Escaflowne

The Final Kindred Spirit

Chapter 7

I found myself groaning as we moved, my necklace now resting around Folken's neck, light still shining brightly from the intricate and delicate looking blue stone. It seemed as though Folken were trying to climb the machine itself, scratch that, he was trying to climb it. I wincing as he made a jump, grabbing at one of the grooves in the armor, his grip slipping on my legs. I squealed, frightened as I held tightly to him, merely causing myself more pain. "Hold on Tatsumi, just hold on" he told me, continuing to climb up the large machine. After a few minutes, he finally managed to get on top of the shoulder, carefully setting me down. He knelt down beside me, gently placing a hand upon my cheek. "Are you alright now Tatsumi?" he asked kindly. I looked up at him, trying to hold back tears of pain, but a few slipped out.

"It hurts Lord Folken" I said, whimpering like a small child. It was pathetic really… He continued to look at me, a strange emotion lacing his eyes that I could not recognize.

"I promise Tatsumi…I'll get us out of here, okay?" he asked, giving me a small smile. I nodded my head slowly, trying to keep from hurting myself, but still winced in pain. He brushed some hair out of my face, placing it gently behind my ear, before standing up and turning to the machine. He took my necklace from his neck, wrapping it securely around his wrist as he examined the machine. He traced a long finger over one of the large gems, finding it to be as smooth as if it were cut yesterday. "How is this possible…?" he whispered quietly to himself.

Against my better judgment and against the obvious and utter pain in my body, I rose from my spot, walking over to him. I set down beside him, wincing as I did. "This is it…isn't Lord Folken?" I asked quietly. "The one from the vision?" He turned to look at me, nodding his head, answering my awaiting question wordlessly for a brief moment.

"That it is my dear, that it is" his voice spoke softly into the moist air around us, his eyes resting to lock on mine. "If I'm right, we're directly under one of the long abandoned cities. That means that we should be able to get out of here without too much of a problem" he told me, standing up and holding the stone out in front of him. "ARISE!" he called out, quickly grabbing hold of me as the stone glowed, coming loose from his wrist. It rose up a bit as Folken held me close to him, my back resting against his chest. We watched as the dragon armor slowly came to life. Folken quickly spread his feet a bit more, keeping us balanced as the armor shook a bit. Once it calmed down, the hatch opened up for us, allowing us inside. Folken snatched my necklace before we entered, placing it back around my neck. Once we entered, the hatch closed, a few lights suddenly coming on from a small council.

After looking around and checking the system, he stood upon the platform, turning to me with his hand extended. I took it, allowing him to pull me to him. That's when parts of the machine attempted to fuse around us. I let out a cry of pain as it squeezed on my leg. Almost as if sensing my dismay, it automatically let go, letting me collapse to my knees. Folken knelt down in front of me, looking at my leg. That's when he found that it was bleeding freely. How he had gone without noticing it, he didn't know, but he knew that he had to take care of it.

I closed my eyes, feeling as he removed a thin cut of rock from my leg. I squeezed my eyes shut further, tears falling from the pain. My hand was twitching as a result of this all. Quickly, Folken drew my face into his upper chest, whispering into my ear. "This is going to hurt…" Without second thought, he gave a sharp pull on my leg. A scream escaped my lips as he set the bone, tears streaming down my face from the pain. My head was buried in his shirt, my shoulders shaking as he kept my upper half firmly against him. "I apologize Tatsumi…but I had to do it" he said softly, kissing my hair, trying to comfort me. The pain was unbearable to the max. I had never felt such pain in my life, it was gut wrenching.

"I…u-understand" I managed to choke out through the pain. Shortly after, I found my vision becoming distorted and deformed. My eyes began failing me, unable to concentrate and keep things in line. "Folken…" I whispered faintly, before everything went black around me and I fell into darkness itself.

"Tatsumi?" he tried calling my name, but received no response. He gave me a worried look, before turning to my leg, blood continuing to leak out. This wasn't good at all. I was starting to lose too much blood from the injury, I was just lucky that he set the bone in my leg so that I wouldn't end up with bone marrow poisoning in my blood.

Quickly, Folken removed his thick jacket, before removing his white undershirt. He made quick work in ripping it to shreds, trying his best to wrap my leg, trying to stop the bleeding. The problem was it just kept leaking out through the cloth. He was now acknowledging that I had blacked out as a result of blood loss.

"Come on Tatsumi, hang on" he whispered into my ear. "Hang on"

He didn't noticing the armor reacting to my blood, before it started moving that is. Once it started moving, he grabbed hold of me, keeping me close to him. The dragon armor suddenly shot up through the ground, shattering it. Folken had been right, we were under an abandoned city. As the armor eventually came to the surface, rocks fell around it.

"Keep moving! Please!?" Folken called out desperately, wishing to get me help before I ended up bleeding to death. "Please! Hurry!" he called out once more, keeping pressure on my leg as much as possible. The armor responded to his pleas for help, continuing to move forward, pulling through the rubble.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, it finally managed to pull itself to the top. The dirt fell from its shoulders as it stood to its full height, towering over everything around it. Quickly, Folken went over to the panel, putting something in the system. To his utter surprise, it actually decided to work, following its orders. It made quick work to where Lord Folken dwelled, moving as quickly as it could for a machine.

Folken sighed as he held me against him, hoping to arrive soon, though he knew that we were a ways away. "Tatsumi…" he whispered my name, looking down at the growing pull of blood around us. He knew that I needed immediate help, which was for sure.

As I laid there, I had no knowledge of what was going on around me. Everything was dark as night, pitch black to the extreme. That is, before I started to dream.

"Tatsumi, sweetie, what are you doing?" my mother asked a 7 year old me.

"I'm flying Mommy" I said, laughing as I ran around the yard, my arms extended as I pretended to be a plane or something. She laughed at this, the softness resonating through the yard itself. She knelt down on the side of the yard, arms extended.

"Tatsumi, come here sweetie" she said. I smiled as I ran to her, jumping into her arms. "Do you know what today is Tatsumi?" she asked me. I nodded my head rapidly, a full out grin on my face.

"It's my birthday Mommy" I said, grinning from ear to ear. She smiled and laughed.

"That's right and I have a special present for you" she said, pulling a very small package from her pocket. My eyes went wide with anticipation.

"What is it Mommy, what is it?" I asked excitedly. She just smiled at me, placing it into my hands, closing my fingers around it.

"Why don't you open it and find out?" she suggested. I nodded my head, sitting on the ground as I made quick work of opening it. I tore through the paper quickly, unfolding it, though not before placing the bow on my head first. That was always my favorite part. Eventually, I came to a piece of cloth, about the size of my hand. I smiled at how soft it was. It was just so smooth, almost like a feather.

I let out a gasp when I unfolded it, a necklace sitting in the palm of my hand. It was a medium sea blue stone, with silver attachments on the top and bottom. It also lay around a thin black cord.

"Wow! It's so pretty" I exclaimed happily, holding it above my head. My mother smiled at me as she watched me.

"Here, let me help you with that" she said, taking it from my hands and placing it around my neck. I smiled, gripping it in my hands, holding it up to my face.

"Pretty!" I squealed with delight. My mother just smiled at me, patting my head affectionately.

"Now sweetie, I'm going to tell you a story, okay?" she asked. I nodded my head quickly. "You see…Grandma gave this to me before she died. Her mother gave it to her when she was about your age Tatsumi"

"Really?" I asked.

"Really" she said, nodding her head. "She got it from her mother, who had gotten it from her mother before her" she told me. Wow, that's a lot of giving, I thought to myself. "You see Tatsumi, this necklace has special powers, but with every power comes responsibility" she said firmly. I don't like responsibility, its boring… "This belonged to Granny Bell a long, long, long time ago" she explained, making sure to keep my attention. "You have to promise me that you'll take good care of this Tatsumi. It's very important that you do because you'll need it someday" she said. Although, I didn't know what I would possibly need it for, but I nodded my head anyway. "Now promise me Tatsumi? Say, "I promise Mommy that I will take good care of it"" she said. I groaned on the inside, but did as I was told to do.

"I promise Mommy that I will take good care of it" I repeated her every word. She smiled at me.

"Now, go play sweetie" With that, I went back to running around the yard, feeling much lighter than before. Slowly, everything started to fade, and I felt as though I were laying on something. I could faintly hear the sound of beeping. What is that?

Folken set there by my side as I laid on a bed, a monitor hooked up to me. He seemed sad.

"Please…please wake up Tatsumi?" he whispered, holding my hand in his. He continued to sit there, silently praying that I would wake up. When a faint groan met his ears, he about leapt out of his seat. "Tatsumi?" he asked, looking down at me as I slowly opened his eyes.

"Lord…F-Folken?" I whispered, my voice hoarse. He gave me a grateful smile as he nodded his head.

"Yes, it's me" he told me, stroking my hand gently. I moaned faintly as I shifted, pain evident in my body. When I looked up at him, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He looked as though he hadn't slept in days and even though his eyes were happy for the most part, they held a sort of sadness to them.

"Lord Folken…why…why do you look so sad?" I questioned him as I laid there. He merely frowned.

"Tatsumi…you've been sleep for nearly 2 weeks" he informed me. Wait a moment, 2 weeks!? You've got to be kidding me! I groaned again in displeasure. Seriously, two weeks?

It didn't take long before the pains in my stomach made themselves known. I blushed slightly as it grumbled, the sounds being loud enough for both myself and Folken to hear. It only made him laugh.

"Hungry…" I groaned, holding my stomach. He smiled at me for a moment.

"I have an idea" he said, a small grin curling onto his lips.

Ok everyone, that's chapter 7. I hope that everyone enjoyed it? Please, remember to REVIEW? I'd really like to see what everyone thinks of this story. Please and thank you, and happy reading. Also, I'm going to make this clear on my profile. I've just started college, so I'm not sure how much time that's going to take away from my writing, though I'm going to try and continue as best as I can. Not to mention, I have several other stories that I'm still working on. Plus, after a few more weeks, I'll likely be looking for a job since I haven't been working since about mid summer. I want to thank all of my readers, and please, continue to support me. Thank you.