tigger093061 –thank you very much, and welcome to the show.
mooncrisispower0 – thank you
frank - I am a girl, and thank you for reading
escadoom – yes, I would email chapters out if the need arose, and anyone interested could contact me through my other story 'Van: Boy From the Mystic Moon' or through my profile
Aine-Cat-16 – do not worry I will, eventually
mic – thank you
Dragon Star16 – thank you
math-nerds-unite – thank you
EternalAffliction – well here it is
Macky – will do
trekker4life – oopps, thanks
Lunesta – I'm quite curious too, and not to worry, I never rushPure hope- CHICKMUNK? O.o
A thank you goes out to my editor, Meave Atharie.
Oh! I almost forgot!
It's been 1 year since I started posting this story!
So happy anniversary everyone!
And please do check out the forum.
Chapter 31: Eyes
Once again Hitomi was awaken to the sounds of the city and a giggling maid –whose name turned out to be Meiru.
At breakfast Hitomi learned that Van would be stuck a room with the advisors, deciding what they would do to replace the celebration ball. She also learned that the twelve knights from the day before had been permanently placed under her command. Of course the maids had heard of this, and so started calling them "The Abaharaki" after the mythical band of misfits who had saved Gaea from the Black Dragon Clan, back when Gaea was just beginning to be inhabited.
After she finished eating, she made her way down to the royal seamstress, where she was told that she had an appointment. Along the way she stopped a maid, and asked if the maid could –when she had time- get the word out that she wanted another practice with the Abaharaki, one hour after the mid day meal, or whenever she could get away from the land of fabric.
It was about mid afternoon before the advisors could agree upon something to do in stead of a ball to celebrate his wedding with Hitomi. Those bastards, they didn't even need his input, -every time he opened his mouth to suggest something they either ignored him, or cut him off. They even kept him through lunch. Bastards. What they did –finally- agree upon was a weeklong celebration festival where anyone and everyone would be invited. It was good for businesses, around this time of year business would drop, and it was a great way to let the people celebrate.
One good thing of being stuck in the room with the advisors was that he had managed to convince them that he and Hitomi could go to her hometown and inform her friends and family. They had a right to know after all…
Maybe he could find Hitomi and ask if she wanted to join him for an early supper? Where was Hitomi?
When the members of the Abaharaki sauntered in to the practice courts they found their commander once again in borrowed shirt and paints, and upon seeing them she declared that they all were going to go for a 'little run' to warm up.
The 'little run' turned out to be from the practice courts, which were at the back of the castle, to the main city gate. Somehow she managed to maintain a faster pace then them, and by the time they all got back she had put on her training armor. And she wasn't even winded. True they were all in pretty good shape themselves, but were breathing pretty heavily -mainly from the steep climb at the end.
She let them catch their breath, and stretch before resuming where they had left off from the night before. Child's play –unless you counted the fact that she was as quite as a shadow, and as quick as a viper.
Many hours –and bruises- later they were still at it. They had been doing the same thing for so long that none of them needed to concentrate on what they were doing, and could keep an eye on her, to block her attacks. But it appeared that, that wasn't enough, she was waiting for something… the only question was what?
Someone was in the doorway that led to the rest of the castle, she turned around to see whom it was, and dropped her guard.
Dropped her guard? Why would she have her guard up? Unless…
Oh, so that was it.
She saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, and went to side step it, but only to find that she underestimated the speed in which the attack was coming at her.
Whack
The whole room sent silent as Derek's training sword hit Hitomi's right thigh. It wasn't a direct hit –she did move after all- but the effect was still the same; all of the eleven other members of the Abaharaki were staring with different variations of shock, amazement, and fear. For the person whom was standing in the doorway was the King, her fiancé -her very protective fiancé.
All eyes were on him, waiting for him to explain his rash attack on the Queen-to-be. "Expect the unexpected." was his smug remark. And to the astonishment of everyone in the room, she…smiled? And took off to do laps.
"Alright. I want to see all of you first thing tomorrow morning –that's when the real fun begins-, and you can forget about breakfast." Hitomi told the guys, once she had finished her laps, and dismissed them for the night.
"Are you hurt –are you hurt bad?" asked Van, as he held Hitomi out at arm's length, trying to see everywhere at once, after everyone else had left.
"I'm fine, Van. I've had much worse. The armor took the blunt of it, so it's probably going to be nothing more than a small bruise."
"Are you sure that you really want to do this?"
"I'm sure, Van."
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
It was still dark when pounding at his door awoke him, with a start.
"Raise and Shine!" Came a shrill greeting from the other side of the door, which then opened up to reveal the Lady Hitomi. "You have five minutes to get your butt out of bed, dressed, and in the training room." She told him. Then, as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared. Presumably to wake up his colleagues.
Five minuets later they all somehow managed to get dressed, and down to the training room, without stumbling into anything or knocking anything over.
"What time is it?" Gisho, a dark skinned youth asked, seeing that the torches on the walls lighted the room.
"It's about a few minuets before sunrise." Hitomi promptly replied, and received groans from everyone. "Yeah, well get used to it, because from now on, everyday, we'll be going for a morning run."
They had started out at an easy pace, gained speed on the flatter ground of the market place, then jogged back up the hill/cliff back to the castle. Needless to say they were all hungry by the time that they got back but it would still be a few hours until breakfast would be served in the mess hall. But to their delight a table with benches was set up and adorned with breakfast. "You guys didn't think that I would let you starve, now did you?" Hitomi teased as someone's stomach growled.
After they stretched, by Hitomi's order everyone dug-in. Sometime during the gorging Sora dropped off a package, whom Hitomi thanked profusely, and after everyone had satisfied their stomachs Hitomi told them the news that Van had told her the night before. "The Advisors have agreed to give Van three days leave to take me back to my family so I can say good-bye. You can take those days to rest, but I expect that you to continue to have a morning run. He and I will be leaving later in the day. " After everyone had agreed that that was reasonable, and they assured her that they would continue to run, they set about moving the table out of the way, and starting 'the real fun'.
"Now then, I'm going to need a volunteer for this next demonstration." Hitomi said, once everyone was in their proper rows. "Derek, why don't you come up here.
"Worriers rely on their eyes to help them fight. This is great until you can't rely on them anymore. So now I will teach you how to fight without their help." She then opened the package that Sora had dropped off, and pulled out a black blind fold. "I've asked Sora if she could make it so that when anyone wears one of these, any and all magical abilities will be blocked, so you have to rely on your physical abilities, and I have also asked for her to make sure that there will be no peaking. So Derek, are you ready? And don't worry, I'll be the one fighting blind."
"I'm ready when you are."
The little 'demo' when by fairly quickly, and everyone was surprised at the outcome –though they should have known better. Hitomi had won, hands down. She then took off the blind fold and handed it to Derek, and then proceeded to hand out the rest.
They were back at square one: doing drills while keeping an ear out for Hitomi. Only it was a little harder then they thought she was Very light on her feet, so it was hard to tell where she was.
It was a good thing that they had the next three days off, for they figured that by the end of practice they had each received at least twice as many bruises as the first day. But they were determined to do it, for none of them were going to be stood up by a girl.
After she had dismissed them, Hitomi made her way up to her room so she could get cleaned up for the trip back to Earth. As she did so she wondered if it would be the last time that she would see any of her friends and family from hat place. But oddly enough the pain of homesickness didn't wash over her, like it did so many times during the war.
So the saying was true: Home is where the heart is.
And Van Fanel had stolen her heart.