More background info.: Merle is 2 years younger than Van. Balgas is still alive. Also change of info. they are at the end of the Destiny War it's not completely over, and Zaibach is bothering Anatopia because it wouldn't be their ally.
And Escaflowne is not mine
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'Please Hito-chan don't do anything you'll regret' pleaded Hope.
'Don't worry, today might be fun after all' came Hitomi's evil laugh.
'Gaea help you' sighed Hope.
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"Good morning Princess,"
"Hello, Hitomi,"
"How are you today Princess Hitomi," came the greetings of the townspeople. And Hitomi replied back warmly.
"Looks like our friend is well known, huh" whispered Jason to an amused Merle.
"Well it just so happens that I'd rather spend time with my people rather than some selfish prince or king," Hitomi snapped back , who heard his comment and was rather annoyed. Jason just blushed and shut his mouth, Merle laughing at him the whole time, Van the meantime just held his tongue.
While they had their tour of the palace Hitomi had had an argument over some stuff (mainly whether a princess should be allowed to fight in war or not) and Hitomi *accidentally* pushed Van into the pond, which caused him to have to walk around in wet clothes the whole day and Hitomi to get a tongue-lashing from Hope. Van had smartly decided not to say anything and get revenge on Hitomi later. They were now going through the market place and the rest of the kingdom.
"This is the orphanage and where I take my leave," came Hitomi's voice.
"Hey what about the rest of our tour," demanded Merle.
"Well you're a beast person so you should have no problems. You can mentally talk to Hope and translate for the others, she knows Anatopia as good as I do. I hope you enjoy the rest of your tour. When you finish I will most likely be in the training arena training the soldiers. Good bye." answered Hitomi as she began to walk toward the orphanage door.
'Please Hope, I promise I'll make it up to you later' Hitomi mentally begged Hope.
'Fine, but you better hope your father doesn't find out or you're dead. I'll see you at the palace, but...' the conversation was cut off by 2 little squealing voices coming from the orphanage door.
"Hito-chan!"
"Tomi!" cried two little children, one a blond haired blue eyed girl and a black haired brown eyed boy. They ran up to Hitomi and grabbed onto her legs preventing her from moving.
"Hi Iris, Daren. How are you two doing today?" she asked smiling as she bent down and picked them both up and turned back to a confused Merle, "I'm sure Hope will explain everything, I'll see you soon." She then walked into the orphanage, leaving three dumbfounded people.
'Well, shall we begin where we left off' Hope asked Merle.
'Wh.. Who are you? What are you doing in my head' demanded Merle unnerved by the voice.
'It's me Hope we better finish were we left off or your tour'
'This will take some getting used to. Why can you only talk to beast people' asked Merle.
'Let's just say that I'm not what I seem, that's all you need to know for now'
*~~4 hours later~~~~~*
"All right move it, move it, move it! It's no time to be lazy, move your butts, how can you call yourselves an army, a group of babies could beat you. Come on move those legs. Jaggers jump through that fire loop higher, you'll catch your clothes on fire and you won't be saving anyone, not even yourself. Millers crawl under those wires faster, how are you supposed to sneak up on Zaibach if you can't get through a simple trap. Adam look out for that step it's booby trapped can't you see, open your eyes." ordered Hitomi as she walked through the training arena correcting the soldiers' new training exercises.
"Princess, your father wishes to see you," called Lisa, one of Hitomi's generals.
"Ok Lisa, but how many times do I have to tell you to call me Hitomi, get it right next time or else," joked Hitomi.
"Sir yes sir Hitomi," laughed Lisa giving a mock salute.
"Watch these oafs for me while I'm gone will you, they've got a long way to go before they'll get anywhere."
"Ok, good luck with your father, everyone knows about your little confrontation at breakfast today and your father and his advisers are steaming mad,"
"Thanks, bye"
*~~Back to our three Fanelians and wolf. 4 Hours later~~~~*
'Gosh you sure can shop' breathed Hope as she was EXHAUSTED from how much Merle could shop in one day, not really used to it since Hitomi HATED shopping of any kind except for weapons.
'Well you need to get to know me better huh.' Merle mentally remarked, finally getting used to Hope's voice in her head.
"Merle are you done yet? Jason and I are starving. If you would be so kind as to ask Hope for a good place to eat we'd be much obliged." snapped a tired and annoyed Van.
"Sorry," squeaked Merle, "I didn't notice how fast the time went. You're right, I'm hungry too."
'Let's go to the Mystic Rose. It's is a pretty good place and they have really good deer meat there.' suggested Hope licking her chops.
"The Mystic Rose it is" cheered Merle already starting off down the road after Hope.
"Girls!" muttered Jason, "does she ever get tired? I swear I'm going to fall down any minute if I don't sit down soon."
"Hold on were almost there," replied Van.
"Mmmmmmmmmm, that was so good." exclaimed Merle not even aware of the staring trio.
'Sure can eat can't ya?' snickered Hope.
"Hey I didn't eat that much," snapped Merle, not noticing she said it out loud.
"Well I think 5 plates of meat and rice would be considered a lot." chided Jason.
"You just shut up Jason, at least I didn't act like a pig once we started eating, look at the food all over the place."
"Hey! that was your doing"
"Was not"
"Was too"
"not"
"too"
"NOT"
"TOO.."
"SHUT UP!!" yelled Van.
"Gosh Van you didn't have to yell," scolded Merle, rubbing her ears. (Hope does a little anime sweat drop)
'Well that was the only way to get through your bickering' replied Hope.
'Who asked you' barked Merle.
*~~~Back to Hitomi~~~~~~~~*
"Yes father?" asked Hitomi after she walked into the throne room and kneeled in front of the king.
"Rise Hitomi, why are you not with our guests, where are they?" King Aaron asked, alarmed at what his daughter could have done out of her short temper.
"Don't worry father," Hitomi quickly replied as she stood up, "I left them with Hope. They should be Ok. Hope is not what she seems, they're safe with her."
"I guess I'll just have to take your word for it, huh" he sighed.
"Looks like you have no choice," muttered Hitomi more to herself than her father.
"Care to repeat Hitomi?" asked an annoyed king.
"No sir,"
"Well then how is the training program going?"
"It's moving along nicely sir. With your permission I ask to take the troops into Dragon Mountain where they will have to survive on their own for a 1/2 rotation of the Mystic Moon. Lisa and I shall accompany them and oversee that no one meets their end there." asked Hitomi in a monotone voice, no tinkling of emotion in it.
"Permission granted. You shall leave in 7 days. Dismissed."
Hitomi bowed and left the throne room.
"Whatever happened to my little innocent Hitomi" sighed Aaron, his heart breaking at how suddenly his daughter was forced to grow up.
"Years of war and self blame for not preventing her mother's death, your majesty," replied Lisa, who came in to see what had taken Hitomi so long.
"Lisa you have been told 100's if not 1000's of times not to call Hitomi and me majesty. To us you are a part of the family and do not need to be so formal,"
"Thank you sir, I better head back before Hitomi has MY head for leaving the troops unsupervised. Good day sir"
"You too Lisa,"
*~~Back to the wonderful four at about midday~~*
'Hope why is Hitomi so distant from everyone' asked Merle as she twirled a flower with her paw. After splitting up the argument they had gone to Weeping Goddess Lake and decided to take a rest.
' Well I don't know if I should be the one to tell you, but I might as well, I doubt Hitomi will.
After her mother's funeral she began to blame herself for her mother's death and my mother as well. She took me in and treated me more like a sister than a pet. She was determined to make herself stronger so as to never let anyone hurt her like that again. The few people she let in she made sure to never let them out of her sight for too long afraid that they would get shot too.
She began training privately with one of the soldiers, because she knew her father would object. How she persuaded the soldier to teach her I doubt I'll ever know, not that I really want to. When she turned 9 she was able to surpass the soldier with the sword as well as bow and arrow. Although soon her father got wind of her 4 years of private training. At first he was outraged and almost had the soldier executed, but Hitomi stopped him before that happened and rewarded the soldier greatly. She made I guess you'd say a bargain with her father that if she were allowed to have a swordsmaster to help improve her skills to their peak she would bring Anatopia's army to the top. At the beginning Aaron thought it was all a joke and allowed her to do it thinking she would give up in a short amount of time, but soon he saw how well she was improving and how determined she was. He got her many swordsmasters to train her only to find out she could surpass the skills of practically every one of them by the age of 12. Everyone was truly impressed.
After her 13th birthday, Hitomi disappeared' Hope stuttered, pain and sorrow etched in her voice, 'she disappeared for about 12 rotations of the Mystic Moon (if you haven't figured it out each rotation is a month.) No one knew where she went. Everyone was depressed, the land became dead and barren the people heart broken and angry, the animals stayed in their homes never leaving all sad at the crisis. It was as if the spirits of Anatopia themselves were weeping over her disappearance.
King Aaron sent out 100s of search parties to try and find her, no one was really sure how or when she disappeared. Many of the neighboring countries were willing to help in the search, you probably heard rumors about it.' Hope had to stop to regain herself because of all the raw emotions coming back, also making Merle feel sad, 'Close to when they were going to declare her dead she turned up deep in the dangerous outlands of Anatopia in which the evilest of creatures lived. She was bruised and beaten and practically dead, no one knew how she survived so long on her own. It took her a year to open back up to me even the littlest bit like before but whatever happened no one will ever know. She refuses to talk about it, even now, it left some sort of scar on her soul that will never go away. She became more closed up, independent, more detached from everyone, no longer radiating life around her like before. Something happened, something that scared her, something that no one will ever be able to understand.' (Merle has been translating for Van and Jason the whole time ^_^)
"I'm so sorry," Merle whispered out loud close to tears herself, still trying to absorb everything.
"She seems just fine to me," smirked Jason, replaying the water incident earlier that day.
'You'll see what I mean later today at dinner and such. She's really good at covering up her feelings, she doesn't like anyone to see her weak or dependent on anybody. To her if there's no pain, then no gain.' replied Hope to Merle who translated to Jason.
"I wonder if we'll ever know what happened," thought Van out loud.
"Van you're the last person she'd ever tell anything to," laughed Jason.
"Come on we'd better head back," stated Merle who had been silent that whole time.
~Back to Hitomi~
"Listen up troops," barked Hitomi, gaining the attention of every person there, the soldiers all stopped what they were doing and stood in a straight line in front of Hitomi.
"In 7 days every one of you will be going on quest into Dragon Mountain in which you shall have to survive 1/2 a rotation of the Mystic Moon on your own," she was cut off by the nervous murmurings of the soldiers, who had heard terrifying stories of the mountain and didn't really want to go there, the very place that the princess had been found 2 years ago.
"Silence!" barked Hitomi, "Everyone will need to pack a bag of bare necessities. A change of clothing, sword, bow and arrows, food, and one thin blanket. On the mountain there will be various traps set all over the place in which you shall have to learn to avoid, wild animals and demons you will have to fight off, dragons that you'll need to avoid, and last but most likely not least surviving there all on its own. I will place you in different places all along the mountain, you'll have to find and help one another if you care to survive, team work is also an important skill you shall all need to learn thoroughly. Lisa and I will be scouting and spying on all of you the whole time, another thing you shall need to learn to do is be able to catch a spy hidden beyond your sight. If you are able to catch one of us you shall be given a clue that will improve your chance of survival. Make sure to wear the right type of clothing, and pack foods that you will be able to easily carry and prepare, though you will have to depend on your skills to find and catch edible foods while out there. Now back to your training and heed my warning, be prepared to expect the unexpected. Dismissed." cautioned Hitomi before going back to watching and helping the soldiers train.
Van and company had arrived just in time to hear her speech and were shocked by it.
'Hitomi are you sure, a lot of them will surly die, you can't be serious!' screamed Hope in Hitomi's head causing Hitomi to slightly wince.
'Don't worry, I'll be out there with them. I'll make sure they make it out alive, calm down Hope, honestly you're becoming too soft'
"She's right though your majesty," replied Merle (one last time "" means talking out loud '' means in thought. _*)
"Call me Hitomi, and I know what I am doing thank you," replied Hitomi dryly. " I suggest we head back to the castle to wash up it's about time for dinner." facing back to the soldiers, "Troops you're dismissed, you'll meet back hear tomorrow at sunrise I suggest you get some rest tonight you'll need it."
~Hitomi's room before dinner~
'Hitomi please you can't do this, it's reckless, irresponsible, you just can't its suicide. Please listen to me,' begged Hope.
'Hope it's no use arguing, you're coming too anyway so there's nothing you can do about it, unless you want to stay behind.'
'No! yet I get the feeling that this doesn't have to do with just training the soldiers, you want to get away from Van don't you, or maybe something to do with why you disappeared those 2 years ago,' suggested Hope lightly.
'Hope drop it I said that no one is to talk about it and you will respect my wishes, got it' Hitomi barked, her temper beginning to rise. All of a sudden there came a shy knock at the door much to Hope's relief.
"Come in," shouted Hitomi. She heard the door open and turned around to see a barley frightened Merle.
Merle entered the room, a bit disturbed by the shout. She opened the door and was not at all surprised at the way the room was decorated. All along the walls were swords and bows of different kinds. A big canopy bed in the center, with green and blue covers and pillows, a beautiful phoenix with a rose in the background, the Anatopian crest, engraved into the head and foot board. A smaller circular shaped bed at the foot of it. A large closet that was partly open in which Merle could see many pants and shirts yet no sign of any dresses. The room looked more like a training room than a bedroom. There was a large space in the center of the room, where in Merle's opinion Hitomi probably practiced her sword fighting. There was also a door leading to a large balcony facing the inner gardens of the palace and another leading to a bathing chamber.
"Hitomi, um, I was wondering if we could talk a little bit, get to know each other." stuttered Merle before noticing Hope silently leave the room. " I also wanted to apologize for earlier today, it was none of my business to say that."
"There's no need to apologize, sit down" replied Hitomi pointing to a chair beside the bed.
"Thank you, I know you probably won't be happy but Hope told us about the time when you disappeared and well I would like to be your friend, that is if you'll let."
"Sure, if you want," answered Hitomi, a bit shocked. The girls spent the rest of the time before dinner talking, all tension in the room gone.
