A New Beginning - Chapter 3

"Where am I?"

Hitomi got up slowly. There were bandages over her, and she felt some stinging on her leg. She winced on instinct, reaching to rub the pain. First thought that really popped into her mind was Am I still on Earth? She looked around at some sort of medieval castle room, with a balcony beyond the bed she was lying in and stone-bricked walls. …guess not. Doubt I traveled back in time…question is which country?

The door creaked open, surprising Hitomi enough that she jumped. She had always been a jumpy person, she mused. "Hitomi, you're awake!" The voice sounded familiar. "Tea!"

In instant surprise and happiness, she squeaked. Almost ditsy. "Merle!" She ran over to hug her old rival cat. Everything dropped to the ground with a loud clang. The cat pouted, glaring at not really Hitomi anymore due to the fact she's being hugged.

"HITOMI!!! Clumsy humans…I MADE THE TEA MYSELF!!!" Hitomi couldn't help but laugh, and helped Merle pick it up after actually seeing the look on her face. Hitomi decided get to another subject. Just mentioning his name is hard enough. "I-Is Van here? Is everything all right? Did anything happen to him?"

"And you're saying you wish something happened to him?"

"No! No I didn't say that! I just asked if—"

"I was kidding! Kid-ding. God, humans need to get a sense of humor."

"Oh look who's talking." Hitomi stifled a laugh. Merle got annoyed enough to smack her in the head. "Shut up!" Hitomi, still giggling, finally slowed to a stop and said, "You still haven't answered me. Where's Van?"

He's practicing his blade combat with Haligre in the training room. After you go find him, can you play with me? Pleeeeeaaaaase??" Wow, fancy words. BLADE combat.

"Sure…wait—who the heck is Haligre?"

"Oh, he's the disciple of Vargas…he's nice!" At that she sat down and started meowing and licking her paws. After a while, she stopped and put her paw down, continuing, "We didn't know Vargas had disciples until Allen showed up, but then he came to us when Fanelia was reestablished. He said that he was the one who had found the body of Vargas, and buried his body. He also told us that he was ordered to wait for us to return so that he may take Vargas's place as king's advisor and royal knight. He's like Vargas though…stubborn and…stupid."

At that Hitomi started laughing again. What's her problem? thought Merle as she narrowed her eyes into that scary look again. Hitomi quieted when she saw, and held up her hands in defense. "Gosh! Sorry!"

She walked out of the room, laughing inwardly at Merle. She'd had gotten more mature since she left, she thought. She walked down the halls, not exactly knowing where she was going, meeting a dead end. She sighed in frustration, and turned back to start over again. Once again, she was back in the room where she walked out of. Merle was inside cleaning up the spilled tea. "Umm…Merle, where's the training room?" The cat put her hands on her hips.

"It's next door."

"Oh…I knew that…" She nervously laughed, and backed away from her. Next door was another room with a door the same size, although the door was made of stone, and sealed shut by two layers of more doors before the doorway that led to the staircase came into view, obviously made to be soundproof. No wonder I passed by without noticing, she thought. Hitomi marveled at the new castle's beauty, and how bright the stairways were, as she looked at the million bright lights above hanging on the high ceiling. Finally, she reached a wooden door, and she pushed open the door to see the two figures looking at each other, ready to strike. Haligre heard her open the door and turned his head to see her enter, his lips forming a silly grin as he saw who it was. Whoa, looks more retarded than stupid to me, thought Hitomi. Van saw his concentration drifting, and turned to see Hitomi running towards him. "Hitomi!"

"Van, I missed you so much! I don't care what happens anymore…"

"Hitomi! I…" What to say… "…missed…you…too?" He rested his nose in Hitomi's hair, and was about to run his hand in her hair when he noticed that he was still holding a sword. Haligre cleared his throat, smiling at the young king's rare happiness. They stared at him for a while, and then Hitomi released her hold on Van. "May I have an introduction?" Van blushed, while Hitomi just said, "Fine, I'll do it myself. She extended her hand to Haligre. "Hitomi. Kanzaki Hitomi, and you must be Haligre." He smiled, accepting her hand and saying, "Why Van never told me of you before," He turned to Van with his silly grin and asked, "mind telling me since when you had a love life?"

"Yes." What the hell do you say to that? No, she, the humble girl before you, saved Gaea from destruction. He looked at Hitomi for permission. Hitomi nodded, and he continued. "Don't be so nosy. She's from the Mystic Moon." Haligre simply smiled knowingly, and reassured, "If you feel uncomfortable with me knowing that, we all descended from the Mystic Moon to begin with, so I'm fine with it."

Hitomi was almost surprised that Van didn't keep discovering the ruins of Atlantis in secret. She smiled in friendliness along with Haligre's predictable grin, and Van felt an air of awkward exchange. "Hitomi," Van said, "I need to talk to you in private. Follow me to my room?" Haligre held himself from laughter. Hitomi simply thought, Too happy a person… while Van's mind simply said, My God, what does he think I plan on doing? thought Van. He grabbed Hitomi's hand and pulled her hard enough to be dragging her.

*****

They returned to the room where Hitomi came from, and Merle lighted up at the sight of him. "Master Van! Are you gonna play with me now?"

"Merle, there are some things Hitomi and I have to discuss. Go find…Haligre instead." He knelt down to the small Merle, and she marched out of the room. As the door closed, Van sat down and motioned her to sit. "I needed to talk with you. Why did you come back? Was it important? And how did you end up getting injured? I found you while I was walking in the forest."

"Is that all you're worrying about? Why I came back? Is it important? Don't you want me here?"

"Hitomi, you already know my answer, why do you bother asking? Some things that happen tend to have consequences. I don't want anything to happen to you."

She sighed. Why is she getting so worked up for nothing? "Sorry…I…had another vision. I saw my Grandma. It kinda frightened me, because it hasn't happened in such a long time." She looked down in thought. "And I wanted to come back." She grabbed his arm. "Van…" She stopped and took a moment to look deep into those eyes, searching for something. "…tell me that things are gonna stay the way they are right now."

"Why would you want nothing to change?" He put his hand on her hand. "I can't promise you that, because I'd be lying to you. But I promise that whatever happens, I'll be right there with you."

He asked after a while, and she began retelling the events of her other vision, which was mainly what made her decide to come back to Gaea. Van listened, at times even looking a little shy that he was so valued, and after Hitomi almost broke down, Van didn't know what to do. Finally, Hitomi stopped crying and there was a long pause. Then, Van asked, "Do you…remember what happened to you out there?"

Hitomi tilted her head in question. "Out there?"

Van tried making his question seem less vague. "When you first arrived."

Staring at her legs, Hitomi stuttered a reply. "I…" She put her face in her hands. "I can't remember."

"It doesn't matter, now that you're here." He motioned to her bandages. "I just wanted to get to the bottom of this. There just seems that something isn't right...I have a strange feeling about this."

"I don't remember getting hit. I don't remember anything since I left…the Mystic Moon…the only thing I knew was that I had wished deeply to come to Gaea, and then I woke up in your castle. I don't remember…"

"That doesn't make sense…"

"I don't know, but it's probably not a big deal. So maybe I fell through the branches of the trees, fell unconscious, pretty bad fall, then landed wherever you found me." Van nodded, and placed a familiar pendant back around her neck, and she stared at it for a moment. "You kept it." She smiled. He gave her a weird look and said "Uhh…why wouldn't I?" She smiled. After a long pause, he said, "I'm still not sure. You were still conscious when I found you, so you should remember…I just have a feeling that it's not so simple. Cuts inflicted by twigs and thorns are random scratches, but your cuts seem straight and deep, like they're made by some sort of blade…thorns also usually come off and get stuck in your skin."

"Eww…you're just over-nervous and scared that Gaea will return to the way it was before. Remember when I saw this pendant in one of my visions? I think…I think it was the vision where I found out that Gaea was created by people of the Mystic Moon. I'm not so sure, but the leader of the Atlanteans was holding a pendant, similar to this one, and he was standing in some sort of coliseum or arena. I wonder how it ever got to my Grandma's hands?" That was some sucky attempt to change the subject.

"It doesn't matter now, like you said. We still have the future to worry about. That was all the past."

Hmm…the future…she wondered what would await her in the future of Gaea; how did her Grandma get the necklace from the Atlanteans? Besides, how did Atlantis get destroyed in the first place? So many unanswered questions… The only clues the ancient scripts gave her were that the power of the people destroyed the city…and yet there was no 'how'. Maybe Van is right…the cuts aren't as simple as they appear. And she has a feeling she's gonna get thrown back into history that has not ended yet. Something tells her Gaea isn't as at peace as it looks. We'll see…