Crazy (1/?) B/Willow

["Ivy Gort" <ivygort@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I really don't know what this story is trying to do. It seems to be just a
bunch of rambling thoughts thrown together with no coherent order to it.
It's taken me over two days to write this much and I'd sure like some ideas
on where it wants to go.


Title: Crazy
Author: Ivy Ivygort@xxxxxxxxxxx
Feedback: Please. I live for it.
Spoilers: None really
Weekly Theme: Moon
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor do I claim ownership rights to
this fiction.
Archive: Anyone who wants it-just let me know.
Notes: The title said it all. As in I must be crazy for trying to a
Willow/Buffy fiction when so many other people on this list can do it
better.

Owl

Diana's bright moon peeks over the trees,
As a cold north wind rustles the dead leaves,
Owl stands as a silent sentry-a shade,
A shadow in the nighttime forest glade.

Is she from the other side-an envoy?
Guiding the lost souls to the light of joy?
Or a bird of bone, blood, and feathers,
A fighter, hunter, who's been tethered?

With a sudden soundless leap she takes flight,
To bring a lost one through the moonlit night.
Wise bird of honor watching from a tree,
Protecting all the fragile wisps you see. -D. Bouvier



Willow paced back and forth across the floor of her dorm room.

"Buffy where are you?" She asked the air nervously.

"You said no later than one." Willow turned and looked at the clock for the
millionth time in the past three hours. The bright green numbers said the
time was exactly fifteen seconds later than the last time she looked-4:01
AM.

Willow sat down on her bed staring at the phone wishing for it to ring.
Hoping against hope that Buffy would call her. Willow wanted to hear
Buffy's voice laugh and tell her she was at Giles' house getting stitched up
and had forgotten to call. The young Witch begged the fates that by dawn
she would be angry at Buffy for worrying her.

With a deep sigh, Willow sat back against the headboard of her bed and tried
to calm her racing heart. I'm not doing Buffy any good working myself up
into a panic, she thought morosely. Slow deep breaths, control the
breathing.

It wasn't working. The Witch jumped off the bed to begin her pacing circuit
of the small room again.

She looked at the clock; it flashed its cheery green numbers telling Willow
it was 4:04 AM.

"Ahh!" Willow nearly screamed. She knew something was wrong, she just knew
it.

She decided to change the pattern she was pacing in to include Buffy's side
of the room.

Willow chuckled to herself when she tripped over a huge sweatshirt that was
nowhere near Buffy's dirty clothes hamper. The old tattered navy blue
sweatshirt was thick and heavy and it was also about 4 sizes too big for
Buffy. It had belonged to her father, until she had stolen it over
Thanksgiving break when she had gone to LA to confront Angel.

In an unconscious quest for comfort Willow brought the shirt up to her face
as she remembered the pain on Buffy's face when Xander let it spill that
Angel had been protecting her but had stayed out of sight. The night she
returned from LA the Slayer had pulled out the shirt and slept in it ever
since.

Willow knew she was being pathetic, but she still couldn't stop herself from
smelling the shirt. Letting Buffy's essence wash over her and fill her
senses. Willow had loved Buffy for a long time, though; it was only after
Oz left that she realized she was in love with the beautiful slayer.

The Witch strolled back over to her bed, the shirt still gathered in her
arms, and sat down.

"Okay, Willow clear your mind and breathe deeply." The young girl leaned
back until she was against the headboard of her bed. Taking deep breaths,
she was able to relax and think of Buffy. Slowly, her vision dimmed, cotton
filled her ears as she entered into a trance state-a trance directed at the
object of her desire, the object of her love-her Slayer.

Agony raced through her, pain so intense she thought she was on fire. It
slammed into her chest and stopped her breath. Willow was thrown out of her
trance with such force she blacked-out.

When her vision cleared and her brain began to work she glanced at the
ever-present clock.

4:55AM

"What happened?" Then the remembered pain stole her breath away and she
looked down at her body expecting to see it burned.

"Oh God, Buffy, no." Willow now was sure that the she had made contact with
the slayer and it was the Buffy's pain that she felt.

Willow reached for the phone to call Giles. It took her three tries before
she could dial the correct number.

Ring. Willow panted, "pick-up, pick-up"

Ring. Her throat began to close as her heartbeat filled her head.

Ring. Panic.

"Hello."

Hope.

"You have reached the home of Rupert Giles. Please leave a message."

Defeat. Depression, her best friend was going to die.

"Giles, something's wrong with Buffy. I had a vision. Giles where are
you...." She forced the words out of her numb brain.

Willow sat back on her bed, she looked at the clock-5:01AM.

She closed her eyes and wished her best friend to be safely asleep in the
next bed. It had worked for Cordy; maybe it would work for her? She opened
her eyes-no luck.


Willow scooted forward to get up but stopped when she felt the forgotten
sweatshirt fall to the floor. As she reached down to pick it up she noticed
the handle to the First Aid kit that was stuffed under the bed out of the
way. It was a very complete First Aid with everything from injectable
morphine, to protein power bars, to a change of clothes for the slayer.
Being Buffy's friend meant, that on more than one occasion, Willow had been
pressed into service to tend the Slayer's wounds. What was shocking was
that even though the glorified bookbag contained all those things it was
rather light, weighing no more than 20 or so pounds. Or, as Willow thought
to herself contemplating something crazy, it wasn't as heavy as her
psychology and physiology textbooks.

She looked at the clock-5:15 AM.

Buffy was over 4 hours late. Buffy wasn't coming home. Giles was missing.
Xander didn't have a phone.

Crazy.

I am totally crazy to think I can rescue Buffy. The Witch thought as she
gathered up the First Aid kit, the sweatshirt, and her coat and left the
safety of the dorm.

Once outside in the cold pre-dawn air the Witch stopped as the task ahead of
her loomed. She turned around in a circle wondering where, on the huge
campus, was her best friend.

Something nudged at the back of her mind. She tried to calm her mind, tried
to settle it so she could feel what it was there. Nothing. Nothing was
there, it was just her imagination running wild, making her think she could
find Buffy just by wishing for it.

Then something shoved her. She looked around and the only thing she saw was
beautiful white Owl peering down at her.

Willow blinked at it confused.

It blinked at Willow knowingly.

Willow stared. She had never seen an Owl so close to her before.

The Owl stared back, wisely, appearing to be in no hurry.

Willow broke out of the shock that gripped her-what did it matter that the
most beautiful Owl in creation was less than three feet away from her-it
couldn't help her find Buffy.

The Owl shrieked denial then flew straight at Willow until she ducked. When
Willow looked up the Owl was sitting in another tree, further along the path
looking at her peacefully.

"Well, Duh, you were sent to led me to her?" Willow said to the bird
thinking about how most Wiccan's had totem animals or spirit animal guides.
She just never expected to be blessed with one.

The Owl seemed amused that it had taken Willow so long to figure things out.
The bird winked acknowledgment to the young Wiccan then took off and flew
down the path into the woods.

Willow followed the Owl into the deepest part of the forest. The white of
the Owl's feathers reflecting the crescent moon's surprisingly bright light.
The path, the Owl, everything was bathed in the soft moonlight-almost like
it was guiding her to her Slayer.

Crazy, she was crazy to think the moon was so bright because of her love for
Buffy. It was one thing to believe that a power animal was helping her, it
was delusional to believe the moon was also in cohorts with the Owl.

Willow felt a psychic chill as soon as she entered the clearing at the base
of a hill. The moon's light seemed to dim and the Owl stopped at a near by
tree. She saw the first body as she stepped out into the open, she could
tell right away it was a demon.

The next demon body was right next to an altar; the ritual flame
extinguished the ashes blowing in the wind. The third body, this one human
was draped over a standing stone; it-for Willow couldn't tell if it had been
a man or a woman-was gutted.

There were three other demons, dead by the far side of the altar. Still the
chill hung in the air and Willow knew that she didn't have much time to find
Buffy and get her to safety before the magical scavengers found the site.
If Buffy was injured, and by now, Willow could tell that her vision had been
true, then the scavenger's would go after the slayer because she innately
magical.

The east sky was just beginning to turn red when Willow saw what appeared to
be a small opening in the hillside. It was behind a bush and the only way
she noticed it was because it was a slightly darker patch of ground.

The witch crawled up the hillside on her hands and knees. When she reached
the opening she pulled the bush back and looked into the darkness. She
couldn't see anything, but the odor of blood and sickness nearly overwhelmed
her.

"Buffy?" Willow asked the darkness quietly, hopping that the hole wasn't the
den for a mountain lion.

Willow heard movement, cloth brushing against cloth, and then a choked cry
of pain.

The Witch cursed the fact that she forgot to bring a flashlight. A chant
pushed it's way into her mind-a chant that would help her focus her
energies.

Diana, goddess of the hunt
Protector of the lost
Give me a light
So I may see my love.

Willow recited the passage twice and a small white ball of light appeared in
the cave. The light hovered over the very sick slayer. The witch let out a
gasp at the sight before her.

Buffy was lying curled on her side in a pool of blood and something else
that Willow didn't want to contemplate. The Slayer's clothing was torn and
hung in rags on her body, exposing deep gashes on her legs and arms.

The gashes were deep and dirty but Buffy could easily recover from them.
No, what scared the Witch to the core of her being was what appeared to be
some kind of bite just below the knee on the slayer's leg. The wound was
swollen and red and Willow could tell that Slayer was running an extremely
high fever.

The Witch crawled further into the opening, so that she was lying behind the
injured girl.

"Buffy, can you hear me?" The red-haired Witch asked her friend.

"Willow?" Buffy weakly whispered. "You came? I knew you would come."

The weakness in her friend's voice broke Willow's heart.

"Buffy, I'm going to touch you-will you let me touch you?" The redhead
asked. Willow knew Buffy was empathic and the simple act of a touching her,
while she was injured could be dangerous. The slayer could knock her into
next week with just a flick of her wrist.

Willow saw the blonde head nod so she tentatively put her hand on Buffy's
shoulder. She left it there for a moment to give Buffy's slayer sense time
to identify her. The injured girl's shoulders tensed at the touch and then
relaxed.

The Witch turned her friend over and in the soft light she could the
slayer's face was sweaty and her skin clammy. Buffy was shivering and her
eyes were glazed. The floor of the cave was damp even as Willow lay there
she could feel the very real physical chill of the cold cave. Plus, she
could feel the psychic chill from the clearing permeating everything around
it. She had to get Buffy out there-soon-now--or all would be lost.

"Buffy, can you move at all?" The Witch asked. The slayer blinked in
confusion, Willow could tell it was taking all of Buffy's concentration to
focus on her question.

After a few moments the witch gave up on her friend being able to answer.
Deciding that there was really no choice, Willow pulled the injured girl
into a sitting position, causing the slayer to cry out in pain. Willow had
to ignore the agony she was causing her as started to drag her towards the
mouth of the cave.

The slayer gave Willow all the help she could but she was just too weak.
The sun was just breaking over the horizon as Willow pulled her friend from
the cave.

As soon as the two girls cleared the mouth, the Owl started shrieking. The
little light Willow had created flew towards the bird, circling it once and
then going to hover by a crow in a tree next to the Owl. When the Owl saw
that Willow noticed the crow-it blinked at her and then flew off so quickly
that it seemed to disappear into the rising sun.

The crow called a greeting to Willow.

Willow looked at the crow, wondering what to do next.

The crow pecked at the little light in front of it and then jumped back
flapping its wings in surprise when the light exploded into a hundred
sparks.

The crow then flew down to the ground to stand directly in front of Willow
and after puffing its feathers out, it proceeded to give the Wiccan a piece
of its mind.

After its diatribe on the Witch's light's ill manners the tiny crow got down
to business. Willow had the slayer propped up against her legs, keep the
blonde girl in a sitting position. The crow hopped into the slayer's lap
and immediately started squawking at her.

The slayer, who Willow had thought to be semi-conscious, clumsily tried to
slap at the irritating fowl. Only to upset her precarious balance and as
the crow hopped off, the slayer rolled down the small hill to its base.

The young Witch rushed down the hill as fast as she could but she still
couldn't beat the crow. The crow took flight and circled Willow's head
twice with smug enjoyment at its superior mode of transportation.

It then flew down to the moaning slayer, landing just out of her reach.
Once again, it started squawking at the slayer, only this time there was a
distinct taunting edge to its voice.

"I'm...going to...kill...." Buffy said to the bird, painfully getting to her
hands and knees and lunging after the slippery beast-only to end up face
down in the dirt.

The bird just laughed all the harder at the slayer's humiliation.

Willow could see the glazed look in Buffy's eyes being burned away as rage
filled her. The slayer staggered to her feet, crying out in pain as her
damaged leg gave out. The Witch rushed to her side supporting her, pulling
her close to her and placing an arm around Buffy's waist to help her stay
upright.

"Thanks Will," Buffy said as she leaned into the offered support, while her
eyes gleamed with murderous intent at the tiny black crow.

The crow acted like it could care less that a slayer was glaring at it as it
continued its teasing. Slowly hopping backward for every step the slayer
took forward--staying just out of girl's reach.

Willow heard the sound of a fight and for the first time realized that they
had left the clearing behind them. They had traveled at least a mile away
from where the battle between Buffy and the nameless demons had taken place.
The magical scavengers were fighting over the remains of the demons; Buffy
was safe.

She looked down at the crow, and the bird winked at her.

Willow was beginning to sag under the weight of the slayer. She thought
they had walked at least three more miles deeper into the woods, the little
crow leading the way. Buffy had, long ago, given up trying to catch the
bird. Willow could tell the slayer had figured out the bird's intention and
all her energy was put into just staying on her feet.



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