Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Slayers of the Dawn ❯ Part Four: the Err of Man ( Chapter 4 )

Part Four: The Err of Man

 

Duo cursed himself over and over as he made his way through shadowed corridors just beginning to lighten with the coming day. Anger still burned through him like wildfire, snapping and roaring - eager for a vengeance he knew he'd never seek. He gritted his teeth and bid himself to calm down, breathing deeply through his nose. Behind him he heard the doors of the dining halls open but did not bother to slow his harried pace. He had to gain control of himself - and quickly. It wouldn't do to blow everything now, after so long.

 

Even as he moved he focused, a part of his mind paying attention only to the person following and trying to catch up with him. There were no shouts of anger nor calls to halt; it was the little blonde one, then, with the bright smile. Unlike the others he held no sort of animosity within him and for that alone Duo was thankful. His anger abated a little more, even as he rounded the last few corners that brought him to his final destination.

 

“Uncle Duo!”

 

“Sadie-chan!” Duo caught the little girl that hurled herself into his arms and swung her around in a circle, squeezing her tight enough to make her let out a breathless squeal.

 

“Mama didn't say you had come back yet, Uncle Duo! Where have you been?”

 

“Yeah!” a little boy sitting and playing with blocks off to the side pushed himself to his feet and gave his very best impression of a glare. “Where you been?”

 

“Yah!” One of the smallest toddlers, a little girl with barely enough hair to create a darkened fuzz over her features, took a wobbling step toward him, arms outstretched as she sensed the excitement of having an adult nearby.

 

Duo laughed and walked further into the room, setting Sadie on her feet to pick the toddler up. “Ne, ne. I've been on an adventure, mina-chan. Didn't you know?” Off-handedly he counted heads, coming up with a rounded total of fifteen. The play room around him was coming to life as others looked up from what they were doing and instantly gravitated toward him, each one piping up with their own questions or demands to be picked up or cuddled or hugged. He gladly obliged each and every one, the last traces of negativity falling away at their touch. He loved this; being with the children of the hold, spending time immersed in the innocence of their beautiful world and simple minds. There was no politics here, not yet, nor hatred of any sort, only a want to play and be happy.

 

There were no promises to be broken here.

 

Across the room their teacher, a young woman heavy with child, had fallen asleep where she sat in a chair, the youngest babe curled in her arms. She looked exhausted and rightly so. He knew for a fact that she had been having trouble with her pregnancy and was already running two weeks late in delivery. Too much longer and they'd have to force the labor, which never boded well in this day and time.

 

“Uncle Duo,” an older boy about the age of seven or so pushed himself closer to crowd by Duo's side, his serious grey eyes - so like Hilde's - taking him in almost ferociously. “Tell us a story. Teacher promised to tell us the story about what it was like before the dragons but she fell asleep before she could. So you tell us.”

 

“Yeah, you tell us.” Sadie piped up, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt and nearly upsetting his balance where he was crouched in the midst of all the children. “Tell us about before the drag'ns.”

 

It was a commonly known story amongst the peoples, Duo thought with a grin, but never so interesting as when he told it and they knew that. Behind him he sensed Quatre in the doorway and gave a shrug, glancing over his shoulder at the other young man. “Well, what do you think? Shall I tell them?”

 

Quatre crossed his arms over his chest in an easy motion and leaned against the doorjamb, pretending to think the matter over. “Hm … I don't know. Have they been good lately? You know, stories like that should only be held for children on their best behavior.”

 

The children began a wailing chorus, swearing on their good acts and how nice they had been to one another, as Duo grinned again. So at least one of the strangers was good with both adults and children; it was nice to know that kindness and compassion still existed beyond Bei Rahn. He hadn't been seeing too much of it in the past few years and had begun to seriously doubt it had survived. “I guess they have been, maybe.” He spoke loudly over the tinny baby voices, quieting them with his gentle tone as he continued. “But everyone must be really quiet throughout the whole story, or else I have to stop. Okay?”

 

As each child in turn gave vehement nods and murmurs of agreement, Duo moved to sit in a nearby chair, Quatre taking one to the side. He held the young toddler in his lap, while Sadie - having judged the newcomer safe enough - climbed into Quatre's startled arms and made herself comfortable.

 

“So, where should I begin?” Duo heaved a dramatic sigh. “Well, way back in the day, before either you or I or even Great-grampa Jones was born, the world was completely different, and it was actually called the twenty-first century …”

 

~ (…) ~

 

Two hundred years ago, the world of the humans flourished. They stood as the masters of their time, in control of their world and ruling over it as best they knew how. Every new generation born to them grew more adept than the last, creating and molding things to make their lives and the lives of their children easier. They used machines to perform duties both vital and by whim, both simple and built with such grandeur that many of them could only stand back and look at them in awe.

 

There were cars - small ships on wheels that were ground-bound and took them anywhere on land they wanted to go. Computers - small, personal metal boxes with windows that held immense amounts of knowledge within them. Televisions - stationary things of a great many sizes that displayed moving pictures and sound to entertain. Foods of all sorts, and buildings called restaurants whose whole purpose was to serve such good in all manner of ways. Books with pages made of paper, with no lamination protecting them, and buildings that held only those, too. There was a building - calls shops and stores - for nearly everything imaginable, even toys and animals they called pets. There were schools everywhere, each class based on a child's age, and even some adults went to school, too. And everywhere there were machines, each built for a different purpose or task. They grew confident and then foolish, believing themselves to be the strongest creatures alive. Happily the humans lived on for thousands of years, believing that the greatest of dangers to their dominance of the world had been nothing save for a mere fantasy - a fable created to entertain children. But unbeknownst to them, buried deep within a glacial shelf - a mountain made completely of ice and snow - one remained alive, waiting for the moment when she would be freed.

 

Two hundred years ago, that moment came. The humans were doing something they called “research” to better understand things they did not, and dug deep into the ice and core of the world. There they found her cold and immobile as stone, asleep, curled around four large eggs. Foolishly they woke her and it was discovered that she had been cursed, bound in ice for deeds of such vile proportions that it was hard for the mind to even imagine. She was thus cursed to remain where she had been entombed until the day when her claws could rend flesh and blood flowed once more beneath her wings. Although her eggs were buried with her, she loved them greatly and had not dared to harm them before they hatched, and so she bound them to herself, bidding her children to sleep until the day freedom would find her once more.

 

The humans tried to flee and warn others, but it was too late. She killed them and with a mighty roar escaped her prison. Town by town, city by city, land by land she wrought havoc, reigning over the puny race of humans with fire and claws and ferociousness. The fury and hatred within her was great and she destroyed all that she came across, and the world began to burn. All that the humans held dear and were in control over fell apart, piece by piece, beneath her anger. She attacked all the happiness she could find, and destroyed all their buildings and computers and cars and televisions and books.

 

She then returned to where she had been entombed and fed the humans to her babies, passing her hatred on to them and telling them stories of horror as they feasted. Two males and two females had been borne of her, and of them they created more and then more. The turned into seven and then into twenty and then to hundreds, many born of the First, with nothing but her evil and hatred in their hearts. They razed the lands, burning crops and destroying the humans' means of eating. They tore down the buildings and tore the machines apart, to immobilize the humans and leave them in the open, unable to defend themselves. They thrived on the destruction they wrought to the humans.

 

To protect themselves the humans went into hiding, many fleeing without purpose in mind. What few humans were left alive in the aftermath of the First's Rising scattered to the far corners of all lands and banded with others that had fled in the same manner. Together they erected the buildings once more, or created safe places out of caves and built underground tunnels in which to hide from the dragons. Still, they fear attacks. They may flourish once more for days, for years, even for decades without being truly harmed, until the dragons return and reign havoc over them again, leaving few left alive in their wake.

 

The four dragonlets born of the First still remain, different between them all as any human siblings ever were. Some are more prone to attack, others less so. The two females -

 

~(…)~

 

Duo caught sight of Hilde in the doorway and abruptly stopped, giving her a chirpy smile before turning back to the toddler on his knee. “And anyway, that was the Err of Man, and was a really long time ago, so none of you have anything to worry about. Now run along and play.”

 

The toddler, as interested in the story as she was, had been gradually getting more and more anxious, eager to go play with the blocks she had been eyes for the past few minutes. She slid from his lap happily and ran over to them. Hilde shook her head, entering the room to pick up her youngest son where he had fallen asleep at Duo's feet. “Nice rendition, Duo.” She muttered wryly, “But I think you meant the era of man, not err.”

 

“Really?” He gave her an innocent grin. “My bad. My mistake, ne?”

 

“If you say so.” She turned to Quatre and the little girl still in his lap. “Sadie, be a dear and go fetch your father for me. Tell him I need him to repair one of the rain ducts. And Quatre, Relena is preparing to head out to check the harvesting mills and storage areas, if you'd like to go. She asked me to find you and let you know they will be waiting out front.”

 

“Certainly. Thank you, I will go immediately.”

 

“A tour of the grounds? Hey, cool! I'll go, too!” Duo bounced to his feet. “I haven't seen Trowa in ages and that old goat deserves to get his fur in ruffle.” He snickered to himself. “Do you remember how mad he got when I rewired all the watering lines to spray up instead of down and it went all -”

 

“Yes, I remember that very well.” Carefully shaking the young teacher awake, Hilde gave a weary sigh and rolled her eyes. “You have to remember he used to be a field hunter, Duo. If you mess with anything on his crops again he's liable to hunt you down and serve you for dinner.”

 

“Ah, pshaw.” He wrinkled his nose, waving the remark away. “T-man? Nah, he's too easy-going for that. He's more the kind who'd put poison in your … food or … something …” Suddenly he paled and looked a little uneasy. “Say, Hilde, he's not due back anytime soon, right? I mean, I think he's still - you know - got a grudge against me …”

 

She laughed, a true and surprisingly deep laugh that made an echoing smile, as faltering and crooked as it was, come to Duo's lips. “No, he's not due back for another two weeks, from what the messengers say of the crops. I wouldn't worry too much. Just don't eat anything while you're out there.”

 

“Yosh!” Satisfied, Duo headed toward the door with a little skip. “Come on, Quatre, lets find the Princess and see what -”

 

Hilde cleared her throat, the sound sharp and disapproving in a way Duo had heard a million times before. He froze in his tracks, because he knew what was coming next - “Before you go, Duo, we need to have a talk.” - and grimaced.

 

“Aw, but Hil -”

 

“Quatre,” she said loudly, drowning out his complaints, “Please let Relena know that Duo will be on his way shortly.”

 

As soon as he was gone, Hilde's hand wrapped around Duo's arm tight as a vice and dragged him from the playrooms, headed down the hall and into a deserted room that had been built as a make-shift library. There weren't many books there, not any more, and though they always made sure to bring a few back with them whenever they visited other towns it was still only a-third of the way full. Slamming the door shut, she whirled on him. “Duo, what the hell was that at meal? Do you know what Relena had to go through the clean up your mess? And why did you even - what were you even talking about? Exactly who is Mord-whoever and why did you -”

 

“Anou …” He winced, hiding his hands behind his back and retreating from her near-vicinity. She was working herself up to a tantrum and what he was about to say would only make it worse. “Babe, you know I can't say …”

 

She let out a growl of aggravation loud enough to make him wince again. “ARGH! What the hell -”

 

“You know,” he interrupted her with a quip, “You sounded just like one of those tiger-things that the king of the Southern borders has and if you growl like that again - ack! No, wait - I didn't mean it - ow!”

 

“You stubborn little son of a -” Hilde punched him in the shoulder one last time and leaned down from where she was perched on his stomach. She bared her teeth at him in a snarl. “Fine! Have it your way, but if you so much as sneeze the wrong way in front of them again and embarrass Relena like that one more time I'm going to skewer you alive.”

 

“No you won't.” Peeking over his arms where he had them up to protect his face, Duo gave another crooked grin.

 

“And why not?”

 

“Because you love me, remember?” When Hilde gave another snarl he jumped and quickly shimmied from beneath her, dumping her unceremoniously to the floor. This only made her angrier as he hastily made his way out the door, shutting it and quickly leaning against it to prevent it from being opened. There was a loud, dull thud as she hit it from the other side.

 

“Let me out of here, or I'll ring your scrawny little neck!”

 

“Um, yeah. Can't do that. See, I kind of want to live to see my next birthday.” He murmured loudly to the crack between the door and its frame. “Anyway, I have to go now, sweetheart, before they decide to leave me behind.” The bolt was high on the door and gave a thick groan as he pushed it into place, effectively locking it closed. Hearing it on the other side, Hilde gave an enraged curse and began to hit the door again, harder this time, shouting out obscenities with every dull thud. “Don't worry,” he called back to her, “I'll tell Trowa you're in here so he can send a messenger back to let you out. In about … an hour or so.”

 

With that he turned around and began making his way down the hall in a leisurely walk, hands in his pockets as he whistled a jumpy little ditty to himself, Hilde's muffled shouts and furious curses following him every step of the way.