Kings and Traitors: Chapter 5
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Disclaimers: I do not own Escaflowne.
As
they watched Erebos run off towards the castle, Tiger yawned.
"I
think I'm gonna go to bed…I'll see you guys in the morning, k?" mumbled Tiger,
who was obviously fighting just to keep his eyes open.
"Ok,
Tiger. You get some sleep, we've got a full day ahead of us tomorrow. Hey,
would you mind taking Yukari with you? It looks like she could use some rest,
too," said Van.
"Sure,
no prob!"
"Goodnight
Tiger. It was nice meeting you," said Hitomi, bowing.
"C'mon
Yukari. Let's go!"
Yukari
whimpered.
"K,
bye!" Tiger yelled as he dragged Yukari off towards the castle.
"Van, we need to talk," said Hitomi
seriously.
"We
sure do!! It's been months! I've missed you so much!!"
"No,
Van. We need to talk about my vision…why I was sent back…about Gaia being in
trouble…about the traitor that's supposed to lead to the deaths of us all."
"What
do you mean by traitor?" asked Van.
"Beware
the traitor lest the dragon be slayed and the two worlds fall to darkness…"
"Don't worry, Hitomi, there aren't any traitors around here!" said Van exasperatedly.
"How
long have you known Erebos?"
~~~
Merle
desperately gnawed at the ropes holding her steel cage shut. Erebos was away
and this would probably be her only chance. If she was going to escape, it had
to be now.
"I've
GOT to get out of here!!" Merle growled through gritted teeth.
Though
she struggled hard, the ropes were so tough that she could soon taste blood in
her mouth.
She
spat the blood out on the floor and winced in pain.
"No!
I'm not giving up! Vans in danger! I have to warn him about Erebos!!!"
"No,
I don't think so, kitten," said Erebos in an icy voice as he slowly stepped
into the room.
Merle
growled as blood ran down her lip.
~~~
"What
do you mean, Hitomi?! Erebos is my best friend!! How can you say that?!" Van
yelled, outraged.
"Fine,
we don't know it's Erebos yet, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for
your sake, but I think we should at
least do a little searching without him first, ok?"
"Erebos
is my friend and he is trustworthy. We can search with him." Van said sternly.
"Van,
please?! Just let me try to find Merle on my own! If we find that Erebos had
nothing to do with it, then I'll apologize, but I got a really bad feeling from
him and my hunches are always right!! Please, Van! Don't you trust me a little
more than him?!"
"……ok,
fine. We give it one try with the pendant. But when we don't find anything, I
expect you to apologize."
Van
reluctantly gave Hitomi her pendant. As her hand clasped it, it glowed dimly,
once again in the possession of its original owner.
"Do
you have any maps of Fanelia?"
"Yeah,
just a sec…," Van said as he pulled out some maps from the inside lining of his
sword's scabbard.
"Here."
Hitomi
looked through the pile until she found one with blueprints of Fanelia's
castle.
"But
Tiger and Erebos already checked the castle. She's not there."
"Trust
me."
Hitomi
closed her eyes and imagined Merle, the cute-yet-incredibly-annoying cat girl
who had befriended he on her previous adventure. She heard Van gasp. She opened
her eyes to see the pendant swinging over a room in the lowest level of the
castle.
"That-that's
the Black Dungeon!! No one's been in there for hundreds of years!! It's
supposed to be cursed! Legend has it that a great evil enemy of Gaia was once
imprisoned there. He was said to be a dark sorcerer! The day that he was
supposed to be executed, they went in to get him and he killed himself, because
he didn't want to die at the hands of his enemy. He promised to come back again
when the Mystic Moon and Gaia aligned, to seek revenge on both worlds and to
turn them to darkness. Since he died, that dungeon's been locked tight. They
say it's cursed. Anyone who goes in there never comes back…"
"V-Van, do you by any chance know the name
of the evil sorceorer?" Hitomi asked uneasily.
Van's
face paled. "E-Erebos….."
~~~
AN:
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