Death chapter 3
I don't own Gundam Wing.
A/N This is a dream until the end.
!!
The cold ate at us like a disease. Two of our men had already succumbed to the bitter frost that lines everything here. We were not meant to be here in this frozen wasteland. The thought of our homeland with its lush mountains and green rivers just makes me even colder.
I want nothing more than to turn back and head home. No doubt so did all the other men who had accompanied me on this foolish journey. But the wise woman Zhong Wuyan had spoken and the Emperor had ordered a troupe of soldiers to carry out the task.
As the son of the Emperor's younger brother I stand second in line to inherit the throne. My cousin is in fine health. As a General in my own right I am content with what I have.
And here I am with my fifty men carrying out a task that will save our people. I don't believe for one moment that this is going to save anyone at all. I don't want to die here in this frigid land; I don't want my story to end here.
We are no closer to the end than when we first entered this land. The cloaked man who led us here is currently shivering among my men. I'll have his head if we don't get out of here soon. He appears as lost as we are. What a waste!
I grit my teeth and stand up. The snow has stopped falling and the winds have finally died down. It's time to move on. I make my way over to the shivering man and yank him up.
"Come now. The skies are clearing; surely you know where we are now?" I growled at him. He looked up at me with confusion in his eyes. It took a moment but they finally focus and see me. I take a deep breath as to not break his neck here and now. There's no point in a dead man I remind myself.
"Y-Yes," he stutters out. Shakily he stands up with my help and begins looking around. It's been over a week since we've been stuck in this snow storm of everlasting snow and bitter wind. The man had been mumbling and bumbling about a curse. I had told my men to ignore him.
"The curse is gone," he exclaims to himself. If I'm not careful I could start to believe that someone had cursed me with this task. I smack him in the shoulder, "Quit your foolish talk and lead us out of here."
We pack up and for another day we march through the snow. The wind is no longer so vicious but the sun that had been absent this entire week finally shows sheds its warmth on us.
That's when it happens. With the sun melting everything, it was no wonder the ice cracks and we fall through. Half my men lose their lives when they plunge into the icy river beneath the false ground that we were tracking on. The others and I land on an icy ledge. Panic threatens to overtake some of them and I shout an order for them to shut up.
"Get your rope out!" I order. I look at who is still with me and I choose Ling Piang, the smallest out of us.
"Ling, take Zhou's and Tsuchao's rope. Climb to the top of the ledge and find something to tie it to. We'll haul ourselves out that way," I explain calmly. The man nods and moves to take the rope from the other two. A couple of them move to help Ling as he prepares to start climbing.
With a little bit of luck, the man starts climbing. It's at the top though that he calls back down and tells me that there is nothing to tie the ropes to. I frown, there was nothing much else we could do except climb out individually ourselves. Set on that, I give out the order and they start climbing carefully as to not upset the icy walls into breaking.
I look over the edge where the river is briefly before I turn to the ledge, prepared to start climbing. As I wrap my hands with cloth, I hear it. It's faint at first but I turn back and listen again.
There it was. Someone was calling my name. I would have thought that it was one of my men who had survived somehow but they would never call me by my given name.
"Don't listen, General Chang!" the cloaked man warns me with a frightened look in his eyes. I look to him questioningly. He doesn't look toward the river but at the wall opposite of us.
"There are many creatures that will lure a person out and away by calling their name. If the person follows, they will become lost and die." His explanation made sense. But what didn't make sense was the fact that whatever creature here knew my name.
There it goes again. It was haunting yet so alluring as well. I wanted to go over to the edge and take a look, see if it's waiting for me just out of sight. I take a couple steps. I feel it, it's like there's someone there. The warmth taunts me and I take another step.
Suddenly I'm yanked backwards, away from it. My heart wrenches and I shout in anger. Who dares to keep me from it? My fist strikes out instinctively but I stop short at the face and the voice.
"General!" It's only Dao. I glance behind him and see the remainder of my men staring at me. It looks like they had been calling me for quite some time now. I look behind me and see that I'm mere inches away from the edge. The reality of my action hits me hard but I harden my eyes and nod at Dao, acknowledgement for saving my life.
As we climb out of there, the cloaked man points out that there is only a couple more days of walking. He points to a large mountain to up ahead, saying that we just need to head to the foot of it. There will be a path there that leads to the other side where there is no snow.
The news cheers us immensely but he ruins it by warning us of strange beast that prowl the area preying on such as ourselves who try to pass through. When night falls, it doesn't look like we're any closer but he assures me that it's merely an illusion. Once we pass a certain distance, the illusion will fade and we will be upon the mountain.
I don't like his talk of superstitions and strange creatures. Yet here outside of my element I hold my patience and let him talk. At least some of the things he said so far have been accurate.
We settle down for the night and I order five men to set up watch for the first shift. After delegating shifts out, we start unpacking sleeping rolls and blankets. The men pull out their supply of rice and they cook. We still have enough dried meat to last us until we get through this wasteland. Everyone packs for themselves so that in a case such as what happened earlier, we don't lose our food because one person had it.
The men insisted that I do not take watch. My earlier action had rightly scared them that I might just walk away and never look back. I called them foolish but gave in nonetheless. Even still, as I lay there looking at the stars, I feel sleep overpower me and my eyes close.
"Wufei…" I open my eyes slowly. "Wufei…" It calls again. That same haunting voice from earlier. There was some emotion in that voice that now that I had a moment to analyze it, it sounds so forlorn and lost. My heart aches and I want to reach out.
It calls again and I open my mouth to call back but couldn't as I did not know what name to call. It has so many names that I didn't know which one to call it by. So I settle for finding it instead. I find myself sitting up and thrusting my blankets aside. The cold doesn't bother me as I start walking toward it.
Five steps later I no longer knew what direction it was coming from. I look around, lost and upset that it was no longer calling me. With my heart hurting I call out the name that I last called it by. My cry is taken away by the wind and I try again but with the same results.
Hands grab me from nowhere and voices with no face call to me urgently.
"General! Wake up!" My eyes snap open and I see Ming crouching beside me. The others are awake and staring at me unsure as to what they should do. Their leader was being messed with and they didn't know what to do.
My chest hurts but it slowly fades as I forget why I was calling in the first place.
"How long have I've been sleeping?" I ask Ming. He studies me briefly before answering, "A few hours only, sir," he hesitates and then adds uncertainly, "You were saying something…strange, sir."
"What do you mean?" I don't really remember what I was dreaming about, except that I heard the voice again and I wanted to find it; called its name.
"I don't know, sir. It didn't sound like anything we know," replied Xu Yun. My men look frightened. This was not good. I turn to the cloaked man and demand to know what the hell is going on.
"I don't know for sure. I have heard stories that there are those who have caught the eye of some creature or deity and they are plagued by them until they surrender and go with them." I glare at him and his load of foolish talk. That was a rather convenient explanation. It also didn't help that some part of me was starting to believe all this talk about magic and things better left alone.
I drop the issue shortly after that and tell everyone to get some sleep. I knew we were going to need it for the rest of this damn journey.
!!
The sun was bright and the air was warm. It felt like heaven as we finally passed through the passage way from the other side. Here was a valley full of greens and blue skies. It was hard to think that such a rich place existed right on the other side of hell. Then again, what's love and hate but two sides of the same coin?
My men rejoice at the warmth and I let myself smile inwardly. I was glad to get out of that place. The last day there, yesterday, had been tense and draining. We could hear them, creatures of the unknown with dreadful howls. They stayed out of sight but their cries strained our ears and shook our courage. The entire time we could feel eyes on us.
But it was as if there was some blockade between them and us for they never did approach but rattled us with their howls instead.
The cloaked man walks ahead of us and starts running and waving his hand. There is a dense forest at the bottom of the valley. From the tree lining emerge men who had hidden in the foliage and branches.
I tense, I hadn't even seen them! My men's joy is cut short as I signal them to form up in case of any attack or threatening moves. The cloaked man finally removes his cloak and I see that his attire is the same as the men that had appeared from the trees.
Black pants with brown undershirts with white armor of some sort covering the chest area. Over each face was an animal mask with colored stripes. They carried weapons and blades on their backs. This was definitely something that neither my men nor I have ever seen before. Even at the edges of our land where the primitive races lived was anything close to this.
Our guide speaks to them in a foreign tongue. There is little talk from the one that he talks to except for one word and a nod.
"Come, they've been waiting," he calls back to us. The strange warriors move out in a loose circle and flank us. Wary, I lead my men toward our guide and the tense group moves on down toward the trees leading into the forest.
Inside the forest we are taken to a settlement with several layers ranging from the forest floor to the canopy of the tallest trees. The architecture of the village was amazing considering that these people had used their environment to their advantage. The houses were built among the trees and walkways made of wood and twine linked several houses together and then some. Some of my men openly gawk while others look all around with tense postures as we continue onward toward the largest building.
Villagers who appear to be dress more normally pause in their meanderings and return curious looks. Children stop and gape at our dress and ask their parents who we are. Several are even bold enough to approach within a few paces of my men.
The largest building appears to be in the middle of the village and of great importance I think as we near it. They usher us inside where the room is lit up by several glowing stones; of what origin, I did not know. I had never seen glowing stones such as these before. It takes me a moment to adjust to the blue glow of the stones.
I finally see a man sitting in the middle flanked on either side with other men and a few women. They were not dressed like the soldiers but from the more formal looking their clothes were they would be something akin to a ruling force here in the village.
The man in the middle speaks. His words are foreign to me but as he finishes our guide starts translating. He reiterates his leader's words of greeting and welcome after a long journey. I nod slowly, acknowledging the greeting; I shift from soldier mode to a diplomat. After all, my Emperor wanted something from this village and I would need to be tactful in order to get what I came here for.
Wufei…
Their leader speaks again but everything blurs. I try to focus but my vision is hazy.
Wufei... The commanding voice stirs me and I struggle briefly before I sense my body jerk and my eyes open. Trowa is kneeling beside me and he inquires silently with an eye.
I look around a bit wildly, suddenly remembering where I really was. That was strange.
Really strange.
I sat up trying to grasp the fading tendrils of my blurring dream. All I could remember was the need to get something and that haunting voice that kept calling me. I meet Trowa's gaze but I don't say anything. He doesn't ask, instead he stands up.
"Quatre's on his way. He should be here within the day." Trowa leaves the tent; as he opens the flap fire light streams in and I let out a sigh. It's not even dawn yet and I'm already awake. I must have made a commotion for him to wake me up like that. It's not like me to need him to look after me like this.
Even though I can't remember my dream, the after effects have caused havoc with my mind. My thoughts roam and dart around almost frantically. Unanswered questions float around with no way to go; no way to answer them. It frustrates me that I can't seem to solve the mystery of my thoughts. I don't even know what they are half of the time anymore and that's unusual.
I always know my thoughts.
Or at least I used to. What was happening to me?
End of part 3. Well, what do you think? Yeah I know I'm a huge Naruto fan as well. I couldn't help but use a slightly modified Konoha (and I might cross the two anime but there won't be any Sasuke or Naruto here…GW is the main thing). Anyway, like I said before, there's gonna be yaoi. Sorry to disappoint anyone, it is still a long ways away though. I gotta get the plot moving first. Crap, I always think of things I need to explain and then when I actually get to this part I forget what the heck I was going to say. Oh yeah, if these little things are messing with the almighty Wufei already, haha, he might not survive what fate (ahem, me) has in store for him! evil cackle Well, thanks for reading!