Chapter 6
Hello everybody! I'm back! runs away from rotten tomatoes
Heh heh sheepish laughter yeah I know, incredibly lazy and let this fic rot for over a year. … Actually that's not true! I've been writing it on and off but just well, never finished a proper chapter. gets thrown more tomatoes Okok! I'll write faster Oo
It helps that I just re-watched the 1st 2 episodes of Esca again I guess grin
Actually I was really amazed that some of you'll still followed the story so far in my previous chapter. glomps dreamingofflyingaway
Dreamingofflyingaway: Thanks for thinking so highly of this fic and giving me such unconditional support! Love ya!
Kya77: Oooooooooo… so smart! Haha but it should be quite obvious already. Especially in this chapter eyes twinkle
SabineballZ: Heh heh sorry, didn't really follow your 'asap' command very well but don't worry it's not such an irritating cliffhanger this time round. Although the fic is still unfinished hears groans from the audience
Christina: arigato!
Okok on to proper writing
Italics: still equals to thoughts/flashbacks
"La'liet! Wait!" a pale cloud baby dragon called out pathetically after her friend.
"SHhhhhhhhhhh… Myra," the white dragon hissed angrily in reply. "Don't be so loud! The priests of the temple will hear us." Myra giggled helplessly.
"This is so exciting!" she whispered back breathlessly as they hurried almost soundlessly along the corridor. They had retracted their claws so they would not be heard. The floor was carpeted in an intricate pattern of the city of Atlantis. Gold threads weaved the outline of the spiralling white towers; the detail of the flowers in the gardens around the city breathtakingly realistic; the clouds in the blue sky seemed to move magically as you moved your eyes across the tapestry. It was as if they were flying across the real city itself. La'liet smiled to himself. They would fly across it someday. Anything was possible in the city of magic.
Anything was possible at all…
"Idiot! It won't be fun if they catch us, we'll have to practice writing the same rune spell 300 times or something," La'liet warned. Their magic instructor adored Myra and unfortunately, the same cannot be said of La'liet.
"I don't mind that," Myra grinned with her two teeth at La'liet. La'liet rolled his eyes in response.
"That's cause you're good at magic stuff," he complained. He turned back to running and realized they had reached the sanctuary. "Myra, let's use that disappearing spell you learned last week." Myra nodded and focused her attention on her 'writing claw'. As her claw traced the air, a faint blue glow followed thereafter. A complete rune lay before her as she finished her incantations. La'liet shook his head in amazement. He had no idea how she managed to memorize these funny things.
"Gaea…" she whispered almost reverently. That was how their teacher had thought them to end each spell. It meant 'peace'. "So what's the next part of the plan."
"I've observed the priests. They come back from their evening meal around now. So all we have to do is wait for the next shift that will open these doors," La'liet whispered his plan proudly to her. Almost instantly, they could sense a human coming.
"All right, all right, it's a brilliant plan. Happy now?" Myra asked cheekily. La'liet would have pinched her if they did not need to be quiet.
As the ornate tall white doors swung open, they trailed invisibly after the priest and were faced with a brilliant pink pulsating orb. Sweet incense filled the air. Light haze filled the room, creating a dreamy effect. The orb lay on a golden spiral frame that twisted out of the tower through a circular opening in the ceiling so that everyone in the city could see the orb from afar. A shallow layer of water encircled the base of tits golden frame. When Myra padded closer, she saw that it was a window to the world outside. It showed people of the city laying flowers and wreaths of ribbons on the doorsteps of the temple as they made their wishes; little children looking innocently at the orb and making their simple wishes. All this, the orb saw and it became its energy, the energy of wishes.
One day we will come before you again." Myra thought quietly to herself. "It will be an official visit that time."
"Myra, on that day, it will chose one of us. Or maybe both…" La'liet spoke back to her mind.
"It will be you, La'liet… all the priests have hinted so. You are a metallic dragon. A dragon of strength and courage. You are worthy to be the Protector o f Atlantis. Cloud dragons are only good at magic. I just came along to help you, that's all." Myra smiled contently. Yes, that was enough for her.
They were quiet for a while. Standing in awe in front of this vessel that held the wishes of so may souls.
"I will protect this city." La'liet announced quietly.
"Yes, of course," Myra nodded.
" will protect you," he continued.
She turned around, briefly touched by his promise.
"I will protect you for ever and ever." La'liet turned to look at her. That was when she knew he wasn't just saying it, but he meant it.
Myra smiled.
"Thank you."
Myra lay curled up in a corner, seemingly asleep and oblivious to the roaring rises and swells of the crowd outside their cavernous waiting room. La'liet clawed at the ground in impatience. When would they be let out? When would it all be settled? And how could Myra bear to sleep so soundly just before the Choosing.
He stomped angrily to her side and was wondering whether to breathe fire to scare her or kick her lightly. He thought better of it since she was in such a defenceless position. He craned his neck low and nudged her neck lightly, like a kiss on her gloved hand.
Myra fluttered her eyelids coquettishly and rose up just as the heralds sounded the trumpets to signal their entry.
A glistening metallic beauty emerged from the cave and a roar went up with the audience.
"La'liet! La'liet! Prince of kingdom!" That was what they liked to call him. His wings easily cast a shadow over a third of the stadium, beating steadily to the moment of glory in his life. The clouds seemed to part due to the force of the wind created by his wings before he landed on the raised podium in the middle of the stadium. A white marble statue, he arrested your respect almost immediately. His strength and power was indescribable. He turned his ruby eyes to his love, Myra who swept out of the cave in a blur.
"Myra! Myra! Lady of the mist!"
Her colours shifted through all the colours of rainbow before she landed lightly next to La'liet.
Show off! He scolded her mentally and her only response was a light change in the colour near her eyes, where the mist gave way to a picture of a jester. The image disappeared as quickly as it had come and La'liet shook his head, giving up on her.
The priest had already started his speech but time slowed when he thundered the request to the orb. "Show us! Show us your chosen one!"
La'liet instantly felt himself enveloped in warmth, a mind-numbing pleasant warmth but he snapped awake when the heat intensified and pierced his heart, searching it like a persistent surgeon. And suddenly, it was gone, like it had never happened.
After that, his world never happened. His dreams disappeared like sound. You hear it only for the moment, but after it leaves, you wonder if you ever heard anything in the first place.
He realized he was staring at Myra and she was staring at him.
No.
No. No. She was trying to talk to him. He should listen, they always talked and listened to each other but the words went by without registering.
He clenched his claws in frustration but instantly knew that this was bad. He definitely did not need violent actions right now. He was starting to get really agitated. He could feel his blood rising and trickling heatedly out of his clenched claws. He tried to open his mouth but it was glued shut.
He wanted to tell her. Myra! Myra! I can't hear you!
What was wrong with him! His mouth would not open. His ears could not hear. And his eyes, oh his eyes! Lay staring wide open at his Love; bathed in a pink blessed glow. WHY! The question ripped his mind and senses and after that, everything went red.
Hitomi blinked, what was that she had just seen.
Was it a vision?
Was it just a dream?
Her lips curled unknowingly into a grimace, such thoughts had not come to her in a long time. She thought she had finally cut her ties with these illusive nightmares that came and went and actually did no help at all.
But instantly, eerily she knew it was something different this time round.
Was it a vision?
Was it just a dream?
Or a memory?
You must let me take over! I must turn into a dragon! You are in danger! You are just a human! He could strike any moment! LOOK AT HIM! The voice that had suddenly intruded into Hitomi's thoughts was surprisingly irritating. She was looking, she was. She had been for quite sometime. And somehow looking at this fiercesome beast in front of her left her quite calm even though he was four times her size. He didn't look ready to attack. He looked bewildered. Lost. Stranded after the carnage he had just engaged in.
Her eyes softened. She had seen that look before. A long long time ago, when she had first come to Gaea and met a young handsome boy-king.
Suddenly she knew what she must do.
Lend me your form, Hitomi called to the presence in her head who seemed to visibly relax at the request. But, Hitomi's voice was firm, I will not lend you my mind. Let me handle this.
And then, there were two.
Two tall dragons in the room. Celena decided this was a good time perhaps to abandon friendship and find a way to escape. She looked around in bewilderment but her young nephew, Chid put his hand on her shoulder in re-assurance. She jolted, had he grown so much that he could now reach her shoulder so easily? The black dragon suddenly let out a guttural low roar and Celena grabbed Chid's hand for her life's worth.
Actually he was just talking.
"Why? I thought we were dead. Spared of life."
Hitomi looked at him quietly. "Were we really so desperate to die?"
"I was." Red eyes hardened and his hackles rose. "I was desperate to be freed of my memories, those that reminded me of how we once were close and then you betrayed me."
"I am not who you hate." Hitomi stated simply.
"It doesn't matter!" He cried and raised a claw to strike her but she moved swiftly, surprised at her own speed and leaned in close for …
A kiss… (which in the dragon world is a nuzzle in the neck)
"It matters." She whispered. "Much more than you know. For I will not give you the chance to cause Van any more grief. By taking away the one he loves."
And suddenly they were gone, in their place, was the comforting picture of a girl resting her head against a boy's chest, Van caressed Hitomi's sandy hair softly, like running his fingers through the new wheat in the Fanelian fields.
"You do know how I feel about you," he whispered back gently. And she nodded and held onto him tighter in response. When she spoke again, her voice was strained from holding back tears.
"I have always known-Van! I was so scared I would lose you back then."
Something made him bold, something which Allen would pat him on the back and tell their friends of as the moment when Van finally broke out of his shy adolescent puberty self.
He lifted her chin, and made her look at him. "Why were you scared?" He asked softly and before Hitomi could muster up the courage to respond, he had kissed her lightly.
The magical thing about a kiss, was not really the sensation that it brings but what it has come to symbolize through the ages. An honest and bare profession of the love for another. People have forgotten about its true meaning till they unknowingly go after repeated kisses in search for a lost meaning they cannot understand, which is simply: I chose you.