Walruses (the Baltics, Russia, & Belarus)
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were shivering. It was deathly cold. They were standing on a frozen lake, watching Russia and Belarus. The siblings were busily cutting the ice with chainsaws, creating two rows of squared floes.
When they were finished, Russia turned to the three Baltics and said cheerily: "Come on, let's hop over the ice floes! You'll see, it's lots of fun!" Then, he jumped from floe to floe until he reached the frozen surface where it was uncut.
The three Baltics exchanged doubtful glances.
"If you don't go of your own accord, I'll push you", Belarus said sweetly.
Estonia gulped. Then, he hopped onto the first floe and followed Russia's example. Lithuania followed suit, with Latvia bringing up the rear. Latvia nearly slipped, but Estonia, who had reached the other side in the meantime, pulled him out of the lake.
"Now, let's clear away the ice floes!", cried Belarus after jumping over them herself. At that, Russia and her took up two pickaxes, lifting the floes out of the lake.
Lithuania and Estonia exchanged despairing glances when they realised the result looked a lot like a swim lane. Indeed, Russia and Belarus stripped. Russia wore swimming trunks, Belarus a swimsuit.
Belarus jumped in first. "Ah, splendid!", she exclaimed as she crawled to the other end of the swim lane.
Lithuania shot Estonia another glance. Splendid?!, his gaze seemed to say.
"I think we have to…", droned Estonia.
"Of course you have to!", said Russia, beaming at them. "It's wonderful!"
"Come on, the water isn't cold at all!", cried Belarus.
Estonia looked at Lithuania. They're insane!, his eyes said.
"We knew that before, didn't we?", Lithuania replied.
—
Notes:
This was inspired by a report about Russian ice swimmers who call themselves "walruses" on the German TV programme "Weltspiegel" (ARD) on 18 January 2015. Some Orthodox Christians also celebrate the baptism of Jesus Christ, which they believe took place in the night between January 18th and 19th, with ice swimming.