Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Between Worlds ❯ Chapter 2: The Pendant Reappeared ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 2

The Pendant Reappeared

Samuri was slowly regaining the ability to see. She blinked a couple times and a blurry figure bending over her obscured the light of the full moon. She blinked a few more times, so that she could finally see the figure. It was Balin.

"Balin? Nice to see you again. I think."

"Yes. A pleasure to see you again, as well. I think you're a bit confused. I had better deliver you to the palace. Can you walk on your own or do you need assistance?"

"Yeah, I think I can walk by myself." Samuri made an attempt to stand, but instantly became unbalanced and fell back down. "Or not."

Balin sighed and helped Samuri to stand, muttering about pride while Samuri tried unsuccessfully to reply. They began walking back to the castle, Balin supporting Samuri. She seemed to be extremely disoriented. When they finally reached the palace, Samuri had lost all consciousness and a guard had to assist Balin bring Samuri to a guestroom in the West Wing. Balin then sent the guard to retrieve a healer and to inform his mother and father that they had a guest. When the guard had left, Balin sat down in a chair beside to the bed Samuri lay sleeping and fell asleep himself, watching the peaceful rest of the mysterious Mystic Moonling.

~*~*~

Light seeped through the slits at the bottom of her eyelids.

Samuri blinked.

More light and she blinked again.

In the corner of her consciousness she could hear birds singing and fledglings chirping. She blinked a couple more times and regained eyesight. Confused, she took in her surroundings.

She was sitting on a large four poster bed with the works. A soft white, down blanket engulfed her and a heavy, gold embroidered, red cloth hung from the dark wood posts. The room was large, but not enormous. There was one wide window to her right with the same type of cloth hung on the bed adorning the sides of the window. A small Persian rug lay at the side of the bed and a plain tapestry of birds was covering the wall she faced. Furniture was sparse, but the cherry wood bureau that stood next to the bed was of premium quality.

A cool breeze blowing through the window fluttered the curtains and she could hear the faint sound of birdsong. Everything confused her more so. She couldn't locate her place, which was even more bewildering. Samuri was the only person in her entire family that could navigate on trips. Her father often called her the 'compass', because of it. Once she had discovered that the sun always rose from the east when she was five, she had never had trouble finding her way around anywhere. It was strange that all of a sudden she was befuddled. More than strange, it was scary.

Where am I? What happened? I remember that guy, Balin… and Mom giving me that weird pendant… and someone named Hitomi…

Samuri was slowly beginning to remember what had happened and where she was, when a knock on her door disturbed her thoughts. She jumped up in surprise and cleared her throat in order to recover composure. "Come in," she called. The door creaked opened and Balin stepped in.

"A good morn to you. Samuri, I apologize for this disturbance. Mother instructed me to look in on you and see whether you were awake or not yet. When I left before, you still were unconscious." He smiled at Samuri, calmly, casually, as if nothing were wrong and shut the door silently behind him.

But to Samuri, the world had turned upside down and she started to panic. Which always, in Samuri's case, led to hysteria.

"Why are you acting as if nothing is wrong?! I'm supposedly not even on my planet anymore and this is perfectly normal?! No! It isn't normal! Stop! Just stop and leave me alone!" she said, venting her anger out on a very surprised and baffled Balin.

"Wha-what? What did I do?" asked the bemused Balin and the frustrated girl screamed, exasperated after this comment and buried herself beneath her blankets. Balin looked completely perplexed and quietly walked out, still bewildered. After Balin left Samuri peeked out and watched some birds in a tree by the open window, a miserable look left on her face.

As soon as Balin stepped out of the room he glanced around the hallway and seeing only a couple maids, immediately sprinted down the corridors to his parent's suite, hoping that either Hitomi or Van would be able to make some sense out of Samuri. He opened the door without knocking and walked in on one of his parent's special moments. They were embraced tightly in each other's arms and are just looking at each other. Balin had always been slightly awkward when placed in the middle of one of those situations and decided to just stay out of sight, at least until they were done with their special moment. Unfortunately, however, Hitomi turned her head at the sound of the door's clicking shut and spied Balin standing awkwardly in front of the door. She released Van immediately, to her husband's aversion and hurried over to her uncomfortable son.

"What's wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost? Is that girl all right?" said Hitomi, her brow furrowed slightly with concern.

"Oh, she appeared perfectly fine. At least while she was screaming her head off at me. I figured that you could help out." A pleading look appeared onto his face. "Please? I'm begging and desperate, I can't deal with distraught girls." Hitomi chuckled.

"Okay, okay."

"Thank you, Mother," breathed Balin, sighing with relief and relaxing slightly.

"You're welcome, Balin," said Hitomi, her amusement reflecting in her voice.

"So that mystery girl from the Phantom Moon still in the guest room at this late hour?" Van walked over to the pair fed up with being excluded from the conversation; his sienna colored eyes curious.

"Yes and she's not a mystery girl, Father," replied Balin patiently as Van wrapped an arm around Hitomi's shoulders.

"If you think as much. Would you like me to accompany you, Hitomi?" Hitomi automatically cuddled closer into her husband's embrace and shook her head.

"I doubt that it's necessary, Van. Right, Balin?"

"Most likely true."

"And we wouldn't want to detain you from your precious court duties. Kingly duties, I mean."

"Very funny, Hitomi. Then I'll see the both of you later. Please do find time to introduce me to that mystery-I mean-well, you know what I mean." Van exited the room with his wife and son then separated, turning left while the other two started in the opposite direction. Balin paused to acquire a better look of his father.

The sun, filtering through the glass-less windows of the hall, cast a tall shadow for the royal sovereign and illuminated an aura of gold around him. Balin glancing at the enhanced shadow of his father again thought that he looked more monarchical than ever.

"So, Balin, you haven't actually told me who this girl is. Do explain, my dear son." Hitomi begins to stroll down the hall, her heels clicking deliberately on the cool stone floor.

"What? Oh, sorry. Her name is Samuri. She never told me her surname. I wasn't able to obtain any other kind of information about her. Or at least any new information," said Balin, taking a mere stride to catch up to his mother.

"Hmm. Would you mind if I went to talk to her right now?"

"Not at all. That is exactly what I wanted you to do, in any way. She utterly refused to act reasonable with me. I concluded that it was one of those women mystification matters. One of those enigmas in life, at least to mankind. I have no idea about womankind," said Balin, unperturbed. Hitomi cuffed him lightly in the shoulder for the unflattering remark on womankind.

"Just for that I won't see her this morning, I'll wait for this afternoon. You'll have to suffer after all."

"No! Please? I apologize, okay? I'm sorry!" Hitomi laughed at the panic-stricken look on Balin's face.

"All right! All right! I was just joking, calm down. I'll go to see her, right away. Happy?" she asked, turning and walking into the guest corridor, leaving Balin to roll his eyes at his mother's idiosyncratic sense of humor. He walked away, heading toward the council room where matters actually made sense.

"Don't worry, Balin. I've been married to her for over sixteen years and I still haven't figured out what goes on in her head," was the reply the king gave to his son, when queried about Hitomi's behavior.

~*~*~

At that moment, Samuri was leaning out the window looking at various, native birds in a tree, by her window. A slender hand tapped her on the shoulder, catching her by surprise. She jerked away instinctively and teetered on the windowsill, completely off balance. The owner of the hand quickly snatched her arm and yanked her back up to the window, just before disaster hit.

Once Samuri regained balance she turned to see who had interrupted her bird watching, yet saving her from an accident. A middle-aged woman with long, sandy blonde hair and beautiful green-blue eyes stared back at her. The stately woman smiled warmly and waited for Samuri to evaluate her. Samuri quickly looked the woman up and down.

She wore the strangest clothes. Quite formal compared to Samuri's school uniform. A blue gown of complementation with the woman's fair hair and pale eyes, with a fairly long train, no frills or bows, and slightly medieval flair. Bunched sleeves and a bodice that hugged the woman's slender figure up to her waist and then the material smoothly flared off, gathering graciously at the woman's feet. And though the woman could only be described as very pretty, her manner and the way she held herself made her more beautiful than even Samuri's mother, whose fragile beauty Samuri's older sister had inherited.

Samuri's older sister, Hikari, was and always had been the belle of the family. On the list of Samuri's wondrous sister's accomplishments were Senior Prom Queen, homecoming queen, yearbook editor, track-team star, and so on. But Hikari had earned a scholarship to NYU in her art accomplishments and love for art, nothing else.

In her mind's eye, Samuri could remember many times when she had been younger and had stumbled into Hikari's private art studio, a converted outside garage, during the past hot summers of long ago. She could remember the soft sunlight, fairly glowing around her sister's beautiful vibrant, lush auburn hair and the almost translucent texture of the pale skin on her face. The sharply pointed chin, a feature softened in Samuri, tilted at an angle in a pensive place. Faithful, long-handled paintbrush tucked behind her left ear and paint smudging her otherwise flawless cheek. Hikari could have easily had a track scholarship to any college in the country, but she had chosen art over her talent of scorching the track. To have that type of passion for something was frightening…

Samuri mentally shook herself and brought herself up to date. This woman was standing calmly in front of her. Completely calm. And not talking at all. Samuri, uncomfortable, decided to initiate a conversation.

"Uh, thanks for pulling me back."

"And sorry for scaring you. What were you looking at?"

"The birds, I guess."

Who is this woman? What does she want with me? She looks familiar, like I've seen her somewhere before. I wish I could ask her, but that would be rude.

"Yes, they are very nice here. Very different from Earth, eh?"

"Yes, they're really pretty-" It took a moment for how the woman had phrased her question to sink in. "But, wait, how did you know I came from Earth?" Samuri asked, baffled. Balin had called Earth the 'Mystic Moon', so how did this woman know that Samuri called it 'Earth'?

"Let's just say I've got a first hand experience."

"Okay, I guess I can take that answer. At least for now. I'm assuming that I'm not on Earth anymore. So… exactly where am I?"

"Well, you're in the kingdom of Fanelia located on the planet of Gaea. Fanelia is currently under the rule of her king, Van Slanzar de' Fanel."

"Oh, okay. How, exactly, did I get here, then?" she asked hesitantly.

"I have no real idea how you got here. And you're not saying what's really on your mind. You want to know who I am and why I'm here," she said, staring into Samuri's eyes. As if Samuri's eyes showed her everything she needed to know without uttering a word. As if Samuri's secrets unfolded in her eyes to this woman.

"Well, yes. But it would have been rude to ask what I'm thinking. Well, I guess I can say this one thing that I'm thinking. I'm looking for someone here. If you could tell me where she is that would help a lot. I think she can tell me what's going on," said Samuri frankly, keeping eye contact. The woman looked interested.

"What's this person's name? Maybe I can help you out. I know a lot of people here."

"It's Hitomi. Hitomi Kanzaki." The woman's eyes widened and her tone sharpened.

"Who told you that name?"

"Why? What's so important?" Samuri returned, suspicious.

The woman immediately relaxed her voice, as if on reflex from Samuri's suspicious attitude. "Oh, no reason, really. I just happen to… know her, very well."

At the key words of some type of relationship between the woman and her 'aunt', Samuri loosened up. "Oh, okay. I got it from my mom, if you really want to know. Can you tell me where I can find her? I have to go there right away. I really don't want to be anymore of a bother to you people anymore. I'll be able to find my way around, I'm sure. By the way, the name's Samuri." A genuine smile curved her lips.

"Nice to meet you, Samuri." The woman nodded cordially in reply, but avoided giving her name even though it was obvious that Samuri wanted to know it. "Yes, I can tell you where you can find her. Who's your mom? Not a lot of people know about this place." Samuri became suspicious again at her words.

"What's it to you? I don't even know who you are or what you're here for." The woman smiled. It was a nice smile and Samuri couldn't detect anything false or malicious in it.

"I was sent here by Balin. He was concerned about your health and decided that I would understand you best." Immediately, relief shone like a lighthouse light on Samuri's face.

"Oh, well then. If you're from Balin, then I guess you're all right."

The woman raised a slender eyebrow. "You seem to trust him a lot."

"I do, don't I? I can't help it I guess."

"Ah. That's natural. Everyone can't help trusting Balin." A fond look twinkled the woman's eyes. A bird's abrupt flight into the room, interrupted the woman from continuing on. In the bird's beak, it held a glittering, silver necklace. Shocked, Samuri saw that the necklace was the pendant that her mother was trying to give to her, before she had been taken up by that light.

The pendant caught the sunlight and in that moment time seemed to freeze. The stone on the necklace became illuminated, glowing a bright blue stream of light around it into the air. The aura of the pendant caught the eyes of Samuri and held them. She couldn't seem to take her eyes off of the glowing stone, even if she wanted to. It was almost hypnotizing, how the golden sunlight could transform a seemingly lifeless piece of rock into a vital, sparkling jewel of the air.

Both the anonymous woman and Samuri reached for it at the same time, brushing it with a finger simultaneously. Suddenly, everything was in total darkness, though the aura of the pendant was still there. Except it was brighter now, strengthened from the loss of everything else. Bright as the sun, shining through the darkness. Samuri could still feel it, her finger frozen in midair as she came into contact with the pendant. The soothing coolness that she felt emanating from it was still there. But everything else was gone, pitch black. And she was frozen where she was, her eyes locked on the glowing pendant.

In the back of her mind, she felt a gnawing sensation. Like something in her subconsciousness was struggling to break free. She suddenly knew that she had unconsciously fought it off all the time, for her whole life. Everyday, just before she woke up, just before her alarm clock shook her from her dreams, she battled that feeling. Samuri wasn't sure why she did. All she was sure of was that if she let go and let that something break free, all hell would break lose. She didn't know how she knew it, she just did.

Fortunately enough, she always won those battles, but at times when she least expected it, something unexplainable would happen.

Visions or daydreams or forgotten memories. She didn't know what to call them. She had had one just the day before, during biology when she had been bored and inattentive. But that was only the most recent. It had happened many times before. When she ran races, right before the finish line, she would see flashes of moments long ago. Like glimpses of Aztec cities, high in the mountains, at their prime. With gold gilding on the high stone buildings. And the blood sacrifices made for the Gods they believed in. Yet, sometimes she couldn't explain or identify those visions. They didn't make sense. But she knew that whatever she saw, it was caused by that sensation that she withheld.

Somehow she knew that visions were only the tip of the iceberg. If she let go and ceased fighting, she could do much more. But she didn't want to… They were dangerous things and she knew that if she touched fire she would indeed be burned. Samuri stayed away from the feeling and most times forgot about it.

Now, however… now that she was in the right place, she let go completely. She cut the cord of defiance to the last strand. And that feeling, that power, overwhelmed her. The blood rushed to her head and the sound that she heard in her ears was similar to the sound that the waves make when they crash upon cliffs during a spring storm. The impact that the sensation made against her when she finally released her defenses almost blinded her. The years of holding out against it snapped back at her, stronger. It made her head pound to the beating of her heart and she stopped breathing.

Everything went dark for awhile…

All she could hear was the beating of her heart and the sound of her own breath. Those too, seemed to be fading slowly. As if the darkness was choking her. Strangling the life out of her. And she couldn't fight it. She couldn't force herself to breathe. The evil force was everywhere, surrounding her, and she wasn't strong enough to defeat it. So, she gave up. Slowly, slowly she lost feeling in her limbs and she knew that she was going to die.

Suddenly, blue light blasted through the darkness, sweeping away it all away, leaving only the light. Samuri was now someplace that looked like the sky. In that moment the torment and suffering was over. It had seemed like an eternity, surviving it, yet she had. She could breathe freely again. She could look away. Blinking, she checked her surroundings. Now, there were feathers floating in the air, like in her most recent vision.

Samuri gasped in surprise and heard someone close by gasp too. She turned to see the woman next to her. They both seemed to be floating along with the feathers, moving freely though, while the feathers drifted around them in the air. For a brief moment, woman's eyes met Samuri's. They were as beautiful as ever, the color of leaves on water, but bemused. And then, they both jerked abruptly from a halt and started falling into an ominous, looming emptiness below.

Falling fast.

Samuri's eyes widened as she felt a sudden burst of unexpected pain in between her shoulder blades. A small shriek of surprise fell from her lips and her shoulders writhed in pain for a moment. Then, she ceased falling, like a bird learning to fly for its first time. The dark silhouette of a dragon appeared, blocking all light from the sky again. The whisper of the wind echoed in her ear, but she couldn't make out anything that the wind said.

Samuri felt someone shaking her and she opened her eyes. Balin's shadow had been the one who had blocked the light of her dream. But now she was back in the room, Balin shading her from the bright sunlight of her window, and shaking her awake, his reddish eyes full of worry.

"Are you all right, Samuri?" Samuri blinked again and nodded. She glanced toward the woman, who was lying on the floor next to the bed and she sat up abruptly. A dashingly handsome older man knelt beside the woman and shook her awake. The man looked strangely familiar. His nose and the texture and coloring of his hair were familiar.

"Who's that?" Balin followed the direction of Samuri's gaze.

"Oh, that's my father." He called to the man, "Is she all right, Father? Samuri seems to be fine." The man glanced up and Samuri saw Balin's ruby eyes on the man's face.

"She's fine, Balin. What the devil happened? Why were they knocked out?" Balin glanced at Samuri.

"I don't know. Why don't we ask them?"

"Hey, if you talk about me in front of me, at least direct the conversation to me," the woman muttered, seemingly fine enough to complain to the man.

"What's going on?" Samuri asked, desperately confused, "Do you all know each other?"

"It's all right, Samuri. This is my mother and father. Mother, Father this is Samuri."

"Hello." Balin's father smiled kindly.

"Hi, again." Balin's mother sat up and also smiled.

"Why didn't you tell me you were Balin's mother?" Samuri directed at the fair-haired woman and could see some faint resemblance between the mother and son.

"Because you didn't ask. I'm very sorry about that, though. Also before I forget, my name's Hitomi. Hitomi de' Fanel, formerly Hitomi Kanzaki." Samuri's eyes widened.

"And I am Van de' Fanel, her husband," added the handsome man, whom Samuri could now identify as Balin's father. Her eyes widened even more.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a prince?" blurted Samuri staring at Balin's parents so that she didn't notice Balin blushing profusely beside her.

"Well, you-you did not ask."

"So?"

"It was fairly unimportant, anyway." Samuri turned and glared at Balin. He immediately stopped blushing and glared back challengingly. Hitomi smoothly interrupted them, standing from her place on the floor to sit on the other side of Samuri on the bedspread.

"It wasn't his fault, Samuri. Don't worry about it. And you never told me who your mother was. I only told a few people about this place. And you definitely aren't one of them… Do you know a woman named Yukari Amano? Or a man named Susumu Amano. Or even any of my family, the Kanzaki's?" Hitomi's hesitance in these words was clear and Samuri lifted an eyebrow.

"My mother is Yukari Amano."

The words hung in the air, as if time were at a stand still and everyone's eyes widened in shock.

"She said that you were like a sister to her." She focused her gaze on Hitomi, who was looking away, pensive. "She also said you tried to steal my father away from her." Her face twisted into a light-hearted smirk. Startled, Hitomi looked up and grinned.

"Well, I didn't try too hard. If I had, you and Balin wouldn't be here. It's a good thing that I met this guy." She jabbed her forefinger into Van's shoulder and he smiled.

"Balin, I think that they're perfectly fine now. We should leave these chickens to cluck and gossip." Hitomi jabbed him in the ribs.

"We are not chickens."

"Of course not, mother hen." She jabbed him again in the ribs, harder this time, and this time he winced.

"Ouch! That stung!"

"That's the point."

Samuri sighed and rolled her eyes, leaning toward Balin to whisper a question. "Are they always like this?"

"Unfortunately. It's something they do to me all the time. I'm quite used to it by now," he whispered back, making a suffering face.

"Okay, just making sure." Then, Samuri and Balin sat back, waiting expectantly for the couple to cease their marital flirting. Samuri cleared her throat and Hitomi focused once again on the matter at hand.

"Oh, pardon me. I have a bad habit of trailing off the subject. Where were we again?"

"You were about to boot Father and me out," Balin answered for Samuri and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, yeah. Go on. I need to talk to Samuri. Alone." After heaving a resigned sigh, Van obediently stood and walked to the door, Balin at his heels. At the door, before exiting the room, Van turned to his wife again.

"If you need anything, just call. I don't want either of you to pass out again. It was a good thing we were just on our way, otherwise you two might have been hurt."

"We'll be fine, Van. Shoo." Hitomi made a shooing motion to Van and Balin. Van turned and left with Balin.

"Well, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

"About my mother?"

"Yes, about Yukari, but also about… well, did you have a strange vision just now?"

"What do you mean, 'strange vision'?"

"Right before Van and Balin woke us up. How did we become unconscious, by the way? It hasn't happened to me since… well, it hasn't happened to me for a long time."

"I don't know why we got knocked out. I thought that you would know. It's happened to you before?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately, it has. It usually occurs after I get a vision like that. It didn't start happening to me until I came here, back when I was about your age." Hitomi paused hesitantly before continuing.

"Actually I had a vision about Van and coming here before that. It came true and I had a whole bunch of them during the Great War. It turned out that I was wishing for them and it came true. I don't know why or how I have this ability. I just do. I was able to keep it at bay until now."

"Oh," she frowned for a moment, then went on, "I'm sorry, but what did you mean by the 'Great War'?" Samuri blushed at her ignorance. Hitomi slapped her forehead with her right hand.

"I forgot! I haven't talked to an Earthling for such a long time; it just slipped my mind. The Great War was back when I just met Van. All the people here know about it." She smiled apologetically.

"See, there used to be a country called Zaibach. This country was ruled by a very jealous king. He was powerful and decided to use that power to attack Fanelia. He totally annihilated it. This occurred just after Van's coronation. It was horrible. Van and I disappeared right before the Zaibach army burned Fanelia to the ground, so I didn't see everything that happened."

Samuri was apparently shocked, but intrigued. "What do you mean 'disappeared'? You met the King during a war? How'd you fall in love during a war?"

"Whoa. Slow down a little. I can only answer one question at a time." She smiled kindly, remembering her conversation with Balin and how he always asked too many questions at once with her. Balin was, for some reason, shy and awkward with court women, but not with her. Although, she was his mother, it was rather odd. Normally, if a boy got along with his mother he got along well with women.

It wasn't so with Balin.

Balin portrayed a shy, hesitant prince that was altogether too proper. He avoided women as much as he could. He only showed his true colors and personality with Hitomi and sometimes Van. Hitomi could see that through the façade of a bland scholar, who had no feeling for life, her son was truly a brave young man with a passion for adventure like all the other men. Balin, she knew, suppressed a lot of feeling for life, thinking that a prince of Fanelia should be stuck in a classroom learning things all day.

And even though he felt this, she knew that he longed to be outside with all the other young folk. She'd seen him in his classroom. He'd sat at his desk, copying notes correctly and seemingly a perfect student, but she'd seen that his attention wasn't there. His focus was absent. He had been gazing out the window and she knew that he did not want to be there.

Hitomi gave way to an inward sigh. Her son was simply not happy where he was. She had to get him away somehow. True, she didn't want him to miss out on his studies, but he was not himself when following her guidance. She decided that she had to get him out on an adventure. It would help.

A pleasant and not entirely unfamiliar voice broke into her thoughts and Hitomi turned to the present.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just… well, I'm curious. I didn't mean to be rude," apologized Samuri, embarrassed only slightly, with an interested glint in her silver eyes.

"That's quite all right. Didn't Yukari explain this, when she told you?" Hitomi shook herself mentally, ordering herself to pay attention.

"Not really. She said that you'd met someone, whom I'm assuming is the King, and fell in love. Then, Mom said that you left and couldn't go back. At least for a little while, then you disappeared again and she never saw you after that. That's about it. Sometimes Mom has a lack of imagination."

A twinkle developed in her eyes as Hitomi realized how much Yukari's daughter was like her. "That's all right. I'll answer your questions first, then spill out the whole dreadful story."

"Go right on ahead. I love romantic fairy tales and I have a feeling this is a good one with a very happy ending." She settled back, ready for a long story.

"Well, that light that you saw, and I'm assuming that you saw the beam of light that brought my son to Earth for a short period of time, that light brought me to Gaea when I was running on the track. I was racing for a kiss from your father, I think, and Van appeared. I'd seen a vision of him before that, during a track meet, and recognized him. I saved him from the dragon that he'd been fighting by warning him of an unexpected attack. Then, somehow I got stuck in that light and came back with him.

I met Van just before the Great War began. I don't exactly know when I fell in love with him. At the time I didn't even know I was in love with him. I thought I was in love with someone else."

"Really, Aunt Hitomi? Who was that? Was he handsome and dashing? A real knight in shining armor?" she asked eagerly, obviously dying for a good romance.

"Dashing and handsome, Allen? At the time I thought he was. And he was certainly a knight, but not my knight. Van has been and always will be my knight in shining armor." She stared out the window at two lovebirds nestled in the nearby tree. Her eyes sparkled tenderly and Samuri watched her, wondering.

"You really do love him, don't you? I can tell," she said, in all seriousness. The question was more of a statement and Hitomi stared at her. The girl had to be credited for a lot. She was really very perceptive and in such a familiar way…

Almost like me. That's what it is. She's so much like me. But she's got a lot of Yukari there too. I can see it. She doesn't look particularly like anyone in Yukari's family. Or anyone in Amano's family. That's odd, but she looks so familiar. Who could mistake those eyes? She's different too. There's definitely something different about her. I can't quite place it though.

"I do, Samuri. I love him a lot. I suppose you'll meet the knight that tried to steal my heart. He'll be coming to Fanelia soon, so I needn't explain. Anyway, this is how the story goes…"

The queen explained about the burning of a nearby country called Asturia by the country called Zaibach. About the horrible war that Zaibach caused. About the king's brother and his death. She even explained about how she saved Van and how he saved her time after time (although Hitomi mindfully left out the time Van had saved her using his wings). There was one detail that fascinated Samuri beyond belief. The guymelef, a sort of battle suit, called Escaflowne. Hitomi confided that no one beyond a chosen few actually knew that Escaflowne really did exist. Mostly everyone believed that the ancient guymelef was just a myth or legend. She even explained about how she and Van were related to the myth of Atlantis (again omitting the fact that Van had wings).

Hitomi felt an obligation to her best friend's daughter to tell her everything. Everything except Van and Balin's wings, of course. She had told Yukari, but that was different. Yukari would never have told, not that she could. She didn't know whether Samuri was trustworthy for that secret, though she had a feeling that Samuri wouldn't tell either. She had promised Van the day that Balin was born that she would never reveal to anyone that particular secret to anyone. Even to an Earthling. Hitomi felt the slightest guilty, but brushed it aside and continued the story of her past.

Standard Disclaimer: don't own any of the original cast or storyline, but the new ones r moi's, so don't even think about it *evil glare*

* Author's Notes *

hey all!

This one's a doozie, huh? Explains a ton and I finally get into the plot! Well, hope y'all enjoyed it! And if u have any questions pls feel free to email me or review this and ask. Warning that the next one's pretty big too, so watch out! That's all for now.

-w.r