So here's Chapter Five. I'm updating, as usual, as fast as humanly possible…. considering school… and the need to sleep, eat, and watch anime. Thanks again for all the reviews. I'll consider all of your suggestions.
As for Kei. I know most of you have been wondering about the image of wings Hitomi was seeing and why she has a pendant. I'll answer everything in the best way I can through the next few chapters. It's a bit difficult, though, because the answers are a major part of the plot… heh.
This chapter will concentrate a bit more on Kei's point of view. And you have to keep in mind that Kei knows quite a lot from Hitomi's explanation…
Anyhoo…
"Eternity Dragons"
Chapter Five – Broken Wings
The group consisting of two Mystic Moon inhabitants and two wolf men woke early the next day. On other words, Kei and Hitomi were dragged out of the cozy cave before the sun had even risen.
Kei yawned, tiredly rubbing sleep from her eyes as she and Hitomi stumbled along a dirt path through the forest. Kei had already once walked into a bush before she had been yawning and stretching at the same time.
Thankfully, the rain had stopped. The ground was still damp, along with everything else in the woods.
She really was not in the mood to walk anywhere this early in the morning. They hadn't even had breakfast yet and already, the hot soup seemed ages ago. The gray eyed girl didn't want to nag or complain, though. To seem weak in front of her new friend and two strangers, kind as they were, was not something Kei wanted to happen. As she yawned once more, her watch beeped, showing that it was 5:00 PM back on Earth. Seemed like there was about 12 hour's difference between the two worlds.
The four trudged along the narrow path through the rain-soaked, peacefully quiet forest. Ruhm led the way up front with Hitomi, then Kei, and Olden followed closely in the rear.
Harakei took the time to observe her surroundings and collect her thoughts. Shifting the soggy messenger bag that hung from her shoulder, she looked down briefly at her hips to see that the katana was safely secured. Satisfied, she went back to drinking in the sights around her.
It was still dark and because of the thick mass of trees and plant life, even if the sun had begun to rise, she wouldn't have been able to tell. The forest itself was quiet, almost as if asleep. The only sounds heard were the distant chuckling and gurgling of streams they passed by. That, and the soft thuds of their feet hitting the softened earth.
Still… it didn't seem like another world. Despite the sights of Earth in the sky and her near encounter with a dragon… and the fact that they were being led to Fanelia by two wolf men…
Kei brushed back some strands of hair that had fallen out of her neat braid. Gonna have to re-do that…. Hair's probably a mess.
Not only that, but due to the panicked run through the forest, where they had been fleeing the dragon, her uniform had been inflicted with several rips. Some cuts along her legs had suffered from the same treatment and it appeared that Hitomi didn't look any better. Maybe it they had been watching where they had been going, she and Hitomi wouldn't have gotten those rips and scrapes. After all, Hitomi had said later that they really shouldn't have fled like that. No, she shouldn't have… I wasn't scared of that dragon at all…
Never mind. Cuts would heal, rips could be repaired. What was she being so harsh on Hitomi for, anyway? There were here for her, after all. Hitomi had known how to use the pendant, knew the land, knew the people… Kei didn't know anything. This was all new to her.
But then, why did it all seem familiar to her?
Hitomi, meanwhile, walked next to Ruhm, busy with catching up on what had happened for the past three months on Gaea while she had been away.
"How is Fanelia?" She kept up with Ruhm's steady strides easily.
"Rebuilding nicely. Most of the homes have been rebuilt and the royal castle is almost complete. It's made quite a turnaround."
"And Zaibach?" Zaibach had been the main enemy in the Gaean War.
"Mostly turned around and rebuilding, as well. Almost everything concerning Dornkirk has been wiped out." Ruhm glanced down at Hitomi before looking forward again.
Dornkirk. An enemy truly evil. A human from the Mystic Moon who had originally been called Isaac, and Hitomi had a strange feeling that it was Isaac Newton, but she could never prove that fact. Dornkirk had been killed by Van's brother, Folken, who in turn died by his own sword tip.
The last few weeks of Hitomi's stay in Gaea hadn't been pleasant. The war had reached full force, dragging all the countries into it, along with man, who, at the time, she thought was her love, Allen Schezar. That thought brought up another question.
"What about Asturia? Princess Millerna?"
"Queen Millerna, now."
"Eh?" She blinked in surprise.
"Aye." Ruhm chuckled at her surprise. "Her father stepped down."
"What about Eries?"
"From what I heard, she didn't want it."
"I see…" Millerna and she had become friends, and she naturally worried about her welfare. Wonder if she met up with Dryden again… There was a twinge of shame with that reflection. She had tried to match the two together with her tarot cards for her own selfish reason. So Allen could not go back to Millerna and stay with her. She ignored these thoughts and kept up with her questions.
"And uh…" Hitomi bit her lip, coming to the question she had been fearful to ask. "… and Van? How's he?"
"Last I saw him was two weeks ago… I've been out for a while, Miss Hitomi. I'm sorry. I wouldn't even be here at all… if not for Olden getting lost and me having to come after him." He grinned slightly as Olden frowned at the words.
"Oh… ok…" Two weeks was a long time. The vision had been almost a week ago and she hadn't seen anything else. This caused her to worry even more. Thanking Ruhm, Hitomi moved back to walk next to Kei.
Green eyes met gray as the two girls looked at each other, muttering soft greetings before going back into silence.
"Y'know..." Kei was, as usual, the first to break the silence. "I didn't tell my mom anything about where I went… she might worry."
"Then she'll come to my mom, and she'll explain everything."
"Huh?" Kei blinked in surprise, looking at the girl next to her. "You mom knows about this?"
"How else could I explain my long absence? And besides… my grandma told her about it, as well."
"Wow. Well, did you tell anything to your mom before you left?"
She flushed slightly. "No. I was too nervous packing… I left a note, though, so I hope she'll understand."
Kei nodded, the knot in her stomach relaxing somewhat from the nervous feeling she had gotten as soon as she had brought up that question. Would her family understand? She should've left a note, too. Hopefully, they would be able to accept Hitomi's mother's story as easily as Kei had believed Hitomi. Although Yuki might bring up come difficulties…
"Hey Hitomi, what exactly do you do with the pendant? How do you foresee the future?" Kei asked, abruptly changing the subject.
The pendant carrier was slightly startled by the question, but then smiled and pulled out the pendant from underneath her shirt.
"It's easy. I tried to teach Van before, and he eventually got it in time."
Hitomi unclasped the necklace and held it out so both of them could see.
"You imagine the pendant in your mind, then concentrate on what you want to find… such as, say, where Olden is."
"But we know where he is…" Kei said slowly, glancing back at the wolf man.
"Tell him to move somewhere else for me."
Hitomi closed her eyes, still walking. It was a bit harder to concentrate while constantly moving forward. Especially since she hadn't done this in a while, but she was fairly confident.
Kei, meanwhile, silently motion for Olden to walk to the left. Having heard part of their conversation, he wordlessly shuffled to the right, off the path into the forest. However, his padded feet made no noise.
Hitomi imagined Olden in her mind, all the while the image of the pink stone hanging from it's chain in the background. Soon enough, the pendant swung left. Without opening her eyes, Hitomi pointed in that direction with her free hand.
"There!"
Kei's eyes widened with astonishment. "Wow. You're right."
Kanzaki smiled and handed the pendant to Kei. "It's nothing. Here, you try. Just concentrate on Olden, imagine him in your mind clearly, and keep your eyes closed."
The raven-haired girl obediently shut her eyelids, mimicking Hitomi and holding out the pendant. An image of Olden bubbled into her head, as well as visualization of the necklace while Hitomi gestured for the wolf man to return to his original position, which he did so unquestioningly.
A minute passed, Kei still stubbornly keeping her position as she walked. C'mon… concentrate… She thought firmly about Olden, when finally the still pendant yielded and swing back.
"Behind us?" She asked slowly, opening one eye.
In the rear, Olden chuckled softly. "You caught on quick…"
"Really? I'm right?" Both eyes shot open as she looked back. Sure enough, there was the young Gaean native, grinning fangishly.
"Good job, you learned really quickly." Hitomi smiled proudly.
"Thanks. It took longer for me, though." She beamed with pleasure, handing back the pendant.
"No worries, it was only your first try, after all…" The brunette replied in an encouraging voice, returning the necklace to the original position around her neck. "I'll give this back to you, by the way. Once I get mine from Van…"
"Alright." Kei nodded, falling silent once more. She paused for a moment before realizing just how curious she was about all of this.
"So tell me more about this Allen person…"
"Well…"
An hour later, the forest finally ended. The group emerged, just in time for the sunrise and a spectacular view of Fanelia, as they were now directly behind it. The sun was just rising, filling the whole valley with morning light.
They now stood atop of the wall of mountain rock that had shielded Fanelia faithfully for years. Another forest lay below far them them, which slowly grew down the angled rock wall to the rebuilt Fanelian Castle. Then, below that was the actual city, looking much better than how it had looked when Hitomi had left it.
Kei and Hitomi stood in awe. The view was breathtaking, but the two wolf men shrugged it off and instead went looking for something at the edge of the cliff.
Shifting their bags, the girls cautiously approached the edge as well. Hitomi looked around. "How are we getting down?"
"Well…" Ruhm said as he straightened, beginning his explanation when what he saw stopped him dead.
Kei had lost her footing on the slick, rain-dampened rock, and was currently tumbling over the edge off the cliff, screaming.
Time seemed to slow down. Hitomi watched in distress as her friend's body fell farther and farther down. Her mind somehow shut down, but thoughts began buzzing through like lightning soon enough. Kei is falling. Van. Van has wings. We need Van. Van!
If she hadn't been busy with Kei's plummet, she would have noticed that the pendant had began to glow bright pink as she clutched at it out of habit. Her anxious wishes seemed to summon a part of Van. The tear-shaped stone's light filtered through her fingers as it glowed to the point of blinding color.
To everyone's shock, including Kei's, angelic, pure white wings burst from her back. Feathers filled the air, and Hitomi didn't need to blink or rub her eyes to convince herself that it wasn't an illusion. Instinct told her it was real. All she had to do was listen to her frantic heartbeat, which seemed to have blocked out her hearing.
Kei had fallen too far and too fast to manage to pull herself out of there on her new wings. It didn't seem to matter, as it seemed that Kei didn't know how to use the natural flying instruments anyway. The white Draconian wings instead slowed her fall. She floated down gently before proceeding to collapse slowly into the forest below.
A silence would have followed, if not for the cloud of birds that erupted from the place where Kei fell. They flew past the remaining three on top, chattering in irritation. A cloud of feathers hovered in the air until both the birds and the feathers fluttered away, whisked away by the light breeze.
After a moment of staring, Ruhm sighed and began leading the way down a hidden set of stairs carved into the rock wall. "Well, that's one way to go down."
After 10 minutes of cautiously walking down the slick steps, they reached solid ground and the edge of the Fanelian forest. Hitomi, Ruhm, and Olden hurriedly went in, calling Kei's name.
It was easy to find her. They followed the trail of feathers until, finally, their quarry was located stuck in a tree, her wings spread out behind her in an uncomfortable position. At least, it seemed uncomfortable to Hitomi, who went up to the girl. One wing, in particular, was set in an odd position. The grey-eyed schoolgirl was lucky, though. She had landed in a steady tree with little protruding twigs that would have ripped her wings and her skin to bits. However, it was obvious that something was wrong with the right wing, and there were more cuts on her arms and legs than before. Besides that, Kei looked fine. Her mind had been tempted to think "alive", but she had held back.
Ruhm approached the tree as well, looking up at the winged Mystic Moon inhabitant above them.
"Let's get her down. We need to get her to King Van."
Olden and Ruhm, working together, managed to carefully free Harakei and lower her to the ground. She appeared unconscious and, sure enough, after quick examination from the older wolf man, it was confirmed that her wing was broken. Ruhm gently hoisted up Kei in his strong, furred arms, with the broken wing extending past his shoulder. The undamaged, feathery twin was carefully folded forward to cover Kei's now shivering body.
Hitomi looked near tears, gazing down at her schoolmate's strongly calm face, then noticed that the wolf men had left something behind in the tree. Not even knowing how much it would probably mean to Kei, she doubled back and unhooked the messenger bag from a branch. As soon as her fingers made contact, an unexpected vision obscured her sight.
Merle was strapped to a strange platform with runes etched into it, crying for Van and desperately trying to free herself. "No! Lord Van! Lord Vaaaaann!"
Hitomi tried to run forward, but something kept her from moving. Looking down, a hand was latched firmly onto her ankle. A woman, blood pouring from a head wound, weakly handed up a wrapped burden to the shocked girl. "Please… help her…"
To her shock, the burden turned out to be a confused infant, enfolded tightly in a blanket. The baby blinked grey eyes at her, and gurgled in curiosity. Before she knew what she was doing, Hitomi was clutching at the child and sobbing. Tears slowly poured down her cheeks as the woman lying before her fell silent and limp.
Once again, as with every vision, it burned. But why? Hitomi thought, looking around through the ocean of salty water in her eyes. Why fire?
She found herself staring into intense grey orbs. The child in her eyes began to cry unexpectedly. Those eyes. She had seen them before. "Who… are you?"
"Release the dragon, pendant bearer. It is… your destiny." The eyes blazed once more before fading.
"What? No!"
Her own cry brought her back to reality and Hitomi found herself clutching at Kei's bag as she had held the infant.
"What…" She stared thoughtfully at the tree. "What happened? Merle…"
"Miss Hitomi! Come on!" Ruhm's voice interrupted her musings.
"Coming!" Still perplexed, Hitomi jogged after the two wolf men.
In ten minutes, they entered a familiar clearing. The gravesites of Van's father, Goau, and the guymelef Escaflowne. The mecha was a dull color of lifeless gray. Not like those eyes. Those had so much life in them. So much hatred. And evil. Shivering at the sight of melef, she followed after Ruhm and Olden hurriedly along a path completely out of the woods. Almost frazzled with worry, Hitomi let her mind rest for a moment to realize where they were.
They were where Van was. Rebuilt Fanelia. The people had returned after the attack from Zaibach, breathed life into their ravaged homeland, and returned it to it's former beauty.
The two guides seemed to know where they were going as they walked up to what could have been called the backdoor of the castle. Olden grinned as Ruhm knocked. "We come through here often, when we need emergency supplies or anything."
Hitomi peered curiously around Olden to the door as it opened. Before them stood a fierce looking, heavily built man with light brown sideburns and mildly spiked, also light brown hair. He glared down at Ruhm for a moment, as Ruhm did back, before the two grinned.
"Ruhm, how are you?"
"Fine, Sochran, just fine. We need some help…" He nodded to the still unconscious girl in his arms.
Sochran did a double take, glancing first at her clothes, then at her wings. He furrowed his brow with worry, but nodded. "Alright. Follow me." He turned and led the way inside the castle, with the party of three following after him.
They seemed to be going along a secret passage, or, Hitomi considered, an emergency exit. No one was along the corridor. If they hadn't been going at such a quick pace, they would have been able to acknowledge the paintings of previous Fanelian kings and Queens. Hitomi might have even seen the newly painted portraits of Van and Folken. But she didn't have time for that. They continued to follow after Sochran and attempt to keep up with his wide, determined strides.
However, it turned out that Sochran couldn't keep the four strangers out of sight for long and they soon emerged out onto another corridor, more populated. Men obviously still working on parts of the castle and some maids who were busy cleaning stopped dead as they watched the group go by. The sight of a draconian, two wolf men, and the legendary Hitomi Kanzaki, girl from the mystic moon, was too much for them all to take in. So they simply stared.
As Sochran led them to an empty room where Kei could rest and get her wing checked on, unbeknownst to the five of them, the rumors and whispers spread like wildfire.
The girl from the Mystic Moon was back. There was a Draconian with her. Hitomi Kanzaki had returned.
Ruhm carefully laid Kei down on the large bed in what seemed like a guest room. Her wings automatically moved to spread out behind her, but a grimace of pain swiftly crossed her face as the broken wing moved as well. Thinking quickly, Olden pulled up the bedside table so that the wing could rest on that. The other hung over the bed and spread along the room. Still, she didn't wake up.
Hitomi sat down on the bed by her friend, taking her limp but thankfully warm hand in hers before looking up at Sochran, who was speaking again.
"I'll get a doctor soon. Until then, the girl should rest here. Miss Hitomi?"
"Yes?" said Hitomi, blinking in surprise on how Sochran knew her.
"There are rooms along this corridor for guests, so feel free to use one at anytime. As I'm assuming that Ruhm and Olden aren't staying?" He looked at the pair of wolf men questioningly.
Ruhm nodded. "Yes, we must be going. Good luck, Miss Hitomi. Tell Miss Kei I said goodbye as well."
"Me too!" Olden piped in.
Hitomi stood, giving both of the wolf men hugs. Her voice was filled with held back emotion. "Thank you so much. If it wasn't for you, we would still be lost in the forest. Good luck to you as well."
The wolf men were slightly startled by Hitomi's way of thanks, but smiled anyway before they left. Sochran nodded.
"A doctor will be up soon. Do you require anything?"
Hitomi sat back down again. "No, but thank you. I think I'll stay here a while."
Then Sochran, too, left. Hitomi gazed down at Kei's calm face. In the back of her mind, she wondered why she hadn't asked for Van. Maybe it was the strange feeling of anger and worry that seemed to be lingering in the air in the castle and around Sochran.
But for now, her first priority was Kei, and she wouldn't leave her until those eyes opened once more to show that she was fine.
"C'mon, Kei… hang in there."
"Sir, you called for me?"
"Ye-es…" The voice hissed from the shadows. "The girl from the Mystic Moon has been informed of what she must do. Have the operations been successful?"
The messenger saluted. "Yes, sir."
"All of them?"
"Yes, sir."
The grey-eyed, shadowed man hissed with approval. "Good. Send out the four of them tonight. Make sure that the dragon and the girl are taken alive. The female who accompanies the girl. You may eliminate her."
"Understood, sir." The courier saluted before turning on his heel, out of the eerie, dark room. As the door closed behind him, he could hear triumphant, low laughter that, for some reason, struck him cold. He quickly hurried away from the door. Somehow, a happy master was more frightening than an angry one.
So, there it is. Longest chapter so far… No idea when Chapter 6'll be posted. This actually took me longer than I thought. Ah, and just so you know, Sochran is pronounced "Sock-rahn". Yup yup.
Right. Until next time. Which will finally... FINALLY… have Van. Sorry for the delay, I know that's what everyone waits for -nervous laughter-