A/N: Chi said I had to finish this story, so any complaints go to her! Any praise or comments can go me! ^___^ (fishing for reviews if you can’t tell!) Dialog sucks in this one, I was just trying to get it done! -___-;; Un-betaed and hardly spell checked, but it still has a special place in my heart ^__^
The human village was full; it was market day, so many were out shopping for items not normally found on any other day.
Coyote and Fox descied themselves as two young men. Coyote, young man with messy dirty blond hair to his shoulders and eyes that look of amber. Fox an older boy with chestnut brown hair that hung in a braid down to his thighs and eyes the color of deep amethyst. They took the names Solo and Duo, the names Mother Coyote gave them when she would yell at them to come home when they were pup and kit.
Coyote, Solo, stalked the market; moving his eyes from person to person. He made no sound and he seemed to glide through the hoards of people. He acted just like a true coyote.
Fox, Duo, jumped and yelled. He bumped into people and pushed his way around, keeping in constant movement, yipping at nothing important and eyeing all the shiny things on sale. Acting everything a fox would.
Solo and Duo had been walking around for what seemed like hours looking for their quarry. When one found a man, the other would disapprove, saying he had smiled or was too social.
It was well past noon and both Coyote and Fox doubted on finding a man that day. They both just happened to stumble into a small general store and what they saw brightened their spirits.
The man was tall, lean, and well toned. His hair, a dark moss brown color, was everywhere. His eyes were the color when, for a moment, all is still before day suddenly turns to black night. Those eyes pierced the soul; they made people step back in awe and fear. Those eye alone told Coyote and Fox they had found their prey.
Without saying a word to each other, Duo followed the man as he left the store while Solo talked to the shopkeeper to find info on the man.
Duo trailed the man through the market, sure that his brother, Solo, would find him soon.
As Duo followed the man, he noted that the human only seemed to buy necessities. Fox also noted, with some uneasiness, that when the man came to a booth selling hunting knives and swords, he handled them fairly well, maybe too well for Fox’s liking.
The pursuit ended when Solo pulled Duo into a dark ally. He had a smile most would call suspicious but Duo would have call fun soon to come. “The human’s name is Heero Yuy, and he lives in the East Forest.” Duo nodded in understanding, it was no wonder they had never seen the man, they lived in the West Forest while the East Forest lay on the opposite side of the town to them, more than a days walk from their den.
Solo continued with a smile on his human face, “He lives alone in a small cabin in the middle of the forest, away from people and civilization. He seems to not be sociable or have people others would call friends. In fact, most of the people in town are wary or scarred of him! They even say that he has no emotions!”
“It seems we have found our prey!” Duo yipped in happiness.
Solo and Duo turned back into Coyote and Fox and ran out of the ally and through the market, barking and yipping the whole way.
In their excitement, the two tricksters toppled over five people, stole a loaf of bread, liberated a featherless duck, and snatched a wheel of cheese (which Sparrow and Badger would find a good portion of in their homes).
Tomorrow the contest would begin.
The man known only as Heero Yuy (with no title or description of his trade attached) sat alone in his cabin. He had lived in that cabin for what seemed like many years, but in truth had only been two at most. He liked how things were going. He had peace and quiet, no one to bother him with questions or orders, and he relied on himself only, not on others who messed things up or were lazy.
Heero was indeed content with how his life was, and he intended to fully enjoy his time in solitude, for he knew that it could soon come to an end.
It was a surprise then when the quiet of his life was interrupted with a knock at his cabin door.
The young man, twenty years old perhaps, calmly approached the door, and opened it with ease (calmly because he had a large hunting knife on his belt; with ease because he knew how to use it), and glared at the man who stood on the other side.
The other man seemed young (but it was hard to tell in the darkness of the early night), and was dressed in the royal clothing of a top messenger of the court. His stance admitted power and determination, possibly due to the half dozen or so of royal soldiers, dressed in full arms, atop warhorses, also in full armor, that stood behind him. One of the soldiers could have scarred an average woodsman, much less half a dozen.
“Are you Heero Yuy?” The man asked in a harsh fearsome voice.
Heero carefully looked at the man in front of him and of the soldiers behind, taking in every detail he could in the darkened light. Still glaring at all in front of him, “Yes, I’m him.”
The man, still standing tall and stiff, continued in his deep voice, “Then the King declares that you shall leave this land at once. If not then we have the authority of the King to kill you and through your remains to be eaten by the court’s hounds.” The fearsome man took note that Heero seemed unmoved by his statement. He might have to do a bit more “persuading” then he originally thought. “The King himself wants this land and anyone who stands in the Kings way will be cruelly and viciously killed for treason.” With a cruel grin the man whispered, “I have heard that the King’s new interest in torture has scorpions, spiders, and other night crawlers involved.” The man snickered, for he knew every human to be troubled by any night crawler.
With no warning what so ever, and quicker than even a fox’s eye could see, Heero unsheathed his knife and through it towards the head of the center soldier. Upon impact the soldiers disappeared, instead lay an ivy vine pinned to the ground by Heeor’s knife.
“The only creatures I’ve ever heard of using plants in their tricks are foxes.” He stated in an irritated voice.
With that, all the forest man saw was a grinning fox and then the tail of the fox running back into the forest.
It had been a week since the noises started, three days since the physical harm towards him started. Heero was starting to get angry.
He had left to the market to come back to his cabin to find it looked the same, but soon he started to hear tapping. The longer he stayed the more the noise progressed; tapping, glass scrapping, rattling. By the second night the noises had progressed to howling and haunting cries.
On the third night, Heero was being shoved by the “phantom” (he never was one to believe in such childish things, even when he was a child). The fourth night he was pushed and tripped over. Fifth, objects were aimed at him, some succeeding in hitting him. On the sixth nigh, blood was inlay drawn.
No matter if he was inside or out, he was constantly followed by the phantom. Day or night, awake or (trying to) sleep, the phantom pestered him. By the seventh day he was through.
With determination and skill, it didn’t take long to catch the perpetrator.
Holding the coyote by the scruff of his neck, Heero glared at it, “I was hoping you would get board and leave, but cutting me and not letting me sleep is too much.”
Going outside and picking up a branch, the young man hit the coyote on his hindquarters, hard enough to sting but not enough to truly hurt the coyote.
Finished with punishing Coyote, Heero placed the animal on the ground and watched as it ran into the forest.
The laughing yipp of a fox could be heard.
It had been a week since Heero sent Coyote running into the forest. The solitary man was at the market again, in need of new shoes and an axe.
Heero had not been at the market for more then two hours when he realized he was being watched. He made no acknowledgment that he knew, instead deciding he would wait to see what might come.
Duo, fox in his human form, had been following the man since he left his house. If fox was good at something, it was stalking. But, now in town, Fox was being distracted. In almost every booth fine shiny jewelry was being sold. If Fox was another thing, he was a sucker for shiny metals and jewels.
Then he saw it, the queen mother of all jewelry. It was the most stunning hair clip he had ever seen; large with intricate designs of sapphires, amethyst, mother of pearl and jade imbedded in white and yellow gold.
No fox could pass up such a treasure. Duo was doomed to give into his desires.
With the treasure at his fingertips, he though he just might get away with the theft, he was already smiling with victory. That was until a large man (as in, three times the height and weight of the young fox boy) dressed in a guard’s uniform grabbed Duo’s wrist right before it touched the silver and gold clip.
The guard had a tight grip on the boy’s arm, almost cutting off the feeling to his fingers; there was no way for Fox to get out of this. If he stayed in human form, they would chop off his hand, and if he changed into a fox they would chop off his head! (Foxes, especially thief foxes, were not looked too kindly upon in that area) All he could do was stare in fright as his captor bellowed at him.
“Thief! How dare you try and take jewels in my town! I should cut your head off along with your hands! But maybe I should cut this off instead?” With his free hand the guard grabbed at Duo’s long braid. “Perhaps I’ll keep it as a reminder of you!” Laughing, the guard let go of the braid and reached for his sword.
And how Duo struggled to get free when he found out that both his hands and braid would be missing from his person in a few short moments. He struggled fiercely, but still could not get away.
A crowd started to form to see the outcome of the crying, though at times it sounded like yipping, boy and the guard trying to reach for his sword (the boy was good at keeping the guard from reaching the swords hilt).
The boy kept on struggling until he realized that their was nothing to struggle about. He opened his eyes (of course he did not wish to see his hands and braid chopped off, who would?) to find the guard held a dagger, but another hand was restraining that hand!
Heero stood between the two, his hand clasp securely, and painfully, around the guard's wrist, preventing the guard from moving.
No one in the crowed noticed the fear in the guard's eye, for they were just as scared of the young man. All were silent.
Sure that he had everyone’s attention, Heero spoke, “Leave him be. He is not one of our kind to judge; he is only acting in his nature.” Everyone looked surprised at the thief boy, who seemed to shrink into himself trying to get away from all the gazes.
“In gratitude, I show my appreciation for this favor.” Taking the guard's hand off of Duo’s red wrist, Heero placed a bag of coins (the same coins to be used for now shoes and an axe) in the guard's large palm, then grabbed the boy by his neck and left.
A good distance into the woods, Heero abruptly stopped and forced the boy to face him, hand still secured on his neck to prevent escape.
Duo could tell the man was mad, not because of any facial expression, but from the fire in his eyes. Fox thought he might be in for a worse punishment then Badger’s.
“I don’t know what you and Coyote are up to, but stop it now. You almost lost your hands just now, and if I ever see you two trying to trick me, or anyone else, again I won’t be easy on you. Go and tell Coyote.” Heero pushed Duo to the ground; instead of a boy falling on his face, a fox landed gracefully on his feet and ran into the forest.
The first thing Fox did was go to Coyote and tell what happened to him. The two of them then went to Badger’s den to see what he said, being that Badger was judge and jury of any complications referring to the contest. When they had told Badger that they valued his judgment, they were not lying.
Badger listened closely to Fox’s tale, trying to distinguish what were true facts and what were embellished facts. When finishing the story, both Coyote and Fox waited impatiently for Badger's advice.
“You must end the contest.” Coyote and Fox looked crest fallen over that. Badger barked at them, “Fox! If you would have gotten a hand chopped off in human form the pain would be so great that you would have turned back into a fox. When it was found out you were truly a fox, the humans would have cut off your head! You owe that man your life!”
Fox looked down in shame. It was true; the pain would force him into his natural form.
“On top of that, used his own money for bribery.” He paused to let the statement sink in. “this is my advice,” Badger continued, “end the contest. Go to the human and apologize for your actions. Most of all repay your debt to him. You owe him your life; there is almost no way to repay that. The most I can advise you on that is to stay close to him and help him when you can. That is my judgment.”
And fox accepted it.
TBC