Part III of the Creature Chronicles

"Of Fire and Blood"

By: Princess Sassafras

Notes: Wufei-centric. And you may even detect a hint of Spiderman comic lore.

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There was something under the safe-house floorboards, and Wufei could hear it moving. At first he suspected possum, or raccoon, or even cats too far out in the wild to be tame. But the scrabbling and scratching he heard wasn't…normal.

He dropped a dish in the kitchen when, through the countertop above the sink pipes, he felt a sudden and powerful vibration. He kept feeling these strange vibrations all through the house.

They—he and Barton—found several cleanly scraped skeletons of foxes in the snow, and some birds with only the heads and feathers and bones left in neat piles. It was quite unnerving; what creature could be so careful, so precise?

Wufei knew…he wasn't sure how he knew, but he did…that the creature that had created those bone piles was under their floor. He resolved to be rid of it.

He covered himself from neck to toe in thick beaten leather, and wore a black ski cap and protective eyewear. He armed himself with tools for removing boards and bricks, a gun, a stunner, and his bowie knife. He was glad for Duo's absence; he most certainly would have gotten James Bond jokes.

He began his demolition of the lower eastern side of the northern wall at daybreak, when Barton had gone into the city fifty-three miles away to investigate the source of an unknown mobile suit shipment.

He busily chipped away at the brick with a small pick and hammer, finally reaching the insulated space behind. He had created a hole just big enough for a man of his size and flexibility to crawl through. He wriggled his way inside. Once in, he trained the yellow beam of his flashlight along each section of the darkness, until he saw the way was clear. He crawled forward.

The thick dust and mold crept up on his nostrils, assailing them. He was grateful for his protective eyewear, but it did nothing to help his now itching lungs.

He dragged his belly in the dirt at a very slow rate, pausing every few seconds to run the flashlight along each supportive wooden beam and the shadows that surrounded it.

He put one hand before the other, and each knee, inching… until he felt something soft and broken crunch beneath his right hand. He pulled his hand away, sticky, and put the beam of the flashlight on the ground in front of him. A half mangled bird lay in the dirt. And his hand was sticky with blood. It was still warm, the corpse, and not eaten. Wufei felt a thrill of fear. And he did not often feel such things.

He heard the noise again, suddenly. And this time it was not muffled by any floorboards; it was right in front of him. He raised the beam, slowly, and found himself staring into the face of a lizard.

No. No, that was impossible. No lizard was that large, not even a Komodo. It was low to the ground like a Komodo, but its legs were not as awkward. It glimmered in the dark, a deep black-green, and its eyes were like smoldering coals. Something rushed against his face in the dark, like a wind, and he saw the shadow of…great wings…half-unfolding above the lizard's head. Its long throat bulged suddenly at the center in a great red bubble, which flashed bright like a bowl of fire, and then rolled up its neck to rest just beneath its jaw. Wufei knew that it was fire. His fingers were on his Bowie, but the creature had its own weapon at the ready. If Wufei showed in any way that he was a threat, this cold creature would let loose its torrent. Wufei would die. So he remained perfectly still.

It took a long time for the bubble to lower itself, and then sink back down into the creature's rumbling belly (thus the vibrations). This gave Wufei time to study it.

Its sleek nose tapered into a horned head, then sleeked back out into a serpent-like neck. Its body was low and thick, but its feet were almost like a bird of prey's. The claws on these scaly feet were pearly white and over four inches long. The tips of fangs dripping something—probably not pleasant—lay curved against its grinning jaw. And he heard the swishing of an unseen…tail.

Heat flooded Wufei's body at the realization of what this terrifying thing was. He found himself not just afraid, but overjoyed. Excitement laced his blood. What can this mean? That my ancestors did not just talk of myths, but of reality? That the Dragon Clan is based on something real, not fictional? That this creature is…

The creature moved.

It side wind-stepped—just like a Komodo—towards him so quickly he feared for a moment that it would close its jaws around his unprotected arm or head. But it merely lowered its triangle face and stared at him with dangerous red eyes. Very intelligent eyes.

It seemed to grin wider at him in the dark—and Wufei knew he didn't imagine it. It raised a clawed foot and lowered it sharply, sinking one long pearly claw into the back of Wufei's exposed hand. Wufei let out a hiss of pain, but was too afraid to move or jerk away. The creature watched him, its long curved mouth raising even more in a grin, exposing rows of jagged teeth. After a few painful moments, in which the creature dug its claw through his flesh, it relented and drew away. But still it watched him, even as he clutched his bleeding hand to his chest.

Its grin subsided.

Though he felt pain, Wufei felt no greater fear than he had before, nor any new hostility. This creature was not evil, only curious. Somehow Wufei knew that, like a child with a baby animal, it only pressed down to see how far something would bend before it broke. To see how much it took to cause it injury. And then it had done as a child would also, and stared in fascination. He was to this thing exactly what it was to him. A curiosity. Something new. A strange mystery.

The only difference between them was that Wufei was still afraid, though he did not think that the creature was. He bound his bleeding hand with a rag, the glistening lizard watching him quietly all the while.

He shortly noticed something he had not noticed before: a glimmer apart from the body of the thing. Adjacent to its rear, where Wufei supposed a tail must be curled, were rounded shimmering shadows in a similar hue as the dragon's eyes. As Wufei stared he became more and more certain that these were eggs. The creature was, after all, reptilian. And it was, if those really were eggs, female. Wufei was so intent upon the eggs he must have swayed a fraction of an inch in their direction. Sensing some danger perhaps, the great lizard shifted abruptly, throwing her body in front of her brood to face him, her throat bubbling and her belly thrumming. This time she let her instincts fly; Wufei threw his body to the ground as a jet of searing fire shot over his head. He had to get out before he was killed!

The creature was backing up quickly now, curling itself protectively around its treasures. Wufei, too, began to back up. He inched backwards until the only things he could see were two red eyes in the shadows, and then until he could see nothing and his lower half met the cold outside world. He had not realized how very warm it had been under the house.

He rushed inside to tend his wound.

The puncture was deep, almost through his hand, but it was not bleeding very much. In fact, the blood seemed to be coagulating at the site of the puncture, and turning a strange shade of deep green. Wufei's heart raced as he saw it, his breath choking in his throat. What poison have I been injected with? How long do I have until I die?

It didn't pain him anymore; that was the strange thing. His hand felt swollen and it was throbbing, but there was no pain. He began to feel, as he sat there watching his own blood turn green and clot, and the wound reseal itself, that a great burning sensation was spreading throughout his body. The cold room seemed to melt around his smoldering skin. Did he have a fever?

He sat at the kitchen counter for hours, it seemed, watching his wound heal fully, until only a strange smudged outline was left in its place. The heat in him peaked and then subsided, centering itself in the pit of his belly, just above his loins. He accepted this quietly, but still felt the nagging fear that he was experiencing some sort of slow death.

He heard the door open and then shut, and Trowa's footsteps on the planks. He sat silent, still stunned, until he felt Trowa's form bending over him.

"Are you ill?" Trowa asked, matter of fact.

"I am not sure." Wufei replied truthfully.

Trowa paused for a moment, and then when Wufei said nothing else, proceeded to remove his coat and deposit his belongings on the kitchen table. Then he turned around again. It was not like him to ask so many questions, but if Wufei had looked up at the other man he would have noticed his pique of interest.

"What has happened?" he asked.

Wufei thought how to best reply. "That…thing…under the floorboards. I…met it today."

"Met?" Trowa now stared at him very keenly.

"Yes, well, it isn't…normal. It…" here Wufei held up his pale and perfectly healed hand, "…pierced me, but the wound is gone. It has healed! But it wasn't normal either; it barely bled! And the thing…it is still there. Down there. And I feel…as if…I might be dying. Or…changing." Wufei frightened himself with that last revelation; even he had not expected to say it.

After such an impossible revelation, what could Wufei expect but Trowa's concern for his mental health? Or his actual health? Perhaps the poison.

But Trowa stared at him intently for a while, obviously deep in thought, until he came and sat across from Wufei at the counter. Looking purposefully away from Wufei and out the kitchen window, he said quietly, "You're not dying, or you would know it."

"I KNOW that Barton!" Wufei exploded. "I KNOW THAT, DAMNIT, BUT I DO NOT FEEL…CORRECT! I am…!" Wufei suddenly found himself incapable of speech. Or he could have spoken, but he feared that he would have injured his comrade. For the heat had rushed from the pit of his belly to his throat with such a quick intensity he knew it could be nothing other than fire. He choked on it, struggling to push it back down.

Trowa was staring at him again, and after watching his silent struggle, said quite plainly, "What is one more strange gift…to strange and gifted men like us?"

Wufei stared at him in amazement for a long moment.

Then he pulled himself upward and went across the kitchen to get a glass of cold water.

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