Heyheyhey!!! Sorry it took, so long, but this chapter is longer than most.
Thank you Fushizen na, Niffer, Fae Rain, SabineballZ, and everyone who's
reviewing, I reallyreally appreciate it!
**********************************************
"Is it a dream? Or perhaps an illusion? No, it's unmistakably real. Yes, everything that day... Started because of the time I asked the tarot cards, what the path of love would be."
************************************************
I'll Cry Instead
Chapter 5: Nowhere Man
By Cev
****************************************************
Hitomi and Yori peered out from behind the wall. "Yori, are you sure?" The horse nudged Hitomi, annoyed with all of her hesitant decisions. Hitomi was about to walk in with the moving crowd that passed through Fanelia's gates, but turned and went back behind the wall, hidden from soldiers' eyes.
"Your old buddies are here." Hitomi said, pushing the horse back more so they could hide easier. She took the reins and led him into the thick trees, heading to the river. "We have to disguise ourselves." Hitomi looked up at Yori, "You don't have to stay with me if you don't want to."
Yori snorted, and headed down to the riverbank, pawing at the mud. Hitomi, quite confused, just stared. The light brown horse dragged Hitomi by her shirt with his teeth over to the dark mud, and stood there, waiting.
Hitomi, suddenly struck with understanding, began her work.
The crowd was larger than she'd thought. Carriages moved along with various horses, wagons full of supplies and people were pulled along, while some women and children could be seen with baskets of food and goods. There were so many different people, all condensing into this area. Blending in wouldn't be that big of a problem, but Hitomi had to wrap herself in a cloak, she was certain her clothing from Earth wasn't the usual apparel. Yori's hair was darkened considerably by the mud, and Hitomi had found a scarf in the bags attached to Yori's saddle. With a flinch and squeezing eyes, Hitomi chopped off her hair to shoulder length, and pulled it up with the dirty scarf.
"Well, aren't we the dirtiest vagabonds?" Hitomi asked sarcastically, pulling Yori along with the crowd. Why were there so many people? Was this usual for this city? In the distance, she could see the group of soldiers from the night before hanging around the gates. Hitomi lowered her shadowed eyes, and no one really seemed to notice her.
Yori followed along with a high head, as if searching. Hitomi pulled the horse to the side, and noticed a pair of guards talking. Hitomi pressed herself against the gate, listening to the two.
"They just keep coming. I didn't realize there were so many survivors." The taller soldier said, looking down on the moving crowd with pity.
"I heard that their town was worse off than the city before it. All these people from Shoda have no where else to go, but how can Fanelia care for all of them?"
"I'm sure the King has it sorted out, Hil. He's been through war before, this isn't new." The first soldier answered.
Hitomi walked on, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. Shoda, huh? So it's a city that been destroyed by this so-called war. All these people . . . they looked devastated.
Hitomi walked on confidently, as if she knew where she was going. She walked into what looked like a restaurant, tying Yori to a post. She walked in, unnoticed by everyone. Was she so invisible now? She watched as waiters rushed from table to table, she caught one's attention, asking for a washroom, but they shrugged her off and pointed towards the kitchen. Hitomi walked towards the back, and looked at the many doors in the corridor. How was she supposed to know which one led to the ladies' washroom? She opened the back door, and walked through, taken by surprise by an old man, who didn't notice her, but kept on relieving himself.
Hitomi rushed back into the corridor, "Wrong door." She concluded, all but content at the moment. That wasn't a very good sight to see. Hitomi tried another door, and found it to be the kitchen, and just as she was about to back out, a waiter came in, forcing her into the kitchen and out of his way.
"You there!"
Hitomi flinched, and tried to walk out discretely.
"Don't go anywhere, get back here!" The woman shouted at her, pulling her back. "You're the new washer, right? What the hell are you wearing? Get in to uniform and an apron, good thing you came early, we've got a lot of work for you!" She said, pushing a long black skirt, a white shirt, and two aprons into her hands. The woman, bossy and sassy, stared at Hitomi for a second, her brown, outrageously curly hair falling into dangerous eyes. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work!"
She walked away, leaving Hitomi blank. The flabbergasted girl was quickly loaded up with dishes in her arms by busy waiters. She piled the 'uniform' beside her feet, pulled her cloak off and an apron on, and started to wash.
***********************************************************
"Bet you're mad at me, huh?" Hitomi asked, trying to compensate for leaving Yori outside and alone all day. The horse stared at her with fiery eyes, obviously not in a pleasant mood. "Well, I did get some money," Hitomi opened her hand to reveal some coins, and she was wearing the black skirt the woman that ran the kitchen gave her, so as to blend in more with the population. But she retained her navy long-sleeved shirt, maybe as something to keep her in her mind, that Earth was just a sky away.
Again, that stupid optimism.
"I also raided their pantry, and I found these." Hitomi revealed from her sack a handful of sugar cubes, and some odd-looking fruits and vegetables. Yori, quite intrigued by this, nudged Hitomi, suddenly very forgiving.
Hitomi led him away from the homes and sneaked out of the gates, venturing east and towards the back of the city, towards a lofty, serene castle. She sat over by the river where they had traveled earlier that day, fatigued and famished. Yori, after a delightful sugary snack, pranced off like a kid to munch on lush grass, leaving Hitomi pondering whether to eat the foods she had stolen. Figuring a restaurant wouldn't exactly serve poisonous foods; she bit into a red fruit.
It tasted old.
Not 'aged' old, but like when you bite into something you haven't eaten in years, and it's new and refreshing and a strong taste in your mouth, and it's new and old all at the same time, but stronger and more potent.
Hitomi shook her head. This couldn't be real. Wasn't it just yesterday she laid on her bed, warm and alone, with no stupid war, no crazy encounters, or insane albinos? While she ate, the girl hummed a familiar tune, then glided into a Japanese song her grandmother taught her, trying to comfort herself.
****************************************************
I once watched the rain
As it fell on my eyes,
And washed my cold tears away.
Weren't you that gray cloud?
That watched over me,
When sad rain came pouring down?
I knew on that day,
When you stretched out your wings,
I'd never see you again.
When I opened my arms,
And ran from the gates,
Our hearts seemed to still endear.
*****************************************************
It was cold.
Hitomi's eyes flew open, and, being blind from the thick black of night, she could see nothing, but feel everything. A high flute played in her ear, the wind blowing some tune. The muddy ground was cold and wet, and she was soaked. Her hair was dripping all down her back, and her skirt and shirt were caked in brown dirt.
"Yori!" Hitomi screamed, even though she knew nothing was wrong about the night, but what was this feeling? Like the world was about to die? "Yori!"
Her chest heaved with labored breathing. Why was this happening? She hadn't moved for at least six hours. Something didn't feel right; every part of her was constricted with anxiety. "Yori!"
Two white, flashlight eyes peered through the brush, staring at the panicking figure. Hitomi swallowed hard, frantically flailing her arms around to feel for the animal.
"Where've you been?" The horse's warm nose rubbed her shoulder, and Hitomi could feel the shivering nervousness against Yori's skin. The white eyes moved down, and Hitomi heard the thick slosh of feet in the water, that and the steady, hypnotizing eyes, the wind, the dark, she felt heavy and dead.
Within a rush, Yori bit Hitomi's arm, bringing her back to her body, and Hitomi, heaving like a hunted prey, pulled herself onto the horse, holding onto the reins, praying, not daring to look back, pushing Yori ahead blindly, diving into the darkness.
A light among all, the city bloomed out in front of her, the steep incline of the hill rearing Yori back, causing Hitomi to fall off into the tall grass. Those white eyes were right behind the two, dark and pure, heavy and light.
Something glimmered under the moon's light, echoing some black image to red steel . . .
Hitomi stood shakily, limbs protruding awkwardly, all bent, ready to pounce.
A clean dividing cut, perfectly deadly.
******************************************************
Geore was a good soldier. Really, he was. He never did anything out of the ordinary; he never had been in a war. Never killed anyone, or anything. He was not even nineteen when he joined the Fanelian army, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Every morning he left his house, his wife, his baby daughter, and went and stood at his post at the gate, staring at people as they came and went, an endless sea of red faces, old and new, tired, aged, and young. It was the same every year that passed, always the same. Geore never had to worry about the destruction or rebuilding of Fanelia, he was gone when it happened, and never returned until two years ago, when he joined the army.
Now, you see, Geore doesn't have any experience.
He doesn't even think he could survive a regular alleyway thug.
And with the war, the sickness, the bloodshed growing closer and closer everyday . . .
It doesn't look that hopeful for our friend Geore.
Geore sat there, his assigned position on the ramparts, staring out into the dark void of the trees, tired and lazy. Balgus sat shadowing the light of the tower on the opposite side of the gate, watching out into the forest, his keen eyes wary of the wind that gently blew against the grass, the soft steps of some animal, the whoosh of a bird's wings. Every soldier stood on guard of the city these days, but they didn't complain. They switched out posts, and were allowed to go home for a short while. But, every night, nothing seemed to happen, no endless wave of dark armor-clad forces to burn Fanelia to the ground. Were they really going to attack? Was it all a hoax? Balgus watched as the soldiers spread the rumors, as if they actually knew what was happening. But he did, in the pit of his heart, Balgus was sure: this wasn't going to be some simple war with easily seen motives.
Balgus's heart skipped, as he knocked over his chair to lean out the window, noticing a small amount of soldiers crowding around a filthy looking horse, carrying some brown heap on its back. Balgus ran down the stairs to the gate, pushing the soldiers out of the way, trying to see what was the commotion. A small lock of blonde hair peeked out from the brown pile upon the horse, and a soldier from Balgus's side, Geore, picked up the pathetic creature, moving the cloth off of the figure's face.
"Move away!" Balgus ordered, Geore walking behind him, the cold victim in his arms. "Take the girl to the hospital, Geore." Balgus said, taking the horse forcefully by the reins. "She's an escapee. Take a few guards to watch after her, she might be dangerous." With that, he pulled Yori away, despite the horse's resistance.
"What's wrong with you? Aren't you Allen's horse?" Balgus muttered.
Hitomi's eyes peered out of her heavy lids, trying to distinguish some familiar image. Yori's retreating, blurry form was her last sight, the oppressive heaviness taking over her body.
**********************************************************
Well, that's all for today! ^___^ I'm so glad I finally finished this chapter, it took me a long time. Hope ya'll enjoyed it, so tell me what you think!
Please save our Earth, Cev
**********************************************
"Is it a dream? Or perhaps an illusion? No, it's unmistakably real. Yes, everything that day... Started because of the time I asked the tarot cards, what the path of love would be."
************************************************
I'll Cry Instead
Chapter 5: Nowhere Man
By Cev
****************************************************
Hitomi and Yori peered out from behind the wall. "Yori, are you sure?" The horse nudged Hitomi, annoyed with all of her hesitant decisions. Hitomi was about to walk in with the moving crowd that passed through Fanelia's gates, but turned and went back behind the wall, hidden from soldiers' eyes.
"Your old buddies are here." Hitomi said, pushing the horse back more so they could hide easier. She took the reins and led him into the thick trees, heading to the river. "We have to disguise ourselves." Hitomi looked up at Yori, "You don't have to stay with me if you don't want to."
Yori snorted, and headed down to the riverbank, pawing at the mud. Hitomi, quite confused, just stared. The light brown horse dragged Hitomi by her shirt with his teeth over to the dark mud, and stood there, waiting.
Hitomi, suddenly struck with understanding, began her work.
The crowd was larger than she'd thought. Carriages moved along with various horses, wagons full of supplies and people were pulled along, while some women and children could be seen with baskets of food and goods. There were so many different people, all condensing into this area. Blending in wouldn't be that big of a problem, but Hitomi had to wrap herself in a cloak, she was certain her clothing from Earth wasn't the usual apparel. Yori's hair was darkened considerably by the mud, and Hitomi had found a scarf in the bags attached to Yori's saddle. With a flinch and squeezing eyes, Hitomi chopped off her hair to shoulder length, and pulled it up with the dirty scarf.
"Well, aren't we the dirtiest vagabonds?" Hitomi asked sarcastically, pulling Yori along with the crowd. Why were there so many people? Was this usual for this city? In the distance, she could see the group of soldiers from the night before hanging around the gates. Hitomi lowered her shadowed eyes, and no one really seemed to notice her.
Yori followed along with a high head, as if searching. Hitomi pulled the horse to the side, and noticed a pair of guards talking. Hitomi pressed herself against the gate, listening to the two.
"They just keep coming. I didn't realize there were so many survivors." The taller soldier said, looking down on the moving crowd with pity.
"I heard that their town was worse off than the city before it. All these people from Shoda have no where else to go, but how can Fanelia care for all of them?"
"I'm sure the King has it sorted out, Hil. He's been through war before, this isn't new." The first soldier answered.
Hitomi walked on, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. Shoda, huh? So it's a city that been destroyed by this so-called war. All these people . . . they looked devastated.
Hitomi walked on confidently, as if she knew where she was going. She walked into what looked like a restaurant, tying Yori to a post. She walked in, unnoticed by everyone. Was she so invisible now? She watched as waiters rushed from table to table, she caught one's attention, asking for a washroom, but they shrugged her off and pointed towards the kitchen. Hitomi walked towards the back, and looked at the many doors in the corridor. How was she supposed to know which one led to the ladies' washroom? She opened the back door, and walked through, taken by surprise by an old man, who didn't notice her, but kept on relieving himself.
Hitomi rushed back into the corridor, "Wrong door." She concluded, all but content at the moment. That wasn't a very good sight to see. Hitomi tried another door, and found it to be the kitchen, and just as she was about to back out, a waiter came in, forcing her into the kitchen and out of his way.
"You there!"
Hitomi flinched, and tried to walk out discretely.
"Don't go anywhere, get back here!" The woman shouted at her, pulling her back. "You're the new washer, right? What the hell are you wearing? Get in to uniform and an apron, good thing you came early, we've got a lot of work for you!" She said, pushing a long black skirt, a white shirt, and two aprons into her hands. The woman, bossy and sassy, stared at Hitomi for a second, her brown, outrageously curly hair falling into dangerous eyes. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work!"
She walked away, leaving Hitomi blank. The flabbergasted girl was quickly loaded up with dishes in her arms by busy waiters. She piled the 'uniform' beside her feet, pulled her cloak off and an apron on, and started to wash.
***********************************************************
"Bet you're mad at me, huh?" Hitomi asked, trying to compensate for leaving Yori outside and alone all day. The horse stared at her with fiery eyes, obviously not in a pleasant mood. "Well, I did get some money," Hitomi opened her hand to reveal some coins, and she was wearing the black skirt the woman that ran the kitchen gave her, so as to blend in more with the population. But she retained her navy long-sleeved shirt, maybe as something to keep her in her mind, that Earth was just a sky away.
Again, that stupid optimism.
"I also raided their pantry, and I found these." Hitomi revealed from her sack a handful of sugar cubes, and some odd-looking fruits and vegetables. Yori, quite intrigued by this, nudged Hitomi, suddenly very forgiving.
Hitomi led him away from the homes and sneaked out of the gates, venturing east and towards the back of the city, towards a lofty, serene castle. She sat over by the river where they had traveled earlier that day, fatigued and famished. Yori, after a delightful sugary snack, pranced off like a kid to munch on lush grass, leaving Hitomi pondering whether to eat the foods she had stolen. Figuring a restaurant wouldn't exactly serve poisonous foods; she bit into a red fruit.
It tasted old.
Not 'aged' old, but like when you bite into something you haven't eaten in years, and it's new and refreshing and a strong taste in your mouth, and it's new and old all at the same time, but stronger and more potent.
Hitomi shook her head. This couldn't be real. Wasn't it just yesterday she laid on her bed, warm and alone, with no stupid war, no crazy encounters, or insane albinos? While she ate, the girl hummed a familiar tune, then glided into a Japanese song her grandmother taught her, trying to comfort herself.
****************************************************
I once watched the rain
As it fell on my eyes,
And washed my cold tears away.
Weren't you that gray cloud?
That watched over me,
When sad rain came pouring down?
I knew on that day,
When you stretched out your wings,
I'd never see you again.
When I opened my arms,
And ran from the gates,
Our hearts seemed to still endear.
*****************************************************
It was cold.
Hitomi's eyes flew open, and, being blind from the thick black of night, she could see nothing, but feel everything. A high flute played in her ear, the wind blowing some tune. The muddy ground was cold and wet, and she was soaked. Her hair was dripping all down her back, and her skirt and shirt were caked in brown dirt.
"Yori!" Hitomi screamed, even though she knew nothing was wrong about the night, but what was this feeling? Like the world was about to die? "Yori!"
Her chest heaved with labored breathing. Why was this happening? She hadn't moved for at least six hours. Something didn't feel right; every part of her was constricted with anxiety. "Yori!"
Two white, flashlight eyes peered through the brush, staring at the panicking figure. Hitomi swallowed hard, frantically flailing her arms around to feel for the animal.
"Where've you been?" The horse's warm nose rubbed her shoulder, and Hitomi could feel the shivering nervousness against Yori's skin. The white eyes moved down, and Hitomi heard the thick slosh of feet in the water, that and the steady, hypnotizing eyes, the wind, the dark, she felt heavy and dead.
Within a rush, Yori bit Hitomi's arm, bringing her back to her body, and Hitomi, heaving like a hunted prey, pulled herself onto the horse, holding onto the reins, praying, not daring to look back, pushing Yori ahead blindly, diving into the darkness.
A light among all, the city bloomed out in front of her, the steep incline of the hill rearing Yori back, causing Hitomi to fall off into the tall grass. Those white eyes were right behind the two, dark and pure, heavy and light.
Something glimmered under the moon's light, echoing some black image to red steel . . .
Hitomi stood shakily, limbs protruding awkwardly, all bent, ready to pounce.
A clean dividing cut, perfectly deadly.
******************************************************
Geore was a good soldier. Really, he was. He never did anything out of the ordinary; he never had been in a war. Never killed anyone, or anything. He was not even nineteen when he joined the Fanelian army, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Every morning he left his house, his wife, his baby daughter, and went and stood at his post at the gate, staring at people as they came and went, an endless sea of red faces, old and new, tired, aged, and young. It was the same every year that passed, always the same. Geore never had to worry about the destruction or rebuilding of Fanelia, he was gone when it happened, and never returned until two years ago, when he joined the army.
Now, you see, Geore doesn't have any experience.
He doesn't even think he could survive a regular alleyway thug.
And with the war, the sickness, the bloodshed growing closer and closer everyday . . .
It doesn't look that hopeful for our friend Geore.
Geore sat there, his assigned position on the ramparts, staring out into the dark void of the trees, tired and lazy. Balgus sat shadowing the light of the tower on the opposite side of the gate, watching out into the forest, his keen eyes wary of the wind that gently blew against the grass, the soft steps of some animal, the whoosh of a bird's wings. Every soldier stood on guard of the city these days, but they didn't complain. They switched out posts, and were allowed to go home for a short while. But, every night, nothing seemed to happen, no endless wave of dark armor-clad forces to burn Fanelia to the ground. Were they really going to attack? Was it all a hoax? Balgus watched as the soldiers spread the rumors, as if they actually knew what was happening. But he did, in the pit of his heart, Balgus was sure: this wasn't going to be some simple war with easily seen motives.
Balgus's heart skipped, as he knocked over his chair to lean out the window, noticing a small amount of soldiers crowding around a filthy looking horse, carrying some brown heap on its back. Balgus ran down the stairs to the gate, pushing the soldiers out of the way, trying to see what was the commotion. A small lock of blonde hair peeked out from the brown pile upon the horse, and a soldier from Balgus's side, Geore, picked up the pathetic creature, moving the cloth off of the figure's face.
"Move away!" Balgus ordered, Geore walking behind him, the cold victim in his arms. "Take the girl to the hospital, Geore." Balgus said, taking the horse forcefully by the reins. "She's an escapee. Take a few guards to watch after her, she might be dangerous." With that, he pulled Yori away, despite the horse's resistance.
"What's wrong with you? Aren't you Allen's horse?" Balgus muttered.
Hitomi's eyes peered out of her heavy lids, trying to distinguish some familiar image. Yori's retreating, blurry form was her last sight, the oppressive heaviness taking over her body.
**********************************************************
Well, that's all for today! ^___^ I'm so glad I finally finished this chapter, it took me a long time. Hope ya'll enjoyed it, so tell me what you think!
Please save our Earth, Cev
