Everyone stared at the entity completely dumbfounded, except for England of course who rose his hand, "Hello Mr. ah...what do they call you?"

The entity looked down at England, still smiling and said, "They call me...Teki."

England nodded, "Thank you Teki."

Germany has gotten over his shock now, "Excuse me, we saw these people...they were dressed similarly to yourself but..."

"They were more malicious looking?" Teki finished.

Germany nadded "Ja."

Teki sighed, "My people call them the Nagloshki. In your language that would be...witch."

Japan rose is hand, "Teki-san, what is the name of your people?"

Teki thought for a moment, "Well... It has been so long now, that I cannot remember our name for ourselves, but I have heard today's living population call us the Anasazi."

France spoke, "These Nagloshki, as you call them, we they have taken our friends. Do you have any idea why that might be?"

Teki examined them critically, "Most likely because your friends are important..." he smiled a bit, "...very important if I do say so myself."

Prussia suddenly perked up, "Oh, England! Show him those marbles you found!"

England presented the marbles to Teki, who taken aback, "These marbles... I remember these! I made them for... Oh yes, I know exactly who was taken. Those two are extremely important, especially here. You must find them. Don't let the Nagloshki succeed. The consequences will be dire."

Russia spoke, "What are these 'consequences' you speak of?"

"The-ah!" Taki seemed to be blowing away like sand, "Someone is- ah-trying to silence me! Go now! To the ca-!" He disintegrated, his voice being carried off by the wind.

Nobody spoke for a moment, until France uncharacteristically stomped the ground in outrage kicking up sand in the process, "Non! Tu n'as pas repondu toutes nos questions!"

Prussia tried to calm him down, "France, calm down! It's not his fault! You heard what he said, someone was interfering with him!"

France stopped, "But I want to find mon petit mattieu! 'e could be hurt!"

England, who had been watching this short episode, unsure of what to do, spoke up, "Come now France. I'm worried about them too but I'm not going utterly mad over it."

Prussia, in an attempt to make his fellow BTT member feel better, whispered in France's ear, "No, he already is utterly mad."

This improved France's mood greatly, like someone had flipped a switch inside of him, "Ohonohonohon, he is ze black sheep of Europe after all."

"I heard that git." England growled darkly.

Now both Prussia and France were laughing, they started to point at him all the while chanting, "Black Sheep of Europe! Black Sheep of Europe!~"

Russia stood to the side and watched with a smile on his face as usual, and Japan was sensing the mood and refraining from speaking like he always did.

Germany took control of the situation before a fight broke out, "ALL OF YOU SHUT UP! Do you not realize we are about two miles from the main road, in the middle of the desert at night?! Let alone how far we have to go to get to that town that is, I remind you abandoned?!"

This sobered everyones' mood greatly. It was suddenly completely silent. Nothing could be heard except Germany breathing heavily from ranting without a break.

Germany looked around, "Now, Prussia you will lead the way to that town as we originally planned. If you intend to speak to each other, do so quietly and without disturbing others. Ready your weapons because the desert is very dangerous at night, and we don't know what we might encounter."

"Party pooper..." Prussia grumbled.

The trip to the main road was conducted mostly in silence. Prussia was leading the group, long sword over his shoulder. Japan was following, hand on the sheath that held his katana. This was followed by Germany, his gun still in it's holster but the safety was off. Russia was off to the side, holding his pipe close to him. France and England were walking next to each other, albeit giving each other space. France had a dagger concealed in his belt, and England had his spell book under one arm, that he had gotten back from Germany, who had the foresight to pick it up.

They were about a mile a way from the road when England stopped them, "Wait!"

Everyone froze and Germany looked over his shoulder, "What is it?"

England didn't respond, but he ran past Germany and stopped just in front of Prussia, "Step back, very slowly."

The urgency in England's voice made Prussia comply. England then knelt on the ground, pulled out his wand, and drew a large X over certain spot in the sand. This caused the ground to light up in the shape of a large circle with strange symbols bordering it. At first it was glowing blood red, but then the X that England had drawn flashed gold and the entire thing went matched it's color and disappeared.

Japan looked at the ground where the circle was before, "What was that?"

"It was a trap." England answered tersely.

The group continued on their way, not stopping until they finally reached the road. There, Prussia made a sharp left and they continued on in the same manner.

It was twilight now, and they could see structures about a mile in the distance near a canyon wall that had appeared to their right about an hour before. The sight lifted the nations' spirits.

"Oh, finally!" France exclaimed.

Germany shook his head, "We're not there yet."

Everyone froze at the sound of an unearthly howling in the distance. It sent chills down their spins, and into their very souls.

Prussia looked shaken, "West, I think you jinxed us."

Japan drew his sword, "Prussia-san, I'm sorry but that is a ridiculous idea."

Russia readied his pipe, "Whatever it is, I will hit it with my pipe, Da?"

France drew his dagger and England opened his spell book. Germany unholstered his gun, "I believe I may have found the origin of that howling."

The howling was coming from these...creatures. They were looked more like coyotes than they did wolves, but they were huge and their fur was a liquid black, with wisps coming off of them, as if they were made of shadow. Their eyes burned a dark purple. They were advancing on the nations, snarling and snapping at them.

Japan eyed them warily, "There are to many of them. They've surrounded us Germany-san."

Germany couldn't answer, for one of the things pounced at him. He shot it down before it could reach him. This seemed to rile up the creatures. They all attacked the nations, but the nations were ready for them.

Two attacked Russia. He easily defeated one as it pounced on him by slamming it in the temple with his pipe. The other one, poor thing, didn't have a chance as Russia was now sitting on it and hitting it with his pipe, "You will learn manners, Da?"

Japan had injured an unusually big one with his katana, they were now circling each other waiting for the other's next move. In the end, Japan defeated it when it made a mistake and tried a cheap feint. Japan shook his head, "How regrettable."

Prussia busied himself with trying to decapitate the two facing him, for one had scratched him. Nobody did that to Prussia and got out unscathed. The things were actually starting to shy away from him at the sight of the big and heavy long sword he was using. "You cannot withstand my awesome!" He crowed victoriously as he neatly beheaded one of them.

France came up behind one and killed it with his dagger. It went down with a long mournful howl. France laughed, "Ohonohonohon!~ You should have watched your back!"

England's spell book was open and his wand was out. Flashes of light lit up the night as he downed them left and right. To him victory was assured but little did he know, one was creeping up behind him, ready to latch on to him. England paid no attention and continued to kill the things with lightning bolts of assorted colors and random latin phrases such as, "Forazare!" and "Fuego!" The one behind him pounced, causing England to fall over and drop his wand and spell book out of reach. The creature was holding him down now despite England's squirming, inches away from England's face. England stopped squirming as he looked into it's dark purple eyes, where he saw murderous intent. He thought to himself, 'This is it isn't it? My immortality won't mean anything here will it?' England snarled at the thing, "I know what your thinking. Just do it!"

France looked over toward England from where he was. To France's horror, England was pinned down under one of the creatures. France rushed over to them. Neither noticed him, and France liked it that way. He plunged his knife deep into the things neck. It stiffened and fell over. England looked up at France, who helped him up. England picked up his wand and spell book, looked at France, looked at the ground again and mumbled, "Thank you...Frog."

"It couldn't have killed you anyway you know." France reminded the English nation.

England gave a slight nod of his head, "Yes, I know..."

The two seemed to remember that they were in a battlefield. They looked around though, and saw that nobody was fighting. They had killed them all.

Prussia lifted his sword into the air, "Yeah! I'm just that awesome!"

Everyone looked relieved. Germany looked north, "We are almost to the town. Lets keep moving. There, we will rest."

All the nations agreed and kept moving. Only England looked back, he saw the bodies of the creatures melting into the ground.

Needless to say, when the haggard nations got into town, they went to the nearest building, got as comfortable as they could, and slept for the rest of the night.

Huzzah! Another chapter! I'm really liking how this is turning out and hope the same can be said for you!

Thank you for all the reviews and such! Love to see them, it gives me a reason to open my email!

Later Dudes! ^J^