Oh yeah! Updated two fics today! Sure, it's just because my friend went to the zoo today and I was bored, but whatever. Anyways, this chapter is a bit short and uneventful. But it's still important and needs to be added. So please enjoy.

Italy yawned and stretched in his bed. As he rubbed his eyes, he noticed that Ludwig was already up, and probably had been for a while. Yet another thing he had in common with Germany. After he got himself up, the two headed out of the town and towards the forest. There were a few monsters on the way, but nothing too dangerous.

Once they had made it to the trees, Ludwig took a few steps forward and looked around, seeming worried by something. "Lud? What's wrong?" Italy asked him.

"Don't you think it's odd?" he asked as Italy walked toward him.

"Huh, what is?"

"Even though this is such a rich forest, there is no sign of spirits."

"You're right." he said, hiding his confusion. [I don't know anything about signs of spirits!] he thought.

"Perhaps the original master of this forest is gone." Ludwig said, not realizing that Italy wasn't following what he was saying. "I have no idea what might come up. Let's proceed with caution."

Italy nodded. "Yeah." The forest was pretty quiet. They came across a few bat-like creatures and really big spiders and bees, but for the most part everything was calm. And when they did meet these things, they were never much of a challenge to get rid of.

As they walked, Italy couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right. He just figured he was imagining things, though, so he ignored it. Ludwig turned to Italy. "We're almost out of the forest," he told him.

"Yay! Now we can say goodbye to the monsters!"

"I didn't expect to find monsters this far into the forest. Saia might not be safe either." Just then, a strange noise came from the nearby trees. Italy and Ludwig jumped back. Something spoke in an odd voice.

"...THE STONE... Give me the stone..." Italy started crying. "There's something there!" he yelled.

"Shit, it's huge! Get ready, Feliciano!" A huge, white snake slithered towards them, and on its sides were two large wings. It must have been another chimera, but this one was much bigger than the others they had seen so far.

It went after Italy first. He tried to dodge, but still ended up with a scratch on his shoulder. Ludwig got out his whip and lashed it around the creature's neck. It pulled away until it was free, knocking Ludwig off balance in the process. Italy saw it prepare to strike and started madly whacking it with his white flag (which was still his only weapon) When it noticed him, it got ready to attack its new target. Just before it got to him, though, Ludwig ran up and gave it a powerful blow to the side of the head, nearly crushing its skull. Deciding that it couldn't take another blow like that, it slithered back to the trees and left them there.

"That's one seemed kind of different from those we saw before." Italy said when he was sure the thing was gone.

"It was telling us to give it the stone."

"What stone was it talking about?" he wondered. Ludwig was quiet for a long time, thinking about something.

"If it's the same stone I'm thinking of, we'd better hurry up. This is more serious than I thought." Italy decided not to ask what he was talking about and just silently followed him out of the forest.

Such a short chapter... I didn't know what to do for the fight since SotetAG didn't translate it, so I just sort of made it up. Anyways, the next one should be longer. I hope you liked it, and reviewers get pasta from Ita-chan and Feli ^^