Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Shadows Of Reality ❯ Chapter 3

It was a difference in his surroundings that woke Heero the next morning, but it took several minutes before everything came back to him. The reason he was looking up at the predawn sky instead of the ceiling of a student room, the faint stiffness in his shoulders from sleeping on the impersonal ground that began to fade as he sat up and moved about. The fire spell had diminished during the night but not faded altogether and the little elfkin was nowhere to be seen, although his stuff remained.

In the woods, instinct whispered, at the creek. Heero went off in search of the boy, mind focusing briefly on the night before and the oath. He wondered what he might have gotten himself into, and more aptly if the young boy knew what he was doing. But it didn't matter, what was done was done, and Heero was fast approaching the rushing water. He peered through the trees as he moved.

The sight that greeted him caused him to freeze and watch still, hardly daring to let out his breath, lest it somehow alert the youth. The little elfkin was waist deep in the cold water, ringing out hair the color of chestnuts, before letting it drop into the water around him, swirling along the surface, straining towards the flow of river. The color seemed darker, redder than the day before, but Heero reasoned it was because it was washed and wet.

The closed eyes had changed shape, narrowing slightly, resembling large almonds, which he knew he was not imagining. The slender hands reached up and the fingers somehow looked longer, their bone structure more fragile, more feminine, yet they managed to appear stronger. The hair was pulled back away from the face, revealing ears that had truly taken on the appearance of an elf's, curving upward and extending, ending in the tip that distinguished the bearer for his race, beautiful and exotic, far more curved and delicate than any other elf ancestry he had seen on any other.

It was like looking upon an elf hundreds of years back in time as they had once been, as they would never be again, pure bloods reaching back noble centuries. Then Duo ducked underwater and came back up, showing Heero the same slightly elfin boy he had met the day before, no longer a shade of an ancient beauty that had been extinguished hundreds of years before Heero's grandparents had even been conceived.

Had it been an illusion? Was someone, something trying to give him a message? Not to hurt in anyway his traveling companion, not to be cruel at his tenderness, not to see him as weak when it was clear he was strong, not to take advantage lest Heero spoil something truly good, and kind, and pure?

The boy was moving towards the bank and Heero turned away from the slight figure, snorting at his thoughts, and silently make his way back to camp. This is where Duo found him when he returned, as if he had not left. "It's a nice day for traveling, Elfkin," Heero stated as he rolled the blankets together and found the tie that had kept them.

The boy looked a little surprised, actually faltering in his graceful step, before continuing on. "Do not call me Elfkin," he told Heero, opening his bag and removing the vest.

"Why? It's true." Heero watched as Duo took a handful of sand he had obviously brought back form the river's edge and threw it on the fire, extinguishing it.

"That's precisely why I don't want to be called that," Duo answered, brushing the remaining sparkles of sand from his hands. "I don't mind the name. I think it's accurate and complimenting, if not a bit affectionate, but I rather you not have the habit of calling me that. One slipup in the wrong place and I, as well as yourself if the conditions are right, could be stoned."

"Noted. When do we set off? True sunrise should be in nearly 45 minutes."

"Now, if you're ready."

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At the steady pace they kept it was mid afternoon the second day when the two travelers found themselves on the outskirts of the medium sized dynasty of Dragoon. Their traveling kept them on the border of the woods for a good part of the time, but as night neared they drew closer to the activity of everyday living. Neither the elfkin nor the hunter felt entirely comfortable moving along the edges of crowds, senses lost in the talking and laughing and yelling, the smell of dust and dirt being unsettled by the movements of feet, the taste of the city in the air. They did not wish to linger near the woods as night fell though, for fear of the wild dragons living there.

It was twilight the third night that the two approached the gates to the major city of business, and within those walls the government for the dynasty was housed. The gates had already closed for the evening, and the guard stood watch with another just outside of them, eyes alert but not searching. Duo drew back into the shadows, a pensive expression on his face, and Heero settled beside him. "We can slip into the city unnoticed tomorrow once business resumes," he told Duo softly. "Lost in the masses we run no risk of being stopped."

"No," Duo whispered, leaning in close enough for Heero to smell the forest on the other boy. "I need something from here, and tomorrow there will be too many people for me to take what I want."

"You mean to steal something? Not very fond of your hands, are you?"

Duo gave him a sharp look. "Fond enough, thank you. No other way. It's not as if I can just stroll up to the palace and demand a look in their royal vaults for something several centuries old, now can I?"

"You mean to steal from the palace?" Heero shook his head in disbelief and looked to the guards and the solid gate. Along the walls surrounding the city he knew would be more guards, armed and unwilling to ask first. Above those walls he saw the murky gray outline of the palace. He shook his head again and looked back to Duo. "You're mad, aren't you?"

"Never really stopped to think about it." Duo drew the hood of his dark cloak up and made sure the pack he carried was secure on his back. Heero put a hand on Duo's arm.

"How do you intend to get past the gates, if you don't mind my questioning?"

The wide violet eyes blinked at him.

Heero held back a growl. "You do have a plan to get in, don't you?"

"Of course I do. What do you take me for, a fool?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Either you don't know when to shut-up, or you won't open your mouth. It's really quite annoying."

"You could take a lesson on the former."

"Quiet. You see the door there behind the guard?"

Heero studied the darkness until the shape of the door stood out among the patterns on the stone. Duo continued. "That's the guard's entrance, we'll slip in that way. I'll get the key for it, and unlock the door. You just follow behind me."

Heero turned back to Duo only to find the night. His eyes managed to pick up a dark moving figure for half a second before the elfkin blended again with his surroundings. Silent cautious steps took him to the place he spotted the door, and Duo's form was seen again, sliding through the entrance he had made. The hunter followed, closing the door silently behind him.

It didn't take Heero long to realize that the elfkin obviously knew some sort of inner passage. Walls of stone moved with them on the sides, darkness ahead and darkness behind, but Duo continued to walk, one hand occasionally touching the wall, as if it were an old familiar path. Soon Duo led them out of the passage via another hidden door and across the dark grounds toward the palace.

The palace loomed above them, lit by flickering torches and lanterns, the smooth stone glowing ghostly in the murky night. It rose high in columns and slabs, marble and stone statues of ancient beasts guarding the grounds and the air, staring grotesquely out from hollow eyes. Duo stopped them right in front of one of the great beasts and tilted his head back to stare up at its growling snout.

"Give me a boost."

Heero tore his eyes away, eyebrows lifted, to regard the boy in front of him. Duo nodded upwards with a pointed look, and sighing silently Heero dropped down to a knee to give the boy a boost. The elfkin took hold of the sharp stone teeth and pulled himself upward, carefully reaching up into the massive mouth with his hand.

"What are you…?"

The stone shifted and rained a fine dust down onto Heero. The sharp teeth began to lower and lift into the beast until it's open mouth was clear of them, and Duo pushed himself up into the mouth, disappearing from view as he wriggled in.

"Duo."

The braid slithered back over the side as Duo looked out with bright eyes, holding a hand down to Heero. "Come on up, don't want to be standing around here when the guards come back around."

Heero grasped the hand tightly and surveyed the situation to find a way to lever himself up when Duo began to pull him up, other hand coming out and beckoning to take. To the hunter's growing amazement Duo pulled him almost entirely up and in, then let him go to drag himself the rest of the way.

"How did you…?"

The other had already begun to crawl downward, into the beast's belly, and with wide eyes Heero followed. "How did you know?" he whispered into the darkness.

"A friend of my grandfather helped them design this place," came Duo's muffled answer.

"That was hundreds of years ago."

Duo shifted and moved away from something, turning bright eyes to look at Heero. Behind him Heero could see light coming from two eye-shaped slits. With a shrug Heero could barely make out he turned back around and pressed up against the wall again. He could hear Duo's fingers scraping along something slowly, and then he heard the small click and the part of the wall in front of them swung outward.

Duo blinked against the soft light even as he slid out of the space they had just occupied into the hallway. Once his eyes adjusted he took a quick look about him, then turned back to the wall and pushed the painting back into its place. Nothing seemed amiss once he was done. Duo moved through the stretching, softly lit hallways, traveling downward by way of the occasional steps or sloping floors, pausing only occasional to glance around. They passed through places that seemed they should be guarded and well kept and places that didn't seem to have been uncovered in years, covered murals and dusty portraits, past sculptures and statues. Every time Heero thought for sure they'd be found out Duo would direct him to another hall, or move them into a nook that Heero hadn't seen previously. It was almost startling when the ornate double doors loomed in front of them, the legendary entrance to the Dragon Vaults.

Heero glanced over at Duo, who was engrossed in studying the carved doors, eyes following one path and then another, fingers brushing the air over the depictions. "What now?"

Duo tore his eyes away after a moment and blinked at Heero, then looked back up. "It's a dragon. If you look closely it's all a bunch of pictures, going from the far right there down and over like that." Duo made a motion with his hand. "But if you step back and just look at the overall design it's shaped as a dragon. I have to find the eyes."

"The eyes?" Heero took a step back and studied the doors.

"Yeah. Look for stones. I think that's one there… yeah, that's one of them. And… the other should be opposite over it. There it is, half hidden. That wasn't too hard."

"Wait until you meet Itricia."

Duo didn't have a chance to react to the new voice as a cold blade pressed against his neck. Heero turned and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

"Perhaps I should have said, you'd change your mind if you met Itricia, but that's a moot point now, isn't it?"

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A/N: Hello. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with Weiss Kreuz, but I have an idea for a fic I'd like to write and my beta reader knows nothing about the series or the characters. If anyone might be interested in helping me please email me stating such in your subject. A small word of warning, I tend to have my beta reader help me when I'm stuck on an issue or need to generate some ideas, so I will most likely ask for more than a check of the grammar and spelling and fluidity of the piece. Thank you. D.S.