Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ The Rebel ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3.

All was in flames. The trees glowed with fire dancing across the branches. They engulfed the ground and underbrush in a tornado of shining, crackling wind. Charred sticks gave off tiny sparks that looked like stars, hot, burning stars. All was burning….dying.

Dilandau awoke with a sharp kick to the arm. "Ah!" He cried. "Fuck!" He realized where he was and he had an educated guess about who kicked him. "It surprises me, the bitch still lives." He rasped.

"Yes, and she ain't dying anytime soon!" Tami shot back. Dilandau literally forced his arms to work as he heaved himself off the ground. It felt like having a hangover times ten. Then he got up and brushed the leaves off his body. How he hated being dirty. He noticed it was evening and the sun was setting. It was dim but not quite dark yet. Tami's wings were retracted although on one side of her back there was a bruise from where he stabbed her. Dilandau regretted none of it. The only thing he didn't like was that he hadn't killed her while he had the chance. He reached into his pocket for his knife. He might be able to get the job done now. He found that his knife was gone. It had probably gotten out during the fall. If he didn't have the blade then he saw no point in trying to kill her. Unless he caught her off guard, with her back turned then it would be quite a hassle and a risk to himself. As Dilandau had painfully discovered, Tami was a very capable fighter. It just wasn't worth it. He guessed that the young, female warrior was pondering the same thing.

"Are you intending to kill me?" He decided to question her.

"No…" She replied casually. He wasn't expecting this answer. Maybe she didn't want to kill him. Perhaps she wanted him alive for some sick, twisted, most likely sexual reason he thought with a sneer that was a cross between anger and glee. Really who knew? Women couldn't be trusted. Dilandau decided to watch his back even though she had said that she wasn't going to kill him. Tami might be lying to lull him into a false sense of security.

"Why?" He just had to ask. He couldn't keep asking questions in his mind.

"I really don't know." In reality Tami knew perfectly well why. She was going to lead him on and take him through her country, which he had burnt to the ground. She would have him arrested. She figured he would be put to death. It would be good; to see him die but it would be even better to see him scared, begging for mercy with genuine fear in his eyes. The thing she wanted most of all was for him to be frightened.

"Well I am going back to the fortress. Someone will see me and pick me up." He said confidently.

"I wouldn't count on it." Tami replied cooly. There wasn't a string of emotion in her voice. He shot his head up and looked into the sky where the large, black flying ship ought to have been. To Dilandau's dismay, it was nowhere to be found. " Do you know how long we've been out for!?" Tami asked. " Five hours! The fortress has moved on and is probably a hundred miles from here!" She almost shouted. Dilandau glared at her. He despised it when someone treated him like an idiot. He was perfect, smarter and a quicker learner than any other human. That was how he was taught to think. He had no equal.

"Well it's getting dark. We had better find a place to camp for the night." He noticed how she always referred to them as "we", whereas he would always refer to them as "me". He wasn't about to be put on the same level as a mere girl. She apparently had little regard for rank and respect.

She began walking. Tami set a fast pace but was turning her head constantly from side to side. They needed to find a safe spot to stay for the night. Unlike what Dilandau usually did, he followed her and not the other way around. Dilandau knew, that when in doubt to whether to opponent was friend or foe to stay low so you could observe them. It was a basic military tactic that came almost instinctual with all the years of destruction and war. The air smelled unusual to his nose. Dilandau was so used to smelling smoke, rust and metal that he never noticed it anymore, but the smell of trees was different. It was a scent that he supposed was pine. He faintly remembered it when he was outside the Zaibach fortress on foot. That was two years ago.

Tami led the way through the thick forests. Surprisingly there was a semi-clear path through the fallen leaves. It was winter and it was cold, well as cold as it got on Gaia. It was a fair temperature all year around. " Hey! I think I've found a spot!" Tami called as if he was hard of hearing. She hadn't looked back for quite a while so he guessed that she thought he was further back. It was a crevice in the side of a cliff. It did not appear to be much from the outside, as the crack that was to be used as the door was so short that he had to duck to get in and go sideways to get through. Inside though, was another story. It was quite a large space with some rocks and charred wood in the corner. The cave was obviously used by peddlers or more likely smugglers or criminals to get out of the rain or wind. The rock that made up the wall was cold and damp but that was to be expected, for all the years of trapped rain had frozen and remained in the walls.

Dilandau finished pondering to stare back at Tami who was looking at him as if he was some sort of strange animal. " What do you want?" He said in a hoarse whisper that made a creepy echo off the walls.

"Well, we need food and a fire and many other things that I do not care to list." He had almost completely forgotten, although he would never admit that to the girl. He was rather hungry and cold. He shivered just realizing that he had goose bumps all over and his teeth were chattering.

"You stay here and make the fire while I hunt for food." Dilandau said. He would have liked to make the fire; after all he was an expert in that area but he had to take precautions. Tami may still be trying to kill him. He could think of a hundred ways she could kill him if she got the food. Poisoning, choking, there was a lot of possibilities.

He didn't have to walk far before he found dinner. He almost reached for his knife before he remembered that he did not have it. It was a rabbit, nibbling on a piece of grass. He would just have to make due with the tools he had within arms reach. The general picked up two stones and chucked one into the opposite him and his new friend, Bunny. The little rabbit perked up its ears and darted towards Dilandau. He held up the other rock and hit the rabbit on the head when it passed him. He felt no remorse for killing it. It was a stupid creature, only capable of eating and breeding. It did not deserve to live. He grabbed the limp creature by the ears and started back to the cave.

When he got there, Tami had already started the fire and it was crackling pleasantly. He tossed the dead rabbit at her. She shrieked in disgust.

"It's just a friggin' dead thing! Get over it." She was holding it in her hands and was looking down at it sadly. "Poor thing." He thought he heard her murmur.

"Don't just look at it! Skin it and start roasting it!" Surprisingly she obeyed. Tami picked up the sharpest piece of rock she could find and cut it into the rabbit's soft flesh. There wasn't much meat on it. It was half-starved. Then she took a huge stick she had found outside and put a chunk of meat on it and began to roast it. Dilandau sat in a corner waiting for the meat to be cooked.

Tami sat beside the fire holding the stick with the meat on it into the flames, every once in a while she brought it out to see how it was doing. She peered back at Dilandau, just to make sure he wasn't about to strangle her. He sat in the corner twirling a piece of whitish-gray hair. It was probably a habit more that anything else and his other hand drumming on the cave wall. He was nervous. This was something she had always been good at. Just by mannerisms and posture, she could tell what a person was feeling. She could see why. He was out in the wilderness with someone he couldn't trust. Then again he had a right not to. With what she was planning to do, she would feel guilty if he actually started to trust her. She prayed it would not happen. She was just too compassionate for her own good. Dilandau's ruby red eyes were staring at the flames intently. She kept forgetting that he was a pyro. His eyes darted about with every flicker of a flame. All of a sudden she smelled something burning other than wood. Tami darted around and noticed that the stick he had been holding had dipped low and had caught on fire. The meat was charred to a crisp.

"Well, it's ready." Tami said in a quirt voice. Dilandau remained still. "It's cooked." She repeated a little louder. He perked up and looked at the meat. "He is an intriguing creature.' She thought. 'He was a man of extremes. Sometimes he was so cold to the point of apathy and on the other hand, so passionate that it bordered madness.' Dilandau got up and walked over to her and touched the meat carefully, as if it would crumble to dust. With how she burned it she wouldn't have been surprised if it did. Dilandau peeled a large chunk of it off before she could say a word and began picking at it. Tami was left with a small tender piece of meat, tiny enough to fit in her hand. She glared at him but he took no notice and said nothing. If he wanted to be quiet then she was going to let him. It was a welcome change from all the loud order issuing he always did. Tami was never one to complain unless she was deliberately trying to piss someone off. This time she had not the will nor strength to. So, therefore, they ate in silence.

After their so-called feast they decided to retire. Tami curled up by the fire to keep warm. Dilandau decided to stay as far away from her as possible so he remained in his corner. The cold seemed non-existent while he was staring at the dimming fire. The crackling flames were like a lullaby. Every flicker of the embers he could feel even though his eyes were closed. Dilandau was one with the fire. He lived for one purpose, to burn all that opposed him. As the fire dimmed to embers he fell into a light sleep. He would not allow himself to go into a deep sleep for the girl sleeping by the fire could jump him at any second of the night.

Author's note: Oh my god.. This is creeping along like a snail! I was going to have a plot twist in this chapter but I didn't have room for it! Anyway! Yay my friend who originally rp'd with me the story that this fanfic id based upon had reviewed see see! Happy happy joy joy joy!!!