Disclaimer: I don't own gundam wing but I do own Thorn and any other original characters you see in this story. ((I really wish I owned the gundam pilots -.-))

Mythical Times

Chapter 8: Protection of the Finest Kind

Thorn was beginning to lose hope. So far they had been jumping from tree to tree for about a half-an-hour with no sign of rescue for her.

She had stayed relatively silent. A few times she had seen a flash of silver and gold in the moonlight running on the forest floor but the hope of it being Quatre or Heero in some form with gold (like a tiger) was quickly squashed by the female vampire who told her it was a pair of normal wolves.

The black haired girl winced. The werewolf, Dorothy, had her claws dug deeply into her side. Dorothy kept glancing over at the Vampire to see if she was still there, because as the vampire jumped along she made no noise at all.

Thorn began to get lost in her own little thoughts when the vampire woman suddenly swooped down with Dorothy diving down after her. The sudden jerk of the movement snapped Thorns thoughts like a twig and the whiplash would reach painfully at her later. That was if she was alive later.

They landed under a large and wise-with-years oak tree, its gnarled roots looped out of the ground to hide small creatures. One such creature, up to about Thorns knee with a beak, feathers, and other birdlike features, crawled out from under a large root and halted to a stop in front of the vampire and werewolf.

"There you are, Irina, Dorothy. I was beginning to wonder what was taking you women so long." The creature spoke in a feminine voice. Irina smirked a fanged smirk.

"Relena…how nice to see you." The gold birdlike creatures features twisted and grew until she was a woman. Long wheat blond hair went down her back and she had glittering sapphire blue eyes. A pink robe was tied on her. She gave pleasant little smirk but the triumph was clear in her eyes.

"Yes Irina. Its nice to see you too. Now is this the girl he wants?" Relena asked, circling Thorn like a vulture. Dorothy smiled maliciously and threw Thorn to the ground.

"Yes this is the little pest. The bitch who stole my mate away and is the girl the wizard wants dead. It seems that he and I have the same objectives in mind." Dorothy growled with a glare. Thorn looked up at each, the vampire, the werewolf, and the blond girl who she had know idea of what she (the blond) was. Who was this wizard that wanted her? Was it that old man that called her Thalia?

"Lets just kill her now, I want my pay so I can go on with the rest of my life." The vampire, Irina, said pulling out a sword.

"Don't forget to take off her head; the wizard wants that to show we killed her. Without it we won't get our reward." Relena said. She pulled her hidden hand out from her robes to reveal it to be clawed and dangerous.

"NO!" Dorothy said stepping forward. "Let me kill her. I just want the satisfaction of knowing that I got rid of her."

Thorn pushed herself back, out of the werewolf's reach. Uh oh. What was she going to do now? The raven haired teen looked left to right for some kind of escape. All she saw was the rest of the werewolves, Dorothy's pack, emerge from the woods; in human form, some in wolf, and the rest in a hybrid state.

Dorothy's laughter ripped through the night. "You have no place to go, human. What will you do now that you know it's all over?" The blond wolf sounded way too happy for some enraged psycho killer. Thorn blinked at her question. How the hell was she supposed to know? There was an entire pack of vicious werewolves staring her down. She couldn't think of anything logical at this point in time.

"Um…scream?" Thorn asked timidly. Dorothy howled in amusement.

"Go ahead and scream. No one will come to save you. By the time anyone finds you, your rotting carcass will have been mauled beyond recognition."

"Wow what a lovely image that was." Thorn mumbled sarcastically.

"Ah you still feel confident enough to make sarcastic remarks?" Dorothy feral smirk marked the end. Her glowing blue eyes looked toward the rest of the pack.

"Kill her."

The entire pack launched forward with howls. Thorn screamed, closing her eyes and throwing her arms protectively over her head. The golden eyed 17-year-old waited for crushing jaws and sharp claws to descend upon her. When none came, only the painful screech of dogs met her ears.

Thorn peered through her arms. The entire pack lay four feet away from her outside of a protective crimson bubble that had formed over her.

"What the…?" Thorn murmured, looking in all directions. She felt warmth against her chest. She looked down. The garnet stone those men had given her was glowing warmly against her breast, an etching of a unicorn rearing up on its hind legs glowing in the center of it with some kind of runes surrounding it. It felt like it was alive pulsating and vibrating. The stone was protecting her somehow, she realized.

The pack was slowly getting back onto its feet. One werewolf, black with a silver streak going down his back gasped.

"Look at the way her eyes glow gold. She is a sorceress. We must flee for the sake of the pack or we shall perish at her wrath." A chores of yes's answered him and the werewolves took off into the woods. Dorothy growled.

"Get back here, Ginta! All of you. We must destroy this girl!" Dorothy screamed at them.

"No way! We do not wish to face the wrath of a sorceress. You're on your own with this one Dorothy!" Came the distant yell. Irina laughed.

"Cowards!" Dorothy yelled.

"I would have agree with you Dorothy." Irina said. "But what shall we do with her now?"

"Kill her of course." Dorothy said. Relena stared at the crimson bubble surrounding Thorn.

"Yes but how do we get her out of that magical protective ward. A mage obviously spelled that to protect her. Hm…but which mage?" Relena said going off into her train of thoughts.

"Does it really matter? We just have to kill her. Let's just pop the damned thing!" Dorothy said picking up a large broken log. The blond wolf sent it soaring at the bubble. Thorn threw her arms over her head again but the log merely bounced off. The raven haired girl blinked.

"Oh yeah that really worked Dorothy. Pop the bubble." Irina said sarcastically while rolling her dark eyes.

"Shut up you vampire."

"Oh someone's getting touchy." Relena said. The sapphire eyed blond walked toward the bubble and then around it, scrapping her clawed hand along the sides. Relena stopped to stare at Thorn and then down at the stone around her neck. "Hey! Can one of you tell me what the symbol is in that stone?" Relena asked turning toward the vampire and werewolf who were currently having a 'bitch' fight. Irina stopped and came towards the bubble.

"I think it looks like a unicorn."

"Is it on its hind legs or is it galloping?"

"It looks like its on its hind legs, rearing up of something." Irina said. She looked toward Relena. "Why?"

"A unicorn rearing up on its hind legs is Trieze's symbol."

"Trieze?" Dorothy actually looked surprised. Thorn again blinked in confusion. Who was this Trieze guy? Maybe he had been one of those cloaked men.

"But Trieze is a powerful mage. What would he be doing giving this girl protective emblems?" Irina asked. Relena shrugged.

"I've only read about him in books from my village. How am I supposed to know?"

"Look at the bubble…" Dorothy said staring at Thorn. The glowing red bubble that had formed around Thorn was fading. Thorn held the stone in her hand.

"What are you doing you stupid stone? They're still here." It was crazy but yes, Thorn was talking to a stone.

"What do you suppose is happening?" Irina asked.

"Don't know…" Dorothy's face lit up with a vicious smile. "…but we can kill her now." Dorothy went into a hybrid form and approached. "Who or what is going to protect you now, little girl?"

"I am." Came the reply from the woods. A figure appeared. "Get out of my woods, werewolf, this is my territory and I say who dies in it and who doesn't." A female half-tiger-half-human came out.

"A weretiger." Dorothy spat in disgust. The woman-tiger smiled with large fangs.

"You got that right. Now get out of my woods before fangs find you." The tiger woman said.

"Not a chance. This girl must die now!" Dorothy launched herself at the weretiger. Dorothy came down on the tiger beast and both rolled around in a vicious fight of teeth and claws. Thorn watched mesmerized, not paying attention to the other two assassins'. A dagger was at Thorns throat a second later.

"Sorry girl. I have nothing against ya' but the money is too good to pass up." The vampire whispered.

"Did you really think that a weretiger would be the only thing that would stop you from killing this young maiden?" A male voice came from behind. Irina turned and pulled Thorn with her. There in front of them were the two cloaked figures from the village. The first pulled back his hood to reveal a handsome young man maybe in his twenties with cinnamon colored hair and brilliant royal blue eyes. The vampire's eyes widened.

"Trieze" Irina let go of Thorn and backed away. The second pulled back his hood also. Long creamy white hair tumbled down his back and he glared at the vampire with ice blue eyes. There was another gasp. Thorn turned to look at the girl, Relena as they had called her, staring at the second man.

"Brother?" Dorothy and the tiger woman had separated from each other and were growling fiercely.

"Dorothy, Relena, we need to go." Irina said jumping up into the branches of a tree. Relena followed her. Dorothy gave Thorn one last growl that promised pain in the future before following the other two. "We'll tell the old man about this." Was the last remark that Thorn heard.

"Thank you very much, Tora." The cinnamon haired man said to the tiger. She took shape into a young woman with stripes going down her cheeks.

"Don't mention it, Trieze. I owed you anyway and this is my land after all." Tora said. She looked at Thorn. "Your lucky, girl. You should be more careful." The tiger woman said before walking off into the darkness of the woods.

A hand touched Thorns shoulder. "Are you alright, young maiden?" came Trieze's voice. She looked up at him.

"That's twice, no three times that you have saved me within the last three days. Thanks a lot." Thorn said turning toward them.

"It is a pleasure, but I would really like to know if you're hurt at all?" Trieze asked again. Thorn shook her head.

"No not really. Just a few bumps and bruises."

"That's good." The white haired one said. He reached down and pulled the garnet necklace out of her bodice, causing Thorn to blush. "It's a good thing we gave this to you or we wouldn't have found you so quickly."

"Zechs, we should go. Her friends are coming." Trieze said to Zechs, looking at the woods. Thorn could hear the crunches of leaves. She felt the stone come back down onto her chest and when she looked the two men were gone.

"Thanks…" She whispered just as Duo and Quatre burst through the trees and into the clearing.

"THORN!" Duo glomped onto her with all his might. Thorn looked down at him and blinked. His head rested between her breasts and he had this smiled on his face. Thorns cheeks flushed red before she smacked him upside the head.

"Pervert…"

"Ow…" Duo moaned from the ground.

Thorn rode all the way back to the village on Quatre's back. Duo walked behind them with a large bump on his head. Wufei walked beside Quatre and Thorn. Acacia and Hilde rode beside Quatre on their horse and Heero and Morgyn walked a head of the group. Thorn was telling Wufei the entire story up until the point of Trieze and Zechs leaving before the rest of them had arrived.

"So Trieze and Zechs came to your rescue with a weretiger named Tora?" Wufei asked. Thorn nodded. "Are you sure it was the Trieze? The powerful mage who disappeared a few years ago?"

"I wouldn't know anything about that but his name was Trieze and I think he was the same one."

"This just keeps getting more and more messed up." Duo mumbled behind them. Thorn made a face.

"Hey I never asked to be saved. They could have just let me be torn apart by Dorothy, Irina, and Relena."

"Irina? Did you just say Irina?" Wufei asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Irina was the vampire?"

"Yeah…" Thorn gave him a look. "Is there something you want to tell me?" Thorn asked.

"It's nothing. She's just a mistake from the past."

"Right Wufei. Whatever you say."

"I can't believe that Dorothy would try to kill you, Thorn." Quatre said from below her in his wolf form.

"I can believe it. She's probably wanted to kill me since the day you left with me, Duo, and Wufei." Thorn said flatly, looking up at the sky. "And I still have no idea who that Relena girl was and why she wanted to kill me."

"She's a shape-shifter from my village. A princess and she acts like it all the time." Heero said in a monotone. "I don't know why she was trying to kill you. I thought she would be stalking me like usual. Must have been offered the job and she took it because she knew where you were."

"Okay, that sounds logical. So what are we going to do now? Where will we go?" Thorn asked.

"We'll go to the tower of the Lost Sorceress." Morgyn said.

"Tower of the Lost Sorceress?"

"Yes. There might be some answers there. Well ask the guardian of the tower about your strange dreams. Things like that might be answered." Acacia said.

"We then, if it'll answer some of our questions then let's go." Quatre said, picking out the pace. Thorn pulled Duo onto Quatre's back. He looked at her questionably.

"Don't want you to get left behind again do we?" She winked.

~Owari

Raven: Hi there everyone. Sorry that it's taken me so long to update this story but I've had a lot to do. I'm going to start finishing this up within the next chapter, maybe two chapters. I'm also thinking that if I get enough reviews I'll do a sequel to Mythical Times, but that is up to all you reviewers. I hope to update again soon. Review please. ~.^