Feliciano was dozing against Ludwig's back as he leaned against the German man, the slow gait of the horse easily putting him – and his brother- to sleep. While Antonio seemed used to such a thing and looked to prefer that to Romano resorting to his usual antics while he was still exhausted himself, Ludwig was getting tired of the way Feliciano would occasionally tickle the back of his neck with his hair.
"Ivan. Are you sure this is the right way?" Ludwig asked, the Russian man nodding with a pleasant look on his face. "Then at least tell us what to keep a look out for so we can help." He tried again to get the other man to provide them with any information that he had decided was only for him to know and the others to slowly find out.
"Nyet. She wanted to tell only me. Do not worry so much and Russia will take care of everyone…." Ivan chuckled to them, Antonio's eyes drooping as he yawned.
"Gracias amigo, but perhaps a little bit can go a long way." Antonio said, growing tired of following blindly after the Russian, a detail that Ivan looked to be enjoying. Neither he nor Ludwig really wanted to question whether or not somehow Baba Yaga would know if Ivan told anything and come to dole out punishment for not following her instructions, or if Ivan was simply more content to 'play' along with the others by continuing their game of 'follow the leader'.
"Ah, but look." Ivan said, halting his horse and pointing up ahead. "Is covered bridge we are needing to cross. We will be finding friends again very soon." He said, prompting his horse to continue.
"But Ivan…" Ludwig said with some hesitance. "If there is a stream, we may want to stay away." He said, but his worries were unfounded as he soon saw that it was a bridge over a deep ditch with a tiny brook at the bottom rather than a stream like the one from before that could contain any more homicidal aquatic creatures.
The German man sighed at the lack of any further information, reaching over to shake Antonio awake to keep him from falling off his horse or wandering off again. Even if his earlier exploration landed them with horses and directions, Ludwig felt like another might not be the best thing to tempt fate with at the time. They continued on for a while in silence for nearly a half-hour until they reached a spot where the horses all abruptly stopped without being prodded to do so. Antonio scrunched up his face in confusion, trying to get his horse to move forward, but it seemed Ivan had expected this.
"Now we wait." Ivan said, Ludwig and Antonio looking at him as if he had lost his mind – something that they didn't often bother questioning as the man's sanity was usually tenuous in relative comparison to others. "Da. Baba said horses would keep going until they reached this clearing. The others are supposed to be heading this way and we'll find them soon. But if I spoke the directions, then the spell wouldn't have continued and we may have had to spend more time with one another in the forest." He said with a smile, not sounding like he considered being stuck with the four others in the middle of nowhere to be such a bad idea, although Antonio's look to Ludwig expressed their shared worry over such an outcome. "Horses will follow our commands now. They are pretty things, like sunflowers." He said, dismounting and running a hand along his horse's mane, off in his thoughts again.
"Fine. It looks like we have no other choice." Ludwig said, running a hand across his face. "Wake up South Italy and I will wake North Italy." He said to Antonio, the Spaniard not looking as though that was such a good idea.
"Amigo…have you ever tried waking up Romano when he's not ready to get up?" Antonio said, running a hand along his stomach. "He is…not exactly a morning person." He said with a small chuckle as he looked over to the sleeping Italian.
"Then is good thing it is not morning." Ivan said, pointing up to the sky as he appeared to have still been listening in on their conversation. "Look at the sky. It is almost night already. How is that possible? It could not have been a full day yet, da?" He asked, looking up at the sky as though it would start talking to answer his question.
"Not much has been making sense anyway." Ludwig said, sliding off his horse as he too gave up on waking up the Italian man if he didn't have to immediately. Feliciano slumped forward, face bumping on the saddle but remaining sound asleep save for a few mutterings of different pasta dishes he was obviously dreaming about in his sleep. He made to aid Antonio in getting safely away from Romano without waking him unnecessarily, calling out to Ivan to not wander too far from them as he saw the Russian man walk off into the woods.
"Do not worry. I'm sure he is just going to pick mushrooms or something while we wait." Antonio said once they were successful in keeping Romano both asleep and safely situated atop the red horse. "He does enjoy that sort of thing." He said with a shrug, Ludwig just shaking his head as he tried to figure out what to do next.
Ivan continued on into the forest a little further, not bothering to keep listening since he was sure he'd know exactly when any trouble might occur once it had awoken at least one of the Italians. Instead, he chose to follow something he thought he'd spotted moving a little farther away that looked like a little blue hat belonging to a particular member of their group. He was rewarded with his efforts as he spotted Peter heading back to the rest of the group of personifications as they had apparently taken a break to determine which direction they wanted to go in. Ivan smiled as he walked up behind Alfred, the American watching as Arthur and Gilbert were animatedly discussing which direction they were each sure they had been running from with limited progress.
"Matt, I'm not gonna be so easy to get this time." Alfred said, spinning around to face the man who'd set his usually cold hand on his shoulder. He was smirking until he saw that it was Ivan, giving a little shout of surprise that amused the taller Russian man.
"Did I scare you Fredka?" He chuckled as Alfred recovered from his surprise at the unexpected reunion with someone he wasn't exactly keen on having so close – or trying to sneak up on him. Alfred huffed and folded his arms over his chest.
"No." He denied, refusing to look at all like he was reaching his limit of shock scares for the day. But that only made Ivan smile wider at the stubbornness of the American man.
"Oh? I will have to try harder next time, da?" He said as he blinked innocently at Alfred, something that the American had seen several times before and didn't quite believe – although he more often just let it go without question to save himself further hassle. The creepy aura around the man was enough to rival Arthur's when the British man started to mumble 'under his breath' his chants and Alfred wasn't in the mood.
"Is West with you?" Gilbert asked, quickly covering up whatever concern he might have had in his voice. "I mean, I'm awesome and all but I'd hate to have to go after his lame self if he got lost in our own woods. We've got a castle to get back to." He said, Roderich smirking at him at the other's slip. Gilbert merely shot a quick glare to the other before focusing on Ivan again.
"Da. The Italys and Spain are also waiting with the horses." Ivan said with a nod, earning confused looks from the others. "Baba Yaga gave them to us." He said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "She was very nice about not eating Antonio." He said with another smile, Alfred paling a little at the thought.
"Alright then." Arthur said, the first to recover his voice. "Perhaps you should go get them and we can all start to head back to the castle." He said, Francis mentioning in a mock whisper to Matthew that they had yet to decide which direction to actually head in. Arthur scowled over to the Frenchman, although Francis didn't seem fazed by it at all.
"Oh, Baba mentioned something about moss on the trees. Follow in the direction the moss is facing on Andre's tree." Ivan said with a shrug. He received more bewildered looks before sighing. "I will go get the others. Do not hide again from me my friends." He called back cheerily, Matthew clinging to Francis as Ivan walked past him in fear of having the Russian do anything of his usual antics.
Ivan shortly returned as promised with the others, Ludwig fending off any questions over the Italys' health to let them known they were simply, yet again, taking a nap. Roderich scoffed at that, but his years with Feliciano had made him well aware of the Italian's behavior and if anything, he looked a little amused at the sight of the two managing to sleep in the middle of a haunted forest.
"Now what?" Peter asked, voicing aloud with the finesse only a child could produce the other's questions. "I mean, there are still other things out there, right? I'm safe but you all are still in trouble. Recognize me and I'll be the scout!" He said, climbing to stand on a stump and point in Arthur's face. The British man frowned in lack of amusement at the little boy's quick return to his usual attitude toward his mission to be recognized.
"Thank you Peter, but I think we can manage." Arthur said in a lecturing tone, Peter huffing and crossing his arms.
"Yeah, I mean…" Alfred began, Arthur deflating a bit and bracing for any of Alfred's plans. "It's simple now. With the Rusalkas, don't go near the water. Werewolves…" He said, making a gun with his hands and giving a 'pew, pew' noise. "Silver bullet. I grabbed a few silver coins so we're all good there." He said, thinking about what else to do. "Oh, we talked about dealing with vampires so what else is there?" He said with a shrug, looking confident as usual.
"Well, Feliciano managed to take a nap on a giant snake." Ludwig said with a seriousness that seemed difficult for the other to manage. The others looked at him for elaboration, but Antonio interrupted.
"Si! Romano and I ended up being captured by the Donas de fueras and then Ludwig and the others came running in with an enormous snake following them. The two monsters killed each other off." He said with a smile, his spacey attitude back in place as he clearly was reminiscing about what he could remember of the fight.
"Freddy versus Jason style! Awesome!" Alfred said with a laugh, Arthur shaking his head as Matthew did the same. "So nothing else to worry about. Follow the rules and we'll be back home in no time." He said, looking ready to assume leadership position again.
"Why is it that all of us have had something after us, but not you?" Ludwig asked of Alfred, the American giving a shrug and a beaming smile.
"I doubt that der Elkonig counted as something coming for you. That was more a monster for Arthur to have to deal with." Gilbert said, Ludwig shooting a look to his older brother that clearly indicated for him to provide more information than just that. "Tell you later West." Gilbert said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'm mean, I'm dealing with those ghosts in my castle but you and Canada just ended up getting tied in. Like with Francis' werewolf." He said tapping his chin in thought.
"I'm impressed Gilbert. You've actually been thinking about this." Francis said, coming over to stand beside his friend.
"Ja. But it makes my head hurt." Gilbert said with a bit of a pout. "I need a beer. It boosts my awesomeness and we'd be back to drinking more beer much sooner." He said, the others rolling their eyes as Gilbert was back to being his usual self.
"Maybe it is because you und dein bruder didn't have those creatures specifically overlapping with those in my lands. Not originally or maybe not…" Ludwig began but Alfred interrupted yet again.
"Yeah we do. I mean, there were all sorts of creatures from the native peoples too." Alfred said, Matthew having to nod in agreement with his brother. There were some that shared similarities with European versions but he was very much hoping that they weren't going to have to deal with that now too.
"Yes, fine…" Ludwig said with a gesture to keep Alfred from continuing. "But plenty were from immigrants to your lands. It is possible that without as solid a connection to the lands, there was no reason for these things to target you or Canada." He said, Alfred shrugging in response.
"Sounds scientific enough for me." He said, Arthur smacking himself in the head at the words that came out of Alfred's mouth at times, considering he was being 'scientific' about 'mythological' things that involved magic in some way or another.
"Did anyone hear that horse neigh?" Roderich asked, looking around in all directions. Gilbert laughed and smacked the back of the Austrian's head.
"Prodigy, there are three horses with us. Maybe, oh I don't know, one of them made a horse sound?" He sarcastically teased, Roderich rubbing the back of his head.
"I know that. But they are not making any neighs right now, are they?" He asked, Gilbert rolling his eyes and continuing to laugh at the other man's remark. Roderich gave a heavy sigh, muttering about wondering why he bothered to keep coming to any Oktoberfests anymore.
"Let's get going." Alfred said, jumping onto Ivan's horse before the Russian man could protest. "The hero will lead the way!...Um….Which way again?" He said, not looking embarrassed in the slightest.
"America, get off of my horse." Ivan said, Alfred protesting about getting off. "Then we will have to ride together." Ivan said, climbing up behind Alfred and engulfing the other man in an embrace from behind to which Alfred whined and squirmed in continued protest. "Let's go." Ivan said, kicking the horse in the side and getting it to move forward and ignoring Alfred's whine that he was supposed to say that. The others quickly followed in the direction Ivan randomly picked, the Russian looking very smug about having Alfred stuck with him on the horse. "We are supposed to be looking for large tulip tree with old gnarled branches. Baba called it Andre's tree." He said again, Alfred stiffening at the name and shooting a glance over to Arthur. But seeing Arthur hadn't made any acknowledgement of the name, shook off his uneasiness as just being paranoid and wanting to get home soon.
"You hear that?" Roderich asked again, breaking their silence. "I am not imagining it. There is another horse nearby and it is getting dark for some reason. There is barely any light and we could run into who knows what at twilight." He complained, oblivious to Alfred's apparent distress.
"H-Hey Ludwig…" Alfred said a little timidly, getting the other's attention. "What part of your lands were we supposed to be in before we got Wizard of Ozed here?" He asked, looking to the German man.
"Why?" Ludwig asked, not sure he understood why the other would ask such a question. "We were in the state of Hesse." He answered, Alfred giving a small whimper that he bit his lip to try and unsuccessfully keep in.
"As in that place you gave Artie a bunch of soldiers from?" Alfred asked, trying to regain his composure since Ivan was so close to him already and was finding his discomfort somewhat amusing.
"What?" Ludwig asked, not being able to keep up with the American's train of thought and on the verge of just shouting at him like he would do with Feliciano. His patience had already been stretched to the limit and the vagueness of the other's random questions was getting to him.
"Oh come on!" Alfred nearly yelled. "Hessians. Major Andre? Arthur, dude, ring any bells?" He asked, looking over to Arthur imploringly.
"I employed Hessian soldiers in a number of wars Alfred, not just with you." Arthur said a little stiffly at the reminder, ignoring Francis' look directed at him. "And yes, I remember a Major Andre having to do with that war. Remember Benedict Arnold?" He asked, looking to turn the tables on the American who, to him, was bringing up nasty memories and feelings out of the blue for no reason other than he could.
"Not what I'm getting at." Alfred ground out, resisting his impulse to start off again with Arthur about that particular episode from that war. "Think about it. Hessian soldiers. We are in a haunted forest. It's only, like, the greatest ghost story in the entire world!" He said, the others groaning at Alfred's usual attitude.
"What's the matter Al?" Matthew asked from where he was walking beside the other's horse. "Oh…Oh no…" Matthew said as he caught on, Alfred shooting him a look to convey that someone finally picked up on what he was panicking about.
"So what's the big deal?" Gilbert asked, getting tired of just standing still again. "What happened to your rules of keeping things easy? If you know whatever this ghost wants, then give it to him." He said disinterestedly. "Unless you don't know…" He said with a tease.
"I know exactly what it wants. And he won't stop and he's practically invincible." Alfred said, looking around fearfully for that neighing Roderich had been talking about. "But it's a little hard to give it to him when it's back in New York!" He said harshly, the Prussian leaning back a little at the sudden change in attitude.
"Oh there's a tree that matches description." Ivan said, he and Alfred dismounting to approach it. It was an old tulip tree with an extraordinary thickness to its trunk and it towered over the other trees around it. Even its limbs, gnarled as they were, were thick enough to be trunks for some other trees as they twisted down to the ground and then up again into the air to make a terrifying sight with the lack of leaved on it to hide its shape. Ivan approached it with an easy and unconcerned gait to see which side had the moss on it, while Alfred just stared up at it with dread and a shiver that he'd deny to the others if they brought it up.
"Alfred, what are you so worked up over?" Arthur said with a hint of exasperation as he watched the American quaking where he stood. "Honestly, aren't you supposed to be…" He began, only to be cut off by a horse's neighing again.
"Ah! You see!" Roderich said triumphantly, Alfred tensing and slowly turning around as Roderich gave an 'I told you so' to Gilbert.
"The Headless Horseman" Alfred breathed out as soon as he turned around, spotting off in the distance the figure of a man on horseback, it's dark silhouette missing one very important piece. "Oh my God…And he's coming for me…." Alfred said as the horse reared up on its hind legs, the horseman's cape fluttering behind him to create a terrifying sight. "A horse! I need a horse now!" He said, scrambling for the white one he had been riding only to find it had bolted. In desperation, he grabbed the black one that Feliciano had been draped over, flicking the reigns and heading off with an Italian in tow.
"Alfred!" Matthew and Arthur called out, Ludwig also shouting after him to return Feliciano. But Alfred was too terrified to wait, bolting off into the forest with an unwilling passenger who was waking up at the sudden motion before grasping onto Alfred's back to keep from getting tossed off.
The horseman charged forward, the others of the group all trying to get out of his way. As they scrambled to get out of the way, Matthew found himself being lifted off his feet. He gasped, eyes wide as the horseman gripped his shirt and lifted him up, sword raised and if he'd had a head, Matthew would've been face to face with the rider. He whimpered and tried to struggle out of its grip, the horseman pelted with rocks by Francis as Arthur scrambled to get ahold of the rose gemstone. The rocks did no damage, but it seemed the horseman had figured out he'd grabbed the wrong twin, setting Matthew back down on the ground roughly before taking off after Alfred.
Matthew crumpled in on himself once his feet touched the ground, arms covering his head as he shook. He clenched his eyes shut, wondering why he seemed to be the collateral damage for all the other's monsters. He nearly screamed when he felt hands on him, only to be shushed by the gentle tone of Francis, the older man urging him to calm down and open his eyes. He slowly did so, taking a deep breath in relief before clinging to the older man and immediately rambling in French-Canadian to him as he cried. Francis cooed to him as he helped him to his feet.
"Allonze mon petite ange." Francis said, Arthur coming over as well. "We'll head back to the castle now that we know the way. Your brother will be able to meet up with us there and we may be able to do something to help him from there." He said, Matthew sniffling but nodding.
"He took Feliciano with him?!"Romano grumbled, wide awake after being thrown from the horse in the animal's fright. He was still on the ground, rubbing his head as Antonio looked him over. "What the hell is-a going on now?" He asked in irritation, wincing a little as Antonio's hands ran over a sensitive spot, the Spaniard gasping when he pulled his hand away to find a little red on his fingertips.
"This isn't tomato this time, is it?" Antonio asked, face morphing into concern over his former charge's wellbeing. Romano sighed and shot him an angry look, the Spaniard not too concerned yet if the southern Italian could keep up his usual attitude, even if he was emphasizing it with groans instead of additional curse words. "Alright. Back to the castle amigos. I agree with Francis. It's the only way to help anyone now." He said, lifting up Romano into his arms despite the others protests that he was fine enough to walk and not be manhandled.
Arthur looked to the gemstone in his hand before following with his eyes the trail Alfred had taken with his own monster after him. He had to agree with the others that getting back to the castle to try and send them all home was their best course of action. I really hope you can manage without this Alfred, Arthur thought, pocketing the gemstone once more and following after Gilbert and Roderich as they lead the group back to the castle.