Hetalia – Of Magic and Might

Chapter 7 and its flashback time! We'll be travelling back to a time when Arhur's sixteen and the Kirklands have just arrived back from the archery tournament. This has so far been my longest and favourite chapter to write.

Enjoy!

Six years in the past, The floating isle known as 'Elder Grove Isle', a log cabin at the edge of forrest belonging to Allistor Kirkland.

"OOOOooohhh! What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor early in the morning!" Nearby birds scattered wildly as the crowned in victory four boys bearing bows and arrows on their backs sang loudly disturbing the natural serenity of the near by Elder Grove.

"Heave ho! Up she rises! Heave ho up she rises! Heave ho up she rises early in the morning!" Finishing their joyful song with laughter they clapped each other on the backs and playfully shoved one another, as they made their way to Allistor's log cabin. Allistor jogged ahead of his merry men and lifted the woven doormat to find the key to unlock his cabin's door.

"OOoiii! Hurry up ya giddy archers! Inside its drinks all around!" Allistor bellowed to his approaching brothers whom can't contain their happiness over their success at the archery tournament. Allistor chuckling at his brother's ecstatic display pushed open the creaky door and held it open allowing the troupe to bundle into his home, Seamus and Dylan noisily advanced past Allistor while Arthur paused a little way from the cabin quite solemn now. Allistor smiled sadly at Arthur's understandable hesitation.

"Get ya peachy buttocks in here, Arthur" Allistor called gesturing with his head for Arthur to enter his domain. Arthur looked up in astonishment before breaking into a toothy grin and running past Allistor before he could change his mind. Allistor made to close the door when he felt a presence enter the boundary he had established around his part of the island, the boundary that was constructed of four stones engraved with detecting magic symbols. The stones were positioned in a square at the corners of Allistor's territory and when someone entered the space Allistor would feel their presence, the farther away they were from Allistor the weaker the signature.

The presence that Allistor had felt was extremely weak, barely a pulse but it was definitely there. Allistor glared suspiciously at the skies, it could be a passing air ship but if it were then there'd be multiple presences for the crew. Allistor felt a twist in his gut from unease, something felt off like there was something creeping in the air or some shadow beast stalking him. Allistor felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, the presence was weak but it throbbed along with his brothers' whose aura's wavelengths seemed like a dragon's heartbeat compared to it.

"Hey Allistor get in here before Seamus breaks your whiskey open, once he starts he won't stop until there's not a drop left!" Dylan's voice rang from the open living room as the crazy cackle of Seamus's laugh echoed throughout the cabin.

"Aye, give me but a moment Seamus!" Allistor replied stepping onto his porch and putting his thumb between his teeth and biting down. The skin broke and a red bead appeared on his thumb, Allistor applied pressure to his thumb to encourage the drop to grow to a reasonable size before allowing his blood to fall to the earth. Holding his palm out he pictured his stone golem appearing piece by piece in front of him in the shape of a fox, as Allistor slowly opened his eyes the golem had already materialised with its head bowed awaiting its orders.

"Search the area in the east for humans, if you find any alter me immediately you understand?" His golem bowed again and dashed away to fulfil its mission, Allistor knew he was beings overly paranoid but the presence worried him more then he would care to admit. Sucking his thumb to cease the bleeding he walked back across the porch and pushed through the door into his home.

The cabin only had two rooms, his bedroom and the living room/kitchen he was standing in now. The living room had a large oaken table he had built himself with similarly bulky chairs which his brothers now sat now. The kitchen was made up of a log stove and two wooden counters with a variety of kitchen knives and pots resting on its surfaces, the washbasin was occupied by dirty dishes that hadn't been washed from last night.

In the corner of the living room was a recently emptied bookshelf that had once contained his precious spell books, he had even began to write his own with details on summoning golems and theories on harnessing lightening. The books now lay in an enchanted rucksack he had brought that had an infinite space inside and could store anything as long it could fit inside the bag rim itself, it had cost a pretty penny but Allistor decided that you couldn't cut corners when it came to quality.

It was Seamus's shouting that drew his attention to the table of riff ruffs, Dylan attempting to reason with Seamus' absurd logic with Arthur occasionally adding a comment.

"No no no, if you meet a dragon you're meant to strike straight away! If you let it talk then the endless conversation will kill you before his fire will!" Seamus exclaimed determined to convince Arthur and Dylan that he knew how to handle a flappy gummed dragon. Dylan laughed in disbelief and with his eyes shining wickedly set his counter argument on the table.

"Listen Seamus, you may of read on dragons. But take it from someone who's actually finished one themselves. True if you strike first you have the element of surprise but you lose the chance to learn where the dragon stores his gold! Talk to the dragon long enough with plenty' o flattery and he'll practically introduce you to his lair, and that is how you walk away with not only a dragon tooth but also the fortune of a lifetime" Dylan finished with a smack on the table and leaning back on his chair looking pleased with himself, a smug grin plastered on his face.

"Aye, that be true about the gold. But if I remember correctly Dylan, you came back with half a head of hair on ye wee noggin! Poor Bonnie lass' locks were toasted well done!" Allistor butted in pleased to see that his words had knocked the cocky grin off his brothers' face. This statement caused the room to fill once again with heartening laughter with even Dylan joining in, the boys clutched their sides and their cheek muscles began to ache.

"Tell you what though Arthur, you be a right crack shot. Didn't know you were that good, a little dark horse eh?" Seamus said playfully elbowing Arthur in the ribs tickling him and causing him to squeal for mercy.

"He's right Arthur, I didn't know you practised that much" Dylan added in admiration. "If you hadn't split Allistor's arrow on the final Bulls-eye, then I reckon we wouldn't of won!".

Arthur blushed in modesty and scratched his head sheepishly. "I had plenty to time to practice, what with being by myself". Arthur's last two words caused his brothers to look down in guilt at how they had treated their brother, Arthur noticing their down cast eyes only gained a glint of satisfaction from their guilt before his own eyes filled with sympathy.

"It's alright, I know why you did what you did. I can't deny that I probably wouldn't do the same were I in your positions" Arthur spoke softly, he didn't want to go come down from the victory high he and his brothers had been riding on.

"That doesn't excuse us Arthur for us treating you the way we did laddie, it was wrong of us. We let jealousy come before family, an' nothing should ever be more important," Allistor replied walking over to Arthur and bowing to him "Can ye forgive us for the the way we treated ye?".

Arthur put his hand on his eldest brothers shoulder. "Allistor, really what are you doing? Bowing to the youngest? Why the shame of it! Now rise brother and look at me". Allistor straightened slightly and looked into his brothers' simmering eyes.

"I forgive all of you, at this moment I'm simply happy to be together again. C'mon Allistor stand straighter. You are the first born of the proud Kirkland family and eldest brother, you bow to no one" Arthur finished with firmness and his tone carried a note of strength that made Allistor draw himself to his full height and look down upon Arthur with a smile.

"Sometimes Artie ye seem too wise to be sixteen, y'know that?" Allistor remarked ruffling Arthur's blonde mop to the amusement of Seamus and Dylan.

"Guess I have an old soul" Arthur replied shrugging his shoulders and moving to sit back down at the table. Allistor was about to join them when a sharp ringing drummed inside his skull causing him to clutch his head in pain, Arthur, Seamus and Dylan all rose from their seats in alarm.

"Allistor! Oi! What's wrong with your head?" Seamus exclaimed grasping Allistor's shoulder to turn him towards him. Allistor hadn't even noticed the presence grow larger and now he could almost accurately tell how far and how fast the presence was moving towards the cabin, it wasn't the presence that worried him most though. It was the telepathic image the golem had sent him before its demise.

The image was of Empire Ivan and a squadron of armed soldiers marching East towards his cabin accompanied by a sorcerer in chains. Allistor hissed in anger and looked towards his brothers who were looking back at him in alarm and confusion.

"There be no time lads, the Emperor himself is nearly at our door step and he brought another sorcerer with him. Means as long as that he lives Ivan will be able to track us like rabbits in a hunt" Allistor spoke hurriedly moving to his rucksack and then to the kitchen, stuffing whatever food he could find into the bag.

Dylan, Seamus and Arthur grabbed their bows off the table and slung them onto their backs into their quivers in a smooth movement, each of them had performed evacuation drills in preparation should the Empire find them. Everyone scattered throughout the house gathering Allistor's magical artefacts and other evidence of sorcery. When the Empire had taken over, sorcerers had to be prepared to drop their regular lives at a moments notice and flee for their lives.

"We're going to have to burn this place Allistor. Nothing can be left" Dylan yelled emerging from the bedroom after grabbing Allistor's stash of gold pieces and tossing it in Allistor's open bag.

"I'll set the charge outside" Seamus said grimly moving past Arthur to the door, pulling his brown cloak closer to him. Outside he jogged around the log house in an wide arc, summoning bluebell flames and scattering them in a rough circle around the premise. Inside the cabin Allistor, Dylan and Arthur had finished packing and in a quick pace walked outside to see Seamus finish getting the fire charges.

"Allistor said Ivan had a sorcerer with him, he must have had him unpick the spell" Arthur said through gritted teeth as he tightened his cloak and boots in preparation to run. After Allistor spared his home one last look of longing, he remembered the joy of building it in the long summer from the ground up. Now the Empire was forcing him to destroy what he had created, he looked each of his brothers in the eyes. Their eyes held determination, courage but ultimately fear as well, they were about to be chased in a man hunt led by the world's most powerful man. The brothers moved away from the cabin to the edge of the Elder Grove Forrest, Allistor shifted his rucksack onto his shoulders and took a deep breath in to steady himself for what was to come. Holding out his palm once more he imagined the magic in his blood flowing to his hand, building the pressure in his palm like a gathering storm cloud.

"Ignite" Allistor whispered and a bright flame sparked to life in between his fingers, his dark blue cloak flapped against the force and heat produced by his combustible magic. With a heavy heart he threw the roaring fire ball at his cabin. The crackling fire ball landed on top of Seamus's forget-me-not fire charges resulting in a massive explosion of blue flames that blasted Allistor's cabin to pieces, debris of wood boards and planks flew in all directions and a suffocating column of black smoke rose to meet the sky. The Empire definitely knew what direction they were in now.

Turning around Allistor became walking past the first line of pine trees at marked the start of the grove, his boots crunching softly against the pine leaves that covered the Forrest's floor. Seamus, Dylan and Arthur all shared a look of worry and started silently following behind Allistor unsure of how to possibly comfort their red headed brother. Though it caused him grief, Allistor understood what had to be to done to protect himself and his family.

"No matter what, do not lose sight of me understand lads? Do not separate and do not get lost," Allistor dictated leading his brothers further into the Forrest breaking into a steady paced jog, his companions close on his heels. Their cloaks whipped behind them as they ran without speaking, not wanting to waste precious breath on words. The sun was near setting slowly casting blood orange rays into the sky and the tall black column that was once a log cabin continued to rise ominously.

The four brothers fled through the pines with Allistor taking the lead, their pounding feet hit the ground rhythmically. Far behind their pursers' hounds howled their hunting call as they caught the fleeing brothers' scent and to entered the Forrest in pursuit. Allistor gritted his teeth in frustration, it was going to be a very very long run.

duh duh da duh da! The action picks up! The flash back continues next chapter where the four brothers will attempt to shake off their pursers. Thank you for reading and please take the time to leave a review on this story and follow if you want to see more.

Till next time!