Of fanfictions I always wanted to write
Title: Am I still there?Author:
traumschwinge
Claim: Germany
Characters: Germany, Prussia, France
Table/Promt: Historical / 15. Annex
Wordcount: 1259
Rating: T
Summary: France meets a kid in the vineyards above the Rhine valley. This boy awefully resemblances a child he used to know when he was a child himself. But that can't be, can it?
Pre reading-notes: - It's set from October 1792 to July 1793.
- Yes, I know that France is the main acting character and it's his point of view. BUT it's not about him.
France was sneaking though the wine on top of the hills above the Rhine valley. He watched the city somewhere below him. He knew his people had sent some scouts there. He remembered being there before, a long time ago. The old imperial town where the throne of his greatest king stood, was somewhere north from here, near this special river. It’s been almost a thousand years already…
Suddenly, he came to a dead stop. Right in front of him, hiding in the bushes just as him, was a boy, 8 or so years old. It seemed like he was crying, his arms wrapped around his knees and the forehead pressed against his legs. Francis reacted fast.
He got behind the boy before he knew. Fast he pressed his hand on the boy’s mouth and whispered: “Not a single noise or I’ll have to kill you, understood?” The last was almost a hiss. The boy didn’t struggle at all. It seemed like he just let it happen, like it wasn’t happening to a human being but a doll.
He nodded after almost an eternity.
France let him down again. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “That’s not a place I expect a kid and you sure don’t look like a spy.”
“Non scio,” the boy said. France blinked. That wasn’t the language he had expected. Why on earth was this boy speaking Latin? That language was long dead, wasn’t it? Not even the church spoke it nowadays. Not since over a hundred years. “Sentio ut divisum sim.”
France tilted his head to the side. “Hm… that’s strange, kid”, he murmured. “You look awefully like a kid I used to know when I was a kid myself, you know?” The boy shook his head, but didn’t say anything. “How would you,” France went on. “I bet he’s been dead for over a century. Maybe longer, I don’t know. Where are your parents?”
The boy shrugged. “Abierunt.”
“So you’re all alone?”
The blonde head moved up and down slowly.
France smiled at him. “Want me to take care of you?” He patted the boy. “It’s not good for a small boy to be all alone, you know.”
The boy looked at him, speechless, his big, blue eyes wide open.
“So, what’s your name, kid? I’m the Première République Française.” France offered the kid his hand.
“Imperium Romanum Sacrum eram,” the boy answered.
France’s jaw almost dropped. “That can’t be,” he murmured to himself. “He’s dead and gone.” He backed away from the kid. Was this a hoax? A ghost standing in front of him? Or one of Prussia’s pranks? But he looked the same he did back then. He even sounded like him - or was this just France’s imagination. It’s been so long.
France fell down on his keens, sat down next to the boy who was watching him curiously. He sighed. This was so strange. This boy ought to be older, or dead, or at least a bit different to what he used to be.
“Potest me totum?” the boy suddenly asked. France refused to call him Holy Roman Empire. He refused to believe this. The Holy Roman Empire was just as old as him, they even used to be the same. A long time ago.
Startled, it took France a while to figure out that sentence. The boy simply waited for him, his big blue eyes fixed on France’s lips.
“I can’t make you whole again now,” he said. Right now, he had other problems - staying alive himself, not drowning in blood back home - to worry about. But he wanted to help this boy. And making him his was not bad either. “But I promise I’ll try my best. Just as long as you become mine.” He smiled at the boy.
The boy took France’s hand and nodded. His hand was so small, so cold. It felt like touching solid fog. France shuddered, for a second he almost pulled back his hand again. Instead, after taking a deep breath, he pressed the hand softly.
“I think, you’ll need a new name when you’ll become mine,” he smiled. “What about République de Mayence? Like the town down there ?“
The boy nodded, clinging to France as they walked back to the camp of the revolutionary troops.
~*~
“Hand the boy over, France!” Prussia cried. He was standing on the other side of the Rhine, just out of reach of all guns. “Be a good boy and we’ll let you go.”
It was hot, the July sun burned down like it wanted to help France’s enemies to thirst them out before they even ran out of food. They’d lost so much during the past month. All the places they had conquered this past year were now regained by Prussian and Austrian troops. The town had been under siege ever since it had been refunded as a republic and became officially French. There was no way out of this but capitulation, France knew.
“I won’t! I’ll never surend-“ France tried to reply but was interrupted by yet another cannon blow. His poor little boy clinged harder to his coat. “You never took care of him. He’s better off with me and without you two!”
Prussia smiled. “But we’re family. And you’re nothing but a failure in history. A country needs a king, one strong ruler.”
“I won’t surrender!” France cried. “I rather be dead than a slave to nobles again!”
“Go home, leave the town and the boy to us,” Prussia repeated again. “We won’t kill all of you this way!” France couldn’t hear him but he was sure Prussia was chuckling now. “I bet there isn’t much food left anymore, ain’t I right? All surrounding places now belong to us. There’s no where you can go. Hand the boy over! Now! You have until sunset.”
France gulped. He knew Prussia was right. The revolutionary troops had been beaten. The people were starving in the streets. But he didn’t want to give up the boy, not even for a few months.
His bosses, though, had already decided. It was just a small town, not worth fighting this much. Of course it would be nice to have some satellite republics around you, but it just wasn’t worth all the dead and money. Besides, all the news from Paris didn’t sound too well, they ought to get back there.
Just before sunset, France boarded a small boat which was to set the two of them over to the Eastern bank. He held the boy in his arms, pressed him closely against his body. The boy shook, He had been so shocked when he heard that they sent him away to Prussia, back to those who had chased him to the edge of disappearance.
“Listen,” Francis whispered to the boy. “I made you mine once, I’ll get you back. I promise. That I have to sent you away now doesn’t mean, I don’t like you or I don’t want you. Right now, I’m just in too weak a position. But that’s not for long. Soon, I’ll come back and make you whole again, you hear me?”
The boy nodded. Silent tears ran down his cheeks.
When they reached the other bank, the boy’s grip around France’s jacket tightened. Then, when strong hands grabbed him and pulled the crying child away, the fabric slipped though the small, warm hands. France couldn’t watch him being dragged away, back to those he belonged to.
“Wait for me, I’ll get you back,” he murmured to himself. “I promise.”
NOTES:
1. Translation of the Latin stuff (and no, it's no google translation (because we (Mina and I) google translated it several times from different languages and then correted the consense of them, so it should be correct....Should be. My Latium is 3 years old and I always rather learned church Latin that the classical):
Non scio. - I don’t know.
Sentio ut divisum sim. - I feel like I have been divided.
Abierunt - They’re gone.
Imperium Romanum Sacrum eram - I was the Holy Roman Empire
Potest me totum - Can you make me whole again?
2.Short background informations:
a) the French Revolution:
Started in 1789. (Oh, come on, you all know this story (I hope…)) What’s important in this Story: They exported the revolution and democratical forms of ruling from France to the parts of other countries the revolutionary armies had conquered. There were satellite states to the French republic and used as a shield against Prussia and Austria.
b) The Republic of Mainz
After the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine river and the town by French revolutionary troops during the War of the First Coalition, some people in Mainz decided they wanted to be a republic so the French wouldn’t have to rule them that much. Soon after the foundation, though, they realized that the republic couldn’t live on it’s own so they asked to become a part of France. But before that could be enacted, Mainz was regained by Prussia troops in July. This Republic existed only from March to July 1793, though Mainz was conquered in October 1792.
c) War of the First Coalition
Was led by Prussia, Austria and a lot of the minor German states against the First French Republic to end the revolution and bring a King back to rule. It’s not like they did care about France, their kings just wanted to prove to their people, that there was no such thing as “all people are equal” and there was no other choice to to be ruled by a absolutistic king.
Jupp, no sources this time since I had none. This is what I remember from History lessons and further reading in my free time (since 2 of my favorite books take place in this time).