The Legend of Liocorna

Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne. Wish I would (who wouldn't *g* ), but I don't...

Chapter 8: Who is it?

Van groggily opened his eyes to be met with an endless field of knee-high grass. The sun was shining and the a gentle wind was blowing over the tops of the grass, making it sway from side to side.

Van slowly started walking. He didn't know which way he was going, he just walked on and on without any sense of direction. It was as if his body was doing this on its own accord. Van didn't know how long it took him, but after some time he came to a large and old looking willow. Under it he noticed a figure standing there, watching him come nearer and nearer. He could see that the person was dressed in a cloak that went to its feet, nearly touching the ground. The person wasn't wearing his hood and he could see long hair flowing down to the middle of the waist. But van couldn't see the colour of the hair nor the persons face as it was covered in the shadows of the old willow. Van came to a stop in front of the person, but he still couldn't see the face.

"Where am I? I don't seem to be dead or am I?"

It seemed to Van that the person in front of him smiled up at him when asked this question although the face was still covered in shadows and it seemed to disappear quickly. The voice answering him was soft an feminine:

"No, you are not dead. This is merely a dream your minds stream has brought you to soothe the pain your body is going through right now. It is just a dream."

"So it is a dream... But it still feels different then usually. I don't know how to describe it. In a normal dream the feelings of the blowing wind or the grass under my feet aren't so... intense. It is nearly like I'm awake and then again not. How is that supposed to work?"

"Well. It isn't really one of your dreams. It is also not my dream, but a sort of dream-state called eteral, where other dreams might cross each one another. Normally everyone is in his own dream, but when two dreams meet or a dream shatters without the person waking up, he or she most times land in eteral before they finally wake up again. It doesn't happen very often and normally a person doesn't remembers when waking up that he has ever been here. Your mind was probably to much stressed from the pain caused by the injuries, especially those on your wings."

"How...?", Van tried to make a sentence, but was to stunned to do it. He just stood there with his mouth agape. If he heard right, the person in front of him had just let a small giggle slip through her lips. It died away again quickly, but deep down inside Van couldn't help but feel a bit happier about it. She had sounded so sad and gloomy before. He may have not made this face on purpose, but the result was ... well... not stunning, but better then her sad voice which now broke his strain of thoughts again:

"How do I know that your are Draconian? I just know."

"Have we met before? Do I know you? Do you know me? And why can't I see your face?"

"You see my face in shadows, because you are not sure, who I could be. I seem familiar to you, but you don't know from where because you can't recognise anything that could give you a clue. And if you really want to know..." there was a moment of unnerving silence before she continued"... Yes we have met before and I know you... Van Slanzar de Fanel, King of Fanelia and pilot to the legendary Ispano Dragon-Guymelef Escaflowne."

Van raised an eyebrow. She sure did seem to know him from somewhere, he could tell from the sound of her voice. She seemed so familiar, but from where??

"Have you been here more often? You seem to know quite a lot about this place."

"It was written in a book I have read. I come here often when I'm asleep to relax and forget for a while what I saw before. I think I will have to leave now. You should also wake up soon. Until then."

And before Van could say anything more she was gone with in a blink of an eye. He starred at the spot she had stood for a few more moments before he felt himself feel weightless and the world slowly turning black.

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

When Van opened his eyes the next time, he was blinded by the light of the sun coming through opening of the cave. He shut them again as immense pain washed over him turning the world nearly pitch-black again. He bit his lower lip to stop himself from screaming out loud. As the pain allowed him to breath more evenly he felt a hand softly touching his forehead.

"It seems the fever has gone already. That's a good sign..."

Van finally managed to open one of his eyes carefully. What he saw somehow didn't surprise him anymore. Leaning a bit over him gently examining his wounds know on his one wing was the mysterious figure from his dream. She had hidden her face under her cloak so he still couldn't find out who she was. He tried to speak, but the words only came out in a tiny hoarse whisper:

"You...again?"

"Yes, me again. You have remembered our meeting in Eteral?"

It was more a statement then a question and she didn't seem to wait for a reply as she was still examining his wounded wings carefully stroking over them, which rather supriced Van.

"This is not looking good. I'll have to do it the other way or it will never heal quick enough without causing to much pain. *sigh* here we go..."

Before Van knew what was happening, the stranger held her hands above his one wing. Blue light emitted from her hands washing over them and a strange tingling feeling mixed with his pain. He watched in awe as his wings slowly but surly grew together again as they should and the wounds closed themselves.

After the light had vanished Van's wings were fully healed again and the pain emitting from them had subsided. The rest of his body still screamed with pain though. The figure had lowered her hands to her side trying to steady her breathing. It must have cost an amount of energy to heal him so quickly.

"You should let your wings out until your body has healed some more", he heard the woman speak and was shocked to feel a hand gently stroking over his wing again. She didn't seem frightened or disgusted by his wings, something that happened not often. It had only happened twice before, once with Merle and the other time with... .

Van saw the woman stand up and go to the back of the cave where a small leather bag stood. She got out a small round bottle from within the bag and returned to his side. Kneeling beside him, she uncorked the bottle which emitted a strange smell from within it.

"Drink this. It may not taste like the good wine from Asturia, but it will heal your wounds much faster then usual."

She helped Van lift up his upper half of his body so he could drink. It tasted weird, just like it smelled. Not discussing or horrible, just weird like nothing he had tried before. He felt it flow through his body, soothing the pain and making him feel sleepy.

"You should sleep some more. When you wake up the wounds and the pain will be gone. Sleep some more, then you can go to Asturia if you wish."

"Thank you. I own you a lot. But your voice... it sounds so familiar... like that of a special person I lost so long ago."

With that Van's mind drifted of to dream-land. Had he somehow managed to look under the hood of the cloak, he would have seen two sad glistening eyes staring longingly at him. Her voice was only a soft whisper as she stroked is bangs gently out of his face:

"Oh Van..."

~~~~~~~ some time later ~~~~~~

When Van finally woke up again it was already beginning to get dark outside. A fire was flickering near him, making strange dancing shadows at the walls of the cave. He got out from under the blanked covering him and noticed the bandages on his body from earlier missing. He stretched a bit. No pain came from any of his body parts... if that wasn't a good sign...

He carefully retreated his wings and caught a spark of metal out of the corner of his eyes. He was astonished to see his sword lying beside him, still attached to his belt. He put his belt on and stoop up looking around. The cave was empty, from the woman no sign anywhere.

He listened. Somewhere from outside he heard a voice singing and made his way out of the cave. Stepping into the open, he saw the woman from earlier sitting on a stone near the entrance. She was singing a strange sounding song:

"Win dain, a lotica, ..."

Van walked over to her and carefully seated himself beside her. If she had noticed him then she didn't show it, just kept on singing that strange melody. She still had the hood on and Van was beginning to get frustrated. Why was she hiding her face? Did she feel ashamed about something? Would it shock him so much that she was afraid of his reaction? Or was she someone, who was being chased and didn't want him to go and tell someone, who was chasing after her? It was very mysterious.

She suddenly stopped singing without ending and seemed to listen to something in the woods around them. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she answered his unasked question already in a low voice:

"Someone is coming and I have the gut feeling that they won't welcome us nicely. And hiding in the cave is no option, they are bound to look in there. Maybe we could..."

But before she could finish her sentence Enemy soldiers glad in their green amour came running out from behind the trees. Luckily it where only three, but enemy soldiers never less. Van drew his sword as one of them attacked him. He was able to block the attacks and was about to strike, when he saw an arrow coming his way and barley had time to get out of harms way. He risked a glance towards the woman and saw her fighting of the third one with two daggers. She was quite good and seemed to handle the situation well. He turned back his attention to his opponent and block of another attack. He made a diagonal slash at the man, managing to let the man's sword fly high into the air. It landed several feet beside him and Van let him no chance of recovering as his royal sword slashed at the man's neck. It made a deep gushing wound. His face showed astonishment and he tried to let out a scream, which came out as a silent gasp. He fell to the ground dead and Van turned to the one standing in the background. The man was concentrating on the woman aiming at her with a bow and arrow. Just as he let the arrow lose Van jumped forward and struck his sword into the man's back right where the heart lay. With a sigh he also sank to the ground where he breathed his last.

As he did so, Van turned to look how the woman was doing and nearly fell over in shock ( ~ hey, he guessed right at the beginning, he really got a shock!! *g* ~). The woman at that moment made a last downward slash at her opponent, who also fell dead to the already bloody ground. Her honey-brown hair, which went to her waist, blowed softly in the wind. The first clashing of thunder was heard as her emerald-green eyes met his. He couldn't read the expression in them. She was wearing a white headband covering her whole forehead (~ WARNING!! Very important for later!! ~) . She didn't say anything, just stared at him for a moment before turning her back to him and starting to walk towards the woods. Doing so made Van come out of his trance and he softly called after her:

"Hitomi! Wait!"

Hitomi did stop when he called her name, but didn't turn around. He carefully walked over to her, afraid of how she would react. Would she reject him, run away again? Or would she turn around and smile at him, saying that everything was okay? He doubted that.

Van came to a stop directly behind her. Yet she still didn't turn around nor made a single move or spoke. With all the courage he could measure, Van gently wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her close until her back was pressed against his chest. She didn't flinch or stiffen, but laid her hands over his, head downcast.

His voice sounded sad and worried as he slowly started to speak:

"Hitomi, why did you leave? We all missed you. I missed you. I missed you so much I thought my heart would break from the pain and emptiness inside it. I looked all over Gaia for you, but I couldn't find you. Why are you here now?"

Hitomi didn't answer him, but he thought he felt her softly shaking. When she didn't say anything he went on:

"What happened to you in those two years? Where have you been? And why are you trying to walk away again, leaving me behind? Please answer me Hitomi, say something."

"I...I...I..." She didn't manage to speak as her body started to shake. Van felt something wet hit his arms, but it wasn't the slowly starting rain from the dark grey clouds above.

Hitomi was crying.

He slowly turned her around seeing her tear stricken face as he pulled her close to him again. She buried her head on to his shoulders, hands around his neck and sobbed on and on as another thunder was heard from above. Van's one hand slowly rubbed up and down her back and he whispered soothing words into her ear. After her sobs grew fainter he heard her whisper into his shoulder quietly:

"I...I couldn't go back. I would have brought you all into danger. I... I didn't want that. I probably shouldn't even be here with you. I don't want you to get hurt again because of me. Never ever again. I love you to much to see you get hurt and that only because of stupid me."

He cupped her cheeks with both of his hands and pulled her face close to his.

"But I don't want you to get hurt either. All the time I had to think about what could have happened to you and how much pain it caused to you. Please, I waited so long to find you again and have you in my arms again, so don't leave. Stay... Stay here with me."

And as he breathed those last few words, he captured her lips with his, kissing her gently. As he tried to pull away again, he felt her hands closing more around his neck, inter-winding them in his hair and pulling him back. He obeyed and pressed his lips more tightly to hers. Running his tongue over her bottom lip, Van asked Hitomi for access, which she granted him with a small gasp.

It was so wonderful for Van having a chance to feel her close to him again, to know, that she was okay and she still cared for him as much as he did for her. It was a blessing to him and he thank the gods for reuniting him with his love.

Rain started to pour down on the two lovers just standing there as all the pent up emotions, who had been sealed for so long, came forth again.

Overwhelming and powerful were those emotions and as the night moved on, the two souls became one through them.

(~ think the rest for yourselves, you Hentais!!! *evilgrin* *lol* ~)

Chapter end