Disclaimer: Tenkuu no Escaflowne is property of Bandai and Sunrise, all rights reserved. I am in no way affiliated with these companies, and am not making a profit by writing this novel. Any similarities between my work and that of any other fan-author is purely coincidental. "Broken" song lyrics are property of Seether and Amy Lee, all rights reserved.
x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-
"Broken" - Chapter 1: Broken
By The Last Princess of Hyrule
x-X-x-X-x-
"The worst is over now,
And we can breathe again,
I wanna hold you high,
Steal my pain away,
There's so much left to learn,
And no one left to fight,
I wanna hold you high,
And steal your pain . . ."
-Seether and Amy Lee, "Broken"
x-X-x-X-x-
A large, wispy cloud drifted through the brilliant blue sky at eye-level to Hitomi Kanzaki. It passed her in a lazy fashion, attesting to the torpid pace at which the entire day had proceeded up to that point. Scattered beams of sunlight pierced through the patchy cloud cover above her, dancing over her slender, windswept figure with the cool touch of autumn, a feeling rarely associated with bright light. She closed her vibrant green eyes against it and expelled a despondent sigh, which the rushing wind snatched from her lungs the moment she tried to take a breath.
The sun refracted across the smooth white metal of the dragon-shaped guymelef, the Escaflowne, as it banked slightly to the right, turning head-on into the wind current. This new force gave Folken Fanel little trouble as he maneuvered the Dragon, high above layers of mist that swathed the Chatal Mountains in their milky breath. Hitomi kept her arms loose around his waist and leaned her head against his back, watching the sun sink leisurely into the westward sky beside them.
"We'll be there soon," he said.
She nodded, the movement of her head rubbing the fabric of his shirt up and down. They had been flying for most of the day, south from the ruins of the country of Zaibach. Once it had been a magnificent empire, incapable of defeat, controlling the fate of the entire planet, when a girl of questionable origin used this power to defeat its emperor. Gaea would long be telling her story, writing her into history.
". . . and inevitably, into legend," Folken had concluded as he explained his thoughts along these same lines to Hitomi. A week earlier, they sat together on the floor of an abandoned cottage at the lush, forested border between Zaibach and Asturia, wrapped in a warmif a little dustyblanket. The cottage sported little more than two beds, a table with chairs, and a chronically leaking roof. It was poorly furnished and poorly kept, but despite the growing chill in the weather as autumn covered Gaea, the cottage remained warm, and undisturbed.
"Legend?" Hitomi coughed in response to the outrageous statement, as if choking on the word with her disbelief.
"You accomplished something that the greatest kings and strongest armies on Gaea have been unable to achieve for the last three hundred years," Folken pointed out. "You brought the Zaibach empire to your mercy."
She laughed. "Hardly. It was the other way around most of the time. I was always the one being chased from country to country by Zaibach because of my powers. I think the only time I was ever in control was when I actually faced Dornkirk."
"And yet, you succeeded," he said. "You stood before the emperor and triumphed. I believe that in itself deserves recognition, aside from the fact that you saved Gaea in the process."
Hitomi smiled and leaned her head back against his shoulder, taking in every word as he spoke. Even with the miserable cold weather outside, at the times when the roof leaked with rain, their two months living on the Zaibach border were the happiest days either of them had experienced in a very long time. It was the first time since her arrival on Gaea that Hitomi had spent any time anywhere free from the weight of her destiny. It was the first time since failing the Fanelian Rite of Passage that Folken had been in a situation he didn't later regret. It was the first time since leaving Asturia that they were together long enough to discover what their love fully entailed.
"You deserve that acknowledgment," Folken went on, wrapping one arm around her stomach. She covered his hand with hers. "You saved Gaea from an eternity of war and controlled fate."
"It's not like I had a choice in the matter. No matter what, you can't escape your ultimate destiny," Hitomi said. "Even Dornkirk couldn't change that."
At these words, the contented expression vanished from Folken's face, the unwelcome memory of that final confrontation with the emperor replacing it with a cold glare. "He didn't think he needed to. He was so certain that it was his destiny to control fate and rule a unified Gaea that he refused to consider any otherwise possibility, even that of his own demise."
A little warning alarm went off in Hitomi's mind. She wrapped her fingers tightly around Folken's hand and turned to look up at him. "Hey," she called gently. "It's all over now. Let it go."
The sound of her voice seemed to call him back to where they were, and the coldness slowly melted away from his visage. Too many times in those two months since the downfall of Zaibach had Hitomi dealt with Folken's dark moods. Even now, so far from his former life, there were still times when he would suddenly turn cold, cruel, and unfeeling, the way he had been during his employment with Zaibach. The former Strategos was once known for his patient, merciless nature, and Hitomi found talk of things like fate alteration and Zaibach politics sometimes caused him to slip back into those habits unconsciously.
"There's no point in dwelling on the past like that," Hitomi added. "There's nothing we can do about it anymore."
Folken put his other arm around her stomach and Hitomi rested hers overtop them. With a contented sigh, she leaned her head back against his shoulder again and closed her eyes. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Except to repeat it."
A worried crease appeared on Hitomi's forehead, and she opened her eyes to look up at him. It vanished immediately when she saw his wry expression, her lips curving up in a smile. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
Folken only smiled.
"Oh, really?" Hitomi jabbed her elbow back into his stomach, her smile turning mischievous. Folken coughed and winced, but his expression never wavered.
"Are you looking for a fight?" he asked.
As he said this, Hitomi was already up out of his grasp, turning around on her knees to face him.
"Only if you want one, but I'm going to win," she declared.
Folken sat up. "Without cheating?"
Hitomi narrowed her eyes with a fierce glare. "I don't cheat."
"You use your pendant."
"That evens the odds," she protested. "You're stronger than me."
"Strength has nothing to do with it."
Hitomi sat back on her heels. "No, I guess not. It's all about . . . surprise!" With that, she suddenly turned around and lunged at him. Folken laughed as the force of her impact knocked him backward into the wall.
"It has nothing to do with surprise, either." He lifted his right hand up behind her and drew the tip of his metal index finger lightly up along the back of her neck. A cold chill trembled down her spine, causing Hitomi to shiver. "All you need to know to turn any battle in your favor is your enemy's weakness."
Hitomi folded her arms in front of her and propped herself up against his broad chest. "You don't fight fair."
"And you do?"
Hitomi looked smug. "Well, yes. As a matter of fact, I do."
Folken smirked and traced the back of her neck with his finger again.
"Stop doing that!"
"I don't think I will," he said blatantly.
"Well, fine then. We'll just see about that." She started to get up, but he wrapped both arms around her and held her down.
"I suppose we will."
x-X-x-X-x-
Hitomi sighed with a melancholy air, forcing herself firmly to remember that this was only a pleasant memory which had already passed. Reality was aboard the back of a white Ispano guymelef flying alongside the sunset toward the capitol of Asturia, Palas.
"There's the ocean."
Folken's voice further indicated the change between memory and reality as they flew through a thick white cloud and out into clear sky. There, they could finally see the wide ocean that spread out beneath them, its waters marbled with the deep crimson and vibrant orange of the sunset.
"I see," said Hitomi. "It's beautiful."
Folken caught the forlorn tone in her words. He slowed the Escaflowne to a speed where they could easily hear each other over the wind. "Is something bothering you, Hitomi?"
"I'm fine."
He looked back over his shoulder at her for a moment, unconvinced. "You sound worried."
"It's nothing."
"Is it too soon for us to return to Palas?"
Hitomi sighed. He knew what was wrong even before she said it. He could read her expressions without any hint of difficulty, and in the past couple months, it had grown almost impossible to hide things from him. "It's not that. I guess I'm just nervous. I don't know how I'm going to face everyone after everything that's happened." Hitomi's eyebrows knitted together.
"You don't think they'll take too kindly on your return?" Folken's tone indicated that he agreed with this thought.
She hesitated.
"Didn't you say you explained everything to Princess Millerna in the letter you sent her?"
"A little." Hitomi watched a thick cloud as it slowly broke into two smaller ones. "I told her about why I left, and clarified a few things along those lines, but not much else. A lot was still up in the air at that time."
"I take it, then, that we aren't expected tonight."
She shook her head. "I said I wasn't sure when I'd be back. Weeks, months, I had no idea."
"Does she know about us?"
Hitomi nodded. "But I don't know if anyone else does. I said she could tell everyone if she wanted to, but I'm not sure if she would. She might have thought it was a secret."
They flew in silence for a few minutes. The sun dipped further down toward the sea, into the depths of which it would soon sink for its nightly slumber, while Gaea's two moons watched over the sky in its place.
"Do you want to turn around?" Folken asked at last.
Hitomi's heart leapt at the option, but with much effort, she forced herself to refuse. "The longer I wait to face them, the harder it will be."
"But the longer you wait, the better prepared you will be," he suggested.
Hitomi leaned her head back against him again and tightened her hold around his waist. "Please don't try to talk me out of this. I'm having enough doubts myself, even though I know this is the right thing to do."
She felt Folken tense a little at her reprimand. "Trust your reason," he said. "Isn't that what you're always suggesting? Those people in Palas are your friends. If they care about you at all, like I do, then just having you return to them will be enough. They won't care about the past, and they'll forgive you for anything you might have done to hurt them."
"Do you forgive me?"
"I never held anything against you." Folken looked back at her again. "You really are worried, aren't you?"
"I can't hide in that broken-down cottage forever. And I want to help rebuild Asturia." She sighed again. "I'll be all right as long as you're with me. I couldn't go back alone."
"You could, but you don't have to."
Hitomi looked out over the side of the guymelef and down below them. "We're past the Chatal Mountains now. I think we should fly lower so we can see the city."
The conversation abated, and they sped up, making it difficult to hear more than the wind rushing past. The Escaflowne dipped below the cloud cover, diving through a spray of frosty condensation that prickled on Hitomi's skin. From this new angle, the sunset's violent display was even more stunning, its last rays scorching the undersides of the clouds. Out ahead of her, Hitomi could easily trace the shoreline of the Asturian bay, around which the sprawl of Palas clustered.
"It'll be all right," said Folken. "I'm sure of it."
Despite the strong conviction in his voice, Hitomi's doubts remained.
x-X-x-X-x-
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-
Author's Note: All reviews are encouraged, especially constructive criticism. If you've found in inaccuracy or typo somewhere in my writing, please quote the exact place in a review and point it out to me so that I can go back to change it.