Author's note: I wrote this really late at night and it's the first story I've written and up-loaded. So I would really appreciate reviews. Thx, ^.^
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne etc. Etc.
Alone in Blood
Hot crimson drops fell to the ground. Each one splattered on the cold floor. He stood still watching them fall. The sight pleased him in some sick, cruel way. Blood. The liquid of life. Each drop was a small death. A small smile spread across his lips. His eyes remained focused on the blood. A puddle of it had formed, collecting in a pool at his feet. Candle light flickered and danced eerily across the pool of blood. Fire and blood. Destruction. His smiled grew and a wild fiery look filled his eyes.
"Lord Dilandau-" the boy in the doorway stopped. "You're hurt!"
"no." His voice was a whisper. The boy moved forward with the intention to help. "I said no! I'm not hurt." Dilandau's words were like blades. The boy stopped in his tracks, he looked at the blood then stepped back.
"Lord Dilandau, Folken has sent me to get you." The boy looked up, "would you like me to help-" the boy was sprawled across the floor so quickly he barely new what hit him. Scurrying away he dabbed at his nose, the back of Dilandau's hand had blooded it.
"Go away!" the leader of the Dragon Slayers snarled. "Leave me alone! Tell Folken that I don't want to be disturbed! If he needs to talk to me he can come here himself! And as for you... don't ever question me! Ever!" when the boy hesitated Dilandau threw the candle at him shattering the holder on the wall. He left hurriedly and closed the door behind him.
The room was dark. Dilandau looked at his hand, illuminated in the moonlight. A long slit marred his pale palm. The blood had began to clot and stopped flowing smoothly. His body was beginning to heal. He was used to pain. He some how hoped that by causing physical pain he might relieve some of the emotional pain he felt. He stood for long moments gazing at the mystic moon that filled the night sky. Then he let out a cry of frustration and pain. Dilandau threw everything off the table and kicked it over. He pulled out his sword and cut it in two, then into splinters of wood.
Dilandau stood, panting, breath ragged with overwhelming rage and emotion. He dropped his sword and collapsed onto the cold floor. Tears streamed down his face, and yet he laughed. The urge to kill was so strong, but he was so alone. So alone. All alone.
***
Folken listened to what to boy said then sent him to clean himself up. So Dilandau was lost in a fitful rage of depression again. It seemed to be happening more often lately. The dragon slayers he had been so close to now felt separated from him. Dilandau would spend hours in his room alone. Just last week Folken had walked in to see the boy laughing maliciously in front of a roaring fire that had been him bed. He had destroyed countless things in his room, and often refused to wear anything other that his battle gear.
Folken had always know the boy Dilandau was bloodthirsty and destructive. But he had made a suitable leader for the Dragon slayers. The fifteen elite fighters under his control respected and trusted Dilandau. The were completely loyal to him. Folken knew that such loyalty was a rare thing. Dilandau had treated them fairly and aloud them to have his trust. His dangerous mood swings worried Folken. Perhaps the boy wasn't as stable as he seemed, or maybe the killing was finally getting to him. He was after all only fifteen. But Folken doubted that Dilandau would ever see anything morally wrong with killing.
His thoughts were interrupted by scratching at his door. He turned from the window he had been looking out.
"Enter,"
The two cat sisters walked in. They moved with grace only a feline could posses.
"Lord Folken," the sisters said together, bowing their heads in submission.
"Have we interrupted you?" Eriya said worried. Her gold hair sliding forward.
"No. You are always welcome here girls." Folken smiled his rare smile. The two purred with delight. Each coming up on either side of him. Folken acknowledged them but his mind seemed else where.
"Dilandau is not well. Is that what bothers you my lord?" Naria whispered, her eyelids drooped as her lips brushed his ear.
"It concerns me to some extent." Folken answered. He closed his eyes in deep thought. The sister cats seemed to exist within the very air around him. Naria stroked his face.
"Have we come at a bad time?" her eyes were filled with false hurt.
"Maybe we should leave...." Eriya pulled away. The two of the looked down at their lord. They seemed the picture of innocence and seduction all at the same time. Folken looked at them both. Troubles of the Ziabach empire had clouded his mind. A break was something he needed and deserved as well.
"No. I would enjoy your company tonight Naria, Eriya. I am I need of relaxation and peace. Stay with me."
They smiled as if they had known the answer even before the question had been asked. Perhaps they had. Dilandau would wait until tomorrow, maybe he would cool down by then.
***
It was the middle of the night, no one was awake. A few guards stood at their posts fighting off sleep. Most lost. Dilandau walked quickly to the docking bay and spotted his gymelef. He noticed that the guards in this area were asleep. A cruel smile spread across his lips. He jumped into his gymelef and closed the hatch. The hiss of steam and clunking of metal was so familiar. That sound meant battle was near. which meant to Dilandau that their would be blood, and fire. Blood, fire and death.
Dilandau was sure someone had seen him, or heard him by now but it didn't matter. They would recognize his gymelef and think he had some important mission. It wouldn't be until the morning that he would be discovered.
His melef dropped into the air and flew down towards the forest below. Adrenaline filled his system and Dilandau began to laugh. Laugh, not the way normal fifteen year olds laugh, joking with their friends, but the crazy laughter of a killer. A tortured laugh filled with hate and anger.
A loud hissing jerked Dilandau out of his blood thirsty rage. The gymelef had gone stiff. He was heading towards the ground at an uncontrollable speed. A wave of fear washed over him. There was something wrong with Alseides! He couldn't control it! It was spinning down to Gaea without a any sign of stopping. Panic swam up from within him, he began hitting controls and switches hoping something would help him.
"N-no! Noooo!! Gatti!! Migel!!! Ahhh!!" Dilandau didn't realize it but he had turned on the com-link and the floating fortress was receiving his desperate cries.
***
Folken sat up. He pulled on his cloak and walked over to the door. The loud knocking continued. Naria and Eriya watched, ears pricked forward. He opened the door.
"What is it that you call me at this hour?" Folken couldn't keep all of the irritation out of his voice.
"Lord Folken!" the guard looked out of breath. "Alseides left the docking bay and seems to be in some sort of flight trouble, the captain sent me to get you." He glanced at the two cat girls then back at the lord.
"All right, lets go." Folken followed the guard at a quick pace. Naria caught up with him.
"What's going on?" she bit her lip in concern.
"Dilandau appears to have taken his gymelef for a nighttime flight. I suspect that he did not know it was under repair and had not been completely restored." Folken looked grim, he added quietly, "I just hope he hasn't gone so far as to want to burn whole cities."
"Dilandau is a strange boy." Naria slowed when they reached the hanger. The captain and a few of the Dragon Slayers stood there. Folken recognized Migel, the boy walked over and bowed swiftly to him.
"Lord Dilandau has turned off his communication device. We cannot contact him." He paused. "I wanted to send people after him but I was told to await your order."
Folken stepped forward, looking out the window and the descending Alseides.
"You may go after him."
A buzz caught their attention. One of the other boys whispered, "did he turn on the com-link?"
"N-no! Noooo!! Gatti!! Migel!!! Ahhh!!" Dilandau's voice echoed in the room. Migel tore off in the direction of his melef. Folken peered out the window. He could hear the voices of the people around him calling out for the young leader.
The red suit crashed through the trees and bush. There was a pause, then blue flames erupted all around the fallen Alseides in an explosion. Folken's eyes widened and the people around him seemed to fade out. He was vaguely aware of Naria's touch. In some ways Dilandau was like the brother Van would never be.
He watched the flames, burning cold, like Dilandau had been.
*