Summary:AU. VHAfter an invader breaks in through the Kanzakian palace walls and nearly whisks away the beautiful princess, the king decides to put in place a body guard to protect his princess. This is a journey of adventure, love, truth, falsehood and finally- revealed identities.

DISCLAIMER:I don't own Escaflowne.

Alert :Here's my no. 2 fic! PLEASE review. Tell me what u think! :D

Crimson Irises;

"Princess! Princess Hitomi!" a young woman called in a distressed voice. She looked irritated but the small light shining happily in her youthful eyes told otherwise. Clutching the hems of her dress, she tried to run after the speeding flurry mess of cute frills, ribbons, laces and curls of long golden brown hair.

"Catch me if you can, Nessie!" the princess squealed happily, not even stopping once to look at the exhausted, woman who was already wheezing heavily.

"Please, princess..." Nessie whispered, clutching her heart. At this, the princess turned round to look at her. Any one would have gasped out loud. She was young but her beauty was extraordinary-she had brilliant emerald eyes, long luscious auburn curls and cute dimples formed on her pink cheeks as she smiled cheekily. She blinked before she stuck out a little pink tongue at her nanny and scampered off again, giggling.

The young nanny frowned before running toward her in double speed. She abandoned her formal speech and let out her usual private way of speaking with the princess, "Oh no you don't!" You could say the scene was definately not one you would expect to see inside the luxurious walls of the Kanzakian palace. The little princess was running around in circles while her nanny was chasing after, looking homicidal, her dress raised in an unladylike like fashion. It looked more like an irritated older sister chasing after a naughty annoying little sister.

To spice up the funny scene, Nessie suddenly tripped on an innocent rock and fell with a thud, landing unceremoniously on her bottom. She flushed and quickly got up, looking around to see if anyone had spotted her ungraceful fall. Luckily, no one was around as it was quite late. The setting sun was a bright red disc slowly sinking into the horizon.

In front of her, Hitomi stopped and rushed to her nanny, "Nessie, you're not hurt, are you? I'm very sorry!" she looked so guilty and scared that the nanny decided to play a little trick on the unsuspecting princess, "Hitomi, how could you?" she sobbed, almost dramatically wiping her eyes.

"Oh Nessie!" Hitomi said, her voice was breaking with emotion. She hugged her nanny around the middle. Tears were even pouring out of her green eyes as she mumbled a thousand apologies. Now it was Nessie's turn to look ashamed. How foolish ! She'd made the princess cry.

"Um, princess...Hitomi, I was just playing around...don't cry- look, you're not the one at fault here..." Nessie said soothingly. Hitomi, looked up, rubbing her tear stained face, "Forgive me, Nessie?" she asked so cutely, completely ignoring Nessie's apologetic words.

"I forgive you, princess, " Nessie said before sighing. "I'll never play such tricks again,"she mumbled to herself. Hitomi is so innocent.

But she wouldn't have thought that at all, if Hitomi had said this a second earlier, "Oh yeah, well I'll be howling with laughter when I mention you falling to Henry," Hitomi said, a bit angry that she'd fallen victim to Nessie's tricks.

Nessie flushed yet again, she secretly had a crush on Henry, a certain knight. If he ever found out, she'd be doomed! "Why you little-!" she started after the already fleeing princess again, silently smiling to herself.

Hitomi was laughing so hard, her stomach hurt! She gasped for breath and stopped by a well trimmed green hedge. Her face was a glowing pink from the running. She looked around for her nanny. 'Oh no, I strayed a bit too far' she thought. She was no longer in the courtyard but at the edge of the Kanzakian royal trees. The huge wide trees had been planted centuries ago to surround the castle providing a natural sort of a barricade, shielding the courtyard and beyond from any sort of trouble. The thick palace walls loomed straight behind them.

The tall dark trees swayed slightly with the wind.

Hitomi gulped. 'Something's in the wind,' she thought a bit frightened. The sun had set and the mystic moon was glimmering, casting out its brilliant light. . Hitomi was grateful. At least it wasn't pitch dark...

Suddenly, she heard a swishing sound, it sounded like the rustling of cloth and came from the direction of the tree barrier. The lights that illuminated every corner of the gardens went off within a blink of an eye. She frowned. 'Something's not right.' Just as she was about to call the guards, she spotted a hulking shape looming in the dark shadows of the tall trees.

She stopped, worried before boldly uttering in her bravest commanding voice, "I know you're there! Whoever you are, I suggest you step out right now. " Anyone would have been proud. She sounded so like a responsible intelligent figure.

Hitomi waited for a few seconds. 'Must have been the wind,' she thought dismissively. But No sooner had she turned around than she heard a roguish voice chuckling, "Very impressive, that, you're quite brave, aren't you, princess?"

Hitomi had her eyes fixed on two red bright orbs, in the shadows of a particular large shady tree, which were lit up by gentle silvery beams of light shining from the low hanging mystic moon. 'Those red spots, is it a creature or something?' Hitomi couldn't help feeling very frightened, not only because of the thought it was an animal of some sort but also...those red orbs reminded her of something...'No!' she shook her head, 'I'm not htinking of that nightmare at a time like this.'

She wheeled around slowly, her pretty eyes had a calculating look in them. She was devising a plan. 'Whoever it is, if he was planning to kill me, he would have by now, I want to know his motives, first,' she thought.

The first of his features she caught were his eyes, the rest of his face was covered with a black scarf. She gasped in horror, clasping both her hands over her open mouth. No! Those eyes! Those horrible horrible eyes of death!

She stifled a scream with her hand. Bile rose in her throat as she was engulfed in a series of random moving pictures depicting horrible scenes of war.

The guymelefs marched through the land, crushing everything in their wake. The land was parched and cracked. Then, thick heavy drops of something hot came splashing down the heavens. They streamed down her eyes, blocking her sight. She madly rubbed at her eyes, terror filling up inside her. Her hands felt oddly looked down at her shaking hands. They were stained with blood.

Tears intermingled with the blood and fell down her horrified face.

The scene changed and she looked straight ahead. There was a figure looming over a pile of slain butchered bodies in an open bare ground. He held a nasty blood stained sword. His silver hair was gleaming and his clothes were dyed in the crimson blood.

He turned around, as if he felt her presence. Red crimson eyes glinted dangerously at her. Those eyes...they resembled the red liquid coloring the whole place. He smirked and raised the sword to his lips. A pink slithery tongue popped out of his mouth, he licked the liquid that dripped nosily from his sword. He closed his eyes relishing the metallic taste. She covered her mouth with her hands. She couldn't believe what she saw. It was appalling.

"NOOOOO!" She uttered an ear splitting scream. She didn't realize that she was down on the ground, shaking her head non-stop, as if to dispel the things she had just seen.

"Aww, princess, what's wrong?" the figure said, somewhat confused by her behavior. He stepped out into the light and gently plucked out a little twig, that was sticking to his black attire. "Tough time, sorting through this mess," he said, gesturing at the large forest.

Apparently, Hitomi hadn't heard him, her face was contorted in fear and her lips were parted in a silent scream.

At that moment, "Princess! There you are!" Nessie, called in a relieved tone, her hand lightly pressed to her heart. She stopped, calming herself down. She was out of she asked, her voice filled with genuine concern, "Hitomi, is there a problem?" She hadn't spotted the dark figure.

"Phew, at least you're safe, " she blinked, why's Htiomi kneeling on the ground?"Hitomi, you don't have to pretend to be hurt or anything, ohhh, '' her face turned cheeky at this, "Are you scared of the huge dark trees?"

She started forward, holding the hems of her long dress, "Why're the lights off? Is this a trick of yours coz I'm really not in the mood-it's late and you need to freshen up before supper! And the guards-where are they? Hmmph! They're supposed to be stationed around the palace walls-" She'd reached Hitomi. It was amazing. Had Nessie somehow turned blind that particular bright night?

Hitomi glanced up briefly. The figure was gone. That explained Nessie's unawareness.

Hitomi frowned, She just couldn't have had another nightmare. She wasn't even in bed! She shuddered. This had happened only once before but the evil red eyes gleaming at her seemed so real...What if it was dark magic? And the person was after her ? Or what if that was the ghost of a gruesome person...would he haunt her forever? What did he want anyway?

Something slithered forward, slipping silently into view.

Hitomi screamed, startled. No! It can't be! It can't be real!

"H-hitomi?"Nessie whispered softly and gulped as she followed her princess' gaze. Before she could utter a cry of pure fear, the figure leaped and an invisible hand moved to her mouth, a cloth filled with a pungent smell was pressed tightly to her nostrils. The smell was terribly irritating and before long, her vision start fading. She could see black spots engulfing her clear vision.

"Nessie!"

"No! I have to protect the princess!" she thought and tried to fight against the strong hand covering her mouth but failed sadly and collapsed to the ground in a heap. The figure moved away from Nessie's unconscious body and in a flash, the masked figure was in front of the princess, who was thrashing about wildly, her fists nearly collided with him.

Hitomi snapped out of her daze and screamed, throwing her arms at the invader.

It was strange. In the shadow, the figure looked tall and menacing but up close, he was only slightly taller than her. He gripped her tiny knuckles and chuckled huskily,

"Don't think you'll escape easily, dear princess. " It was merely a boy's voice, trying to sound deeper and scary. Her hopes of getting away were raised and with one fluid motion, she stepped hard on his foot and bolted, tightly holding the hems of her dress high lest she tripped. He howled with pain, clutching his foot, allowing her escape.

Beads of cold sweat clung to her forehead as she ran far away from the sight. Tears welled in her eyes. She was leaving her nanny who had collapsed on the ground. She was soo selfish!

She paused briefly, as if hesitating whether she should go back and save her nanny. She wouldn't forgive herself if she was injured. But that small stop was a big mistake. She shouldn't have been worrying about her nanny at all, because it was her,the princess they were after. Besides, the nanny had only fainted, otherwise she was unscathed.

Arms grabbed at her tiny frame from behind. She quickly wheeled around, trying to push the masked boy away. Her mouth was covered tight, her scream muffled. She wildly looked around for a gap to escape. Where are the guards? They're are supposed to be on guard here!

"Not this time, no," he said smirking as if reading her thoughts, "Created a false alarm. Sent 'em flying in the wrong direction, I did," he said, his lips curling in a weird fashion. Only his lips could be seen, his other features were draped in a long black cloak. He had thrown a dark hood over his eyes sometime in between.

The acrid smell crept into her nose through the cloth, tinkling her senses. No!Don't lose! She struggled a bit, trying to keep conscious. Her knees gave away and she fell backward. Her mind filled with the image of the red devilish eyes staring at her as they had at first from the dark trees...The kidnapper caught her quickly befor she hit the ground.

"HOLD IT! Step away, invader! Or we'll shoot!" a deep voice yelled loudly as two huge soldiers ran to the scene. Others were nearing just behind the two, their weapons gleaming in the moonlight.

He thought about fighting but one against hundreds didn't look so inviting. He frowned. 'This is just as bad as it can get,' he cursed angrily in his mind. He'd never been caught before and he wouldn't want to risk it.

Gently lowering the beautiful princess to the ground, and pausing briefly, he wondered whether he should just jump away with her. 'No, I don't want to be chased, besides, I'm damn tired. In no mood to be running around in the night.' he thought, cursing.

"Get 'im!" the burly soldier yelled. He jumped onto the nearest branch, unrolling a long thick rope, at the end of which was a sharp hook. He escaped inconspicuously fading away in the darkness, "I hate unfinished business. "