Fortune 5- Legend
Blai took a deep breath and explained just exactly what had happened on their way there. He was surprised to find how much he liked telling the story. It was interesting to watch them; they would show the perfect emotions for the right moments. It was every storyteller's dream audience. Once he had finished his tale, having tried in vain not to elaborate too much, Millerna spoke out. She was apparently keen on stopping the oncoming uncomfortable silence that would have otherwise settled into the chests of the companions. "We'll have to stay here for the night," she said. "She'll need at least one night to recover, if not longer. And I want to hear her side of the story," she added. Blai sighed, so at least one of them hadn't believed the slight embellishments he'd added to his story.
"I understand, Aunt Millerna," Chid said, "but where can we rest? This place doesn't look made to accommodate overnight visitors."
Everyone's gaze shifted to Hitomi, whose own field of vision was focused on the unconscious form of her cousin. "We should listen to Millerna," she said after a moment, her eyes turning once more to her friends, "she did study to be a doctor. We'll just have to make do, we did last time." Of course, last time they had all been much younger. "We can take turns on guard duty."
Van looked at her suspiciously, "And how were you planning on doing that? Allen and Sherazade were our only line of defense with the EscaFlowne gone. They're off fighting in Fanelia, and I'm pretty sure no one else here has a Melef, unless Chid's been hiding something from us. We're pretty much defenseless."
Chid looked calmly at the young king, "I assure you, if I had a Guymelef I would not have left Allen alone in Fanelia."
Hitomi sighed; Chid had apparently not caught the sarcasm in Van's voice. "I'll take the first shift, if I see anything I'll wake you guys up." No one said anything, they all knew that she was determined, and when Hitomi was determined it was very difficult to stop her. They also knew that she would be waiting to see if a vision would come to her.
Blai stood up and walked over to Star, "I'll stay up," he said, staring down at her pale face and lifeless features. Even the markings she had painted onto her face seemed duller and grayer than before all that had happened. "You should get some sleep, Hitomi. I'll stay outside." The teenage boy walked out of the temple before any of the others could say anything. He sat on the ground and kept himself awake by turning over a thousand different thoughts within his mind.
The young man was attempting to understand what had happened to him and his unlikely companion in the woods that afternoon. He had woken up to a scream and immediately assumed the girl was dead. But she had begun to glow and then there was the dragon and the strange woman. Blai's head was starting to ache and he felt slightly dizzy. The boy closed his eyes to stop the world from spinning and held his head in his hands. He had never been able to stay awake for long periods of time without starting to feel ill.
The prince felt a cold hand against his shoulder and he was about to turn around when he felt a comfortable warmth flow throughout his entire body. A soft, gentle voice said, "Go to sleep," but that seemed so far away. Blai felt himself drifting off with the comfort of the warmth and that soothing voice to send him off to his dreams.
Just as Blai was drifting off into his deep sleep two figures emerged from the shadows within the protective walls of the temple. "The Angel and the Devil both reside within the one person who struggles with the purest heart…" one of the figures said. The speaker remained shrouded in darkness while its companion stepped out of the shadows and towards Star. "Still pure of heart, I see. Perfect…"
Just as the shadowed figure's companion reached out for Star she turned over and her eyes fluttered open. Both the man and the figure remaining in the shadows cursed, "Damn it," the man said before covering Star's mouth with one of his hands, "always waking up at the wrong time." The girl's angelic blue eyes grew wide and the man picked her up with his other hand. The three figures disappeared.
Blai was dreaming, it was one of those dreams where one knows that they are dreaming yet they still can't manage to wake up. The boy found it very frustrating. He knew he should be awake but he just couldn't wake himself up from within the confines of his dream. In his dream, he saw Star. A thousand different colors radiated behind her and were reflected in her eyes. The colors constantly changed, swirling and mixing, one moment they were blinding and the next they were dull. Within his dream, Blai blinked and suddenly the colors had disappeared and Star was cloaked by shadows. The young prince ran forward and moved the dark mist aside. Star was gone…
"Blai!" Van yelled, shaking his son awake. The boy's eyes snapped open and he immediately shut them against the blinding glare of the sunlight in his face. It was morning already? How long had he been asleep? And most importantly, why hadn't anyone else come to take over for him? They were surely not expecting him to sit awake the entire night…Apparently they had, for the sun was rising just above the horizon. It was barely morning.
The boy pushed his father aside and the king finally stopped shaking his son. "Yeah?" the teenager asked groggily, rubbing his eyes in hopes of their adjusting to the sudden light.
"Where is Star?" Millerna asked. She looked worried, and the look of intense apprehension on her face only made the young prince anxious as well. Did something happen while he was attempting to find a way out of his dream? "She shouldn't be able to move yet. She shouldn't even be awake!"
They heard a tap at the door and Hitomi stepped out from inside the temple. The shadows masked bits of her face. She looked so tired and yet the shadows had managed to make her look imposing. "She's gone," the woman from the Mystic Moon said quietly. "I had a vision last night while I was asleep. She was kidnapped…she just vanished into the darkness…"
"I had a dream…" Blai said suddenly. He immediately regretted it as he quailed under the stares of people he had known his entire life as well as Hitomi. "She just disappeared. But before I fell asleep I thought I heard someone's voice…" his own voice trailed off. Blai was completely aware of how stupid his comment sounded and he was reluctant to continue.
"A…voice…?" Van asked his son incredulously.
"It must have been some sort of hypnotism," Millerna theorized. Blai gave the woman a look of complete puzzlement. When someone was hypnotized, weren't they required to see the person doing the hypnotizing? Blai had seen no one, and he voiced this aloud.
"We'll figure out how they did it after we get her back," Chid said. And of course, by her he had clearly meant Hitomi's teenage cousin.
Usually he and Blai were on very good terms, having known each other for as long as Blai could remember. One might even go so far as to consider the two of them best friends. But something he couldn't explain seemed to have taken over the mind of the younger boy. "We don't have the slightest idea as to where she might be," he said coldly. "How do you expect to get around that one, Freid?" Blai smacked himself mentally, what in the world had gotten into him?
Chid looked taken aback and, seeing that he didn't know what to say, Hitomi gave the younger boy an answer. "I can use my pendent," she turned to Van, "remember?" she asked. Van nodded, he remembered all too well his attempts at mastering Hitomi's dowsing. For some reason, Van's age seemed to hit Blai at that moment. He had always understood his father's age, it wasn't as if the king was old, but he wasn't as young as he was when he went on those adventures he used to tell his son about when he was younger.
"Dowsing?" the blond woman asked thoughtfully more to herself than to anyone else in the vicinity. "Are you sure you can do it? From what you told me yesterday you only got it back yesterday. Do you remember how to do it?"
Hitomi gave a reluctant smile. It looked as if she both did and did not want to smile and what came out was somewhere in the middle. "I could never forget. Not that Star would have let me anyway." What had started as a rescue plan turned into a complaining rant, "When she found out I was coming back here she had me up the entire night perfecting my fortune telling. She called it 'training.'"
Millerna nodded, not really listening to the Hitomi's reply. The woman's mind had wandered purposefully the moment Hitomi had assured them that she could still dowse. "Dryden gave me a map…it should be somewhere around here. Oh, and he said we should all meet him back at Torienn, he's doing some business down there…"
The woman from the Mystic Moon pulled the necklace off over her head and held the pendant slightly above the paper. She took a deep breath and closed her brilliant green eyes. Hitomi moved the pendent ever-so-slightly across the page, hoping to find some sign of her cousin the way she did a long time ago. Nothing…she went over the map three times, thinking that maybe she missed something. Every time the result was the same, there was none.
"What's wrong, Hitomi?" Chid asked with some of that innocence he had so long ago and Hitomi was afraid he had lost all those years ago. "Did you forget how to do it?"
"No, it's not that. It's…I…" Hitomi seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say what she was trying to. "There's no trace of her anywhere on Gaea."
"Could they have taken her back to the Mystic Moon?" Van asked.
Hitomi looked at him worriedly and Millerna gave him a sharp look. "No, they didn't. She has to be somewhere," she said in an attempt to comfort Hitomi. "Let's meet up with Dryden first," she continued. "Maybe he can help us find her. Can you tell us again what happened? Maybe we're just missing something."
Blai sighed and told them once more what had happened to him and Star in the woods on their way from Fanelia. His eyes were focused on Millerna the entire time and when he finished his gaze remained transfixed upon her. "A dragon and a girl who goes by the name Sani, right?" she asked thoughtfully and the boy nodded his reply. "Dryden told me once a long time ago about a legend he found in a book he was trying to decipher."
Chid's eyes grew wide, "You mean that legend, Aunt Millerna? The story you used to tell me a long time ago?"
Van, too, gave a look of realization and understanding. "I wonder if we're thinking the same thing. Before my father died, my mother us a Draconian legend, Folken and me, that is…" The king's voice cracked slightly and trailed off as Hitomi held him close to her as if it would help him forget the unpleasantness that was threatening to creep up on him.
"We might be," Millerna continued thoughtfully. "There was something about an angel and a devil inside a tortured soul and the purest heart…" Her voice trailed off, but in a different way that Van's had, and the woman looked at her nephew.
The blond boy shrugged, a thoughtful look on his visage, "Uncle Dryden should know it," he said.