Where Thou Art, That Is Home (Hetalia Fanfic, Part 2)

Chapter 105~!

Matthew's POV~

"Good luck," Kadi said to me as I stepped shakily through the open doorway into bright yellow sunlight and lush green grass.

"Whoa," I whispered, looking back at the portal to mark where it was in my mind. It was a giant boulder pressed against the bottom of a cliff. My gaze wandered straight up to see deep blue sky and the slight awning the top of the cliff offered.

'Okay' I thought, taking a deep breath. 'I can't remember what city Carlea said she lived in, but I don't think this is the right world.'

Still, my sense of curiosity was egging me forward, goading me to at least take a quick look around. There really was no helping it.

The gentle, lilting babble of a brook caught my attention and I strolled over to it, smiling down at my waving reflection. The puffy white clouds chugged across the sky at a snail's pace while soft breezes rustled the trees' gigantic green leaves. The warmth from the sun above made me wonder if it was summer here, wherever 'here' was.

I stood up straight and tore my gaze away from the water. If I had looked at it for just a few seconds longer, what happened next wouldn't have been nearly as much of a shock.

Whoops.

Something didn't feel... right. It was like... like something was itching at my back. No, not just my back-- my whole body! A gasp left my mouth breathily and I bent over, scratching my shins and calves with my short nails-- they weren't short anymore! Even so, as they darkened and grew long, tapered, and wickedly sharp, my skin wasn't pierced or even harmed. It barely scratched at all because my legs, they-- they--

My loud, long yell went from something human to an unearthly roar in a matter of seconds.

~

Everyone's favorite Russian was pleased to find himself ankle-deep in snow the moment he left Kadi's magical mansion and all the other nations behind. The slope of the hill caught him off guard and he only barely was able to keep himself from stumbling to his knees or sliding down.

Sunlight, somehow warm and yet cold at the same time, bathed the Russian in its brightness. Russia pulled the scarf away from the lower half of his face and smiled genuinely, delighting in the chill seeping slowly into his boots.

"Whoa whoa whoa look out!" a young man's voice shouted, growing louder at an alarming rate!

The pale-haired Russian whirled around, spotted the reindeer with its two passengers (one of which was riding sideways and in the man's arms), and dove a few feet to his left to avoid a collision with them.

"Sorry!" the mysterious man with his reindeer called over his shoulder. "Kind of an emergency!"

"It is alright!" Russia responded easily, standing and watching them disappear over a crest in the landscape.

An odd sound, like snow rubbing against snow, sounded again from behind Ivan, and yet again he turned. It was... It was a snowman? A snowman with a lumpy carrot for a nose and a bucktooth, no less!

"Hi!" the snowman chirped in a happy voice as he slid past a bewildered Ivan. "Oops, gotta go!"

"This is looking very familiar to me..." Ivan decided after the talking snowdrift with a carrot-nose was out of sight. "Something to do with America... Da, it was something to do with America.

"Well, she's definitely not from here," he deduced before turning, walking a few steps, and burrowing into the snowdrift that, in actuality, was the portal back to Kadi's home.

~

Alright, I take back what I said earlier about seeing my reflection. It would have been a whole lot scarier to see myself transform so suddenly and without any kind of warning whatsoever.