Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own anything except the OCs and storyline.
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Episode #2
The Prince Of Darkness
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"How is this possible?" Van stammered.
"I-I don't know," Hitomi replied. "I was on my way to school and Yukari told me I was disappearing. Then, that light appeared and carried me away again."
Damen turned to his king, "My Lord, if we don't move on through the night, we won't get to Astoria in time. We have no horse for this girl to ride."
"She shall ride with me on my horse," Van said, genuinely smiling for the first time since Hitomi left half a year ago.
Hitomi smiled back at him and mounted behind him silently. As she hooked her arms around his chest, she had a sense of completion. Now that she was with him, she was whole.
Van felt Hitomi's warm hands touch his chest. He breathed in deeply. How many times he had wished for this, how many times he moaned for this girl's sweet touch. Now, he would have it, and never let it go ever again.
Hitomi was exhilarated to hear Van breath so deeply from the littlest thing. She had wished to hold him like his for all those cold, lonely nights: ever since she had left Gaea. The day after she did leave, she regretted it and had ever since.
* * * * *
The party reached Palas by dawn. Van hated having to wake up his Hitomi from her deep sleep (her head resting on the back of his right shoulder). His heart melted when she yawned slightly and gave him a peck on the cheek.
About three hours later, Van, Damen, and Merle were summoned to the great hall of Astoria's palace to attend the meeting. Hitomi, however, was refused admittance. Van was about ready to charge into Dryden's throne room and force him to let Hitomi into the hall! That is, until Hitomi talked him out of it and said that she would spend the day wandering around the bizarre. He reluctantly agreed, gave her twenty-nine gold pieces to spend, and walked into the hall, the great wooden doors closing behind him.
Hitomi knew that Van would be busy for the rest of the day. So she amused herself by walking round the bizarre as she said she would, trying to haggle things for a lower price. Some people in the bizarre found her clothes funny and they all began to laugh at her, until they learned the she was favoured by King Dryden, King Van, Queen Millerna, Lady Aeries, and poor King Aston. At that time, they started to suck up to her. Of course, she didn't fall for any of it, being the smart girl that she was.
As Hitomi passed by a shop, she saw an interesting charm. The design was of a swirling pattern, with a misty crystal sphere in the centre of the heart shaped charm. She was captivated by its beauty. She then turned to the shopkeeper.
"Excuse me, how much is this?" she asked, holding up the charm.
The old, wizened shopkeeper looked at her, a bushy eyebrow raised, "It's not for sale..."
"But, it's out to look at," Hitomi complained. "Surely it's for sale, since it's displayed!"
He glared at her from behind his thick, gray beard, and eyed her clothing, "... Very well... It's usually fifty gold pieces. You can have it for twenty."
Hitomi opened up her bag and took out twenty gold pieces. She handed them over, watched him count them, and put her charm around her neck where her old pendant used to hang. She then went to the harbour, to look out at the sea. That familiar sight of blue colliding with the horizon always made her feel happy and young. Her heart raced as she stopped to admire the view of the ocean. How clean and pure it looked to the eye!
Little did Hitomi notice a tall, shadowy figure following her every movement. It crept along the corners of buildings like a snake. Curling about the grass hiding from light whenever possible. Its shadow that the sun made on building's stones was that of a wraith. Anorexic, dark, with cold, gray eyes that could see anything as prey.
* * * * *
It was near the evening when Hitomi returned to the palace, and even then the undetected shadow still hung fresh upon her. Though it stopped when it saw the company come out from the hall and it vanished into thin air.
"How did it go?" Hitomi asked.
"It went better then we expected," Van said cheerfully.
"Indeed," Dryden added when he emerged from the hall.
"Look what I got down in the bizarre!" Hitomi said, flashing her new charm at them.
"It's gorgeous!" Millerna replied, bending forward slightly to examine the charm.
"I know. It's so exquisite. And look, it looks almost like my old one that I gave you, Van! See!" Hitomi pointed to he pendant around Van's neck.
To all who looked at the comparison, there was hardly any other differences (besides the heart shape and the crystal) between Hitomi's new pendant and the one Van carried round his neck. They were so similar, it was a bit scary.
"Is this a private conversation, or can anyone join in?" asked a cheery voice.
They all turned to see Celena and Allen standing in the corridor.
"Allen!" Hitomi yelled as she ran to give him a hug.
"Easy there! You'll mess up Allen's hair! I spent all day combing it out so it would be just right," Celena held her sides as she laughed. "Very funny, Celena," Allen said calmly. "Hitomi, this is my sister, Celena."
Hitomi looked at the young woman, recognizing her, 'I remember you... Dilandau.'
"My dear brother has told me all about you, Hitomi Kanzaki!" Celena replied. "What you did, for myself as well as Gaea."
Hitomi looked fondly at her friends, noticing in them a new feeling she had not sensed in them before, when she first met them. The feeling that they had grown too fast. A cold, grim reality passed over her like a wave upon the sand of some far away beach. They had grown for her. So she would know that she didn't make them up in her mind. Their growth told her hat Gaea was real. Like any other place.
Hitomi excused herself hurriedly. She walked from the palace and onto the empty streets. She felt rain falling on her head. Yes, it was raining. It felt the same way deep in her heart. She heard footsteps approaching, she thought it might be Van or Allen. Instead, when she turned round, she saw a dark towering man looking down at her with cold, gray eyes, seemingly empty of any emotion! She gasped.
"You — you are the one who possesses the pendants," the dark man whispered in a grim, deep voice, as if he were speaking from under the earth.
"You mean... my pendants?" Hitomi asked.
"Yes," he answered.
"I — I don't have them!" she said.
"But you have one," he pointed to her neck, seeing the charm she had bought. "One... is all I need."
"I won't give you my charm. I don't know anything about you," Hitomi explained.
"Very well," the man replied. "My name is Scython, and I have been looking for you for a very long time, Hitomi Kanzaki. It was my duty to find you and tell you of the danger Gaea faces. This danger is not of flesh and blood, as it would have you believe. This enemy is a god! "A god!" Hitomi repeated.
"Yes. This god is known to lesser beings as 'The Prince Of Darkness.' A cruel and malicious god who loves nothing more than to make living things suffer needlessly. He rules the netherworld. He holds in his hand the power to control destiny itself! Much like Dornkirk was once able to do.
"I sought you out because of that. You had the power to stop Dornkirk. The Dark One knows of your skills, just as I do! He knows that you can control destiny as well as he! He will come to you in your dreams, and ask you to join him! But no matter what, you must never join him, or trust him in any way. He will use that weakness against you and the ones you love.
"The two pendants are the keys to the netherworld. If you can merge them, they will become a weapon that can be wielded by the Princess of Light, who will be revealed at that time. Once the Princess takes hold of this mighty weapon, The Dark Prince shall be locked forever in the netherworld."
"How do you know all this?" Hitomi asked, only half conscious of her mouth moving.
"Because, for ages uncounted, I have fought him. Each time failing. For he, too, seeks you. In order for him to destroy Gaea and the Mystic Moon, as he plans to do, he needs to use you: a Streamer, one whom destiny flows through.
"He will channel his evil through your body, and your power will become corrupt, your life forfeit to the Light. Because of that, he will have your power of changing destiny added to his own, for he owns all that is corrupt and evil. You are the focus point in this matter! Both the army of the Light, and the Dark, wish to claim you as their property, so they can control you for their own purposes." "I–I'm.. the focus point?" Hitomi said, trying not to believe what she was being told.
"Yes. Please, don't take up with him! He will use you and kill all who you know!" Then, Scython faded away as his last word echoed through the empty street.
* * * * *
"Hitomi!" Van called into the rain.
There was no answer but the roaring of thunder and the crashing of lightning.
"Hitomi!" Celena yelled. "Come inside!"
The wind whistling through the trees was the only reply.
"You two should come off the balcony," Millerna said. "She probably just got caught in the storm and besides, you'll catch a cold."
'Where are you, Hitomi?' Van thought as he sat down in the comforts of a velvet chair in the palace's main dining hall.
"Van?" Millerna asked.
"Hmm?" Van looked over at Millerna curiously.
"We'll watch until she comes back, if it helps ease you."
"Thank you, Millerna," Van said, closing his eyes to fall asleep in the chair.
* * * * *
The rain poured down hard on the dark, bleak road as Hitomi walked. Was what Scython said really true, or had he been lying? How could she be sure? The road she walked along was curving and narrow and was paved with wet mud. At the left side of the road, there was a deep ditch. Her mind went in circles, from Scython's tale to Scython's tale again. The situation she faced now was more than she could handle. It would be impossible to fight a god unless you were a god, and a god she was not. How was she to resist a god when she was not one herself?
At that moment, Hitomi's shoe slipped on mud and she landed on wet dirt. She had such momentum that she slipped right over edge of the ditch! She covered her face with her arms. She felt cold stones and pebbles scraping her flesh! Her limbs were being bumped and bruised by branches and rocks, dirt and loose wood on the ground. She felt a pang of pain as a large piece of wood made a long gash along her stomach, through her jacket and shirt!
She landed at the bottom of the ditch on her back. She couldn't move. Her left leg was bleeding badly, and her head was reeling. She heard a noise from behind her, a cracking of twigs and leaves. Her eyes tried to peer around, but she couldn't move her head so she just lay there shaking in fear, trying, in vain, to play dead.
The noise grew louder and above her, another dark man, not Scython, for this man had icy blue eyes that stared at her. For an instant, she saw a glimpse of flashing white teeth smiling down at her wickedly as the light of the moons caught the man's lips curving back.
Hitomi tried to scream, but he hit her over the head with his fist, and she was unconscious. Then, he grabbed the back of her collar and, with one hand, pulled her body into the blackness of the woods at the bottom of the ditch.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Episode #2
The Prince Of Darkness
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"How is this possible?" Van stammered.
"I-I don't know," Hitomi replied. "I was on my way to school and Yukari told me I was disappearing. Then, that light appeared and carried me away again."
Damen turned to his king, "My Lord, if we don't move on through the night, we won't get to Astoria in time. We have no horse for this girl to ride."
"She shall ride with me on my horse," Van said, genuinely smiling for the first time since Hitomi left half a year ago.
Hitomi smiled back at him and mounted behind him silently. As she hooked her arms around his chest, she had a sense of completion. Now that she was with him, she was whole.
Van felt Hitomi's warm hands touch his chest. He breathed in deeply. How many times he had wished for this, how many times he moaned for this girl's sweet touch. Now, he would have it, and never let it go ever again.
Hitomi was exhilarated to hear Van breath so deeply from the littlest thing. She had wished to hold him like his for all those cold, lonely nights: ever since she had left Gaea. The day after she did leave, she regretted it and had ever since.
* * * * *
The party reached Palas by dawn. Van hated having to wake up his Hitomi from her deep sleep (her head resting on the back of his right shoulder). His heart melted when she yawned slightly and gave him a peck on the cheek.
About three hours later, Van, Damen, and Merle were summoned to the great hall of Astoria's palace to attend the meeting. Hitomi, however, was refused admittance. Van was about ready to charge into Dryden's throne room and force him to let Hitomi into the hall! That is, until Hitomi talked him out of it and said that she would spend the day wandering around the bizarre. He reluctantly agreed, gave her twenty-nine gold pieces to spend, and walked into the hall, the great wooden doors closing behind him.
Hitomi knew that Van would be busy for the rest of the day. So she amused herself by walking round the bizarre as she said she would, trying to haggle things for a lower price. Some people in the bizarre found her clothes funny and they all began to laugh at her, until they learned the she was favoured by King Dryden, King Van, Queen Millerna, Lady Aeries, and poor King Aston. At that time, they started to suck up to her. Of course, she didn't fall for any of it, being the smart girl that she was.
As Hitomi passed by a shop, she saw an interesting charm. The design was of a swirling pattern, with a misty crystal sphere in the centre of the heart shaped charm. She was captivated by its beauty. She then turned to the shopkeeper.
"Excuse me, how much is this?" she asked, holding up the charm.
The old, wizened shopkeeper looked at her, a bushy eyebrow raised, "It's not for sale..."
"But, it's out to look at," Hitomi complained. "Surely it's for sale, since it's displayed!"
He glared at her from behind his thick, gray beard, and eyed her clothing, "... Very well... It's usually fifty gold pieces. You can have it for twenty."
Hitomi opened up her bag and took out twenty gold pieces. She handed them over, watched him count them, and put her charm around her neck where her old pendant used to hang. She then went to the harbour, to look out at the sea. That familiar sight of blue colliding with the horizon always made her feel happy and young. Her heart raced as she stopped to admire the view of the ocean. How clean and pure it looked to the eye!
Little did Hitomi notice a tall, shadowy figure following her every movement. It crept along the corners of buildings like a snake. Curling about the grass hiding from light whenever possible. Its shadow that the sun made on building's stones was that of a wraith. Anorexic, dark, with cold, gray eyes that could see anything as prey.
* * * * *
It was near the evening when Hitomi returned to the palace, and even then the undetected shadow still hung fresh upon her. Though it stopped when it saw the company come out from the hall and it vanished into thin air.
"How did it go?" Hitomi asked.
"It went better then we expected," Van said cheerfully.
"Indeed," Dryden added when he emerged from the hall.
"Look what I got down in the bizarre!" Hitomi said, flashing her new charm at them.
"It's gorgeous!" Millerna replied, bending forward slightly to examine the charm.
"I know. It's so exquisite. And look, it looks almost like my old one that I gave you, Van! See!" Hitomi pointed to he pendant around Van's neck.
To all who looked at the comparison, there was hardly any other differences (besides the heart shape and the crystal) between Hitomi's new pendant and the one Van carried round his neck. They were so similar, it was a bit scary.
"Is this a private conversation, or can anyone join in?" asked a cheery voice.
They all turned to see Celena and Allen standing in the corridor.
"Allen!" Hitomi yelled as she ran to give him a hug.
"Easy there! You'll mess up Allen's hair! I spent all day combing it out so it would be just right," Celena held her sides as she laughed. "Very funny, Celena," Allen said calmly. "Hitomi, this is my sister, Celena."
Hitomi looked at the young woman, recognizing her, 'I remember you... Dilandau.'
"My dear brother has told me all about you, Hitomi Kanzaki!" Celena replied. "What you did, for myself as well as Gaea."
Hitomi looked fondly at her friends, noticing in them a new feeling she had not sensed in them before, when she first met them. The feeling that they had grown too fast. A cold, grim reality passed over her like a wave upon the sand of some far away beach. They had grown for her. So she would know that she didn't make them up in her mind. Their growth told her hat Gaea was real. Like any other place.
Hitomi excused herself hurriedly. She walked from the palace and onto the empty streets. She felt rain falling on her head. Yes, it was raining. It felt the same way deep in her heart. She heard footsteps approaching, she thought it might be Van or Allen. Instead, when she turned round, she saw a dark towering man looking down at her with cold, gray eyes, seemingly empty of any emotion! She gasped.
"You — you are the one who possesses the pendants," the dark man whispered in a grim, deep voice, as if he were speaking from under the earth.
"You mean... my pendants?" Hitomi asked.
"Yes," he answered.
"I — I don't have them!" she said.
"But you have one," he pointed to her neck, seeing the charm she had bought. "One... is all I need."
"I won't give you my charm. I don't know anything about you," Hitomi explained.
"Very well," the man replied. "My name is Scython, and I have been looking for you for a very long time, Hitomi Kanzaki. It was my duty to find you and tell you of the danger Gaea faces. This danger is not of flesh and blood, as it would have you believe. This enemy is a god! "A god!" Hitomi repeated.
"Yes. This god is known to lesser beings as 'The Prince Of Darkness.' A cruel and malicious god who loves nothing more than to make living things suffer needlessly. He rules the netherworld. He holds in his hand the power to control destiny itself! Much like Dornkirk was once able to do.
"I sought you out because of that. You had the power to stop Dornkirk. The Dark One knows of your skills, just as I do! He knows that you can control destiny as well as he! He will come to you in your dreams, and ask you to join him! But no matter what, you must never join him, or trust him in any way. He will use that weakness against you and the ones you love.
"The two pendants are the keys to the netherworld. If you can merge them, they will become a weapon that can be wielded by the Princess of Light, who will be revealed at that time. Once the Princess takes hold of this mighty weapon, The Dark Prince shall be locked forever in the netherworld."
"How do you know all this?" Hitomi asked, only half conscious of her mouth moving.
"Because, for ages uncounted, I have fought him. Each time failing. For he, too, seeks you. In order for him to destroy Gaea and the Mystic Moon, as he plans to do, he needs to use you: a Streamer, one whom destiny flows through.
"He will channel his evil through your body, and your power will become corrupt, your life forfeit to the Light. Because of that, he will have your power of changing destiny added to his own, for he owns all that is corrupt and evil. You are the focus point in this matter! Both the army of the Light, and the Dark, wish to claim you as their property, so they can control you for their own purposes." "I–I'm.. the focus point?" Hitomi said, trying not to believe what she was being told.
"Yes. Please, don't take up with him! He will use you and kill all who you know!" Then, Scython faded away as his last word echoed through the empty street.
* * * * *
"Hitomi!" Van called into the rain.
There was no answer but the roaring of thunder and the crashing of lightning.
"Hitomi!" Celena yelled. "Come inside!"
The wind whistling through the trees was the only reply.
"You two should come off the balcony," Millerna said. "She probably just got caught in the storm and besides, you'll catch a cold."
'Where are you, Hitomi?' Van thought as he sat down in the comforts of a velvet chair in the palace's main dining hall.
"Van?" Millerna asked.
"Hmm?" Van looked over at Millerna curiously.
"We'll watch until she comes back, if it helps ease you."
"Thank you, Millerna," Van said, closing his eyes to fall asleep in the chair.
* * * * *
The rain poured down hard on the dark, bleak road as Hitomi walked. Was what Scython said really true, or had he been lying? How could she be sure? The road she walked along was curving and narrow and was paved with wet mud. At the left side of the road, there was a deep ditch. Her mind went in circles, from Scython's tale to Scython's tale again. The situation she faced now was more than she could handle. It would be impossible to fight a god unless you were a god, and a god she was not. How was she to resist a god when she was not one herself?
At that moment, Hitomi's shoe slipped on mud and she landed on wet dirt. She had such momentum that she slipped right over edge of the ditch! She covered her face with her arms. She felt cold stones and pebbles scraping her flesh! Her limbs were being bumped and bruised by branches and rocks, dirt and loose wood on the ground. She felt a pang of pain as a large piece of wood made a long gash along her stomach, through her jacket and shirt!
She landed at the bottom of the ditch on her back. She couldn't move. Her left leg was bleeding badly, and her head was reeling. She heard a noise from behind her, a cracking of twigs and leaves. Her eyes tried to peer around, but she couldn't move her head so she just lay there shaking in fear, trying, in vain, to play dead.
The noise grew louder and above her, another dark man, not Scython, for this man had icy blue eyes that stared at her. For an instant, she saw a glimpse of flashing white teeth smiling down at her wickedly as the light of the moons caught the man's lips curving back.
Hitomi tried to scream, but he hit her over the head with his fist, and she was unconscious. Then, he grabbed the back of her collar and, with one hand, pulled her body into the blackness of the woods at the bottom of the ditch.
TO BE CONTINUED...