Disclaimer: The author of this fanfiction does not, in any way, profit from the story. All creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
Fairy Tales: rose woven
by Pout
Chapter 2: Of Seas and Mountains
As night began to fall, the City was barraged with the usual influx of travelers coming in to find their shelter at local taverns, inns and lodges. Looking out towards the open road, one might have noticed, amidst the crowd of people and carriages, a proud white horse bearing his master purposefully down the road. One might have noticed the distinct manner, the distinctly royal manner, in which the rider held himself as he navigated the street traffic. Roaming about the inner kingdom for much of the day, the young Prince Wufei decided to take advantage of the fact that he was in his non-formal attire (everyday-casual, as Duo liked to put it), the type which he and his brothers were accustomed to donning before riding out to frequent a tavern. In fact, tavern company was precisely what he had in mind for that first lonely evening on his own. Pulling his cloak closer about his frame, he led his horse toward the Blue Clover. This particular tavern was by far the “best” local tavern in terms of brew and company. The place was always full to the last chair, morning, noon, or night. The locals had made it a societal hotspot, so though there were always a few drunkards lounging about, there were also plenty of dependable conversations to provide entertainment. In this did the prince mean to immerse himself.
Upon entering the Blue Clover, he was quickly greeted by the tavern owner, George, and his pretty daughter, Eunice. The daughter was ample with her affections, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him towards a seat, eager to see him comfortable. “Where are your brothers today, Harris?” the girl asked with an expectant eye.
Wufei remembered a time when, breaking upon the verge of manhood, he had himself been shamefully smitten with Miss Eunice. Having grown out of his partiality after learning her to be pretty, and only that, he now found endless amusement in the fact that the young lady was herself quite infatuated with his brother, Quatre, whom she knew as Thomas. Every time they visited, Eunice was quick to latch onto poor Quatre and while the blond prince was equally civil to her flirtations, he could not bring himself to return one speck of feeling for her other than a rising contempt at her attentions. Wufei had it under private confession that Quatre, in fact, thought her as mindless as he did himself.
“They are gone for a while, Miss Eunice.” He watched as her face fell and she immediately swept off to bring him a drink.
He stayed there for a good many hours that night. He met a number of interesting folk whose faces and stories he attempted to systematically catalogue and save for future reference. Just as he knew he should be getting back to the palace, a room-wide conversation broke out that forced him to stay and hear it to the end.
The conversation began like this:
“And have you heard? The princes are all of them gone to find brides!” a man with a thick beard shouted out from the corner of the room.
“Gone?” another voice cried in mock incredulity. “Gone where? I’ve got daughters enough at home for them to choose from!” he shouted with a laugh.
“Until you sprout a crown off your head, I don’t think the princes will care a tick how lovely your daughters are, sir,” a younger gentleman leered and the two began to brawl.
Above their noise, another man called out, “I hear they’ve all gone to the east by order of the royal prophet.”
“No, they’ve gone off west on the seas. What say you, they all get swallowed in a storm?” another man wagered.
“Oh, shut your mouth!” the room cried together. It pleased Wufei to see that he and his brothers were still much beloved by their people.
“No, you have it wrong,” came a firm voice at last. “Four of the brothers have gone, but the youngest stays at the palace.”
“Well, what’s the good of that? How’s he to find a bride that way?” someone laughed. “He can’t very well marry one of us!” The room burst into laughter and the broad conversation gave way to smaller talks and argument, mirth, and brawling once again.
Pulling his cloak over his shoulders, Wufei headed towards the door and back to his home.
* * *
After splitting up to successfully lose the escort party, Duo waited at the secret shelter he and his brothers frequented when going up Brick’s Passage. It was an outcropping of sorts, protected on three sides and on top by an advantageous protrusion of rock. The spot was some ways off the path and thus was very good for hiding. Duo and his brothers had discovered it six years ago after being caught out in the rain while returning from an excursion over the mountains. Unfortunately, they had found it only after some three hours under the storm; they supposed it was fair punishment for sneaking out in the first place. The next morning, after arriving back at the palace and bearing an hour of angry scolding from both parents, the princes spent an entire week in bed, all five suffering from severe weather-inflicted colds.
Duo smiled at the memory and tossed the blade of grass he was fiddling with into the small fire before him. He and his older brother had conspired to leave the kingdom without their escort team the night before. That afternoon, when they had come to Mourry Road, the path that would eventually lead them to the main branch of Brick’s Passage, the two princes stopped the procession and kindly ordered the guard team to return to the palace. The captain assured the two princes that the escort party was to follow their princes “as far as they could.” Duo then asked if those were their orders indeed. The captain once again assured them that they were. Heero then responded by saying simply, “Very well then.” And with that, Duo set off at a gallop to the left, Heero to the right, and the team split in two to give chase.
Such exchange was common enough. Heero and Duo were good friends with Captain Miller and wished him no disgrace, and Mister Miller was enough familiarized with the workings of the royal family, and especially with the royal princes, to anticipate, if not expect, their peculiar actions. The escort guards did an admirable job in pursuit, however, there was not a man in the kingdom who could compete with the excellent princes whose knowledge of their country was five times better than anyone else and were better horsemen and woodsmen than any other.
Duo had arrived at the shelter just as the sun was dipping under the belt of the horizon, much invigorated by the chase. By the time night had truly fallen, he was almost on the verge of worrying about his elder brother who had yet to make an appearance. When Heero finally arrived, Duo remarked wryly, “Where have you been? I was about ready to send out a search party.” Heero turned and looked at his brother who had laid his bedroll out and was lounging there easily as he munched on some of the dinner he had stolen from Cook; he looked quite comfortable. The two chuckled easily.
“So, where to now?” Duo asked, after Heero was settled and helping himself to dinner. “How exactly are we supposed to find princesses out here? I don’t suppose there’s a wild species that grows in trees, is there?”
Allowing himself a small smirk, the older prince responded: “The best way is to follow our emotions. Our hearts will be our guides. We’ll ride together for as long as our emotions lead us down the same path.”
“My, my, Heero. That’s a pretty romantic notion. Emotions, hearts; and here I thought those words were strangely absent from your vocabulary.” His brother ignored him as he usually did and continued with his meal.
That night, as they lay there in the dark with moon and starlight filtering through the cracks in their shelter, Heero said solemnly, “How long do you think we’ll be away?”
In the darkness, Duo turned his head to look at the other man as if shocked by the question. Settling down again, he said, “I don’t know, perhaps a while longer than we might want.”
“I have no idea how to go about doing this.”
“Well, don’t expect any advice from me.”
“I wouldn’t take it if you offered.”
“Thanks dearly, brother.” Heero chuckled softly.
They lay in silence for a few moments before Duo ventured to say, “To think, this is the last night we’ll spend in the kingdom as bachelors.”
“Hm,” Heero agreed before adding, “Poor Eunice and Penny.”
At the mention of the name, Duo groaned and Heero clearly imagined him rolling his eyes. “Poor Penny indeed! The girl is insufferable!” At that, Heero laughed outright. “You’re cruel to find humor in that situation, Heero.”
“She was quite smitten with-”
“Oh shut up!”
After Heero finished his bout of laughter, at Duo’s expense, the younger prince asked, “Where will you go? How will you go about looking?”
With a sigh, Heero answered: “I haven’t a clue.” There was a slight pause, before he added, “Though I’d say your best bet is to keep an eye on the trees, lest my future sister-in-law should be growing in one.” The two laughed heartily at that before drifting off to sleep at last.
* * *
Over an expanse of swirling, angry ocean, a fierce storm was setting in. It had come about very unexpectedly only hours before twilight and had been growing steadily worse as time progressed. The captain of the Tritonstead was worried and his worry had the two princes in his charge equally worried.
“Wind’s picked up,” Trowa reported as he came down below deck to join his brother.
“Perhaps, then, the storm will blow over more quickly.”
Trowa shook his head. “Even if it does, we’ll feel the brunt of it before it passes.”
“I don’t think Captain Ewan will be pleased, but I dare say he will need all the help he can get.” With a grim smile, Trowa followed the other prince up the stairs.
In the dark of night, the forks of lightning ripping through the cover of dark cotton clouds overhead were magnified in their awful radiance. Mingled in with the whipping roar of the wind and the growl of the agitated seas was the snapping bite of thunder. Straining to be heard over the din, the voices of the sailors and their captain struggled to carry over the length of the ship. Springing to action, the two princes were eager to pull their weight in the struggle against the storm. If the captain had any reservations about allowing his precious passengers to come on deck during a tempest, he wisely disregarded them and instead welcomed the assistance.
It was as they rushed hurriedly about the ship that disaster struck, literally. The only victim on a stormy ocean, the Tritonstead was singled out. A particularly violent bolt of lightning zipped down an invisible chord to strike at the ship as it was tossed up on a high wave. Torn apart by its power, the vessel stood no chance of survival. It was the beginning of a painful end for the Tritonstead.
Much of the ship was now ablaze with an intense fire that even the heavy rain could not douse. Having been at opposite ends of the ship when the lightning struck, the two princes raced to find each other. In orderly fashion, the lifeboats were released and men scrambled to escape the ship that was now only a sinking deathtrap. At last, Trowa made out the figure of his brother across a gap in the raging fires; the blond prince was helping a man off the boat.
“Quatre!” the older brother shouted. Looking over, the other prince raised a hand in recognition. It was then that the second bolt struck and broke the ship in half. Trowa could only watch in disbelief and sickening fear as the ship snapped and the sea they were surrounded by took his brother away from him. In the blink of an eye, Quatre was gone, tossed overboard and swallowed by the dark waters.
In his state of shock and panic, Trowa did not notice as a loose beam crashed into him from above and left him there alone on the deck of a burning, sinking, half-ship, quite unconscious.
* * *
He woke with sweat running down his back. His hands were clammy and filled with fistfuls of bed sheet. His breath came in anxious gasps and his throat constricted reflexively as an echo of fear ran through his body. The young prince was sitting up in his royal bed. The dark night seemed obtrusive and threatening around him. Clutching his chest, which was tightening from lack of breath, he stumbled out of bed and to the window, throwing open the shutters and swallowing the night air in gulps.
There was a foreboding feeling in his mind, something ominous, a warning of danger.
“Imminent danger, or a danger already come?” the young prince murmured. But the night breeze could spare no answer and so Wufei was left to stare up at the dark clouds with worry in his heart, praying for the safe return of his brothers.
* * *
The next morning, the sun peeked over the eastern mountains casting a golden glow over the kingdom and its people. In an orchard, underneath an apple tree, a young woman with coils of blond hair was complaining.
“If the woman tells me to feed the chickens one more time, I’m going to strangle her.”
“I think I’ve heard you say that before,” her friend answered from her position on the lowest branch of the tree. She tossed a shiny red apple down to her companion.
“Her and her abominable daughters, too,” Sally continued.
“Annette really was horrible today, wasn’t she?”
“And yet, they are my stepsisters.”
“And for that, I am sorry.”
“I think I deserve your pity. Hand me that one there, will you?”
“Sally, you’ve got another tear in your dress.”
“Good God, I look ridiculous.”
“My, this one is disgusting,” the girl in the tree said with a wrinkle of her nose as she examined a half-rotted apple.
“Wonderful, give it here.”
“Honestly, Sal. We’re going straight to hell for this.”
“Don’t worry, Noin,” the girl smiled up at her friend, “It can’t be worse than this place.”
Sally, the daughter of an aristocrat turned kitchen drudge and general slave to her horrible stepmother, was out picking fruits for the season’s applesauce with her good friend and fellow drudge, Noin, a short-haired, ivory skinned maiden who had stumbled into the living a few years back. For the apple picking, there were two baskets. Into one went all the lovely apples that happened to hatch from their humble orchard. They were firm and ripe, red and fragrant. Into the other basket went everything else, everything else that could still be eaten without poisoning someone.
“I won’t have her eating anything from my mother’s gardens that is even remotely good,” Sally said, brushing a twist of hair over her shoulder. “It’s not as if they’ll die from it. A few rotten apples; exactly what they deserve.”
“Mm, these apples will make a wonderful sauce for us, though, Sally. The fragrance is tantalizing.”
“Well, hurry it up, Noin. I want to get to the beach as soon as possible; it’s such a lovely day.”
“It often seems you do a very great deal of nothing for someone who does absolutely everything.”
“If it weren’t for my little outings, I’d have gone mad by now, I’m sure.” Sally shuffled the baskets around a bit and declared: “That’s enough I think. And if it’s not… well, I simply cannot find it in me to care.”
“You won’t be saying that when the lashings come tonight.”
“Very well, throw those brown ones down for good measure.”
“You’re awful.”
“I want to go to the beach.”
“All right, your highness, I’m coming down,” Noin said mockingly as she climbed out of the tree she had just plundered.
After leaving the baskets in the kitchen, Sally and Noin headed off for the beach. It was a long walk there and an even longer walk back as it was all up-hill when going in the reverse direction. But still, Sally was adamant that they go; she was looking for a particular plant that grew only in seawater and that required a trip to the beach. They walked in silence for a time, each happy to just soak in the rays of the sun and enjoy the beauty of the land around them.
“Noin,” Sally said at last, “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
The older girl found the question very unexpected and said so, but Sally insisted, and at last she answered, “Love at first sight? Yes, I suppose it is possible. But, Sally, romance is never as perfect as one would like it to be.”
“You’re very dark with your words, Noin.”
“Tell me, then, what brings about this question.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Sally adopted a bashful smile and she replied, “Yesterday, I met a man-”
“Oh, a man!” Noin cried with a mirthful laugh, “Indeed, this is serious!”
“Oh, don’t tease me!” Sally objected. “He was a man; an absolutely handsome man. He returned my money purse to me-”
“He is rich then.”
Sally regarded her friend with disbelief. “What makes you say that?”
“If he returned your money, then he is either very rich or very stupid.”
“Or he could be very good!”
“I don’t think so,” Noin stated firmly.
“You are extremely negative today. What has you so melancholy?”
The dark haired maiden blinked at the inquiry, then shook her head. “I am not melancholy, I just think it is a waste to dream about love.”
“That’s very unromantic.”
Noin shook her head. “And life is very unromantic, Sally. So you met a man and he was so very good as to return to you your coin pouch. You will never see him again and you most certainly will never know him well enough to marry him. I’m afraid fate is as romantic as a shoe, so if I were you, I would forget this mystery man of yours and stop dreaming about falling in love with him.”
Sally stopped short and glared at her friend. “Noin, your speech is very realistic, but very much without optimism. I do not continue on day after day in the hopes of growing old in the service of the Madame and her evil offspring. I will most likely never marry, but is it completely inappropriate for me to at least dream of a better way? A better ending?” Her friend set her eyes to the ground. “I don’t know what tragedies of love lie in your past, but do not taint me with your bitterness.”
Running her tongue over her lips, Noin swallowed and nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should not have said that. Love is a very noble thing. Perhaps your handsome stranger will return someday,” she said running a hand through her short hair.
Sally smiled again. “Let me have my hope, but please, there’s no use in being silly!” She looped her arm through her friend’s and they continued to walk.
When at last the sound of waves breaking along the beach reached their ears, it was some time in the afternoon. Noin went immediately to the water, pulling off her shoes and hiking up her skirts. Leaving her to play, Sally made her way down towards the weeds and foliage that grew along the rocks. As she searched for her herbs, the face of the handsome stranger plagued her mind. She could not forget him and she did not necessarily want to. Noin’s criticism that morning had vexed her, but for more reasons than Sally had let on. Yes, she wanted more from life than it had to offer, and Noin, as a friend, should have supported her thoughts, not mocked them as she had done. But Sally was a sensible girl; she knew Noin’s cautions and the hopeless future before her were as inevitable as her lashings. She did not pretend to aspire for anything too wondrous. No, she had no qualms with Noin for stating what was simply the truth. What annoyed her was the resurfacing of the secret.
Noin had arrived mysteriously at the manor a year and a half ago. She had literally stumbled out of the woods that bordered the manor territory and collapsed in an exhausted heap in the middle of the garden. Sally had taken the poor girl in and nursed her back to health. They had quickly become close friends. The one thing Noin had ever asked of the other girl was never to ask about her past. She had obstinately declared that her life had started the moment she set foot in the manor and anything that might have happened before that was never to be spoken of again. Finding the declaration a bit ominous, Sally had attempted to coax the story out of the dark haired girl but Noin was quite adamant. In a year and a half, all that Sally had discovered was that it had something to do with a past love affair gone terribly wrong. Really, she hadn’t discovered anything; rather, she had deduced as much. Her evidence was simply that with the mention of anything romantic or relating at all to love, Noin would adopt a very bitter disposition and a very sad air of melancholy. Often, she would run a hand through her hair and become very agitated.
The mysterious girl was a sweet thing, hard working for sure, and very sensible, but there was a shadow in her past that pained her to that very day. And even if it took her the rest of her life, Sally vowed to find out what that shadow was.
Meditating on these thoughts, the blond was so startled when she heard the voice to her left that she nearly screamed out loud. Looking down the side of the small cliff she had climbed, she spotted a man washed up onto the beach with a large piece of driftwood clutched under his arm. He was moaning horribly and looked very ill.
Recovering from her surprise, Sally’s instincts kicked in at last and she found herself scampering back down the cliff to help the man, all the while yelping for Noin to come to her aide. When she reached him she found the man to be at once very cold and very feverish.
“Oh, please don’t be a convict,” she mumbled under her breath before flipping him over onto his side so that he might drain himself of the seawater he had swallowed. As he was retching involuntarily, Noin arrived with a mixture of surprise and fear in her countenance. “Don’t just stand there, help me!” Sally cried as the two of them endeavored to drag the man further onto shore and away from the cold ocean that had brought him there.
“Who do you suppose he is? What’s he doing here washed up like that?” asked Noin.
“I have no idea, but we’d better find somewhere to keep him.”
“What?!” Noin cried incredulously.
“We can’t just leave him here; he’s half drowned.”
“Surely not, but… what do you intend to do with him? Shouldn’t we fetch a doctor or someone?”
“Who? And we haven’t enough money for a doctor; who would come? Besides, I can treat him.”
“Can you stake a man’s life on it?” demanded Noin. Sally met her eyes then nodded. The older girl pursed her lips for a moment before conceding. “Fine, we’ll take him to Old Man William’s woodshed.”
“That’s abandoned, isn’t it?”
“Precisely,” Noin answered as they continued to drag the man back up the beach.
Sally stifled a groan. “Oh, I wish he weren’t so heavy.”
* * *
When they finally got the man situated in the abandoned woodshed, the sun was already some ways past the horizon. Lighting the old lantern that still hung beside the door, Sally debated over which was worse: staying the night out of the manor, or returning to face her inevitably brutal punishment. If the evil witch discovered she was gone, then a quick investigation would indicate that Noin had disappeared along with her. If she went back, however, her stepmother would occupy herself with the beating and forget all about the rest of her servants. Better one beating than two.
“I’m going back,” she declared at last.
Noin raised a skeptic eyebrow. “You must have some kind of death wish.”
Sally laughed flippantly. “She won’t notice that you’re gone, and the others are probably covering for you, so stay the night and watch him,” she directed as she wrapped her dirty, old shawl around her shoulders and opened the door to go.
“And tomorrow?”
Sally bit her lip. “If he’s not awake by tomorrow night, then we’re going to have to find a doctor.”
“And how are we going to do that?”
Sally was determined. “I’ll steal it from Madame if I have to.”
“Is he worth it?”
“Every person’s life is.”
Noin was shaking her head. “You’d better get going and start thinking of an excuse.”
“I fell into the lake, was attacked by a sea monster, and had to be rescued by a frog since I’m not supposed to know how to swim.”
“Get going already,” Noin laughed.
Just as Sally was about to step out the door of the old shed, a groan came from their unconscious patient. Noin shrieked and leapt out of her seat beside the makeshift bed of hay and grass. In an opposite response, Sally threw off her shawl and rushed to the man’s side.
He thrashed about for a few moments until suddenly, his eyes flew open. They were feverish and full of pain. “Quatre...” he whispered. “Quatre,” he said, his voice rising with delirious fear.
Noin shuffled closer, her hand over her lips to keep from screaming.
“Quatre,” he cried again.
“Do you think that’s his name?” Noin asked in a breathless whisper.
Sally turned around and looked at her incredulously. “Why in the world would anyone moan their own name?”
“Quatre!”
“It must be someone he knows, maybe a friend or a relative.”
“Quatre? Isn’t that one of the princes?” asked Noin.
The man’s eyes slid shut and he sank back into the grasses as unconscious as ever. They sat there watching him for a while longer, as if they expected him to wake again. When it was clear he would provide no more theatrics, Sally gathered up the shawl she had shrugged off, swung it back around her shoulders and headed once again for the door.
“I’ll be back tomorrow as soon as I can,” she said. “He should be relatively unconscious for the rest of the night. You’ll be all right here by yourself?”
Noin nodded. “Will you be all right finding your way back?”
“Oh, please,” Sally laughed confidently, “I could find my way back to the manor deaf and blind. Besides, the moon’s casting good light. I should be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Watch what you say to the Madame, Sally. Please? For your sake?”
Sally shook her head. “I’ll try, Noin, but you know I can’t ever help myself.” With a wave, she stepped out into the night and headed back towards her father’s house.
* * *
“At this pace, we should be over the pass in another week or so.”
“Less if we weren’t always stopping to eat.”
“I’m a growing boy, Heero.”
“And I’m a horse’s ass.”
Duo nodded. “Yes, I would agree with that statement.”
Heero sent him a trademark glare then turned to cast an eye out over the forest landscape. “Once we’re through the pass, where will you head to?”
Duo shrugged, “It’s foreign territory out there. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll head for Tesden, maybe Sanq.”
“Sanq fell, don’t you remember?”
“No. Really?”
“It always looks like you’re paying attention during lessons.”
Duo laughed. “Yeah. Master Collins really is an idiot, isn’t he? So, really? Sanq fell? When?”
Heero rolled his eyes as he often did when he spoke to his second brother. “Years ago. It was a fairie revolt of some kind.”
Duo shook his head sadly. “It was a nice little country.”
“There are bandits tailing us,” Heero announced suddenly. “You’ve seen them?”
Duo nodded affirmatively. “Yeah, but wait until I finish eating before you-” He was cut off as Heero picked up his trusty bow and, with perfect deliberation, let the arrow fly out into the forest. As it hit its mark, a scream filled the air.
“Wait, Heero!” Duo choked out, his words struggling around a mouthful of food. “You could have waited, you bully,” Duo said with a childish scowl as he scrambled to secure his packs, chew, swallow, and string his bow simultaneously.
Heero smirked, now quite happy with himself, and looked out into the woods that surrounded them. His gaze was focused on the spot that had swallowed up his missile. Before Duo could even find an arrow, a screaming, angry, very hostile group of bandits emerged at a run from all sides. Heero had detected the group tailing them earlier that morning. He expected that Duo had been equally aware. They had both been willing to just wait until the attack came, but Heero had been motivated to take an active approach and amuse himself with Duo’s mad scramble.
There were about nine or ten bandits in the group, but the two princes dealt with them efficiently, the whole scene ending strangely as Heero finished tying the bandits to a tree. Duo squatted down on his heels to speak patronizingly to them. “Now, if we weren’t busy we’d take you in ourselves, but seeing as how we really do need to get going, we’ll have to leave you here until one of the patrols comes by. Don’t worry; they usually send someone up every few weeks or so. Someone’ll find you.”
“Let’s get going,” Heero said. Duo nodded and waved a condescending farewell to their attackers as he mounted his horse. The bandits watched helplessly as their captors took off, leaving behind only a cloudy trail of dust.
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