Mage vs. Guard Sidefic 5

"A vacation?" Heero raised his eyebrows at Relena. "Why should I go on a vacation?"

"Classes are out for the season," she said with a sunny smile. "You don't have any duties here."

"I have my research," he reminded her.

"It will do you good to get away from it. Take a tent and your guard and go relax out in nature for a bit." Relena met Duo's eyes over Heero's shoulder and smiled at him. "I'm sure Guard Maxwell would like a vacation."

"Since his job is guarding me, a vacation for him would be one taken away from me. Which he is free to do at any time."

Relena hid a smile as Duo rolled his eyes. "A vacation for you is also a vacation for him. I'm sure he'd like to spend some time in a tent with you."

Duo's grin widened.

"Tent," Heero repeated. "You keep saying tent as if we wouldn't go off to an inn someplace or visit relatives..."

"You dislike inns and you have no relatives," Relena countered. "If you had a tent you could go off and stay in the wilds of the southern part of the continent for a bit. I understand the beaches are quite lovely."

Heero rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And while we were down in the South, I assume you might have some little job for us?"

Relena's eyes widened innocently. "Well, if you were going to be down there anyway..."

"What is it?"

"Well, it is an area known for its whelplings..."

"I don't need a familiar."

"But I do." Relena batted her lashes at him. "And I can't possibly leave the school..."

"So you want me to capture a whelpling for you? Why not just buy one?"

"You know you can't trust the traders in familiars! Who knows where those familiars have been! Besides, they hardly ever have whelplings, and when they do-"

"I know, I know. Small and sickly- and expensive."

"So you need to go, don't you see?"

Heero snorted. "You could just get a cat. Or a toad."

"I'm the head of the School. I need something more impressive, and you know it."

"A cat can be impressive. We can get you one of those fluffy ones with the squashed faces-"

"Heero!"

A sigh. "Why me?"

"You know why you. Besides, you need a break. How hard could it be to catch a whelpling? Besides, the School will pay all your expenses- and I'll port you out there."

Duo nearly fell over when Heero said: "Fine, fine. We'll leave tomorrow." He hadn't expected Heero to give in. Heero saw school breaks as a time to do his real work- Duo had never convinced him to take a vacation.

Hurrying down the hallway after his mage, Duo wondered why Heero had agreed. And what the heck was a whelpling?

"Well?" Heero said as the door to their quarters closed behind them.

"Well what?"

"I know you. You've got at least six questions. I can tell by your expression."

"And yet you can't tell what they are?"

"Since Winner and Barton are gone, Relena and I are the only ones who have a chance at catching a whelpling. And she's right, she does need a strong familiar- we've been trying to get her to pick one for ages."

"So that's why you agreed to go."

"Yes."

"Are whelplings dangerous?"

"They can be." Heero shrugged. "I haven't ever tried to catch one before, but the people who use them for familiars do use them for protection at times as well."

"I don't think I've ever even heard of them. What do they look like?"

"They're about so big," Heero held his hands about two feet apart. "With wings, and scales and they occasionally spit fire or acid or ice, depending on the type."

"Sounds like a mini-dragon."

Heero smiled. "That's exactly what they are."

"We're going to catch a dragon?!"

"Just a small one."

Duo rolled his eyes. "This is not going to be much of a vacation. I can tell already."

"At least she didn't want a voidwalker. Whelplings should be a piece of cake,"

~*~

"DUCK!" Duo yelled and grabbed Heero's arm. Heero ducked, just managing to fling up his shield in time. Fire fountained around them, scorching the packs. Small, angry red whelplings hissed and spat flame again.

"Run!" Heero grabbed his pack, and pushed Duo towards the side of the valley. "The damn woman dropped us into a nest! Up the side!"

They ran, fire spiraling around them, up the side of the hill. Halfway up, Heero stopped, looking behind them cautiously.

"I think we're okay here. They tend to be territorial, but only of small areas."

Duo dumped his pack behind a rock and turned to scan the valley beneath them. "Damn, they're everywhere!"

"At least they all seem to be fire-based- except for that group there." Heero pointed to a small group of whelplings that were whitish-blue. "I'm hoping those are ice."

"Easier to catch?"

"Not sure, but I don't want to tangle with the acid ones."

"I'm not sure I want to tangle with any of these." Duo frowned and shaded his eyes. "And what are the small scaly winged things in the trees? Baby whelplings?"

Heero squinted. "No. Blink dragons. Those won't attack you. They're harmless." He nudged Duo and pointed up into the tree beside them. A whole nest of the lizards looked back at Duo. "See? They're curious, but they aren't territorial."

"Can't we bring one of those back for Relena instead? Some of them are kind of pinkish."

"The familiar spells don't work on them at all- if they choose not to have it work. The only ones I've ever heard of as familiars chose the mage- not the other way around."

"Damn."

Heero patted his guard's arm. "Relax Duo. We just got ported to a bad place. Relena more than likely scryed for a concentration of whelplings and sent us to that spot."

"She couldn't have aimed for one of the famous beaches?"

"She is a little single-minded." Heero sighed.

Duo rolled his eyes and returned to studying the valley. "Well, I guess you should just pick one, hit it with a stun spell and we'll bundle it in that box she sent."

"Right. Let's see. I don't want a baby- or a mother- one of the adolescents would be perfect-"

"They're the ones with the in-between sorts of colors?"

"That's what the book said." Heero gave Duo a half smile. "Ready?"

"Whenever you are. The faster we do this, the faster we can get to a beach."

Heero focused on a whelpling and muttered the incantation.

A moment later, he fell over backwards, out cold.

"Heero!" Duo dropped down beside his mage. Heero was still breathing, he noted with relief, but what the hell had happened? He mentally ran through his checklist. Color was good, pulse was steady- it was if he'd stunned himself...

Which he would have if the spell just bounced off the whelpling.

"From now on, I'm going to make you shield first," Duo told the unconscious mage. A small chittering made him look up at the lizards in the tree. "Yeah, yeah, he's fine," he said and frowned. "At least I think he is."

Heero cracked open his eyes and squinted up at Duo. "I'm fine. Who are you talking to?"

"Them," Duo waved a hand at the blink dragons. "Are you sure we can't take one of them back for Relena? And hello? Shield yourself!"

"I did." Heero rolled his eyes. "That's why I wasn't knocked out for longer than a few minutes." He got gingerly to his feet and squinted at the whelplings. "Damn it. I'm going to have to charm or lure one close enough to dose it with sleeping potion."

"You did pack some of that, right?"

"Several bottles."

"Good." Duo started digging through the packs. "So how are you going to get one close enough to dose without it attacking you?"

"I'm working on that part."

"You could always do that 'inner animal' spell. Bet the sight of a big dragon would be pretty calming."

"A large predator wandering into their territory would be calming?"

"Ah, good point." Duo pulled out the bottles of sleeping potion. "So...?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." Heero frowned. "I don't want to scare them. Maybe I could build a shield around one and gently pull it over? Or create an illusion for one to chase- but then I might get more than one. What do you think?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm not a mage."

"You were offering advice a minute ago." Heero lifted an eyebrow at his guard.

"Point taken." Duo quickly moved forward and dropped a kiss on Heero's forehead. "I will sit back here and be quiet until you need me."

"Thank you," Heero sighed. "I know this isn't starting off as a great vacation, but I will make it up to you."

"Promise?"

"Anything you like, I promise."

That earned him a smile. Heero focused on the whelplings and Duo leaned back against the tree. Knowing Heero like he did, the mage was going to analyze the situation for a bit before he tried something again. Which gave Duo a little time to do some scouting.

~*~

Heero sat down on the ground, exhausted. Nothing had worked. The whelplings had ignored the illusions and somehow dodged the shields. He didn't want to scare one by out and out attacking it, but-

"Hey," Duo's hand landed on his shoulder. "Any luck?"

"Nothing," Heero looked up and smiled faintly. "Couldn't you tell?"

"I went off and did a few things while you were working." Duo grinned. "Look and see."

Heero turned his head slightly and nearly fell over. A bluish white whelpling was snoozing peacefully in the box Relena had sent along with them to hold her familiar.

"That's one of the ice ones! How did you-"

"Trade secret," Duo put a finger to his lips. "One of my old thieving tricks."

"I've been trying to catch one for the last three hours and you-"

"I didn't catch him that long ago. I was doing something else." Duo grinned wider and held out a hand to Heero. "Come on, warp him back to Relena and then come with me. I have something to show you."

"By himself? We aren't going to-"

"You promised me a good vacation, right?" Heero was a little worried by the way Duo's eyes glinted at him.

"I did, yes-"

"So send him back and then I'll show you what I was doing."

Heero put his fingers on the edge of the box and murmured the port spell. "Should land right on her desk." He said as the box vanished.

"You should've aimed for Chang." Duo laughed. "Let's go."

Twenty minutes later, they had gone over the edge of the hills that surrounded the valley. Heero looked down on the black sands of a beach that seemed to stretch for miles. A familiar looking tent was pitched at the edge of the sands.

Duo followed him as Heero approached the tent. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect."

"Just about," that gleam was back. "There's just one more thing you can do to make this perfect. One small spell- and then we'll be set."

"And what would that be?" Heero really didn't like the predatory expression on Duo's face.

Duo leaned forward and whispered one word in Heero's ear.

Heero's eyes widened. "No. Oh no. I nearly didn't survive the last time!"

"You promised me a good vacation." Duo reminded him.

"I'll do anything else. Just not that spell. One of you is too many as it is!"

"You promised anything."

"Fine." Heero huffed out a breath. "You can't ask for anything else. I'm only going to do this once."

"That's fine."

"You really want the doppelganger spell?"

"Yes."

"All right." Heero closed his eyes, took a deep breath and recited the spell.

A moment later, there were two of him.

"Wait a minute!" Duo protested.

"You didn't say cast it on you-" the Heeros reminded him, closing in.

Duo opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Then again- this isn't a bad thing-"

"I knew you'd come around." The Heeros picked him up and carried Duo into the tent.

They were too busy to notice the blink dragon that landed on the tent pole, chittering to itself in amusement.

~*~

Relena's new familiar curled up in her lap and she scratched the back of his neck gently. "Really Wufei, I am sorry, but he's still young-"

Her Captain of the Guards frowned. He was still somewhat blue around the edges. "My lady, you really need to control him. That's twice this week he's tried to freeze me-"

"He'll get better." Relena promised absently. "Is Heero back yet?"

"Not yet." Chang shook his head. He had plans for that bastard when he did show up. Sending Relena an ice whelpling?

Heero was going to pay.

OWARI

 

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