Hetalia One-Shots

DenNor : Over The Garden Wall

"Master Køhler! Master Køhler! Please do not run off so quickly," puffed an exhausted, elderly maid. She was clutching her bonnet with one hand and heaving her white frilled skirt with the other, revealing her thin legs, which were not fit for running after a twelve-year-old.

The twelve-year-old in question was giggling as he ran through the grand gardens of his father's mansion. His unkempt hair flew in the wind and his disheveled clothes were dirtied and ripped all over. Nonetheless, he was beaming brightly and was a good-looking child under all that grime and impetuosity. He had stolen a wienerbrød from the kitchen and skipped his history lesson of the morning.

Mrs. Sorensen had been running after the boy ever since, trying to drag him back to his lessons. She was getting rather wearied, being forced to stop to catch her breath. She watched in despair as the young boy fled between the rose bushes, jumped over low brick walls, and crawled up an apple tree. Mathias held his prize between his teeth as he grabbed branches in his small hands, pulling himself up higher off the ground. At this frightening sight, Mrs. Sorensen cried out in fear and picked up her skirt once more, calling after the boy in hysteria. This only made Mathias giggle and climb farther up the tree.

The apple tree was near a high, old, brick wall which separated his father's estate from another nobleman's property. Mathias would often sneak into their gardens whenever he would try to flee from Mrs. Sorensen. He loved how quiet and free they were. Although his father's gardens were the best groomed in the land, there were always too many people bustling around, running errands left and right, chasing him up and down; at least at the neighbor's yard, he was safe to relax alone until Mrs. Sorensen would call a servant boy to fetch him.

Mathias dug his fingers in the mortar between the bricks of the wall and heaved himself over it, one foot pushing him off the thick branches. He straddled the wall, observing the ground under him. He saw Mrs. Sorensen rushing down the hill to where the orchard was, wailing as she tripped and fell.

On the other side he saw a vast field of wild flowers with several large trees hovering over the land. Near the mansion was a quaint garden with evenly trimmed grass and white iron chairs circling a glass table. Around that garden were multitudes of rose bushes, hydrangea bushes, and purple heather, all growing as they willed and spreading through the terrace, making it beautiful with colors and scents.

Mathias loved that so much more than the intricate maze on one side of his father's garden, in which many stern, marble statues and poised fountains spewing cold water stood in silence forever. He despised the perfectly even rows of flowers traversing most of the property, and hated the stone paths with their thin, white iron fences which ran through the enclosure. Even the trickle of the stream was underwhelming as it was contrived to follow a designed course along the side of the mansion, near which very few patches of grass were available to sit on to dip a toe or two in the water.

With his pastry still safely secured between his teeth, the young boy slowly let himself down on the willow tree which was in the neighbor's garden. He expertly swung down each branch until he reached the ground. Mathias dusted himself off then sneaked to the center of the flower field where he laid on his back, watching the white clouds run across the sky. He took his wienerbrød in his hand to finally eat it when he heard rustling behind him. The boy ducked and crawled on all fours through the flowers. He raised his head to see where the noise was coming from.

Under a thick foliage of chestnut branches, in the shade of the tree, was standing a small, pale and concerned child. Their face was as white as the gown they were wearing, their eyes were a light, glassy gray, and their thin, blond hair was clasped back on one side with a barrette. They hid behind the trunk of the tree, spying closely at Mathias with a wary stare.