Life's return

A what now?

TW:

"You saw a what now?"

"A unicorn. The horse monster with one horn?"

Louisiana blankly stared at Poland.

"Your telling me, that you saw a horse with a horn growing out of his head?"

He nodded.

"Like, on a sign, or a statue?"

"Nope, it was eating hay."

"Did you hit your head while you were up there?"

"No, why?"

"Unicorns aren't real."

"Neither was Baba Yaga, men with wings, or the dead reanimated, but here we are."

"Maybe you need to walk for a bit?"

"You know I always thought they would eat cereal," Alaska said thoughtfully.

"What?"

"You know, lucky charms? They're magically delicious?"

Louisiana shook her head and walked away.

"Fuck it. Let's go check it out." She threw her hands up in exasperation as she walked. "Who knows? Maybe we'll find a leprechaun who can point us to a river of coffee and some antibiotic trees!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Poland asked.

"It's a unicorn! It's a symbol of purity, innocence, and childhood wonder! What's it gonna do?"

"Gouge us with it's horn and trample us?"

"We are not exactly the 'purist of heart'," Russia said. " Do such creatures kill the guilty?"

"With rainbows and glitter maybe," New York said with an eye roll.

"Well, the witch huts had a lot of crazy we didn't expect from folk lore," Alaska mused," maybe there's some bit of lore we don't know about?"

New York stopped walking for a second.

"Hey, you guys said British Empire turned into blue lion?"

"Yeah?"

"What color was the unicorn?" He adjusted America on his shoulders and started walking again.

"Blue, why?" Poland asked. "Oh..."

"What?" Alaska asked.

"Who do we know who's blue and has a unicorn as their symbol?" New York shifted America again.

"Would you like some help with-"

"I got him."  His statement was punctuated with a grunt. "Dixie, what do you know about British Empire?"

"He has the ability of illusion and shape shifting. If you combine that with another ability it can make for scary stuff."

"He ever turn into a unicorn?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Dixie said thoughtfully. "But it's not like I was head cook and bottle washer. Sure I had my domain but outside of that I tried to keep quiet."

"Says the Dark Duke of Chains..." New York muttered.

"Look here, King Killer. Do you know what it is to rule a peice of hell? To have every ounce of pain you caused run through you? To only have the barest fibers of yourself left as memories and myth of what you were wash over you and mat you into the fabric of a nation you swore you'd leave? To long for it to end but have that grafted into your soul 'til you are no longer but a twisted beast? When you can understand that, you can use that name. Until then-"

"Alright! I get it, only people who died can call you that. Jeez it's like I cussed in front of a preacher," New York said. "Damn southerners and their drama."

"So, do you think you can take him one on one?" Alaska asked.

"One in one I just need to get my footing. If he has any help we might be in trouble."

"I mean, last time I fought him with Dad and Russia we broke the spell by shooting Dad."

"*Yeah. After he ate most of my fucking leg and made you his personal punching bag,*" Russia muttered in his own tongue. "That reminds me. Even if it doesn't matter, you shouldn't use your Dad's powers."

"You think?" Alaska answered sarcastically.

"Besides the obvious," he growled,"there's a side effect. The threads build back based on approximation not a copy."

"What?"

"It builds what it thinks should be there.  Not what was. It knows all the parts but none of the nuance."

"What?"

"I think what he's trying to say is it makes new bits to patent not to code," Alabama tried.

"All I know is, before the threads fixed my leg both of them were the same length, now one is subtly shorter than the other. I fixed it with some cardboard but that only works if I have shoes."

"Did you notice anything different about your arm?" She asked, sudunly aware of the clothes she managed to borrow from her siblings and the shoes on her own feet.

"New arm is slightly longer. That's about it."

"Like we'd use Dad's powers now anyway, he needs to put all he can towards waking up." New York said.

"Sounds like what we need is a plan."

New York stumbled and crashed to the ground.

"Man down!" Alaska said.

"I'm fine!" New York hissed.

Louisiana ran over to them.

"You don't have to-"

"I've got him. I-"

"York. You don't get to kill yourself this way neither. Let someone el-"

"I said I've got him."

"At least let us help you up."

"Or at get a cross that is not you father." Russia picked up America.

"You're an ass, you know that?" New York growled as he stood.

The Slav shrugged the smaller man into place and fell back into line.

New York now sulked behind him, followed by Alaska and Dixie. Alabama and Mississippi flanked one side while Louisiana walked on the other. California was just ahead of them with Texas in the lead.

A new word came to Alaska's mind. This was not a herd. It was a pack. A very disorganized pack that was on the verge of a meltdown if no one figured out how to get everyone to work together, but a pack all the same.

It was times like this she missed the America she knew. Point him at a problem and he would focus until the myth ran out.

Then again, she would have settled for awake.

"*Really, you're going to throw up on me? Nasty fucker.*" Russia grumbled.

America started coughing. Russia set him down. The states all stopped and watched hopefully, but he sputtered out. Russia picked him up and they all started walking again.