Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Maids of Silva ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

The Maids of Silva

by Happily Ever After

Chapter Eleven

by kmf

Warnings: Language gets a little loose towards the end..

Dorothy smiled, her mouth pulling wide and bright. She had been successful; she had matched her father in prowess and had successfully captured a male fae. The fact that she had come dangerously close to surpassing her father by capturing two annoyed her somewhat. Her eyes narrowed following the path that Wufei had trampled in the forest undergrowth as he had clumsily set off in pursuit of his wife.

Irritation cut into her smile. She had suspected that Sally had been up to no good when the midwife had left abruptly and Lucrezia's eyes had been glittering with barely suppressed triumph. It had been so long since Dorothy had seen any spirit in Lucrezia's eyes that it had almost made her fall to her knees in surprise and wonder. Instead, she had controlled herself, taken her bow and her sword and immediately departed following the clumsy tracks of the pair of fleeing servants.

That they headed directly for the wood had been little surprise. Lucrezia and Sally had shared a secret of some sort, the answer of which Dorothy fully intended to beat out of either of the two women sometime in the near future. She despised secrets being kept from her and would not tolerate it.

Dorothy's smile grew again as she recalled how the familiar tendrils of fear and despondency had grown within her as she had come close to the wood. The wood hated her. It feared her. It wanted her gone. Dorothy had overcome the sensations by shear will power; she was strong-minded and would not run from such hints of hatred that this wood gave her. In this, she was far stronger than her father was and she had proven too that she was stronger than the wood.

She had spotted them easily enough, just inside the first fringe of trees. Not one fae, but two. One beautiful and blonde, his blue eyes narrowed in concern as he listened to what a kneeling Sally was murmuring to him. The other darker and physically superb; his limbs straight and lean, muscles clearly visible under his tight clothing. He had been leaning against a tree, his arms and his face partially obscured by a heavy fall of hair.

They had both been too preoccupied to detect her. Dorothy had decided then and there that either one would produce wonderfully beautiful children with Lucrezia, and that the spare would certainly perform admirably for herself. Feeling generous, she had even thought that Lucrezia could decide which she preferred. Determined to capture both she had almost made her move immediately, but approaching footfall had halted her.

The two girls she had observed at the cottage had come into view, accompanied by the princes in their animal guises. Dorothy had fought hard to hold back the chuckle that had welled up in her throat; it had seemed that today was her lucky day. She would hunt fae, Princes and annoying girls all in one move; she would only be limited by the number of arrows that she carried.

Drawing her bow, she had walked forward aiming to hit the strongest amongst them first: the two fae. The blonde one fell first, an arrow protruding from his shoulder, blood blossoming around the shaft. Normal arrows would not bring a magical creature to its knees, but her arrows were not normal; the very tips had been rubbed against iron to enable them to penetrate fae's skin.

Dorothy's aim was careful, she did not wish to damage the creatures unduly; they would have tasks to perform for her and she did not wish to impede their function in anyway. The second arrow made its mark in the green eyed one's leg. He cast a look at her imbued with such hatred that it made her pause for a second. Shaking her gaze from him, she had turned her arrow to the girls and their animals. The cat was snarling, standing between Dorothy and the dark haired girl, whilst the raptor had taken flight and was swooping towards her its talons outstretched. Dorothy had faltered at the sight; it wanted her very eyes, of this she was sure.

In the moment that she had hesitated bringing up a hand to shield her eyes, it had swept down clawing at her shoulder, tearing through her leather jerkin into her skin. She could not help but scream in rage at the pain that radiated down her arm. Clenching her teeth, she raised her bow and took careful aim at the raptor as it flew up readying itself for another attack, determined to take this one dead rather than alive.

She had been about to loose her arrow and skewer the bird when suddenly it was gone in a swirl of harsh white light. The girls and the cat had also gone, the girls' protests echoing in the woods after they had disappeared. Dorothy's eyes had widened at this then turned to the dark fairy whose hand was outcast towards the spot where the girls had stood. He had cast a spell to hide them from her.

Clasping Sally to him, he had melted away into the wood. One second he was clearly visible, the next he was far in the distance, the third second he was gone. Wufei muttered an oath and ran headlong after his wife, unmindful of the trail that he left behind him. Dorothy had lowered her bow grimacing from the pain her shoulder gave her, and snorted her disgust before turning to the blonde fae who remained on his knees on the forest floor.

He made had made no protest as she clicked the iron charmed collar around his neck, his head bowed, his breathing coming fast as he held one hand to the arrow that pierced his shoulder. She had left him there for a moment, confident that he could not move now that she had placed her spell upon him and quickly surveyed the wood for signs of the other three.

It would be easy to follow the tracks that Wufei had left, but it would take time. They appeared to be travelling fast, probably the fae had enhanced their speed with a spell. She shook her head and looked back at her captive. She would have to be satisfied with just one trophy this day. Slinging her bow over her unwounded shoulder, Dorothy moved back to the fae and crouched before him.

He looked up at her, his blue eyes full of unfamiliar pain. "Why?" he whispered, his eyes filling with unshed tears.

Dorothy grinned. "Because I can," she replied as she reached down and grasped the shaft of the arrow. With one firm pull she removed it from his shoulder ignoring his groan of pain and the blood that spilled forth. Holding the arrow up she saw that the tip of it had broken off and frowned. It was an added complication; the trace of iron upon it would need to be cut out or else he would die. She pulled out her hunting knife from her boot and thought for a moment as she examined the wide blade. If she performed the task now she would scar him, her touch was not delicate. If she left him until she returned to her house, he could die from iron poisoning.

She stared at him for a moment considering her options. It would be a pity to mar such beauty with a large scar. She decided that she would rather risk him dying than spoiling his magnificent chest further. After all, she knew where to come and replace him if he did die.

Dorothy sheathed her knife again and stood, pulling him by his collar so that he stood. "Can you walk?" she asked as she attached a lead to the iron band around his neck. The woods felt close and menacing and the sooner she left their boundary, the better she would feel.

His doleful blue eyes stared down at her making her feel uneasy and causing her fingers to fumble a little with the knot she was tying. Angry with herself for becoming distracted, she tore her gaze away from his and pulled viciously on the lead ignoring the discomfort in her own shoulder. He jerked forward grunting in pain and pressing a hand against his wound. Dorothy felt a smile return to her face.

She would teach him who was his master, and the sooner he learned the better.

* * * * *

J watched with interest as Dorothy half dragged the fae from the safety of the wood and wondered whether it would survive the trip back to the Catalonia estate. Dorothy had hunted in a particularly viscous manner that afternoon. J's mouth stretched into a thin smile; it had been particularly exciting.

As the couple moved away, J turned his attention back to the depths of the woods where the other fae had fled and his mouth stretched even further revealing worn yellow teeth. He was so close to achieving his goal he could almost taste it.

The Heart of Fairy would soon be his, after all these long years of searching for it. The agonies of associating with disgusting humans and involving himself in their ridiculous politics would soon be at an end and he would be free to take up his destiny. Soon he would have power over the fairies; he would rule them in Millardo's stead and have access to their wealth and power. He would despoil their long protected land and add their wealth to that of his own kingdom; the Realm of the Dwarves.

Satisfied Dorothy had left, J started to clamber down the tree. He was not the agile dwarf he once was, that had been long lost in his youth and he cursed the lengths to which he had to go to get what he wanted. Still, he thought greedily, it would all be well worth it in the end and he mused which bits of the fairy realm he would assign to his brothers and began to imagine fairy women at his beck and call.

Because of his preoccupation with imagined well-rounded parts of fairy anatomy he had little time to stop himself falling the last six feet to the bottom of the tree when the malicious thing moved abruptly. He winced as he fell imagining the pain soon to come to his aged leg joints, and was astounded when instead his head whipped upwards at an awkward angle and his neck all but creaked in protest.

His long beard, a sign of his kingship and the source of his power, had caught in some of the crags of the bark of the tree leaving him almost suspended by it. His toes just met the mossy roots of the tree to prevent his pride and joy from being physically ripped from his face.

Cursing, his bad luck, he tried to clamber up the trunk of the tree, but the tree sensing his hatred of the fairies was having nothing of it. Every time he tried to grip onto the bark, his fingers would slip. J's cursing increased as he declared very loudly his hatred of magical trees.

Sounds of footsteps approaching made him still himself. It would be a disaster if he was now caught by the fae, and he muttered a concealing spell that he hoped would be stronger than the magic of the wood and trees and would hide him from sight.

Into the fringe of the wood ran the two girls who had been magiced away during the course of Dorothy's battle. They were hand in hand, both breathing heavily from the effort of running so fast back to where they had been sent from.

"Quatre!" the fair one called desperately, her blue eyes frightened.

Close on their heels came to the two princes that he had turned to beasts. The falcon landed gently on the fair ones shoulder, rubbing his head against her cheek in a comforting gesture. J smiled in pride at the skill of his spell; he might be centuries old, but he still had it. His smile turned to a frown when he heard the raptor talk.

"Quatre has been taken by the woman to the east," Heero said.

That was wrong. The beasts should not be able to communicate; that was the whole point of the spell. To make them aware of who and what they were, but to be unable to express it to those who would listen. The cat sniffed some grass.

"Ba brother bent breast," he said as the dark one picked up Dorothy's discarded arrow. She bit her lip and held it out to her sister.

J blinked. Maybe he was getting old after all. Either that or his hearing was going. A cramp in the back of his leg made him shift a little as he continued muttering his concealing spell, but the words failed in his mouth when the fair one suddenly looked directly at him.

"Who are you?" she asked pulling her sister close to her in a protective gesture.

The falcon looked around puzzled, as did the cat, for neither of them could see the dwarf due to his concealing spell. The two girls, however, could and they stared at him in puzzlement.

"I have never seen you in these woods before," said the dark one, "did you see what happened to friend Quatre?"

Even after watching their friends get hunted down like animals, these two were still extraordinarily trusting J decided. He studied them as closely as he could given his current position of being pinned by his wondrous beard to a tree. They were both definitely human, not a trace of fae blood ran in their veins. Yet, they were encircled by magic. Spells protected them and he could see too that they had their own magic, although perhaps limited. He allowed his mouth to stretch into what he hoped was a kindly smile.

"Yes I did. Loose me and I will tell you what I saw," he said.

As soon as he spoke, both feline and raptor saw him. The cats fur immediately bristled, his tail going poker straight and as he narrowed his blue eyes he hissed. The raptor ruffled its feathers in surprise, but sat calmly on the girls shoulder, its eyes cold and untrusting.

"Sit pim, sit pim!" the cat hissed, its ears lying flat on its head in his anger.

J tried to keep the kindly smile on his face. Duo obviously recognised him as the perpetrator of the spell, but thankfully his language skills were somewhat lacking and he doubted that he would be able to communicate the fact to the girls. Heero did not know him, perhaps he had lost all memories of his past J mused.

The dark girl walked closer to J, only to be brought short by the cat holding onto her skirts with his mouth and trying to pull her back.

"Nont ho dear gim!" he cried, his voice muffled by the length of cloth in his mouth.

"Relena..." the raptor murmured in a warning tone, as the fair one moved passed her sister and closer to the tree.

She lifted a hand to soothe the bird, stroking his feathers gently. "All is well, Zero," she said, "I must help this poor man."

J smiled even more broadly as the girl came close. She reached up and pulled gently on his beard, having to press herself quite close to him to reach it. J's eyes narrowed as he breathed in her scent. Most humans disgusted him, but there was something quite pleasing about this female. Perhaps it was the way his head only came level with her chest. He grinned and pressed himself closer to her, making her pause for a moment.

"It hurts less if I stand like this," he said knowing that she would not object if he felt less pain. Perhaps when he returned to his kingdom he would take this wench with him, a pleasing toy to be played with for a little while.

The sound of metal against metal brought him back to himself. The tension on his beard suddenly released and he felt his toes almost sigh in relief as the soles of his feet took over supporting his weight. He beamed up gratefully at Relena only to gape as he saw her replace a small pair of scissors in the pocket of her apron. His blood froze in his veins as he looked up the tree to see a 12-inch section of his beard flying in the wind like a banner. His eyes slowly travelled down to his beard to see that it was now significantly shorter.

"I'm sorry I had to cut it," Relena said stepping back, but it was the only way I could free you."

His beard. His beautiful beard. The source of his magic. She had hacked a century's worth of growth from the symbol of his kingship. His face hardened in rage, his fists clenched.

The raptor sensing his rage, flapped his wings lifting from Relena's shoulder, his claws grasping onto the fabric of her dress. He pulled her off balance causing her to stumble back a few steps out of the range of J's fists.

"You stupid cow!" J exclaimed, "How dare you disfigure me! I will make you rue the day you were born!" he began to mutter under his breath, weaving a spell of punishment. He could already feel that his magic had diminished with his loss, but there was still more than enough to seriously damage the woman standing so close to him.

But before he could finish uttering the words the falcon flew towards him, talons outstretched, a cry of rage issue forth from its hooked beak. The cat also moved, hissing and swiping at J's legs with his claws. The woods themselves closed in in rage, trees bending towards him catching at his cloak, his hair and his precious beard. J stumbled back, the magic fleeing from his lips holding his arms protectively out before them.

"Curse you!" he spat, shaking a fist, before turning and running to the relative safety of the open fields that surrounded the woods.

* * * *
Relena watched J disappear, a look of surprise etched on her face together with regret. She had been trying to help the old man but instead had managed to upset him. She started to walk after him intent on asking his forgiveness, when Zero settled back on her shoulder.

"Let him go," he said, "There is something strange about that old man."

The cat rolled his eyes. "Love corpse pear is Zero, twat fuzz the wharf poo brained pus."

Hilde patted her sister on the shoulder while eyeing Pooh-oh in distaste. "If we see him again, we will be sure to ask his pardon. I just wish he had told us what happened to Quatre."

Zero cocked his head a little looking from girl to girl. "I am puzzled as to why you could see him when I could not," he commented. "My eyesight is perfect and yet I did not detect him."

The cat sat back on his haunches tilting his head to one side as he considered the statement. "Dilda hast a smell, baby wheeze a bitch."

Hilde's fist clenched and her eyebrow twitched in anger. She turned her head slowly towards the cat who sat licking his paws completely oblivious that he had said anything to offend her. Unexpectedly, Zero spoke in the cat's defence.

"I think he meant maybe you are witches," he murmured.

Pooh-oh nodded. "Bitches, bitches," he affirmed.

Hilde clasped her hands over her ears trying to shut out the foul words that issued out of the cat's mouth. Relena crouched down and tickled Pooh- oh's ears.

"We are not witches," she smiled, then looked about her carefully, "although I would give much to be able to cast a spell to see friend Quatre's whereabouts at this moment."

Hilde nodded, glaring at Pooh-oh. Pooh-oh looked hurt, frustrated at her inability to understand what he said and turned his attention completely to Relena's caress of his ears. As he began to purr loudly Hilde sighed and crossed her arms.

"So do we go east after Quatre, try and find his friend in the wood, or split up and do both?" she questioned.

"Quatre has warned us many times not to try and find the centre of the woods," Relena said frowning. She looked into the darkness of the wood, "I wonder if the heart would be angered if we tried to find it to seek help for Quatre."

Pooh-oh reluctantly pulled his head away from Relena's caressing fingertips and smelt the air. "Gottcha fizz leer, eye pan pill spell tits flood," he said.

Hilde strode over to the cat and crouched before him. "Gottcha? You mean Quatre?" she questioned, "You can smell his blood?" The cat nodded. "Could you track him?" As the cat nodded again, Hilde smiled and took hold of Relena's hand. "Then let us all follow Quatre and rescue him from that woman. I fear that if we wait to find help it might be too late for him."

Relena nodded and grasped her sister's hand firmly. Hilde gave Pooh-oh's ears a quick tickle. "If you find Quatre swiftly, Pooh-oh, I will reward you with much more than that." she promised.

The cat's eyes went wide, and his mouth seemed to stretch into a smile. "Pie pill peep poo poo pat." he purred before bounding off, the girls and raptor on his heels.

TBC