Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ By the Hand of Destiny: Book One; The Journey to Destiny ❯ Chapter Fourteen: Artemis ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14: Artemis

Written by Duece of Spades

I sat by the remnants of the dead fire poking and prodding at the ashes and blackened wood in a sullen manner while the blond fool was off doing god knows what. Perhaps wild animals had eaten him. I allowed myself a small grin and maliciously racked through the blackened dirt. The frustration I felt at going to look for Hell had me gritting my teeth. I thought back to the last time that I had seen her and felt my mind turn hazy with anger. She'd been ready to kill me over a game that played no importance in either of our lives and now there I was tracking her down like I was some sort of idiot. I snorted. Some sort of idiot; I was an idiot.

Though I did feel freer out here in the forest where I was away from the high standards I felt compelled to keep when I was in the city; a good impression could get you hired. I hated keeping a calm, serene facade when I was working. It wasn't me. It wasn't real. It was just one huge farce that I was forced to upkeep because if I didn't I'd be out on the streets, completely broke. As it was I had still found myself out on the streets broke, but at least this time I couldn't blame this new lifestyle completely on myself. It was much more convenient to just blame Allen.

"Who's there?" I hissed as my hand instinctively went for my weapon. I kept my eyes glued to where I had heard the twig snap only moments before, while keeping my ears open for any other sounds. It could have been that idiot Allen, but his step was heavier than that, and as I was on alert the intruder showed themselves.

From the shadows a lone wolf stepped out into the clearing. It was a magnificent creature with a black pelt and eerily intelligent eyes donning an elegant form, which practically oozed femininity, although I was unsure how I knew this to be so. As we made eye contact I felt my mind calm and I began to reach out with my hand to touch this creature if only to confirm that it physically existed.

"What are you doing?" I heard Allen growl behind me. "Do you really have no use for that hand that you'd give it up?" I ignored him and kept reaching for the wolf until Allen forcefully took my hand and pulled it back.

"Let go!" I hissed. "There's nothing to worry about."

"Wild wolves don't normally approach humans!" He reminded me through gritted teeth, his free hand going for his sword to protect us from the 'mad' wolf. He hadn't come out and said it, but that was what he had been insinuating with his warning.

"Not wild ones," I agreed, "But maybe this one is tame."

"Or sick." Allen remained suspicious.

"It's not frothing at the mouth, is it?" I retorted wrenching my hand from his grasp and restraining the childlike and immature urge to kick him in the shins. "If it were sick, it would have attacked us by now." I reminded him.

"You trust to easily." Allen warned yet again as I reached for the wolf. This time I managed to stretch my fingertips out to stroke the black fur of the creature. I turned my face away from her and waggled the fingers of my free hand at him.

"Still have all my fingers, don't I?" Allen snorted at me and turned to kick the deadened wood of the fire into an unrecognizable mass of litter. If someone of hostile intent should happen to pass by here they wouldn't think anything of this particular campsite. Well...former campsite.

"What are you going to do about that wolf?" He asked as his back was turned to me. I remained silent for a moment, thoughtfully stroking the wolf's back. She turned her golden eyes to me, and regarded me as I was sunk into my own thoughts.

In my own head I was running over a plan of escape. As time went on and I felt myself becoming more and more attracted to Allen; which as any woman might know, you can only go so long denying your feelings to yourself. You can't hide your feelings from others for forever, but you have to live with yourself all of the damned time. I figured that in a small town I could lose Allen and make my way into another country and begin my life anew. There was no way I could go back to Austria and rejoin the guild...not after leaving a half ass job as my remembrance. I had been paid to complete that mission, and had failed to do so on account of the self-centered egomaniac standing across from me. I figured I could guilt trip him into letting me collect any reward money that might be offered for the creature under the pretence that he had basically screwed me out of a lifetime supply of steady work in my home country. God damn him.

Allen didn't want to hear any of it, and would have preferred to stay out of any town in this territory in case someone from Zaibach was nearby and had caught wind of our appearance. I eventually won out and soon found myself on a main street in a small one-horse town. Not quite as big as I would have wanted it to be, but big enough to get lost in which had been my intention all along. I had no desire to live in this hick town, just to wander along until I lost the golden shadow, which was ever-present at my side.

"Where are you going to start looking?" He asked. I shrugged in responce.

"I don't know. I figured I'd just ask around the local bars; see if any rewards been posted about a lost animal. Maybe the barkeep knows something." The wolf cast her intelligent golden eyes up to my face, but I ignored her. She'd be set free...as free as I would be, soon. It was just a matter of following pretense and at least pretending to do what I had argued to do back in the forest. "There's a bar there. Why don't we go in?" I pointed. Allen scrunched up his upper lip like he smelled some horrific odor.

"That place looks a little...ragged, Artemis. They might cause you some trouble." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Not likely. And if they did, so what? It's not like these bumble headed idiots could actually do anything to me." Allen clucked in disapproval.

"We're so close to Zaibach territory, Artemis. And an assassin of all people should know not to underestimate their opponents. Consider everyone here an opponent, for you don't know who these people are, nor what they're capable of."

"Bite me, Schezar." I growled as I headed for the doors. The nerve of that man...telling me how to do my job...I made it a point to incorporate a new priority on my life list; make sure I killed Allen in a slow, and decidedly painful way. Not that any death would be painful or excruciating enough to be suitable to the punishment I was wishing upon his being at this moment.

I entered the doors of the bar in such a way that my appearance didn't create a stir in anyway with anyone who was in the bar. There were your drunks, and there were your gamblers, your barkeep, and your friendly neighborhood perverts, who, oddly enough, left you alone after a swift kick to the groin and a growled command to keep their fingers to themselves or you would be glad to remove that particular organ from their person. Of course making sure you flash a weapon or two always enhanced the effectiveness of this threat.

I approached the barkeep and asked if there were any news of a valuable animal being lost nearby, and if there were was there a reward offered to the return of the animal? The barkeep shook his head at me, and I sighed in exasperation as I turned to Allen.

"No dice. Shall we try the next..." My words died off as Allen motioned for me to remain quiet. His attention was drawn to two men in the darkened corner of the bar where they were trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible. Allen made his way over there as he stuck to the shadows that ran rampant in this bar. He casually listened in to their conversation and took so long in getting back to me that I had ordered a beer and was almost finished it by the time he pulled away.

"Come on." He whispered in my ear as he grabbed my elbow to lead me out of the bar. "They're staying at a local inn. And I want you to do something for me."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" I hissed at him.

"Zaibachian guards." He whispered back. "They were talking about a woman aboard one of their fortresses. She killed a man." I blinked.

"So what?"

"It could be Hell." I blinked again, my eyes narrowing.

"And this concerns me how?" At this statement Allen sighed.

"Artemis, you know as well as I do that I made you come on this trip with the expressed intention of retrieving Hell. If she is aboard that fortress, we need to know." I rolled my eyes at him, and asked what he wanted me to do. He smiled brilliantly at me. "Flirt."

When Allen said 'flirt', he didn't mean in that cutesy 'teehee' way. I personally was not happy with the role I was to play.

"Just how much material is this; four square inches?" I hissed at him as I fingered the material of my 'skirt'. "The owner of this place has some major women issues, you know."

"It sets the atmosphere." Allen reminded me as he walked in circles, making sure that my uniform for the night was in place, set to my curves and body in the most desirable way possible. "The waitresses are like the food; cheap, fast and easy." I snorted again.

"Allen, I can't walk without mooning someone." Allen chuckled in reply as he ignored my protests. Damn perverted bastard.

"Artemis, my dear, dear girl, you agreed to this plan." Allen reminded me. "You know what you're to do. Make those men go gaga and then get them to tell you what we want to hear." He pulled a crease smooth here, and adjusted a ribbon there. "And I'm sure you can do it."

"Fine, fine." I sighed. "Just one thing. How did you get the owner to agree to this?" Allen chuckled again though he looked slightly embarrassed.

"You don't want to know, Artemis." My eyes narrowed hiding the dangerous gleam there.

"I'm sure I do, Schezar." When Allen didn't answer me I walked up to him and grabbed his collar. "Please. Do enlighten me, Allen. I'm in need of a good laugh." He coughed slightly and I tightened my grip.

"I told him we were newlyweds." He began. "And that as a honeymoon treat we would find it amusing to play the part of a waitress and a customer. You're the waitress." I scowled at him.

"Maybe you should have worn the dress. You have the hair for it."

"Touché, Artemis." He put me through one final inspection, and then he lead me down to the dining room and paraded me in front of the owner who said that I would do, and he hoped that our honeymoon went well, nudge-nudge-wink-wink-know-what-I-mean? I glowered in distaste while Allen smirked as he thanked the man, assuring him that the honeymoon would go as well as the wedding had. Allen winked at me as he went into the dining room. As he walked through the room he made a subtle movement in the direction of the man that had caught his interest before and letting me know who our target was. After he'd been seated, I made my way out in the dining room and stopped at the table with the two men.

"Hey." I winked at them, feeling relatively dirty doing so. The thought briefly flitted through my mind how killing my fellow human beings could be so easy but playing the part of a slut could be so hard. "Can I take your order?" I eyed the man as he looked up. He looked miserable. Like an old beaten tabby cat that had forgotten all the good in life and instead just lived because it knew no other way. If it hadn't been for the somberness that surrounded him, he would have been considered handsome with his clear skin and pale blue eyes. His jaw was set and firm, with only a little bit of stubble that indicated that he hadn't bothered to shave in a few days. His eyes though...they were blood shot, indicating more than a few tankards of ale had been delivered into his body. Surely not good for his health, but the more men drank the more prone they were to spill information that they would normally keep to themselves. "Water? Beer? A shoulder to cry on?" He snorted at me before muttering...

"Beer. Make it quick."

"Sure thing, sugar." I bounced... bounced mind you, and felt quite pathetic while doing so, to the backroom and grabbed another tankard making sure that the head was nice and frothy. If anything, he wouldn't complain about the lack of service. I set it down in front of the man and received a glare for my troubles by his partner sitting across from him.

"Thank you, Miss." He sneered up at me. "Now if you'll be so kind, would you mind leaving us alone?"

"If that's what you want." I sneered right back, momentarily forgetting my role as a dumb redheaded waitress. "Do let me know if you need anything, okay darlings?" I stalked off, my gait reminiscent of when I was free of this stupid farce and of Allen, of Hell and stupid Zaibach. God, I missed being free!

I calmed down in the quietness of the back room, until that is, another waitress approached me.

"That blond swordsman. The one who you came in with? He's asking for you."

"He can go to hell." I muttered underneath my breath as I walked out towards him. I stopped in front of him and glared. "Yeah. What do you want?"

"What are you doing?" He hissed. "You're supposed to be getting information from him, not parading around like some she-whore!" I rolled my eyes in my irritation.

"And who was it who put me in this situation in the first place? For your information there is no other way, Allen. If I could get my information by slitting his throat, or the threat of it, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But that's not an option, remember?" He sighed as he leaned back slightly in his stock chair.

"Fine. Then just get the information."

"I can't, not with his buddy around. I think the quiet one is the one with the information, but with his friend around I'm not going to get much out of him." Raising a hand to his chin Allen remained silent for a moment before a small smirk tugged at his lips.

"I'll distract his friend. You get him to talk."

"Anything you say, your highness." That said I stalked off.

"Wait a minute!" He called. I turned on my heel and glared daggers at the man. "You didn't take my order." My shoulders slumped in exasperation.

"Oh...you are shitting me."

"I'm not." He flashed his white teeth at me and again I wondered how it would feel to knock them all down his pretty white neck. Knock them so far down he'd have to slit his throat to eat. "I'll take a beer, my dear."

"Poetic, aren't you?" I sneered as I stalked back to the kitchen to get his beverage.

When I came back out, Allen wasn't sitting at his table anymore. He was at the men's table and it appeared like he was...picking a fight. I blinked in astonishment. Allen? The Knight? The Gentleman? Picking a fight? I pricked up my ears and listened in. I only heard snatches of the conversation that basically sounded as if Allen didn't appreciate the fact that the second man had treated such a nice waitress, inwardly, I snorted, like she was nothing but hired help. When the man replied that that's all I was, Allen suggested that they take this fight outside in which the second man readily agreed. Allen winked at me as they both went outside to complete whatever he had in mind for the guy, which probably included stringing him up by his throat.

Now that his less approachable companion had been taken care of I made my move and sat down next to him. Showing my most sympathetic smile I took one of his hands in mine.

"Want to tell me about it, hun?" I asked gently. "You look all worn out." He snorted at me.

"You don't know the half of it sister." Then, maybe in his drunken stupor he realized that he didn't know me and became rather suspicious. "What do you want anyway?"

"Just to talk, sugar. You don't look so hot." I made contact with his bloodshot eyes. He looked tired and weary and ready to pass out at a moments notice and it was clear that he had been under a severe strain for the past couple of days. "Want to go to someplace a little more quiet?"

Perhaps it was the stress, the drink, or maybe just good old-fashioned stupidity to ever trust a waitress in a sleazy place like this, but he agreed, and I led him up to the room that Allen and I would share later that night. I sat him down on the bed, while I myself chose a nearby chair and placed it so I could sit directly in front of him.

"You're a soldier, aren't you? What could've happened to make a big, strong man like you look so weak?" Maybe it was the fact that I called him weak, but his head snapped up and his blue eyes were clearer than I had thought possible when he was in such a state.

"I am not weak, whore." I bristled at his harsh words.

"Who are you calling a whore?"

"Why else lead me to your room then? Other than you're just a cheap slut." I stood up and smacked him as hard as I was able. His head snapped to the left, his eyes wide open as he glared back at me. Not that I truly felt any offense at the bastard in front of me, but if I was going to play off this whole, 'let me be a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.' I had to at least pretend I was nice, and happy, and innocent. People tended to believe in innocent people. As if innocent people were trust worthier than those who were no longer naive and un-cynical. Although I'd always felt that I would rather have a cynical, toughened person backing me up; someone who knew the ways of the world, and wouldn't hesitate in fucking someone else up if they'd been double crossed. But I had to put that all behind me for the moment, and play the part of an innocent.

"How...dare you." I muttered. "I'm trying to help you, you ungrateful bastard." He glared up at me.

"You. Can't. Help. Me." He turned away. "Not unless you can turn back time." I quirked an eyebrow up at him in curiosity.

"The only thing I can do is listen. I know you're a stranger, and I'm a stranger, but that might make you feel better, you know?" Gods, I was laying this on so thick I was starting to feel queasy. I took one of his hands into my own as I looked deeply, soulfully, into his eyes. "There's no guilt if you talk to a stranger."

I began massaging his palm as he just lay there, hoping that the effects of lust and drink would combine to make him more talkative. He surrendered quietly as my fingers continued their ministrations on his own hand, relaxing his fingers until it lay limp in my palm. I kissed it gently, and took his palm to caress my face. "Tell me." I whispered imploringly.

He remained silent, and I knew that I would have to do more to get him to open up. I left a trail of soft kisses down his arm until I reached the nape of his neck. There I stopped, allowing my free hand caress his jaw line. Yet regardless of my ministrations he still remained immobile. I cursed inwardly for I had no intention of lying with the man. He was by no means ugly, but I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. The thought did cross my mind that if I were to sleep with him, then maybe some of the tension that I felt around Allen would disappear, but I doubted that. I leaned in close and continued to place my small kisses against his neck. I smiled into his skin, for despite himself, I could feel him reacting to my caresses.

"So." I whispered. "Why don't we start out with names shall we? I'm Art." I refrained from using my real name as a precautionary measure. As I continued I was pleased to see how much I was affecting him; his response was clearly viewable, while I remained completely in control, completely un-aroused. This, after all, was just another job. "What's yours?" He shivered.

"Shane." As he shivered, I placed the hand that had caressed his face on his shoulders while my face leaned down on his. I kissed the side of his mouth gently then continued to talk. "Shane? That fits you." A kiss to one corner of his lips, then the other... I had it all planned out in my head. It was such a pity I didn't know him better, I could get him to talk much faster if I knew which pressure points on his body excited him more. "Brings to mind tough men, and fighters. Are you a fighter Shane?" By this time I had managed to get him to lie back on the bed as I knelt over him; still bestowing those feather-light kisses on his face, though steadily avoiding his mouth.

"Soldier." He murmured as his hands crept up to cup at my waist. "Zaibach." I pulled up a little, and let my red hair drape over my shoulder.

"Zaibachian soldier? What are you doing all the way out here for then doll?" He sighed again, hands stilling any movement though still remaining around my waist.

"A friend of mine was killed yesterday; by a woman." By the time he'd finished his sentence I had ducked my head again and was quietly kissing his jaw line again. My eyebrow arched up as he muttered who had killed his friend, but I remained silent. He was on a roll and if I continued to just play a subservient role then all the information would come out, and he would think it was his own free will. I kissed, lapped and bit at his skin, moving down his jaw line to the base of his neck, and up again. He shuddered under my caress and continued to talk. "He didn't do anything...not really. He was just following orders. Then that woman...Hell, I think. She came along, and then he's dead. For following orders." There was a sudden vehemence in his voice and his fingers dug into my waist. I stiffened at the sound of my old mentor's name. Hell. So. Hell was nearby. I momentarily blanked out, my thoughts otherwise preoccupied at the information currently presented to me. It was Shane's relaxed grip on me, which woke me up; working far faster than a quick slap to the face would have. "She enjoyed it. She's a ruthless bitch. There was blood…she liked it. The fucking whore liked it. I wouldn't be surprised if she licked the blood from her own damned hands.

"Where did this happen?" I murmured into his ear as I kept my voice low and seductive.

"The Vione." He said. "The Dragon Slayers, and that ass Dilandau Albatou. He's the reason she got away with it. She's been fucking him like no tomorrow...everyone aboard knows it, filthy little slut. Just like the other one." My eyebrow shot up quizzically. Other one? What did he mean other one? I didn't know if I could coax a location out of him without seeming too obvious, but I thought I would try.

"Where is the Vione, baby? South?"

By this time I had opened his shirt, my hand splayed across his chest as my fingers ran lightly over his tanned skin. He gasped and then shook his head.

"North, past the mountain range. Not 20 leagues from here." When he finished speaking I placed my mouth on his and gave him one long passionate kiss before breaking free to strike a vital point on his neck that I knew would knock him out. As his body went limp I stood up from the bed, adjusting my dress before looking disgustedly at myself and at what I was doing. My own clothes were in this room and since I had the information Allen had so desperately wanted I was no longer forced to remain in this get up. I changed in front of the man seeing no point in taking special precautions in front of an unconscious body. Finally I was comfortable wearing my own clothes, and weapons again.

I dragged the man's body to the nearest window and conveniently dropped in him out of it into the waiting cart which luckily, for him anyway, was full of hay. I smiled at the scene is must have caused and sat on the bed awaiting Allen to relay my news. I hadn't been waiting long till the man in question walked in through the door. He looked slightly worse for wear, but nothing a quick rinse to his hair and a brushing to his clothes wouldn't fix.

"What's with the new look? Some duck finally toss you out on your ass like you deserve?" I smirked, as he in turn smiled genuinely at me.

"No. I discussed our little plan with the smarmy friend." My demeanor slowly became colder as he explained he had just forced the exact same information that I had gotten out of the bastard I had just thrown out the window, just in case I hadn't gotten all the information that I needed.

"Wait a minute." I held up a hand interrupting him. "You stuck me in this outfit and had me smooze with that guy when you were just going to bully the information out of his friend anyway? What the HELL are you playing Allen? This isn't some game for four year olds when they get tired of tag-you're-it." I growled at him. He merely grinned back at me in a very charismatic fashion.

"But Artemis, it worked didn't it? You got the information."

"And degraded myself while doing it!" I practically shouted at him. "I'm not some thing to be used upon a whim Allen! Too many people have done that with me; played games, created situations, exerted their dominance...I'm SICK of it Allen. Quit fucking with me, because I am sick and tired of being fucked with." I sat down on the bed and eyed him as he just continued to look at me in that arrogant manner of his.

"Being angry isn't going to settle anything, Artemis. Why don't we wait until a more appropriate time to fight? We know that there is something happening in the Vione, and Hell is more than likely there and involved in it."

"Wonderful." I muttered. "If we want to get this over with, I suggest we get out of here and head for the Vione as soon as possible."

"What about the wolf?" Allen asked almost casually. "What are we going to do with it?" I shrugged. "Let it go. It's not our problem. It's a wolf, it can take care of itself." Even as I said the words, I felt wrong about saying them. I stood up, and walked to the door. "Come on. Let's move on."