Dragon Quest

Ch 12

The Earth Shrine. (Part I)

By Fire Dragon and

Water Dragon.


"Are you sure that this is the way?" Ishtar looked doubtful at Wufei.

"Of course I know! The map says so!" Wufei pointed at the map.

"Well, this sure doesn't look like it." Lluvia looked at their surroundings. They had been riding the last two days through acres of wild forrest without even a trace of the Earth Shrine.

"But, are you sure that you're reading the map right?" Ishtar proved once again.

"I'm a Gundam pilot, trained specifically to read maps correctly." Wufei stressed every word.

"Oh yeah? And why is it upside down?" Rei moved her horse closer.

Blinking several times, Wufei looked at the map which was indeed upside down. Laughing, Duo quickly snatched the map from Wufei's grasp revealing Nataku who looked mockingly at him. With a small chirp, she flew out from his reach before he could most likely strangle her for her trick.

"That was not funny!" Wufei spluttered.

"Sure it was!" Duo laughed again, handing the map to Quatre who stopped his horse and dismounted.

"So, are we lost?" Minako asked dismounting her own horse.

"Not quite." Quatre frowned. By this time, all the others were off their horses and made a circle around the blond.

"If my calculations are correct, we're supposed to be…here." Ami pointed to a large green part on the map.

"Look," Mamoru pointed to a small brown point close to their position. "We can stop on this town. We wouldn't have to get off course too much." He said.

"We could re-supply and investigate the directions." Heero looked at them. Turning to their new destination, the group made their way to the town.

~~$@

Upon entering the town, the guys dismounted and looked at their surroundings.

"This looks more like a station than a town." Trowa's eyes darted everywhere.

"A station?" Minako asked.

"A trading post or more like a 'frontier stop.'" Heero said watching the high wooden walls.

"Oh my god!" Everybody turned to see the direction where Makoto, Usagi and Ami where staring at. Dozens if not hundreds of cages, many empty as well as with animals stood crowding on a corner of the fort.

"Gods, what do you think they do to them?" Makoto said, passing in front of a cage that contained a black feline, too large to be a regular house cat but too small to be a panther.

"They sell them to circuses, or to people who buy them as 'exotic' pets." Trowa said getting close to the cage.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A burly man stopped Trowa before he touched the bars.

"But, what are you gonna do with them?" Usagi asked him as the man who stood between the cages and them.

"Sell them of course. This one's gonna be one fine coat." He laughed showing his yellow teeth.

Gasping, Usagi buried her head on Mamoru's chest while he patted her on the shoulder, meanwhile, the girls paled and the guys looked disgusted at the man.

"Beast be beast little girl, they're only good fo' makin' money." The man said.

"That's just cruel!" Makoto snapped.

"Whatever." The man shrugged. "'Tis just a dumb animal anyway."

Quatre grabbed his aching chest trying to make the dull pain subside. Turning around, the blond turned to see as Trowa's eyes hardened.

Giving a low growl that got the attention of everybody and the animal, Trowa looked at the man and approached the cage once again while extending his hand at the beast.

"What the hell do you think you're doin'?" The guy said, but before he could reach to stop Trowa's hand the cat walked to him, then dropped until he was lying on his stomach and crawled until his nose touched Trowa's hand and licked it.

"He is not a dumb animal!" Trowa growled again as the animal turned to the man and growled.

"We should be going now." Quatre grabbed Trowa's hand and pulled him away from the cage. "C'mon, we have to get to the Inn." Quatre dragged him away hoping not to attract too much attention.

~~$@

Once inside the Inn, the group decided to go down to the mess hall.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Ishtar sat between Wufei and Rei while eating something that looked like porridge.

"We should ask around. See if we can find information from the villagers." Mamoru said.

"That shouldn't be hard." Minako smiled.

"Don't count on that." Ishtar said before she spooned some more food into her mouth.

"Why do you say so?" Quatre asked.

Lluvia snorted and looked at them. "Because the guys near the Earth Shrine are just plain-"

"Weird" Everybody said making the girl pout.

"Hey, what's wrong with the Earth people?" Makoto asked.

"What's not wrong about them? They're very touch and dislike everything." Lluvia said.

"They distrust their own shadows." Ishtar nodded.

"There's got to be a reason for that." Trowa said.

"I don't know, but the men from the other table have been looking at us for some time now." Heero half whispered.

"We'll have to work fast if we want to gather the information then." Duo said giving the guys a glance.

"I think we'll find more info if we go to the marketplace." Ishtar told them.

"No, I think we'll find our answers closer than we think." Usagi smiled looking at the woman that had escorted them to the table who was busy with five children and a baby on her arms. "C'mon girls, lets get to work." Usagi smiled, making her way to the woman.

"Oh no, hell no! I'm so not touching a child!" Lluvia shook her head vigorously.

"Ditto." Ishtar said making a face.

"Oh well." Minako shrugged and followed Usagi who was already picking up one of the children that kept pulling the woman's skirt.

"Hi!" Smiled Usagi as the kid played with her fingers. "I saw you had your hands full, and well, I just love kids." Usagi sent the woman a warm smile.

At first, the woman eyed Usagi suspiciously; however, all traces of doubt evaporated as the one year old that Usagi held squealed when he at last was able to capture the slippery fingers. Of course, after inspecting his price, he did as any baby would do to their precious capture; he inserted them on his mouth, trying to bite them with his inexistent teeth. Usagi laughed looking down at the baby as the woman's face softened.

"Ye like babies I see." The woman smiled.

"I love them!" Usagi grinned. "I just can't wait to have one of my own." She caressed the baby's light brown hair.

"I'm Sheila, the Innkeeper's wife." Sheila introduced herself.

"And I'm Usagi, I'm passing by with my friends." Usagi said as Makoto, Minako, Rei, and Ami appeared behind her and began cooing at the baby that Sheila had on her arms.

"Oh, look! He's so cute!" Minako squealed.

"Yeah, but he's not a toy." Rei shook her head as the blond began making faces to the child who laughed at her antics.

~~$@~~~$@

"We should go to our rooms." Mamoru said at the rest that were still at the table.

"I thought we would go to the market." Quatre frowned.

"Nah, it's better if we do it tomorrow morning. Besides, the girls will be able to find stuff on their own." Mamoru stood up and walked up the stairs.

"C'mon, we'll look suspicious if we stay behind." Ishtar stood up as the others nodded.

"Hn." Heero turned to give one last look at them men from the other table before following the rest upstairs.

~~$@~~$@~~$@

The next day all of them stood on Mamoru and Wufei's room.

"So, what did you find out?" Duo bounced on Wufei's bed.

"Well, Sheila's the Innkeeper's wife, and almost everybody comes here." Makoto said.

"It seems that we were going the right direction the other day. The Earth Shrine was supposed to be just a couple of miles from where we stopped." Ami looked at them.

"But we couldn't see anything on the forrest." Duo frowned.

"Why would it be in the middle of nowhere?" Mamoru asked.

"Unless it's just like the Fire Shrine." Provided Wufei.

"Actually no. Sheila said that many years ago, the temple just…'puff' disappeared." Usagi snapped her fingers.

"How can something just disappear into thin air?" Trowa frowned.

"I don't quite get it myself." Ami looked confused. "But she says that the place was erased from the face of the earth, people and all." She shook her head.

"These people are frightened, and are suspicious of everybody since there have been many that had tried to find the ruins, but they never come back alive." Rei said.

"Well, that's one mystery solved." Lluvia said sarcastically.

"So, how are we supposed to get to the Earth Shrine then?" Ishtar asked from where she was petting Nataku.

"Sheila said that not long ago, this group came searching for the Shrine, again all went missing…except for one." Ami looked at them.

"Just one?" Heero raised his eyebrow.

"Yup! It seems that he knows this place pretty well, something with having lived here for a very long time. Some say that he knows the secret of how to get to the Earth shrine but doesn't like to tell people about the location. Anyway, this group gave him a whole lot of money so he went as a guide for the group, however, they say that they just disappeared without leaving any trace and left him behind." Usagi told them.

"How convenient." Heero said skeptically.

"The thing is that he knows the way." Rei crossed her arms over her chest.

"So, you think he might be able to take us there." Wufei summarized.

"Exactly!" Makoto nodded.

"I say we give it a try." Quatre looked at the rest.

"Sure, we don't have much to loose." Mamoru shrugged.

"Time." Heero said, making everybody turn to see him. "We're going to loose time. If we want to be precise and efficient we need to find a more reliable source of information. We can't afford to loose any more time if we want to successfully finish this mission." Heero looked at them.

Everybody looked gravely at him until Ami turned hastily at where the girls stood and looked at them wide eyed. "Please tell me that I don't sound like that!" She pleaded. This brought laughs between all –except for Heero who glared his Death Glare™ against the blue haired girl.-

"C'mon Heero, it's the only lead we have." Quatre said, "At lease give it a chance." The blond pilot gave him his puppy dog eyes.

"Whatever." Heero shrugged, turned and was about to leave when Duo grabbed his hand.

"It was only a joke." Duo looked at him. Heero looked at Duo and down at his hand. Giving another shrug, Heero leaned on the wall brooding to himself, witch rewarded him with Duo's brilliant smile. He wasn't participating anymore but he was still there, and for Duo that little act was progress.

"Well, I think we should go looking for him." Mamoru stood up.

"So, for whom are we looking for now?" Quatre looked at the girls.

"He's name's Janus, he's supposed to be this burly guy on the market." Rei said.

"I don't know about you, but I have this weird sensation that it's the guy that we talked with yesterday." Duo said.

"Why do you say that?" Ishtar asked curiously.

"Well, it seems that the first person that we bump into when we enter a town is the one that we are looking for." Duo shrugged.

"We'll see, now lets get going." Wufei said as Nataku jumped from her place on Ishtar's lap and followed Wufei out the door.

"C'mon, let's move." Mamoru stood up.

~~$@~~$@

"Well, here we are." Usagi looked around the market trying to spot somebody that looked remotely like the vague description that Sheila had given them.

"Damn! There are at least five guys that could be Janus!" Makoto swore.

"I think it's time to start asking don't you think?" Quatre provided.

"Sure, why not." Trowa shrugged.

"You know, I think that maybe Duo was right." Minako said after a while.

"About?" Wufei raised his eyebrow.

"Well, I think we should ask that guy from the other day if he's Janus." She said.

"It wouldn't hurt to try." Mamoru said, walking already towards the cages.

"There he is." Rei looked disdainfully at the dirty man who was for the moment yelling at two bear cubs.

"Disgusting." Makoto frowned while Trowa's eyes turned cold.

"We should go and ask him if he is Janus." Heero took a step forward.

"Sure." Usagi nodded.

"Why not." Duo shrugged.

"C'mon you guys." Quatre followed Heero while Trowa followed Quatre.

"Excuse me." Mamoru said as they approached him.

"Oh, 'tis you." The man looked at them.

"Yes, umm…" Usagi gulped. "Well, we were wondering, are you Janus?" Usagi asked him.

"Janus? Me? Nay. That ol' good fo' nothin' goes to the pastures every day an' doesn't do anythin' but to watch the sheep since he came back. You can find 'im there if ye want t' talk to 'im." He said before going back to the animals without even giving the youths a second glance.

"How rude!" Ishtar crossed her arms.

"I don't know about you, but I feel relieved that he is not the one that we were looking for." Makoto sighed.

"Ditto." Minako and Usagi said.

"Now to look for the pastures." Heero said.

"If only we knew were that was." Lluvia said annoyed.

"Two hills that way." Trowa said quietly while everybody blinked at him. "The horses told me." He said while a slight blush crept onto his cheeks.

"Great, let's go find him!" Mamoru walked towards the direction Trowa had just pointed.

~~~$@~~~$@

"Let me see…sheep, dogs, grass, more sheep…no people though." Duo looked around.

"Most be nap time." Lluvia shrugged.

"Yeah, and they just left all the sheep here…doubtful." Mamoru shook his head.

"We should search the perimeter to try to locate the target." Heero said almost to himself while Minako and Usagi blinked.

"Huh?"

"We should go look around for the guy." Quatre supplied.

"He's got to be here somewhere." Ishtar said.

"Let's separate then." Ami said.

"C'mon girls, let's go." Makoto walked towards a barn. Shrugging, the boys took another path and began to look for Janus.

~~$@

After walking for several minutes, the girls walked near the sheep heard.

"Look!" Usagi picked a white lamb and snuggled it. "Aren't they just the cutest things?" She held it.

"Put it down, the don' like bein' picked up." Everybody turned to see an old man, around his sixty's, with a middle size beard, staring angrily at them.

"Ups, sorry." Usagi said meekly while putting the struggling lamb on the ground.

"Excuse me." Ami took a step closer. "We are looking for a man called Janus. Somebody told us that he would be here."

"An' what do ye want with 'im?" The man eyed them.

"We just want to ask him a few questions." Ishtar said while staring at the man.

"Actually, we need directions." Makoto scratched the back of her head, making the man's eyes land on her.

Frowning, he looked at her up and down and then shrugged. "In that case, I be Janus." He said almost stoically.

"Really? Great!" Minako squealed. "Now we won't have to look any further!"

"I'll go get the guys." Rei said.

"I'm going with you." Lluvia announced.

"So, what do ye want with ol' Janus?" He asked while the lamb walked between his feet as if it were a cat and then trotted away to his mother.

"The others will be here soon. Then we can talk." Ishtar glared at the man.

"Is it me or she's acting kinda weird?" Minako whispered.

"I don't know, it might be because he snapped at Usagi." Makoto shrugged.

~~~$@~~~$@

Once all of them were gathered, Mamoru and Heero began explaining their situation to Janus.

"So we need you to take us to where the Earth Shrine was." Mamoru concluded.

"An expedition." Janus raised his eyebrow.

"We want to know exactly why it disappeared with all it's people." Heero nodded following with the lie.

"Why? I'll tell ye why. People stopped goin' an' instead they began chasin' the animals to sell them fo' money and forgot 'bout the shrine!" Janus said bitterly.

"But they said that the people disappeared too." Trowa frowned.

"Nay, they just left the shrine and never went back." Janus then looked away. "That was a long time ago though." He shrugged. "And what does this ol' man knows 'bout that anyway." He stood up from the rock where he had sat at the beginning of the conversation. "'Tis better for you young folk to go yer ways and don't worry about them ol' stories." He said, suddenly looking very tired.

"But we need to get there, you have to take us!" Makoto all but yelled.

"Please, we need a guide to find the Shrine." Usagi bowed her head.

Looking at both girls, Janus sighed and shrugged defeated. "Fine, have it yer way." He shook his head while the girls smiled their thanks. "We'll leave at dawn in the morrow, so be prepared." He said before leaving.

"I wonder if there is anyone that has refused Usagi's puppy dog eyes." Duo grinned, looking at said girl.

"If there is such person, I don't think I know of." Mamoru smiled looking at the girls hi-five each other while Lluvia rolled her eyes and Ishtar kept glaring at where Janus had left.

"This is going to prove to be one interesting trip." Wufei said as Nataku nodded.

"I thought that it already was." Trowa raised his eyebrow.

"C'mon, we should be going." Quatre said.

"Right." Heero said, "We need to regroup at 600." He finished, however, before anyone could say anything, he shook his head and turned to the girls. "We have to be here in the morning." And with that he began walking towards the Inn.

~~$@~~$@

After packing and grooming their horses, the teens went to the pastures were they found Janus already waiting for them.

"Are ye ready? 'Tis gonna be a long trip." He said while putting a light harness to his horse.

"We're ready." Trowa nodded from his place besides Quatre.

"You know, this getting up early it's not so hard anymore." Usagi smiled.

"Talk for yourself." Duo yawned, receiving a yank on his hair from Heero. "Hey! That hurt!" Duo cradled his braid securely on his arms.

"But you're awake now." Heero shrugged while Wufei snickered.

"Yeah, har har, very funny." Duo snorted.

"C'mon you guys, stop it." Quatre admonished them.

"Hey you guys, have you seen my brush?" Makoto yelled while looking inside her backpack.

"I wonder how they made it so far." Ishtar whispered shaking her head, making Lluvia giggle.

"C'mon lads, time to go." Janus mounted his horse and took off towards the forrest.


~~~$@~~~$@

Fire Dragon "Ok, this is the first part of the Earth Shrine and as you can see I updated really fast! Just one week, wow *pats herself on the shoulder* Anyway, I hope you liked it and maybe I can update the next part as fast as I finish it. Oh well, Ja ne.