Duo did feel guilty about leaving that poor Cadet to face his Captain’s wrath alone but there had been nothing else for it. He knew he could not stay near those soldiers for very long, he could stay around no one for very long.

He sighed, resigning himself to his isolation as he walked further away from the campsite.

He was not sure what was happening at first but after a while he became aware of the slight tingle in the back of his mind which meant Shinigami was awake again. He frowned and stopped walking. He had not noticed it before but, when he had been at that camp Shinigami had been...Peaceful. For the first time in his life Duo had not felt her crawling around in his mind.

Now, the further away from the soldiers he progressed, the more incessant Shinigami’s rumblings became. She was scratching at him like an angry cat, hissing and spitting as he advanced away from the hunting party.

He stopped walking and turned back to view the path he had made through the undergrowth. Shinigami was trying to pull him back along that path, mewing and squawking angrily at him.

He put the ball of his hand to his forehead and cursed himself. He was being stupid. He could not go back to the camp, they were hunting him for Hells Sake! He turned sharply on his heel and headed onwards, diligently ignoring the yowling, angry demon in his head.

*****

Quatre stared dejectedly after his superiors as they all but disappeared in front of him with Sandrock in reluctant tow. As punishment for slanderous comments against an officer, the young cadets had been subjected to the most rigorous ‘going over’ Lieutenant Barton had ever dished out and now, muddied and dirty, he trudged after them, alone and exhausted towards the nearest town. He was limping slightly.

It had taken a lot of effort on the part of his leaders to tether Sandrock to the saddle of Captain Yuy’s horse, a brown mare named Ka. (Wing will trot along soon, promise!) The Unicorn had kicked up one hell of a fuss which had resulted in Lieutenant Barton’s steed, Valtrose, bolting. It had taken a full hour to find the horse again and both riders were royally pissed.

And now he had to walk to the town of Gilagamore on foot, with no supplies and be there by nightfall!

He halted and shifted the weight of his pack on his back. What had he done to deserve this? To deserve them!?

*****

The town of Gilagamore could only be called a town for one reason. It had more than one blacksmith.

The main town centre consisted of a crude, cobbled town square with an ornate fountain, which had not worked in years, in the centre. The square was surrounded with shops selling weaponry, clothes and supplies to any and all. The two smithies were at either end of the square, directly opposite, competing for business.

Right now, however, it was the Inn which drew Captain Yuy and his band-minus-one of not-so-much-merry-as-filty-and-bad-tempered hunters. They sat around a small table, staring with blurry eyes into their ales. Trowa idly wondered how long it would take his Cadet to join them.

A thin layer of smoke hung low in the air from the fire over which a pig seemed to be ineffectually roasting. The clientele of the establishment sat hunched over their tables, talking in hushed tones and trying not to be noticed by the soldiers. This was fine with our hero's because they would prefer not to notice them. If they noticed them, they may have had to do something more productive than swilling ale and collapsing unconscious. Without that slip of a boy around, they were not forced to keep their professional air longer than necessary.

Except for Captain Yuy of course, who sat rigidly to attention behind his mug, eyes roving across the room nonstop. Wufei watched him from the corner of his eye in a concerned way. He had never seen Heero so jumpy. Every time the door opened or a chair scraped back, his eyes would dart to the source of the noise and then sag in relief.

Wufei trusted Heero, of course he did, he had never met a man who could fight, lead or track as well as Yuy but this new attitude worried him. Wufei did not have many friends, he regarded them as a weakness, but he counted Heero among the few he possessed. As a result, he made it his responsibility to be a source of advice and support for his Captain. Heero, he knew, was a man who knew his limits and was not ashamed to ask for aid when he needed it.

"Heero?" The Captain turned to glare at his Tracker, his eyes uncharacteristically...jumbled. "Is something amiss?"

Heero blinked and his shoulders sagged slightly, his usual cold fire returning to his eyes. He ran a hand through his already tousled hair.

"No." He replied, picking up his drink. "I just had a bad feeling, like something was going to happen." He took a long pull from his ale to calm himself and was about to suggest they see about some lodgings when a figure drew up alongside their table.

The figure was definitely female, judging from her short purple hair and bright eyes. She was trying to glide mysteriously up to them but the long winter cloak she wore against the evening chill hampered her progress. After a while she gave up and settled for looming.

"Are you," she began in haunting tones, "Captain Heero.....Heero.....Oh damn it!" She pulled back her cloak to reveal a long white dress which was obviously made more for ceremony than comfort, and a pair of sandals. She fumbled around in the pocket of her cloak and Heero fancied he heard the rustle of paper. "Yuy." The girl murmured to herself. "Are you Captain Heero Yuy?"

"I am." Heero replied, suppressing an odd urge to roll his eyes.

"Oh good!" She said in far more normal tones. "I am so glad! You wouldn’t have thought there were so many Inns named the Dragons Head would you? Anyway." She coughed and drew herself up to her full height - which was not that much different from her normal height.

"I have been sent by the Powers that Be to inform you of your Destiny." (Hey! I made a rhyme!) Heero raised an eye brow. So, this girl was an Oracle? That did explain the strange garb.

Oracles were well respected in the Sank Kingdom (*Hangs head in shame* I couldn’t think of anything else to call it!) and it was generally acknowledged that seven times out of ten they were half way right, or at least on the right lines. Ok, so most people ignored them as insane ramblers but it was traditional to hear them out and give them food for their trouble. Heero had lost count of the number of times he had been accosted by a hungry Oracle who had told him he would get wet that day, when it looked like rain, just to get food.

This girl, however, was totally unlike any of the other Oracles he had ever seen. For one, the other Oracle’s did not wear great long travelling cloaks in summer or have a shock of messy purple hair. The girl gave him another bright smile and continued in that same semi-mystic tone.

"I have come to you to - Opps!" She opened her cloak again and began to rummage through its impossibly large pocket. The three Hunters watched in interest as she examined handfuls of various rare herbs for a few minutes until she apparently found what she was looking for.

She raised her hand and gave them a bright smile. "Here it is!" She threw the herb to the floor. Where it exploded.

Five minute later they emerged from the Inn along with the rest of it’s patrons and a large cloud of foul smelling smoke.

Wufei lent against a wall, taking deep gulps of air and watching Trowa tend to the knee he had banged on several tables on the way to the exit. The Oracle emerged with them, her face slightly green and her eyes watering.

"That wasn’t the right one." She wheezed before doubling over in a coughing fit. Heero glared as he removed his jacket from over his mouth and nose.

"Who the hell are you!?" Wufei demanded loudly.

Between hacking coughs the Oracle explained; "My name is *cough* Hilde *cough* I was sent to *cough* give you *cough* this!" She held out a hand, trying not to vomit. She held what, at first sight, looked like a silver collar and leash. At second glance Heero confirmed that it was, in fact, a silver collar and leash. He frowned.

"I’m sorry." He said carefully. "I’m not into that sort of thing." Trowa grabbed the edge of Wufei’s shirt and stuffed it underneath his suddenly bloody nose.

"What- Oh! Eeew! No!" Hilde said, staring at Heero with a mixture of horror and surprise - The surprise coming mainly from the fact that she thought he was into that sort of thing. "It’s not for you! It’s for use on Shinigami!"

"What is Shinigami?" Wufei asked, snatching his shirt tale back.

"The beast you are tracking. It is an ancient demon named Shinigami, the harbinger of Death." Silence. Hilde sighed. "Do I really have to tell you the legend of the Shinigami?" Three nods. Hilde sighed again and settled herself on the wall surrounding the town well.

"Seven life times ago there was a man named Jaroth. There was nothing strange or different about him except that his one true love was another man, Yanten. They lived together for a time until, one night Yanten disappeared without trace. The stricken Jaroth searched the world twice over for his lost love until one day, just as he gave up hope, he found him in the capital of this very land. His love had married the daughter of a local lord because he was unable to face up to the fact that he loved another man.

"Horrified, the heartbroken young man fled the capital to the forest where he met the demon Shinigami. He begged her to take him and so she made a pact of vengeance with him. She took him from that mortal coil and merged with him so that she would be reborn with him and the two would take revenge on the unfaithful Yanten and his new wife, Salandra.

"Unbeknownst to Jaroth, Yanten realised after seeing his love again that he could not be without him and he followed him to the forest. Alas, he was to late, by the time he found his love, he was dead. Shinigami told him what she had done and in a fit of grief he slew the beast.

"Just when he thought all was lost an Oracle appeared before him and told him that only he could free his love from the curse of Shinigami. The Oracle took a shard of the grief stricken lover’s soul and crafted it into the very Scythe Shinigami wields so that he could protect him always until their souls met again and the curse was broken.

"The beast you seek, is the reincarnation of the cursed Jaroth. Only this collar can tame Shinigami and break the curse which binds them together. I have been sent because now is the time for the beast to rest eternally. It is up to you, to fit the collar about the neck of the demon, before it is to late and the creature exacts his revenge on Yanten and Salandra."

*****