Chapter 49: Guardians

As the Queen of Asturia walked closer to Hitomi, a face splitting grin spread across the blonde's face. Millerna took her hand out of the knight's crooked arm and clasped both hands with Hitomi's. "Oh, Hitomi. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am for the both of you." She beamed at Van then back to Hitomi.
"Thank you Miller-"

"And to think, it was my coronation ball that allowed you two to fall in love with each other all over again."
"Now Sister, that is really no way of greeting our hosts. You're making her blush."

"Ah." Hitomi sputtered, "Hi, Princess Eris, Allen, Celena, Millerna." Flustered, she forgot all her lessons and bowed in greeting, as she would have at home greeting friends. Hitomi flinched as she heard gasps all around her. She tried to sneak a peek at everyone, to try and judge how badly she may have offended everyone, thinking that if she could offend her friends then she was in for a very long lecture and bowing lesions from the Master of Etiquette, but no one was looking at her. Instead, they were looking up at the sky. Coming out of her bow, she followed their gazes and saw that Escaflowne in dragon form was descending, but wait… it wasn't the Mec suit… It was as a real white dragon.

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Instinct and years of training started warring with the lessons his brother had taught him about dragons, those many years ago. Van knew that under his gloves, his knuckles would be as white as bone where he gripped the undrawn hilt of his sword.

It was Allen who snapped out of the stupor first, the singing metal sound as he drew his blade signaling all the other warriors present to draw their swords.

"Stand down" Van ordered, tearing his eyes from the descending beast.

"Sire?" One of the guards asked.

"It will not harm us if we hold peace in our hearts."
"What?" Allen asked incredulously, only briefly looking away from the dragon.

"Just drop your swords." Van ordered. "Now!" He heard a few drop, but not all. 'Crap, crap, crap.' He thought, trying to position himself between the dragon and Hitomi, as it neared the ground, kicking up dirt.

"She is here to give us a message." Everyone turned to look at Hitomi as she said this, and Van saw that familiar half-glazed look on her face. "She would like you to listen to your king, as he speaks wisdom and the weapons make her uneasy."

A pulse rippled through the crowd on the dock, a feeling of complete calm; and Van heard the remaining swords drop to the ground. The same calming pressure prevented him from stopping Hitomi as she walked toward the beast with her arm stretched out to touch it.

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The image in her mind was slowly coming into focus through the miasma; the picture was a white dragon in a never-ending field of grass. Hitomi had heard it speak to her earlier but an overwhelming desire to see it… her, made Hitomi step closer.

"Daughter of the Blue Moon, I am here to inform you that your union with he who has Draconian blood running through his veins will result in a new line of heirs with ancient power. The combination of your power and his blood will awaken the Dragon Core, resulting in the births of new dragons.

"We, dragons of all elements rejoice at the notion, and will protect this power as it will restore us to the numbers we had before the Dragon wars.

"You, as the one to bring these precious lives into our worlds must assure those humans who claim power over others, that we dragons do not wish another war, and will speak through these children of two worlds to make treaties for land we once considered our own. Though we are aware that much of those lands have fallen into the hands of humans, we only seek what is fair.
"Your children will not have control over dragons, regardless of what legends may say of ancient times. The only power the ancients had was persuasion, as will your descendants. We dragons are more than aware of men and their evil and greed, and we will only act for dragons' sake. To keep those with dragon power safe, we will insist on all parties being present at times when treaties are being negotiated, so none can claim any ill doing by your country.

"Do not fret, however, we dragons understand that it takes time for your species to listen with respect to those who are of younger generations. We will give your first born the years necessary to gain a voice with those who consider the Dragon Man their peer. The survival of our dragon clans will depend on peaceful negotiations and the end of all dragon slaying.

"When the time comes, I will return to begin talks of changing the Fanelian Right of Dragon Slaying to win the thrown, as Dragon Kind's first treaty.

"Until then, dragons who are bound to the earth will guard your roads and gates, while those who fly will watch over the clouds that your machines part. They will not allow any with evil intentions against your union or guests, into this city.

"We will not attack for hunger, boredom or malice, but we will defend ourselves and our kin if any humans are fool enough to attack us.

"Good bye, Daughter of the Blue Moon."

With those last words, the image of the grassy field dissolved and a strong wind knocked Hitomi to the ground. She could hear many voices shouting her name, but she could only watch the white dragon fly away, slowing becoming one with the clouds.

Hello everyone.
As you can see i did not die in the last couple of years, I merely gave my soul and time to school for animation. Now i have a steady job in that field, and a home life that will be getting back to normal (currently in the middle of packing to move to a new apartment). I will be getting back to this story and the final chapter of Dreams. I had wanted to finish that chapter before getting back to this story, buuuuuuut that clearly didn't work (and this story is so much more fun to write).
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter with it's juicy plot.

Also some of you may've noticed that this year, 2015 is the ten year anniversary of this story first post. I couldn't get this out in time for the actual anniversary but I will be starting to re-upload chapters with grammar and spelling fixes. I cannot however change the combination of chapters to help condense my crazy brain spewings of my younger years, but I can make it easier to read.

In hounor of the ten year mark, I went over all the reviews you lovely, crazy, people have left. It took me hours to get through them all and they left my cheeks hurting, and my heart warm. So a big shoutout to anyone who's still out there, and a hug to everyone who has reviewed.

To continue the tradition, here are last chapter's review responses (and yes I have noticed that I could respond directly to the reviewer but I like this better.)

AZ Shayde: Thank you! You're wait is kinda over, and i expect to be making regular or semi-regular updates once I get to the new place.

ForgottenOncePromised : Here I am, and welcome to the show!

Itachiforever342 : No worries! Many readers have been bugging me to go through and edit, and with the help of my sister, I will be.

AvidReader133 : Thank you, and i hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

Terrie Lemaire: Impressive! But I wouldn't get ahead of yourself, I love twists and turns. Muhahahahaha

thepinkmartini : Thank Yooooou! I am pretty proud of that joke.

Till next time,
Mysisterisasquijum

(You can bug me at .net - I'm Varie, and ladybugCosplayProps)