Of Course questions and comments are welcome.  Flames will be used for
target practice with my blowgun and Drain-o tipped darts. ;)

Dragon Dagger

On with the story.

It was a call that she couldn't deny. She could feel him calling for her and
she needed to find out why.

There was such agony in the call, the otherworldly silence held her for a
moment like a dream and then released her as she waited for the train to
take her to school.

It had been just over one year since she had last seen Van, King of Fanelia.
And now in that one year's time she felt her bond with him growing stronger
instead of weaker like it should have.

The pain she felt and the sorrow finally gave her the courage by the end of
the day to pull out the one thing she had not touched since she got back
from Gaea. Her tarot deck. With it she conjured futures and changed
destinies. But it was in the mystic valley that she found out that it was
the power of her heart that changed these things. She vowed never to do
anything with them again to prevent herself from calling forward any more
troubling futures and had held firm to that promise.

She had also taken up a study of self and mind in meditation in that
intervening year to help herself to understand why she always ran to the
troubled fates when there were much better fates to be for all in question.
In that time she learned to blank her mind and her self so that she would at
least be calmer in crises.

It worked. And now she hoped that it would work for this reading as she
asked the cards to find out what was going on with Van that would make him
call to her at such a time in their lives.

==

The nightmares were back. Van swung the sword of Escaflowne to protect
Hitomi and all he held dear to him but he was not able to. All he had seen
and loved was destroyed and he was helpless to stop the destruction. The
terrors drove him to awaken himself with a cry as he watched Hitomi. The
girl from the mystic moon who had captured his and his peoples hearts die
from the blow he was unable to deflect.

Gaddes raced into the room eyes wide and sword drawn for trouble as he
watched his king awaken from another nightmare. This was the worst one yet.
The king had never really been a heavy or easy sleeper but the last few
weeks had been ridiculous in the number of times he was brought to the
king's rooms by a shout only to find Van awakening from a nightmare that
terrified him into wakefulness.

"Hitomi?"

Gaddes didn't really need to ask. It was always the same even though the
dream may change. The dream where Van was unable to save the slim girl that
had fascinated the crew of the airship, The Crusade, he had served with so
long under the command of Allen.

The voice in the darkness. Familiar as it was helped Van to his senses as he
nodded. "Again. This was more vivid than the others. I can only wonder if I
will ever see her again."

"Tell me about it?" Gaddes offered to listen every time but Van had always
refused the kindly meant offer. However he was surprised when the King had
gestured to a chair for Gaddes to sit.

"I have only seen parts of the mystic moon, but the air and the very way the
place felt it could be no other place. I watched helplessly as Hitomi was
hit by some mechanical thing and died. I was too late to save her from her
own fate."

The words were few but the tones that wove through them painted the picture
a myriad of colors. It was then Gaddes made the suggestion.

"Why not go and see her then? Her thoughts still reach you and yours reach
her. See her and if you must. Warn her." Gaddes was serious this time. If it
gave them all a night of peace Gaddes would enforce the suggestion if he had
to.

Van shook his head while turning the idea over in his head. It wasn't a bad
idea. They had found each other before and Van desperately needed to see her
again. This time he had a plan and only hoped that Hitomi would be alive to
answer to it.

==

Hitomi sat at her desk with her cards out. Thinking about what she was about
to do carefully she flipped the first card over. As the image registered in
her mind she knew with out a doubt that it was Van calling to her. As more
cards fell more images pieced themselves together. Nightmares and restless
nights, fear and sadness.

As she put all of this together she knew that she would soon have to see
Van. Before she had left Fanelia she was the only one that had been able to
banish his nightmares after the war.

The people he had killed and the friends he had lost haunted his nights like
nothing else had ever been able to with the young man's strength and faith
in himself and his friends. He had made peace with his brother after the war
in the manner of which he was buried, as a member of the house of Fanel.

But the nightmares were back and in a different form. They were calling to
her and he was calling to her in his moment of greatest terror.

==

Van was due to be married to a young princess from one of the eastern lands
in the hopes that the marriage would bring the countries together. However
everyone knew where the young king's heart really was including the king
that had arranged the marriage. His fianc�e was now housed in the Fanelian
castle and treated as her station dictated, but nothing ever happened
between the beautiful girl and Van. She lacked the sparked that had caught
Van's eye in Hitomi and now Van was going to do something about it.

Taking the energist that had powered Escaflowne once and then sent Hitomi
home. There was the price of Hitomi coming to Gaea again. Including the
upset of the marriage that had been so carefully planned for so long. But
Gaddes knew that if it didn't happen now then Van would never be able to do
it in the future and Hitomi would be lost to them all forever.

Racing out to the glade where his family had been buried he bowed to
Escaflowne and smiled. "I am not going to use you Escaflowne to get her
back. I already know that I can do it on my own, but I want you to be the
one to see me go."

He focused on the gem-like Dragon heart and a column of light picked him up
and took him away.

==

Hitomi was at the train station again this morning wondering what had
happened. It had been a week since the call had reached her in the moment of
Van's terror and 5 days since Hitomi knew that she would see Van again.
Wondering where he would be if she had not heard from him since she boarded
the train.

Sitting down she received an odd sensation and looked at the seat next to
her. Sure enough there was a feather there. Snowy white and looking as if it
belonged to an angel. She smiled as it disappeared knowing that it belonged
to her angel. Van was coming and she was going to be ready. Ready as she had
been for the last week with a different set of clothes in her bag as she
went to and from school expecting him.

"HITOMI!"

The voice called to her. It was Van's and he was running through the school
calling her name looking for her. He had been on the mystic moon for almost
a week now and in looking for her he was finally able to track her down to
this place. A school they called it.

Brushing aside the administrators and the teachers he continued to call for
her as he ran through the halls getting desperate that he was not to late to
find her here. "HITOMI!!!"

Hitomi's head snapped up as she heard the voice. This time it was closer and
inside the building. Standing up she disrupted the class and ran to the door
with her bag. "VAN!"

Van homed in on Hitomi's voice like a target and raced to her. He slid to a
stop as the door right before him slid open with her smiling face on the
other side. She had missed him desperately and knew that he missed her as
well. As they hugged close the administrators caught up with Van and
glowered at the pair.

Hitomi blushed and Van glowered back almost ready to defend himself when She
stepped forward and spoke. "Gomen Nasai Mikasa-Sensei. My friend Van here is
new to the country and has been looking for me for a while. Please forgive
his mannerisms and excuse me for the day to get him settled??"

The administrator she had spoken to looked from Hitomi, to Van, to the sword
at Van's hip. The way he was standing he looked like he used that sword
often and well enough to be trouble. She nodded slightly giving her
permission and stopped her with a look. "Just remember Kanzaki-san. You are
to be back in school as soon as it is humanly possible."

"Hai" She agreed and then taking Van by the arm she dragged him out of the
building. Once they were at the track she came to a dead halt and then
glared at Van before relenting. "Van..." She smiled softly as she hugged him
close savoring the feel of him and his arms as they found their way around
her.

"Hitomi. Come back with me to Gaea?" Van released her and held her at arms
length to look into her eyes.

Her shock was evident as she looked back at him. "What? Why?"

"I need you Hitomi. I need you in my life more than these visits or our
thoughts." Van Struggled to get the words out to show her that he cared.

Nodding she agreed with his sentiments. "I need you too. But I have a life
here to at least to live..." She trailed off as her feelings got in the way.
She loved Van, there was no two ways about it and he had just asked her to
go back to Fanelia with him. She had dreamed of this a million times and
every time said yes, so what was holding her back this time.

"I am not the only one that needs you Hitomi. Please, come back for a
while." He reached out and gently caressed her cheek with his gloved hand.

Just the feeling of that caress was too much. She knew that he needed her
and that in his own way he was still trying to protect her. But that caress,
so warm and loving, more than anything she wanted that touch to continue and
it made her walls crumble. "I will come, for a while, but Let's go someplace
where our return will be a little less conspicuous."

Van nodded and let her lead the way keeping his contact with her as much as
possible. In their year apart he had much time to examine his feelings for
her and to see if they would diminish. They didn't and he realized in that
time that he would eventually have to be more demonstrative in his
affections for the sandy haired girl.

Hitomi had sensed that he had changed, but had never expected something like
this. Looking out she started to cross one of the main intersections that
would take them to a park where they would be able to return to Gaea with a
minimal fuss.

A car swerved out of nowhere and hit Hitomi dead on throwing her several
feet. As the vehicle stopped Van looked on in horror as his last nightmare
came true. Looking about he noticed that the driver was in a state of shock.
He made a decision and checking Hitomi over as best he could he found that
she was unconscious but her extremities responded to stimulus. Relieved at
this he picked her up gently and gently kissing her forehead he spread his
wings and took her aloft towards Gaea and help.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Warrior,
Had I not known you were already dead,
I would have mourned the loss of your life.

-Sodanta
16th Century
Japanese Poet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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