Gaea:
Van enlists the help of his trusted friends to
search for the book from his dream. The
vault rooms are dark, but surprisingly dry, the walls scorched from long unused
torches.
Allen: "How
many rooms are down here Van?"
Van: " I never counted. Folken and I use to play down here when I was very young. Then Folken would read to me from some of
the books in here:"'
A memory from long ago stirs in Van. He sees himself as a boy, tugging on his
brothers arm: "Folken, read me a story
from the dragon book again."
Van: " That's it Folken use to read to me from a
book with dragons on it. I know where
it is. This way."
Allen: " You could have remembered sooner, we've
been at this a long time."
Allen follows Van to the far end of the hall. There sits a small door, almost
unnoticed. Dryden joins them as they
enter the small dark room. Van reaches
up taking down a wall torch, lights it, and replaces it.
Van: " It's green I think and has a pair of dragons
and an energist on the cover."
Each man starts at a different section of the
book-covered walls. There is silence
and they concentrate on finding the book. Dryden pulls out a green book and opens it.
Dryden: " Eureka! Green with dragons, hey look it's written in the language of the Mystic
Moon. It has Gaean translations."
The men move over to a small table to get a closer
look.
Dryden: " Let's see it's the Book of Three. This book is ancient. A lot of this is already our history. What was that first passage? The one Celena recited last night."
Van: "" When fire reaches across the sky, the three
dark lords will shatter the Light of Balance."
Now they must wait as Dryden searches the pages for
the passage.
Allen: " How will we know what it all means,
prophecies are never simple. They're
more like riddles that have to be unraveled. Who knows how long we have to figure it out."
Van: "The
first line has to be the coming of the Firestar tomorrow. That part I saw in my dream."
Dryden: "Wait here it is and look at the illustrations here of the dragons, its
just like the cover. The second smaller
dragon shadows the first dragon and they are perched on an energist."
Van: " That dragon is white, I know its Escaflowne,
see it holds a sword. The shadow dragon
is the one from my dream. See the fire
coming from its claw. Read it."
Dryden: When fire reaches across the sky
The three dark lords will shatter the Light of Balance
The animals will raise and the dragon's shadow will become
Fire will rain destruction on the tainted land as the shadows power
grows
When comes the triple eclipse the dragon must extinguish its shadow
At the center of cred or the world shall be swallowed by flame.
v Only
when the balance is restored shall the dragon renew its shadow
Through the heart of light
Van: " I have to be out there on Escaflowne when
the Firestar appears tonight."
Dryden: "
That last verse has a symbol by it. I'm
sure that the sign of a forked prophesy. There could be more than one outcome. This prophecy has the possibility to end more than one way. This book is very valuable; in the wrong
hands it could be a powerful weapon. There are too many guests in the castle now. We need a safe place to hide this till after the
celebrations. Studying the prophecies
that have already come to pass could help us to figure out how to unravel
it. Why was it just down here in the
first place, didn't anyone know what it was?"
Van: " This room contains my mother's books. Some are just her favorites, but some she
brought here with her when she married my father. No one ever came in here except her, and Folken and me when we
didn't get caught. We also had a
special place in here where we hid our treasures; we can hide the book there
for now."
Van walks to a section of the bookshelf, and
removes several of the volumes. He
pulls out a board in the back of the shelf revealing a hollow space. He removes an old oilcloth and places the
book in the nitch. He holds the
oilcloth for a moment and then replaces it.
The men leave the vaults each with thoughts
concerning the prophecy they have just heard.
Evening is fast approaching and the people of the
kingdom have started to gather in the outside courtyard to watch the
Firestar. Inside the castle Van and his
companions are still unsure what meaning the prophecy holds. How much time will they have before it's too
late.
Millerna: "Most of the guests have gathered in the
lower courtyard to see the Firestar. There
has also been a lot of talk about your absence today."
Merle: "it's no wonder, as soon as she realized you were gone, the Empress
started rumors that you two were together, and not to be disturbed. Then she shut herself in her rooms so
everyone would think you were there with her. I'd love to scratch her eyes out."
Van: "Merle!"
Dryden: "Van, you must capture the dragon's
shadow. If you were to kill it now,
there is no telling what will happen. We have to be in a place called Cred and in the middle of a triple
eclipse or who knows."
Allen: "Capturing a dragon alive is all but
impossible. How do we keep it captive
once we get it?"
Mr. Mole unnoticed as usual, ambles through the
room, and reaching into his pocket pulls out a pouch tossing it over to Van.
Mr. Mole: "Nice castle lots of pretty treasures."
Van: " What's this old man"
Mr. Mole: " Dragon Dust. Knocks them out. Humans
didn't always kill dragons. Not until
they became greedy."
Van: "The
sun will be setting soon. I will go awaken
Escaflowne. The castle guests will be
viewing the Firestar from the balcony behind the throne room".
Van leaves stopping in his room to get Escaflowne's
energist. He removes it from the clawed
hand of the dragon statute, and then flips the statute's thumb claw down
revealing a small hidden drawer in the base of the statute. From it he removes a small pendant and puts
it around his neck. He reaches back
into the drawer and lightly touches a lock of golden brown hair tied in a
ribbon. "Hitomi I miss you, I wish you were here with me" Shutting the
drawer he turns and leaves the room heading for the shrine.
Van stands on a central pedestal in the castle
shrine and holding the energist high above his head proclaims:
'Sleeping
Dragon Awake! ' Light engulfs him and the energist begins to
resonate. Outside at the Royal Tomb
Escaflowne is surrounded by a bright white light and disappears, reappearing
inside the shrine in front of Van. Hopping onto the knee of the giant guymelth Van places the energist inside
the chest crystal. For three years
Escaflowne has remained silent, but as soon as Van removes his hand the
energist starts beating. The chest
crystal glows and the cockpit opens. Van climbs in, placing his feet in the stirrups and his hands in the arm
controls as the cockpit closes. Van
feels a rush of power. He and
Escaflowne are one again. They stand and walk out of the shrine into the night. As soon as he clears the outer wall Van
changes Escaflowne to dragon mode and lifts up into the darkening sky.
