Chapter 2: "I just flew in from Gaea and boy are my arms tired!"

For an endless second Hitomi and Van merely stared at each other, each so lost in the endless waves of emotion splashing over their nude vulnerable soles. It was like an unbelievable flood occurring without warning in the middle of the driest desert. Neither of them could even gather the words for what they were feeling. Their emotions seemed to flop out of them in short gasps of pieces of words lost in occasional sobs and tears. All of these things happened in that one endless second of realization, the realization of three years of unfulfilled dreams. Hitomi is the first to overcome the flood and throws herself at Von tears streaming off her face, still unable to speak in understandable words. She felt him against her; she felt his strong arms and could hear his heart beat through his shirt. His heart was racing and his body was shaking. She felt his warmth and the cold splash of his tears all at the same time. She began to fell his weight slowly at first but then increasing more and more. He passed out in her arms.

She slowly placed is body carefully on the ground checking his pulse and breathing. She quickly retrieved smelling salts from her bag using them to revive Van. Finally, words could be said and questions could be answered. Hitomi's first question was of course the most important she asked what was wrong with him and why did he pass out. He slowly sat up and replied, "I was trying to fly here.... I was trying so hard....I couldn't do it myself....I tried Escaflone and still I couldn't reach you...... I kept flying up and up.... It was so hard to control... I couldn't breathe....it was so cold.... Escaflone couldn't make it.....And neither could I.....I was falling and falling...Then I saw a light and found myself here.... God my arms hurt!.....pulling the reigns....trying to keep control......just too much." Hitomi somehow began to feel his pain surging through her, but it wasn't a vision, or anything real, it was her love and concern that was the source of this dull phantom pain.

Hitomi told him to rest and take it easy. She gathered some things from her bag. She had some aspirin and a snap action ice pack. Hitomi spent an hour nursing Van until he felt he was able to walk the mile back to her house. She then pushed him back down and told him to wait another hour before trying. During this time, they laid on the grass together and began to tell each other about what they had been doing for the past three years. Hitomi told Van about her book and her several track wins. Van told her about all the happenings on Gaea, turns out that science she left her and Van's stories had become legend. Every child on Gaea was told about the girl from the mystic moon and the winged king of Fanilia. It turns out that Fanilia has become the biggest tourist spot on Gaea, and all those that were a part of the adventure have become celebrities. Merle finally gave up on her hopes of having Van love her instead she had decided to become his protector. She had trained most of the three years and just gotten her gimelif a week before Van traveled to earth. Even Van had to admit that she was pretty good with it. Fanilia had been rebuilt and was better than ever before. Van told Hitomi how he had left Fanilia in the hands of Dryden for the period of Van's "vacation". Van failed to tell Hitomi that he told his people that he was going to claim his bride the great wing goddess of legend Hitomi. In actuality he just wanted to see her, but his people would never settle for something as small minded as a vacation.

The sun was setting and they both agreed that it would be best if they were to head back to Hitomi's home. Before they left, Van hid the Escaflone under heavy brush at the bottom of the mountain Escaflone was flown down in the dragon form and then covered by Van. He then used his wings to fly up to where they were. As they passed through the forest Hitomi felt as if something bad was about to happen. As if Van should have never broken the seal between Gaea and Earth. She felt as if he had just opened a hole that would lead to the destruction of two..... No wait somehow she felt as if it would lead to the destruction of three worlds. But before she could focus in on this feeling more Von distracted her. Von said "Look here this is the place where you saved my life for the first time. This is where that dragon, the dragon whose heart powers Escaflone, almost stabbed me through the back. Here is where the beam of light took us. Here is where all this began." Hitomi merely looked at him and smiled. As they traveled down the steps towards the track, she looked over and said, "You know Van for the longest time I regretted going to Gaea. Even after I came back too earth I still regretted the fact that I went there. It was nothing but one horror after the other. Everyone was always in pain. And the saddest part about it is that it was all my fault. I caused so much pain." Van quickly grabbed Hitomi by the arm and looked her straight in her eyes "It's not your fault. No one can prove that you had that type of power. And besides the future that you saw was always much worse than the future you actually put into place. Things could have been much worse." With that, they stopped talking and just continued to walk down the stairs.

When they reached the street Van immediately drew his sword shoving Hitomi behind his back. "It's and invasion! All these small fast Gimelifs! Don't worry Hitomi I shall protect you!" Hitomi grabs him and pulls him back saying "Look don't pull out your sword it's not an invasion they are called cars and most people have them. They are not war weapons." Van quickly replaced his sword; Hitomi was just surprised that no one saw him. She decided to pull him aside to tell him some things about the earth. She explained as much as she could about the things that scared him. There were so many things that scared him on that street. She also told him not to ever use his sword. She told him how safe this world was and promised to explain things to him. Soon they reached Hitomi's house, but then a new problem was raised. What would her parents say?

Chapter 3: Meet the parents