~Flowers for Joan~ (Hetalia France Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

I had found my first treasure that day, my first sense of freedom, but my second was more like the recognition of a darkness that was hidden from me.

*Caw! Caw!*

"!?"

Frivolously I rolled in those flowers but the sudden scare of crows cawing in the distance, leading towards the shadows of the forest. I was curious, I wanted to know what else was there, there in the wild. I had heard stories of monsters that would eat young children like me, but I am no ordinary child. I do not grow at the same rate as normal children, I do not see like normal children, and I certainly do not think like normal children.

I have lived long enough to know that those monsters that adults read to us only exist through words. That the most harm they could do was strip me of my free will. Prevent me from going beyond their boundaries.

Without fear I walked through those woods. It was rather quiet for such a big place. I expected it to be filled with song birds, but what I had stumbled upon only brought ominous questions.

A deer laid lifeless in front of me. It was male, its antlers crowning it's head like a king. It was mutilated with arrows in its most vulnerable areas with such accuracy and precision I had ever seen. Who could be responsible for this? They must be a master at hunting.

"Hunting...? Animals... dying...?", I observed the deer's wounds with a hazy gaze. The blood trickled from the puncture and I mindlessly wiped my two fingers in it.

"What does it mean...? To bleed..."?

*Swoosh*!

"Move any closer to my game and you'll find out"!

It happened so fast I didn't even notice how close his arrow had come to striking me between the eyes. My left cheek bled a little, but it was such a fine cut I couldn't feel its sting.

I looked up to a boy younger looking then me aiming a bow and arrow at me. He was a rugged looking child, wild, but fare. His hair was blonde, eyebrows thick, and his hands scarred and dirty. His eyes are what amused me the most, I had never seen such a beautiful green, it was as beautiful as this forest. If I remember correctly there was a ring, a thin shining ring in each of his eyes?

"I won't say it twice pretty boy! Back off"!

"...", I wasn't really listening to him, but I responded with such an amused and gullible expression, "Are you the one who hunted this deer"?

"Huh"?

"You're so young, younger than me, and yet you can hunt so well"!

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and slowly lowered his bow, "Hmm... You're weird. You have some kind of problem or something"?

"No"

"Well you sure act like it".

"Well you're rather rude. I happen to be a Prince here you wild peasant child, so I believe you owe me an apology".

"As if I would kiss the boots of a prissy little girly boy like you. The forest does not heed to the commands of the king and neither will I", he said as he began retrieving his arrows and binding the deer carcass.

"Hmph! You see me as conceited, but you are very much the same. I just show it better".

"I hate you stupid nobles, always taking and getting what you want. You don't know how to make a real days worth of work"!

"Well you mongrels don't know the decency of personal hygiene"!

"I'm gonna wreck that pretty face of yours girly boy"!!

"You dare touch a noble and your head will be severed".

Reaching the limit of his temper he lunged forward, pushing me to the ground, and grabbed me roughly by the collar of my dress and shouted, "Not likely! My arrows will never miss! This forest is my domain I dare your soldiers to navigate it! You send them after me and they'll be left to the slaughter"!!

I had never seen one's eyes so full of vengeance and insanity. It was as if this boy would be content to kill France's most honorable soldiers, the men that have protected me for generations.

Suddenly the boy covered my mouth and quickly dragged me into a near by bush.

"What is it-!?", I asked.

"Shh! Quiet!", he covered my mouth again and looking deep into my eyes demanded, "...don't make a single sound... got it..."?

We looked out through the spaces between the bushes leaves, and I questioned eagerly at what he was so panicked by. His threat soon came into view and it was a small handful of soldiers searching for me.

The boy glared at them and there it was again, that small green ring around his pupil that illuminated his emerald eyes. He pulled back on his bow preparing to shoot down one of my soldiers.

"Master France"!!

"....", I was scared to call back. I felt that if I had made a sound the boy would with hesitation release his arrow, but as I looked closer this mongrel of a boy was no more as scared as I was.

I'm sure he has hunted many game, but I had assumed that he has never killed an actual person. I leaped from the bush and as I predicted the boy did noting to stop me.

"I am here! I apologize for venturing beyond the castle's walls. I would like to return to his Majesty".

"Master France thank god we have found you, but what of all this blood on your robes? Surely you did not kill this deer. His Majesty is going to require an explanation".

"Well I was... I was chasing it and... I suppose it was my fault"?

I couldn't come up with a good enough story my mind just couldn't comprehend. The guards both raised a brow, looking at me with a questionable expression, and I lowered my head with embarrassment. They took me by my arms and said "You can tell your venturing story to the King as for the deer we shall let the forest devour it".

Returning to Kings side felt more to me then just sitting in a chair next to one of the most powerful man in Europe, my home was a prison. I looked desolately over my shoulder to see if that boy had escaped, but that was the last time I saw him. I never was able to return to that forest, but when the tides shift and the ships beat against the rocks I will encounter him again.

~To Be Continued...