Les Guardiens de la Puissance

by

Kris Black

DISCLAIMER: Escaflowne is the sole property of its creator and distributors. I do not own Escaflowne or any of the characters in the story that you recognize. The characters that you do not recognize, however, are my own; please do not use them without permission. This disclaimer applies to this chapter and this story in a whole.

AN: Ah, another story, but an Escaflowne one. I have tried a new approach with this one – I actually wrote a whole plot. Yup, from start to finish the plot is done; I just have to write the chapters. Well, this is the prologue of Les Guardiens du Puissance, which is French because I couldn't think of a title in English. Well, enjoy!


"My Lord, we found her lying in the snow unconscious," I heard a deep, mumbled voice saying through the darkness, "One of the men with us served in the Destiny War and he identified her as the Winged Goddess. We thought it would be best to bring her to the castle."

'Where am I?'

"You were correct in the identification," a familiar voice resounded, "Thank you for your help."

'What happened…?'

I heard the sound of a large door shutting echo throughout the room. Footsteps came towards me in the darkness. Suddenly, warmth filled into her hand.

"Hitomi, what happened to you?"

'That voice sounds like Van's voice… but that's impossible… oh no!'

"My baby!" I shouted, suddenly sitting up – the brightness of the room blinding me for a moment.

I was frantic. Where was I? What happened to me? Did I go into labour? Where is my son? I looked down to my still swollen belly and felt relieved for the first time since finding out I was pregnant. My baby was still inside of me, safe – at least for now. I placed my hands gently on my stomach where I felt my baby kick, and smiled.

"Hitomi…" A shocked voice called out to me from the right.

I turned as slowly as possible towards the voice, scared that this was one of my dreams and that as soon as I touched who I thought was there that he would be gone. It isn't possible that I am in Fanelia; I repeated my mantra over and over. I had tried almost everyday to return to Gaea, to Van, since I found out about my pregnancy. However, to the right side of the bed I was laying in sat Van, almost precisely as I had left him a mere nine months ago; it seemed like an eternity looking at myself now. His muscles were more toned, I noted, probably through rigorous sword training.

"Van?" I asked wearily, still scared that I was in some sort of dream or premonition.

"Hitomi, what happened?" he asked concerned, obviously looking at my very pregnant stomach. When he touched my arm and I still remained beside him I knew that this had to be real.

"Van, I'm so glad it's you!" I cried out, "I'm so glad to be back on Gaea!"

Tears began to flow freely from my eyes, all of the worries that I had been burdened with suddenly disappeared. Van was with me now, everything would be alright – it had to be. Even though I knew this, I couldn't stop the tears, or rambling out all of my fears.

"The doctors all wanted to run tests, they thought he was abnormal! I wouldn't let them, and I knew that they were going to take him away from me the moment that I had him; I would never see him again – they would probably kill him! I couldn't let that happen… I had to protect him…"

"Hitomi," Van interrupted, he was obviously confused and worried about me, and I could see it in his eyes, "who are you talking about?"

"Our baby, Van," I said slowly, trying to articulate between my tears and sobbing, "They wanted to take our baby! I had to protect him because I couldn't get back to Gaea, I couldn't get back to you!"

The shocked expression in Van's eyes made me break down crying even harder. He didn't want me and he didn't want our baby. I would be left in this world by myself and raising a child…

I was rather surprised, however, when Van climbed onto the bed beside me and pulled me into his lap. He was obviously unnerved by my distraught state. He pulled my head into his chest and proceeded to comfortingly stroke my hair as I sobbed into his shirt like a school girl.

"No one will harm our child," he said to me in a mere whisper, "No one will take our baby away from us as long as I am here; Fanelia will not allow harm to come to our child, nor will I."

Hearing the tenderness and sincerity in Van's voice, I began to calm down. Now that I was in Fanelia, now that I was with Van, everything was going to be alright. My baby will be well protected and cherished. With that in mind, I began to fall to sleep into the arms of my soul mate.

"I love you Hitomi," Van whispered, "Don't ever leave me again,"

"Never," I replied tiredly, "I love you and our child too much."

With that, I fell asleep in the arms of my love, my protector.


AN: Well, I know that that was incredibly short, but I want to know what you think of it. It will continue and I am hoping to get the next chapter out next week, if my schoolwork doesn't overcome me. In fact, I plan to write a chapter a week like I used to – if all goes planned, which it hardly ever does. Well, don't forget to review. Ja!