Fortune 16-The Voice From Far Away

Star awoke late, late for her anyway, and looked around. She couldn't believe that she left those two alone. Something told her there was a lot of tension between the two boys and although she had registered that fact, she had refused to take notice of it.

The girl let out a relieved sigh at the sight of the two boys sleeping near the deceased flame. Despite herself a smile formed over her lips as she left silently in search of breakfast.

Not long afterward, the blond man's eyes fluttered open as well and he, too, looked around, though he was in search of Star. When he saw that the girl wasn't there he let out a deep sigh, what was he going to do with her? Already, Chid had confessed his love for the girl, but already she had denied him that love. What would it take him to break through that impenetrable shell? To thaw out that ice cold heart? Just as those thoughts were fluttering through his head the other boy moaned and sat up.

Usually, Blai was a late sleeper, but lately—possibly due to his recent decision to go on an adventure—he had been waking up earlier and earlier. Their truce of the night before forgotten, the two boys silently went about tending the fire—or tempting it to start again—and looking for firewood.

From opposite sides of the new flame the boys watched each other silently, neither knowing what to say, or even if he wanted to say something. Blai, because when he saw his best friend kissing Star realized that he was in love, and Chid because he had the distinct impression that the younger boy was both uncomfortable and angry.

Star walked through the trees with a handful of berries for each of the boys, "We need to head east," she said to them both as she handed them their meager breakfast. Blai stared at it uncertainly, much the same way Chid looked at Blai's previous attempts at cooking. "Well, sorry, your highness," the girl said sarcastically, kicking dirt into the fire that the boys had worked so hard to coax into being. "That was all I could carry, take it or leave it."

With a sigh, Blai shoved the berries into his mouth and stood up, ready to follow the girl to wherever she was leading them. He looked at his long-time friend and saw him do the same. "Let's go," she was unused to being the one to start the conversations. Usually it was the young prince of Fanelia who would force her to talk. Being on the other side of the stick was disturbing.

Tired of trying to make her two companions grow up, Star ran off ahead without a word. Of course, the boys followed…

The teenage girl stopped dead in her tracks, it felt as if she had just run through a pool of water, but that wasn't possible, was it? She looked back to ask the boys what they thought, but they had disappeared from view and instead she found herself surrounded by darkness with only one way to see the world outside.

"Sayako," the voice echoed from all around her. Yet, it was a comforting voice, so familiar. Where had she heard it before? "Sayako, I'm sorry," 'Sorry for what?' the girl wanted to yell to that voice, but found that she was unable to. "It's my fault, it's all my fault. All that time I was pretending to…" and so the voice faded into the darkness from whence it came.

"Wait!" Star found that she suddenly had control of her voice once again. "Wait, who are you? What's going on?" But her questions were in vain as the darkness around her shattered and she found herself trapped in yet another illusion.

Blai and Chid ran into something invisible blocking their paths. "What?" Blai asked confusedly.

"No idea," his friend answered, neither had to complete their sentences, for they both knew the other's train of thought. Experimentally, the blond man reached out and felt something like water running down in an invisible stream. Strange…how were they supposed to get through?

Van and Hitomi were sitting at the bottom of a deep crevice. The king looked up and said something to his companion that their observer could not hear. The young woman nodded her head and stood up, but before Star could figure out what it was they were planning on doing, a Guymelef jumped down from the cliff above. Hitomi let out a scream and Van jumped in front of her to protect her, but even the impulsive young man knew it was useless, that he would be unable to defeat it without the aid of the EscaFlowne.

Somewhere far away, Star heard a distant voice calling to her. It was deep and raspy, yet somehow comforting. "Come find me. I'm here, I'm right here…" Where here? Star wanted to ask, she looked around frantically but could not catch sight of the mysterious Guymelef that she had only ever seen in her cousins memories. When would she find the answers to her questions?

Blai and Chid watched as Star stumbled out of seemingly no where and fell onto the ground. "Star!" Blai said, running forward. But he was an instant too slow as his friend reached the girl first. The young prince balled his hands into fists but refused to otherwise show what he was feeling.

"Kanzaki…" the girl moaned as the blond man turned her over onto her back and leaned over her to wipe a few unruly strands of black hair out of her face. The girl's eyes snapped open and she stood up, hitting Chid on the head but completely ignoring the impact as if it had never happened, "They're in trouble. We have to find them!" It was the first time Blai had seen the girl in such a panic since they had met. Did Hitomi…did that woman from the Mystic Moon have that much power over the mysterious young girl?

"Calm down," Chid said soothingly and once again Blai felt himself swell with anger, "tell us what happened."

Star took a deep breath and told them everything that she had seen. When she was finished Chid stood up abruptly and looked at his childhood friend as Blai looked at the ground. So, his father was in danger…that was, if what the girl had seen was right. He had spent so long blindly following after her why was he suddenly doubting her?

"Let's go, then," Blai said with more force than he had originally meant. Star nodded and stood up as well and watched the dark-haired prince run into the woods in an attempt to find his father and Hitomi. The young girl couldn't help but smile, as future king of Fanelia it was about time he took charge of things.

"It's my fault, it's all my fault. All that time I was pretending to…" Pretending to what? And how did that person know her real name? "Come find me. I'm here, I'm right here…" But where? Where?