Soviet works in a village where he works as a barrel maker. One day his father is kidnapped by a dragon and he goes to the forest to look for him and sees a stranger.

Warning:

- The world in this book has dragons, unicorns and other magical creatures

Chapter 1: The Flames of Destruction

"Soviet!", yelled the young man's father, who was just picking up his big hammer, which he actually uses to hammer in nails. The older man runs outside in his everyday clothes, which were an old shirt, a brown fabric jacket with holes in it and old pants that had been very often patched. The young man, had hazel eyes and muddy brown hair while possessing some muscles from his hard work and was also tall as a door. Soviet also carried with him, in his one trouser pocket, a small lucky charm shaped like the symbol of a five-pointed star, but it was only the outline of it.

"I'm on my way!", Soviet yelled at his father, also grabbing a hammer from their workshop. Soviet and his father worked as barrel makers, which gave them more than enough hammers. He quickly ran outside and saw the village in flames. People walked outside while dragons flew over the village. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but it was still a terrifying sight to watch this otherwise quiet little village burn. The rest of the people in the village were all friendly and peaceful.

In the middle of the night every few weeks or months these winged beasts would appear and burn down the village. Their colors were scarcely recognizable, but some were covered with feathers in some places. There were also some that were smaller and had no feathers or were only slightly covered with feathers. These beings were difficult to describe, but they were about ten feet tall, like the inside of a house. The dragons walked on all fours and were as long as five people laid on top of each other to form a chain. Their strength was close to that of dynamite. Wings as long as two, three houses next to each other. Their fire beam reached almost as long as their body. They couldn't harm themselves since they were fireproof, but they could easily destroy anything else.

The mother, children, sometimes also fathers and those too wounded ran from the village into the forest because they had nowhere else to go and didn't want to fight because their families shouldn't suffer if they didn't come back. Soviet, his father and other men and women had to defend their home. It would be very helpful if the emperor's army would help, but they would only ride into the village if they wanted to kill, torment, mistreat or abuse someone, so they were on their own.

There wasn't much they could do about the dragons that flew, but they could do much about the dragons on the ground, which swords, spears, and hammers were good for. They had already killed one of the fire-breathing beasts.

Soviet saw with his own eyes how a dragon got into one of the houses where a woman with her child couldn't escape and rushed to the house. He was ready to finish off the dragon and braced himself for it, but oddly enough, it walked away from the house.

He ran after it and hit the tip of its tail with the hammer, since dragons were very sensitive there. The dragon roared in pain. The dragon was about as small as a luxurious carriage. Soviet ran to its legs and broke two of the creature's legs with the hammer, from which he roared and tried to flee, but the dragon fell over faster than he could do anything and Soviet ran to the dragon's head, at which he raised the hammer.

The dragon looked up at him in terror as he lay on the ground. Soviet raised his hammer, but felt he couldn't. The other villagers could safely kill the dragon, but he didn't have the inner strength to do it and not feel terrible about it, so he walked away from the dragon and ran to the woman who was in the house.

She ran into the forest with her young son. The young man caught up with the mother and her son and asked: "Did the dragon hurt you?" "No, he didn't!", she answered out of breath. She leaned against a tree and hugged her trembling child. Soviet was reassured and told her: "Stay here! I'll bring you back later if no one has taken care of you before." She smiled slightly and nodded and wished him: "And good luck to you!" He smiled back slightly and ran back to his village, which is under attack.

All the men and women did their best to chase the dragons away, but the numbers didn't decrease even though some dragons were injured and now two were killed. Soviet ran into battle as they brought down a dragon from the sky. They fought the monster. The other dragons tried to get them away from him, but the villagers had enough people to take care of them.

In the crowd, the villager, Soviet, looked for his father, whom he spotted before he could kill the next dragon. Before the young dragon died, he let out a frightened cry. It was a terrible idea of his father to have killed the dragon. The other dragons heard it and one flew silently towards Soviet's father and grabbed him mid-flight. "DAD!", Soviet shouted desperately and ran after the dragon, which was faster than him. A few other villagers ran with them. The dragon flew over the forest and Soviet only kept his anxious father in his eyes until he fell down a hill in the forest into darkness and passed out. The rest didn't notice this because they took a different route.

Chapter 2: Cauldron in the Forest

It took a while for Soviet to wake up as the sun rose, waking not only him but the now noisy forest as well. At night it was mostly as good as dead quiet here, but at sunrise the forest came to life. Soviet could hear the sounds of the forest waking him up. "Dad?", he asked immediately, looking around only to realize the kidnapping wasn't a nightmare.

Depressed, he sat where he was, staring at the small bruises from his not-so-pleasant fall. The man's head was buzzing and he was holding his head because of it.

Soviet once again remembered his frightened father in the claws of this monster. His father was kidnapped and he couldn't do anything. He only remembered the general direction in which the dragon had flown and looked in that direction, but there were only trees, there were trees everywhere.

He looked down at his knees again in frustration and decided to find his hammer and head home to get some gear to go find his father. At the moment he just didn't care about the work and the reconstruction. He needed his father!

Soviet stood up and searched the forest ground for his hammer. After a few minutes he walked up the hill a bit and found it before picking it up and heading back toward the village. The way wasn't too far. The other people of the village are rebuilding their homes, while Soviet went into his house, which also suffered some damage and searched his workshop for more gear for the trip, looking out the window.

Outside lay the corpses of the dragons, mostly youngsters, cutting some of their flesh out of their bodies as the adults built up the village. The young people wanted to ensure that their families had enough to eat and in most cases also looked after their siblings.

Suddenly all heard the horn of the knights of Emperor England. Everyone feared this cruel emperor. Since this land first belonged to the German Empire family and the new emperor hated the Germans, he was looking for everything possible to destroy them. Unfortunately, the family of the German Emperors had been killed, as everyone believed, because in front of the eyes of the kingdom, Empress Austria-Hungary had been tortured and burned and no sign of life could be found from the rest of the family.

Everyone in the village gathered while the children and teenagers hid. The two hundred people gathered. Soviet stayed in the house and made sure he didn't get caught. The men weren't just knights. There were also a few riders. All the villagers outside reluctantly bow to the five men.

Soviet already had an uneasy feeling. The men with their horses stopped and one without armor took out a piece of paper. "Your Emperor, England of Great Britain, gave us the order to minimize the proportion of pure German blood that would still be possible and to wipe it out.", said the man, "Which gave us the order to take a few of your women with us." Most people knew what they wanted to do with the women and even the strongest women withdrew, those with families ran away while the men stood in their way.

This won't end well, thought Soviet and looked away. If he went outside he would die, and besides, one man wouldn't make much of a difference since about half of the adult community was made up of men. Soviet could not and would not stand by and see these people trying to tear these families apart. He just wanted to search for his missing family member. Screams and yells could be heard from outside. Desperately, he tried to ignore the shouts while his guilt attacked him to run out and fight, but he was too scared of the five men.

After a few minutes he looked out the window and saw the men galloping away. Women on the back of there horses. Desperate children ran after them. The rest of the women were frustrated and the men weren't doing much better either. Some men and women had a breakdown. The suffering Soviet witnessed made him cry. He, too, grieved somewhat before returning to his quest to find his father, as he was his last relative. Soviet's grandparents died in the war of the German Empire and the English Empire, his mother was killed by the English judges for being too rebellious, his little sister got ill. And he found no love. He worked all his life, like his father after the loss of his wife. It wasn't unusual in those times to have so little family. There should also be more of his relatives in the Russian Empire, but he didn't know them.

Soviet packed a few provisions and left the house where he and his father lived with two slices of bread, a bag of sunflower seeds, a hammer, his lucky star, a candle, a small barrel of water and his sickle. Outside, he heard the sadness in the village more clearly and tried to block it out while walking in the direction where the dragon had probably flown.

The young man walked through the forest at a slow pace to conserve his energy. This mixed forest was not a dangerous place. Cherries and plums hung on a few trees, from which he took something and ate. The fruits were sweet and had no worm. He also discovered red currants and ate some of them before continuing his journey.

After half an hour he walked across a beautiful meadow with tall grass and full of colorful flowers and full of life around him. The spiders spun their webs, the ticks grabbing for the nearest source of heat, the army of ants who got food and all sorts of insects were very interested in the blooming flowers. A deer and its two fawns jumped out of the field and ran quickly across the flowery meadow.

Soviet looked after them, but continued down his path into the nearest forest. In this forest there were more birds and more fallen trees, but also more fruits for Soviets to eat.

After about an hour, when the adult with the unusual name got sore legs, he heard something. He heard humming coming from his right side. Was that someone who could help him? Soviet cautiously walked to the source of the noise. The man looked behind every tree until he could see someone in front of a large cauldron.

Why was there a giant soup kettle in the middle of the forest with a man holding a book and a table full of bits of plant? Was this man a wizard, a magician? Soviet recognized the other young man's crystal blue eyes. He had put on a hood, which made Soviet unable to see his face, except that his skin was a bit strange with a very strong red and white tint. And between his eyes was something dark. The person brewing the potion had red-stained hands, which Soviet saw as the unknown threw some herbs into the broth.

Soviet cautiously approached the red man. Even though he looked strange, it didn't deter Soviet, he just got more curious. He quietly approached him and quietly greeted: "Hello?" The man glanced at Soviet briefly with his crystal blue eyes before jumping up and running away. "Please stop!", Soviet begged the stranger and ran after him, but he wasn't paying close attention to his path and through the things lying around he stumbled and flew into the soup kettle in which his right arm and half his face landed and both thereby scalded. He cried out in pain as the cauldron tipped and the fire underneath caught his foot, the cauldron tipped over and Soviet right side first into the hot liquid in which he passed out.

Chapter 3: Behind bars

Soviet slowly became aware of his surroundings and heard voices nearby. It took him a few minutes to figure out what they were saying. "We have to kill him German Empire!", scolds a voice coming from a man who knows what he wants. "Guys, who tells us that he would really be a great danger?", comes from the voice of a slightly older woman. The man from before says: "And who tells us that he could not be a spy from emperor England?" She is silent for a moment and a man, whose voice sounds familiar to me, asks: "Nevertheless, we should give him a chance. Not that we make the wrong decision and kill someone innocent. Ireland, what does she say?", asks German Empire. After a short silence, Ireland says: "She says we should do as you say." "Son?", asks German Empire, in his deep voice, "What would you say we do with him? You found him." "Could we please not hurt him?", asks a quiet voice that is almost difficult to understand. "Poor guy has been badly injured and I don't know how he's going to deal with the fact that he's a Countryhuman now." "Yes, that will be difficult for him.", German Empire agrees with his son.

Soviet stopped listening as he started to open his eyes and could see a hand in front of him, it was red and that hand was scarred. He moved his right hand and realized that the hand in front of him was his. He got startled and let out a scream too, which the Countryhumans could hear. Soviet looked at his scarred hand in fear. Then he turned to his other hand, which was now red, like a tomato. The poor man only got more scared and moved his hands to make sure they were really his. Soviet sat up and looked down at himself. He was wearing new clothes and his skin was red and he had scars on the other side. The young man lifted his top and he saw a hammer, a sickle and the outline of a star in yellow on the left of his chest. He looked at his upper body in shock and didn't know what to feel or say anymore because he was completely overwhelmed.

"Does it hurt a lot?", asked the soft voice from before. Soviet looked at the other with wide, anxious eyes. He had seen this Countryhuman in the woods before. The young Countryhuman hid behind a tall man. The man wasn't quite as tall as Soviet, but not far off either. This man, behind whom his son was hiding, was none other than the former emperor, German Empire. Soviet recognized him by his black, white and red flag. The emperor no longer wore a crown and his clothes looked like knitted and crocheted, while his son wore a woven dress in lilac. The emperor wore his clothes in a darker color than his son. The prince and his father were adorned with pearls and feathers.

Soviet was unsure what to do and asks: "Can you please help me?" "What should we help you with, young man?", he asked. "Can you help me to find my father again and that I look normal again?", Soviet asked the former emperor of his homeland. Appearing concerned, he asked, "What about your father?" "He was kidnapped by a dragon last night and taken east.", Soviet told him. "I'll see what we can do for you.", he encouraged him. "Thank you very much!", he thanked the former emperor happily. The emperor smiled slightly, but it quickly disappeared and said: "I'm sorry, but we've done the best we can, but we can't make you human again, as we don't know how to mitigate the effect of the potion. Your scars will take a few moons, but they will heal." The young man looked down at his hands and asked: "What are the differences between human and Countryhuman?" The emperor leaned towards him and replied: "Your coloring is now more noticeable, you no longer have hair on your head and other parts of your body, but your skin is much stronger and you might have a special ability, like speaking with animals or to change form." Fascinated, the new Countryhuman looked up at the other. "How do I find out my ability?", Soviet asked curiously. "You'll have to find that out for yourself.", replies the tall Countryhuman, who then asks: "What's your name?" "Soviet!", the former human replied. "Nice to meet you, Soviet!", the former emperor greeted him with a friendly smile. Soviet smiled at him too.

However, the emperor's smile disappeared. "Soviet, I have to keep you in here as we don't know if you could pose a threat to us.", the emperor explained. First Soviet realized he was in some kind of cell. He looked around. He had a place to do business, a bed on the floor, two soup bowls, one with water and the other with food. On two sides, there were walls and on the other two, hand-width bars and a locked door. The floor was paved and the ceiling was wood, but this was 10 feet above him. This building looked quite old.

Soviet saw other older Countryhumans. One had white skin, the right side of his face was green and the other side was gold, his eyes were orange and he wore a jacket of green scales and tan feathers that reminded Soviets somewhat of a dragon. The Countryhuman looked at him skeptically. There was another Countryhuman who was a lady. She looked curiously at Soviet with her bright violet eyes. Her skin was red, her face had a blue line from mouth to eye socket and above her head she was white, but on her right side, she still had a portion of yellow with something on the yellow that he couldn't see through her eyebrow. The woman wore a purple dress that was very loose and fell to her knees, the dress had several tiers of beads, shells and feathers. And there was the Countryhuman he'd seen in the woods, looking away from Soviet and holding a skeptical Countryhuman's hand.

"We'll leave you here for now.", said the former emperor. Soviet nodded, not particularly pleased. "I'll come back soon.", said the man, who looked at Soviet. Again he nodded at the former emperor's words before he left the building with the others where Soviet was imprisoned. Reich looked back at the prisoner before they disappeared from the building. Soviet stayed behind alone.

Chapter 4: Dragon in the Nest

Reich walked out of the building and stayed close to his best friend and his father. The Countryhumans went back to the home of German Empire and his five children, his daughter Austria and sons Hungary, Switzerland, Weimar and Third Reich, who was with his father. The young man and his experienced father went into the house made of plants and saw the rest braiding or knitting. The widower went to his corner and wrote down a thing or two while Reich just quickly took off his shoes and ran back outside to Ireland, who had been waiting for him.

The two young adults ran through the village, with the same houses as their former emperor's, but different shapes and sizes. The houses always had different windows and entrances. Reich and his best friend Ireland ran through the village into the woods around the village to a nearby pond which was a stopover from a small creek. Three creatures lived there, which two forest dragons who were siblings and one water dragon. The forest dragons were grass green with dark green stripes and brownish feathers on the neck and back. Both siblings had green eyes with a lime green and a rich shade of green. She was a little shorter than her brother, but as was usual for forest dragons, they got along pretty well. The water dragon didn't show up that often and often disappeared again. Her head reminded one slightly of an alligator. The water dragon also had paws with sharp claws and webbed feet. Unlike a sea dragon or river dragon, it had nostrils and ears since it also walked on land, however, it had a fin like a sea mammal. She often behaved like a crocodile, but she would not attack humans or dragons larger than her at almost 13 feet in length. The Male Forest Dragon was almost as tall as the Water Dragon was long and was around 30 feet long. The forest dragons were just eating leaves and fruit.

When the two young men were near their dragons, Reich, through his special power, also turned into a dragon while Ireland whistled the dragons. The two dragons immediately looked at their friends and the sister then ignored the two boys and continued eating, while the brother ran to them and enthusiastically headbutted himself with Reich who was a dragon. The dragon grumbled enthusiastically and Reich imitated him. Ireland mounted his dragon friend's back and the dragon lowered his head so that Ireland could sit on his neck. Reich meanwhile tried to convince the female dragon to come with them and as always she allowed herself to be persuaded and the three dragons took to the air.

The three dragons immediately flew east, where Soviet headed before and Ireland quickly noticed that direction. "Your serious Reich? You want to save his alleged father?", Ireland asked his friend. "Don't you want to know if there is something to it?", Third Reich asked him in the language of the dragons. His best friend said: "Yeah, but how are we supposed to do that?" In a particularly exaggerated manner, he asked as an example, but also to ridicule it: "Are you the son of a man named Soviet who was looking for you but turned into a Countryhuman and his right side is covered in scars?" "Something like that!", said the prince. "Seriously Reich?", asked Ireland. His friend said: "Yeah! And you usually like to join in on stupid things!" "Some are too stupid or too serious!", he says. Reich doesn't let his worried friend bother him and just keeps flying.

The four visit the dragons nearby and one confirms that she kidnapped a man who killed her sister but he hurt her so badly that she had to let go of him and he was now either dead or on his way to the village back. Ireland attends to the wound while Reich and one of the dragons accompany him. The two fly around looking for the man they are looking for from far above.

Chapter 5: Peaceful Prisoner

Soviet continued to sit in the cell. He had food, water, a place to sleep and a toilet. He was worried and bored. He would love to see his father and friends again! He missed them so much!

Footsteps came towards him and the former emperor told him: "Your father has been found. He has returned home with a few scratches." Soviet was relieved and happy. He then asked the emperor: "When will I be coming home?" "When we have made you normal again and you don't betray any of us, you can go home!", he said, "If we have more trust, you can walk around here during the day. We don't intend to keep you here any longer than necessary."

Soviet remembered: "But one of them said that I should be killed!" The emperor said: "Ireland only thinks that, because he doesn't trust strangers. I know that it is not right to lock you up here, but I also have doubts that you are not a member of the compassionate people." Soviet nods, he can understand that. "I can understand that!", he tells him.

The emperor is a little surprised by this, but only says: "I'll see if you have a good heart, but even if we don't know, we'll provide you with food, drink and knowledge!" "Thank you very much, but why feed me knowledge?", he asks. "If you really have a good heart, I want you to discover another way of life.", came the answer from the smiling German. Soviet was happy about this.

"However, I have to take care of other important things for now. Please be patient and if you need something, just call and you'll get it. Just to make sure you're okey.", he said kindly and asked, "How are your wounds?" "Thank you, they're much better already!", Soviet answered, happy about the other's kindness. German Empire left again and devoted himself to his children.

Only Third Reich was not there, he looked at the prisoner Soviet as a bird. He had overheard the whole conversation. The young prince also wanted to know if Soviet had a good heart. So he came up with a plan.

The sun slowly moved across the sky. Soviet sat bored in his cell and heard noises at the door to the cell. When he looked over, he couldn't see anything. The young man went to the door and touched it. The door was open. Surprised, he looked at the open door. Slowly he opened it and went out.

He peeked out of the building. He looked around, fascinated. The people here lived in tents and trees. It looked very beautiful. Lots of flowers grew and there were normal trees here and there. He could see paths that the others here were definitely using. Fascinated, he looked around and left his hiding place. He walked around uncertainly. He didn't know how to get home. He just wanted to go out and look around.

Chapter 6: Invisible

Soviet walked around, full of interest and curiosity. He still couldn't explain how he had got free. Was the door so old?

Besides, shouldn't he maybe look because of the German Empire. If someone were to discover him, they might get scared and maybe the German Empire could really be so kind and show him around.

What he didn't know was that the emperor, his son and their good friend were watching him. Especially Reich, who of the three was most interested in the young man because he had recently met him so unexpectedly and he felt a little responsible for the fact that he was injured and changed.

Reich wanted to experiment with brewing potions on his own. He had a lot of fun mixing things together himself. That day he wanted to mix a potion to increase his powers when Soviet frightened him. Wouldn't that have happened if Reich had just stayed seated? Probably! Now he and Soviet, who was still wandering around, had to live with it.

The people of the village were all busy, but not near the unknown Countryhuman.

He was looking for where German Empire could be, but had unknowingly passed his tent as there was no sign or anything like that. Slowly he walked towards the pond. He was on a small ledge and looked into the water. He could see a beautiful blue flower.

A chirping brown bird flew over his head to the other side of the pond. This bird was Reich, who was hiding behind the tree. Ireland decided to climb the dragon to test Soviet. And someone else was there, the water dragon. She stayed under the water.

Meanwhile, Soviet picked the flower and smiled. He relaxed and listened to the chirping birds and looked at the beautiful flower before suddenly realizing that his hands were gone. Unsure of how to react, he looked at his hands.

Reich transformed back and looked from behind the tree at Soviet. Every Countryhuman had a special ability and he knew that Soviet had one too and that was that he could make himself invisible. He was so excited and fascinated by it. He never thought that this could happen to a transformed human.

Soviet, however, didn't know what was wrong with him. "Where did my hand go!?", he said, shocked and surprised, and took a closer look at his missing arms. Reich watched him and when Soviet realized that he just couldn't see his arms and was more fascinated, the hidden Countryhuman had to giggle.

Ireland also watched Soviet on the male forest dragon, who was almost invisible in the green forest.

The new Countryhuman went back to the village to get an explanation as to why he was invisible.