A/N Venison = Deer meat. This chapter is going to be long and... eventful, which involves a blizzard, hunting, and a mental breakdown. Holy... 3,00 words. O_O BTW, my friend and I were talking about how funny it would be if someone made a lemon of this. I won't. No. But if one of you do, please tell me. XD
Alice woke up before Brandon. She didn't want to leave the warm comfortable bed, though she knew she had to wake Brandon and Nickolai.
She stealthily walked out of the bedroom, careful not make any noise. She saw the fireplace had been lit and that Nickolai was in the kitchen, cooking what appeared to be a deer.
"Oh, hello, Comrade Alice." He said.
"Hello, Nickolai. What are you doing up so early?"
"Cooking breakfast. I thought you might be hungry when you woke up, so I decided to cook you two a proper breakfast." He said. "Oh, would mind waking Brandon for me?"
"Actually, I came in here to wake him up." She replied, then turned to Brandon and began to shake him. "Hey, Brandon. Wake up."
"Hm? Where am I?" he asked, waking up groggily. Everything soon came back to him though. "Might as well start looking for the kishin." he said, leaning up out of his bed.
"Oh, you two shouldn't go without eating first, there could be a snowstorm. And there is also the possibility of getting lost. Who knows the next time you will eat?" Nickolai said.
Alice, who was thinking with her stomach at the moment, agreed.
"Food is never a bad thing." Brandon said, his stomach rumbling. Nickolai handed Alice and Brandon plates full of meat.
Alice took a bite. "So, what're we eating?"
"Venison." Nickolai replied.
"Oh boy, Bambi's mom." he said, taking a bite of the meat. Alice and Nickolai stared at him, confused. Obviously not knowing who Bambi was. He instantly recognized their confused stares. "In my dimension, there's a movie called 'Bambi', in which the main character is a baby dear. In one scene though, the main character's mom is killed by a hunter." he explained, taking another bite of the meat.
Alice looked alarmed, which alerted Brandon to his slip-up of talking about the fact they weren't from this dimension in 'public'. However Nickolai dismissed it as strange American behavior.
Brandon instantly realized his slip up.
"Nikolai, in America, 'dimensions' are a slang word for the different time zones. Some movies don't play in other time zones, a.k.a. 'dimensions'." he said quickly, making it up as he went along. Nickolai didn't believe him, but didn't say anything either. Alice breathed a sigh of relief. "We should probably start looking for that kishin now that we've eaten." he said, putting on his coat and boots.
Nickolai grabbed a nearby rusty pipe. "I should come, too. You may need help."
"No Nikolai, it's a bit too dangerous for a pipe to handle." Brandon said. "Besides, we've handled worse."
"We're still gonna' need a guide, Brandon." Alice pointed out.
"True." he said, realizing his lack of Russian geographical knowledge.
"And a translator." Alice added.
Nickolai watched the two argue. 'Americans are strange indeed.' He thought.
"Again, true." Brandon replied.
"So, I can come with you?" Nickolai asked, glancing back and forth between Alice and Brandon.
"Yea." Brandon said. "Just stay close, or you could be killed."
"Glad I could help." He said with an innocent smile.
"OK, time to go kill us a Kishin!" Alice said.
"Indeed." Brandon said, opening the front door. The three stepped into the cold and snow. Nickolai, who used to the weather, didn't feel very cold at all. Alice and Brandon, however, were freazing,
"Dammit, Germany and England were never as cold as this..." Alice whined.
"I know. Do some jumping jacks to warm up or something." Brandon said, shivering.
"No offense, but Americans are so weird..." Nickolai said.
"Hehehe, yes they are." Alice replied. "...In case you're wondering, I'm from Germany."
"America is definately different than Russia." Brandon said, looking around the wilderness in which they were hiking. "Do you see anything, Alice?"
"No. I'm afraid the snow is ruining my Soul Perception..." Alice replied, squinting to see through the snow.
"Wonderful." Brandon said, rolling his eyes. "We're stuck in Russia, looking for a killer doll, and Alice can't use soul perception. Just fucking wonderful." Alice and Nickolai looked at him, confused, again. "I forgot these two didn't know what sarcasm is." he said, face-palming.
"..." Alice didn't reply, neither did Nickolai. They walked some more, but gave up after three hours of hiking.
"Nickolai, you know how to get back to your house, right?" Brandon asked, having to yell over the wind.
"Yes, I do. I've been in these woods hundreds of times!" Nickolai yelled over the wind, then led them back home. They quickly walked inside and Nickolai lit a fire.
"Thank god, warmth!" Brandon said, standing in front of the fireplace, rubbing his hands. Alice also sat in front of the fire.
"So, how do you two know eachother?" Nickolai asked.
"It's a long and complicated story, but to make it short, we met at the academy." Brandon lied. Alice nodded.
"Oh, I see." The Russian replied.
"Yea." Brandon said. He then felt his stomach rumble, and realized he was starving.
"You are hungry?" Nickolai asked. Alice nodded, because she was also hungry. "I still have some venison left. We'll eat that for now, and I'll go hunting later tonight."
"Really? What do you use to hunt?" Brandon asked, now intruged.
"I use old shotgun in my room." Nickolai answered.
"Oh, yeah. I saw that! It looked pretty old." Alice said.
"It belonged to my father." Nickolai replied. "I don't know where he got it from, though."
"Can I see it?" Brandon asked, his vast knowledge about guns taking control.
"Sure, just don't break it." Nickolai retreated to his bedroom, soon coming out with an old, antique, worn-out brown shotgun.
"Wow. This is an old Remington 870 pump action..." Brandon said, getting lost in examining the gun. "12 gauge, no choke, regular stock, wood finish..." he trailed off, stating more and more facts about the gun. Nickolai looked at Alice, hoping for some explanation for Brandon's strange behavior. Alice just shrugged. "That is a very nice gun." Brandon said, giving the shotgun back to Nickolai.
"How did you know all of that?" Nickolai and Alice asked in unison.
"I like guns. A lot." he said simply, shrugging.
"I'm not going to ask." Nickolai replied. Alice just stared at Brandon blankly.
"What?" he asked, noticing Alice's blank stare.
"...Nothing."
"What ever." he said, cutting a piece of the venison and taking a bite.
Alice also ate some of the deer meat, as did Nickolai. The two ate in silence, trying to forget about Brandon's freaky 'Gun Freak-out'. They quickly finished, and started another hike.
"I hate the cold." Brandon said, shivering as they hiked.
"It's not that bad once you get used to it." Nickolai said.
"How long does that take?" Brandon asked, shivering.
"A few months for people like Alice. It might take a couple of years for you, though." Nickolai said. Alice giggled.
Brandon just shivered. "Wait, what makes Alice different than me?" he asked, worried that he may know her secret.
"She did say she was from Germany." Nickolai said.
"Winters in Germany are colder than those in America. We're farther north after all." Alice added.
"Oh, duh." he said, secretly sighing a sigh of relief. "Where the hell is this damn thing?" The wind grew harsher all of a sudden, and a look of worry placed itself on Nickolai's face. "What?" Brandon said, seeing him begin to fret, becoming worried himself.
"A Blizzard is coming!" The wind was harsher now. "We need to go back!"
"No need to tell me twice!" Brandon yelled, following Nickolai quickly. Alice jogged to catch up with the two boys.
They reached Nickolai's home before the storm hit. As they walked in, Brandon realized something important.
"How are we going to get dinner tonight?" he asked, starring at the plate where the venison used to be.
"We'll have to wait for the Blizzard to end." Nickolai replied. "Hopefully we won't be snowed in."
"How high can the snow get if we get snowed in?" he asked, thinking it wouldn't be too bad.
"Five or six feet." Nickolai replied blankly. Brandon just starred at him.
"I'll get the shovel, just in case." he said, walking over to the shovel that was next to the door.
"It might be higher if the storm is really bad." Nickolai replied.
"Wait... we're going to be stuck here with no food?" Alice asked, a horrified look on her face.
"Only if we get snowed in."
"THIS is why I hate snow..."
"Agreed."
Brandon quickly glanced out of a window. The storm was terrible, and a good foot of snow has already been deposited on the ground. "Looks like its gonna be a big one." Brandon said, nodding his head towards the window.
"At least we still have the fire!" Alice said. Then quite a large bit of snow fell through the chimney and into the fireplace, which put out the fire. "Dammit."
"Quick question. Nickolai, why have you never put protection over your chimney?" Brandon asked, beginning to shiver.
"Can't afford it." Nickolai answered. "As you should know, Russia's economy is crap nowadays."
"...I hate Socialism." Alice said.
"Finally, someone who knows Russia is not a communist country anymore!" Nickolai replied.
"I knew that." Brandon mumbled. "Wait, do you have some scrap metal lying around?"
"Nope, but I do have a pan I don't need." He said, gong into the kitchen and retrieving a beat-up, old frying pan.
"This could work." Brandon said, grinning. "I'm also going to need a hammer and a screw driver if you have them."
Nickolai went into his room and retrieved a drill, a screw-driver, and a small sledge-hammer. "Will these work?"
"Yea. And the last thing I need is a tape measure or ruler or something that can measure." he said, looking over the tools he currently had. Alice reached into her pocket, grabbed a 6-meter tape measurer, and threw it at Brandon's head while smiling innocently. It hit him right between the eyes. "Dammit!" he yelled, grabbing his nose. He then looked on the ground at what was thrown at him. "Where the hell did that even come from? Never mind, I don't want to know." he said, picking it up. "I'll be right back."
"You enjoy hurting him, don't you, Comrade Alice?" Nickolai asked.
"Yes I do." Alice answered.
Brandon quickly put on his boots and his coat and walked outside. He walked through the snow, and compacted some of it just enough for him to get on the roof. He quickly measured the chimney, and soon came back down. He then measured the size of the chimney onto the pot, and used the sledge hammer to bend the pan at the marks. He then used the drill to drill 5 holes into the bottom of the pan and walked outside again. He climbed back onto the roof and slid the cover into place, with it fitting snugly on the chimney. He then climbed down and walked back in.
"Done." he said, pulling off his boots.
Nickolai relit the fire. "Thank you, Comrade Brandon."
"No problem." he said, wiping his hands on his jeans. Alice sat by the fire, making herself comfortable.
"The snow isn't too deep outside. Want to see if we can hunt?" Brandon asked Nickolai.
"Sure, but what are you going to hunt with?" Nickolai asked.
"I can make something on the fly." Brandon said. "Crap! I just remembered something!" he yelled, and immediately began rummaging through his suitcase.
Alice, who felt left out, asked, "Can I come, too? I used to hunt all the time!"
"Sure, Comrade Alice." Nickolai said, noticing the sword and sheath around her waist. "...Aren't you a weapon?"
"Well, I used to not have a meister, so I got myself a sword."
"Oh."
Brandon quickly found the pair of pants he went through the portal with, and searched through the pockets. "Got it." he said, and removed a medium sized Swiss army knife.
"Cool...!" Alice stated, while Nickolai looked at it in awe. Brandon noticed Nickolai's stare.
"This, is a Swiss army knife." he said, holding it out so Nickolai could see. "It has a knife, a Philips head screwdriver, a flat head screwdriver, a file, a wire cutter, a scissor, and a bottle opener." he said, pulling out the parts as he stated them.
"That's awesome." Nickolai said.
"It's a must if you do a lot of construction." he said, putting on his boots and coat. "I'll be right back." Alice and Nickolai looked at him in confusion.
He quickly ran out of the house, found a reasonably straight stick on a tree, cut it down, and dragged it back in.
"Here we go. This should work." he said, and began carving one of the stick's ends into a point with his knife. The stick was about three feet long and about three inches in diameter.
"You're making a spear!" Nickolai stated.
"Why not climb a tree, ambush an animal from there and break its neck?" Alice asked. The two males stared at her like she was crazy.
"Because animals can smell your scent, and won't come within a mile of you." Brandon said, while continuing to carve the wood.
Alice laughed. "I used to do that all the time! The trick is to keep downwind."
"Well, you did smell like an animal back then..." Brandon said, finishing.
"I. Will. Murder. You!" Alice growled, having to be held back by Nickolai.
"Is she always this violent?"
"Yes." he said plainly, balancing his spear on his hand.
"I feel bad for you..." Nickolai replied.
"Eh, I've dealt with worse. We should probably start our hunt if we want to be successful." he said, putting on his boots and coat.
"...I will kill you eventually, Brandon." Alice said, 'calmer' now. "Just wait! You'll see..."
"Comrade Alice, we should go now." Nickolai said, grabbing his gun. At that, the three walked out the door to hunt.
The hunt was very successful. Nickolai brought down one elk with a clean shot, Brandon killed a large deer with his spear, and Alice killed two smaller does with her sword.
"That was a great hunt." Brandon said, dragging both his elk and one of Alice's does inside the be gutted.
"Yep." Alice replied, carrying the other doe over her shoulder.
"Dang, you're strong..." Nickolai commented.
"Thank you." Alice replied.
"Alright, do you have a place to gut these?" Brandon asked.
Nickolai took them to a back room with a blood-stained wooden table and a few different sized knives. "This is where I gut all the animals I hunt." He said.
Alice gazed in awe. "What I would give to live in this room..."
The two boys stared at her.
"She likes blood for some reason." Brandon explained.
"OK..." Nickolai said while Alice gazed at the knives.
"Don't even think about it." Brandon said as she began reaching for one of the knives.
"Aw..."
"Don't worry Comrades, I'll gut them. You two can stay in the livingroom." Nickolai chimed, grabbing a large knife from the wall.
"Thank you, Nickolai. I just don't trust her with any sort of weapon." he said, glaring at her. Brandon practically had to drag her out of the room. Alice looked at him blankly. "Don't give me that look." he said, sitting down on the couch.
"When we get home, I need to give you lessons on lieing." Alice said, sitting next to him.
"Why?" he asked, genuinely confused.
"That outburst in class you had was because 'your dad cut off your allowance'. Only rich, snotty kids would want to hurt their parents over something stupid like that. And dimensions being slang for tine zones? Half the people in America don't even know what a time zone is! Face it, you suck at lieing. If you want to keep this whole ordeal a secret, you need to learn how to lie!" Alice explained.
"Well, it's worked so far, hasn't it? We haven't raised much alarm now, have we? Why must you make something perfect if it's already passing?" he shot back, offended by her outburst.
"I could tell the students knew you were lieing, and that Nickolai wasn't really buying it either." Alice retorted. "So no, it hasn't been working. We haven't been caught, but people haven't been believing us either. Until you can lie properly, just leave it all to me. 'Kay?"
"Fine! Jesus Christ how much more can I take!" he yelled, storming out of the house. Luckily, Nickolai couldn't hear them. Alice simply stared out the window, contemplating between getting him or letting him freeze to death in the blizzard.
"..Oh my god, he's out there alone in the blizzard!" She said to herself, running after him.
He trudged through the snow, cursing himself for not even grabbing his coat, but continued walking, his emotions broken due to the recent events. He eventually found a small clearing in the forest, cleared off a rock, and sat down. He then pondered all that was going on, trying to ease his emotional upheaval.
Alice ran farther into the forest. She got herself lost in the blizzard, just because she was feeling nice at the moment. She tried to sense Brandon's soul, but the snow blocked it. She backed up, trying to make sense of what just happened. Then she backed up into the Kishin they had been looking for. She turned around slowly, looked at it and did the only thing she could at the moment.
She screamed.