The Warriors of Gundania: Part 4: The Quest Begins
The five courageous young men known as the Warriors of Gundania rode through the wilderness, seaking the lost city of Gundania, which many have searched for, but none ever found.
"Aye, I say this must be a ghost city," Duo said, "I swear, I feel ghosts all around me, evil eyes are watching me." He laughed, "oh, it's just the ninja."
"Shut up!" Heero demanded, "or I'll kill you right now!"
"It was just a joke, laddy," Duo muttered defensively.
A wolf howled. {AN: Here's your werewolves, Greywolf!}
"What the hell is that?" Duo asked.
"Just a wolf," Trowa said, "let's keep moving."
"No, it's more than a wolf," Duo said, stopping his horse, "listen. It's not a wolf, ordinary wolves don't howl like that."
"Then what could it be?" Quatre asked shakily.
"It's a werewolf laddy," Duo whispered, "Shh, they can smell your fear through your blood."
"A werewolf?" Quatre looked at the sky and saw a full moon.
"Aye, but maybe it's just an Irish werewolf, ye don't have to worry about dem," Duo said, "Dey haarrrmless." (I'm trying to get the Scottish accent down!)
Just like he predicted, a werewolf lunged from out of nowhere and pushed Duo off his horse, scratching all over, "Ahh! It's a damn French werewolf." He tried to push the werewolf away, but without much success.
"Duo!" Quatre jumped from his horse, taking out his sickle sword and throwing it at the werewolf, only for it to be knocked out by another French werewolf. The nasty werewolf growled at Quatre and lunged at him.
"Do something!" Wufei cried, "they're going to tear them apart!" he jumped off his horse, swinging his sword.
"You're the animal expert, see what you can do," Heero said to Trowa.
"I-I, can't, they're half human and they're evil," Trowa grunted in disgust, reaching for an arrow. "But I know one way to get rid of them."
They heard two more howls, different than the first one. The two French werewolves looked up and two Irish werewolves that are good advanced to the French ones. One pushed them away, snarling as another stood over Duo in a protective manner.
"Just lie still," the kind Irish werewolf said to Duo.
"I'll do whatever ye want," Duo said, holding his breath, "just don't slobber on me."
After a bloody fight, the two French werewolves were dead. The Irish werewolves licked Quatre's and Duo's wounds and left. {I don't think that werewolves have healing powers, but in this fic, they do!}
"You all right?" Trowa asked a shocked Quatre, helping him to his feet.
Quatre nodded in confusion, "I think…so…"
Duo pulled himself up on his horse. "I hope that never happens again," Duo muttered.
"Perhaps we should find a place to rest," Wufei said.
"I'll agree to dat," Duo agreed with a laugh.
The warriors rode into an open meadow near the sea to set up camp. Trowa and Wufei caught fish and they cooked them to eat while deciding where else to go.
"I say we should go south," Quatre said.
"No, north," Wufei disagreed.
"No, east," Duo aruged.
"It's west," Heero muttered.
"Well, which way did the others keep going?" Trowa asked, "we don't want to repeat their mistakes."
"The people before us? I don't know, I doubt if anyone does," Wufei said, pulling the bones away from his fish.
"Wait," Quatre said, reaching to his magic lamp, "I know someone who might know," he took his lamp off the loop on his hip and began rubbing the side of it and a jinni (Dr. H, incase you've forgotten from part I, don't you think the guy looks like a jinni) appeared.
"Your wish is my command, Master Quatre," the Jinni said.
"I wish to know the directions the other people went in search of the city of Gundania," Quatre asked. "Which way did they go from here?"
"They were never here," the Jinni said, unable to give Quatre his wish, "they never came close."
"From the Sank Kingdom then."
"That's why they never found it" the Jinni stated, they were not worthy to even go to the Sank Kingdom. They just went on the search on their own and they went around in circles."
"Tell us Jinni," Quatre pleaded, "we wish to know which way to go. How do we find the Lost City of Gundania?"
"The City lies within your own hearts, follow the path along this shore, to were the trees glow like the sun. This journey is dangerous, many evil and terrible creatures wait to prey on your soul, but some will help you on your way. Keep going till your heart tells you to stop. You will know the city when you find it, the city is your home. You will find five large and powerful statues made out of the most indestructible thing in the world." The Jinni began to fade away.
"Jinni, is there anything more that you can tell us?" Quatre asked, trying his best to get every single detail.
"You five are the chosen ones," Jinni said, "and if your hearts are one, you will find the city without question. Remember, the city lies within your own hearts." Then the Jinni went back into his lamp.
"Well, that was as clear as mud," Duo grumbled, "glowing trees, five powerful statues, evil creatures? Bah! It told us nothing."
They all retired to their sleeping bags and laid out under the stars, still unable to sleep because they were thinking about what the Jinni said.
"Perhaps," Trowa said with a yawn, "if we go to sleep, maybe we'll see the city in our dreams."
"If it is our home, then we should be able to remember it," Wufei whispered, his hands behind his head, he closed his eyes, "I bet it's the most beautiful place on Earth. Even more so than China."
"And Spain," Trowa said, closing his eyes.
The others closed their eyes, trying to visualize what the city must be like.
"And Arabia," Quatre said with a smile.
"And Scotland," Duo breathed.
"And Japan," Heero whispered, "Gundania must be the most beautiful place, even more beautiful than the Sank Kingdom."
The warriors sighed, turned on their sides and fell asleep and indeed, dreamed of the city of Gundania. It was beautiful, beautiful than their countries or the Sank Kingdom. It was green and lush. It was a place of peace and freedom and luxury. They were all there, riding horse back, laughing in the fields as if they were long lost friends. People from the Sank Kingdom were there too, happy to see them. Everyone was happy and full of life. It was a paradise for the warriors and they all smiled in their sleep.
Morning came, awakening Trowa. He yawned, stretched and got out, careful not to awake the others. He looked at his fellow warriors. They all had a blissful expression on their faces, as if they were in a paradise. "They must have had the same dream," Trowa whispered. He picked up his dagger and walked to the ocean. Settling down at a tree trunk, he looked over the ocean. It was indeed beautiful. He picked up a stick and began carving it with his dagger, making a wooden flute. He looked at the ocean again. He couldn't resist the sparkling waters anymore, he had to take a swim, so he dropped his unfinished wooden flute, placed his dagger in the sheath on his thigh band, walked into the water and threw his shirt on the shore, revealing a fine muscular chest and a four pack of strong abdominal muscles. His arms were muscular also (he is the HEAVYARMS pilot, after all! He's also the oldest.), as if he'd been carrying rocks about as big as he.
He withdrew a deep breath and swam into the sparkling waters. It was surprisingly warm. He dove deeper, as if he was searching for sunken treasure. He smiled underwater, looking at the coral, the rocks, the marine life. He swam to a school of fish and began tickling them, suddenly, the fish scattered. Then Trowa screamed underwater when he saw a great white shark swimming right toward him, opening a mouth of razor sharp teeth.
Because he had no chance of communicating with it, Trowa had to fight it. He reached for his dagger and swam toward the shark and held the dagger over his head, his hand around the handle loosely. Remembering everything he learned from Catherine, he threw the dagger at the shark, but he had no advantage in the water. He was in the shark's territory and the dagger missed the shark nearly an inch. Trowa's only chance was to swim for it. The shark already being just five feet away from him, Trowa began swimming for the surface. He dared not look down, because he had already seen the monsters teeth and he knew they were sharp enough to tear him apart. He had dove pretty far in the water, at least ten or twelve feet and he was swimming too fast, he was running out of air and the pressure was too much. {AN: Those of you who haven't seen Baywatch or Jaws or other water movies, that's what happens when you swim to the surface too fast, it messes you up, just thought I'd let you know. J } As he almost reached the surface, he felt the shark's mouth about to clamp on his leg when a group of dolphins and mermaids pushed the shark away.
Trowa was surprised to see an actual mermaid that he passed out in the water, partly from the lack of air. He began sinking to the ocean floor. A mermaid with black hair and a golden tail swam to him and she grabbed hold of his wrist, pulled him up and placed her mouth over his, giving him air.
The dolphins swam around the shark, hitting its sides with their strong noses. The shark had enough and swam away, in search of something else for its meal. The mermaid brought him to the surface, her arm around his chest and she side stroked to the shore and laid him down. She slapped his face, trying to bring him around.
"Human, are you all right?" she said with a sing-song voice.
"Ughh, where am I?" he groaned. He blinked when he saw her, "a mermaid!" He sat up, then groaned again as he grabbed his head.
"Careful, you came up too fast," she said. "You'll be all right." She leaned forward, her hair falling over her breasts {AN: I don't mean this to be hentai, but in mythology, mermaids really don't wear seashell bras and stuff. They weren't ashamed of their bodies and they liked being natural}.
"Trowa!" Quatre's voice came from the woods, "where are you?"
Trowa turned around to shout back into the woods, "I found a…" he turned around to see the mermaid swimming away. "Hey wait!" he stood up, grunting, "we're not going to hurt you!" he stepped forward and he felt something smooth underneath his foot. "What?" he picked his foot up and looked down to see his dagger. The other mermaids, three of them were waving and then they descended to the water.
The other's reached him, "Trowa, what are you doing here?" Heero demanded.
"Going out for a swim, laddy?" Duo asked, looking at the ocean.
"I was attacked by a shark and then," he looked back at the ocean to see the mermaids gone, "these dolphins and mermaids saved me."
Duo pulled his head back and laughed, "Geeeet real!"
"Mermaids?" Wufei mumbled.
"It's true, mermaids, one brought gave me air," he walked into the waters until it came up to his knees, "and she brought me to the shore. She had black hair. She was…the most beautiful creature I've ever seen." He held up his dagger, "and she gave me my dagger back, I dropped it in the water."
Duo looked at Heero, "can you believe this guy?"
"Yes," Heero muttered, "I've always thought they'd be real."
"The jinni said we'll see creatures that will help us," Quatre said, "Trowa must be telling the truth."
"It is true!" Trowa cried, "why else will I be wet and aughh," he grabbed his head, "in pain, my head."
Quatre grabbed his arms, "whoa, careful, you must have been swimming to the surface way too fast."
"The shark almost made me his breakfast."
"If what the Jinni said is true and if Trowa really did see a mermaid," Duo muttered, rubbing his chin, "then we're going to see a lot creatures, like unicorns."
"And dragons," Wufei said.
"And centaurs," Quatre added.
"Then why are we standing here for?" Heero grumbled, "let's get going."
"Wait a minute, Heero," Trowa groaned, "when I woke up, I saw smiles on all your faces. I was dreaming about the City of Gundania, is that what you were dreaming about?"
"Yes, I dreamed we were riding horses," Quatre said.
"And everything was so green and lush," Heero added, "it was so beautiful."
"Me too," Duo mumbled, "Blimey, we all had the same damn dream!"
"I guess it is true then," Wufei said with a smile, "what the jinni said, we will know what the city looks like when we find it."
"Then let's find it!" Quatre yelled, putting his hand in the center and the other four put their hands on top of his and they bobbed it up and down as they all agreed to find it.
"Gundania, here we come!" Duo said.
They set off for the journey again and it wasn't long until another obstacle got in their way. A giant snake was in their path was sliding up to them, opening its mouth to reveal 2 sharp fangs filled with enough venom to kill thousands of men or to kill a horse in one bite.
Trowa reached in his quiver of arrows, grabbed one and fired it at the snake's neck. Quatre threw a number of lightning bolts at it as Duo jumped up and sliced its head off.
"Well, I say we're making progress," Duo said, leaning on his scythe.
"By Allah, look!" Quatre shouted, pointing forward, "it's the trees that glow!"
Even in broad day light, they saw trees that seemed to be glowing. They walked toward to see that it was the sun shining on them, but they supposed that even in the dark they glowed. The sun must give it power to glow in the dark.
They began galloping through the trees that glow, laughing, hooting and hollering. "We're almost home, home to Gundania!" Wufei cried.
"Home lads, did you hear that?" Duo called, "Home!"
A bear in the woods roared at them, in its effort to tell them to back away. It began walking toward them, snorting loudly.
"Get out of our way!" Duo demanded, swinging his scythe, "or I'll make a coat out of your damn fur!"
"Duo no!" Trowa shouted, "wait! Don't harm it!" Trowa dismounted, ran up and stood in front of the angry bear. He crouched down and looked at the bear, as if he was talking to it with his eyes. The bear kept snarling and growling, but Trowa stayed still. The bear inched closer to Trowa, its grunts and growls becoming softer. He began sniffing Trowa and then he licked his face and fell down in front of him. Trowa leaned over and began rubbing it, "good bear," he said.
The bear gave pleasant, joyful sounds as Trowa rubbed its belly. He stopped and then the bear got up, licked each warrior and went on its own way.
"See, you need to know how to talk with animals," Trowa said.
"Then would you mind trying to talk with that?!" Duo shouted, pointing to a large black and red evil dragon, snorting smoke and fire. Its wings were the size of castles, its claws and teeth the size of a man's legs. The dragon was past the trees that glow and into a burnt up valley.
Trowa backed up, "good god! It's a dragon!"
"Never seen a dragon like that before," Wufei shouted in fear and in confusion, "the dragons in China were good and they meant good luck."
"Then you try communicating with it!" Trowa cried.
"Not with this dragon!" Wufei argued.
"The dragons around here aren't as nice," Duo groaned, "I say let's kill this bloody giant lizard! Yeeyah!" he kicked his heels into his horses sides and began riding toward the dragon.
"He can't handle this dragon on his own," Quatre cried, "come on!"
The dragon waited for them to come to him and an evil grin came upon its face. It sat in the middle of the burnt valley like the way cats sit in peoples laps. When they came close enough, he came off its feet and began breathing fire at them.
"Whoa!" Duo turned his horse away to dodge the fire.
"Duo, look out!" Quatre warned, riding up to him, "time to fight fire with fire!"
"I guess that's the real reason why the trees glow, it's the dragon," Wufei whispered.
They dismounted their steeds, knowing that their horses were afraid of fire and they'd have a much better chance on the ground to use their weapons without harming the horses.
Quatre took out his sickle swords and threw them at the dragon, piercing his belly.
Trowa fired a number of arrows at him, but the dragon's body was armored with tough scales.
Duo sliced its legs as Heero threw his ninja starts at the dragon and stabbed his swords into the tough armored body. "It's no use!" Heero grunted, "it's too strong!"
"Weaklings!" Wufei shouted, "we cant' give up now!" he sliced his sword across the body and the dragon breathed fire at them again. They dodged it in time, but their skin still singed. Because Wufei was the only one in armor, he didn't get burned as much.
Quatre raised his hand, his blue eyes began to glow brighter and he chanted some words in Arabian. As Quatre said this, his hand began glowing the same as his eyes, the sand around him began swirling. An invisible force shield protected he and his friends. Then he held both hands forward, sending sand toward the dragon. The dragon started to become stone, and it took a lot of Quatre because he never did anything like it before. From snout to tip of the tail, the dragon was nothing but a giant statue. With his last ounce of strength, Quatre crushed the statue with a shot of lightning and it was dust on the ground. Quatre fell to his knees, holding his sore hand as the wind blew the dust away.
"Quatre, I didn't know you could do that!" Duo shouted.
"Neither did I," he mumbled, "I don't think I can use my magic again for a while."
"Took a lot out of you, didn't it?" Trowa said, putting his arm around his neck.
"At least the dragon is gone," Heero said.
They started walking again when Heero heard a noise, "do you hear that?" Heero asked the others.
They shook their heads, "Must be hearing things, laddy." Duo said.
Heero listened carefully, it sounded like an animal in trouble. "I'll be right back," he said. Then got on his horse and went to the sound. It sounded like a horse neighing and whining. As he came closer, he almost screamed in surprise when he saw a real life unicorn. The unicorn was trapped. A rope was tied around it's neck and the other end was tied to a tree. Somebody, whoever it was, somebody evil and cruel, tied the poor creature to the tree, probably so they could sell it.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Heero said, getting off his horse. The unicorn reared up and kicked his front legs. "Shhh, shh, I'm not going to hurt you," he walked up toward it, stroking its face, trying to calm the creature down. Then he rubbed its face and smiled at the unicorn. He took out his sword and began to cut the rope.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" a voice said.
Heero looked up to see an ugly man, perhaps a troll or ogre standing in the trees. "Setting this creature free."
"Is that your horse?" he asked, pointing at it.
"Yes."
"If you let my unicorn go, I'll eat your horse."
"It's not your unicorn. Unicorns don't belong to anyone." He cut rope away from the unicorn's neck.
As the troll came forward, the unicorn pierced troll through the heart shook his head widely and pushed him away with its hoof. Then it went to Heero and he pet his head. "Thank you, friend." From the unicorn's horn, a silver ring formed. Heero took it and put it on his finger. "Go now, you're free."
"Heero, where are you?" Duo shouted.
Heero turned around to announce where he was, "Over here, I just found a…" he heard the unicorn run away, "hey, wait, we're not going to hurt you!" he groaned, "now how are they going to believe me?"
"What happened?" Quatre asked.
"I found a unicorn, it was tied up. A troll tied it up." He explained, "it's true!"
Trowa looked at the dead troll, "at least you have evidence."
"And the unicorn gave me this!" he held up his hand, revealing the ring.
"Unbelievable, I will have to see it to believe it." Duo muttered, crossing his arms.
Suddenly, while they were talking, a large band of centaurs, fairies, unicorns and other mythical creatures, ran by them. Mermaids were jumping out of the water and waving, dryads waved to them. They looked out in awe.
"Well, Duo," Trowa said, "now you have!"
End
Now that they've seen mythical creatures, will they be able to find the Lost City of Gundania? Find out in the conclusion of The Warriors of Gundania: Part 5: Home Free!