Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Maids of Silva ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

Maids of Silva

By Happily Ever After

Chapter Three by Iris Anthe

No-one ever came to visit the little cottage by the woods even on the fairest spring morning, let alone in the middle of a raging winter storm, so the soft sound of something scratching at the door came loud and portentous to their ears. The merry little scene of music, firelight and laughter suddenly stopped, breaths held as Peygan walked slowly to the door, wrought iron poker in hand.

Old and arthritic their guardian might be now, but Peygan had once been the captain of the king's guard, and the poker from the hearth looked dangerous in his gnarled, gray hand. Hilde and Relena exchanged looks of confusion and amazement at this transformation in the man they'd always known to be gentle and deliberate in every act. More than the sounds at the door, it was Peygan's alarm, conveyed through this new body language that caused the two innocent girls to feel real fear for the first time in their lives.

"Relena," whispered her usually boisterous sister. "Relena, I'm frightened."

"Don't be, Hilde. It will be alright," and a quick, sharp squeeze of damp fingers, not at all certain she spoke the truth.

So, hand in hand they crept behind their old guardian to meet what fate had brought to their door.

Peygan lifted the heavy wooden latch and as if by a blast of magic the door burst inward with enough force to send the three inhabitants sprawling to the ground. Wind played chaos through the simple house as the two girls sat up and fought their way forward to try closing the door. It wasn't until they had wrestled it mostly closed that they saw the two figures lying on the stoop. One was a great snowy falcon, whose white plumage had made it hard to see at first. Only the deeply brown feathers of its head stood out in the storm. The other was an enormous cat, as large as a man, with a dark pelt, holding the falcon by the neck, in its jaws. It too was hard to see because it was almost entirely covered in ice and snow. No longer fearful at the sight of these poor, wretched creatures seeking shelter from the storm, the two girls knelt to touch them and see if they still lived. The bird was alive, but did not rouse when handled. The great cat, however, lifted its head, gingerly depositing the limp bird on the ground and looking directly into young Hilde's eyes, it spoke…

"Whelp… fleas..."

Neither girl was as shocked to see a speaking animal as most maidens might be, having grown up under the care of a fairy who often took the form of an animal when he traveled. But still, they exchanged a look of puzzlement wondering if they'd heard the animal correctly.

"Did it just tell us it had fleas?" Relena shouted over the wind.

"I don't know? Perhaps it is assuring us that it has no fleas so we will not mind bringing it inside."

Relena contemplated this for only a few seconds before realizing that the door was still open, Peygan was still lying flat on the floor, and the two large animals might very well die of the cold if they didn't bring them inside right away.

"Well, I think whatever it said, we must act quickly to save them from this cold."

With a nod of agreement, the two girls worked swiftly with the strength of youth and a healthy outdoor life to haul the two large creatures indoors where they could be cared for. First they tackled dragging in the now unconscious cat, laying him down in front of the sputtering hearth. But when they went to move the great falcon, they jarred its right wing, which they had not realized was badly broken. The bird sprang to life in a frenzy of panic and pain and talons extended it flew lopsided into the cottage, hopping and circling the small room and shrieking wildly until Peygan roused by the commotion from where he'd been laying out cold on the floor, sprang up and knocked it on the head with the poker that he still gripped in his hand. The poor animal fell to the floor, where Relena distraught over the pain it must be suffering ran to hold it and check that it still lived.

Thus the winter guests at the cottage arrived. Hilde set about thawing and brushing the poor frozen feline, while Relena, with Peygan's repentant help realigned and set the unconscious bird's wing. Relena had a gift for the healing arts, and much experience since many of the creatures of the forest came to her when they were injured or ill. She brewed a sleeping draught and gave it to both animals to be sure they could rest well through the night. After building up the fire and banking it to keep the cottage extra toasty through the night, the girls brought down all the blankets from their loft and slept on the floor, each one lending her own body's warmth to the animals to bring them back from death's cold door.

A sweet, warm light streamed in like clear mountain water through the cracks in the window shutters as the girls woke from the long, worrying night. Their new wards still slept the sleep of exhaustion and healing, while Peygan dozed in his chair, his hand still tight around the hearth poker. Silently picking their paths around the others in the room, the two girls retreated up to their loft to tidy themselves and whisper their wonderment and excitement over their strange new companions. Were they friends of Quatre's? Did they live in the forest? Were they from a far away land? Did the falcon talk as well? Did they hear the cat muttering while it slept? What should they make for breakfast?

Little did the girls know that their guests were far more than just exotic animals. The great brindle cat was of course no less than an enchanted prince and the wounded falcon was his elder brother, the new king. Both were the innocent victims of the courtly machinations of their cousin, His Excellency, Duke Treize of Kushrenada. Their noble cousin had made a deal with an evil-hearted dwarf, known only as, "J." (A dwarf's true name gives the speaker tremendous power over him, and thus very few souls if any ever know one's name.) Treize, like his grandfather, Dermaille, had coveted the throne and as soon as the old king died --under questionable circumstances-- he had arranged to have the dwarf turn both of the royal princes into animals and cast them from the kingdom. In return the dwarf would receive his weight in gold from the royal treasury.

And so the poor sons of the dead king were transformed, the elder, Heero, into a giant snowy falcon, with a distinctively dark crown and strange blue eyes, and the younger, Duo, into a great brindle-furred hunting cat. From Heero was taken all memory of his past. From Duo was taken the ability to be understood, making strings of nonsense every time he spoke. Thus they traveled together, the elder not knowing that the cat who chased him was truly his own brother, the younger unable to explain the situation to the hostile falcon his brother had become.

They traversed many miles this way through three full phases of the moon, Duo chasing after his tireless winged brother begging him to stop, while Heero tried desperately and ceaselessly to outwit, escape and if he only could, kill the babbling beast who chased him. Sometimes the two would simply speed through the land, the cat cleverer in the night, and the falcon faster by day. Sometimes they would clash when the distance between them would finally close. Duo would try not to harm his lord and elder brother with his scythe-like claws, while Heero, not knowing who this fierce creature was who tried to pin him and apparently toy with him before eating him, would do his best to gouge the cat's flesh with his sharp beak and talons.

Three times the moon waxed and waned and came full again when the two enchanted brothers entered the lands bordering the forest of the fairy realm. Duo the cat was near to catching his brother once more after days and nights of endless exertion through cold winter weather. But the sky had grown dark well before the hour of the setting sun. Heavy, sullen clouds filled the sky and the winter day grew colder still. The north wind came sudden and filled with snow, and it took all of Heero's strength to keep flying at all, let alone to avoid the clutches of his feline tormentor. For Duo, it became nearly impossible to follow his brother, whose white feathers disappeared into the rising storm with every beat of those mighty wings. He had just begun to lose all hope of ever finding his brother again, or even living through the night, when the sweet sound of music and laughter cut thinly through the howl of the furious wind.

Hope coursed through him anew and the music was as a potent draught of mulled wine, warming him heart and soul, though not quite in body. He forced his way through the rising banks of snow, trailing after the sounds of Hilde and Relena singing in the cottage and he cried out in joy and dismay to find his brother's broken body at the base of a great elm into which he'd flown, distracted just as his brother had been by the compelling sounds of voices raised in song. His wing was bent at a sickeningly odd angle beneath him, and his breath came shallow and slow. Filled with fear for his poor brother's life, Duo gripped his neck gently in those powerful jaws and dragged him the last hundred paces to the door of the humble cottage by the woods. And so, just as Hilde had predicted earlier that night, her potion to ease their guardian's old aches had truly summoned two princes, one for each of the girls, right to their doorstep.

TBC…