The Dragon Priestess
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Well it's late, but it's here. I hope you guys pick up the frustrated sarcasm I tried to write into this chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. The next one is gonna be even more fun. Let me know if I have any other readers out there and I'll try to post next week!
Chapter 24: The Day the Angel Flew pt. 2
In an even more shocking turn of events, Millerna had come to rescue Allen from the palace dungeons.
The first completely shocking event, was that he had been thrown in there after he helped Van escape. As punishment for making Zaibach look foolish, and a little a bit because the Zaibach generals were mad that he had defied Zaibach orders, despite that Allen didn't know there were orders, and really he was just trying to make sure Zaibach's soldiers—namely Dilandau—didn't set all of Palas on fire.
Before looking him away, King Aston was sure to tell him that this was to keep him safe. Zaibach was calling for his blood, and he figured he could appease them by jailing him, and once things died down and they had effectively forgotten about him and his so called acts of treason, Aston would let him out.
Allen couldn't find it in him to be appreciative of the attempt to save him.
Millerna, with Gadess' help, had gotten him out, told him that Zaibach was using Asturia as a harbour to invade the Duchy of Freid, and it was up to them to warn them. And, well, she was right about one thing at least.
Someone had to warn Freid.
She told him all of this on the way to the airfield, in a carriage driven by Gadess. Allen didn't have to guess that the Crusade would be ready for them when he got to the airfield, he knew it would be.
And when they did get to that airfield he was right. His men were waiting, the Crusade was prepped and ready to go, all they had to do was get on it. The problem was that Millerna was still talking about her going with him.
He couldn't let her go with him. This quest would be fraught with danger. She was young and she needed to be protected. He couldn't take her to Freid knowing full well that they were about to go to war. It went against his code as a knight.
However, he didn't get to tell her that she wasn't allowed to come with him. As soon as she stepped out the carriage he noticed someone familiar who wasn't supposed to be there.
The Eldest Asturian Princess, Eris, was standing there waiting for them. Eris always had an air of silent disapproval around her, and she had never been one of Allen's biggest fans. In fact, he'd go as far as to say that she had never like him.
"Millerna," she called as soon as she saw her sister. "I won't tell father about this. Come back to the castle with me."
"No I won't go back, sister!" she cried. "I've made up my mind. I'm leaving with Allen, and we're going to leave the country."
Great. Now she was announcing it to everyone for all to hear. He needed to put a stop to this right away.
He picked her up and carried her back into the carriage, as she struggled and complained. She kept telling him to put her down, that she wanted to come with him. She just kept talking and he needed her to be still so he just… kissed her.
He kissed the air right out of her lungs, kissed her until she was still beneath him. Only then did he stop, only then did he back away.
He smiled fondly at her, recognizing the daze that was on her face. It wasn't the first time he had kissed someone into a haze.
"Princess Millerna, take care," he whispered to her and then he left there.
Shutting the door, he slapped the horse's flank to get them to run and they just took off. By the time she came to her senses it was too late. The carriage was moving and she wouldn't be able to get it to stop, because there wasn't someone at the helm. It would be okay, if they didn't stop on their own, they'd eventually make their way back to the castle.
But as the carriage raced away with an upset Millerna hanging out of the window, the reinforcements showed up. Armed guards sent to bring him back.
"Princess," he said bowing to Eris before rushing off to where his ship was waiting.
But the time the guards made it to the airstrip, The Crusade was in the air and Allen was on his way to warn a kingdom of impending war.
In the morning, Van woke her up with a request.
He asked her to pick where they should go next.
Brooke had never felt so honored in her life. She had sort of thought that Van thought her pendant and her cards were silly, but there he was asking her to use them to help pick a heading.
She had started with the cards, and they had told her to go West. But with the necklace she had been picking more specific directions once they were in the air.
She couldn't really talk to Van while they were flying, with the wind whipping in their faces. She was behind Van, hugging his chest tightly because she was still afraid she'd fall off. Merle was crouched down by the seat, mostly between his legs, holding onto one of them actually.
What Brooke mostly had to do was point Van in the direction the necklace was pointing her in.
He hadn't questioned her yet… though he hadn't really talked at all, other then to shout: "Where now?" at her. But then he stopped asking, he seemed to have spotted something on the horizon.
Something sparkling.
Now he was heading towards that.
Her necklace seemed to have the same idea too. It kept pointing that direction as well. Something was there, but she didn't have a good feeling about it. She felt a heavy weight on her chest. She was worried that they were flying headlong into danger.
When they got to it, though, it looked like a quarry. Except… they weren't digging into the ground, they seemed to be excavating something.
Bones.
It looked like dinosaurs except… not.
Brooke had no idea what she was looking at.
"What is that?" she called to Van.
"It's a dragon's grave yard!" Van cried over the sound of the wind.
"Well, that reading of yours was way off! This place is really dangerous!" Merle cried.
Well… how was Brooke to know that? Her cards have never been that off before!
"I'm sorry, but both the cards and the pendant said that this was a good direction to travel! They haven't been wrong yet!"
"Don't worry," Van called. "Your prediction was right on target. I'm taking us in!"
Wait he was? Then before she could stop him, not only did he land, but he had actually gotten out of the guymelef and snuck up on the dig site to spy on it.
"Van, I don't think this is a good idea," Brooke said for the millionth time that hour.
"It's fine," Van said. "Any of the dragons coming here, are coming to die, and are therefore harmless… or dead."
"That's not what I'm worried about and you know it," Brooke hissed. She then peeked over the edge to see what was going on. "What are they digging up?"
"Energists," Merle told her. "They're taking them out of the dragon fossils."
Brooke nodded her head at him. None of that made sense. She was missing something, clearly. "Uh-huh… and why are they doing that?"
"They're used as power sources in Guymelefs," Van said absently.
He was clearly concentrating on something, god she wished he wasn't going to do what she thought he was going to do.
Maybe if she distracted him long enough he'd forget about whatever plan he was thinking up.
"Like Escalfowne?" she asked.
"Yes, Escaflowne is powered by an Energist, too," he said. But he didn't say anything else. Helpful. She felt like she was back in school. "Well, actually, the proper name used for them is Drag-Energist"
"Uh-huh. Thank you for the lesson, still doesn't explain why they want so many of them."
"Oh, well, since they're used to power guymelefs and levi-ships, in a war, the side the possesses the most Energists usually wins."
Brooke turned back down to the dig site. "Oh no," she said quickly, and not because she finally understood the importance of this place, and because she knew that she now knew why Van wanted to stop here. "They're not on our side, are they?"
She could clearly see they were from Zaibach. She saw the flag, the stupid uniforms on their soldiers milling around. She noted right away that none of the people digging were soldiers though.
Van turned to her, concern on his face. She had asked a stupid question, but she was hoping she was wrong and he wasn't about to take these people on.
"Please tell me you're not actually going to…?"
"Yes, I am," he said. Cutting her off. "You two stay here! Zaibach won't do as they please."
Then, before she could stop him or possibly talk some sense into him, he ran back to Escaflowne. She tried to call to him to stop but she didn't want to be too loud, lest one of the soldiers heard her. Van took off leaving her there with Merle.
Brooke watched him take to the sky and then went back to Merle. From their spot they could see the main operation section of the dig, it was most likely where Van was going to attack first. Might as well get a good view, root for him from there.
Hoping to god that he was going to make it through this in one piece. Yes she had done first-aid in school, but she didn't think that she'd be any good on a battlefield.
Van better not be thinking she'd be able to patch him up.
"Ugh Men," Brooke growled as she threw herself down to the ground beside Merle. The cat girl just sighed at her.
"I know what you mean."
Brooke tried to shrug that heavy feeling away, but it was only getting worse.
She really didn't want to be right, but she couldn't shake the feeling that they were heading into a disaster.
Van was gone for a while.
Like long enough for Brooke to wonder if he had actually left them behind.
And maybe that might have made sense if he had left just her, but he had left Merle too. He wouldn't have left Merle behind.
Eventually they saw Escaflowne drop out of the sky. Van had been hiding in the sun… she was going to have to get him sunglasses if that was a maneuver he was going to do often. This world probably didn't have sunglasses, but if she could find a guitar maybe she could find sunglasses.
Or have someone make them for her.
Either way, the Zaibach soldiers were not expecting him. Though they probably thought he was a dragon. Oh, boy, were they surprised when that dragon turned into a guymelef.
Van actually did rather well, Brooke would have to guess he was winning. He had taken out the two major guymelefs, one that looked to have been retrofitted to move large rocks. It looked like a giant dozer of sorts.
He also took out a regular looking guymelef, before another one came at him.
He was fighting that one off very well too.
He was winning. It looked like he'd come up on top. So why did she still have that bad feeling?
"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Merle asked breaking the silence between them. Well, at least Brooke wasn't the only one who was worried.
She didn't want to answer though. The last time she had a bad feeling like that, Merle had been upset… and unhelpful.
She didn't want to lie to her though.
Luckily she didn't have to say anything they both got distracted by a lizard. The brazen little fellow just crawled up onto the rock in front of them. Brooke was surprised I was so brave, Merle, on the other hand was just interested in it.
She reached out and grabbed it. It let out this little squeak of distress and began to wiggle harder, but that only made Merle hold on tighter.
Brooke nudged the cat girl with her elbow. "Seriously, don't torment the poor thing,"
Merle stuck a tongue out at her just as the lizard got away. It squirmed right out of her grasp, leaving it's tail behind.
Now Brooke was sticking her tongue out for a completely different reason. "Okay, that was disgusting."
An "Ick" came out of Merle and then there was a third: "Ugh," that came out in a different tone of voice.
A male voice.
Brooke immediately became aware of another presence behind them. Both of them turned to the soldier behind them and then gasped.
Merle tried to go one way, Brooke tried to go the other, both failed miserably to do so because the soldier grabbed their arms.
"Oh, no, I don't think so," he snarled to them.
Merle turned and lashed out, scratching him across the face. Now she, he let go. But with his second hand free, he could hold onto Brooke tighter.
"Don't leave me!" Brooke cried as Merle disappeared.
She had left her behind! What a little bitch!
Brooke struggled all the way down to that mountain side. She struggled as she was thrown into the chest of some weird looking man with pink hair.
But basically stopped struggling when the sword was placed at her neck.
The man in Pink, their gloriously flamboyant leader, called out for Van to stop. Well what he said was: "I think that's enough," because he was ridiculously condescending, and Brooke sort of half hoped that Van wouldn't listen.
Except… he did.
To save her life, he surrendered.
And finally, that apprehensive feeling of worry left her, because the disaster had finally struck.