Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Of Knights And Scoundrels ❯ Scamper, scamper ( Chapter 3 )

The sun rose the next morning, confirming in a very sadistic way that no matter what the petty mortal beings beneath it had chosen to do with their lives, they had better get up and deal with it.

So it was that Allen woke with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he was very much dreading what it would be like to face the men who had laughed in his face because of his inadequacy the previous night, while at the same time also clinging to a budding sense of hope that close interaction with them would show that he was not the idiot they took him for. On the other hand, a much more pleasant hand, he was perfecting a plan to catch the three soldiers who had dared touch Scherazade. He had yet to make up his mind, but was inclined to give priority to pursuing the latter.

He made his way to the wardrobe, silently thankful that he did not have to share quarters in the outer barracks like the vast majority of the garrisoned soldiers, and gloriously threw the doors open. It was empty. A small search through his apartment revealed that his pack was nowhere near. Brilliant. Now he would also have to track down the soldier who had so willingly taken charge over his belongings. He quickly donned his blue uniform, praying to all gods that it was not too rumpled. He did not need to further look like a fool; what he needed was to carry himself with all the knightly dignity he could muster. But he left these matters pending, for right now he had better - and far more alluring - things to do.

He had the gearings of a small revenge to put on the move.

Now that he minimally knew where he was going, he picked up breakfast from the cantina, and then made a beeline for the hangar. All the while, he was replaying snippets of the conversation he had overheard. 'Why would the stupid knight ever need to use the 'melef when he's out here?' Why indeed. Except perhaps to do some exercise in the morning. If the three thought that he was going to make it easy on them to mangle his precious Scherazade they were in for a surprise.

He was hoping to find them on duty this morning, and confront them, at first, with a display of most innocent ignorance. Even if it was not their shift, he would still come out of this with their names and an opportunity to assign them punishment for their actions. And then, he would just have to let the wings of his imagination carry him, to come up with the most dreadful, boring, tiring, and all out worst task for the three to do. He seriously felt like patting himself on the back for his brilliancy.

Walking nonchalantly while consciously disregarding the workers that were giving him strange looks, Allen approached the throne where Scherazade rested. He studied the joints corresponding to what would have been the elbows and knees of a human, but found nothing to indicate that they had been tampered.

He was actually hoping for one or more of the three thieves, in some access of nervousness or plain remorse, to come to him and confess that it was possible that the guymelef was not one hundred percent operational. He would have held on to him like a mad dog after a bone if that had been the case, and given him a good piece of his mind. Seeing as no one was about to give him any advice, or express themselves verbally at all, for that matter, he just climbed the ladder to the cockpit.

During the whole time, his back had been turned on the workers assembled at the hangar, so Allen failed to see the nervous glances being exchanged and the one man who had fled the room, having been sent out to get help.

Allen did not have to wait long for the first signs of "sabotage" to manifest themselves, in fact, he did not have to wait at all. Just as he was powering up the machine, he came upon the most interesting of facts. The guymelef was failing to power up, because... there was no power supply.

"They took the energist!" He hissed to himself, not wanting to believe it. Drag-energists were rosy spherical crystals that could only be obtained from the entrails of a dragon. They were immensely powerful and durable sources of energy, and for those two reasons, they were also very difficult to find and very expensive. They were about the size of a clenched fist, which, Allen realised, was why he had not seen it being carried when the three men had passed in the corridor outside the main hall door last night.

He banged his hands on the controls, now more frustrated than ever, and jumped onto the ladder, intending to demand explanations from the workers that were watching him from the ground. Subtlety be damned. He stood imperiously in front of the closest soldier.

"Is it a policy here to remove the energists from the equipment when it is not being used?" He asked, towering over the man and looking icily down. He had nursed the idea that perhaps he had been mistaken about the sabotage, but now that he had certainties he was livid that someone had dared tamper with his Scherazade behind his back.

"Of course not, sir Allen. Energists are always left in their place in case there are emergencies. Is there something I can do for you, sir?" The soldier was wearing a sort of yellowy kerchief wrapped around his head, but he was somehow familiar. He was spindly, short and there was something of a sly quality to him... that was it!

"What is your name, soldier?" He elegantly asked, very aware of who he was talking to now.

"Reeden, sir", the man said proudly. Little did he know that he had just signed his name on Allen's 'kill on sight' list. Every worker present had joined the two to watch, forming a semi circle behind Reeden. The anxiety was palpable on the air, but the soldier and the knight were not paying particular attention to it.

"Well. Reeden. As a matter of fact there is something you can do to help me. You can-"

"What is going on here? Why aren't you scumbags working?" Sergeant Gaddes said with carefree grandeur, totally oblivious to the fact that he had just interrupted Allen when he was about to launch himself on a full-steam rant about impudence and stolen parts with one of the very thieves who had stolen them.

"Nothin', Sarge! Sir Allen here was just having some mechanical trouble, that's all", Reeden replied coolly. The gathering began to disperse, knowing that now that Gaddes was there, there would not be much more to see.

"As a matter of fact, it was more than-" Allen began, but Gaddes cut him off yet again, completely ruining his plans for the soldier in process.

"Then why aren't you fixing it? Get to work!" If the knight had not been so frustrated at the constant interruptions and overridings, he would have noticed the small flash of gratitude that crossed Reeden's features for less than a second before he scampered off to keep a distance between himself and the knight. "There, sir Allen. All in order now."

"Yes, quite. But as I was saying, what was really-"

"Sarge!" This time it was a running brunet that cut off his word. Would Allen ever get a chance to explain that his energist and who knew what else had just been stolen! "Important letter for you, Sarge!"

The brunet had come dashing from the door, tightly gripping a folded paper in his hands. Gaddes took it from him and quickly read through. He was bearing a tired look by the time he reached the end of it.

"Anything important?" Allen inquired, instantly sobbering. The sergeant quickly looked up, as if he had forgotten that the knight was standing right in front of him, and gave him a brief contemplative look.

"No, nothing for you to worry about, sir Allen", he assured. Then, almost as an afterthought, "I left a stack of all the recent reports on your office for you to catch up on our current situation at the Fort... I believe you already know the way there?"

"Err, no I don't. I still haven't had the chance..."

"Teo", the Sergeant called the brunet. "Will you show sir Allen the way to his office please?"

If Allen was aware that his second in command was trying to get rid of him, he did not show it. Instead, he followed the brunet, who had been expecting the Sergeant to do just that, without protest. As soon as the doors closed behind the two, the tension in the air dissipated for a fraction, until Gaddes bellowed menacingly.

"Reeden!"

"I'm sorry, Sarge. How was I supposed to know he would be using the 'melef and..." the lanky soldier immediately threw himself into a ramble of apologies as he made his way over, not noting the way the Sergeant was dismissing him with his hand.

"I don't care about that, Reeden, and you can thank me for saving your hide later. Read this." And he shoved the message in front of the shorter man's face. As his eyes trailed over the paper, they gradually widened in shock.

"Oh shit", he stated.

"Exactly. So, tell me. What's the story this time?" Gaddes asked, rubbing his temples. He was a good friend of Reeden, but sometimes the man just had no sense in him. Well, to be honest, he rarely had sense, but it was only when people put a price on his friend's head that Gaddes was forcefully reminded of that fact.

"Ah, y'know... huh, I'm not sure..." Gaddes cocked an eyebrow for him to be more explicit. "Well, it could be a number of things. You know I'm always doin' small stuff for Cutty. One supply here, ignore a ship there, small stuff. Sometimes I can't always do what he asks, that's all."

"«Small stuff», as you put it, is not enough reason for someone like Cutty to put his thugs and every mercenary in a thirty mile radius on to you. We both know this. What was it?"

"Hummm... I might have accidentally diverted some of his shipments or embezzled some of his funds. Not much..." Reeden's voice was small, but no matter that and what words he used, the other was sure to pick up on the real dimension his use of 'some' involved. Not that he was trying to hide anything from the Sergeant. The man was his best friend and he knew that he was probably the only one who could help him out of this tight spot. He just did not like to admit he had been caught.

"What happened to those «funds» you embezzled? Do you still have them? Perhaps if you return what you took..." Gaddes suggested.

"Ah... nope. No can do. I've already spent it", Reeden hesitated.

"You spent it?" Incredulous.

"Ya. Remember how I was never very lucky at cards?..."

"I don't believe it. You gambled everything? And lost?"

"Well, there's not much else to do at town or here, so... yup", he concluded sheepishly. "What do you think I should do, Sarge?"

"I'll try to have a word with Cutty sometime today. In the meanwhile, don't leave the Fort. The last thing we need is for anything to happen to you and sir Allen finding out about this and getting involved. The man would probably expel you from the army or something."

"Don't worry, Sarge, I won't." At least, Gaddes thought to himself, if there was something he knew about the man and could definitely rely on, was that Reeden knew when to take warnings to heart. If only he would learn to stay out of trouble...

"And get the parts you stole from his guymelef back in place!"