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"Horse Tales"Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Yaoi, Very AU, so very AU it's AD, another
dimension. The GW boys are horses. My apologies. Please heed the warning. Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 6x5 Summary: A few lucky stallion purebreds are given a second chance at the Horse Haven Sanc-tuary. A/N: In defense of my writing this extreme version
of a GW story… Waterlily and Snowdragon made me do it, heh, heh… " Horse Tales" Chapter Ten- Waiting out the Winter (o) Duo POV Spot said it had only been a few days since the "hail and brimstone" incident, but it seemed more like an age with Goldie all sulky and Sunshine walking on eggshells around him. The awful smell of my tail and mane had worn off enough that Heero could snuggle against me- but not lick my hair, which I missed. Having Heero close again was nice and damn timely 'cause if I'd had to go without his affection much longer, Goldie was gonna pay big time for being a chewer and making the groomer slather me with the obnoxious-smelling hair treatments. Not that I had any idea what the payback would be, but I knew how creative I could be. I would think of something if and when the time came. Goldie made a few crucial adjustments, mostly keeping his mouth shut and butting out of my business, and our happy herd settled down, making one day lead into a comfortable facsimile of the next. Dull was fine. Nothing unexpected. Nothing dangerous. Eat, drink, and talk. The weather kept us indoors one afternoon, and with plenty of time to chat, and since we were growing a nice, fuzzy trust for one another, some fuzzier than others, the moment was right when we felt ready to confide to one another about why and how we came to be at the Happy Haven for Heretical Horses-my emphasis. My buddies had other terms for us. Goldie's inner stall door opened and he stood partway out of his stall. "Deviants." Goldie offered up that mean-spirited description of us. I wondered if he'd included himself in that category? He should. Heero showed his dry precision with, "Unconventional." "Unusual." Now, that was sporting of Quat. "Avant-garde," Spot slipped in, loving to stick in the exotic word or two he'd picked up from his circus days. "Whatever. I'm just sayin' that you got to admit Howard's assembled a pretty unique band of horses, and in a good way. Am I right? Just thinking here, but you know I'm especially clever at mechanics, Heero can read, Spot has got a connection with numbers, Goldie is skilled at linguistics, and our little ray of Sunshine here can practically read minds." "Emotions, Duo. I can feel strong emotions, not read minds." "Thank the great horse gods in the heavens for that," Goldie grumbled. "You got something to hide?" I asked him. And he chose not to answer. An outdoor window slammed open. Some brave soul was checking on the morning's condition. "It's not raining," Spot remarked. "I hope not," Sunshine said. "It's cold in here. That would make it so much worse outside." I was game to try anything. "We might as well go out. Breakfast's long over and there's nothing else to do but wait for dinner." "Food. Is that all you ever think about?" Goldie asked as he left his stall. "Close to it. Gotta small stomach and gotta fill it all the time. And I'm so hungry I could eat a... lot." "He's still growing," Spot noted. I was? We lined up, waiting in numerical order for a handler to drape us in blankets and boot us up for the out-of-doors. Waiting wasn't so bad here. This was the life, the one I'd dreamed about when I'd see the pretty horses trot by in their smart getups. Not that I'd suffered until the end, but I'd never had it as soft as now. I'd never had such service or such nice things or been so doted upon by humans, or by a friend like Heero. Spot looked secretly pleased, too, sharing a quiet nicker with whichever human buckled his blanket in place. I stood at the door as it opened to a clean, fresh, vista of blinding light. I had to blink a few times to get my bearings, and then I felt the familiar weight of cat clinging to my tail and the gentle touch of a nose pressing into my neck. "Excuse me, Duo. I smell something new. I need to peek outside." I shifted a foot and let Sunshine poke his head out the door. My tail felt light again. "Oh! Percy, you stay inside. It's white!" Spot nudged his stall buddy aside, and I mean Sunshine, not the cat, to get a look out the door. "Well, I'll be. So it is." I heard a tail smack against his spotted sides. "You saw it! You knew that it would be like this and didn't say!" "It's not raining. I told you that." "I'm going out. Move." Goldie was the first to crush a path in the billowing white mounds. Sunshine was just not mellowing to the moment. "You can walk on it? How do you see the path? It's so cold!" Apparently, wherever Goldie came from it snowed in winter all the time. He seemed unaffected by the sight and stepped right out. "I remember where it was." I saved the stupid cat from certain death-by-trampling and tossed him into a cardboard box. He had claws. Tearing his way out would give him something to do to pass the time. "You're too good to that animal," Heero told me, waiting for me before venturing out. "A cat doesn't deserve your kindness." "It's a living, breathing creature. Death's an easy thing to bestow, but once done there's no going back. I've seen enough death, 'Ro. Let's go." "We got it so easy here," I was saying as we joined the others in the snow-covered, outdoor ring. Sunshine was cavorting about like a crazy horse, kicking up snow one minute and eating it the next. "This is fun!" Goldie watched from on high. I could feel him about to burst with mortally wounding comments, the pain in his eyes showed from holding it all in. Good. Bloating is better than gloating-for him. Spot dug a hole in the snow with his nose, exposing the gravel, and stared for a long while. Did that assure him that the world as he remembered it still existed? I guessed so, because he repeated the digging three more times until he had a hole for each of his hooves to stand in. And there he stood planted firmly on terra firma, his nose pointed out to the far fields where the wild horses lived. Sunshine's frolicking took him over to Spot's snow-free retreat. "What do you see?" "White. I was wondering about the horses out there." "Oh, the poor wild horses. Whatever do they do? How can they survive?" Heero had wandered closer to the human residences at first and now ambled up to me, standing in the middle of what was our arena. "Men are packing hay bales onto a truck and I watched another truck drive off onto a back road." "It must lead to the wild lands," Spot said. How he knew that, no one asked. It made sense, though, so he was probably right. Goldie strolled to the fence to watch the men, and listen. After a while, we all joined him. People watching was more interesting than staring into the white expanse. "What Trowa said, seems to be correct. They are taking the hay to feed the wild horses," Goldie told us. "Apparently, there are shelters built into rock cliffs and the men drop food a couple times a week in winter." So Howard cared for them, too? I liked him more for that. Show over, we wandered around the arena a few times then spaced out on the color white in the distance. Time passed and the weak sun faded so that now I was staring into shades of gray, and my stomach rumbled. "I'm running on empty here," I said, but no one commented. Everyone was back at the fence. "Over here," Heero called. He loved keeping us together. "I see lights over at the human house-" "It's a holiday party," Goldie said with authority. "Howard and that Jenkins man mentioned it." "A party! I want to go see!" Sunshine could hardly contain himself. "Geez Louise, you aren't going to get through the fence that way," I started to say a lot more on the subject, including how there were creatures not really alive and not really dead that could do all kinds of miraculous stuff like that, but Heero had to play the smartass. "I can." "Okay, maybe you can go through steel fences, I don't know, but Sunshine here can wait for me to open the latch. Aw, great... a new one. Just gimme a sec." A spotted nose hung over my shoulder. "Can I help?" Spot had been fairly helpful before, so I gave him space to look. "Yeah, it's another two-horser." We jimmied it open without much trouble and drifted over to the sound and lights. "Looks warm in there. I see a fireplace." "What fire?" Nice going, Sunshine. Now you've stirred up Heero's angst. "It's okay. It's tiny and surrounded by people and rocks. Hey! I see the doctors, Howard and his friend, Jenkins. It looks very cozy and warm inside." "I hear a car coming. We should get out of sight," Spot warned. Heero led us around the building to the darkest shadows. "People don't see in the dark. We can watch them from here." The car appeared spouting obnoxious smelling smoke and stopped to let out a passenger wrapped in the fur of dead animals. I recognized Relena, despite the fur camouflage. And even though I understood why furless humans would want to do that, it made me sad, enough so that I felt justified feeling that she didn't deserve Heero. "Lady Relena." Heero spoke in that irritating, near-reverent tone of voice he saved for only certain things, like her name. "She's telling the driver to wait while she goes in," Goldie translated. "She must not expect to stay long." We watched the girl wrench open the door and sweep inside. The wind caught the edge of the building's door and blew it wide open. Heero leaned forward. "I'm going closer to hear what's being said." He meant that Goldie was to move close to the window, and to the asshole's credit he stepped to without argument. He went further than I would have, sticking his head past the front door. I wasn't looking no gift horse in the mouth, that's for sure. If he wanted to be cooperative, I wouldn't be ungrateful and say anything to spook him. He stood attentively, listening. "I don't like the feelings inside. Goldie! Come back!" Sunshine whinnied. Goldie must have come to the same conclusion. He was already scooting backwards, hooves clattering on the stone steps. We all parted like a barn door, making space for him between us to report what he'd learn. Relena darted out the door and into the waiting car, which sped off in a cloud of smoke. "There was an argument, most of which I couldn't make out. Relena told Howard, though, and I heard this very clearly, to expect her to come back with a court order to take Heero back." "What's a court order?" I wondered aloud. "It can't be good," Spot said. "It sounds very... official. Howard's face turned pale," Goldie said. He turned to Heero. "I'm sorry. That's all I heard." Well, that took the starch out of all of us. Even my appetite went south. We all followed Heero back through the arena and uphill and out into the pasture, putting distance between her and us, just like that between all human's and horses, only this one measured in distance instead of thought processes. Why not just let us be once we'd established our purpose to them? Why keep changing our handlers, the expectations we would have to meet, the rules, the conditions we'd have to work under? I'd never understand humans. There we stood. After awhile we were standing shoulder to shoulder, backs to the wind. As the day progressed, there came a blizzard. Lots of wind. Lots of snow. And still no one moved to go back home. When a particularly strong gust blasted over the hillside sending a blinding flurry of snow over our backs and into our faces, I got to thinking it was time to seek the comfort of shelter. Then an awful rending shriek deafened me. Splitting wood-it had to be. "Watch out!" Heero whinnied. "Run!" We ran, following orders without hesitation. I heard the muffled stomping of our hooves moving fast and clearing a wide area. When we turned, I saw the dark blur of tree branches falling followed with less drama by the slow motion roll of the old trunk down the hill, crushed snow marking its progress. I felt grateful for the warmth of Heero's neck leaning into mine. "Just a tree toppling," Spot reassured Sunshine pressed up against his side. "Such a big one." Good, our little Sunshine sounded okay, nearly plucky. Even my knees felt a bit flimsy after the frightful noise. "That was close," Goldie remarked, looking frayed around the edges, his tightly bound mane and tail breaking free in the abrasive wind. We huddled together and stared into the bleak landscape where the tree had been. Good bye old friend. Sunshine was first to speak up. "This is the most inhospitable place on earth and I want to go home even though no human has come to take us in." "Funny that no one's called us in, isn't it, 'Ro?" I asked, feeling creeped out. "It's wrong." "It's a holiday. They probably are short-staffed," Goldie said. "Or they are attending the party, too." "Poor excuse." And Heero was right. "It's pitch black out here," Spot pointed out unnecessarily. Heero took a test step forward. "The house is dark, too." "They've forgotten all about us!" Sunshine wailed and stomped his hoof. "Or the snow storm has disrupted power." Goldie looked at Heero. "Their kind of power. Something we don't understand." "Human magic?" Sunshine wondered. But magic was something Spot understood and he shook his head. "Not magic, but a power they can control and we can't." "And it's gone?" Goldie looked into the darkness. "It seems so. Temporarily, possibly." Heero took another few steps then halted when one leg sank to the knee in snow. "We'll have to go back on our own." "But how? I can't see the path. We could break a leg." I could hear the rising hysteria in Sunshine's voice. This wouldn't end well, I guessed. Heero's thin ankles, great for running on even surfaces, were poorly designed for slogging through snow. Maybe Goldie decided that he needed to earn our respect or maybe he simply didn't want to freeze to death without a fight. Whichever, he pulled himself together. "I remember the way." "So do I," Spot piped up. "I'm heavier. I'll go first." "No, we'll do it together," Goldie insisted. "The bindings on my legs are for added stability." Well, well, so it wasn't all for show. In silent agreement, Heero took up the rear guard position, making sure no one fell behind and on lookout for the big cats. We didn't want Sunshine to worry about that danger now. I gotta give Goldie credit; he and Spot bravely guided us down the hill through the deep snow to the gate. Both were up to their chests at one point, having gone off course to avoid another downed tree. I was sure glad for Spot's substantial girth and Goldie's wits. "Don't go there!" Spot halted instantly. "What's up?" Goldie pressed on a lump, testing the ground when it bounced. "Another limb, buried." Had Spot stepped on it, he could have tripped and trapped a leg. "Uh, thanks." Goldie snorted and shook the snow from his mane, which had lost most of its bands holding it back. I'd never seen it let down outside and it made him appear less stern and gentler. What was I thinking? That was Goldie! Just because he was helping out didn't make him actually appealing all of a sudden. Besides, we all looked wild by now. I hated to think what my tail looked like and turned back to see Heero carrying the stiff, frozen tip in his mouth. "Thanks, love," I said, before thinking. I hadn't meant to call him "love". You'd call a mate that and he was my best friend. Either it was the cold getting to me or the stress. Yeah, stress. And I did not look him in the eyes. Not the eyes! Good thing I'd caught him with his mouth full, I guess. I did not want to try to explain that little outburst. Sunshine, though, was giving me a questioning look, which I pretended to disregard. I had no excuses for what I'd said or how I felt. And now wasn't the time to think about anything but survival. "Which way?" Spot asked. His voice sounded shaky either from the cold or fear, most likely an anxiety-laden blend. Wind whipped our tails and snow plastered us in the face, but no one complained. "Let's all look," Sunshine suggested. "We can help each other and do it together!" We all tested the ground in small circles until a path was agreed upon. Spot ploughed forward a few steps. "Feels solid." "Good." I kept Sunshine from slipping into a gopher hole once and he offered me a push across an icy patch. We had grit and determination, too! One for all and all for one, and all that togetherness stuff. "Fence in view." Goldie announced. "Aw, shit." I heard Spot groan in frustration. He'd made it to the fence and was engaged in kicking at the metal. Goldie booted the gate for added measure, but it didn't open. I knew we'd left it unlatched on our way through. "Wedged shut!" Sunshine moaned. "After everything... and this happens." Snow had banked up against the gate to the arena, though most of it had been knocked off the gate by the kicking. "I think that fallen tree has wedged against it," Goldie said, giving Heero room to look the situation over. Sunshine snorted and shuffled his feet, circling in place, keeping warm, I guessed. "My feet are going numb! I won't die this close to home. There's got to be something we can do." "Don't worry, Beautiful, our leader hasn't given it his magic touch yet." Heero snorted and corrected him. "Hn. What I have is power not magic." "Hey that proves you've got a sense of humor- warped, but present, either that or it was just me thinking that had been funny with my brain going frozen." "Idiot." But he winked at me when he said it. It wasn't just me impressed by his strength; we all cheered when he kicked the daylights outta the gate, bending the metal frame to the ground so we could climb over. That hurdle conquered, it still wasn't clear how we'd get to the barn. We struggled with Spot, Goldie, and Heero taking turns forging a path to the barn. Not that Quat and I were weaklings or anything. We couldn't all be out in front, and, well, honestly, he and I were a mite smaller, not that size told the whole story. We made a good job of it, helping each other with a stabilizing nose, a gentle push, or a nicker of encouragement. Heero steered us away from the thick cables coated in layers of ice lying on the ground. "Power in those. They can burn and kill you. I've seen them spark fire, and when rats bite them, they get fried." Okay. Nobody questioned him and Spot nodded in agreement, murmuring something I couldn't hear. Sunshine repeated what he'd said, louder, "We think that explains the lack of lights." Goldie seemed to understand the danger and gave the lines a wide berth. I was so cold I hardly cast the partially covered lines another glance in passing. The only bit of luck was finding the barn door was wide open, not that a wood door would have meant much to Heero at this point. He barged right in, heading for the stalls. The wind shook the stall windows, despite being latched tight. It felt cold and unwelcoming. The lights were out and so was the heat. We took turns ripping off the wet boots and helping each other yank off the soggy blankets. "Can't w-we all huddle together s-someplace?" I could hear the wavering in Sunshine's voice so he must have been chilled to the bone. "It would be w-warmer." "Good idea. I wouldn't mind warm." I said it good and loud enough for Heero to hear. Heero led the migration through the barn, past the shredded remnants of a cardboard box, but no Percy, and into the arena, where he pronounced it, "Drafty." "It's not drafty over here." Sunshine stood in the corner amongst stacks of sweet-smelling straw. "Oh!" There were two of our part time workers out cold, a bottle of awful smelling chemicals mostly empty between them. Just like my owner. Dead to the world. "Are they... d-dead?" "No, but if my past experiences holds true, they'll wish they were come morning." "Should we do something for them?" "Nothing to do. Naw, humans drink poison and go to sleep. Howard will be mad as hell to find them off duty this way." "Explains why we were left out to freeze all night," Heero said. He nearly crushed the legs of one man as he brushed by. Daintily, Sunshine stepped around them; the rest of us gave them a wide berth. "We can loosen up a bale and spread it around for a soft bed." Spot's suggestion was met with some enthusiastic kicking, tearing, and hoof action until two or three bales had been freed and pushed into lovely soft billows. Goldie pushed hay out of a crib against the interior wall of barn, adding nicely to the swelling heaps. He was chewing it too, which reminded me that I was starving so I grabbed a snack. "Help me with the chest, Duo!" There was Sunshine back at the stalls and an angry-faced Percy, poor persecuted thing, worrying about his hooves. I certainly could have done it alone, but I had Heero's help, overseeing the job, and Spot's, lifting the lid after I fiddled the clasp open. "I know there are more blankets in here. Oh, Percy, no! Stay out!" Goldie kept the stupid cat back. "Stupid animal. How long do you have to be locked in a box to learn to stay out of one?" Sunshine generously draped each of us in one of his monogrammed blankets, soft as the fur behind Heero's ears, and then we trotted back to our straw sanctuary. I felt a tug on my tail and heard snickering at my back. "Percy adores your tail." I had a cat swinging from my thick, thawing braid. "Get it off." Ah, my Heero making demands. Before Goldie could "lend me a hoof" so to speak, I ripped the furball off and dumped him on Spot's ample backside. "Done." "Keep it away from me," Heero demanded. "I'll do what I can," Spot promised as best he could and stepped out of the way and next to Goldie in line. It was a cat with a mind of its own, no matter how tiny a mind it might have. We all snuggled together in one big lump, even Goldie, deep into our straw and blankets and listened to the storm rage on outside. And chewed hay. It wasn't our nice evening mash, but it was substantial and filling and plentiful. "A warm fire would be nice," Sunshine said. "Out in the desert, we'd collect around a giant campfire-oh! I'm sorry, Heero." "That's sounds terrible. I hate fire." And then Heero described the thunder and lightning and the fires that burned down his former home. And then he told us something I hadn't heard about before. "There was a horse behind me. She could have made it out too, but she tripped over the crazy barn cats and couldn't get up... She was an old mare. She told me to go on and save the Lady. I can still remember the smell of burning horseflesh." "The smell of death is the worst thing ever, no matter how it's delivered." Goldie agreed. "No kidding." I should know. So, I told them all about the horses I'd worked alongside of and how we were neglected and how they took sick and how my best friend, Solo, died-and how I watched him get eaten away by bugs while I starved, waiting... Heero had to stop me because I was making Sunshine ill. Spot would have noticed, probably, had his attention not been focused on corralling Percy between his legs. My tail must have looked like a beckoning nest. I jostled his side. "I know you gotta tale to tell." I guessed his hesitation had more to do with finding a suitable story that wouldn't upset his little ray of Sunshine than with thinking one up. "Well, once I stumbled and sent a rider sailing over my head. He could have broken his neck, but he got lucky. He beat me, nearly blinded me." "Oh, Spot! Let me see the eye. There's just a small scar. Not so bad." He shook the forelock over his face to mask the eye and the jagged mark above it. "Not like my legs." The two nuzzled a moment, whispering comforting words. "The humans never saw what someone in the audience had thrown into the ring." "What was it?" Heero asked, and from the gleam in his eyes I woulda bet he was hoping it was a cat and Spot had broken its neck tripping over it. It wasn't a cat, though. Spot tucked Percy a little further into the hay, a wise move. "A belt, but it had looked like a snake." "Oh, I hate those! One bite and you can die and they are so quick. Snakes are a terrible danger in the desert." Sunshine looked a little wild-eyed and told us in a breathy voice, "I stomped a viper to death once." "Gutsy," I told him. "You were very brave to do that," Spot agreed. "I couldn't see well because of the headdress I wore. It was quick and I just reacted badly." "Justifiable," Goldie declared. "Instinctual reactions are excusable. They are in place to help us survive." Heero agreed wholeheartedly. "Stupid humans." Sunshine gave us all grateful looks and nickered sweet nothings in his troubled friend's ear. "Yeah, well, after that I wasn't trusted with people. I got the big cats. Then the circus went broke and I was first to go." "And came here." Heero waited for an assent then asked, "The change's been good for you, hasn't it?" "The best." "For me, too," I said. "No work and plenty of food." "Not to mention the company." Heero tugged on my tail, just in case I hadn't noticed how I'd neglected him, and then made a face, curling back his lips from the hair. "His hair, it still tastes of that foul lacquer?" Goldie tried, but just couldn't hide the interest in his voice. "Yes, it does, not that it matters to you." "Well," he muttered something incomprehensible and managed to end with a command to Sunshine, "Your turn."
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