Visions From the Shadows-A Second Vision of Escaflowne
Disclaimer: I do no own the rights to Vision of Escaflowne. The story you right is posted for pleasure and, not now or ever, profit. Enjoy!
Prolog
'Ugh, my neck. By the Gods it hurts. Hang on now, I'm alive. How can this be? The last thing I remember is two very strong hands around my neck and the life being strangled out of me. The stupid fool assassin must have not bothered to check for a pulse. Thank the Gods that he was rushed, stupid or forgetful. Wait a minute, the last thing I remember was fighting Van Fanel in that thrice-damned guymelef of his. He somehow discovered where I was and destroyed mine. I was injured and ran to seek shelter. Then the hands.'
'WAIT A MINUTE!!!' He thought, his eyes still closed with the discipline of the solider that he was. 'If that's the case I'm still in Freid! I've got to figure how to get out of wherever in the name of damnation I am. Then, I need to get back aboard the Vione.'
Rafal was pissed off. He didn't see what the hell he did to deserve this kind of duty? According to his platoon leader, he'd run up too high a tab and owed too my debts at the local taverns, but so what! He and other solders in the Freidian Army had done the same. Sure, he was the last one to pay them off before Zaibach stormed in and all the powers of Damnation itself broke loose. It wasn't like he wasn't going to pay the greedy old buzzards back, but how could he if there was a war going on around his ears. Okay, they were old debts that should've been paid off long ago, but that were never a problem in the past. Then that runt Chid ascended to the throne after his father, the Duke had gloriously died in battle, a martyr to the war. Almost right away after the Zaibachs left, he started changing things, little things, that he guessed were supposed to make himself look good to the people who thought that the Dukedom would be ruled by his advisors, as opposed to him.
One of those things was demanding that all his troops pay any and all debts that were owed to the merchants. This was a result of those troops who had died in the Battle of Fortuna Temple who had no money and no heirs left big debts in the wake. Chid were good enough to pay them off out of the Royal Treasury, but when he demanded his troops pay off all debts by the end of every month. Rafal was the only poor bastard left big debts and no money to pay them until next month. Chid himself had told Rafal's platoon leader that the Royal Treasury would pay off the debt, but only after he was assigned to extra guard duty for the rest of the month until next pay day. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after over two weeks, a month after the final battle against Zaibach, this nonsense was starting to grate on him. Here he was a veteran squad leader, having to stand guard duty like some come rookie foot solider, and in front of the healer's recovery section no less! Supposedly, the patient he was guarding was someone important to Zaibach during the war. One of those "Dragonslayers" that psychotic bastard Albatou commanded. They had found him around the time the "Real Duke", as Rafal liked to call him, had returned just in time to be thrown in the firestorm that was the Battle of Fortuna Temple, having almost been strangle to death. The only way anyone knew who he was the Zaibach armor he wore. They should've let the Son of a Bitch die after all the death, destructiveness, and lost friends and family members they caused! The problem was that the war was over and this guy was in a coma on top of everything else!! What the in the name of the Underworld was he going to do, sleepwalk his way into Duke Chid's chambers and assassinate him? He could understand Chid wanting to interrogate him later, but if he doesn't wake up, then what?
In the end, Rafal decided that he was just being made an example and just deal with it. The tavern keeper would get theirs when troops who didn't have cash at the time would just stay home as opposed to running up a tab and pay it in full later. Money was money, and whether they got it now or later the stupid old fools would be getting a lot less of it in the future. Maybe when they.
*CRASH*
'What in the name of Atlantis was THAT!?!' Rafal thought as he turned into the recovery quarters.
When he looked inside, his jaw would've hit the floor if it could at what he saw. The comatose Zaibach POW was gone and the thin wooden grating over the window had been smashed. He looked out the window, but his charge had escaped in the peak of shopping hour at the bazaar. The crowd had simply swallowed him up. As Rafal turned to inform the guard commander in the lower levels, he wondered how much extra duty it would take to get out of THIS mess!
Disclaimer: I do no own the rights to Vision of Escaflowne. The story you right is posted for pleasure and, not now or ever, profit. Enjoy!
Prolog
'Ugh, my neck. By the Gods it hurts. Hang on now, I'm alive. How can this be? The last thing I remember is two very strong hands around my neck and the life being strangled out of me. The stupid fool assassin must have not bothered to check for a pulse. Thank the Gods that he was rushed, stupid or forgetful. Wait a minute, the last thing I remember was fighting Van Fanel in that thrice-damned guymelef of his. He somehow discovered where I was and destroyed mine. I was injured and ran to seek shelter. Then the hands.'
'WAIT A MINUTE!!!' He thought, his eyes still closed with the discipline of the solider that he was. 'If that's the case I'm still in Freid! I've got to figure how to get out of wherever in the name of damnation I am. Then, I need to get back aboard the Vione.'
Rafal was pissed off. He didn't see what the hell he did to deserve this kind of duty? According to his platoon leader, he'd run up too high a tab and owed too my debts at the local taverns, but so what! He and other solders in the Freidian Army had done the same. Sure, he was the last one to pay them off before Zaibach stormed in and all the powers of Damnation itself broke loose. It wasn't like he wasn't going to pay the greedy old buzzards back, but how could he if there was a war going on around his ears. Okay, they were old debts that should've been paid off long ago, but that were never a problem in the past. Then that runt Chid ascended to the throne after his father, the Duke had gloriously died in battle, a martyr to the war. Almost right away after the Zaibachs left, he started changing things, little things, that he guessed were supposed to make himself look good to the people who thought that the Dukedom would be ruled by his advisors, as opposed to him.
One of those things was demanding that all his troops pay any and all debts that were owed to the merchants. This was a result of those troops who had died in the Battle of Fortuna Temple who had no money and no heirs left big debts in the wake. Chid were good enough to pay them off out of the Royal Treasury, but when he demanded his troops pay off all debts by the end of every month. Rafal was the only poor bastard left big debts and no money to pay them until next month. Chid himself had told Rafal's platoon leader that the Royal Treasury would pay off the debt, but only after he was assigned to extra guard duty for the rest of the month until next pay day. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after over two weeks, a month after the final battle against Zaibach, this nonsense was starting to grate on him. Here he was a veteran squad leader, having to stand guard duty like some come rookie foot solider, and in front of the healer's recovery section no less! Supposedly, the patient he was guarding was someone important to Zaibach during the war. One of those "Dragonslayers" that psychotic bastard Albatou commanded. They had found him around the time the "Real Duke", as Rafal liked to call him, had returned just in time to be thrown in the firestorm that was the Battle of Fortuna Temple, having almost been strangle to death. The only way anyone knew who he was the Zaibach armor he wore. They should've let the Son of a Bitch die after all the death, destructiveness, and lost friends and family members they caused! The problem was that the war was over and this guy was in a coma on top of everything else!! What the in the name of the Underworld was he going to do, sleepwalk his way into Duke Chid's chambers and assassinate him? He could understand Chid wanting to interrogate him later, but if he doesn't wake up, then what?
In the end, Rafal decided that he was just being made an example and just deal with it. The tavern keeper would get theirs when troops who didn't have cash at the time would just stay home as opposed to running up a tab and pay it in full later. Money was money, and whether they got it now or later the stupid old fools would be getting a lot less of it in the future. Maybe when they.
*CRASH*
'What in the name of Atlantis was THAT!?!' Rafal thought as he turned into the recovery quarters.
When he looked inside, his jaw would've hit the floor if it could at what he saw. The comatose Zaibach POW was gone and the thin wooden grating over the window had been smashed. He looked out the window, but his charge had escaped in the peak of shopping hour at the bazaar. The crowd had simply swallowed him up. As Rafal turned to inform the guard commander in the lower levels, he wondered how much extra duty it would take to get out of THIS mess!