Sorry if this all sounds a bit strange, I'm kind of sleepy today... but thanks for reading anyways! I think u r kewl! (stole that from the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare just so you know. If you haven't read it, you should!)
I could hear his cocky laugh from here as he ordered his warriors to do something, something that sounded too much like "burn it to the ground!" In terrified horror, I watched as they raced towards the castle, obviously prepared to do exactly what they had been told. Immediately, the warriors of Canada were there, defending their home, but it was plain to see that there weren't enough. We were being massacred. Cold panic rising in me as the flames began to spread, I flung myself out of my room, threw off the stupid heels, and took off down the stairs, praying desperately that I could get out before any of them reached the castle and silenced me forever.
Just as I reached for the door, it opened.
And I was face to face with the Prussian army.
When they saw me, they seemed remotely surprised, but chuckled coldly and threw their torches down, instantly setting the place ablaze. I heard them talking and joking in their rough German tongue, probably saying something about me as they left the castle, assuming the fire would do its job. Suddenly frozen with fear, I couldn't move a muscle; the flames surrounded me, a burning cage. I couldn't really DIE, could I? After all, this was just a dream. Wasn't it? And… people didn't die in dreams. But as the fire closed in, forcing me up against a wall, brushing against my skin and leaving light burns, I closed my eyes. I WAS going to die.
An involuntary shriek escaped me at the thought and I waited impatiently to be burned alive, telling myself I wasn't really going to be gone forever, that I would wake up from whatever "thing" Gilbert had done to me and be just fine. The smoke had found its way into my lungs, clawing at my throat every time I breathed, causing me to cough painfully. I opened my eyes one last time, the heat of the fire causing them to water, and saw what looked like two bright pools of blood before, succumbing to the dizziness in my head, I lost consciousness.
"Hey, wake up, Princess! The awesome me commands it!"
The voice was gruff and had a rude hint to it, but was definitely familiar. Apparently I wasn't moving fast enough for him though, because before I could even open my eyes, he had drenched me with what seemed to be a bucketful of water and yelled the same thing he had just said, only louder and with more force. Before he could have the excuse to do it again, I sat up spluttering out the water I had gotten in my mouth and giving him a reproachful look. I wiped my face with the bottom of my fancy dress, not caring that I wiped off all the makeup I had been wearing onto it. When I finally stopped moving around, we stared at each other silently, considering. He looked just as wet as I was, his hair dripping and his clothes soaked through. There was evident amusement in his eyes as I glared up at him.
"For a second the awesome me thought I would have to KISS you awake! Too bad for you that you woke up already!" he sneered.
I blinked a few times before asking, hesitantly, "G-Gilbert?"
He looked a little surprised for a moment before shouting, "That's Prince Gilbert the Great Supreme Overlord of all the Awesome Places and People in the World to you!"
A sigh of relief escaped my lips. This was definitely still the same guy that I had been hanging out with. Still curious, I asked, "Why are you all wet too? You didn't have water dumped on you."
I was amazed as he began to stutter a little and blushed pink, obviously thrown off by the question. "I-I… It rained! As I pulled you out of the fire and raced you off on my horse, it started raining! Y-yeah! Enough about my heroicness, we need to bring you back to my kingdom so I can make you property of the awesome me!" he mumbled quickly, yanking me off the ground and onto his horse with such force, I thought for sure I was going to go crashing back down.
Uncomfortably, I shifted so that he COULDN'T look up my dress and watched as he gracefully swung himself up onto the horse in one movement. He had never really struck me as the kind of guy who would ride a horse, but this WAS the medieval times, so there weren't cars. Besides, it was much less likely to get in a horse accident than a car accident. With a swift jerk of the reins, we were flying down the side of a long, winding river, one that stretched endlessly through a thick of looming mountains in the distance. It was surprisingly green here, for their seeming addiction to fire and was actually rather… beautiful. Not that Canada hadn't been, it was just that Prussia seemed to have a distinct careless and worry-free feel to it.
The trip to his kingdom was a short one, the river ending up going straight through the heart of it and down the center of the village where all the peasants lived. As we rode in, all the people attending to their daily lives froze and turned, then bowed before their prince and, well, apparently, their ruler. It made me wonder what had happened to his dad, the king. Gilbert's smile was terrifying as he watched them all fall to their knees before his power, his face overly obnoxious and confident. Their gazes never lingered on him for too long before shifting to me, some expressions curious while others didn't even dare to make the slightest eye contact with either of us. I could see the massive castle looming in misty darkness, way in the background, in between two towering mountains, and wondered just exactly what kind of "monarchy" this prince was running.
A click of his booted heels got the tired horse moving slightly faster and we rode off, up onto a stereotypical drawbridge that led directly into the castle grounds, where many servants were anxiously awaiting the arrival of their beloved ruler. When they saw him ride up, there was an almost tangible sense of relief in the air, like they had seriously been worried about him not coming back to them. It even showed in their faces. I wondered if he had ordered them to pretend to be concerned about him. Or maybe he was actually a good prince? I didn't know if it was possible.
He hopped off his steed the moment we were fully inside castle walls, taking the reins and leading me, still sitting side saddle on the animal, to the stable, ignoring the bustling people that were all around him, trying to get his attention. It sort of reminded me of the paparazzi attacking a star. He even looked disgruntled by the swarm, like at any moment he was about to pull out his sword and slash them into tiny, bloody pieces. Just as the thought crossed my mind, he spun on them, shouting in German harshly, evidently telling them to buzz off, only in not so nice words. They all but ran away with their tails between their legs, leaving the two of us alone again. We made it to our destination and he helped me down, then gave the horse to the stable guy and took my hand, leading me out into the empty courtyard with his evil smile back in place.
"Say hello to your new home, the awesome me's great kingdom of Prussia! Pretty sexy, huh?"
He pulled on my arm again, dragging me inside. "But…" I muttered nervously, remembering something. "When you told me the story earlier, you said that we made a country together, the country of PruCan, not that I became part of your kingdom. What happened to that?"
Obviously puzzled, he looked down at me but kept on walking, not seeming to care where he was going. "Told you a story earlier? You were unconscious earlier and the awesome me said nothing about PruCans. What IS a PruCan?"
Embarrassed, I explained, "PruCan is the beginning of Prussia and the beginning of Canada put together… so you don't remember saying that to me at all before you… knocked me out, I guess."
His expression was mystified, his eyes wide in the first honest look of wonder I had ever seen on his face before. It was like I was speaking a foreign language to him, which, evidently, I was, but it went deeper than the words I was saying. He understood English well enough. It was just that he truly didn't remember meeting me. For him, this was still the real time, his era of living. So Gilbert hadn't transported himself to his former body, yet had sent me to take over Maddie. I had a feeling he was watching this scenario play out somewhere right now, laughing at me for being so slow to understand. Somewhere deep inside, I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, but if I did that, medieval Gilbert would probably take that as something it shouldn't be taken as.
Shrugging off my weirdness, he pulled me inside the castle, where we were met by a team of very strangely determined looking maids. Were all his employees thrilled about their jobs? If they were, then why? With a short bark of commands from their prince, I was taken to a room, stripped, bathed, and re-clothed in a dress that was way scantier than my first had been (my eyes closed the whole time) then brought into a huge room and told to do something in German, something that almost sounded like "sit." So I made my way to one of the armchairs and sat down, taking in my surroundings as I waited for whatever was about to happen next.
That turned out to be Gilbert coming in, looking clean and handsome in his military uniform, only without the armor. His hair was sticking up haphazardly, as if he hadn't bothered to brush it, and there was no smile on his face. Just a sensitivity to his eyes that both fascinated and terrified me, the light hitting them so that they almost seemed… warm. The silence that hung between us was thick as we looked at each other, wonderingly. Then a grin that was shockingly like a grimace stretched across his face slowly.
"PruCan, huh? You wanna make a country with me? Then we'll do it. But only if you become the awesome me's wife and have some of my gilbabies! And I still get to be Prince Gilbert the Great Supreme Overlord of all the Awesome Places and People in the World! You can be Mrs. Supreme Overlord!" he exclaimed, gesturing wildly.
Looking at his excitement and how happy he seemed, I realized now why the modern Gilbert had sent me here. I didn't know if this was really the past or if he was totally making this stuff up because being dead was boring, but he had wanted me to see how he really felt about me. I smiled warmly at the spazzing teenager in front of me, seeing so much of the Gilbert I knew in this one.
"Wait," I said, putting a hand up and causing him to freeze. "Is this your really weird way of proposing to me?"
He stared at me blankly for a moment before starting to grumble, getting down on one knee, and whistling. I watched with humor as a little yellow bird flew in, dropped something in his hands, and landed on his head, squawking loudly the whole while, even when he had found his perch. Looking faintly abashed by the whole situation, he didn't seem to think about what he was saying before he spat out, "The awesome me wants you to have his babies!"
I couldn't help but laugh.