literature

Born Free 13

Deviation Actions

evilqueen112's avatar
By
Published:
1.5K Views

Literature Text

APH Ivan, Alfred, Gilbert and more

Born Free Chapter 13 Places where nations dare not tread.


Alfred awoke slowly as the morning sun rudely decided to start beaming on his face. The only problem was he wasn't ready to get up in the slightest, so he snuggled back into the blankets in an attempt to shield his eyes from the light. But to his dismay, he felt someone peel back the blanket, "Alfred, are you awake?"

Alfred closed his eyes even tighter in protest. Who wanted him awake? Unless someone was either bleeding or on fire, was there really any a point to being awake? "Are you're going to sleep the entire day?" the voice said.

"Aw crap" Alfred thought as he finally recognized the voice. It was Ivan. Alfred groaned and covered his head with the pillow and gave a very grumpy, muffled "Yes." from under it.  

"Oh well", Ivan said with mock disappointment, "I guess you don't want breakfast then."

Pillows and blankets went flying instantly as Alfred sat bolt upright, "I'm up! I'm up already." Alfred said… in perfect Russian.  

All eyes turned to Alfred. Gilbert was coughing and sputtering, having just choked on his tea. But what Alfred noticed was that Gilbert was finally up and around, "Gilbert! You're better?"

Gilbert winced a bit, "Getting there, yea. I see you're Russian is… improving." he added hesitantly.

Alfred stared at Gilbert his brow knitted in confusion; he didn't say that in Russian, did he? That would mean… Alfred felt sick as he gave a nervous laugh, "Heh, well I knew some already, you know, and a…when in Rome as they say…"

Ivan frowned, something was wrong with Alfred." Gilbert should be good to travel in another day or so, then we can continue on our way." Ivan said as he sat down at the table, trying not to stare at Alfred.

"Come Alfred, I will have breakfast done in a bit." Xenia said motioning to one of the empty seats at the table. The small table was already brimming with cups of tea, toast, and various jams. Alfred stood and felt the twinge from the wound on his leg, and his stomach dropped, why hadn't it healed yet? It was just a little scrape, it should have just gone away by now. Maybe it was just infected; he didn't want to look at it in front of the others. He decided he would check it later when he had a moment to himself.

He looked around making sure the others hadn't noticed when he caught Ivan staring at him with an unreadable expression. If Ivan had noticed he didn't seem like he was going to say anything, so Alfred ignored him as he sat down and turned his attention to the steaming cup of tea in front of him. Alfred wasn't particularly fond of tea, but thankfully he found Russian tea was another matter. It was really strong and actually quite good… with enough sugar.

"Keessese." Gilbert whispered in a mix of both awe and disgust at seeing how much sugar Alfred had just dumped into his tea.  He picked up the sugar bowl to check if there was anything left inside it.

"Alfred, why don't you have some tea with your sugar?" Ivan cringed.

"What?" Alfred said as he munched some toast. "Dude, it's good! I take my coffee the same way."

"No wonder the diabetes rate of your country is so high; it's a wonder why it's not higher." Ivan said as buttered another slice of toast.

Gilbert turned to Ivan, "So Ivan, before sleeping beauty here woke up, you were just explaining how we managed to pick up a wolf while I was unconscious."

"Ah yes, Alfred was playing beast master and he just appeared." Ivan motioned to Alfred with his butter knife, "I think you should explain, since I'm not sure what happened myself."

Xenia turned form the stove where she was finishing up with the pancakes, "So wait, Alfred called him?"

"Sort of." Alfred said unsure, "I'm not really sure how it happened either. I was just thinking about Ivan and how he was disconnected and poof, this guy showed up." He said as the wolf put his head on Alfred's lap and looked up at him. Alfred scratched the wolf's cheeks with both hands. "Right boy?"

Xenia placed the pancakes that she had just finished making on the table and sat down next to Alfred. She put a couple of pancakes on a plate and placed it on the floor for the wolf, who ate them hungrily, nearly swallowing them whole.

"Alfred, are you sending this fleabag back or do you intend to take him to America with us?" Ivan asked.

Alfred was just about to chastise Ivan for his choice of words when the wolf came up behind Ivan and snatched his toast right out of Ivan's hand. Ivan took a second to realize what just happened and shot the wolf a death glare. "Filthy beast shouldn't even be in the house unless it is a wolf skin rug!" He yelled as the wolf darted out of arm's reach and ate his toast.

Alfred slapped the table and laughed, "Dude, that was fucking hilarious, good boy Wolfie."

Gilbert stared incredulously at Alfred, "Wolfie? Seriously?"

"Dude, he's a wolf, right? So why not?"  

Gilbert ran his hand through his hair, "You are like the worst namer of things, ever!"

"What? How dare you?"

"No seriously, your talent for naming things is like, worse than England's cooking."

"Well, what do you want to call him?"

Ivan sneered at the wolf spirit, "I have a few ideas."  The others looked at him, "Throw rug, devil, dead…." He was cut off by the sound of the wolf snarling at him.

Xenia buttered another piece of toast and offered it to the wolf, who took it and crunched it up, "Why don't you call him Boris? I've always liked that name."

Gilbert finished his tea, "It's better than 'wolf'."

Alfred watched as the wolf looked up at Xenia and wagged his tail, "I guess he likes it" Alfred grudgingly admitted. "I still don't know what's wrong with just calling him wolf. I mean Whale never complained about his name."  

Alfred heard the unmistakable sound of Ivan face palming and Gilbert muttering "Mien Gott".(1) Xenia just chuckled as she leaned back in her chair and tossed another small piece of toast in the air, Boris happily leapt up and caught it in mid air.



It was still going to be another day before Gilbert was well enough to travel. Alfred was already getting restless and decided to go for a walk to clear his head. It felt good to get out of the house for a bit. As soon as he was sure he was alone, he checked the wound in his calf. It was healing, but why was it going so slowly? Then it dawned on him; it was healing at the same rate as Gilbert wounds. The thought made Alfred's throat go dry. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He tried to rationalize his obviously slower than normal healing time: he was at war, it may have been a little infected, maybe something to do with the Wichola his father put him through. There were plenty of feasible explanations, no need to panic. Alfred took a moment or two to calm himself. He would be back in his own land soon and surely everything would go back to normal. Ivan was even on his side, so there was nothing to worry about. But no matter how hard he tried to reason it away, Alfred was still worried.

He decided to try to push it out of his mind for now and instead turned his attention to Xenia's amazing garden.  Xenia's oasis was truly breathtaking in the morning light. It was lush and full and complete with butterflies and birdsong. Alfred took the time to look at the garden patches bursting with flowers, vegetables and fruits, some of which he had never seen before.  He turned his attention to the great iron gate, taking stock of the intricate details of leaves and butterflies worked into the wrought iron. He reached out and gave it a gentle push. It moved silently as it opened to reveal the frozen world just outside.

Just past the confines of the garden, was a frozen landscape of iced over grasses and trees shining in the sunlight. The temperature had yet to get past the freezing point so everything was still frozen and perfectly still. It looked like a forest of glass gleaming in the sun. As Alfred stepped past the barrier he immediately felt icy morning air dig sharp little fingers into him, he tugged his coat tight around him and blew into his hands in an attempt to warm them as he started down the hill. The crunching of his footsteps was the only sound to break the eerie silence of landscape around him. That is, until he heard the rough croak of a single crow in the trees above him. It sounded a single throaty caw that echoed out through the forest, dying away into complete silence before the crow would sound another. No answer came to its calls; nothing else dared disturb the crystal-esque alien world. To Alfred, it felt like they were the last two living creatures on earth.

Alfred continued on until he found a building half standing, half collapsed, at the bottom of the hill. His curiosity peaked; he went to get a closer look at the old abandoned husk of stone and brick hulking in the shadow of the hill. It was fairly large and looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. It had the feel of a school house of some sort.  It didn't look like much really, it's blown out windows seemed to stare back at him like dark, empty eyes.

He entered the building, still trying to figure out what purpose it once served. The floor was littered with dried leaves and debris from years of wind and weeds. He could see last year's ivy vines weaving intricate patterns like veins winding across the walls and up into rafters. But there was no hint of anything that could give him a clue to what the building once was.

Alfred ventured into the darker parts of the building when a large twig snapped under his foot. Immediately an entire flock of alarmed crows that had been roosting in the rafters took flight. The air was alive with the beating of black wings and panicked calls as the birds made their mad dash out of the building through the empty windows. Alfred covered his eyes with his arm as crows flitted past him, kicking up a flurry of dust and feathers. And then they were gone, their throaty calls echoing like a warning through the forest long after the crows themselves were out of sight.

It took Alfred's eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness of the empty building, but when they did he immediately paled at the sight before him. To his horror, looking back at him from the dark shadows, were children. Alfred noticed that they surrounded him, filling the shadows. They all looked like corpses: some standing, others lying on the ground. Their pleading eyes large and hungry, their barely clothed gaunt bodies packed together in the shadows, skeletal arms reaching out. He could hear the whispered pleas but couldn't understand the words.  Starving children wallowing in filth whispering words Alfred couldn't understand. He knew they weren't real, which for him, only made things even worse. Their whispering became louder and the stench of death began to fill the room. The eyes of the children did not focus on anything; they were the eyes of people who had given up their grasp on life. Alfred covered his nose and started to back out of the room, nearly tripping on something on the floor. Then all eyes turned to him, and his mind flashed with the horrors of their last living moments.

Alfred got his answer; he knew what the building was now. Alfred remembered the famine that Russia suffered through so very many years ago. Russia's poor died by the thousands. He remembered the stories of the desperate, struggling people who had resorted to eating bark and rocks just to stop the pain of their starving stomachs. The emotions and pain were too much, he felt like he was being smothered. Alfred turned and ran from the building, back up the hill to the house.

                                        ...

(1) My god
Alfred, Ivan, and Gilbert are still at Xenia's place. Alfred goes exploring and it doesn't turn out well for him and wolf gets a proper name.

I thank you for the time you spent with this. If you like it or hate it please let me know. I really appreciate hearing from all of you.

Next chapter [link]

previous chapter [link]

The beginning [link]
© 2011 - 2024 evilqueen112
Comments63
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
princess8497's avatar
Please write the next chapter soon!!! And if you already wrote it please notify me! I really like this story and it's getting super interesting with what's happening with Alfred!