Twisted Fortune - An Escaflowne Fanfiction
By Bonnejeanne and Nixers
Contact: bonnejeanne@yahoo.com and nixerchan@aol.com
Warnings: Spoilers for the entire series, (nothing else yet)
Notes: Set a little over one year after Vision of Escaflowne's end.
***** ***** - indicates a dream sequence
Chapter Three - Homecoming
Part 5
As the light and energy around him faded... faded... Van knew exactly where he was... in an approximate way. Even though it was full daylight, he was surrounded by shadow, soft sounds, and an unmistakable scent. Home.
He swayed slightly, blinking, and looked around quickly. The trees blocked out much of the light but his eyes adjusted. Turning in a full circle, he looked instinctively for two other figures.
Serena was leaning against the thick, mossy bark of a nearby tree, blinking wide eyes in an effort to adjust and get her bearings. The unmistakable form of the dragon was not far to the side. Its jaws were open and it was tasting the air with an almost reptilian expression of delight, making something in the way of a cooing growl in the back of its throat.
Taking a deep breath, Van sheathed his sword, feeling the cool air against his bare skin. He watched the dragon and a slight, almost shy smile curved his lips. /I never thought I'd really get you home,/ he thought. /Or maybe you got me here./
He saw Serena and moved towards her. "You all right?" he asked, a bit breathlessly.
"Oniisan?" came the barely audible response.
Van suppressed a slight shudder. "I don't think he made it." /I hope not, at least for now,/ Van thought fervently. "This.. is Fanelia. I need to get a bearing before I can say exactly where."
"....Fanelia.... Van!" A small smile ghosted her lips. "Loam and wood..... it even smells like you." She seemed to snap out of it, blinking away her daze. "Fanelia?... How did we get here?"
That question was one Van wanted to avoid, but it seemed like that was not going to be possible. He shrugged. "It happens... sometimes..." he managed. It was lame, he knew it. But what explanation would make sense?
Clear eyes studied his for a moment before Serena decided to let it pass. She squinted around in the half-light that managed to filter through the crowns of the trees. "Where's Gimpy?"
Van quirked an eyebrow at the name but jerked his head towards the dragonling. After seemingly taking a moment to drink in its surroundings and rejoice, the reptile turned only briefly to regard the two with a golden eye. A blink. Then it turned and began to slither on it's own deeper into the darker parts of the wood.
"Well," she started, her voice colored by the tiniest trace of regret. "That's that I guess..." A little more confident in her eyes adjusting, she picked her way to Van's side. "Do you know where from here?"
He looked around, his brow furrowing momentarily. "West... till I see something I recognize," he said. He gave a last glance at the disappearing tail of their one-time companion. Then he looked at Serena. He looked for a moment. "I never thought we could really do it," he said very quietly. "And to be honest, I have my doubts that... it.. that Gimpy," his mouth quirked, "Can survive here. But this much was.. is... a miracle. And you... made it."
A soft expression settled across her visage as his words sunk in. /I made it, I really did./ "Yeah.... make that two miracles then." Her smile widened. "We can expect one more then. After all, there IS the Rule of Threes."
Van's eyes shuttered and he turned away, heading in a direction he obviously believed to be west.
Serena looked after Van, indecision warring in her. She turned towards the path the dragon had passed and cupped her hand around her mouth to shout after it. "Hey Gimpy! You get the third one. Stay alive you hear?" With a laugh, she dashed off after Van, falling again a step behind him.
His voice floated back to her. "Might want to keep that one for when Allen shows up at the castle."
She missed a step, stumbling for her balance. "Maybe... but it will take him a while to get there, even with the Crusade at full. Half the reason he was in Pallas in the first place was to get some repairs on it done... That's what? Two weeks of real life maybe?" Her voice dropped a bit. "That's enough. Maybe I'll just go back with him after that."
"He'll make record speed," Van said over his shoulder. Then, after a few more steps, he stopped and turned around. "Why do you walk behind me?"
Serena blinked, then flushed. "I'm sorry! I forget I don't have to anymore I guess." She took up the stopped and squinty-eyed look of an etiquette's schoolmaster. "Now Serena, don't forget," she imitated a warbling and strict voice. "A PROPER lady must always walk behind the gentleman. She can't just GALIVANT about like some RUFFIAN!" She rolled her 'r' dramatically, waving a stick she'd scooped up somewhere along the way like a schoolmaster's ruler.
She shrugged. "You hear it enough times, and you start to do it to shut them up... Then you do it enough times that you forget to stop."
His eyes focused on hers. "I don't like having someone behind me," he said. Then, "Can't quite believe... *you* walking behind someone because it's customary." He looked for a moment longer and then resumed walking.
"No one behind you?" Serena grinned lopsidedly, and poked Van in the back with her stick. "Why? 'Fraidy cat?"
His hand moved way too quickly and the stick was jerked from her hand and tossed away. "If you like."
Something flashed behind her eyes for a second before that same carefree look returned. Making it a point to draw along side of him, she said, "I didn't think *I* would ever follow it either... In fact, I remember swearing I wouldn't for a long time." She shrugged.
They walked a while in silence, then Van said, "What else do you remember?"
"Remember?" She glanced at him before a sort of frustrated understanding dawned. "You aren't the first to ask me that," she said quietly, the smile no longer reaching her eyes. "It's mostly a blur, like ... like I was drunk for ten years of my life and it's now the morning after. Sometimes... I know I remember things or know I feel things... but.... it's usually gone a second after it happens."
He flashed her a look. "You're... different than I expected," he said.
It was her turn to study him as they walked. "What *did* you expect?"
He walked for a while before answering. Then, "Someone... less real."
"Everyone is real." Serena kicked a stone out of her path. "Those who aren't, well, you just haven't gotten past the surface yet then."
Another look under dark hair. "Have I gotten past the surface?"
Her eyebrows pinched together in consternation. "I don't know if *I* have." She frowned. "Can we talk about something else?"
He shrugged. "As you wish."
"So!" she said, a bit too loudly. "Tell me about Fanelia. What's it like there?"
Van took a deep breath, finding comfort in the scent of the air. "It's like this... some places. Much of it's deep woods. Then there are the valleys where the land has been cleared to build or plant. A bit more cleared now than used to be," he said, with a slight, unconscious wince. "Winters can be hard. Summers... beautiful. If it gets hot, you can walk under the trees..."
"It sounds perfect. Winters can't be so bad though. A nice fire, a blanket or three, and some good company..."
"I spent most of my winters training... these last few years," he said. "You can... stay warm that way I guess. But it's not much like Asturia. People are plain-spoken. What... we had in the way of architecture is mostly gone. If the peace... the peace lasts, we'll build it up again, maybe better," he said, trying to keep the catch out of his throat and ending up simply sounding gruff.
Serena seemed unruffled by his tone. She merely watched the woods around them as they traveled, her eyes following the path of a bird or trying to find the source of some small animal's chatter. "It may happen. Peace that is," she mentioned absently. "Fanelia's too small to be really embroiled, I've heard."
His shoulders stiffened. "It wasn't too small to be burnt to the ground once before," he growled. "That kind of talk... comes from throats that have never tasted the smoke of a homestead smoldering to its last embers."
A whirlwind of feelings raced through her, too quickly for her to identify anything more than confusion and an irrational feeling of being offended. Stiffening as well, "It's possible. I've only heard what's going around in court. I've found if I play stupid, people don't pay much attention to me. It's easy to hear things when you are invisible... but you're right, I doubt any of them have had their feathers ruffled by something so *common* as war."
They could see light ahead as the trees stopped. He moved forward and his hand closed around her wrist. "You wanted to see what was outside of court?" he said, pulling her into the small clearing.
It had once been a prosperous farm, but the sturdy buildings had been burnt till there was nothing but blackened beams, and then the plants had begun to grow over it. Even the vines and grasses could not cover the scars in the ground, or soften the sense of emptiness that filled the small clearing.
Serena regarded the scene with wide eyes, drinking in the details with an inner impassiveness that startled her. She stepped forward to get a better look. Black cinders crunched and crackled beneath her heavy boots. "Why hasn't anyone rebuilt this?"
Van dropped her wrist and squatted on his heels, muttering something inaudible. Then he looked up. "Because they're all dead. Whatever family lived here... none of them survived to come back."
"They died?" her voice was a little fragile and a sourceless emptiness welled up from somewhere within her. "...Died.... I didn't know Fanelia burned. No one told me that."
He looked up and surged to his feet, walking over to stare into her eyes from inches away. His gaze was intense, as if he were looking for something he *knew* had to be there. "No one... told you..."
A miniscule movement from side to side passed for shaking her head. She couldn't seem to break her gaze from his, despite his uncomfortable proximity. "No. My lessons.... went only briefly into the war.... Allen, I overheard him warning a new instructor about it once. Something stupid, like possible traumas..." she trailed off.
Van felt his heart thudding in his chest. /What am I doing?/ He dropped his eyes, though his posture remained stiff. "I know where we are now. Another walk will take us to a road. We should meet someone coming along that can take us to the city with any luck."
Serena unconsciously took a step back as his gaze fell from hers. Listening to him, she worked up a grin and a mock groan. "More wagons!?"
He stepped back also, and flickered a very brief look at her. "More wagons, or more walking. Sorry, my dragon's asleep at home."
She blinked at him and tilted her head. "I thought you said you didn't have a dragon?"
"That's right," he said. "I forgot. Coming?"
She nodded sweeping her eyes over the clearing again. She mumbled to herself, just on the edge of audibility. "Must be a terrible way to die.... so outmatched as to never have a chance." She sighed and gave the impression of gathering herself up. She stepped to Van's side. "To the road then?"
He flashed her a very brief look and then nodded, and set off in that direction.
The road was right where it was supposed to be. Following it, walking on the verge where it was less dusty, even so brought them out from under the shadow of the trees and into the sunlight.
Serena veered towards the center of the road as she walked, head tilted upwards and arms stretched out at her sides. "The shade's been nice but the sun!" She opened one eye a touch to glance at Van. "People tell me I'm too pale. A day in this kind of light might do me good," she mentioned conversationally.
She got another look from under dark hair for her trouble. "Or give you a burn," he murmured.
On an impulse she dropped her arms back to her sides and stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't burn," she said petulantly.
Van glanced at her skeptically. "Aa."
"I don't!" she reasserted. "I know I've tried. I've spent more time spread out like a drying sweater back home... you'd think I'd at least golden a bit for my efforts."
"I would?" he murmured. Then he smiled slightly. Lifting his face, he looked up into the blue. Something in his expression gave her the feeling that the sky called to him in some odd way. He looked up, shoulders lifting slightly, for a few paces, and then relaxed, and his eyes dropped back to the horizon.
Discreetly, Serena studied him as they walked, a small smile tugging at her lips. /I don't think I could have chosen a more interesting traveling companion,/ she mused. /Nothing about him makes sense./
A glint from the sun drew her attention from his face to the luminescent pink pendant hanging around his neck.
"You know, that necklace seem familiar somehow. Where did you get it from?"
His gloved hand closed around the pendant protectively. He didn't answer for several minutes. "From a girl."
"Ah, a love token then." She winked at him, even as her own words annoyed her on some level.
He dropped his head for a second, and swallowed. His hand dropped away from the little crystal. "If you like."
"What difference does it make if I like or if I don't like?"
This succeeded in getting him to look at her. "She... the girl who... she's gone. Safe. Happy. Gone." The words were more than grudgingly given. There almost seemed to be a hint of warning in his tone.
"Hey..." Acting again on an impulse, a few steps drew her to his side. With only a second's hesitation, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders to hug him briefly. "I'm sorry," she admitted. "Forget I asked, 'kay?"
He froze when she embraced him. Cinnamon eyes fastened on her with startlement. Through the sleeve of her tunic she felt his skin, warmed by the sun. He stopped and before she could react, his hands found her shoulders. He stared into her eyes, again with that intense, searching look. "No. I won't forget. Too... too much is forgotten."
Her expression closed instantly, slamming shut. She jerked herself out of his reach with surprising strength for her slight frame and started walking again down the road. "And some things are better when they aren't remembered." Fists, that she hadn't notice were clenched, relaxed. "Lets go. It's a long way right?"
Van watched her walk away. He felt a slight shiver that came from deep inside. "So... you don't want to remember?" he murmured, softly, to himself. Then aloud, "As you wish. Yes, it's a long way." He walked with rapid but unhurried strides, catching up with her in a few steps.
"Hmph," She gave a non-committal noise, her eyes now fixed on the road below her. Her nature though didn't let her stay quiet for long. "Is this road traveled often? I never got that nap."
Van gave another glance at the angle of the sun. "We've a good chance," he replied. "Someone will be headed back to the city to get there by nightfall."
"All right then," she stopped in her tracks, still not looking at the boy beside her. "I'm going to find a shady spot to curl up. You wait by the road and see if you can hail someone." Not waiting for his response she moved to fulfill her words.
She needed some time that so she could at least pretend to be alone, if not to sort out her thoughts then to quell the overwhelming urge to grab the boy and shake him until she got a full sentence out of him... all right, maybe a paragraph or two... preferably one indicating what was going on behind cinnamon eyes.
Van stopped and looked at her quizzically. "Aa."
****"Dilandau sama?" Gatti's voice timidly inquired for orders over the static of their comm. "We have secured the palace... but the Dragon has disappeared."
An eye twitched. "Dis...appeared?"
"Hai...in a light..."
A smile slithered across his face. "Very well then. This will just make the chase more interesting." The Captain's voice rose and fell almost randomly as he spoke. His red eyes were fixed on the destruction below, tracking the havoc his troops played. They shone brightly in battle. All the boys he'd picked up and polished, stolen from the Sorcerer's perverting grasp. They were so beautiful now, so deadly. "It would be a shame for our role to end so quickly."
"Dilandau sama?" The relief in the Slayer's voice was almost comic.
"Burn it." Dilandau ordered, a certain glee welling up from within him. How he wished he hadn't been ordered to stay behind. /Damn dragons./ He surveyed the city of Fanelia from the high platform of the Vione, seeing not buildings stretched out below him, but dry timber. "All of it."****
Serena was awakened by the feeling of being gathered in strong arms. The light was somewhat less and the air felt slightly cooler. Beyond, she heard the soft snort of a draybeast.
Feigning sleep, she let herself rest limply, enjoying the foreign sensation of such close contact. Her mind muzzily conjectured that there must have been a wagon that had stopped, but she wasn't entirely prone to caring at the moment.
She was lifted and carried, then smelled animals and hay and something else. Another lift, and then she was lowered into something soft and a little scratchy... a low murmured call and the surface she was resting on gave a little jerk and began to move. The arms that had lifted her did not entirely disentangle as her companion settled beside her and relaxed.
Her eyes opened slightly and she struggled to focus, smiling sleepily at Van. "I don't get you," she murmured, half aware that she had snuggled closer to the warm body next to her.
Van looked down, eyes widened as she moved against him. After a moment he murmured, "S'okay. I don't get you either."
An almost silent giggle shook her shoulders. "Good," she mumbled. "I'd hate to think we weren't even."
His eyes darkened and his mouth pulled to one side. He leaned back a bit further into the hay.
She made a disappointed noise in the back of her throat but didn't make another move toward him. Ignoring the thoughts that tried to catch her attention, she let herself slide back into sleep.
/Even,/ Van thought. He looked down at the figure beside him, the face that was familiar and yet not familiar. /Even. For...? All your Dragonslayers... do they make up for all my people killed and burned out of their homes? Did we... achieve a balance in our mutual bloodlust?/
The thoughts disturbed him in a deep, fundamental place that had begun to roil inside when Allen had dropped his casual comments about peace not lasting. A place that *had* been at peace, Van believed it, he'd found that peace, worked for it. Lain awake nights for it. Walked in the deep woods and courted dragons for it, until he felt it deep inside. And now it was... gone.
The beastman driving the cart, a brutish looking creature with oxen's horns, half turned in his seat. He sought for a way to lift the troubled expression, and in a conversational tone, far softer than one would expect from such a huge man, asked, "A pretty lady you've got. Must be quite a catch."
Van swallowed, glancing down. She was. But she... he... had always been that. Even that famous scratch hadn't really changed that, in spite of the boy's mad paranoid fantasy to the contrary. And the scar has disappeared with almost everything else he recognized. Van sighed. "Must be," he murmured just as softly in answer.
"Mmm," the man rumbled. Thick black fingernails scratched at his chin as he wondered if, perhaps, it was a bad tact to take. If anything, the young man who'd asked a ride had only become more solemn and introverted. "The name's Gual," he offered as an apology.
Van looked up, and his lips curved slightly. "Again, thanks, Gual. Van Fanel."
Lazy-lidded eyes snapped open wide at the implication, and the oxman lost his casual slump. He seemed flabbergasted at what to do. "Sir," he ducked his head respectfully, if a bit awkwardly from the weight of the horns.
Van shook his head. "Don't. Fanelians are brothers... aren't we?"
Thick lips bared large, square teeth in an imitation of a smile. "That's the truth. In honest, call us even. If what my sister brags is right, you helped put the roof over her head, literally."
Van's brows furrowed slightly. "Um, Gracel? With three small ones? Is she well?"
"Ha!" he barked, then effected a sheepish look as Serena stirred slightly in her sleep. Once again taking a softer tone, "That be the one. Good memory on you. She's taken a job at the forges, helping with the smithing. Good work, honest work."
Van smiled. He felt some of his inner tensions relax. "I'm glad to hear it," he murmured. Then his smile eased into something more somber. "The little boy... whose leg was broken. Did it heal clean?"
"Well enough. He's got a bit of a limp, but it doesn't slow the rascal down, still trying to butt heads with the Hern's kid. Ain't smart enough to know when he's outmatched." Gual swept up a bit of hay and chewed on it contemplatively. "Not bad for a home job though. Good as can be without a doc's help."
Van sighed, nodded.
Van was spared another glance as the beastman turned to watch the road again. "I'd heard you'd left. Whole bunch a pomp around it I'd heard. Never thought I'd catch you on the road so early." He grunted, fiddling with the draybeast's reins. "Never thought I'd catch you at all.... How was Pallas?"
"Full of pomp," Van replied, allowing the words to express his feelings a little. "It was... all fine. But not home."
Gual gave a snort with a loud expellation of air. "Hn. I hear ya."
Van glanced over his shoulder and saw the beginnings of structures and outbuildings, some new, some not yet rebuilt, and realized they were nearing the castle. He sat up slightly, wondering how he could most easily deflect the inevitable questions about his unexpected return, and more importantly his... guest.
THE END OF PART 5!