Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne. I don't own Escaflowne .... The doctor says I've gotta keep telling myself that ^_~
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(Don't) Blame it on the Weather Man
Chapter 5: Lost
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~No land,
no sky, no life .... nothing, just blinding white as far as the eye could see.
The air was still and damp, and not a single sound disturbed the quiet silence
except for the sound of his heart beating. Somewhere out there, in all that
whiteness was a dragon as white as this nothing, and it was hunting him
... somewhere ... but he couldn't see it for the fog; It had to be fog, surely?
There was no other explanation, but that didn't matter anymore, he had to finish
... .... to finish ... ?
.... what did he have to finish?
* Thhhud *
Guimel's heart froze. In his minds eye he could picture it as easily as if there had been no fog. He could see the great white scales, glistening and damp; huge leathery wings spread in a menacing arc, casting shadows over intense glowing azure eyes that were so cold they burned.
* Thhhud *
Cursing
his overactive imagination, Guimel spun around, expecting to see the beast looming
out before him. That horrible noise, that odd thumping sound, was probably the
noise of its snake-like tail thrashing against the floor, ~but there is no floor~
his mind argued, and was right, for when he turned about there was nothing there.
No land, no sky, no life ... no dragon ... Nothing to worry about. Nothing.~
*Thhhud, thud, thhud * "Dammit Guimel, if I knock any louder I'll wake Lord Dilandau! Get up!"
~Nothing but ... Dalet?!? What the ... what happened to the dragon? Dragon? Musta been dreaming ~ The dream faded away as quickly as it had begun, banished from his mind as a sudden dull ache began to nag at his shoulder.
* thud, thud * "Guimel? Guimel can you hear me?"
He shook his head, trying to throw out the confusing remnants of dreams, and sat up groggily, blinking away the sleep. He'd been lying on his arm; well that explained the ache.
"Guimel!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, keep yer hair on." he muttered, slipping out of bed, shuddering at the feel of the cold, damp morning air on his skin. "What time is it?" He asked the door as he tugged on the leather pants of his uniform.
" You don't want to know." came the reply. " Hey, am I going freeze out here all day, or are you going to let me in?"
"Good
morning to you too", Guimel muttered as he slid open the door to his room.
Dalet was stood there with his hands on his hips, tapping his foot irritably
on the floor. His eyes were closed and his eyebrows arched high with an expression
that was meant to display his growing impatience at the other DragonSlayer.
" And about time too!" He admonished, opening his eyes and looking
down his nose at Guimel with an aloof air ... which didn't have time to have
the desired effect because as soon as his eye's caught sight of Guimel, Dalet's
glower transformed into a glimmer of giggles and his shoulders shook as he was
taken over by a deep wave of laughter, which he tried desperately to muffle
with his hands.
"What?" Guimel asked grouchily. He was by no means a morning person, and wasn't fully awake yet, and was definitely in no mood for this.
"Your ..." he choked on his snickering "...your hair!"
Guimel scowled. "Nothing new there." He stated flatly, "Can't you even try to be original? Just get over it!"
"No I," Dalet paused a minute to try to control his giggling, then started again. " I didn't mean that. There's nothing wrong with your hair, it's just different from everyone else's, makes a nice change if you ask me. It's you who needs to get over it. Anyway, what was I talking about?"
Guimel blinked at the unexpected compliment, then chose to ignore it for now; he wanted to go back to sleep. "Absolute rubbish, as usual. If you wasn't laughing at my hair style, then what's got you so tickled?"
"Your hair in a morning! Gods, now that's scary! What happened to you? You look like you've been dragged through a bush, backwards, then maybe rolled down a small cliff for good measure!"
Guimel smirked, now that he could understand. His hair was wild at the best of times, but in a morning it was like a jungle. "Ahh, I just didn't sleep too good last night." He replied truthfully, unconsciously running his fingers through his unruly locks. "Come on in then, and get it over with. Tell me whatever it is you deemed important enough to wake me up for, then sod off and let me get some sleep."
"Oooh, aren't we a happy bunny. Well obviously someone got outta the wrong side of the bed this morning. " He said as he walked past Guimel into the room. "Eesh, this place is a mess, you really should tidy up."
"Not everyone's as perfect as you 'God' ".
"No need
to be sarcastic, I was just making a comment.
Well I know when I'm not welcome, perhaps I should go. I take it you've forgotten
about our little race, hmm."
"Race?..."
Gumiel inquired, angling his head to one side somewhat like a dog that's just
heard an odd noise. Dalet didn't need to answer the question though, he just
stood there smirking cockily while Guimiel's mind caught up with itself.
"... Race!! Oh, shit! The race! I forgot. We'll be late! Well don't
just stand there, come on!"
Dalet chuckled - enjoying watching the other 'slayer panic - before deciding to put him out of his misery. "Oh calm down, it's ok."
"It's not OK!" Guimel snapped, waving his arms in exasperation. "Everyone'll be waiting and...."
"And really, it's OK! I came here early."
"You did?"
"Yeah, I couldn't get to sleep .... and I have news"
"You git! What the hell'd you have to go winding me up like that for then! .... What news?"
Dalet sat down
on the corner of the bed and looked up with calm smugness at Guimel. "I
didn't wind you up, you did that yourself.
It's good news, and it's bad news."
"Quit playing games and get to the point! What's the good news?"
"Well, the good news is yesterday's crash totally decimated the guymelefs and they're not yet mobile"
"I knew that all ready," Guimel growled back at him, closing the door and turning round again to face Dalet. "How do you work that as being good news?"
"Ahh, well that you see leads me to the bad news."
"Well?"
Dalet grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck while he tried to find the words. Eventually he stood up, "Come on," he said, "I'll show you."
*******
"What's wrong, Merle?" Van asked the peachy-orange haired cat- girl, then abruptly wished that he hadn't...
"Van-sama!" she wailed, her eye's on the verge of tears." I can't find it Van-sama! I've looked every where. Everywhere, and I can't find it. Waaaa-aa!!!". She threw herself around him, very nearly bowling him over to the floor, and began blubbering into the shoulder of his red vest. "You've gotta help me find it, Van-sama! I know you'll find it. If anyone can it's you. "
"Sshhh, it's OK, "He gently stroked the back of her hair, trying to calm her down. "Don't worry, it'll turn up. What are you looking for?"
"You will help me find it won't you?" She sniffled, pulling back from him slightly to look up at him with big saucer eye's "I've looked, and looked, and looked, and looked, and looked and....."
"But what are you looking for?" He interrupted with as much patience as he could muster.
"My nail file!" She hollered desperately "I can't find it anywhere!"
"Your nail file?" She nodded, the little curls of her hair bouncing up and down. "All this for a nail file?!" He asked again incredulously. "Where did you have it last?"
"Well if I knew that, I wouldn't be looking for it would I? Maybe I dropped it in Palas! Oh, I'm never going to find it!"
Van shook his head in disbelief, "I don't have time fore this, Merle, but I'll keep an eye out for it."
"Don't go! Van-samaaa!!" She cried after him as he walked toward the door, but it was too late, he was already gone.
"Hmph!"she exclaimed, folding her arms sulkily over her chest. "He never has time for me now thanks to Hitomi! It's all her fault! Well fine," she pouted at the door, her tail flicking side to side moodily - mischievously - "I guess I'll just have to look for it myself!"
*******
Authors notes: *blink* Well, I have no idea what happened there, when I started this chapter I had no intention whatsoever of dragging Van and Merle into it O_o Especially not at the moment, Van isn't in my good books right now, I'm in the middle of reading a great fanfic by Sarah-neko were Van's being mean (understatement!!) to my Dilly-kins and somehow that fic has completely managed to put me off him ... not that I liked him in the first place, just that I didn't hate him the way I do now. Anyway, to all you Van and Merle fans out there, I apologize for my lack of ability to keep them in character ^^;;Perhaps I'll get the hang of it later on, although I really hope I won't have to implement them in the story too much ( I really do like Merle, but I just don't like 'writing' her, for one thing, I'm already tired of typing "Van-sama"!) ... Um, OK, I can't explain so I guess I'll shut up about it^_^