A Palace of Disaster

Chibi Tsuki

A/N: Sorry I totally didn't feel like typing at all for the past few weeks. Sorry pplz so this time I'm just going to get carried away with this little journey that I decided Noin would go on and most likely get into trouble for when she get back to the palace. So read on! Beware, there is mild swearing, don't say I didn't warn you! Please read the last author's notes as well after the story because I really need you suggestion. But no peeking yet!

Chapter 6

The Raiders

Noin felt a tugging in her heart to go help the child who was in need of rescuing. "Stay here Sally," she whispered into her friend's ear. Before Sally could retrain her from leaving, the girl was already climbing up the slope, her blade held firmly in own hand. The shouts never ceased and if Sally were to call back Lu, she would reveal her position to the enemies, however many there were. What if there was an entire raiding pack? Then Noin would be in deep trouble and not even her bravery, confidence or her blade would save her. I hope you know what you're doing Noin because I don't…

                                                                                                               ~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Silently ascending the hill, Lucretzia hugged the slope's edge, the frame of the bushes covering her quite well, for now. She felt herself quiver with excitement, the thrill and danger just waiting around the bushes. But she knew what she did was awfully foolish. She hadn't even surveyed her situation or her enemy. Who knew what lay behind the green? The soles of her boots met the grass silently as she ventured closer and closer. Her private tutor had taught her to focus on what she was doing but not let anything, sound, motion to pass her senses. She could hear the slight whistle of the wind as clearly as she could hear the child squeal and by the sound of things, he seemed to be wrestling with all his might. Lucretzia peeked through the greenery, spying only one sniggering man sitting on a tree stump, laughing. That cruel consistent laughing highly tuned with mockery. But the raven-haired youth did not let this take over her actions before she knew whether there were more. No, there had to be more, the child and his tormentor. She repositioned herself so that she could see more of the other side, where the man was facing. Just hidden slightly by the leaves were two figures, one struggling furiously away from his captor. "Let me go!"

Noin had heard this time repeated several hundred times but the child's yells and shouts were of no use. That seemed to be all of them, no more unless they were somewhere else. She would've made sure if she could but the bushes limited her to this small view. Bursting out of the bushes, Noin shouted in her commanding voice, "Let him go this instance1"

The two men were both muscular and bulky. The one who was sitting down had grown a thick black moustache, his wild scraggly hair matched his rough clothes and physical shape well. Compared to him, the other looked slightly better polished. In fact he looked much cleaner and his holes were mended but to Noin, they were both the enemy. She did not judge on looks or appearances, she judged on actions and emotions, which usually got the better of her.

"So we have another visitor. How can we help you, young gentleman?" the one holding the boy by the arm enquired, his eyes dancing triumphantly.

"Let the boy go!"

"Sure thing, but we do require a trade," the other uttered in a deep voice.

Noin continued to hold her blade firmly, her eyes never leaving two ruffians. "What sort of trade? Gold, jewellery, diamonds? Those I have none of."

The cleaner of the two paused for a second before suggesting an offer, "How about you for the boy?"

"What do you want him for? He's just another foolish man looking for trouble!" retorted the sitting man.

"Burt, shut up!" the other snapped and slowly focussed his attention back on Noin. "Or even better, the young woman who came with you."

Oh shit! Noin flung her head around, down the slope and through the bushes. She could sort of see Sally through the leaves, tussling with two men alike the ruffians before her. "Sally!" She jumped through the bushes, totally forgetting about the ones behind her. Her feet trampled the damp grass. "Let her go!" Noin ordered as the girl pulled against the force of the taller and stronger men. She had half managed to get their grasp off her but they continued to grab for her arm no matter how hard she struggled, if only she could get her hands on her blade.

Furiously, Lucretzia swung her blade before her, casting deadly but accurate sweeps. Her swift rapid movement were invisible to their eyes and the two holding onto Sally found their belt slit in half and their pants dangling around their knees. In an instant, Sally was running towards Noin, her hands covering her face while the other youth was tilting her eyesight away from the men. Noin gestured for Sally to seek cover between the two horses that stood away from the action; most likely Sally called them away just in case they were injured or hurt in any way. Noin glanced up at charging pair, their fists like a bull's horn. Their angry cries made a flock of birds flee from the shaded trees, calling in alert as they fled.  Holding her ground, the young disguised princess gulped and spun her sharp blade with her left hand, hoping to scare them away for a while as she devised an impromptu plan.

Suddenly she tucked the blade back into her sheath and pulled her fists in a guarding position, ready for an attack. Noin was definitely glad she had managed to persuade her father to let her learn fighting techniques. She unleashed a continuing quick series of fists, slamming her knuckles hard into their ribs. In less than ten minutes time, she leapt back to watch the end results; they fell. Her eyes darted from the defeated to the ones holding the child hostage. No words were spoken, no sounds were heard except for the cooling afternoon breeze. Both men looked at each other, beads of sweat sliding down the sides of their faces, they were nervous. Now they were no longer those big bullies that had appeared to be, they were already defeated, their spirits were down and that was the part when they decided to flee.

Once they had departed, leaving the tired boy behind, Lucretzia made her way up to him, checking to see if he was in any condition to walk. "Hey kid, are you alright?"

"Yes sir," he replied in a polite voice, dipping his head slightly in respect.

"When was the last you ate?" Noin offered a hand and lifted him up to a standing position. He was not quite as short as he had seemed earlier, perhaps slightly taller than Hilde. His thick blonde bangs hung above his expression hazel green eyes.

"Two nights ago, sir." The boy seemed gentle under his scrawny appearance. 

"Come with me, I'll get you something to eat and drink before you faint." She led him towards Sally and the horses, standing a certain distance away from the two unconscious men.  "By the way, my name's Noin and my friend is Sally."

The young blonde looked up at the two ladies and responded, his smile never erased from his face. "My name is Quatre Winner. Pleased to meet you two and thank you very much for rescuing me from those tyrants. There are more out there and letting those two go might've been a big mistake they might revenge and I've pulled you two into this." He brought his hand out which Noin look acceptingly.

"No problem Quatre, I'm not afraid of tyrants and ruffians. Let's get you refreshed before they do decide to attack, right Sally?"

Sally nodded her head cheerfully and a shade of pink was visible on his face.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Now great, where could those two have disappeared to?" Treize growled, using a hand to stop the sun's rays shining into his eyes.

"Where did the cool and calm Treize go two? Relax a bit," Milliardo suggested, squeezing through people with his horse grunting behind him.

"How can you stay calm when a lady and a princess on the loose like wild animals?"

Milliardo glanced at him, lifting up an eyebrow. "So you're referring our lady and princess as animals now eh? Wait 'til King Noin hears that from you. I truthfully wonder what he'll think."

"You're not helping dear Prince."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The sun was ready to vanish behind the horizon and the stars were appearing in the darkening sky. Three travellers continued their way steadily, avoiding isolated places where they could be surrounded by unwanted company. They had stopped quickly at an inn and continued their journey once they had finished their meal. Lu knew her father would be rather angry if they didn't arrive home soon before night had come and without their two guards. The thought popped into Lucretzia's mind and she instantly explained their situation to Sally beside her. "Hey Sally, do you have any good excuses for not going back with the other two?"

"I've been thinking about that too. I seriously have no idea. Perhaps we could tell your father that we encountered Quatre here and the other two were fighting the raiders off and so they told us to leave first," she suggested with a shrug.

Luckily Quatre was drifting off to sleep, his blonde tresses shading the afternoon sun off his eyes. He was too tired to hear any of the spoken conversation and so therefore questioned nothing. Lucretzia glanced at the small boy seated with her in the same saddle. He reminded of her one person. No two people to be correct. The first one was her little brother whom she'd left at home away from all possible danger. Andre was just like this boy; innocent, polite and a young gentleman. The other, well the other person Quatre reminded her of was of course Prince Milliardo who too blushed when females smiled in a more friendly way to him than romantically. Quatre was just like the shy, blushing side of the young prince.

The trio had been travelling for a short while now; each step meant that they would be a step closer to reaching home. Lucretzia let out a yawn, using her arm to cover it. "Aren't you ever sick of dressing up as a male Noin?" Sally cast a questioning look towards her friend.

"No not really, I find that male's get more casual clothes to wear. Besides, they're much more comfortable than skirts and dresses," Noin replied rather softly. Suddenly her senses rose and her face transformed from the tired, sleepy look to an alert and concentrating appearance. Something didn't seem right and Noin was usually good at sensing such feelings. She didn't know if they were emotions of physical abilities that affected her in such a way but whatever power gave her such senses, she appreciated them. "Who's there!" she demanded, startling Quatre from his sleep who woke up with a jolt. "Reveal yourself you coward! Stop sneaking around the civilians and ambushing them!" The harsh tone scared Sally a bit but she knew that Noin never liked such people who did that to the innocent.

"Well, well, well," a voice chuckled as a figure appeared from behind the dim-red leaves, "I didn't expect you to have realised us so soon. But we have been here long enough to have heard your conversation. So you're a female warrior; something new for a change." Slowly, Noin and Sally could see the character's shady face, his dark bushy eyebrows and dim-lit eyes portrayed a sense of cool roughness in him. But of course, his style of clothes and weapon accented this even more. His chosen weapon was a wide curved sword with a rather thick edge and his deer-skin cloak reached down to his knees. Hands wrapped in leather bandages gripped the sword loosely, hiding sections of scars. Lucretzia gulped she had never really faced anyone who looked as formidable as this man in a real battle before. In fact she had never seen the danger in the outside world until now but she knew it was too late to turn back. She had come this far to prove that she was not a little princess whom everyone had stereotyped her to be. She would show her father, she'd show him that she could handle anything, raiders inclusive.

"Are you afraid of me now little girl?" he sniggered at Lucretzia, pointing at her with his pointed chin. The others beside him smirked, showing their gruesome, filthy hairy faces. Sally shuddered at the thought of when they had their last bath. Lucretzia drew her blade, never letting her eyes leave the supposed leader's figure. "You won't be harmed in any way if you come with us. Let me assure you that."

His lingering smirk disgusted the young princess to a point where she only scowl at him, "Watch your mouth you filthy beast! Never judge a book by its cover, for all you know I may be lethal."

Unfortunately, this did not scare or intimidate the giant one bit. Instead seemed rather amused, if that was how one would put it in a situation like the one she was in. Waking from his dream-like state, Quatre finally realised what was happening; they were being attacked by the raiders who had destroyed their camp when he and the merchants had been resting that night, alarming the entire group who fled without care for the others. Only several travellers had stayed to protect Quatre but these ruffians overpowered them and left them bruised, beaten and unconscious, taking the boy away from his people. But only then did he realise that his saviour was actually a women, dressed in male attire. He noticed her dangling strands of her long silky hair until her hat with its stylish feature. It was rather strange, watching her wear the hat but Quatre would've thought that it suited her neatly if it weren't for the danger around them.

Both horses backed away, their front hooves close to treading on their hind ones. They weren't scared but their instincts told them to flee since they were flight animals. But in the narrow trail, they were surrounding by trees that leaned closely together, whispering secrets and also the numerous raiders, staring at the two maidens with greed and selfishness. Held stiffly in her right was a sword, and in the other hand was the tight grip on the reins that made her skin flecked with deathly white patches. Sally trembled slightly, loosening and tightening her grip on the weapon. Her horse could sense her uneasiness and neighed softly, trying her best to calm her rider down. If her rider lost her senses then she wouldn't have the faintest idea which direction to head since she knew nothing of the cunning and sly human race.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Milliardo hurried his horse with spoken commands. The sky continued to darken but it never seemed to quite able to disappear altogether. Both gentlemen were tensed, knowing that their two ladies were somewhere, perhaps lost or maybe they had returned home. Neither gentlemen were certain what to do at this point, surely they would wait before returning since it was the more intellectual way to avoid trouble. The pair had taken the original route back to the palace, hoping to bump into the ladies on their way home but as they entered the main palace gates, they realised that they hadn't passed them at all. But there was still another half an hour to ride before they would reach the stables, perhaps they were there.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Hehehe, another cliffie! Sorry my dear, loyal readers. I hope you didn't mind my lateness, due to my slackness and school assignments (which the teachers don't mind piling up on our 'to do' list). Now, what will happen to Noin, Sally and our new little merchant boy Quatre?! That's for you to decide because:

1) I think there should be some time that my dear readers involve themselves a little bit more into this story.

2) I don't have any idea as to which direction I want to go.

3) It may be more appealing to the readers because I might blabber on and ruin the story any time now…

That's all for the current list. Well we have two directions to go. The first one being…

a) Noin, Sally and Quatre wind up being caught by the raiders with Zechs and Treize on their way to rescue our damsels in distress!

b) The trio manage to overcome these evil raiders somehow… with our two young nobles' help or not… (That I decide.)

So what do you think? All readers MUST participate (well you don't have to but I just advise it so I can release the next chappie out sooner) and pick a thingie… a, or b. Also, other suggestions are also welcome! ^.^ I don't mind if you add lots of extra ideas in either.

Ok enough blabbering on… (like always) and yeh… btw, I'll deny all who states I own GW and try to steal my measly pocket money of $5! Got my point? Until next time, cyas!