Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ When Escaflowne Rescued Trilladen ❯ Being Rescued and Making Up ( Chapter 34 )

CHAPTER NINE

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Being Rescued and Making Up

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Merle made her way through the forest heading toward Ispania via the upper canopy of the trees. Branches intertwined so thickly that she need not touch the forest floor, but to drink from the brook that layered the ravine like an iridescent ribbon of liquid diamonds. She was desolate of spirit despite her lovely surroundings. She trudged along in a miserable determined fashion as if willing herself to care. She was heart broken, for Folken just left her behind.

Thirst eventually overcame her, her tongue so dry it felt like a strip of leather in her mouth. She descended gracefully and dropped to the side of the babbling brook to drink in her fill. Perhaps because her senses were dulled by sadness, she did not perceive her danger. Within a moment's first swallow of clear water, she was thrown stomach down, her head bobbing in and out of the water as she tried to keep her face above water to breath in.

Her need for air became quite desperate and she knew she might very well drown. Urgency and panic overcame her as the strong heavy weight of her assailant pressed down on her with a fierce cruelty. She didn't even have the air with which to whimper or make a choking sound. At that moment, a sense of her own death came calmly to her mind and she went limp waiting for peace. It never came.

Once she became still she was flopped over like a sack of dried rice. Surprised to be able to breath again she gulped down pockets of air, her eyes blinded by the lack of oxygen became prickly stars in her eyes that slowly lit up the scene above her. She was not accosted by one but by many assailants. She was being held down, arms and legs spread out as an ugly brute began to rip apart her long shift that covered her body, the ripping sound of her maidenly dress was accompanied by a chorus of laughter by ruffians bent on raping her.

She shrank inwardly begging for death, rather than this unbearable humiliation. Her anguished expression on her face grew crimson as rough hands groped her bare breasts painfully. Her chest seared with the emotional pain of indignation. It was as if a heavy iron anvil had been heated to glow red and then laid to rest on her bare chest to burn into her flesh until her heart was blistered. It was a horrible anguished indignity that threatened her ability yet again to breath as sobs of protest could not escape her lungs.

Tears streamed freely from her eyes, her spirit was completely broken and she closed her eyes, not wishing to see the monstrous inhumane ruffian brutalizing her sense of self, her wholeness, safety and personhood. She knew she wished for death with every fiber of her being knowing a benevolent deity must surely heal her deepest wounds. Then he climbed on top of her and began to undo his breeches.

In sheer terror she screamed out pitifully, "Kill me first!"

Her assailant chuckled and bent his head down to her and replied in a sickening creepy voice that made her stomach lurch violently. "Just relax, pussy. He he he. Just relax and enjoy pussy, pussy. Pretty puss...oaf!"

The grunt was the last sound he uttered. Blood spat out convulsively from the dying thug's mouth as he landed hard on his knees beside Merle. Violence painted around him with his blood and those of his peers. The two men who'd been holding her down were thrown clear from her and both seemed to meet a tree trunk with deadly force as if flying there just to die. Another man was running away from the scene and lost his head, his body still running a few paces on until tipping over and falling, all the while twitching involuntarily.

Before Merle could comprehend what was happening the slaughter was over. The blur, quick and deadly, spilled the blood of seven filthy heathen men. Only then did she see a black winged avenger with the look of berserker rage on his face barely breaking a sweat. This was the second time this day that Folken had killed for her, to protect her. He walked heavily over to her and knelt down beside her shoving the dead brute far from her side. His rage subsided, but his anger and concern still quite evident.

Breathing heavily, he gathered her into his arms and only then did he sense how completely shattered she was. Trembling from the depths of terror that soaked her soul with a heated dread, she was safe and couldn't quite grasp that. She was shaking violently, her whole body in a fear fraught seizure. Then, mercifully she passed out cold. He laid her gently down and waded into the brook to rinse away the blood from his arms, hands and face that he was awash with.

Then he went back to her and gently, so tenderly lifted her into his arms and waded back into the stream of cold water. He proceeded to clean her skin like a healing caress, holding her close to him, for his whole body radiated heat. He tenderly wrapped her naked form in his sorcerer's cloak. Unfurling his dark wings, he flew high up into the canopy to rest with her safely snuggled in his arms.

The late morning came with the sound of chirping birds and her piercing screams as she woke up in terror. He was startled by her and was smacked forcefully by a hysterical Merle. She was flaying her arms and legs in a desperate struggle to be free. He resorted to shouting in her ear her name at the top of his lungs. She immediately ceased and looked wide-eyed and disbelieving at her deliverer.

"Shush, it's okay. You're safe. Hush, my sweet." He cooed into her ear, his cheek pressed warmly against hers. Like a volcano that had slept for a millennium and had suddenly erupted, she wailed loudly, venting rage, anguish, indignation, and humiliation. All the while he gently held her and rocked her in his arms, lulling her to an unhappy calm.

"You don't need to worry. You are safe now." He spoke his words from an aching heart filled with regret. "You are safe now." He ended as he lowered his head into the crook of her neck and spilled tears of his own. "I'm sorry. I should've known how to prevent this. This is my fault. I'm sorry." He choked the words out.

As if some terrible thing suddenly remembered sprang to mind, Merle's eyes went wide with anxiety as her hands went down to feel between her legs for injury or wetness. She felt nothing but the dry skin of her thighs. Relief cut through her chest like a Saracen sword causing her to cry out. A deep emotional hurt ruled her thereafter as Folken held her and listened to her cries taking in the essence of her pain. Every fresh sob he condemned himself, with each cry lashing out at his soul like a whip cutting into flesh.

He blamed himself and his own stupidity. She left without him because she felt abandoned by him. She didn't realize he was coming right back for her. He'd deployed a search party to find her, but instead his team only found Zaibach soldiers. Reporting quickly back to Folken of these events, Folken ordered the team back.

He'd taken Darius first because he was defenseless in his physical state and needed some medical attention. She would only be alone for a short time and he was confident in her abilities to hide, the gods only knew how many times she successfully hid from him. He left Darius in charge of the fortress, with orders to seek out King Van in Ispania and report all that had been learned.

Then dressed in a stealth cloak fitted to accommodate his wing span, he flew back to track her down. Too worried to be annoyed with her decision to make his life more difficult, he set out to think like a cat, like his own sweet Merle. In the dimly lit morning only his black wings could be seen in the sky, looking more like a black crow than a draconian. He swooped down and quickly realized she was not on the ground. Flying up to the highest points of tree branches and leaves he began to search for signs of her there and began to trail her. Though not as graceful as a cat, his progress encumbered by a long wingspan that was not accommodated by the thickness of the greenery, he searched for her.

When he found her she was being attacked by seven of the filthiest, ugliest brutes the forest could hide. Rage over took him when he saw her overpowered by them; his need to kill them a physical thing. The deed done in mere moments, he wanted only to comfort her and make her feel safe and loved, for he would die for her, if he must.

Finally her cries subsided, yet her anger rose. How dare he act all sweet and consoling! He won't play with me. He won't toy with my heart any longer! Her thoughts roared in her mind. She became quiet and still in his arms, looked up at him and seared him with a look of hatred.

He took this as his sentence for his stupidity. With resolution he sat up and lifted her up. "We will have to move swiftly to get to Ispania. When we get there we must keep you safe there while the pace of this war quickens."

"You have no say in my comings and goings. You have no say in anything to do with my life." She spoke with derision. She wrested herself from his safe embrace threw down his cloak and climbed down the tree to the forest floor towards the babbling brook. She avoided the place where the dead bodies were and began to scrub her skin with a vengeance. Folken was there in moments with the cloak. He walked over to her purposefully with the intent to wrap her up in warmth and safety.

"I disagree. Because you lack common sense to keep from being attacked, and I am responsible for you, you will stay safe. Don't expect me to be able to concentrate on the strategies of war if I must be worried about your safety." He replied with deadly calm. Ignoring her protests and hands trying to strike out at him, he wrapped her cold naked body in his black cloak and imprisoned her with his insistent embrace.

She yelled at him. "You are a bully! You know that? You just order me around! It isn't enough that you break my heart. It isn't enough that you left me alone in a strange forest filled with enemy soldiers and vermin. It isn't enough that you lead me on. Or did you just loose interest in me and didn't know how to let me know? You don't own me and I'll do as I see fit for what is best for me. That doesn't include being bullied and ordered about by the likes of you. You don't even care!"

"Don't tell me I don't care! I care more than you realize. Do you think it is easy to give you up? I don't know that I'll ever be worthy enough to be a husband to you. I am an overthrown emperor; I have nothing to offer you, no home to give you, nor a future. You would be best-suited married off to someone of Van's choosing. Someone who doesn't have a past tainted with the blood of his own countrymen."

"I choose for myself! I choose! You do too or so I thought." She retorted. "For a while you had chosen to love me. But I was wrong to trust you! You made it quite clear when you left me. I didn't notice when I was surrounded by thugs! You're right! It was not because I don't know how to sense danger, it was because I was too heart broken to notice anything other than the pain you caused me when you left me standing there with out a word or even a glance back in my direction. Do you know how much I hate you? I wanted to die! Now I just want to hit you and hit you hard and not stop until you feel as bad as I do!" She put her face in her hands and cried.

Folken's heart ached with every breath he took. He couldn't stand it. He felt like a young hot blood that caught himself falling in love unawares. Like a first and everlasting love that left an imprint in his heart that would forever shape his destiny, he knew his love for Merle would never end. He scooped her back into his arms and held her, not knowing what to say, only needing absolution desperately. A thing she would never give him.

Finally tears choking every word he uttered he spoke hoarsely and simply his thoughts and feelings, his shoulders shaking from the pent-up emotions he'd harbored for so long. "I am sorry, Merle. I need you to forgive me. I love you. You're wrong, you know? You need to know that. You can't hate me. You have to love me. See, I didn't choose you, and you didn't choose me either. You can't choose love, only Heaven can grant that. It's a gift.

"Maybe I haven't been cherishing it the right way, but I've tried to honor you and respect what you need more than what I want. You are all that I want, but I know I don't deserve you. I'm a murderer and a traitor. I use people who love me. I remember what I became under Dornkirk. I even remember killing him and being pierced by my own sword in the heart. I felt the death stab and understood why I must die. At some point I felt my own death. I don't understand how or why I am even alive to protect you, to love you and hold you like this.

"What if I am just a monster? Am I good enough to be loved by someone kind and innocent? I just don't think so." He hid his face in her hair and just waited for her anger to lash out at him once again. Instead she shivered from being wet and cold.

"We must find shelter and build a fire to get you dry and warm." He said, his voice still choked with emotion. He lifted her off her feet, flapped his wings and flew away from the horrible scene, finding ways to hold her closer to him while he swerved around trunks and searched for a place to rest. He found a rock formation ahead and what appeared to be a cave. He flew to it and put Merle down a distance back from it and wrapped her again snugly in his black cloak.

"Stay here, and don't move. I want to check to make sure it's safe for us to stay there." He looked in her eyes intently as if trying to read her thoughts. She looked stunned and in a mild state of shock, eyes wide, breathing hard and unsteady.

He left to investigate the cave and she shivered violently and wished she'd been smarter than to try and wash away the awful memory of those men. She sank down to the ground into a ball feeling miserable and cold. Her head rested on her knees. She was deep in thought, trying to sort out what Folken had told her earlier. What does he mean he knows that he died? That doesn't make sense! I can't figure him out?

Still, something gnawed at her, as if a mosquito just took a bite out of her sub-conscious and she couldn't reach and scratch a mental itch. Trying to decipher her own feelings about what Folken said threatened to shred her sense of reality. If she still owned any peace of mind left after what she'd just been through, she'd rather opt to keep it rather than dwell on the dark mystery that surrounds the man she couldn't stop loving, no matter how much she wished she could.

He came back and was expecting her to be right where he left her. He didn't see that she'd huddled close to the ground and for an instant he was afraid she'd left him foolishly again. Then he saw her crumpled up into a little ball, like a frightened little kitten. His heart ached for her, to touch her and comfort her.

"It appears to be safe for us to stay there to warm you up. After we've rested, I think we should concentrate our efforts on finding you some clothes. We've a long journey ahead of us and the weather in Ispania is cold most of the time." She didn't even look up at him. Sighing he bent down and scooped her into his arms.

"I can walk, thank you." She said primly.

"You'll be warmer this way. Don't argue." He replied.

Before long they were safely nestled in the cave, Folken feeding a campfire with dried leaves and timber twigs. The blaze was warm and comforting soon there after. And he sat down beside her. She clutched his black sorcerer's cloak snugly around herself as she leaned into the growing warmth the fire provided and her mind began to wander. Inevitably it took the events of today through a replay and she shuddered.

Folken reached out to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Just don't think about it, if you can. It's over and you're safe. You'll always be safe, as long as I can protect you. I'm sorry for what happened. I should've handled myself better." Regret tinged his words and he looked into the fire for solace as well.

Needing comfort more than her pride, she leaned into him silently as quiet tears trickled down her cheeks. She sniffled once and he looked down into her beautiful face. Seeing the tears on her cheeks falling so freely he gathered her into his arms and lifted her off her seat and into his lap to cradle her.

"Please forgive me for this day, my love. I only wish I could make you forget." He whispered hoarsely.

Rocking her back and forth gently and kissing the top of her head, she tilted her face up to his and met his mouth. The shock of her soft lush lips made him catch his breath violently. Passion seized hold of his heart and body and at once he surrendered himself to the sweet temptation of her inner mouth. His tongue tasted the sweetness of hers and then it was her turn for a startled passionate reaction. Turning herself around in his lap to straddle him with her legs and hold him tightly in her arms, she kissed him back deeply, urgently.

His physical need to couple with her became an ache that turned into a starved craving for her. Almost as if in pain they both capitulated to the emotional and physical longing that had truly governed their lives. He kissed her longer and deeper and held her as if she was the life line to his sanity. Both had tried to block the love they felt for each other, both suffering needlessly that most painful of pains, a love blocked. The dam was broken and their hearts and souls overflowed into each other. Forever they were melding into each other until neither could tell where one began and one ended as each measured stroke of love that passed between them made them one. They were now united and their destiny was became a shared thing that couldn't be escaped.