Hello again everyone! Thank you all so much for the reviews. I loved them and cherish every single one of them. So please continue to Read and Review and then i will write more. I promise i will try and have a 5th chapter out by Sun night.
Disclaimer: Roses are red. Violets are blue. I no own so you no sue! (Thanks Amber for the disclaimer)
Chapter 4
I floated through a warm darkness, the warmth soaking into my skin making the pale color almost seem to glow. I know I should be dead, and maybe this is death? Maybe this is purgatory? As I floated there my thoughts faded into a soft white noise that was faint in the back of my head. I laid there and then an image began to appear over her eyes. The face slowly became one of a young man with messy black hair that was boyishly short and had bangs that hung over his eyes obscuring his odd eyes. His eyes were wide and a little cynical, while the red-brown color looking jaded. His face was soft and young still, yet there was a hardness there that can only come from war. I reached out for the picture and felt my hand connect with a solid object. I touched his face lightly and felt tears slip down my cheeks.
"Van! VAN!" My voice cried out and I knew that he would never hear me. My voice slowly faded away until the echoes were even faint in my ears. I stared endlessly at the picture then I felt a small flame start in my lower stomach and seemed to grow slowly until my entire body was glowing with it. The intensity scared me as it fought to escape from my body, it screamed through my body and fought at my very skin until it made my entire body glow the same color as my pendant used to glow when I accessed my power. When I thought the pain was too much for me to bear, I closed my eyes brought the image of Van back to my mind's eye. And a small voice in my head said softly, "I wish I was with Van. I wish I was with Van." The small voice chanted it until I began to hear it with my ears. I listened and let the voice comfort me. I knew in my head that I would never see Van again since I was dead but in my heart I hoped I was wrong.
But soon after I first heard the voice I felt a painful jolt rock my body and pull a pained scream from my throat. As soon as the noise left me though I felt the darkness swallow up the sound and I was left again with the softly chanting voice. But minutes after the first jolt I felt the pain again. It felt like someone was trying to rip my body apart to the point that I would have let them only to stop the pain. Then I felt a sluggish thump in my chest and I realized that my heart had started beating, slowly but it was beginning to have a rhythm to it. Then the darkness began to fade and I felt the warmth of the light engulf me. I knew it was stupid, the whole "following the white light" but in truth I don't think I was ready to die yet. But I know that if I went back to my old life I would want to retract that statement. Soon I felt my soul touch my body again and then felt it when I moved a finger slightly.
So I was still alive huh? Lovely. Before long I realized my wrists hurt a lot and they were stiff as if bandaged. Took a deep breath and then opened my eyes slowly. The bright light that was in front of my eyes seemed dim and filtered but the weak light still caused a sharp pain in my eyes. I blinked for a moment, and then I realized that the light wasn't as painful as I first thought it was, so I kept my eyes open and I looked around the room. It was small with the bed I was laying in and a small window that had a reed shade over it. I tried to sit up but a faint hand held me down. I looked over and saw an old woman who was looked to be someone's grandmother. I opened my mouth to speak but my throat felt dry and scratchy. After several attempts to speak the woman only smiled and handed me a drink of water which I greedily accepted and swallowed without the conscious care of what it was. After the cup was drained and the slight taste of some herb touched the back of my throat, then the small paranoid voice began to creep up and whisper that the water had been poisoned and I would soon die yet again and go to hell because there was no way that I deserved heaven after killing all those people on Gaea. I watched the woman with a creeping sense of dread.
"Please don't hurt me." My voice sounded weak at first then grew stronger with each word.
"My child, If I wished you harm I would have done it while you slept. Now rest or His Majesty will be very upset with both of us." Her voice was kindly stern, and forced me to lay back and be quiet. As we sat in silence I closed my eyes, wishing to return to my dreams instead of facing a reality that was slowly coming together in my mind. The silence grew, thickening slowly until I thought either I or the old woman or even both of us had fallen asleep. Then I heard her begin to hum softly and the song began to come to my mind. It was the same song my grandmother used to sing to me as a child and the same one that I had heard while I was on Gaea. The song, even just the melody brought feelings to mind that I had thought I had learned to hide away.
"Please stop…. That is a song that I never want to hear again…." My voice broke slightly at the end and tears streamed down my cheeks, each one feeling like a new trail of lava burning over my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the woman stand up so I sat up more determined to not have her any closer to me in case she wanted to hurt me.
"I'm sorry Child. Let me go get His Majesty and we will resolve this." The woman's voice was kind and jovial as she wiped tears from my cheeks and disappeared into the corridor that led out of the room. As I sat there, tears were streaming down my cheeks, but after a few moments though I felt my stomach churning uncomfortably, the nausea making my head light and jump and stutter. After only a few seconds though of trying to calm my stomach, I leaned over and vomited into a well placed bucket that reeked of river water and lye soap. My stomach kept ejecting everything it contained while tears streamed down my cheeks and I managed to whisper for forgiveness from anyone who would listen. I was unaware of all that things around me until I felt a faint touch on my forehead, a cooling rush of power along with a brush of wings that lightly played along my skin. When I felt the wings, my mind hazily showed me one vision I kept having before I knew Van had wings.
Soon my nausea cleared and I sat up, taking the towel handed to me, using it to wipe my mouth and face. The cooling rush of power dissipated slightly and became a soft static in the back of my mind. I lay back in the bed and closed my eyes praying that the nausea would not come back.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Lady Hitomi." A voice said softly as if the girl only said it to hear her own voice and to be seen as kind.
"I am no lady; I am only Kanzaki Hitomi, no more, no less." I opened my eyes, doing my best to hide my surprise when my eyes centered on Toma. She was even more beautiful then in my vision and also appeared more pregnant also. But I artfully hid m y surprise behind a mask of indifference while Toma only smiled politely and latched herself onto the man standing to her right. My eyes went with her movement, curious to see if she was really going to be hanging all over her husband like that and I saw Van. He was now taller then me by a few inches and had filled out more, making him look more like a man, but what surprised me the most was a small goatee that was trimmed and proper, but made him look about 10 years older then the last time I saw him. "Van… Is it…" My voice breathy as I tried to wake up from this dream.
"Wel- Welcome Home Hitomi." His voice was as unsteady as my own, but he stepped closer to me and enveloped me in a hug, artfully, getting free of Toma without looking rude. The hug was familiar and warm, relaxing all my muscles and making tears come to my eyes. I Bit my lip to stop from crying but then I felt a cold drop fall on my shoulder and I let loose my tears. We both cried for things we didn't realize and things we did until we were all cried out. Everyone stared at us in disbelief and when I saw Toma's face I had to try and swallow a laugh at how angry she appeared. But when Van pulled away from me I felt a faint tear want to edge down my cheek. I had just gotten him back and now I was going to loose him again.
"Van-" My word thoughts, though, were cut short by a rather loud and angry voice, "Don't they teach you any manners on the Mystic Moon? He is a king now and you should show him the respect he deserves." I looked over at Toma, since I knew it was her voice, wanting to move and lay her out for talking to me like that but Van placed a hand on my bandaged wrist and then whispered in my ear softly.
"Meet me by Escaflowne after sundown, if you feel up to it anyway. I will deal with Toma." His voice soft and his breath were warm over my skin making every inch of my skin crawl with happiness. I nodded slightly and lay back with a sigh of relief since my wrists were killing me. Van then turned to everyone else and smiled diplomatically. "Alright everyone, we must leave Lady Hitomi along to rest and heal. Merle I would like you to stay with her and fill her in on what she has missed. It has been a long couple of years. Toma, I wish I word with you, so please stay for a moment. Everyone else you may spend your day at your leisure." His voice was kind but also held that anger to it that made everyone believe he meant what he said. When all the noise had gone down, all that was left was the kind old woman from before, Merle, Van and Toma. I watched them all from my bed with a small frown of dissatisfaction until the old woman came over and took my wrist in her hand lightly.
"It is time to change the bandages, my dear child." She said in a soft voice as she began to unravel the wrappings. I watched for a few moments then felt Merle settle her self at the end of my bed, drew me back to the conversation on hand.
"Lady Toma, I wish to remind you that this marriage is not final unless my people accept that child you carry, if I can even say it is mine. Also I wish to remind you that you to no way interfere with how I let people talk to me. Hitomi has known me for far longer then you have and is a closer person to my heart that anyone other then Merle." At this Merle stuck out her chest and grinned. I smiled at her and moved how the old woman wished still listening to the conversation I had no part of.
"But Van-san, She is a foreigner, and I heard about her before. She is the cause for the destruction of Fanelia. Don't you remember that? Do you wish it to happen again? Having her here may destroy the country I have seen you work so hard to rebuild." Her voice was close to tears and desperate.
"How can I destroy a country when I don't have my pendent like before, or my tarot cards? I know I gave my necklace to Van, and my cards are lost in the mess of the life back on the Mystic Moon. I will never again destroy the lives of the people I love." My voice was softer then I meant it to be, but when she mentioned the entire killing that happened thanks to me it made me think about it, take it from the dark corner I had hidden the memories and look them over, and reliving each one.
"That still is no excuse?" Her voice was near screaming now and I saw the vein in Van's temple start to bulge.
"Lady Toma! Please know that I mean your marriage no harm, I only wish to live a full life among that people who had become closer then family to me. I will be moving out of the castle as soon as Van allows me too." I knew Van would never let me leave again, but I also knew it would placate her ego, which it did thankfully, and would cause her to walk away. When she was out of sight, Van turned and smiled at me.
"If you will excuse me Hitomi, I have a few things to take care of before sundown." He smiled slightly at me and then rushed out, as if embarrassed.
"I have never seen him move that fast before." Merle commented as I lay there with fresh bandages.
"Me either, I guess he hasn't changed much either." I said in a soft voice as if in awe of how silly he seemed.
"What do you mean?" Her voice was confused.
"I mean that obviously you have changed Merle. I mean you're taller then me by at least a few inches and then there is the slight idea that you filled out quite nicely."
"What happened to you?" Her voice was hesitant and I lowered my eyes feeling my shame color my face redder then a tomato then turn my neck red as well.
"I just got tired of living in a world were no one would accept that I didn't belong there. I belong here on Gaea. And I intend to spend the rest of my days here." My voice was final and I looked up with a determination in my eyes that made Merle shudder.
"I am supposed to catch you up on things aren't I?" Merle asked with a soft voice. I nodded and then sat back as she began to tell me everything that happened. I really had missed a lot since I left, but soon my mind began to wander to what would happen that night when I met Van.
Please read and review. This chapter is alittle longerand hopefully they will be getting longer the longer i write. Sorry i didn't respond to all your reviews but i have been easier.
