Where Winter Meets Summer (Rusame Countryhumans)

Earthbound(America POV)

The first thing that greeted us was the cold, autumn breeze that raised goosebumps all over my skin. We stepped out of the Gate and onto the dying grass that lay in rough ragged patches along the stone pathways.

We were tucked nicely in the shadow of a weather worn hut but it seemed like we would have been fine even if we had stepped into the center of the town. It was eerily silent. I gave an involuntary shudder and pulled my scarf up higher.

"Hm. It's warmer than the last time I came here," Russia remarked nonchalantly. I shot him an incredulous glare but my expression immediately slipped off my face.

He was a ghost of a man. His ivory hair lay over his dusty ice blue eyes and snowy lashes. And his skin, it looked as if something had stolen all the life out of it. I swear to god, if he were any paler, I wouldn't have been surprised if he started to turn transparent. The only tones in his visage were tinges of red around the corners of his eyes and lips. Oh, and the smidget of blue under his left eye.

Russia obviously caught me staring and frowned, "What? What are you gawking at this time?"

"You albino?" I remarked before I could stop myself. His chilling eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"And? What's that to you?" he demanded, obviously miffed by my previous outburst. I quickly shook my head.

"Nono. I didn't mean it like that. It's just... I've never seen your human guise and... well... I..." I stammered without a clue of what I was saying. But I guess it did the trick because he returned to his listless self.

"Well you look like a half-baked potato."

"Uh, I did spend last summer at my beach house... so obviously I got a bit bronzer. And hotter, if I were to be honest."

"Don't flatter yourself."

We threw some insults back and forth for a while longer but I could tell that something was bothering the both of us. It had been a full minute and NATO still hadn't appeared behind us.

And then it happened. The swirling void dissolved into thin air and we were left standing in the cold alone.

I was the first to break the silence.

"Well fuck."

He grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me down the path. I stumbled and cursed all along the way to the thin patch of trees.

"Dude! Stop that!" I snarled as I swatted his hand away, "Where are you going?!"

"Well we shouldn't just stand around," he replied and walked on ahead. I had to jog to catch up.

"What about NATO? Shouldn't we wait for him?"

"You saw the Gate close. And according to what we've been told, it's unlikely to open again for a while. For now, our top priority is to see if we can find any way to establish communication with HQ."

My eyes lit up as I remembered something NATO had said to me before, "Hey! Didn't NATO say that the new Conducts could be used as a communicator?"

Russia whirled around and glared at me, "Well what are you waiting for?!"

I reached into my pockets to find the Conduct but what I pulled out was not the blood red stone I was looking for.