INTO THE STORYBOOK
OUR TALE BEGINS

The Nordic Household was close to empty on the day our story began. Two people walked up the cobblestone walkway that led to the Scandinavian home. The first one had messy, short blond hair and lime-green eyes. He appeared to be rather slender. He chose dress in a green dress military uniform, which consisted of a green jacket, a brown Sam Browne belt, green pants tucked into his boots, an off-white shirt and a tie that was a shade of green that was slightly darker than the rest of his uniform, and a pair brown boots that almost came up to his knees. His eyebrows were very prominent and bushy. He looked to be about twenty-three. The second man had shaggy, strawberry blond hair, and wore a small pearl-like earring on his left ear. He had red eyes and a small fang on the left side of his mouth. He chose to wear a small, black top hat with two ribbons coming off of it (one red and one yellow) which seemingly defied gravity by staying on one side of his head, a large black trench coat with a blood red brooch on the pocket, a white dress shirt with a black tie, dark violet pants, black boots that laced up almost to his knees, and black gloves. The cuffs of his coat were striped white and red vertically. He appeared to be in his early twenties.

The one clad in black knocked on the old, wooden door. The one in the green tapped his foot impatiently against the stone. A few seconds later, the door opened. Standing there was another man, who seemed a little feminine in body shape. He had short, light blond hair swept off to the right and dull blue eyes. He wore a belted, navy blue sailor top with a lighter blue collar, tie, and cuffs, with matching pants and sailor hat. He sported a Nordic Cross barrette in his hair, and had a detached hair curl that floated independently beside his head.

"God morgen, Arthur," he said to the one in green and turned to the one in black, "God morgen, Vladimir."

"Morning, Lukas," replied Arthur, "Is anyone else home?" Lukas shook his head.

"Everyone went out to do something earlier this morning. It will be just us three."

"Woo!" Vladimir said happily, "So, vat are ve doing, Lukas?"

"I believe it's something you will enjoy, Vladimir. I have to basement set up already. Just follow me." Lukas disappeared inside the house, with Arthur and Vladimir following behind.

Meanwhile, not to far away, three young girls were running for their lives.

Three teenagers, all in their late teens, ran as fast as they could away from the man chasing them. This wouldn't be an issue...if the man wasn't wielding a cleaver.

"GET BACK HERE!" the man yelled as the three girls turned a sharp corner.

"Hanna, what did you do?!" yelled one of the girls. She had dark brown hair that fell on her shoulder, a light tan and burning brown eyes. She chose to wear a dark red tank top, a sky blue sweater around it and tied it off with a transparent red scarf. She also wore a pair of black leggings and woven sandals. She seemed to be at least twenty years old.

"I didn't do anything!" the tallest of the three girls yelled back. She had medium length, light blonde hair, pale skin and sparkling green eyes. She wore a pair of dog tags, a white jacket with a teal t-shirt underneath. Her pants were a smoky gray and pulled over her brown combat boots. This teen seemed to be about seventeen.

"You must have done something while Flora and I stepped out of the shop!" shouted the third girl as she made her way past the people. She looked to be about eighteen. Her hair was auburn and her eyes were light brown. She wore a tan military uniform, with her shirt being black and her tie being a bright blue. She had a brown belt around her waist also. Her hair was in a ponytail that reached to just midway down her back and a gravity defying curl stuck up from the right side. Her bangs were visibly held back with four hair pins- two of them gold and two of them red- which mirrored each other. She wore a pair of black boots as well.

"Shut up, Rosaria!" Hanna ducked as something flew past her head. "All I did was insult the guy's food a little bit! Nothing more!"

"HANNA!" Flora and Rosaria shouted in unison.

"Calm down! We just make a left here, and the house isn't far!" The three girls slid around the corner and scampered towards the Nordic home.

Back with the boys, Lukas had led his friends down into the basement. It was labeled as off limits and for Lukas's use only.

Lukas wrapped a dark blue cloak around his shoulders and his companions did the same, only Arthur's was dark green and Vladimir's was dark red.

"Alright Norway," said Arthur, losing the human name since the three countries were no longer out in the open, "What did you find?"

"I was cleaning out my storage of books to see which ones I could give away," Norway began, "That's when I found this." Norway blew the dust off a thick, leather bound book. The other two coughed as Vladimir cleared away the dust. On the cover were the words: "Legends and Myths" in bright gold lettering. Vladimir seized the book from Norway's hands, with his red eyes sparkling.

"Romania!" Norway exclaimed. Romania opened the book. It's pages were yellowed with age and the words written upon each page were those of fairy tales.

"You brought us here for a storybook?" Arthur said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Norway nodded.

"Don't act like that, England. I brought you both here because I have never seen that book in my collection before."

"I don't see vat ze problem is," said Romania as he continued to flip through the book, "Zis book is very entertaining! Down to ze last detail!"

"Romania, stop your fangirling and let me see the book," ordered England. The Romanian frowned and stuck his tongue out at his British friend. England took the book from Romania and walked over to the magic circle Norway had drawn on the floor.

"A simple tracking spell ought to do the trick," Norway said as he took one end of the star drawn inside the circle. England looked down at the star.

"Norway," he said, looking at the emotionless Nordic. "Why are there six ends of the star you drew?" Norway shrugged.

"I always draw them like that." England shook the thought out of his head and took his place at the circle, and Romania did the same.

"Ready?"

"Ready!" Norway and Romania said in unison. England took a breath.

"Show us whence it came…" A green glow casted from underneath England.

"Vis oss som forlot denne spor bak…" chanted Norway. A blue light shimmered from the Norwegian's feet.

"Cine a plecat micul nostru indiciu în urmă!" Romania chanted happily. Red light flooded out from his feet.

"VESTIGIUM!" the three boys said at once. The book began to glow white. The pages flipped through themselves rapidly.

Suddenly, the Magic Trio heard the door above slam.

"NORWAY!" England yelled, "I thought you said that the house would be empty!"

"That's what I thought," said Norway through gritted teeth. The sound of rapid footsteps could be heard above them, followed by several crashes.

"Zat doesn't sound good…" Romania muttered.

"Greenland…" Norway seethed. "She, Philippines and Sicily went out! She must have gotten herself in trouble again!"

"Well, we have to get them to leave!" shouted England. His magical aura began to unknowingly grow stronger. Suddenly, the basement door opened, and the three teenage countries ran in, slamming the door behind them. The girls ran towards the boys, not noticing they had stopped on the other star points.

"Kom deg ut herfra!" Norway yelled. Greenland shook her head so her sweaty blonde hair stuck to her face. The boy's aura grew brighter.

"Nu este sigur pentru tine!" exclaimed Romania. Sicily shook her head and clung onto Romania's arm in fear. The Romanian's aura and face both grew redder.

"No! Tenere al sicuro!" cried the girl. The aura around the book began glowing to an unimaginable brightness. All of the Nations shielded their eyes.

"What did you do?" yelled Norway.

"We didn't do anything!" snapped Philippines, "You were the ones who have all of the magic!"

"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU! ARGH!" England fell to the ground. Philippines bent down to pull him back up, but a green glow surrounded the Brit, and as soon as she touched him, it surrounded Philippines as well. The two nations screamed as they faded into the light. The light swirled in the air for a moment before shooting down into the book,

"Arthur!" exclaimed Greenland. She reached out to try and catch the light, but she began glowing an icy blue. Norway's dull blue eyes widened.

"Hanna!" he shouted. The Nordic seized her wrist as he himself started to glow blue. "Get away from there!" Before Greenland could take a step away from the book, both of the Nordics were engulfed in their blue lights and sucked into the pages.

"Don't move," Romania said as Sicily clung onto him, absolutely shaking. The two were surrounded in red light and shot into the book. The old book flipped through its pages before stopping. In swirled letters at the top of the page were: Alice in Wonderland