Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Cryptic Knives ❯ Tourniquet ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter Eight

Tourniquet

My wounds cry for the gave

My soul cries for deliverance

Will I be?

Denied?

Christ?

Tourniquet?

My suicide?

*****

Delphi looked around the room at the soldiers who were all fancied up for a battle. Their armor was polished it seemed and Delphi assumed that their swords were also. Dilandau approached her; he was no longer flaunting his stupid grin but had a serious look on his face.

`I doubt you're going to be of any help to us today but you might get yourself killed and then I can have your little pendant' He chuckled mockingly and pointed to a pile of cloths.

`Those are for you put them on and then hurry up and get over here so you can at least try and understand the battle plan.' She looked behind her as Dilandau walked to a table and then many slayers moved in for better hearing. Delphi was playing close attention to what he was saying and then was beginning to think that he was being foolish and it was a mistake to just barge in on the front with the Alseides, especially because she didn't know how the hell to use one.

Delphi put on the blue armor that she was givin. It was extremely heavy and she found herself wondering how they were able to carry such a load and fight so well.

`That's what makes them soldiers' she said at the back of her mind before dragging herself to where Dilandau was talking the plan through with the slayers. Delphi thought for a moment. `He did the same tactic last time, and lost a few of those Alseides. He's not going to get anything better this time doing the same thing, they'll be ready for this.' Delphi thought.

`What exactly ARE you trying to achieve Lord Dilandau?' She asked still sounding cocky on the word Lord.

`They're against Zaibach. They're saying that other countries shouldn't ration food with this place. We're simply going to take their rations and kill anyone who defies us.' Dilandau answered, hands down on a scribbled piece of paper and not looking at her. `We're going to attack the front by using the Alseides.'

`Well then! You're going about it all the wrong way.' She said. There was an in take of breath and then all eyes were on Delphi. `What I mean is, the mouse has a better chance of not being seen than the lion does. If you take those big machines in again, there will probably be more than two coming back wrecked like last time, am I correct?'

`And how could you be so sure that those Alseides came back damaged from that attack?' He asked.

`I didn't' was her answer. `But I know I'm right.' Dilandau crossed his arms.

`Tell me, oh wonderful genius, how do you propose we attack then?'

`Why do you spend so much time training on hand to hand combat if you aren't even going to use it? I say we simply and attack the front.' Delphi walked to the swords on the wall slowly and then stopped, turning around. `Two groups.' She said while grabbing the small dagger she used a couple of days ago and attaching it to the belt that was givin to her and then grabbing a longer sword and attaching in the same manor. Dilandau didn't seem to care much.

`One group, the stronger one perhaps, attacks the front. It will be less subtle than rushing in there with the Alseides.' She told them thoughtfully.

`You're really a dumb girl. We have stealth cloaks, just not when we go into flight mode.' Dilandau said angrily.

`And the loud banging of the machines are so quiet that they wont even notice them? Just hear me out. The second group will go around to the back taking them by surprise and making them split up into two groups as well, although they weren't expecting this.' Dilandau looked at her with curiosity on his face.

`And we just walk there?' he asked offhandedly.

`Horses.' She replied simply.

*****

They were all in a small room, with many tables and chairs, which looked very uncomfortable. Delphi figured it must be a mess hall or something of the sort. More slayers had come and Delphi couldn't think of where. Some of the slayers were tense and waiting for Dilandau to come back and give them orders. Others were just relaxed and leaning on the wall talking about how Dilandau actually took Delphi's advice. Delphi was sitting at a table on one of those uncomfortable chairs with her head down on her arm trying to appear that she wasn't listening in.

`I don't believe Lord Dilandau is going along with this.' Delphi heard one of the slayers say.

`That stupid girl is going to get us all killed.' Another added his opinion.

`And as if she actually got away telling Lord Dilandau what to do.' A third chimed in.

`Well it's not like any of us ever tried to share what we think we should do. I think she has guts.' Gatti said. Delphi heard this and raised her eyebrows in flattery.

`Well, if she keeps this up, she won't even have any to use.' The third retorted. `Besides, she's a weak girl, why is she even with the slayers.' Delphi furrowed her brows at this remark.

`I'm not a weak girl.' She thought bitterly.

`She's not just with the slayers,' said Chesta getting up off of the wall he was leaning on. `She's with the elite group.' He walked over to where Delphi was sitting at the table, pretending not to be listening on their conversations.

`Besides she's a pretty good fighter, I think she could kick your butt's' Gatti said and Delphi smiled inwardly. There was a bunch of shouting and disagreement but Delphi zoned out as soon as Chesta sat opposite her.

`Hi.' He said fairly dull. `Don't let those guys bother you.' He leaned in closer to her and whispered, `their just jealous because most of us if we ever shared out opinion we would get slapped by Lord Dilandau.'

`I wasn't even listening, but personally, I think he just took my idea so I could kill myself.' Delphi replied, shifting her head so she was looking the other way. Chesta remained silent, not sure how to contradict her.

`I don't think you could get yourself killed.'

`How are you so sure, you came back with three injured last time?'

`How do you know all this?' Chesta inquired while leaning on the back of his hand.

`I was there when Dilandau was ranting about it, and slapping people, remember?' She said, lifting her head of to look at him.

`Oh, right.' He responded.

`What's it like?' she asked.

`What?'

Delphi put her head back down on her arms and stared mindlessly to the other side of the room. `Going into battle and just killing everyone you see.'

`I- don't know.' He told her softly.

`Do you like it?'

`No.' he said plainly. `It's just something you get used to after a while.' Chesta said.

`How do you get used to killing people?' She asked thoughtfully, but without emotion.

`I've been doing it for so long now, I suppose' he paused to think for a moment, `I suppose it's like getting used to cleaning your room. You get used to it and then its more like a duty than a chore.'

`It's your duty to kill people?'

`I suppose it's something like that.' Chesta said but was unable to say anything further as the door slid opened and Dilandau stood in front of them all. Many of the slayers who were waiting for this precise moment stood up and rushed in line. The others didn't take their time, but they did it in a more orderable fashion.

`Come on' Chesta whispered and started to walk towards the group of slayers and Delphi followed behind him. Chesta walked to the front of the row and stood where he usually does and Delphi just walked to the end of the line, beside Miguel.

`There are seventy horses.' He said clearly pacing around the room. `This little idea of yours might just work.' He said looking Delphi straight in the eye. `The elite squad and the some other men with attack the front and the rest will attack the back. This must be done extremely careful. You must be quiet before we attack, once we attack they wont be able to hear. Stay on your horses, we have the advantage of being on them may I remind you.'

`I want Thirty-two men. Hurry up and make that group for me right now.' he ordered. Several men started to pull away from the group and formed another group. Soon there were two groups consisting of thirty-two men and another group of eight of the elite group, Dilandau included and thirty-nine other men. Dilandau counted through and noticed that there were more men than horses and he removed ten of the slayers from the first group so that there were thrity soldiers and eight of the elite.

`Group one, my group, will head down first and attack the front. This will be expected of course and they will draw all their men up to the front. That's when the second group will attack from behind. This group will take a path through the forest and around to attack from the back. This will, hopefully catch them off guard and further out advantage. Is this understood'

`Sir' The group of slayers answered.

`Sir.' Delphi said milliseconds after so that it sounded like an echo. Dilandau just looked at her with annoyance.

`Let's go.' Dilandau said and left the room, followed by everyone else except for the slayers that were removed.

`He almost makes it sound like the whole thing was HIS idea.' Delphi thought as she trudged down the hall to the hanger area. We'll be taking the Alseides' down.' He said as the slayers started to clime into their Alseides after being pulled up. Many of the slayers were also carried down because there wasn't enough Alseides. Delphi didn't even know whom she was carried down by, she was just grabbed by a huge hand and then it jumped.

Delphi squeezed her eyes closed as she felt the wind flapping around her face. Her stomach was doing summersaults and then it all ended when she felt a sudden shake through her body. The huge hand lowered her to the ground and released her. Then it opened and Gatti jumped out of it.

All around her they started to fall like bombs all landing and shaking the ground. Delphi looked around and saw the many soldiers getting out of the cockpit or getting out of the grip of the huge hand. She circled around herself and saw that they were in the middle of nowhere. There was a huge forest to the right of her and there seemed to be a little desolate house and a lot of horses in a pen.

`Where did all these horses come from?' She asked the nearest slayer, Viole. He shrugged and started to walk towards the pen and Delphi followed.

`Grab a horse and get on. We'll be there by noon.' Dilandau said. For the first time Delphi noticed that the sun was just rising and that it must be quite earlier in the morning. Delphi walked over to the horse that she thought was the cutest. It had big brown eyes and a brown nose but the rest of him was white with little brown feckless.

She mounted the horse, which was quite hard since she he only had reins and made him move forward out of the pen. Once out she circled him around so that she and the horse were facing the pen again, awaiting an order from Dilandau.

However, Dilandau didn't give an order. He simply rode off in a direction and his group started to follow behind. The second group turned and went to their right, into the forest. Delphi looked ahead of her and saw that Dilandau and the other slayers were already ahead of her so she kicked lightly at the horse and it started up running in the direction of everyone else.

The ride was long, sore and tiring for the horse especially. They had been riding for hours across a vacant field. They only stopped once at a creek where the horses drank and so did some of the really thirsty soldiers, others thought that it was too disgusting to drink.

`Come on, I'm sure you drank worse when you were little.' Said Delphi who bent down and took a handful of water and brought it up to her mouth where she drank it greedily. `It's not that bad.' She said and drank another handful, wiped her mouth off then mounted her horse again. A few more slayers went to the creek with a `girl-can-do-it-so-can-I' attitude and drank a little.

`That's enough.' Dilandau shouted. `We didn't stop for you fools, we stopped for the horses.' The slayers who were off their horses quickly got back on and looks towards the ground, Delphi had to stifle a laugh because of the way the slayers reacted.

It was high noon and the sun was beating down on them, she was very hot and knew she wasn't the only one. The armor was the worst, being black leather and all; it just trapped the heat in.

Delphi found it odd that she wasn't the least bit hungry, especially since she has not been eating properly. The last thing she had eaten, if she remembered correctly, was bread. While she was thinking Delphi started to fall behind and soon was the last of the riders to be going. She only came back to reality when she heard the faint shouting of Dilandau telling his men to take out their swords.

This was something that Delphi didn't really know how to do. She had to balance herself on the horse and try and take out her sword at the same time. Somehow or another she managed it, but also got herself farther behind. She was looking straight ahead and she saw what looked like a base. She also saw Chesta turning his horse around and riding back to her.

`You have to catch up' he said, now riding right beside her.

`I know, I'm sorry.' She replied. `The whole taking the sword out the sword and riding-' an arrow flew right by her head and she reared her horse to the right. There was another and another and another. One slayer was hit and went flying off of his horse. The other horses were veering around him and kept going forward, avoiding the barrage of arrows that were coming.

Delphi could see them; there were about forty men. It was perfect. She knew that her plan would work if the other slayers would get there soon. She swerved off to the left; she could see the shallow creek again swimming into a huge river beside their base. Dilandau was already up at the front where it was hard to shoot at him; he was killing a numerous amount of people Delphi observed.

The rest of the slayers were catching up and doing the same.

`We're winning' she thought. Just then another arrow was headed right for her face. In fear she pulled on the reins of her horse and it stopped and turned slightly. The arrow didn't hit her, however, it moved to the side. There were three more arrows that were aimed for the neck, the head and the chest area; all seemed to have phenomenally been pushed aside to avoid any damage. She looked at the horse's neck and saw a purple reflection in his silky coat and brought her hand up to her pendant.

She started to move again but another arrow had come flying. This time it hadn't been aimed for her, but her horse. It pierced the flesh of his neck and the horse stood on hind legs and then fell backwards as Delphi went flying off, right into the water as her sword went flying in a whole different direction.

Delphi attempted to swim up to the surface but the armor she was wear was extremely heavy and was dragging her down, deeper into the water. Her lungs hurt because she didn't have enough time to think about taking in air. She was sinking at a rapid pace but then hit a rock. It was slimy and was hard to balance on but she somehow kicked herself up so that her head pocked out of the water enough for her to gasp for breath before her wet and heavy armor brought her under again.

This time she missed the rock and kept going down but a hand found her arm and with slight difficulty brought them both to the surface and then edge of the river. Delphi clutched the side of the back and was swallowing the air faster than her lungs could comprehend it. The other body pulled itself out of the water and then reached it's hand down to hers. She grabbed the hand and pulled herself out of the river with the aid of the hand.

She lay back down on the grass; her feet still in the water and she stared up at the face of Chesta, who was dripping with water, just as she was.

`It's mostly under control' he said. `The second group came. You were right; it did catch them off guard.' Chesta helped Delphi up off of the ground and he helped her onto his horse and then he got on in front of her. Her horse was lying in the grass dead, his blood was clotting around the wound but a lot of it had spilt into the river already. Delphi looked away from the sight and closed her eyes until the horse stopped. She got up and walked lazily into the building after Chesta.

There were dead body's everywhere, severed heads, and blood. Most of them were the enemies but there was the odd slayer body, it was no one Delphi had seen before however.

`There are about seven dead.' Dilandau was standing by a door, cleaning off his tainted sword.

`You got what you wanted didn't you?' Delphi retorted, her voice bland.

`I suppose, but not as many would have died by taking the Guymelefs.' He retorted.

`And you can sure by?' she asked. Dilandau ignored her; she could tell that the only thing he wanted to do right now was to drive the sword right into her gut.

`Grab what you can in supplies and gather the extra horses.' Dilandau said while opening the door.

`What about the bodies? Your men?' Delphi stomped up towards where Dilandau was. `You're just going to leave them there?' She yelled while throwing her arm behind her, motioning to the bloody battlefield.

`Yes. Unless you want to carry their bodies back.'

`You're such a heartless bastard.' She suddenly felt stinging in her cheek. Dilandau didn't say another word to her, just left through the door. Delphi just stared unfeelingly at his back.

*****

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Yours truly,

Sweet Roses