Soul Keys

Chapter 3

Heero couldn't believe what he'd just seen, Duo had somehow morphed from that creature. Whether or not that creature was what he'd been born as, Heero didn't know or care, because Duo was severely sickened. He was caught in a great fever and couldn't be ridded of it. Heero quickly reacted by getting Duo off into bed and ice upon his forehead. Duo shivered, and Heero stayed clinging onto his hand as though it would save his friend from the clutches of death. Soon enough, efforts paid off as Duo soon slept soundly through the night. In the morning, much to Heero's relief he had woken all though still looking miserable. Heero sat down the tray with a hot bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice in his lap. "Are you really Duo?" Heero asked, glaring at him carefully.

"Yes, it really is me, Heero. Yes, I was that creature that you saved too." Duo replied.

"Prove it." Heero replied, glaring at Duo harder.

"All right, you managed to convince me to come to you with beef jerky and I also know you looked at this while you bathed me." With that Duo held up the necklace with the cross on it.

"You were really-" Heero started.

"What you didn't see was this," Duo took out from lower in his shirt a gold chain with a key on the end of it. "Or this."

He took the book out of his knapsack that he had carried with him the night before. "Duo, how- how could you become?" Heero tried to ask.

"I am one of the few human beings who have found a part of their soul called an inner beast and unlock it's power," Duo explained. "I have my book of spells written in the language of Soule. Which is the language of the spirits that have been a part of and stayed upon the earth for thousands of years."

"So, what is your inner beast?" Heero asked.

"Each person has an inner beast, only not all of us have discovered it or unlocked it yet. Each is different, but all have similarities. They are not of normal animals, but of ancient animals holding close resemblance to today's creatures," Duo replied. "For example, my beast is called a bauteari, the ancestor to today's common bat. There are also beasts of extinct or mythical creatures."

"How many?," Heero asked.

"I only know about myself for sure, but, this book keeps me informed on new animal beast types." Duo flipped to a page. "For example, some of the more modern animals have started to show up in the book's long lists of beast types. Mind, by modern we're talking a few millennia."

There were beasts written in two long columns and each beast had two dates next to it. "One is the day the species evolved fully and the other is the date of the first key was found for that type of beast." Duo replied.

"Why didn't you come to anyone for help, Duo?" Heero asked.

"I know how to live on the streets, Heero, I done that for most of my first ten years of life," Duo rolled his eyes. "I was doing pretty well too, until the night you found me."

Heero looked at Duo carefully, gauging the similarities between the beast part and human part, surprisingly finding many. "I had gone there to rest from flight when they showed up, I thought I could take them easily enough. Only, they had switch blade knifes, I realized then it just wasn't my day. I was too tired to fly away and with four of them jumping on me at once, I had no chance of protection." Duo replied. "I was going to die, I knew it too."

"But, you acted like an animal." Heero replied.

"That's another fact, in order to unlock the beast part you have to give in a little to it. By the time you showed up, I just let instincts run me for a while," Duo admitted. "Until I realized it was you that was helping me which wasn't until we got here and you started to mend me up."

"Well, if you're going to be stuck out on the streets and if I truly had a heart. Which, Duo, by the way I do have," Heero glared at him. "Then, I might let you stay here."

"Really?" Duo replied.

"Yes, I don't see why not, you really have no where else to go." Heero muttered.

"Oh, Hee- chan thank- you so much!" Duo exclaimed.

"You'll get the couch though." Heero replied.

"It's a done deal," Duo replied. "I usually don't sleep on beds much anyway."

"How'd you get you're key anyway?" Heero asked.

"I found it in the Maxwell Church years ago." Duo replied.

"The Maxwell Church from that incident years ago?" Heero asked.

"I was sent there after the place I was staying at with a ton of other war orphans was demolished for guess what? The military, so I lived there for a while," Duo replied. "I was the only survivor, so if you've wondered on my reasons, that's why I'm in the war in the first place."

"So, you named yourself after the Father of the church?" Heero asked.

"Yup, and my first name is for the urchin that taught me how to survive the streets. His name was Solo, so I'm Duo," Duo explained. "Back to the key, I had given it to the father after I found it along with the book. When I came back, I wasn't the only living person left, Sister Helen was still alive, she gave them back, telling me to keep the two items safe, that night was when I first released my beast part."

"What did you do?" Heero wondered.

"I just wandered, I was without aim, or direction in life at that time. I don't know for how long, except it was a very long time. I let instincts control my body mostly during that time." Duo explained.

"I can imagine why." Heero replied.

"Well, I'm sure that you could find your beast spirit if you really wanted to Heero, you just have to believe it exists and find it." Duo replied.

Duo looked at him with a distant look, one in which Heero could tell three things. Duo was wiser than he let on, he truly believed Heero could find it and he was thinking back on the times he'd had through his life. In that moment, Heero felt he knew Duo completely. Only, as with most moments it slipped away into time and space of the past. Heero was then determined to find his inner spirit beast, just to prove Duo was right. Just to show that he was going to find it.

Only Duo knew the trials that laid ahead of Heero in order to have it work out. They wouldn't be easy to get through, but, Duo would be there the whole way.

End Chapter: Next Chapter, Heero's search for his spirit, will he succeed?