Well… welcome to chapter two of "Eternity Dragons." I apologize for the late update. Life caught up to me and kicked me in the ass, but I'm back! Really, yo! So I'll be able to update more often. And I also apologize for the first chapter. It's slow. It's the beginning, what can I say? Just wait it out, the plot's coming soon enough xD
In any case, I seemed to have forgotten the intro in chapter one. So here it is… in chapter two. This is my first fanfic and I hope you all like it. I don't own Escaflowne and what not either.
I dedicate this chapter to tea and rice krispies.
"Eternity Dragons"
Chapter Two – Explanations
"Hitomi, are you sure about this?" The red-haired teen stared at her from across the table, looking bewildered and concerned. Her boyfriend, a brown-haired track star, sat beside her with the same expression.
"Couldn't it have just been your imagination?"
The two had spent the last few minutes listening to their friend's urgent explanation after she had run in, startling them both.
Yukari and Amano. The only two on Earth who knew Hitomi's story. The only two that would believe it, if truth be told. They had heard the tale multiple times over the last three months that had passed. By now, they almost knew it by heart and all the characters from the mystical Gaea. They understood, somehow, Hitomi's connection and caring for everyone.
The green-eyed girl ran a hand through her honey-brown hair, sighing and nodding. "No... it happened, alright. I think he's in trouble." Her eyes stared down at the table in thought as the two before her mused over the situation as well, their lunches forgotten.
Yukari cleared her throat. "So you're saying… that someone attacked Van? And maybe something is wrong with that cat girl? Merle?"
"Yes, that's what I think. And the tarot cards, Yukari... they were trying to tell me something."
"Well, your cards are known to show the future. Maybe what happened to Van… hasn't happened yet." Amano added, his hand on his chin.
"You could be right… I just don't know anymore!" In frustration, she slammed a hand down on the table, feeling helpless. "I need to help them. I just have to…"
Yukari put a hand over hers, her voice gentle. "But Hitomi... you know you can't do that. You don't have your lucky pendant anymore, remember?"
"I know…" She admitted grudgingly. Yukari was right. She didn't have the pendant anymore. There was no way for her to go back. It was hopeless… but an idea sparked in her mind like lightning. "Wait… you remember that new girl? Kei?"
"Who, Harakei? Yeah." She nodded slowly, wondering why Hitomi's mood had changed suddenly.
"Well..." She went back into a quick, urgent tone, her mood indeed having changed to one without hope to someone who had found a solution for a math problem… or something like that. "… I think she knows something about Gaea. She reads tarot cards… and she has a pendant. Just like mine!"
This surprised the couple and they stared at her for a moment, a silence settling over the table before Hitomi continued on, her excitement growing. "If I could get her pendant... I could use it to get back to Gaea! I'm sure it would work!"
"But Hitomi…" Yukari bit her lip, her eyes wide. "You're assuming things. That pendant might just be a pretty stone, not one like yours. And that girl might not want to give you her necklace anyway."
"I have to try! I have to…" She lowered her eyes, the feeling of euphoria fading and doubt filling in. Maybe Yukari was right. She didn't even know Kei. And maybe the resemblance of the pendant was just her imagination.
Amano's voice filtered in. "I think you're being too cynical, Yukari. It might work. We both want Hitomi to be happy, right?" He turned to look at Kanzaki.
"Hitomi, go for it. If anything, you'll confuse an innocent girl and be embarrassed for life." He added with an amused grin.
The red-head beside him laughed slightly. "Yeah, I guess that'll work. Go for it."
Hitomi stared at both of them, looking uncertain. "You mean it?"
They both nodded. "Sure. I'll even help out." Yukari winked, giving a "peace" sign with her hand.
A grin spread along her face as Hitomi suddenly leaned across the table, pulling the two into a tight hug. "Thank you, you two! I'll see you later!" As quick as she had run in, Hitomi sprinted out again, leaving her two classmates behind to stare after in bewilderment.
"That is one… strange girl." Yukari noted, shrugging and going back to lunch.
Hitomi had been planning to find Kei but as soon as she skidded to a stop outside, Kei was gone. She blinked blankly as the bell rang "Eh…"
So much for that idea. With a sigh, she gave up trying to find her as soon as the bell sounded, ending their lunch period. She headed back to classes, only to find that in every single one of her afternoon periods, Kei was no where in sight.
"Typical…" She muttered under her breath as she walked to track practice, holding her track shoes offhandedly with a blue-green and purple duffel bag over one shoulder. Out of habit, she lifted her hand to check her watch and what she saw caused her to stop. "Oh no, I'm late again…"
With a slight moan of fear, knowing how Yukari would berate her once more for coming in late, her friend being team manager after all, Hitomi immediately went into a sprint, dodging in between students walking home and heading out to the track field. She jumped down some stairs, flying through the air for a moment before landing and turning, running right onto the field. Yukari was already there, looking around for Hitomi, no doubt, when she spotted her. "Hitomi, you're late! Agai-"
She took a deep breath, dropping the duffel as she interrupted her. "Again, I know. I'm sorry."
As she slipped out of her sweats into blue shorts and a white shirt, she watched distractedly another group of runners start their race. Yukari was ranting in the background about her responsibilities as a manager when she paused.
"Hey Hitomi, isn't that the girl you were talking about? Kei?"
"Huh?" She blinked blankly, looking around swiftly from the ground where she was lacing up her track shoes. "Where!"
"Right there…" Yukari pointed at the group of girls running. She was right, Kei's hair was unmistakable. The teen was leading the group, her raven hair streaming behind her in a thick braid. As she finished, the other girls coming in behind her, Hamano stopped to catch her breath, holding herself up with her hands on her bent knees and finally straightening to join some other teammates, grinning and launching into a conversation that Hitomi couldn't hear from her position.
"You're right…" She stood slowly, looking surprised.
The team manager tilted her head, tapping her fingers on her clipboard. "Funny, I didn't know she did track. Oh, Hitomi, you're next." She shoved her friend forward with a grin, not as concerned about Kei as Hitomi.
"Hey!" She stumbled forward, catching herself just in time to prevent herself from falling on her face. "Yukari!"
She grinned. "Go on."
"Jerk." With a scowl, Hitomi went forward to join the line of runners, but the feeling of anger faded quickly. Yukari often did things like that and she couldn't stay mad at her for long anyway.
By now, she had fallen out of the habit to pray on her pendant for luck and simply took up the starting position on the blocks, waiting for the signal. The other girls followed her example, readying themselves.
"Ready… set …. Go!" A gun was fired, starting the race.
"C'mon, Hitomi!" Yukari moved forward from the stands, holding a stopwatch in her hand as Amano came up behind her to watch, having already run his race.
As if in slow motion, the girl pushed from the blocks and swiftly transitioned into sprinting all out, her breath coming in quick intervals.
No visions came. None had for three months, in fact. None of dragons or the Fanelian King descending from the heavens. She ran as she always did, everything else fading in the background, her mind blank. Everything set on the race, as meaningless as it was.
The finish came too soon.
"11.31! Nice work, Kanzaki!"
Hitomi grinned, taking deep breaths as Yukari cheered in the background. Ever since her return to Gaea, her times had gone down rapidly. She was the best out of the girls and results like that weren't surprising. She had hit her average for the 100 meters. The couch's next words, however, caught her off guard and sent a shiver up her spine.
"The only person who even came close today was Hamano, there. She ran an 11.87. I'd watch out if I were you, Kanzaki." With a chuckle, he turned away to call forward the next set of girls, leaving Hitomi to blink in surprise as she walked back to her two friends.
"Good job, Hitomi." The red-head beamed at her, marking down her time on the clipboard.
"Awesome." Amano grinned. "You're almost catching up to me."
Hitomi shook her head with a slightly forced smile. "No way, Amano. I'll never get to 9 seconds…"
As Amano and Yukari launched into a quiet conversation, leaving their friend to rest, Hitomi couldn't shake the odd feeling she had gotten. It wasn't that Kei's time was almost as good as hers. It was just… odd. She sighed, covering her eyes with one hand to assemble her jumbled emotions and thoughts. Still… weird feelings and premonitions aside, she had to try. She couldn't let go of that small chance there was to reach Gaea again and find out what was going on.
She looked around to find Kei, determined now to convince her to give up the pendant, but Kei was nowhere to be seen.
The rest of the week went by in a haze and Hitomi still couldn't find the time to talk to Kei. Since track practices were Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, she only saw her then and even there she couldn't get a word in. As she had been walking home Friday, Yukari reported that Kei was busy after school all week with archery club on Tuesday and Thursday.
Finally, on Saturday morning where Hitomi had almost given up on the whole idea, her opportunity came at last.
After breakfast, while she was sitting at her desk and doing homework, erratic thunking sounds, as is something being hit into a tree, distracted her. The noise seemed oddly familiar to her. "What the…"
She poked her head out the window, looking out onto her backyard to see where the noise was coming from. Her eyes wandered over to the Hamano backyard and it was there that she got her answer.
Harakei was standing outside, equipped with bow and arrow, sending shot after shot into a thick tree, which was already beginning to resemble a pin cushion.
Hitomi watched, fascinated as almost every arrow landed in the exact same spot, or close to it.
An idea came to her head that felt like it had been sitting there for a while, waiting for its chance. Kei was alone and Hitomi could talk to her now. Bolting from her position by the window, she hurried downstairs and outside, slowing down once she reached her backyard in attempt to appear casual.
So absorbed was Kei that she didn't even notice her neighbors presence. Hitomi stopped at the edge of her own yard, waiting for Kei to let loose another arrow before calling over to her.
"Hey Kei!"
She blinked, looking over to where she heard her name when a grin spread across her features. "Hitomi, hey. You can come over, if you want."
"Oh, eh… thanks." She walked over the small bushes that acted as a fence between theproperties, going over to the grey-eyed girl, who had set down her bow.
"Long time to talk. What's up?"
"I was wondering what you had been doing. Just now." She glanced at the pin cushion tree.
Kei followed her gaze for a moment before grinning again and walking over to the tree, pulling out all the arrows easily. "Oh, that? Just practicing my archery."
"You seem to be really good at it." Now Hitomi realized why the sound had been so familiar. The use of bow and arrows were common in Gaea.
She chuckled softly, walking back to dump the arrows in a tall bucket. "I don't know about that. I just really enjoy it. Eh…" She blinked for a moment before motioning to her house. "Want to come in?"
"Huh? Oh, um… sure." Hitomi was slightly startled but the offer came off as something more out of being polite. Kei's next words confirmed this.
"I'm just thinking if my mom were out here, she'd make me say that." She laughed sheepishly, leading the way with her bow over her shoulder and carrying the bucket in both hands. She nudged the screen door open with her foot before continuing into the house.
"The parents aren't home for a while, so I've got the house to myself." Kei explained for the strange empty feeling in the residence that made the hair on the back of Hitomi's neck stand up. Her schoolmate led her upstairs to her room, which was in the exact same spot as Hitomi's was in the house over.
Hitomi Kanzaki blinked in surprise as soon as she walked in. The room screamed Japan, samurais, and swords. Along the walls were framed paintings of kabuki dancers and samurais, and at the far side of the wall hung three sheathed katanas, each looking antique and even though Hitomi knew little in the art of swords, she could tell that the katanas were beautiful.
Kei hung the bow on the wall and placed the arrow bucket beneath it before sitting down on her bed, where a laptop hummed with life. "Sit down."
She motioned towards an armchair and Hitomi sat down obligingly with a soft murmur of thanks. "So…?"
Hitomi fiddled with her fingers for a moment, staring down at them before lifting her eyes to stare into Kei's gray ones. An image of wings once again appeared before her, but, like last time, the wings were gone as soon as they had appeared.
She took a deep breath. "Kei…. I have to tell you something."
"Hmm?" She suddenly looked curious, shutting off her laptop to listen.
Like she had done so many times before, Hitomi recited her whole story from end to beginning, leaving little out. After nearly an hour, she finished. "You've got to believe me, Kei. I know it sounds like I made it up, but it really happened."
Kei had her back against the wall, her arms folded in her lap. Throughout the entire story, her cheerful face had become serious and now it was emotionless as she stared at Hitomi, her eyes piercing as if trying to look through her to see if what she had just said was true. She frowned, unclasping the pendant from around her neck. "I believe you."
Hitomi was caught off guard and her eyes widened. "You... you do?"
"Yeah, I do." She grinned slightly. "Because, you see… something tells me... inside… that what you say is true."
The green-eyed teen suddenly felt as if a weight had been lifted off her heart. Kei believed her and she felt a respect for her new friend. She smiled gratefully, feeling like crying and laughing and a hundred other things but all she could do was smile. "Thank you."
"So…" She grinned mischievously, swinging the chain on her finger. "You said you needed my help?"
End of chapter two! It's almost like a cliffhanger… except it's not!
I believe this is the part where I ask for reviews? xD