Allies Of War
Hitomi walked through the thick forest. Her sweater was tied around her waist from the sudden heat that had hit her. She had tried several times to call upon the pillar light again, but to no avail.
Wherever she was, she was stuck there. If she kept walking she figured she'd find a village and then she'd get directions to Fanelia. Shouldn't take too amazingly long. It couldn't. Time was running out, she felt it.
Much to her relief, she then came upon a river, she crouched down and cupped her hands to substitute a cup. She drank heavily, she was a lot thirstier than she first thought.
Then she heard it. Nothing terribly loud, just the snapping of a twig behind her. It was like she was in the movies. She turned around and almost fell into the river.
There before her stood a man she knew all to well. He looked to be 21 years old, he was skinny, tall, fairly pale and had long grey hair down to his shoulders. On his right cheek, was a deep red scar.
"Dilandau...?" Hitomi asked unsure of herself, he stared on at her, only several feet away.
That girl... was so familiar. He would kill her right there and then, but he recognized her. Where from?
"How... I though..." Hitomi was failing as far as words went. She was scared, yet curious at the same time.
Then he knew who she was. She was older, but her hair was the same. It was Vans little hor. Because of her, Van had gotten away from her so many times before. Because of her, he wore this scar.
"You!" Dilandau screamed and without another though drew out 'his' katana.
Hitomis eyes went wide, and quickly thinking, she jumped to her left as Dilandau swung at her. He went off balance and fell into the river.
He was soon on his feet again, charging, even angrier. Still, after six years, she was managing to make his life hell.
"Matte! Dilandau!" Hitomi yelled as she backed up dodging his slashes. He wasn't calm, couldn't think properly, for now she had the upper hand. "Listen to me!"
"There's nothing to listen to!" Dilandau yelled and swung at her with aim, she dodged and his katana hit the tree and got stuck. He yelled in frustration.
"There's no reason you have to do this!" Hitomi pointed out as he got his blade free from the tree, attacking her yet again with it.
Hitomi had no choice, she had to run. How could she possibly fight him? With running, she obviously had the upper hand. It was almost like she flew through the trees. But she didn't want to completely loose him.
For some reason, Hitomi felt compelled to help him, to explain things to him. Maybe if she just got rid of his katana.
She swung around a tree and stopped running. She took a big breath and quickly decided what she had to do. She was going to attack him, try to get his katana out of his hands. Then try and talk to him.
But how would she get the katana out of his hands? As Hitomi looked up, an answer appeared before her.
Dilandau ran through the trees, branches hitting him the entire way, but he could easily ignore such things. He had priorities right now. He hadn't killed in some time, she was the perfect person to start him up again.
Hitomi took Dilandau by surprise, jumping down from the trees. She didn't fall on him, but rather beside him, to her luck on her feet. Then swung at his arm with a branch she had gotten a hold of.
Dilandau howled in pain, dropped the katana, and held his hand close to him. She threw the branch away and took a step back.
"Dilandau! There's no reason for us to fight!" She yelled at him, but he wasn't listening.
"You bitch!" He yelled and rushed towards her, this time tacking her by surprise. She attempted to back up, but she could only go so far.
He lashed out with his left hand, but he didn't punch her, or slap her. Rather, he scratched her. His sharp nails digging deep into her flesh, blood began to flow down her face. He smiled to himself.
"Stings doesn't it?" He asked quietly now, most of his rage gone now.
Hitomi had run out of plans, out of choices. She couldn't fight him, she couldn't even talk to him. She had to run. So she did, and this time made no stops to try and talk to him again. She just kept on running.
Dilandau didn't follow, instead, he just began to laugh. A cruel and evil laugh. He was only begining his revenge upon that bitch.
*
Hitomi ran along the river, and when she could run no more, collapsed by its side. Her hand dangled in the shallow water, her wounded cheek lay on the grass, but she ignored the pain.
It took several minutes for her to catch her breath and begin to sit up. The only thing that hurt was her cheek.
She looked at her reflection in the calm water. The scratches were deep enough to be bleeding quite a lot, but Hitomi doubted they would scar.
Her beige shirt had been stained a bit with blood on the right side, and she had lost her sweater in the turmoil of the fight. She'd be having a cold night.
She brought her face close to the water and began to splash water onto her wound, trying to clean it. She hoped it wouldn't infect or anything. She scowled once it was clean, there were two marks, and she had nothing to bandage them with.
With a once over of her surroundings, she took her shirt off and tried unsuccessfully to wash it. She only managed to make the red dimmer.
Sighing, Hitomi put her shirt back on and leaned back against a tree. She wondered what Van was doing right now, if he had the same bad feeling she did. She wondered if Dilandau would come try and kill her, and she wondered...
She wondered...
Hitomi put her hand over her neck again, panic began to filter through her system.
She wondered where her necklace was.
Hitomi was quickly on her feet. The necklace was gone, somehow she had lost it along with her sweater. What if Dilandau found it?
"Kuso!" Hitomi swore as loudly as she could, not caring if anyone was around to hear. She had to go back, she had to find her necklace.
She began to walk along the river, going back the way she came. She wasn't too sure how she'd find the necklace in the forest, or even where they had fight. And what if Dilandau did have it?
Some of her fears came to a rest when she came upon a tree that had a deep scar in it from when Dilandau sword had hit she, carefully she stepped back into the forest and, keeping her eyes to the ground, walked deeper on in.
After a minute or so, she found her sweater snagged on a brach of a tree from when she had jumped down. Dilandau was still no place to be found.
She went back and forth, different way in the same radius. But she couldn't find her necklace anywhere. Dilandau must have found it.
Hitomi ran her hands through her hair in frustration. She had to confront him now. She had to sway him to give the necklace back to her, there was no way she could beat him in a fight.
Sitting down by a tree, Hitomi then noticed something in the near distance. A bush. But not any bush, the bush had berries growing on it. Then yet another plan began forming in her head.
*
Dilandau looked at the pink stone carefully in his hand. A Drag-Energist? Or just some stupid little stone. It was hers though. Should he keep it or throw it away?
He thought the matter over, and then put the stone in his hand. The chain must have broken so that it fell off, he couldn't see the chain anywhere. Oh well.
No wasn't the time to go after her, but tomorrow morning, he'd track her down. Follow her. Maybe she'd lead him to Van, then he could kill the both. He had gotten Allen, only two more to go.
The thought made him want to laugh again, but he thought better of it and then walked through the forest, parallel to the river, but deeper in the woods. She wouldn't see him this way.
He stopped walking soon, not too sure where Hitomi was, but not wanting to get too far ahead. Darkness didn't come for what seemed like eternity, and soon after sleep came as well.
Night went about its ways and when the sun went down, Dilandau slowly, but surely, came too. He figured he'd get on the job of finding Hitomi. He hoped the urge to gut her wouldn't be too overwhelming.
A sudden shock came to him when he stood up and looked down. There on a leaf, about the size of his head, was a bunch of black berries. He just starred at them in awe. It was then when his stomach growled and he realized how hungry he was.
Dilandau sat back down, looked around in a paranoid manner, and then picked a berry up. He inspected it closely, and then put it in his mouth. He didn't eat it, not right away, he simply squashed it in his front teeth so that he could taste the berry juice.
It tasted sweet, not bitter. Bitter would mean it was poisoned. So, whoever had brought these had brought them with good intentions in mind.
He shuddered at the realization that the only person who could have possibly brought these were none other than Hitomi. He picked the leaf up and threw it away, berries and all in disgust.
"Dammit Hitomi!" Dilandau yelled, back on his feet now. "Give it up! I will get you! I'll rip your fucking heart out and eat it! Right after I kill Van!"
He looked on through the forest, he could hear birds and other animals in the background, but he heard no shouts back. No Hitomi. He snarled silently at the quietness and then walked off. He wanted her dead.
*
Hitomi didn't have any true idea about what Dilandau was doing here, what he was going to do, or even how Dilandau was alive. But, she had too ignore all these questions.
She had considered searching his pockets for her necklace as he slept, but she didn't know what would happen if she woke him up and he found her snaking through his things. Probably nothing good would come from that.
One thing she knew, was that Dilandau kept following her around, she went in circles, purposely, not wanting to leave this part of the forest until she made some sort of peace with the psychopath.
So, it continues like that, he followed her, and every morning he woke up with berries by his side. Every morning, as she watched, he threw them away.
She couldn't help but notice how unimaginably unhealthily skinny he was. Probably hadn't eaten a good meal in some time, and if she didn't get out of that forest soon she'd end up like that. Already she had began to loose several pounds from all the walking and light meals of black berries.
It was almost humorous in a way how the two were following each other around in the forest, but neither saw or looked for the humour in this of course. They were both so busy hunting their different objectives.
The scratches on her cheek were almost unnoticeable, if it weren't for the blood stains, one wouldn't know for sure if she had actually been cut.
"If this works... what would Van say if I brought him to Fanelia?" Hitomi asked one night as she collected her berries. "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't just accept him with open arms. Probably took him a while to get used to Celena as is."
She sighed in frustration and paused. She had to do something more drastic if she wanted this to work anyway. Just giving him berries wouldn't work...
Pondering she looked around the forest, trying to find some sort of an idea. Then, with a heavy heart, she figured the only way to get him to listen, was to talk to him. Made sense.
Taking a deep breath, Hitomi picked the last of the berries and walked over to Dilandaus camp. This had better work fast, she was wasting time out here.
*
Dilandau awoke, and the first thing he spotted was Hitomi. He was instantly on his feet, grabbing for his katana, about to lash out.
Hitomi just sat there, holding out berries on a leaf. Her face full of confidence, even though her heart was beating frantically.
"Dilandau-San!" She yelled trying to get his attention. The blade swung and hit the leaf, but left her uncut.
Hitomi fell back, her hands stopping her from falling back completely and hitting her head. The point of Dilandaus katana hovering above her neck.
"Leave me alone," he whispered.
"Why don't you just kill me?" Hitomi asked, her voice only wavering a bit. Dilandau remained silent. "That's what you want isn't it?"
"No," Dilandau mumbled and slowly, and unsure of what he was doing, he put his katana back in its sheath.
"Why not?" Hitomi asked, clambering back onto her feet. His sudden change in attitude was odd, she wondered what caused it.
"Just go away," Dilandau muttered in a dangerously low voice, his eyes affixed on the ground, his arm against a tree seemingly for support. "It's not... what... I want..."
Hitomi looked at him with concerned eyes. He was sick, he obviously wasn't eating enough. She'd go, stay close, but she'd go.
As soon as she was gone, hiding in the trees again, watching him. He sat down, his eyes lazily landing on the berries. His eyes concentrated on them, and then he swallowed what little pride he had left and pulled the berries near.
Not too sure if he ate them out of pure hunger or if he had accepted her a bit more. She couldn't tell, but it didn't really matter, he has eating. She had confronted him and come out alive. Things were going better.
After that, he always ate the berries, but she didn't go up to him for a while after that day, not wanting to push her luck of his temper.
It was about a week or two later, when Dilandau woke up, and once again Hitomi was there. This time she stood there holding his katana... just in case.
"Dilandau..." she said, wakening him up completely. He saw that she held his katana, and stayed on the ground. "You said you didn't want me dead."
"I don't want you dead yet," he mumbled silently.
"I want your help."
He burrowed his brow in confusion and anger. Why would he help her?
"No... I need your help. And afterwards, I give you permission to kill me."
"What do you need my help for?" He asked sceptically, as he was sitting up slowly.
"Another war is coming, and I have to get to Fanelia, to warn everyone. If you help me get there within the month, feel free to kill me."
"I could kill you right now."
Hitomi shook her head smiling. "You said you didn't want to. You're obviously waiting for something, and when that comes, I'll let you kill me."
"If I help you? How do you know I'm not using you to find Van?"
"I don't" she answered, the smile fading from her face. "But like I said, I need your help. I'll admit it, I'm hopelessly lost here."
Dilandau looked at her, but he said nothing. The slowly he got to his feet and grabbed his katana from her forcefully, but she made no resistence.
"I'll think about it," he muttered and then walked away. Hitomi watched him go, and smiled. Somehow he had lost his hostility towards her over the month. Maybe he was tired, or maybe just sick.
She waited for him all day, thinking over things. Wondering just how good of a bargain that had been, hoping to any God that by the time the time came, he would no longer wish her death.
He came back, just before nightfall. Surprise spread over her face as he said nothing and just went to sleep. She fell asleep beside him, putting her trust in him.
Hitomi woke up, she was alive, a good start. And there beside her head, on a leaf the size of her head, was a bunch of berries and her stone.
*
"WE WILL FIGHT!" The woman, more like young teen said to the rows of the soldiers. Snticipation in the air, impatience for when the day of attack would come. "WE WILL FIGHT AND BE VICTORIOUS!"
The soldiers yelled, as if they were already in the midst of a battle. Their cries loud, but as she put a gloved hand up in the air, they stopped their noises.
"AND WE WILL ATTACK TOMORROW!!!"