Review reply: El Terrible Fizzy! Thanks for letting me know someone's reading and enjoying this. (little laugh) It'll keep coming (at least until I reach the addendums and run completely out of creativity juice)! Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I in no way own Gundam Wing or AD&D. Don't sue; I'm simply an E5 in the USN, therefore I have no money. Ha.
Notes: dream sequence, Mind speech in dream sequences, Mind speech in normal/awake state
-BEGIN FIC-
The scream echoed through the night.
Sitting straight up in his bedroll, Wufei stared at the fire that blazed merrily in the center of the small campground he and his companions had set up, his eyes wide and droplets of sweat trickling along his brow. Panting quietly, he gulped, attempting to calm the panicked beating of his heart.
By the time his friends had arrived, Wufei had his face buried in his hands, attempting to slow his breathing.
"Neh! What the hell happened?" Duo immediately asked, being down on his knees beside the warrior, hands laying tenderly upon his shoulders, before the other two men could even reach him.
Frowning as he received nothing but silence and soft breathing for an answer, Duo looked helplessly to Heero. "Maybe you can shake some answers out of him, neh?"
Heero shrugged, muttering that it was probably only a nightmare before returning to his bedroll and passing back into the blackness of sleep.
Arching a brow, Trowa shook his head. "Never recall Heero being able to fall asleep within a minute of being awoken when I knew him last."
Duo simply shook his head before returning his attention to the warrior his hands still rested upon. "Neh, Chang..."
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" Blinking slowly, the violet-eyed wizzard snorted. "Listen, buddy. I've known you since your Ma first let you toddle from the house in your undies..."
"Foster Mother."
"Yeah, whatever. Details. But I know you don't get bent out of shape over dreams..."
Casting his gaze at Duo, Wufei sighed, lowering his hands and folding them neatly in his lap. "I don't."
"Then what the fuck's wrong?"
"She..."
Duo just let his head fall, his neck loose like overcooked spaghetti. "C'mon, man. That was, like, 4 years ago..." Immediately ducking, expecting the usual response to that stark reminder, the mage jerked his hands away from the man, attempting to shield himself from the inevitably coming whack over his skull.
He was shocked when he got nothing. Looking up, he stared at the warrior who simply gazed into the fire, his eyes wide and vacant.
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Otto huffed and puffed as he climbed up the stairs.
'How many floors does this damned place have?' his brain screamed, even as he began the next spiral to lead to yet the next level of the twisting structure he roamed through.
And so suddenly that he almost ran face first into the large pine door, the staircase came to an abrupt end.
Blinking, Otto reached for the door handle. He wasn't shocked a bit when the door opened for him.
Warily entering the chamber beyond he glanced about. Whistling in appreciation he nodded.
He'd seen spell libraries, but this was one of the best yet.
Spellbooks lined every available bit of wall space that the room held and were littered about on multitudes of podiums and tables that chocked the chamber so full that it was nearly impossible to imagine maneuvering through it. Flickering candlelight so filled the room that it was nearly as bright as day, needing no assistance from the curtained windows to light the large area.
He was no mage, but he could still appreciate the sheer volume of wisdom and power that was encased in the room he stood in.
"So what do you think, Otto?"
The man nearly jumped out of his skin, startled by the ancient, laughing voice that had muttered its question right behind him. Turning sharply on his heel, Otto let his shoulders slack when he realized who he was facing and placed a hand over his chest, feeling the rapid beating of his heart slowly calm itself.
"Most impressive, m'Lord."
"Oh, no need for all this 'm'Lord' speak, my dear boy. Just call me by name. So much more friendly and personable, isn't it? Such makes for a more relaxed environment, where we can speak as equals and you can tell me why VonWinner sent you to me."
"Of course... Elminster."
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Trowa looked over his shoulder as they rode along the forest path slowly heading east towards Bone Mountain, intending to swing south once they hit the trade roads and get themselves to Ormath.
News of work in the Shining Plains heard from the mercenaries they'd recently stolen their new horses from definitely lightened the hearts of the four adventurers, but it did nothing to alleviate the new problem they had.
Frowning, the acrobat slowed his pace to fall back beside their rear guard, leaving Duo alone in the middle of the small pack.
"Wufei."
Trowa just stared as the warrior rode in silence, his eyes closed and his brow furrowed.
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Wufei glanced about the flowery field, his eyes widened.
"Why am I seeing this!"
Day dreaming again, neh?
Turning sharply on his heel in the direction he'd imagined the mysterious voice had emerged from, the eastern boy snarled viciously. "I never have before. What are you doing to me? Why? Who are you!"
Tormenting you. Because it's fun. That's for me to know, and for you to never find out.
"Bastard."
He cringed, hearing that unidentified voice laughing at him.
Look behind you.
"No."
Oh? You don't care to see her again?
"Every time I look, she's... you..."
Heh. Maybe she is. Maybe she's whole and pure, as she was before you left her to die, refusing to turn and look just as you are now...
"Shut up."
Do you know how she still loathes you for letting her be murdered like that, by those creatures?
"She... she doesn't!"
And how would you know that? Are you a cleric, able to speak with the dead? I think not.
"NEITHER ARE YOU!"
Laughing, the voice rang around him, its light, nearly feminine tone touching every orifice of his body at the same time, leaving the warrior disoriented even in his dream. Ah, but you don't know that. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm a priest who was gifted with the talent. Or maybe I'm someone who CAN touch the spirit world. Hell, maybe I'm FROM it...
"A... spirit...?"
Maybe.
"Why haunt me!"
I have my reasons.
"WHAT? WHY!"
Laughter sounded again. Because you're so fun to torment. The way your face flushes red as a tomato as you scream in fury is hilarious to watch.
Clenching his fists, he turned.
"Wufei..."
And he stared.
She was smiling at him, lightly caressing the petals of a rose with perfect, slender fingers, her onyx eyes so like his own glistening with joy, her hair pulled away from her face into twin ponytails to leave her perfect, round face free to the breeze that raced over the flowery field.
"Meiran..."
He was still staring in complete and utter shock as the shadow of feathered wings spread across the ground under her.
And he screamed as the curved edge of a scimitar blazed through her, slicing the imagined image into ribbons of flowing red silk.
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Eyes snapping open, the young man stared wildly around himself.
They were still riding in that same forest. Trowa was at his side, looking at him with no small amount of question and deep concern in his dark emerald eyes.
And that voice, the very voice that mocked him in his dreams, echoed with giggles around him filling the very trees with its haunting tone.
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The elderly man pressed his fingers together, nodding as Otto finished his tale.
"Tis a very serious situation your Lord has gotten himself into. Very serious indeed..."
"That's why he wants you, oh greatest of mages, to assist him."
"Well."
"Will you take him up on his offer?"
Taking a sip of an instantaneously conjured glass of wine, the white bearded human smiled. "Nay."
"Why not?"
"Because I'll not support a quest against that poor creature."
Narrowing his eyes, Otto sighed. "Then I return empty handed?"
"You didn't let me finish my statement."
Bowing his head, Otto looked sheepishly at the mage before him.
"UNLESS. You prove that the freedom of that wee little critter will endanger these realms enough to necessitate my involvement."
"How should I do that, sir?"
Cackling, the mage raised his hand to the air. "That is for you to figure out, boy."
Otto blinked, as he felt water seeping into his shoes.
Looking down, he was utterly amazed to find himself standing in the middle of a dew-soaked field, the tower he'd just spent the entire day in no where to be seen.
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Duo hummed merrily, picking through the small thicket they'd found and decided to set down in for the noontime meal. He'd found some interesting herbs that he was certain he could pummel into some intriguing mix that might or might not have some magical potential, and was intent on finding everything that may be useful that the small area contained.
"You are worse than a pack rat," Heero muttered behind his back.
Turning, Duo grinned and waved a dandelion at the grim warrior, lightly patting his nose with the flowery head of the weed. "You never know when this stuff will come in useful."
Arching a brow, Heero wrinkled his nose. "When will weeds be useful?"
"Didn't'cha know that they can be made into potions?"
Both brows were arched now. "Really?" Walking over to the mage's side he lightly circled his arm around Duo's waist. "What would you use that for?"
Trowa, meanwhile, just watched the two with a slight smile on his lips. 'It's good that they've finally found each other... pity Duo couldn't have known Heero before, though.'
Turning he resumed poking the small fire he'd started, trying to get it to actually take. He wasn't used to building fires.
That was normally Wufei's job and he apparently was indisposed at the moment.
That rare smile fell from his lips, leaving them in his more customary emotionless mask.
'Wonder what's happening to him...'
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Wufei stood by the small creek's edge, staring into its waters as it swiftly flowed over its rocks towards the sea, directly along the path they'd been following, running opposite of their desired direction.
He was still hearing the giggling.
Clenching his fists, he threw his head back, screaming at the heavens to reveal the villain who was plaguing his mind.
The giggling erupted into full-blown laughter.
You'll see me only when I decide the time is right.
"Damn you!" Wufei snarled at the sky above, before turning sharply on his heel to march back to the sanctity of the company of his friends.
And walking into the sunlight, he failed to notice the shadow that splayed itself out directly behind him.
The image of fabric billowed by the wind into a pattern similar to spread wings and the shadow of a curved scimitar, laid upon the ground by the sun's gentle rays, vanished into the chaotic array of dapples created by the leaves of the trees.
tbc...
