Disclaimer: The Vision of Escaflowne belongs to a lovely Japanese animation studio known as Studio Sunrise. I, I am sorry to say, am not a part of that lovely group of animators, nor do I think I will ever be. Enough said.

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Chapter 9: Allies

Muniya was the first of their party to awaken the next morning, at dawn. She unfurled her wings and stretched her limbs, yawning widely. She blinked into the pinkish glow of the morning and eyed the sky: the sun was an orange-red globe on the horizon, surrounded by dark clouds. An impairment on our journey, the bird-girl noted silently, exhaling slowly and flexing her talons.

Without warning, she took to the sky, the wind rushing past her ears and seeping underneath her long hair to tickle her scalp. It was a refreshment she had been long deprived of. Hovering in midair, she took the time to gaze at the lovely sky without the blockade of dark trees. A tiny smile curled the corners of her mouth, and she did a few flips in midair to work out the kinks her shoulderblades.

Slight movement to her left diverted her attention, and she paused in her flips, vaguely aware that she hanging upside-down with her gown pulled toward the ground by gravity. But she paid it no heed; she wore pants for a reason. Pushing her gown aside with one hand, she noticed a pair of brown leather boots and khaki pants. She uprighted herself and folded her legs pretzel-style.

"Good morning, Your Majesty." Her voice, as always, was barely audible. Van did not reply, but simply stared at her as if she were crazy. Small, fluffy white feathers floated around him like a slow-moving cyclone, but he paid them no notice. He hovered in midair with his knees slightly bent, his wings stretched to their widest. Amber met garnet as they stared at each other.

"You do not seem the type to do backflips in midair at the crack of dawn," Van's slow voice broke the silence.

Muniya unfolded her legs and bent her knees slightly, imitating his posture. "There are many things I am that I ought not to be," was the mysterious reply. Before Van had a chance to decipher the meaning of her words, she added, "It feels nice to stretch one's wings early in the morning, when the world is just waking and there is nought be peace and quiet… Does it not, Your Majesty?"

Van opened his mouth to reply when he noticed that Muniya was no longer looking at him but at the ground beneath him. Curious, he followed her gaze. Nyoka was standing below them, his pupils so dilated that his eyes were nothing but a large sea of glistening topaz. The wind gently pushed his thick air away from his face, making his cheek marks more prominent. His tail waved back and forth in an odd manner, and Van stared at him quizzically.

"He is beckoning to us," Muniya explained softly, her eyes carefully following the movements of the lizard's tail. "I believe he has an important message for us…" She looked at him expectantly, one hand aiming toward the ground. "After you, Your Majesty," she said politely, nodding her head in respect. Van nodded and, folding his wings against his side, dove down to the earth. He felt a rush of wind brush his shoulder and was shocked to see a gold and white blur shoot by him to land smoothly on the hillside. Damn, how does she fly so fast? he thought, wide-eyed.

An wry smile played with the corners of Nyoka's green-tinted lips as the young king landed. "Company we are about to have, I believe," he said slowly, his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth and breaking his smooth speech into spits. "From here I cannot tell what it is, but approaching fast, it is, and from the direction of your city. Danger from it I do not sense, but cautious still we must be."

For the love of God, can he, for once in his life, speak grammatically correct? Van thought, exasperated.

"You say there is something approaching us?" Van's attention was directed to the source of the voice. Hitomi stood a few feet away, her eyes glazed over with exhaustion. Her short hair was ruffled, and she was desperately trying to smooth it down with one hand, while muffling her yawn with the other. "But you do not sense danger. Could it just by a leviship passing over the country on its way to, oh, say, Asturia?" Her speech was slightly slurred, and Van had the distinct feeling that she had not have a very restful night. He frowned slightly but chose to remain silent on the matter; he would bring it up later.

"Not many leviships pass over the mountain," Van told her, almost immediately regretting it the instant the words left his mouth. Hitomi paused in rubbing her eyes to shoot him a deathly glare aided by the agitation and short temper that resulted from a lack of sleep.

"What does it matter?" Kirra's angry voice snapped. Stifling a groan, Van looked over his shoulder at the black cat, who was staring at his outstretched wings with an odd expression on her face. Sensing his gaze, she glared at him. "As long as they do not bother us," she continued, her hands on her hips, "why do we even bother to worry? Shall we proceed, Your Majesty?" Her tone was mocking, and Van bristled. "You are, after all, the only one who knows where we are going." She smirked, ignoring the warning glances she was receiving from her fellow Nya'torians.

Van opened his mouth to reply when a dark shadow passed over them. Shielding his eyes, he squinted upward at the form of a giant leviship. His mouth dropped when he recognized it.

"Van!" Hitomi cried excitedly. "It's the Crusade!" Van could only nod as her comment was nearly drowned out by the roar of propellers.

The ensemble watched as the leviship slowly descended to the ground before them, attacking them with a giant gust of wind that nearly blew them off their feet. Kirra let out curses in her own native language as she was flung backward. There were two yelps as Aurelia and Urufu, who were still shaking off sleep, were thrown against the boulder they had been resting against. Merle awoke with a loud, feline screech and dug her claws into the hard surface of a boulder, her tail erect. Hitomi shielded her eyes and spread her legs in an effort to keep from being blown away.

"A most interesting contraption—not that different from Earthen airplanes, hmm?" Urufu's deep voice said calculatingly. "Except without engines…" His nose twitched, and he sniffed air curiously.

A ramp was lowered, and a familiar head of rough brown hair peered around the doorway. Gaddes' face broke into his familiar ruffian grin as he loped down the ramp, wearing his usual warrior's armor. "Long time no see, Your Majesty, Lady Hitomi," he said. He looked around at the others, and blinked. "So these are the strange folk who dragged you all off on some strange adventure," he said slowly. His eyes passed carelessly over Kirra, Aurelia and Urufu, though he stumbled over the shockingly more animalistic features of those three. But when he looked at Muniya and Nyoka, he did a double-take. "What in the name of the…"

Kirra's ears flattened back on her head, and she let out a low, threatening growl that was unlike any growl any cat-folk of Gaea was capable of. "Who the hell do you think you are, and what the hell are you doing here?" she hissed. Gaddes stared at her. Ayseth had not mentioned just how strange their accent was.

"So you are not from any part of Gaea," a familiar voice said. Allen Schezar stood on the halfway point of the ramp, his white-gloved hands on his hips. He wore his usual knight's attire, including the sword that swung from his hip. His blue eyes softened at the sight of Hitomi, and he smiled warmly as he walked toward them. "It is nice to see you again, Hitomi, Van." He nodded to the young king, who nodded sharply in return. He was remembering, with distaste, the competition he and the blonde knight had waged over Hitomi's affections.

"How did you find us?" Hitomi asked, saving Van the task of asking that same question—and Van knew his voice would not as sweet and kind as Hitomi's. Although he and Allen were friends, and Allen had assured him that he had given up his pursuit for Hitomi's love, there was still a thin layer of competition that lay beneath the thick surface of their alliance. And Van was not about to forget that layer.

Allen spared a quick glance in Van's direction. "Ayseth said you had rushed off suddenly a few mornings ago, with five strange beast-creatures that were like none here on Gaea." His gaze quickly shifted to the Nya'torians, and he, like Gaddes, did a double-take at the sight of Muniya and Nyoka. But unlike Gaddes, he kept his thoughts to himself.

"Oh, so now we have become the objects of queer faces and rude remarks?" Kirra snapped, her patience visibly wearing thin. "Your Majesty, I thought you had told that guard not to mention anything to anyone. Do all your subjects scoot around your royal orders?"

Van was livid with anger, his face red with fury. "Allen Schezar is a comrade of mine," he said, his voice strained. "Yes, I told Ayseth not to mention to anyone that their king was not present, there are exceptions to such a demand—exceptions that I need not to tell Ayseth, for he already knows. Old friends who inquire after me are part of that exception." His eyes flashed, a frightening blood-red glint. "I told Ayseth nothing except that we were leaving. He told Allen what only he himself knew."

Kirra's ears twitched. "You put that much trust in your guard? You are quite an unusual ruler, Your Majesty. Perhaps this results from your youth? From your lack of a parental figure in your childhood? Or is this entire world backward?"

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT VAN-SAMA!" Merle shrieked, her fur bristling with anger. She hissed and spat, her eyes blazing with the scalding blue fires of hell. Only Hitomi's gentle hand pressed to her backside prevented her flinging herself at Kirra with her claws unsheathed.

"Sir, this is a bit much," Gaddes said quietly to Allen, but his words did not escape the keen hearing of Urufu, who happened to be standing near. He was standing with his arms folded across his chest, his sharp amber eyes fixed on Kirra. Now he glanced out of the corner of his eye at the two Asturians, and let the corner of his mouth curl into a snarl.

Allen stepped forward, touching the hilt of his sword. "Who are you, to insult not only a king and his country, but the entire planet as well?" he demanded, his voice as sharp and cold as ice.

One black ear flicked in his direction, and Kirra stared at him out of the corner of her eye. "Cut the shit, womanizer."

There was a sharp intake of breath as the black cat's insult cut to the core. All pairs of eyes were suddenly glued to Allen, who was staring at the offender with a mixture of embarrassment, shame and anger reddening his face. His normally gentle eyes were suddenly piercing. Allen did not like to be reminded of the very un-chivalric deeds he had done in the past. Just thinking about those deeds filled his heart and mind with shame and embarrassment. But for this mere cat-child to turn his past into something even more hideous than it already was… How did she know, anyway? No one would call him a "womanizer" just for the sake of insulting him.

There was a blinding flash of light, and suddenly Kirra was thrown into the air, spun around, and then sent diving headlong into the earth. She lifted her face, coughing up a mouthful of dirt and grass, and wiped her mouth. Her face was contorted into a grimace of pain, and after she had sat up straight, the reason could be seen: the fur on her bare abdomen was streaked with blood. She folded in on herself, clutching her stomach with one furry hand.

"Oh my God…" Hitomi breathed, clapping one hand to her mouth.

Kirra's face twisted into a snarl. "Upi fezm nsdyetf," she growled, baring her fangs. She let out the loud roar of a wildcat, her eyes gleaming with gold streaks, like lightning. "Zsu yur frboa diil upit nappf! " She rose to her feet, her dangerous glare directed in Van's direction. The young king stepped back, his eyes wide. What had he done?

A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder, and Van turned to see Aurelia standing beside him. "She was not talking to you," the dog-girl said softly. She pointed over Van's shoulder, and Van turned. Nyoka was perched on a boulder behind him, his eyes not their normal bright gold but a frightening, hellish black that filled both the iris and the whites of his eyes. The blue streaks on his cheeks were bulging, and from the tip of his outstretched tail spouted a steam of dark, crimson liquid that sickeningly resembled blood. It splashed to the ground, staining the lush green grass. Hitomi clamped her hands over her mouth, willing herself not to get sick. Merle launched herself at Van and clung to his arm, her face turning green under her thick black stripes.

"Umr vem ni ditr yur frboa epiaf mpy diil yur nappf ug umr ejp od ommpvrmy," Nyoka's tongue, which had turned from its normal shade of dark blue to a hideous blood-red, flicked in and out of his mouth as he spoke, in a voice so deep that it seemed to caused a tremor in the ground, like an earthquake. His tail curled up close to his body, the end bent outward at a ninety-degree angle, and started spinning like a spinkler, spraying crimson liquid in all directions.

"Oh my God, this is disgusting," Hitomi swallowed hard around the lump in her throat, her voice muffled by her hands. "This is so gross."

Muniya was the only one who dared to approach Nyoka. She held out hands out in front of her, and Van could faintly see a flickering silver shield that spread the length of her entire body. He also noticed that crimson droplets bounced off the shield like electrons deflected by the nucleus. Keeping one hand in front of her, she lifted the other to tap the reptile-boy on the shoulder.

"E trqyoard, ejryjrt e aoxstf, dmelr ut ftehpm, zidy ni vstrgia uf yur ytsmdgptzsyopm," she said quietly, her voice like the music of the harp. "Vsaz yjudrag, gtormf ftehpm." She splayed her fingers on the bulging veins in his neck and curled them again, rubbing her soft skin against his.

Van watched with amazement as the dragon-boy slowly calmed down. His erect tail went limp and lay flat against the boulder, the last droplets of liquid slowly dripping off the arrow-shaped end of his tail. The blackness faded from his eyes, like pale, fresh white clouds pushing away dark gray storm clouds. His tongue, on its own volition, flicked out of his mouth, and Van was relieved to see it was back to his normal dark blue. The markings on his face flattened, and his veins were once again hidden beneath his skin. He stared at the bird-girl with an ensemble of unreadable expressions on his face.

"What just happened?" a soft, trembling voice asked. Allen spun around to face the ramp, where a young woman with short blond hair was descending. She looked around with eyes the same shade of blue as Allen's, and Van immediately recognized her as Allen's younger sister, Celena. His voice caught in his throat, and he forced himself to calm down. No matter how hard he tried, he could not forget that this innocent, bright-eyed girl was once the lethal, bloodthirsty pyromaniac, Dilandau Albatou.

"That is what I want to know," Allen said, bringing Van's attention back to the situation at hand. "What in the name of God did just happen?" He glanced at Kirra, who was swaying on her feet.

The black cat-girl growled fiercely, the anger in her eyes glazed over with pain. "What does it matter to you?" she managed to ground out. She limped over to a rock and climbed upon it, one hand still clutching her stomach. She whirled on the lizard, who was still perched on the rock, his face impassive, the narrow pupils of his eyes dilated and expanding repeatedly. The cat's growl increased in volume, and she flattened her ears. "What the hell did you do that for, damn you?"

Nyoka's eyes narrowed and he lowered his head slightly, his thick bangs partially covering his eyes. But Van could catch the angry gleam that glistened on the surface of his topaz orbs. "What need to tell you is there?" he countered. "Oy od mpy svvrqysnar yp ni tifr yp e lomh, ivim og ir od mpy yju pem lomh. Different are the customs of Gaea than our own world. E lomh ejp qiyd ytidy om jod dinkrvyd od dpzryozrd yur nrdy ug lomhs."

"Om yur goy ug smhry, umr zidy ir vstrigia ug yur bovyoz ug yju yizqit," Urufu rumbled.

"Something you are probably told multiple times in the day," Kirra snapped, but her growls had diminished and she was no longer glaring hatefully at Nyoka. She looked over at the Gaeans, and Hitomi, who were staring at her, and glowered. "And how may I help you this time?"

"Perhaps an explanation as to what just happened would be sufficient," Van said coldly.

His request was met with silence. Finally, Aurelia spoke in a soft voice: "That is something very difficult to explain, and now would not be the appropriate time. If you would pardon us, Your Majesty."

Kirra was eyeing the two blondes warily. "Are there going to be additions to our party, Your Majesty?" she inquired. "Are we now required to once again explain who we are and why we are here?"

"That would be nice," Van said, his voice unchanged.

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To Be Continued…

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I have two things to say:

1. I had no idea all my Van/Hitomi scenes would be so popular, and that people would miss them in a chapter in which they were not included; and

2. Thank you everyone for complimenting my character description.

Otherwise, I am sorry to say, there were no questions for me to answer, and no errors that were pointed out. So there are no review replies in this chapter—sorry. But I would like to give special thanks to everyone who reviewed: aradow, dreamingofflyingaway, and Wink57CS. Arigatou!