The forest continued to darken the more Hong Kong continued on. It was making it trickier to see where he was going, but that didn't really matter; the preteen had no idea even where to go.
"This is all getting pointless," he said with a halt, looking around. "I should just go back home." Hong Kong nodded his head, deciding that was his answer. He had to admit though, this wonderland did keep him fairly entertained... Or at least not bored.
"Now let's see... Which way home..." Hong Kong mumbled to himself as he continue walking on. There were lots and lots of signs, but none were of any use. They just said things like 'go this way', 'no, go that way', 'don't go here', 'this way to...' and so on.
Ignoring all the useless signs, Hong Kong continued on, soon finding the source of the signs. It was a weird bird, actually two, with a pencil body, writing on some blank boards. The Chinese preteen squinted his eyes a bit, reading what was being written on each board.
" 'Don't. Step. On the. Mome Rath'?" Hong Kong read, questioning in his head what a mome rath was.
The last sign, Hong Kong noticed, was pointing downward at something. When the preteen looked down, he saw patches of colorful fur. Right when he took notice of the mome raths, the patches of fur popped up out of the ground, revealing tiny colorful looking creatures that looked really similar to pants.
Interested in the colorful tiny pants, Hong Kong crouched down to get a better look, noticing another odd fact.
Each mome rath had its own individual colors, but that wasn't the odd fact. The odd fact was that the colors made a flag of a nation!
Hong Kong turned to a group of five mome raths, noting the Nordic flags. He turned to another and saw a blue and white one sleeping while another one with a mask glared at it. Defiantly Greece and Turkey. There were ones of Monaco, Belarus, Netherlands, Ukraine, and so much more. They were all nations Hong Kong had not seen in this place.
After swarming the Chinese preteen for a bit, the world mome raths came together and created an arrow. Hong Kong was standing by then, watching as the mome raths started walking towards something, still in alignment. He started following the mome raths, quickly deciding they were probably showing him something.
And Hong Kong was right. The mome raths stopped walking, their arrow pointing to a path. The preteen quickened his pace when seeing the path; paths like that should always lead somewhere.
"Dòjeh!" Hong Kong shouted back to all the mome rath-nations as he started running on the path. They all seemed to be glad to help him because when Hong Kong looked back to say his thanks, they were all happily jumping about, cheering. "Dòjeh! Dòjeh!" he shouted again before they were out of sight.
Hong Kong continued on running, inwardly hopeful to find a place he could ask directions or something. Anything. His hopes deflated when he slid to a stop, seeing some weird dog with the bristles of a broom as a face. The dog was sweeping away the trail!
"Wait, no! Stop it, gáugáu!" Hong Kong shouted, but the dog didn't notice. It continued to sweep until the preteen was in its way. The dog looked up at Hong Kong before going around him and continuing to sweep. "Aiyah, now how the bloody hell am I going to get someplace?" the Chinese preteen groaned.
Hong Kong just continued to where the path was, unsure if he was going the right way after a couple of steps. He looked all around him, seeing even more weird creatures. They all seemed to be glaring at him.
As Hong Kong kept walking he stumbled on another clearing, only this was still dark. In the center of the clearing was a large tree stump. The preteen walked over to the stump, slumping onto the stump for his feet were a bit tired.
"This isn't fair... How'm I suppose to get home now...? No one's going to find me here..." The Chinese preteen looked all around him. All the creatures glaring before were now giving him sympathetic looks. The looks only added to Hong Kong's mood; he did not like being looked down upon.
Sucking up his pride, Hong Kong shouted, "Gou! Gou!" He knew it would be useless, but he was really lost. "China-Gou! Gougou!" Before Hong Kong even noticed, his eyes were starting to water.
No... he thought, I may be lost, but I won't cry... "Gougou!" his voice cracked. No...Hong Kong inwardly scolded himself, wiping his eyes with his long sleeve. When the Chinese preteen brought his arm back down, everything had changed.
Everything around him had disappeared. All that were left was him, the tree stump, a dark sky, and a crescent moon. Hong Kong didn't give it a second thought, just wanting to go home.
"Gougou!" his efforts were wasted yet again when there was no answer. Instead, there was a laughter.
"Kesesese~" Hong Kong turned to where the laughter was coming from, knowing exactly who it was. The laughter was coming from the crescent moon, which was shifting side to side, then into a smile.
"What do you want?" Hong Kong's monotone voice was back to normal.
The figure appeared before him, the moon turning out to be Prussia's large toothy smile. "Kesesese~Well, aren't you a smart one knowing it's me." the Prussian Cheshire Cat said. "Why so down, munchkin?" Prussia asked, appearing next to Hong Kong.
"Ngóh oi ngóh gougou... I don't know how to leave, though..."
Prussia nodded his head at Hong Kong's explanation, only understanding the second part of what he said.
"So you're saying you want a way out?" Prussia clarified.
"Yeah, but I can't find my way out..."
"Pssh, of course you can't find your way out!" Prussia snorted, patting Hong Kong's head, much to his dislike. "All ways are herways, little munchkin!"
"Who's..."
"The Empress of Hearts, man! She rules this whole awesome place! Now that I think about it, she'll love to meet you. She probably could possibly help you out. Just don't piss her off."
"..."
Hong Kong stayed silent after Prussia's explanation on what to do. The Prussian Cheshire Cat was only smiling back, laughing.
The Chinese preteen was very unsure about going to see this 'Empress of Hearts'. Was she mad, too? Hong Kong really didn't want to meet anymore insane people. Also, this lady was the ruler of all the mad people here! She had to be at least three times as mad. But, he really wanted to go home (China would probably scold him if he came home really late or something, too...)
"How do you get to where she is?" Hong Kong finally asked. Prussia gave him a large sharp grin.
"Well, some go that way," the Prussian started saying, standing up, "And some idiots go that way, which is twice as long. But the awesome way to go," Prussia leaped back a few feet, revealing a dark tree next to him, "Is my way. The short cut!" The Prussian Cheshire Cat then elbowed the tree, the bark of it falling forward to reveal a beautiful other world.
Hong Kong flinched from the sudden brightness before peaking through, somewhat thinking through his plan. Judging from the surroundings Hong Kong saw, it was a garden, and a Chinese one at that. When the preteen turned back to ask more questions, Prussia was already gone.
The Chinese nation turned back to the bright garden, hesitantly walking through. The hedges were high, so it felt as if he was walking through a maze. Even so, Hong Kong continued on.
The preteen looked all around. Everything looked so nice. Out of nowhere, Hong Kong heard singing and he turned to where it was coming from. When he turned, the Chinese nation saw a hole in the hedges, noting the heart shape. It was like a little window.
When Hong Kong looked through the 'window', his eyes widened at the giant mahjong tiles standing before him. He couldn't exactly see who it really was for the tiles had their backs to him.
"Raivis! Stop singing! We have to finish painting the peonies pink!" one mahjong tile nervously said.
"B-but Eduard! I-it helps c-calm me down a-and keep a s-steady hand!" another timid voice said.
"He has a point. It is calming and we needto do a good job, or else..."
"T-thank you, Toris."
"Okay, okay. But keep painting!"
"Painting the peonies pink, we're painting the peonies pink, we dare not stop, or waste a drop, so let the paint be spread, we're painting the peonies pink," all three mahjong tiles sang.
Hong Kong walked around the hedges, walking into the open where the mahjong tiles were. He saw that the pieces were the Baltics and they were, indeed, painting white peonies pink.
"We're painting the peonies pink, oh, painting the peonies pink, and many a tear we shed, because we know, they'll cease to grow, in fact, they'll soon be dead and yet we go ahead, painting the peonies pink." the Baltics continued singing and painting.
Hong Kong walked up to the three, but seemed to have gone unnoticed. Once the Chinese nation actually saw their front side, he really had to hold down a laugh.
Each of them really were rectangular tiles, all of them dots. Latvia just had his head, so Hong Kong guessed he was a one-dot piece, Lithuania had a dot under his head, making him a two-dot piece, and Estonia had two dots besides his head, a three-dot piece.
"Painting the peonies pink, we're painting the peonies pink–"
"Oh, pardon me, but dots of three, why must you paint them pink?" Hong Kong asked, interrupting the Baltics' singing.
A moment later, the preteen wondered if he should've asked why. The Baltics seemed to have gone crazy after hearing his voice. Not crazy like everyone else Hong Kong's met, but crazy out of fear.
The Baltics had immediately stopped what they were doing with a flinch, running about while splashing paint on themselves. All hell broke among the three as Hong Kong just sweat-dropped.
"Huh? Oh!" Estonia seemed to have noticed Hong Kong now, he and the others calming right down after seeing it was him who was there. "Well, the fact is, little boy, we planted the white peonies by mistake, and..."
"The empress she likes 'em pink, if she saw white instead, she'd raise a fuss and each of us would quickly lose his head." Latvia and Lithuania finished in song, getting scared again after the mention of the empress.
"Since this is the part we dread," Estonia now joined in, "We're painting the peonies pink."
"Well, you planted white flowers. Of course she'd get mad." Hong Kong said bluntly, referring to the Chinese superstition of white flowers symbolizing death. His words seemed to be really affective because a second after they were out, the three Baltic mahjong tiles started weeping and painting even faster.
"Painting the peonies pink, we're painting the peonies pink," the Baltics started again, Lithuania placing a paint brush in Hong Kong's hand as Latvia pushed him towards the peonies. The Chinese preteen shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to help them out. "Don't tell the empress what you have seen, or say that's what we said, but we're painting the peonies pink, yes, painting the peonies pink,"
"N-not red," Latvia stuttered.
"Not green," Lithuania continued.
"Not aquamarine," Estonia added.
"We're painting the peonies pink!" all three finished.
As the four continued finishing up painting the peonies pink, a loud gong could be heard in the background. All three Baltics started going wild again, throwing their paint supplies up in the air, screaming and crying, "It's the empress! The empress!"
Quickly, the mahjong tiles gathered everything, throwing all the paint, brushes, and latter out of sight. Hong Kong believed it would have been useless with them all spilling the paint everywhere while panicking.
After panicking, the Baltics threw themselves onto the ground, bowing for the entering empress. Hong Kong just stared at them blankly before Lithuania and Estonia dragged him down with them.
Off in the near distance, Hong Kong could hear more gongs and see an army of mahjong tiles marching through. There were dots and bamboos and characters everywhere, surrounding them.
"Halt aru!" Hong Kong heard a very familiar voice command. The voice and distinctive speak tic was so familiar to the preteen that he was honestly panicking inside, hoping it not the that one person.
"Step aside..." The voice said, tiles doing as told, stepping aside and creating a pathway. Another gong was heard as the flying mint bunny flew through the pathway, the gong in hand.
"The mint bunny..." Hong Kong whispered to himself when seeing the mint bunny.
"Introducing! Her majesty! The Empress of Hearts!" the mint bunny yelled, exhaustedly. Well, Hong Kong now knew why it didn't want to be late and was rushing all the time.
The preteen turned to the approaching figure after the mint bunny's introduction. His eyes widened and heart had stopped for a second. Hong Kong's dreaded prediction was correct.
"Oh god, no..."
Notes:
-sorry for ooc-ness - Hong Kong seems ooc to me... so sorry...
-gáugáu - doggy (gáu is dog, but when I was younger, I'd say gáugáu, so doggy)
-Ngóh oi ngóh gougou - I want my big brother (very possible it's wrong)
-mahjong - Chinese game
-dots, bamboos, characters - circle suit, bamboo suit, character of thousands suit
-I probably made it really obvious as to who the Queen of Hearts is, so sorry. Explanation next chapter.
-Sorry for the late chapter; went somewhere the day before.
Reviews are loved, please excuse grammar, spelling, and/or language...