"Once Upon a Wing"
Chapter 20
Meanwhile, mountains away, in the land of the two rising suns...the far east...he comes back to consciousness with her name on his lips.
He could hear her lilting giggles in his heart, the soft touch of her skin, the entrancing way her bright eyes could reach his soul. It was not a mere fairy tale of the imagination. He was certain his princess was real this time--not just the illusion of shimmering leaves and tender pearls in wisps of lavender and purple that so often haunted his dreams at night since he was young child.
No, this stable young man was not one for day dreams or frivolities. He was sure this lovely fairy was the one he had been dreaming visions of--the one foretold to his heart, long ago, by destiny...
He had shared these visions only with his brother. The vivid recollections were not mere fantasies, his brother had assured him. They had to search out this land of magic where the waters sprung eternally still and the woodland flora and fauna bloomed in an array of color and light---and where the legendary unicorn was resting in secrecy.
"Your quest for the city in your dreams will surely lead you to your destiny, my brother. Find it and it will lead you to her..."
Faintly in the back of his mind, Prince Trowa could hear his brother, King Treize, not once laugh at his silly dreams, but rather smile upon them. Treize was a firm believer and a dreamer himself of the fated meeting with your predestined mate.
Their quest, led by Trowa's dreams, had brought them to the gates of Mythica and they both glimpsed the forbidden beauty of the golden horned steeds, long forgotten from existence.
They had found the land of sunlit magic, yes, but an unspoken warning came to them in an elderly woman's tones. A large, wizened eyed unicorn had come to them at the gate, stopping them with words they could only hear inside their heads.
"None but those who hold a pure heart and cleansed soul may enter Mythica. You are told."
Her wise voice was heard in chanting rhyme and was a solemn reminder to Treize of his past sins and certain impurities that would not allow him entrance into this untouched land.
However, Trowa, standing beside his brother, heard nothing. His own heart was pure, devoid of crime. There was only love for a dream girl of his fantasies.
"Dreamer of dreams, return with the purest of pure---the lovely creature of light from your dreams, Prince, and you will find sanctuary from the world without."
That thought was all in Trowa's head as the unicorn vanished from their eyes. The words had embedded themselves deep in his soul.
"The lovely creature of light....the purest of pure...."
He comes back to reality from both visions of now and yesterday. He was certain he had met that creature, that he had found her at last. Their destiny was bound by fate.
She was the one his soul and heart longed for. She was the one he needed...and she needed him, too....
"Enough already of that silly fairy's name!"
A sharp, critical voice breaks into the young prince's daydreaming. "How many times do you have to say it, fool prince?!"
Trowa opens his eyes to find a pair of dark ones staring back. They were a far cry of those that enveloped his lavender silhouetted dream.
"Dragon master? Where are we?" Trowa forgives Wufei's taunting, though he didn't much overlook the jibe of "silly" towards his tender beautiful fairy. He jumps immediately to his nimble feet.
"How the clouds am I supposed to know?!" Wufei, angry as ever, angry even at the whole, tiresome situation he was thrown into somehow.
By that no good, Water Nymph. I know she's at the root of it. Tormenting woman!
Growling at the tall prince standing before him, he chucks down the arrow that belonged to the Archer Prince that Dermail had sent sailing into one vicious Dragon master.
"In the east, the far east, from the look of the landscape." Wufei sighs, finally giving a straight answer to the "noble" prince he was stuck with.
"Hmph." Wufei grits his teeth, ignoring the pain of the magic arrow that had left him powerless.
"We must return to Aissur." Trowa states with a take-charge attitude. "She's calling for me." He adds simply and quietly. His swift, long legs take off in a fast paced run in the direction that his heart told him was home---to his Cathrine.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I'm not following you, you know! I have absolutely no reason to return with you to that damn kingdom....Especially not for a reason as stupid as yours! Hmph! A woman fairy! Can it get any worse?!" Wufei snorts with a grunt at the foolish human he had the bad luck of being transported away with.
"Magic stealing arrowheads...." Wufei broods darkly. "I have no reason to return at all." He stands in his dark robe, his thoughts even darker as he crosses his tanned arms sourly. But then, it suddenly creeps up inside of him. "Except.....
They'll pay for this. Those morons from Nogard Mountain! That haughty Sorceress Anne and her demented spectacles, bearded old Dermail, too! They always ordered me and Meiran around as if.....
Before his mind even registers it, his body fights the painful arrow just ripped from his chest.
Thank you very much, Mr. Archer. Hmph
His slippered feet are off and running, with his sworn pledge to Meiran on her dying breath, to take up her cause----and that of that Nymph's---for justice.
So to free Meiran's soul, still tied to the evils of this world, he would do exactly that. For his partner, Meiran, for the warrior soul in Sallie---and most of all, for his justice to be served....
If Trowa's anxious mind had a moment to smile, he would. He had noted with a certain degree of respect, the dark haired man had indeed followed him into the dark trodden path into the mountains above. He slowed just a bit, for this paces to join. After all, they were both after the same ends---to rescue and face those in the castle of Aissur and defeat the evils threatening this world.
One man for justice, and the other man for love.
And they head into the dark heights where harpies ruled supreme in the darkness above....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harpies were that kind of evil creature who had no meaning in this world except to do as their name and hideous faces suggested and well, harp on torturing innocent people.
Prince Trowa had only seen such ugliness once and that was from a distance. He, several years ago, far too young a child to accompany his older, adventurous brother into a quest of the east, was allowed to come and only watch from the safety of his guarded pegasus entourage above the treeline. He watched as his brother slipped above the clouds and disappeared into the mountain Suoedih in his quest for Arodnap's Box---an ancient treasure that held the key to staving off all harpies.
For inside the box was what they feared the most----a magic mirror that could blink any harpie who was unfortunate enough to gaze upon her own ugliness, right out of existence.
Young Trowa had seen this happen firsthand, right before his eyes, when his daredevil brother came streaking out of the clouds towards Suoedih on his own noble pegasus.
A string of the harpies were hot on his trail and they knew certain doom was inside the box held in his hands. Aloft his pegasus, Treize had opened the box and produced the looking glass in his hands. The harpies trailing him were struck down in a split second at their own glares. They fell to the dark depths of the moat that surrounded their lair, where giant eels and razor tooth sharks lay in wait.
The long sought after treasure was recovered that day. Trowa saw it all replay in his mind as he steps up to the dark moat from the mountain he had just expertly scaled and climbed. It seemed the only way to cross was, unfortunately, to pass this deadly, dank moat and go undetected by the harpies inside.
Today, Trowa, prince of the land of pegasus, had not a single steed nor Aradnop's Box to his name, to safely carry him and his friend over it.
What would you do in such a situation, Treize?
Trowa asks silently, already knowing his wily brother's answer.
Improvise.
So he does, and loads his trusty bow with a special arrow fro the quiver on his back. His aim was sure and true and the tip embedded itself into a pillar high on the roof of the stone structure the harpies called home.
With a securing tug, the Archer leaps up to a nearby tree limb. He firmly ties the opposite end of the strong wired rope attached to the arrow head around the tree's trunk.
He was on it a second later, walking the tightrope as though he had been trained to do it, all his life. Even that, unmatched for the natural agility and balance this man possessed above all others. He hadn't a fear in the world of the dizzying heights below him.
Unlike one Dragon Master. He had watched with widened eyes the Archer's waltz over a thin beam line of string---and without a net.
Wufei had always prided himself on being the most fearless, most courageous, most brave warrior--high atop his powerful dragon. But in reality, Chang Wufei, Dragonmaster warrior, was most unafraid of heights seated atop his flying dragon.
But was not most unafraid doing it on his own.
"Come, Wufei. It's the only way to cross." Trowa's low, whispered voice from the middle of the rope already, says beneath the howling winds. It was just loud enough for Wufei to hear as he stood stock still on the tree limb before the rope.
"Just put one foot in front of the other---keeping balance in mind at all times." Trowa advises. Wufei listens to the sound of his calm voice, and steps forward, one foot at a time.
Suddenly, his eyes bug out as he realizes the height they were defying.
"--And whatever you do, don't look down!" Perfectly balanced Trowa realizes his warning comes a second too late.
Unbalanced Wufei's teetering causes the entire rope to shudder. It took all of Trowa's immense balance skills just to keep atop it himself. But poor Wufei....
The eels and rotagilla appear greedily in the swirling dark waters of the most anxiously awaited falling treat from the sky above. Their mouths were open and drooling in anticipation to eat him...
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Wufei lets out a scream---a scream loud enough to waken the sleeping harpies in their lair inside, Trowa fears.
He lets an arrow fly, keeping his balance, as his arrow zings across and magically wraps around the tightrope, hanging down, so all Wufei had to do was grab hold of this lifeline proffered...
And he does---just.
In the nick of time, his feet just being missed by the rotagilla's snapping rows of teeth, the young man scurries up the line as fast as he possibly could.
Trowa sighs in relief, but it doesn't last long, for out of the corner of his eye, he spots a fearful sight of nightmares. One from his boyhood, and known to all as a harpie...
SLASH!
Her razor sharp nails just narrowly miss anything vital as Trowa makes his body leap and twist in the air around her flailing wings as she falls. She had never seen his fast knife slice at the bat wings on her back.
"Hurry, Wufei! There are more coming!" Trowa, landing back on his feet, on the rope, of course, calls back to his dangling friend.
Wufei chooses to use his sure and steady hands on the rope, rather than the Archer's not as easy as it looks, path on foot. Hand over hand, quickly, Wufei hurries up, ignoring the chomping sounds below him.
He was already now on the safety side of the opposite edge and Trowa turns to help his travelling companion. He gave Wufei a hand up before the next swarm of screeching harpies arrived.
But it wasn't fast enough. The Queen of the Harpies herself--the swiftest and most deadly of the batch of the shrieking women with wings---descends upon them. The Prince's wide back was an open target and just begged for her bird like talons to rife over and tears his insides out in a killing blow....
"Watch out!!!" Wufei's shout was only second to his quick movements. He didn't forget the code of warrior's----a life for a life.
Though he was not the heroic type of weak minded men, he didn't like to be indebted to anyone. He knew full well this human prince has just saved his life and this Dragon Master paid every one of his debts off in the end...
Though he didn't have full use of his magic powers as Dragon Master, due to one unfortunate arrow, ahem, Chang Wufei still possessed his powers as a warrior. Raw strength and might sent his flailing body upwards. His muscular legs gave a powerful kick right in the fanged harpie's teeth. She screeched horribly as she shrinks back from the man who had harmed her "beautiful" face.
That was all the chance he needed. The Archer's swift hands picked off harpie after harpie with magic arrows and they fell to their deaths in the jaws of the rotagillas, sharks, and eels in the swirling waters below.
But while the Archer prince takes care of those harpie back up troops, the main Harpie Queen had a bone, actually several bones, to pick with one Dragon Master who dared kick her in the face causing bright orange blood to flow.
Just as Wufei heaves himself up onto the stone roof that Trowa was amazingly shooting arrow after arrow into each harpie, he hears a terrifying screech directly behind him.
The screeching, bashed up Queen was bent on his death and she sailed down upon him. Her black-grey wings were headed towards him, fangs and claws aimed for the kill....
Trowa's dagger was in his hands now. The wounded Wufei takes the offensive, rather than the defensive, attacking the creature and slicing her wing open. Black feathers are everywhere as her screams meld into a deafening cry. Anger, hatred and evil were all combined into one as she decides to end it all in a blaze of blood and gory revenge. She uses the last of her ebbing strength to make a flying pass at Wufei, claws sharpened and deadly, as they both fall down, down, down the scaly, stone crevices edge, to a certain death below.
And Prince Trowa was too busy with his own battles to be able to save Wufei this....
A sudden bursting wave of warm water gives the Dragon Master a boost up and something else, too. His wounds, immersed in the warmth, flushed out the arrow's magic spell, and allowed him to draw his own mystical weapon again.
"Get off me, Woman!"
Wufei calls out, shoving away the Queen, whose talons and claws were still digging into his skin as they both plunged downward. His pulls his sword, slicing the harpie's head straight off as the head and helpless body fall into the jaws of the waiting monsters below.
Once again, just in the nick of time, Wufei finds a rope dangling before him. He grabs hold yet again. His loner's soul just couldn't get used to all this friendly camaraderie as his climbs up to his rescuer above.
"We're done here, Wufei." Prince Trowa states with none of the triumph deserving of such inumerable enemies taken down by his arrow and sword alone. With yet one more roped arrow to the hill on the other side of the moat, Trowa rapidly skims across. His purpose, despite these momentary setbacks, was the same.
"Cathrine...."
He whispers it, but Wufei hears it anyway.
"Hmph!" The Dragonmaster shakes his head at the weak emotion called 'love' that bonded this human prince with one worthless fairy woman.
"What did you expect but evil women harpies to attack us?! Just because they are EVIL WOMEN! That's why!" Wufei grumbles under his breath as he begins to cross the rope again, hand over hand style.
"Woman......"
Wufei lets the word seep into him, same as the warm water that had mysteriously aided him in his time of need earlier. The warmth was now seeping into his cold heart and broken soul......
