It lasted an instant-an eternity wrapped up in seconds. She felt so many contradicting emotions all at once. Despair. Joy. Fear. Excitement. But above all, longing. A great longing for love. To be loved and to love someone back. She felt weightless, liquid. Like she didn't quite exist. Moving between lifetimes like a ghost.

Then it all went dark.

Shizuru awoke face down on hard stone pavement. Her emotions and awareness floating somewhere out of reach. Her tawny hair fell wildly across her face as she slowly lifted her head from the cool floor. Her entire body felt too heavy, like it wasn't quite her own, and she had difficulty getting her vision to focus on her surroundings.

A collection of gasps in the room met her ears and her eyes snapped up to look at the people gathered around her. There was a total of six people in the large room. The first thing she noticed was their odd choice of attire. Most were dressed in furs and wore beads in their hair. All of them armed. Their faces were painted with tribal markings of sorts. One stood out from the others with her long robe-like dress and staff. She reminded Shizuru of a priestess of sorts. The room they were in was large and round and held up by massive pillars made entirely of stone. Stain glass windows cast their brilliant colors throughout the room. There was an alter of some kind behind her with brass goblets littering its surface. A massive gong was off to the side of the room, etched in strange markings. She noticed she was lying in the center of a turquoise star drawn into the floor.

Shizuru couldn't believe this. As things slowly started to make sense, her throat closed up in fear. She must have hit her head harder than she thought. She just had to be dreaming.

"Welcome. We've been expecting you," the priest-like woman spoke in a soothing tone. Her lavender gaze was soft, putting her turmoil emotions at ease. "I am Tokiha Mai and your name is?"

"Fujino Shizuru." The tawny haired woman answered. She studied the woman before her suspiciously. Tokiha Mai was a beautiful woman with a shock of red hair. Shizuru might even call it orange. She was curvy and had a motherly look about her. The one thing that stood out most of all about the woman was her large bust size.

Feeling out of place, Shizuru began to push herself up from the floor when a startling realization made her freeze abruptly. She was without a stitch of clothing. "Um..." Shizuru trailed off uneasily.

"Ah!" This Tokiha Mai exclaimed suddenly, aware of the young woman's plight. "Mikoto, bring our guest some clothes! Quickly!"

A young...girl?...seemingly more animal than human bounded off on all fours down a hall in the far left of the large room.

"Sorry about this. I'm sure you must be a bit frightened about all this but we mean you no harm. Really." Tokiha explained as she stepped slightly forward toward the nude woman. At Shizuru's flinch, the priestess quickly stepped back once again.

"Where am I? Who are you all?" She questioned, her voice dripping with alarm. She quickly sat up, pulling her knees tightly to her chest to cover her nudity. All too aware of her vulnerability in this strange place.

She watched as Tokiha exchanged a quick glance with a dainty child sitting in a poor excuse for a wheelchair. The child gave a subtle nod of her head before she was wheeled forward by a stony woman with pink hair and unnatural green eyes. The pair stopped alongside Mai before the little girl spoke up. "Fujino-san, you have been summoned to Hime and we are its people, Himeans."

"I must be dreaming..." Shizuru whispered in shock.

"I can assure you, Fujino-san, you are not." The little girl spoke seriously in a manner so much like an adult. For some reason, Shizuru got the feeling the girl was much older than she appeared. Her eyes were too wise for such a childish face framed with grey hair. "Like I said before, you were summoned here, and with good reason. Hime is in great danger. Our world is being attacked by a dark force that we have yet to stop. We've held off their monsters from overtaking the Capital, Fukka, but many of our outlying providences have fallen to the Orphans."

The handicapped girl's story was cut off when the child known as Mikoto came running into the room. This time on two legs. Most likely because of the folded clothes that now occupied her arms. She passed her burden off to Tokiha-san before hiding behind the priestess' dress tails, peering at Shizuru like a curious kitten. Mai slowly approached her, this time ignoring Shizuru's flinch and offered the clothing to her. She took it with caution, her fingers accidently coming in contact with the priestess'. Suddenly, Shizuru knew this was not some illusion. The touch was much too real.

"Mai and Youko-chan will assist you in getting changed. I'm sure you are not familiar with our attire. When you have been clothed and evaluated by the Healer, we will continue our talk." The child-woman smiled. "I am Mashiro Kazahana, by the way. It has been a pleasure Fujino-san."

Then she was wheeled away out of the room, three of the other women followed. Only three of the women remained, Tokiha and Mikoto-san. The other woman must be Youko-san.

"Come, Fujino-san. Let's let Youko-chan get a good look at you before getting you dressed." When Shizuru still hesitated to stand, Mai continued to coax her. "We're all women here. No need to be so modest."

The nude woman slowly stood, quietly noting that her hair was longer than it had been back in her own world. It reached all the way down to the small of her back in golden waves. Had a great amount of time passed? More and more questions were forming in her head and not enough answers were being given. She decided to hold off her questions for now and just go with the flow at the moment.

The healer known as Youko stepped forward. She looked over Shizuru like a doctor would, grabbing her arms and bending them before straightening them back out once again. She saw no sign of cuts, bruises, or any other bodily harm. "No injuries." The healer simply stated matter-of-factly and motioned for Mai to begin. Shizuru was dressed in fine robes of snowy white animal fur. Intricate beadwork of various colors was placed around her neck, wrists, and ankles. A small cloak of white fur was pinned about her shoulders, contrasting with her tawny locks and tanned skin.

"And now-," Tokiha-san said as she produced a bowl of white liquid from the various things Mikoto brought. "-this. So everyone will know that you are the Marked."

"Marked?" Shizuru questioned softly as the priestess dipped her thumb in the wooden bowl and started to paint the white liquid on Shizuru's face. Tokiha-san drew a line from one temple to the next, passing over Shizuru's closed eyes. A band of white paint completed her new look.

"Yes, for reasons unknown, you were chosen by Hime to save this world. That's why you've been brought here."

"What if this...Hime made a mistake? I can't possibly be some kind of hero. I'm just a business woman." It seemed likely. Afterall, Shizuru couldn't even save herself, much less an entire world.

"Hime is never wrong." Tokiha-san stated seriously while staring into Shizuru's eyes, trying to express the importance of her words. Shizuru stared back into the lavender orbs, startled at the determination she saw there. "Never."

The faint jumble of music caught the tawny-haired woman's attention for a moment. It was so soft that she thought that she might have imagined it at first but then she heard the tune once again.

"Did you hear that?" Shizuru questioned suddenly of the red head. "That music?"

"Music?" Mai looked confused for a moment before her face lightened up in recognition. "Oh! You are hearing my Life Song. See? This is proof that you are the Marked."

Shizuru arched an eyebrow in question.

"Um, let's see...Life Song is in everything. The sky, trees, animals, and people. It's how we communicate with our world and vice versa. I'm surprised you have noticed it so soon. Queen Mashiro and the High Priestess Fumi warned us that your world has no Life Song and that you may not hear it."

"So that music? It is from you?"

"Exactly!" Mai exclaimed like a teacher would to a child who had just discovered the meaning of math. "If you listen closely, you can hear the Song in everything around you. It has much to say."

"Do I have a Life Song?" Shizuru was very curious about this strange concept.

"Yes. It's very powerful."

Shizuru hummed her understanding as she pondered on that. This world seemed so different and filled with strange concepts. The ruby-eyed woman had difficulty wrapping her mind around it all. Her inner musings were cut short by Mai suddenly exclaiming, "Aha! You are all finished! Now you look like a true Marked."

"Thank you."

Shizuru was once again brought before Queen Mashiro. She still had many questions that she hoped the Queen would offer to answer. She was led into an office where the mysterious girl sat behind a large desk littered with scrolls and ink bottles. The room was spacious and lit by candles that hung upon the walls beside the many bookcases. It smelled of aged paper and a scent Shizuru couldn't quite place.

As she took a seat in the chair that was pulled up for her by the queen's ever-present assistant, Shizuru once again heard music tickle her ears. It was a slow tune that told of mystery and sorrow.

Her train of thought was cut off as Queen Mashiro spoke. "I know much about you Fujino-san. I know that you were unhappy in your old life and that you were arranged to be married to a man for political and economic gain. I know that as a child, all you ever wanted was to be acknowledged—noticed by your parents and that is why you resigned yourself to such a fate."

The only thing Shizuru could do was sit in shock as this child—no, this woman recited all these facts that she thought she had hidden. She knew that she wasn't obvious about her unhappiness. She had carefully hidden all those negative feelings deep within herself.

"You thought that if you were obedient of your parents' wishes, then they would love you, give you the attention you so craved." Mashiro went on monotonously, ignoring Shizuru's growing anxiety. As the Queen continued a memory pushed to the forefront of her thoughts.

"Shizuru, had me that ball of yarn."

Shizuka Fujino sat like a beautiful portrait near one of the many bay windows of the Fujino household. Her blonde hair shone like spun gold in the early afternoon light. She wore a beautiful sundress that fluttered around her knees like a housecat vying for attention. In her delicate hands, she held a piece of embroidery she had been working on since morning, the threads neat and stitched perfectly.

Shizuru was but six years old and eager to please. She gathered the yarn for her mother, holding it out to the older woman hoping for her praise.

For a moment, her mother stayed very still, staring pensively at the tiny hand that held the ball of yarn. And in that one moment, the young Shizuru had a nearly uncontrollable desire to run into her mother's arms and scream, See me, see me, see me! But she didn't because she knew it would displease the older woman and she was a good girl.

She was a good girl.

"Enough!" Shizuru uncharacteristically shouted as the palms of her hands came down hard on the desk that Mashiro sat behind. Red orbs blazed down at the Queen since Shizuru had risen to stand at her outburst. As quickly as it appeared, her anger lurched back behind her carefully constructed mask of indifference. "That is quite enough," she said in her normal tone, as if her earlier explosion had never existed.

The Queen seemed unfazed as she continued to stare at the young woman before her. "Forgive me, Fujino-san. I did not mean to seem crude. I stated all of those things for a reason." The handicapped girl motioned for Shizuru to take a seat once again. "I need you to understand Fujino-san. Understand that you are needed here in Hime." Shizuru slowly seated herself as Mashiro continued, her voice taking on a pleading tone. "You can create a life here. Better than the one you came from. You can be happy here Fujino-san, if you would just agree to stay."

"I will need to think this over," Shizuru replied after a brief silence.

"Of course."

Hi again! So, last chapter I had a few people a little confused about what had happened at the end so I decided to explain that bit in case there were others that didn't get that part. I was trying to be vague but I must have went a little overboard. So, anyways, when Shizuru touched the mysterious star that had been carved into the rockwall, she opened up a portal to an alternate universe. So, she pretty much disappeared along with the lights and music and was transported off the face of the earth. Pretty sci-fi if I do say so myself.

Um, also, is anyone interested in being my Beta? I'm prone to making grammar mistakes even at my best moments. My english teacher back in sixth grade about beat me with her yard stick cuz I be talkin' like dis in 'er classroomz all duh time. Wat up?

...yeah.

So this is the second chapter. I hoped everyone enjoyed a little taste of my make believe world Hime. It's gonna be one hell of a ride considering I'm the author. Haha! Well, peace out everyone.

Oh, and, GO GREEN BITCHES! (Sorry, inside joke.) :/