And so we're back to the short chapters. Sorry I'm so inconsistent with chapter length. But you guys are lucky I finished this chapter today with how shitty I've been feeling.

Also I realized I hadn't been doing a disclaimer and I probably should be.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or The Swan Princess. If I did own Hetalia it would be much gayer. (not that that's very possible)

Chapter 5

Flying above Swan Lake was a black eagle, struggling to stay in the air. The poor creature couldn't keep going any farther and quite ungracefully fell out of the sky. Antonio pointed up at the freefalling bird.

"What is that?"

Arthur jumped back in surprise when the eagle landed on the ground in front of him.

"Bloody hell!"

Antonio and Francis came over to see what fell, the latter poking the unconscious animal with a stick.

The Spanish turtle asked, "Is it dead?"

"Am I really that bad of a singer? I'm killing birds now?"

"Nonsense mon cygne, you are a lovely singer," the French frog tried to reassure him.

"I don't think el pájaro is dead," Antonio rolled the bird onto it's back, revealing an arrow in its left wing.

"Oh. It was just an arrow. So it wasn't my singing that injured it. Though it is strange.."

"What is?"

"This is a black eagle, they usually aren't found around here. I think they're from parts of Asia. What would it be doing here?"

"Well maybe if it lives, we'll ask."

"Alright then, you two hold it down and I'll take the arrow out."

Antonio climbed over the bird and laid across its body, the poor thing letting out a pained sound at the added weight, and Francis held its head down. Arthur snapped the arrow in half then slipped it out of the wing, the bird yelping briefly. The prince ripped a piece of his shirt to use as a bandage and wrapped it around the wing.

With that done Antonio got off of the eagle and Francis peeled its eyes open, waving to him.

"Bonjour, this is your wake up call!"

Suddenly the creature jumped up into a fighting stance, somehow filled with more energy than he should have after getting shot. "It'll take more than that to keep the awesome me down!"

Arthur thought his voice was familiar, but come on this was a talking bird, he was pretty sure the familiarity was just in his head. "Calm down, none of us are going to fight you."

Saying the eagle was shocked when he saw the prince would be an understatement. His thin eyes got wide and his beak dropped down. "Prince Arthur?!"

The prince raised a bushy eyebrow, thinking that the voice was even more familiar now than before. "You know me? I have to say, I don't know many talking birds."

"It's me, Gilbert!"

Oh. Of course. How could he forget the 'awesome' Gilbert?

"How did you...? I mean..you're a bird."

"Yes, I noticed. When you went missing a few months ago, your father's guards and I started a search for you. They all gave up a while ago but the awesome me didn't! Then about a week ago I came across a man who looked like the one who attacked us all those months ago. I don't even know what happened, before I knew it I was a bird! I flew around for a while but then earlier today I got shot by a stupid hunter!"

"So Arthur, mon cygne, you know this bizarre bird?"

"Yes, he was my father's captain of the royal guard. Gilbert, this is Francis and Antonio. They were also human once, before Ivan put spells on them."

"Ivan?" Gilbert asked confused. "You mean the enchanter the king banished twenty years ago? Is that the man who attacked us?"

"Yes, he's the one. This place was once Francis' castle before Ivan took over."

"By the way Your Highness...I am sorry about your father. I should've stayed and protected him."

Gilbert knew he couldn't have done anything that night. He knew that if he had stayed, chances are he would have died as well. But the fact that he didn't stay and try was eating away at him. The king died and the prince was kidnapped and he wasn't able to stop it. So even when the other guards had given up, Gilbert still searched for Arthur, feeling guilty that he was taken on his watch.

"It's alright..If you had not have left, no one would have known what happened. Everyone would have been dead, who knows how long it would have taken for the bodies to be found. So I take it you made it back to Alfred's castle..?"

"Of course I did! Prince Alfred has been looking for you nonstop. Even with everyone else thinking you're dead, he refuses to believe it."

So it was true. Just as he had hoped, Alfred was looking for him. Arthur was filled with a happiness he hadn't felt in quite a while. Sitting around trapped at a lake for months with no one coming to rescue you can get real depressing real fast. So being reassured that his prince was indeed coming to get him made him the happiest person in the world right now.

But sadly it didn't last long.

"Your Highness, I must ask. Why have you been here this whole time? Why haven't you run away? I don't see him around, you need to get out of here!"

"I can't, I-"

With a sparkle of magic, a sunflower grew right in front of them. The sparks continued to fly all over the grounds of the lakeside. Sunflowers grew everywhere, the flowers in the trees were in bloom, the broken archway over the stone steps was repaired, and the illusion of daytime was created. Gilbert looked around confused but the others knew what it meant. Francis and Antonio pulled the black eagle into the bushes to hide just before Ivan came from the archway.

"Your knight in shining armor has arrived." Ivan smiled and bowed to 'his princess'. He actually does want to please his captive, but of course for the wrong reasons. "I am here to set you free~"

Arthur turned his back to the sorcerer and crossed his arms, already annoyed at yet another attempt to get him to marry him.

In the bushes Gilbert was trying to charge the evil man but was held back by his new friends. "Let me at him, I'll kill him with my awesome! He'll be so jealous of my awesomeness that he'll kill himself."

"Chill, mi amigo," Antonio tried to calm him.

"All it takes is one word," Ivan got down on one knee. "Will you marry me?"

The prince finally turned to look down at his kidnapper, a scowl on his face. "Every night you ask me the same question."

"Arthur please.."

"And every night I give you the same answer."

"Don't say it-" Ivan was getting angrier with every word Arthur spoke, his smile fading with every passing second.

"I'll die first." And Arthur was serious.

With his plan an obvious failure the illusion melted away. Ivan's dark aura was coming back the more he lost his patience. For months he has been asking Arthur for his hand, but still he was getting nowhere. Looks like he'll have to try another tactic.

"You're really starting to bug me."

"I should think you'd be used to it by now."

"That's it! Just keep pushing me, but one of these days I'm going to boil over!"

"Go ahead then! But I'll never give you my kingdom."

"Well..I was hoping you'd say you'd be mine. But it looks like you need another day to think about it," Ivan chuckled as he gestured to the moon going down.

When Arthur turned to look up at the moon he felt that sinking feeling in his stomach he felt every day. It was the end of his time as a human for the night. "No..." He made his way to the water. It wasn't a painful process but it did feel strange. It made his skin crawl in ways that was hard to describe. The water around Arthur's feet glowed a bright yellow, swirls of light and water surrounding him. When it receeded a swan sat in the lake in his place.

Gilbert rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Or maybe he was just going crazy? Then again, with everything that has happened, this isn't so weird. "Prince Arthur..?"

Here are some translations if you don't know what the foreign stuff is.

French -

Bonjour: Hello

Mon cygne: My swan

Spanish -

Mi amigo: My friend

El pájaro: The bird

If any of them are wrong, I apologize, I use an iTranslate app. Review please!