Hey everyone, I know it's been a while, I just didn't have time to work on the story, I'm thinking about starting another one too but I'm not sure. Dumb school though, it has to ruin everything. Well here is chapter 8, I hope you enjoy it. Bye
_____________________________________
~Last Time on NOT WHAT IT SEEMS~
"Listen to me Hitomi it wasn't you fault, you couldn't have done anything, you must understand that," she said more forceful than she had intended. "I must go now Hitomi, but I will return to help soon, we will train in your dreams every night for the next week, goodbye my little flaming bird," with those loving words Queen Serenity disappeared and Hitomi slept soundly for the first time in 2 years.
_______________________________________
Chapter 8
Hitomi woke up the next morning feeling much refreshed. She looked at the small bed on the ground next to her bed and noticed that Hope's wolf form wasn't there. 'I wonder if she's in her room.' thought Hitomi. Whenever Hope felt like staying in her human form for the night, she would sleep in the room next to hers. (on the other side of Hitomi's, not the side as Van's. Van's is on the right hers is on the left) As if on cue Hope came into her room still in her human form with a large pitcher of ice cold water, that Hitomi had a feeling she was going to use on her if she was still asleep.
She heard Hope whisper "Bummer," under her breath before gasping, "Hitomi! You're awake without me having to wake you up, I don't believe it. We need to celebrate!"
"Ah shut up or that water will be going on you instead of me," she replied slightly annoyed.
Catching the playfulness in her voice Hope answered back innocently, "Why no Hitomi, don't think such a thing, I just thought you might be thirsty, so I took it upon myself to get you some nice cold water to drink,"
"Well my DEAR Hope, I'm just not thirsty thank you, so if you don't mind, could you leave so I could get dressed so I won't have my head chopped off for being LATE!"
"I'm going, I'm going, and I just wanted to say that your father wants you to wear a dress to breakfast...,"
'I can just take it off later, or make an illusion of myself wearing one,' thought Hitomi.
"... and not take it off later or make an illusions, he wants you there as you are, not some picture." Hope finished, smirking.
"OUT," hissed Hitomi, her eyes turning completely red from anger. Hope ran out dodging flying objects and laughing the whole while.
"He'll pay someday, I swear it on my deathbed, making me wear a dress, oh he'll pay," she seethed to herself.
'Oh hush now Hitomi, and listen to your father,' came her mother's stern voice, causing her to jump slightly.
"Why's everyone against me," Hitomi screamed, causing Teresa, who had just come in to look at her strangely.
"Talking to yourself again Hitomi?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"Ugh, shut up and what do you want." she demanded stubbornly.
"Just came to make sure you were listening to your father's orders, which you are not, it seems."
"Who died and made him king," she cried out.
"Your mother's father," Teresa laughed and left the room closing the door behind her.
"Idiots," Hitomi mumbled while going through her large closet, 'trying' to find a dress before giving up and decided to use a back up dress, which she kept handy so her father could never yell at her for forgetting. She waved her hand across her body and a floor length white dress appeared. It had long flowing sleeves, a green sash tied around her waist, and a pair of matching white shoes. 'How am I supposed to walk in these,' she thought.
'Try,' came Hope's still laughing voice.
"Ugh!" was all she could say, while she checked to make sure she still had her pendent around her neck and brushed her tangled up hair.
"Hurry up Hitomi," came Merle's voice as she knocked on her door.
"I'm coming," she shouted and opened the door following Merle to the breakfast room. Two guards bowed and opened the large wooden doors for them. When they entered, Hitomi noticed Merle give Hope a quizzical glance and Jason and Van gave her understanding looks, she gave Merle a confused look before understanding. "That's Hope, Merle," she whispered as Merle sat down beside her, "She decided to stay in her human form, she's part of the Wolf Spirits tribe." She had a feeling it was already explained to Van and Jason, but what bugged her was the look in Van's brownish red eyes. It was as if there was something deeper that he knew about Hope that neither of them would tell her.
"Oh," was Merle's only answer, her blue eyes holding an understanding look. Suddenly Merle looked over at Jason, whose eyes hadn't left Hope since she had sat down, "I think Jason's in love," she laughed to Hitomi and Lisa, who had just come and sat down next to Merle. They both just smiled and then laughed when Hope caught him staring at her. They both turned their gaze back to their food and blushed.
"Lovebirds," snickered Lisa, causing everyone at the table to start laughing.
"Shut up," Jason mumbled then noticed Van staring at Hitomi and gave him a knowing look which caused Van to also start blushing. The rest of the meal went uneventful, except for Merle's questions about Hope.
After everyone finished Hitomi stood up and announced, "Everyone who's going with me to Dragon Mountain will be training nonstop all day, so follow me," as she began to walk out the room she eyed Van and Jason wearily then turned and left to change 'Too bad I don't have to keep that dress on all day after all,' she thought happily.
When they approached the training arena Lisa went to get the troops for a long day of endless and tiring training. Meanwhile Hope was explaining everything that was going to happen to Van and Jason, and Hitomi was setting up the training field with various dangerous traps and illusions. After that she got out the weapons and waited for all the soldiers to arrive.
"Troops, pay attention," she shouted, all the men got into straight lines and listened to what she had to say. "Today and the next 6 days you will go through nonstop training to prepare you for the worst, you will train from sunrise to midnight, you will only be given three 10 minute breaks each day to eat and rest so I suggest you use them wisely. This may seem crazy and uncalled for, but this is strictly your choice, any man that's not up to it can back out know, no one is forcing you to do this." Yet no one seemed to want to back out, they were all too loyal to their princess and country to want to turn chicken and leave. "Believe me troops, when I say this I mean it, you'll need every single bit of training you can squeeze in and more, what you'll see in Dragon Mountain will be beyond what your imagination could ever conjure. You'll meet dragons, gargoyles, (Hitomi mentally shuddered at the word yet no one but Hope, Lisa, and Van noticed.) trolls, golems, monolacks, gryphon's, goblins, werewolves, and other creatures you'll wish you never laid your eyes on. So train good and hard and I wish you all good luck. Start training!" she shouted, with those words all the soldiers trained hard all day barely getting a chance to rest. Hitomi spent most of her time training Van and Jason, who she noticed were better than she thought them.
At the end of the day they went to bed dead tired and slept soundly that night. Van and Jason, who were not used to Hitomi's killing training had a hard time getting up the next morning but were determined to show this over confident princess how strong they were. Before any of them knew it, the 7 days were over and all had improved their skills tenfold and Van's improved to where they were almost equal to Hitomi's, which gave her even more reason to hate him. The morning after the 7th day everyone was up at dawn and packing their bags with the few things Hitomi had told them to. 2 hours after sunrise the 2000 men on horses galloped out of the palace walls and through the cities and towns to the country and nearer to Dragon Mountain with Hitomi at the front with her stallion Windracer. She had had him since she was 6 and rode only him and no other horse. He was a pure black thoroughbred stallion with a muscular build and an ever blacker mane; he was able to out run any living being in all of Gaea.
As they went through the cities and towns people ran to the streets with baskets full of flowers and tears in their eyes and cheered their troops and princess on, throwing flowers into the air to show their support and hope for the new recruits. Hitomi could see Darn and Iris running after them and screaming for Hitomi to come back soon.
Van and Jason were impressed by the love the people showed toward their princess and the loyalty of the men as they followed her into the dangerous mountains. Hope brought her horse beside theirs and shouted to them so she could be heard over the hoof prints (they're near the front, ahead of the soldiers but a few feet behind Hitomi so no one else could really hear them talking) "You know, all theses men volunteered for this so they could help to protect their princess, they all love her dearly and will do anything for her, even willingly die at her hands. They'll never turn on her, not for life itself. Such loyalty you'll never find in troops for their monarchs. Watch Hitomi, you'll learn much about her through this journey," she said so only Van could hear her.(her horse is right beside his) All Van could do was nod and look at Hitomi's fragile looking form ahead of him, thinking about what he had seen only a week ago. 'I wonder if she knows that I know her secret, she looks so tired I wonder why,' he thought to himself.
'I doubt she knows, she would have asked by know, she's not one that likes to beat around the bush you could say. She likes to get straight to the point and not wait to find evidence. The book on Atlantis might have shown her enough to make her suspicious, but she probably doesn't know.' came Hope's reassuring voice. 'Van while we're there we must search the mountain, look in any caves that seem suspicious or any other place you might think of. They could still be there so we must be prepared. The king knows and is very worried. Keep your eyes open at all times. Hitomi doesn't know this and I don't think we should tell her, I've also noticed how tired she seems and that doesn't seem natural, I'm sure she gets enough sleep at night or I think….' They rode in silence after that.
'Hope, listen to me, this is Queen Serenity,' a whisper like voice called.
'Your majesty?!'
'Yes, now listen, I haven't much time. Hitomi won't be at her best when you start, I want you to watch her for me. She's been training from sunrise to midnight everyday and I've been training her in her sleep as well, she hasn't gotten any rest at all this whole week. What you seen now is an illusion to keep anyone from noticing, you and Van are the only ones that have noticed this. When she goes in there she'll be very venerable and will need your help nonstop, watch her please little one I'm worried about her, she doesn't look very well.'
'I will your highness,'
'Thank you Hope, this is a nightmare come true for her and I still don't think that she's ready, tell Van if you need to, just keep her safe. I hate it being this way but she mustn't die yet, Fate has plans for her and I have to deliver this message. I wish she would just stay at the palace where it's safe, but there's nothing I can do, watch her and protect her please, I love you both so much. Good bye child of Nanakia,' she sobbed lightly and her voice left altogether.
~BACK TO VAN WHILE IN HITOMI'S ROOM 7 DAYS AGO~
(This is when Van finds Hitomi unconscious in the old training room and takes her to her room where Hope explains everything to him. These are his thoughts about it all and what he does through the whole week)
'Wow,' Van thought trying to digest everything Hope had had just told him. 'The Dragon though, did Hope mean me?'
'Took you long enough,' Hope laughed into his head once more. 'Yes you are the Dragon and are prophesized to fall in love with the Phoenix and help her against all evil.'
'Those she know?'
'Yes she does, that's what makes her so made, that she's going to fall in love with a stuck up selfish king, I guess that she hasn't found true love yet. She's been trying so hard to find someone she can truly love so that she wouldn't have to fall in love with you, but she seems to have lost or never found that kind of love. You should have seen her face when she found out about the prophecy and that you were the Dragon, I should think that she would have tortured you to death and laughed at your pain if you were in the room with her that day, yet she may still like to do that to this day.'
'Thanks for your reassurance,' he thought to her bitterly.
'You're welcome, oh and the maid should be there in a few minutes, I'm tying Merle to her bed right now so she can't get into anything else so I've got to go. Bye.'
'Great,' he thought as he sunk deeper into his chair, then something caught his eye. It was Hitomi's pendent that Hope had taken off Hitomi neck and laid on the night stand next to the bed. 'I wonder what that is,' he asked as he reached out to touch it, the moment his fingers touched the blood red crystal flashes of Hitomi's past came to him. Hitomi sneaking into the Viona. (I don't know if I spelled it right, but it's the leviship that Zaibach uses to leave Anatopia) being found by Dilandau, brought to Dragon Mountain, being shackled by the wrists from the ceiling, being starved and whipped till knocked unconscious, falling asleep in pools of her own blood every night, the horror in her eyes after seeing a complete copy of herself except evil, being beaten for her defiance, never looking weak or helpless, being attacked by Gargoyles, using her powers to destroy her twin and escape, and wondering around for days till found by the royal soldiers.
'What was that?' he gasped once his vision was cleared. He quickly retracted his hand away from the pendent.
'That was her past, while she was kidnapped,' Queen Serenity sadly replied.
'There was so much pain though, how?!' Van screamed all of a sudden felling very protective of Hitomi. He could feel his heart torn to a million pieces but didn't know why.
'She went through so much more than what you just saw, all that was merely a glimpse, she still hasn't recovered.'
'I wish I could help her,' Van whispered, felling sad yet unbelievably mad at the pains she had to go through.
'There's so much you can do but for now just protect her and look out for her, stay at her side no matter how much she pushes you away. Good bye for now Van,'
Van reached out and lovingly stroked Hitomi's forehead and noticed how she flinched at his touch, 'She went through so much, how did she make it, I swear it on my life that I'll protect you to my grave,' he vowed and kissed her lightly on her cheek before the maid knocked on the door and motioned for him to leave. He glanced back at Hitomi one more time before turning to leave, yet if he had looked a second more he would have noticed the small smile that had slowly formed on Hitomi's lips.
Van fell asleep once his head hit the pillows, he was completely wiped out from all that had just happened and still needed time to take everything in. The next morning he woke up early and just sat there thinking for hours until Jason knocked on his door calling for him to come down for breakfast. He got out of bed and went to the bathing room 'This I'll be an interesting day,' he smirked to himself.
"Good Morning Van, did you sleep well?" came Hope's soft voice once he sat down at the dinning table. He was wearing an airy long sleeved white shirt and black pants with a red strip going down the side of each leg. (like the clothes that the prince wears in the Little Mermaid.) His raven black hair still as unruly as the day before.
"Fine thank you, but I was wondering…," before he could finish his question Jason came in and sat down.
"How's everyone this morning," he greeted in an all too overjoyed voice, "and may I ask who this lovely lady is?" he asked staring at Hope yet not knowing that it was her.
Hope's silvery blue eyes sparkled more than usual as she reintroduced herself, "I'm Hope, you would know me as the wolf Hope, this is merely my human form since I'm part of the Wolf Spirits tribe," 'Is he always this annoying,' she mentally asked Van.
'Yes,' was his only answer.
"Well how come Van doesn't seem surprised at this, why?" he asked, jealousy evident in his voice.
"I already explained it to him and here come Hitomi and Merle, ah there's Lisa as well," 'Thank the Goddess of Gaea,' she sighed causing Van to chuckle. He then noticed Hitomi come in and couldn't stop gaping at her beauty. Her long sandy brown hair came down to her mid-back giving her a golden aurora, she was radiating with beauty even though she didn't try, the dress just added more to her appearance. She whispered something to Merle who had a confused look on her face and then gracefully sat down in the seat across from him. 'Wow,' was the only word that came to thought.
'Falling for her even more I see,' Hope laughed earning a death glare from Van. Once everyone had finished eating Hitomi stood up and told them to follow her. 'Great just what I need a full day of training, why did I say yes?' he sighed.
'Because you love her,'
'Ugh stay out of my thoughts Hope,'
'Sorry, gosh, just get your friend to stop staring at me, it's really getting annoying.'
'Once he starts there's no stopping him,' he smirked and followed Lisa and Jason to the training arena while Hitomi went to get changed. They spent the whole day training and his bones and muscles were aching, what surprised him was how Hitomi could train harder than he did and still look as though she was full of energy. 'I bet it was an illusion, she's probably as tired as me if not more,' he thought to himself as he collapsed onto his bed.
'You're the first one to notice without someone having to tell you, I'm impressed,' Hope's voice replied.
'Would you stop doing that? It's getting rather annoying. Go bug Merle or Hitomi, Please!'
'I can't they're already asleep,'
'Well I would like to sleep too so good night!' and with that he closed their link and fell asleep. The whole week spun by him, waking up with every muscle and bone aching, training and getting them to ache even more, then going to bed with them aching two times more. He was proud at how much his skills had improved through the week to where they were almost as good as Hitomi's, but what made him mad was that she seemed as though she was full of energy and got tons of sleep each night even though he doubted it. 'Probably another illusion,' he told himself before falling into a deep sleep. The next morning he woke at dawn and packed his bag. King Aaron stood at the palace gates to see them off and thanked Van again for agreeing causing Hitomi to give him a look that said 'Once we're out there I'll make wish you had never seen my face,' and gallop off with the soldiers behind her. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Youhan shaking his head sadly and Merle crying and waving to their quickly disappearing forms.
~BACK TO NORMAL VIEW~
After galloping hard all day they came to a large open field that came before the forest in which the mountain laid in the middle of, Hitomi stopped Windracer and the soldiers followed suite, by this time it was a bit before sunset.
"All right men, we're going to set up camp here and in the morning I'll place each of you in a different part of the mountain, you must survive in there for 14 days and find your way back to this clearing where Hope, Lisa, or I shall meet you. So set up your tents." she shouted before going to set up her own tent. Once she was done she went into the forest with a group of her best soldiers to search for food while Hope set up the fire with some help from Van and unwanted from Jason, and Lisa went around to see how the soldiers were doing.
~HITOMI IN THE FOREST~
As she walked through the darkening forest Hitomi forced herself to stay calm, 'There's no one here, Dilandau is gone, the Gargoyles aren't even out yet, God calm down Hitomi!' just then a twig snapped behind her making her jump around, her bow ready to kill. Two deer jumped out of a nearby bush and before they could get away two arrows were already making their way through their hearts. 'Wow that was easy.' she thought as she made them levitate (float in mid air) and took them back to camp. By the time she arrived Hope had the fire made and ready to cook back the catches. Looking around Hitomi noticed that the soldiers she had taken with her were all back safe and each had caught at least one animal.
"Hello Hitomi, so what do you have?" Hope asked as she added some sticks to the fire.
"Two bucks, but strange you'd think that they would have been closer to the heart of the forest instead of the outskirts. I wonder what's there to scare them away," she replied not noticing the worried look in Hope's eyes. "Come on lets get these cooked so we can all eat and get some sleep, it'll be the most we'll have for the next 2 weeks,"
"Ugh, don't remind me, how did you get this idea into your thick head I'll never know but I guess I'm gonna have to stick with ya all the way whether I like it or not huh?"
"Sure do so come on and help me or we'll never eat tonight."
"Shut up," Hope mumbled as she sat on a log to help. They spent an hour cutting up the meat and setting up poles to hang it from so it could cook. Hitomi got all the soldiers to line up to get their meal.
Once they were all finished she started giving out orders, "Flanders, Jaggers, Vent, Dalgard, and Merlock, I want you to grab any scraps of left over meat and bones and take them as far from the camp as you can, I don't want any Werewolves catching the smell and thinking of us as food. Abrams and you four I want you to go gather more wood for the fire get enough to last us all night, we can't let the fire go out at all. You twenty men go feed the horses. I also want you men to keep watch at different sections of the camp tonight," she yelled pointing at fifty of her best soldiers, "I want you to switch out with each other every two hours, if you hear anything suspicious I want you to get me right away don't dismiss it as nothing remember expect the unexpected and do not, I repeat do not fall asleep during your turn. The rest of you get your supplies together and make sure you pack some meat because unless you catch some that'll be the only meat you'll get for the next 14 days. You'll also have no horses with you so you'll have to travel light. Now move out," and with that all the soldiers went to their assigned task.
Hitomi went over to where she had tied Wildracer to a nearby tree and took off his saddle and griddle letting him move around to stretch his legs. Then she whispered a spell causing some golden sparkles to appear and disappear leaving a pail of oats for him to eat. "Eat up boy, you'll need it," she whispered into his ear as she took out a brush and began to lovingly brush his black coat unaware of Van watching her from his near by tent.
'She seems so calm right now, I wonder what she'll do once we get to the mountain itself, I have to protect her I promised I would and I will,' he thought to himself before unrolling his sleeping bag and going to sleep. An hour later everyone had turned in except for those watching out.
****Hehe sorry for taking so long to update I just had this really hard project to do and didn't have that much time to finish it. I would really love it if you guys would send me some suggestions all are welcome and most will most likely be used, so pppplease I beg you on my knees help me I need some ideas and thank you to all of those you have helped me so far, especially JoJo and Storyteller. I want to thank you guys for all your support and the next chapter will be up as soon as I can get some more details for it. Thanks again and happy early Valentines Day. Bye!! ^_^
