Author's Note: The 'shadowy figure' in this part is not the same one mentioned before. Sorry for the confusion ^_^;;;

Marked for Death Part 6

The sun setting low found them on their first night out in the woods. Duo left the camp to find food, reluctantly leaving Wufei with Heero to set up camp from what ever they could find. The Shadow hated to leave the prince alone; but he had to acknowledge the logic since Heero had lived in the woods before and knew what they would need and where to find it. So he dropped into the job of hunting down dinner and making sure they weren't being followed.

Once Duo had set off Heero moved about his work silently. Wufei was left to watch as the Marked One surveyed the small clearing away from the road which they had chosen. Heero quickly made a small circle of rocks and a small fire, which would serve for cooking without creating enough smoke to draw unneeded attention. Wufei leaned against a tree, watching all of this with no small wonder. Living in a castle all his life had made him naive to the ways that other people lived outside of cities. To be able to make a fire without calling a servant... as much as he hated to admit it he knew he couldn't do it.

"Heero."

The Marked One glanced up at the prince through his messy bangs but made no other move to respond.

"What exactly is a Marked One?"

At this the boy paused for a second and glanced up at the prince, momentarily forgetting about the small fire pit he was creating. "Surely you were told about us in your royal lessons." Leaning forward he began striking together two rocks to create sparks.

Wufei frowned. "Yes, but I'm beginning to seriously doubt what I was taught." Sighing he removed the circlet from his head he turned the smooth piece of gold in his hands. It was the mark that he was ruler... and yet it was also the mark of all the thing he'd been taught and would be leading. For some reason it now seemed to be a symbol of lies. Or at least deception. "Would it work best to compare stories since you're not the type to talk often?" Wufei meant it as a simple observation, not an insult. And that was apparently how Heero took it.

He nodded.

"According to my teachers Marked Ones are the ancestors of an ancient magical race called the Izardl. I was taught that you aren't human and that you... practice very inhuman arts. For one thing your strange weapons are made from the blood of others who were killed in savage acts." Wufei paused and attached the circlet to his belt, not feeling the right to wear it any more. After all, he wasn't prince among this group... and if he was, he didn't want to be anymore. On this journey they were equals.

He continued. "I was also told that your entire race is structured like a clan of assassins, working for the highest bidder. That if one of you fails the rest of the clan will hunt them down and kill them, using their blood to make more markings. I was told you don't allow women into your group and in the days before the Burnings, there was always at least one of your kind in the castle. Every king was supposed to have a Marked One hidden in their court so that your kind was always in control."

Wufei stopped and watched the boy before him closely. Throughout his entire small speech the boy had seemed to ignore him, just quietly tending the fire and nursing the flame higher and higher. Wufei hadn't even seen him stiffen at some of the more insulting things he'd said. It was as if the boy didn't care... or had heard it all before.

Heero sat back from the fire, apparently satisfied that it would burn on its own. He crossed his arms and glared at the fire for a moment, then brushed off his hands. It took several moments before he answered, but when he did his voice was strained with an old anger.

"The Izardl are our ancestors, from quite far back. More specifically, we are crossbreed offspring from humans and Izardl. If we were full Izardl, I would have scales across my body and would have been hunted down long ago."

Lifting his arm a single large tattoo slid down into view in the shape of an ornate and very nasty looking throwing star. With ease he took the weapon from his skin and Wufei watched with amazement as the ink pattern turned to a deep red metal in-between the boy's fingers, indeed becoming a sharp, barbed throwing star. Where the blade had been was now a red area that would eventually become a scar if the weapon weren't replaced.

Heero held the weapon up for Wufei to see but didn't face the prince. "Our weapons are made from the blood of our ancestors, yes. It is an act of respect done after the person dies in battle or of natural causes."

Wufei nodded. "Which is why you were so concerned about Sorata. After a person dies their blood becomes sacred, doesn't it?"

Heero nodded, replacing the weapon and making it disappear underneath his clothing once again. "That and there are not many of us left. We protect each other."

Heero stood up and walked toward the horse, opening the pack he inspected some of the contents. He didn't say anything else and Wufei frowned.

"What about the last part?" He asked quietly.

Heero simply shrugged and turned away from the pack, with a small pot to cook food in. The innkeeper had indeed packed them with everything they might need.

"We are not assassins."

He responded simply. And that ended the conversation.

~*~

Heero frowned at himself, later, as he stood quietly at the edge of their camp. The prince had taken a place next to the fire, watching the flames with his face showing he was in deep thought.

Unwise, Heero chided himself.

True, he did owe the prince, considering he'd put the boy's life in danger, caused him to lose his entire kingdom and nearly gotten them all killed. But that didn't give him the right to reveal the secrets of his people... not that it would make any real difference though.

He'd only actually answered the prince's questions with the simplest answers he could give. He'd left many parts out, things the prince didn't need to know. Like the fact that the blood of his ancestors only became weapons on others with the same blood and magic running through their veins. Normal humans had tried in the past to use Izardl blood to make the same weapons and it only resulted in deeply burned scars, twisted limbs and horrible pain. Something about Heero's ancestry and the ancestry of his people kept them alive and enabled them to use the magic left in the blood, even though it was continually diluted by their human blood with every generation...

None of his kind even spoke of the possibility that one day the magic would become so diluted it would disappear. No one spoke of that horrid day, but all knew that some day it would come.

Heero shook his head and banished the thoughts. It wasn't a problem he could solve and there was no use fretting over the future, especially when you didn't know how close or far away it actually was. Better to worry about the situation at hand. Better to worry about current problems and solve those first.

His one worry though was the one Wufei had brought to his attention.

He didn't know what had happened to Sorata's blood.

It was safe to say that the reason Sorata had been killed was because he'd been discovered by the king or the king's advisor. The problem was that any smart king would have saved the blood from a dead Marked One. Even if pure humans couldn't use it for tattoos it still commanded a high price from those willing to try, not to mention that a vial of Marked Ones' blood was a greatly valued collector's item. Especially among the elite and higher up people in society. He hated that his people's blood was valued so much among outsiders that they would actually consider selling it after a person's death. As if that person were nothing more then an object, their blood no more living then water.

Heero clenched his fists, but otherwise concealed his anger. He now wished he hadn't blown his cover so quickly, he wished he had waited and tried to find out what might have happened to Sorata's blood. Or at least his body... Looking back on the situation now he wondered if it would have been better of him to threaten the life of Darrin, the king's advisor, for the answer he wanted. But there wasn't a way he could change the situation now.

Duo returned moments later; bringing Heero's troubled thoughts to an end. The shadow returned carrying three dead rabbits by their ears; his sword still attached to his belt... unused.

Heero's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched Duo drop the rabbits by the fire and then immediately work on rebraiding his hair. His hair had been braided when he left, quite neatly in fact, yet now it was pulled back in a hasty ponytail, a soft night breeze causing it to sway just slightly. Immediately after dropping the rabbits near the fire, the Shadow pulled the tie from his hair and started to rebraid it. Heero's eyes narrowed even more as he watched the hair fall into place easily... almost as if it knew it was supposed to be in a braid and willingly let itself be smoothed out and twisted together.

Duo tied off the bottom and tossed the braid over his shoulder, then turned and glanced at Heero, who immediately hid his glare.

"I assume you know how to cook these?"

Heero nodded and made one of his tattoos slide down his skin, quickly setting to work using the weapon to skin the animals and prepare them. Still, his mind was focused on Duo. How had he managed to catch these rabbits without using his sword? And why had his hair been down?

Wufei stepped forward and seemed to be thinking the same thing. "How you catch them?" The prince asked.

Duo shrugged. "My father used to track rabbits when he was still around. Guess I still remember most of the stuff he taught me."

Heero's eyes narrowed to a full glare as the prince nodded. The prince may have accepted that answer but Heero didn't. He knew that was a lie. There was no way a young child could remember how to hunt down rabbits from that long ago, and even if he could, tracking them took practice. They were fast, not easy to catch at all. To top it off Duo had only been gone for an hour at the most. Catching a rabbit in that time, much less three, was almost unheard of!

As he set to work skinning the animals he noted another interesting fact. There were red marks around the throats of the rabbits. Had they been strangled to death? He noted that their necks had been snapped but they'd been strangled first. A quick glance told him that Duo had taken no tools with him to make traps that would do such a thing. So how had he caught and killed the rabbits? He was almost positive Duo was lying, but why?

He had to have a reason.

People like Duo didn't lie without a good reason.

Still... Heero had no idea what that reason was. He didn't even have a clue.

~*~

He watched from far away, hiding among the trees with practiced ease from years of experience. He didn't even have to get close to the group to learn about them. There were three of them, travelling with a single horse, that much he could tell from the tracks they left. They mostly walked in a single file line to hide the numbers in their tracks but he'd seen them leave the innkeeper's stables, so he knew their number. He also knew that they had a thick and heavy saddle pack filled with travelling supplies.

Three people really wasn't much at all, especially considering their size and age. He'd watched them closely as they left the stables, making sure that they were actually a quarry worth following. He knew he couldn't kill them -- wouldn't even really consider it unless his life was threatened -- but he did know that he could really use the supplies in their saddle pack. They were travelers, and considering the three rabbits the one had been carrying on the way back to the camp, they knew how to hunt.

So if they lost their saddle pack they would still be able to survive, at least until the next town. So there really wasn't any harm in him stealing it. No harm at all.

He waited for the cover of night to fall then made his way toward the camp. He could tell they'd decided to take a quick rest, and when he reached the camp he could see the fire had already been stamped out and buried, the telltale signs scattered around to avoid detection. Odd... that meant they were ready to leave quickly if the need arose.

Were they in trouble for something?

Was someone searching for them?

He didn't really care; his mind was only on the saddle pack that would make his life infinitely easier for the next month or so. Judging by its size it certainly had to have a good amount of rationed food, or at least some pots and supplies he could sell for small amounts of money. Either one would benefit him.

Keeping on the edge of the camp, behind the trees, he made his way silently toward the horse. He knew how to take saddle packs from horse without causing them to make much noise; he'd had years of practice stealing from other travelers. And tonight the haul looked to be quite big.

A quick glance told him the three travelers were still sleeping and hadn't moved. They looked about a year or two older then him... all so young to be travelling alone...

He turned his attention back to the horse and began to undo the straps when he heard something move behind him. He immediately froze, a chill moving down his spine. A quick glance over the horse's back told him that now there were only two people sleeping where there had once been three. How had he missed the movement of the other? How fast had that one moved?! There was the sound of metal sliding against metal and an arm suddenly wrapped around his waist, a blade resting coldly against his throat.

His eyes widened and he froze.

Well, he certainly knew where the third one was now.

"Who are you?" A cold voice demanded.

The boy moved quickly, not allowing himself to panic. He snapped his wrist and slammed his elbow into the person behind him without warning. The saddle pack slid off the horse and he used the momentary distraction to grab it and slide out of the other's grasp, diving under and between the horse's legs. Moving as quick as he could he bolted away from the horse, holding the saddle pack close. He could still make it... could still get away... as long as he didn't look back and didn't slow down. Warmth slid down the front of his throat and he knew the blade had nicked his skin, but the cut wasn't deep enough to worry about. And as soon as he sold the items in the pack -- or heck even the pack itself! -- he could easily afford to rest long enough for it to heal.

Something strong clutched around his arm and yanked him backward, causing him to drop the saddle pack to the ground, where it snapped open and the contents spilled. He gave a small cry as the strong hand jerked him backward and held painfully.

"Let go!" He cried out, turning to attack his captor again. But he froze as he finally saw the other boy. Glinting red marks covered his arms from wrist to shoulder, nearly every inch of skin filled with ornate markings in the shapes of various sharp weapons. A sharp blade was clutched in his captor's hand and his eyes were narrowed in a dangerous and deadly glare.

The boy tried to contain his panic but he couldn't.

All he could do was stare at those weapons which covered the other's arms. He knew now that there was no point in running. Those weapons were meant to be thrown, fashioned to fly through the air with deadly ease. If he even got away and took two steps he knew the other would send them flying and that would be the end of him. There was no way to escape the anger of a Marked One.

He really had picked the wrong camp to steal from!

The boy's eyes flew around, looking for something, anything! There had to be some way out of this situation. Some way other than his last resort. Something that could save him. He didn't like to use his trump card unless there was no other way. He needed to get away. There had to be something he could do-

"Let him go, Heero."

The Marked One's eyes narrowed and he yanked the boy forward, twisting his arm painfully behind his back. The boy cried out in pain as he felt his arm scream in protest to the pain. If he moved now he'd break his arm trying to get away. He could no longer see his captor, nor the blade the other held. He couldn't see to get away. But he could see the one who'd yelled, it was another who'd been sleeping. Yet this one had long hair pulled back into a braid and was dressed in very dark clothing. The braided boy's violet eyes were narrowed in anger.

Ah! His arm! Oh but it hurt!

"Let him go!" The long haired one yelled again, this time standing up and stalking toward them.

"He'll run. He'll reveal our route and direction." The voice behind him was deep, angry and set. Oh no! The one with the blades actually planned on killing him! Over a saddle pack? No... no, he corrected himself. Something about revealing their route? He was right! They were being followed!

He knew he should have trusted his instincts! He shouldn't have followed a group of people who looked like they were running from something. It was like cornering a frightened animal. It was stupid! It was fatal! How could he have been so blind?!

"Heero," the braided boy stalked closer. "Let him go now, he won't run."

The boy shook his head. "I won't run, honest!" He stuttered out, but he shut his mouth as the grip on his arm tightened.

"Heero!" The boy growled, almost yelled.

A grunt sounded from behind the boy and he felt the grip loosen. Immediately, seeing his opening, he pulled his arm away and bolted away from the one holding him. Jumping behind the braided boy, for what small protection he could offer, he eyed the Marked One with fear. But his eyes also combed the clearing, ready to make a run if the situation grew any worse.

The Marked One glared at him for a moment longer, then shrugged and walked toward the third boy, who was now sitting up near the fire. "If he leaves he will tell them where we are."

The braided boy frowned. "Then he travels with us, I'm not letting you mess up any one else's life! You got a problem with that?!"

The Marked One just shrugged and sat down, his back to them. It wasn't his problem anymore, and the boy could tell that he was washing his hands of the entire situation.

The braided boy turned back to him, a friendlier look on his face. "Are you all right?"

The boy rubbed his arm, it still hurt and the Marked boy had left bruises on his wrist. Still he nodded, his eyes watching everything in the clearing. He knew he looked like a scared rabbit at the moment. But he couldn't help it... he'd never really been caught before.

The braided boy knelt down to gather up the contents of the saddle pack, but kept his eyes watchful. "If you were hungry you could have asked, we would have shared." He took a loaf of bread from the saddle pack and tore a piece off, holding it out to him.

The boy eyed it carefully, not exactly sure what to do. After a moment of thought he quickly snatched it away and took a quick bite, nearly swallowing it whole.

With a chuckle the braided boy smiled. "I'm called Duo, and you?"

The boy's light blue eyes flickered to the other two, who still seemed to be paying attention. Swallowing the rest of the bread he answered.

"Quatre."

TBC...

 

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