Chapter 2 - The Girl From Two Worlds
Was it all just a dream? How did I get to this strange world? Maybe it had something to do with my dreams and visions? All I know is one minute I was with my friends and the next minute, I was swept up into the clouds by the raven-haired boy who slew the dragon. I found myself in a world where the earth and the moon hang in the sky, and creatures that were strange and frightening.
Hitomi's attention was focused on the forest, where she heard the sounds of howls, growls and could see glowing eyes from the below the tree-line.
"We're surrounded," Van said.
Hitomi turned her attention back to him and noticed his hands tighten on the hilt of the sword. At the sound of rustling bushes, Hitomi focused once again on the tree line, and saw a shadowy-figure with glowing eyes, rise up, growling at the pair.
"Van Fanel?" the figure stopped growling. Van smiled and relaxed his body, he clearly recognized the owner of the voice. The shadow stepped out from the forest, into the moonlight, revealing what Hitomi would describe as a wolf-man. He had brown eyes and fur, and wore a light purple tunic, and a blue sash draped over his right shoulder.
"Ruhm." Van was happy to see a familiar face.
"So you went to the Mystic Moon? And you brought this girl back with you?"
Ruhm had kindly offered Van and Hitomi transportation back to Vans home, as he was heading in the same direction to reach a small market village. To Hitomis surprise, the back of the cart was a smooth ride, and the quite comfy, as they were sitting on piles of soft fur.
"She seems to have followed me home." Van answered in a tone that hinted at both annoyance and exhaustion.
"Excuse me, but what is the Mystic Moon?" Hitomi could not take the confusion anymore, she needed some kind of answer as to what was going on and being talked about.
"Look," Ruhm lifted his head and pointed upwards, so Hitomi could follow his gaze.
"The blue moon up there, that is where Van brought you from. We call it the Mystic Moon."
'The mystic moon?' Hitomi continued to stare at the earth…
Smoke rose above the city buildings. Cloaked giants appeared out of thin air, with metallic claws ripping through a group of soldiers…
"Are you okay?"
Hitomi was brought back to reality at the sound of Vans voice, which actually sounded as if he was concerned. She shook her head.
"It's nothing, I'm fine."
They travelled in silence for the rest of the way, within a few hours, well past dawn, Ruhm stopped his cart and turned to Hitomi.
"Look! Below us is Fanelia, little lady. Van Fanel, welcome home."
The sight before Hitomi was strangely familiar. Even though she couldn't recollect the saw she was currently seeing, from any of her visions or dreams, she had a feeling she had been here once before…
…In the garden, surrounded by the green forest, the young boy, Van was standing by a taller boy. Hitomi could only see him from behind, but noticed he was bare-foot, wearing long tanned pants, a blue tunic, and had long icy-blue hair. The younger Van, smiling and laughing, was tugging on the older boys arm with all his strength, while the older boy just laughed. The younger Van looked in Hitomis direction, and stopped pulling the older boys arm to wave at Hitomi, beckoning her to join them. The older boy began to turn…
… Below Hitomi, surrounded in a protective embrace of mountains and forest, stood Fanelia. It had a large wall and gate, to provide protection for the opening where the mountain and forest did not reach. Rows upon rows of houses and at the very back was a large, mighty castle.
As the group went through the large gate, all of Fanelia was there waiting, ready to greet their arriving guest. Hitomi didn't really know what to make of it all.
Once the cart came to a stop, Van leaped off, only to find himself in the embrace of a sandy-brown cat-girl with pink hair, the second his feet touched the ground.
"Lord Van! I was so worried about you," she cried, as she proceeded to lick his face.
"Merle, cut that out, everyone is watching." He protested.
Hitomi, who had been helped off the cart by one of Ruhms wolf-men, stared at them.
'Great, first wolf-men, now a cat girl.'
Her attention was easily caught as a group of 4 large men, in armour, approached them.
The cat-girl, Merle, quickly released Van, bowed and backed away from him. The man in the center of the group, whom Hitomi recognized from her vision, 'Balgus?' approached Van himself.
"Lord Van. Welcome back!" he said calmly.
Van nodded, took the pink energist, and lifted it high for all to see.
"I, Van Fanel, have completed the task of dragon slaying, and have returned with this drag-energist."
The other three men behind Balgus stood in awe at the sight of the energist. Balgus was the first to bend the knee, and the others quickly followed suit.
"We, the four generals of the samurai of Fanelia, verify this to be true Prince Van!"
'He's a prince? That explains the arrogance.' Hitomi thought to herself.
Hitomi found it difficult to sleep. Even though she had been up all night, the entire adventure she had up to this point made her mind unable to settle its thoughts. The room she had been given was a quote large. The walls were white and a brown timber-frame style. The bed was rather large, much bigger than what Hitomi had back home.
She had changed from her track suit to her school uniform, which consisted of a white, long-sleeved blouse, a brown pleaded skirt, running shoes and socks. On the bed sat her bag and beside it the remainder of uniform, a tan and blue kuffu.
Hitomi opened the window and gazed off into the distance, far beyond the mountains walls. Below her, Fanelias soldiers were making preparations for the tournament that would mark the celebration of Vans coronation as King. Throughout the castle, people were busy preparing meals, rooms, decorations, outfits, anything related to the coronation. But Hitomi paid no attention to any of it.
She sat there, staring off into the distance, wondering a variety of different things. What was going on back home? How were her friends and family? What were they doing?
And most importantly. "What am I doing here?"
She laid her head down in her arms, shut her eyes and focused on that burning question, when all of a sudden, she felt a presence above. Looking up, she not only jumped out of her chair, but nearly out of her own skin as well. Hanging upside from the roof was the cat-girl, Merle, that had greeted Van earlier when they arrived in Fanelia.
Without any effort, the cat-girl leaped from the roof the window sill, and sat there, licking her wrist… just like any cat would. Still licking, Merle began glancing up and down at Hitomi through the corner of her eyes. Hitomi just stood there, in a defensive stance, wondering what was going to happen next.
"What do you want?" she finally asked the cat-girl.
She stopped licking her wrist, and turned her full head towards Hitomi. If looks could kill, Hitomi was almost certain that's what Merle was trying to do with her intense glare.
"Just stay away from him! You got it?" That was a threat, if Hitomi had ever heard one.
"What are you talking about?" Hitomi was unsure why the cat-girl felt the need to threaten her.
But Merle suddenly had something else on her mind. She noticed Hitomis duffel bag and immediately began ripping through it.
"What are you doing?" she screamed at Merle, as her track pants flew up into her face. Her pendant also flew into her hands from the rain-fall of items Merle had thrown from the bag.
"You sure have a lot of junk in here!" the cat-girl was still grabbing things out of the bag.
"Will you cut that out already!" Hitomi had enough of the invasion of her privacy. That caught enough of Merle's attention to make her turn around, but the pretty pink jewel in Hitomis hand, quickly refocused it immediately. Merle grinned devilishly, and swiped the pendent from Hitomis grip.
"This is pretty! I'm gonna keep it!" and with that she was off on all fours out the door and down the hall.
"Come back here you cat-burglar!" Hitomi didn't hesitate in chasing down the cat-girl. She smoothly made every corner, keeping up with the swift cat-girl. She almost caught up when she ran past an open door and caught site of what was happening inside. She stopped and peered into the room.
Balgus, the towering general she had met earlier, was standing shirtless, wearing blue pants and boots, a sword in his hand. Hitomi was shocked at the large scars that covered most of his upper body. Across from him was Van, wearing the same outfit as earlier.
With sword in hand, Van positioned himself, sword tip pointed toward Balgus, and charged swiftly towards him. Van lifted his sword for the fatal vertical blow, but Balgus easily blocked it. Van recoiled back as Balgus pushed his own sword forward.
"You're not charging aggressively enough, Lord Van. You must come at me as if you mean to kill."
Van bowed his head
"I know, I just don't like mortal sword combat."
"It is a poor thing for a man who is about to be King to hold such weak sentiments!"
…Hitomi was sitting in a small make-shift dojo out back behind her house, sitting across from her father, each with a sword resting horizontal across their laps.
"Did you always enjoy sword-fighting, dad? Mom always tells me how you competed a lot when you were younger." Hitomi asked.
Hitomi's father smiled. "I did… compete, quite a bit in my youth. I enjoy training you and Alon. But you have to remember something. A person can be great at something, but that does not mean they enjoy it." …
"It's not like I'm becoming King because I want to be." Vans words pulled Hitomi from her memory.
"Lord Van… we have a visitor!"
Hitomi froze, Balgus was now staring at her. How long had he known she was there?
"I'm sorry," She blurted, bowing her head.
"I didn't mean to disturb your lesson."
Van starred at Hitomi, as if it was the first time he was really seeing her. There was something familiar about her, and that changed his feelings of annoyance to feelings of calm.
"That's the problem with you foreigners," Hitomi turned her head to her left, where the sound of Merles voice came from.
"You have no respect!" she finalized her statement regarding Hitomi, who quickly changed her relaxed stance to a defensive one.
"Hey! You have something of…"
She was cut off, as the cat-girl quickly shoved the pendant back into Hitomis hands.
"Why you little…"
"I'm here Lord Van!" The cat-girl threw herself into Van, forcing him into an uncomfortably tight hug.
Hitomi sighed as she stared at the pair, aware through her peripheral vision that Balgus was slowly approaching here.
"Lord Van explained to me what happened. I speak for all of Fanelia when I say, thank you for saving our King." Balgus kneeled on one knee and bowed his head.
"I promise, as a samurai of Fanelia, until we find you a way back to your home, I will protect you from any harm, as a show of honour and gratitude."
"Thank you," Hitomi bowed back to Balgus, unsure of what to think or say to his offer.
"Merle, come with me, I have something I need your help with in preparation for the coronation ceremony."
"Coming Lord Balgus."
Merle quickly released Van and followed Balgus as they exited the dojo and turned down the hall. It was now just Van and Hitomi in the room, which left an awkward silence between the two. Hitomi hated awkward silences. Van didn't seem to notice as he turned from her and began putting away his training sword and pads.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your lesson." She finally blurted out, ending the silence.
"Too be honest, you kind of saved me a second time,"
Hitomi was pretty sure that was as close to a 'Thank you' as she was going to get from Van for saving him from the dragon. His back remained to her as she began to turn towards the door, her intentions being to return to her room.
"I was wondering,"
Hitomi quickly turned back to Van, who was now completely facing her direction.
"As a proper 'thank you' and an apology for my earlier behaviour, if you would join me for dinner this evening. It will be just you and me. Perhaps we could talk and find a way to get you back home safely."
Despite the fact that she was completely stunned by Vans change in behaviour, without missing a step, Hitomis response was a brief "Yes" with a head bow. She rushed back to her room, where she spent the remainder of the day, trying to grasp everything that happened to her in the past 24 hours.
Hitomi was quite surprised with the room she found herself in. She was in a palace, about to have dinner with a Prince who was about to become King, she was expecting it to be in a massive dinning hall with servants everywhere, instead she was in what felt like an intimate, large family, dinning room. Along the walls were portraits of Van, when he was a boy, with Merle and other people she guessed were his family. One portrait strongly grabbed her attention.
The scenery were the gardens Hitomi always saw Van in, when she would have a dream or vision about him. Van was standing, a big happy smile on his face and in his eyes. He was wearing his usual red-tunic with brown shorts and boots.
Beside him 'This girl.. she looks just like…no that's not possible' stood a young girl, also smiling, close to the same height as Van.
Her sandy-brown hair was wavy and just reached her shoulders and her big green eyes revealed that she was genuinely happy. Hitomis eyes expressed shock and she stood frozen in front of the portrait.
"You look as if you've seen a ghost."
Hitomi nearly jumped out of her own skin, as she spun around and found Van standing behind her. He smiled at her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"No you didn't, not really, I was just caught up in my own thoughts."
Van looked up at the portrait Hitomi had been looking at.
"I apologize for being late, the council was going over some coronation plans and it took longer than I thought. Dinner will be along shortly."
"That's fine"
Hitomi watched as Van continued to stare at the portrait of himself and the girl. Hitomi noticed his face was both happy and sad.
"She meant a lot to you, didn't she?"
Van looked over at Hitomi with a feint smile.
"Ariana was my best friend, we did everything together whenever we'd visit each other, and we always wrote when we were apart."
"What happened to her? If you don't mind me asking."
"10 years ago, her uncle led an army and took the throne from Arianas father, forcing them to flee. I was only a child, I didn't know much about the politics of what happened, so I always asked my mother and father why she didn't come and stay with us, and they would always tell me that she would have never been safe here."
Van sighed, sadness was written all over his face.
"Fanelia wasn't always it's own country. It used to be a province of Draconia, which is the kingdom ruled by Arianas family. My family was given lordship over the lands, and we grew it into what it is now. A few generations ago, the King of Draconia signed over Fanelia to my family to rule over it as a kingdom in its own right, however, we still bend the knee and swear fealty to the Kingdom of Draconia and their present ruler. If we had taken Ariana and her family in…"
Vans face became angry, his fists clenched.
"It would be considered treason to 'King' Hybor"
Hitomi backed away slightly from the sound of the venom in Vans voice, he noticed and quickly relaxed himself.
"I apologize, it was a long time ago, and I am a King, I should have better control over my emotions."
"It's alright. It's difficult when you are in a situation where you feel you can't do anything, especially when it involves the people you care about. What do you think happened to her?"
Vans eyes were completely on Hitomi, it had been so long since he last felt comfortable enough around someone, to open up about his childhood friend.
"I don't know. No one has seen or heard from her or her family since they fled Draconia. Some believe they fled and are in hiding, but I feel if they were still alive, they would have done something to go back home, or reached out to my family. You know, it's interesting. Earlier today, you reminded me of her. Your hair and eyes are the same colour as hers, and when you got defensive with Merle, it was the same way she would have acted."
"I'll admit, when I saw this painting, I was a little startled. She does look a bit like I did as a child. Her hair is longer though, I've always kept mine short, for as long as I can remember. And I was never one for wearing dresses as a child."
"Neither was she, but her mother and mine would always dress her up. My mother loved her like she was her own daughter. We were like one big family really. There's more portraits this way, if you'd like to see."
Hitomi nodded and followed Van into an adjoining room. It was a living room/library with couches and book shelves, all covered in dust from years of not being used. Hung up on the walls were more portraits, covered in cloth to protect them from the dust.
"The books and scrolls on the shelves contain records of the Fanel and Dracen family lineage, the history of the two kingdoms, as well as other, history of wars on Gaea. My father never stepped foot in this room after what Hybor did to his family. The rest of us followed suit. I apologize, the years have caught up to this room in terms of dust."
"That's fine, my grandparents have a room like this at their home, containing the history of my mother's family, but they rarely use it, so every time we visit, it's always dusty."
Hitomi smiled as she spoke, and something about that smile made Van feel even more safe around her. He began removing the cloth from the portraits. The first two were similar to the ones Hitomi had already seen. One of Van and his family when he was just a baby, and the other, a different portrait of Van and Arianna, much younger than in the previous one, clearly toddler-age.
The third portrait… that one was about to change everything for both of them.
Van pulled the cloth, and let it glide down from the portrait. For some reason to Hitomi, the cloth dropped in almost slow motion, but it didn't matter, her smile quickly faded and her whole face went white as a sheet at the sight before her.
The portrait contained a 5-year-old Arianna, dressed the same as from the first portrait with young Van, beside her and behind her were three incredibly familiar and undeniable people.
Van hadn't noticed Hitomis reaction to the portrait, he was still looking at it.
"This is Arianna with her family. Her father, mother, baby-brother, and her cousin, who became her adoptive brother, Al…"
"Alonnos!"
Van turned his head to Hitomi, his heart was beating hard in his chest.
'Is she? Arianna?'
The visions and dreams about Van finally made sense. We were childhood friends, and the hints that made me suspect, the clues that I denied, I now had to accept. Before me was a portrait of my own family. My father, my mother, my youngest brother as a baby, and my cousin, who was more of an older brother to me. When my eyes fell on his face, I knew this was all true…