"Ow..." I moaned, rubbing my pulsing forehead. "That hurt... a lot..."
Ana shuffled around next to me. "Are you awake? Finally! Turn around, will you?"
I tired to stand up, but realized my arms were tied to a pole behind me. "We're tied up? When did that happen...?" I twisted until I was looking directly into my sisters eyes.
"Woah!" Ana backed up, or at least tried to. "He hit you pretty hard, didn't he? You should see your face... actually, you probably don't want to see your face right now. It doesn't look so good. All purple and... stuff..."
I groaned. "Thank you, that's very encouraging." I kicked her. "This is entirely your fault, by the way."
"Yeah, well, you saw those guys. How likely is it that they wouldn't have found us and hit us in the head anyway?" She retorted.
"Hmm..."
"Besides," She added "your spear didn't help things much."
I bolted upright. "My spear!" I looked around frantically. I didn't recognize our surroundings, but I could tell we were nowhere near the place where we had been attacked.
"It's gone! I loved that spear!" I screamed and kicked the ground. "I hate these people! Why are they even here? They have sticks that can explode! What could they possibly need from us?"
Ana shrugged. "No idea." She looked up. "Hey, I guess we can add loud noises to our list of things these freaks don't like..."
"Huh?" I strained to see what my sister was staring at. "Oh..."
The boy country was walking toward us, followed by several large ornery looking men. The boy looked annoyed, like "what are you yelling for? That's a perfectly good pole we tied you to."
"Ah. Um, sorry about the noise... no need to hit us again, we're good with the whole exploding sticks thing, actually." I said quickly, alarmed. "Just... go... away..."
"What are we supposed to do with the two savages, Mr. Spain?" The largest soldier turned to the boy country. "They're making a lot of noise."
Ana turned to me. "I'm really getting put off by all this gibberish. And a little creeped out."
The boy walked over to us. "Hold still." I froze with panic. What was he doing? He pulled out his stick. I could see now it had a sharp, metallic stick attached to it.
He raised the weapon above his head. I closed my eyes. I can't believe they waited until I woke up to kill me. If they're going to kill me, they could at least do it while I'm unconscious.
SLASH! The pointy thing cut right through my bonds. I stood up shakily, leaning on the pole. The men moved in closer, ensuring that I didn't run away or attack their leader.
The boy moved over to Ana, cutting her bonds as well. She didn't bother trying to stand up, just glared at the country, daring him to do something.
He pointed at his chest. "Antonio." He said, painfully slow.
I glanced down at Ana. "So what, that's his name? Antonio?" She nodded, not taking her eyes off of Antonio.
I cleared my throat. Immediately, all the soldiers pointed their sticks at me. "Woah!" I cried, putting my hands above my head. Antonio made a gesture and they lowered the weapons.
"Okay. That's... slightly alarming..." I took a deep breath and continued.
I pointed at my sister. "Ana." He nodded. I pointed at myself. "Tania." He nodded.
I exhaled. "Sweet, I'm still alive!" I pumped my fist in the air.
Five exploding sticks were aimed at my face.
I sighed and raised my hands above my head.
