Okay I don't own Escaflowne or any of the characters, yadda yadda. The story and my orginal characters are the only ones that belong to me. Okay?

*****
He had watched her win tournaments at her school, her legs moving like a train. But that was the problem; her form was too mechanical, and machines break down sooner or later. But souls remained strong forever; she should run with her soul, like she did before her trip to that other world.

His head was sliced with pain before he could correct his mistake. When she first told him about her trip by accident, he thought it was nothing but a fairy tale. But then he really started to think about, and it caused his head to spin. However, those minor headaches turned to full force migraines as he was approaching the age of twenty-one.

The headaches had happened before, when he tried to remember his past and what he was like as a kid. When he was seven, he was lost from his parents and was crying out in the rain, waking up an elderly couple who took him in. When they died, he was seventeen, and was alone in the world once more.

He had finished high school with fairly average grades, but had won many scholarships because of his awards in track and field.

It was ironic that excelled in a sport that he hated; he hated winning because it meant he had to fast, and leave the others in his dust. Those few seconds of being alone in the front seemed like torture him, but his adoptive parents loved to see him excel in sports; they themselves were fast track runners years before.

When they died unexpectantly, he had planned to stop. But he needed the money for college, so he continued the self torture. When the headaches started, they were partly a godsend, because he was joyfully cut by the team. Now he was assisting others to run, but not for his past reasons.

But his new runner seemed like a kindled soul, lost from something she could not find. She ran to find it, and it turn get away from it all. She felt alone in this world, just like he did.

*****
Hitomi watched Kaze rub his throbbing temples off on the sidelines. She felt sorry for him, because he was a extremely fast runner until his acute headaches began. She felt he had become a friend to her during the little amount of time he spent training her, and he was the only one that knew about herself and Gaea.

"Are you going to be okay Mr. Kaze?" Hitomi shouted over the wind that was howling between the trees.

"First of all Hitomi, just call me Kaze. Calling me 'Mr. Kaze' makes me feel old. Second, yes I am fine, the pain is already gone, surprisingly. But I would feel better if you concentrated more on running, considering your last competion before your graduation is tomorrow" joked Kaze.

Hitomi smiled at Kaze, a sly plan concocting in her mind. "Well, Mr. Kaze, if you don't want to be considered old, maybe you'll except my friendly wager in some sort of a race?"

To her amazement, Kaze hopped over the bleacher railing, throwing his clipboard on the ground. "You know what? I think I'll take your challenge, and raise it. Whoever loses has to treat the winner to ice cream. Have we got a deal?"

Hitomi grinned, and ran to her assigned starter. "Okay, but I'm just going tell you right now, my favorite flavor is-"

"Wait, aren't you guys even gonna have a referee?"

Hitomi and Kaze looked over to see Amano standing on the side, his arms around Yukari. Yukari nodded at Hitomi. "Yeah, like Amano said, it's not fair. We'll be referees for you guys, won't we Amano?"

Kaze tried not to laugh when he heard Hitomi mutter, "I doubt they'll see who will win when they looking at each other all googly eyed like that..."

Hitomi and Kaze crouched at the appointed spots, wishing each other good luck in their heads.

"Ready. Set. GO!" shouted Amano and Yukari in unison.

Hitomi started out in the lead, but her mind was concerned with other things than running. Like what to get Kaze for a thank-you/birthday gift by next week. Like why she hadn' t heard Van for over a month. Like what did the strange nightmare she had been having meant...

Kaze easy passed Hitomi, and he knew something was wrong by the way her eyes were blank. He tried to grab her arm to shake her out of it, but then he fell to the ground, gagging from the nausea and pain that overwhelmed him. Hitomi almost tripped over him, but his choking woke her from her trance. She stopped and grabbed Kaze's free hand, screaming "Oh my god! Kaze, are you okay? Kaze?! Somebody get some help! Please!"

Hitomi saw Amano and Yukari run to find a phone, and she turned back to Kaze, rubbing his back as she whispered in soothing tones, "Shhh..it's alright...you'll be fine Kaze, just please hold on..."

Suddenly, Kaze's coughing fit stopped, and Hitomi saw that he had fainted from the pain. The tears falling her cheeks dampened his light blond hair as she tried to wake him. "Kaze, come on, wake up. This isn't funny. I'm really scared for you..."

"I'll be fine, Hitomi..." Kaze sighed weakly.

"Kaze?! Kaze, thank goodness! Do you feel better now?" questioned Hitomi.

"Yeah, I feel better now, I think. But I'm seeing things; I swear there are people falling from the sky over near that part of the track..."

Hitomi turned to look where Kaze was pointing, and immediately saw the blue light stretching down from the heavens. Hitomi gasped in delight, and looked down at Kaze. "Kaze, I think those are my friends over there. Can you wait here while I'll go see, or do you think you can stand up?"

"If those people are real and I'm not having a hallucination, then I think I can stand up. Stressing on the word think" Kaze weakly joked.

He indeed stood up, a little shaky, but Kaze was able to walk over to the flying strangers with Hitomi, no more problems at all.

*****
"Are we..are we on the Mystic Moon?!" Allen asked incredulously as looked around. Van nodded his head, searching the bleachers. "Yes, this is where I first met Hitomi, but I can see her anywhere. Dammit!!"

"Van! Van, I'm over here! Over here!"

Van saw her running towards him, and he ran to meet her halfway. "Hitomi?! Hitomi!"

Hitomi ran into Van's open arms, crying profusely. He tried to calm her down with hushed tones, but when that didn't work, he kissed away her tears. They stood that way, relaxed and comforted by each other's presence, oblivious to the world around that.

Kaze hobbled over to who he thought was Allen by Hitomi's description. "Umm..hi, I'm Hitomi's personal trainer, Kaze. By the way Hitomi looks, I'm guessing that guy she's hugging is Van?"

"Yes, that is Van. Hitomi might have told you about us all, but just in case, I'm Allen Schezar, and this is Merle."

"I told him everything about you all and Gaea; he's one of my closest friends. It's nice to see you Allen, and you too Merle." Hitomi answered, still breathless by Van's tender greeting.

"That doesn't look good..."

"Of course it doesn't look good to you, Joshu. It's going to rain, and you are afraid of any sort of water. But I happen to like the rain, maybe because I don't have a coat of fur like you do!"

"Well, excuse me for being a cat, Tati!"

Hitomi peered through the darkness, trying to place voices to bodies. "Hello, anybody there? Who are you?"

Allen chuckled and muttered, "You don't want to know Hitomi. Believe me..." Then Allen yelled to the figures, "Hey you two! Are you going to come over and introduce yourselves, or are you going to bicker like two old crows all night?!"

A tall young man with dark blond hair walked out of the shadows, " Good thing you broke us up, Allen, or I might have bopped him on the back of the head..."

An orange cat-boy came behind him muttering, "Yeah right. If you tried it, I would've used your legs for scratching posts Tati..."

Hitomi giggled at the pair's bantering; she knew right away that they were extremely close friends despite their arguing.

Tati grinned at Hitomi's laughter, and bowed deeply. "I'm sorry you had to hear that ma'am. When my friend Joshu here gets his tail in a knot, you have to stay on your toes. Van, you know what I'm talking about, having to deal with Merle all this years..."

There were two pairs of angry cat's eyes glaring at Tati as he laughed. "Just joking you guys. Seriously, we need to figure a way to get back to Gaea, since we have no idea how we got here..."

Kaze had been staring at the pendant dangling from Tati's hand all this time, and looked up and asked, "Excuse me, but can I see that pendant for a second?"

Tati warily handed it to Kaze, who in turn gently cradled it in his hand. Hitomi mentioned that a pendant like this helped her by granting her wishes thought Kaze. But I didn't believe her. I didn't believe in people that fell from the sky in a blue light, but here they are, standing in front of me. I didn't believe in cats that acted like humans, but here they are, talking up a storm. But I don't know what to believe in anymore. I just want to go home and wake up from all of this. I just wish I wasn't alone...

Kaze saw the rose pendant turn blue and raise into the air, and he noticed he and everyone else looked the same way. He shouted "Where are we going?! What's going on?!", but everyone was too absorbed in the moment to answer him. Kaze watched the ground disappear into a brown speck as they were all carried off with the light.