Astra: We're BBBAAA-AACCKK!
Shizuko: You lucky audience!
Chapter Seven
Hilde shivered. This was not how it was supposed to work. Wufei had assumed that their enemy wouldn't know who Hilde was. How could have expected that their enemy was partly led by commander Une. But…the commander was different…She had visited Hilde after she had woken up for the first time in the medical facilities. She seemed very caring then. She must have been one good actress.
Hilde looked around. She had only been in her new home for a couple of minutes. It was a small cell; the Riders and Flyers used them for jailing small-time criminals in the area. She shared the cell with a girl, but she seemed to be asleep, Hilde didn't want to wake her.
Well, I can at least try… Hilde tried to bring up a communications orb. She struggled for a few moments and then gave up. The cell was enchanted so as to keep the occupants from using magic.
Hilde leaned back against the rock wall and sighed. At this noise, Hilde's cellmate sat up in bed.
"Oh! Hello!" the girl said.
Hilde looked at her and gave a hesitant "Hi."
"My name's Catherine," she said, smiling.
"Hilde."
"Nice to meet you."
"Uh…yeah…"
"Do you have any idea what's happening? I'm a traveling entertainer. I got in a few nights ago, and well, I went to sleep in the guest quarters one night and woke up here. I think I was drugged somehow."
"It's a bit of a story, but here goes…"
*
Wufei paced around the clearing. Something must have happened to Hilde. She was supposed to get in, call back and tell us what was going on. She obviously failed.
"What do we do now?" Heero growled.
Wufei shrugged and said, "Make up a new plan. Hope for a miracle. All of the above."
*
Duo sighed. After the first scratch, things had gotten a lot better after his arrival at Winner compound.
When Quatre said he had twenty-nine sisters, he forgotten to mention all twenty-nine were GREAT cooks. And even Rhea had seemingly forgiven him. She had, after all, given him a tour of the place.
Duo sipped at his drink and leaned back in his chair, soaking up the sun. Man, I hope everyone else is having as much fun as I am…
*
Midii had already left, and Trowa was mounted and waiting. Relena hadn't moved. Trowa looked over his shoulder. "Relena, we're going," he said quietly.
Relena scowled. "Tell me what is going on, please."
"Relena…"
"No. I apparently have some sort of influence. You are going to tell me everything now."
Anyone else would have thrown down the reins in frustration. Trowa merely dropped them and gazed unblinking at Relena. "We don't have time for this. Do you want me to put you on your dragon for you?"
"You wouldn't dare!"
Docile Trowa was losing his eternal patience. "Try me. Every second we lose could mean more risk to the entire Rider/Flyer system. You could be endangering lives right now with your stalling."
Relena glared, but mounted Chenoa.
As they took off, Trowa glanced at her. "I promise everything will be explained when this is all over."
*
Duo was extremely pleased with his room at the Winner compound. The bed was bouncy, there were more pillows than he had seen in ages, the quilts were hand-stitched, and the carpet was so soft he felt as if he could almost drown if he lay down on it. The room had its own adjoining bathroom with a giant marble bathtub and huge fluffy towels that smelled like orchids. There was one slight problem, though. A small brown puppy was lying happily in the middle of the bed when he walked in, and hadn't moved for an hour. So Duo took a long, hot, leisurely bath with the door firmly shut and washed his hair three times (the bottle did say "wet hair, lather, rinse, repeat") until the shampoo ran out. When he came back, the puppy had started to doze off. Duo was sleepy too, and the bed looked really comfortable; but he didn't want to offend any of the hostesses by accident again. He bent down so he was eye to eye with the dog and grinned in what he hoped was an innocent, winning sort of expression. "Hey there," he said softly.
The dog opened an eye and glanced at him with disinterest.
"Um…can you get off? I wanna go to bed."
The dog closed its eye.
"Please?"
There was no response of any kind.
"Pretty please?"
The door opened, and Quatre poked his head in. "Everything all right, Duo?" He stopped and smiled. "Oh, I see you've met Cinnamon."
"Cinnamon? Is that her name? Which sister is she?"
Quatre laughed. "None. That's Iria's pet, just a regular dog."
Duo stared. "Really?"
Quatre nodded.
"Well, everything's just fine. You going to bed now too?"
"Yeah. My sisters said I have to have the lights out by nine thirty." He grinned. "It's kinda nice. They've let me stay up a little later every since my sixteenth birthday."
"Nine thirty is late?"
"I guess. I'm their baby brother, remember?"
"Oh yeah."
"Well, goodnight."
"Yeah, goodnight." As soon as the door closed, Cinnamon was quickly moved to a chair, and Duo fell asleep soon after that.
*
Heero pressed his back up against the compound wall. As I always say, if strategy doesn't work, explosives will. Heero set a magic-receptive device against the wall that he knew to be near the old cell area of the compound. Let's try an old fashioned jailbreak. The dragons won't be able to rise fat enough to chase them.
Heero ran off back into the woods. Wufei was there to meet him.
"All set," Heero said, "Time for your Abra Cadabra."
Before Wufei set off the spell that would cause the charges to go off, he asked, "Out of curiosity, why don't you ever cast spells?"
"Magic wasn't my best class…we're lucky I can bring up a comm. orb."
"I sympathize," Wufei said, and then he closed his eyes and mentally recited the spell. Magic didn't require words for the adept.
As Wufei opened his eyes, they heard a muffled explosion.
"Good. The sound breakers worked, if we're lucky, the guards missed it or thought they were imagining it."
*
Hilde was just about to fall asleep when she heard what sounded like an explosion across the base. She looked out side her door. Oooo…it was an explosion. I wonder of it was meant to go off in the kitchen. Maybe the cook put too fuel on the fire or something. I suppose tomorrow's gruel is going to be charred. She sighed and went back to bed.
*
Heero took one look at where they had created a hole in the compound wall and turned around to run back. After the same view, Wufei did the same.
"Miracle, right?"
"Right."
After running back to their hidden camp and making sure the eventual search parties couldn't find them, Wufei glared at Heero.
"The kitchens?"
"Hn."
*
Trowa and Relena had ridden all night and were almost at Crest Falls, but their mounts needed a rest and watering. They weren't going any farther.
Relena chose this time to attack.
"While we have the time…you could explain."
Trowa didn't even look at her. Just filled his canteen with water from the nearby stream. Relena fumed. Did men always have to be so stubborn? Ah, well…at least it's a challenge. Now…how to get through to a silent freak that I'm really annoyed with right now…ah! The silent ones generally only crack when their asked about something important to them, especially to their heart.
"So…do you have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"Oh, so you must be married, right?"
"No."
"How about a dear old mother? Or father?"
"Dead."
Relena sighed…okay…
"Cousin?"
"Not that I know of."
"Ah! Sibling!"
"One. Sister."
Finally!
"What's her name?"
Trowa looked at her and said, "Her name is Catherine. She was 158 cm last time I saw her, has brown hair, blue eyes, and works as a traveling entertainer. This is not going to work on me."
Hmf.
Astra and Shizuko: *grin*