A/N: WOW! I got so many reviews for only one chapter. I'm glad you all liked it. You have no idea how happy I was when I checked my reviews and saw how many there were. Want to know how happy I was? I was so happy, that I immediately started writing this chapter! See what happens when you REVIEW!!!! Anyway, I hope you like this next chapter. Enjoy!
P.S.
Usually, I respond to my reviewers, but there were way too many, so here is a HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!!!
P.P.S
Normally I update chapters a lot sooner than this, but finals are slowly approaching at my school, and my teachers all seem to have the same idea to help us study, they all gave me a ton of homework. I didn't have very much time to write, so I apologize. Just to ease everyone's fears, I WILL FINISH THIS STORY, sooner or later (hopefully sooner…).
Disclaimer: No I don't know Escaflowne. Normally, I try to find something really funny to say but I can't do that now. I'm really hyper because I just found out something really cool. Ok. I was channel surfing after school, not really looking at the TV, when all of the sudden I hear Van's voice on the TV. I jump up and go back a few channels and I find a cartoon based on X-Men (the new cartoon, not the old one), and the voice playing Scott (Cyclops) is none other than VAN!!! I SCREAMED "OH MY GOD! IT'S VAN! THAT'S VAN'S VOICE!" Ok, so maybe you all knew that already but I just found out and I am so excited. I may even start watching that show, just to hear his voice. How pathetic am I?
Chapter Two: Meet Komali
Van was strolling the corridors of the palace, still in shock about what he had just done.
'I just asked that girl on a date! Am I going crazy?'
Van turned a corner and soon came to a large wooden door with a dragon engraved on it. He pushed the door open and found his brother Folken sitting on a couch, a drink in his hand. He looked up from his steaming mug and smiled at his younger brother.
"You're back later than usual. Did you let yourself get caught at the market again?" he teased. Van walked over to a table and busied himself in making a drink.
"No I didn't get caught." Van said in a mocking voice, which made his brother laugh.
"Well, what happened then?" Folken persisted.
"I met someone." Van said quietly while avoiding his brother's gaze.
"Really? Who?" Folken asked before taking a gulp of his drink.
"…a girl." Immediately, the contents of Folken's mouth went spraying everywhere. He slammed his drink down on the coffee table and started choking. Van rushed over and started patting Folken on the back. Once he started breathing normally, Van bent down and looked at his brother in the face. "Are you ok?"
"YOU MET A GIRL?" Folken shouted in disbelief. Van rolled his eyes and walked back to fix his drink.
"It's not that big of a deal."
"Not that big of a deal? Are you kidding? This is a huge deal!" Folken fussed while waving his arms in the air like a maniac.
"Would you keep it down? You're going to alert all of Gaea if you keep raving like that." Van hissed as he finished fixing his drink. Before he could even take a sip, Folken grabbed his arm and pushed him over to the sofa. "Hey, watch it! You almost made me spill my drink." A practically bouncing Folken sat beside his younger brother and demanded that Van tell him every detail.
"You know, you're starting to act like Millerna."
"I'll ignore that, for now. So, spill it. Who is she?"
"A girl."
"No kidding. What's her name?"
"Hitomi."
"Hitomi…" Folken repeated, waiting for Van to continue.
"Hitomi. Her name's Hitomi!"
"You mean you don't even know her last name?" he said in disbelief.
Looking embarrassed, Van said, "Uh…no."
Folken sighed. "You're such a dope."
"Hey, we just met, ok? Give me a break!"
"Where?"
"You want to know where to give me a break?" Van said, confused.
"No! Where-Did-You-Meet-Her!" Folken yelled in Van's ear.
"In a tree." He shouted back, leaning away from his brother.
"A tree?"
"Yes."
Folken paused before speaking, a sly smile on his lips. "Van, are you sure that your new girlfriend isn't a monkey?"
"Oh course I'm sure she's not a monkey. And she's not my girlfriend." He said, a little louder than he intended to.
"Oh, so you like this girl."
"I didn't say that!" Van could feel his cheeks burning up.
"You really like this girl."
"We just met, ok? We climbed a tree and watched the sunrise. That's all!"
"So she likes you back. This is good!"
"Oh, just give it a rest, will you?"
"Never!"
Van made a face. "Ok, now you're really acting like Millerna."
Folken scowled. "I'll ignore that, again. Come on, do you like the girl or not?"
"She's ok. I don't know enough about her. But I will. I'm going to see her again tonight."
"Oh my God! Van Fanel has a date with a girl!"
"Hey, at least I don't have a date with a monkey!" And Van ran out of the room before Folken could grab him.
"Hey, get back here!"
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
It was an hour before sunset and Van was pacing in his room, clothes strewn all over the place. All awhile, he kept chanting the same thing too himself, over and over again.
"What to wear…what to wear…" Van paused his pacing for a moment and looked out the window and sighed. "I should be heading over there soon, but what am I supposed to wear?" He walked over to his bed and started rummaging through a small pile of clothes, occasionally throwing something over his shoulder.
"…too fancy…too fluffy…too…why do I even have this?" Each piece of clothing received a remark before it was thrown over his shoulder. Eventually, he ran out of clothes to throw and Van was getting frustrated. A few minutes later, he stormed out of his room after deciding to go as he was. Van smiled to himself as he thought.
'This must be what women go through every day.'
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Van had to run and duck through ally ways to avoid being seen by the people in the market. At one point, he almost ran head first into his "fan club" but managed to get away without anyone noticing. It took him a while, but Van eventually found the passage he used to find the hill with the tree at the top.
"Finally…" he whispered to himself. Van couldn't help but grin as he made his way up the steep hill. His smile faded a little when he reached the base of the tree and found that Hitomi wasn't there. Confused, he looked forwards the setting sun.
'If Hitomi doesn't come soon, she's going to miss it…'
"Hello down there!"
Van's heart skipped a beat when he heard a familiar voice above him.
"Hurry up or you'll miss it!" Van looked up but he couldn't see Hitomi through the branches, but the voice was undoubtedly hers, so he started climbing. For the second time climbing this tree, he was definitely getting better at it. He was climbing it a lot faster than he did this morning, however, his heart was pounding twice as hard as before.
'What is wrong with me? Why am I so excited all of the sudden?' he thought.
In no time at all, Van reached the same spot where the two of them sat that morning. Hitomi was even sitting on the same branch, staring out into space, the sunset reflecting off of her green eyes, giving them an eerie glow.
'Alright Van, stop staring at her like that!' He thought to himself. He hoisted himself onto the branch right next to Hitomi and sat down, resting his back against the tree trunk.
"You're right on time. The sun should be setting any minute now."
"Hitomi, thanks for being here."
"Why wouldn't I be here?"
"I was afraid I might have scared you off after you found out I was a prince."
"Oh, well, even if you had scared me off, I'd still be right here."
"Really? Why?"
"I'm supposed to meet Komali at sunset. He should be here soon. Maybe you'll be able to meet him, if he doesn't scare you off."
'Komali? Does Hitomi already have a boyfriend? And why do I even care? I just met this girl. It's not like we're a couple after one meeting. But who's Komali? Why would he scare me off? Or is that just a joke? Ok Van, you're thinking too much again, stop it…'
"Hitomi, who is Komali?"
"You'll see, if he gets here." Hitomi looked at him with a mischievous smile on her face. The kind of smile that says, 'I know something you don't know.'
"Oh…well, ok." Afterwards, Van couldn't think of anything else to say to Hitomi. He just sat there, staring off into the sunset, his thoughts consuming him. 'What if Komali is her boyfriend and he comes up here and sees me and thinks I'm making a move on his girl? And why would he scare me off? Maybe he's a wrestler. Maybe he's really macho. And if he is, and if he doesn't realize who I am, and if he thinks I'm making a move on Hitomi, he'll kick me out of the tree. It is a long way down…wait a minute…what is that?'
"What is that?" Van said out loud. Hitomi had been fiddling around with something in her bag. When Van spoke, she looked up and followed his gaze towards the sunset.
Silhouetted against the setting sun, was the dark outline of what seemed to be an aircraft, except that this aircraft seemed to fold itself down the middle every now and then, and then right itself again. As the "aircraft" got closer to them, Van realized that it wasn't an aircraft. It was a bird. A big bird. A very big bird, actually.
Hitomi stood up on the branch she was sitting on and walked toward the unidentified flying object (ha ha…a UFO!).
"Hitomi, be careful!" Van tried, too late, to grab Hitomi and prevent her from walking too far onto the branch. He expected her to lose her balance at any time and fall down, but she didn't. She walked along the small, creaking branch as if it was solid ground, and Van was amazed. But all awhile, Hitomi's gaze never left the object flying in the sky.
"Hitomi, what is that?" Van asked. He stared at her for a moment before a look of surprise and understanding hit Hitomi's face.
"It's Komali!" she screamed in a rush.
"What?"
"Komali. It's Komali. He's here." Hitomi immediately started jumping down the branches excitedly. "Come on!"
"Hitomi, wait up!" Van followed Hitomi as fast as he could, but her speed was incredible. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that she had just jumped to the bottom.
"Come on, hurry up!" She yelled.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Once he reached the last few branches, he jumped the rest of the way down, landing cat-like on the grass right next to Hitomi. Before Van could catch his breath, she was off running towards the object in the sky, which was flying directly towards her, and getting larger by the second! It was an eagle, just bigger. Van felt the tremor in the ground as the creature landed heavily several feet away from Hitomi. She started laughing hysterically before jumping up and wrapping her arms around the giant bird's neck. All a while, each of its 20 foot wings never retracted. They were outstretched in a semi-circle and seemed to shied Hitomi from anything that might want to harm her. The creature's eyes rolled into the back of its head and seemed to enjoy Hitomi's embrace. Van finally got the courage to stand up and his shoes squeaked against the damp grass. This small sound was enough to alert the creature of Van's presence and it opened one of its fierce orange eyes and kept watch on the unknown visitor. The creature seemed to consider him for a moment before finally retracting its protective wings. At this time, Hitomi let go of the creature's neck and turned to Van and beckoned him to come closer.
Van took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and slowly walked to Hitomi. He noticed that the creature's eyes never left him but all a while, Hitomi was just smiling. She just stood there, wearing a dazzling smile. And as long as she kept smiling, he wouldn't think about the giant creature he was also walking towards. Before he knew it, he was standing within arms reach of the giant bird.
"You did good." Hitomi whispered. "Prince Van, meet Komali. Komali, meet Prince Van."
"Um…Hi." The creature merely blinked. Hitomi giggled softly.
"He likes you. I'm surprised."
"What makes you so sure he likes me?"
"Go ahead and pet him." He was a bit confused at this request but he extended his hand and caressed the glossy feathers on the creature's neck. Komali's eyes again rolled into the back of his head and Van distinctly heard a low grumbling. Van smiled. Komali was actually enjoying it. "See, he does like you. If he didn't like you, you'd be dead."
"Oh. Ok." Van wasn't sure if he was comforted by this fact, but he kept stroking the bird's neck. 'Come to think of it, I kind of like him too…' "So what exactly is he? I've never seen a bird this big before."
"Komali is a Dragonbird. Once upon a time, there used to be hundreds of them, but they are almost extinct now. I found Komali in an egg when I was young. I took care of him, raised him, and now he is my very best friend."
'Well, now I know that Komali isn't Hitomi's boyfriend. Not that it mattered…And I have never heard of a Dragonbird before now. I'll have to ask Folken when I return to the castle.'
"I'm so glad you're back, Komali." Hitomi placed each of her hands on Komali's head and lowered it so she could kiss his beak. "Tomorrow's the big day. I want you to head on home and I'll see you in the morning, ok?" Komali nuzzled his head against Hitomi's before receiving an extra hug.
Van gave him an extra pat. "It was nice meeting you Komali." The Dragonbird turned towards Van and did something very unexpected. He nuzzled Van's face in the same manner he did to Hitomi. Both Van and Hitomi started laughing. Komali spread its wings and leaped into the air, the force of the wind almost knocking Van over. The two of them watched as Komali flew away and out of sight.
"I told you he likes you."
"Yeah, I kind of like him too."
A/N: Ok, so there wasn't a lot of V/H stuff, but there will be. I just needed to introduce Komali. AND ISN'T HE SO COOL?! I WANT A DRAGONBIRD!!!! *sob* But I can't have one. He is only a figment of my imagination. *sigh*
Well, that took a really long time for me to write now, didn't it? I'm really sorry about that. I haven't had a lot of time to write lately. School finals are approaching and I have had a lot of homework. But if you are patient, and you bear with me, I will get this story written. I promise you that. I'm not the kind of authors out there who start a fic but don't finish it. I'm not that cruel, unlike other authors out there. By the way, I got the idea for Komali's name from "The Legend of Zelda: the Windwaker." I've been playing that game lately and it's AWESOME! I highly recommend playing it. There is a character in the game by the name of Komali and, you guessed it, he can fly, wings and everything. He is really awesome but you don't get to see him much in the game, you mostly see another flying character by the name of Medli, but I wanted the Dragonbird to be a male so, I couldn't give him a girls name now could I? Anyway, the next chapter may take a long time too, but I pray that you all have more patience than I do, because personally, I hate waiting for updates on my favorite fics. Grrr……Any who, REVIEW and tell me what you think!
P.S.
If you want me to let you know of upcoming chapters, give me your e-mail address and I'll let you know of an update!
