Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Dances in the Glen ❯ Fade to Black ( Chapter 1 )

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Dances in the Glen

By SaiyanBlack

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Relena massaged the muscles in her arms and shoulders, letting a tired sigh escape her. This work was so stressing, no wonder her mother wouldn't do it! Of course, because the lady of the house refused to do it, the job either got put on Relena or the maid, who was currently doing her usual chores around the two-story house. Sometimes Relena felt like strangling her mother she was so lazy. . . . but that was no way for a well bred lady to act. So she put up with it, doing more chores than was necessary because of the older woman's lack of household interest.

But who was she to complain? Her father was the mayor and her mother was the finest lady in the county. Her brother was a general in the nation's army and kept the Indians out of settler territory in Iowa. She had everything she could ever ask for, though that wasn't much, and a good home. Relena could say that she was being slightly neglected by her immediate family, but she had friends. . . . okay, okay. Only one, but for her it was enough.

Putting a determined look on, she re-rolled her sleeves and put her hands back into the steaming, starchy water. Hilde was a good friend. The petite, short-haired girl was almost the complete opposite of her, but they were the best of friends. Their upbringing was different, Relena being raised by a wealthy, high class family that moved to the Midwest from Massachusetts and Hilde living in a large family on a farm in Iowa Territory all her life. But somehow, despite their differences in both family and personality, they had become friends the first day Relena went to the small one room school that occupied the town near the bank.

Jefferson was a small town filled with mostly farmers that lived just outside of town, a few merchants that ran shops in town and a handful politicians like her father. The population over all was rather small and close knit. From her place in the yard between the stables and the house, she could see men and women going about their normal daily business. There was Mrs. Une, walking on her own to the bank. Relena knew she was headed to the bank because her husband was the one that ran it and she was taking his midday meal to him like she always did. The blonde let out another sigh and pulled her father's shirt out of the water, ringing it out and placing it in the basket next to her on the grass. The town was so predictable that you knew what everyone was doing at that moment. The Schbeiker's, Hilde's family, were more than likely to be working on the farm, her father and brothers in the fields, her mother and older sister in the kitchen making bread for the week, her younger sisters cleaning the house or working on their letters. Hilde herself was probably doing exactly what Relena was, the laundry.

Sometimes, she wished something would happen, something unusual. It didn't have to be tragic or dangerous, just something outside of the daily rituals of the townspeople. Maybe a stranger would come to town or a new family would move in.

`Oh, yeah Relena,' she thought to herself as she rung out the last piece of laundry and tossed it into the basket, `that's real exciting.'

She sighed again as she picked up the basket, shifting it onto her hip and carrying it to the clothes line that hung near the back porch. One by one she hung the articles, everything from her father's white shirts to her mother's petticoats to her own stockings. The clean breeze blew across the fields and took the dampness out of the cotton and wool. With the laundry done, Relena picked up the basket again and carried the empty wicker into the house through the back porch.

"Miss Relena," a soft voice drew her to the stairs where the maid, a young Irish woman in her early twenties named Anna stood. "We're running out of flour and cheese, would you like me to run down to the Store, or would you like to?"

Relena shrugged, "You may get it, if you want." The woman nodded and proceeded to wrap her shawl around her shoulders. "Tell me, is there anything more to do today?" Relena asked.

The redhead shook her head, "No Miss. Just supper."

The blonde teen nodded, "Very well then. I'll retrieve the laundry later in the day."

"Good day, Miss Relena," the older woman said as she closed the front door behind her.

Relena looked at the closed panel, for some reason suddenly depressed. "Yes. Good day, Anna." She placed the basket near the back door before walking up the long flight of stairs to the upper story, where she immediately turned into her bedroom. Finding a book on the bedside table, she picked it up, flopping onto her bed in a way that would have made her mother furious. She could just imagine what the woman would say if she'd seen it.

"Relena Peacecraft! That is no way for a lady to be acting! You don't flop, you sit."

The teen sighed and opened the worn book, a book she had read many times in many places. "Little Women" was one of her favorite stories, no matter how unethical her mother thought it was. It showed that women can be the leaders of their own lives and she wished with all her heart that she could be that way. She'd read this book in trees with Hilde, reciting it like some sort of play, just like Jo and her sisters. She read it in the shady grass by the creek and in the hayloft in the stables when she needed to be alone. She must have read the book over fifty times and still she never tired of flipping the creased and worn pages.

And that's how she fell asleep, lying on her bed with her shoes and work apron still on, the book resting on her chest where she had placed it to rest her eyes. In her dreams she saw a man, different from the Lorry that she had just read about, who rode up on a black horse and rode away with her into the dusk, with the orange of the setting sun at their backs.

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When she woke it was to the light that filtered through her window and onto her face. It moved and shifted like there was a tree attempting to block its light. The orange glow startled her and she realized with a start that she had slept well into the evening. She jumped out of bed, unconsciously stuffing the book into her apron pocket as she ran down the stairs. She had forgotten the laundry on the line outside! Surely she was going to have an earful about doing chores properly and neglecting them in the first place.

The smell of burning caught her as she rushed past the kitchen and she automatically dismissed it as Anna's cooking. The girl was known to burn things every once in a while. Relena grabbed the wicker basket at the back door and rushed outside to claim the clothes. The burning smell seemed to increase but she paid it no mind, too intent on reaching the line to finish her chore before her mother noticed. The heat of the setting sun was at her back and it seemed unusually blistering for this time of day. But as she plucked a sheet off the line and was given an unobstructed view of the town, she saw that it was no setting sun that was giving off the hot, orange light. . . . but fire. It had consumed the whole right side of her beautiful house, where the kitchen and the lounge were and it was growing rapidly. Eating up the dry and lacquered wood the building was made of.

Screams were finally brought to her attention as well as the sound of hoof beats. Slowly, scared of what she might see, Relena turned. Only to come face to face with burning trees and a stable and barn in flames. The smell of cooked flesh reached her nose and she turned away in disgust. This was horrible! What was going on? Who did this? Vaguely she registered that it wasn't only her house that was burning, but most of the other buildings in town including the bank.

The hoof beats came closer and she saw a horse and rider herding the animals out of her barn. Several of the horses too. Just by seeing the man from the distance and seeing his bare chest and hide pants, she knew it was an Indian. Deep blue eyes focused on her still form and the animals were forgotten momentarily as they ran toward the forest where no doubt more Indians waited to catch them.

Relena stood, completely paralyzed with fear as the rider rode toward her on a midnight black stallion. The man leaned to the side, hanging onto the horse's back with his knees and hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her up onto the creature's shoulders in front of the rider. It all happened so fast and it took Relena a moment to realize what was happening. But by that time they had already ridden into the trees, the orange blaze that destroyed her town at their backs.

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The girl shivered yet again, but she refused to get any closer to him than necessary. She sat, back straight hands folded into her lap, completely ignoring his arm on her waist to hold her steady. That was all fine with the brave. He surveyed the shadows that were the others in his party, only a couple of them had captives, him being one of them.

The low sound of hoofs crunching leaves signaled the arrival of another horse, this one a dapple gray only a few shades lighter than his own steed. The young brave that was situated on the tall creature's back had long braided hair that clinked softly from the beads that were threaded into it. Behind him, clutching onto the back of his hide vest with her eyes tightly closed like the material was a lifeline, was a girl with short dark hair. She seemed to be about the age of the blonde in front of him.

"Hey, Heero!" the braided Indian greeted quietly, riding up beside him. "I see you got yourself a girl. And she's pretty too."

"I didn't get myself anything, Duo. She was just standing there while her house was burning down."

"And you just thought you'd be the hero and go save her when it was you that set fire to her house in the first place?" the other teen said incredulously, receiving a glare in reply. "Hey," he put his hands up in surrender, holding onto his horse with his knees, "you're the leader of this raid. You can do whatever you damn well please."

"This is not a raid. Treize sent us out to declare war on General Peacecraft and the white men."

The girl, who had been ignoring him and Duo, jumped in her place on the horse's withers. Cornflower blue eyes looked up at Heero with a mixture of surprise and horror. The short haired brave took a moment think over his last statement for anything this white girl would have understood. Ah, that was it. He'd picked her up behind the Peacecraft house; she must have recognized the name. From his knowledge of the white man's culture, she had probably been a servant in the home.

The girl's blonde hair whipped him in the face as she spun around to look behind her at where Duo rode next to them. She took a moment to look at the other Indian before tensing up as her blue eyes fell on the other girl.

"Hilde!" she cried before Heero slapped his hand over her mouth. He didn't know what the word meant but it made the short haired girl snap her eyes open and look up.

"Relena!" the girl yelled just as Duo put a hand over her mouth also. The two girls struggled and the two braves shared a look.

"Gah!" Duo pulled his hand away and shook it in the air above his head. "That white girl just bit me!" he exclaimed to Heero who was holding the blonde girl tight so she wouldn't fall off the horse. Neither of the animals stopped their trek through the woody terrain as their burdens moved and talked.

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Relena shivered for the millionth time she'd been in the woods, at night, on a pitch black horse, with the left tanned bare arm of a male Indian around her waist. What had she done to deserve this? Only this morning . . . or yesterday, depending on what time it happened to be, she was wishing that something interesting would happen to the town. Then she awoke later to find that the same town was in flames, including her own house, and get kidnapped by some Indian brave and carried off into the woods like so many of the other young women and small children.

She didn't notice the other horse and Indian until he spoke and the one behind her answered. They're voices were some what hushed as if they were trying not to disturb the silence of the forest.

"Kahsu'ato Heero! Lemitu yenti'suo taoloo cheysu. Imuo huon me'uhe," the first voice was light hearted and almost joking.

"Hei yenti'ome, Duo," the second was deep and monotone, she shivered yet again. Great that was the voice of the man holding her. With an emotionless voice like that she would bet her family's house that he was as much of a savage as all Americans pinned them to be . . . wait that house was burnt down. Not that it mattered. She blocked out on their conversation since she didn't understand a single word of it. But she jumped when she did recognize a word. "General Peacecraft" had come out of the mouth of the brave behind her.

It surprised her so much she jumped and turned to look up at him. What she saw surprised her. Since getting picked up she hadn't taken the time to look at him. He had short dark brown hair that fell over and into his face hiding beautiful, deep blue eyes. His voice and his expression were emotionless, but his eyes sure weren't. They held mild surprise and fleeting confusion before they were placed under an obvious mask. His bare chest and arms were well sculpted and on his right shoulder was a pattern of circles in what she assumed was blue and yellow war paint.

She turned rapidly to look behind her at where the other brave rode next to the black horse they sat on. Relena looked him over, surprised to see he looked similar to the one with his arm around her. Except that this one had long brown hair that, even braided, was longer than her own honey blonde locks. His eyes were more of a violet color and he had a detached, but intrigued expression. Her eyes wondered over him for a moment before she noticed the girl behind him on the dark gray horse. Dark, short hair, small upturned nose. If her eyes had been open they would have be a dark blue, even darker than those of her captor.

"Hilde!" she yelled over to catch the other girl's attention. A huge hand came around her head and slapped over her mouth a little more harshly than it could have been. The short haired girl snapped her eyes open and met with Relena's.

"Relena!" Hilde cried but received the same treatment for the outburst. Even from in front of her, the long haired Indian was able to silence the other girl. Relena tried to pull the hand away from her face and she was vaguely aware of her best friend doing the same thing. And she succeeded somewhat. The short haired girl opened her mouth and bit down onto the hand making the owner pull away the abused appendage with a hushed exclamation.

"Gah! Fe'suta cheysu mehoko aku'e!" he said to the brave behind Relena while shaking his hand in the air in an exaggerated manner. Hilde took that advantage to make sure that the blonde was okay.

"Relena! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She would have loved to answer but found it was impossible with the large hand over her mouth. The brave that Hilde sat with grabbed her around the waist and pulled her from behind him to almost sitting in his lap in one fluid motion. The only reaction she had was a high pitched "eep" before his hand was back over her mouth.

"Silence," the long haired one said to firmly Hilde in English. He had an odd accent. Both girls looked up at him with surprise clear in their eyes. All struggles immediately stopped from shock.

"Good. Now stay that way," the one holding Relena told them in his emotionless voice. The two girls shared a look before sitting quietly. They didn't need to add death to the list of things that happened in the past twenty-four hours. Relena reflected on her wish for something interesting to happen. She guessed the saying had some backing to it.

Be careful what you wish for . . . .

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