Another -8 july'12
Disclaimer: G-boys are not saru's... and saru already forgotten the details of the anime too.
chapter 13
"Commander Odin is here, Sir!" the guard saluted.
"Send him in...!" the General nodded.
Then one of the double doors to the General's study opened, and Odin came in with an utterly pissed off look on his face; the frightened guard saluted once more and immediately fled the room.
The General took a long pause, smiling kindly at Odin who was glaring deaths at him. Probably, he waited for the man to break the silence first, that way he could think of some excuses to defend himself; but Odin knew better than to surrender to that urge.
Finally the General gave in, not because Odin's death-glare got to him, but because his facial muscles got tired from smiling for that long; he sighed and stood up from his chair and walked to the front of his desk, resting his weight there while folding his arms in a relax manner.
"Good to see you again, Commander; any report?" his benevolent voice asked conversationally. Not getting an answer immediately, he asked again; "Have you rested yet? You do look like you need a patch or two..." his gentle smile bloomed again. But the Commander only stood rigid in the middle of the room, his air turned colder with every question he heard.
The General sighed again, and poured the wine from the bottle on his desk into a glass and finished it with a swig. "Need a drink?" he asked at Odin, and chuckled when Odin narrowed his eyes at him.
Then he walked towards Odin, putting his hands behind his back and presented his face at the man. "Okay, you can hit me once. I'll take it, but not in the face, please."
Witnessing that manipulating smile and the confidence shone in the General's eyes, Odin was barely aware that he was pulling his mouth end to gnarl at the blonde man.
The General waited and watched with innocent wide eyes when Odin didn't make a move. "...why not?" he asked eventually.
Odin knew he was being manipulated that way. "With all due respect, General..." he said low in an almost beast-purring voice, "Just once wouldn't suffice...!"
"Woah! Give me some mercy, I'd be dead if you beat the crap out of me...!" the General pulled himself a couple steps behind reflexively, faking a surprised frightened face, although he sounded serious as well.
They silenced for some breaths span, measuring each other.
"Where's Heero...?" the General asked glancing at the empty space behind Odin, though he didn't have to do that to notice that the demon wasn't tailing the man.
"He's not with me." Odin growled, giving the General accusing glare.
The General cleared his throat and rested back on his desk. "Yes." he commented.
"He cut his links with me." Odin added.
The General chuckled skeptically at that, brushing at Odin's words as a joke, but stopped abruptly when he realized the man didn't joke. "...is that right?" he hesitantly asked.
Odin snorted and walked to the General, closing their bodies and bowed to whisper at the blonde's right ear; "What did you expect...?"
The smells of blood and sweat and medicine wafted from Odin's body, mixed with an unearthly fragrance of some flowers he'd never smelled before. The mix was intoxicating and alerting, swaying the General's awareness with a promise of a blissful realm. He smiled; staring back into Odin's eyes from the ends of his eyes.
"Thank-you for your hard work, Odin; I'll see you when both of you are ready." the General said calmly.
Odin narrowed his eyes, ". . . Treize...!" he purred his warning out, but the General's smile didn't waver; Odin knew the blonde wouldn't waver once he'd determined to do something, so he accepted the words as they worth, knowing he didn't really want to punch the General's face when he hadn't really heard all's reasons. Later, when his demon had returned, he'd deal with the General depending on how Heero's doing then; he promised to himself and pulled away from the young man without another word.
Then Odin stopped about two paces from the doors; "...the men?" he asked curtly.
The General smiled at his back, "Thank-you for keeping them alive." he said with a tint of self-satisfaction. "Don't worry, I'll up their ranks one level." he added as an afterthought.
Odin glanced behind, "You better be, or I'll provoke them to rebel you!"
"Now, now, Commander; such joke is not meant to be said with a grim face, someone might think that you're serious about it...!" the General waved playfully, and jumped when Odin closed the door hard enough to rattle the furniture and all.
He grimaced at the swaying chandelier above the room, and scratched his head with a deep sigh.
Odin stomped angrily to his room, any innocent by-standers unlucky enough to meet him on his way ducked to save themselves behind whatever suddenly-barriers they could find. When he got into his room, he made sure he closed the door with an unnecessary force. The by-standers who were around the area scooted on the floor from behind their suddenly-barriers and peered at the door after some time; mostly to see whether the hurricane had passed so they could continue their ways instead of being curious.
Suddenly the door was opened again, Odin stood rigid still wearing his pissed off look, glaring deaths at the floor and the corridor wall in front of his door. The by-standers swallowed their nervousness and jumped in fright when Odin banged the door closed again harder than the first time.
The by-standers watched wide-eyed at the door which now had a broken hinge, grateful that the man was back inside without lashing his anger at anyone there.
". . . -that... that was really unnecessary..." a little Palace-aide whispered to a guard who so-happen took the same statue's base as their barrier; "What is he, a child...?"
Although the guard was gaping with pale face gesturing to the aide to say nothing.
"...and what would you be?" Odin growled suddenly appearing beside the statue.
"I'm sorry, I'll dig my own grave now, Commander...!" the guard prostrated flat on the floor; while the aide, still squatting normally, looked up at Odin's face with a dignified frown, eventhough his shoulders were trembling.
Odin leered at the boy, enjoying the sight of him biting his lower lip and made his trembling chin even more visible. "You work in the document section?" he asked noticing the tunic the boy wore.
"...I'm... I'm...-!" the young aide widened his eyes, wasn't sure if he was allowed to do whatever the Commander going to tell him (that for some reason, he saw it on the man's face that he was going to order him to do something dangerous).
"You can leave, Guard...!" Odin said flatly to the man on the floor.
"Yessirthankyou...!" the guard said in an instant and literally ran from there, several hasty sounds from other directions told them that the other hiding by-standers were running away from the scene as well.
"So, do you know the way around the library...?" Odin asked after he was sure there was only the two of them there. The aide stared Odin with gaping mouth now, what if the Commander would ask him to search for some secret information which he'd be killed for obtaining them, his mind warned him.
"I need some dependable records about the old-wisdom age; do you know...?" Odin left his question hanging, knowing the aide was already imagining the worst.
"...Old-" the aide shook his head to pull his mind back; "...old-wisdom...?"
"Do you know?" Odin repeated flatly.
"I-... I work in the finance section...!" the aide tried.
Odin snorted. "Forget it, then...!"
"But..." the aide called at Odin's back, "...but I spend a lot of my free time in the library...! Could I be of some help-...?" he shrunk when Odin's sharp eyes landed on him again.
"What's your name?" Odin asked the aide fidgeting on the floor.
"Vi...Vim, Sir..." the aide said staring at the floor.
"You work here?" Odin asked; he knew every faces working in the Palace; although some sections circulated their workers rapidly, but that's all the more reason he had to know about this new face.
"I was just transferred here from the City Magistrate's office last month, Sir..."
"You're young." Odin pointed; the aide looked no older than 13 years old, probably even younger; he had round small glasses on his nose, barely providing for his wide blue eyes.
"I was scouted from Arn'crad's University last year, Sir..."
"Hoo? ...a prodigy!" Odin smirked.
"No... not at all, Sir. I failed the entry test...!" the aide admitted, bowing his grey head even more.
Odin's brows arched. "You're not a student?"
"Aah... I have the eyes to find things faster than anyone...!" the aide added with a smaller voice.
"What...?" Odin asked incredulously, that was a silly reason for the Government workers to be employing a boy, it just showed how much they were lazy to do things; and just then he thought those people had started using their right mind for scouting good-sprouts, all the more that Arn'crad was known for their scholars.
"Stand up; how old are you?" Odin said; the boy complied, the tunic looked baggy now that he was on his feet.
"I'll be 12 this year, Sir." the boy looked up at Odin's with wide innocent eyes then, "I'll find the books you wanted...?" somehow his eyes looked hopeful.
Odin frowned; he recognized that look, having seen them too often in the streets. "You alone?"
"My grandmother's waiting in Arn'crad..." the boy looked nervous but his eyes were beaming with more hope.
Oh, so he's one of those needing-runts that was never given the chance to improve themselves; he'd probably heard of the Commander started from the same line as him, that'd explain that hopeful eyes.
Odin nodded; "If you could find anything, you can find me in my chamber." he flicked his head to his door.
"Yessir!" the boy grinned excitedly. Odin spared another second to stare at the boy then got inside his room.
He heard the light running step sounds the boy made getting away from that place through the thick door, and slid down tiredly to the floor when the sounds disappeared down the staircase. Glancing at the water-crystal clock by the wall next to his bed, he frowned dissatisfiedly at the fact that it was only a couple hours passed dusk. He knew he needed rest, Cail and his men were probably fell sleeping by the stable when they arrived earlier; he didn't really take a glance on them in his pursuit of the General's study. At least they're in the Palace... while his demon had yet arrived; that's what mattered right now.
Rubbing his face tiredly and sighed, he stood up and took a fast shower, made a decent fast meal and finished it before hitting the bed; scowling with refreshened anger at the thought that he usually had his demon in his arms on that very bed.
With a long growl he closed his eyes and tried to rest.
Duo distractedly putting some bread he was picking from his hand into his gaping mouth. The wind was blowing strong and had sharp twisting currents, apparently because of the form of the landscape. If it was any other better day, he'd flatter the scenery as breathtakingly beautiful... but as of now... he'd just pretend that he wasn't there staring at it.
"Duo...!" the girl chuckled, "If you're going to eat that bread, you should close your mouth and start chewing...!" she smirked, "Oh, and don't forget to swallow afterwards!" and pointed out matter-of-factly.
"Okay..." Duo answered distractedly, probably not aware of some pieces of bread fell from his gaping mouth as he did so.
"Seriously...!" Myrica slung an arm around Duo's shoulders, "What's the matter?" she asked with a grin; and took a big bite of the meat she had in her other hand.
"Uhhh..." Duo glanced at her face and stared back to the open scenery in front of him, he pointed there with his abused bread. The sun was setting and the yellow light made beautiful rays as it passed through the bridge's arching supports.
The stone bridge was connecting two hills separated by a very wide and deep valley; Gertt fortress was standing high on the far hill, while on the other hill stood a checking post. It was almost 6 kilometers long; the longest and grandest bridge that ever built in the kingdom's history. The raised natural stone structures scattered near the two hills were big enough to have buildings on them, connected with suspension bridges, like giant pillars graced with lights on their tops. It was a small city on its own; while the cold had brought down the fog through the valley, covering the stone bridge's piers up to 1/3 of their height from the base. All in all, the scene looked like it was a city and bridge on the clouds.
He'd love it if he weren't going to pass on it with an unconscious demon in a small four seat wagon while being pursued by beasts.
...he'd love it if only the demon was not unconscious to witness it with him.
Duo snapped his full mouth close; some of the bread pieces showered his face with his huff. He chewed angrily, while pointing along the bridge with an up-and-down gesture. Myrica understood what he meant and laughed out loud.
"Yes, we're going to use that stone bridge to pass Gertt's gate. Otherwise how are we going to get to Gertt; flying?"
Duo swallowed hard, and decided he needed some water to swallow after all.
"Beautiful, isn't it? That grand bridge; it's half the reason why Gertt is always saying it's low on enforcement...!" the girl said as if talking to herself.
Duo was coughing after he managed swallowing the bile that was pushing his chewed bread up his throat. His mind already played the worst scenario with detailed graphic; if their wagon was being attacked on that long bridge, then they'd be some goners absolutely.
"There's no other way than to go on that bridge...?" Duo pushed his words out.
Myrica arched her shoulders. "If you couldn't fly, you could try swimming down the valley...?" she took another bite of her meat, "Although it's dry in this season...!"
Duo stared her with dead-eyed gape.
"I know!" Myrica said conversationally and took her previous seat of a stone near the fire; "If we are to get attacked on that bridge, then the worst would be we are dead...!" She took her water pouch and drank, "...but we're not on that bridge yet, so relax!"
Duo stared her with even darker doomed-face.
Myrica huffed. "You're out here with something up your sleeves, right? Or else you wouldn't have survived this far...!" she pointed out.
Duo rubbed his face dejectedly and took another stone near the fire to sit. "But that's before..." he mumbled to himself.
"What?" the girl urged, "Before you knew you'd be chased by flocks of beasts...?"
More like before he knew he'd have an unconscious demon as a luggage, his mind complained. Duo sighed at the girl's annoyed tone, "Hmm... you're right, there's no point on worrying about it now. 'Guess it means that we have to be fit tomorrow to be ready to face anything...!"
Myrica chuckled. "That's the spirit...! But weren't you stocked with enough charms to fend off some beasts?"
Duo scratched his head; "Oh, yeah... about that..." he grimaced, "...they're not working much in the open...!" he admitted hesitantly.
"So what?" Myrica's brows arched up, "Just stay inside the wagon, then!"
Duo stilled for a few seconds. "...but I never use them to hide a demon before...!"
The girl huffed skeptically.
"You know..." Duo frowned, "I just thought that if anyone had enough power to try hunt me using beasts, wouldn't they'd see that me being with the demon is like hitting two birds with one stone? And while him being like that, too...!" he glanced at the wagon where Heero was sleeping.
Myrica stared him with a strange gleam in her eyes for a moment; "You're right, I could easily sell you off as of now...!"
They silenced after that, Duo felt uncomfortable and tried to search for another subject to speak of, but didn't really want to drop the subject left hanging either.
"Hell...!" Myrica started with a yielding tone, "Down there on the rocks is Mainstay; a trader's 'city' and tourism... but the later was a little down-graded with the beasts being around the past years; some said the beasts were attracted by the Palace Demon so they came invading the humans territory now..." she sighed, "My point is, if you don't want to look suspicious, we could take some jobs there. I used to do transport-works from their people...!"
Duo frowned, ". . . that could work as a disguise?"
Myrica arched one shoulder, "Well, at least you could pretend to be not in a hurry, maybe?"
"Hngggggg..." Duo mulled at the idea; truth was he wanted to send Heero to the Palace immediately. He glanced again at the wagon and pictured the demon's unconscious face, and realized something; "Hey, wait, what? ...are you telling me that there are a bunch of people who blamed him for the attacking beasts in that place?" Duo pointed at the small lights visible in the downing darkness.
"Yes." Myrica answered easily.
Duo gaped wider with a deader look on his face.
The girl laughed heartily at him.
"...don't enjoy this!" Duo pointed an accusing finger exasperatedly.
"Don't worry too much; you could deal with problems when they arrived, not before that...!" she said lightly.
"It's not myself I'm worried about...!" he reasoned, almost yelling it out.
Myrica snorted. "You act like a husband waiting for his wife giving birth for their first child...!" she commented off-handedly.
And that worked; Duo stared wide-eyed at her with a nice crimson sheen on his face. The girl laughed again, and stood. "You take the first watch, okay...?" she said as she lied on her makeshift bed beside the wagon.
Duo stared her for some time; then turning around to take a better view of the open scenery while reclining to a tree, he took some time to look at the stone bridge in the far darkness. Finding that he couldn't rest his mind, he thought of something to do and recalled the wire-puzzle he stuffed into his shirt pocket. After examining the craft details on the twisted wires he thought back about the sleeping beasts around their hiding spot the other night; he'd given it some speculations but he knew the things in his hands weren't a pair of charms of some sort. Because if they were, he'd be able to trace their merits however slight they had.
Jangling the wings above his face and drowned a little in the starry-night-sky inside the small clear parts of the wires with the real starry night sky ceiling them in comparison, he smiled eventually when he felt at ease and jumped in surprise when the two antlers came sniffing at the wire-wings from behind his tree. The animals looked serene, and if he were a beast expert he'd say that they were smiling blissfully, as if eventually finding what they'd missed for so long.
Duo blinked at them when they rested at his sides and put their heads on his laps as if fawning at him.
"What-... ummmm... you like these?" Duo asked with a sweat-drop. The antlers rubbed their heads on his thighs while he grimaced awkwardly. He was... you could say, usually frowned upon by commoners, and growled at by animals, even the horse he used as his ride was specially trained for him; that's why he felt a little uncomfortable with this experience.
A thought flashed in his mind, that probably the wire-wings were enchantment items, and the fact that the demon had them was because he was enchanting the necessary people to be in favor to him... Duo shook his head and chased that thought away. No, there's no point worrying some problem that had yet arrived, as Myrica said. He put the wire-wings back into his pocket and forgetting his time by marveling at the sight of Gertt's bridge and Mainstay's lights after that.
"Hey, you travel light this time, Poeta...!" one of the guards at the checking post grinned at Myrica.
"Yahh! I'm with some friends trying to find jobs in town today; got any?" the girl gave a friendly salute. Duo was grinning at the guard from the open window of the wagon, while the man peeked inside and his eyes landed on Heero's sleeping form having his head lulled on Duo's shoulder.
"All the three of you?" the man asked. "What kind of jobs?"
"I'll take the usual; the girls would-..."
"I can find you spring or such...!" Duo cut Myrica's words.
"Spring?" the man arched one brow and grimace, "Are you sure you girls weren't being kidnapped or tricked by Poeta and are going to be sold to some place- oww!"
Myrica pulled her mouth ends down, staring threats to the man who was rubbing his abused shoulder. "Is it so impossible for a lady like me to have decent friends and jobs?" she asked with dignified tone.
The guard stared her with skeptical drooped eyes; "It is impossible for you being a lady and have decent friendly jobs...!" he pointed out.
"Why yoouu-...!" Myrica jumped down and chased the man circling the checking post yard making a commotion; while some regular travelers there and other guards laughed at them throwing names at each other.
"Poeta, Mama asked you to make her a new piece if you're around town...!" a regular uncle-type man called out when they passed his carriage.
"...'be there!" Myrica threw while waved back at other men saying something along the line. While the running guard yelled something like 'enough already, you beast-woman' or Duo could heard him wrong since the man was out of breath.
"Wah, she's really popular here, isn't she?" Duo said to the guard who returned Myrica's pass to the wagon.
"Yah, she's a vandal always running about towns since she's little...!" the man smiled at Duo and shrunk with a grimace when Myrica yelled "I heard that, old man!" through the crowd. She was back to her front seat after giving the guard, who'd gave up running, some 'thank-you'-punches; and then steered the wagon onto the bridge.
"What happens with 'not looking suspicious' we're talking before?" Duo asked while climbing to her side.
"We agreed on something like that?" the girl asked innocently, "I'll be suspicious if I didn't do that...!" she pointed behind with a thumb.
Duo snickered. "You're well known here...!"
"Yeah, I told you I used to do jobs for the Mainstay folks!"
"...and vandal...?" Duo inquired with a playful grin.
The girl gave him the-stare for a moment; "...it was mostly muscle jobs, alright?" she warned flatly.
Duo laughed knowing what kind of detail she left out; the girl looked more like a mercenary type if anything, she had her bangs in an unruly manner almost standing up above her turban and her straight long hair was left loose with pointy end flowed in the wind like a dragon's tail. "What's with this Poeta-thing...?"
Myrica chuckled, "I make songs...!" she said proudly.
Duo stared her for some time, then turned to watch the scenery around the bridge; the valley base was mostly pincushion-like rocky surface, escaping down wouldn't be an option; the paling lining the balustrades of the bridge wouldn't provide a cover if any beast came flying towards them, the ends were only curved inwards to provide a sense of protection; there was one armament post stood every 1 kilometer on the long bridge and some huge cannons or ground-crossbows were standing at the ready, with 4-6 men in every post. But counting his chances, he thought again that he wouldn't want to be attacked while on the bridge, probably the Gertt men thought so too that's why they're always complaining about lacking enforcement.
The long ride on that bridge felt a little longer than it actually was that Duo was physically tired when Myrica took a stop crossing the suspension bridge to a cluster of pillars outside Gertt.
The large wooden building looked like an inn, the smaller one was a stable; the first floor of the inn was a tavern or restaurant, but the opposite side of the entrance had a large stage that could be seen from the doorways.
Around that pillar were several others pillars with other kinds of buildings on them; Duo was a little unnerved when he recognized that most of the stores there were selling weaponry.
"It's a playhouse...!" Myrica said when she saw Duo stood unmoving in front of the inn, while she unloaded her baggage from the wagon roof. "They don't play performance much since the tourists who'd come here now are mostly hunters and such... That's all the more reason why you shouldn't freeze in the open while carrying an unconscious demon on your back!" the girl whispered the last part to Duo's ear. Duo caught himself and jerked his feet to move forward, following Myrica's wide strides.
"MAMAAAA...! GIVE MY FRIENDS MY USUAL ROOM...!" Myrica called out; Duo grimaced at her loudness.
"SHUT UP, DO YOU WANT TO BAIT THE BEASTS TO COME HERE?" a miniature old lady with a grandpa's-pipe in her mouth banged a wooden mug onto the bar table. Duo frowned at their exchange, noticing that it was their usual greetings by the looks on the working girls' faces; they were chuckling and brightened when they saw her coming in and immediately fawned on Myrica's side as if she was an important costumer.
The Mama, who had small figure the size of a child (only had more wrinkles and was branch-like bony) jumped from her high-chair beside the bar counter and cued Duo to follow her upstairs. Duo glanced at Myrica sitting by one of the table of the restaurant surrounded by flirting girls, then stared down at the old lady who didn't even reach Duo's waist in height. She gave Duo the room key when they reached a corner room and waved indifferently as she left him there.
Duo put Heero carefully on the bed and realized his body had turned more rigid than last night, he didn't check much this morning, being in a wagon and all. He knew he couldn't do anything, so he cursed to himself not really sure whether he should loosen up the shawl around the demon's face in that kind of place, or whether such effort mattered at all.
"I'm sorry, the door's slightly open so I thought I could come in...!" a surprised voice came from behind him, and Duo snapped his head behind and found a maid-girl with her broom and water bucket stood by the doorway.
"It's okay, I kicked the door shut but it seemed-..." Duo said reflexively and recognized the surprised look on the maid-girl face turned still. He turned to Heero and saw the end of a feather stuck out from the cover of the shawl, he straightened his body and turned to the girl while pushing his cloak hood behind with a hand. The maid-girl looked relieved when she saw a hairpin with dangling crystal beads with two feathers on Duo's hair.
"I'm Renn, I do cleaning here; but you could ask me to order some food too..." the girl said shyly, staring at the floor. "...it's about lunchtime now..." she added hesitantly.
"I... -guess I want some home cooking...!" Duo smiled, he was about to decline but noticed she was fidgeting worriedly, and wondered if she'd get more payment from his orders.
"A...alright... Do you need me to clean up here before that?" she tried a smile and stole a glance at Duo's face.
"No, it's okay." Duo smiled wider and she knew Duo caught her glancing and nervously bowed and fled the room, banging herself on her way and spilled the water from her bucket.
Duo sighed and grateful that he'd prepared the hairpin last night while staying up in his watch; though he didn't think they're in the safe yet. He fixed the shawl to cover Heero's wings completely, and thought he could fasten the hairpin outside the shawl as well, he'd made a pair just in case; but a thought occurred that he didn't want to look trying too much, and while pondering if it was too obvious or not, Renn called out from behind the door with a tray of food.
Duo opened the door for her and she arranged the food on the table; she glanced at the pin all the while, and tried to make small conversation about the woods and tavern.
"...is your friend...alright?" she dared herself to ask after finishing her task with the food.
"Yes, she's sleeping a lot. It's usual for her to be like that..." Duo chuckled on the chair.
"Ohh... well, I just wanted to inform you that... if you need a healer, he'd be in Gertt, not here...!" she fidgeted again.
"Alright, thank-you. 'Though we don't need him..." Duo smiled.
"Umm... yes, you're welcome..." she tried and smiled nervously; stealing glances at Heero again. Duo saw it and he thought he should divert her mind to something else.
"Do you... want this?" Duo unfastened the hairpin from his hair.
"Ehh? No, I wouldn't dare, Miss-...!" Renn declined in panic but by the way she averted her eyes and fidgeting Duo knew she at least appreciated it. Girls like transparent and shiny things, after all.
"...it's alright, I make Charms so I have crystals in stock...!" Duo urged politely.
"The-..." the girl looked down at her feet, gripping her off-colored apron at her front, "They... would be a waste... on someone like me..." she reasoned with a small voice, whispering with a pained tone at the end.
He genuinely felt for her, and put the hairpin in her hands. "You are welcome...!" he smiled with a closure. Renn widened her eyes and opened her mouth, but her words didn't reach her lips as Duo already turned his back at her, pulling a chair by the table and looked like he was about to eat; she stilled for a moment and then bowed as her thanks and left, closing the door as quietly as possible.
Duo was stirring the thick soup in his bowl, and sighed out long and tiredly when he felt her descending the stairs; he didn't really feel like eating and decided to just watch outside the window to see if anything worth alertness. Some carriages were passing through the inn's yard, carrying roughen hunter-like men and some others carried hawker-like men. It made him wonder if Mainstay now was making the beasts into business. In general, he didn't like the prospect of getting involved in the city's activities; he thought he'd just tell Myrica down the floor about it and urge her to continue with the journey.
A series of loud crashing sounds heard from downstairs as if answering Duo's thought, and he saw that some passer-by were pausing on the yard to see inside the inn. With a panic Duo locked the door and feared the worst when he heard the commotion as he descended the stairs.
"...-SAY WHAAT?" a burly man with a lot of scars on his visible skin asked furiously at Myrica; a table was knocked over and a couple of chairs were broken, some platters were scattered in pieces on the floor, and Renn was trying to pull her hand out of the man's grip with tears of fright running down her face.
"I SAID THIS IS NOT THAT SORT OF PLACE! CLEANSE YOUR EARS AND DIRTY-MINDS BEFORE YOU GET IN HERE...!" Myrica yelled at the man's face, and he knew she had it in her so he decided to back down while not looking like it, throwing Renn's lithe body by her hand to another angry looking working-girl near him, he gnarled at Myrica.
"...You're lucky I'm not in the mood to crush some girl's face right now...!" he growled low bending his body to match her height, and then turned for the door.
Myrica narrowed her eyes at the man's back, and just as his feet about to leave the doorway she took an already damaged chair and made sure it was broken in pieces using the man's back; the large man snapped his head at Myrica, his hand already pulling his broad-sword from its scabbard as his body half turned in the air in a good reflex; but the girl had a better move as she high-kicked his chin and sent him flying onto the yard.
The pausing passer-by gave her an appreciative 'ooooh' with a round of applause, knowing the man was unconscious on the ground.
"BEAST-FEMAAAAALE! DON'T MESS WITH MY PATRONS, AND YOU BETTER PAY FOR THE DAMAGES...!" the Mama screeched in a literally ear-splitting voice standing in an authoritarian fashion on her high-chair.
"YOU BETTER NOT LET THAT KIND OF ANIMALS GET INTO YOUR PLACE, STUPID-HAG!" Myrica countered with a daring pose.
"YOU WANT ME TO PASTE YOU INTO THE KITCHEN'S DISH, MUSCLE-GIRL?" the Mama started throwing miscellaneous things from the bar table at Myrica. Some working-girls hastily closed the doors, leaving the man's friends outside gaped in hesitation.
Duo was gaping on the stairs as well, not really sure if it's alright for him to not stop the girl (or the miniature Mama) from rampaging. A working-girl scooted over to him and whispered; "...it's alright, they do that all the time. She gets paid for that with room and food...!" she winked.
Duo closed his mouth with a click, and stared at the girl, still with widened uncertain eyes. The girl chuckled heartily; "You see... we are actually actresses; we play instruments and sing and dance at night, while serving at the tavern when we're not on stage. But the tourists are mostly that-kind of men lately; they often mistook us as prostitutes and try to do indecent stuffs... Myrica plays the barbarian-girl role, she's one of us, 'though not always...!"
Duo blinked and recalled Myrica's words before; "...the... muscle jobs...!"
"That's right, that's right...!" the girl laughed cheekily, hiding it with a feather-fan.
"I heard that BARBARIAN-GIRL part!" Myrica grinned stiffly from behind her, and the working-girl immediately fawned on her like she would to a rich young-master.
Duo decided that it wasn't such a situation where he should be worried, and turned back to the room. He was about to unlock the door when he heard the stifled sniffling sounds coming from a closet next to the staircase; sighing, he yielded and got back to the staircase and sat beside the closet door then waited until the sniffling sounds ebbed.
". . . I'm sorry . . ." Duo said quietly; the sound from the closet halted abruptly. "Was-...did that happen because the crystals I gave you pulled some unwanted attention...?"
It turned quiet for a long pause; Duo thought the girl wouldn't want to face him after something like that so he just quietly waited there, purposely making some movement so the girl inside knew he was still there by the sound of the friction his clothes made. After about fifteen minutes passed, the closet door opened slightly; Renn peeked from the gap hesitantly but her tears had dried, she tried a shy smile at Duo.
Duo smiled back at her.
She crawled out from the closet and sat beside him, hugging her knees. ". . . I'm not beautiful...!" she said quietly after taking a long silence.
"My skin is freckled and my face is chubby...!"
"You're cute...!" Duo smiled without looking at her face, knowing she'd be embarrassed.
"Some men..." she stared at her bent knees, "...knowing I'm not talented for the stage... would try to ask me to..." she trailed off and swallowed bitterly; "...they thought I'd be cheaper than the other-..."
"...just tell them to go to hell!" Duo said flatly; "-and paste their heads onto the table...!"
The girl chuckled at that. "...I wish I had enough muscles to do just that...!" she wiped a tear formed at the end of her eye. "But I don't want to cause trouble for Mama and the other girls..."
She sniffled once. "...well, it's true that I was sold here... But I like working in this place; I love the people in this building, they've been like a real family to me...!"
Duo stayed silent and let the girl pour her heart out.
"Am I boring you, Miss...?" Renn glanced at Duo; he smiled at the floor and shook his head. "I keep the hairpin under my shirt..." she whispered conspiratorially; Duo chuckled.
"You love it?" only then he allowed himself to stare at the girl's face. She nodded with a stronger smile and a little flush on her cheeks.
"I never had something so beautiful before... My father remarried when I was 8; and my new mother died the next year in labor, along with the baby..." she smiled at her knees again, "My father couldn't deal with the loss, and died by illness a few months later. My new mother's brother took me in after that... and... his family thought of me as a stranger, and never really welcome me..."
Renn paused long after that confession; Duo knew she skipped some details and he just listened.
"The village was attacked by beasts 2 years ago... I was the only survivor; and I didn't regret what happened to those people either...! They deserved it...!" Renn frowned at the floor but her finger fidgeted nervously. "I'm a bad person, right?" she chuckled ironically.
Duo stared at the sky outside the windows in front of the staircase; "...I wouldn't say that it was nice; but I won't say it's bad, either... For me, good people aren't always nice; and nice people are worth to be wary of. I'm just being defensive, but I think if I have some ones I care about, I won't mind becoming a bad person for their sake..." he stared at her, "You have friends that would do something like that for you; so I thought you should be more happy...!"
Renn stared him back for a moment.
"The beasts... started to invade this area 3 years ago, Mama said. This place's just going down from there; the girls here... You should have seen them in a play; a real play. They have talents that are so wasted now. I just wish I could be more helpful to them instead of the other way around. I'm sorry you have to come here at a time like this..." Renn said with a small voice. "But even so, this place is still so beautiful to me...!"
Duo hummed his agreement, summing up that she was talking about the scenery of that place at large. "Eh... Me?" Duo pointed at himself, he suddenly felt she was talking in a different meaning about him before the last sentence.
Renn stared at him for a moment, and she realized she'd jumped to a wrong conclusion. "I'm... I'm sorry. I thought Myrica brought you here to work...!" she said with a beet red face.
"It's okay, don't feel bad about it. I'm not talented for stage, either...!" Duo tried fast; "I make charms, and sometimes dowse things for people..."
Renn's eyes widened, she didn't really pay attention when Duo said it in the room before. "You are one of the Blessed...!"
Duo grimaced and made dejected face. "...not that much... It's good if I could be of help to others; but even if I could find things for them... I can't use it to find the things concerned to me; or the things I wanted. It's a pain...!"
"Oooh..." Renn's excitement died down; "...like... you couldn't find the right way to save yourself even when your life is in danger?"
"...or my friends'...!" Duo's smile turned sad, and he averted his eyes from the girl's. "Some blessing...!"
Renn mulled at the words, and she found just the same answer as for her own complaint before. ". . . then that means, you'll be blessed with friends that would protect you instead of you protecting them; they'll protect you because you are meant to be cherished...!"
Duo glanced at her and she shied away; "I... think my father said something like that when I was small...!"
"Thank-you..." Duo smiled warmly, albeit a little sad. "I wish my father would have said the same thing to me..."
"Why not? You are one of the Blessed...-!"
"My parents committed suicide after I got born; the rest of the family followed afterwards..." Duo admitted hesitantly.
Renn widened her eyes in panic for touching such a subject; Duo waved her off. "It's okay, I didn't feel the loss; but I guess that's what made me feel sad..."
The girl silenced and fidgeted awkwardly; her 'I'm sorry' died in her throat, she wasn't sure if Duo wanted to hear it or to not hear it. By then Myrica was climbing up the stairs with noisy stomps and a loud burp.
"Oh... you look fine to me...!" she commented at Renn; "The girls treated me with a lot of food I thought I'd die of chock-fullness...!"
Duo frowned at her rubbing her slightly bulging stomach, knowing what kind of appetite she had.
"You've eaten?" she stopped beside Duo and asked, looking down.
Duo wanted to point out that she'd already finished probably the sum of 20 people's share and she should ask him that before doing it, but he refrained and just nodded.
"Okay." she said simply and head for the room, unlocking the door with her own key; "I'll be sleeping to make up for tonight; you should too."
"What's going on tonight?" Duo asked a little alarmed.
"Just the usual...!" Myrica said before closing the door.
Duo frowned with incomprehension.
"Down stairs will be veeeeeerry noisy...! And those men usually don't stop being loud until they collapse on alcohol or bar-fight or thrown out...!" Renn whispered to Duo's ear. She chuckled at Duo's expression, and made a gesture to please him to get into the room.
Myrica's room had two beds, and she was already snoring on the far bed; a little awareness warned him that perhaps he shouldn't have put Heero on the bed close to the door because he was visible from the corridor if the door panel opened, but it's too late to change beds now. He sighed and covered Myrica with a blanket and sat back on the round windowsill that was fitted with a U-formed fluffy recliner-seat and cushions, thinking that the inn must have been an expensive one before the business regressed, while looking out at the other pillars and different activities until the wind lulled him to sleep.
The yellow sunlight painted the sky to an angry fiery canvas; the girl squinted and sheltered her eyes with a hand, then tightening the shawl she had on her head and shoulders, she covered her face and slipped through the back tunnels down the pillar, and hidden bridges in the crannies between the rock pillars fissures. She climbed her way up some uneven stairs of rock with her hands; they're roughened by works so she didn't mind the added few scratches on them. A black wooden door hidden deep in the crevice came visible, and she smiled in relief. Putting her hand into a small hole at the wall she pulled a dangling chains; a dull knock heard muffled by the rocks from the inside... she repeated with such rhythm and waited, after several minutes passed she heard the sounds of several locks being undone and the heavy door opened inward with a hard jerk.
A rowdy burly man peered none too friendly at her from the crack; "...What d'you want? Slaves don't come 'ere!" he growled with rough almost not-a-voice.
"I... I have something that might interest you...!" she tried with a shaky voice.
"Is that a g'rrrl?" another rough growl asked from the inside, and the door opened wider with another hard jerk. The girl gasped half-consciously and lowered her head more, hiding her eyes from the burly (almost in an inhuman way) men. The dying light of the sun gave an eerie cast to shade out the men's hunched bodies, their arms were too long to look humane, with chunky hands that had their fingers almost brushing the ground.
She couldn't help but squeaked when the second man's hand tried to brush her face, as she fearfully ducked her head he caught a lock of hair instead.
"Soft litt'l thingggg...!" he appreciated and laughed, sounding like a mortar grinding stones.
"I... I have news; will you trade with my freedom...?" she shied away from the man's hand and had to pull her hair from his grip; she stumbled with another squeak when she got it freed, and they laughed at her frightened form.
"And what kind 'f news worth your fr'dom, eh?" the first man asked grinning wide with unholy light shone in his sunken black eyes, showing his incomplete spiky teeth.
"There's... a demon up in town...!" she almost sounded like about to burst to cry, but she tightened her shawl and held her tears back. "Please don't come after me anymore... I want to get out of this place...!" she mustered her anger and managed an almost yell.
The men glanced at each other and scoffed. "Such is not f'r you t'say! We'll see what you could do aft'r we got the demon; wh're is it?"
The girl took some deep shaky breaths and looked up at the men's faces; she whispered the location of the demon and stared them in the eyes to show her honesty.
"You bett'r not telling lie, 'r we mince you slowly to make beast bait...!" the first man growled low.
"Didn't you take me here because I can do this kind of thing...?" the girl shouted angrily, her hatred shone in her eyes as she gritted her teeth.
The burly men let out their stone-grinding laughed again, clearly enjoying the girl's hatred, knowing that she couldn't do a thing about it even if she could muster enough courage to try anything; and the door slammed shut.
"You... you will let me get out this town, right? ...right?" the girl asked to the shut door, not getting any answer in return.
Gritting her teeth again in anger at her helplessness, she turned around sharply and decided to go back. The wind was billowing strongly when she passed through the hidden bridges that she had to hold her shawl from flying away; the darkness just layered the sky and the fog was thick down the wide valley... biting her shaky lower lip she realized the wind carried a strong beasts' smell. She took a few seconds to confirm what her nose told her, and ran back to the top of the pillar to alert everyone.
Duo woke up with a jerk; his inner alarm blaring inside his head, banging his heart painfully, ringing his ears. He knew he should wake up, and fast; but his body felt like it weigh a few times heavier, and he was struggling to open his eyes or to just move a finger. With a sinking feeling he knew he was drugged.
The charms in his bag were screaming.
Sucking much air and gritted his teeth, he tried shifting his body weight; and with a grunt he fell sideways onto the floor. The pain from the fall gave him enough links to connect his mind and body, and he tried worming his way to the bed where Heero should be lying there lifelessly, eventhough his eyes couldn't see it if the demon was still there or not.
A beastly shriek from far away jerked his mind to a more aware state.
...beasts.
A lot of beasts.
Coming.
RUN.
A woman's screech in horror answered Duo's mind instantly, it's not near enough but his ringing ears picked it as if it was next door. He jumped with a gasp, and in frustration banged his forehead a couple times onto the floor.
The room swirled in a twisted loop for some-long-moments-he-couldn't-count; fighting to keep the nausea at bay and to breathe, he waited the ride to end while his mind tried painfully to push the alarm in his head down to a tolerable level. When he forced open his eyes again, his vision was clearer and he could make out shapes and distance better; grunted, he crawled and almost in panic reaching out to the bed's mattress. The hoarse gasping sighs coming out his mouth sounded like a dying man's breath, his heart felt like it had exploded with relief and he couldn't stop trembling.
Thank Sky Heero was still there... his mind pointed, and he pulled his body up onto the bed; gasping for air when he realized his throat and lungs felt like they're on fire.
While he sprawled most of his body on the bed, he saw the demon's wings glinted in the moonlight streaming down from the small windows above the bed. The spare cloak that he'd put on him was gone including the shawl around his head and face, but the girl attire was still intact. Even the blanket was nowhere in sight; with hands placed neatly on his front, he looked like a sacrifice presented on an altar.
Duo propped his body with his hands, and he couldn't help but appreciate the serene scene in front of him. His mind admitted that it was such a beautiful sacrifice to behold. For some reason his body had calmed drastically and his breathing became only tired-heavy-breaths like. Beast shrieks and human screams were heard from the outside, but Duo's mind wasn't in alarm anymore, he had enough awareness to assess the surrounding; finding Myrica wasn't on the other bed, and her belonging was nowhere in that room.
The absence of panicked footsteps inside that building told him that it was already deserted; the contrasting sounds of chaos from outside only made that fact more obvious. Loosening the cloak he still had, Duo used it to cover Heero's body and head as best as he could then carried him on his back. At that instant the round window exploded into splinters while Duo could only freeze and braced himself for the worst, but it was only part of a wooden support from another building flying through it and stuck almost horizontally on the opposite wall.
Duo took deep breaths as he cursorily examined the support; something sharp and jagged had undoubtedly cut halfway into the thick wood, and it was ripped violently and thrown by an extremely strong force, he thought as he realized that another building with such support was supposed to be on another stone-pillar. He glanced at the silhouette of the supposed building it came from and he knew that the suspension bridges were the worst option, if it ever a choice at all.
Following his logics, he tried to find a way down, lower than the ground level; he thought there should be any shelter underground, be it cellar or coal bunker since there could be no chance to escape through the bridges; especially if the Mainstay folks were already used to the beast's attacks. He wasn't all that surprise finding no one on the first floor; the stage was missing its respective curtains, they're probably stored somewhere safe... probably along with the girls who hold them precious. A little voice whispered in Duo's mind that probably he wasn't being sold, some-certain-someone just forgotten about him and a certain-demon in a certain room when she's evacuating the others to safety.
A small cool ticklish feeling touched his heart, he wasn't sure if it was endearing or upsetting but he knew he wasn't angry... -probably not yet.
A loud bang heard and something huge crashed to the locked front doors. The thick wooden doors with steel framework broke but didn't shatter; the collision sent enough force that Duo's body was thrown a couple steps forward, landing heavily on his front and chin. Suppressing a moan as he tasted the tangy liquid in his mouth, he glanced to the large crack on the door; whatever plunged there was still thrashing to break free from some trapping device. Struggling to his feet, Duo instinctively thought to find shelter behind the stage, the farthest from the doors.
Outside, some explosions heard with shouts from apparently some hunters; some shouts were bold while some more notable ones were screeches of some men meeting their demise.
His head was still pounding, he complained as he slid down to the floor behind the stage's platform; he didn't need more drama to add to the situation.
. . . that cool ticklish feeling didn't take too long to turn icy; with heavy trembling breaths he held the demon's unanimated body in his arms. While his mind tried to decipher his situation.
Drug. Food. Room. Window. Air.
His swaying awareness began to formulate whatever he encountered that needed to be suspected. He didn't touch the food, but he did hold the utensils; some drugs worked through simple touch, while others took effect just from inhalation. The food smelled nice, but the ones might be affected by that could be random...
Unless it needed other substances to take effect; some trigger, like other smell...
It couldn't be the smell from the air outside, he thought; if Myrica didn't seem to be affected by it, then it most probably something that was an ordinary thing in this place.
Room. Window. Drug.
He tried again.
Air. Drug...
Widened his eyes to what formed in his mind, Duo tried denying his suspicion, but the realization still surged to the surface.
Air. Ordinary.
It's the fog outside.
The thick white fog was poisonous air...! That should explain why there were only rocks down that deep wide valley. Of course, why didn't he realize it sooner?
Oh, he knew why; he was too immersed in the worries of the beasts attacking them from the open air on that bridge...
His body trembled again as fear crept into his heart; he wouldn't be able to escape outside if that's the case. The people of that place, even the hunters, most likely had developed enough resistance to the fog... even the newcomers? No. Probably somewhere in those lining stores some drugstore was selling specific antidote for it.
Ambush. in Gertt.
His mind retraced his worries from the other day, and realized with a sinking feeling that Gertt was the ambush.
Thanx for reading
saru's note:
tried to finish this chapter and post it before august, but it didn't proceed as fast as saru thought.
anyway, the-monkey is going to be absent for about 3 months starting august; there's a new project with a real deadline this time, and it's for a game... (*is wondering whether the animation project was canceled, but feels relief with the free time; since the-monkey is being paranoid for ever taking the interview for that project in the first place)
our editor asked us to come to the STGCC event in Singapore this December, Oni-tan couldn't (definitely CAN'T) because she's acrophobic and can't board a plane; saru is agoraphobic, so meeting (even just sensing) with too many people is trouble (they never see saru when saru got a panic-attack in events, so they didn't really know what to expect); we said, but he's kind of coaxed the-monkey to consider going... but then, the event will be held in September (before saying december, he said about the event would be in october... why the estimated time changes a lot?), so saru CAN'T go (is happily so) since we have a deadline in the mean time -yaaaaay-
...well, maybe next year...