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Conversations Thanatos no Hana [part 1] Heero stepped off of the dusty road and onto the grass at his right. He knew that there was a clearing in the area, further into the woods a few miles east of here. That had been where his battalion had camped one night about two and a half years ago. It had been a few hours’ march, but the weather conditions had not worked in their favor. That winter had been one of the most mild – temperature wise. However, the amount of rain- and snowfall had been unusually high and Heero’s company had been forced to march through the worst of it. At the moment, though, the weather was fine. It was on the cool side of summer, but that just meant that there was a breeze every so often to relieve the humidity of the day. Heero set his pack down and withdrew a canteen of warm water. He was careful to drink only enough to wet his throat before recapping it and storing it back in his pack. He swung the pack onto his back and re-shifted the weight, adjusting it for the most comfort. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing back the spiky locks of black, and tried not to think about how nice it would be to pour the water over his head. If he remembered correctly – and he should because he had a near-photographic memory – there was a small stream that ran around the west edge of the clearing. Heero remembered that they’d allowed the horses that had survived the attack on their mounted cavalry to drink there. After finally settling the weight on his back, Heero began walking again, this time headed east, deep into the forest. The sun had begun its descent in the sky a few hours ago and Heero’s stomach was protesting the fact that he’d skipped the noon meal in order to make good time on the journey. He ignored its protests. //I haven’t gotten so soft in the last year that I can’t ignore hunger pains!// he thought to himself. In the last year, the Sank Army had been forced to twiddle their thumbs during the "cease fire" that had come about when Queen Relena had abruptly inherited the throne. For five long years, the Oz Army and the Sank Army had fought battle after battle in the name of king and country. King Treize of Oz had been steadily attacking Sank’s borders in a bid for expansion. While he’d been alive, King Darlian of Sank had put up a brave fight, even though his army had been sadly outnumbered. His tacticians were better, and led by the best Lord Marshal Sank had seen in a hundred years – his own son, Milliardo. There had been a great hope that Sank would be able to hold its ground. All that had changed, however, with King Darlian’s untimely death. Some – including Heero – suspected assassination. But it had never been proven. By law, the acting Lord Marshal could not be king even if he was next in the line of succession. This was supposedly to prevent the relatively democratic monarchy of Sank from becoming a military-ruled dictatorship. It was a wise law, but in these circumstances, Heero thought, it had worked to their disadvantage. Relena had therefore been next in the line of succession. And her first act as monarch of the Sank Kingdom was to open "peace negotiations" with the Kingdom of Oz. She’d announced her intention to bring a complete halt to the war by declaring herself and her kingdom pacifists. Instead of fighting for what was rightfully *theirs*, she wanted to "make the integration of these two very different societies as seamless and painless as possible." Although no one liked to admit it, everyone understood exactly why Treize had accepted her terms and negotiations at this point. Now that King Darlian was gone – and along with him, Sank’s hopes to retain its land and very identity – Treize would waste no time in fighting battles where the loss of life was pointless. Queen Relena had obviously made herself – and her cowardice – quite clear. This had resulted in the gradual disbanding of the army battalions. Thousands of soldiers whose whole lives had been given over to fighting a war had suddenly been left without any direction, nor a means of self-support. Many battalions had stayed together to form mercenary companies, hiring themselves out to the highest bidder. Most of them ended up traveling north where the colonization (by Oz, of course) of several uncharted areas (officially labeled L1 through L5) had proved "problematic" upon meeting the natives. Although several hundred of the most elite soldiers had been kept on as the Queen’s "Personal Guard," the rest of the soldiers had ended up joining the Security Guild. They hired out guards to people like traveling merchants and to places like banks, bars, and any other places of business that might make use of an armed guard in some fashion. Heero had been captain of the elite battalion called the Wings. As such, he had been given the honor of being captain to the Queen’s Personal Guard. And for one year, he had been. But with all the negotiations the Queen had "clinched" //and//, Heero thought, //all the points she’d *given in* on,// the Personal Guard had been sadly shoved to the side, with no real duties for it to carry out. Heero looked up suddenly, when a ray of moonlight struck his face. His thoughts and memories of the past few years had kept him company as he hiked through the forest, and he’d only realized he had come upon the clearing when he – literally – stepped into it. The dark canopy of trees had kept the moonlight from reaching him as he walked determinedly through the woods, but the overhanging branches of the tall trees surrounding the clearing were thinner here, allowing for both sunlight and moonlight to reach through. Heero blinked. The moonlight seemed almost as bright as daylight here – the rest of the forest was almost pitch black in comparison. Some of his companions back home would never have been able to make this part of the trek at night by themselves. Only he and Trowa, and a handful of others in the Wings had excellent night vision. Heero was just relieved to have finally arrived. With only his thoughts for company, he’d begun to go over the past few years in his mind. There had been many good points, but they had all been related to his friends in the Wings. Politically, there seemed to be no hope for Sank, now that Relena’s policies had gone into effect and showed every indication of staying in effect. He could cheerfully strangle the girl, Heero thought. //And she definitely is a girl! A child, as opposed to the adult woman she *ought* to be. Her inability to face her fears (which was all that was behind her "belief" in pacifism) was going to be the end of Sank – there was no way the King of Oz *wouldn’t* take advantage of her childish policies; Treize was not a stupid man, he hadn’t come to annex other countries and colonize other areas by being stupid.// Heero shook his head, trying to banish his thoughts. There was no point in going over things that were already done or inevitable. And yet… in his thoughts, he’d gotten around to the reason for leaving the Wings and the job-in-name-only as captain of the Queen’s Personal Guard. Relena might have intended to keep the Wings as her Personal Guard forever, but Heero knew better. As Sank fell farther and farther under Oz control, the Wings and the Personal Guard would dwindle until she had a token few as her personal bodyguards. He couldn’t take what she was doing to the army, or to the country – so he’d left. It wasn’t as difficult as it should have been. The last few weeks he’d become more and more restless. He’d begun having dreams he’d thought he’d gotten over years earlier. The dreams had begun when he and his company had stopped to set up camp that night, right here in this clearing. He’d dreamed of a flower – a beautiful, black-petaled flower in a sea of white flowers. In the dream, he’d walked up to it and kneeled in the grass and cupped the flower with his hands… and it had disappeared, but he’d felt the oddest feeling of utter contentment. And another feeling – it had set his heart racing, faster than it had ever raced in the heat of battle – but he didn’t understand; it wasn’t like anything he’d ever felt before. He remembered that the dreams had started in the clearing and had persisted until the night he finally stepped back within the borders of Sank. The strip of forest that the clearing lay in was an area that bordered both Sank and Oz – but belonged to neither. It had been used by either party, strategically, during battles and, like that night over two years ago, as a campsite. But neither kingdom had ever tried to claim it as their property. "That’s it, Yuy." Heero said to himself. "Get your mind off of things you can’t change and on to something more important – like setting up a camp for tonight." He very wisely took his own advice and lowered his pack to the ground just past the center of the clearing, opposite where he’d entered. It was, in fact, the same spot he’d set up camp the last time he’d been here. He was sure of it; the spot they’d used to build a fire still had a ring of stones around it. Except for the lack of ash and the more agreeable weather, he might have said that time hadn’t passed at all in the clearing. Everything was as he’d remembered it. Heero removed the fold-away tent and spread it out on the ground. Going back over to his pack he removed the stakes he’d attached to the side of his pack and began hammering them into the soft ground with a nearby rock. Soon, the tent was set up and Heero had started a small fire – not enough to warm him, but since it was the middle of summer, he didn’t need that. No, the fire was to cook dinner. He’d gone down to the stream that ran behind the clearing and had caught some small, freshwater fish. It wasn’t really enough to be satisfying, but Heero was more tired than he’d realized. Maybe if he had stopped to eat lunch, he’d have more energy right now, but Heero just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t regret skipping the meal, he’d just wanted to finally get to the clearing. Missing one meal and going short on another wasn’t going to kill him. He placed the small fish across the rack over the fire and sat down to watch them cook, every so often prodding them with a stick so that the fish were evenly cooked. When they were done, he moved the fish from the rack to a small metal plate and began to use his dagger to cut up the fish in order to cool them off a bit before eating them. Before the sound even consciously registered, Heero was standing up, his body strained and alert, ready in a fighting position with his dagger firmly gripped in his left hand and with the palm of his right hand gripped around the hilt of his sword at his waist. He had turned to his left and was searching the darkness for the source of the sound he’d heard that had put him on guard. He made no sound but for his shallow breaths. In his mind, though, he was cursing himself twenty times over. He couldn’t believe his own idiocy! It had shown exactly how lax he’d gotten since he’d been made captain of the Queen’s Personal Guard. //I barely took a glance around the clearing before settling in. What kind of perimeter search is that? And I was looking directly into the fire… even a green private would know better. And now I’m standing here, listening for sounds of danger rather than looking, because the afterimage of the fire when I looked into the darkness was blinding,// Heero thought. He’d sparred constantly to keep himself and his company in shape, but sparring was no substitute for the real thing and now he’d see just how much trouble he was in. The sound had been a sort of rustling sound. But fall hadn’t arrived yet; there were no leaves on the ground. Could it have just been a wild animal? Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be any wild animals in this particular strip of forest. There never had been, even in Relena’s great-grandfather’s day. Could the smell of the cooking fish have attracted one? He hoped not. He didn’t really feel up to fighting a bear today. As his eyes adjusted once again to the darkness, he unsheathed his sword in one smooth quick motion and cautiously approached the place he thought the sound had originated from. His feet made no sounds on the soft grass; at least he’d retained that particular skill. Heero crouched as he crept. If it wasn’t a wild animal, he had no desire to be shot by a poisoned arrow. He wove back and forth, trying to stay within the shadows, although by this time he’d almost certainly decided that it had to be an animal. If it was a person with hostile intentions, he would’ve made himself known already. Heero swiftly approached the next corner of shadow, next to a small bush, and was almost surprised into dropping his dagger when he spied the motionless legs sticking out from behind it. He firmed his grip on the dagger and stepped closer to look at the body laying behind the bush. It appeared to be breathing, so it wasn’t dead. It didn’t appear to be hurt, either; there were no bruises anywhere he could see. Of course, since the body was clothed head-to-foot in what looked to be a modified priest’s outfit, that wasn’t really saying much. Heero’s gaze traveled up the body and came to rest on its face. It was a round face with a slightly pointed chin. His – despite the boy’s elfin features, he looked decidedly male – hair was a dark chestnut color that had been pulled back and braided. Heero could see where the braid peeked out from underneath the boy’s hip. Heero was standing there, leaning over the boy’s body, trying to figure out how to find out what damage – if any – had been done to the boy, when suddenly, as if in answer to Heero’s dilemma, the boy murmured "fooood" in his sleep and turned over onto his side. Everything about the situation suddenly seemed not as serious as before. Heero relaxed his tense muscles and a smirk appeared on his lips. Heero re-sheathed his sword. Still being cautious, although less worried about an attack than before, he took a step back and said in a loud voice, "Hey! Boy!" The boy kept right on sleeping. "Boy!" Heero continued. "Elf!" This got a reaction, although not one that he’d expected. The boy turned completely over onto his stomach, muttering "Not an elf… stupid faeries." After several more tries, Heero finally decided that it probably wouldn’t hurt to touch him, although there was no telling what the boy would do when he was woken up out of a sound sleep. The thought made Heero’s lips quirk even more. He leaned over once again and shook the sleeping boy’s shoulder. "Oi! Elf! Wake up! I have some food for you." +end part one+ BGM: "Eien no Hikari" by Seki Toshihiko, "merveilles" album by Malice Mizer
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