[A.N.] Hello everyone! Here is the next chapter for Pure As Snow! I hope you are enjoying it! I have been wanting to do this fic for a while and, though I really don't have the time and should be doing homework, I am writing instead. -_-' oh well! I enjoy it! Thank you all for reading! I hope you will review and let me know what you think as I aim to please! Enjoy!
Pure As Snow: Ch. 3
Lady Une screamed and threw a vase across the room and turned from the mirror. The girl had escaped. She had been watching the entire pursuit, enjoying the sight of the young princess's futile attempt to escape her guards. She controlled the city; had eyes and ears waiting around every corner and her mirror gave her the ability to see whatever she wished. She watched as they finally apprehended her, holding her in place. She turned away at that point, confident that the chase was over. She could tell by their actions what they wanted to do and though she cared not, had no desire to watch. However, as she turned she heard the guard ask a question to a random man and watched as that one man took out her guards quickly and effectively.
As the man carried off the princess she felt the blood rush through her veins growled in frustration. She paced back and forth, plans rolling through her mind. This would be problematic. While the princess lived she could rally an army in her defense. She could gather a large enough force to stand up and take the kingdom back. This could not be allowed to happen. She turned to the mirror.
"Mirror, mirror show to me where the princess and her rescuer be." The mirror began to blur, for some reason she could not see either figure or their surroundings. She growled. "Mirror! What's wrong?"
"Truth to tell I do not know why their image will not show."
"What?!" She looked again, trying desperately to make something out, but nothing appeared. As she thought about it, through the whole chase she had only seen the guards, or see the girl through the guards' eyes. What had changed? She had been able to see her in the stable. She paced back and forth. She needed to find the girl and fast but if the mirror could not locate her than she would have to do so by using other means. "Mirror, mirror, hear my command, summon my huntsman from his place in the land." The mirror rippled and the usual figure was replaced by that of a man wearing a silver mask that obscured the top portion of his face from view. "Huntsman."
"My queen." She smirked at his obedient response.
"I require your services in rectifying a… problematic situation."
"You have but to name the task, my queen."
"I was hoping you would say that." She paused, thinking about how to word her order. When dealing with any sort of magic, such as invoking a figure in a mirror words must be spoken clearly and to the point. "The princess has run away. She was taken by a man with unruly brown hair. I do not care what you do to him, but find her and bring her to me."
"It shall be done my queen." She bowed his head and the image slowly faded. She felt a small sense of relief but could not relax, not yet, not until the Relena was back in the castle and at her mercy. And indeed she would be at her mercy. Before she was only going to have the guards kill her quickly and quietly, but now things were different. She had plans for the girl, horrible plans. She laughed at the thought of her conquest. The girl would die and the kingdom would be forever hers and there was nothing the little princess could do about it.
"Everything will soon fall into place." She rubbed her hands together and then dismissed the mirror, never seeing the look of sadness in his blue-grey eyes.
Duo leaned back in the hair, a glass of ale half-drained on the table and Hilde on his lap. He hadn't felt like going to bed so he and Hilde decided to sample the many different kinds of beverages offered at the establishment. He regaled the fellow patrons with his stories about his many adventures in distant lands; the majority of them being complete fabrications, although they didn't need to know that. He was in the middle of his favorite story where he had been taken hostage by pirates that had seized the ship he was on and was ransomed for a small fortune that left his family destitute. As he got to the climax of his tale the tavern door burst open. Standing there shadowed in the dim light was Heero. It was normal for Heero to stalk about at night by himself but what was strange was how he returned. In his arms was the body of a young woman. Duo stood up, almost dumping Hilde from his lap and the two walked to him.
"Heero, when I told you I thought you needed to meet more women this wasn't what I had in mind." As he began to laugh, walking forward, Hilde pushed passed him.
"What happened? Is she alright?"
"She's fine. She was exhausted and passed out."
"Yeah, I get that, but what happened?"
"Not here." He motioned towards the stairs. Duo and Hilde, taking his hint, followed him up and opened the door of the room he had reserved for the girls. By this time, Duo's big mouth had lured the other men into the room as well. He walked past Catherine, Sally and Dorothy who now were all looking up concerned. He gently laid her down on the bed, pausing a moment over her. There were no visible wounds from her skirmish with the guards. Sally pushed past them and walked to their side, sitting next to the girl. She placed her hand on her pulse points and on her forehead.
"What happened?" Sally asked. Her parents had been apothecaries in her homeland before they died and she had learned a lot from them by watching. He hoped she might be able to do something to help her. He told all of them as much as he knew which wasn't much considering her still had no idea why the men had been chasing her. "I see." She said. "This girl is dehydrated and seemed to have passed out from sheer exhaustion. Nothing serious but we should all be careful. We do not want her panic when she wakes up so the fewer people we have in here the better, so guys, out. Ladies, if you wish to remain, be sure to give her space." As they all backed away, Quatre stepped forward and stared at woman.
"I know her." They all froze and looked at him, Heero more than the others. "This is Princess Relena." Which was followed by a chorus of 'The princess?'
"How do you know?" Heero found himself asking before he even realized he had spoken.
"When my father would go out on business or to various royal social occasions he would take me with him because I was his only son. I met her once at one of the balls although it was so long ago I doubt she'll remember me." Duo pushed passed him then to get a closer look.
"A princess, huh? It ain't every day we get one of those around here. But if she's a royal why were they chasin' her?" he leaned in to get a better look. Hilde walked up and pulled his braid.
"You idiot. Ally said she needs space. The last thing she needs to do is wake up and see your face staring at her." As if summoned by her words however, the princess's eyes slowly fluttered open. They all held their breath and waited to see what she would do.
Relena vaguely heard voices that seemed so distant and yet so near. Her head hurt and her body ached but she was alive. But where? She opened her eyes, slowly; the light blinded her for a moment making her blink a few times. When her sight finally focused she saw a pair of violet eyes staring at her. She blinked again, assessing her situation. She sat up rather quickly, her eyes scanning the room. There were at least nine people around her; four women and five men and all of them staring at her like a bunch of frightened deer. They weren't dressed like soldiers. They didn't look like they worked for the queen. As she studied them her eyes found the same deep blue of the man who rescued her from the soldiers. As their eyes met, she found relief flooded through her. She sighed softly, letting out a breath she didn't know she's been holding. She smiled then, softly, and they all seemed to relax.
"Hello." She said, her voice meeker than she'd wanted. They returned her smile, one of them, the one with the violet eyes laughed and walked forward.
"Hey princess." He said. "You had us scared there for a moment." She stiffened. They knew she was the princess?
"Duo, give her some space. Do you want to scare her?" A young woman with short dark hair stepped forward and grabbed the man's long braid.
"Ow ow ow ow. Hilde babe! Easy on the hair." So their names were Duo and Hilde. So many names and so many faces. Luckily she was used to having to remember such things. She found herself laughing at this tiny comic scene, a feeling she needed at the moment to release some of the tension. One of the taller women stepped forward with light-brown hair curled into twists down alongside her face.
"Hello. My name is Sally. How are you feeling?" Relena looked at the woman for a moment and then thought about the question. Her arms and legs were sore from running and being man-handled. She probably would have a few bruises for several days but her headache was slowly fading.
"I'm…" Scared? Shaken up? Sad? Confused? "Alright…"
"You've been through a lot. I'd say alright is probably an understatement." She walked forward slowly.
"How did I get here?"
"Heero found you and carried you here. From the sound of it, you're lucky he arrived when he did." One of the men with short, light blonde hair stated. Her mind flashed back to the sight of the captain undoing his belt with lust in his eyes. She fought back a shiver.
"Heero?" Her eyes went to the man who had rescued her. The sound of his name seemed highly appropriate given the circumstances.
"You might say that he's literally your Heero." Duo said and Hilde, whom she guessed was his girlfriend, elbowed him in the stomach. She continued to stare at Heero, her eyes locked with his as she tried to discern his thoughts.
"This must be a little overwhelming for you." The blonde man said again, breaking her from Heero's gaze. She looked at the blonde man. He seemed familiar.
"Do I know you?" She asked.
"I'm surprised you remember. We met a long time ago at one of balls."
"Of course I remember. You're Quatre Raberba Winner, the only son of Lord Winner. You're the only one at the ball that didn't treat me like I was some sort of pedestaled idol."
"We did have a few good conversations that night."
"Yes. I was relieved to have found someone there as uncomfortable as I was." He laughed at her comment and she found herself giggling along. There was something about this company overall that she just liked that made her feel safe. She only known these strangers for a few moments but already felt like they were people she could trust.
"I hate to break up this moment of weakness but might I point out she was the one running from the guards. We don't know anything about her." This was said by an Asian man whose arms were crossed stubbornly across his chest. He stepped forward but despite his unfriendly demeanor she wasn't intimidated. She simply stared at him. "How do we know they didn't have a good reason for chasing her?"
"Oh, very good Wufei. We definitely shouldn't trust someone the evil oppressive queen clearly wants dead. I am amazed with your astute observation. This came from a woman standing in the back of the room watching them all. Her pale blonde hair was ridiculously long, as were her eyebrows which forked out freakishly on her forehead. Her grey eyes were full of sarcasm.
"Dorothy's right, Wufei, lay off. She's had a rough night." This came from a tall man in the back of the room, his light brown hair hung over one of his deep green eyes, obscuring it from view.
"Trowa's right too. We all know the queen has been up to no good for a while now." A woman with curly brown hair and grey-violet eyes added. She stared at her for a moment. "Oh my gosh! We haven't even introduced ourselves yet. "My name is Catherine, but I go by Cathy too. This is my brother, Trowa. Then there's Duo and Hilde, you know Quatre and this is Dorothy. You've met Wufei. This is Sally and then of course you've met Heero." At the mention of his name, her eyes locked with his again. There was something about his gaze that enthralled her. "And that's all of us. Think you can remember all that?"
"I think so. I've been following along."
"Good! See, I told you she'd be fine." Duo said which earned him a slap on the back of the head.
"Ok. You saved her. She's alive. But what do we do with her now?" Wufei chimed in.
"What do you mean?" Catherine asked.
"Her presence here is a threat to us all."
"Wufei!"
"How could you?" They all started yelling at him debating his words.
"No, he's right." Her comment stopped them. "I am endangering you all." She looked across the room, her eyes falling once more on Heero. "I thank you for saving me, and for hiding me until I awoke, but I really must leave." At her words, Heero's posture visibly stiffened.
"No!" more than one of them chorused at the same time.
"You can't."
"She'll kill you!"
"You wouldn't stand a chance!"
"But I can't stay. Please understand. The queen is as powerful as she is cruel. The only life that should be at risk here is mine."
"You're staying." All eyes went to Heero, the source of this comment. She shook her head and was about to protest but his gaze made her think twice. All eyes were on her, waiting for her response. She sighed and smiled.
"That settles it then! You're one of us now!" They all walked toward her then, crowding her but instead of feeling crowded she felt wanted. A night that had started so horribly was no on the right track.
"I do not approve of this weakness, but I suppose there is some justice in protecting this girl from the queen." Wufei crossed his arms.
"That's his way of sayin' welcome to the club." Duo said as he plopped down next to her.
"Heero, I hate to say it, but if the queen's guards are looking for her it won't be long before they make their way here." Trowa said.
"He's right, Heero. We should probably get moving.
"Very well. Let's pack up and meet at the wagons as soon as possible. I want us to be on the road in less than ten minutes." They all agreed and began to move around collecting their things. She watched as they packed up with a precision that could only have come from years of such procedures. Sally tossed her a shawl and handed her a dress.
"Here, put these on. It will help us hide you until we've left the city. I'll help you put them on." As she changed, she held up her royal gown; real silk and lace. It might be worth something in the next village. Anything she could do to help them she would even if it meant parting with the only thing she had left of home than she would gladly do it. She folded it and tossed it into one of the bags. With Sally's help she was finished getting dressed and ready in no time and on her way out the door when she saw Heero standing there. He was holding her cloak. She smiled at him.
"Here. The wagons can be chilly." He slipped it around her shoulders and she couldn't help the blush that burned her cheeks. He stepped back as she fastened it and looked up to thank him but he had already walked away. She stared after his retreating form as a hand landed on her shoulder.
"Don't feel bad. Heero's that way with everyone. He'll speak his mind and walk away just as quickly." He smiled at her. "Unless you were looking for other reasons." What he was suggesting with his tone of voice made her blush again. "Heh! Gotcha!" He smiled a charming smile and winked.
"Duo quit teasing the poor girl!" Hilde came up behind her and chided her boyfriend before turning to her. "Ready to go, your highness?" She paused and looked at her new friend.
"Relena." Hilde turned and looked at her. "We're friends now. Call me Relena, please."
"Sure thing!" The other girl smiled as Catherine and Sally called out for them to go to the wagons. Hilde walked ahead. Relena watched for a moment as they all slowly climbed into the wagon. She smiled. They were a rag-tag band, a diverse group of individuals but they were now the only friends she had.
"Hurry up, Lena! Let's go!" She grinned at them and ran to the wagon, stopping to get in. She felt him behind her then, he reached out and helped her up the steps. She felt a jolt as his hand touched hers and locked eyes with him.
"Keep yourself hidden and stay down and you'll be safe." He turned and began to walk away.
"Thank you." She said as this, he paused and turned his head and nodded to her. When she was inside the wagon lurched forward and their journey began. She watched with a heavy heart as her home slowly vanished behind her. No, not her home, not anymore. Her home was this wagons, these people her family, if only until she could come back and set things right. She turned to look at the other girls receiving a welcoming grin from Sally. Yes, her adventure had indeed begun but at least she wouldn't have to experience it alone.