What if Myth
By Prinder
Disclaimer: I do not own gundam wing or any of its characters. I also do not own Felina or Jasmine they were so gratefully lent to me by my dear role-playing friend Ashley.
Claimer: I DO own Fiora and JinChi, so please don't use them unless you ask me first. Thank you!
Keys:
"…" Denotes Speech
'…' Denotes Thought
(Notes from me)
Chapter 10
"Ugh! It smells! Where did you get this… this…THING? It wreaks like a urine pot that hasn't been touched in a week!" Wong exclaimed as she pinched her nose and held the bit of cloth that was the source of the offending odor (Urine pots were things that people had inside the house for when they had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, they usually emptied them in the morning to get rid of the stink).
"… Believe me when I tell you that you don't wanna know" Fiora replied with a snicker.
"Is this absolutely necessary Lady Fiora?" Relena asked as she held her ratty skirt and apron away from her legs gently, not being used to not wearing hoops under it.
"Okay, first of all, don't call me a lady, cause I'm not. Secondly, it's all part of the disguise! Who in their right mind would believe that two princesses and a high lady would walk around looking and smelling like gutter trash?" Fiora laughed.
"But Fiora, you aren't dressed like us at the moment, and don't smell in anyway as foul as this, as far as I can tell. So if you can get along, then why can't we?" Jasmine asked, slightly concerned.
"Cause I'm dressed as a MAN! I didn't think that you would want to be dressed like me. So I came up with the next best thing! And jeez! Could ya BE any louder? Or do you want to wake up the whole castle?" she replied, slightly annoyed that they were stalling so mush.
"Humph! It would almost be better it we did, just so long as I don't feel like I'm going to be ill with the scent of this thing under my nose for who knows how long!" Wong hissed.
"Oh is that so? You think you can pull it off huh? Okay, ya'll hang around here for a while longer while I get your new outfits ready" Fiora said with a slightly triumphant smirk as she turned on her heels and rushed out of the room.
"…We've been had, haven't we?" Relena asked to no one in particular.
The other two could only nod in reply.
*****
"…Do you really think this is a good idea Milliardo?" a man's voice asked by the firelight, his shadow cast across the room.
"I don't see any reason why it wouldn't" came Milliardo's reply.
Fiora was tiptoeing through the shadows just outside the room when she overheard what the two men were saying she stopped to listen in.
"You're taking quite a risk sending all of them, when only just today you discovered that you have enemies, dangerous ones at that. Even with all of your men fighting, you know wouldn't have won had those kids not been there," the man said calmly.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?" Milliardo shouted, followed by the squeaking/scraping noise of his chair being moved, possibly to stand up. Milliardo signed, "You think I don't know that? That we would have surely lost if they weren't there today? I won't even dare to think of what would have happened to my beloved sister and my wife had I been killed. Traize, do you have any idea at all on who it could be that sent the attack?"
"Not a one. But Milliardo, what makes you so sure it's safe to send them all off, from what I've seen, the dryads can take care of themselves, without the aid of humans"
"There is something about those young warriors that I'm not seeing, something that no one can explain. What worries me most is that my little sister is falling in love with that dryad boy, and everyone knows that it would never work, not only is she a princess, and therefore will end up being bound to a pre-decided marriage, but it is rumored to be that a dryad cannot survive for long out in the human world once it has run out of magic"
"Getting a little over protective of her are you Zechs?"
"Don't call me that here, that is the name of a murderer"
"You know as well as I do that you can hide the truth from others, but you can't hide it from yourself Milliardo, the price you paid for revenge is costing you more then you would ever admit"
"Unlike you, I must rule a pacifist nation, Traize, how do you think the people would react if they knew?"
"Most likely there would be fear, possibly some of them might try to overthrow you. But Milliardo, you know just as well as I do that you hate being king, so why is it that you…"
Fiora, deciding that there wasn't anything else worth listening to, moved on.
"…Do you think that she'll say anything?" Milliardo asked suddenly.
"That all will depend on what she heard, and what her true intentions are" Traize replied.
"Hum… I've granted her safety here, I don't think that she would be so foolish as to risk me taking that away"
"Is she really as Wufei said?"
"As far as I can tell, yes… which leads me to wonder, why is she up and about at this hour?"
"The same could be asked of yourself"
"I know that, perhaps it has more to with the 'what' then the 'why'"
"I don't get it, what would she be doing at this time of night? …Or should I say, morning" Traize said, motioning at the window, the sun was just starting to peak from behind the mountains in the east.
"Not would, could is more like it. What could she be doing?"
"It doesn't matter, we most likely will never find out until it's too late, she's probably going to take a different rout back to where ever she came from and avoid us completely"
Milliardo nodded in agreement, half listening, half not as he watched the sunrise and a new day begin.
*****
"Now guys, remember, you have to say perfectly quiet, no matter what, okay?" Fiora said, now that they were all changed into mans garments.
"Easier said then done, you aren't the one that they will be tossing around like a rag doll" Relena commented as Fiora tided her sack shut and set her on the bandwagon with the others.
"Just relax! I'll pick you up just as soon as they finish dumping the rest of the junk and we'll get going" Fiora said a little too calmly for their tastes.
"… This had better work Fiora, or I'll…" Wong was cut off.
"Oh don't worry! It'll work! Don't you trust me?"
"NO!" all of them shouted at once, they had heard nothing but that the whole time she had been helping them and they were getting fed up with it.
"Okay! Okay! I can take a hint! Jeez!" Fiora laughed as she loaded the last one on the bandwagon and walked over to the guy that would be manning the horses and said, "Okay Mac! It's all ready, so and be sure to hit a few more bumps along the way then usual, I think some of that stuff is starting to grow!"
"Sure thing boss! Giddy up!" he shouted to his horses as he galloped off, unknowingly, taking two princesses and the ambassador with him.
Fiora snickered loudly to herself as she saddled up her horse, grabbed a rope that was tied to the reins to four other horses, and followed them not far behind. And with a mischievous glint in her eyes, thought, 'Let the games begin'
*****
"Is everyone ready to go?" Quatre asked as he swung one of his legs over the saddle upon his horse and hooked it in the stirrup on the other side.
"Wee! Look Heero, we get to ride like around like humans do!" Felina said joyfully, bouncing lightly on her saddle, shaking the reins slightly as she did so.
"Hn" Heero, clearly, wasn't as impressed as his cousin.
"I'm ready" Trowa said, being the only one to answer Quatre's question. Wufei pretended to be ignoring everything as he waited impatiently for the others in front of the drawbridge.
"Be careful, all of you. No unnecessary risks, okay? And that goes double for you Trowa!" Catherine scalded him playfully.
"We will Lady Catherine, I'm just surprised that you were the only one to see us off, I felt for sure that at least Jasmine would have come down to see us go" Quatre said reassuringly.
"I know, it's so weird, nobody has even seen any of them get up this morning. I can't say that I don't blame them, after the attack and what with being stuffed into that tiny secret room. They must be going through a great deal of shock at the moment" Cathy murmured softly, almost thinking aloud rather then speaking to the others.
Wufei snorted. "Weakling females…" he muttered.
Cathy suppressed a glare at him before turning to the others and once again bidding her goodbyes before watching them head off into the great unknown.
"…How far away is…where ever is it that you need to get to?" Quatre asked as they road along at a comfortable pace.
"Oh it's not far! It shouldn't take us more then a day, two days at most" Felina replied.
"When we get there, I want you all to stay away, the entrance is well hidden by magic and is most likely dangerous to humans. I have seen some that have stumbled upon it and drop dead upon touching the gateway," Heero explained.
"Humph, foolish trickery" Wufei remarked.
"Why keep it so well hidden?" Quatre asked.
"Have you seen how most Humans treat we fairies? All they ever do is try to find the fastest way to catch us and lock us away! Heero was caught when he was little once and…" Felina stopped when she saw the warning glare that Heero sent her way.
"And?" Trowa prompted.
"I can't say, sorry" Felina replied quickly.
"It just seems so unfair that our two worlds, which seem so much alike, must live isolated from each other!" Quatre cried.
Felina nodded in agreement. "I like it here, the human world might not have fairy dust and enchanted symbols, but there is a magic like no other out here, somewhere! That's why Heero and I aren't still in the fairy mound. I want so see your human magic someday," Felina said as her eyes took on a dreamy like haze.
"Nonsense! There is no such thing!" Wufei barked.
"Yes there is, I've seen it, I know it's here, you are forgetting about the wizards and sorcerers of your world, healers also carry with them a lesser form of human magic" Heero replied calmly, though, one couldn't fail to notice his glaring at the Chinese man.
"Ha! Tricksters and conmen! The whole lot of them!" Wufei growled back.
"Why are you looking for this 'human magic'?" Quatre asked politely.
"There is a legend that here, among humans, lie children, children born of a gift that they themselves don't know about. We want to find them and that is why we're looking" Felina replied.
"How will you know weather you've found them or not?" Trowa asked.
"Because we are also part of the legend. Twin cousins, born in the moor of fairy blood fair, but of no parents are gifted to. Destined to meet of human eight, noble, humble, kindred, kind. Three of Kings blood, one with a nameless face, one an earth bound demon, another a curse to the human race, two from the land of the sunrise. All shall these be keepers of the gates into Mystic, the land of the forgotten isles" Heero recited the fairy legend, stumping everyone with it's riddle-like quality, fairies had a knack for making the best riddles to keep humans from learning their secrets if they, by chance, stumbled upon a fairy book of texts.
"How do you know that it's you that it's talking about?" Wufei asked.
"Cause we look almost exactly alike and there is a strange mystery of our birth, we weren't born like most, it was like we just simply WERE one day… we were taken in by our king and he raised us as his own, but know one, fairy and human alike, knows how we came to be. It's one of the fairies greatest riddles!" Felina chimed in.
It wasn't until Trowa looked up into the sky that everyone realized just how quickly the time had passed.
"Lets set up camp here tonight, we'll continue on our journey early tomorrow" Quatre said with a nod as he dismounted his horse, tied it to a nearby tree, and set out to gather some firewood while the others got the rest of the camp ready for the night.
*****
"Hang on! HANG ON! One moment! JEEZ! You'd think that you guys have been in these things for months with the way you're all squirming!" Fiora said, trying to avoid arms and legs that were flying all over inside the sacks as she tried to cut the ropes that held the sacks shut without shish ka bobbing the subjects inside.
"Lets stuff you in a sack, toss you on a wagon, get you kicked off onto the ground and then covered with vile smelling garbage… then we shall see how much you like it" Wong seethed, once everyone was, finally, out of their respective sack and had gotten some, much needed, fresh air.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, man! Come on! You wanted out of the castle, now you're out! So lets get going okay? I ain't got all day!" Fiora said as she clumsily hoisted herself back onto her horse and led the others theirs.
"Oh dear, I just remembered, I only know how to ride side saddle" Relena said as she watched Jasmine and Wong put their feet in the stirrups and swing their other leg on over like it was nothing at all.
"Yeah, well, you're gonna have to learn how to ride like a man!" Fiora laughed as she maneuvered her horse over and extended her hand to Relena to help her up.
"It's not so hard Princess Relena, you just have to remember to kick your right leg up across the back as soon as you put your left in the stirrup" Jasmine reassured her gently.
"Come on! I'll even help ya get up high enough!" Fiora added.
"Alright" Relena said with a nod as she took Fiora's hand and one of her feet into the stirrup before flinging her other leg over the horse's back.
"Well done your highness," Wong said approvingly.
"Now just tuck your foot into the other stirrup and lets get going!" Fiora said as she let Relena go and tossed her the horse's reins.
"Right" Jasmine said with a smile as Relena nodded and they all took off on a fast gallop to try and catch up with the others.
"Fiora, how far ahead of us do you think the others are?" Jasmine asked timidly.
"They'll be taking it slow, and if they're smart, they won't push riding at night, we should catch up to them sometime after sunset, I think… I hope!" Fiora laughed.
"And if we can't find them?" Wong asked.
"Then we can't find them! It's no big deal, they have to come back sometime, and even if we don't catch up with them, what's stopping us from having some fun while we're out here?" Fiora replied.
"I hope we find them… Oh! I hope they're all alright!" Relena worried.
"They're big boys Relena! They can handle themselves! Right now lets worry about ourselves, this ain't the safest place to be right now, out in the wilderness and all, I don't want to be the only one keeping an eye out you know!" Fiora exclaimed.
"Yes, you're right" Jasmine replied.
"And just what happens if we get attacked?" Wong asked.
"Do any of you know how to fight?"
"I was shown some defensive moves…" Jasmine whispered.
"I live in a pacifist kingdom! With exception of our few men guarding our castle, no one knows how to fight!" Relena exclaimed, shocked that Fiora would even suggest such a thing.
"I am not limited in my knowledge of Kung Fu, but my skills as a fighter leave much to be desired" Wong replied.
"…Then I think it's safe to say that we're as good as dead!" Fiora replied, more then just slightly worried.
*****
"…Well, now that everyone is settled in, who wants to take the first watch? Since there are five of us, not counting Felina since she needs her rest, we'll trade shifts every two hours, that is, if that's alright with the rest of you?" Quatre asked, unsure of him self.
"Good idea, I'll take the first watch" Heero replied.
"Yeah? Then I'll be next" came Duo's reply.
"I'll go after that," Wufei said as he shifted his position on the branch of a tree that he was currently occupying.
"Right, I'll take the one after that and Trowa, you'll take the last shift" Quatre said slightly more confident.
"Right" came Trowa's short, but hardly blunt, reply.
With everyone else tucked into their bedrolls, Heero set about watching the fire and the forest night in the eerie quiet. Tending to the fire to keep his body occupied, for the time being, and his mind free to wander about where ever it wished.
'It's too much of a coincidence, first the sorcerer's attack on the human, pacifist, princess Relena. Then there were the armies storming the castle not long after. There is no way that the two instances are not connected, but the only question is, how are they connected? Something isn't adding up, I need more information…there are still pieces missing to the puzzle' he thought with dismay.
"…Relena…" he hadn't even realized that he said her name aloud, that is until….
"Huh…. What? What did you say?" Duo woke up.
"Nothing…" Heero said as he looked up.
"Nothin' huh? Ha! Whatever! Well, it's time for my shift anyways, you better get some sleep while you still can, we're gonna be mighty busy come tomorrow morning"
Heero just nodded before turning over onto his bedroll and going to sleep.
"Whatever man…I wonder how everyone is doin'" Duo thought aloud as he looked up at the star and tree lined sky.
'She's sure taking her dear sweet time, I wonder what it was that she wanted to get so badly… She could have just ditched me and gone back to her dad's ship, but she said she would come, didn't she? …Never trust a pirate to keep his, or her, word' Duo thought with a frown.
It was just then that a strange rustling noise could be heard just beyond the bushes, within the dark shadows of the forest itself.
"Wha! Who's there?" Duo said, scrambling to his feet and grabbing the scythe that he had found during the last battle and, cautiously, crept over to the bushes. "Come on out, I know you're in there pal! So you just better give yourself up now, save yourself a lot of grief!"
This only caused the bush to stop its movement all at once. The whole forest dropped back into its deadly silence once again.
"Hum, must have scared him off… I sure showed him!" Duo exclaimed with a rather smug look on his face as he puffed up his chest with pride. That didn't last for long because he suddenly felt a hot breath beating down on the back of his neck, causing him to turn many different shades of white as he slowly turned around and let out a blood curdling scream.
Right there before him stood a beast of massive height, standing at about nine feet tall, at least! It had long claws that looked like daggers, jaws that could have crushed iron in one fatal SNAP! It was a werewolf!
Every snapped out of their sleep upon hearing Duo's cries and were at his side with weapons drawn at once.
Heero snatched a piece of wood from the fire and rushed in between the werewolf and the others, waving the makeshift torch around in the air and snarling at the beast in an attempt to scare it away.
The werewolf took a few steps back, for fear of catching its fur on the flames that seemed to be everywhere at once.
Trowa and Duo rushed over to Felina and made sure that she got to a safe place while Quatre, Heero and Wufei took care of the man-beast that had wandered into their camp.
The beast, not wanting to flee and look a coward, lunged at Heero, slashing at the tender flesh of his upper arm under his dear skin shirt, easily braking past the leather barrier and puncturing his skin, successfully making him drop the torch and grasp the wound with shock.
Wufei pulled Heero back just before the werewolf swung at him again. Wufei charged at the beast with his sword in his hand, slashing at the monster at every chance he could get while Duo, who had been told by Trowa that he should help the others and came back, pulled at Heero until he relented and went to Felina and Trowa so that they could tend his wounds.
By the time that Duo got back to Quatre and Wufei, Wufei had already delivered the killing blow to the beast and it now lay on the ground in one bloody mass.
"Oh damn, I'm gonna have nightmares over this one!" Duo exclaimed loudly.
With the tense moment passed, everyone looked at each other, before everyone started laughing at him.
"Well, I hope that's the worst of it, whew! I hope to never see another one of those things ever again" Quatre said as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
The others nodded in agreement.
"Heero, how are you feeling?" Quatre asked as he walked over to him.
"Fine" was all he got for a reply.
"Lucky he wasn't bitten, though, we dryads aren't affected by Werewolf bites like humans are" Felina chirped.
"You seem better" Duo remarked as he walked over to them and stood next to Quatre.
"Almost" came her reply.
"What should we do with the body?" Quatre asked uneasily.
"Bury it" Trowa replied.
"Can't, it would be to hard to move to bury it at the moment" Wufei said as he climbed back onto his tree branch.
"It'll change back into a human when the sun comes up, we can bury it then" Heero replied tonelessly.
"You mean we've gotta wait until morning before we can get rid of that thing?" Duo exclaimed.
"It's the only way" Heero replied.
"So, you mean we gotta sit around with a dead guy in our camp. SLEEP with him just laying there?" Duo sputtered.
"I agree with Duo, I think we should move on, if one of them came this way, there might be others that pass through here"
"Right" Trowa nodded.
"Duo, put out the fire, Wufei, Heero, help get everything loaded back onto the horses, Trowa, you and I will help Felina back onto her horse, alright?"
"Right!" the others replied, giving their approval.
"alright, lets go!" Quatre said as everyone set off to do their appointed tasks.
*****
"…No question, they were here, and not long ago by the looks of it" Fiora said as she kicked the ashes from the campfire with her foot.
"Master Wufei's blade made these markings, I would know his sword's blade marks anywhere" Wong said as she ran her fingers across a rather deep slash in the Wolf-man's flesh.
"You, you don't think that, that they were, were attacked do you? What if this, this, monster had friends? What if they got them?" Relena cried.
"What? Nah! Look! There aren't any signs of them being dragged off, that means they ether walked off willingly, which I doubt cause they would have had to leave their stuff behind, or they took down this one guy then fled" Fiora replied.
"Are you positive of that Fiora?" Jasmine asked.
"to bet I am! Now come on, they aren't that far ahead, lets hurry and catch up with them!" Fiora said as she climbed back onto her horse and took off down the path.
"Fiora! Wait for us!" Relena said as she road off after her.
Wong jumped back onto her horse and, along with Jasmine, followed not far behind.
Unknown to them, there was a shadow watching them in the forest as they road off, a shadow of a man, a fierce being, a being that was a force to be reckoned with, and would be soon if all went according to destiny's plans for them.
______________________________________________________________________________
Yipes! Who IS this figure in the shadows? And what does he want of our adventurers? Have to wait and see. You know the drill, E-mail me at FioraEmbyr@aol.com chio people!