Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadow Lands ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )

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Chapter Eight

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Heero listened intently as the next man came into the throne room. The man described his problems of the thievery, and Heero in turn, paid the man for what he had lost. Wufei stood to read the next person's name so they'd be escorted in.

"Faw, Carl," Wufei read on the parchment. Mister Faw was a regular man. Thieves and bandits often occupied his inn, allowing the Emperor's men to capture the wanted criminals easier than most. The doors opened, however, it was not Mister Faw.

"Duo?" Heero stood. Wufei looked shocked at the braided man that had entered. Glancing closer Wufei could see that it was the braided baka from the past, back from the grave. Guards had made to stand in front of Heero, but stopped when Heero held his hand up.

"What are you doing here?" Heero didn't mean to sound rude, it wasn't often when someone came back from the grave. Duo approached the throne. Twigs and leaves were got in his braid. Mud was on his knees and tunic. His hair was wind battered and Heero assumed he had run.

"Princess Lillian is gone," Duo swallowed. Heero's eyes widened. "And my nephew, too." Heero sat down. This couldn't be right. He turned to Wufei.

"Bring Relena and Dorothy in here." Wufei nodded and disappeared, two guards following him. Moments of silence passed. Soon Wufei and the two guards entered. Relena walked behind Wufei, while Dorothy was held by the arms and sandwiched between two guards. Relena broke away from behind Wufei, smiling at Heero.

"Speak," Heero commanded. Relena merely flashed her straight white teeth again.

"It's true, Heero," Relena taunted. "The Prophecy was not to happen for a hundred years, but I've speeded the process. She is gone, along with that filth's relative," Relena pointed a finger in Duo's direction. Duo hadn't spoken the entire time for he was battling the urge to lash out at the Harpy. Relena continued, "Soon, Heero, soon we shall see who the ruler is." With a cackling laugh and a large flash of blinding light, Relena and Dorothy had disappeared.

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Solo awoke with the afternoon sun beating upon his darkly clad body. His head was throbbing and he wondered if he had been drunk the night before. Then he remembered: the unicorns, Zechs, the pain of the arrow, and the last glimpse of Lily being dragged away.

Forgetting the pain in his head, he opened his eyes. Squinting against the morning light, Solo saw that he was strapped to a cream colored horse. Twenty men at least were surrounded around him, them too, riding horses of brown colors. Solo looked ahead of the group. In the front of the center of Zechs, riding a cream colored palomino horse. Behind him, Lily rode on a horse like Zechs, only smaller. She was too far ahead to call and he knew his voice would fail him.

Solo sighed as he laid his head back against the neck of his horse and drifted into sleep.

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Heero moved a small horse across the map on the table. The small gray horse now stood near a river. Heero addressed the group before him.

"By tomorrow they'll have reached the River. If we take this route," Heero moved a white horse across the map. The horse now traveled through the river. Heero continued, "We'd meet them there possibly in three days time."

"But how many men and horses can we get on a ship to travel up the river?" Wufei looked up from his seat.

"I'll be going alone," Heero stated. A great uproar arose.

"You can't do that, Heero," Quatre said.

"It's suicide to do that," Wufei retorted. "We don't know how many men they have."

"I'm going with you wheatear of not you want me to, Heero," Duo glared. "That's my nephew out there, too." Heero looked at their angry faces.

"Only you three…"

"We're going too!" The doors to the room threw open. Jin and Akeem stumbled in, tripping over each others' feet.

"I forbid it!" Wufei scowled at his son.

"Akeem, you're too young," Quatre began and stopped. Trowa had just entered. Trowa stood taller than both boys, his green eyes gazed at them.

"I believe you know why I'm here," Trowa said as he entered the room, shutting the door. Heero nodded.

"Fine, it'll be the five of us," Heero turned to Akeem and Jin. "I can't allow the futures to be harmed."

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"Here, eat this, Solo," Solo stirred from his sleep. Lily was talking to him. That meant that they must have stopped. He opened his eyes. Lily was trying to lift his head up from the ground. After a few moments Solo was sitting up, a piece of bread in his hands.

"Thank you," Solo said, taking a bite of the bread. It was stale and hard, but at least it was food.

"Here," Lily handed him a canteen. Solo reached for the canteen with his free left hand, but stopped when a pulling sensation caused him to grasp his shoulder.

"Let me see your shoulder," Lily commanded as she climbed over Solo's legs and crawled to his side. Solo let her examine it. Lily ripped the fabric around the sleeves. The cut was deep and looked infected. Taking the canteen, Lily turned to Solo who was watching her.

"This might sting," Lily said and began to pour water from the canteen. Solo let out a hiss as Lily poured half the canteen into his wound.

"Sorry," Lily apologized.

"It's all right," Solo replied.

"I need to find some form of…this'll do." Lily held up a root that she had pulled from the ground. The dark white root curled around itself. The leaves were brown in color with pink flowers. It was a Romb root, when added to human saliva, it created an antiseptic. Lily had begun to strip the outer layer of the skin off till there was no dirt. Taking a bite out of the root, she chewed for awhile, a look of distaste on her face. She brought her hands up to her mouth, that's when Solo saw her wrists. Deep red and white welts had been etched into her skin. He was so absorbed in the welts that he hadn't realized Lily had begun to rip the edges of her dress as a bandage. Lily brought the long dark blue strips and begun to tie them around Solo's shoulders.

"You're wrists," Solo began when Lily stopped.

"It's nothing." She hid them in the folds of her dress. A shadow approached. It was a tall man with fiery red hair and brown eyes.

"All right you two," his voice was rough sounding, like sand paper against fingernails. "Time to go." He hauled Lily to her feet and allowed Solo stand on his own. He led Lily to the cream colored horse she was riding before and boosted her up. Solo got on his horse. A man with dark blonde hair and green eyes approached him carrying rope.

"Hands," he said. Solo held out his hands and the man began to bind his hands to the horse's reins. Solo looked ahead and saw that Lily's hands were being bound too. When they had both been strapped and Zechs had made sure of it, they began to ride again.

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"Quatre?" Duo said. The ship was swaying slightly as the waves bashed against the sides. Duo stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the crystal clear water. Quatre stood not far off from him, busing himself with making sure everyone was all right. A few Maganacs were present, along with a few of the Emperor's ship men.

"Yes, Duo?" Quatre asked.

"Will you go inform our stowaways that it's safe to come out. They're in the stables below deck."

"Oh, Allah!" Quatre cursed in Arabic as he disappeared below decks. Duo sniggered to himself as Quatre came back, Jin and Akeem in tow.

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The sun had begun to set, casting an eerie glow along the deck of the ship. The wind was blowing steady tonight, they'd have a safe trip for the night. Heero entered from his cabin. Duo was still at the bow, gazing now out at the river. Heero approached him.

"You were at the festival the other night," Heero said, it was more of a comment than a question.

"Yes, I was," Duo sighed.

"Then why didn't you renounce your title?"

"It's just," Duo began. He'd struggled with this decision since he knew that people had assumed him dead, but it just didn't seem right. "You know how much I hated it as a kid." Heero nodded, remembering well. "It's just a part of the past."

"Am I still a part of the past?" Heero asked. Duo flashed Heero a smile, he was going to enjoy this little game…

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Author's Notes:

Thank you to those that review the last chapter.

Ink2: Firstly, thank you for reviewing. Secondly, the reason why I changed the title from Times of Old to The Shadow Lands is that when I first wrote the story and posted it, I didn't have any idea what I was going to call it. Untitled didn't seem right so I chose the first thing that came to mind, therefore the story was called Times Of Old, intending to possibly change it. Now that I have written more of the story, I decided that calling it The Shadow Lands seemed more likely to be more fitting to the story as future events arise. Hope you don't mind and thank you for reading!