Footsteps. Footsteps walked along the forest floor, rustling fallen leaves as they went. It was this that caused England to snap awake at once. Trying not to make a single noise, he looked through his peephole outside. It was early morning. The sky was gray, and the sun was slowly starting to rise. England saw three figures. One was a tall, blond haired man. Germany, England thought. Next to him was an albino man, Prussia. To his utter suprise, England saw a smaller, brunette man. Italy...so Germany and Prussia were keeping this weakling around. But what for?
"He's just got to be around here somevhere," Germany grunted in his accent. "We've searched practically the whole forest."
"And I even made some pasta!" Italy exclaimed, waving a wooden spoon with a small piece of white cloth stuck to it around in the air.
Germany turned toward him. "Vill you shut up? There are sixteen other tributes that von't hesitate to kill us, und you shouting stuff vill just give us away!"
"Quiet!" Prussia barked, holding a sword in the air, "I think I just heard something..." All three men fell silent, as they intently raked their eyes across the area, seeing nothing but trees.
"It vas probably just some animal," Germany said. "Italy, vhy don't you go check it out?"
"Okay!" Italy answred, bounding away.
Prussia wrinkled his nose. "Why are you keeping him around? That guy is a total wuss, he can't fight to save his life, which is what we all have to do in here!"
"Ja, but he is very good at scavenging food, und he can tell poisonous berries apart from safe ones very vell." Germany replied, "und he is kind of my only friend...ve should get back to the Cornucopia now..." He trailed off as he and Prussia started to follow Italy. England smiled and collapsed against the wall of his hole. The whole time, he had been almost sure his pounding heart would give him away, but Germany and Prussia had missed him. He was lucky to be alive at all.
Regardless, Germany's and Prussia's conversation had given him useful information. Italy was allied with them, and they were letting him live. England could only imagine how hard the Italian had begged for the two brutes to let him live. Also, the three fo them were camping at the Cornucopia, no doubt hogging all the good supplies, and hunting the forest for tributes at night. England wondered if they had gotten anybody, and if he had not heard the cannon shots. He refused to believe they had gotten Sealand.
Already being fully awake, England decided he might as well get up now. Slowly, he clambered out fo his hole. He had done his job well, the surface was completely hidden in the forest floor. Only problem was that if he had to leave camp, he might not be able to find his hole again. To remedy this problem, he decided to carve signs in nearby trees so he would know that this was the area. It might not work if he had to go out far, but it was better than nothing. England set to work, carving a Union Jack, his country's symbol, on three of the closest oaks with his knife. Then he figured this would alert passersby of his presence, so he just carved blank squares on the trees instead.
"There," England told himself. "I'll be able to to locate my hideout now." By this time, the sun had fully risen, and the forest came to live. Birds flitted around in the air, squirells darted about, and bunnies, which made him think fondly of Mint Bunny, hoppen to and fro. These animals were nice, but England knew he had to hunt, his bread wasn't going to last forever, and he needed more calories that just berries and leaves could provide. He couldn't hunt rabbits, becuase that would be an insult to Mint Bunny, and they were too cute. However, birds and squirells were still fair game, and it would be amazing if he could even find a deer!
This presented him with a whole new problem, his knife alone wasn't enough for hunting. What England really wanted was a spear. There were definatly some by the Cornucopia, but it would be practical suicide to go there, what with Germany and Prussia guarding it, and going into visible sight of other tributes. To make matters even worse, England was a hot target. He was surely labeled as a threat, what with getting a 12 in training and all. England began to pace around, trying to formulate a plan. He needed to get to the Cornucopia to get a better weapon that just his knife. However, he needed to lure at least Germany and Prussia away from there, Italy he could easily pick off by himself.
"Of course!" England exclaimed for himself, maybe a little too loudly. "I can divert them by lighting a bonfire near the edge of the forest, so that would distract at the very least one of them, and then I could kill whoever was still there, and grab a spear and maybe some supplies!" It was a good plan anywhere. Hopefully, the fire would attract both Germany and Prussia, but he also had to be prepared to fight one of them if it came down to that.
"But I also wonder what's beyond the Cornucopia..." England muttered quietly. "I smelled salt water around there on the first day...so maybe a sea or a lake. Maybe I could even hide out there, it might give me a better edge that staying here in the forest." So it was settled. England would light a fire at the edge of the forest, using plenty of green wood for smoke, and snag an item or two from the Cornucopia, and check out the body of water. For good measure, he could throw some clumps of dirt back toward the direction of the forest so Prussia or Germany would think he had fled back to there.
Finalazing his scheme, England shouldered his pack, and began to walk. It would take a few hours to reach the Cornucopia, giving him some time to go over what he was about to do, and coming across wood wouldn't be a problem. All he had to do was cut off some low branches of a tree, the youngest ones. After about an hour of walking, England heard a noise that didn't sound like an animal coming from a tree. He quickly whipped out his knife and looked up. His arch rival France was perched up in a tree, leering down at England.
Okay, I've been trying to get the next chapter written, but I just have total writers block. Does anyone have any ideas of how the next chapter should work out ? If so please say ! It'd help me, and I'd love to hear your ideas !