Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam Wing and the Quest for the Holy Grail ❯ The Ogre of Ettenmoor ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: The Ogre of Ettenmoor

“I still say the oracle could have mentioned the damn ogre!” Duo complained.

“It's an oracle's job to be inscrutable, Duo,” Heero said.

“In fact,” added Wu-Fei, “she told us a lot more than I would have expected. And she did imply that getting a drink from the well would not be easy.”

“That is true,” agreed Percival. “In any event, we must devise a plan to remove or destroy the ogre in order to reach the well. Any ideas?”

“We have to get into the castle first,” Trowa said, “and that won't be easy without a gate.”

“Aye, we need to knock down the barrier,” Hagrimore said.

“I'll take care of that,” said Quatre. “I know where the gate used to be. The wall is thinner there.” He walked around the wall to the left and faced the wall at a spot that didn't look any different to anyone else.

“Hang on a sec,” Duo said. “If you knock the wall down, won't the ogre just come rushing out and attack us?”

“Probably.” Quatre grinned. “I'd get your swords out, if I were you.”

The knights exchanged worried glances and began drawing their swords.

“How big would you say that ogre is, Master Quatre?” Hagrimore asked.

“About ten or twelve feet tall,” Quatre said. He winked at Duo. “That's three and a half or four meters to you and me.”

“Crap!”

“Everyone ready?” Quatre asked brightly. He faced the wall and lifted his arms with his palms facing toward each other. “Novi inlustris apparere!” he cried. A huge ball of brilliant white flame appeared between his hands above his head. Quatre moved his arms slightly backward and then flung his hands forward. The ball of fire shot toward the wall and smashed into it with an enormous explosion of smoke and flame.

There was a tremendous crash. Amid the plumes of smoke and dust, the wall collapsed seemingly in slow motion, sending rocks tumbling in all directions.

There was a startled roar from inside the castle.

“To arms!” Percival cried, and he charged toward the opening that Quatre had made in the wall.

With excited shouts and assorted battle cries, the other knights fell in behind him, with Heero and Hagrimore in the lead. Duo, Trowa and Wu-Fei charged forward as well.

“Please wait here, Roku!” Quatre shouted, and he dashed off after the others.

Roku dashed from side to side, nearly vibrating with excitement. Then he charged forward too.

As the knights scrambled somewhat clumsily over the jumble of fallen rocks, Heero, Duo, Trowa and Wu-Fei leaped lightly ahead of them, skipping from stone to stone easily.

The ogre reared up in front of the well. It had a thick, muscular body covered in coarse, wiry hair and a rather pig-like face, with short tusks rising up from either side of its broad, flat snout. It clutched a massive club in its right hand that probably weighed more than any of the Gundam pilots. It stared at them for a moment with tiny red eyes and then charged toward them with a furious roar that shook more stones down from the breach in the wall.

The four pilots scattered as the ogre swung at them. A couple of young knights on their heels were not so lucky. One took the ogre's club full on his side and was crushed into the knight next to him. Both men were flung across the courtyard and into the wall, were they collapsed like rag dolls.

Damodin just escaped being hit by flinging himself to the ground.

Heero slashed at the ogre's right arm. His sword glanced off harmlessly.

Wu-Fei faired no better with his kitana.

“Damn!” Heero shouted. “Its skin is like stone!”

More swords clattered against the ogre's rocky hide, but none were able to cut it.

The ogre was surprisingly quick. Only the weight of its club seemed to be slowing it down. It managed to clip a few more knights while they hacked away at it. It continued to roar angrily.

“This is useless!” Percival cried. “It will just wear us down and finish us off one by one!”

“Can you do anything, Quatre?” Trowa shouted. “Can you blow it up?”

“Not without killing the rest of you!” Quatre shouted back.

“We had best retreat, Percival!” Hagrimore shouted, “Before it crushes any more of us!”

The knights backed away, along with the five pilots. Surprisingly, the ogre did not follow them. It moved back in front of the well and stood there, glaring at them ferociously.

“It would seem the beast means to keep us from reaching the well,” Damodin remarked, panting.

“Great!” said Duo. “We can't kill it and it won't let us get anywhere near the well.”

“And if I try to blow it up where it's standing,” Quatre added, “I'll probably collapse the well mouth.”

“Can you set it on fire, Fei?” Heero asked.

Wu-Fei shook his head. “Not from here. I'd need to get within a few arm lengths of it, well inside club-range.”

“I doubt it would do any good anyway,” Hagrimore said. “I've heard that ogre's are fireproof. They're one of the few things dragons fear, or at least respect.”

“So what are you going to do?” Roku asked.

Quatre whirled around. “I told you to wait outside!” He hurried over to Roku. “This is dangerous, sweetie.”

“I wanted to watch!”

Quatre put a hand over his face. “I am not cut out to be a mother.”

“What else do you know about ogres, Hagrimore?” Wu-Fei asked.

“They're territorial, loners, immortal unless killed, and they stink.”

“I'll attest to that last thing,” Duo said. “This one reeks.”

“What do they eat?” Trowa asked. “If this one's been locked up in here for the last twenty years, what has it been living on?”

“Well, that's the interesting thing,” Hagrimore said. “Ogres will eat pretty much anything at all. They can eat rock. That's probably why its skin is so hard.”

“No way!” Duo said. “Rock?”

“Aye, rock.”

“Can't you turn it into something, Quatre? Like you did all those knights?” asked Heero.

“I can try,” Quatre replied, “but you know the spell won't last.” He studied the ogre speculatively, then pointed at it and spoke. Blue light shimmered briefly around the ogre, but it did not change shape. “Hmm…” Quatre said. He tried again. The ogre shimmered again, but again did not change. “Well, you can add that to your sum of ogre knowledge, Hagrimore. They seem to be immune to magic.”

“That's downright unfair,” one knight muttered.

Quatre sat down on a rock. Roku sat next to him.

Taking his example, Trowa, Heero, Duo and Wu-Fei also sat down.

The ogre squatted down on its haunches facing them, the head of its big club resting on the ground.

“We could wait until nightfall and try to sneak past it in the dark,” someone suggested.

Hagrimore looked doubtful.

“Don't tell me,” Duo said, “it can see in the dark.”

Hagrimore nodded. “And its sense of smell is wicked sharp.”

“It's the perfect guardian,” Heero said admiringly.

“So what is compelling it to guard the well?” asked Percival. “If it is truly immune to magic, how was it convinced to remain here? This is hardly the natural habitat of an ogre.”

“There's another ogre in the well,” Roku said.

“What?!” Everyone stared at him.

“I can smell it,” Roku said. “There's another ogre.”

“But you said they were loners, Hagrimore,” Duo said. “Why would this ogre stay with another one?”

“It's a girl,” said Roku.

Everyone stared at Roku again.

Roku pointed a paw at the crouching ogre. “It's a girl. Maybe the ogre in the well is her baby.”

Everyone turned to stare at the ogre.

“I'll be damned!” said Hagrimore. “It never occurred to me that ogre's came in two sexes.”

“Where else would little ogres come from, if they're not magic?” Roku asked innocently.

“Where else indeed?” Quatre said with a smile. He rubbed Roku's ears affectionately. “We need to get the other ogre out of the well.”

“And how are we going to do that?” asked Duo.

“Levitation,” Quatre replied. “Just give me a second.” He closed his eyes and pressed his hands together in front of him, as if he were praying. “I need your help, Roku,” he said softly. “Can you tell where the other ogre is?”

“Yes, Mama.”

“Good. Give me your paw.” Quatre held out one hand. Roku put a paw in it. “Now, I'll say the spell, but you point at the ogre in the well, ok?”

“Ok.”

Quatre began to speak and Roku pointed at the ground in front of the well. There was a startled squeal from deep inside the well. The ogre surged upright and whirled toward the well with an answering cry. After several moments, a small ogre floated up out of the well. The larger ogre immediately dropped the club and leaped forward to snatch the smaller ogre out of the air.

“That's kind of sad,” Duo said. “That poor ogre's been stuck down their twenty years.”

“Well,” said Hagrimore, “since ogres live pretty much forever, I doubt they felt the passage of time they way we would have. And in another twenty or thirty years, it would likely have grown big enough to climb out on its own. I think.”

“Why don't we let them leave?” Heero suggested.

He moved to one side of the courtyard. Everyone else followed suit, clustering against one wall. The larger ogre shifted the little ogre to one arm and picked up its club. It watched the humans suspiciously as it trudged past them toward the re-opened gate. The ogre kicked its way through the fallen stones and disappeared.

Percival looked sadly at the injured knights. “It is unfortunate we did not discover this secret before the battle.”

There were nods all around. Two knights lay gravely injured and another two suffered less serious wounds.

Quatre pushed up his sleeves. “Wu-Fei, will you help me with the wounded, please?”

“Of course.”

“Sir Percival,” said Hagrimore, “the Well of Four Souls awaits you. The rest of us will make a camp and tend to the injured.”

Percival and Heero walked to the well. The stones along the top edge were worn smooth, perhaps from years of the mother ogre leaning over to look for her offspring. Heero picked up a pebble, tossed it in and started counting. He reached eight before they heard a splash.

“The water's pretty far down,” Heero said.

“Aye,” agreed Percival. “We need rope and a bucket.” He looked at the ruins of the castle. “Let's see what there is to be found.”

A search of the first floor of the castle, which was all that Percival deemed safe, produced a rickety wooden bucket with some noticeable holes and a good-sized length of fraying rope. They returned to the courtyard, looped the rope through a hole near the rim of the bucket and lowered it into the well. When they pulled it up, the bucket was leaking steadily, but it contained water.

“Well, Sir Heero, which of us shall drink of the Well of Four Souls?”

“You should have the honor, Sir Percival,” Heero said. “This is the first true trial on the quest.”

Percival nodded. “Very well.” He lifted the bucket to his lips and drank. After a long swallow, he lowered it and looked at Heero with a slightly puzzled expression. Then his eyes glazed over and he went stiff, staring straight ahead.

“In the Cave of the Hermit, on the edge of Beardley Bog, lies the Key to the Room with No Doors, in the Church of Motten Bluff. Read you there the memoir of the Hermit.”

Percival swayed and blinked in surprise. “How now?” He sounded groggy.

“You've given us the next stage in the journey, Percival,” Heero said. “But I think you'd better sit down.” He helped Percival over to a rock.

“What did I say?” Percival asked.

Heero told him.

“Indeed? I know of a town called Motten Bluff. It is but a few days journey from here. But I am not sure about Beardley Bog, and I have never heard of this Cave of the Hermit.”

“Well,” said Heero, “I think we should go to this Motten Bluff and ask around.”

“I agree.”

They joined the rest of the party. It turned out that while Heero and Percival had been engaged in their search of the castle, most of the others had been busily rounding up the horses, which had scattered when the ogres left the castle. They were only just starting to lay out bedrolls on one side of the courtyard and unpack provisions.

Wu-Fei was bandaging the two less injured knights using strips torn from cloth out of Roku's stash. Roku, in human form, was helping him. One of the knights had a nasty scalp wound. The other was sporting a broken wrist.

Quatre, Hagrimore and a couple of the other knights were carefully removing the armor from the two badly injured knights, who'd taken the ogre's first blow, so the severity of their wounds could be assessed. One knight had smacked his head against the wall and appeared to have a cracked skull. The other, who had absorbed the brunt of the blow, had cracked ribs and probably a punctured lung.

Quatre pursed his lips. “These wounds shouldn't be life-threatening, but they're both going to need plenty of rest for the next few weeks. They can't continue on the quest.”

Hagrimore nodded. “I agree. We must take them to the nearest town with a proper inn, where they can recuperate before returning to Camelot.”

“Someone should stay with them and escort them home as well,” Percival added.

“There's wood in the castle,” Heero said. “We can make litters.”

“Ah, very good.”

By nightfall, enough wood had been obtained from the castle, mostly the remains of furniture and pieces of fallen upper floors, to not only construct two litters but to build three large fires. They also drew more water from the well, which thankfully did not have oracular effects on anyone. The wounded men were made as comfortable as possible and everyone else settled down for the night, except Heero, who felt that some kind of guard should be maintained.

“Wake me up at midnight, Heero,” Duo said. “I'll take over. I'll wake Fei up sometime before dawn.”

“Sounds good.” Heero snagged a couple of strips of beef jerky and an apple and went outside the gate. He perched on a piece of fallen stone and munched on his dinner.

“So, this Motten Bluff,” Hagrimore said as he ate. “What kind of town might it be?”

“I don't know,” Percival replied. “I can only say that I've heard of it, and have a good idea where it is.”

“You don't suppose we'll run into something like that ogre in the Cave of the Hermit?” Trowa asked.

“I hope not!” Duo said fervently. His comment was echoed by several others.

“I doubt it,” Percival said. “But I can't help but feel that we will run into some obstacle, nevertheless.”

“And if not in the Cave of the Hermit,” said Quatre, “there's always the Room with No Doors.”

“And if it has no doors,” wondered Duo, “what are we supposed to do with this key we're supposed to find in the Cave of the Hermit?”

“It is quite a conundrum,” Hagrimore said.

“It sure is,” Trowa agreed. He smiled as he watched the little boy Roku climb into Quatre's lap and fall asleep with his head on Quatre's shoulder. “I think it's time to sleep.”

“I agree,” said Percival. “We should all try to sleep. In the morning, we can decide where to leave our wounded comrades before proceeding on to Motten Bluff.”

There were nods and murmurs of agreement all around, and everyone began wrapping themselves in blankets and stretching out on the ground near one of the fires.

Quatre wrapped a blanket around himself and Roku. “How is it he can manage to radiate just as much heat as a human as he can as a tiger? I'm going to swelter.”

“Then why use the blanket?” Duo asked.

“I don't want him to get cold,” Quatre replied with complete sincerity.

“That doesn't make any sense,” Wu-Fei said.

“I don't think his mind works quite right when his protective mother genes kick in,” whispered Duo.

“Ah.”

“I heard that.”