[Escaflowne] The Dragon, The Slayer and The Attendant 2
Title: The Dragon, The Slayer and The Attendant
Author: foxinsocks92
Rating: PG-13 to M
Warnings: Some adult themes, Violence though hopefully not too much blood and gore, and maybe some OOCness of the some of the characters
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Escaflowne or anything else to do with the series and movie.
//blah// This is mind speak. This is what Van uses. The rest is just normal (speech marks, etc.)
//blah// This is mind speak as well but I’m using this as how Dilandau communicates with Van. Makes things a bit easier.
Pairings will come later as none are really established as of this moment, but the general idea is put in the summary anyway so you should have an idea of what’s coming. Hope anyone who reads this enjoys it.
(x) (O) (x)
“Millerna? What’s going on? Who’s this?” “Hitomi, meet Van. Van, meet Hitomi,” she introduced. Hitomi looked at the young boy as his head came forward and his burning burgundy-red eyes bored into her.
//Hello Prayer of the Wing Goddess. It is good to finally meet you. I am Van Fanel.//
(x) (O) (x)
“W-wait…your lips didn’t move.”
//Of course not.// Came that strange voice in her head again. But then, it didn’t sound like a voice. More the words just landed in her head, almost like she’d read them, but she knew that they’d come from the boy, Van, in front of her.
“Hitomi, stop ogling him and help me get him up and to our room. I’ve got bandages and such there.” Millerna ordered. “So what’s the damage this time?”
//Few fractures, possibly something broken, I’m not sure. He kicked a lot. Just put it that way…//
“Hitomi!” “Oh…sorry” Hitomi mumbled and shuffled over, taking Van’s other arm. They pulled him up to his feet. The boy’s head fell, panting. “C’mon, stop staring and help me!” The blonde woman ordered once more and starting walking. Hitomi had no choice but to follow.
They lay him on one of the larger sofas, with a towel underneath in case of a lot of blood. Millerna raced into her rooms, leaving Hitomi to study the boy. He looked to be taller than her, his hair was messy like it’d never been brushed. His body was wiry and slim, there didn’t look to be much muscle tone on his arms and his face was handsome, or would have been if it hadn’t been so sunken in. But his eyes were unreal. They swirled with wildness, anger, sadness, and a thousand different things. But at this moment, they were shut.
//You’re staring at me, Miss Kanzaki. Is this something you want?//
He opened one eye slowly, looking back her. “N-no! …How did you know my name?”
//I live here, and I know many things about the people who come here//
“Oh stop being silly Van, and stop talking, you’re giving me a headache. You’re broadcasting too loud and openly. Everyone in the same room and even probably Dilandau can hear you!” Millerna scolded as she entered the room, this time with bandages, salve, needle and thread.
//Sorry. I’ll stop, I can’t concentrate.//And with that he stayed silent. “Millerna? Why doesn’t he just talk normally?” “Never mind now. I’ll explain it all later. Do me a favour and take his shirt and belt off, thanks.” “W-WHAT?!” she shrieked. “Don’t be such a sissy. Nothing’ll happen to you.” Hitomi wanted to object at half stripping the boy in front of her. But Millerna’s gaze just said ‘Do it, or else’. Didn’t give her much option.
She turned back to Van, to see him smirking. She glared at him and grabbed his belt buckle, and started fumbling with the buckle. “Why doesn’t he do it himself?” she mumbled. A few minutes with no success, thin tanned hands came down and took it form her undoing it in one go and slipping it off. She looked up to see his eyes clenched shut, panting and pain lines along his face.
She pulled out the belt, and then clutching the hem of his shirt, pulled it up slowly and drew his arms up so she could pull the shirt off altogether. She looked down at his face, to see a slight blush race along the top of his cheekbones. She stole a glimpse at the skin revealed and was shocked to see the tan colour a sickly ashen colour, ribs in easy view and small waist. She looked back at Van’s face again. His blush has deepened to a dark red.
“All done Millerna…” “Thanks.” The princess moved over to the couch with the antiseptic and started dabbing it on the worst cuts. One was a large gauge in his flesh across his stomach that bled profusely. “Hitomi, keep put this on the cuts. Don’t look.” She came over and took the bottle and swab from Millerna. She cringed when she saw the needle enter Van’s skin and Millerna started to suture the gash, with no way to numb the pain. She resolutely looked the other way.
“That’s just gross.” She said, grimacing as Van’s laughter echoed in her head.
(x) (O) (x)
Van had lain there dozing for a while, until he’d said that Dilandau was calling for him and left the room moving slowly, his movements even looked painful. She didn’t want to think what it would be like to actually experience the pain that he was going through. Though she hadn’t seen him flinch or even tense slightly when Millerna had sowed up his gash without anything to numb it. If he’d been unconscious then it would have explained it, but she knew he wasn’t. His eyes had been open and following her movements.
“What was that all about?”
“It’s a long story…”
“We have time.”
(x) (O) (x)
Van limped out the front door, his arm around his ribs, holding them tight. Even with the bandage around them, they hurt. But then so did everything. But he was used to the pain. He’d lived with Dilandau for so many years, that he didn’t bother to remember or count. He’d had hope that something would happen and he could get away from him, but that had never happened and Dilandau had steadily grown worse in the treatment of him and he’d lost his hope.
“Ahh…You’re finally here. What took you so long?”
//You know what Dilandau. Take a wild guess//
Dilandau's face turned nasty and he stalked over, smacking Van to the ground. “Don’t be smart with me,” He growled. “Now, I need you to find this man, as soon as possible. Kill him and anyone who may have told him the descriptions of the Gatti and Chesta and well, anyone else you think might send a party back here looking for something.”
Van nodded and moved further into the courtyard and stood still. Dilandau watched from behind as his skin started to turn bright white, his body change shape and his hair and clothes disappear. In under a minute Van was gone and in his place was a large pearl white dragon.
//Go…kill…// The dragon sighed, smoke come out of it’s muzzle before flexing it long wings and flying in to the sky.
(x) (O) (x)
Knock Knock!
“Come in!” Millerna and Hitomi called. The door swung open, with Dryden and Eries on the other side. Dryden looked at the two young girls sitting on the floor. “You look very serious, girls. Is something wrong?” “No Dryden. Hitomi had her first encounter with Van,” Millerna said, her tone quiet, thoughtful almost.
“Well Hitomi, Millerna. It’s time for dinner so why don’t you three talk in the hall? I’d rather not just stand around here all night. Some of us are hungry,” Eries said, impatiently. She cocked a hip, one hand on said hip and her face’s expression, annoyed. She’d never been very tolerant really, though she could be nice when she exercised those emotions. It just took a lot of persuasion…and hopefully alcohol if you could get some and have her drink it.
“Come. Food awaits and I’m sure your hungry Hitomi, since you don’t appear to have eaten since you came here,” Dryden smiled and walked from the door, with Eries following. Millerna hurried after them with Hitomi just behind.
(x) (O) (x)
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to greet you this afternoon, Hitomi. I trust you don’t mind,” Dryden started. The attendant shook her head, “Of course not. You’re a busy man, I’m sure you would have been there in you could…and I didn’t expect Eries to be there anyway, either!” Eries made a face and continued to eat the food before her.
“So, are your rooms to your liking or would you like them changed?” “I-I…haven’t actually looked at them yet. I’ve just seen the sitting room I share with Eries and Millerna.” “Is that all?” Eries said, shocked. “But You’re been here for a good few hours. What have you been doing with yourself?”
“I mentioned before, sister, that we met up with Van,” Millerna said, between mouthfuls, her tone not quite condescending. But the almost-jib wasn’t taken seriously by anyone at the table, for the smile on her face. “Ahh…so you met Van. You did say something about it before, but I was sidetracked. A man’s stomach is a powerful thing after all,” Dryden winked.
Hitomi and Millerna giggled quietly. “So, what did you think of Van. It was the first time you met him, I assume…?” he asked. “Uh…yeah it was…he was…” She couldn’t even make a whole sentence. How to describe? “She met him after one of his er…accidents, Dryden,” Millerna’s tone was sad, and she was just looking at her plate.
“Is that normal?” Hitomi burst out. Dryden nodded, sagely. “There’s nothing we can really. He may protect this place and a few others close by, along with Dilandau, but in the end, there’s nothing we can do to get in-between the two.” “But why?! It’s cruel!” “We know, Hitomi, but as blood magic goes, Van is Dilandau’s ‘property’.” Eries said, her voice serene, like this was nothing new to her. And then…it probably wasn’t. “But blood magic was outlawed years ago. You’re only allowed to use it with Draconians and they died out centuries ago!”
“That’s not quite true, Prayer. Welcome to the temple,” an unfamiliar and scarily cold and silken voice came from behind her. Hitomi turned to see the front of the silver haired man she’d seen leave that room earlier and who had done all that damage to Van. Millerna had been correct. He was quite handsome, but in a cruel way.
“Let me introduce myself. I am Dilandau Albatou, Keeper of the last Draconian, Van Fanel and Protector of this temple. Welcome.”
(x) (O) (x)
Two lone riders were travelling through the forest, laughing as their horses walked, slowly and relaxingly through the surrounding forest of their base. They were a recon team. They were sent out once a day, at noon, just as the other team arrived back and returned to the fort at 4 where the same thing happened again with, yet another, recon team.
“So Richmond came back all by himself, and races through the halls, uniform ripped, blood all over him and looking half crazy, demanding to see the Commander. Of course, considering he was part of the team that was sent to do a sneak attack on the temple, before the next force came in to total the place, they let him. Anyway apparently only 2 people had been sent to kill them. And they succeeded except for him. Lucky Richy, eh?” he gawfed.
“So do you think they’ll send anyone after him?” “I doubt it, considering he’s already back here, and well that temple, they’re such wusses. They never do anything but defend.” “But you said yourself, they sent someone to attack those men,” the second man pointed out. “Mmm…maybe it was a one off or something. Either way there’s nothing we can do about it.”
After a few minutes of silence the second man stopped, urging his partner to do the same. “I heard something…” They stopped and listened. Nothing happened, when they heard again, a noise. It sounded strange, like something on the wind almost. “Maybe it’s a bird or something…A big bird.” The first guy said, his voice wobbling slightly.
The noise came closer before stopping. They looked around, and could see nothing. The looked up and… something was landing in front of them. A very big white something…with wings. “T-that’s…That’s a DRAGON!! RUN!” The first man screamed, but before they could go anywhere, the white dragon blew a ball of fire at the trees surrounding them, before bringing out his claws to full length and slashing them, almost in half.
The dragon changed into a young boy with raven hair. He looked at the remains and walked away, leaving the bleeding remains of a very dead recon team.
(x) (O) (x)
The boy crept through the shadows of the fort, passing guards, nobles and civilians a like. This place was like a town in one very large building. He looked around carefully, making sure no one could see him as he entered each room, and probed a few minds that passed as to where his target was hiding. He had been ordered to slaughter mindlessly, but he wouldn’t. Not while he was human.
No, he’d stay to the bare minimum of the rules. He’d been told to kill whoever got in his way, the target and possibly whoever else might know the faces of the men. He opted not to bother with killing anyone but the target, if he could help it. He had enough blood on his hands; he didn’t need more.
He finally came to a room at the back of the base, hidden in the maze of corridors and turns. But he’d made it, and unscathed and he was hoping to remain that way as he left. He opened the door, and the man inside jumped around, scanning the room, panicked, but could see nothing. His head kept whipping from side to side, when it suddenly occurred to him to look up.
But as he did, it was too late and a lithe body fell onto his and jammed a dagger into his heart, ruthlessly. He stared at the burgundy eyes that were boring into his own. //I’m sorry//.
TBC