A/N: Pretty long chapter again. I'm sorry if it's boring but I'm just trying to set up for the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Escaflowne Characters = I don't own.

Chapter 13: Journey's Beginnings

Grey world.

Colourless, terrifying.

Blood and death.

Pounding heart

Reaching forwards for something. Someone.

Cevena awoke, sweating. Her breathing coming out in short gasps. A rosy light entered her vision. She glanced down and was surprised to see a faint glow leaving her pendant. What did this all mean? She gazed outside at the Earth and the Moon, beautiful intertwined planets, before falling back into a dreamless sleep.

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For what seemed like the hundredth time, Cevena pored over the maps and route descriptions.

The Ambassador party would be embarking in less than an hour and Cevena sat perched on the steps of the caravan, her bag was already stored inside.

The rest of the party had arrived one by one and they were having one last meeting with Folken.

Cevena traced the route to Fanalia with her finger. Leaving Zaibach, they would be travelling along the main road Miles until they crossed the Bay River. After fording the water, they would be traveling on little forest paths mostly in the wilderness.

At the midway point of their journey, they would pass directly through the Misty Woods; Cevena paused, letting her finger linger on that spot.

Folken had told her the forest was one of the three remaining forests that were inhabited by a dragon. Though the dragon had never been seen and was only one of the tiny cousins of the huge ancient ones that had once roamed Gaia; tests of strength for kings of Fanalia, it still cast its own magic on the forest. It was aptly named "Misty" for there was a perpetual suffocating, blinding mist within the forest.

Of their journey, that forest would be the most exciting part. Cevena couldn't wait.

After Misty Woods, their path would rejoin with Miles Road and they would travel right into Fanalia.

Cevena sighed dreamily as she fantasized everything her Father's beloved Kingdom would be like. She couldn't help feel a pang of regret at never being able to see the old Kingdom, but she supposed the new one would have to do.

Dust rose up all around her and hooves clattered by. Coughing she looked up, annoyed.

"What are you sitting around here daydreaming like a daft cow for? There's work to be done, things to prepare."

Cevena did not even have to guess the owner of that chilling, threatening and totally obnoxious voice. "GOODMORNING to you too, Dilandau." She quipped sarcastically. She was mildly surprised when she found his presence was getting less and less frightening, in fact, she was actually. . . could it be? Getting USED to him. If anyone could actually get used to Dilandau Albatou.

"And I've got all my stuff packed already too." She added patting her black bag.

He rolled his eyes, "I would hope so! We'll be starting off any minute now." As if on cue, Folken came striding out of the Vione, a motley group of official Zaien Ambassadors following suit.

Bystanders, guards and coach drivers all stood a bit taller. Folken proceeded to give an inspirational speech, concluding with the hope that after this mission, Zaibach would be recognized as an actual country on the map of Gaiea.

All together there were ten ambassadors starting towards Fanalia that day. She had met most of them already that morning. Most of them were human, former sorcerers of Zaibach who had given up their wicked craft and picked up politics; top merchants eager to harvest more profit in expanding influx of people immigrating to Zaibach and one or two farmers representing the more rural areas of the land.

However, there were two ambassadors of that were not human that Cevena had quickly befriended. Their races had been shunned by the rest of Gaia and she felt a connection to with them at not being able to quite fit in.

Tuin Lim was 25 earth years. She was half the height of Cevena and she looked like a small child except for two small horns that jutted from the top of her head. She was a "Satir" and she came along representing her people who had been discriminated against to the point where they had had to flee into the new Zaibach.

The other, Raj, was like Tuin, looking similar to a human being. He was very large however, about 5 feet taller than Cevena and his mouth was full of sharp teeth. He wore his long, dark hair in a braid and he did not speak much. His people called themselves Giants and although they might be huge and fierce-looking, they were actually the gentlest creatures in all of Gaia.

The party quickly split into two different coaches. The first coach was huge and would carry most of the ambassadors, the second coach was smaller and would carry most of the luggage.

Raj had been first to politely offer to ride in the smaller of the two. Cevena and Tuin had quickly volunteered soon after.

As Folken had told Cevena, each ambassador had his or her own personal bodyguard. Two rode at the front of the procession, two at the sides of the large coach, which would be in front, two behind the larger coach.

Following the larger coach were the many gifts for Fanalia. The packhorses carried things varying from rare silk, to aged bottles of wine. There were perfumes, stained glass, wheels of cheese and loads of gold but most splendid of all were the 2 war stallions following behind all the treasures. These were prized horses, descended from the Zaien army steeds in the Destiny Wars.

The smaller carriage followed the grand march at the back, with the remaining bodyguards, Dilandau included riding along side.

With great fan fare and cheers, the grand procession was off.

Cevena turned excitedly towards Tuin. "I am so excited about this trip! I never in a million years could have imagined that I would be able to see Fanalia!"

Tuin smiled serenely back. "I am very happy for you." Her speech was slightly and not unpleasantly accented. "I too have many hopes in this journey. May the Satir finally be accepted and respected." She paused. "I only hope that I am clever and strong enough to turn the leaders of Fanalia in favour of my people."

Raj who had been silent now rumbled his agreement.

Raj was mostly silent then for the rest of the time but Tuin and Cevena happily chatted, sharing stories from both their lives.

Cevena continually glanced outside the little window to see the breathtaking landscapes varying from dark mysterious forests to open fields spreading out for miles and miles.

Occasionally she caught glimpses of Dilandau who rode steadily next to their window.

She noted that he was always looking this way and that, scanning the area for possible dangers. She grew tired just watching him.

Despite his. . .reluctance to take the job as her personal bodyguard, once he took it, he did it well.

After a few hours into the trip, Tuin and Raj were both sleeping, Tuin snoring softly. Cevena sighed, she had bounds of energy still bouncing all around inside her from excitement.

She glanced out the window again. Dilandau was still there, his grey horse matching his hair. His expression was almost peaceful as he looked around. Cevena shook her head roughly, she really didn't know where her thoughts were leading to.

She leaned over and unclasped the window. "Hey Dilandau!" The captain turned towards her. Red eyes filled with annoyance. "What is it. . . MILADY?" He added, stamping in the sarcasm.

Cevena cleared her throat, "Could I-" She started again, "I want to ride outside the carriage. . . on a horse." Dilandau snickered.

"First of all, there's no chance in hell that I'm letting you ride out here because if you had a brain you'd realize that you being OUT of the carriage would make you much more vulnerable than IN the carriage, and second of all, can you even RIDE a horse?"

Cevena was just surprised that he had given her such a thorough answer. She'd been expecting a "Hell no." She felt encouraged rather than put off, maybe Dilandau actually WANTED some company out there to chat with. Maybe he was lonely. . . " She shook her head again.

"Why do you keep shaking your head like that?" Cevena froze, her face getting a little hot. "Are you watching my every move? Stop it! That's just creepy!!" She exclaimed, stammering a bit.

Dilandau rolled his eyes and turned his horse away, riding a bit farther from the window than before. "So can I?" She called after him.

"Hell no."

Cevena sighed, how did she guess? She settled back on the velvet seats, deflated, to see Raj staring at her. His tawny eyes had a bit of a mischievous sparkle in them. "The war stallions are all saddled up with golden halters and bits. They are war trained AND leisure riding trained. They would fight fiercely in battles just as well as they would docilely carry a lady. Even a lady who has never ridden before." He spoke very solemnly, but the glimmer in his eyes gave him away.

Cevena quickly took up what he was implying, and couldn't help laughing. "Oh, I see." She looked at him gratefully, "Dilandau would kill me, you know?"

Raj did not reply, but so fast that Cevena nearly missed it, he winked.

At dusk, the whole line stopped for the first time in their journey. The caravan drivers climbed down, examining the maps and routes. They had made very good time, they were half a day ahead of schedule.

Cevena's heart expanded at the thought of soon reaching their destination. The guards quickly set up camp for the night. Most of the ambassadors would be sleeping inside the carriages though, less space but much softer than the hard ground.

Cevena would be sleeping under the stars tonight. She hated being in a small space too long; she was just a bit claustrophobic sometimes.

Dinner was a combination of rabbit stew that the guards had caught and the dried trail mix and beef jerky from the provisions.

Belly full and satisfied, Cevena unrolled the borrowed sleeping sack that Folken had given her, placing herself near Tuin and Raj. They had both also decided to sleep outside with Cevena that night. She sighed contentedly, gazing out into the multitude of stars, her eyelids delightfully heavy. . .

Abruptly, Dilandau was peering over her. Cevena yelped, snapping awake. "Hey-"

He interrupted, "What the hell are you doing? I told you to stay inside the carriage!" Cevena pushed herself up, anger flaring up.

"You're worse than my MOTHER, Dilandau! I don't see Tuin and Raj's guards PESTERING them about where they sleep!" She burst out exasperatedly. She gulped right after the words left her mouth. She really had to watch her tongue; she kept forgetting that she was talking to a major mentally unbalanced guy here.

Dilandau did his narrowing eye thing, "I am NOT Tuin and Raj's bodyguard, I've been assigned to protect YOU, as much as I LOATHE you, and so as stupid, pigheaded and difficult as you are, you should be doing whatever the fck I tell you to do."

Cevena couldn't help but flinch away from him a tiny bit at the "LOATHE YOU" part. She gritted her teeth, opening her mouth for a scalding retort, but Tuin beat her to it.

"The Lady Cevena can do whatever she wants to do, sir Albatou. YOUR job is to protect. So protect. Now get gone from us, we are trying to get some sleep. And you may want to be a little more courteous when addressing your lady, I highly doubt that the Strategos would like to hear about your wonderful vocabulary." It was simply said, but the tone was just as scorching as any vulgar epithets that Cevena would have spewed.

Tuin finished off by primly rolling to one side, away from Dilandau.

Cevena had to give him credit for the way he took the little speech. He stood still as a statue for a few moments after, fire dancing in his eyes. Then, he whirled away, dirt flying from his booted heel. He virtually stalked away like an insulted lion.

Cevena let out a breath that she didn't even know she had been holding in, she quickly resettled herself, sliding under the bag. "Thanks." She whispered softly.

Tuin just turned over and smiled at her briefly "It was nothing, don't let him push you around." She murmured and then after a few moments was snoring. Satirs were known to fall asleep very easily. Raj was silent as usual whether asleep or not so Cevena was left alone with her own thoughts.

Whatever had possessed her uncle to put Dilandau in charge of her safety? He was much more likely to kill her than protect her. She sighed again, exhaustion flooding back. Her last thought before surrendering to oblivion was how furious Dilandau would be tomorrow morning when she began riding the war stallions.