Matters never improved.

They only worsened.

War drew impossibly near as the terrorist attacks grew to become major bombings, the first of which occurred in Belarus. If the nations had thought they and their citizens were in grave danger before, they had not seen disaster yet.

It would be cliché to say it was a peaceful, sunny day at the start, but it was. Belarus herself was watching a brother play with his little sister, dreaming of another time, when it happened.

A deafening explosion sounded, the sky darkened with ash, then lit up with flames at the same time Belarus felt a pain blossoming in her side.

Blinking away tears and scrambling to her feet, she realised with a heavy heart that everything was on fire. The remnants of the forest, the nearby buildings... How was the explosion so large? The mines. The old mines deep in the forest that were never removed since the Second World War. It seemed so long ago...

A weak cry pierced her ears, and with a jolt it became known to her that one of the children, or maybe both, were still alive. Ignoring the overwhelming pain she felt and letting adrenaline numb it, she sped in that direction, smoke filling her lungs, suffocating her, but she could not find it within herself to care. She could not let a child die. Not again.

There, as she squinted, she could make out a small, squirming figure. Fresh burns of different degrees continued to litter her pale skin, but it was irrelevant to her. Half blind, she reached for the figure, hoisting them up in her arms. She clung tightly to them, disappointed at the familiar strong smell of burning flesh. The other was dead.

With more than a little difficulty, she stumbled as far away as she possibly could in her current condition. Then, almost as if she had been underwater and resurfaced, all of her senses returned full blow in one moment; The air reeked of fire, death, and smoke, everything was still crashing and crackling, the child on her was crying, and she was in so much pain it was almost unbearable.

"Where's M-Mish-sha?" A small voice distracted her instantly. It was the younger sister of the two who had survived. "What's your name?" Belarus avoided the question as she ran a comforting hand along the girl's back. She could not imagine what it was like to lose a brother, so bluntly and so fast. How would she tell the girl? If Belarus herself were to lose Russia, especially in such a brutal way, she would... God, she would be inconsolable at least.

"S-Sveta..." The girl, Svetlana, choked out. For now, she supposed she could simply avoid the topic. "That's a nice name. I'm Nata. What's your favorite game to play?" Keep distracting her. It should work. "Dolls..." Svetlana seemed less scared now, her sobbing reduced to silent tears and sniffling. "Oh? Cool, what dolls do you have?" As the six year old began rambling about her dolls, Belarus's mind wandered to darker places.

She was alone with a child, in great pain, in the middle of a burning area, and her country was going to fall.

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God, the amount of typos in this was unnatural, was I like half asleep while typing this? 

Okay, so, anyway, lemme clear something up with the names. In most, if not all, Slavic countries, it's very common to say your nickname when asked your name amongst children, and even with adults who are close friends, it's very rare you'll hear the full name being spoken. Sveta is short for Svetlana. Nata is short for Natalya. Misha is short for Michael, just pronounced slightly differently. The 'ch' are soft.

So here I thought I'd show a different side of Belarus, because why not and because I love her, but the whole thing about the mines is true. France still has trenches in forests, where it's toxic to live, and so many countries have mines. I know that almost all ex-USSR, if not all, have them, though I don't know about the rest of the countries affected in WWII.

I think that's all I have to say except.

Yep, you guessed it.

Comments, reads and votes are still better than coffee.

I take it back.

Coffee is superior.

Anyway

Ciao till the day after tomorrow~!