|
"Friends "Written By: Karina
Series: Friends Pairings: 2+6 Ratings: M 15+ [In Australia] Rated in the event of bad language and violence. Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the characters. That’s the way it is. Warnings: Not a death fic despite how it starts.
Aussie spelling and unbetaed. Summary: When Milliardo Peacecraft is abducted
and left to die a solitary death Duo Maxwell decides to take a hand
in the proceedings.
Chapter 18 Duo frowned, slowly lifting his head. He listened intently, hardly daring to breathe. Was that a voice on the wind? Just for a moment he thought he heard a voice, but his certainty faded. Shaking off his tension he finished filling the pot and made his way back into the pantry, leaning the door into place. Settling back at the fire he fed a few bits of wood onto the blaze, coaxing it to burn a little hotter before placing the pot to heat. He was looking forward to hot coffee, and he would make tea for Marquise when he woke. The pot hissed as the flames licked at the moisture clinging to the old metal. Duo settled back to watch the snow melt and his frown returned, head rising as the hissing faded and he heard the whisper of voices carried on the wind. Tense he strained, wondering if his ghosts were to haunt him even in the light of day. When he heard nothing despite straining for a full minute he rose from the fire and moved to the barricade. Listening intently he could make out the howl of the wind and nothing more, though he thought perhaps it sounded less wild. “Something wrong?” His companion’s voice startled him and he spun. Zechs had slept for the bulk of the day, and he had been left alone with his thoughts. There was a large pile of debris stacked at the rear of the pantry, sufficient to burn through the remainder of the day and the night. They would be comfortably warm until they settled down to sleep, and he had enough wood to light the fire in the morning. He was limited for space in the pantry, and to keep his thoughts away from his ghosts and demons he had taken to stacking what he could salvage in the adjacent room. It offered some additional shelter to the gap marking the false wall, cut down the draft and made it less obvious there was a doorway. He had, however, been unable to fully escape his past and he had tried, once again, to face his personal fears. As always, he was not satisfied with his progress and doubted his therapist would be pleased. “I thought I heard voices. I’ll just go and have a look around.” Before Zechs could protest Duo slipped through the gap he opened between the door and the wall. Considering what Zechs had already survived Duo was careful to replace the wall, and pulled the stack of debris to further shelter the door. If by chance his tormentors had returned Duo did not want Zechs found easily. In the pantry Zechs settled back against the pack, rummaging around in the personal effects Duo had taken from him. He found his watch and strapped it to his wrist, considering the dial in silence for a long moment. A slow smile curved his lips as he considered the time of day and the too serious attitude of the man who had rescued him. “You are practical, like most of the colony bred. Overly practical. Perhaps it is time you learned another way of looking at the world.” He tilted his head, listening to the wind and his smile widened. Duo decided the wind had diminished, though it still ripped through the area and howled through the cracks in the cabin. Picking his way over the ice Duo peered through a window and grunted. From this angle the snow was piled up almost to head height. When the storm finally let up he would need to dig his way out. “Well, maybe the wind has not eased so much after all. The snow is doing a damned fine job of burying us.” Slipping and sliding he made his way to the door, which he worked open after chipping away at newly formed ice. He would not offer himself up to a blizzard again in a hurry. The snow was not so high this deep beneath the veranda as it was at the more exposed window, but it was sufficient to become a bother when they were ready to escape. Edging up to the drift he peered over the top at the falling snow. The quality of the light was changing and he guessed it must be sunset. “Tomorrow. I should be able to dig out the chopper tomorrow.” Tomorrow the wind would die down sufficiently he need not fear the return flight. Tomorrow Marquise would be that much stronger, and he would feel it safe to leave the man unattended long enough for the arduous task. Tomorrow they would be able to return to civilization. A high, fluting wail, distant and otherworldly drifted on the air. Chills chased up and down Duo’s spine and he froze, staring into the growing darkness. The sound was eerie, enchanting. It was high and pure, like a chorus of voices singing in the snow and it came on the wind, rising and falling as the gusts rattled the roof above his head. Shivering, unaware he was hugging himself, Duo stared into the night, enraptured. //Someone is singing? Out here?// No, he decided after listening to a high note of harmony swirling on the wind. Surely no human throat could sound so clear, so pure and delicate, and be strong enough to defeat the howling of the wind. Long, high wailing notes, rising and falling in shattering cascades of sound, pure and beautiful beyond imagining, rent the night. Voices blended with the wind, soaring above the moaning of the trees, descending in graceful degrees with the snow fall. For a long time Duo stood in the doorway, transfixed by the beauty of the sound, staring out into the darkness. His ghosts had never sung to him before. Never. They were more inclined to wail in grief and rage than sing something so hauntingly. There was no one out in this snow filled world, so who other than his ghosts could he be hearing? “I’m going insane.” He whispered. “After hearing that though… I don’t think I mind.” A shower of ice crystals hit him in the face, signalling a change in wind direction, and the icy shower stirred him from his rapture. The voices were silent, the wind alone moaning in the trees; a very real and poor imitation of something so beautiful. Aware he was chilled to the bone he forced himself to move, to step back into the cabin and close the door against the cold. Trembling with more than cold he made his way back to the pantry, replaced the door after him, and threw himself down beside the fire. To his relief Marquise asked no questions, silently watching the flames dance. Periodically Duo felt the icy blue eyes on him and knew there had to be questions the man wanted to ask, but he was grateful Marquise gave him time with his thoughts. It was not until Duo had warmed himself through and made tea and coffee that the blonde stirred. “It was beautiful, wasn’t it.” Duo hesitated. “What was?” “The Elf Song.” Duo blanched. Elf song? He recalled Marquise speaking of legends, of the local people claiming to hear Elves singing in a blizzard at sunset. The song was said to mark the end of a blizzard, and despite the shiver that danced up his spine he snorted. Fantasy, superstition, impossible. But it had been beautiful. Otherworldly. What was it he had heard, there in the freezing cold, his belly pressed to a snow drift, his hair freezing in the icy wind? It had been beautiful. It was surprising what sounds the human throat could produce with the right training. Who in their right minds would hike through a blizzard to sing hymns to the snow was another matter entirely. There was always a logical explanation for odd events. What upset him was if there were people out there, why had they not offered rescue? “There are no such things as Elves.” “Yet you heard them singing.” Marquise grinned, slowly pulling himself up into his half leaning, half propped position. With his wild fall of silver white bangs and a look that screamed mischief he might have been an Elf himself. “I heard the wind in the trees.” But if Zechs was commenting on the eerie song did that not mean he heard it? Then it could not have been his ghosts singing to him, and that meant there had to be someone out in the blizzard. Perhaps he should go out and try to find them, before they died of exposure? “How very mundane. A sound as pure and beautiful as that, and you put it down to the wind in the trees.” “No such things as Elves.” “Perhaps not to a practical realist like a colonist.” Zechs murmured. “I call a spade a spade. What fool would be wandering around in this? Wind in the trees, pure and simple.” “You don’t believe that. I can see it in your eyes.” Duo rolled his eyes. “And they say I have too much imagination.” “Imagination is a good thing, generally. It needs to be exercised, to be given expression. It allows us to acknowledge more than the harsh reality of our existence.” Duo scowled. The therapist said he thought too much, he was driven to find an answer to every question and mystery in the world, and in the process he tended to bottle up his emotions. Emotions got in the way… no, that was wrong. It was only recent emotions that trapped him in the awful arms of guilt and memory. “There is a rational explanation for everything in this life. You are a pilot, an Oz elite. I’d have thought superstitious nonsense would be below you.” Zechs sighed and set his tea to one side, considering the violet blue eyes looking at him with what looked suspiciously like an appeal. An appeal for something he could not quite name. Duo looked like he would crumble in the light of the fire, and Zechs had never seen the man look so vulnerable. He was not certain what he was seeing, or how to react to it, but he would know to watch for it in future. “The three Elf Kings are a set of peaks to the east and north. I know our approximate location from the Elf Song. It can only be heard in certain areas of Sanc, and only high in the mountains to the south of those peaks. When a strong wind hits from a certain angle the rock is given voice. It only ever happens during blizzards from the North, as the sun is setting. I have heard it postulated it has much to do with the temperature of the air, the rock and the density of the snow fall. These factors, combined with a wind within a certain range of speed, and from a particular direction, give birth to the song.” He arched an eyebrow at Duo. “Is that a soundly scientific enough explanation for you?” Duo snorted softly. “It’s more sensible than saying a group of Elves are frolicking in the snow, singing their heads off.” Marquise snickered softly. “It is not as quaint though.” Duo arched an eyebrow. “It’s nothing more than a fairytale. This is not the Dark Ages we are living in. We are rational scientifically aware individuals, not some superstitious refugee from a bad B grade fantasy movie.” Crystal blue eyes shuttered briefly, white lashes lowering to hide their depths. “I have found it does not do to close out fantasy from one’s life. Life can be harsh and unforgiving, and sometimes you need to escape its harsh coils. Reading books, the classics of myth and magic, and studying the mythologies of the world can be a welcome distraction.” Duo fed some jagged pieces of wood into the hungry flames. “It never pays to ignore reality.” “How can one ignore reality?” Zechs leaned his head back, sending a torrent of silver white hair down his arm. “I have found life has a nasty habit of biting me hard on the rump, and is thereafter most reluctant to let go. No, Duo, it is not reality that is the problem, but modern man. He chooses to see nothing but the harsh complexities of science, as it interacts with his world. Our subconscious minds need escape. It can be good for us to occasionally escape; to times when people did not know science, just the beauty of the world and could wonder at the mysteries surrounding them. Our ancestors knew how to look at the world and see more than we do.” Duo scratched absently at his chin, staring into the flames. “Well… I don’t think it very sensible. What purpose would it serve? It’s not real. We have to be practical. That is how you survive.” Zechs considered Duo for a long moment before taking up his tea and sipping, considering carefully before he ventured a comment. “Which is the more captivating explanation for the sounds you heard? The rocks and air temperature, wind currents and snow density, or the thought of an elegant and ancient people? A people who can see and celebrate the beauty and very nature of the natural world? This Earth has a personality, Duo. It is a living breathing thing, and we are her children. If we refuse to see the world around us, and see only our invention called science, then we are missing so much of what is real. We have to be prepared to see more than molecules and atoms. I find this world I live in to be harsh and cruel, and losing myself in more ancient times is a welcome distraction from that reality. Even fantasy has a place in our lives.”
|
