A Rude Awakening

Chapter 15

Note: My apologies for the late update. After this chapter will be more of OTMA and Ella's trip around Germany and then Russia. Things will get fun once the plot reaches the end of this arc.

November 15, 2022

En Route to Wolfsgarten Lodge, Hessen, Germany

Elisabeth sat alongside her best friend Olga. The half-hour ride from the outskirts of Frankfurt to Darmstadt would be a little while, but chatting with her friend made it bearable. Even the younger siblings of Olga, the Little Pair sisters and Tatiana, could bear sitting together in the back seats. However, Anastasia and Maria had not been immune to growing attached to internet attention and social media. The younger of the two held up her iPhone, taking another selfie with her sister. Tatiana ducked out of sight. No, she wanted to keep a lower profile away from the strange and hectic world of social media. She was once a graceful royal figure in the past, but she had already moved on past those years.

She glanced at her derelict iPhone with its screen dead dark. It was tempting to check her Facebook social media account, but she could not. She would rather not allow her youngest sister to tease her for using "a boomer's social media app". Really, it was embarrassing! Instead, she thought of taking a picture of the flora and occasional houses passing by.

The caravan of black tinted cars and vans continued down the gently winding road. Another few minutes passed, and the cars took a turn down another derelict roadway. They began to slow down as they entered the grove of pines. Knowing that they had almost arrived, Elisabeth and Olga glanced around, becoming silent for a few moments when the cars slowed down even more...

The vehicles took their last few rolls onto a familiar driveway. The same weathered structure built of a pinkish red brick and topped with ornate tiled roofs, partly covered with vines, had lasted through the dozen decades- over a century. It had been quite some time since those almost magical years they had spent in Wolfsgarten Lodge during 1903. Olga had celebrated her eighth birthday and played with family and close friends during that vacation. All of those years were so innocent, so careless in comparison to the horrible events that emerged afterward.

The death of Elisabeth, and how their blissful ignorance of mortality had been shattered...

The First World War, and how it had destroyed lives and the world they knew...

The Russian Revolution, and how it had destroyed the Russia and life they knew, finishing what the war had started...

Those unfortunate things had taken much from them, but now, God was setting things right. They had all risen again and had found each other again. They were not just family- they were the best of friends again! Now they would have another chance to make a new beginning, but they would set things right in a broken world.

Elisabeth, Olga, and the rest of the Romanov sisters had their new lives and new chances to find happiness along the way.

The Russian-Ukraine conflict was over, but countless lives and property waited to be fixed. World peace had at least been kept at this time. Humanity would still live.

The Russian Revolution and Soviets had long since passed, leaving them safe and at ease.

Elisabeth gave a distant stare through the tinted car windows again. Olga understood how she felt. The melancholy nostalgia almost seemed to permeate the warm yet still air. It felt strange to be at Wolfsgarten after so long as if events were an echo of the past. The only striking difference was that they had grown up into women in mind, not just body.

Growing up came with its pains, but it also gave them more chances for opportunity. It was a rare visitor, but whenever it did, it knocked on their doors. Where would they go from there on the day... the birthday of Olga Nikolaevna Romanova?