Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ The Call ❯ One ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
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 she thought it would 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 people's 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 involved knew where the young king's heart really was, including the king that had arranged the marriage. His fiance 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 spark 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 could 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 high 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 too you know. How could I live them both?" 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, much to the shock of the people around him, and took her aloft towards Gaea and help.