DRAGON BAIT

Dragon Bait ( Gundam Wing style)


CHAPTER 2

It was dusk by the time Dorothy called a halt to the parade which had followed out of St. Toby\'s to the place where Duo was to meet his judgment.
It was also raining.
But despite the dark and the churned-up mud, Duo could see clear evidence of the dragon. First of all it looked like dragon country: fertile farms scattered about, a large nearby lake, a series of peaks and plateaus separated by deep valleys and crevasses and thick woodlands which would confound pursuit by those forced to go on foot rather than by wing. Duo had heard it all in ballads, and although he had never seen a dragon, had never met anyone who had personally seen a dragon, had never heard of a dragon in these parts in his lifetime, her recognized the signs: the trampled farms closet to the footthe the mountain, the scorched trees, the deep grooves--no doubt left by dragon claws---in a rocky outcrop by the lake. The cart horses kept tossing their heads and making nervous huff sounds and showing the whites around their eyes as though sometimes that only they could see or hear or smell spooked them.

His mind shied away from the thoughts which crowded him. He tried to regain the image of him and his father. He pictured their heads together, with sunlight streaming though the shop window as he patiently explained tin-craft to him as thoroughly as if he\'d been a older boy and could really be his apprentice.

I will not give them the satisfaction, Duo repeated over and over, so afraid he could hardly think. But the repetition had kept his back straight during the journey as he\'d sat in the cramped cart which smelled of stale turnips. It had helped him to focus beyond the gawking faces and the jabbing fingers. And if his teeth and bones felt all rattled loose from the ride, surely the people who had walked, slogging those last miles though mud, were hardly to be envied.

They dug a hole, deep to go beneath the shifting mud, then set up a rough-hewn pole, tamping down the dirt to hold it fast. Treize pulled him from the cart, using more force than was needed considering he didn\'t resist. They never untied his arms, but ran another rope though the bindings and then around the pole.<
\"Iron\'s surer,\" Treize complained
\"Fey creatures have an aversion to iron,\" Inquisitor Dorothy said. \"We don\'t want to frighten the dragon away.\" Then she stood before him and smirked. \"Now Mr.Maxwell, to make you a little more appetizing to the dragon.\" Duo let out a scream as he was stripped down to his boxers, \"What the hell are you doing!? You can\'t do this to me!\" Dorothy smirked and pulled out a short dress that was loose at the skirt but tight on the top, and out of the other hand she held up a small black thong. \"You will be wearing this Mr.....oops I mean Miss. Maxwell.\" The braided boy\'s eyes widened as his body was beared to the entire village Oh my god! This is sooo embarrassing. What the hell is she thinking!? Duo stated struggling the best he could as Dorothy dressed him. Leaning back Dorothy smirked. \"Perfect.\" The dress didn\'t barely reach Duo\'s mid thigh

He stared beyond her right shoulder, to a place in his whe where dust motes played in the sunlight and his father\'s big but gentle hands guided his over a piece of tin which would eventually become a cup.
Dorothy turned her back on him the villagers followed her, returning down the slope lest the dragon come and make a meal of them all. He could hear the creak of the cart and a snatch or two of excited chatter, and then the rain swallowed up the sounds as thoroughly as the shadows had swallowed the people themselves. The torches sputtered and smoked in the dampness.
I should have left them with a nice curse, Duo thought. Something to keep them up nights, shivering in their beds. But Duo didn\'t know any curses, and anyway it was too late now.
He found a position where he could lean against the pole. without any of the rough places sticking into his back.
At least he was alone, and for a while that was a comfort. But he could no longer form the picture of his father\'s workshop. Pieces of it kept slipping away, like shards of tin falling to the floor. And when he\'d concentrate on those elusive parts, force them into being, other things would dissolve until eventually he couldn\'t even picture his father\'s face.
Then, with no one there as witness, he finally cried.

Eventually the rain stopped. Clouds like tattered rages raced across the face of the almost-full moon. Duo was certain the rope around the pole was loose enough that he could slide down to rest his legs, but he wasn\'t sure he could get back up. The pole had been shaped to quickly, so roughly, that it was likely tag tag the bindings, and that would be a terrible way to die: caught in a half-crouch, his bottom all muddy from sitting on the wet ground.

How would the dragon kill him? Perhaps he would be less afraid if he figured out just what to expect. A blush covered his face as he realized if anyone came by they could easily see up that stupid dress Dorothy had put him in. What difference did it make what he thought? Here he was tied to a pole as dragon\'s bait and, if the dragon ever got around to coming, it would kill him in some fashion which probably would not be with a blast of fire.

Duo shivered, a combination of the cold breeze through his rain-soaked dress. The moon was no longer directly overhead. It wasn\'t exactly sinking below the horizon, but what if the dragon didn\'t come?
What if he remained here for days, starving, fevered from the chill he was surely already catching? And what of the wolves?
He twisted his arms and realized the rope which held his wrists was looser than he had anticipated. He tried to think back, to remember all the way to this afternoon and to who had tied her.
Perrin the wood-gatherer. Ah yes. not that he was of a kinder disposition than the others, but he never could get anything right.
Duo folded his thumbs and little fingers in, trying to make his hands as narrow as possible. The twine rubber painfully against his flesh as he tugged.
He yanked and nothing happened.
He pulled with steady pressure and felt the rope ease down over his right hand. Again he tugged. And with the binds freed Duo fell to the ground.
This was when the dragon came.

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