Over The Sky

A fanfiction by Lyrael

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, though I very much wish I did.

So you're back on those treasured days
We were young in a world that was so tired
Though it's not what we wanted before
Even the saints had to crawl from the floor

It was well into the blue-gray blanket of the night when Merle and I, along with Ruhm who had sat down to casually listen in, moved away from reminiscing. I had told her of Amano and Yukari, and my life on "the Mystic Moon". Merle had punctured my stories with child-like questions about life on Earth, her eyes so full of a cat-like curiosity that I had laughed until my wounds burned.

When I had finished filling her in on pretty much everything that had happened to me in the past few years, the topic of conversation moved on to the happenings of Gaia, and how the planet had begun the harrowing process of repairing itself from the debilitating effects of war.

"How's Fanelia?" I asked, wondering if I could avoid the topic of Van. Thoughts of him had been plaguing me since I'd awakened from my coma, and I couldn't get rid of the images of his body being blown to pieces in front of me. It circled round and round in my head as Merle described the rebuilding efforts.

"Well… the castle is pretty much restored to what it used to be. So are the major areas of the city. Everyone seems pretty optimistic about finishing it off now. We've made a lot of progress since you left." She beamed, her ears perking up slightly. As I watched her talk, I began to see the entrancing cat twins, Nariya and Eriya, in the cat-woman before me. The way she moved and tilted her head when she talked was heavily reminiscent of the Folken's cat henchmen.

And then I realized why the cats hadn't attacked when Merle had stepped in front of Van, when he had frozen in Escaflowne.

"Merle," I interrupted, feeling the familiar prickling sensation of tears behind my eyes; my body had finally re-hydrated itself enough to cry. "How… how is Van?" There. It was out in the open.

Merle smiled knowingly, but hid it somewhat successfully. "Well, Hitomi. I was wondering when you were gonna ask!" She went on to tell me that Fanelia's young ruler was healthy and, with all respect, a good king. I could see the soft pride she had for her adopted brother in her eyes.

"But, Hitomi," she added, arching an eyebrow, "he's still unwed, and he's not betrothed to anyone…" she laughed. "I'd say you still have a chance, Seeress." The last word of her sentence brought back old, awkward memories from my first times on Gaia. I smiled, feeling the effects of my body repairing itself. It felt like all my energy was being rerouted to the closing and healing of my lacerations and bruises. The entrance and exit wounds felt hot and slightly uncomfortable, but I forced myself to ignore it.

We talked more of Fanelia until Earth and the Moon were low in the sky, and Ruhm had fallen asleep in the crook of the tree's roots.

Merle yawned, and stretched in a way that reminded me of Miya, Yukari's kitten. "C'mon Hitomi," she said, standing up and moving to my side as I got up. The aches and pains had started to fade, a welcome effect of the medicine Reine and the twins had administered a few hours before. "You're sleeping in my room tonight." She slid her arm around my lower back and steadied me as I got up, but I was surprised at how easy moving had become.

After stirring Ruhm from his sleep, we walked slowly back to Merle's guest hut, a small but welcoming room that was situated in a group of guest huts. The guest housing was only a short distance away from the cluster of medicinal huts where I had woken up earlier that day.

Merle helped me up the step into her guest hut with the determination of a fierce kitten; although it was easier, moving around was still a bit of an effort for me.

A lantern hung from the center of the thatched roof, and small moth-like insects fluttered around the dancing flame. There were two beds in the hut, quite unlike what I had woken up on. They were comfortable mattresses, held up on a wood frame, and filled with fluffy down. Merle lent me her arm so I could sit down.

"So comfy," I said with a smile, my voice barely hiding relief. A soft blanket lay folded at the end of the bed, and an equally soft pillow was at the other.

"Here Hitomi," Merle said, digging into her bags and throwing a lump of linen at me. I blinked as it fell in my lap.

"What's this?" I asked, holding it up with my left hand and waving it around a bit, hoping to figure out what it was used for.

"It's a nightgown, silly," she said matter-of-factly, quickly swiping it from me and magically holding it the right way. "It's a gown that you use for nighttime." I laughed softly.

"I know what a nightgown is, stupid," I held out my hand for it again, "but thanks for lending it to me."

She waved a clawed hand. "What are old friends for? I think you might need to help undressing though. Do you mind?"

I laughed at her. "Just don't get your fingers caught in my bandages."

We were laughing about Ruhm as she gently pulled my cloak from my shoulders and dropped it to the floor.

"Hey, do you remember that time when we first met?" she was asking, "when I stole your – oh, Hitomi." Her voice sounded panicked, so I began to panic too.

"What's wrong?" I asked, craning my neck as far as I could over my shoulder. At first I thought she had seen a bloodstain on my fresh bandages, but as I felt her finger tracing one of my mysterious scars, I knew she had fallen silent for another reason.

"Hitomi… do you know what these are?" I turned slowly to face her, and the expression she wore confused me at first.

"Merle, the wolf-woman Reine was the same… I woke up with those. What do you know?" Panic had left me: this time, it was curiosity that was tingling through my nerves. Merle looked off to the side, her ears flattening a little.

"Right after they disappear… I see what you have on Van."

My head spun – I knew what "they" were, and very well. "They" had carried Van and I out of Dornkirk's palace so many years ago; "they" were what Van had always been ashamed of.

I bit my lip, taking an unsteady step backwards. I wobbled a little, but Merle caught me. "Hitomi, I need to know something," she said, and I could sense an urgency that Merle never used. "When you came back to us, to Gaia, were you about to… to die? I mean, Ruhm told me your injuries had been pretty bad when he found you, but he never went into any detail…"

I nodded, my hand covering the bullet wound. It was buried beneath layers of bandages, but the dull ache refreshed itself every time I took a deep breath. "I was shot, remember?" I said. Merle and I sat together on my bed as I recounted what had happened on Earth. "A man shot me outside a bakery, you know… it's like a stand in the market that sells bread. I remember not being able to breathe. And I remember that, right as I felt myself start to die, I wished to come back here, to be with Van." I felt my cheeks burn as I told her my last wish before I had appeared on Gaia. "And I remember the pillar forming around me, and taking me into the clouds. And that's the last thing I remember before waking up this morning."

Merle was quiet for a few moments, and then she turned her wide-eyed gaze to me. "Hitomi, do you want me to tell you what happened when you got here?" she asked.

I nodded, although I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to hear.

"Well, Ruhm told me that he was checking up on some old tribe borders for another tribe of wolves when they found you. It was definitely a good thing they did, too. They took you back to the other tribe's village first, and after about 5 days they decided to move you here.

"He also mentioned to me that you were surrounded by millions of white feathers. Some had scattered with the breeze, of course, but they scooped up the majority of them. You probably saw some of them above you when you woke up today, right?"

I nodded, too dumbfounded to find words. Ruhm had forgotten to mention the feathers, and I wondered what else he knew.

"But the point I'm trying to get at here is that I think these feathers," she said, idly touching the tips of her fingers together, "came from you."

I stared at her profile for a moment, trying to absorb what she said. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know," she replied, returning my gaze. She looked like her cattish curiosity was piqued. "You did say that your grandmother came here from the Mystic Moon, many years ago, right?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" My question hung in the air for a few awkward moments before Merle could actually respond.

"Well… there have been tales," she said, gesturing broadly, "of Draconians, like Van's momma, going to the Mystic Moon. I never believed them, to be honest. But I think we might have something here."

I was incredulous, but her proposed theory made sense. After all, if my grandmother had been able to go to Gaia…

"Tell me Hitomi," she said, turning a curious gaze towards me. "What do you think you know about your parents?"

The next morning, when the sunlight peered over the mountains, Merle and I were already making our way deep into the forest. I was slower, of course, but we were making good time. Merle walked ahead of me, a colorful sack hanging from her left shoulder. I was feeling a lot better, and Merle had agreed to let me walk on my own. She wore an outfit much like my own: a long, expertly sewn skirt, and a thin cloth that was tied around her neck and mid-back.

We had gone to sleep that night on a promise that Merle would try to help me figure out what was going on with me.

A short while after the sun had pulled itself into the sky, we arrived in a wide clearing. Merle helped me take a seat on a fallen log while she checked around the borders of the clearing. She came bounding back a few minutes later. "It's all clear… but what I'm going to tell you might sound a little strange."

I shifted in my seat, and sighed. Over the course of the night, much of the pain from my superficial wounds had vanished, but I was still stiff. My stomach gurgled grouchily; as if on cue, Merle reached into her sack and pulled out a flat piece of brown bread. It was a bit thicker than a tortilla, and it tasted sweet, like honey. I crammed it into my mouth and attempted to chew while Merle laughed at my hunger.

"Shut up," I grumbled once I swallowed, throwing various twigs at her. She just gave me a pointed grin.

"All right Hitomi, time to work," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm not sure how Van does what he does… but he said once that he just concentrates or something. I don't remember." She smiled nervously. "You should stand up if you're going to try this. I just wanna see if those are really what they look to be."

I stood up slowly, quite proud that I could ignore what little pain now came from the bullet wound. "Okay, so you want me to concentrate? What should I concentrate on?"

Merle shrugged. "You think I know? Just think about flying, I guess."

So I did what she suggested: I closed my eyes and thought about flying. I remembered the many times Van had held me in his arms while we flew; I wondered when I would see him again, and why he hadn't known I was here initially. Our mental link had provided limited but clear communication between Earth and Gaia. Why didn't he respond when I called to him? I thought about falling when a large blast had shaken apart the dragon graveyard, and I remembered him catching me as I fell into the dark abyss.

The world around me began to fade into a monochromatic gray, and Merle's face disappeared from my vision. The frustration built in my chest. I had so many unanswered questions, and I wanted someone to tell me why I had been saved. I wanted to know how Yukari and Amano were back on Earth; did they remember where I had gone when I disappeared for the first time?

I remembered Fanelia, and I remembered Van trapped inside a blackened Escaflowne, his life fading. The gray darkened into a deep blue hue, and I remembered falling, falling…

Something opened my eyes then. The vision I had witnessed just over two weeks ago, before I had fallen deep into a coma, refreshed itself in my mind. In my head I could see Van's face, and his eyes glinted at me from beneath his raven bangs. Suddenly I was pulled backwards, and a new vision began. I was standing in the forest where Escaflowne slept.

I saw him then, an older, more beautiful King who had lost all traces of adolescent awkwardness. Van sat by Escaflowne's feet. My scars burned horribly, and I felt like they were going to burn right through my bandages. The vision continued, and I saw Van stand up. He looked sorrowful, and his shoulders slumped with the invisible weight of sadness. His hand was wrapped around something near his neck, and I squinted to see what it was. His hand dropped to his side, and my own pendant sparkled in the sun. The vision faded then, and ended.

The gray world around me shattered as I fell to my knees in reality, trying too hard to breathe. Merle was in front of me, one of her hands on my shoulder.

"What happened to you Hitomi? 'Cause I sure know what happened while you were lost in your head."

"What do you mean, and how do you know I was lost in my head?" I panted. My scars felt normal again.

"Oh, it's obvious when you get lost in there," she said, poking my forehead. "You get this weird blank look on your face. It's always been like that with you."

I frowned. "I had a vision, okay? But what do you mean? What happened while I was 'lost in my head'?" I sat back and tried to stand, but my legs wobbled. I chose to stay on the ground.

"Well," Merle began, "you got that look on your face, so I knew that you were out there. But something weird happened in the few seconds before you came out of the trance. You started whispering some really weird language, and the air felt really cold all of the sudden… but that's it."

"Oh," I replied, feeling disappointed. I wanted so badly for the questions I had to be answered. But then I remembered the vision.

"Merle, have you been in touch with Van lately?" I wondered if maybe the only reason he thought I was dead was because no one had told him the truth.

She shook her head. "The last time I saw Lord Van was about a month ago. The only reason I'm at Ruhm's village right now is because I was passing through about a week ago, and he told me that he'd found you."

"Merle, I saw him in my vision. I had contact with him right before I came here, but then I got cut off. I thought that he'd helped to rescue me… but I guess he thinks that I've died." I touched my hand to my temple, exasperated. This was far more than I wanted to deal with.

"Hitomi, I'm going to stay with you for the time being. Ruhm said that at the rate you're going, you'll be healed enough to travel in about a week, so he didn't bother to send any messengers. We'll surprise Van then, okay? Fanelia is less than half a day's ride from here." Merle
touched my arm lightly. "I know you miss him. But I promise you that we'll see him soon."

Merle and I walked back from the clearing without incident, and we arrived at the village before too long. Many young wolf-children scampered about in the streets, stopping and staring as Merle and I passed. A dusty ball rolled into my path as we neared the guest housing, and I paused and picked it up. A little boy, completely without clothing and not much taller than my knee, summoned the courage to come up to me.

"You want the ball?" I said, offering it to him. He gave me a shy grin before quickly taking the ball and running back to his friends.

I heard Merle giggling, and I turned. "What?"

"I never knew you were so good with kids," she laughed. "Don't worry. They'll warm up to you eventually. They don't see many people like you around here."

As we neared the guest housing, we passed a hut that I hadn't noticed before. The entrance was decorated with many of the white feathers that had hung in my medical room. Also hanging from the doorway was a various assortment of animal skulls and bones, along with other feathers from birds. I stopped in the road.

Merle kept walking, but soon saw that I wasn't with her anymore. "Hitomi!" she shouted back at me, "what are you doing?"

"These are the feathers that were in my room," I replied, catching one in my hand as it swayed in the breeze. It was soft and downy, like a chick. Merle came back and stood next to me, looking at the assortment of feathers.

"These are really pretty," she said, touching a long, greenish feather. It looked like it had come from a peacock.

"I'm afraid I took those feathers without asking permission," a voice said from within the shadows of the hut, startling Merle and I. A short, old woman emerged from the shadows, her eyes crinkling with a broad smile. Her salt and pepper hair was plaited, and hung over her shoulder. "My name is Resha. You must be the Seeress from the Mystic Moon, no?"

I found myself bowing stiffly. "Hitomi, miss. You can call me Hitomi."

The old wolf-woman nodded, her smile never faltering. "And you, little cat. You are Merle?"

Merle nodded slowly. Confusion was etched into her expression.

Resha directed her attention back to me. "You have met my younger sister, yes? Her name is Reine. She took care of you when you first woke up."

I felt slightly more comfortable after she connected herself to Reine, but I was still curious. "Yes, I met her yesterday morning. She's very kind."

Resha seemed pleased. "I'm glad you speak such kind words of her. But she confessed to me, last night, of something infinitely curious. She spoke of two scars on your back. They exist, yes?" I nodded again, speechless.

"Might I ask you, young Hitomi, that you might come into my home? I believe I know the answers to some questions you might have."

My heart skipped a beat – she knew answers? Resha disappeared back into the shadows of her home. I turned to Merle, making sure to keep my voice low. "Do you know who she is?"

Merle nodded. "Ruhm told me about her. Ever since they brought you here, she would come every day to see you for a few minutes. Ruhm said she might know something – she is, after all, their resident witch doctor. Ruhm says she's in touch with the planet, more so than any other person of Gaia."

"I think we should go in, then," I whispered. Merle slipped her arm around mine, and we entered Resha's house.

Inside Resha's home was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, even in other places on Gaia. The decorations continued from the outside of her home, sprawling across the thatched ceiling. Bones, jewels, and feathers… she had it all. Her hut was slightly larger than most I had seen, with a central fire pit and even a small bedroom area. Resha shuffled forward, and took a seat next to the fire, sighing. She smiled at me.

"Ah… old age, it does a person well." She flicked her wrist, and the burning fire flared bluish-purple. Merle stood close to me, eyeing the fire suspiciously. Resha chuckled, and held out her hand.

"Take my hand, Hitomi," she coughed. I reached forward, and did as she asked. A moment passed before I realized that my palm was incredibly hot, and I flinched, letting out a yelp of pain. I shook my hand furiously, and began to blow small puffs of air on my skin, but then I saw it.

Branded into my hand was a bright, but slowly fading red mark. It was intricate in detail, and looked like something from the time period of the Aztecs. Merle gasped behind me. "Hitomi! What happened to your hand?" I stared hard at Resha.

"What was that?" I demanded. "Why did you hurt me?"

Resha chuckled again, pausing this time to cough heartily. "I didn't hurt you, child. What I did was simply a test, yes? It was only to determine what you are. Look at your palm, it should be fine now."

I bit my lip, and looked at my hand. Indeed, the mark had disappeared, leaving behind a faint pink burn. "Well, if the test was a success, what am I?"

Resha only peered at me through slitted eyes. "You're exactly what I thought you were. You, my dear Hitomi," she paused, drawing a design in the ashes of the fire pit with a clawed finger, "have been reborn, as a gift from Gaia, our own Mother."

"What do you mean, reborn?" I ventured, taking a step forward. Resha held up a hand, her palm flat and facing me, and I was rooted to the spot. My wounds burned viciously for a few moments, and I clenched my teeth. An invisible wind blew up from around my feet, disrupting all the artifacts hanging from the ceiling.

"What is this?" I said, surprised at the loudness of my voice. Merle had backed up to the doorway. My skirt flapped around my knees, and the chiming of bells from somewhere in the hut grew louder. Two lines of searing hot pain ripped down my back. My scars felt like they were on fire.

"You are a new person, Hitomi," Resha shouted over the roaring of the wind. "But your old blood, the blood you were born with, fueled that birth!"

I moaned as the edges of my vision began to blur. The scars burned ever hotter, and I knew that they were probably glowing like red-hot coals. The last noise I heard was the intense sound of ripping flesh, and I slumped forward onto the floor.

When my eyes opened again, I was laying on the bed in Resha's hut. Resha had her back turned to me, and I could smell food roasting on the fire, which was back to its normal color. I breathed deeply and sat up. My back felt sore, but the fiery pains of when Resha had held me fast were gone. Much of the pain I had been experiencing before had faded into obscurity as well.

At the noise of my stirring, Resha turned around, eyeing me warmly. "Ah, feeling better, Hitomi?"

I nodded. "How long was I out for?" I stretched and yawned, hearing my back crack a few times.

"About ten minutes," she said with a small smile. She shuffled over to me with a small glass of water. "Here, have a drink. You might feel parched after that ordeal, no?"

"A little." I took the glass from her and drained it in less than a minute. "Thanks."

Resha took the glass from me, and set it by the fire. "Tell me, Hitomi," she said, gently touching my arm, "do you know what kind of blood flows through your veins?"

I must have looked puzzled, for she simply laughed. "I take that as a no. Well then… I won't spoil the fun of finding out for yourself."

"What?" I responded, disappointed. "I don't even get a hint?"

Resha grunted, picking up a bulging sack from the floor. "It spoils the fun. Don't worry, Seeress. You'll find out in time. Merle is outside." A few downy white feathers spilled from the sack.

I stood with an eyebrow raised, and bowed shortly. "It was nice meeting you." I then moved across the hut, and ran outside, no pain hindering me.

Merle was sitting in a circle with many of the village children, leading them in a singsong clapping game. Most of them were enjoying it, and didn't even blink an eye when I sat next to Merle, and joined in.

When they reached the end of the song, the children stood up and happily bid Merle goodbye. When they had all gone, Merle and I sat in silence for a few moments.

"Merle," I began, "what happened in Resha's hut?"

She gave me a curious look, but I could tell she was hiding a smile.

"You'd never believe me if I told you," she said, staring out at the mountains in the distance. "You are truly one of us, Hitomi. I don't know why you were up there for so long." She grew quiet again, but she smiled. "Hitomi, do you still love Lord Van?"

My frustration with the evasiveness of both Resha and Merle left me. I followed Merle's gaze up to the Mystic Moon, which was white and pale in the sky.

"I never stopped loving him," I replied. "We stayed in touch, you know. The last thing he said to me, right before I came here, was 'come back, Hitomi'." Do you think he knew what was going to happen?"

Merle shook her head. "That's impossible. But I do know that he loves you, and that he misses you something terrible. Sometimes, he would get real quiet for weeks on end, and every time this happened, he always said, 'I miss her, Merle'. He didn't have to say anything more."

I was quiet, letting all that she said soak in. For the past five years, I'd tried to make myself forget about this place, and I had, little by little. Van had never faded in my mind's eye, but now that Gaia had welcomed me back, I saw no reason to delay things any further.

"I want to see him again." I let my gaze fall into line with Merle's. She was smiling, and I could see tears hiding in the corners of her large eyes.

"I know," she said. "I know."

Author's Notes: Well, I'm very sorry I didn't update for awhile. An excursion to Europe for two weeks, and then a vacation at the beach for another week have held me back. But I'm here again, and with more chapters! Yay! By the way, I like to draw Escaflowne fanart, and even though I'm not very good, I would like it if you all would take a peek. The URL is: http/ivoiredepoison. Well, the next chapter is coming soon, but it needs a little work; however, it is the longest chapter yet. They keep getting longer, omg!