Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Dances in the Glen ❯ Where Do We Go From Here ( Chapter 3 )

IMPORTANT NOTE: As I said before the "Indian" tribe (the Resh'ta-ne) is a fictional civilization and has been created solely for the purpose of this story. The language is also completely made up, and credit must be given to Jennifer Roberson for some key words and to Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate for their creation, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

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Dances in the Glen

By SaiyanBlack

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They were still traveling later that evening, just as the sun was taking its last bow and the curtain of the sky began to descend beyond the trees. In Relena's arms the three year old boy was sleeping soundly. It took all her will not to do the same in the strong arms of the brave behind her known as Heero. The warmth he was emitting against her back wasn't helping and she found her eyes drooping shut more than once, causing her to snap to attention. Then the whole process started again.

The gentle rocking of the horse as they traveled and the warmth of the two male bodies against her in the chilly dusk air was slowly taking her resolve away. Even as Heero's deep voice rumbled above her head, she slipped into a light sleep.

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Heero was surprised when the girl slumped against him, breathing evenly and not even aware of what she'd just done. During the day's ride, she had tried to put as much space between them as possible and in the end just made herself uncomfortable on the bare back of the black horse. He was even more surprised to look down at her face and find her sleeping . . . or very close to it. Thinking quickly, he shifted his arm so he was not only holding her onto the horse but the child as well. The brave checked around at his party and found that most of the children were experiencing the same difficulties of staying awake as well as a couple of the other braves. Turning the black horse to come up between Quatre and Trowa, the latter of which also had a sleepy boy behind him, he spoke to them.

"We should make camp soon," he said casually and both nodded in agreement. Trowa eyed the sleeping girl and child with a raised brow and smiled at the picture the three made on the horse. Heero sent him a look, but the green-eyed warrior paid it no mind, just turning back to the forest before them. Quatre chuckled lightly pulling away from the two to relay the message to Duo and Wufei.

The air felt heavier than before and Heero knew there must be a form of water nearby. That also meant there would be fair game around the area, which would explain why Finn had wondered off. A whistle caught everyone's attention and the girl started in her sleep. It was a greeting call, which was odd since there weren't any of their people stationed here. They shouldn't have met up with any Resh'ta-ne until they had passed the border of the Iowa territory and into what the white men called Minnesota.

Heero and Trowa stopped and the tall brave signaled the group behind them to do the same. Cautiously, Heero surveyed the forest around them. Nothing was out of place, birds and other night creatures went about their business, ignoring the band of humans and horses that stood quietly in the underbrush. The silence seemed to stretch on for ages before the night's peace was interrupted yet again by a greeting whistle. The two braves in the front of the group looked at each other and Heero nodded.

Trowa put two fingers into his mouth and blew a piercing sound into the night air. Relena was startled by the whistle and jumped into consciousness. Heero put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't start talking and she looked up at him over her shoulder with a hesitant questioning look in her light blue eyes.

He looked away from her face and waited for their newcomer to make themselves known. The bushes ahead rustled and behind the two warriors there were the sounds of bows being drawn. From the trees came the familiar tall figure of Rasid. He greeted them with a smile and several of the braves let out sighs of relief, putting their weapons down. It had been too long of a day for a battle to start.

Quatre, Duo and Wufei rode up beside Heero and Trowa at the front of the group. Duo was no longer leading the other horse that had been carrying the other girl and the two children and he and his horse seemed a bit happier because of it. Wufei had been stuck near the back for most of the day and his face showed his lasting boredom.

"Man, Rasid!" Duo exclaimed, scratching the back of his head, "You gave us a scare there! What are you doing this far south?"

"Yes," Quatre agreed, looking at the tall man that was his second, "You and the Maganac Corps were supposed to be farther upriver. Did something happen?"

"There was a military force camped at the clearing that you chose, Quatre-tyee. It looked as if they were following the southern road along the river. We rounded them and came farther south to cut you off."

"It looks as if the General has returned sooner than we had anticipated," Trowa said, looking thoughtfully at the other braves.

"Yeah," Duo groaned, leaning forward on his gray horse. "How does he manage to do these things?"

"Stop whining," Wufei scolded impatiently.

Duo pouted and glared at the pony-tailed warrior. "Come on, man. It's been a long day for all of us. Lay off."

"I will when you stop being such a baby."

"I am not a baby! That's a baby!" the braided brave pointed to the small boy sitting on the front of Heero's horse. The girl tightened her hold on the child, unsure why they were pointing at the infant because she didn't understand what they were saying.

Wufei looked at the child and smirked, "There's a lot of resemblance there."

Duo glared and reached over to grab the other teen, but the white horse danced out of the way and out of reach of the gray horse's rider. The braided teen again tried to get a swipe at Wufei but he kicked his horse into a jump past the edge of the underbrush and into the deeper parts of the woods. Duo, of course, right on his tail.

"There they go again," Quatre commented with a sigh. Rasid laughed softly.

Heero took the strung bow from his back and notched an arrow into it. He tapped the girl on the shoulder, "Lean forward and don't move."

She blinked up at him for a moment before doing what he said and leaning forward over the horse's neck, the small boy cradled in her arms so she wouldn't disturb him. That left Heero with some room for movement and he concentrated on the forest off to the right of the group. Drawing the bow, he waited for a moment before letting the arrow fly. A thunk came from the underbrush and the gray gelding trotted out riderless. Duo followed a moment after, pulling twigs and leaves from his hair. Wufei came out from the other direction.

"Knock it off," Heero told the two of them, strapping his bow back into its place on his quiver. Duo glared at Wufei, then Heero before mounting back onto his horse.

Rasid motioned for them to follow him, "We've set a camp. Come."

Trowa turned to signal the braves behind them, all who had been waiting patiently for the order, and they continued into the trees. Just beyond the brush was a clearing with less than a dozen tents already set up. All of them had the same symbol, a rising sun over a desert foreground. The sun connected them to Quatre's clan line and to the brave himself.

Heero looked around the little camp and noted that it was probably able to hold many more tents. He turned his horse to the party and whistled shrilly for everyone to set camp. The braves moved to select locations around the trees and began to pitch their tents. There was one place no one would even glance twice at . . . but not because it was a bad place. On the contrary, it was one of the prime spots. But there was a huge gray wolf lounging in the center of it, a packed tent on the ground next to him.

The blue eyed brave dismounted, leading his black horse to the space. He turned to the girl, holding his hands out to help her down and she clutched onto the boy-child as she slipped off the stallion's broad back. Heero steadied her before turning to the pack next to Finn. The two regarded each other for a moment before the teen nodded toward the girl and child. The wolf stood, stretching lazily and trotted over to the duo.

"Go clean up," he told Relena. She blinked, still somewhat sleepy and nodded. She walked off, Finn at her side. Heero was glad that she had decided not to ask any questions. He too was tired and didn't have the patience to deal with her inquiries. So, instead he set up the tent, unfolding the stretched and tanned hide over the reassembled poles. Once that was done, he set the furs on the ground inside and created a fire with dry wood from the forest. He made sure it wasn't going to set everything aflame before turning his attention to the black horse by the back of the tent, which chomped contently on the grass that covered most of the clearing.

"Glad you're easily pleased, Zero," Heero said softly to the horse, who only tossed his head in reply. The brave ran his hands along the long muscles in the stallion's legs and back, massaging the stiffness out from the day's ride. These were the moments the braves were at the most peace. The warrior and the horse are one; they are partners, each a half of the same being. In tradition, the horse is a noble and respected creature who roams the open lands in herds. A horse becomes a partner when it accepts a brave and they will always be together unless the horse decides to leave. Then the brave is a no-man. He has no soul.

Now, for Heero, Finn is another story. He had been only a child in the forests surrounding his Clan village when he'd come across a small wolf pup. The gray fur ball had just been sitting there on a fallen tree, staring into the creek at the passing silver fish. Suddenly, it hopped into the creek, splashing about, growling and biting at the water. The poor thing hadn't caught anything and had scared the fish away.

The boy-Heero had looked at the string of fish in his hand and decided to sacrifice one or two for the pup. When he approached, the wolf was sitting back on the log, wet and shivering. Without all the fur to cover it, Heero saw how skinny and malnourished the thing was. He'd put the two fish on the log near the pup and it sniffed it, looked at the boy, sniffed it again, then started to gorge. From that day on, Heero had what his father called a "shadow." The little pup grew huge in a matter of two season-turns and followed the boy-turned-teen everywhere like a shadow. In their language, `fin' meant `shadow' or `trailer.' His father had added the extra letter to distinguish the wolf's name from the word.

The elders had allowed him to have the animal, only because it wasn't like a hound or dog, the white man's canine, which were forbidden in the Village. Finn learned how to fend for himself after a little help from Heero and was almost self-sufficient. They also found it intriguing that the son of the Wolf Clan leader had adopted a young wolf as his shadow even before he'd partnered with a horse.

When he had lived 12 season-turns, he and other young braves had gone out on solitary journeys to the green plains. But Heero hadn't gone alone, Finn had followed him. Instead of the wolf trailing after him where he could be seen, he followed in the shadows he was named for. Truthfully, Heero hadn't even known that the gray wolf had been with him until the day he and Zero were partnered. Amazingly enough, it surprised even the elders that the black stallion had no quarrel with Finn and visa versa. In fact the two seemed to get along quite well and in the past 5 season-turns they seemed to only get friendlier, like their trust in each other was building.

A warning, urgent whistle was heard across the clearing and everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to look in the direction that it came from. The river. A second warning was blown and Heero dashed to the front of his tent to stamp out the fire with sand and dirt. It smoldered before going completely out and the brave spun and raced to the tree line. Ahead of him were Trowa and Wufei and he disappeared into the brush after them. Pushing away the boughs and branches, he made it to the river side only to see a sight that didn't comfort him.

In blue and white uniforms, on over a dozen long boats with rifles in hand, stood or sat the exact part of the white man army that they were trying to avoid before they got to the Village.

At the front of the first boat stood a man that was well known among the Resh'ta-ne. Long, white-blonde hair glinted in the light from the torches of the soldiers and the straightness of his features was amplified by the overhanging crescent moon. Movement off to the side caught his eye and to his horror he saw the rujholla of the very man on the water in front of them. She stood, her mouth open a bowl in her hands, staring at the river and the men that moved along it. Panicking, Heero shot off into the trees, his mind centered on catching the girl before she could alert her brother to the party gathered on shore. He dived at her, tackling her petite body to the ground under his. They landed in the underbrush with an `oomph' and rustling of foliage. She was too stunned to move at first, but in seconds she was struggling against the weight of his body and the hand clamped over her mouth.

"Stay still!" Heero growled next to her ear. Relena immediately stopped moving and he watched the torches move away along the glittering path of the river though the gaps in the bush that hid them.

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Hilde sat with the children and Eli, who Relena had given to her so she could do some washing at the river without having to watch the three-year-old. The short haired teen hadn't noticed the gray shadow that was following her blonde friend into the forest and continued tending to the children as if nothing was the matter. In her head though, she was crying. She never realized how much she would miss home if she ever left. And here she was, captured by a band of Indians and being taken father and farther away from the small farm she'd come to know as home.

Yeah, she complained about chores and her siblings a lot and she hated the stupid hand-me-downs that were passed down from her older sisters. And she hated sharing the right loft with four other girls and a bed with her littlest sister. Her brothers were all pains and had way too many privileges compared to the girls and her father never really talked to her and her mother only yelled and gave out chores . . . but now that she was away from all that, she missed them like a man in the desert misses water. She guessed that she would feel better if she knew they were all okay. In some ways she didn't know if she was glad or not that Devin was taken too. She was with him, but she was afraid of what was going to happen to them.

So far they had continued to move on through the forest, only stopping when it was well into the night. The Indians, mainly Catherine and her rujho or brother, Trowa, had given them food, clothing and shelter and it was hard to see if they were actually captives or not. Since their town was a few days from a fort, the fort where Relena's older brother was stationed, Hilde had seen what the army did with prisoners, like Indians. They were tied up, gagged and tied to the back of a horse where they were basically dragged along.

But these people didn't do that. All the captives were under the age of twelve besides Hilde and Relena, and she'd never been tied up or had seen anyone else that way. They were carried on horses, some of them with the braves. Every day she'd seen Relena and Eli sitting in front of the brave that had captured her as if they were good friends and noticed that night a couple of days ago when she'd dosed off in his arms. That was also the night that the brave, whose name Relena said was Heero, had shoved her best friend out of the forest and into the dimly lit clearing, the few remaining fires that still were burning from the whistles that caused everyone to panic. He seemed angry with the blonde and pushed her roughly into the tent with the wolf marking on it. Earlier that night, Relena had given Hilde Eli as she went to the river for some water.

What worried her was when she had come to Catherine and Trowa's tent the next morning and apologized to all three of them for making them keep Eli for the night. When Hilde was about to speak to her about Heero, she noticed he was standing directly outside, waiting with his arms folded across his chest. Relena glanced back at the brave and turned to give Hilde a reassuring smile before walking back to the man. The short haired girl watched from the tent door flap as Heero took Eli from Relena and helped her up onto the huge black horse before passing the child up to her and mounting behind her.

This evening, they had stopped sooner than usual, setting up their tented camp just as the sun was dropping over the tops of the trees. Now, just minutes since dark had fallen completely, Hilde sat in front of a fire with Eli in her lap and the other children around her. They were all healthy and their crying at night had almost stopped completely. Every once in a while Bethany or Theresa would cry and one of the boys would comfort them, Jason seemed to have a special knack for it and Adam could be caring when he wanted to be. Leon was another story. In many ways he was beginning to remind her of that Heero guy. He was cold most of the time and would hardly speak unless it was to protest against something. Hilde was trying to not let his attitude affect her or the other children's' moods.

Suddenly, Hilde was brought out of her thoughts when another figure stepped into the light and plopped down onto the ground with a sigh. Her dark eyes looked over at Relena, who smiled warmly in return.

"Relena?" she asked cautiously over the fire, almost afraid of what she was asking. The other girl looked over at her with a concerned expression.

"What's wrong, Hilde?"

The short haired girl looked down at her lap and seemed to be really interested with the leaf that Eli was playing with. When she answer it was very quiet, but the lack of noise in the Indian camp made it easy to hear from where Relena sat.

"What are we going to do?"

The blonde's blue eyes softened at the lost sound of her best friend's voice. "We can't really do anything, Hilde. Right now I'm the most important thing they have."

Hilde looked up, confused. "What are you talking about? How are you `the most important thing they have?'" she asked.

Relena laughed quietly to herself, "These people are the Resh'ta-ne, Hilde. My brother is their worst enemy. Right now, I'm a priceless captive. They could use me against Milliardo when it comes time for that war my brother is always talking about."

The other girl could only stare. Everything was slightly coming into place, but the questions that were answered only brought up new ones. "Is that why you've been with that brave all the time and not with the rest of us? And what happened that night when they whistled and everything went silent? Did that have anything to do with you? And why was that guy so mad at you? Is hurting you? He better not be or I'll sock his lights out!"

This time Relena actually let out a bark of laughter and shook her head as the giggles rocked her small frame. Her friend could really go too far sometimes . . . but, oh! It was good to laugh again! These last few days she'd really missed talking to Hilde. The said girl was staring at Relena again, but this time wondering if her friend had actually snapped or not. She blinked several times before the laughter started to get contagious and she too started to giggle helplessly. The children didn't know what they were laughing about, but the girls, Jason and Devin started to laugh along with them. Soon all the captives around the small fire except Leon and Eli, who was too young to really get it, were laughing.

Still chuckling, Relena turned to answering her friend's many questions, but was stopped when Catherine came out of her tent and walked over to them. The older woman smiled warmly.

"Good evening, Relena. Hilde," she then turned to the other girl. "It's about time to put the children to sleep. Trowa has finished setting up the tent and I have dinner prepared."

"Yeah, I'm hungry," Adam said, rubbing his stomach. The other children voiced their agreement and Catherine smiled. Hilde started to get up but the Indian stopped her.

"No, stay and finish your conversation with Relena. You two haven't talked in a while. I'll take the children." With no persuasion needed, Hilde nodded and let the woman lead the six children to the tent she shared with her brother, leaving them with Eli, since Relena would be taking the boy later.

"So?" she asked impatiently. It took Relena a moment to figure out what she was talking about.

"Okay, um . . ." she tried to remember the questions that had made her laugh in the first place, "yes, the reason I haven't been with you guys is because I've valuable and they want me guarded so I don't escape and so other braves don't try to kill me for who I am. The other night, the whistling was because my brother was going by on the river with his regiment, and it really didn't have anything to do with me, but I was just standing out in the open at the river and Heero thought I was going to warn my brother so that's why he was mad at me, and no he isn't hurting me. On the contrary, he's actually taking really good care of me . . . though he doesn't talk much. He just gives me orders and I do them."

Hilde blinked, trying to process all that information. That actually made a lot of sense. They were protecting her from their own people, who would no doubt have some grudge against her brother, and so she wouldn't try anything. Not that she would, Relena had too much honor to escape and leave the rest of them behind, she was too kind hearted. And had she just said that they had been mere feet away from her brother and Hilde hadn't even known? Talk about late news!

"Are you being watched right now?" she just had to ask. If she was their whole conversation had just been heard.

Relena raised a slender eyebrow and took a moment to look around. After a moment she turned back to Hilde. "Yes, I am. See that shadow over by that tent to the far left? The one with the gold, glowing eyes?"

The short haired girl looked over at the spot her friend pointed to and indeed there was a set of golden eyes that caught the light of the fire lying in the shadows. Her own eyes widened in fear.

"W-what is it?" she asked suddenly afraid for her friend's safety again. But not from the brave, instead from this yellow eyed creature.

Relena smirked slightly and gave the set of eyes a look before turning her back on them again. "That is Heero's pet wolf, Finn."

Hilde gaped at her, eyes wide and mouth open. "PET WOLF?" she asked incredulously.

The blonde just smiled weakly. "Yes. He follows me everywhere when I'm not around Heero and even sometimes when I am. He's actually quite friendly."

Hilde reached across the low fire to place her hand on Relena's forehead. It felt okay; she wasn't running a fever or anything. Pulling her hand back, she decided that she had to be dreaming! Relena had just said that her captor's pet is a wolf and that it was friendly. We're not exactly talking about a farm dog here! Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you see it, Hilde didn't get a chance to inquire if her friend was still sane because a figure approached their small fire.

Out of the shadows came the imposing form of the Indian Heero and he looked down on them for a shot moment before speaking.

"Time to come inside," he told Relena, shooting Hilde a glance. The blonde looked up at him over her shoulder and nodded. She stood and walked over to Hilde, giving the other girl a hug as she took Eli.

"I'll talk to you later, Hilde," she said with a smile and turned to walk past the brave, who finally took his eyes off the short haired girl and followed his charge out of the ring of light the fire cast.

Hilde glared at his retreating back until she couldn't see it anymore, and even after that. She couldn't believe that guy. He just ordered Relena around like she was some prisoner . . . wait. She was. And so was Hilde. The girl sighed and stood, brushing off her backside and walking over to Catherine and Trowa's tent. She had to admit, she was really starting to like the pant and shirt leathers that she had been given. They were actually quite comfortable.

Maybe . . . things wouldn't be so bad after all.

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