C H A P T E R E I G H T

• ENGLAND }} arthur •

I tightened my jacket a little more, though I didn't complain about the cold breeze blowing through the trees. I wasn't sure if Raivis beside me was shivering from fright or cold or both, but he seemed spooked in this forest. I don't think he liked being a wolf very much; perhaps the least of all of us.

Our feet slid smoothly into the ground below. It had rained the night before and the dead leaves of last autumn were slippery. I was sure if I were to step on solid ceramic flooring, my shoes would squeak to no end.

"Do…do you think he's around here?" Raivis asked for the fifth time that day.

"Maybe, maybe not." I said tightly, growing a bit annoyed with the boy. "We won't be able to tell until we stumble upon a wolf, will we?"

Raivis shrugged and glanced around nervously. I rolled my eyes and walked ahead, peering around a few trees and shrubs. Raivis reminds me of Matthew a bit. I guess the only difference is that Matthew doesn't get drunk on the weekends.

We had been searching for him for what seemed like an hour, and it was wearing out my patience. The only thing this was good for was thinking, but I didn't want to do that either right now. I checked behind another empty bush, wariness growing in my stomach.

"Hey, E-Arthur?" Raivis whispered from close by. I flinched, surprised by his nearness; I'd had no idea he had come over by me. I frowned at his almost-slip-up and raised my eyebrows in question.

"I don't think he's around here." He concluded.

"No shit, She-" I paused. "Wait, do you hear that?"

The two of us listened closer, and then it came again. A shuffling of leaves that didn't belong. A soft, drawn-out whimper. We looked at each other and I took off in the direction.

"Wait, Arthur!" He whispered hushedly, grasping at my arm.

"What?"

"What if it's not him? Be-um, be careful. He won't recognize you as a wolf." Raivis informed me.

"Yes, I do know that by now, Raivis, thank you." I brushed him off gently and crossed a clearing, ducking behind a few pine trees and almost stepping on a dirty white-and-gray wolf. If not for the loud warning growl, I would be kibble.

Raivis had followed me and I backed up into him, not waiting for him to move as I pushed him away from the wolf and moved around the tree to get a better look.

"Whoooo, Gilbert!" I whistled, peering through the branches at the enraged wolf. "You look even worse as a wolf than you do as a human."

Raivis peered around the tree and gasped in surprise. Gilbert's ruby gaze shifted to him and then back to me, lips curled and teeth exposed in a snarl. His underbelly and flank were littered with mud and blood, one of his forepaws twisted and held closer to his chest. It didn't look like his day in the forest had been good.

Raivis voiced my question. "Wh-what happened?" He looked around nervously. I didn't bother answering with my theories, too afraid I'd scare him off for good.

I squatted down to look at Gilbert on the same level. He stopped growling for a moment, whimpered, and then growled again. We stared at each other for minutes as I debated what I could do with him injured and a wolf, when his head snapped to the left and got to his feet sans forepaw. I stood up quickly and looked over in the direction, wariness pooling in my stomach.

A beige-ish wolf was peering through the undergrowth, purple gaze on us calmly. A white wolf peered over its shoulder, and a gray one kneeled by its paws. The first wolf's muzzle was tinged with blood.

"Damnit." I said, balling my fists. I could feel Raivis shaking behind me.

"A-arthur." He whispered.

I ignored him and glanced around. The white wolf moved forward with a growl, but the beige one snapped at it and it stayed put. What were we supposed to do?
"Ah, a-arthur!" He pressed on.

"What is it?" I hissed.

"You-you know who that is… right?" I turned and looked down at him, his indigo eyes wide and frightened.

"R-russia." His voice was barely inaudible, but I heard him, and the wolves seemed to, too. The white one growled again, and Gilbert started snarling right back at her.

Raivis's shivering grew worse, to the point where he gasped and grasped onto my shoulder for support. I lost interest in the wolves for a moment and twisted sharply to catch him as he stumbled, gut wrenching in protest.

"Raivis? Everything's fi-…" I trailed off, watching him convulse. I realized that he wasn't just scared. I stepped back just in time for him to break himself into pieces and reassemble himself, a horrible puzzle connecting in his anatomy. He was Raivis and he was Latvia and then he was nothing and then he was wolf. He crouched beside Gilbert with his russet fur standing out against the bigger wolf's white, eyes shifting between me and Russia so quickly I'd figure he might get dizzy.

Russia took a step forward, ears erect and tail slightly raised. My gut twisted again. It was a warning.

I wish Toris was here. I wish anyone was here. I wish Alfred was here.

Then the white wolf jumped forward and Russia didn't hold it back, heading towards Gilbert and Raivis with its jaws spread wide. In a split second I disintegrated and pulled myself together again, letting out a cry of pain before I stumbled onto my paws and intercepted it.

I could smell the wolves now; besides Russia, the two were female, and I could only guess who they were. Russia had jumped forward as well, but the other wolf lingered behind, looking distraught. The white she-wolf twisted away from me and snapped close to my muzzle before I pulled away.

The beige wolf was moving towards Gilbert. He stumbled forward, still holding his paw to his body, but Raivis pushed him away from the male. He barked something to Gilbert I didn't catch.

It was all instincts now. I let out a snarl and lunged at the wolf, biting at her shoulder like it was tissue paper. She didn't take any time to recover like I expected, completely ignoring the wound to her shoulder and launching herself at my neck. I was shocked, taking too much time to react.

Move! I shouted at myself.

Someone moved before me. I was fully prepared for her teeth to slice my windpipe open, but someone had other intentions. I became aware of almost everything: the look in the wolf's eyes – Belarus, I told myself; the sound of Raivis's whimper-growling as he fought, and the sound of Gilbert snarling in my ear.

Then the she-wolf grew twice the size and split herself apart – it was Gilbert, I realized. He snapped her away from me and was ripping at her face as she scrambled underneath him. She writhed and then clamped her jaws around his leg, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Reinforcements, I needed; he needed. I leaped in front of Gilbert and pawed at her face, biting at her muzzle as she tried to shake me off. Then I heard a snap from across the clearing and the wolf squirmed her way away from me, slinking back to the shadows after the beige male, with a last hateful glance towards me.

I stumbled over to Raivis, exhaustion setting in. He was pressed up against the ground, breathing heavily. I couldn't hear Gilbert behind me. I wondered what were those wolves doing here.

Suspicion.

•••

• PRUSSIA }} gilbert •

It feels safe here.

I don't know where I am, but I feel safe. It's cold, but I feel the warmth of what I think is another body pressed up against my side. I yawned, and snuggled closer to the warmth. Whatever it was squirmed a bit and then sighed angrily. I think I fell back asleep, but I woke up when something was pressed against my arm and stung me. I – hard to believe – yelped a little and pushed further into the warmth. I was rewarded with a harsh push away from it.

"Would you kindly get off me now, you bloody oaf? You've drooled all over my vest!" Came a cold, accented voice.

I blinked my eyes open and found myself staring groggily up at Arthur, who had an annoyed look on his face, accompanied by a light scarlet blush. I smiled at him and unwrapped my arm from around his back, twisting to shift myself into a normal sitting arrangement, but I found that someone was holding my right arm still the same time I flinched from wounds tightening. I turned my head and found Toris focused on cleaning a cut on my arm. He was working pretty hard for such a small cut. I didn't get what the big deal was.

"What're you doing?" I asked dazedly. He gave me a look with his olive-green eyes and then sighed.

"Cleaning your wounds, can't you see?"

At that moment right there, he reminded me a bit of that pest Roderich. "Wounds? I wouldn't call them wounds. Looks like little cuts to me." I twisted my other arm to see a few faint scratches.

Arthur spoke up. "You should have seen them when you were a wolf. You're lucky you're a country, or you wouldn't have lasted very long."

I looked to Toris to verify this, but he just returned to cleaning the cuts. I ran my good arm over a few bandaged wounds, and then followed a strip of dressing down my shoulder and across my clothed chest, to find that I was wrapped up all down my abdomen.

"It's funny. I don't really remember these… I… got into a fight with another wolf?" I asked.

"It was Russia." Came a voice. I turned to look past Toris and found Raivis lying on the ground, looking up at the ceiling with a few bandages of his own. He had a big one over his cheek.

Arthur stiffened beside me, and I remembered now. I bit the inside of my cheek, anger rising.

"You should have heard him! He was taunting me. The nerve of him, insulting the awesome me! Said it wouldn't be too long before we were all dead." I growled. "He-he had those two wolves with him. It was Belarus and Ukraine! That damn Commie, I wouldn't put it pas-"

"We've already talked about it, Gilbert." Toris said calmly. "It's obvious he's trying to make trouble. It seems that he's forced this onto his sisters, and I think we should treat it as if he's committed a crime."
"And what are we supposed to do, Toris? Lock him up? That girl Natalia is crazy; she probably wanted to be a wolf, anyways." Arthur retorted, throwing his arms up in the air.

Toris flinched a little and turned his head so I couldn't see his face as he patched up the last cut.

We were quiet for a few moments when Raivis spoke up. "So… what if he makes more?"

More wolves? "He wouldn't use humans, right? I mean, he is a sick bastar-"

"No, no… I don't think he'd use humans. Well, I mean.. I know the way he works." Toris said, moving to lean against the couch between Arthur and me. He and Raivis exchanged glances. "I… I think it's kind of obvious he's done this, isn't it?" He looked to Arthur and me now, green gaze flicking between the two of us.

I looked to Arthur, waiting for him to respond, because I had no clue. Was he… planning on starting a werewolf brothel? A circus? Did they like that in Russia? Apparently Arthur had come to the same conclusions as me, because he glanced at me with a dubious look.

Toris frowned at us. "He's keeping it in the countries. He just wants us. He'll probably end up turning everyone into one. Everyone. Russia wants to play a game, and, you know… the more the merrier."

•••