Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ The Royals of Atlantis ❯ Dreams and Premonitions ( Chapter 2 )

Van thrashed around in his sleep, his normally peaceful slumber haunted by a vision. His brow was furrowed and a thin sheen of perspiration covered his exposed body. Before him he could see a familiar young woman. Her long sandy hair framed a tanned face, her lips were of the deepest crimson and her eyes were as deeply dark as a midnight sky. Upon her tall, sleek form hung an emerald dress; the bodice crafted from the finest velvet and the skirt was of the softest vermilion calamanco. Van stared fondly at her, past memories flooding his mind with happy thoughts and peace in body and mind long forgotten to him. In her arms he noticed a child, his blond locks falling over his face and she stared lovingly down at it as any mother would her own child. She held him close and Van could hear her tell the young babe a tale of dragons, knights of the realm, magnanimous princesses and of a lonely young King of a destroyed country. She spoke solemnly of the hatred towards an ancient race and of a man's wish to change destiny; one which caused so much harm and suffering. As she told this tale warm trails of tears flowed down her cheeks, the crystalline droplets sliding down her cheeks to hit against the swaddling cloth wrapped securely around the child. The boy simply smiled and cooed as his mother spoke and fiddled with the lacing of her collar, an action that caused her to smile softly, releasing more tears. Slowly Van moved closer to the pair to get a better look the child.

'Who is your father little one?' he asked but neither mother or child reacted in the slightest way. As he watched, he saw her once peaceful features change drastically as a pair of arms wrapped around her.

"Why do you insist on telling our son 'that' story, my Lady?" the man asked as he pulled her to him and as he ran his hands across her body, placing tender kisses on the side of her neck. The woman turned to him and stared into his prussian blue eyes. Despite his obvious show of affection she made no attempt to reciprocate the feelings.

"Please," she whispered, as she felt his fingers suggestively teasing the tie at the back of her gown. "I gave you what you wanted, now let me be!"

"I only take what is mine," he replied firmly " It is a wife's duty to obey her husbands wishes and fulfil his needs."

"I made a mistake." She whispered solemnly, "I didn't have a choice. I could still go back to…"

"To him? I'm afraid that there's little chance of that!" he scoffed, the sides of his lips turning into a smug smile. From his pocket he produced a piece of cloth and proceeded to unfold it. "Anyway, what makes you think that I would ever let you go?" She stiffened, her frame becoming ridged and she glared at him bitterly.

"I made my bed and I'll lie in it, how ever uncomfortable it is." She seethed sullenly as she watched him open the fabric he held.

"I told you when we first me that there was something which had to be returned to you." He spoke as he turned her around so her back was facing him.

Van watched in shock as he revealed the young Kings very own pendant and hung it around her neck. He looked on as she choked on a sob and hung her head low. Her hand held the pendant and she pressed it to her lips.

"You can never return to the life you once knew my dear. There is no going back." He turned her back to look him in the eyes; ones filled with such deep affection for her, yet to the woman this seemed to matter little. "You knew that the day you came to me by your own volition."

"As if I ever had a choice to stay with him!" she spat as tears welled up in her eyes and she turned her attention back to the child in her arms.

"It makes no difference. The end justifies the means." He said nothing for a short timer, simply watching her thoughtfully before continuing. "I always believed that this would be a pleasurable arrangement. You may not have enjoyed the past year but I certainly did. And in truth I believe that it was far from un-pleasurable for you, however much you deny it. I believe it was just that you wished that it had been another man, that's all. That is very unfortunate." He watched as she bent over and laid the child into its crib and walked towards her. "At least be pleased that we have continued our family line. Our country will live on and prosper when we are no longer here."

"It was never meant to be this way!" she whispered to the boy, engorging her husband's words. "You could have been born to a family who loved each other. You could have been his son, not…" she turned back to him defiantly. "I never believed in the prophecy…"

"Any yet you came to me!" he added before she had a chance to finish, his voice still so calm yet calculating.

"I didn't have a choice!" she cried out. "You would have had him…."

"I would have had him killed?" he chuckled a simple smirk tugging at his lips. "You are correct, but in truth the day you left his side you killed him anyway. In fact you did a far better job of it than I, nor my assassins, ever could. Can you not recall the look on his face that day? Distraught, lost, angry and most of all heart broken; they were all clear in his eyes. It truly must have killed him knowing that it would be me who you went to of your own volition, who would lie with from that day. That it would be me who would sire your children."

"Do you think that I never saw that look?" she shouted. "I died that day knowing what I was sacrificing, knowing what I was doing to him. I'd kill myself now if it wasn't for my child." Van watched as the two quarrelled on. He was in turmoil. He could not tell if the scene was a mere dream or a warning.

With a start Van sat up in bed. He gasped for air and his dilated eyes searched helplessly around the room.

"Hitomi." He whispered as he grasped the pendant, which hung around his neck. He raised it to his lips and repeated the action he had only just witnessed Hitomi do in his dream. The pendant seemed to radiate an immense heat from it and he pulled away from it in shock.

'Van.' His name was a whisper on the wind but he heard it. It was her; she was calling him. Pushing all thoughts aside he closed his eyes and concentrated. As he did his wings burst forth from his back and the room was immediately engulfed in a mass of feathers. All thoughts were on the person whom he longed to be with the most as he wished to be with her.

"Hitomi."