Fortune 8-Wanderer

Star stared at the spot the figure had stood, "Who are you?" she asked again, though she did not expect an answer. The girl absently stroked her hands through the rabbit creature's thick fur. "How can you possibly know my name?" And after she had worked so hard to keep it concealed, to forget it herself…

The teenager collapsed to the ground. For a moment nothing happened as she sat in a both terrified and stunned silence, unable to move. Something warm rubbed against her leg and broke Star's trance. She looked down and wrapped her arms around the creature that had led her thus far. "Thank you, Aiichirou," she buried her head in the creature's soft, thick fur and her voice cracked a bit as she spoke. She had tried to recreate her identity, and now that was all shattered thanks to that mysterious figure who seemed so familiar, yet unidentifiable.

"Aniki," she unburied her face from beneath the creature's soft fur and turned her head toward the sky, "please, let me find them. I can't let them disappear like everyone else," the young woman squeezed the creature so tightly in her arms that it gave a pained 'mew.' A slight smile formed on her lips and she stood up, still cradling the animal in her arms. "Are you ready, Aiichirou?" she directed the question at the creature as it jumped onto the ground and ran forward.

Star stood in place for a moment before following the creature, "I'll trust you, Aiichirou," she said honestly.

Hitomi looked determinedly forward, she felt everyone's gaze bore into her. "Is something wrong, Lady Hitomi?" Her heart jumped, she had not expected him to call her 'Lady' Hitomi, it was something she hadn't heard for such a long time. But that one word jarred a memory that had engraved itself upon her mind, a letter from a long time ago…

"No, nothing," the woman shook her head slightly and smiled. "I was just thinking about something my grandmother once told me when I was a little girl…" her voice trailed off and she shook her head again, more vigorously than before, as if trying to shake a horrible thought out of her head. Blai knew the expression on her face well, for it was one he had used often enough. "Let's go," she said after a long moment, "I know Star can take care of herself, but I still worry…"

Van gave Hitomi a look that his son would not recognize, but the others certainly would. It was a look he had given her a long time ago; same Hitomi, always worrying about someone. "Why don't you try the cards?" the king asked quietly.

Instantly, the emerald-eyed woman started digging through the bag that she had previously decided to strap to her back, just in case. She suddenly stopped and looked at them all once more, her eyes filled with even more despair than before, "Star has them. She always holds my cards for me."

"We'll just have to look the old-fashioned way," Dryden said, pushing his sunglasses up on the bridge of his nose even though they weren't slipping. It was a horrible habit of his that Millerna was always trying to get him out of, needless to say her attempts had failed.

Hitomi glanced once more at the dark sky before they pushed forward and a star fell across the sky. A feeling of dread settled itself into the pit of the woman's stomach, but she tried to ignore it, she refused to let the others know. Hitomi had changed, "Too bad we don't have the EscaFlowne, or a leviship," she sighed. The pendant around the woman's neck began to glow, but it was so faint that it went unnoticed.

Star stopped short and stared for a moment at the stream that blocked her path. After a moment she took a few steps back and jumped over the running water; even though it was shallow enough to wade across to the other side, she wasn't in much of a mood to get wet. The girl looked back and saw the rabbit-cat hybrid huddled on the edge of the stream. It was so close to the water that it was practically touching it, but clearly the animal was unwilling to cross. "I should've known," the girl barely managed to stop herself from giggling, "you never liked the water much, did you, Aniki?" She hopped back across and stopped up the creature in her arms before hopping back across to the other side.

The moment her feet touched the ground, the creature leapt out of her arms and sprinted forward. "Impatient as ever, I see," this time she allowed herself to laugh, a true laugh unlike any she had ever heard coming from her lips since everyone had died.

The creature stopped and looked back at her, its eyes just as impatient as her brother's had been. "I didn't think I could laugh like that anymore," Star marveled aloud. If the animal had been human it would have rolled its eyes. But since it wasn't, the creature merely took off again, Star following closely behind, afraid of losing sight of the tiny animal as it darted around the trees.

Hitomi stopped and looked down at the pendant that hung around her neck, it was glowing much more brightly than before. "Look at this," she marveled at the pink light the stone was emitting.

The others stopped and gathered closer to take a look, for though it was bright enough for Hitomi to notice it was only because she was the wearer and it was right below her eyes. Dryden moved forward and looked at the necklace for a long time, his hand on his chin. Suddenly he straightened up and pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, they were actually slipping this time. "I think I understand," he said more to himself than to anyone else. "Could you walk back a ways, Hitomi?" he asked coolly.

The woman took a few steps back, as she moved further from the group the necklace's steady glow started to fade. The man nodded, as if all his suspicions had been clarified, and motioned for Hitomi to return. When she had rejoined the others Dryden said, "It's trying to lead us to something."

It wasn't as if the pendant had never done that sort of thing before. "It must be," Millerna said thoughtfully. "But what is it leading us to?"

Van looked around and gave them all one of his confident smiles, "We'll never know if we don't follow it."

An identical smile lit up Blai's face; he looked so much like his father now more than ever. "We'd better get going or whatever it is that necklace is trying to take is to might get too far away."

The dark-haired young woman sat panting on a fallen log. She couldn't remember having been this tired for a long time. "You might not be tired," she said after she caught her breath, "but I sure as hell am. If I fall asleep something terrible will happen, though," she pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest. Star reached into her pocket and felt around for the feel of the case of her new tarot deck. It would be smooth and glossy, one of her favorite feelings in the world, but instead her fingertips brushed over another familiar feel. It was Hitomi's deck.

"I wonder how that could have gotten there," she wondered for a little while before taking out her own deck of tarot cards. Her guide, the animal that she had been calling by her brother's name, jumped onto her lap and curled up before closing its eyes and giving off a soft snore. Star smiled and flipped over the card that lay on the top of the deck, the Strength. "I'm really trying to be what you expected of me, I really am. But I don't think I can do it…" her voice cracked as she thought of the last words of her loved ones.

Their words echoed and swirled around inside her head as the image of her brother falling flashed in front of her mind. Aiichirou's black hair was flying, the two red streaks in his bangs standing out vividly against his pale face and the wide eyes that Star remembered as being kind and sparkling during life. She remembered that last slow lazy smile before the fall that lasted forever.

Star touched her face and felt a warm tear glide down her cheek. The creature in her lap stirred and looked up at the girl, its eyes kind and sparkling and so full of life; it had Aiichirou's eyes. It nuzzled her and the teenager hugged the creature close, closer than she would ever let any human ever come. "Come on, Aiichirou," she whispered into the creature's ears when she was sure her voice would not crack. "We'd better find the others before anything bad happens to them."

The girl chanced her first look back at the sky since she had sat down to rest; the clouds were glowing with the soft colors of the early dawn. The animal leapt off her lap and stretched before it took off into the trees. Star smiled and wiped the last of her tears from her eyes. She jumped up and chased after the creature, smiling as she felt the warmth of the first rays of the sun peering over the horizon. Everything was going to be alright.