warning: I know Star curses a lot, and I know that although she has been cursing it's died down a little bit…at least, until now. I'm sorry, this chapter involves the return of Star's language… T.T
Fortune 9-Found
Hitomi and the others stopped for a rest, they had been walking for so long that most of the group had lost track. The woman from the Mystic Moon sat gingerly on a large rock while Millerna and Merle took seats beside her. Van and his son leaned against trees while Chid sat on the ground. Dryden stood in the center of them all and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, yet again. "How long have we been going?" Millerna asked.
Dryden looked up at the sky, "A day, I think," he replied casually, "two at most."
"It feels like it's been much longer," Hitomi said quietly, staring at something on the ground that none of the others could see. She was worried about her cousin; had it really been such a long time since the teenager had been kidnapped? How long would Star be able to survive in a world that she didn't know with no supplies and no company?
The woman held the pendant in her hand and her green eyes reflect with its fading pink glow. "We should get going," she said. The pale luminescence was beginning to dim, and that was beginning to worry her. Blai watched as Hitomi dropped the pendant and let it hang loosely about her neck, he noticed the change even if most of the others didn't seem to.
The young prince pushed himself off from against the tree, "Let's go…now," he added. He was starting to get an idea of what that necklace was taking them to, and every moment they wasted lounging about discussing nothing of importance took them further and further from it.
"Don't be in such a hurry," Van laughed and ruffled his son's hair. Though he liked to be active, to say the least, even the impulsive king of Fanelia could appreciate a bit of relaxation time.
Hitomi stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes. "Let him hurry if he wants," she said quietly. The others looked at her, clearly confused. The woman stepped forward and pulled her necklace off over her head before handing it to the teenager. "It'll help you find Star," so she, too, had realized the necklace's intentions. "We'll be in the same city we met up with Dryden, meet us there when you find my cousin."
Blai nodded and clasped his hand around the tiny stone before running off and disappearing into the woods. "Something tells me that he'll be able to find her faster than we would," Hitomi said with a grin. Watching him go, the woman felt as if a weight she hadn't even noticed disappeared.
"Why'd you encourage him like that?" Van asked, thoroughly annoyed.
The woman merely smiled at the people she had known so well all those years ago and never thought she would see again. "He's just like you were, Van," she said. The man's son was just as impulsive as he used to be, just as stubborn as he used to be, and just as brave as he used to be. "And besides, he feels guilty about what happened to Star. I could just tell that he felt like what happened was his fault. This is just something that I think he has to do…"
Chid looked up at them all from his place on the grass, "And maybe he needs to apologize for not being able to protect her," he said grimly. His tone caught Hitomi by surprise; it wasn't one that she remembered ever hearing from the little boy she once knew. It was strange to think of how much that innocent child had grown up.
"Nothing we can do now but wait," Dryden pushed his sunglasses up on the bridge of his nose and flashed one of those confident, charismatic smiles that Hitomi knew so well. "The kid can run pretty fast when he wants to," the woman nodded. He would, of course, know better than her, having been there to watch the young boy grow up as she had not.
The sun hung at its highest point in the clear, cloudless blue sky and Star was getting hungry. She fell onto the ground and lie on her back with her arms spread out at her sides. The little creature peered at her curiously, "Come on, Aiichirou, just a little break," she whined. The animal jumped back and cocked his head to the side. God, I sound like such a little kid, she thought angrily. Had she had the energy to move, she would have smacked herself for acting that way.
The animal mewed and ran through the bushes, Star sat up so quickly she could have sworn she got whiplash and looked for a sign of her guide. When it came back through the bush the fur on its paw was matted down with water. "Water!" Star shouted happily and jumped up to run through the bushes where the animal had come.
Blai stopped and looked down once more at the pendant, its light was fading fast and he still had no idea where he was going or what he was doing. He shook his head wildly, his black hair whipping through the air, "How in the world does Hitomi work this thing?" he asked himself. "Maybe I'm going the wrong way," he said worriedly. What if he was? What if something had happened to Star and this entire time he had been going the wrong way? "If only the EscaFlowne hadn't gone missing, then I'm be able to search the whole forest in a heartbeat," the boy sighed. If the EscaFlowne hadn't gone missing then the girl wouldn't have been dragged into Gaea. If the EscaFlowne hadn't gone missing he wouldn't have been able to pilot it anyway, his father would be, with Hitomi perched on the giant Melef's shoulder and using the glowing pendant to help them find their way.
It's my fault; he thought miserably as he kicked a stone aside with his big toe, everything's always my fault. Mom…you'd still be here if it wasn't for me… The teenager felt a warm, rebellious tear slide down his cheek and dried it off quickly, looking around for anyone who may have been watching out of habit. "Don't think about that!" he commanded himself, "I don't have time to think about that. I have to keep on going!"
Blai looked down at the pendant and started running, the glow around the stone flared and dimmed once more. He ran more quickly and watched as the light around the necklace steadily became stronger and stronger. The boy smiled and wiped the sweat off his brow, "Perfect," he muttered as the pendant's steady glow illuminated his face in the darkness beneath the protective cover of the trees.
The young prince was so eager to find the girl that he wasn't paying much attention to where his feet were leading him, both his gaze and his mind completely focused on the strength of the luminescence surrounding the pendant in his hands. Blai felt his foot twist beneath him as it caught a rock and sent him stumbling over the ledge of a pit that he would have otherwise run straight into. The string around the pendant caught on a jutting stone and the teenager dangled there, trying to look down into the darkness below him for a bottom to this hole.
After Hitomi had left and Fanelia had had the difficult task of rebuilding, Merle had discovered a useful kind of rope. It was very strong and difficult to break, and luckily the string that held the pendant was made of that same rope, otherwise Blai knew he wouldn't have had a chance.
"Great, now how do I get out of this one?" he muttered as he tried to place gain his footing against the uneven wall and found that he had injured his ankle. Just his luck…
"This feels great!" Star exclaimed when her head had burst through the surface of the cool, clear water. She had shed her clothes and was swimming; it was strange how simple things like swimming or reading could make her forget absolutely everything…all her problems, everything going on in the world around her… She floated on her back for a while before calling out for the cat-rabbit hybrid, "Aiichirou?" she flipped over and stood up, water dripping from the ends of her hair onto her back and into her eyes. The creature sat on its haunches just at the edge of the lake. It was so close, yet the fear it held in its eyes clearly said that it wasn't about to go any closer.
She dove under and swam to the edge of the lake where the creature sat next to her clothes. "You should have learned to swim, Aniki," she said, "you don't know what you're missing." The teenager splashed the creature causing a wave of water to crash upon the shore. It shook the water out of its fur while Star scrambled out of the water to hug it tightly before she set it down again and lay on the ground to dry off in the warm sun.
The girl closed her eyes and spread her arms out at her side, the little animal curled up on her naked stomach. It was so comfortable, so peaceful. She wished things could just stay that way…that time would just stop then and there. A sharp pain ran through her head and the girl sat up to rub her temples, causing the rabbit-cat creature to fall clumsily beside her, its head smacking against the ground. Star stood up and quickly shoved her clothes back on, she wasn't completely dry but it was good enough. And besides, the dark-haired teenager had a strange feeling, as if something was pulling at her and she had to follow.
Star trudged through the bushes and on the other side a gaping pit scarred the ground. Sunlight reflected against something and shone into her eyes and a strange soft, pink glow radiated from that same source. A dark string was wrapped around a jutting stone and everything connected itself together inside her mind. "Kanzaki!" she yelled worriedly and leapt over to the edge of the pit to get a better look inside its wide mouth. She recognized that necklace, not only from her dreams but also from her cousin's thoughts and memories; it was the necklace that had originally brought Hitomi to Gaea and it was the necklace that had brought her back again.
When the girl peered over the ledge she saw not her cousin but a young familiar boy with hair as dark as her own. "What are you doing, kid?" she asked sarcastically, she could see very clearly what he was doing; dangling off the end of a necklace and hanging on for dear life. "Where's Kanzaki and why in the seven hells do you have her necklace?"
Blai didn't even look up to see who it was that was speaking to him. Though he had a pretty good idea already, anyone would have been nice, really, as long as that person was willing to get him out of the position he was so unfortunately stuck in. "Less talking, more saving," he said and immediately regretted it. The boy knew how pathetic that had sounded and tried again, "I'll explain everything later," yeah, right, "but would you mind lending me a hand first?" he asked this time.
Star stared at him uncertainly, "I've never done this kind of thing before," she said. The teenager closed her eyes and focused all of her energy on the picture of the boy's dangling form that was materializing in her mind.
"I should hope not," the boy said angrily, or what would have been angrily had his hand not started slipping. "I have a feeling this doesn't happen very often where you come from…" Wow, sarcasm, how unlike him. The situation must really have brought out the cynic hiding inside of him.
The girl would have glared at him had her eyes not still been closed. Normally, she would have gone and pulled him up, but the fact that she could not easily cross to the other side of the gaping hole would have made doing that much more of a hassle than she wanted to get involved in. "Shut the hell up!" she yelled, her mind was already beginning to wander and the idiot's whining wasn't helping.
In her mind's eye, Star visualized the boy floating above the yawning crevice and landing gently on the ground beside her. She was close…The teenager's eyes snapped open to the sound of a loud thump next to her. Blai was lying in an uncomfortable position on the ground and covered in dirt. "Couldn't have been a little gentler?" Once again, that uncharacteristic sarcasm, it just wasn't his day.
The boy stood up and dusted himself off in vain; some of those stains were pretty stubborn. "I just told you," Star said angrily, bending down to scoop the rabbit-cat creature into her arms, "that was my first fucking time trying to do that." She spun around on her heels and headed back for the lake, "I should have just left you there, would have been a hell of a lot easier to just leave you there." She was already almost in the bushes and out of the boy's sight.
"Oh, this is what I get for finding you? Not even a 'Thank you'?"
Star spun back around and gave him a glare colder than any he had ever seen from her before. "You found me?" she roared. The creature in her arms gave an involuntary shudder and Blai took a few steps back, wishing he could just disappear so he wouldn't have to be the focus of that chilling stare. "What kind of moron are you?" Star's hair flew up behind her and started whipping around in a mysterious wind that swirled the dust and foliage at her feet. For a split second, Blai could have sworn he saw the shadow of a dragon behind her as well.
The boy shrugged and said, "Forget it," much more nonchalantly than he felt. "Let's just get back to the others," he watched as the girl's hair fell limp against her neck before unfurling his shining white wings. Before she could say anything, he grabbed Star around the waist and took off, flying as fast as his wings could take him towards where his father and the others had said they would be.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Star shouted, her voice muffled by the sound of the wind.
Blai certainly wasn't in the mood to deal with this right now. "I'm taking you back to the others, what do you think I'm doing?" he yelled back.
The girl squirmed a bit so that Blai was afraid he would lose his grip on her, "I can get there on my own!"
"It's faster this way," the boy yelled back. Even as he said it, his mind wandered to the strange woman, Sani. Maybe it wasn't faster that way, but Star wouldn't know that and so she remained silent the rest of the way back, watching the forest rushing by below her.