England's secret (Hetalia)

Chapter 12

The year was 987 AD and a young girl was lost in a forest. She was carrying a small leather bag, and in it were several different types of herbs and flowers. Her long ginger hair flowed gently in the cool night breeze as the girl looked around, desperately searching for the way back to the small village that she lived in. A loud howl echoed through the forest, and the child fell to her knees, shivering, cold and afraid.

Growling loudly, a large beast with matted grey fur and a bloodstained jaw started to walk menacingly towards the little girl. She backed away quickly, but she soon hit a oak tree and gave up. Closing her eyes, the girl resigned herself to her fate, and waited for the beast to pounce.

A minute passed, and then another, and the girl finally dared to open her eyes. Instead of the huge slobbering beast she had been expecting to see, a young boy was standing in front of her. He had blonde hair, and huge caterpillar like eyebrows, and his emerald green eyes were watching her intensly.

"Are you alright?" questioned the strange boy, helping the girl to stand up.

"Yes I am thank you." replied the girl, as she brushed herself down, "Do you know what happened to the monster that was attacking me? I find it hard to believe that it just ran off."

"Um... yeah... I kind of scared it off by shooting at it with my bow and arrows." the boy said as he held out his weapons for the girl to study.

"Wow! You are so cool!" exclaimed the girl, "You saved my life, so you're my hero!"

The boy smiled as he took his items back from the girl and started to walk away.

"Hey! Where are you going? I want to be friends! My name's Edlyn; what's yours?"

"You want to be friends?" asked the boy, looking very confused, "I've never had a human friend before. What's it like?"

"What! You've never had a friend before!" screamed Edlyn, completely overlooking the way the boy said 'human', "Well, you have to be my friend now! What's your name?"

"I think that my name's Albion, well, that's what everyone calls me. Now, I think that you should be going home. I'll show you this cool clearing on the way where we can meet up and play!"

So, the two children became friends, and they spent hours together every day, playing and having fun. Eventually, Albion trusted Edlyn enough to show her his secret. He usually did not tell humans about it, as they would think he was a monster, but Edlyn was his friend and he knew that she wouldn't betray him.

Edlyn thought that it was amazing that Albion had wings, and they spent a lot of time flying around the forest with each other. Albion's wings were very strong, and because they were magical, they could lift a lot of extra weight. The friends grew even closer together, and Albion was even introduced to Edlyn's parents. The adults approved of their friendship, since Albion was such a nice child, and allowed Edlyn to spend even more time with Albion.

However, some of the fae grew jealous of Albion's close friendship with Edlyn; wanting him to spend more time with them. They decided that they must get Albion away from Edlyn, so they planned to tell Edlyn's parents what Albion really was. The adults would then take their child away from Albion and forbid them from meeting each other.

The fae cast a spell to make one of them look human, and sent her off to tell Edlyn's parents about Albion. As expected, they were terribly shocked, but instead of keeping Edlyn away from Albion as the fae had wanted them to do, they told Edlyn to bring Albion around their house the next time they met.

Edlyn was very happy to follow her parent's orders, believing that they just wanted to see Albion again because they liked him. She quickly ran back to the clearing and asked Albion to come home with her. Albion agreed to go, and immediately started to follow Edlyn back to her village, not knowing about the danger that he was walking into.

As soon as Albion entered sight of the village, he knew that something was wrong. What was usually a busy little village, with people bustling all over, was now a ghost town. It was completely empty, and all of the doors were barricaded. It looked like they were expecting an army to come through.

Turning to Edlyn to ask her about what was happening, Albion was tackled by a strong man and pinned to the floor. The man then proceeded to tie up his arms and legs, and then hurled Albion into a small wooden cage that was hidden on a cart behind some plants. Edlyn threw herself at the cage and started to try and break it open, but she was also taken captive.

The cart was roughly dragged to the centre of the village, and Albion was tied to a large post in the middle. It was surrounded by sticks and other kindling, and as soon as he saw it, Albion knew that he was going to be burnt at the stake. Edlyn was let out of her cage, and tried to stop them, but she was quickly restrained and was also tied to the post. Her parents argued with the villagers, wanting them to let her go, but she had already sealed her fate by helping the monster.

A large torch was thrown onto the pile of sticks, and the whole thing burst into flames. Albion closed his eyes and tried not to listen to the dying screams of his friend. As he was half dragon, the fire did not hurt him, and as soon as the villagers realised this, they doused the flames, and took Edlyn's charred corpse away.

They left Albion on the pole for a while, where he was spat on and had things thrown at him, before taking him away to a large room with a deep pit. Crying out as he was thrown harshly into the pit, Albion wondered about what they were going to do to him. Slowly, a lot of people filed into the room and sat down in the seats surrounding the pit. All of them were armed with stones or other heavy items, and a few of them even had knives. A loud whistle sounded, and all of the people started to throw their weapons at Albion.

After a few minutes of being pelted with hard stones and sharp knives, Albion was finally taken out of the pit. He was unconscious, but an ordinary person would have been killed. As soon as the villagers realised this, they became even more afraid of him, so they decided to get rid of him once and for all.

A few minutes after Albion had gained consciousness, the villagers took him to the edge of a steep cliff. It had been an uncomfortable journey for Albion, as he was stuck in a cage that was much too small for him. He felt one of the villagers open the cage and tip him out onto the floor, but he remained curled up in a fetal position. One of the men who were behind him took out a sharp knife and began to slowly advance towards Albion. He had a cruel smile on his face, and laughed harshly as he began to hack off Albion's wings and tail. Albion cried out in agony, but the man would not stop. He carried on tearing at Albion's flesh until the extra limbs were finally separated from Albion's body, and then he casually threw him off the side of the cliff.

The other villagers had been watching this site with growing horror. Even if the boy was a monster, he was still only a child and did not deserve what they had done to him. However, they had been too afraid of what could have happened to them if they tried to aid the poor boy, and had all refrained from doing so. They looked over the edge at the crumpled, bleeding heap that was the monster, and wished that they could have been braver. Then they left the cliff, and never returned to the area again.