-I Pledge My Allegiance To Dilandau Albatou...Forever-

"I pledge my allegiance to Dilandau Albatou, commander of the Dragonslayers, my Lord. I will defend his name, his honour and his being until my dying breath. My name is Guimel Kree; I am a soldier of Zaibach and a subordinate of Dilandau Albatou-Sama."

I remember when I first made that pledge, and I'll tell you something right now. When Zaibach soldiers make pledges of allegiance, we really mean it. Especially if we are fortunate enough to be placed under the command of a soldier such as Dilandau-Sama. And by making that pledge, I sealed my fate.

When I was a small boy, ignorant of any violence and hate outside of my own childish rivalries and my "girl's have cooties" stage (which by the way, I don't think I've ever really truly grown out of), my life was going fairly well. I lived peacefully with my father near the village of Arzas, taking care of any injured animals and plants that I happened across, and playing with all the other children who were my age. Admittedly, people sill made fun of my hair a lot back then, even though my affectionately dubbed "marshmallow head" was practically non-existent.

At any rate, like any other soldier that I know, something snapped. A single cord that had kept my life together had snapped. And it had happened the moment the rest of my playmates and I arrived back in the main part of our village after a day's worth of playing. To find a big carriage there, a big black and elegant carriage...that took away every amount of joy you could live for. For it was that carriage that I had been forced to get on to that night with tears streaming down my face; it was that carriage that took me away from my life; it was that carriage that had dragged my best friends and I away from our home, as our parents and the youth who had been spared were left behind...some injured, two dead.

That carriage had belonged to Zaibach. Zaibach. The very people who I am fighting for had killed my father and a girl that all of us children had considered a big sister. Ironic, wouldn't you say?

To this very day, I don't know why exactly Zaibach was recruiting children outside of their own nation, and I don't know why I was one of chosen ones. All I know is that the only thing I felt after that day was pain, spite, and anger. Pain from the rigorous training I was forced into, spite toward the people who had killed my father, and anger that they separated all who were taken. I never did see my friends again after that point, when we were deposited in Zaibach's castle.

Zaibach's capitol isn't a place for a child; that's putting it lightly. I was only seven when I was first taken, I remember for a fact that it was an approximant week after my birthday. Imagine living for seven years in a land where the sun almost always shone along with the bright "Phantom Moon", where the rain was warm enough to play in, storms came only twice a month, and everyone around treated you like family in one way or another. Imagine the innocence of a child who wished to be a successful merchant or farmer, just like his daddy.

Now imagine that same child being thrust into a cold castle made of dull gray stone, with weird, flickering, dim lights and an oddly small amount of torches. Where if you ever managed to get outside, you would see a constantly darkened sky whose only source of light was a dim glow from the same "Phantom Moon", and a cold drizzle was always liable to meet your skin. Where it seemed only adults roamed the halls, adults who seemed to never speak, and any other child you met, you were forced into a fight with in some way. Imagine the way that innocence that he once had was ripped away from him, and his only future was that of a soldier.

Then you have my early life in a nutshell.

My life was like that for seven years. Seven years of loneliness, of awakening to the cold stone floors and the dreary gray stoned walls. Seven years of dismal food and of constant training, in hopes of one day getting revenge. Seven years of hate. Seven LONG years of isolation and of hesitancy to everything but his training.

But then he came. He was there, watching us as we fought against one-another. Ruby red eyes glaring out at us with a smirk on his lips, hiding in the shadows as we tried to concentrate only on the fight. And I had won that fight.

And he had taken me as one of his soldiers. He had taken me away from the castle, onto a still cold and dreary floating fortress, but a fortress with something more to it. He had given me my armour, my sword, my glorious guymelef. He had given me an actual name, a purpose in life other than revenge.

In a way, I do hate him, but only a little. Because even though I'm fighting for him in the name of Zaibach, I'm really not. I'm just fighting for him. I'm fighting for my father, even though I fight with Zaibach. No, I don't. I fight for Dilandau. He's not Zaibachian, there is something different about my lord. It's true that he slaps us, but it's because he wants us to improve. Something tells me that that is the only way he knows how, by hurting us he makes us move forward, improve. And as odd as it may seem, no matter how cruel it seems, it works. In two short years under his guidance, I improved more than I ever had in the castle for those seven years.

So much that I was one of the elite of the elite. He called for me, Voile, Chesta, Dalet, Gatti and Miguel when he needed something important. Be it a bottle of wine, a message, or protection, he called for us. For me.

"I pledge my allegiance to Dilandau Albatou, commander of the Dragonslayers, my Lord. I will defend his name, his honour and his being until my dying breath. My name is Guimel Kree; I am a soldier of Zaibach and a subordinate of Dilandau Albatou-Sama."

I wasn't lying when I made that pledge. Do you need proof of that?

He's calling out our names right now, and he can't see us anymore. He can't see me anymore. But we're still here. I'm still here. I did my best to defend him, for those two short years that made my life worth living again. Those two short years that made my friends that I stand by now, those two short years that gave me a person I willingly called my lord. We're still serving him, protecting him. I'm still serving, protecting him.

The pledge wasn't specific enough, really. It should have gone something more like this.

"I pledge my allegiance to Dilandau Albatou, commander of the Dragonslayers, my Lord. I will defend his name, his honour and his being until my dying breath...and forever more.

My name is Guimel Kree; I am a soldier of Zaibach and a subordinate of Dilandau Albatou-Sama. Forever."

Notes: fluff-head needs attention too, ya know?

Disclaimer: If I owned Escaflowne, the Dragonslayers would never have been slain by the dragon they were meant to slay themselves. They never would have been slain in the first place. Not one of 'em! All Fifteen (plus Dilanda-Sama and Jajuka) would have lived!

-VDG-