Hetalia – Of Magic and Might
Chapter 30! Wow look how far we've come :3 Thank you to all my followers who inspir me to keep posting chapters and a welcome to new followers who have decided to jump on. Let's jump back into the action shall we?
Enjoy!
Whale-tail Island, The Thicket of Forrest surrounding Tinker's Town
"Alfred look out!" Arthur shouted reaching his arm out and forcefully pushed Alfred out harm's way. As Arthur roughly shoved Alfred, he felt the large body of the hound slam into him and knock painfully him to the hard ground. Arthur's head smacked against the Forrest floor and instinctively he brought his arm up to guard his exposed face as the weight of the hound landed in him. The hound's jaws clamped down on Arthur's guarding arm, Arthur screamed in pain as the hound's fangs sank deep into his arm. With his free hand Arthur raised his already bloodied knife and thrust it into the hound's crazed red eye, the eye bursting with a bloody spray. The hound howled and unhinged its crushing jaw, it's ivory teeth painted with Arthur's glistening blood. Like its brother it gave a whining yelp as Alfred closed his powerful hands around its neck, it's backbone giving a loud snap as Alfred threw it backwards into a tree. The other hounds had stopped attacking one by one and were now throwing themselves at the line relentlessly. The men struggling to stay in formation, slashed and waved the torches to fend the rabid beasts off.
"Arthur!" Alfred yelled behind him not turning his back in the hounds. Behind him Arthur shakily rose and reached for his knife, only to remember he had stabbed it into the hound's eye socket. Clutching his arm Arthur watched as the ruthless hounds continued to furiously attack the company, Matthew struggled to wrestle off one of the snapping hounds with a spear. Alfred bravely stood in front of Arthur, shielding him as he knocked away the charging hounds.
There's no end to them! Arthur mentally screamed as he looked from dog to dog. They seemed to creep out of the shadows, like spirits taking physical form as they came into the radius of the torchlight. As Arthur peered closer he saw two still pinpricks of light standing a distance away from the action, seemingly observing the scene. Curiosity mixed with desperation drove Arthur to reach out with his mind, extending his mental reach towards those small lights. Nothing could of prepared Arthur for what happened next.
Arthur fell to his knees clutching his head as he felt his conciseness violently assaulted by the mind of this other. It felt like he had been hit by a colossal tsunami wave, the other's mind so completely broke through Arthur's unprepared mental barriers. The other spearheaded its way into Arthur's mind, scratching and tearing as it forcefully invaded. As Arthur squirmed in the grasp of the other, his body spasmed and hit the pine needles beneath him. His name was being called but Arthur could barely hear them. He was a fish caught on a line, the assaulting mind feeling like nails scratching against a blackboard inside his skull. As Arthur tried to force the invader out, he heard the other speak to him inside his mind.
"What are you?" The other spoke, his voice unmistakably male, seemed to bounce and echo inside Arthur's head. Arthur too distressed to form an answer continued to struggle and try to close his mind against this other. Slowly Arthur tried to wrestle control back, using one of Allistor's techniques in which you concentrate on a single entity. Arthur focused as much as he could on the image of a brick wall, solid and unchanging. It was as soon as he had put into practice his technique that he felt the other's mind slowly begin to withdraw. When Arthur was given enough release that he could think semi-clearly, he called out telepathically.
"Who are you?!" His own voice called, sounding distant and fractured. Then Arthur felt as though he sensed a vibe of surprise from the retracting mind.
"Someone like you" The voice whispered as it removed the last of its hooks from Arthur's mind and disappeared. Torn and abused Arthur's mind closed itself from reality, spiralling Arthur into unconsciousness.
Whale-Tail Island, The Resistance's Headquarters, The infirmary
Arthur stirred and slowly cracked his sleep groggy eyes open. He was laying in a crisp white hospital bed in a pinstriped white and baby blue room. There was a metal cabinet containing various medicines and pills beside a neat wooden desk. Four others beds were to the right of Arthur's and above a ceiling fan spun leisurely. As Arthur pushed himself into a more upright position, he felt a heavy weight resting on his legs. Looking closer Arthur realised that it was Alfred who was kneeling beside his bed, his arms crossed with his head relaxed on them. Arthur smirked as he noticed that Alfred's glasses were crooked at the odd angle and that he was also drooling a little from his snoring mouth.
Reaching over, Arthur gently shook his friend's shoulder to wake him. Alfred's eyes fluttered before opening and looked at Arthur without seeing. Alfred blinked and then focused on Arthur's face more closely, suddenly bolting upright with his sleepiness forgotten.
"Arthur! Thank gods you're okay!," Alfred exclaimed with his face a globe of relief and joy. Arthur returned his smile and was about to reach for him when he noticed his badged left arm. The one where the hound had bit him. Alfred's eyebrows drew together as he to looked at the wound, remembering the terror he felt when he saw the beast bearing down on Arthur. There had been a horrible moment where Alfred thought he was too late."Does it hurt?"
"No, I'm fine I think. Sorcerers heal quickly you see. What happened?," Arthur inquired, the memory of the mental battle still all too fresh in his mind "start from where you pulled the hound off me"
"Well, as you know I pulled it off you and threw it back. The hounds were circling us and kept snapping and bounding at us. It was looking bleak, the dogs just kept coming and some of us had been bitten and can't defend well. Then uh...," Alfred paused looking uncomfortable before he continued "You kinda had like fit or something. You were clutching your head and twitching in the ground…" Alfred trailed off as he looked at Arthur, who looked like he was going to be sick. Arthur meet Alfred's worried stare and cleared his throat, asking him to continue.
"It was weird, suddenly all the hounds just kinda ran back into the trees. Like someone had called them off. I turned around to help you back up but you had like passed out with your eyes open, which was pretty creepy. We all had no choice but to carry you back, we occasionally heard dog pants and howls like they were following us. But they didn't attack. We made it back and here we are now in the infirmary" Alfred concluded with a circular wave of his hand to indicate to the room they were presently in.
Arthur rubbed his forehead as he mulled over Alfred's story. He was extremely glad that everyone had got away safe with only probably minor wounds. How embarrassing of him to have what looked like a fit, the men must think him incompetent now. It was Alfred's question that shook him from his inner thoughts.
"So are you going to tell me what happened with you?" Alfred asked concerned, crossing his arms over one over the other. Arthur grimaced at the fear engrained memory and proceeded to tell Alfred what had happened to him. He told of how he was taken completely off guard and he spoke of the horrible sense of helplessness as he squirmed under the other's control. After he had finished Alfred looked down in deep thought, unusually quiet.
"Alfred?" Arthur prompted, looking worriedly at Alfred's unchanging face. This sense of stillness from Alfred was so foreign to Arthur, he'd never seen Alfred do 'stationary'.
"I won't say that I'm not absolutely terrified by this," Alfred honestly admitted giving his head a small shake after a minute "but we'll have to try and understand it another time. Ludwig wanted to see you after you woke up, c'mon" Alfred said as he extended his hand towards the Brit. Arthur couldn't help the 'we' in the sentence nor the odd feeling it gave his stomach. Smiling Arthur reached Alfred's hand and gripped it tightly, as he let his companion help him to his feet.
Sooo interesting chapter this. First, Arthur's telepathic exchange with the who I'mgoing to call the 'other' for now. Now the way this works is very similar to the concept in the book series 'The Inheritance cycle' or 'Eragon' by Christphor Paolini. Telepathy can be used when you open your mind and reach out to another mind, must likely someone you trust absolutely. By lowering your defences you leave yourself open to other wandering minds and if you cannot retreat or defend yourself quickly enough, your in trouble and like we saw with Arthur. Telepathy is also used to move objects and sense presences, for example Arthur when he was alone he would open his mind to sense nearby creatures or approaching animals.
It's a useful skill for stealth and can be very advantageous in battle. Only sorcerers and psychic sensitive people are able to open their minds and sense another telepathy user is pressing against their conciseness, normal people will not feel the telepathic's touch and cannot establish a telepathic conversation without help from a telepathic user.
An telepathic attacker could pin another user by applying pressure to their mind, causing them to be forced to retreat within themselves and immobilising them as they struggle to hold off the assault. The conciseness is extremely personal with all thoughts and emotions being completely open. In the sorcerers' community the thought of forcing your concisness into someone's mind without their consent was so vile that they associated the act with action of rape, it was simply unacceptable and considered taboo. Unfortunately some waywards found and exploited a loophole, it was only taboo if you actually forced your way into their mind, not if you pressure them until they break and submit. Helplessly submitting their knowledge, memories, emotions and ultimately themselves, placing everything that made who they were in their attackers hands.
Some heavy stuff but I wanted to convey how jarring the experience would of been for Arthur and also explain how the concept worked. Moving on, I am so excited for the next chapter! Major plot development coming up, this story is streaming ahead.
Thank for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you are enjoying this story please spare a moment to leave a review telling me your opinions, questions and predictions. They really mean the world :) Once again thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next one!
Until next time folks!