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

Chapter 151~!

I inhaled deeply so the process of inducing the hallucination would be sped up. At this point in time, there was no point in prolonging the inevitable.

Kadi had sent us a warning two days before, detailing that we had very little time left.

So far I had been just barely sufficient enough to pass most of the physical training regimes. My abilities in the mental category, however, were horribly lacking.

Why couldn't I do it? Really! I knew it was all a trick, that it wasn't real. What made this so hard for me?

I felt that dizziness that was followed by peace. When I opened my eyes, the scenery around me had completely changed! Instead of the room with all the candles and incense burners, I sat cross-legged in a thickly wooded forest. Fog filled the spaces between each massive trunk, and thick foliage covered tons of random spots all around me.

"Hello?" I called unsurely, glancing in all directions, even upward. "Anyone there?"

There was no response except for my own voice echoing back. I shivered at the cold penetrating my clothing, wrapping its spindly tentacles of fog around my body.

'Wait...' I thought, looking down at my feet. Was that what I thought it was...?

"Uh, hey," I murmured, shifting my feet from side to side. It was getting hard to move, and the fog was congregating in thicker masses around me!

"Hey, stop!" I yelled, which apparently was the trigger for utter doom.

In an instant I saw the fog coil up in the shape of a snake, or perhaps a thick vine, and wrap around my legs multiple times. I batted at it, trying to pull it off of me, but my hands went right through it! What in the world was going on?

It's real! It's real! It's all so real! said some part of me I couldn't put a name to. I shrieked and writhed within my prison, still trying to break free with no luck at all.

'Stop... It's not real...' I told myself, but that other voice was overpowering my own! No, no, I couldn't die like this!

"It's... not... real!" I managed to yell out in grunts. I forced my body to stop moving, though I still shook from fear. My hands stilled and fell at my sides, and I sucked in a slow, meditative breath. I wasn't going to let this fog, this mist, beat me.

"Come on, come on. This isn't real. It's not real. It's not real," I chanted, a fold appearing between my drawn-together eyebrows.

"I know, aru. And it looks like you've improved a little."

Yao's voice startled me out of my trance, and I jumped, eyes darting up to meet his brown ones. "H... Hey, I'm back... How long was that?"

"Twenty minutes," he replied with very slight disappointment in his tone. "Almost more."

"Damn...!" I groaned, putting my head in my hands while my elbows rested on my knees. "This sucks..."

"You're improving, though," China told me. "Come on, that's enough for now. I need to get started on lunch."

I sighed, stood, and faced him. "Can I help?"

Yao thought it over, then nodded and smiled a little. "Sure, aru. I could use a couple extra hands."

"Yes," I grinned, rubbing my hands together like an evil villain. "Tell me all your cooking secrets! Muwahahahaha!"

"Uhm... no."

"Aww! No, wait, I'll be good! Wait up, Yao!"

~

"How is the training coming?" Kadi asked her brother-of-sorts through the phone. "Please tell me she's getting better."