Ziabach's Worst Enemy! Part 13
I lay quietly in my bed. My hands tightly clutched the soft sheets that covered my bed and cuddled my head. My closed eyes slowly dripped tears my face refused to feel as they fell onto my delicate pillow. I was lost in a sea of memories, all containing my family.
I remembered how Ayla would stand in front of the mirrors in town and flick her hair. How she would so delicately bat her eyes to get the merchants to drop the price of soil an extra fifteen cents or so. I remembered her laugh while flirting with some guy. She was such a tease.
I remembered my father. He was always so strong and patient. He hardly ever lost his temper. He never used a whip on the horses as they drew the carriage containing himself and Joe. He never took of his wedding ring.
Matt, probably my favorite brother, my favorite family member actually. I remember when he first started teaching me how to fight my self-defense anyway. He had to patience when it came to getting distracted. I'd look up to the sky and see the birds flying overhead, and Joe to reach out his hand and lightly smack me on my cheek to get my attention. I got most of my discipline from him. I might start to cry (remember, this is when I was only about eight) and he would pick me up and say "stop crying. No one cares." It seemed a little mean at the time, but it got me to harden my heart and self-conscience. We had a lot of laughs.
Jake, good'ol Jake. I never really got to see him. Sometimes I would come downstairs for a glass of water or something, and he'd be arriving home from a party of some sort. We would sit and talk a little. I remember one of the questions he always asked was "Are there any guys giving you grief? Because if there are, I'll go beat them right now." I laughed at the memory.
And Janus. Strong Janus. He would always carrying the vegetables and worked the most. Maybe even more then dad. Sometimes I'd come and help him transport some of the food, and we'd get to talk. It was always the same as it was with Jake. "Anyone bothering you?" How protective he was.
Joe. He had a way of growing on you. Although we never really talked, you got to miss him when he was gone. The fact that he wasn't there when he was sick or something… you were always just so used to him being there with you. It was odd when he disappeared.
Schala, the bossy little brat that could never fail to get on your nerves. It was always okay though. She did a good job of bossing. I laughed. Thanks to her our shipment was always on time. I don't know how she did it, but we were always organized.
Marel… I wondered how she was doing? Were Van and Allen taking good care of her? I hoped so. She used to do the craziest things. She would just burst out screaming something, or sometimes she would twist her face to make these really weird expressions. I laughed. She was so funny! I saw her in my minds eye, crippled on the floor, her ankle twisted in it's weird position. 'Oh god. I'm so sorry Marel' I thought to myself, feeling the tears begin to pour down my face again.
And for the first time in a long while, I thought of my mother. I didn't really remember her. What few pictures I had of her in my memory were a little fuzzy and unconnected. I remember she had eyes green as sapphires, and her hair was like golden straw. I don't know why, but one thing that always stuck in my mind was that she smelled like lilies. She was the only person I knew that did. I was only about two when she had left, but I remembered some things about her. She would throw me onto my bed and then jump on and join me. We would have jumping contests, to see who could last longest. She always won.
The door slid open, knocking me from my thoughts. I sat up immediately, forgetting to wipe my tears before looking to see who was there.
"Tora?" Miguel asked, looking. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, rubbing my eyes. "What's going on?"
"I brought you some breakfast. Dilandau-sama figured you wouldn't want to have to come out of your room to eat." He walked over and sat it down on the vanity that was next to the bed. "What's wrong?" He asked.
I took my eyes up from the blue and white-stripped sheets. "Do you think they'll take good care of her Miguel?" I asked.
"You're sister?" He asked. I nodded. "Well, yeah. I mean, they don't get a reputation like theirs for being people like us." He said. I stayed quiet. "Eat Tora." He left the room.
I looked blankly at the food he had on the tray, but instead I turned over on the bed, pulled the covers of my head, and slipped back into a light sleep.
* * *
I leapt awake when I heard the door slid open. Looking to the mettle contraption I saw Dilandau standing there.
"Hi." I said plainly, not bothering to sit up.
"How are you doing?" He asked, walking over. I felt rage suddenly burn into my heart. How could he ask that? My family was gone, my sister in the care of someone I don't even really know, my town a pile of ashes, and my swords master a rotting corpse in some piece of poor soil.
I jumped up and punched him, hard. His head snapped back.
"How am I doing?!" I repeated his question. "How the hell can you ask that?! Do you have any idea what you and your damn company have done to my life?!" I asked, furious.
He looked back at me and smacked me back. I stumbled. I wasn't in the mood to fight. I also wasn't in the mood to get beat around. "You're the one who started to infiltrate us. You're the one who challenged us in your village. You're the one who ran to your home and accepted the proposal to imprison yourself here if we would let your sister go." He said, his voice cold as ice.
"I did what I had to do." I said, standing up straight. "I'm not someone to stand around and let other get pushed around, or get pushed around by others." I said. I punched him again, and as his head moved to the side, my foot came and knocked his skull, sending his head in the other direction and tumbling to the ground. "Don't your DARE try and pin this on me! Your company started taking over towns. YOUR company started MURDERING people because of some orders. YOUR company took a LITTLE girl to lure me in!!" I screamed. I jumped on him, forcing him back to the ground.
My knuckles met with his jaw again. His elbow came in contact with my temple. I fell to the ground in a daze. My knee came up and met with his solarplex as he tried to leap onto me. I saw his face wince in pain as he managed to get another breath in before his muscles contracted and would stop him from breath. I got up and kicked him in the head. He grabbed my foot and pulled me down. My head bounced on the ground as I fell, causing my eyes to loose focus for a second. I felt my head snap to the side as his fist smashed my cheekbone. His hands were on my shoulders, forcing me to stay on the ground. I looked up and wasn't surprised to see him sitting on me. His knee's were on either side of my torso and his feet came back and hooked onto my legs, restricting any possibility that I might be able to kick up and knock him in the back of his head. I struggled to get my arms free, but he just grabbed them and crossed them over my chest, holding them there with his hands.
"Tora, calm down." He said as a piece of his hair fell in front of his face.
"Let me up!" I screamed in fury. I could feel my anger changing to frustration as he shook his head. "Let GO!" I screamed. I felt tears spring to my eyes with annoyance. I kept struggling as he held my down. I screamed. I screamed loudly. My voice echoed off the walls. My annoyance changed to sorrow. I allowed my tears to spill down the side of my head and my arms to stop struggling. I lied on the ground crying, my cheek on the cold floor.
Dilandau got up off my stomach and pulled me into a sitting position and hugged me. He held one arm around my waist and the other in the middle of my back, holding me to him. My hands gripped his shirt as I sobbed into his shoulder. "It's all gone." I said through gasps for air. "Everything I've worked for… it's all gone." I whispered.
I felt exhausted. I stopped crying after a while and allowed Dilandau to stroke my hair, calming me. "Come on." He said, and picked me up, bridal style. I folded in his arms. He walked over to the bed and set me down gently.
I watched as he sat down next to me. His hand reached up and stoked my face. "I don't want to hear you say you've lost everything." He said.
"But I have." I said. I shook my head. This wasn't like me. I'm a warrior. I don't sulk and cry. "It doesn't matter." I said. I sat up. "Thanks Dilandau. I know it's not like you to do something like that." I said.
"Tora, even the strongest people don't get over something like what you've gone through that quickly." He said.
"I'm fine." I said. "I'm sorry I attacked you. It isn't you I should be mad at… it's Folken." I said. Anger flurried up in me again. "He did it all. He did everything." I looked at Dilandau, my eyes burning with hatred.
"Tora, stay calm." Dilandau said.
"I'm calm." I said, but in my mind a million ways to kill Folken ran through my head. If I could just get my sword…
"Tora, don't even think about attacking Folken-sama." Dilandau's voice interjected to my thoughts.
"Why not? He's done everything he could to damage me. Why can't I do I to him? Just once?" I asked. "He killed my swords master, he ordered you to burn my home and murder my family, he held Marel here to bribe me into staying. What else could he possibly do to damage me more?" I asked.
"Tora…" Dilandau's didn't know what to say. He smiled and his hand came and stroked my face again. As his hand touched my skin I felt my anger begin to melt away. "God how I love your spirit." He leaned in and kissed me. My eyes slid closed as I allowed him to hold my lips with his. They slowly crept open when he finished. He slid his fingers through my hair and smiled as he leaned in again and kissed me once more. My hand came up and rested on his neck as we kissed. I pulled back, ending the moment.
"Wow. This is really confusing." I said, and I laughed.
"Why?" Dilandau smiled.
"Well, because I always hated you for 'killing Master Magus', and now we're sitting here…" I said. I laughed again.
"I didn't expect this to happen either." He said. "I know that there has always been something about you that caught my attention. Ever since we first caught you on film, a second before you broke the camera lens, I always wondered what it would be like to hold you, like we did on the floor over there." He said, pointing with his eyes.
I raised my eyebrows. "Dilandau, are you actually being romantic?" I asked in a teasing voice.
"Are you saying I couldn't be if I tried?" He asked.
"All I'm saying is that the chance is slim." I smiled cockily. He laughed and kissed me again. "Do you remember when I first kissed you?" I asked,
He nodded.
"It wasn't because I wanted to surprise you for once." I said. "Well, that was part of the reason." I said.
He thought. "A mutual attraction from the very beginning."
I pretended to be shocked. "That was a complicated word Dilandau!" I said. He smiled and shook his head, knowing I was being sarcastic.
"I've got to go. We start training soon." He said. He got up and started to leave. He turned and looked at me, walked back, and planted another kiss on my lips before leaving the room.
I slipped back under the covers and smiled.
Two months pass
BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP!!
"Eh?" I asked, looking to the flashing white light in my room. My door slid open.
"Tora, come on." Gatti said, running over and grabbing my wrist before I had time to do anything. He jerked me out of bed and hauled me down the hall.
"Hey, wait a second, what's going on?" I asked, not bothering to make him stop. If he wanted to move me then fine, if he was this worried something must have been wrong, and I wasn't about to stop him when there was something going down in Zaibach.
"Intruders are here." Was all he said.
Ahead I heard swords clanging. A small scream escaped from someone's lips, and I could see smoke coming from the hall ahead of us. Gatti quickly turned around, still grasping my wrist tightly and began to run in the other direction.
"Wait a minute!" I screamed, looking back. I saw a slayer fall to their knee's, and sparks coming from the two swords clashing together.
"Keep moving Tora!" Gatti screamed, jerking me forward again. We ran down several halls until he shoved the both of us into a room and locked the door. He turned on a single light and we sat waiting.
"So, what are we hiding from?" I asked.
"I told you, intruders came. I was assigned to come get you and keep you safe." Gatti explained.
"Keep me safe, or stop me from escaping with the infiltrators?" I asked.
"Pick one." He shrugged. I laughed and he smiled.
A few minutes later a calm voice came onto the intercom. "Return to your stations. The spy's have been caught."
Gatti nodded and stud up, unlocking the door he took my wrist again. We walked down the hallways and I was about to return to my room when Dilandau came running down the hall.
"Tora!" He said. "You have to come." He said.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Give her to me Gatti." Dilandau said.
"Yes Dilandau-sama." Gatti released my wrist and Dilandau took my hand. "Return to your post." He said. Gatti bowed and left.
Dilandau didn't waist time breaking into a run and leading me to the prison. I saw two dragon slayers holding someone, and Folken was there. Folken. I hadn't seen him since the fights that imprisoned me here. I felt my rage burning up. I still hated him for everything he did.
Folkens's eyes flicked up to Dilandau, and then to me. "Why did you bring her?" he asked.
"She has a right to see." Dilandau said.
I didn't wait for them to continue the conversation; I walked in and saw whom they were holding captive. When my eyes fell on her face I felt my heart stop as my mouth dropped open.
"Marel?!" I asked. She looked up to me and smiled.