-gasp- Well, look at that, another update. And a month hasn't even passed yet... heh.

I've decided that I'm going to re-write some of my beginning chapters of Eternity Dragons. It's probably going to have a prologue after I'm done so I can actually have an interesting beginning, then I'll tune up the rest of the chapters. The last few I'll probably keep, since they were half-decent, at least.

If anything, I can always just drop this story and start up another one. That's always an option, but I'm still rather fond of the story line I've established. Methinks I probably just didn't write it out well enough.

It's rather distressing, really, that my second fic was started as an inside joke and it's gotten over 900 hits, whereas this fic, which I'm really putting more effort into, hasn't even gotten to 400. Ah well, c'est la vie.

So there ya go. After this chapter, I'll probably disappear for a while and come back, hopefully, with another chapter and a whole re-edited beginning. Hopefully being the key word. I'm also thinking about just doing one view point for each chapter. The chapters will be shorter, but I'll be able to update a lot faster.

As for reviews…

Inda- Hehe, well, I'm trying, thanks for the review!

Avelyn Lauren- Yes, streaks of black are bad. But I can't answer anymore questions, 'twill give away the plot! But, I agree, the leaving the energist is rather risky, but I'll make sure it's still there. Haha.

Macky- Thank you for ze revieeewww!

Kyle (CapT Black, CKyle)- Er… thanks for the reviews, dear, but… I'm pretty such I think I'm Lera. And as writer of this fanfic, I'd really like for you to stop with the whole self-mutilation thing…. Please? (thank you for trying to watch Escaflowne, by the way)

Emily- Thankee for the reviews, Emily. I know it's confusing, I know it's slow… I'll try to fix it...

Eternity Dragons

Chapter 9 – "A New Friend"

Silvara Fanel. Sylvie. Sylvie Fanel.

The names sounded bitter on her tongue. In Kei's mind, they didn't seem to fit her in the least. And yet her father-no, Torran, continued to call her this, with no worries of her discomfort.

Harakei Hamano sighed, wrapping her arms around her knees, never breaking her gaze away from the huge black dragon molded from steel that kneeled before her in the guymelef hangar. For the past hour, she had been staring up at the mecha named Escaflowne. The one her fath-Torran had claimed was hers.

That first meeting, her awakening, had been at least a day ago. That's what it felt like, anyway. The next few hours after that had been spent on a tour of the castle in which Torran had resided. Kei closed her eyes just slightly, recalling back to the conversation.

"And this is the dining area…" Torran waved towards it before smiling and continuing down the hall, which was lined with carpet and lights, looking very cozy. Servants walked by every so often, smiling kindly at the two family members. "Remember, Sylvie, all of this… it's all ours. Yours and mine."

Kei nodded, somewhat overwhelmed by everything that had happened. Her gaze passed over the door leading into the dining hall without any interest. She walked on, slightly behind the man who claimed he was her father. Just as they were about to turn into a branching off hallway, she spotted something at the end of the long corridor. There was a door, somewhat hidden in shadow. "What's... that?"

"Hmm?" The older draconian paused, glancing back in the direction Kei was staring off into. He smiled smoothly, taking Kei around the shoulder and leading her off down the hall, away from the mysterious door... "That's nothing, daughter. Just the servant headquarters… now, here is the…"

Kei frowned, storing in her head the direction to that suspicious looking door. There was no doubt that the man next to her was hiding something.

By the end of the tour, Kei had found out the huge castle in which her so called father lived boasted over 20 floors, over 200 servants, and countless rooms filled with things only found by the wealthy and royalty. And yet, she didn't see any more rooms like the one in which she had woken up, with the tubes, cold metal walls, nor did she see any more of the cat women from before.

She didn't dare mention this to Torran. He was the enemy now, as far as she knew.

Kei sighed once more. Indeed, now that her initial shock of finding her apparent father, her sudden relation to Van Fanel, and her ownership of a mechanical dragon that logically should not even exist or operate, her mind was set right again and everything came back to her like a smack of reality.

After her father had left her, smiling and suggesting that she could explore around the castle for a while, Kei quickly discovered the hangar. She liked this room. It wasn't lavish, with all the pompous accessories the other rooms had. It was peaceful and held a sort of aura of war and battles. This was where her melef was kept among, as Torran had stated, antique guymelefs. It didn't fit in well, considering the black shade of the Escaflowne, and the fact that is was in the form of a dragon, while the rest were almost … human.

As she had stared at them, she realized their true meaning. It wasn't especially hard.

"They're almost like armor, and yet… at the same time, they're weapons of destruction." She said in a soft voice, turned her head to look upon the cold faces of the mechanical weapons. Slowly, but surely, she was beginning to understand the land of Gaea.

Or maybe she was remembering. If what Torran had said was true…

For the third time, Harakei let out a deep breath, burying her face in her bent knees. She was exhausted. She hadn't slept for ages. The bed up in her quarters was untouched, as well as the plate filled with food. She was too anxious, now that she had forced herself to stay on her guard. If she knew one thing, it was that she had to leave this castle. Friendly or not, the place itself gave off a feeling as if it was a wolf in sheep's clothing. As if the warm atmosphere was a facade for something more sinister.

Her mind had organized itself, finally. The young draconian took survey of the situation.

Her pendant was gone, so that was no way out. Plus, it wasn't like she knew how to use it.

Her wing was still injured, so she couldn't fly away.

Van and Hitomi were probably trying to rescue her, but that could take forever, considering that they didn't know where she was.

She could simply run out the doors…

The suggestion was put down instantly with a derisive snort. Run? Run where? She had no idea where she was.

Asking anyone in the castle for help was a lost cause, too. As far as she knew, she couldn't trust anyone, couldn't make any friends.

So what was left? Kei's eyes, glazed over with thought, sharpened as an idea came to her head.

"Of course! The Escaflowne!"

She jumped up and ran toward the melef, not even bothering to look around and check that no one was watching.

The girl paused right below the cockpit, looking around for footholds. Taking note of the extended legs of the dragon, she jumped up easily into the sitting area and observed her surroundings, eager to try out the guymelef. She saw two controls, rather like reins, and grasped them eagerly. She didn't know how she had summoned the black Escaflowne or why. She didn't know why it was so obviously important to her father, either….

"Just make sure you don't touch the Escaflowne, love. Leave it to me."

Kei blinked, looking up from the large window in her room. She had been admiring the spectacular view of the fields, plains, and mountains that surrounded the castle. "Er… why?"

Torran glanced off to the side, not meeting her confused eyes. "It's complicated." He suddenly chuckled. "Ah, but no worries, my dear Sylvie. Enjoy yourself; don't worry yourself over such petty things!"

Petty things, indeed. The Escaflowne was her only way back to Hitomi and Van. As much as Torran had insisted that she belonged in this strange castle, her heart knew better. She truly belonged with her friends. This man… her father… he was a stranger to her, and Kei was less than willing to get to know him better. His suspicious behavior had shown that he was not to be trusted, and Kei was not stupid. She didn't know whether he was evil or not. He had not mentioned anything else about the "ridding the world or all evil" topic. However, Kei didn't want to take the chance. The man could still be lying. That was always a possibility.

"I don't… belong here. I shouldn't even be here! I should be on Earth… with mom and Yuki…" Her brain screamed.

"But this really is where I belong. My wings are draconian. Draconians belong on Gaea." Her heart argued.

With a firmer resolve, shoving the myriad of thoughts into the back of her head, Harakei pulled back the reins of the Escaflowne, prepared for anything that might happen.

Nothing happened.

"Gah!" Kei squeaked in surprise, accidentally toppling forward and falling right out of the cockpit. She tumbled painfully over one of Escaflowne's legs before finally thudding to the ground. A groan escaped her lips as she twitched. "Pain. Ow."

"It's not activated yet, y'know… there's no energist." A voice chuckled from the doorway into the hangar.

Kei gasped and turned over onto her stomach, sitting up hurriedly. "Who's there?"

"Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you." The voice replied hurriedly, not in the nauseatingly soothing manner as Torran would have said.

The knot in her stomach, created from fear of what Torran would have done if he had seen her fooling with the guymelef, eased slightly, but Kei braced herself, standing carefully and trying not to wince. She didn't want to seem weak in front of a stranger.

The stranger approached, stepping out of the shadows and into the light. Kei gasped, stumbling back slightly to bump into her guymelef.

It turned out to be a young man, about in his 20's. He looked mildly surprised to see her, but was smiling slightly despite that. He was wearing a somewhat varied uniform of what Kei had seen the servants wear. In fact, the only people she had seen in the castle besides Torran were the servants... seeing someone different was even a bit refreshing.

Her eyes flicked over the smooth, hazelnut colored hair that went just past his shoulders, tied back neatly. She noticed the startling violet eyes; the bangs that fell over them. The lightly tanned complexion… the sword that hung at his waist.

Kei finally recovered her speech capability. "Who are you?"

The young man took notice of her suspicion and smiled again. "My name is Lothario. You must be the Lord's daughter everyone has been talking about." He took a step forward. "Silvara Fanel."

"It's Harakei Hamano." The girl shot back angrily and then took a few more steps away from Lothario, trying to keep a good distance between each other.

"Eh… right…" Lothario nodded, then stopped, holding out his hands in a peaceful manner.

Kei hastily assessed the situation, made a few calculations, then…

She dashed forward, ducking slightly incase he was about to hit her, then grabbed his sword hilt, pulling the blade out from its sheath. In seconds, Lothario's own weapon was being held to his throat. "Let me go."

The man's eyes widened slightly in surprise before his eyes unpredictably softened. "Would you honestly kill me? Could you bring yourself to do it?"

The question startled Kei and she blinked for a moment. "I… I…."

Before she even had a chance to say something coherent, Lothario was speaking again. "Listen, Kei, I'm trying to help you. You just have to trust me. I know it's a lot to ask of you, but you have to. I can get you out of here, if you'll just listen."

Perhaps it was the sincerity and urgency in his voice, or the pleading look in his eye, but Kei found herself hesitating. "W-Why should I trust you?"

"Kei… he called me Kei."

"Because you can't trust your father. Other than that, I have no proof. You just have to have some faith. Plus…"

He reached into his inner jacket pocket, causing Kei to tense in suspicion. But instead of pulling out a weapon, Lothario drew out a small leather bag. He smiled slightly and held it out to the girl, politely ignoring the sword that was still being held to his neck.

Glancing from the purse to Lothario's face, Kei slowly lowered the sword and took the offering. Careful to keep one eye on the young man at all times, she opened the bag and impatiently shook out the contents into her free hand.

Of all the things she had expected to be inside the bag, her pink Atlantis pendant was not even on the list. The sword fell from numbed fingers as Kei stared down at the stone, then at Lothario. "You… how?"

Lothario chuckled, slowly nodding. "Your father gave it to me for safe-keeping, but I decided to… give it back to its rightful owner." There was a flicker of mischief in his eyes.

Harakei's heart leapt to her throat. This man. She could trust this man. Throwing her arms around his neck in a grateful motion, she said, "Thank you so much, Lothario."

He was startled, but managed another chuckled nonetheless as he returned the hug. "Oh, it's nothing. But don't mind the full name nonsense. You can call me Lo."

Flushing, the girl pulled away and carefully clasped the necklace around her neck once more, tucking it underneath her uniform blouse. "Thank you… Lo."

Lo nodded again, kneeling to retrieve his sword. "Don't mention it. Now, we have to get you out of here before Lord Torran comes back to look for you. I'll try to explain everything that I can; you're just going to have to keep up."

"Oh, I think I can do that." Harakei managed a grin, her previous soreness forgotten.

"Follow me, we have to get you the energist first. I'll explain on the way." Lo took his hand in hers and led her off out of the room in a quick pace.

Kei, grinning, followed after him, excitement bubbling up inside of her. She was getting out. She was escaping this castle, getting back to Hitomi and Van, and getting back to what was important, which was solving Van's dilemma.

"Now, this castle…" Lo began in a quiet voice, leading her through deserted passageways. Kei's attention raptly went to Lothario, but she couldn't help but grin eagerly.

It seemed that she had found herself a friend in the castle after all.

Shortish, but I actually really like this chapter. Swoot.

Reviews, anyone?