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| Scarred Love ``What? You mean to tell me that those peasants damaged two of my Alseides units?`` I flinched as the speaker, my lord Dilandau, struck two of my fellow dragonslayers. ``Sorry, my lord,``they said. I sighed. Why does he have to be so cruel? Doesn`t he realize how much we look up to him and how much it hurts us when he`s angry? Or was I the only one who felt like this? When I became a dragonslayer, I wasn`t expecting to have to be on my toes all the time. But that`s just how you have to act around lord Dilandau. He dismissed us, and we left, with my two friends nursing their cut and bleeding lips. ``Chesta? Dalet? You guys ok?`` I asked. They turned to look at me. ``We`re used to this kind of thing by now, Melinea. You just haven`t been here long enough. Lord Dilandau gets in his moods sometimes, and you`ve just got to deal with the consequences. If you`re lucky, maybe he`ll go easier on you because you`re a girl.`` ``Maybe, but I really doubt it. I don`t deserve special treatment just because I`m a girl,``I replied. Suddenly, lord Dilandau called from behind us. ``Melinea!`` I stopped and turned. ``Yes, my lord?`` ``Come with me.`` I saw Chesta and Dalet give me sympathetic glances, then leave. ``Yes, my lord,``I said. He led me to the huge port where all our guymelefs were kept. ``Melinea, I have just been in the company of Lord Dornkirk. He has informed me that we must go in the search of the strange guymelef that escaped from us in Fanelia. We are going to search the kingdom of Asturia, our first stop being the castle of the knight Allen Schezar. I would like you to come with me, for if the occasion arises, we will destroy the castle and you are the best guymelef pilot I have.`` I blushed at the compliment, and immediately reprimanding myself. Why do I care if he compliments me? ``I am honored that you have so much faith in me, lord Dilandau,``I replied. Was it my imagination, or was he now blushing? **************** We set out to Asturia in our guymelefs. We did not use our stealth cloaks, and I am sure that we may have scared many of the guards, flying in like so many prophets of doom. We landed, and exited our melefs, following our leader into the castle. It was in pretty poor conditon, actually. Nothing like our own flying fortress. I saw lord Dilandau walk forward to a tall, blond-haired man, whose manner led me to believe that he was none other than Allen Schezar, master of the castle. ``We will need many provisions for the maneuvers we are about to undertake,``I heard lord Dilandau say. ``Understood,``said Allen. ``By the way, you wouldn`t happen to have seen a strange guymelef around, would you?``asked lord Dilandau. ``Why, does it concern your maneuvers?``replied Allen. ``Mmmm, possibly.`` ``Would it have anything to do with Fanelia being burnt to the ground?``asked Allen. I saw lord Dilandau`s red eyes flash for a second, then he shrugged it off. ``What, that backwards little country? Perhaps it was destroyed by the dragons rumored to inhabit that area. Anyways, what kind of a country is it, with a king going into hiding. How cowardly.`` ``What`s cowardly is being attacked by an enemy no one can see,``spoke a new voice. I whipped around to see a young man, about our age, with black hair and blue eyes, standing with his hand on his sword. Lord Dilandau stalked over with me following. He pushed aside the boy to reveal a girl. She was also about our age, with short brown hair and very strange clothes. ``I`ve never seen clothes like yours before. Where are you from?``asked lord Dilandau. ``Oh, so you noticed. This is my new lover. I found her in the East. She`s simply beautiful, don`t you think?``said Allen, proceeding to kiss her on the cheek. Lord Dilandau glared at him. He signaled to me, and we left the castle to return to our melefs. I noticed lord Dilandau very silent. I walked over to him. ``Are you ok, my lord?``I asked. ``I`m fine, Melinea!``he snapped. I looked down, hurt. ``I-I`m sorry, Melinea,``he stammered. My eyes met his. Lord Dilandau was apologizing to me! Was I hallucinating? ``It`s ok, my lord, I understand you`re upset at something,``I said. ``Allen angers me, that`s all. We must prepare to launch an attack. I`m sure he`s hiding the guymelef Escaflowne here no matter what he says. He`ll be sorry he ever made an enemy out of me.`` I nodded and headed into my guymelef. **************** Back on the Vione, we dragonslayers readied ourselves for the fight ahead. Lord Dilandau was talking to Folken Strategos, advisor of the Zaibach empire, right hand of Dornkirk himself. I looked at him. His brow was furrowed in thought as he discussed battle tactics with Folken. The way his silver hair fell over his eyes, he looked quite handsome...Wait a minute! Since when do I care how a guy`s hair is, especially lord Dilandau`s? I slapped myself. What the heck was happening to me? **************** I tuned out to Folken and looked over at my dragonslayers. They were shaping up to be quite a good bunch. For some reason though, I couldn`t keep my eyes off the new girl, Melinea. She was really quite beautiful, her long red hair and bright green eyes that always shined when I talked to her. Such beautiful eyes... ``Lord Dilandau? Are you listening to me?``asked Folken. I snapped out of my reverie. ``Yes, Folken.`` **************** We dropped out of the sky upon the castle. We thought that the people wouldn`t be expecting us, but we were wrong. They had their melefs ready to fight. No matter. We had our stealth cloaks. Poor fools, they never knew what hit them. I stepped forward and launched my crima claw at one of the bigger melefs. To my left, I knew Chesta was taking out another enemy`s melef. I shot my crima claw at another unsuspecting victim. The whole of the castle was now up in flames, and the enemy was rapidly disappearing. Suddenly, I realized lord Dilandau was nowhere in sight. Frantically, I searched around. I saw his guymelef Alseides take down one of the remaining Asturians, and sighed with relief. Immediatley, I took it back. I only care if he`s ok because he`s the leader, nothing else, I told myself. I heard lord Dilandau yell, and as I came closer I heard what he was saying. ``THEY`RE BEHIND THE CASTLE! AFTER THEM!`` I turned my melef around and repeated the command to the rest of the slayers. Immediatley we all took flight and sped to the back of the burning castle to see a flying ship escaping with two melefs, one unknown, the other being...the Escaflowne! I heard lord Dilandau screaming ``Watch out!``, then he landed on the strange craft, where he was met with the strange melef and began fighting. Suddenly, I was shocked to see the black haired boy I`d seen in the castle jump into the Escaflowne. Astonished, I watched it turn into a dragon and set off. Not pausing to think, I took off after it, calling to lord Dilandau as I went. He shrugged off the melef he was fighting and followed, bringing the other slayers with him. We hunted the dragon through the cliffs, until finally we were able to bring it down. Lord Dilandau laughed. ``Bring him to the fortress, now!`` **************** After taking care of my guymelef, I went to relax in my quarters. As I lay there, lord Dilandau came into my head. Even in the midst of battle, those beautiful red eyes remained determined. I sighed. I needed serious help if I was thinking about someone`s eyes. I yawned. Yup, needed...serious...help.... **************** I woke up with a start to the sounds of a huge explosion and fighting. I grabbed my sword and ran out. The hangar where we were keeping the Escaflowne was dense with smoke, and I saw my fellow dragonslayers fighting the people who had been on the strange craft. I saw Allen fighting as well, calling for a retreat. A retreat? Why? I looked over into the hangar and to my surprise I saw lord Dilandau sneaking up, sword raised, on the black haired boy. I heard a girl scream out ``Van!`` and saw the boy turn to fight. ``NOO!``I screamed. I ran over to them, blinded by fear for lord Dilandau. I was almost there, almost ready to pull them apart, when Van swung his sword up and caught Dilandau across his right cheek. I saw blood blossom and pour down the side of his beautiful face. I reached him, and looked up to see the strange girl pulling on Van`s arm. Our eyes met for a moment, and we smiled at each other. Under more favorable circumstances we may have been friends. She yanked hard on Van`s arm, and the two turned and ran. I immedatley turned my attention to lord Dilandau. Seeing his wound brought tears to my eyes. I tore off a part of my uniform and wiped away some of the blood. ``Are you all right, lord Dilandau?`` He looked at me. ``I`m fine, Melinea. I can`t say the same for you though. Why are you eyes full of tears?``he replied. I closed my eyes, the tears now slipping down my face. ``I was so worried about you , lord Dilandau. I saw you fighting, and I was worried I wouldn`t get to you in time,``I said. I felt a warm hand brushing away my tears, and opened my eyes to see lord Dilandau looking at me very tenderly. ``Don`t cry, Melinea. I can`t stand to see your beautiful eyes so sad.`` I was surprised, and felt myself being magnetically pulled to him. ``Lord Dilandau?`` ``It`s just Dilandau to you, Melinea,``he said. He tilted my chin up, and then I felt his lips brush against mine in a tender kiss, soft at first, then more passionate as I responded with all the emotion I had inside me. I felt I never wanted to pull away from his warm embrace, the protectiveness of his arms around me. Finally, we pulled apart. Looking into his loving red eyes, I felt the world held no better treasure. ``I love you, Dilandau, ``I heard myself say. ``I love you too, Melinea.`` And then we could say no more as our lips met again in love`s gentle kiss. **************** After that fateful day, everything seems like a dream. I was never parted from Dilandau, no matter what. We went through all our battles together. Our love grew more and more each day, and I`d never imagined being happier. One day though, I was severely injured during a practice guymelef fight. My left cheek was scarred much as my love`s, and my arm was badly sprained. All this right before a big war between Zaibach and Gaea erupted. I was dismayed to learn that I couldn`t fight, but Dilandau refused to let me. ``Oh, please, my love. I cannot let you fight alone!``I pleaded. ``I will not let you get hurt when you are already injured. I promise you, I will be back. I won`t let anything happen to me,``he said. He sealed his promise with a kiss, then left to get into his guymelef Oreades. I sat and watched as my dragonslayer friends and my one true love left to fight. Who would return? *************** Hours upon hours later, after resting and napping, I was overcome with a horrible feeling. ``Oh my god, he`s hurt, I know he is!``I screamed. I ran to the hangar to get my guymelef. ``I don`t care what he says, I will not sit by and let him die!``I yelled. And I flew out of the Vione, into the midst of the battle. **************** After many attempts to find Dilandau, I was at a loss. So many were fighting, and I had to chop through any that were in my way. But suddenly, I noticed no one was fighting anymore. There were white feathers flying everywhere, and everyone had just stopped fighting and started celebrating. It`s as if the feathers wiped all hate from Gaea. I took the chance, and ran to the outer edges of the battle field while I could. The sight I was met with was far from pretty. There was Oreades, damaged beyond repair, and there were the dragonslayers gathered around something on the groung. I exited my melef and ran, knowing what I was about to see. There was Dilandau on the ground, his forehead bleeding, as well as a wound on his chest. The other dragonslayers backed off as I approached. Chesta looked at me, his normally cheery eyes full of sadness. I knelt next to my love. ``Dilandau?`` His eyes opened, and I saw such pain in them, but it melted away as he saw me. ``M-Melinea...I-I`m sorry, I broke my promise,``he choked out. I tenderly brushed a strand of his hair out of his eyes. ``Sssh, don`t talk. Everything`s going to be all right,``I whispered, tears sliding down my face. He reached up and brushed them away. ``I told you once, I can`t stand to see your beautiful...eyes...sad...`` His hand slipped back down and his eyes closed. ``It`s ok, my love, you`ll be all right,``I said. The other dragonslayers gathered round as the rain began to fall. **************** I sat on a hillside overlooking Gaea. The breeze blew in my face and my hair flew around like ribbons twisting in the wind. I felt a presence behind me. ``Hello, my love,``I said without turning around. Dilandau came and sat beside me, his injuries well hidden and healing fast. ``I love you, Melinea.`` ``I love you too, Dilandau.`` And our lips met as we sat under the stars, full of nothing but love for each other. <> Dilandau <> Fanstuff <> Site <> Sign <> Contact <> a.s.c.e.n.d |