Disclaimer: Escaflowne does not belong to me, Nikki, Harumi and Mia do.
Chapter One
While she waited for her friends to come out, Nikki searched through the dirt to find stones for hopscotch and other games. Something pink in the grass caught her eye. She went to inspect it. It was a pink stone. There was a chain attached to it. Nikki picked it up. It began to glow in her hands. "Wow, pretty," she said to herself.
Meanwhile, Hitomi had gone upstairs to go get something. Harumi stayed and watched her play out the window, but the phone rang and she ran to go answer it. No soon had she turned her back when a pillar of light came down and took Nikki up into the sky and disappeared.
* * * * * *
"Come on, chase me!" Mia said. She had gotten tired of hide-and-seek and convinced the two men to play tag instead.
Van shook his head. "I think that's enough for today. Go play with your mother."
"Okay." She ran inside the castle.
Allen groaned. "I'm getting way too old for this."
Van laughed. "Yeah, me too."
Merle came to the door with Mia hanging on her arm. "It's time for dinner," she called.
"Finally," Allen said. "Being around that bundle of energy sure gives me an appetite."
"Yeah, she's worse than Merle was when she was young."
Mia let go of her mother and swung holding both of their hands as they walked inside. Merle started to follow, but stopped when she saw a flash of light in the distance.
"I'll be right in," she said to the others. She ran into the forest to investigate. She didn't have to go far. A little girl was lying on the ground. Her clothes were full of dirt and she had slight cuts on her head. She appeared to be unconscious. Merle knew it was dangerous to be out there with dragons still wandering around. She picked up the girl and carried her back to the castle.
* * * * * *
Word spread throughout the castle about the little girl. Van said he would send servants to attend to her, but Merle said she'd do it. She wanted to have a closer look at this girl. There was something about her that reminded her of someone; she just didn't know what. Merle moved aside her light brown bangs to dab a wet cloth on the cuts. It wasn't long before her eyes fluttered open.
"Where am I?" she asked, groggily.
Merle held back a gasp. Those eyes, they were almost the exact same green as Hitomi's! There were other similarities too, although they were a little more vague. But their hair color was almost the same caramel-looking color and, if she looked at it at a certain angle, they had the same nose too. The little girl started to back away towards the wall in her bed, nervous about having this cat-woman watching her. Luckily, Merle was able to recover her wits and stop staring.
"You're… you're in the Fanelian castle," she stammered.
The girl's eyes widened. "Fanelia? You mean on Gaea?" She jumped out of bed and poked her head out the window. She let out a cry when she saw the Mystic Moon hanging in the sky.
Merle covered her ears. "Yes, on Gaea. Are you from the Mystic Moon?"
The little girl nodded. "Yeah, my name is Nikki. What's yours? No, wait, I want to guess."
"Um, okay," Merle replied, trying to prevent yelling herself.
"Is it… Merle?" Nikki asked.
"Yes, how did you know?"
"Because you're in the story," she replied.
"Story?" Merle repeated.
"Uh huh. The one we just finished this morning. This is so cool!"
"Oh." Merle thought while Nikki bounced around the room excitedly. This girl was from the Mystic Moon and looked an awful lot like Hitomi. But why? Was this girl related to her somehow? Merle wanted to ask but wasn't sure if she should. What if Hitomi had found someone else and this was her child? Merle knew that it would break Van's heart if it were. After all this time, he still hoped that she loved him and would return. But Merle also knew that she couldn't keep this a secret from him for long. Before she could decide what to do, she realized that Nikki had disappeared. Merle ran down the hall, just in time to see her turn a corn. Merle sped after her, trying to keep up. But she was extremely fast and soon was out of sight. Merle slowed down, peering into the rooms to see if she was there. She almost gave up when she heard a scream come from the throne room. Merle raced to get there and found and extremely scared Nikki in front of two very tall guards with long, pointed spears.
"Oh, dear," Merle muttered. She went over and stood by her. "If you would please excuse us." They put their spears down, allowing them to pass through.
"I'm so sorry Lord Van," she said to him.
He shrugged. "What's going on?"
Nikki gasped and pushed passed Merle. "You're the boy with angel wings!" she exclaimed. Merle clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Yes, that is the name of my new horse." Van quickly dismissed the guards before they could ask questions. "Yes, I suppose you can say that. Who are you?" Van held back a gasp seeing her. Unlike Merle, he noticed the resemblance the instance he saw her.
She bowed. "I'm Nikki."
"What are you doing here? Where are you from?" He didn't want to be so gruff, but he wanted answers and he wanted them now.
"From the Mystic Moon," she replied. "But I'm not sure why I'm here. One minute I was playing with a necklace I found outside and, the next, I was here."
Van frowned. "What did it look like?"
"It had a pink stone hanging from it."
The three adults exchanged a look. Van glanced over at the table where the pendant had been. It was gone.
"Hmm. Why did you call it the Mystic Moon? No one from there calls it that."
She nodded. "I know, but you call it that here."
"Yes, that is true. Come sit down. Tell me more." Merle pulled up a chair. "Thank you." He signaled for her and Allen to leave. They obeyed.
They stared at eachother for a moment. Nikki was trying to decide what to say to him first. There were so many things that she wanted to know, but didn't know if she could ask. One similarity of theirs was jumping out at her but she wasn't sure if it was polite to say so. Fortunately, Van asked her, for it was the question he was most dying to know. "How's your mother?"
"She's gone. So is my daddy."
"What?" he blurted out.
Nikki nodded sadly. "Uh huh."
"How?" He didn't want to make her upset, but he couldn't help it.
"They… they had an accident. My daddy was a runner. My aunt was the one who had gotten him into it because she ran track in high school. They were traveling to go to a race but their plane crashed. We saw it on TV."
"Oh." He looked at her sympathetically.
"Now I live with my aunt. She told me about here."
Van let out a deep breath. "Your aunt told you? What's she like?"
"She's really cool. She taught me how to run really fast. So did her friend Amano. He was my daddy's coach."
"Amano?" Van said. He remembered him from when he had first met Hitomi. "Do you see him a lot?"
She nodded. "Yes, he comes with his daughter and his wife. She's my aunt's best friend. Her name is Yukari. She's nice."
Van let out another breath. "So your aunt isn't married?"
"Nope. It's just the two of us and her cousin Harumi."
"Oh. What's your aunt's name?" Van asked, even though he was almost positive he knew.
"Hitomi. Hitomi Kanzaki. She has the same last name as me."
"So she's your father's sister?" Van vaguely remembered Hitomi telling him about her brother.
"Right. Aunt Hitomi told me you lost your parents too."
"Yeah, when I was about your age."
"I miss Mommy and Daddy a lot," she said.
"I understand."
"Do you miss your parents?"
Van nodded. "Of course."
Nikki paused for a moment. "Do you miss Aunt Hitomi?"
"Yes, I miss her. More than anyone."
* * * * * *
"Gone?" Hitomi repeated. "What do you mean 'gone'?"
"I don't know!" Harumi said. She was biting her nails. "One minute she was here, the next minute she had just disappeared.'
Hitomi took a deep breath. "Let's try to remain calm about this. We'll call the police as a last resort. Now let's go look for her." They went out the front door and she locked it.
"Hitomi, I am so sorry. If anything happens to her, I don't know what I'd do." Harumi was greatly upset, and not just because she was worried and blamed herself. She looked at her as a little sister. She felt a bond with her. Both had lost their parents when they were young. That was how she came to live with Hitomi and her family.
Hitomi went to the spot where Nikki had last been. She noticed something on the ground.
"What's that?" Harumi asked, noticing it too.
"I…" She bent down to pick it up. "My old pendant! But… how did it get here?"
In answer to her question, the pendant began to glow and the same pillar of light descended, picking up both of them.
To be continued…