Chapter 15

"How dare you?! How dare you?! You insignificant little Dragon fool!! Where's your beast now to hide behind its powers? Traitor!!!" The brimming over with evil voice was insipid with anger at one of her former minion's betrayal.

And he insults my beauty on top of it! You'll pay for that, you beady eyed twit!!!

"I do NOT hide behind anything! You are the weakling, Woman!" Wufei spits out as Sorceress Anne stands mere feet before himself and the Archer beside him.

Trowa shakes a warning head at his partner's arrogant taunting of a powerful mistress of darkness.

"I'll say it again! Come face me if you have the courage, hideous creature of darkness!!" Wufei scoffs as the Sorceress strikes out with a maddening uncalculated shriek at the one who insulted her.

Her attacks miss both the lithe archer and the agile dragon master, over and over again. The two skitter away from her destructive blasts while trying to get a clear move on her, to no avail.

She was well protected inside a dark red cloud of evil surrounding her body.

"That's no way to battle a sorceress, gentlemen." Calling out with confidence, a new voice enters the battle worn scene. The drawbridge begins to descend as a scary snakelike monster swims in a shadow beneath the dark waters, staving off any candidates who would try to dive in and swim to the other side.

Quatre and his falcon find a protective forcefield around the entire castle, from the bottom to its winding tops where the pegasus were still prancing in the air. The flighty creatures were totally unaware of the dangers in the forest's edge below.

But their ignorance did not include their lofty minded master--the king of this majestic castle, who was, as always, first and foremost ready to march into any battle.

Especially one that has such an attractive opponent.

Master Treize considers this with a smirk briefly as he commands the bridge to fall open before him.

"--or a lady." He says coyly, casually batting his royal purple cape behind him. His golden crown glimmers in the sunlight. His tall boots stride across the wooden drawbridge, firmly stepping with the air of assuredness that only came when one was royal ruler of all.

But as he reaches the end of the long bridge, Treize stops short, almost caught off balance, and his innate poise is tested to its limits at the sight of one in particular who was awaiting entrance into his kingdom.

"You?!" His calm voice is joined simultaneously by the Water Nymph's as their eyes meet. She never imagined that the human who had caused her so much heartache and trouble in the past would now be standing before her. He was the one who had broken through her defenses somehow and lured Leia out of her fairy world into his own, the man who had taken her frail life unwittingly in her conceiving of another--another who was, mortally, half his....

In her anger and grief then, Sallie had sent this man away from her forest when he had returned a year after. But Leia had already left this world and Sallie was not about to let this accursed man to take another of her fairy princesses away from her. So she didn't tell him about Mariemaia. Instead, she said that Leia had gone to a world where he could no longer hurt her and he should never dare set foot in her land again---

And now she was begging entrance into his. She and his child both. Sallie swallows back her pride for a moment. After all, no matter what was in the past, Mariemaia needed protection now. Even if it meant the protection of her father's castle that Sallie was loathe to accept.

A stray blast from the battling warriors rocks the grassy banks that the elves and fairies stood upon. The cocky smirk he had brandished before now turns into a set jaw of courage.

Treize, the ruler of this vast land of Aissur lets down the barrier protecting the palace from the outside world with a flick of his hand. The same hand was about to summon the guards, at the ready behind him. But first, his other hand reaches out towards Sallie, with a palm of peace, offering her the protection that even her Nymph stubborn mind realizes she needed.

For Cathrine's much desired wings and for Mariemaia's as well....

"Please."

There was something indeed still there in those blue eyes that was convincing and beautiful in the soul Leia had seen and trusted all those years ago...

A long moment of distrust causes Sallie to pause at the offer of his Kingdom's asylum, but another blast of energy from the battle raging behind made some of the more antsy others jump at the chance. They wouldn't let a silly thing like pride stand in their way, especially if it meant the difference in getting their little elven butts fried or not.

"Hey! If this "kind" gentleman wants to help us out of this spot, Water Nymph, I don't see why we should interfere. Do you, Hilde? Up ya go!" Mouth going, he scoops up his friend and shoves her into Treize's surprised, albeit pleasantly, arms. Treize was now far and wide through the lands for having a way with members of the opposite sex.

"Duo!! Don't pass me around like I'm a sack of...." Hilde's anger evaporates as her big eyes pop open even bigger at the sight of the human man holding her in his strong arms.

"....potatoes...." Hilde barely manages to finish in a whisper. She was in stunned awe at His Excellency, as his people so addressed their adored King. This elf girl's heart was palpitating so obviously that it makes Duo frown soundly.

I knew I should've grabbed Hilde before and run! I just knew it! Who is this guy anyway? Just because he's some king or something....

Duo gripes to himself as that "guy" gently, yet firmly places the stunned elf girl on his side of the drawbridge. He offers his hand to the next little girl.

"Hey! No playin' favorites!!" Duo whines as he puts his hands on his hip, ready to pass the drawbridge next.

But the tiny little fairy's wings sputter across to Treize and when their hands touch, both Mariemaia and Treize feel some strange recognition sweep over them. The orange headed fairy simply got goosebumps, but Treize...Treize could swear that she reminded him of someone. Someone from a long time ago, who was important and precious to him. If only he could remember whom...

But Sallie breaks up the recognition of a memory she had more than a hand in erasing. She did everything in her Nymph powers to make sure he would never try to visit the fairy palace in poor Eixip ever again. He'd never have a chance to lure Mariemaia away from her home as he did her mother. And now, Sallie herself had brought the child to him.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Sallie's mind just about concedes, when the battle grows fiercer.

The archer's voice calls out a warning as he and Wufei are pressed in by the sorceress' attacks.

"Treize! Take the fairies inside the barrier now!"

Trowa's eyes rest upon Cathrine's. She sensed his concern and worry over her safety in his emerald eyes. They were so clear and true and beautiful.

"At once, brother." Never had Treize seen that burning ember in the eyes of his oh-so-serious and straight sibling. Prince Trowa was known to all his people as the quiet, reserved, more sane of the two adventurous royal brothers. But in the same breath, one must say that if Trowa said something so urgent and fiercely, he must mean to have it done. And with all speed.

His own tactical mind suddenly sees why. The evil Sorceress was making her way closer to the castle, despite Trowa and Wufei's best efforts. They had held her off thus far, but the sorceress' powers of blackness were strong...

A challenge in itself.

Treize's arrogant smirk returns as he takes hold of Sallie's pale arm and says, a bit apologetically, and with a bit of sarcasm mixed in, "Do forgive my forwardness, Water Mistress. But when my quiet brother commands me to do something...."

And with that, he easily tosses the off-balance Sallie, with aforementioned fairy Cathrine clinging tightly to her arms, to the other side of the drawbridge. He gazes at Cathrine for a second and thinks to himself.

Nice choice, brother...

He in turn switches places with them, throwing his own fate to the wind. Treize enjoyed the battle almost as much as he did fancying the ladies.

A single wave of his hand brings the rest of his forces standing at the ready at the castle's front gate, ready to join their great king into war and into their deaths if need be. All for him. All for Aissur. All for the Kingdom of the Winged Horses.....