Dragonheart Part 4
Fully dressed and his hair tied back in a loose ponytail, Duo added a log to the dying fire sending up a blast of red embers. The sparking and the smoke clearly recalled Heero's recent creature encounter. A quiver made an assault run up his spine as his body reacted to the frightening stimulus.
Watching the renewed blaze Heero felt as though he was staring into hell. More than a sip of wine, he decided, was required to calm his rattled nerves and restore color to his pale cheeks He chugged down a bracing gulp of the fermented liquid gladly giving into its numbing influence.
Duo sat down opposite his distressed houseguest and poured a cup for himself. He let the wine warm his throat then spoke. "I promised you an explanation."
Heero tilted back his head to get the last drop then refilled his cup. Something told him that he was going to need a lot more fortification to hear Duo's details. Another swallow created just enough buzz in his brain to let him relax. "You own me six years of my life," he stated in slightly slurred words, "because that was what was scared out of me tonight."
"Your fright is not my fault," Duo stated with a bit of annoyance, "if you had stayed in bed instead of wandering about the forest you would not have to worry about lost years."
Heero tried to muster up a menacing glare but it was becoming extremely difficult to focus his eyes and his brew-muddled mind. "I know what you are." he declared before taking another stiff drink.
A thin-lipped grin poised on Duo's mouth. "Really? Why don't you enlighten me?"
The sloshed soldier studied Duo's request for clarification. Finally an answer wormed its way through his mind's inebriated haze. "You are a wood sprite or some other damnable devil." He paused to realign his straying train of thought. "Or a warlock...yes...how else could you command such a hellish beast?"
Duo sat down his cup and leaned closer to the quickly deteriorating young man, "I am neither a devil nor a warlock, I am a Dagon Keeper."
"A Drag...." Heero stammered, as he was certain that the wine had finally pickled his brain. "Dragon Keeper." he repeated to plant the idea firmly in his mind.
Kindly Duo laid his hand on Heero's and used the gentle touch to get his attention. "My grandmother and my mother before me were Keepers of the "Guardian of the Flames". When I became thirteen the scared duty was passed on to me."
Duo waited until Heero absorbed the information then continued. "For the last five years I have studied the ancient texts, chanted the smoothing songs and tended Shinigami and he has offered me his protection in return."
"Impossible, dragons do not exist." Heero insisted then frowned when he discovered that the wine bottle was empty.
"Then what did you see tonight?"
"It was a mental mirage caused by stress and lack of sleep." Heero proclaimed, "No more than that." he added trying to convince himself that the winged reptile was borne of the trauma of war.
"What did your senses tell you?" Duo prodded the soldier to trust his judgment.
Heero stared. He was not certain what riddle the braided devil was employing to bewitch him further. "My senses?"
"Yes, your sight."
"I saw green scales and wings and crimson eyes."
"Your nose?"
"The smell of sulfur like smoke after a battle."
"Your ears?"
"An unearthly roar.
"Your taste?"
Heero shook his head, "Bitter on my tongue, the aftertaste of death."
"And finally your touch?" Duo concluded the questions.
"Hot breath, cold shivers...fear" Heero lowered his eyes to hide the welling tears. "Please no more." he whispered as he fought the stinging behind his eyes.
Duo tightened his fingers over Heero's hand. "There are things in this world that require faith."
Duo placed his thumb under Heero's sagging chin to raise his head
line with his compassionate eyes. "What do you see when you look at me?"
Heero found himself sudden sober. "I see a man who sings to dragons." A single tear tracked down his cheek.
"Then that is all you need to know, all that you need to believe." Duo stated with the surety developed after witnessing many miracles. "In the morning I will tell you the full tale of how dragons came to coexist with humans. Come now we both need sleep."
Guiding Heero back to bed Duo eased him down on the straw mattress, slipped in beside and covered them with both blankets. Letting a single finger trail across his bedmate's temple Duo used the tender touch to encourage Heero to settle down.
As Heero's eyes became heavy and his body was lulled into sleep's drowsy twilight a voice whispered inside his slumber-claimed mind. "Maybe Duo is a saint who was sent to save your soul."
*********
"RETREAT!"
The command resounded over the cannon's deafening report. Thick smoke burned in Heero's lungs and the blast blinded his sight as he scrambled over the corpse-covered battleground.
There was no orderly withdrawal but mad confusion among the outnumbered soldiers. The cannon roared again and huge chucks of dirt showered over the panicked men.
Jolted by the blast Captain Yuy tottered on the edge as the gorged ground opened up in front of him. Tumbling into the hole he clawed at the loose soil but it continued to fill in around him. Over his boots--his knees—his waist--the gritty ground rose higher. Arms were pinned beneath the earthen onslaught, his shoulders held fast.
Dust invaded his nostrils, his dry lips parted but his screams were silenced by the strangulating soil. The gaping hole sucked him under, deeper...darker. Now Heero floated in a black void, no sound, no movement.
Then they came again, the beasts with the blazing eyes, belching out fire that flared through the darkness. Massive wings whipped the smoke into spiral funnel clouds. They bellowed and snarled as they swooped over the helpless soldier.
Scorching breath burned hot over Heero's trapped body. He closed his eyes and prayed that he would either wake up or die because one way or the other he had to escape the recurring dream. "Let me go." he begged the beasts just like he had all those times before.
"You belong to us." the creatures always answered, "There is no one strong enough to stand against us." the collective voices would proclaim.
"There is one who can overcome." a phantom voice that had never spoke before declared.
Heero stained to follow the voice, to see the silhouette that reared up in the backwash of blazing light. Slowly the shape emerged until its full aspect could be clearly seen.
"Shinigami." Heero whispered in awe. "Please." He implored of the great dragon.
Duo rolled over and sat up as Heero twitched in the throes of his dark dreaming. "Please." the word was repeated with a whimper.
"Heero wake up." Duo called rubbing Heero's arm to encourage him awake.
"Duo." Heero mumbled as a frown contorted his face, sweat beaded on his forehead and his eyes moved rapidly under his eyelids.
Duo called again with more volume. "Heero wake up now."
With a startled intake of air and a body-contorting shudder the dreaming soldier was jolted awake. Wild eyes darted jerkily and his hands flew up to bat away the nightmare images plainly pictured in his mind's eye.
Duo grabbed the flinging hands both for his and Heero's safety. "Easy." He held on hoping that the wild imaginings would quickly run their course.
Eyes unfocused and muscles straining as he struggled against the perceived terrorizing demons Heero's adrenaline-induced strength was multiplied tenfold.
Raising higher on his knees, Duo managed to force Heero's hands down until they were pinned on his chest. Then barely above a whisper Duo sang one the first primordial tunes that he had learned. He knew that Heero would not understand the words but it was the meter that he hoped would break the soldier's alarm.
As Duo had so many times before, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the resonance of his voice being careful to put the proper inflection on each phrase. Gradually the tone seeped into Heero's panic-plagued senses. Bit by bit the baritone a cappella chased away the menacing creatures.
Heero shook less and his breathing slowed to a more regulated pattern. "It's all right." Duo reassured the shaking solder before repeating the pacifying song.
"Shinigami save me." Heero begged weakly as his strength gave out leaving him chilled and drained.
"Shinigami will guard over you just as he takes care of me. Relax." he encouraged Heero to trust his promised protection.
Heero locked his watery eyes on Duo's kind face and found himself captured by the Dragon Keeper's sheltering gaze. "I believe." he stated huskily as the words struggled through a raspy throat.
Duo smiled that knowing smile. "Believe what?"
"In things seen and unseen...that nothing is impossible."
Pulling Heero into a secure embrace, Duo brushed back the handful of heavy bangs that interfered with his study of the Captain's cobalt sight. Pleased that Heero's eyes were alert and that most of the quivering had stopped Duo let out a satisfied sigh. "Trust your heart Heero and you will witness many marvelous wonders."
"Like dragons?"
Duo nodded as he laid his physically and emotionally drained guest back on the bed. As he tucked the blankets in place yet another time Duo took notice of Heero's improved condition. "Heero may I ask something of you?" he requested as they settled down to hopefully dreamless sleep.
Heero made an acknowledging noise in his throat.
"Would you consider me your friend?" Duo made the heartfelt request.
Heero turned to face the braided Dragon Keeper and immediately became lost in Duo's calming violet eyes. "Yes. I would be honored."
"Then please let a friend hold you and chase away the demons." Duo declared with a yawn before he tightened his arms and he and Heero drifted off together.
TBC...
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