Chapter 7: Time Together

America woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Sunlight shone a little bit through the window of the shop. America saw that England wasn't next to him, making him fear the worst for a brief moment, but when he opened the door, he gave a silent sigh of relief. England was sitting in front of the shop, fixing some things on a makeshift table made out of a large piece of bark. There were two boulders to represent chairs. On the table were two plates, a pitcher, and two cups made out of stone.

"Uh….good morning."

The lion made a growl that vaguely sounded like "Good morning".

"So," said America. "what's all this supposed to be?"

Another growl was omitted that supposed to say, "Breakfast".

America sat on one of the boulders, but when he did, England started to say something, but it all came out as incomprehensible growls.

"What?"

England tried to say his message more clearly, unaware that he just made each separated growl more clear as if they were words. He looked at America for some confirmation, his expression and uplifted ears making it both cute and comical.

"Sorry, dude," said America. "I don't speak lion."

The lion sighed and with his paw, he pointed to America, who had his elbows on the table. America had realized this and got his elbows off the table.

He noticed a bunch of berries on the plate. "Did you find these by the creek?"

England nodded, taking some berries.

"These are nightshade berries."

England heedlessly nodded again, putting the berries into his mouth.

"They're poisonous."

England immediately spat out the berries and quickly filled his cup with water from the pitcher and drank some.

America looked into the pitcher. "Where did you get this water? There's worms."

England did a major spit take and banged his paws on the table, which, because of his lion strength, resulted in the table being flung into the trees.

America chuckled at the lion's misfortune. "C'mon, dude, I've got a better idea."

Some time later, America was showing England a skill he learned from camping outdoors countless times: hunting small animals and cooking them. He had caught a couple of birds, made a fire, and had cooked them up. England was disgusted about eating them at first, but once he had them, he found out that they weren't that bad.

Then the two started goofing around, chasing squirrels and birds. America watched as England pounced and pursued the animals like a real lion. He smiled a little bit. They were actually having fun together. He was amazed at this, considering how strained their relationship was the past few days.

He noticed the lion walking away from him, so he ran to catch up. "Hey, dude, where are you going?"

His voice had made the lion turn around with a face that was not friendly. The eyes were yellow. It started to growl and walk slowly towards America like any other lion does on its prey.

America slowly backed away, a little scared and confused. "England? What are you doing?"

But five seconds later, the lion's eyes turned back to green, and he stopped and he looked at America with a face that said, "What happened?"

"England? Is that you?"

England nodded.

"You changed," said America. "It was like….you become a lion on the inside!"

It was the late afternoon of the first day of the spell. It wouldn't be long before the second sunrise.

"If we don't hurry," America told England. "you'll become a lion! A real lion! Forever!" He thought over Lydia's words. "'Mend the bond torn by pride'." A light bulb lit up in his brain. "England! The witch gave us the answer: the tapestry!"