I like this. The house looks roomy and big, just how I want it."
Estonia let out his breath. He didn't realize he'd been holding it until now. Ivan summoned the other two, and everyone contributed to the building of Ivan's spacious home.
They worked for only a month and the house was complete. This was because they worked harder than they had in their whole lives (and because they had Ivan to do the grunt work).
"Can we go home now?" Lithuania panted. "I can't stand much more time in this freezing temperature. An ordinary person couldn't last a day here; we could only last this long because we're countries, and even that was a feat."
"Wait," Ivan called.
"What now?" Eduard cried, exasperated.
"There's one small hole in the roof," Ivan observed. "I need a little piece of wood to patch it up." Then he spotted Toris's violin.
Toris noticed Ivan's interest in his instrument and guessed what he was about. "No," he begged, falling to his knees in desperation. "You may take my life, but please, PLEASE don't take my instrument!"
Ivan pouted, imitating a sulky child. "But without that wood, the snow will fall in and collect on my floor!" Without waiting for permission, he snatched Lithuania's beautiful, custom-made violin, whacked it against the ground, and picked up the scattered remains. He scaled the wall of his new house and repaired the roof of his house with what used to be a string instrument.
"We'll be going now," Estonia announced.
"Just one last thing," Ivan said. "How do I become a nation?"
"Well," said Latvia hesitantly. "To become a nation, you have to attend the World Conference tomorrow at America's capital and have the majority of the nations there acknowledge you as a country."
"I see." Ivan was overjoyed to learn this. He gleefully watched Eduard and Raivis carry the unconscious Lithuania back to their territory.
The World Conference, Ivan thought as he lay in bed that night. I'm looking forward to it.