Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Hitomi's New Life ❯ Chapter 4

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

AN - YAY!!! I finally got the fourth chapter up! I'm REALLY sorry for not updating sooner! I hope you can forgive me! It won't happen again, I promise. Well, here's the chapter you've all been waiting a long time for, I hope you all review!

Disclaimer - I do not own Escaflowne or any of the original characters, but I do own the ones that I made up. So, no body better steel them! ^_^

Chapter 4

After a long night of tossing, turning, and nightmares, Hitomi awoke with the rising of the sun. The sun's rays shining through her balcony window only to land on her face with a beautiful warmth. But something was tugging at Hitomi's mind when she awoke. Some thing that seemed out of place.

'Something's not right.' Hitomi thought as she sat up. When she was in a sitting position she noticed what was wrong . . . she was five feet in the air above her bed. 'Oh no! This is not good. How am I supposed to get d . . .' In the middle of her thought, Hitomi fell. "EEP!"

Letting out a short scream (but not so loud as to wake anyone up) she landed on her bed, but bounced off and fell to the ground with a soft thud. Groaning as she got up and rubbing her now sore rear end, Hitomi walked to the door cursing to herself under her breath. 'Folken's first Kalafae lesson better be how to land!' Hitomi grumpily thought as she unlocked and opened the door to find that Salle kept her word by leaving her a large selection of clothes.

Smiling, Hitomi picked up her clothing and kicked the door shut, making sure to lock it again so as no one she didn't want entering would come in. She placed the stack of clothes on her bed and began going threw it. Knowing that this was the only clothing she had besides the clothes she was wearing now, she made sure to appreciate every article.

Salle had made her four pairs of pants (three tight, one loose), three pairs of shorts, three skirts that go down to her knees and one that goes down to her ankles. All of either black or dark gray. As for her tops she had two big loose sweaters (one black, one a navy blue color), five loose t-shirts (one red, two dark green, two black), three tank tops (one black, two dark green) and four sleeveless tummy-tops (two black, two dark green). (AN- if you don't know, a tummy-top is a shirt that is high enough for your stomach to show) She also got socks and undergarments (no details necessary, lol)

Hitomi was quite pleased with the selection she got. She kept out a pair of loose pants and a dark green tummy-top, and put everything else in her dressers, which were almost full after everything was put away. She decided to hang up her two big sweaters in her closet.

When Hitomi put on the clothes that she kept out, she found that everything fit her perfectly. 'I'll have to remember to thank Salle for the new clothes.' Hitomi thought as she looked herself over in the mirror. 'Now to start my workout.' She walked around her big room moving what little furniture she had off to the side, giving herself even more room to move around. Standing in the middle of her room, Hitomi started stretching her tense muscles. 'If I want to survive the life of Zaiboch, I'm deffinitely going to have to keep in shape. I also have to learn to protect myself better for futrue incidences.' Hitomi finished her stretches and started going through the basic kicks and punches of thai-kwon- dow.

'If I can learn how to protect myself through tai-kwon-dow and my Kalafae abilities, no one will be able to stand up against me!' Thinking about getting stronger made Hitomi smile to herself. Getting more in to her workout, she imagined invisible enemies surrounding her. Hitomi fought with these enemies for two hours before being interrupted by a loud knock at her door. Coming back to reality, she realized how exhausted she was. 'That was some workout! I think I should be fine to fend for myself' Hitomi smiled to herself as she walked over to open the door. But her smile immediately vanished when she saw who was on the other side.

Dilandau was a bit shocked ar what he saw. There was Hitomi, sweating and trying to catch her breath. 'It looks like she just finished an intense training session with my Dragonslayers.' Dilandau thought as he looked at breathless woman in front of him. He looked into her deep green eyes, searching for some kind of answer so to why she looked the way she did. But found nothing, nor did she look away from his stare like the last time. This time she glared right back with a hint of a new fire in her eyes.

Hitomi was getting annoyed with Dilandau just standing there staring at her, so she spoke up. "What would you like lord Dilandau?"

"Lord Folken told me to inform you to come down for breakfast." He paused, "How long have you been awake?" He asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I've been up since dawn." Hitomi said with a smirk on her face. Although she was quite annoyed that he was trying to know more about her. For a moment Dilandau just stared some more. When he finally comprehended what she had just said he looked furious.

"What!? Why? I'm not even up that early!" Dilandau was practically yelling at her by now, but Hitomi stood her ground.

"Why I'm up that early and why I look the way I do is none of your concern. Thank you Lord Dilandau, for informing me of breakfast. I'll be down when I'm finished washing up." With that, Hitomi closed the door on Dilandau and locked it before he had time to react.

Dilandau stood there, dumbfounded for a moment before walking away, mumbling to himself about Hitomi being a disrespectful bitch.

"How dare she show such disrespect to me. I really should kill that stupid wench." Like a child that didn't get his way Dilandau stomped down the hall. Occupants rushing out of the way as though he was the plague.

Back in hern room, Hitomi washed her face and combed her hair. She saw no reason in changing clothes since she will be training with Folken later that day anyways. As she left her room and walked down the stairs, she was relieved when she didn't see Dilandau anywhere.

'I'll probably be getting a lecture from Dilandau when I get to the dining hall. That's okay though.' Smiling again to herself, Hitomi continued walking down the hall.

"Hitomi! Miss Hitomi!" Two voices called behind her.

Turning around, Hitomi saw the two other Dragon Slayers from dinner the night before.

"Trevor and Galli, right?" Hitomi asked, trying to remember all the names from last night.

"That's right. We never really got to welcome you to Zaiboch at dinner last night." Trevor said.

"Ya. May we escort you to the dining hall?" Galli asked in a really polite voice.

"Umm, sure." Hitomi replied.

The three of them continued walking to the dining hall. Hitomi walked in the middle of the two boys, which made her feel really uncomfortable.

"Galli and I told the other Slayers that we met you. Now all of them want to meet you. Do you want to come and meet them later today, Hitomi?" Trevor asked, looking at Hitomi.

'Well, I can't avoid them forever. I have to meet them sooner or later and these two are nice enough. Maybe Chesta will come with me so that I don't feel completely left out.' Hitomi thought before answering. "Sure, I'll come down later on and meet everyone."

"Great!" Both boys said at the same time, smiling.

When the three of them entered the dining hall, Hitomi saw that everyone was already there. And Dilandau didn't look very happy. In fact looked extremely pissed.

"It's about time you showed up." Dilandau said in an annoyed voice. As Hitomi took her seat next to Folken she gave Dilandau a dirty look. He gave a devilish smirk and directed his attention to Folken. "Lord Folken, I think she's up to something."

"What do you mean Dilandau?" Folken asked and he looked from Dilandau to Hitomi.

"I mean, I think she's trying out sneak out or something during the night."

"I did not!" Hitomi yelled, her anger and power, rising due to Dilandau's remark. "Lord Folken I did not try to do anything of the sort! You have to believe me."

"Hitomi, calm yourself." Folken said. Hitomi noticed his cape lightly flowing behind him from the breeze she was creating and took a deep breath to calm down. Luckily no one else noticed the gentle wind that was in the room for that brief moment.

"Then why were you out of breath and sweating? And why did you say you were up since dawn?" Dilandau asked, his smirk now turning into a grin.

Hitomi fell silent when everyone looked in her direction. 'I wanted this to be my secret. No one should have to know what I do in my spare time.' She thought.

"Hitomi?" Folken asked.

Hitomi sighed, "If you absolutely must know, I was training myself. It's a form of fighting in me world called Tai-kwon-do."

"I'm sure." Dilandau said in a sarcastic tone of voice, his grin vanishing and becoming disappointed that he couldn't get Hitomi in trouble.

"That's very interesting, Hitomi." Folken said. "Well, now that we know Hitomi isn't sneaking out *glances at Dilandau*, let's eat." The servants then came in baring food. Everyone went in to the same routine as the nigh before.

When Hitomi's plate was brought to her she didn't know what to do. 'I've never even seen most of this food before!' She thought as she poked at a jiggly brown blob, that no matter how much she poked at it, it did not seem to puncture. 'Gross.'

Chesta saw what Hitomi was doing and decided to say something before Dilandau noticed. "Hitomi?" She looked up at him. "Do you even know what that is?" He whispered as he slightly chuckled to himself. Hitomi just shook her head. Chesta leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, "Roasted dragon eye. It's actually quite good."

He then picked up his own with his bare hands and bit into it. A bit of the insides on the side on his mouth. At the sight Hitomi's skin turned three shades of green before she covered her mouth with her hand and ran out of the dinning hall.

Dilandau, who had witnessed the whole thing, bursted out laughing. Chesta started laughing as well, turning everyone's attention towards them.

"May I ask what is so funny?" Folken looked towards the entrance to the dinning hall. "And what happened to Hitomi?"

"The wench couldn't even handle a little dragon meat!" Dilandau managed to say before he almost fell out of his chair with another fit of laugher.

Folken just smiled. 'She'll be back.' He thought before he continued eating.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hitomi had just made it to one of the public toilets before every thing she ate from the day before came back up.

'How the hell can anyone eat dragon eyeballs?! That is just way too gross!' Hitomi left the washroom and started walking around until she noticed that she was in front of the kitchen. 'I guess I could ask Baldaro for some thing good to eat.' Opening the door and entering the kitchen Hitomi noticed that there was no one there. 'The cooks must be off duty right now.' She was about to leave when she heard a voice call out.

"Hello? Is some one there?" Baldaro popped out from behind one of the stoves. "Ah, Lady Hitomi! What can I do for you?"

"Umm. . . I would like some food. Some thing simple." She hoped that the cook wouldn't take offense to her request.

"Ah, I see. Not quite comfortable with our food yet, are we, m'lady?" He smiled a genuine smile that Hitomi took a liking to.

"Not yet. I'm sorry."

"That's quite all right. What would you like?"

"Some fruit would be nice." Hitomi said with a smile.

Baldaro walked over to a table and handed her a small bowl of fruit. She gladly accepted the delicious looking food with a smile.

"Thank you very much, Baldaro! I promise, I will eventually get used to the food here in Zaiboch. Bye."

"Good bye, Lady Hitomi."

Hitomi left, carrying the fruit. 'I'll eat fruit any day over eye of dragon.' She though as she bit in to a delicious round yellow fruit. Even though she didn't know what it was, it was much better then what had been waiting for her at breakfast. She walked around the halls as she looked at all of the paintings and other decorations that covered the walls.

"Good morning, m'lady." A maid said as she walked by.

"Morning. Oh, excuse me, but would you do me a favor?"

"Of course, what do you need?"

"Could you take this bowl back to the kitchen for me? I need to go look for Lord Folken."

"Of course, m'lady."

"Thank you." Hitomi said as the maid took the empty fruit bowl from her. The maid then gave a small curtsy and walk away.

Hitomi tried finding the dinning hall with her memory but was only getting more lost. She resorted to using the pendant again. 'Good old dousing. Never lets me down.' She smiled when she came to the big doors of the dinning area. Hoping that Folken was still inside, she entered in to the hall. She was correct in the fact that Folken was still there, but cursed her luck to find Dilandau with him. Every one else had already left.

"Welcome back, Hitomi." Folken said with a smile. "Are you feeling better?"

"I am now." Hitomi glance over to Dilandau, who was still grinning from ear to ear. She had the sudden urge to stick out her tongue at him. Against her lesser judgment she refrained from ding so.

"I'm glad to hear that. Follow me please." She averted her glare at Dilandau and followed Folken out of the dinning area and down the hall to the stair case that lead them to the basement.

Hitomi became annoyed when Dilandau started following them as well. The stairs seemed endless and she really hated having that arrogant bastard behind him the entire time. When they finally reached the bottom, Hitomi saw that there was another long hall down here as well.

She suppressed a groan. 'So much hall. I'm going to be exhausted just from getting from one place to another, never mind my training.'

Folken interrupted her mental complaining when he spoke. "Down here is where all of the soldiers train."

"In this room is where all of the weapons that no one uses are kept." Dilandau said as he opened the first door on their left. Hitomi walked in to see various kinds of swords, glaives, axes and much more. She walked around the room, examining everything. Never had she ever seen so many tool of destruction in one room before.

A certain sword caught her attention. Stopping in front of it and studying it further she noticed that it looked like the one that Van uses. Except instead of the Fanalia emblem on the handle it was the one of Zaiboch's. When she lifted it she noticed that it wasn't as heavy as it looks.

"If you are interested, Dilandau could teach you how to fight." Folken said as he noticed the amused look on her face.

She looked over at Dilandau for his reaction. "You could have asked me if I'm interested first you know." Dilandau then looked over to Hitomi, still holding the sword. "If you really want to I could show you some techniques." He said in a bored tone of voice.

"Maybe. Van taught me a little bit, so I do know the basics." Looking down at the sword, she considered the new option. "But if I start learning how to use a sword it might be a bit much."

"A bit much? What the hell are you talking about" Dilandau snapped, getting angry again. "It's not like you're doing anything else around here, you stupid wench!"

"For your information, my training in the morning is quite difficult on top of that, Folken's training might be difficult as well."

"Riiight." Dilandau rolled his eyes before turning on his heel and walking out of the room"

Hitomi scowled at him, 'I'm getting really annoyed at his attitude.'

"Alright, that's enough." Folken said. "Hitomi, put the sword away and follow me."

She did as she was told and they both joined Dilandau out in the hall and continued walking some more. When the reached two more doors on either side of the hall Dilandau reach for the one on the left.

"This is where I train my Slayers." He said as he entered the room, not bothering to hold the door open for her. Walking in and after giving Dilandau another dirty look, Hitomi started wondering around the huge training room.

'This is a really goo training area. Much better then my room!' Standing in the middle of the room she noticed that it was practically empty except for the four weapon holders placed at the far back wall. Matts covered most of the floor as well. 'So when some one's knocked down I'm guessing.'

"All of the Slayers are in the rec room today. It's their day off." Dilandau stated.

"Hitomi," Folken was still staring at the door. "Let's begin your training."

"In here?!" Hitomi then looked over at Dilandau, "What about him?"

Dilandau took a few threatening steps towards Hitomi, "You better watch that mouth of yours girl!" He was just a few inches from her face at this point. His eyes piercing into her own. Again, she didn't look away from his fiery glare. But this time it wasn't in defiance. This time, she was scared. Folken just stood there, as if he was bored. Or waiting.

Hitomi tried to look away, tried to turn her head. But when she did he grabbed her face and made her look back at him.

The ground started trembling.

"If you don't be more careful, you are going to wish that you were never able to speak at all." He then pushed her back. But not before the ground shook with such force that even he was brought down to all fours.

Folken was at Hitomi's side immediately. Hand on her shoulder, trying to get her to calm down. Dilandau didn't notice this act of kindness, he was too busy looking out the window.

"What the hell was that?!" Dilandau was semi panicking. "Did we just hit something?"

"Why don't you go check it out, while I take Hitomi and we start our training." Folken said as he helped the still shaken girl to her feet.

"You're not going to go see what it was?" Dilandau asked in a worried tone.

"I trust you to fix the problem." Folken lead Hitomi out the door and across the hall to the opposite door. When he opened to door for her, Hitomi couldn't see a thing. The room was pitch black.

"In there?" Dilandau sounded amazed. "You never allow anyone in there?"

Folken only glanced at his general before closing the door behind him.

Dilandau continued to stare at the closed door in front of him for another moment before walking off to check what the heck they hit. Mumbling to himself.

"No one has ever entered that room with Lord Folken. Ever."


AN - Yay. It's done! Well, the longest chapter so far. I hope you guys are enjoying it. Sorry again for not updating sooner. I really would like some kind of reviews, it would help me to know if you like where this is going. But I can't make you ; P Oh well. I'll have the next chapter up soon. Until then, ja ne!