Ten years later, Alfred jerked awake when he felt something tingle down his back. He sat up, panting. Cinnabun II's tail twitched with annoyance as the sudden movement woke him up. "S-Sorry...I-I don't feel right. Something seems difference….like someone or something's coming," Alfred told the rabbit. The bunny twitched it's nose as if saying 'Cool, can I go back to sleep now?' Alfred sighed
He sat up, ignoring the bunnie's whines for sleep. Alfred looked around. Something was coming near him. "I don't know Swede. I feel like there's something or someone up around here. What if it's one of the twins?" said a person in a strange language. Alfred frowned. How can he understand their language? Hmm...the man almost sounds like he speaks the language that Mama used to teach us the few times she visited… Alfred sat up and held a bunny, pulling it closely.
The footsteps got closer, Alfred frowning when he felt a presence of someone sharing the aura of his siblings and Aiyanna. He quickly hid behind a tree with a whimper when two blondes came into the clearing. The shorter one stopped. "Swede...someone's been here. The ground's still warm. And look, the footprints are tiny...It must be one of Vinland's children," he whispered. Alfred peeked, eyes widening when he spotted a chubby man with a terrifying giant next to him. "Finn," mumbled the giant. The chubby one looked up, wide-eyed when he spotted Alfred.
"...A-Alfred.." mumbled the man called Finn. Alfred yelped. "H-How do you know my name?" he whimpered. "Don't be afraid...We knew your mother. You're real mother," said Sweden, gently approaching the tree. Alfred blinked. "Are one of you my Father? What took you so long to get here? W-Why'd you let be alone for so long?" he asked, feeling his lip wobbled. The giant seemed to panic at that, looking at the smaller one for help. Finland looked just as thrown off as Sweden.
"H-Hey little one. N-No, we're not your Father...but we know him as well. Why don't you come with us? We can introduce you after...we tell you how we know your mother. I make cookies and candies. I'm sure there's some in my house if you want some," said Finland with a smile. "Stranger Danger!" shouted Alfred at the top of his lungs before running as far as he could. "Wait!" shouted Finland. "...Come back!" shouted Sweden. Alfred yelped and climbed a tree quickly, watching as Finland and Sweden ran past below.
Once he was sure they were gone, he floated down from the tree and went back to grab his things. "There he is," he heard someone whispered. Alfred grumbled to himself. He forgot to check for tracks before returning. "What do we do? If we jump out we'll scare him...you'll scare him," said Finland. Alfred grabbed his bag and immediately made a break for it before the two of them could react. "Wait! W-We're not strangers! Not really! We do know your father anad we did know Dagny!" shouted Finland.
Alfred panted as the two men chased after him. "G-Go away!" he shouted in what little he remembered in their language from some forgotten time. Sweden gasped. "A-Alfred!" he shouted. Alfred whimpered and climbed another tree, this time climbing from branch to branch of neighborig trees to get as far away as he can from the two older nations. The two older nations ran right past him. "You sure he went this way?" asked Sweden. "I-I don't know. The tracks stop at the trees but he wasn't up there when I climbed it," said FInland.
Alfred kept scampering away before he spotted a crevice in a tree just his size. He smiled to himself as he quickly curled up in the crevice, scooting over so the rabbits could curled up close to him. He heard the callings of his name slowly fade away. "...What do you think Cinnabun? Is he really a stranger? Did he really know Mama?" he asked. Cinnabun simply snorted and nuzzled him, Fuzzybutt hopping in as well. "...If those two are here, do you think that my Father is really here?" he asked.
Fuzzybutt nuzzled him with what seemed like a slight nod. Alfred hesitated. "What do I do? I really want to see my dad...Do you think Mattie is with him?...And if he wants to be brothers again? I just don't want him to hate me...What if Dad hates me?" asked Alfred. Cinnabun, Fuzzybutt, and Fluffybun wiggled their noses. "...Well I know parents aren't supposed to hate their kids but...Aiyanna was my kinda mom...and she kinda hated me. What if Father likes Mattie more because he knew Mattie longer?" he whimpered.
Cinnabun gently nibbled on Alfred's fingers, either to tell him to go to sleep or to calm down. "I guess you're right...I should sleep. I'm sure I'm going to love my Papa no matter what. We'll take care of each other and tell each other cool stories and he'll teach me how to help people like the settlers. Maybe Daddy will even know how to keep the ghosts away so I won't get scared. A-And Mattie and I will be brothers again and we can play together. Maybe I should have gone with those weird men…" he said before falling asleep.
"What do we do? We lost him! N-Now Norway will never find out he has nephews and the twins will never know who we are!" said Finland when they lost the track, panicking. Sweden was silent as he thought about this for a few moments. "...We should tell England we found a new country," he said. Finland blinked. "What do you mean? If England finds out, there's no chance we'll be able to explain to the twins what happned to their mother! We'd lose them forever," said Finland.
"We promised Dagny we would bring the twins to her father. Besides, Arthur has a right to know. We won't tell him we're related for now. If he found out, he'll think we'll claim him and it'll be a whole thing where he gets drunk, tells Francis, who tells Gilbert, who tells Mathais, who tells Lukas about Vinland having the twins. We keep it quiet, keep a good eye on the child, and help him as much as we can without scaring him off or making him suspicious. England and Frace should be by that river we found earlier," said Sweden.
Alfred hesitantly followed the two man, his interest perked when he heard them say his father's name. Maybe they really did know his dad. Alfred smirked to himself. These two were obviously newbies. They couldn't even hear him with the mocasins he had on. He easily trailed after the two, hiding in a bush when they neared a river. He peeked, spying a man with long wavy hair catch a fish with his hand. Alfred frowned. That man seemed to have carried some residue of Matthew's aura. Was that their father? He seemed tough and cool if he could catch a fish.
The man next to the long haired man smirked and splashed the first one, who squealed and said something quickly in an unfamiliar language. Alfred wrinkled his nose. He didn't think his Father would be someone who would squeal or freak out at a little bit of water. The long-haired caught another fish before the Giant and his chubby friend showed up. "England, England! Sweden and I found a little boy out in the woods. We think he may be one of us. There weren't any adults or settlements nearby for him to belong to," shouted Chubby in a language Alfred found it extremely hard to follow.
The wavy haired man dropped his fish and turned to the shorter man. "You seem out of breath. You two make a pit stop on your way to make us aware~" said the wavy-haired man with a smirk. Alfred was confused as to why the two other men's faces turned so red. "No! We have too many problems with Netherlands attacking us for that kind of thing...He chased us away from the area. We were just hoping you'd help us make sure that the kid is okay. You know how Netherlands can get. He'll shake down the kid for all he's got," said Tino.
The other man stood up so Alfred could finally get a good look at his face. The first thing that caught Alfred's eye was the man's bright green eyes. He's never seen eyes that color before. Of course, he quickly lost interest when he spotted the man's eyebrows. It looked like he had a squirrel glued to his face. The thought made Alfred giggle before he quickly caught himself. Luckily, no one had noticed it due to a sudden breeze. Squirrel face looked around as if he had heard something but shook it off.
"And why are you telling us any of this? How do we know it's not your way of distracting us so you can try to swoop down and take the new nation yourself? Turn it into your own little colony? That little Vinland Lukas seems to dream of having," asked Squirrely with one of his eyebrows raised. Sweden put a hand on Finland's shoulder, keeping the shorter one from trying to tear out Bush-brow's catepillars from his face. "Well...maybe the kid will decide to be my baby brother!" shouted Finland, wanting to mess with the other two a little bit.
"Hmm, I think they will be my little brother. After all, I already got the older one under my belt. Mathieu speaks of having a friend from this land from when he was younger. Perhaps I will add the newest nation to my collection," said Francis. "Bollocks you will! That's my bloody little brother. Children love big families and mine is one of the biggest. He'll have plenty of new friends to play with. That, and I don't have to worry about anyone trying to mess with me. They know the sun never sets on the British empire," smirked Bush-Brows.
"I don't know. You'll have to find the child first. He runs off whenever any of us two try to approach him. I don't think he likes Europeans very much. He looks as if he has spent time with the natives...but he looks like he could be European," said Finland. England and Francis exchanged a glance. "Whoever gets him first gets to make him his little brother!" shouted Francis before taking off. "You cheese eating monkey! Get your arse back here!" hissed England.
The two of them fought, making Alfred flinch and curl up even more in the bushes. "England, France, calm down you two. Or we'll take the boy," said Sweden. Both of the men shuddered and stood straight. "I wouldn't wish that on any child," muttered France quietly. "Aye. I can't see him being the brotherly type," muttered back England. Alfred blinked. "England?...Father?" he whispered under his breath. Or was he his big brother now? Was that how the family tree thing worked in his father's land? This was too confusing.
He watched as the four men left. Hmm..if they were playing in the river and if the Giant and Chubby one were able to find them so easily...it only made sense that they lived somewhere nearby. Alfred smirked. Maybe he could go and explore one of his father's settlements before he decided whether or not it was really his father. Besides...he wanted to make sure that this settlement, Jamestown, wasn't anything like Roanaoke. He didn't think he could survive that much pain and heartbreak again. He just hoped that not all settlements came with ghosts.
He waited until he was sure they were away to sneak down to the settlment, looking around. He was amazed by how many people there was, and the fact that they all looked like him. Some of them even had blue eyes like him! The downside was that they all spoke that funny language. A couple of ladies looked at him curiously before muttering something strange to each other. Alfred gave them a smile, glad he had chosen that day to wear the night gown Sarah had gave him.
One lady stopped him and asked him something to which he just simply nodded. The lady smiled happily and held up a finger before going into her house. She came back with some sort of cookie and handed it to him. Alfred happily took it before waving at her and walking away. He's never seen a camp so sophisticated as this one before. There were strange rock roads and a great wall. They had fields of food they were attempting to grow and tall buildings. He couldn't help but look at everything.
Alfred did so until he realized people were staring at him. His people. These were his first real settlers. Of course he counted Sarah and the others but...these ones were going to make it. He could feel it. He was going to do whatever he could to help them survive and he was sure that now, with his father on the same land as him, that he would have the help he needed to really make something of himself. He and his father will build great buildings and explore the land and talk to people and have fun. It was going to be great!
Alfred quickly got out of the settlement and instead to the forest surrounding the small town. He climbed a tree so he could watch the people work and interact with one another. He was learning so much about himself. Maybe his father explained why he always enjoyed having alot of people around. He wondered if all of his father's towns had this many people in them. If so, how did he stand it? And why was he fighting that man that smelled faintly of stinky cheese and flowers?
But that France guy was what interested him the most. He said he knew a Mathieu...a Matthew. It had to be his brother. What did France mean 'add him to his collection'? Was Matthew okay? Alfred frowned, clenching his fists. Kanata may have been a royal poopy-face but it was still his big brother. He wasn't going to let any tall nation just push his blood around. If he had hurt his brother, Alfred would be happy to stab some ankles if it was what it took to defend his family.
No need to stab me in the ankles! I actually uploaded on time! Have a great Labor Day weekend and leave reviews! Thanks!