Over The Sky
A fanfiction by Lyrael
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, though I very much wish I did.
Look up, I look up at night
Planets are moving at the speed of light
Climb up, up in the trees
Every chance that you get
Is a chance you seize
A few days passed before I was entirely well enough to travel. My back was sore, and after trying and trying to get an answer out of Merle, I gave up. She wouldn't tell me what had happened, so I started to doubt that anything major had occurred.
On the sixth day after I woke up from my coma, Ruhm came to Merle's guest hut, followed by two horse-like creatures on leads.
"Merle, Hitomi!" he shouted into our room. We were already awake and packing, so he hadn't startled us.
I poked my head out of the hut. "Are those what we're riding to Fanelia?" I stepped out of the hut to take a better look.
Ruhm laughed, and loosely tied the leads to a post outside the hut. "Yeah. You're leaving pretty soon, and I've arranged for you two to travel with one of our trading convoys that's headed to Fanelia. Don't worry, they're harmless most of the time."
I blew a strand of hair out of my face, and made a face at him. "If they're lecherous at all, you'll be hearing from me."
"If they're at all lecherous, I'll deal with them accordingly before I ever hear from you," he replied, laughing. "Hitomi, it was a pleasure to have you as my guest here. Pass my regards along to King Van."
I bowed. "Thank you for taking care of me."
Ruhm crossed his arms over his broad chest, looking me up and down. "I'm sure you'd stun him into a stupor, no matter what you looked like." He reached out and ruffled my hair. "The convoy's near the center of town. Merle knows where to go. It was nice to see you again, little lady."
I watched him disappear around the bend before I went back inside.
The sun was high in the sky by the time Merle and I met up with the convoy in the center of the village. More horse-like beasts tossed their heads, attached to many wagons full of produce. The convoy began to move out of town after a short while, and we were instructed to ride towards the back, near the group of guards that flanked the last wagons.
The convoy moved slowly, but the pace was steady, and we traveled on a shaded path that ran along a steep, rocky cliff.
Merle and I rode in periods of silence, breaking it only to gape and gawk at the prettiness of our surroundings.
It was well after lunchtime when a young guard fell in step with us, withdrew two strange-looking fruits and offered them to us. Merle took them with a smile and as much of a bow as riding a horse-beast would let her. She handed one to me, and immediately started peeling hers apart with gusto.
I stared down at the fruit in my hands. "How am I supposed to open this thing?" I asked, holding it out.
Merle glanced up at me, her mouth already full of green fruit flesh. "Oh," she said, swallowing. "You just rip that top stem there, and peel it back. Be careful though, these are really ripe and squishy."
"A-ha," I said, unconvinced. Still, I tugged at the top stem, and it ripped off easily. I held the fruit up to my nose and sniffed – it smelled something like a mango.
With unsure fingers, I pried the rest of the skin off of the fruit, licking my fingers after I was done. I sank my teeth into the ripe flesh, and was surprised to find that it tasted more like a banana. I finished it quickly, and my stomach gurgled happily.
Merle was feeding her horse-beast the fruit's peels when I saw something off in the distance. I squinted; there was something floating over the valley.
"Merle," I said, tilting my head in confusion. "What's that over there?"
She looked in the direction I was pointing, and I could see her body tense as she tried to discern what it was.
"Oh," she said after a moment, "it's a dragon."
"A what?" I cried, remembering my bad experience with a dragon before I had first come to Gaia.
"Don't worry," she giggled. The dragon's form grew larger, and soon it was floating past. The dragon was long and serpentine, and its bluish scales refracted the sunlight. It had a canine face, and its legs were more like a dog's legs than the chicken-legged lizards I had seen on Gaia five years ago. It's long body curled and uncurled in the breeze, and as it passed, it turned its head and met my gaze. It blinked slowly, and paused in the air, as if studying me. The dragon's body rippled around it, giving it an ethereal look. I had never seen a dragon as beautiful and harmless as this one; the ones I had seen before on Gaia were malevolent and bad-tempered.
"Hey fellows," I heard a guard call from the back of the convoy, "it's a sea dragon! Let's give it something to eat."
From the corner of my eye, I could see various kinds of fruit being hurled out towards the sea dragon. It broke away from my gaze, and moved to catch the fruit.
"Wow," I heard Merle say, "sea dragons are rare these days. I wonder what it's doing out here?" The dragon moved quickly and gracefully through the air, and I found myself transfixed.
The guards soon got tired of throwing fruit to the gentle dragon, and soon the it disappeared into the distance, moving with the river towards the sea.
A few hours after the dragon had passed the convoy, Merle and I began talking more of my life on the Mystic Moon. It was a subject that was rarely touched upon, even when time was of no essence.
She was fascinated by the fact that humans on Earth had created machines to do most of their bidding.
"If you ask me," she said, "it's much better to do things by hand. It might take longer, but the result is something to personally be proud of."
I smiled; she did have a point. "That's true. Machines can be something of a problem, sometimes. They can have bugs, and sometimes they completely stop working."
"You mean they decide to just quit?" she asked, eyes wide.
"No," I laughed, "bad things happen to them, so they stop working. Machines don't know they exist on the Mystic Moon."
Merle looked confused, so I decided to change the subject. "So what about life here, Merle? I never knew the real story behind you."
"Well," she began, "it's a long story, trust me." Merle never got to finish.
Less than a minute after she began to tell her own tale, my chest tightened inexplicably. "Merle," I hissed. "Shh. Something's wrong."
"What do you mean?" she said in a hushed tone of voice.
My eyes scanned the trees up ahead, looking for any disturbances. "I think something's coming. Something bad." The wind slid playfully along the edge of the forest, and a cloud of dust was kicked up into the air.
"What do you mean?" she replied fearfully. Merle had shrunk into her saddle.
"I don't know, but it feels like what I used to sense when I was last here," I said. The tightening in my chest got worse, and in my mind's eye the pendant swung in circles, until it finally swung in one direction: ahead of us.
"But the war's long been over," she whispered back. I could see her hands tightly clutching the reigns.
"I know," I said, and then the tight feeling intensified tenfold. Up ahead, the trees growing on the side of the path were suddenly blasted apart, and the familiar rippling of an invisible Zaibach guymelef shook the air.
"A guymelef?" I shouted above the noise. I saw two more move from the trees, and several wagons from the convoy were tossed over the cliff's edge into the valley. "Merle," I yelled, jumping from my horse-beast. I landed shakily, but I caught myself, silently cursing my unsteady balance. "Get off! We need to run!"
She obeyed quickly, leaving her things on the horse-beast. The forest next to us splintered, and I could see the rippling of more invisible shields. My eyes widened and my heart began to race in my chest. I grabbed Merle's arm and we began to run as fast as we could. I glanced back as we stumbled past tipped wagons, and I saw our beasts get tossed over the edge.
"Gotta get off the cliff," I chanted breathlessly to myself, "get off the cliff, get off the cliff, get off the cliff…" I kept repeating my mantra as we ran. The liquid metal shots of Crima Claws buried themselves in the ground near our feet, which only prompted us to run as fast as we could.
"Hitomi, they're up ahead!" Merle cried, and she was right. A few now-visible guymelefs stood there, waiting to intercept us.
"Merle," I said, out of breath, "there's only one thing we can do…"
"What's that?" she responded, apparently still full of energy. I glanced to my left; the ground dropped off completely into a steep cliff.
"We've gotta get off the cliff," I said, and we ran towards it.
"Hitomi, this is crazy!" Merle shouted as we stopped at the edge, teetering. A few rocks tumbled over, and fell into the valley below.
"I know," I replied, catching my breath. "But it's our only option right now, so we're gonna take it!" With that, I tipped my weight over the edge, and we started to fall.
The air rushed noisily past us, but I never let go of Merle's arm. Instead, I searched my brain for something that could save us. I closed my eyes as we fell, thinking about what Van would do if he'd been with us. He'd probably spread his wings, and catch us effortlessly…
"Merle, hold on!" I shouted over the noise, and I saw her nod. She had confidence in me, but she was still shaking. I stretched out my free arm, and soon we were freefalling, holding on to each other for dear life. Merle was whimpering as the river below us started to grow larger.
I remembered the searing hot pain of my scars in Resha's hut, and I suddenly knew what I had to do. I inhaled deeply; the ground was approaching quickly, and if I hesitated too long…
"Here goes nothing," I breathed. I scrunched my eyes shut, and then I heard a curious ripping noise; suddenly we weren't falling as fast.
When I opened my eyes, white feathers were cascading around me, and Merle was screaming, "Dammit Hitomi, FLY!"
I searched my mind and with a renewed confidence, I tightened the muscles of my wings, and soared upwards of the cushions of wind. Merle's added weight was a challenge, and once the thermals grew weak, I had to beat my wings furiously to stay aloft. However, we caught a particularly warm cushion of air, and within a few moments, we burst like a bullet through the clouds and into Gaia's upper atmosphere. Merle's tail was fluffed out and she wore a frazzled expression, as if she'd just had a bucket of ice cold water dumped on her.
Flying beyond the clouds was easier than below them, for the jet stream-like winds gave us extra lift. As we soared ever higher, the feeling of the rushing winds through my hair and feathers was ecstatic.
I burst out laughing, and it was louder than I'd ever laughed in my entire life.
"C'mon, Merle," I cried to her, "we're flying to Fanelia."
The sun was warm on my back as we flew, and Merle was hugging me tightly. She was still shaking, but somehow I knew that it was because she didn't like the height. We were soaring lower now, but we were still over the clouds in some places, as we were trying to avoid being seen by the guymelefs.
"Merle," I said after a while, trying to coax her into talking. "What do you think Zaibach's guymelefs are still doing around?"
She was quiet for a moment. "I don't know, but it seemed like they were coming after something pretty important." She scowled pointedly at me. "They never randomly attacked fruit convoys, even when the war was full-scale. There's something weird going on, but Gaia has been at peace for a while now."
I sighed, and relaxed my wings. We dropped a few feet in altitude, just enough for me to see where we were going. Forests grew thinner beneath us, and soon there were acres upon acres of farms and fallow land speeding by.
"Hitomi," Merle said meekly. I looked down at her for a moment.
"Yes?"
She shifted a bit in my arms, relaxing. She had finally stopped trembling. "Thanks for saving me." I felt a small smile touch my lips.
"What are friends for?" The muscles where my wings met the flesh of my back began to burn faintly.
"You're beautiful, Hitomi." Merle said softly, and her voice was almost lost among the rushing winds. I didn't answer her, but all was well for the time being.
"We're almost home!" Merle let out a cry of delight as we neared a barren area of land, devoid of all trees and vegetation. In the near distance, I could just make out Fanelia's main gates. "We're almost there, Hitomi."
"Good," I groaned, "because my energy is gone." We dropped even lower, and in a few minutes, we came in for a relatively peaceful landing. Merle tentatively let go of me, her thin shoulders shaking again.
I dropped to my knees, and my wings burst into a cloud of white feathers that drifted lazily away on the breeze. I was breathing hard, and my bullet wounds began to ache. I realized that I was trembling, for flying such a distance for the first time had physically drained me.
Merle kneeled down beside me, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. "You okay, Hitomi?"
I coughed a few times, but I grinned at her. "I'm fine."
Merle patted my back, and then laughed. "At least you don't suffer from what I like to called 'Ripped Shirt Syndrome'. Van always manages to destroy his nice shirts when he flies."
I reached back with one arm, and felt the shirt; the way the fabric had originally been tied provided a large patch of bare skin. I rocked back onto my heels and stood; Fanelia loomed in the near distance, hiding behind newly rebuilt walls. The ground was warm and sharply rocky, and my feet were bare. Even though the soles of my feet were soft, I learned to ignore the sharp stones and pebbles.
"I'm starting to wish we never left those beasts behind," I said after awhile. The sun was beating down on our bare shoulders with all its intensity.
"Hitomi," Merle said some time later, "what about your wings? Are you going to tell Lord Van about them?"
I stared at the clouds for a moment before answering. "Do you think I should? I was thinking about waiting for a while. It's going to be more than a shock when we see each other again. Maybe they should just… remain a secret for now." I looked at her for reassurance. "Don't tell him, okay? I… want to surprise him."
Merle smacked my arm lightly. "Fine, I promise. I won't tell him anything. But you have to tell him sometime."
The gates drew ever closer as we walked together, and the minutes that passed before we were in the shadows of the gates vanished quickly into the sands of time.
"Hey you!" Merle shouted. Her voice was hoarse. "Open the gates now!"
"Lady Merle, is that you?" one of the guards called down. We heard a great deal of relieved chuckling float down on the breeze. "C'mon in! We heard a convoy you were traveling with was just attacked. King Van's been wondering where you were!"
A smaller door in the gates opened, and a friendly-faced guard let us through. The new gates were built twice as thick as they were before Zaibach's initial attack. As we came through on the other side, I stared up in awe at the new Fanelia.
The once-fallen city had been rebuilt to its former splendor, a richness that wholly reminded me of Japan. The cobblestone beneath my feet was pleasantly warm, and Merle and I followed a large, central path that led to the palace. Vendors lined the streets on both sides, haggling and calling out their prices to passersby.
I felt nervous as we walked among Fanelia's citizens; would any of them recognize me? I silently wished I'd grabbed my bag of clothing before we'd fled from the destroyed convoy – at least I would've had my cloak to disappear under. Fortunately, no one seemed to pay much attention to us.
"Merle," I said, drawing near to her in the crowded streets. "What are we going to do when we get to the castle? I mean… I don't think I'll be expected."
"True," she agreed. "I'll just say that I'm visiting, and that I have a guest. Personally, I think it would be fun to make your appearance all dramatic and stuff, but I don't know what you wanna do."
A small laugh escaped me. "Well… it would be fun. Let's get there first." I pointed up the many stairs that led to the palace, which seemed to have been rebuilt much grander than it was before it had been destroyed. I heard Merle groan quietly.
"I'm too tired to take on these stairs like I usually do, so I guess I'll have to walk at your pace," she giggled and stuck out her tongue.
"You're a brat," I retorted. She just grinned mischievously at me.
"You act like I haven't heard that from you before," she replied, grabbing my hand. "We're gonna make this trip up the stairs sooner or later, so let's make it quick." With that, we hurried up the marble stairs, clutching at our skirts to keep from tripping on our hems.
When we finally arrived at the top, we came face to face with about a dozen royal knights, all standing stoic in front of the entrance. The doors to the castle were tall and ornately carved with golden pictures of dragons and the kings of Fanelia long gone. Fanelia's seal was in the very center, and the seam between the doors had been cleaved down the center.
I hesitated at the top stair; my calves were on fire and breathing was a little painful. Merle simply stepped forward and bowed low. The two knights standing closest to the entrance bowed their heads.
One spoke up after Merle had straightened. "King Van has been eagerly awaiting any word of your safety." He was young and looked about my age. "Please go right in, but if you don't mind my inquiry, who is your guest?"
Merle glanced back at me and rolled her eyes, but gave me a thumbs-up before she answered. "She's one of the surviving members of the fruit convoy that was attacked. I can vouch for her."
"Very well," he replied. The two guards stepped apart, and the tall doors to Fanelia's palace creaked open.
We entered the palace quietly, and the first room we stepped into was the throne room. The ceilings were vaulted and like most of the castle, extraordinarily decorated. It vaguely reminded me of the Sistine Chapel in Italy: beautiful and painstakingly created. The room was mostly empty, except for a few women who were busy polishing the floors to a mirror-like finish. The entrance into the throne room was dim, except for a few windows where the sunlight streamed in.
I paused in the shadows to admire a large vase that was set on a pedestal. The pictures that danced around the rounded vase were winged, and vaguely reminded me of how Folken must have been before I'd met him. I lightly touched the sides of the vase with my fingertips, marveling at the level of detail, when a loud shout forced my attention away.
Merle had continued into the throne room while I'd stopped to rest, and apparently our presence had been announced, for there was someone in a loose red shirt and long tan pants, running barefoot through the room to meet her.
My heart jumped into my throat, followed closely by my stomach, and my hands began to shake uncontrollably. That shaking traveled quickly up my arms to my shoulders, and I tried to breathe deeply and calm myself down.
The King of Fanelia, a tall, lithe, raven-haired, and impressive young man, was hugging Merle very tightly in the center of the throne room. The very sight of him was suddenly calming, and the shaking stopped as soon as it had begun. My arms dropped like leaden weights to my sides, and I took a few steps forward, but remained in the shadowed entrance. A beam of light from the windows slid across my right side. From my position, I was near enough to hear what Merle was saying: words of comfort and calming. But when she changed the subject, I was almost surprised. It was the first time, since my arrival on Gaia, that I had felt like I was on the outside of everything.
"I have some good news for you," I heard Merle say. Van stood back from her a bit, staring intently at her. Then I took another step forward, and more sunlight slid across me. He noticed my movement, and his crimson gaze snapped towards me. His eyes widened visibly, and his expression would have been laughable in other circumstances.
I stepped out of the alcove, into the full light of the throne room. Merle had been right – my appearance was almost dramatic, in a way.
Merle laid a hand on his shoulder and said something that was far too quiet for me to hear, but I somehow knew that she was reassuring him that it was me.
I took another step, and then another, until the distance had closed to about fifteen feet. Merle had left us, and where she had gone I never knew, because everything disappeared but the young man in front of me.
"Hitomi," he finally said. He was still looking at me as if he couldn't believe I was there.
"Van," I responded, giving him a small smile, "aren't you going to welcome me back?"
He suddenly unfroze from his stupor, realizing that yes; I was standing solid and alive in front of him. In less than three seconds he closed the distance between us, gathering me up in his arms.
"You're alive," he whispered, and I could hear tears in his voice. "I thought I'd lost you forever."
I looked into his eyes, and I watched a tear slide down his cheek. Gently, I thumbed it away. "I promised you that I'd come back," I said, feeling like I was going to burst from happiness. "I'd never break the promise I made to the one I love."
"Oh Hitomi," he sighed. "I feel like this is some sort of dream." I blinked at him, and pinched the flesh on his arm. He flinched.
"Nope, you're awake," I stated flatly. Then I grinned at him, and he suddenly lifted me up in his strong arms, twirling me about. I shrieked and he laughed, his entire expression a mixture of complete relief and absolute happiness. He set me down gently, taking a step back to look at me.
"Look at you," he said, "you're all dirty! Reminds me of the early days."
I didn't respond – I was too busy taking in the details. His jaw was smooth with no trace of any stubble, and his dark, unruly hair had been partially tamed, as if trying to smooth it down was too much of an effort. The brief visions I had seen of him while on Earth couldn't match the real thing. Van had grown well over a foot, towering above me like his older brother had.
"You guys make my teeth hurt," Merle called teasingly. "I'm going to take a bath, Lord Van. By the way," she said, turning and waving a hand, "it might be better to take your reunion to somewhere more private." She began to walk towards an archway in the back of the throne room.
I felt my cheeks burn with a blush, but my embarrassment didn't last long.
"King Van!" A group of knights hurried across the room from the main entrance, led by the knight who had let Merle and I into the palace. "Details on the convoy attack have just been secured. I'm afraid I must request an audience with your Majesty right away. This an important matter than cannot be ignored."
Van's face slid effortlessly from overjoyed to serious. "Very well. Hitomi," he said, turning to me. His large hands were warm and heavy on my shoulders. "Go with Merle, and relax for a while. My servants will attend to you both. Merle knows her way around the castle; I'll try to get out of this as soon as possible. It's been too long…" He hugged me again, and I inhaled, the scent of fields clouding my senses. Then he was gone, sprinting across the throne room with the knights close behind.
Merle and I wandered through the corridors with a very subdued but kind old woman leading us. The crowded corridors of over five years ago were gone, replaced by more vaulted ceilings and some of the grandest types architecture since I'd set foot in King Aston's palace in Asturia, and the palace in Freid. The memory of watching Balgus and Van duel in a dark room surfaced briefly, but disappeared beneath the nostalgia.
The old woman led us into a small ballroom, where two staircases curved up to a second floor. We climbed silently up one before Merle spoke.
"So, you're not disappointed, are you?" The tone of voice she was using reminded me of her prying questions when I had first arrived on Gaia.
"No, not at all," I said, answering a little too quickly. "It's not my fault that he has things to do! After all, he is King now-"
Merle's peals of laughter interrupted my stumbling words. "I meant how he looks, dummy! Besides, I was being sarcastic. And don't worry about him having to rush off like that. I could see that he'd rather hug you forever rather than be dragged off to a meeting."
I sighed. "It's just… the timing sucked. But tell me, what did it look like to you? I mean, was he really happy to see me?"
Merle rolled her eyes. "Hitomi, you worry too much, did you know that? The way Lord Van reacted to your presence was incredible! I've never seen him so happy in his life… trust me, okay?"
I nodded, but then I grinned at her. We reached the top of the stairs, and the old woman led us through two solid wood doors at the very back of the landing. She opened one and motioned us through, into a narrow but beautiful hallway. The thick rug felt soothing beneath my aching feet, and it kind of reminded me of a really nice hotel on Earth; there were many doors set into the wall on either side, each with a different symbol next to the doorknob. She led us down the hallway a little ways, and we climbed another, smaller set of stairs and ended up in front of two more doors.
"These are the private chambers," Merle whispered through her teeth. "Only really important people are allowed back here. Like me."
"Come ladies," the old woman said gruffly, finally speaking. She opened one of the doors, and we stepped into a room; in front of us there was another set of doors, but they were deep red and inlaid with what looked like gold. On either side of us, there were two more sets of doors, but they were plain wood; however, they were painted with detailed images of Gaia's many flowers. The old woman left us for a moment, bustling to unlock each room.
"That one there is especially important." Merle said, pointing at the red set of doors and giving me a quick wink. There was a silken rope hanging on one golden door handle; it was loosely knotted and long enough to loop around the other handle. "That's Lord Van's room. The rope there is used to signify to any outsiders that he doesn't want anyone to come in – he just strings it across both handles. And this," she said, gesturing to her right, "is where I usually stay. I've visited so many times after I left that he's officially made it my room, whether I'm here or not." She beamed happily.
"What about that room?" I asked, pointing to our left. The old woman was standing in front of the doors, searching through a ring of keys and humming a familiar tune.
"Oh… that room has never been used, I believe. The servants clean it every month, but no one's ever stayed there, to my knowledge." The old woman seemed to finally find the key, and unlocked the doors, pushing them open. A fresh smell wafted out, rather than an old, musty one.
"Lady Merle," the old woman said, "inspect your room, and make sure it's to your specifications. Lady Hitomi, please inspect yours as well."
"Thank you, Yuba," Merle said, disappearing into her room. I bowed shortly, and then proceeded into my room.
When I entered, the dimness of the room forced my eyes to adjust. Fortunately, I could see where the sun was streaming in through cracks in the curtain, and I slowly made my way to a window. I tugged the curtains back, tucking them neatly into the hooks on either side of the window, and looked around. The room was large and sparsely furnished, with a four-post canopy bed to my left and a large bureau complete with a mirror in front of me. The floor was mostly smooth stone, and it was cool to the touch.
Adorning the walls were many tapestries and all different colors and designs, and I walked along the walls, running my hands across the smooth, woven textures. Eventually I came to a door that I hadn't noticed before, tucked between two tapestries that had medieval depictions of dragons on them. I opened it by tugging especially hard on the gold handle, and was surprised to find a bathing room behind the door. It was large and the floor was tiled, and there was nothing on the walls save for a small window above the bathtub. The tub itself was wide and deep enough to accommodate about six people. I leaned over the edge and peered in; it was easy to disappear beneath the level of the water.
"Pretty nice, isn't it?" I turned around to find Merle standing in the doorway, her tail twitching back and forth slowly.
"It's wonderful," I replied, dragging my fingertips along the smooth finish of the tub. We sat together on my bed.
"You know, I think he made this room for you," she said. "It's like he designed your wing with you in mind."
I blinked at her, crossing my arms across my chest indignantly. "What do you mean by that?"
"Look." Merle jumped from the bed, and skipped over to the far corner. "You see this tapestry?" She was tugging at a red tapestry with the gold seal of Fanelia embroidered on it. There was a peculiar sound, and it suddenly slid back across a rod that I hadn't noticed before. There was a door behind it.
"Merle!" I gasped. "How did you know that was back there?" She shrugged and pulled on the handle, and the door opened. There was curtain of the same color on the other side.
"Well, I had to take care of him once when he was sick, and I was snooping a bit while he was sleeping. This exact same tapestry is on the other side as well, hiding the door."
I got up and walked to the door, pushing the second curtain aside and stepping into Van's chambers. The room around me was large and had high ceilings, complete with a chandelier. The walls didn't have any hangings; in fact, the whole room was rather spartan in appearance. The far wall was entirely composed of windows; they all opened onto a balcony that looked like it spanned the entire length of the castle. A warm breeze floated in, stirring the white curtains.
Merle squeezed past me and with an excited cry, ran out the windows to the balcony. "Hitomi, the view from here is amazing. Come look."
I walked past the bed, which looked almost identical to mine, and through the open windows. The castle dropped away below us, and all of Fanelia was visible from the balcony. The people below were ant-sized.
"I think you can figure out why Van made the entire outer wall like this," Merle said, nodding at the windows.
"Yeah, it's easy enough," I said, taking a deep breath. I closed my eyes for a moment, imagining Van diving off the balcony and into the air.
"Yours are so pretty Hitomi," Merle sighed after a few minutes of silence. "Just remember that Van will find out sooner or later, no matter who tells him."
"I know." I rolled my shoulders forward and made a noise of discomfort as my shoulders cracked. After a few moments, we left the balcony. For the first time since we'd arrived in Fanelia, I could feel exhaustion nagging at me.
"I'm so tired, I think I'm going to take a nap," I yawned. Merle followed me back through the secret door, and we straightened both curtains.
Merle left my room without so much as a "'bye"; I supposed that she was tired as well. We'd had a rough day. I padded back to my bed, and rolled over into the comfort of the blankets. I lay awake for barely more than three minutes, breathing in the scent of fields and wildflowers. Then I closed my eyes, and didn't open them until almost a day later, when the gentle touch of a young King woke me.
Author's Notes: Well... I finally posted the fourth chapter where Hitomi reunites with Van... I know it was kinda flaky but there is much more to come. But... before you go and review... I would like to ask a nice, big favor of my reviewers and readers who have tagged along faithfully thus far: if you are unsatisfied with Hitomi being the way she is, please don't tell me that in my review. It's all tied in to a bigger plot but for the moment, all you know is what you have read, and I beg of you, my beloved readers, PLEASE do not post a review saying, "Well I don't think Hitomi should be like that, etc." I'm not going to change my plot for anyone but myself and I rather like it as it is, and if you don't like it, stop reading it! Oh, and I realize that my URL got screwed up in my last chapter posting... if you would like to see fanart, see my user info. Thanks!