Escaflowne ~ A Vision Reborn (3)

Escaflowne ~ A Vision Reborn (3)

Death Forest

By *~A White Rose Petal~*

Disclaimer: I don't own anything alright? Geesh…Wait…I OWN THE PLOT! YAY!

A/N: OOOOOOOOOOOOO! Hey peeps! The next part! I hope you like it! I got hit with a LARGE piece of inspiration! Hope it works out!

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Summary:

Van remembers in which a meeting Merle got to attend{her first}. Hitomi Has a vision! Hitomi gets washed away to Gaea but she lands on a place called Zantaki?

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Hitomi ran with the small coin she found in her hand. Her tears still streaked her face. She ran faster and faster down her face as she ran into the forest. Hoping it would protect her from whatever she was running from. A true problem for her because not even SHE knew what she was running from. She just didn't know… Hitomi heard water flowing and knew that she was coming to a stream.

This stream wasn't polluted like a lot of the other streams. This stream was calm peaceful and clean. Hitomi stopped and looked into the water to see her reflection. Hitomi lost some of that girlish tone she had when she was 15 and, in her words, grew up a bit after she left Gaea. She knew that that wasn't really true.

When it came to looks, it was true but when it came to her heart and to Van…she was the exact same as she was all those years ago.

Hitomi was so busy crying and listening to the water of the stream she didn't know that the coin started to glow when the feather touched it…

~*~ Death Forest ~*~

"You've got to be kidding me Zatera!" A girl with long blond hair said.

"It's true Jin! I mean it! I saw it with me own eyes! Not to mention heard it with me very ears!" A brownish part cat part human retorted.

"O-One of the branches b-burned o-off…" Zatera shook his head wearily no. "What do you mean?" Zatera took in a deep breath and let it out.

"It wasn't one branch Jin…it was two…"

"B-but th-that me-means that b-both of th-them, they, they…" tears came up to Jin's eyes. Zatera put his hand on her back trying to comfort her.

"Both the king and q-queen are-are…d-dead?" She choked on the last part. Zatera shook his head yes.

"No 'fense Jin b-but why do you care so much? I mean they were way better than Wanda who's ruling now but…"

"L-let's ju-just say that the k-king and q-queen to-took care of me-me when I wa-was younger…" Zatera looked at his best friend and hugged her.

"You better get ready Jin." He whispered into her ear. "I do believe I hear troops coming thinking they can live through your wrath…" Jin brought her head up and listened intently for a moment than heard it herself.

"Oh great! A new bunch of warriors who think they can-"

"Hey!" Zatera said in fake defense for the troops that just entered the forest trying to get rid of the 'girl phantom'. "They just want to show that a 'phantom' can't kick their butts!"

"I think they've got it easy…"

"Why?"

"Because they don't need to wear leather the full time!" Zatera laughed at this comment.

"Nobody ever said ya had to wear it Jin."

"I know. I don't know why I wear it!"

"Cuz you look good both front and back?" Zatera joked.

"Don't start with me Zat! You pervert!" And Jin was out the door ready to fight the 'tough' troops that just came into the forest.

'rest at last…' thought Zatera. He put his arms under his bed and pulled out some new comics he just bought off the market a few days ago.

~*~

Hitomi closed her eyes and let the darkness drown her. Than she a flash of light. 'NO! not a vision! Not now!' But it was to late. The Vision came n blurry but then started to came in straighter. She saw a girl. She was wearing leather pants, a cheetah print tank top, and a black vest over that. She held a staff in her hand. It looked like it was used many times before against swords and knifes. Hitomi was impressed on how much even the staff could do. She turned her head in the direction where the girl was headed. Her eyes opened up in fear. Tons of men, soldiers judging from the armor they wore, were holding torches that could burn down a tree and all the animals in it in a few quick moments. Hitomi felt a small bit of rage inside of her. 'What are those men doing?' She thought. She soon got her answer. One of the men in front, probably the leader, stepped forward and spoke.

"Woman Phantom show yourself and fight like what you are! If you are strong enough to fight us than don't act as if you are a coward and hide! Come out and show yourself! Show yourself so that you may die with respect as you fight my army! This will be the first fight in which you will not win phantom! Show yourself now!"

Hitomi looked back to the girl who put her staff by the tree and smirked. These men were looking oddly smudged and relieved at the same time. She wondered why. The one in front didn't look to happy though. He apparently wanted a fight. One of the men in back came forward and slapped him on the back.

"Hey boss! Looks like we scared the phantom chick away!" Hitomi looked at the girl who narrowed her eyes at the one man. The leader of the group dropped the torch when he was hit and the fire started to glow. Hitomi saw the man drop it on purpose though. He dropped it a few seconds after he got hit. The man smirked quickly then got a worried look on his face. The girl obviously had enough of waiting and took off. Her stick in hand she leaped off the tree and on the other side of the fire. She took her hand in front of her and said something Hitomi couldn't quite make out but obviously it had to do with magic for the fire went out. The men looked stunned. The one in front shook a little but went back to his first state, which was a look of anger. All of the men took out their swords as they got ready for battle. She estimated how many men their were around fifteen. 'This isn't to even…' Said a voice inside herself. It said it sarcastically. Hitomi quickly noted that each one of the men were armed and all the girl had to use as a weapon was an overgrown stick. All of the men lunged at her but she just did a back flip and quickly escaped. Hitting three men with her feet while she was at it. Hitomi was once again surprised. 'This girl knows how to fight…' She mused. The three men went unconscious from the blow her feet gave their heads. She counted how many men were left. Sine they weren't moving as fast as they were. She gathered their was thirteen men fighting the girl. There must have been sixteen before. Hitomi kept on looking at the battle. The girl used her staff sending a blow to the man in front of her then twirled it beside her and sent a blow to the one behind. The girl paused a bit and looked at the men with their swords out.

"IF you surrender now…I will give you the joy of getting out of here alive!" She said coldly. All of the men looked at each other. Five of the men put the swords back into their holder. They backed up slowly looking at the girl who had just brought down five of their men with fear. When they got about 50 yards from the end of the forest they turned around and sprinted out of the forest. They didn't care if they were called cowards. This is a rare chance to get in the Death Forest and they were taking it while they had the chance. It was called death forest because of this woman phantom. Others called her by the ancient name in Zantaki, Juearo Hateto, which means, in Zantaki, Human bird. The girl looked at the remaining six men.

"Looks like I'm going to have some fun tonight!" She said in an icy whisper. It sent chills down Hitomi's spine just listening to it. The men seemed a little self-conscious but still wanting to fight her. They brought their swords down on her but she blocked off her body with her staff. She wasn't the least bit scared of these men. Hitomi thought. She grinned for some strange reason she didn't know, 'but the men seems to be afraid of her.' The fight went on for a few minutes but Hitomi was surprised at the move the girl did that got all the men to go unconscious except for the one that led all of the men here. She did another back flip then rotated the staff moving her body with it. She then flipped back up with the stick in her hands evenly and lunged with all of her weight at the men. The leader dodged the attack but the others fell to the ground. The girl turned towards the last one. She put turned to one of the men and grabbed a sword.

"More even eh phantom?" He said. "You aren't winning this battle!" He charged but the girl dodged it. They each kept putting in their input. Suddenly the man charged again. Knocking the girl onto her back. Hitomi gasped. The girl or 'phantom' could barely do anything. The man was going to make the final blow but something came out of the bushes. The man heard it and turned around but it was to late. A caramel colored like cat pounced on him and a small pool of blood was going all around him. Her vision started to get shady. She knew that it was coming to an end.

~*~

Hitomi's eyes snapped open. What's going on? Hitomi started to reach into the water to wet down her face but before she even touched the water, she was lifted into the air by a glowing light. She shut her eyes while the force of the light was still light enough for her to do it. A few moments before the stream had a weeping girl beside it. Not now.

~*~

Van closed his eyes trying to get the whole memory in his head. Or out of it? He didn't know.

~*~ Flashback ~*~

Three men were sitting down at a table. All of them were old and seemed as if they were extremely rich from the garments they wore. Van and Merle walked into the room.

"You're late." The middle one said.

"We said we would do the meeting the minute Lord Van gets back to the castle." Merle put in wondering if it would actually help.

"You were prancing around here quite a lot!"

"Let me rephrase what I said, We said we were meeting the minute LORD VAN gets back to the castle! Not me!" The men just huffed up. Merle sat down at a seat that Van took a moment later. The man on the left started to speak.

"Lord Van, as you know you need a bride by the time you are 18-" Van and Merle both rolled their eyes but the men didn't see. "OR you will have to marry someone who your PARENTS arranged for you to get married to…"

"And who is this?"

"The princess who was born 15 rotations. 16 rotations come this year."

"Same age as me?"

"Yes…well a few months younger, but still, yes." Van shook his head. Then he remembered something.

"Didn't the last two princesses disappear years ago?"

"Yes…but they haven't died…" Merle suddenly got interested.

"How do you know that they aren't dead?" She asked. Her brow was crossed with wonder.

"Well Merle, they have a tree there that can…"

"Oh! I heard of that tree! I didn't know that we were talking about Zantaki!" Van looked at her and cocked an eyebrow and put his feet onto the table.

"How do YOU know about Zantaki Merle?"

"Well…It was one of the first places where cat humans were found! I just studied it 'cuz it was part of my history!" Van snorted. "What?" She whined. Van just looked more amused.

~*~ End Flashback ~*~

Van looked back into the water. 'What have my parents gotten me into?' He thought. Suddenly he saw a bright white light shoot from the sky.

"huh?" He said aloud. 'Hitomi…' He thought.

~*~

A/N: Do I write mush or do I write mush? I'm not so tough on the reviews as much as I was…I was just having trouble at school. Thanks to all of you who put up with me! But I would still like you to review…I think I did the chap. Thing wrong so that's why you don't see any reviews! I'm blaming myself so…see ya! R/R please!