A/N: I had originally wanted this to correspond with the series – that didn't work out. So now lotsa battles are combined into one and called the take over of Palas. Hey, don't sue me, I just didn't want that many, and I am almighty author. So there. I also don't have the kitty cat people and a few other things get all different and stuff, but you can deal. I'm sure. My ending may be as few as three chapters away.
Forgive spelling errors. I had to type this quick.
Wish
Chapter fifteen: Palas
It was all in a frenzy, as chaotic as an organized battle could get. Dilandau shouted at his men to keep inline and hurry up. The guymelefs were prepped and ready to go as the young soldiers scurried about. Finally the order was given to leave and one after another the large machines dropped from the Vione. Like hornets leaving their hive the giant machines headed for the dormant city.
Sara watched from afar in the corner of her mind. Colubra would be sent for something else to Dilandau's distaste, and would stay for the duration of the battle in the Vione with Folken. She had wished the men good luck, and Colubra's desire to fight needed Sara's help to be subdued. Actually, the only reason Colubra didn't run up and jump on Dilandau's guymelef at the last second was because Folken had asked to talk to her and his soothing voice made Sara want to break through to him. This kept Colubra distracted until the men left.
"Sara?" Colubra snapped her head up from the trance at the sound of Folken's voice. Her superior, she had undying respect and devotion for the man, while Sara's infatuation with him made her sick.
"Sir." She replied at attention.
"We are to wait for any news from Dornkirk. He said to keep you on call for any 'other' necessary jobs." Colubra raised an eyebrow. She pictured herself peeling potatoes. Folken motioned her to follow him. She nodded and complied. "Other jobs mainly entitle complications, he addressed her unspoken question. "He said he'd let you know." They kept walking down the long halls of the Vione. Folken seemed distracted about something, but whenever he opened his mouth he'd top himself.
"Sir?"
"Nothing. I have to go." Colubra eyed him as he left.
"Whatever." She said under her breath. Now she was alone. This hadn't happened in awhile, Colubra was alone. Most likely she wasn't supposed to be left long and Folken's leaving was unplanned, but now she was by herself. Alone on the Vione, no Dilandau, no dragonslayers to play with, and God knows where Folken had gone.
'So now what?' Sara asked, interested by Colubra's boredom and obvious distraction of controlling her.
"I'm itching to do something." Colubra conversed, the first time in many weeks with the other girl. "When Dilandau comes back, I want to plan something for him." Colubra though, Sara's feminine side affecting her. Luckily she snapped out of it. "I'm not one to be satisfied with waiting for my man to come home. I want to go." And with that Colubra left the empty hall and their conversation.
***
The wind blew coldly over her body at the high altitude; the ground looked a million miles away, how to get down was the question. "I wish there was some way I could get down there without using a melef." She mumbled. Daggers attached to her back and her 'trusty' knife in her boot, she stood at the edge of the ship looking down. She turned back and looked around the hangar to find something even if she didn't know what. She finally found a store room, inside were dozens of brown bags, satchels…
"What the – " then it hit her. "Parachutes! Score."
'Now this can't be that hard…'Colubra thought, ignoring Sara's desperate prayers to God to save her.
You'd think that it would be easy, falling through the air, and it was, but landing was a different story.
'Oh God Oh God Oh God Oh God Oh God Oh God Oh God Oh God.' Sara was screaming as the ground kept rushing up at her faster and faster. Finally they hit, the parachute seemed to do nothing as they rolled and rolled down the bumpy hard ground. They tumbled over and over; the ground and sky melting together as the sun seemed to collide with the ground. Every cuss word Colubra knew flew out of her mouth as the ricocheted off rocks and other obstacles that didn't seem to stop her body. Finally, they stopped.
Sara wiggled her toes. "I can't believe I'm not dead." She muttered.
'Shut up.' Colubra thought.
They were switched! But before Sara could compose herself, Colubra took over and shifted any pain from the fall onto Sara, quickly reminding her who was in control.
Colubra shook her head, and rolled over onto her side, propping her body up on one elbow to survey her yellow surroundings. She detached herself from the large silk parachute and squinted to avoid the bright reflection of the sun off the thin, dense plants.
"Wheat." She muttered to herself as she noticed how far she was from civilization.
'See, if you had read the instructions, you would've known how to steer' Colubra tuning Sara's whining out. She stood, stumbled, but recovered from the dizziness to look over the horizon. I wasn't hard to spot the place where the guymelefs had planned to hide. It was the nearest forest and had an unguarded side of Palas open. Plus, near behind it was a thick dome of dust that had most likely risen from the fight. Sara noticed the large round circles the guymelefs had left when they landed. 'Crop circles!'
"Shut up!" Colubra yelled at her in frustration for not being totally able to control her. Almost as if on cue, the air shimmered before them and a curma claw was revealed in mid air above them. Her face broke into a wide smile – it was the Oreides. A thin silver ribbon came down to meet her and wrapped around her waist before she could react. The invisible creature lifted her and carried her behind it back into the forest underneath the invisible cloak. Finally in the dark, cool forest, Dilandau took his stealth cloak off, and the other men followed. They were obviously alone, though even for an eighteen-year-old, being surrounded by these giants of machines was quite intimidating.
Dilandau set her down and got out of his melef after her. "I guess I shouldn't even ask – but what are you doing here?" he said with a half-angry, half-glad look on his face.
"I was bored." Colubra replied, like it was obvious. "Shall we go fight now?" She said eagerly. She heard a few of the men chuckle.
"Soon." Dilandau replied as if talking to a child. With that she spun on her heel and started to walk away. Dilandau looked troubled. "Where are you going?"
"I hate waiting." And she continued through the forest before they could catch her – making a beeline to the city.
***
Colubra stood at the edge of the forest, beneath her lay the city of Palas, it was a beautiful, flourishing city and quite so early in the morning. Sara enjoyed the scenery, but Colubra found it uninteresting and dull, so turned and headed toward the battlegrounds.
***
She could see them, they had retreated, but they were still in the front lines – waiting. Colubra recognized the knight's guymelef, it was unmanned. They were treating the wounded and carrying away the dead, while Zaibach's dragonslayers weren't even winded. 'Fools.' She thought. Then she saw him.
"Allen Shezar." She mouthed, the man who had humiliated her and kept her in bed for weeks. 'Coward.'
She stood. It wouldn't be long until the lookouts would see her. It was sooner than she thought as she leaned back at the sound of an arrow shooting towards her, missing her by a foot and hitting the trunk of a nearby tree. Colubra jumped down the hill, sliding down the dry dirt and creating clouds of dust surrounding her, making the now obvious shower of arrows stop. She came to a halt, the dust soon clearing and revealing that Allen and his men had their swords drawn and the injured away behind them. They spat when they saw who she was.
"Girl – I don't want to fight you like this, if you want to surrender – " Colubra interrupted the arrogant knight.
"Ha. Ten to one odds?" Colubra laughed. "I should think you are the ones outnumbered." The men laughed, thinking she was ill in the head or at least couldn't count.
"Are you ready to me now – a real man to…woman fight?" One of them yelled at her. She cocked her head to find the source and smiled when she saw one standing apart from the small mob – Gadess. "You don't even have a sword." With that Colubra crossed her arms behind her head and withdrew her two daggers.
"In the midst o battle, it's good to relax and fight a bit, neh?" Gadess smiled.
"So you are a part of this battle" Allen accused.
"Not yet, little man." Colubra chided. "Come now, we've each got a weapon, do you agree it is fair game?" Gadess came toward her, stopping halfway between his men and her. She did the same, stopping a shot distance away and crouched into a fighting stance with a grin on her face.
"You're crazy girl, you know that. You have no boyfriend with fire to save you now." He spat.
"We'll see who's going to die today."
With that Gadess lunged at her, her daggers stopping his blade above her head, he was strong, thirty something, and fighting with revenge once again in mind. She had to match his strength with speed. She spun around behind him - he lifted his sword. He aimed to strike again, but she entangled his sword in her daggers and tried to thrust it out of his hands unsuccessfully, so instead turned her back to him and jammed her elbow into his ribs. With him doubled over she retracted her daggers, holding them so that they were like an extension of her arms and drew her hand across his face, leaving a swelling bruise, but unlike the last time they fought, now he wasn't fatigued or already suffering. As she raised her leg to kick him, he grabbed her foot and spun her to the ground, getting on top of her and pinning her arms beneath her. This time Sara gave her a move. From a break dancing move she had learned from a friend, she threw her head back, hitting his and stunning him. Then in one fluid movement jumped up and kicked him in the stomach. Though she couldn't tell if her aim was a little low since he was already on the ground. She kicked his sword out of his hand and sent it spinning away out of reach. The sun burned down on them as she realized she was sweating and quite hot, and Gadess was out of breath. Colubra was just getting started. She came up to the hunched man and raised her arms and with them the daggers for the fatal strike – but he rose, like light he forced his arms up and stopped her hands above her head, and he was stronger than her. She kicked him, both feet, this time aiming for his manhood. She hit the target. He let go.
She wiped the sweat from her brow as she noticed Allen approaching, hand hovering over the sword and his belt. She quickly knelt behind the man and drew his head back by the hair. She raised her hand to his neck, the dagger visible and pressing against his throat. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
"Nice knowin' ya pal." She said then pressed the edge of the dagger into his throat and ripped it outwards. Allen screamed something unintelligible as he drew his sword. Colubra noticed her fun had to end now and dropped the body she held to retreat. Running as fast as she could up the steep hill.
"You coward! Don't run away from me!" She heard the knight yell. She stopped and turned, the archers were aimed at her, but awaiting Allen's call. Suddenly, Allen and his men stopped, their faces paled and she noticed one of the archers turn and run. Then the shadow came over her and she turned to see a familiar sight. A grin broke across her face as the image gave her strength. Colubra turned back to Allen.
"Who's the coward now?! Allen, of the heavenly knights?" She yelled. "Next time we meet, one of us will die." Allen spits at her and retreats to his guymelef. Then something else catches her eye.
In the sky there is a shadow, she squinted up at the sun to see it, bigger than a bird, then she heard Dilandau yell. It was Escaflowne! Excitement and dread welled up in her as she watched the beast circle above and then finally descend, behind the Austurian lines. Colubra looked back and saw all the dragonslayers, each one of their guymelefs in a v formation behind Dilandau.
"Colubra!" Dilandau yelled and she looked up to see Dilandau's concerned face from the cockpit. "Take cover, you can do nothing in this battle." Colubra nodded in agreement and respect and ran back into forest.
She ran up a hill, refusing to turn at the sound of clashing metal and screams until she got to the top when she could see. Finally she got there, and stood, anxious, watching the battle from afar, but still vivid and close. She could recognize every guymelef. The fire surrounding the battlefield and blackening the ground, she hadn't noticed the sun duck behind the clouds, actually, it had gotten very dark, no part of the sky could be seen and it looked very bleak.
The battle wasn't going as it should have.
The dragon was good. It was too good, my men. The battle went on. Colubra went numb.
Dallet. She heard his cries as the demon took his life.
Migel. She watched as she could do nothing as his guymelef was destroyed.
"Why must this happen?"
Chesta. Dear Chesta, his failed attempt at blocking the blow was fatal.
Gatti. The funny one, why did he have to die too?
"Why, God, why?"
Guimel. Viole. Men I didn't even know.
Colubra fell to her knees as she saw the viscous battle below. Tears she didn't even feel streaming down her cheeks. The last two, again and again. Attacking. Blocking. Fighting.
"Kill him. Dilandau. My love. Kill him. Kill the one who did this." She mouthed as the two guymelefs were now testing their pilots strength. Then the world slowed.
"Oh God. Take me with them. Take me with the dragonslayers to hell. Not here. Anywhere but here." She sobbed, and her body was lifted, floating in the air before being whisked off in a blinding light as her wish was granted.
Well, next chapter up hopefully sooner than this one. Review dawlins, and keep me satisfied! Blah!