Disclaimer: The Hetalia characters and their personifications belong to Hidekaz Himaruya. 日丸屋 秀和
What Not to do if You are a Knight by Gilbert Beilschmidt:
39.) Do not bring your pets to work.
A Little Birdie Told Me
Several more days passed. It no longer rained, the days were sunny, but the river remained swollen beyond traversability.
Whenever they were in need of more food, Elizaveta always tagged along. Sometimes she went with Francis, once she went with Antonio, but more often than not, she went with Gilbert. They'd be gone for hours and come back stifling giggles. They were always reluctant to return to reality, more than content to be lost in the forest, lost in memory and lost in each other.
At the fortress, Antonio was spending more time with Lovina than even her maidservant did.
Francis was having a free-for-all being the delightful little pervert that he was... All. The. Dang. Time.
It was time well-spent: 'accidentally' flipping up the girls' skirts, standing uncomfortably close to the doors where they undressed... the usual.
They all told stories near the firelight, fought over dinner, played admittedly childish games, laughed, screamed, smacked each other around with that damn skillet... but if you asked any of them, they most certainly were NOT bonding like a family. They may have TOLERATED each other's company, but they certainly didn't LIKE each other. Because, when it came down to it, Lovina was still willing to die to defend her kingdom. Elizaveta would die before she betrayed her mistress and Francis, Antonio, and Gilbert would kill to have that ransom money and get the hell out of there. But they all also wanted... needed each other. So they stayed hauled up in that little island purgatory of theirs, where nothing could touch them.
But time was always weighing down upon them, ticking away as the water receded in the river.
It was morning. They walked together in the woodland, hand in hand.
Suddenly, Gilbert stopped with a crooked but gentle smile.
"What?"
"You still remember your footing, right?" he asked her playfully one day.
"Yes?" Elizaveta replied, unsure.
He tossed her a sword, held up his own and gently tapped her blade so the metal clanged.
The smile that was previously on her face slowly faded. She let the sword fall from her grasp, but his quick reflexes caught it before the metal hit the ground.
"I can't," she protested in a near-whisper.
"Arms up, Liz."
"No," she asserted more forcefully. He furrowed his brow at her.
"Why? Why do you insist on playing a weak little servant-maid? You like doing everything that little brat tells you to?"
"She's not a brat! She's my friend!"
"She's not your friend! You're. Her. Property." he said heavily.
She glared at him and spoke through gritted teeth. "She's all alone. Her grandfather is gone. Her sister is half a continent away. Her kingdom is slipping from her grasp. ...And I was alone too. We were there for each other..."
"You're not alone anymore, Liz. Just come with us and-"
"And go back to that life? That fake identity we came up with when we were seven, Gilbert? You think I'm living a lie now? I was living a lie then, pretending to be a knight!"
"At least you were happy then!"
"I'm happy here!" she declared. Then, she looked up at him with soft eyes, "...People. Get. Hurt. When they try to cover for me. I'm not going back to that."
"Arms up, Liz."
"Ugh. You're not even listening to me!" she growled, and gripped the sword tightly with rage. "Why do you want to force me to fight?"
"Because I need to know that after all these years you can still defend yourself. Unless you think you are too weak to-" CLANG!
Almost before he could lift his sword to block her, her blade slashed at his face.
"You know I can." Her face was full of malice. "I could protect myself on the carriage. I fought you in hand-on-hand combat, and set the traps. I haven't forgotten."
CLANG! "Oh yes, and you did such an excellent job - now you're trapped in a fortress cut off from all means of help by three assassins. Bravo, Liz. Way to defend yourself."
They angrily slashed and dodged. Back and forth.
Remarkably... the fight was almost step by step the same as that of the tournament day.
He pushed her back, then let her come forward. They danced in their little circle of dirt. They crossed and jabbed and ducked in sync, mimicking almost exactly what they had done five years ago.
Only this time, Gilbert lifted his arm high, and when she moved to strike his hand, he spun around and struck hers instead, sending her weapon clattering to the grass and dust below.
They stood there panting. Elizaveta was left completely defenseless, bested in ironically the same manner she had "bested" him.
And for a moment, her verdant eyes flared, firing deadly munitions at his own red irises.
"You know, if you would just trust yourself again-"
"Trust myself? Hah!" she laughed sardonically. "Of course I trust myself. I'm about the only damn person left I can trust!"
Gilbert narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you saying? What about me?" His tone softened. "Liz, you can always trust me."
"You?" she snorted. "You are the last person in the world I would trust," she finished with a cold stare.
A heavy silence ensued. Neither person moved a muscle. That is, until Gilbert broke the silence with a furious outcry: "What the hell do you want, Liz? One minute you're holding my hand and the next minute you're giving me the cold shoulder!"
Another silence. A hushed wind blew leaves around them and the trees shook with quiet anticipation.
"I don't know!" she finally blurted. "I just... I don't know. My head tells me to do one thing, my heart tells me to do another and I just... end up with a knot in my stomach."
"Well you better pick a side soon, sister. You can't keep playing both hands like this. It's not that hard of a decision. We can all of us be free of that little gremlin-"
"I'm going to tell you this one last time," Elizaveta interrupted him, voice sharp with finality, "Lovina. is. my. friend. And I swear to God, Gilbert, if you do anything to hurt her I'll-"
"You'll what?" the boy dared. He had taken several large steps toward her, nearly pressing his forehead to her own, his eyes challenging her.
"... I will kill you." The words came out weaker than she'd hoped. She let the empty threat hang in the air, sensing that they both knew it was a lie. Regardless, she prayed that Gilbert, whether he believed her or not, would at least realize how serious the matter was to her and back down.
Instead, his twisted smile only grew more crooked. "Darling," he laughed bitterly, "I'm already dead."
After holding his stone-cold stare, and with nothing left to say, Elizaveta turned on her heel and walked briskly back to camp.
Later that evening, Lovina and Antonio were in the scroll room below the ground level of the fortress.
Elizaveta was in her chambers, petting Pierre. She had hardly left the room all day.
Francis and Gilbert were discussing maps in the main hall.
The Spaniard and Italian were exploring the small castle's undercroft, fingering each of the old scrolls, preserved almost perfectly despite the slight water-damage from the damp underground air.
"So what do you think happened between those two?" Lovina inquired.
Antonio shrugged, knowing the exact couple she was referring to. "No sé. I don't know. Didn't you talk to Lizzie about it in your room?"
"I haven't yet. She seems... sad... almost. I don't know why. You'd think seeing that red-eyed freak all pissed off would make her happy! I know she hates him as much as I do. But... she definitely wasn't in the mood for talking."
"I think it might have had something to do with their sword fi-"
Antonio stopped himself quickly and did not continue.
Lovina leaned forward from where she was sitting on an old chest. "Sword fight? Kitty can't fight with swords... at least... I didn't think she could. Come to think of it, I've been learning lately that she can do a lot of things that I never knew she was capable of." She put her finger on her chin, seriously pondering, and stared at the floor.
Antonio started to panic when he saw the gears begin to turn in that wavy, brunette head of hers.
"Uh, ha-ha well she seems like a pretty bright girl I wouldn't put too much thought into it hey did you see this thing over here?"
Up above, Gilbert dragged his finger across the unrolled map.
"Here," he stated confidently, "the river's lowest here. We should check if it's shallow enough to cross."
Francis nodded. "Oui, we will check again to see if the water has receded tomorrow. Remember, to cross we'll have to have two people seated per animal, plus a couple of us will have to walk... or take turns. Then there is the luggage... . Perhaps we can salvage some of the carriage?"
"I'm pretty sure that cart is washed away by now, bro," Gilbert replied.
"Alright. Regardless, we won't scout tonight; it's too dark out. We can head out in the morning."
"Agreed," Gilbert nodded as he began to roll up the scroll off the dining table.
"Will cher Lizzie be accompanying us on this scouting mission?" Francis raised an eyebrow.
"I don't think so," the pale-haired man replied gruffly.
"Ohonhonhon. A little lover's quarrel we are having, non?"
"Drop it," he growled. "She's fine. She can stay here tomorrow. Why don't you get your damn pigeon to get a head start for us? It's smart enough to find the river, right?"
"Why, PIERRE is the most brilliant little dove on the planet. And oui. I shall fetch him... ." Gilbert waited as Francis looked around the room. "He does anything I command as soon as I command him... ." Again, Gilbert waited as Francis turned in circles. "Except, I don't know where he is."
Gilbert rolled his eyes. "I think it was in Liz's room. Just call him."
"Pierre? Oh Pierrrreee!"
The little bird in question was not in Elizaveta's room. It was not even within the stone walls of the fortress.
It was on its own little journey into the night. Pierre had planned to be back before morning; however, when he heard his master's voice call out to him, he stopped dead in his flight path and turned his little feathered rear around.
Francis came before any mission!
Gilbert and Francis were surprised when the little white ball of fluff flew in from the high window rather than from upstairs.
Pierre landed on Francis's hand.
"Hello, what is this?"
Pierre had a small note wrapped in green ribbon upon his tiny leg.
Francis removed the note.
"Someone sent us a message?" Gilbert asked, astounded.
Francis's face became grim as he looked at it. "...No," he said.
"What do you mean 'no'?"
Francis said no more, as if it pained him to tell his friend the note's contents.
Gilbert, frustrated, snatched the paper and scanned his eyes over the first few words.
That was all he needed to read. He clenched the note in his fist, nearly crushing it, and stormed up the stairs towards Elizaveta's room.
*Down below*
"Come to think about it, I don't know a lot about Kitty's past... she sounds like," Lovina paused to laugh, "she honestly sounds like the girl in your stories."
Antonio laughed too, a little too nervously.
Lovina turned to him suspiciously.
"...Why do you call her 'Lizzie'?"
*Up above*
Three loud bludgeons against the door that supposedly counted as knocks were given before Gilbert let himself in to the girls' room.
Elizaveta jumped a little from where she stood by the window, but soon straightened and faced him fully.
"Wh-"
"What the hell Liz?!" The man before her was furious; she could tell that much.
She was about to ask 'what' again, when he thrust his fist out in front of him and shook its contents at her from across the room.
Her face went pale when she recognized it.
"I don't know what that is," she said too quickly.
He closed the distance between them, heavy steps shaking the floor. "Don't recognize it? Okay, how about I jog your memory." He read it aloud, coming closer as he did so. "'Princess Lovina trapped at fortress in Dark Woods, West of Kingdom. Send help. Five troops minimum. Being held by three Teutonic Knight assassins'-"
"Stop!" she blurted. "What did you expect? That I wasn't going to try to escape? Newsflash, Gil, we're still on opposite sides and you guys are no closer to compromising!"
"Is this a joke to you?!"
"No! I just-"
BANG! There was an enormous clamor at the large doors of the main hall.
*Down below*
"W-what? What are you talking about?" Antonio laughed shakily.
"You call her 'Lizzie' all the time! Like a pet-name or like an old friend! Why are you lying? Are you hiding some-"
BANG!
The powerful noise was heard from the lower level as well.
Then it came again:
BANG!
It sounded like someone had once again taken a battering ram to the front doors.
Lovina and Antonio looked at each other, then quickly raced up the stairs.
Francis was sitting on the main floor at the table when a tremendous blow to the wooden doors leading outside almost knocked him out of his chair.
Pierre flew around excitedly.
Gilbert and Elizaveta were running down the steps from the second floor.
Antonio and Lovina came dashing up from down below. The group convened together in the middle of the hall.
BANG! The noise thundered again.
"What the hell is that?" Lovina cried, unconsciously clutching the back of Antonio's arm as he stood in front of her.
BANG! The wood of the door began to crack. The men (and Elizaveta) drew their weapons.
"Whatever it is, they want inside!" came the startled French accent.
...
It was suddenly completely silent. All they could hear were the crickets outside, the flickering of the torches upon the walls, and the heavy, unsettling darkness.
The five of them stood back-to-back in a half circle. With a sword in one hand, Gilbert stuck his other arm protectively in front of Elizaveta.
She, with a dagger in one hand, crossed her other arm protectively in front of Gilbert, resulting in a fairly awkward position between the two.
They waited, prepared, in the silence.
Then, with a final CRASH! A large, dark... monster bolted in through the doors and kept coming like a steam roller.
It curved slightly and instead of heading for the center of the group, where Francis stood, it headed straight for Lovina and Antonio.
In a split-second reaction, the Spaniard pushed Lovina out of the way just as the beast made contact with him.
Lovina screamed, Francis and Gilbert gave a slight yell, and when Elizaveta saw the large creature make contact with Antonio she quickly turned her head behind Gilbert's shoulder, too horrified to watch.
"Aaaaaahhhhh!" cried Antonio.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" cried everyone else.
"Aaaaahahahaha! Bull!" Antonio cried happily. "Hey there, little fella!" And he gave it a big ol' pat as it nuzzled its head into his stomach.
Historical Notes
*The undercroft of a castle was traditionally a cellar or storage room, often vaulted. They were most popular in England and Scotland during the 13th and 14th centuries, but were also found in Germany, like at the imperial fortress in Cochem. It's not likely they would have had many scrolls, however. Undercrofts were mainly used as places to store food and weapons.(International, American. 'Castle Life - Rooms in a Medieval Castle') and (Gravett, Christopher. Castles and Fortifications from Around the World. Globe Pequot Press, 2007).
*This has to do with Pierre: Messenger pigeons have been used since ancient times for communication across long distances. They were used in Ancient Egypt, during the Olympics and yes, also during the Crusades. Pigeon post was the world's fastest communication system for all the centuries of the Dark and Middle Ages, and remained so until Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph in 1844 and Guglielmo Marconi's invention of the radio in 1895. (Woodbury, Sarah. 'Messenger Pigeons in the Middle Ages'. Sarah Woodbury, 25 Jan. 2013).