The Legend of Liocorna
Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne, nor any other Anime- or Manga-Series. *sigh* Would be great to have one *g*...
Chapter 4: 2nd Attack
Hitomi woke up to the smell of fields and a warm feeling. It felt like someone had rapped his or hers arms around her and was holding her close in sleep. As the thought reached Hitomi's brain, her eyes snapped open immediately. She found herself in the crook of someone's neck, her body pressed close to the other one. She didn't know what to think of it all until she felt the person stir a little and mumble something in his sleep. She recognised the voice as Van's and relaxed again, but started to blush at noticing that Van wasn't wearing his shirt, only black pyjama pants. It was something new to her, feeling his bare chest under her hands and the feeling of his entire body being so close to hers. But it was also totally calming and made her at least forget for a while about her heart's pain and her inner turmoil.
She slowly and gently traced one finger over his well defined chest muscles and over his side. A chuckle escaped his lips and he groggily opened his eyes:
"Hey, that tickles."
Hitomi blushed even more at this and pulled her hand back. She let her eyes come in contact with his and also made out a bright blush on his cheeks.
"Uhhhhhhhhhh... It's not what you think it is. I didn't want you to have to sleep in that room and ..."
Hitomi put a finger on Van's lips and to silence him:
"It's okay. I...I don't mind", she said and removed her finger from his lips, while burying her head back into the crook of is neck. "Thank you for helping me yesterday. I was so scared. I don't know what I would have done without you being there. I would have probably woken up in some damp cell, wondering where I am and what they want from me."
" It was nothing. Do you really think I would ever let them harm you again? After all what you did for Fanelia and the rest of Gaia? What you all did for me? *Hitomi blushing at that comment*
Must have been a real shock last night. Do you feel better again?"
"Much better. I think the wound is as good as gone. And I'm still here with you. *Van blushing ;-* But....."
Hitomi suddenly fell silent and Van became worried, wondering, what was wrong. He gently lifted her face with his thumb and index-finger on her chin up to his and looked into those deep emerald-green eyes. Those eyes full of different and mixed emotion; full of pain; full of fright; full of sorrow; full of unasked questions even whom Van couldn't answer for her. Those eyes full of love for him, but also unshed tears which threatened to come out.
"But what? Don't you want to tell me?"
Van asked so softly that the tears eventually started to trickle down Hitomi's cheek. Van's fingers left her chin and gently wiped the tears away, his hand coming to rest on her stained cheek. She felt the warmth of his hand and noticed for the first time that he wasn't wearing his gloves he had worn at every-time of the day during the war. His hand didn't feel rough like she had thought, since he had helped so much the citizens of Fanelia build their houses again. They felt soft, like feathers to her. Hitomi closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his hand gently warming her ( through the tears ) cold cheek:
"I feel so sorry for those guards who were killed last night and only because of me. I only seem to bring new pain and troubles when I'm here. Maybe I should have stayed away from here. What if they attack again? I don't want anyone being hurt only because of me."
" Hey. Don't think like that. You didn't know they would follow you back here. And besides, you don't want anyone to get hurt because of you. But how do you want to do that. There will be probably always someone who will be at least a little hurt through the things you do. It is always like that and always will be. Don't you remember what happened when Donkirk tried to bring everyone totally happiness with his machine?"
"You're right. Maybe everything will be okay from now on."
Hitomi smiled as she said this, but the smile didn't totally reach her eyes and deep down inside she knew, that it wouldn't be like that.
Van also smiled and leaned a little more towards her:
"That's my Hitomi." She blushed at this although she didn't reply anything, for Van had sealed her lips with his in a sweet kiss. She let her hands come to rest against his chest, while his hand wandered from her cheek down to her waist wrapping it around her petit frame and pulling her closer to him.
They parted as a knock came from the door and seconds later a furry orange something was pouncing up and down on bed:
"Up you two lacy-bones! The sun is already up and out and breakfast will be served soon! It will be a wonderful day today, with no clouds in the sky! I finally want to go shopping with Hitomi and eat with her at my favourite restaurant, then go down to the lake to catch some fish for dinner and we can go into the gardens, and..."
Laughing, Van interrupted the energised cat-girl:
"Whoa! Hold you horses Merle! Could first please get of the bed, so we can even get up and get ready for breakfast and then we can discuss what will be done today. At least the doctor should have a final look at Hitomi's wound, before you go of pulling her through the whole town and everywhere else. What do you think Hitomi?"
"Seems to be a wise decision. Especially with the breakfast. I'm starving!"
And with that, they all made themselves ready to go down to breakfast.
Hitomi had already been down for breakfast the day before, but the doctor had still ordered her to rest some more.
She hadn't felt to comfortable at breakfast the first time, since some of the advisers and other royalties were eating with the king, but this time it wasn't so bad.
She didn't know what to think of Asgoth, one of the advisers. He didn't seem to like her and had at first disagreed with Hitomi eating with them and disliked that her room connected with Van's and especially through the bathroom they shared. Van had just waved it away with a hand saying, that there was no danger of something happening right now – well, NOT now (~ think the rest for yourselves *g* ~).
Asgoth didn't say a word at breakfast and only made a grim looking face, since he was still enraged that his unmarried king had `slept´ with a ( to him ) total strange woman, who didn't even have any royal rank! Most of the others didn't mind Hitomi at the breakfast-table, since she seemed to be a nice and caring person. She seemed to be a good medicine against Van's passivity, as he had become more open since her arrival, laughing and also starting to enjoy some of his time.
After breakfast the healer inspected Hitomi's wound once more only to announce in astonishment, that everything was perfectly fine again and Hitomi could go with Merle to the market. And since Van had to do more of his `kingly rubish´, as he always called most of his paperwork, Merle just dragged Hitomi out of the castle, through the castle gates, down the main street and onto the as usual busy market-place.
The market was huge! There seemed to be hundreds of different things to purchase , may it be fresh fish, all sorts of vegetables, some furniture, something to drink, jewellery or new dresses and hats.
First of all Hitomi was pushed by Merle into an exquisite dress-shop. A long time later they came out again with Hitomi wearing a new dress and five new others in her bags and also a pair of pants and a shirt as Van had promised her to teach her how to ride on a horse.
Hitomi's sleeveless dress was made out of a bright yellow silky feeling material and went down to her knees. While the skirt flowed out, the bodice fitted her curves well and had room for a bit more around the waist, if you loosened it a bit in the back.
By the time Hitomi had gotten merle away from the jewellery and fish it was already lunchtime and you could soon see the two sitting outside a restaurant, eating all they could.
"Come on Hitomi! Have you finished eating yet? Lord Van promised to meet us at the lake after lunch as soon as he could!"
"Calm down Merle. He won't just disappear again if we are a little late. Besides, I just finished having lunch, so we can go now. Have you gotten everything?"
Without even answering Hitomi or waiting for any reaction from her, Merle grabbed her by the hand and pulled her the streets and to the Fanelian lake near the castle. Hitomi was astonished at the beauty of it.
The water was a clear sapphire-blue and half of the lake vanished into the mountains surrounding Fanelia. It wasn't big, but had a little sand-shore and old looking willow-trees all around. On the shore was sitting Van, who turned around at the sound of them approaching only to gape at Hitomi in her new dress, making her blush. He was stopped from gaping more by Merle, who just pounced on him, making him nearly fall into the water.
"LORD VAN! I so sorry for being late! I hope you didn't have to wait long..."
"Actually, I have been here only for a few minutes, but thanx for your concern. Could I please breath again??"
"Oooopppsss! *devilish-grin* So sorry", was Merle's only reply before she bounced away. "I'm going to catch some fish! Enjoy yourself you two!"
And of she was, letting two blushing friends behind. Hitomi regained her composure and seated herself beside Van. They stayed that way for some time, just enjoying each other company in silence until Van spoke up:
"And how was your day until now?"
"If you let out that I had to try on at least 500 different dresses, Merle waiting to buy at least two docent hats and a wagon full of fish, getting stuffed at the restaurant and being dragged around until your feet hurt, quite relaxing."
Van laughed: " That definitely sounds like what Merle would have done with me, except the trying on. She would have probably dragged me to the jewellery to buy her something new. She can't get enough of it."
"Yep, sounds like the merle I know from so long ago. And how was you day?"
Van face became dark: "I think quite okay. I had to read through some very weird contracts and the meeting with the advisers was a mess. They wanted to know what exactly happened at the attack last night, who did it and such. I could only tell them how the two assassins looked, but not from where they came from."
"I thought they were questioned?!"
"They should have been questioned, but a guard told me while I was in my study, that they have murdered themselves with some kind so small dagger and that there was no chance of stopping them. *sigh* So now we are again from where we started of. I'm sorry, that it wasn't much of help."
Hitomi put a comforting hand on his shoulder: "It okay. I'm still grateful for what you did for me. And I'm glad that I'm back here with you."
Van smiled one of his genuine smiles he only gave Hitomi and pulled her close to himself, while wrapping his arms around her as she did also around him:
"I love you, Hitomi."
"I love you too, Van"
Suddenly, that uneasy feeling returned to Hitomi and she subconsciously stiffened. Van noticed it and became worried:
"What's wrong Hitomi?"
"There's someone here, I can feel it. It's the same feeling I had before they attacked me the first time.", she whispered back shakily.
Van's grip tightened around her waist while one of his hands came to rest on his sword:
"Try to stay calm and then will both get up slowly. Maybe we can make it out of the clearing, before anything happens."
Hitomi could only nod since the fright in her enabled her to speak anything out of what she was thinking. She was afraid of something happening to Van and only because he had tried to protect her. But with the fright something else, something long hidden inside of her, seemed to awaken and form wanting to get out. It pushed on her heart and making her head hurt inwardly, hoping to free itself.
As they had gotten up to their feet again, Van had one arm safely on her shoulder, while his other hand still rested on the knob of his sword pressing so hard, that his knuckles turned white. He didn't know, where the enemy could possibly be and it made him nervous. How could he protect Hitomi if he didn't know how or to wear he should lead her. He decided to go a bit around the lake, carefully scanning his surrounding without causing suspicion.
Just as they were about to leave the lake, three men wearing the same armour as the last two stormed out from behind the bushes at the other end, swords drawn and heading directly for them.
Van pushed Hitomi behind him and also drew his sword as the first two attacked together. The were skilled and knew what they were doing. While they fended of Van while the third tried to get to Hitomi. He wanted to shout to Hitomi to run away, but it was impossible as he tried to gain the upper hand and it caused all of his strength to not let them win over him and try to block the other one from her. Besides, it wouldn't have helped much for her to run since he didn't know, if there were any more of them hidden somewhere around here.
Pulling together all his strength Van managed to chop of the first ones head.
Just as he did so the second warrior caught him by his arm with his sword, making a not very deep but heavy bleeding wound and Van had to bite his lips from not gasping through the pain.
Hitomi watched all this from behind Van. Her eyes were wide open and her breath was going fast. For the thousand time since her return, he was asking herself Why? Why now and why here? What do they want from me and why so desperately? Why must Van fight them...
"Stop it, just stop it. Why are you doing this", she whispered over and over again. Suddenly something snapped inside of her as Van was wounded and she couldn't take it anymore. "Stop it!" She shouted with all her might as great pain surged through her head. Something like a light sparkling, almost invisible shock wave emitted from her rushing towards the two astound warriors. As it contacted with their bodies it send them flying high into the air ripping of their arms and legs in progress. The limbs fell down at the other end of the clearing with a miserable sounding thud.
Van was so stunned at this change of event that he couldn't move, only stare in awe at the ` massacre ´ caused by... by... whatever it had been that Hitomi had produced. Hitomi! What was with her?
Quickly Van turned around to see her on her knees, eyes downcast hand hanging at her side. Her whole body was trembling and she looked like collapsing any moment again. Ignoring the pain in his wound, Van rushed over to her, noticing out of the corner of his eye merle approaching on all fours.
"Hitomi? You're okay? What happened?"
"I don't know Van. I really don't know. I just don't wanted them hurting you only because of me and something inside of me snapped. I don't know."
Van carefully picked her up into his arms after taking of his shirt and spread his wings:
"Shhhhh. It's okay know. Nothing seriously happened to me and there gone for know." He turned to Merle: "I'm taking Hitomi back to the castle. You should also get back and when you are please inform some of the soldiers t take away the bodies."
"Okay Lord Van. But what about your arm?"
"I'm okay Merle. I'll have it looked at as soon as I'm back in the castle."
And with that he leaped into the air, Hitomi held closely to him, and flew to the castle.
Chapter end.