Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or any of it.
She couldn't breathe.
Lightning. Thunder.
Fire.
Heat.
Such intense heat.
She tried to run, tried to get away from the flames licking up around her ankles. Desperation gave her an energy unlike any she'd felt before. She could run for days; so long as she could outrun the threat.
Crying.
She stopped, and turned back. Someone was crying. Someone was left. She couldn't leave them there! Practically pushing the flames aside, she leaped back into the inferno, searching for the child, always hearing the crying but never seeing the child. She could feel the tongues of fire licking against her skin, could smell the acrid stench of singed hair and burned flesh. But she kept pushing on. She had to find the child. No one could be lost! Her eyes began to water so much she couldn't see. But she had to. She had to find the child.
A vicious explosion of fire burst underneath her, and she could feel her body being torn apart.
And all the while, the crying continued…
She lay on her mat, sweat-soaked hair plastered to her forehead. Deep, calm breaths made her chest slowly rise and fall. The night was quiet, insects distantly chirping a moonlit sonata under the tree canopy that was swaying with the breeze. The air was cool, brushing gently against her heated skin.
She could feel the pain still. It filled her belly with a fire that never was quenched. Her hands still trembling slightly, she crawled out of her mat and out of the overhang.
The stars glittered like ice crystals in the black midnight sky, and the Mystic Moon shone brightly above the hilly plains. A shooting star whizzed past, and she sighed.
"Hitomi?"
She turned to look at the blonde stranger. Well, he wasn't really a stranger; not anymore. "Yes, Allen?" she said quietly.
He just looked at her as he approached, evaluating her condition. "Having the dream again?"
Hitomi turned away from his intense perusal. "Yes."
Allen seemed to be at a loss for something to say, so he merely remained by her side in the still night.
"Is your burn alright?" he finally asked.
"Yes."
Another silence.
"Do you need anything?"
"No."
"I knew that you had more words in you," Allen said with light mirth in his tone.
Hitomi turned to look at him, and found him studying her with a gentle tenderness. "Someday, it will go away," he said, uncharacteristically solemn
She sighed tiredly and pushed her brown hair off her forehead. "I would like to think so." She tried to give him a smile. "I'm okay now, really."
He didn't believe her, and she knew it. But he was kind enough to let her be stubborn. "Okay. Just…make sure you get sleep, alright?"
"I will," she promised.
After he'd walked a sufficient distance away, she sighed and ran her fingertips down the livid scar that raked from her left side across to her lower right hip. The pain was subsiding, come to think of it. Perhaps, with luck and time, it would go away.
She pressed her lips together and felt a hot tear trace down her cheek.
She could still hear the crying.
* * *
The next morning Hitomi found herself wandering around the ramshackle camp, looking for the medicine woman. Her burn was beginning to hurt again.
She bumped into Allen, carrying a bow to his tent.
"Woah, Princess, watch it!" he said easily, a smile slowly curving his lips. "You could kill someone."
Hitomi chuckled a little and pushed him aside. "As if I could do that," she muttered good-naturedly. "You seen Millerna around?"
"Why?" His expression abruptly became serious. "You're okay, right?"
She waved him away. "Of course I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Ever since you've met me you've been going crazy about my welfare. I'm not a helpless baby that needs coddling."
"Well, in case you ever do…" He raised his eyebrows suggestively.
With a dramatic roll of her eyes, she pushed him aside. "You've got things to do, Allen, same as me. Don't be wasting your time."
"Who said it would be a waste?" he said to her retreating back, and laughed as she tossed a smile over her shoulder.
"Allen doesn't seem to know when to give up," she mumbled as she walked around a tent. A pretty blonde straightened from a pot she was bending over.
"Hitomi!" she said cheerfully. "How are you doing?"
"Fine." She crossed her arms and smiled back. "Actually, I was wondering if you had any more of that ointment stuff you put on my burns when I first came here."
"Oh yes, I do." A frown creased her delicate features. "You're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Hitomi smirked. "You'd think I was about to die with the way you guys treat me."
"Well, when you came…" Millerna began hesitantly, stopping as she saw a shadow fall over Hitomi's face. "Nevermind," she said hastily, brightening as she found the object. "Here you go, Hitomi. Don't put too much, remember. Just enough-"
"-to cover the burn. I know, Millerna. Thanks."
"Anytime." She bent over to continue her cooking, oblivious to the conflicting emotions in Hitomi's face.
The brown-haired girl wandered into the clearing next to the camp, fingering the small jar of ointment in her hands. She had almost died. Had come so close…and yet somehow, she survived.
It was a mystery to her. After the explosion, and the fire, she remembered nothing. A complete blank. All she knew was that she had ended up in the camp of Allen Schezar and his merry band of rebels. Of people without homes. It must be why she seemed to fit in so well. After another fire years ago, she'd been left with nothing and no one. She was alone in the world.
She knew her stubborn streak to get through everything on her own probably stemmed from that horrible encounter. But it was a part of her, as much as the more recent scar across her stomach.
As she looked up into the clear blue of the sky, another thought surfaced that had been plaguing her for the weeks of her recovery. The fire had been several miles away from Allen's camp. And she had been in no shape to have walked all the way there. Allen and his men had known nothing about the fire in the little village, not until they found her.
Someone had saved her life. But no one knew who.
