Now this is the length I'm talking about! See, did I tell you or did I tell you that this one was longer? (tutts) And you guys didn't believe me, well shame on-
BW: So, you're finally on the Escaflowne section are you? It's about time!
FB: ...
BW: I mean I've been waiting around here since the stone age with my own Fic 'Tangled Destiny'!
FB: ...
BW: Hello? (waves hand in front of FB's face)
FB: (puppy dog eyes) I'm scrared BW, what if no-one reviews me? There's an awful lot of stories out there!
BW: Oh for God's sake of course they'll review you! Won't you! (points rocket launcher at reviewers)
FB: But...what if they get sucked into a swirling vortex and are bought out in a world where the Earth and moon...that sounds familiar...don't you think so BW?
BW: That's it, I'm gone! (BW walks off)
FB: Wait BW, don't leave me alone in the tank of Escaflowne reviewers! I'M NOT READY TO BE REJECTED! (runs after BW, tripping over rocket laucnher and blowing hole in house) Oops...
Disclaimer: I do not own the Escaflowne series all though I am currently working on a cat burgling plan to steal the series using stealth technologie and fleeing the country to Fiji under an assumed name. How does Ethelberta sound to you?
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1: Uneasy Feelings
Hitomi woke in a cold sweat and sat bolt upright, breathing heavily. Automatically her hand shot to her heart, it thumped under her fingers. That dream…the words Van had said to her still burned the back of her eyelids as she blinked and tried to recompose herself.
"Van…" she whispered.
Slowly, his image faded on her mind, replaced by the familiar proportions of her room. She sighed and put a shaking hand up to her forehead.
"It was just a dream," she assured herself stiffly, " and besides it's been 3 months now and I'm sure Van has…moved on by now…like I should…"
She sounded less sure than she would have liked.
A short, sharp beeping sound cut the silence of the room. Hitomi groaned wearily, heaving herself up out of bed and ambling over to her wardrobe to find her school uniform. As she walked past her mirror to make her way downstairs she caught a brief glimpse of herself.
"Ugh."
"Hitomi? Hitomi are you up yet? Yukari's already here waiting!" it took a while for her mum's voice to register.
"What was that!" Hitomi called down stopping dead. How could she be here already? Hitomi had only just got up!
"I see you're up and raring to go." The sarcasm in Yukari's voice as she made her way up towards Hitomi was fairly blunt. Hitomi gave her the meanest scowl she could manage.
"Tch, you should pay more attention to daylight savings time." Yukari grinned smugly.
"And you should stop being such a know-it-all Yukari!" Hitomi retaliated, pushing past her friend to find her trainers.
"What about breakfast?" her mum asked coming in from the kitchen.
"I'll get something at school mum, see you later!" Hauling her bag over her shoulder, Hitomi dragged Yukari out of her house and onto the street. As Hitomi let go, Yukari wobbled for a minute, totally thrown off balance by her friend's flustered actions. After a few seconds of sipping from one side to the next precariously, Yukari made to say something but the look on Hitomi's face kept her quiet.
Hitomi's mind was filled with swirling images of Van. She could see him clearly on the first day she had met him, a strange boy with burning eyes from a world nobody knew about. She had been sprinting the 100m after school for her crush Amano. It had been that day that she had heard Amano was moving away and she had seen it as her last chance. Chasing after him she found him walking home and had asked him:
"If I can run the 100m in the time it takes for the pendant to swing 13 times then I would like you to do something special for me…give me my very first kiss?"
When he had said he was honoured to, she had taken up position and had started the sprint, lunging forwards on the force of the air and the pendant had swung…He dropped onto the track like a stone, Hitomi barely had enough time to comprehend the situation before she had smacked right into him. He had glared at her then, the first real look he had given her was one of contempt.
After that she could see him on the night he had revealed his wings to her. His face, emotions she could never understand without knowing his past. A despair so profound it moved her own heart. He had trusted her, had let her see his wings, had let her know his past. Was it then that she started feeling things for him?
Her feelings…never as sure as Van's…he had known a long time before she did how he felt. He had fallen through the fate alteration device and had become known as the white dragon simply because he had come for her.
So how could he not know her!
"Who are you?"
"Hitomi? Hello?" Yukari waved a hand in front of her friend's face and clicked her fingers.
"Huh?" Hitomi said conversationally. As her thoughts readjusted to the real world, she noticed Amano waving cheerfully at them in the background, running over to catch the subway train to school with them.
"I thought I should bring you round before Amano showed up. Hey Amano!"
Yukari sprinted forwards and leapt into Amano's embrace. He hugged her tightly and stroked the back of her hair. The sight made Hitomi all the more uneasy.
"Are you okay Hitomi?"
Hitomi looked up into Amano's slim, aristocratic face and managed a half smile.
"I'm fine Amano."
"So you say!" Yukari teased.
Amano stared hard into Hitomi's emerald eyes and seemed to see beyond what Hitomi was hiding.
"Just drop it Yukari, if Hitomi doesn't want to talk about it then it's best if we leave it." To seal the deal, he gave Yukari a kiss that made her flush a deep scarlet. And she didn't speak again until the train came.
Amano slipped his arm comfortably around Yukari's shoulders and led her through the doors, into the train compartment. Hitomi hesitated.
It was right then, a cold wind blew through the subway and for a moment Hitomi could feel the presence of someone else on the platform although she knew it was empty. She could feel searching eyes pry into the back of her neck, scoping her out. She shivered.
'Is it Van? Is he…here? No…this presence, it doesn't feel the same as Van's, it-'
"Are you coming Hitomi?"
"Sorry!" Hitomi vaulted onto the train as the doors closed and the train pulled out of the station before she had time to reflect on what she had felt.
The atmosphere on the station wavered and distorted as someone from another time briefly connected to someone in this time. The distortion allowed a brief rift in the delicate fabrics of time and a voice from the future echoed out over the hollow platform.
"So…you're the girl that changed the Zaibach Empire's future…"
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The bell signalling the end of class rung out of the silent maths room and there was a flurry of movement as students packed away their things and headed out for their next class. Hitomi stuffed her maths book into her bag and stood up.
"We've got P.E next haven't we?" Yukari mumbled frowning at her timetable and turning it upside down just in case it made more sense like that.
"Yeah, I think so." Hitomi said uncertainly, glaring at Amano to help.
Amano chuckled and Hitomi was struck once again by how much Amano resembled Allen.
Allen…she had had feelings for him when she had been on Gaea. He made her feel safe and he looked so much like Amano…but he was more interested in the Princess Malerna who looked so much like his lost love Marlene…and Hitomi…Hitomi's true feelings lay with Van. Her angel.
"It is P.E." Amano assured them, walking over to Yukari and neatly slipping his arm over her shoulders.
"I'm glad someone knows what they're doing!" Yukari said, gratefully being lead out of the maths room and into the thronging corridor.
Hitomi followed Yukari and Amano out of the maths room, completely lost in her own thoughts. That dream she'd had about Van had bought everything back, everything she had pushed out of her mind to try and get on with her life. Why had it all come back?
'Why can't I just move on?'
The sun beat down on them as they ambled out of the main building towards the P.E block. Hitomi put her hand up to her face to shield her eyes, squinting out at the track and P.E changing rooms. Amano reluctantly took his arm off of Yukari's shoulders and disappeared into the boy's changing room. Yukari waved him off and grabbed Hitomi's arm, swinging her through the doors to the girl's changing rooms.
Hitomi let out a half smile and opened her P.E kit. Her hands stopped dead on the pull strings. Van…
"Are you going to get changed or are you just gonna stand there staring at your P.E kit?" Yukari emphasised the importance of this statement but giving Hitomi a quick poke on the shoulder a couple of times.
Hitomi's cheeks flushed a deep, burning scarlet.
"Give it a rest Yukari." She snapped pulling on her P.E shorts and white shirt.
"Give it a rest nothing, you've been acting really strange all day Hitomi! It's like you're in your own little world or something!" Yukari growled stubbornly.
"Yukari…I…"
"Alright, enough with the chatting people, lets get outside!"
Hitomi wasted no time in getting out of the changing room before Yukari could question her anymore on her strange behaviour. She let out a huge sigh of relief and silently thanked the P.E teacher for his impeccable timing.
Taking her place beside Amano, she readied herself, eyes radiating razor sharp focus on the track before her. This track…she had first seen him here…in gold and black armour…chasing a dragon on customary terms to become king of Fanelia. She had saved his life and he had-
"GO!" yelled the timekeeper.
Hitomi arched her back and sprang into a run. She felt her heartbeat quicken and her feet pound on the hard ground as she ran. The heat of the run coursed through her body as she lapsed into the runner's rhythm, hurtling over the track. The ground below her seemed to blur away on an endless burst of speed. Her emotions soared, her head cleared. All the thoughts she had been struggling to hold in were let out onto the air, they didn't matter anymore. Out here, on the track, all that mattered was her running, all that mattered was getting to the finish line. Her focus was absolute.
But…
He was standing in the middle of the track, staring at Hitomi as though struggling to recognise her. She shrieked and tried to slow herself down but she had put too much force into the run, she was going to collide with him. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact as she hurtled forward.
She felt a penetrating cold grip her, a cold so sharp it bit into her heart making her gasp and her eyes shot open. An endless white mist clouded her vision. The deep thump of a regular heartbeat overtook her ears.
'Where am I? Is this a-'
Hitomi shot back out onto the track and staggered blindly forwards before collapsing in a heap on the floor. The boy spun round and smiled at the girl that had just passed straight through him. Hitomi tried to recover herself from passing through an astral figure, looking into the boy's dark eyes as he held a pale hand out towards her.
"Girl from the Mystic Moon?" he said in a hollow voice. "You're going to need this."
As if on cue, Amano dropped through the astral image of the boy before her and grabbed her shoulders. The boy's knowing smile broadened as he started fading on the air, eyes fixed on Hitomi, hand still held out towards her. On a rash impulse, Hitomi reached up towards his hand and snatched the object from his wavering grasp. Within a few seconds, he was gone.
"Hitomi? Hitomi what's wrong!" asked Amano urgently, shaking her shoulders slightly to make her say something.
"Amano…" she managed.
Amano grabbed her hand and hauled her up into a standing position. She promptly went as stiff as a board.
"We're going to get you to the medical room Hitomi okay?" Amano said soothingly.
Hitomi didn't answer, her mind still revolving around what had just happened. That boy…where he had been standing…it was the same, it was all the same except she had passed right through him this time and had remained conscious at the end of it all. Her hand remained firmly clutched around the object she had given him.
In her heart of hearts she knew what it was. As she was being lead away, she chanced opening her fingers a little to have a look. A slight glint of red, her pendant shone out in the afternoon sun.
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Hitomi sat alone on the hardened bed in the medical room hugging her knees. Her eyes were fixed on the pendant she had put on the bedside table. Silent tears slipped over her face and dripped onto the white sheets below her.
"I gave it to Van…" she whispered to herself. Her voice trailed off as a lump suppressed it. She didn't trust herself to speak without sobbing uncontrollably. The pendant stayed perfectly still reflecting the sunlight.
"Are you okay? Do you want to go home?" asked a voice by the door. Hitomi glanced up at the figure in the doorway and quickly tried to cover her streaming eyes.
It was too late for that, the appointed school nurse had already seen, Hitomi's puffy eyes and the streaking tears still falling over her face.
"I think you'd better go home…do you want me to phone your mum?"
"N-no thanks." Hitomi stuttered. "I've got a pager in my bag, I'll page her."
"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind ringing her myself you know."
"I'm okay." Hitomi sniffed.
"Well…alright," the nurse reluctantly agreed. "I'll wait for her at the school entrance, hope you feel better soon."
Hitomi waited until she was well out of sight before letting out a weary sigh and rummaging around in her bag for her pager. Unwillingly, her fingers brushed something flimsy and rectangular. Intrigued, Hitomi tipped the contents of her bag out on the bed. A few school books, her uniform, her pager and…her Tarot cards…
"I thought I left those at home…" Hitomi mumbled to herself, fingering the familiar 5 tipped star on the back.
"Heya!" Hitomi's head snapped up to the doorway of the medical room where Yukari was standing wearing a cheesy grin and waving manically.
"I thought you were going home? That's what the nurse said." Said Yukari, confusion lining her voice.
"I am." Her eyes fell on the pager but she didn't make to pick it up.
"You know you have to pick it up for it to even consider working?" Yukari asked coming over and jumping on her bed.
"Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking that's all…"
"Hey, are those your Tarot cards? I thought you gave up fortune telling!"Yukari yelled excitedly, shuffling through the cards. "Hey, do my fortune!"
Hitomi took the cards that were thrust under her nose and made to pack them away again.
"Like you said, I've given up fortune telling."
"Oh come on! Just this once! Okay, if you don't wanna do mine, do yours! You seem to have something on your mind so the cards might be able to…I don't know…provide some guidance or something?"
Hitomi ogled at Yukari.
"You know, the scary thing about this is that you're actually making sense!"
Yukari puffed up indignantly.
"Well I…" she trailed off.
Hitomi shuffled the cards thoroughly, feeling each one pass over her fingers, feeling the material in the cards dance under her hands until-
There. She stopped shuffling. These were her cards. She had felt the thrill in her heart, the familiar pang of something unexplainable.
She lifted up the first card.
Judgement. Hitomi breathed out heavily.
"What does that mean?" asked Yukari leaning inwards.
"Judgement. It means I'll have to make a difficult decision." She frowned at the card. Was this the reason she was feeling so uneasy? Was she feeling the turmoil and confusion of a decision yet to come? Something life altering?
She shook her head and picked up the next card, heart pounding, hands sweating.
The death card. Reversed.
"L-lost…"
"Lost what?" asked Yukari worriedly.
"Lost love." Hitomi finished.
"I'm…a bit confused." Yukari said eyebrows furrowing as she glared at the cards laid out on the bed.
It made perfect sense to Hitomi. The dream, the pendant, it was all falling into place. Something must have happened to Van. Why else would he have trusted someone with Hitomi's pendant when he knew the power it held and it was his lat little bit of her?
Her feelings were no longer uneasy. She knew what she was doing. She flipped over one last card before gathering them up.
"What was it?" asked Yukari as Hitomi gathered up her stuff and shoved it into her bag.
"The Lord of Dragons." Hitomi said. She picked up her pendant and swung her bag onto her shoulder.
"What does that mean?"
Hitomi's eyes shone as she faced Yukari.
"Van."
With that, Hitomi turned and walked out of the medical room.
For a moment, Yukari stood in the middle of the room, not sure whether to follow Hitomi or not, still pondering what Hitomi had said. It was only when she heard the bang of the back doors that she launched herself after Hitomi and followed her out to the track.
"Hitomi? Where are you going!" she called after her friend.
Hitomi stopped on the track and turned back to her friend, a smile lighting her features. Her emerald eyes were alight with a burning fire. In one hand she held her grandmother's pendant, in the other she held the Tarot Card, The Lord of Dragons.
"Where am I going? I'm going home!" Hitomi said lifting her pendant up to the sky.
A blue pillar of light erupted onto the track, Yukari couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was as though the moon and the very sky itself was falling onto the Earth below. It was an explosion of electric blue brilliance, particles of the atmosphere had been set on fire.
Inside the blinding light, Hitomi's silhouette began to defy gravity, moving upwards into the clouds.
"Hitomi!" Yukari screamed.
Hitomi heard her friend's voice ring out above the roar of the wind as the pillar of light and for a moment she almost regretted her decision to go back to Gaea but her grip on Van's card tightened and she knew she had made the right decision.
She was heading back to the world where the Earth and moon hung in the sky, back to a small nation protected by dragons, back to a wild young king with a gentle soul and a warrior's heart. She was going back to her angel, she was going home.
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So Hitomi's gone back to Gaea but who was the boy on the track that gave her back her pendant? What's happened to Van? (all Van fans) WHY WASN'T THE REAL VAN IN THE CHAPTER, YOU JUST MENTIONED REFERENCES YOU CRAZY MIXED UP AUTHOR!
BW: I know, I get this sort of thing all the time!
FB: Hey whose side are you on!