Chapter Two
When the two had finished their late breakfast in the dining hall, Celena and Folken concurrently walked around the Vione for awhile. As promised, Folken was giving her a small tour of the Zaibach fortress. He led her around a few of the bottom floors and showed her the Guymelef hangar and the building room. She had not seemed exceptionally interested in that, but Celena had paid attention nonetheless. Folken made sure to cut the explanations short when he saw that she was becoming bored with the mechanical objects, and he decided to move on. After they had bypassed the engine room and the first and second floor, they made their way up five flights of stairs to the main living area and soldier barracks. They walked up and down the long halls, looking at the extensive rooms. He pointed out and explained all of them to her as they strolled past them.
"I guess I've forgotten some of these were even here. It's amazing what a refresher this is," he stated, noticing more rooms. "I haven't been around here in years, you see. The closest I've been here is Dilandau's room, which I don't go to very often, except on the occasion of this morning."
"How long have you been here?"
"Oh, it's been a long time. Close to a decade, I suppose. I came here when I was about your age."
Celena nodded. "Why did you come here? Was it by choice?" She glanced at his face, seeing a deeply inset frown.
Folken seemed to take a very big interest in the floor at that moment, for it took him a long moment to answer. "Let's just say, fate guided me here." He smiled and looked back up to her. "But that is in the past, isn't it? Besides, now is not the time to bring up past memories really. I believe we are still touring, aren't we?"
An answering smile crept up on Celena's face as she noticed they were standing still in the middle of the corridor. "Yes, though I believe it was you who stopped."
"Oh, no, no. I was merely following a young lady's example," Folken answered smoothly. He smiled at her and resumed walking down the hall, not waiting for her to follow.
Celena jogged forward until she caught up with him. "Yeah, right," she replied as she fell in stride beside him. She pointed to a set of doorways with some strange markings on them. "What are those used for?"
"Those are the Dragonslayers' quarters," he responded as he noted the symbols. He looked over to her and noticed her expression of thought and continued, "The Dragonslayers are the soldiers that Dilandau commands. There aren't many of them, only around fifteen or so. We only let Dilandau have that amount since we decided that was all he could really handle." He grinned and motioned to another door. "That would be the training area. They are probably in there right now. Do you want to take a look them?"
Celena nodded. "Um, sure." Folken quietly slid open the door and stepped aside to let the younger girl see inside the room where the Dragonslayers were training.
The Dragonslayers did amount to about fifteen, when she had counted them. Some were tall, some were short, a few looked tough as a brick wall, a few looked gentle as a lamb. Speaking of lamb. Her gaze came to rest on two boys. One had curly white hair that resembled wool. In truth, he looked very sheepish. The other boy, who was slightly taller and leaner, turned to him with a smirk on his face. His brown eyes were alight with mischief. His mouth opened and out came a very mocking sound. "Baa!"
The wool-headed boy spun towards him and gave him a firm smack across the face. Celena smiled and giggled as she witnessed this. Hearing her laugh, wool-head turned towards her and grinned, waving his gloved hand. She gasped and ducked out the door quickly.
Folken glanced towards her with an amused expression on his face. "Something wrong?"
"Uh, no. No, nothing's wrong," she replied, stepping forward and taking another good peek inside. She caught sight of Dilandau standing near a far wall, appearing quite bored. He turned his head in their direction when he felt someone staring at him and noticed her. He gave a very small grin and nodded his head once towards her. She sweetly smiled in return, waving her hand. 'He's not so bad. Interesting, really,' she thought to herself, glancing over Dilandau.
Celena stepped back and turned to Folken, wondering something. "Do they do this every day?"
"Tease Guimel or train?" he asked.
"You know, practice."
"No, they only do it four days out of the week. I can't say that for Guimel though," he replied, taking another precarious glance inside the training room. "Do you want to be introduced to them?"
Celena shook her head. "Maybe later. I don't really want to interrupt them." She peered down the hall. "What's next?"
Folken stood up from his leaning position. "Well, I suppose we can go to my little hideout of the fortress. It isn't very far from here, unless you want to crawl there. It's just a few halls and some stairs. Follow me."
When they arrived at Folken's little "hideout", which Folken had said would be only a few stairs yet turned out to be four floors above the barracks, Celena gaped in awe. It was actually two large rooms connected together by a small bathroom. They entered by the left door, which led to the study.
In the study, hundreds of books were stacked neatly in several bookcases against the far wall. A large desk with strewn papers across its top was in front of them, making it look extremely unorganized. To the left wall was a small table with glasses and bottles of various concoctions in all different colors and densities.
Like the sorcerers had, Celena thought. She frowned and cast her gaze somewhere else, keeping her mind away from the already gruesome memories of her childhood.
Folken looked at the expressions flashing across her face in wonder. It seemed she always had something on her mind, making her moods change back and forth very abruptly. She was reserved in her manner though, only choosing to speak when necessary. He smiled as he thought about it. Reserved yet mysterious was a personality trait that he quite admired.
"My bedroom is after the bathroom, but you really don't want to see that, trust me. We can go find Eriya and Naria if you want. Well, if we can find them, that is. They are usually at their favorite hangouts, you know."
A loud knock upon the study door grated their ears from the quiet atmosphere. Folken frowned and looked towards the door. "Yes? What is it?"
"Emperor Dornkirk has requested to see you, Lord Folken," was the reply from outside the door.
"Is it urgent?"
"No, Lord Folken, but the Emperor will not like to be kept waiting."
Folken gave an exasperated sigh and glanced over to Celena. "I have to go, but you can stay here if you want. It shouldn't be long. His Majesty does not talk about much, just the usual plans for world domination and ideal futures."
Celena nodded in bewilderment. "O-okay." Folken briskly turned and left the room, leaving Celena to stand there and wonder what to do. She casually walked over to the desk and glanced over the papers. Most had writing on them, but she only found interest in the sketches upon the table. They were drawings of artillery weapons, soldier uniforms, and some things she didn't understand. She picked up one and examined it, tracing the dark lines of the sketched sword. If Folken drew these, he was quite the artist. It was easily noticeable that everything was detailed in the most minor ways.
She started drawing up a mental list of everything she had noticed about him so far. He was charming, nice, mysterious... He was quite handsome too. Celena smiled dreamily, but snapped back to reality as she had a thought. She had never felt anything close to this before. What was she feeling anyway? Confusion rolled over her, but she just shook her head and set the drawing down, changing her frame of thought. She looked over to the stack of books that lined the shelves and walked over to them. Glancing over the titles, she tried to pronounce some of them.
"Guy.. Guymelef... Mod... Models," she stated, nodding in satisfaction. "And then there's... Re-gen-er-a-tion. Oh, regeneration." It did not help that the sorcerers had never bothered to teach her to read. Jajuka had brought her a book once and taught her some words. She smiled at the thought. She became so frustrated with one sentence that she threw the book down onto the floor and stomped away, coming back to it within an hour. That was probably the last thing she had read, when she was eight years old. The story was about a man and a bird, and their friendship. She remembered a few parts of it, but not many. Ha, the old memory was coming back to her now...
*~*
"What's that?" asked the little eight-year old version of her as she saw Jajuka was carrying something. He sat down next to her and placed the thin book in her hands.
"It's a book, Celena. I was hoping to teach you some words," he stated, chuckling to himself as she hurriedly opened the book and glanced at it. "Do you know your alphabet?"
Celena looked back up at him from the thin blue book. "I think I do... A, B, C, D, E, um... um, F! G, H, I, J, oh, um, K, L, N... Oh, wait, M, N, O, P, Q... Q... R! S, T, U..."
By this time Jajuka was saying some of them with her, helping her with the ones she had forgotten. "Good, that would be all of them. Do you know how to read them?"
Celena shrugged. "I don't know."
Jajuka pointed to the first letter. "What is this?"
"That would be... O!" she stated, smiling. "And after that is an... N."
"Good," Jajuka answered. "Now what sounds do O make?"
"Oh and ah," she replied, remembering her schooling when she was back home. "And N makes the nuh sound."
"And in order to read words, you need to put them together, you see. This O makes the ah sound, and this N makes the nuh sound. So let's try them together."
Celena nodded. They both said in unison, "Ah, nuh. Ahnuh. Ahn. On!"
*~*
She walked a little farther and slowly read the other book titles, picking one up that sparked her interest. Sitting down in the soft desk chair, she opened it and began to look through the first few pages.
"Hmm... I wonder what this is about..." She read a few lines from the first page, and was so focused on her reading that she did not hear the door slide open and the approaching steps.
"Day Of Kings, I think I have heard of that before."
Celena jumped at the sudden voice, glancing up to see Dilandau standing there. "Oh, it's you."
Dilandau nodded. "I figured I could find you here, knowing Folken. I needed to talk to you without him interrupting. Is he around?"
Celena shook her head. "No, he went off to talk with some emperor, or something."
"Oh, Emperor Dornkirk. Well, that might take a while," Dilandau stated, coming to sit on the side of the desk. Celena rolled the chair backwards a bit, keeping her distance from the peppery fifteen-year old. Dilandau smiled, amused at the small gesture. "Anyway, I was meaning to ask you about, well, for starters, you. I mean, you seem to be familiar to me for a few reasons, though I don't believe we have ever met before."
"I don't think we have, either. You are not very familiar to me, though."
Dilandau bit his bottom lip and nodded. "I see... Well, I was wondering why you said that you thought you were only twelve."
She shrugged her shoulders. "That's the last time I can remember anything... I remember I had woken up from one of those blackouts that I usually get. It was about three days that I was awake before I started to..." she trailed off and stared down at the floor.
After a minute, her voice came out in a hushed tone. "I started to have these weird things happen to me. I couldn't stay awake for very long. I... I felt so tired. And every time I tried to stand I would fall down. Once I stumbled onto the floor and... And then I started shaking uncontrollably. The sorcerers wouldn't do anything to help me. They strapped me down to a table and stuck me with needles. And then, I.... I blacked out. That's the last thing I can really remember. You see, these things have happened to me since I was taken by them. It's all I can remember. Those times when I was awake..." Her voice was increasingly becoming shakier.
"There are so many missing spots. I can remember a lot when I was nine, but I can't remember at all when I was ten. I can only remember one day when I was eleven... The rest is all black. And they said I had amnesia... But, it happens so often, it's normal to me. I used to be afraid to go to sleep because I didn't want to wake up and find it was a year later or that I would wake up in boy's clothing or-" She was cut off by a short sob that escaped her lips. She couldn't take any more of these memories.
By this time, Dilandau was looking at her in complete shock. Her story sounded a lot like his, but he guessed that was natural if you were one of the lab rats they had used for so long. He looked on as her eyes became teary and she bit back threatening sobs. Honestly, he had no idea what to do since he was not around weeping girls very often, so he did the thing that common sense told him to and gently laid a gloved hand on her shoulder. Celena had regained some of her self-control by then and put her hand over his.
Dilandau spoke up after a moment. "You told some of my story."
Celena looked up with amazement shining clearly in her cerulean eyes. "You mean you were..."
"One of the children," Dilandau finished, gazing into her eyes with empathy. "Yeah. I don't like to think about them much."
Celena smiled and nodded. "Neither do I. Really though, I can't remember them all that well, but I can recall Jajuka."
"Oh, yeah. I was going to ask you about him, too. I think I know his name from somewhere."
"You probably do," she replied. "Some of the children knew him well. I did, anyway. He always took the best care of us, and he was so caring and warm and fuzzy."
Dilandau almost wanted to laugh at that, but laughed on the inside while he kept a listening appearance on the outside. He did not especially like people that were "fuzzy", if there was such a thing. "Fuzzy?"
Celena nodded. "Mmhmm. Fuzzy. He had a brown fur coat and-"
"Fur coat?"
"Yes, he looked like a dog, but he walked and talked like a man. He was just as big as a man too."
Dilandau nodded. "That's, um, interesting. But, uh, I was wondering something else. Are you sure you can't remember last night?"
"No, I can't. Everything is a blank from the time I told you about."
Two of his fingers cupped his chin as he contemplated something. "Then I guess someone must have put you in my bed during the night. There can't be any other reason to how you got there. I certainly don't remember seeing you there when I went to sleep." He stood and walked over to Celena, suddenly leaning over and lightly catching her chin, slowly turning her head this way and that as he examined her features. "But I still don't understand why I don't feel I have met you before, but that I have dreamed of you." He smiled as Celena's expression turned to one of surprise. "Yeah, I have dreamed of you before, I know. It's a bit strange, isn't it? I had no idea who you were, never saw you before, never met you, yet I could see you in dreams." He released her chin and leaned on the armrests of the chair, bringing his face inches from hers. "But how can that be? Everything is strange about you, you know." Dilandau cocked his head to the side as he caught a worried sparkle in Celena's eyes. "You're just one big puzzle, Celena."
"And you're one big puzzle yourself, Dilandau."
Both Celena and Dilandau jumped away from each other as Folken's voice interrupted the air of unnoticed and unrealized tension. Dilandau looked slightly abashed, but covered it up quickly with a demanding voice. "How long have you been there?"
Folken flashed him an amused smile and replied, "Long enough." He turned away from the fuming boy towards Celena. "I hope he has not been troubling you too much. I probably should have come a lot quicker if I knew Dilandau was making a hopeless attempt to catch a girl." He pointed to the open door behind him, and glanced contemptuously at Dilandau. "Out."
The young albino growled under his breath. "Someday I'll teach you, Folken..." he muttered between clenched teeth and started to walk out when Celena surprisingly came to his defense.
"No, he can stay. He's not a bother, really," she pleaded, hoping Folken would agree.
Folken curiously looked from Celena to Dilandau and raised an eyebrow. "Why- "
"You did want to find me somewhere to stay, didn't you? Maybe he can help, and he is not as bad as you make him out to be."
Chuckling to himself, Folken reluctantly nodded. "I guess, but I think you had better take a closer look at our young soldier." He turned to Dilandau. "But if you make a false move, just one, you're gone."
Dilandau glared at Strategos and moodily sat down in one of the side chairs while Celena sat down in her previous spot.
"Now, as for room accommodations, I-"
"I think I can help you there," Dilandau interrupted. "There is an empty bedroom two down from mine that she could take."
Folken frowned at him. "That was one of my suggestions, thank you. There is also another bedroom next to Eriya's, if you want. You could take either. Oh, and also, I checked with the Captain and pilots earlier. We are returning to Zaibach in a few days. It will probably be close to the capital, so we can go buy you some clothes."
Celena nodded. "That's good, but you don't have to. I don't mean to be a bother-"
"Oh, you're no bother. Naria will probably want some more clothes anyway, she might take you if we can't," Folken replied.
"Um, okay. Well, as for rooms, I think I'll take the bedroom near yours, Dilandau."
His mouth became a smug grin as Dilandau looked back up to Folken. "Well, then, I'll show you where it is and you can get settled." He stood and motioned for Celena to follow him.
She stood from her chair and walked towards Folken. "I will see you later then, Folken. Thank you."
The two teenagers strolled out into the hall together, one leading and the other following. Folken's eyebrows furrowed together. "Dilandau, you... Uh, he's going to get on my last nerve one of these days," he grumbled, closing the door behind them.
He paced over to his desk and started organizing the messy papers for the second time that day. He was examining his drawings that had seemed to be in a different spot than where he had left them. His attention was very absorbed when his hand, which was slowly swinging at his side, gently fell onto the book Celena had been reading earlier. He looked towards it and put the sketches to the side. "Hmm, I remember this. I fell asleep at night reading it. Hmm, I wonder if she can read." He turned his gaze to the closed door. His thoughts turned to the smug, fifteen-year old hothead who had been standing there a few minutes ago. "It's odd how Dilandau is acting. Perhaps she can straighten him out for once, merciless little boy."
When the two had finished their late breakfast in the dining hall, Celena and Folken concurrently walked around the Vione for awhile. As promised, Folken was giving her a small tour of the Zaibach fortress. He led her around a few of the bottom floors and showed her the Guymelef hangar and the building room. She had not seemed exceptionally interested in that, but Celena had paid attention nonetheless. Folken made sure to cut the explanations short when he saw that she was becoming bored with the mechanical objects, and he decided to move on. After they had bypassed the engine room and the first and second floor, they made their way up five flights of stairs to the main living area and soldier barracks. They walked up and down the long halls, looking at the extensive rooms. He pointed out and explained all of them to her as they strolled past them.
"I guess I've forgotten some of these were even here. It's amazing what a refresher this is," he stated, noticing more rooms. "I haven't been around here in years, you see. The closest I've been here is Dilandau's room, which I don't go to very often, except on the occasion of this morning."
"How long have you been here?"
"Oh, it's been a long time. Close to a decade, I suppose. I came here when I was about your age."
Celena nodded. "Why did you come here? Was it by choice?" She glanced at his face, seeing a deeply inset frown.
Folken seemed to take a very big interest in the floor at that moment, for it took him a long moment to answer. "Let's just say, fate guided me here." He smiled and looked back up to her. "But that is in the past, isn't it? Besides, now is not the time to bring up past memories really. I believe we are still touring, aren't we?"
An answering smile crept up on Celena's face as she noticed they were standing still in the middle of the corridor. "Yes, though I believe it was you who stopped."
"Oh, no, no. I was merely following a young lady's example," Folken answered smoothly. He smiled at her and resumed walking down the hall, not waiting for her to follow.
Celena jogged forward until she caught up with him. "Yeah, right," she replied as she fell in stride beside him. She pointed to a set of doorways with some strange markings on them. "What are those used for?"
"Those are the Dragonslayers' quarters," he responded as he noted the symbols. He looked over to her and noticed her expression of thought and continued, "The Dragonslayers are the soldiers that Dilandau commands. There aren't many of them, only around fifteen or so. We only let Dilandau have that amount since we decided that was all he could really handle." He grinned and motioned to another door. "That would be the training area. They are probably in there right now. Do you want to take a look them?"
Celena nodded. "Um, sure." Folken quietly slid open the door and stepped aside to let the younger girl see inside the room where the Dragonslayers were training.
The Dragonslayers did amount to about fifteen, when she had counted them. Some were tall, some were short, a few looked tough as a brick wall, a few looked gentle as a lamb. Speaking of lamb. Her gaze came to rest on two boys. One had curly white hair that resembled wool. In truth, he looked very sheepish. The other boy, who was slightly taller and leaner, turned to him with a smirk on his face. His brown eyes were alight with mischief. His mouth opened and out came a very mocking sound. "Baa!"
The wool-headed boy spun towards him and gave him a firm smack across the face. Celena smiled and giggled as she witnessed this. Hearing her laugh, wool-head turned towards her and grinned, waving his gloved hand. She gasped and ducked out the door quickly.
Folken glanced towards her with an amused expression on his face. "Something wrong?"
"Uh, no. No, nothing's wrong," she replied, stepping forward and taking another good peek inside. She caught sight of Dilandau standing near a far wall, appearing quite bored. He turned his head in their direction when he felt someone staring at him and noticed her. He gave a very small grin and nodded his head once towards her. She sweetly smiled in return, waving her hand. 'He's not so bad. Interesting, really,' she thought to herself, glancing over Dilandau.
Celena stepped back and turned to Folken, wondering something. "Do they do this every day?"
"Tease Guimel or train?" he asked.
"You know, practice."
"No, they only do it four days out of the week. I can't say that for Guimel though," he replied, taking another precarious glance inside the training room. "Do you want to be introduced to them?"
Celena shook her head. "Maybe later. I don't really want to interrupt them." She peered down the hall. "What's next?"
Folken stood up from his leaning position. "Well, I suppose we can go to my little hideout of the fortress. It isn't very far from here, unless you want to crawl there. It's just a few halls and some stairs. Follow me."
When they arrived at Folken's little "hideout", which Folken had said would be only a few stairs yet turned out to be four floors above the barracks, Celena gaped in awe. It was actually two large rooms connected together by a small bathroom. They entered by the left door, which led to the study.
In the study, hundreds of books were stacked neatly in several bookcases against the far wall. A large desk with strewn papers across its top was in front of them, making it look extremely unorganized. To the left wall was a small table with glasses and bottles of various concoctions in all different colors and densities.
Like the sorcerers had, Celena thought. She frowned and cast her gaze somewhere else, keeping her mind away from the already gruesome memories of her childhood.
Folken looked at the expressions flashing across her face in wonder. It seemed she always had something on her mind, making her moods change back and forth very abruptly. She was reserved in her manner though, only choosing to speak when necessary. He smiled as he thought about it. Reserved yet mysterious was a personality trait that he quite admired.
"My bedroom is after the bathroom, but you really don't want to see that, trust me. We can go find Eriya and Naria if you want. Well, if we can find them, that is. They are usually at their favorite hangouts, you know."
A loud knock upon the study door grated their ears from the quiet atmosphere. Folken frowned and looked towards the door. "Yes? What is it?"
"Emperor Dornkirk has requested to see you, Lord Folken," was the reply from outside the door.
"Is it urgent?"
"No, Lord Folken, but the Emperor will not like to be kept waiting."
Folken gave an exasperated sigh and glanced over to Celena. "I have to go, but you can stay here if you want. It shouldn't be long. His Majesty does not talk about much, just the usual plans for world domination and ideal futures."
Celena nodded in bewilderment. "O-okay." Folken briskly turned and left the room, leaving Celena to stand there and wonder what to do. She casually walked over to the desk and glanced over the papers. Most had writing on them, but she only found interest in the sketches upon the table. They were drawings of artillery weapons, soldier uniforms, and some things she didn't understand. She picked up one and examined it, tracing the dark lines of the sketched sword. If Folken drew these, he was quite the artist. It was easily noticeable that everything was detailed in the most minor ways.
She started drawing up a mental list of everything she had noticed about him so far. He was charming, nice, mysterious... He was quite handsome too. Celena smiled dreamily, but snapped back to reality as she had a thought. She had never felt anything close to this before. What was she feeling anyway? Confusion rolled over her, but she just shook her head and set the drawing down, changing her frame of thought. She looked over to the stack of books that lined the shelves and walked over to them. Glancing over the titles, she tried to pronounce some of them.
"Guy.. Guymelef... Mod... Models," she stated, nodding in satisfaction. "And then there's... Re-gen-er-a-tion. Oh, regeneration." It did not help that the sorcerers had never bothered to teach her to read. Jajuka had brought her a book once and taught her some words. She smiled at the thought. She became so frustrated with one sentence that she threw the book down onto the floor and stomped away, coming back to it within an hour. That was probably the last thing she had read, when she was eight years old. The story was about a man and a bird, and their friendship. She remembered a few parts of it, but not many. Ha, the old memory was coming back to her now...
*~*
"What's that?" asked the little eight-year old version of her as she saw Jajuka was carrying something. He sat down next to her and placed the thin book in her hands.
"It's a book, Celena. I was hoping to teach you some words," he stated, chuckling to himself as she hurriedly opened the book and glanced at it. "Do you know your alphabet?"
Celena looked back up at him from the thin blue book. "I think I do... A, B, C, D, E, um... um, F! G, H, I, J, oh, um, K, L, N... Oh, wait, M, N, O, P, Q... Q... R! S, T, U..."
By this time Jajuka was saying some of them with her, helping her with the ones she had forgotten. "Good, that would be all of them. Do you know how to read them?"
Celena shrugged. "I don't know."
Jajuka pointed to the first letter. "What is this?"
"That would be... O!" she stated, smiling. "And after that is an... N."
"Good," Jajuka answered. "Now what sounds do O make?"
"Oh and ah," she replied, remembering her schooling when she was back home. "And N makes the nuh sound."
"And in order to read words, you need to put them together, you see. This O makes the ah sound, and this N makes the nuh sound. So let's try them together."
Celena nodded. They both said in unison, "Ah, nuh. Ahnuh. Ahn. On!"
*~*
She walked a little farther and slowly read the other book titles, picking one up that sparked her interest. Sitting down in the soft desk chair, she opened it and began to look through the first few pages.
"Hmm... I wonder what this is about..." She read a few lines from the first page, and was so focused on her reading that she did not hear the door slide open and the approaching steps.
"Day Of Kings, I think I have heard of that before."
Celena jumped at the sudden voice, glancing up to see Dilandau standing there. "Oh, it's you."
Dilandau nodded. "I figured I could find you here, knowing Folken. I needed to talk to you without him interrupting. Is he around?"
Celena shook her head. "No, he went off to talk with some emperor, or something."
"Oh, Emperor Dornkirk. Well, that might take a while," Dilandau stated, coming to sit on the side of the desk. Celena rolled the chair backwards a bit, keeping her distance from the peppery fifteen-year old. Dilandau smiled, amused at the small gesture. "Anyway, I was meaning to ask you about, well, for starters, you. I mean, you seem to be familiar to me for a few reasons, though I don't believe we have ever met before."
"I don't think we have, either. You are not very familiar to me, though."
Dilandau bit his bottom lip and nodded. "I see... Well, I was wondering why you said that you thought you were only twelve."
She shrugged her shoulders. "That's the last time I can remember anything... I remember I had woken up from one of those blackouts that I usually get. It was about three days that I was awake before I started to..." she trailed off and stared down at the floor.
After a minute, her voice came out in a hushed tone. "I started to have these weird things happen to me. I couldn't stay awake for very long. I... I felt so tired. And every time I tried to stand I would fall down. Once I stumbled onto the floor and... And then I started shaking uncontrollably. The sorcerers wouldn't do anything to help me. They strapped me down to a table and stuck me with needles. And then, I.... I blacked out. That's the last thing I can really remember. You see, these things have happened to me since I was taken by them. It's all I can remember. Those times when I was awake..." Her voice was increasingly becoming shakier.
"There are so many missing spots. I can remember a lot when I was nine, but I can't remember at all when I was ten. I can only remember one day when I was eleven... The rest is all black. And they said I had amnesia... But, it happens so often, it's normal to me. I used to be afraid to go to sleep because I didn't want to wake up and find it was a year later or that I would wake up in boy's clothing or-" She was cut off by a short sob that escaped her lips. She couldn't take any more of these memories.
By this time, Dilandau was looking at her in complete shock. Her story sounded a lot like his, but he guessed that was natural if you were one of the lab rats they had used for so long. He looked on as her eyes became teary and she bit back threatening sobs. Honestly, he had no idea what to do since he was not around weeping girls very often, so he did the thing that common sense told him to and gently laid a gloved hand on her shoulder. Celena had regained some of her self-control by then and put her hand over his.
Dilandau spoke up after a moment. "You told some of my story."
Celena looked up with amazement shining clearly in her cerulean eyes. "You mean you were..."
"One of the children," Dilandau finished, gazing into her eyes with empathy. "Yeah. I don't like to think about them much."
Celena smiled and nodded. "Neither do I. Really though, I can't remember them all that well, but I can recall Jajuka."
"Oh, yeah. I was going to ask you about him, too. I think I know his name from somewhere."
"You probably do," she replied. "Some of the children knew him well. I did, anyway. He always took the best care of us, and he was so caring and warm and fuzzy."
Dilandau almost wanted to laugh at that, but laughed on the inside while he kept a listening appearance on the outside. He did not especially like people that were "fuzzy", if there was such a thing. "Fuzzy?"
Celena nodded. "Mmhmm. Fuzzy. He had a brown fur coat and-"
"Fur coat?"
"Yes, he looked like a dog, but he walked and talked like a man. He was just as big as a man too."
Dilandau nodded. "That's, um, interesting. But, uh, I was wondering something else. Are you sure you can't remember last night?"
"No, I can't. Everything is a blank from the time I told you about."
Two of his fingers cupped his chin as he contemplated something. "Then I guess someone must have put you in my bed during the night. There can't be any other reason to how you got there. I certainly don't remember seeing you there when I went to sleep." He stood and walked over to Celena, suddenly leaning over and lightly catching her chin, slowly turning her head this way and that as he examined her features. "But I still don't understand why I don't feel I have met you before, but that I have dreamed of you." He smiled as Celena's expression turned to one of surprise. "Yeah, I have dreamed of you before, I know. It's a bit strange, isn't it? I had no idea who you were, never saw you before, never met you, yet I could see you in dreams." He released her chin and leaned on the armrests of the chair, bringing his face inches from hers. "But how can that be? Everything is strange about you, you know." Dilandau cocked his head to the side as he caught a worried sparkle in Celena's eyes. "You're just one big puzzle, Celena."
"And you're one big puzzle yourself, Dilandau."
Both Celena and Dilandau jumped away from each other as Folken's voice interrupted the air of unnoticed and unrealized tension. Dilandau looked slightly abashed, but covered it up quickly with a demanding voice. "How long have you been there?"
Folken flashed him an amused smile and replied, "Long enough." He turned away from the fuming boy towards Celena. "I hope he has not been troubling you too much. I probably should have come a lot quicker if I knew Dilandau was making a hopeless attempt to catch a girl." He pointed to the open door behind him, and glanced contemptuously at Dilandau. "Out."
The young albino growled under his breath. "Someday I'll teach you, Folken..." he muttered between clenched teeth and started to walk out when Celena surprisingly came to his defense.
"No, he can stay. He's not a bother, really," she pleaded, hoping Folken would agree.
Folken curiously looked from Celena to Dilandau and raised an eyebrow. "Why- "
"You did want to find me somewhere to stay, didn't you? Maybe he can help, and he is not as bad as you make him out to be."
Chuckling to himself, Folken reluctantly nodded. "I guess, but I think you had better take a closer look at our young soldier." He turned to Dilandau. "But if you make a false move, just one, you're gone."
Dilandau glared at Strategos and moodily sat down in one of the side chairs while Celena sat down in her previous spot.
"Now, as for room accommodations, I-"
"I think I can help you there," Dilandau interrupted. "There is an empty bedroom two down from mine that she could take."
Folken frowned at him. "That was one of my suggestions, thank you. There is also another bedroom next to Eriya's, if you want. You could take either. Oh, and also, I checked with the Captain and pilots earlier. We are returning to Zaibach in a few days. It will probably be close to the capital, so we can go buy you some clothes."
Celena nodded. "That's good, but you don't have to. I don't mean to be a bother-"
"Oh, you're no bother. Naria will probably want some more clothes anyway, she might take you if we can't," Folken replied.
"Um, okay. Well, as for rooms, I think I'll take the bedroom near yours, Dilandau."
His mouth became a smug grin as Dilandau looked back up to Folken. "Well, then, I'll show you where it is and you can get settled." He stood and motioned for Celena to follow him.
She stood from her chair and walked towards Folken. "I will see you later then, Folken. Thank you."
The two teenagers strolled out into the hall together, one leading and the other following. Folken's eyebrows furrowed together. "Dilandau, you... Uh, he's going to get on my last nerve one of these days," he grumbled, closing the door behind them.
He paced over to his desk and started organizing the messy papers for the second time that day. He was examining his drawings that had seemed to be in a different spot than where he had left them. His attention was very absorbed when his hand, which was slowly swinging at his side, gently fell onto the book Celena had been reading earlier. He looked towards it and put the sketches to the side. "Hmm, I remember this. I fell asleep at night reading it. Hmm, I wonder if she can read." He turned his gaze to the closed door. His thoughts turned to the smug, fifteen-year old hothead who had been standing there a few minutes ago. "It's odd how Dilandau is acting. Perhaps she can straighten him out for once, merciless little boy."