A/N: Some Japanese translations you might want to know...
Nani? - What? (nah-nee? )
Nando?- What? (Nahn-doh?)
Do shite? (misspelled I think)- Why? (Dosh-deh)
Baka- Stupid/Idiot (bah-kah)
Konnichiwa- Hello (Koh-nee-chee-wah)
Ja-bye (Jah)
Arigatou/Arigato - Thank you (Ari-gah-toe roll "r")
Domo -thanks [informal] (Doh-moh)
Okasa- Mother (Oh-kah-sah)
Suki desu- I like you (Ski-des)
Ai shiteru- I love you (I don't know how to pronounce it.. it's kinda
difficult... ^^;
Gome ne- sorry/ I'm sorry
(go-men, long "o" neh )
Hentai- pervert (hen-tie [tie like in necktie])
Ne?- Right? (-neh?-)
Hai- Yes (pronounced "hi" only very quickly)
iie- No (and that's an i-i-e,
pronounced "eeeea")
Itai- Ouch/It Hurts (it-eye)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh BTW, I may refer to "Merulu"... that is
Van's childhood friend.... For all of you who watch the dub, her name is
"Merle"... Ya know, the cat-girl...
Also, this is like a *copy* of the plotline from the Japanese subbed
version of Tenkuu No Escaflowne. It is
just seen through *my* sarcastic viewpoint... So, I guess… This has spoilers,
btw.
Enjoy!!!
Title: Tenkuu no Yakusoku
Episode 1
Author: Trinity (Vans_Merulu@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG-13
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I awoke and rolled over in my small bed, expecting
to hit the snooze button on my small, school-issued alarm clock. Instead, my hand hit empty air, and I fell
onto a cold, hardwood floor. Trying to
disentangle myself from the bedclothes, I managed to fall three more times
before finally escaping the thin sheet's death grip. I stood up slowly, and winced as a shooting pain went through my
head.
Ah, my first night in Fanelia. Van had just been crowned king, and the
parties had lasted long into the night.
I remember having my glass refilled with the same sweet drink over and
over again, and a night of music and dancing, but that's all.
I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself,
though. My name is Sarah and this is
the story of my adventure in the land of Gaea.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I don't believe that you talked me into
this, Kate..." I muttered in the cold, moist locker room as I pulled on my
swimsuit.
"C'mon, you'll do fine, I promise!" she
chuckled.
I wrinkled my nose as a pungent odor of
chlorine hit me. I hadn't gone to a
swim meet in years, how was I even going to finish? I glared at Kate. She was
the sporty type, and I... well, let's just say computers were more my thing.
Suddenly, she grabbed my hand and dragged me
out to the pool area.
"Heat seven, 100 meter freestyle, take your
places," a voice boomed over the loudspeaker and filled the room.
I glared at Kate again as I slowly trudged
towards my lane. "Great…" I thought,
"Heat seven, lane seven... This is turning out just great..." I got into
position and waited for the starter pistol to go off.
I heard a splash to my left. I whipped around and glared to the person
who had 'jumped the gun'. I shook the
tension out of my shoulders and got back into my position.
I heard the gun and dived into the
water. I hadn't been swimming in at
least a year, and the water felt comfortingly cool around my body. I stayed streamlined under the water until
the speed of my dive had worn off. By
then, I was a third of the way across the Olympic-sized pool. I stayed underwater a little longer, starting
to kick my legs. I did one breaststroke
to force myself to the top of the water and began my freestyle. "1...2...3.... Breathe... 1...2...3...
Breathe..." I chanted rhythmically to myself.
I saw the edge of the pool fast approaching and once again I ducked
under the surface of the water. I had
to time it just right, or my legs would either not hit the wall at all to turn
around, or I'd get a nasty scratch on my ankles. "1...2... 3... Turn!" If
I could have, I would have breathed a sigh of relief. I started my count-swimming again, throwing
my arms forward until....
I slammed my wrist down, expecting it to hit
the water, but instead it hit concrete.
I had finished! I pulled myself
up out of the water and stood dripping along the edge of the pool while the
judges got their scores in.
Kate ran up to me and handed me my
towel. "You did great, Sarah! And you thought you didn't have it
still...." She smirked.
I rolled my eyes. "Riiight...." I said, dragging out the word sarcastically. But then...
"First place, lane seven! Second place, lane 5, third, lane 2. Great job, girls!" The voice boomed once again.
My eyes widened in surprise. "Nani?"
I breathed in disbelief. Kate
clapped me on the back. I shot her a
look.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I sighed.
"That actually was kind of fun..."
I wrapped a towel around my shivering body and headed towards the
showers. I turned the dial to the left
until the water came out steaming. I
lathered my hair and furiously rubbed at the scalp to get all of the chlorine
and some of the tangles out. After I
was finished washing, I stood in the shower for about five more minutes, just
letting the warm water caress my skin until it was a bright pink.
I wrapped my towel back around myself and
slowly pulled on some comfortable clothes.
My ankle- high khaki cargo pants paired with a dark green long sleeved
t-shirt was my kind of outfit. I slid
my feet into some sneakers, hoisted my gym bag over my shoulder and I was off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Kate and I were about a couple hundred
feet away from the pool, I sensed a strange feeling, like electricity crackling
in the air. My hand immediately flew to
the indentation at the bottom of my neck where my power-stone choker usually
lay. "Damn it! I must've left it in the locker room!" I turned around and ran back towards the
locker rooms.
Kate yelled, "Hey, wait for me!" and slowly
began following me.
"No!
Just wait for me there!" I
called back to her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I dashed through the door to the locker room
and headed towards the bench where Katie and I had gotten dressed. I gasped in horror as I stared at the low
wooden bench. It simply wasn't there! "GYA!!!"
I cried as I dropped to my knees and frantically started searching for
it. "There you are..." I said as I
reached my hand far under the bench to get it.
I heard the tapping of footsteps coming from behind me. "Katie, I told you to wait for m-..." I stopped
abruptly as the footsteps came closer and I saw some dark brown shoes stop in
front of my outstretched hand. "Strange
shoes.... Not like any I've ever seen
before..." I started to get up but I, being my accident-prone self, bumped my
head on the bottom of the bench.
"Itai..." I said rubbing my head and slowly standing up.
"So this is the mystic moon..." the person
said.
I looked, and saw... a guy? In the women's locker room? What the heck? "GYA!!!" I yelled again,
my hand flying to my chest as the result of my reflexes. "What are you doing in the women's locker
room? What are you, some kind of
hentai? Get out of here!!!" I could feel my face heating. I opened my eyes and looked at him once
more. He had a hurt look in his dark
garnet eyes and a sort of pout to his lips.
He was wearing a red shirt with cut off sleeves and white.... khaki
pants? Well, I wasn't sure what exactly
the material was, but it was khaki colored, at least. And he carried... a sword?
Great, Sarah, you HAD to open your big mouth and yell at the weirdo
carrying the sword.
"G....Gomen ne..." He said unexpectedly as he passed a hand through his unruly black
hair. Suddenly, a noise came from the
shower area of the locker room. One of
his hands flew to his sword; the other to my shoulder, steadying me as the
vibration hit. "Get out of here.... NOW!" He hissed.
I looped my necklace around my neck twice and
shrugged his hand off of my shoulder.
What was this guy thinking?
"Hentai... What a weirdo... and where exactly did he come from?" My thoughts were cut off as a large
reptilian beast stepped into my viewpoint, shaking the floor with its mighty
weight. I stopped breathing. "N- Nani?"
I cried in disbelief.
The boy drew his sword. "I told you to LEAVE!" He stepped in front of me, blocking the
dragon from me and giving me a chance to escape. I could smell the beast's putrid breath. It reeked of decaying flesh and blood. I slowly backed away towards the door and
pressed myself against the wall in fear.
The boy waved his sword at the dragon, acknowledging all of its
movements. What he didn't notice,
though, was it's huge muscular tail swinging high over his head, waiting for a
chance to crush him. "Hey, watch
out!! Its tail is above you!" I yelled, not wanting to see this guy die
and have the dragon come after me for dessert.
He looked above himself and saw what I was
talking about. He kicked off a shoe and
threw it to his side, distracting the dragon.
Suddenly, the dragon's massive tail came crashing down. The boy rolled out of the way and plunged
his sword into the dragon's crimson chest.
I was so scared that I wanted to go run to my mom, but for some strange
reason my eyes were riveted to the boy.
He was handsome, and as he was slaying the dragon it looked almost as if
they were engaged in some lethal dance.
It was almost.... beautiful... I
was in awe. The boy had finally killed
the dragon and was cutting its massive chest open. Suddenly, blue sparks began flying out of the opening and once
again the smell of blood diffused through the room. Soon, the boy was cutting a deeper gash into where the dragon's
heart would be. I shot him a puzzled
look, but he was too involved in what he was doing to notice me. He thrust his hand and forearm up to his elbow
inside the dragon's chest. What he
pulled out was amazingly stunning.
He turned to me and said, "It's a drag
energist." He smiled proudly and used
his shirt to wipe off the remaining blood.
He held it out to me, beaming.
It was an orb, almost perfectly
spherical. It was the same garnet color
as my necklace, and it seemed to be made of stone, not flesh. It pulsated with light every so often, but
rhythmically, like a heart beat. "It's... beautiful!" I exclaimed, reaching out to touch it. As soon as I did, the boy and I were surrounded with a column of
golden light and pulled into a new universe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
