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"Ash Tree Cruel "Written By: Asymphototropic
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam wing. Author: Asymphototropic (attracted toward the
light, but never quite arrives there) Rating: NC 17 Warnings: yaoi, violence, AU Summary: Duo is a wanderer, drawn to an ancient
barrow in the hopes of speaking to his master's death soul. Heero
is a guardian servant in this dangerous place. Will the death soul
seeker become a sacrifice on the bloody altar of a cruel cult? Pairings 1x2
"Ash Tree Cruel " Part 12: Laurel Visions Bear There came an avalanche of sound. The sleepers startled awake, jolted by the horrendous noise. Heero wedged his elbows under him. He scowled at the door. "When I vowed that you should sleep as long and peacefully as you liked, with no enemies to trouble your rest. I failed to take into account our allies." Duo chuckled at the shouts, curses and scraping noises outside the hovel. "The Norsemen do battle with the snow?" "It is their heritage, I suppose," Yuy replied in a grumble. He rose to his feet and commenced preparations to face the outside world. Duo sat up and clutched his giddy head in both hands. "No need for you to stir," Heero protested. "I have the Lord Treize' cloak to return to him," Duo said, fingering the soft cloth that had been added to the thickness of blankets and pelts warming their pallet. "And is there no arms-comrade to do that small thing for you? One that owes you far more than service?" Heero frowned sternly. "Heero Yuy owes me naught. In fact, he saved my life and body from the Tanist's slow torture. If my memory be not over poisoned." "And was it not Heero Yuy that kept the Death Soul Seeker from his escape, in the first instance? Yuy who placed a mere liege pact higher than his comrade's lifeblood?" "Has it not been recently said? 'You made your decisions as best you might. None who know you blame you' ? If such applies to the seeker, wherefore not the servant?" Heero knelt before the boy. Untwined the cloth bandage wound round him. Studied the angry gash the dagger point had torn into the smooth flesh. "Perhaps the hurt would benefit from your soothing unguent?" He urged Duo's haversack into the boy's hands. "I would have made trial of it the sooner. But could not discern which was the proper jar. Your script being mysterious as yourself and your potions." "I meant not to leave it a mystery," Duo replied. "Only not to repulse you with its formulation." Heero quirked an eyebrow. "Say more," he urged. "For sores, to prevent festering," Duo recited as if by rote, meanwhile selecting the appropriate jar. "Take you a small rind of yellow cheese. Dip it once in clear water that has been boiled, and wrap it in clean cloth. When the cheese becomes blue with mold. Take it and press it all along the surface of freshly cut bread. Wrap the bread in clean cloth. When the bread becomes likewise thoroughly blue. Scrape the surface and substance of the bread and make of it a poultice. This may be used fresh or preserved as an unguent." "Why not merely start with moldy bread?" Heero's mind seemed to pounce like a predator. "Because the bread discriminates not. Whereas the cheese prefers the blue blooded, being more selective of its rich company." "Well," Heero replied somewhat skeptically. "It appears efficacious, in the least." He fingered the healing welts on Duo's back, before applying the extract to the dagger wound. "Leave it unwrapped," Duo instructed. "It is scarce more than a deep scratch." Heero hesitated over the injury before bowing to the healer's obvious knowledge. The Norsemen had not yet succeeded in unburying the hut. So Heero and Duo sat down to a breakfast of remnant victuals. Yuy urged the boy ever and again to take another bite of this or that, and then again some more. They drank hot water, and used the remainder for their ablutions. "We should not grumble over the Norsemen's rescue, considering our lack of supplies," Duo declared, as Heero cleansed, treated and re bandaged the boy's hand. Judging by the increased volume of cursing outside, and the scraping sounds now rattling the door itself, the rescuers had nearly completed their relief efforts. At long last, the door burst open, revealing a crowd of towering figures. "Heero Yuy. The Merquise bids you come however you may and at once," their spokesman grinned widely as he trumpeted the phrase. "Also is the death soul seeker summoned. Provided his resurrection has proven not a temporary thing," the huge man added with a chuckling nod at the boy. "Duo is not fit enough for travel," Yuy scowled. "We have brought a sled, whereon he may ride," the Norseman retorted. And without further conversation, the burly warrior scooped up the boy and strode out of the hovel. Heero hastened after to find Duo deposited reclining upon a rough wooden toboggan. The boy blinked repeatedly through the blindingly brilliant sunshine glittering off myriad facets of ice and snow. "Treize' cloak," he muttered somewhat woozily. The servant ran to gather the seeker's portables, and the whole stack of warm covers, which he flung over the boy. When no face emerged from underneath, he adjusted the throws until he had freed Duo's nose. Then the Norsemen were off, dragging the sled behind them. Yuy, bearing his sword, as well as the seeker's haversack and quarterstaff, floundered through the deep clinging snow drifts. Making use of the Norse warriors' treads was scarcely useful, since their strides were mammoth in length, and he couldn't reach from one footfall to the next without jumping. Soon he gave over trying to walk next to Duo, and instead assumed the rear guard, walking lightly atop the packed snow left in the toboggan's wake. A sort of somnambulism overcame him then. Weariness. Intense, aching and marrow-deep. He had slept fitfully at best, many nights running. And the anger of bloody battle, of the Tanist's torture, seemed to couple with that of the pirates who had first seized him. The combined cruelty of humanity appeared to him suddenly an overwhelming force. The wickedness of the world, an enemy so vast that he could never conquer, no matter how he fought. It appealed to him at once to give over striving for good. To merely succumb to evil reality and submit. Which brought him quickly to review his position in life. The Merquise had handed his thane over to the Tanist of Su. Had this been a mark of trust? That Yuy was clearly capable of survival in such a threatening post? Or had it been punishment? Did the Merquise think Yuy had knowingly enticed his sister? Was the dangerous assignment an act of petty jealously, the Merquise supposing Yuy preferred the sister over the brother? Or was it all merely the carelessness of a regal being, much accustomed to the arrogance of command? Whatever his own status, it occurred to him that Duo's was even more tenuous. The boy was friendless, alone in the world. And the death soul seeker's possession of the cedar plaque might well be a danger to him. Regardless of the harmless nature of the object, it had come to be associated with threat and fear, death and power. Upon this reflection, Heero's gaze rose from off the packed snow trail he tread. Rose to stare ahead. Rapidly, three things came to his attention. First, that he had fallen far behind. There stretched quite a distance between those he followed and himself. Second. That the sled suddenly had come to a halt. The Norsemen stood encircling Duo, hiding the seeker from the servant's view. Third. That the warriors, to a man, had drawn their swords
and were poised to kill. ~ * ~ tbc....
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