The Dragon Priestess

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: It's been a long time coming my wonderful readers! I've been having some issues with my motivation. And I don't mean minor issues, I mean major issues. I've been having a hard time keeping myself on my posting schedule or writing certain stories at all. I'm going to try to not miss any more updates but I can't promise that I won't. But for now, please enjoy all the sass between Merle and Brooke and the end of this episode. Don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav or a follow and (Hopefully) I see you guys next week.

Chapter 21: Unexpected Partings pt. 3

"Help! Somebody, help me!"

She had been screaming since these… things… had grabbed her but no one had come to help her. She wasn't sure if anyone could hear her now that she was in their ship… or vehicle… or whatever this was, but she was still trying. Though now she was just doing it to be annoying.

"You can scream all you want but no one can hear you, girl."

That came from one of the lizard men. They were all greenish-brown scaled with bulbous eyes like chameleons. She wasn't sure what kind of lizards they were, really, and if they were nice people she might have cared and asked so she could be sure, as to not cause any offence. But since they weren't, she didn't.

"You have until the count of three to let me go or I'm going to get really annoying! Then you'll be sorry," Brooke told the three lizard men that were piloting this ship, or submarine, or whatever it was, while trying to emulate Van's constant authoritative frown.

It didn't work though because all three of them just laughed at her.

"Not even a guymelef can touch us in the water," one of them said and her scowl darkened.

"I'm not talking about a Guymelef, I'm talking about me. I'm going to count to three and if you haven't untied me and let me go, I'm going to get annoying."

For a second, they all stared at her before exchanging glances between the three of them. Clearly, they had no idea what to do about her.

"One."

With the start of the count they all broke out in laughter. They had realized that she was serious but they weren't taking her serious.

"Two," she said loudly over their laughter but it just made them laugh more.

"Three" she near shouted and all of them were so busy laughing that they barely noticed. "Alright don't say I didn't warn you."

The thing about being a sister was that you learned how to be annoying. And being the littlest sister, or well the middle little sister, meant that you have to be the one to come up with the really annoying stuff.

Now she may have had only six years practice being an annoying little sister, but she knew she was good at it.

So, she knew exactly where to start.

And it started with a deep breath so she could scream sing the most annoying song she could think of.

THIS IS THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS… OH IT GOES ON AND ON, MY FRIENDS…. SOME PEOPLE STARTED SINGING IT NOT KNOW WHAT IT WAS. AND THEY'LL CONTINUE SINGING IT FOREVER JUST BECAUSE THIS IS THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS… OH IT GOES AND ON, MY FRIENDS and I mean it really will SOME PEOPLE STARTED SINGING NOT KNOWING WHAT IT WAS AND THEY'LL CONTINUE SINGING IT FOREVER and just for you THIS IS THE SONG…

Already they were getting annoyed but they hadn't stopped to let her out and neither would she. She would just have to hope that Allen found her soon.

Merle had found Van easily, and then relayed to him what had happened. Brooke's crying, which he figured was going to happen if she went up there, and her consequent kidnapping. Now, while he figured she'd be upset to see Allen with Millerna, the kidnapping thing had not been expected.

Brooke was mouthy and annoying. Assassination maybe, but kidnapping, no.

When Merle told him that the king of Asutria had sold her off, to who knows who, well… Van got angry. He'd deal with that later, first he was going to rescue Brooke. Once he had her back to the castle, he would put her in front of the king and then say: "So you tried to sell my friend, huh?"

Or maybe he'd say wife just to watch the man squirm.

So, with Merle on his heels he rushed down to the throne room where Escaflowne still sat, now dressed up to look like an Asturian guymelef, and got in. Merle climbed up onto his shoulder and then that was the two of them wading through canals looking for the boat that had made off with Brooke.

"Come on Lord Van, you've gotta hurry up," Merle called down to him.

He knew he had to hurry, and he was trying, but they had one hell of a head start. But he wasn't going to give up. He owed Brooke. He just had to save her.

They came to a crossroads, or a cross canals, and Van looked back and forth. God he didn't know where to go next.

Van didn't even have to ask, Merle just listened carefully and then she pointed down another canal. "Oh boy, she's that way, and she's doing something weird again."

Van didn't want to know what that meant. He ducked under a bridge to follow where Merle had pointed and basically ripped off his costume on the low hanging beams. Fine, fuck stealth. Saving Brooke was more important anyway.

He got to yet another cross canal and his footing slipped as it got deeper. He sunk up to his chin and Merle had to scramble off of his shoulder.

"Look, there!" Merle cried pointing to this fish shaped boat floating further in the canal.

Yes, yes, he had found her. Rescue commencing.

He gave chase, right away, following that boat as quickly as he could. As he got closer, he could hear a sort of scream singing that he knew recognized right away.

Oh Brooke.

Well, at least he knew she was alright.

Brooke was on the fourth refrain of the same song when they finally got tired of her.

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" the lead lizard man shouted at her and she finally went quiet.

"You know," she said once they had a bit of a break. "I know other songs. I could sing one of those."

They turned back to her, a look of suspicion on all of their faces. They clearly didn't trust her to not sing something that wasn't annoying. And that was fair, because she was going to sing a completely different annoying song. She did know a lot, seeing as she was in charge of the younger girls in the orphanage. It was like being a camp counsellor but like… all the time.

And then the boat shook, startling all of them.

"They found us!"

That was someone grabbing the ship? Allen had found her! She immediately screamed for help.

"Shut her up!" one of them ordered and then one of them was sprinting towards her. He slapped a gag into her mouth but didn't tie it well enough so the second he moved away she just spit it out. Now it was just a wet bandana around her neck.

"Dive, dive, dive!"

Wait! Wait! It was a submarine? Oh god, could a guymelef go underwater? Was Allen going to lose her?

"NO!" Brooke shouted. She imagined herself in a bubble, like a floatation device to keep herself from sinking. She felt the tingle first in her fingers, but then it pushed out, out of her body and then out of her.

She didn't know if it was working, she didn't know if she was using her powers or not. All she knew was that she didn't want to go with these people. She wanted Allen to get her out of that boat so she could go back to the castle and get a hug from Van.

She wanted to be safe.

Folken had asked Kaydence to join him in this meeting. That meant that, while he was sitting there talking to the King of Asturia, she had to stand slightly behind him at attention. He wanted to learn all about diplomatic relationships and how to cultivate them. As the Priestess this would be important, but she didn't like being in these meetings, always felt out of place and like no one would take her seriously.

As her Dragon, she always said that she would leave the diplomatic relationships up to him as he was much better at it. And he would just smile at her.

The King of Asturia had been trying to tell Folken that he had no idea that Van and the Escaflowne were in the country, even though they knew the king had them both in his castle. Then, when one of their men brought in an ink of Escaflowne in disguise walking through the canals, the King had to pretend he had no idea that they were in Palas at all. Though the disguise was probably his idea, he acted surprised to see Escaflowne in it.

But he asked Folken to send Ziabach soldiers to apprehend him so Folken was gracious enough to pretend that he didn't know the King was lying and did as he asked.

Folken asked to get Dilandau awake, but, apparently, he already knew what was going on, where Van was and was on his way to cut him off.

That didn't bode well, so, both he and Kaydence made their way to the control room so they could get on the com to talk to Dilandau before he caused untold damage.

"I didn't know you were such a light sleeper," Folken taunted and then shot Kaydence a slight side glance to see if she had noticed. When she just stared at him, because there was no need for him to be sarcastic with Dilandau he turned away from her.

"I'm still dreaming, and it's getting better. I'm dreaming of Van!"

Ew. "That's creepy," Kaydence teased.

"Kaydence," Folken growled. Folken didn't like it when she chimed in while he was on the com, it had never stopped her from doing it though, only when he was talking to Dilandau though. If it was anyone else she didn't.

And besides, she was right in this instance. Dilandau was being a creepy, obsessive, murderous, creep.

"Well it is!"

Folken shot her a warning glare which meant not to interrupt him again and then turned back to the com. "That is a heavily populated area, do not involve the citizens."

Dilandau was quiet for a moment before he said: "I'll do my best."

Then he purposely cut the com so Folken couldn't bother him anymore. As soon as it was quiet, she turned to Folken and asked: "You know he's lying right?"

"Kaydence… Kaydence please," he said with a sigh, but she knew that he knew she was right. Now she just had to hope that Dilandau didn't cause too much trouble. But even she knew that was too much to ask.

Van got close to the boat. He tried to get a good grip but lost it and the fucking thing started to dive.

"Merle…" he started with the thought to tell her to swim to shore because he was going to dive after that boat but it suddenly shot back up to the surface.

For a second Van just stared at it. He could sort of make out a sort of shimmering spherical outline around the boat that seemed to be keeping it from sinking. Yeah, how much did he want to bet that that was Brooke's powers again.

He reached out for it but it surprised him further by bouncing along the surface of the water and then landing neatly in his hands where the outline then popped like a bubble.

And then he just stood there, neck deep in a canal staring at the little fish shaped boat in his guymelef's hands.

"Well… that was convenient," Merle said breaking the silence and he found himself smiling.

He ripped off the top of it in time to hear Brooke exclaim: "Oh Allen…" and then she paused. Finally realizing who was actually there. "Wait… Van?"

Well who else would it be? Clearly, she was hoping for Allen but last he checked he was still on the roof with the princess, too busy wooing to care about what happened to her. Though, to be fair to Allen, no one had told him that Brooke had been taken. Maybe he might have cared if someone had told him.

"You came to rescue me?" she called up. She had something around her neck, something like a hastily tied gag, that she had clearly gotten off of herself. Why did it make him angry that someone had tried to gag her?

He often thought about gagging her, but she was his friend, and he never actually would.

He pulled her out, put the fish boat back in the water and then put both girls on the side as he went about pulling himself out of the water ignoring the cries for the Gecko men who had stolen her. More like empty taunts to be honest.

Like he was about to put her back in the ship so they could make off with her.

By the time he was out of the water Merle had her untied.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Brooke let out her breath in one shaky exhale as she looked around and then said: "Yeah, thanks."

Beside her Merle snorted. "Just great, what kind of moron would let herself get kidnapped by Geckos?"

"Well pardon me, miss Kitty, I didn't know who or what they were, and they got the drop on me. Had I been expecting them I might have done something…"

"And you have powers too, why didn't you use them?"

"I didn't… I don't think I have conscious control of them yet and besides, I panicked," Brooke said with a pout and Van shook his head. She sounded so upset, so betrayed, god he just wanted to hug her, and when he got out of that guymelef he would.

First, he was going to have to get them back to the castle. He was going to tell them to hop up into his hand when all of a sudden Dilandau's red guymelef dropped out of the sky.

Van barely had a chance to pull his sword to block the liquid metal that was immediately shot at him. And he couldn't even get a chance to stand up. He grabbed at Brooke, knowing Merle would be able to climb up, and did so without his prompting.

So, with one hand he had Brooke and in the other he was trying to wield that massive sword and luckily, he blocked all of Dilandau's attempts to skewer him with liquid metal.

Well, except for one. He had blocked one shot of liquid metal that Dilandau followed up with a secondary one almost right away that Van couldn't move his sword back in front to block. But Brooke, Brooke raised her hands with a squeal of dismay upon seeing that streak of metal coming for him and it simply deflected off of whatever shield she had pulled up.

There was a brief moment where the fight actually stopped. Had she surprised Dilandau?

"Oh and look, it's the other priestess!" Dilandau called out to them. Okay not surprised, just gearing up for a taunt.

And apparently, he knew exactly what a priestess was. They really were the only ones who didn't know.

"Okay, WHAT THE HELL IS A PRIESTESS AND WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK I'M ONE?!" she shouted but he was ignoring her and pinning all of that dangerous energy onto Van where it belonged.

"Both of you need to BURN!" he shouted and when he brought his liquid metal shooting arm forward it switched, flipping into a different mode and then it was fire shooting out at him.

Yeah, there was no way he could block that. Van just ran. He avoided that jet stream of fire by heading down an alley way and sprinting away.

Dilandau followed and Van took that moment to catch him off guard and slam him into a building. For a moment they grappled and then he threw Van off and the fire was spewing from him again.

"Burn! Burn! BURN!" he kept shouting as he literally just spun in a circle setting everything on fire. He wasn't even aiming for Van he was just burning everything around them.

Van stopped running realizing what exactly was happening.

"Van! The city's burning!" Brooke called to him like he couldn't see it.

"Stop it! We can't fight here," Van called to Dilandau but he wasn't going to listen to him, or reason apparently.

"Too bad. The city's burning because of you. And my cheek is on fire because of you!"

"Oh my god! You freaking PSYCHO!" Brooke screamed and Van longed to tuck her into his chest to shut her up, but flattening her against Escaflowne wouldn't help her at that point.

"Van you're getting exactly what you deserve!" he snarled. "Now Die!"

He used the liquid metal to form a sword and he charged him, but Van was done fighting in this area. He was going to take the fight elsewhere and if Dilandau wanted to continue he would just have to follow him.

He switched Escaflowne into a dragon mode and used Dilandau's shoulder to get a better lift off so he could fly up above this fight and the flames.

Dilandau went to chase him but when he turned to face the direction he wanted to lift off in he found that a different guymelef was waiting for him.

"If you try to do any more damage to this city, you'll answer to me," Allen called to him and that was basically the fight done because Dilandau didn't care about Allen, he cared about Van.

Above the burning city, Escaflowne continued to climb. Merle expertly climbed up out of the dragon's hand and to where Van was piloting the guymelef, but Brooke hadn't move.

Well she couldn't stay there either.

"Come on!" Van said offering her a hand. "I won't let you fall."

She wasn't all that worried about that before, but now she definitely was. She took that offered hand, though, and let him pull her up to him. Once she was on the cockpit with him, he helped her maneuver to the back so she could hold onto him. But she hadn't grabbed him yet, she was, instead staring back at the city they were leaving behind and the orange glow that was their fault.

"You alright?" he asked and she nodded, her eyes still staying on the burning city.

"Yeah thanks, Van."

As they got further away Brooke wished for rain, something to help them put the fires out, like she wished it had for Fanelia. And as Escaflowne disappeared into the night, a soft rain began to fall on Palas.