Wildmage Duo
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:~: ONE :~:
Boy with a horse
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Author: Ash-chan
Part: 1/?
Parings: none so far 3x4 later…maybe 1+2 or maybe 2+5 don't know yet.
Warnings: OCCness abound but that's OK because it's AU, fusion with The
Immortals book series, yoia and lemony goodness in later parts and Relina
basing not a story for Relina lovers. *insert evil, maniacal laughter here*
Disclaimers: I don't own the G'boys *curls up in to fetal passion and cries* but I
can mass with them right? *sobs*
Notes: //blah// = thoughts
"blah" = speech
~blah~ = mind-speech
Author Rabble
Ash-chan: Ok here is where the fic really gets started with more dialogue and
stuff like that… ummm guess that's it… oh well to the fic!!
Duo: well that was short…
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Each year, at the end of March, a great fair was held in Cri'a, the capital
of Galla. Like thousands of others in the Eastern Lands, Quatre Rabrba went
there to do business: buying ponies, in his case. This year he had another transaction to make and was having no luck with it. By the end of his fifth day at
the fair, it seemed he would never find the assistant he required. The prospect of taking his animals south, with no one to help, was an unpleasant one. //Horse
Lords help me// he prayed.
"Excuse me—Trader Quatre?" The speaker was a boy shy looking, and
country bred. "I heard you was lookin' to hirin' someone, I'm"—he paused, then
went on—"a fair hand with animals, all kinds." He waited as Quatre looked him
over: a boy in lose fitting tan colored trousers, a ill-fitting black shirt covers his
linth frame, under a travel stained cloak that just fell short of boots. Long
chestnut hair was woven in to a braid that reached his waist. His eyes were a
brilliant violet color and set in a hart shaped face; his chin was entirely stubborn.
A quiver filled with long arrows hung on his back, a bow rested in his hand,
unstrung.
"Is that yours?" Quatre asked, pointing.
Violet eyes flashed. "I'd not have the nerve to carry it otherwise."
"Humph. String it," the boy hesitate for a moment. "Just what I thought,"
Quatre jibed. "Who did you steal it from?"
Those violet eyes flashed with anger as well as some amusement as the
boy brought a coiled string out of his belt peruse. With apparent ease he fitted it to one end of the bow and set it against his foot. Raising the free end of the
string, he brought the other end of the bow down, hooking them together
neatly. The bow strung and in his grip, he turned sideways to it, caught the
string in two fingers, and drew it back to his ear in a smooth, practiced gesture.
Now Quatre could see he wore an archer's wrist-and-arm-guards.
"I'd put an arrow up," the boy said, gently releasing the string, "but I'd hit
someone, surely," he said with a half smile.
Quatre smiled in return. "I'm impressed. I can't draw a bow that big."
The boy took the string off the bow, coiled it and put it away. "Nor could
I, at first. I keep this one limber or I still couldn't draw it," he said with some
amusement.
"Crossbow?" The question was out before Quatre remembered, //I don't
want to hire him—I want to send him home to his mama. He's a runaway for
sure. //
"Yes. We have—" something flickered in his eyes. He looked down. "We
had bandits at home. I stood watch with the sheep, so I learned crossbow and
longbow. Also sling and knife throwing and fighting," a half smile appeared, "not
that I'm bragging."
// We had, // Quatre thought. // Did he change it 'cause he wants me to
think he's been gone from home a while? Or hasn't he got a home? //
Something looked over the boy's head, inspecting Quatre with large
brown eyes. It was a shaggy mountain horse, a black and white colored mare.
She was well cared for and would bare two or three packs easily.
"Yours?" The boy nodded. "How much would you ask for her?" Quatre
motioned to a pen filled with a mix of ponies and a few young horses at his back.
"I'm in the market."
"I can't sell Shini. She's family—all the family I got." Again Quatre saw a
flash of sorrow and pain that was pushed aside.
"What's your name?" Quatre stuck his fingers into a pouch filled with a
powder known as 'eyebright'.
"Duo, sir," came the reply. "Duoanaisis Sallysire."
The eyebright made his fingers tingle when Quatre called on his magical
Gift. "How old are you, Duo?"
"Fifteen goin' on sixteen next midwinter," said Duo. There wasn't any flare
in the red aura that only Quatre could see so it wasn't a lie.
"Where are you from?"
"Snowsdale, up north. About one weeks ride."
The red aura flared around the boy's face. The lie was a good one //he
must of practiced on the road,// the trader thought wryly, but a lie never the less.
Quatre sighed. "Are you a run away? From home, or a bad master—"
"No sir." Duo bit his lower lip. "I got no family left—just Shini."
No red fire this time. Quatre dusted the powder from his hand. "I'm
Quatre Rabrba, of the K'miri Winner clan."
Duo looked puzzled. "The k-k—the what?"
"The K'miri are a people to the east. Winner is the name of one of the
K'miri clans." Duo only looked slightly less puzzled. "Never mind. You say that
you're good with animals. C'mere." He led Duo to his pen. Inside, twenty-seven
shaggy ponies and hoarse in all colors and sizes milled around.
"I buy horses and ponies. I had an assistant, but she got offered a better
job working for a hose merchant here, and I wasn't about to hold her back. If
you hire on—and I didn't say I'd hire you—you'll help me take these guys south.
It's bout three weeks' drive—if we don't bog down in mud, if we aren't hit by
raiders, and if we go before all of these people take to the road to the next fair.
It'll be just you and me, and my dog, Rashid. Why don't you climb in and look
'em over? I want to see how you manage 'em."
Duo glanced back at his mare, Shini. "Stay her and no biting," he ordered
sternly, wile clamoring over the fence and into the pen.
//Poor lad must have been alone a long time, to be talking to the mart as
if she would talk back,// thought Quatre. He sat on the rail of the fence to watch.
The ponies watched as Duo passed among them. Ears went back, those
closest to him appeared to wonder which would be better: a bite or a kick.
When a black stallion, the king of the small heard, stalked up behind him,
the boy spun and put both hands under his muzzle, lifting his head to stare in to
his eyes. "No sir," he told the stallion firmly. "I'll not stand for no tricks. I may be
human but I'm not stupid." The stallion tried to rear. Duo forced him down, then
blew gently in his nostrils, to teach him his scent. The stallion shuffled, then
fidgeted—then bowed his head in submission.
//Horse Lords,// Quatre thought in amazement. //He's established
domination over him and the entire herd!//
In years of managing horses, he'd never seen the like. This particular
breed was famous for its fiery nature, one reason he bought them for his
employers. He had achieved peace—of a kind—with them using his wits, his
strength, and bribes. All horsefolk handled their animals that way. Only this boy
was different: Duo treated the stallion as if he were a horse himself, and a
dominant one at that.
//He isn't lying about his folks, running away or his age—just about where
he use to live. If I let him go, he might get into trouble. There are to many
predators—animal and human—around looking for a young body like this one.
The road isn't too safe—but what is?// Quatre thought to himself.
He watched the boy moving among the horses running his hands over
each and everyone. He was giving each a bit of apple or sugar form his pockets.
Quatre was glad to see that he could deal with animals in the normal way. One
display like with the stallion was more that enough.
"D'you ride?" Quatre asked.
Duo came over to the fence. "Some. Mostly bareback, but I can use a
saddle, and I know how to look after my tack."
"What about hunting, fishing, and tracking?"
A grin lit Duo's face. "I do all that—had to, to get this far. I couldn't trust
folks on the road. Some looked like—bandits."
As Duo climbed back over the rail, the hunted look was back in his eyes;
grief, sorrow, and anger too Quatre decided. "Tired of them all ready?" he asked.
Duo shook his head. "I'm just getting an oil I have and a swab. That big
strawberry has eremites. They're not too bad right now—if I get to em' now he
won't spread them to the rest of the herd." He went over to his black and white
mare, who was plainly sulking, and opened one of his packs.
"How do you know you can trust me?" asked Quatre.
Duo shrugged and said with a smirk, "I don't. How do you know you can
trust me?"
"Was that a joke?" Quatre's voice was stern, but his eyes were laughing.
His last two assistants had had no sense of humor what so ever.
Duo gave him a quick smile and climbed back over the fence, a clay bottle
and swabs in hand. Quatre watched, amazed as the strawberry gelding trotted
up to the boy. If someone had said that morning he'd see one of his charges
willingly submit to an ear cleaning, he would have laughed himself sick.
//I shouldn't do it. He's still young and there's all those rumors—no smoke
without fire. Still my magic will keep us safe at night, and he can defend
himself…// "Duo!" he called.
When Duo had finished the gelding's ear's he came over. "Yes?"
"I'll tell you right now—I've heard a lot of weird stories lately, about
monster in the wild attacking travelers. Things out of legend, so folk say. I
haven't seen any myself, but that doesn't mean I won't. Are you sure you
want to hire on?"
Duo shrugged. "I hear tales. I need the work, sir. If I see monsters, I see monsters. My family was murdered and my hone burned by human ones."
"All right, here's the job," said the K'miri. "You, me, and my dog take the herd south, like I said. I have the Gift, and I can shield out camp at night. It's two coppers a day, two silver nobles as a bonus at the end. I pay all expenses, and we share chores. No drinking, no drugs. If you leave me on the trail, you'll wish you died as a child." Duo snickered. "At the end of the road— we'll see. We're bound for the capital of Tortall—"
Duo's face lit up. "Where a lady knight is the King's Champion, right? And they let girls in the army? That Tortall?"
"You heard those stories too," the K'miri said, "Well, they don't let girls in the regular army, mind—just the Queen's Riders. Why— have you a fancy to court a soldier girl?" Quatra asked in amusement.
Duo shook his head, "No, not me. My younger sister Hilda…" Duo trailed off, than took a deep breath and continued. Hilda was always talking about Tortall. Sh…she wanted to protect people that couldn't protect themselves."
//Sadness rolls off this poor boy in waves; this wound must still be new to his heart// Quatra thought to himself. "She must have been a good person," said Quatra simply.
"She was," Duo whispered somewhat brokenly. They were quiet for a time but the silence was an understanding one not an uncomfortable one at all.
"When we get to Tortall if we don't get on, I'll make sure you have some kind of work. I won't leave you stranded. Sound fair?" Quatra continued.
Duo nodded vigorously. "Yes, Master Quatra."
Quatra offered a callused hand. "Than shake on it. And stop calling me 'Master'. My names Quatra."
Duo returned the man's firm grip. "Quatra Rabbar, of the K'miri Winner," he said. "I remember."
Quatra smiled. "Very good. Now, will your Shini mix in with the others?"
"No reason not to." Duo removed his packs and saddle from Shini's back.
"Stow your things with mine." Quatra pointed to a canvass-covered mound in one corner. "They'll be safe—these horses are better than guard dogs."
Duo ushered Shini into the pen and stored his packs with Quatra's. He finished n time to stop Shini from biting the yellow stallion, and then from kicking a blood-bay mare. "You behave," he ordered his horse. "I mean it."
Shini flicked an ear back, and lifted a hind foot experimentally. Duo stood on tiptoe and whispered in her ear. The mare snorted, then stood on all fours looking as innocent as a summer sky.
"What did you tell her?" Quatra asked, letting the boy out of the pen.
"I said I'd sell her to the man that makes dumplings down the way."
Quatra chuckled. "That's the threat that my mother used to use on me. Look—I want you to meet my dog, Rashese." He put his fingers to his lips and whistled two short notes.
Across the pen that held the horses and ponies there was movement as a large dog surged over the fence and raced through the herd. Dodging kicks and bites that were aimed at it with practiced ease. The dog leapt over the fence again and came to rest at its master's feet.
"This is Rashese. My wolfhound," Quatra said as he put his hand on Rashese's head, scratching behind his ears.
Ash: that took longer than I thought.
Duo: well if you hadn't lost the disk it wouldn't have.
Ash: that was not my fault
Duo: oh really that who's was it?
Ash: Murphy's
Duo: right… any way's a big thanks goes out to: Starstorm, Shinigami-chan, tsukii-chan, Sabrina, Nightwings, shadowdragon, and Andrew Joshua Talon.
Ash: yah thanx for the reviews!!! I hope to get this fic out faster now that I have my disk again!
Duo: well they can always hope…