Chapter 1


"Where is he!?" she shouted at the guards, while her fur frizzed.

"I…I'm…I'm not sure."

"Well go and find him!" One of the guards quickly ran off, leaving her furious.

Oh Master Van, where are you? Merle thought, if he's not at the meeting on time, he's going to be trouble!

Her ears pricked up as she heard a noise; she followed it around the corner, and saw that it was Van. Once again he was mindlessly heading up to the roof, to look at the Mystic Moon.  It's been nearly two and a half rotations since he last saw Hitomi.  He spent most of his nights there watching, seeing if she will ever come back.  He was almost on the roof when he saw Merle.

"Ohhhh Master Van there you are!" she ran up and hugged him.  "Allen is waiting for you down stairs, he and Lady Celena will be very angry if you are not ready on time."

"I was just getting me sword" He lied. It seemed that he had to lie about the fact that he missed her. "I'll be right down."

They both came down the main stair well, Van looking strong, but unsure of himself, and Merle wrapped around his arm.  Van has grown since the Great War, more mature like a man.  Celena tried to curtsy but her legs are still weak.  Allen quickly helped to support me so that I wouldn't fall.

"It's nice to see you again, Allen, Lady Celena.  I hope that you are well."  The King said.

"Van, Fanelia is starting to look like a city again." Allen said as he bowed.

"Van your country looks amazing! You should be very proud of yourself." Celena said as she walked over to him and gave him a hug.

"Thank you.  There is still much to be done." He paused. The subject of Dilandau never came up after the war, be he still wanted to be careful about what he said to her. "Celena you are looking much better.  Are you feeling better?"

"Yes. Much better.  Thank you Van." They had become the best of friends after the war.  They had spent a lot of time together, which had helped them with their problems.  Van had found Celena very easy to talk to.

"Are you ready to go, Van?' Allen asked.  The King solemnly nodded his head knowing how boring it is going to be.  He hated politics.

"Van, if you don't want to go just say your sick." Allen said.

"Allen you know that I can't do that.  I'm a King; I have to know what's going on in Gaia.  Anyways I have to sign the parchment, to unite the Kingdoms." Allen gave him a curious look. 

"Let's be off the. We'll sleep on our way over." Van took Celena's arm and followed Allen.

~*~*~*~

(On Earth. Monday morning)

"Hitomi! Please answer the question." The teacher shouted at her for the third time.

"It's too early to be thinking" she groaned quietly to herself. "Umm…" Thankfully Yukari is her science partner and she pushed over her book and pointed to the answer.  Every day was a struggle to get through without daydreaming. Thankfully she only had half a semester till she was done high school.

The teacher was satisfied with the answer that she gave him.  When he turned away to write on the board, Yukari harshly whispered to her, "Pay attention before you get into real trouble.  Hitomi, stop daydreaming!" When Yukari looked more closely at her, she gave her a weird look. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Umm ya just a little tired." She replied.

"I hope you're awake for the track meeting."

"I'm never too tired to run." Hitomi said with a smile.

Before returning to her work she caught a quick glace at the sky Oh Van when will I see you again?

~*~*~*~

Van held Hitomi in his arms. Hitomi…I love the smell of her hair and the feel of her body, as I hold her in my arms. Her face is so near to mine.  Her eyes are so wide with a look of curiosity.  Her checks are pink with a faint blush. Just as I was about to fulfill my dreams for months on end, a pillar of blue-white light surrounded us.

"No, not now! She can't leave.  I won't let her leave me again. Not now, not ever!"

"Hitomi!" It was a dream. He realized that, as he bolted up from his own bed, he was drenched in a cold sweat. Hitomi, where are you? When will you come back to Gaia?  To me?   Why did I break the link between us? Why did I do it? I know now that it was the wrong thing to do but I thought that you should find someone else there who can be there for you at all times...because… I can't. 

He had returned home from signing the alliance documents earlier this morning; it had taken three days to get the papers in order and during that time he hadn't really looked at the stars.  He moved over to his balcony; as he stared up at the moons he knew the real reason why he broke their connection.  It was because he longed for her and he missed her.  It hurt too much to keep "talking" to her.  He now knew that that was the second dumbest thing that he has every done.  The first was that he let her go back before she knew how he really felt about her.

He slowly wondered over to the window, and sat on the ledge for a while, gazed at the mystic moon. Then he suddenly jumped out, spread his white wings and flew to cool off and to just get away from life.   Hitomi I will see you again, because I… need you…

~*~*~*~

Van please, talk to me.  I need to hear your voice.  Angrily Hitomi sat up on her bed, unable to sleep.  Why did you stop talking to me?

"ARGE! Van I can't deal with this anymore!" she said out loud, forgetting that her family was still sleeping.  She quickly lowered her voice; "I have to get my mind off him, since he doesn't want to be a part of me anymore." She looked at her clock, 5:36am.  "The sun will rise soon" She got out a pen and paper,

 'Mother and Father,

I've gone out for a walk; I should be back before 7:30am.  Please don't worry; I just needed to get some air.

                                      With Love,

                             Hitomi.

She quickly got changed into her track stuff and grabbed her bag and the note.  She quietly crept down stairs, and left her home.

Since she needed to get her mind off things, she thought that she would go for a quick run at her school.  When she got to her school, thankfully no one else was there.  As she prepared herself to start she couldn't stop thinking about him.  She first saw him here, at the track, and she felt as if he's going to come back and get her for the third time right here.  Ahhh get out of my mind!  Ok I have to calm down. Breath.  Ok, I'm ready.

 'Ready. Set. GO!' She thought to herself as she started to run as fast as she could.  She couldn't stop thinking about him.  When will I be able to get on with my life? Why can't I outrun his voice? I can always hear it in the back of my head. With school and track I don't have time for anything else. She thought to herself.

Distracted, she didn't notice that her shoelace was coming undone.  "Ahhh!" She yelped as she fell on the sandpaper-like ground.  "Damnit!  Just get out of my head!"  Crap, crap, crap, crap! She thought.  She scraped her knee and her hands when she fell.

"I've had enough.  I can't take it anymore."  She walked over to a tree and sat down and tied her shoelace, and sat there to relax.

The area around her suddenly went dark. What's going on?  Then she realized that it was a vision.  Oh no, not a vision.  I haven't had one since Gaia.  "I don't want to see the future anymore."  She closed her eyes. I refuse to see anything!

It was hot.  She had to open her eyes, because the heat was too intense.  Fire.  This looks like Fanelia.  I can hear crying. A boy.  Van. But he looks so young, much younger than Van would be now; he looks about four. That can't be.  I never knew him before, so how can I be seeing him this young it doesn't make any sense. A cat woman ran over to the little boy, but that looks like Merle, but she's so old.  I don't understand. Please no more!   The flames engulfed us.  No!

She opened her eyes; she was back at her school's track.  Van… What was that? Are you in trouble?  Who was that boy, and was that cat woman Merle? I need to know if you area all right. Van…

A pillar of blue-white light surrounded her.  She knew that this light is going to take her back to Gaia. Back To Van.

~*~*~*~

"The star's are so beautiful." He muttered under his breath. "Guess it's time to head back, at least before Merle finds me gone. What's that?"

          The pillar of blue-white light suddenly appeared off in the distant forest. "What?! It can't be… HITOMI…!"

He got up and flew over to the fading light as fast as he could.  As he flew he saw her land in the river and he rushed down to get the body not being sure that was Hitomi out of the water,  "Hitomi! Are you all right? Hold on, I'm coming!"

          As he swooped down to find the person, she wasn't there; he heard a mumble heading down stream.  As he peered cluster he saw that it was Hitomi.  He flew as fast as he could, but it was too late.  She went over the waterfall, which supplied most of Fanilea's cities.  He dove over the waterfall to try to get to her before she hits the bottom.

After a struggle he finally caught a hold of her bag – which was still over her shoulder – and he quickly pulled her body close.  Her eyes were wide with panic and she was immobilized with fear.  He felt her arms tightly hug his neck and her legs entwined with his own.  This surprised him, but he didn't have time to react.

Suddenly he noticed that they were drifting back towards the waterfall.  It was too late.  The water falling from the waterfall was pounding on one of his wings.  There was a cracking sound, and then there was a sharp pain in his wing.  They started to plummet towards the bottom.  Knowing that he couldn't fly, he tried to glide over to land.  He spread his wings out as far as they could go, but they were still falling too fast.  He knew that they were about to hit land.

"Hold on Hitomi!" he said as he pulled her closer to his body, and at the last minute he turned over so that his body would hit first and cushion her fall.  They finally hit the ground and started to roll.  When they stopped rolling he slowly got up and made sure that she was all right.  She was unconscious and somewhat blue from fall's cold water.  He knew that he had to warm her up and quickly.  Her cloths were soaked and he had to get her into dry cloths.  He carefully removed her bag from her, and looked through the bag.  All he found was shorts and a T-shirt.  He didn't care that they were a little wet, at least they were dryer then the cloths she was wearing.

It didn't acutely hit him till then; he would have to change her.  He could feel his face was going very red.

He quickly changed her, trying not to embarrass himself too much.  Although trying not to look at her body, he couldn't resist it anymore!  As he looked upon her in awe he saw that she was gorgeous!  He noticed that she had become a beautiful woman, with an amazing body, which he longed to hold.

Once done he hesitantly went off to get some firewood.  When he found some he hurried back towards her, afraid that she would awake and find him not there.

Before reaching her, he looked at his wing.  He was sure that it was broken.  He painfully set it in place (or so he thought) so that it would heal right.  The pain was barely endurable, but he could deal with the pain, but only because he was extremely worried about the safe being of Hitomi.

Once the fire was lit he checked on her, she was still very cold.  He carefully picked her up and walked over to a tree, not two feet from the fire.  He gently sat down and held her body.  He also wrapped his good wing around her for more warmth.  With the heat between the fire, his warm body and his blanket of feathers, he hoped that she would be warm enough.

(*Note* Ok I don't own Escaflowne, I never have and never will, the only thing that I do own is some of the characters that I made up. Well people this is the NEW version of chapter 1. I hoped you like it! If there are any mistakes that I have missed, please tell me so that I can correct them right away.)