Marked for Death Part 11

It was early morning as Kyp moved through the trees by his village. He was one of the many guards who surrounded the village at all times, to make sure that outsiders didn't come in or go out. It wasn't a job he really liked, he would have preferred staying with Selenay and learning more about tattoo designs, but they all had to take their turns guarding to protect the others.

There were so few Marked Ones left...

Behind him the sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, sending streams of light to dispel the darkness and twilight. From his perch in the thick branches he could see far out over the forest, where he noticed large amounts of movement but most of it was the normal kind, animals searching for food and plants in the soft morning breeze.

Still, he noticed there weren't many birds around. Weren't they usually singing their hearts out in the morning as if this was the first morning they'd ever seen in their lives? Why were the woods so silent?

Taking one of his weapons from his leg, which turned out to be a long curved sword, he gently dropped down from his branch to the ground. Before investigating anything he took out another tattoo and threw it deep into the trees where he knew another was waiting. It was a symbol that he'd gone to check on something, and to be on the look out. Turning back to where he was he stepped in among the tall grasses to see if there was anything suspicious.

He never did return from those tall grasses, and there was barley even a sound to tell what had gone on there. Not even a cry of surprise when he was attacked from behind, they never gave him a chance.

But while the intruders were able to catch Kyp, they missed his partner up in the trees, who he'd thrown the signal to. They missed her, only managing a single arrow in her arm as she fled.

And then the forest was alive with movement and sound, because they'd been found out. Hiding was very pointless now... for both sides.

~*~

"Trowa! Everyone! Wake Up!"

Nearly as one the entire sleeping hut sat up. The small number of Marked Ones were, in a matter of moments, awake and alert, all listening to the person who'd raced in yelling. Wufei looked beside him and found Annah had thrown the blanket to the side and was already on her feet, alert. What was going on?

"How many?" He heard Heero's voice from the inside of the hut, somewhere in the crowd of moving, but silent people.

"Too many... too many to count. Arrows. Swords. Fire."

That brought Wufei to his feet and he pushed through the crowd to the front, where the woman stood, shouting her warning. He noticed a piece of an arrow imbedded in her arm, most of it broken away as not to hinder movement. An arrow? Fire? Swords? His sleep-dazed mind took a few seconds before he realized who it probably was. Darrin had followed them!

"What color were they wearing?" He demanded.

"Purple, light purple sashes."

Wufei turned and met eyes with Trowa, who now stood only a few feet away. "It's Darrin's men. They must have followed us here"

"Or they found your horse when we set it free. In either case there is no time to place blame." He raised his voice so that all in the large house could hear. "Get the children to the caves and the rest of you stall them! Do not, under any circumstances let them follow!"

With those words the small crowd swept out of the sleeping hut. The Prince watched in astonishment as everyone seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going. The various Marked Ones had already pulled out their weapons and were rushing out into the rising sunlight. Only a handful remained in the sleeping hut to help gather up the children, among them was Selenay and Annah. Brei and Yuki stood near the door, where Yuki placed a quick kiss on Brei's cheek. The red head wore a determined look on her face.

"Don't you dare disappear on me, Yuki," Brei said.

"Get the children to safety, I promise I'll meet you there."

With those words Yuki was gone out the door, her weapons already in hand and ready to fight.

"Where are you going? Are you going to fight them?" Wufei turned to see Duo standing up and racing after Heero, who was heading for the exit of the hut. Quatre was no where to be seen among the small number left. But Wufei hadn't seen the small thief race out of the hut...

Heero merely grunted an affirmative.

"Then I'm going with you. Darrin is our responsibility, and I'll happily help you skin his ass." Duo's face twisted into a devilish grin at that.

Wufei raced over to his Shadow, ready to take up arms as well. But before he was able to say a single thing Duo turned to him with a deadly serious glare. That look caught the Prince off guard and he froze in shock.

"Go with the children," Duo said.

Wufei's eyes narrowed, how dare his Shadow order him around! "No, I'm fighting as well."

"Are you stupid?!" Duo yelled. His voice was so loud and so unexpected that Wufei took a shocked step back and just starred at his friend. He'd never seen Duo react so violently before.

"Think about it, Fei," the braided Shadow said in a harsh voice. "That's what Darrin wants you to do. He'd probably like nothing better then to find you on a battlefield so he can chop you to pieces and bring your body home triumphantly. And then who can take him from the throne? No one. Look, we know that your father has to be dead, and therefore you are king. You CANNOT go rushing out into battle like one of us. I don't care if you are the best warrior on this side of the continent you are not going out there to fight! I've never put my foot down against you before but now I'm going to. You're going with the children and you are going to stay safe. You are the one person in this battle who cannot afford to die."

Wufei blinked in shocked silence, just watching his friend. Then his shoulders slumped just slightly and he nodded. Every fiber of his body wanted to grab the nearest sword and run out to fight among his Shadow and his newly found friends. He wanted to protect those around him and fight along with them, an equal on the battlefield. He knew he could fight and he literally ached to now that they were in danger.

But he also acknowledged that Duo was right. No matter what the outcome of this battle - and they could easily be defeated and killed - the most important thing was to keep Wufei alive. In the large picture of things a few Marked warriors and a Shadow didn't matter. But the Prince did, and it was Wufei's duty to his people to stay alive long enough to oppose and kick Darrin off the throne. He had to stay alive and set things right, no matter how much he wanted to fight.

Wufei watched Duo and Heero race out of the hut, leaving him alone with the children and the three women left to lead them to the caves. As he neared them Annah reached up and clasped his hand, giving it a squeeze.

"Trust them. Heero will make sure your friend comes back alive."

Wufei nodded to her.

Brei knelt down among the children, who were all waiting in silent fear. "Do you all remember what we practiced? You all know where the caves are, right?"

The children nodded.

"Then when I say I want you all to run to them, as fast as you can. Do not worry about the things happening around you and do not stop, no matter what. It's a race, get to the caves as quickly as you can and hide there. Ready?"

The children all stood up and nodded, ready to go. Brei and Selenay moved to the door and looked out, checking the area outside. There was a soft whistling from outside and Wufei glanced up to see an arrow lit with fire imbed itself in the roof of the sleeping hut, immediately the branches burst into flames.

The soldiers were that close?! He stood up with the children and picked up the two smallest ones, holding on in his arms and letting the other hold on to his back. He knew their small legs wouldn't be able to carry them as far, so he figured he might as well be a little useful by carrying them. Annah followed his example and took two others.

"GO!" Brei yelled and jumped back from the door. The children bolted, one young boy taking the lead. Wufei recognized him as the one who'd spoken up during his story telling. The boy, Hijiri, was easily one of the oldest and could have run quicker then most of them, but he'd also picked up one of the younger one and was carrying her, causing his speed to be slowed.

As they ran, all around them they could hear the sounds of the fight. Arrows flew over head, setting off fires around them, which ate away at the houses. The village was lost, as were whatever possessions the Marked Ones held, but no one raced into the huts to save anything. Instead they were all busy fighting or running with the children. Wufei recognized with a sad expression that they had been prepared for something like this. There was so much organization in their actions that it was obvious they'd lived most of their lives expecting this to happen sooner or later. What a horrible way to live!

Steeling himself he tried to increase his pace and ducked around a few trees as arrows flew in his direction. He resolved to make it to the caves, and what's more, when he got back to his kingdom, he would fix this. He promised himself he would do whatever he could to make sure that in the future the Marked Ones wouldn't have to live with the fear of being hunted down like animals. No human, or non-human for that matter, deserved to live in such a way as this.

~*~

Duo stepped out into the crowd of fighting soldiers, his sword at ready. His face held a grin of pure demonic glee as he reached down and pulled the tie out of his hair. Swinging his sword he ran after the first soldier in sight, knocking him to the ground. Focusing all his anger he took it out on the soldiers. How dare they destroy this place! How dare they attack his new friends! How dare they attack the people who treated him as a human!

He recognized a few of the soldiers, and nearly all of them recognized him as the Prince's Shadow, which worked to his advantage. Like true trained soldiers they did their job, attempting to cut down everyone who opposed them, but a few of them were taken aback to find the Prince's Shadow fighting around the Marked Ones. And when those men frozen in a mere second of confusion Duo struck.

He didn't like to kill people, what sane person would!? But he also recognized that these soldiers were employed by Wufei's father and they would kill without mercy. He had to protect his new friends, if that meant killing, then so be it. As for the grinning? Well, it was mostly to unnerve all of them.

As he moved through the charging soldiers, fighting them and protecting his friends his hair became unraveled from the braid and spread out around him, nearly covering his entire body in a curtain of chestnut hair that glinted red in the light.

Amazingly no swords hit him. No arrows made it past his hair to pierce his skin and no one even got close enough to touch him. If anyone had stopped to watch Duo's actions, they would have noticed that amazingly his hair was deflecting all the weapons and blows. Any sword which hit up against his hair, met with a shield of something stronger then the strongest metal in existence. Nothing cut through Duo's hair and it afforded him the perfect shield. If anyone had stopped to watch they might have been afraid of the dark clothed boy with the wild, unbreakable hair... but most people didn't have time to register the fear before they found themselves face down on the ground and still.

~*~

Yuki moved around in the battle from the trees above. Like Heero her weapons were designed for assassinations and anonymous attacks, not one on one contact. As a result she limited her movements to the large branches overhead, where she used her hook like darts to knock off the soldiers without them knowing what hit them. Still, she only had so many weapons tattooed on her body, only so many weapons.

Dropping down from the tree she landed on one of the soldiers, crushing him into the ground. Moving quickly she grabbed his sword and used it to make sure he stayed down and still. Holding the sword tightly she moved out to fight among the others, and just prayed that she would remember all the things Sorata had taught her about one on one combat.

~*~

Out of all of the Marked Ones fighting Trowa was the easiest target, or so it seemed. Unlike Wufei, who'd been practically forced to go with the children, Trowa would never think of doing such a thing. But then, their situations were very different so he held nothing about the human prince, in fact he probably would have made Wufei run for the caves as well, it was quite a sensible thing to do.

He, on the other hand, didn't have that luxury. Despite his apparent rank among his people he recognized that in the end he was merely one of them, no higher or lower. In many ways his rank was merely for show for the outsiders and to help decide matters that could not be made by his people as a whole. So in times of battle he fought with them, always aware that if he died another would easily take his place and nothing would really be lost save for his life.

Moving through the chaos of fighting he walked like he was in a peaceful field, his expression blank. Only his eyes betrayed the scene around him as they darted around, watching everything around him. Also the vines across his skin were alive in action, darting out at serpentine speeds to catch and knock arrows off their courses, and strangle any soldier who dared come close. The few who did make it close enough to fight with a sword found themselves picked up off the ground and tossed away, usually into a tree which caused them to lose consciousness.

What Trowa had told Quatre the night before was quite true. His weapons were hard to see yet obvious to anyone. After all, not many people expected actual vines to fight back against them. He used this to his advantage and did the best he could among his fighting people. They only needed to stall the soldiers a little longer and then get to the caves... just long enough to hurt their numbers and make sure the children made it out safe.

Just a little longer...

~*~

The children ran quickly and after what was clearly a long run, Wufei saw the trees open up to a small clearing where the far side was lined with high rocky walls. The forest led right to a set of thick granite mountains... these must be the caves Trowa meant! They were so close to safety...

But before they could even reach the caves a large group of soldier stepped out of the trees and blocked their way. Darrin's soldiers?! Here!? That meant they had the village surrounded and there were more of them then Wufei thought. He and the children jumped back as Brei set down the children she was carrying and Hijiri looped around to join the obvious fight.

Brei pulled a long tattoo from her arm which become a razor sharp whip made of connected yet flexible blades. Without even a moment's hesitation she jumped forward, right into the center of the soldiers, surprising them all with her boldness.

Wufei leg go of the children he was carrying and tackled one of the soldiers, doing his best to wrestle away the man's sword. Meanwhile Annah attacked the two remaining ones on the outskirts of the group. These three sudden attacks took the soldiers off guard, allowing for a hole in their blocking of the path. The children escaped with Selenay through that hole and disappeared safely into the caves.

"Go with the children!" Brei yelled at Wufei as she used her whip to slice across one man's chest. He crumbled to the ground in a groaning, bloody mess.

Wufei didn't have to ask twice, he understood the warning. It only occurred to him just recently that the caves would be full of tunnels, mazes of them, making it hard for anyone to follow. But those mazes would also make it very hard for anyone who didn't know their way.

As if hearing his thoughts Annah broke away from the fight and grabbed Wufei's arm, pulling him as fast as she could toward the caves. He spared a glance over his shoulder at Brei but wasn't able to do anything to help her. He just hoped she would be fine on her own against the three who were still standing and fighting. Luckily none of them broke away to follow.

Brei jumped back from the group and snapped her whip, slashing it across one of the men's faces, causing him to lose his flimsy leather helmet. But the other two men moved quickly and caught her whip with their swords. One used his sword to impale the weapon and trap it against the ground.

She felt that!

A pain stabbed into her arm as he shoved his blade through the tattoo weapon, locking it to the ground. She felt a burning sensation fly up through her arm, just as if she'd been stabbed and not her weapon. The pain was intense, causing her to cry out and stumbled backward, falling to the ground.

Anyone else would have been trained to deal with the pain and keep fighting but Brei's primary job was taking care of the children of the village. She wasn't prepared for an all out battle like this! Rolling away from the men she clutched her arm and gritted her teeth, doing her best to ignore the shearing pain in her arm. She ignored it and pulled out another weapon to throw, but the pain interfered with her concentration and she missed, the sharp blade flying past the men to land somewhere in a tree trunk.

The three soldiers neared her, closing in quickly. She moved back, trying to think of something, but she couldn't think. Her arm felt like it was being torn apart...

"Brei!!"

She turned her head to see the small shape of Hijiri racing out from the cave, weapon in hand. The weapon was original, and she vaguely remembered Selenay mentioning that Hijiri had designed it himself. It was a short pole, about half the length of his arm, with a long beveled design down the sides. At each end of the pole were two curved and nasty looking blades.

Weapon in hand and racing forward the young boy didn't seem to care about the size of the soldiers, nor their sharp weapons. Charging forward and screaming to get their attention he slashed at them, amazingly managing to send one down before someone countered his sword. Unfortunately the counter was strong and it knocked the weapon from Hijiri's hands, sending it spiraling somewhere behind him.

Now both were trapped outside the caves with very few weapons. Hijiri wasn't old enough to have many other tattoos aside from his blade one which was now lost in the grass. Likewise Brei had been reduced to her throwing blades, which didn't do her any good since she couldn't concentrate well enough to aim.

She did manage to use one of the larger ones to catch the soldier's sword, but that would only work so long and sweat was beading down her face, into her vision.

Another shape appeared between her and the two remaining soldiers, knocking them back in a charge of pure strength. Both Brei and Hijiri stared and blinked, surprised to find it was actually Quatre who stood in front of them, panting hard and holding a bleeding wound on his shoulder.

One of the men gave a low growl and jumped forward, swinging his blade high. Quatre, who had no weapon of his own, didn't seem phased at all. Instead he just narrowed his eyes and caught the blade barehanded.

Brei winced at the sickening sound of the sharp metal cutting through the young thief's flesh. What in the world was he thinking catching the blade barehanded?!

Quatre gave a sharp gasp, hissing in pain as the man pulled his sword back and gave a nervous laugh.

"Stupid kid, don't you know not to catch a blade barehanded? It can kill you."

Quatre's eyes narrowed and a small chuckle emitted from his lips, sending a shiver down Brei's back and causing the guard to take a step back in surprise.

"Stupid human," Quatre hissed as he watched the blood flow from the deep cuts in his hands. "Don't you know not to attack an Izardl with a blade? I will kill you."

Izardl!?

The soldier's cocky look shriveled away and he dropped his blade, both backing away quickly from the chuckling form of Quatre. But Quatre didn't let them get that far away. In a flurry of movement, which Brei watched holding her breath, the rivers of blood flowing from Quatre's hands became solid and struck out like long flexible blades.

The blades sliced through the air in a hissing rage, cutting the soldiers literally into pieces, where they crumbled apart and fell to the ground. Even after the soldiers were quite dead the blades kept slicing, cutting down trees and branches. Some of them even came dangerously close to hitting Hijiri but luckily he was able to move out of the way in time.

"Please stop..." Quatre whispered hoarsely as his eyes widened in terror. Whatever had caused him to chuckle in such a creepy way before was now gone, only leaving a very frightened young blood whose blood was slicing the world around him apart.

"STOP!" He screamed out louder, crying out with all his might. All at once the blades melted into liquid and fell to the ground around him. Quatre soon followed, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he collapsed into a still heap on the ground.

TBC...

 

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