Chap. 1
Return to Gaia
There was nothing but darkness, no noise, nothing. She starts to walk, but it seems like there's nothing but space. It started to frighten her. She started to run but her feet grew heavy as if she's wearing ball and chain. She heard a drop of water falling at a surface of water. She turns and saw Escaflowne in front of her, standing but lifeless. A white feather swayed down before her, followed by another, and another, and another. But the feathers didn't mountain up on the ground, they keep on swaying down beneath her in the great darkness, as if she's standing on a glass, but only her can stand on it. A feather landed on her shoulder. She reached for it and as her finger touches the feather, she was suddenly sitting on top of big rock in a middle of a lake. She was surprise that she's already wearing a long white gown and out of the blue, a pair of wings emerged from her back.
"Hitomi…" a woman called her. Her voice is cold, and sounded like an echo from a deep well. She has a long braided silver hair and purple lifeless eyes. She pointed at Hitomi.
"You hold the great power of Gaia, the Atlantis. You shall descend again from the sky of the Mystic Moon to the grounds of Gaia. Come forth my guardian…" Light slowly engulfed her whole body.
"My priestess."
She woke up sweating. She looked at the clock, it says 3 o'clock.
'Not again' same dream in four nights. She woke up at the same hour and the same state.
She remembered the woman from the lake.
'Who the heck was that?'
In three years she has been away from Gaia. She's doing well, with her friends and family, everything is going smooth. But behind her smiles is great longing to be back to Gaia. Great longing for Van.
After half an hour of thinking, she went back to sleep. She will need it, because tomorrow, her class will go mountain climbing. It's her favorite time of the year, at least for a change; they are not going to the beach. They'll go river wading instead.
Her mother woke her up at five. After taking a bath and putting on her clothes, she sat down and checked her bag if she had brought everything she needed. She went to her desk and grabs her grandma's necklace. She closes her eyes and prayed.
'Watch over me grandma…'
One of the tarot cards flew and landed on her feet, the dragon. Her heart suddenly beat fast, her hands began to shake. Images of the woman from her dreams began to flash.
'Why am I shaking?'
"Hitomi! Hurry up or you'll be late." Her fear abruptly disappeared.
'It's been a long time since I had done a reading. Yeah, maybe that's it.' She took a deep breath.
"I'm coming!" she answered to her mom.
They arrived at their destination at last.
"Be careful guys, this side of the river is very tricky. Some part of it is deep and some are shallow."
Right after the warning, they all went to the water as if they were not warned.
"C'mon Hitomi!" Yukari invited her to join her in the water.
"Coming." She smiled.
They were all having fun when Hitomi notices a man who's getting too far. She assumed it was one of their classmates because he was wearing the same shirt.
"Hey!" Hitomi yelled. All of her classmates looked at the man.
"It's quite deep there! Be careful." They were quite confused why ever the man could not hear them. They all yelled at him to come back because it's quite dangerous.
Out of the blue, the man suddenly submerged into the water. Without a doubt, Hitomi swam quickly to him and the other men followed.
"Hitomi!" Yukari shouted.
When she was about to grab the man's back, she was shocked to pull a floating shirt. What is more is that part of the river wasn't deep at all.
"Kanzaki…" one of the guys that followed her reached her.
"This was all I found." Hitomi showed him the shirt.
An unknown force suddenly pulled Hitomi into the water. The man behind her caught her hand but quickly slipped.
"Kanzaki!" the man shouted.
"Hitomi!" Yukari swam to the men.
Underwater, Hitomi is struggling from the force that keeps on pulling her down. Her vision is starting to fade and she is running out of air. She saw a woman swimming as if she was a siren. She was no siren; she's the same woman from her dreams. The woman draws closer to her. She cupped Hitomi's face.
"My dear priestess, go to world of Gaia and fulfill your duty." Then she pushed her upwards to the surface of the water.
When Hitomi emerged from the water, the sky is already purple and the breeze is freezing. She was even more surprise to see the Mystic Moon hanging in the sky. She relaxed her body, making herself float on the surface of water. She rested for a while and feels the water.
'It's not running, I'm not at the river anymore.' she tasted the water.
'Fresh, I'm in a lake. Lake, there's gotta be a land somewhere.' She scans her surrounding and found a land. She swam quickly to the land as fast as she could. As she reached the shore, she crawled a few steps away from the shore. She is panting from the long swimming and Coughing out all the water she drank makes even harder to breathe. She heard footsteps drawing near her. And a click that sounds from a gun.
'Oh no…' she pushed herself up but her feet are numb from the cold night. Her knees grew weak and she collapsed. But before she could hit the ground, a man caught her and wrapped her with a cloak.
"Celena!" the man shouted. Her eyes widened when she heard his voice. She can see his long blonde hair. She looked at his face and smiled.
"Alan…" she closes her eyes.
"Hold on Hitomi." Celena came running.
"Brother…" she knelt down and checked on Hitomi.
"Look away brother. I'm going to take off her clothes" Alan looked away as Celena took off her clothes. A marking on Hitomi's back caught Alan's attention. It's a reversed "s" with a circle on each end. Alan looked at it closely.
"Brother!" Celena scolded him.
"Sorry…" Alan quickly looked away.
'Where have I seen that sign before?' as soon as Celena finished putting her coat on Hitomi, Alan carried her.
"We have to get her to a warm place or she'll have a fever." Alan run into the forest and Celena ran after her. Alan grinned.
"Looks like someone's going to be happy tonight." Celena looked at him with puzzlement.
Alan carried her in a room and placed her on the bed. Celena followed her inside.
"Thank you Alan. Celena, your hair has grown."
"You should rest, Miss Hitomi." Celena smiled at her sweetly.
"You shouldn't call me 'miss'. We're at the same age." Celena nodded.
"The maid will come here with your clothes and food." Alan smiled down on her.
"My clothes?"
"You left your bag here when you left." Hitomi smiled.
"We'll leave you now." Hitomi smiled.
When the maid arrived, she changed her clothes but didn't even touch her food. She sat on a chair and stared at the mystic moon. While staring at it, an arrow suddenly passed by, and when she looked around her, thousand of men are drenched in their blood. There is fire everywhere and the sky is dull. She began to tremble. They all disappeared when she heard the doorknob turning. Thinking she was in a wrong room, she stood up and turned.
"I'm sorry, A-"she was surprise to find Van at the door who is also astonished to see her in he room. Long silence occurred. Hitomi smiled and looked down.
"Alan told you I'm here?"
"No, actually this is my room." Hitomi raised her eyebrows.
"You're in Fanelia." He explained.
She didn't notice that Van is already walking towards her. She was just surprised that she was already locked in his arms. She rests her head on his shoulder, feeling his warmth. He tightens his grip; this tells her that she won't let her go, ever.
Luna, the goddess of the moon and prophecy, fell in love with god of gods, Zera, but he is in love with Gaia, the goddess of land. Dismayed, furious, and full of grief, a black energy was made, the Atlantis. Her soul turned black that made her want to destroy Gaia. As soon as Zera felt this energy, he created Jakori, s dragon with a power that can destroy Atlantis and kill Luna. He created Jakori to numb the power of Atlantis. Luna foresees that Jakori will slaughter her. She quickly crated a mystical place where the guardians are winged and the place can only be entered by a chosen few. This place is called the Mystic Valley. The day came that Jakori cornered Luna and strike her at her chest. A pillar of light surrounded Luna and took her away. The light came from the Mystic moon. The gods feared that Luna may come back some day. Jakori stayed on the land, but Jakori's power grew weak. He gave all his power to a human. Power will be passed on to generation after generation.
Hitomi saw this incident as if she was there. The dream seems to be real, everything. Luna, and all the gods, she wondered why she saw these things. A cold breeze filled the room. She slowly crawled out of bed and went to the window. She saw A girl is standing outside, curious about her, she looked at her closely. She was surprised when she realized that Luna is the girl outside. She quietly walked outside the room. But when she came to the place where the girl is standing, she was gone. She heard a rustling of leaves in the forest. She followed the sound and it led her to a statue of a two-headed dragon. Her body became heavy and she fell on her knees. Breathing became hard; she can feel her energy is draining, like its being suck out of her.
"Hitomi!" she can hear Van's voice calling her. By the sound of it, he's far from her.
'He must not see me like this,' she took a deep breath and pushes herself up with all her might. As soon as she's on her feet, she walks towards the nearest tree and leaned herself. He can still hear Van's voice calling her and he's getting near. She walks a few steps away from the statue, and then suddenly the air enters her freely. She's still leaning on a tree when Van found her. He quickly ran after her.
"Where have you been? Why are you so pale?" Hitomi grinned.
"I'm fine." She bends over her head to Van's shoulder.
"Let's go back." She whispered
So this is just the first chapter, I'm already done with the second one and I'm still typing it… hope you'll like it! Review pls!!!!