Here goes chapter 2! Thanks for the reviews, it's encouraging!

As Van's long training continued his panting grew stronger. Sweat glistened all over him as he attacked the air with his sword, concentrating on having a perfect form. Merle who had been watching him with boredom for quite some time finally lost patience.

"Lord Vannn," she whined "can we please go now? It's been 3 hours! You can keep training at the camp."

Van snapped out of his trance and looked to his right where Merle was sitting cat-like on a rock.

"Merle, I didn't force you to come with me. You knew I'd want to practice these swordsmanship moves. If I want to beat Allen-"

"Oh you and Allen will never grow up will you! It doesn't matter who can handle a piece of metal better, there's more important things to think about like the-"

"War." Van sighed. "I know, but there's nothing we can do until the Duke gives us orders." It was odd that Van would ever interrupt a training session to chat, but this was Merle, his only family left. She is the only one who ever saw Van's true self. The rest of the world saw him as arrogant and stubborn, which he was, no lie about it. His harsh life and anger is what drove him most of the time and made irrational decisions. Now that Van and Merle had joined Allen and his crew after they helped them escape from a Zaibach guymelefs ambush, Van had become ... friends if that's what you call it. More of an understanding between each other, they had both lost their families and homeland. Although he would never admit, Allen has shown him new ways of handling his sword.

"See, this is where I disagree, I don't think the Duke really understands what is going on here."

"Maybe not, but we have taken refuge on his land and therefore he calls the shots to whether or not we put some defence on the city. I guess he thinks that will break the alliance with him and the Zaibach. Technically, Zaibach hasn't attacked Asturia yet so their allegiance is still intact."

Merle grimaced, "Well how many countries does Zaibach have to destroy before the Duke wakes up!"

Van looked down at the ground, anger rising at the thought of Fanelia burning into flames. He didn't reply which made Merle regret her words, knowing that it was very painful to Van to think about his destroyed homeland.

"Van" Merle murmured, "I'm sorry I-"

Just then a blue pillar appeared from the sky about 10 meters from Van and Merle. They were both shocked and stared in wonder. Merle's mouth gaped open as she saw a young women descending slowly, her back facing them.

They kept looking on with curiosity as she very gradually floated down towards them.

Abruptly, the blue pillar link broke as Hitomi was still very high up and she was no longer floating down. She was falling. Fast.

Merle yelped in worry for what was going to happen to the poor woman, as Van took off his shirt and two angel wings spread out. He quickly flew up towards Hitomi and caught her as gently as he could but it was quite hard with the pressure of the fall, which caused her more pain.

Van flew back down to Merle with Hitomi still in his arms. Merle approached him and looked down at the mysterious girl in his arms. Her eyes were closed.

The two Fanelians forgot the fact that she had just descended from the sky and looked at her condition instead. She had a long cut on her face under her right eye which would definitely scar, her left eye was now bruised black and her lower right lip swollen. The rest of her body was in bruised and they did not fail to notice her stab wound.

"Shit." Van muttered with worry for the young girl's life. Hitomi halfway opened her eyes with the last of her strength and stared up at Van's dark auburn eyes. Their eyes locked and Van was in shock at the colour of her eyes.

There was only one other person that he had ever known to have dark emerald eyes like hers. And that person was...

"Dead." Van thought. Hitomi noticed the angel wings and the white feathers lightly floating around her.

"An angel? Am I dead?" Hitomi questioned before blacking out.

"Lord Van! She's not going to make it! We need to get her a doctor." Merle stated in panic. Death was never easy for anyone, even if you didn't know the person.

Van looked ahead to his Escaflowne resting beside a tree. Quickly he flew to it and controlled it to become a flying dragon.

"Quickly, hop on Merle! We're going to find Millerna!" They both hopped on Escaflowne and flew away as fast as Escaflowne could towards the camp.

After arriving at the camp and creating quite the public display yelling Millerna's name in despair, Van and Merle finally found her and Millerna started treating her new patient immediately.

Millerna let Van and Merle watch her treat Hitomi, however Merle being to grossed out at her wounds had to leave the room. It was only Van who stayed and looked intently at the green-eyed girl. Millerna had taken off Hitomi's shirt and started stitching up the stab wound only to notice that the girl had more scars similar to the one under her right eye.

Millerna shook her head, "This girl's been through a lot of suffering."

Van kept quiet and not knowing why he started feeling very, very... angry? Why? He didn't know this girl, and he had seen many before her die.

But there was something about this girl. He didn't like the way blood was leaking out of her body or how she had fresh bruises swelling up. And that's when he noticed it. He gaped as he saw the green star tattoo on her forehead.

"It cannot be.."

Suddenly Van had a flashback of castle exploding.

"Van?" Millerna repeated for the third time which made Van snapped out of his trance. He looked at Millerna with confusion in his eyes.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to have to take off her skirt to see if more damage has been done, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Van nodded, but before he left the room, he took one last look at the mysterious girl that had reawaken such memories.

It took 6 days for Hitomi to wake up. Everyday Van would go check up on her and sit beside her for very long hours, which confused everyone because Van never took the time of day to hang around all the other wounded in the camp. Not that he was inconsiderate; he just thought he was more valuable at training and making himself stronger for the future battles to come.

The girl from the Mystic Moon had caused quite the commotion. The Council of Wisemen and Wisewomen met to discuss of the mystery of the star-shaped tattoo on her forehead.

"That tattoo," one wiseman began "is the mark of the Legendary Elves. They were known to rule the earth when the Draconiens ruled the skys. They were known to have very powerful magic, put into the hands of a tainted soul and the world would be in great danger. The real mystery is how that mark could have risen. They have been extinct for over 50 years!"

"That's not the only thing that doesn't make any sense," interrupted another wiseman "Besides that green mark, she does not have any of the other characteristics the Legendary Elves had, for one thing her hair is not of the common pure white shade it should be, and she does not have the brown shaded eyes that they shared. She doesn't even have pointy ears! This is absurd; it might only be a scheme."

The wise women spoke up for the first time "Or maybe, she is a half-breed."

"A half-breed?" The rest said in unison.

"Yes, it is said that some Legendary Elves challenged their fate and wandered off into the human world. Maybe one of them mated with a human and this is the result."

Van had heard enough. He had been sitting at the round table this whole time and thought this was a complete waste of time.

"So now that you've discovered what she is, are you happy now? This is useless, what good is it to know what breed she is. She was injured and we're helping her, just like all the other refugees here in this camp."

"Lord Van," a wise man began "It is more than that, if she really is of the descendents of the Legendary Elves, we could maybe use her power against-"

Van snorted "Use her power? She can't even stand on her own two feet!"

"She will heal, and then maybe we can make her join our army." The wise men continued.

Van was fuming, he was about to raise his voice, until this old feminine hand landed on his, in shock he looked over at the wise woman who was the one to interrupt this time.

"It would foolish to try and manipulate the soul of a living organism. We do not have the right to do it. This meeting is over." She concluded before anyone else could add anything.

Even though the wisemen disagreed, the wise woman was the senior of the Council and they retreated back to their chambers.

"Lady Nala," Van looked at the wisewoman.

"Yes Lord Van?"

"I think that girl is..." But he could not bring himself to say it because he was afraid that it was not true, and to make such an assumption would be a sin.

"I know." Lady Nala smiled at him and patted his hand. "Whoever she is, let's make her feel welcome eh?"

What do you guys think? :D