A/n: I finished it!! I finished Esca! ::does a happy dance:: Wow, do I feel … complete. It's like any other series. It makes you feel whole and semi-lighthearted. ::sighs:: And the ending…I really want to meet the writers that made up Escaflowne.
Disclaimer: I don't own the series that brings peace to my messed up world… ^_^
(if you get confused by the plot at any moment, just tell me. I will probably go and re-write all of these chapters later, since I'm writing this all straight from the words that come out of mouth and mind.)
The Dragon and Her Slayer
Three
Hitomi lie across her bed at sunset, her arm draped across her eyes and her feet dangling off the edge. Only one day until senior graduation from college, and she would be on her own, free to do whatever she pleased.
She remembered the day she got the scholarship from running track and beating the women's sprint distance time in ten and fifteen-hundredths of a second. A man in a black suit came to visit her one Monday afternoon and told her the good news in front of her family. Her mother cried, her father laughed, and her brother gave her a hug. It was great news for all of them.
But that was a long time ago. Nowadays, Hitomi found herself thinking more than studying, but it didn't really affect her at all. She kept running as a way to clear her mind. Most of all, it was a time when she could think - interrupted - about Van and Gaea.
~*~
On the track, an hour later, Hitomi warmed up. She stretched on the cool red rubber, letting her muscles ease and loosen. She would go for nine seconds this time.
Too bad Amano isn't here to see me now… she thought. Amano became one of her very close friends after she found out that he and Yukari had secret feelings for one another. Now that he was with Yukari so much, they hadn't seen each other, and it only reminded her more of one of her cards that she picked up not so long ago.
La Torre.
It was only picked up at random, she remembered, and it shouldn't have meant anything to her. But as she crouched into position, she could only think about that night so many years ago that changed her life so very much.
She leapt off the blocks, flying down the red track at fast speed.
Van.
La Torre.
Something happened to her as she ran faster and faster to reach the end of her sprint. She felt the warmth of that blue tunnel of light, almost saw the light itself. What was happening?
"Hitomi!"
She looked ahead of her and saw Yukari waving her arms in the air. Her red hair gleamed in the sunset, highlighting the usual dark maroon to a bright, vivid red.
"Yu-Yukari?" Hitomi rocked back on her heels, confused and very unbalanced. She started to feel faint as she watched the ground tilt and little white stars envelop her vision.
She fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, her head resting on her knees and her arms at her sides. Yukari squeaked and ran to her, pulling her up into her arms. She brushed back a few dampened bangs away from Hitomi's eyes and talked to her in soft, cool tones.
"Hitomi, what's the matter? You know as well as anyone that graduation is tomorrow!" With a deep sigh, Yukari pushed Hitomi up gently until she was sitting up on the chilled ground.
"You can't be pushing yourself by running the day before you give your important speech!"
That was right. Hitomi was required to go to the auditorium at seven o'clock the next evening and give a lecture to the future literature majors of her class.
Her eyes started to glaze over from staring off into the distance. She drowned out Yukari's worried voice as she searched the line of the woods, until her eyes landed precisely where…
"Dragon?" Her voice cracked, her eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat. There was a girl there - a woman - but she was…
A dragon.
Hitomi was back in the past, many years passing by her. In only a fraction of a moment, she saw an arrogant king and his gleaming sword distracting the dragon away from her and her friends.
The dragon in the flashback was brown – indicating a land dragon – and it had deadly green eyes that bore terror in its enemies and prey. The woman that stood meters away had a dark chestnut head of hair as well, with green eyes just like herself. If she had been looking in a mirror, she would have mistaken the girl for herself, if only she had long, flowing hair that fell to her mid-back and the vicious-green eyes that poisoned her.
It let out a loud roar and suddenly vanished from behind the woman. She stood, staring at a frightened Hitomi, and merely smiled. She threw back her head and laughed, turning around and slinking back into the darkness of the woods.