Fukai Mori (temporary title)
Author's Note: These are more parts to the story. I'll probably be combining this with the other parts I have written later on if anyone feels this would be interesting. And yeah, I know there are repeat parts from the other version of this. I just liked how some of the things went. And as I said before, I like the Gypsy/hermit Trowa!
These woods are beautiful at night. Sure, they can be considered equally beautiful in the daylight. The warm dappled light that pierces through the cool green of the trees, the songs of the birds, and the flowers that turn their faces towards the sun. But at night it takes on a different sort of life, a split personality so unlike the one shown in the daylight. The sparkling lights of the fireflies and the soft call of owls as they hunted small, scurrying creatures. Dark dancing shadows amid the shining moon light. This was his world. For centuries he had lived here, though had no sense of the passing of time. It all blurred into a never-ending night that stretched into the dark abyss of memory smothering anything that came before....
Quatre blinked, he had been staring out of the northeast window of the study and saw...something. He went to the window and there, just at the edge of the wood, was a unicorn. Its shining eyes seemed to look right through him and latch onto something deep inside. A thought managed to crawl though the mental haze. Weren't unicorns supposed to be white? Then even that was forgotten as he dashed down the steps and out of the manor to follow the creature. Quatre hesitated at the edge of the woods, but the unicorn looked at him again with those soul-piercing eyes and he was drawn forward. The woods grew darker and darker as they went on. Quatre knew full well in some part of his mind that it was still midday. Weren't those fireflies? He reached a pale, shaking hand towards one. Suddenly, there were hands pressing against his back and before he could turn around to see who it was, Quatre was falling. The sudden impact with the ground, a jostling roll down the steep embankment, and the bone-jarring stop at the bottom cut off his scream. Before consciousness left him completely, he thought he heard musical laughter above him. Then Quatre surrendered to the dark.
'So far, so good,' he thought. The blond boy had been too easy to lure so deeply into the woods. The next part wouldn't be much harder. How he loved this game.
The campfire burned brightly, it's shifting light outlining a single figure seated by it. Long brown bangs covered one side of his face, leaving a single green eye to reflect the firelight. Firelight that suddenly went out. Only a slight widening of the exposed eye and a tightening of muscles gave away his shock. Trowa stood, turned in a slow circle and stopped, staring, at a small floating light. Well, not really a light, just an absence of darkness. Eyeing it suspiciously, Trowa began to back away. Something in the not light twisted and seemed to pull the reluctant boy forward. For only a few short minutes, though they seemed to have the length of hours, he followed the not light and nearly stumbled over a figure on the ground. The anti-darkness hovered for a moment, revealing a pale, richly dressed (never mind he was muddy and tattered from his fall) boy. But before Trowa could get a good look at his face they were plunged into full dark. Kneeling, he checked the boy's pulse, finding that he was still alive, decided to carry him back to his camp. Trowa put one arm under the pale boy's shoulders, tried to snake the other one under his legs, and ended up touching a part of the boy's anatomy that made him pull back his hand, blushing fiercely. 'Thank goodness he's not awake or he'd be screaming rape.' Trowa blushed even more at that thought, managed to get the boy off the ground, and made his way back to camp.
"Perfect!" He grinned; his plan seemed to be going beautifully.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall..." Silence. "............" An angry cloud of smoke appeared on the inside of the glass. "Oh forget it!" A girl with logic defyingly huge forked eyebrows glowered out of the mirror at the girl who couldn't come up with a rhyme if her life depended on it. Relena ignored the mirror's scowl and sat across from it. "Dorothy, I need your help." The girl in the mirror sighed inwardly, Relena had that manic look on her face again and almost nothing could stop her when she was on one of her trips. "Get on with it then." 'May as well pretend I'm listening.' Dorothy got as comfortable as a floating face in a mirror can and listened. "My brother has sent my beloved Heero [insert snort from mirror who has had it up to here about 'beloved Heero'] on a quest to rid the Lord Winner's forest of an evil spirit and rescue his son. And while I feel that it was very brave and selfless of him to volunteer, the Court Seer Une said that in undertaking this quest he shall never be wed to me." Tears welled up in Relena's eyes and her crown tipped sideways on her head, making her looks rather silly. 'I'm sure Heero would be glad to hear that.' Dorothy thought smugly. Ignoring the total lack of support from her mirror, Relena went on. "I want your help in locating him so that I may hurry to his side and be sure not to lose him." Her eyes grew big and dewy, "To travel with my beloved and see him triumph over evil." She sighed happily and obsessively. "Poor Heero," Dorothy muttered before going back to wherever it is that floating mirror faces go when not being harassed by dim-witted princesses, leaving a picture of a forest on the mirror.
The four days of travel from the Peacecraft castle had been the most relaxing thing Sir Heero had ever experienced. Totally free of Relena and her scratching, nerve wrecking voice, her clinging to him like some parasite, and her constant gushing about 'wedding plans'. When Crown Prince Milliardo had told him of the quest he all but jumped for the chance to leave. Heero's habitual scowl lightened slightly as he neared the Winner Estate. He would be joining up with a priest of some sort or another. If it truly was an evil spirit, Heero felt it would do good to have someone who had knowledge of such creatures on his side. Though more likely it was just bandits playing on people's superstitions.
The small village spread out before him and was everything one would expect. Quaint, picturesque, surrounded by neatly plowed fields, and bordered by a small range of mountains and a dense forest. Wasting no more time taking in the scenery, Heero made his way to the Lord's home. The Winner Manor was huge. It had to be, really. Sir Heero had heard that the Lord Winner had twenty-nine daughters and one son. A random servant led Heero into a room off of the great hall. Standing near the hearth on the far side of the room was the Lord Winner and an exotic looking boy in crisp white robes, his dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail. "Ah, good Sir Knight!" Lord Winner greeted Heero warmly, "Do have a seat." He gestured towards three chairs placed comfortably near the fire. As they took their seats he nodded towards the black haired boy. "This is Wufei, High Priest at the Dragon Goddess Nataku's Temple." Wufei inclined his head ever so slightly to Heero, who returned the gesture.