AN - YAY!!! I finally got the fourth chapter up! I'm REALLY sorry for not updating sooner! I hope you can forgive me! It won't happen again, I promise. Well, here's the chapter you've all been waiting a long time for, I hope you all review!

Disclaimer - I do not own Escaflowne or any of the original characters, but I do own the ones that I made up. So, no body better steel them! ^_^

Chapter 4

After a long night of tossing, turning and nightmares, Hitomi awoke with the rising of the sun. The sun's rays shining threw her balcony window and landing on her face. But something was tugging at Hitomi's mind when she awoke.

'Something's not right.' Hitomi thought as she sat up. When she was in a sitting position she noticed what was wrong . . . she was five feet in the air above her bed. 'Oh no! This is not good. How am I supposed to get d . . .' In the middle of her thought, Hitomi fell.

Letting out a short scream (but not so loud as to wake anyone up) she landed on her bed, but bounced off and fell to the ground with a soft thud. Getting up and rubbing her now sore butt, Hitomi walked to the door cursing to herself under her breath. 'Folken's first Kalafae lesson better be how to land!' Hitomi thought as she unlocked and opened the door to find that Salle kept her word by leaving her a large selection of clothes.

Smiling, Hitomi picked up her clothing and kicked the door shut.. She placed the stack of clothes on her bed and began going threw it. Salle had made her four pairs of pants (three tight, one loose), three pairs of shorts, three skirts that go down to her knees and one that goes down to her ankles. All of either black or dark gray. For her tops she had two big loose sweaters (one black, one a navy blue color), five loose t-shirts (one red, two dark green, two black), three tank tops (one black, tow dark green) and four sleeveless tummy-tops (two black, two dark green). (AN- if you don't know, a tummy-top is a shirt that is high enough for your stomach to show) She also got socks and undergarments (no details nessesary, lol)

Hitomi was quite pleased with the selection she got. She kept out a pair of loose pants and a dark green tummy-top, and put everything else in her dressers, which were almost full after everything was put away. She decided to hang up her two big sweaters in her closet.

When Hitomi put on the clothes that she kept out, she found that everything fit her perfectly. 'I'll have to remember to thank Salle for the new clothes.' Hitomi thought as she looked herself over in the mirror. 'Now to start my workout.' She walked around her big room moving what little furniture she had off to the side, giving herself even more room to move around. Standing in the middle of her room, Hitomi started stretching her tense muscles. 'If I want to survive the life of Zaiboch I have to keep in shape. I also have to learn to protect myself.' Hitomi finished her stretches and started going through the basic kicks and punches of thai- kwon- dow.

'If I can learn how to protect myself through tai-kwon-dow and my Kalafae abilities, no one will be able to stand up against me!' Thinking about getting stronger made Hitomi smile to herself. Getting more in to her workout, she imagined invisible enemies surrounding her. Hitomi fought with these enemies for two hours before being interrupted by a loud knock at her door. Coming back to reality, she realized how exhausted she was. 'That was some workout!' Hitomi smiled to herself as she walked over to open the door. But her smile immediately vanished when she saw who was on the other side.

Dilandau was a bit shocked ar what he saw. He saw Hitomi, sweating and trying to catch her breath. "It looks like she just finished an intense training session with my Dragonslayers.' Dilandau thought as he looked at Hitomi. He looked into her deep green eyes, searching for some kind of answer so to why she looked the way she did. But found nothing, nor did she look away from his stare like the last time. This time she glared right back with a glint of a new fire in her eyes.

Hitomi was getting annoyed with Dilandau just standing there staring at her, so she spoke up. "What would you like lord Dilandau?"

"Lord Folken told me to inform you to come down for breakfast. How long have you been awake?" He asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I've been up since dawn." Hitomi said with a smirk on her face.

"What!? Why? I'm not even up that early!" Dilandau was practically yelling at Hitomi by now, but Hitomi stood her ground.

"Why I'm up that early and why I look the way I do is none of your concern. Thank you Lord Dilandau, for informing me of breakfast. I'll be down when I'm finished washing up." With that, Hitomi closed the door on Dilandau and locked it before he had time to react.

Dilandau stood there for a moment before walking away, mumbling to himself about Hitmoi being a disrespectful bitch.

Back in Hitomi's room, Hitomi washed her face and combed her hair. She saw no reason in changing clothes since she will be training with Folken later that day anyways. Hitomi left her room and walked down the stairs, she was relieved when she didn't see Dilandau anywhere.

'I'll probably be getting a lecture from Dilandau when I get to the dining hall. That's okay though.' Smiling again to herself, Hitomi continued walking down the hall.

"Hitomi! Miss Hitomi!" Two voices called behind her.

Turning around, Hitomi saw the two other Dragon Slayers from dinner the night before.

"Trevor and Galli, right?" Hitomi asked, trying to remember all the names from last night.

"That's right. We never really got to welcome you to Zaiboch at dinner last night." Trevor said.

"Ya. May we escort you to the dining hall?" Galli asked in a really polite voice.

"Sure." Hitomi replied.

The three of them continued walking to the dining hall. Hitomi walked in the middle of the two boys, which made her feel really uncomfortable.

"Galli and I told the other Slayers that we met you. Now all of them want to meet you. Do you want to come and meet them later today, Hitomi?" Trevor asked, looking at Hitomi.

'Well, I can't avoid them forever. I might as well meet them, these two are nice enough. I'll ask Chesta to come with me.' Hitomi thought before answering. "Sure, I'll come down later on and meet everyone."

"Great!" Both boys said at the same time, smiling.

When the three of them entered the dining hall, Hitomi saw that everyone was already there.

"It's about time you showed up." Dilandau said in an annoyed voice. As Hitomi took her seat next to Folken she gave Dilandau a dirty look. He smirked and continued to talk. "Lord Folken, I think she's up to something."

"What do you mean Dilandau?" Folken asked and he looked from Dilandau to Hitomi.

"I mean, I think she's trying out sneak out or something during the night."

"I did not!" Hitomi yelled, her anger and power, rising due to Dilandau's remark. "Lord Folken I did not try to do anything of the sort! You have to believe me."

"Hitomi, calm yourself." Folken said. Hitomi noticed his cape lightly flowing behind him from the breeze she was creating and took a deep breath to calm down. Luckily no one else noticed the gentle wind that was in the room for that brief moment.

"Then why were you out of breath and sweating? And why did you say you were up since dawn?" Dilandau asked, his smirk now turning into a grin.

Hitomi fell silent when everyone looked in her direction. 'I wanted this to be my secret.' She thought.

"Hitomi?" Folken asked.

Hitomi sighed, "If you absolutely must know, I was training myself. It's a form of fighting in me world called Tia-kwon-do."

"I'm sure." Dilandau said in a sarcastic tone of voice, his grin vanishing and becoming disappointed that he couldn't get Hitomi in trouble.

"That's very interesting, Hitomi." Folken said. "Well, now that we know Hitomi isn't sneaking out *glances at Dilandau*, let's eat." The servants then came in baring food. Everyone went in to the same routine as the nigh before.

When Hitomi's plate was brought to her she didn't know what to do. 'I've never even seen most of this food before!' She thought as she poked at a jiggly brown blob, that no matter how much she poked at it, it did not seem to puncture.

Chesta saw what Hitomi was doing and decided to say something before Dilandau noticed. "Hitomi?" She looked up at him. "Do you even know what that is?" He asked as he slightly chuckled to himself. Hitomi just shook her head. Chesta leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, "Roasted dragon eye. It's actually quite good." He then picked up his own with his hand and bit in to it.

Hitomi's skin turned three shades of green before she covered her mouth with her hand and ran out of the dinning hall. Dilandau, who saw everything, burst out in to a fit of laughter. Chesta started laughing as well, turning everyone's attention towards them.

"May I ask what is so funny? And what's wrong with Hitomi?" Folken asked.

"She couldn't even handle a little dragon meat!" Dilandau said before laughing some more.

Folken just smiled, 'She'll be back.' He thought as he continued to eat.

Hitomi just made it to one of the public washrooms before everything she ate from the day before came back up. When she was feeling a bit better she started walking around the halls. 'How can anyone eat dragon eyeballs?! That's just gross!' She thought as she stopped in front of the kitchen door. 'I guess I'll ask Baldaro for some thing else to eat.' Hitomi opened the door. Since everyone was eating, the cooks were off duty right now.

"Lady Hitomi, how may I help you today?" Baldaro asked, coming out from behind one of the stoves.

"Umm . . . I would like some thing simple to eat." Hitomi answered, hoping the head chef wouldn't be offended by her asking for different food.

"Ah, I see. Not quite comfortable with our food yet, m'lady?"

"Not yet. I'm sorry."

"That's quite all right. What would you like?"

"Some fruit would be nice." Hitomi said with a smile. Baldaro walked over to a table and handed her a small bowl of fruit. "Thank you very much, Baldaro. I promise, I will get used to the food here in Zaiboch sooner or later. Bye."

"Good bye."

Hitomi left, carrying the fruit. 'I'll eat fruit any day over eye of dragon.' She thought, as she bit into the fruit which she had no idea what it was.

'Much better.' She thought as she finished the last piece of fruit.

"Good morning, m'lady." A maid said as she passed by.

"Morning. Excuse me, but would you do me a favor?" Hitomi asked.

"Of course. What would you like?"

"Could you take the bowl back to the kitchen for me? I need to go see Lord Folken."

"Sure."

"Thank you." Hitomi said as she handed the bowl to the maid. The maid gave a small curtsy and left. Hitomi walked back to the dinning hall where she hoped Folken would be. When she entered, Folken was still there, but so was Dilandau. Everyone already left.

"Welcome back, Hitomi. Are you feeling better?" Folken said with a smile.

"Now I am." Out of the corner of her eye she could see Dilandau grinning from ear to ear.

"Good. Follow me please." Folken said.

All three of them walked in the halls before coming to a stair case that lead to the basement. The stair case seemed endless to Hitomi and she was actually getting bored. When they finally came to the bottom , Hitomi saw yet another long hallway.

"Down here is where all of the soldiers train." Folken said as he and Dilandau started walking to the first door on their left.

"In here is where all of the weapons that no one uses are kept." Dilandau said as he opened the door to reveal all of the various kinds of swords, glaives, axes and much more. Hitomi walked around the room examining everything. Never had she seen so many tools of destruction in one room. She stopped at one sword that looked like the same one that Van uses, except instead of the Fanalian emblem on the handle it had Zaiboch's. When Hitomi lifted the sword she noticed it wasn't as heavy as it looks.

"Maybe if you're interested, Dilandau could teach you how to fight." Folken said. Hitomi looked over to see Dilandau's reaction to Folken's statement.

"If she wants." Dilandau replied.

"Maybe. Van taught me a little bit, so I know the basics." Hitomi said. "But if I start learning how to use a sword, it might be a bit much with my personal training sessions and . . ." Hitomi stopped herself before she continued to talk about her lessons with Folken. But Dilandau caught Hitomi.

"And? What else are you up to girl?" He demanded. Hitomi looked over to Folken for help on what she had caused.

"I'm going to be training her about some important matters. So she might not have time to learn the ways of swordsmanship." Folken replied in his usual calm manner.

"Riiight." Dilandau said, rolling his eyes.

'I'm getting really annoyed with his attitude.' Hitomi thought.

"All right," Folken said, "Hitomi, put the sword away and follow me."

Hitomi did as he said and walked with him and Dilandau further down the hall. All three of them walked in silence until they reached two more doors, one on each side of the hall. Dilandau was the one who explained what the door on the left was.

"This is where I train my Dragon Slayers." Dilandau opened the door and walked in, not bothering to hold the door for Hitomi.

Walking in, and after giving Dilandau a dirty look, Hitomi started wondering around the huge room. 'This is a good place to train. It's much bigger that my room.' Hitomi thought as she stopped in the middle of the room. The entire room was empty except for the four weapon holders placed at the far back wall. Mats covered the floor as well. 'So when some one's knocked out I'm guessing.'

"All of the Slayers are in the rec room." Dilandau said, "Today is their day off."

"Hitomi," Folken called from the door, "Let's begin your training."

"In here?" Hitomi looked over at Dilandau, "What about him? He isn't watching is he?"

"No," Folken reassured her, "We will be in the room across the hall. This way."

Folken then left the room and went in to the other one. Dilandau followed him leaving Hitomi there for a second, then she entered the room where Folken was waiting for her. This room was three times as big as the Dragon Slayers' training room. It was completely empty except for a huge screen which looked like a television. But Hitomi knew that there were no such things on Gaia.

"This room," Folken explained, "Is the room where I kept in contact with Lord Dornkirk before he died. Now I use it for special training."

"I see. And this is where I will be training too?" Hitomi asked.

"Yes." Folken then looked over to Dilandau. "Will you excuse us Dilandau? I will not be needing your assistance right now."

"Can't I stay, Lord Folken? I think it would be best if I see what you will be teaching this girl. I would also like a good laugh." Dilandau said, looking at Hitomi with an evil grin.

"No, Dilandau. It's time for you to leave." Folken said.

"Fine." With his grin disappearing, Dilandau walked out of the room.

"Well then, Hitomi. Shall we begin?"

AN - Yay! I finally got this chapter up. Sorry for the delay, I've been busy with holiday stuff. I hope to have the next chapter up as soon as possible. Please bear with me, but I'm not capable with fast updates. But they do eventually get on. :P Ja ne!