Chapter 1

"Mommy?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Can we play hide and seek again, one more time?"

"Okay, dear, one last time."

Lillian looked around in wonder at the green scenery surrounding her, still trying to decipher the map she held without dropping it thanks to the jerky movements her new pony was making. Lillian bounced atop the small, white, horse's back, groaning in frustration. The map was upside-down. Again. Lillian ran a hand through her hair, trying to jerk the small pony to a stop, and failing miserably. Again.

"Stop it!" Lillian said through clenched teeth, tugging on the reins with all her might, which was something the five foot girl didn't have much of.

So far, her whole trip had been a disaster, or not trip, considering the fact that the girl did not plan on journeying back to what had been her home for thirteen years exactly. The day she had turned eighteen, she had taken all of her possessions and her limited funds on the road with her, purchasing a pony along with a shabby cart on her way out of town and never looking back. Well, metaphorically speaking, of course, Lillian had been looking at the map and trying to retrace her steps for what seemed like forever, the constantly green scenery surrounding her never changing. The girl had no idea just where she was; she was completely and utterly lost, with no hope of finding her way through the terrain alone. And seeing as she was currently in the middle of nowhere, she was completely screwed.

"It's hopeless!" She moaned, throwing her head back and closing her eyes, stuffing the useless map into her pocket.

Lillian sighed, clenching the reins with white knuckles, but no longer trying to get the stubborn horse to listen to her, giving up after seeing the result of her last attempt. When she turned her gaze from her pony's white mane, she was surprised to see a little red fox sitting directly in her path about twenty feet ahead of her.

"NO!" Lillian shouted as her eyes widened, pulling back hard on the reins and squeezing the pony's mid-section with her legs, but the pony continued on at the fast pace, ignoring Lillian's mixed commands. Time seemingly slowed down as Lillian tugged on the reins, the smooth leather burning her skin as it slipped through her fingers. Within seconds, the fox was almost right in front of the two, finally taking notice of their presence. The pony tried at the last second to stop its breakneck speed, stopping almost dead in its track right in front of the fox and making deep grooves in the worn dirt of the mountain. The fox promptly ran off into the bush at the commotion.

Unfortunately, for Lillian, physics was not on her side and the small brunette kept flying forward even after the pony had stopped, her body flying over the pony's head and neck. She was suspended in mid-air for not even half a second, finally realizing what was happening just as she plummeted straight to the ground off the path, landing hard on her right arm in the long grass.

The girl groaned softly, lying on the grass covered ground and her whole body beginning to ache. Without thinking, the girl automatically tried to push herself off the ground to get up, which sent a searing pain up her right arm and caused her to flop back onto the ground with a scream dying in her mouth as she lost her breath, her world exploding in pain. For hours it seemed, Lillian suffered, but in reality only seconds passed, the pain dulled away to an ache in her arm as she lay on the ground, panting and trying not to cry- failing miserably.

Carefully, she tested her left arm, and hand, reaching for her head where pain was only increasing the longer she lay there. Her fingers made contact with a sticky substance, the girl pulling them away from her head in confusion to see them coated in crimson. Her vision blurred as she realized what it was- blood. Her blood. She was bleeding; in some distant corner of her mind, Lillian thought she should yell for help, but she was more concerned with the fact that she was bleeding. Why was she bleeding? She dug under her head for a moment; knotting her fingers in her unruly brown hair, and discovered a small, sharp rock. She pulled it out, glaring at it for a second as it swam in front of her vision, before throwing it away as far as she could. Tears fell from her eyes as the pain in her head intensified, the rock thudding to the ground a few feet away. Why did that rock hurt her?

She started to sob loudly, staring in shock at her blood coated fingers before her hand suddenly dropped to the ground, the girl having lost the energy to hold it up anymore. She lowered her head back to the ground, staring blankly at the grass in front of her, her eyelids drifting closed- maybe if she just took a short nap, she would have enough energy to get up later. Lillian smiled, the corners of her lips barely lifting- yes, she would take just a short nap, it would help dull the pain for a short while.

As white and red paws came within her blurred line of vision, a small body blocking the sunlight from reaching her, the brunette finally lost consciousness.

"I think she's coming to!" A voice called out excitedly, followed by frantic steps coming towards her.

Lillian wanted to yell at the person to be quiet, to let her sleep just a little bit longer. She was so tired. But, seeing as the girl could barely find the energy to open her eyelids, she stayed silent, turning her face so that her head was turned away from the person who couldn't seem to let her sleep. She wanted the darkness back; she missed the nothingness surrounding her as she slept.

"Lillian? Dear, I need you to open your eyes," a gentle voice cooed, a cool hand pressing against her throbbing forehead. Lillian sighed; her head felt like it was going to explode. Yet it was weird- she felt fine, who were these people, anyway? "Hiro, I need another cool cloth- she's heating up again."

Lillian listened as footsteps hurried away, moments later returning to her bedside as a cool cloth was place on her forehead, Lillian felt the darkness coming towards her once more- falling into its grasps easily once again.

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A searing pain brought her back this time, coming solely from her right arm. She awoke, screaming and thrashing in pain.

"Hiro," A woman grunted, something warm and heavy trying to hold Lillian down. The girl's eyes were open, but Lillian did not see anything other than the ever present blackness. "Get over here with the pain medication, she's waking up and I can't work on her arm like this!"

Hurried steps made their way to Lillian's bedside, a small gasp coming from their direction.

Lillian kept screaming as wave after wave of agonizing pain racked her body, the girl thrashing every limb to make it stop- save for her right arm. Why were these people hurting her?

"Hiro!" The woman said sternly, increasing the pressure on Lillian, trying to keep the girl on the bed.

"Right!" The boy said, his voice wavering slightly, strong arms holding Lillian's left arm in place- a small prick in her skin followed by the unwanted feeling of something other than blood coursing through her veins. Lillian shivered at the feeling. Needle. The word came to her mind freely, giving Lillian seconds to wonder why, before she felt herself nodding up.

The effect was almost instantaneous, the substance immediately making the pain fade away, Lillian calming down now that it didn't feel as though she was being skinned alive.

"Ayame, what are we going to do when she's up? Surely her arm won't be healed by then," The male voice asked softly as Lillian began to drift away, her fingers still twitching slightly as the girl fought off the medication.

"Hiro," The woman said sadly, her voice sounding like it was miles away from Lillian, "I really don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."

This time, everything was silent and all was well in the world as Lillian began to drift away from the darkness and into reality, feeling stronger than she had in a long time.

She awoke to darkness once more as her eyes opened, she was tucked carefully into a bed with starch white sheets, the sickening aroma of the hospital surrounding her. Yet, there was a slight presence of cooking spices wafting in the air from a not-so-long ago meal. Lillian wrinkled her nose, trying to get used to the odd combination of smells, curry spices and disinfectants, wondering just why she was there. She couldn't remember anything. Where exactly was she, anyway?

Lillian looked down at herself, surprised to see her hair lying to either side of her neck, brushed out neatly, and much longer than she'd remembered it being. She could've sworn she'd just gotten a haircut. She shrugged it off and her gaze continued drifting downward, her head skipping a beat when she saw the large cast her whole right arm was encased in, her eyes wide. Hesitantly, she tried wriggling her fingers, a sigh of relief escaping her lips when they moved accordingly. At least everything worked correctly. Lillian tried to recall how that had happened; only remembering brief flashes of pain and unfamiliar voices. Where was she?

Closing her eyes, she tried to recall what she remembered doing last, her mind drifting back to her old home in the city, with her foster parents when it finally dawned on her; that accident with that stupid horse that had refused to listen to her. And then she'd been thrown off, it came rushing back at her, in a memory of green and blue as the sky had blended with the land for a moment. She had landed on a rock, she recalled, and her right arm. Content with her remembering some reasons of why she was in a hospital, she let her gaze drift around the room. She stopped short when she saw a boy with floppy brown hair, not looking a day over eighteen, sleeping on a chair adjacent to her bed. He was wearing a white shirt, and crisp white pants- his head hanging down, his chin resting on his collarbone. Lillian shrieked a little, not expecting another person to be in the room, the sound escaping her lips as she saw him before she could even think about what was happening.

He jerked awake, his brown eyes snapping open and meeting Lillian's gaze, he stared at her for a short while, dumbfounded as he saw her fully conscious for the first time. In a second, as he finally gained consciousness, he grinned widely at her, looking awfully excited to see her awake.

"Hello Lillian, nice to see you awake for once," He said, talking rather quickly and sitting up straight, a touch of some kind of foreign accent on his words. "I'm Chihiro, but you may call me Hiro."

Lillian made a small noise, out of fear, although she felt like she should trust him. He looked so young and innocent. And he was probably the doctor here, she was being stupid. "Sorry," She whispered hoarsely. She glanced at him curiously, trying to ignore how her cheeks were burning, and replying in a scratchy voice, her good hand immediately going to her throat after she spoke. "Er… I'm Lillian."

Hiro smiled. "I know, we've been taking care of you for an awful long time, honestly? It was touch and go for a while there, but you're a fighter! Ayame was doubtful when Reina brought you in, but I knew from the start you'd make it!"

Lillian's head spun. Touch and go? Reina?

Hiro's eyes widened when he realized he'd confused her. "Oops! Sorry, you're probably wondering where you are."

Lillian nodded, not trusting her voice to work, still coming to grips with the fact that she'd been touch and go for a while. She could've died. There was suddenly something in her throat, that resisted all of her attempts to get rid of it- she could've died, and no one would have known. No one would have cared.

"Well," Hiro began, "You're in Konaha right now, which is one of the 'Twin Villages' referred to by people in the larger cities." He paused, watching as she gave him a blank look. "Well, no matter, one of our villagers, Reina, discovered you on the mountain when she was out for a walk, and you were almost immediately brought here. You were in really bad shape…" Hiro confessed with a dark look on his face, "You were dehydrated, and you were really beaten up- you had quite a number done on you. Ayame thinks you were out there for at least two days."

Lillian nodded once more, wondering just who this Ayame is.

Suddenly Hiro jumped up, remembering his manners. "Hey, would you like a drink or something before I go on?"

Lillian watched silently as Hiro disappeared through a door at the end of Lillian's bed, returning a moment later with a clear glass in his hand.

Lillian pushed herself into a sitting position, or tried her best to do so; Hiro helping her up by grabbing her elbow and adjusting the pillows accordingly before handing her the glass. Lillian tried not to blush again, but Hiro seemed unfazed by his actions. Lillian downed the whole glass, handing it to Hiro and clearing her throat before speaking, her voice still sounding a bit raw, but better than before. "How… How long have I been… here?"

"Well," Hiro said hesitantly, worry prominent on his face as he frowned slightly. "It's been, roughly, a season since Reina brought you back from the mountain.

Lillian's mind spun, a season, a whole season she though with disbelief. She couldn't believe it; it barely felt like a day since she went riding out of the city. A season lost, with nothing to show for it.

Hiro noted her disbelief, "I know it's hard to believe, but we had to keep you sedated for a lot of the time, the pain from your arm was just too intense, and we don't have medication that can keep you conscious and comfortable yet." Hiro paused, looking like he was going to add something else, an annoyed look on his face. But the boy shrugged it off and sat in the chair beside Lillian's bed once more, slumping in it, Lillian finally taking notice of the large bags under the boy's eyes and realized it must be the middle of the night.

Lillian stared, Hiro going oblivious to her looks, his mind was in a far off place, and wondered how she hadn't noticed the bags before. They were huge and dark in colour. It occurred to her that they were likely her fault, and as soon as the thought came to her, she couldn't get rid of it; that she was hurting this person, who cared for her, even though she had no idea who he was other than he went by Hiro, and was a doctor. He, and probably others, had given up so much…

Lillian tried to push the thoughts away, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind. "What happened to my arm... exactly?"

Hiro jumped, not expecting her to speak so suddenly, so used to the room being completely silent, save for steady breathing and whatever noises he made. This would take some getting used to, Hiro decided; he hadn't ever been in the room when she was fully conscious in the whole season he had 'known' her, the word used loosely as he didn't really know her at all. "Well, you weren't awake to tell us what happened; but we assumed you fell or were thrown, which was confirmed when Kana found your horse wandering the mountainside a couple days later. And you didn't have enough time to react, so most of your weight landed on your arm and shoulder; which, when accompanied by the speed you were going, effectively snapped some of the bones and dislocated your shoulder."

Lillian nodded, trying to connect the information with what she remembered, and finding it all worked out confirmed what Hiro was saying. It was all that stupid horse's fault. "What… happened to the horse?"

"Oh, Kana's watching over her, she's a really nice horse; although it isn't trained very well, but Kana's been hard at work fixing that." Hiro said.

Lillian scoffed, only believing the part where Hiro said the horse was untrained. Throwing her off wasn't a really nice thing to do. But the horse couldn't be held completely accountable. "How long will it be until my arm is better?" It was getting easier to talk, Lillian noted.

Hiro frowned, deep in thought before responding. "Well… the breaks are beginning to heal and the pain is substantially lower, your shoulder should be almost fine, although you have to be more careful with it, or you may dislocate it again. Your arm will likely need some intensive physiotherapy before it gets back to normal, which Ayame has been reading up on; but if you don't do this properly, or consistently, then your arm may never have full usage again."

Lillian nodded again, not looking forward to the therapy she'd now have to take, knowing from her 'brother' in her foster home that after an injury, it took a long time to rebuild the muscle and tissue and get back to normal. It had taken months of hard work, and even then his knee hadn't been able to work the same way it used to.

Lillian yawned unexpectedly, looking at Hiro through lidded eyes as exhaustion caught up with her.

Hiro smiled kindly, "Get to sleep Lillian, you have a hard couple of seasons ahead of you."

Lillian, with worries of where she would be going when she woke up surfacing in her mind, could do nothing more than comply with Hiro's words.

"Alrighty, break it to me hard A-dog, what'd the tests say?" Lillian chirped, swinging her feet back and forth, clutching the cool steel table on the edge with both of her hands, her right hand mostly there for show, as she had not done too much to rebuild the muscle tissue there for a after it had been unused for little more than a season.

Ayame glared at the girl for the use of a nickname, although it was half hearted because over the past two weeks, Ayame had grown used to the verbal abuse Lillian enjoyed so much. "Shush now, or I won't tell you."

Lillian made a gesture of zipping her mouth shut, and throwing away the key, earning a laugh from Ayame before the doctor continued on.

"Well you seem fine mentally, if that's what you're asking." Ayame said with a sly grin on her face as Lillian glared at her. "Okay, okay. Well, your arm seems to be coming along fine, and your shoulder should be fine within a couple of weeks, now that the bruising's almost faded. The breaks are healing at the correct rate, and they are forming correctly- so you won't need to reset them at all, unless you injure the arm again…"

Ayame lead off, giving Lillian a stern look to be sure the brunette got the message.

Lillian held up her hands. "Woah, cool the third degree, I don't want to break it any more than you want me to."

Ayame raised an eyebrow and frowned contemplatively. "Well, this is the most business we've had in seasons…"

The two shared a laugh, before Ayame continued on. "As I was saying, we'll continue on with the physiotherapy, three times a week for a season, and then less and less as the time goes back, and your arm should be back to normal within the year, or as close as it gets. Now, it's imperative that you give it your all these next few seasons…"

Ayame continued on, but Lillian began ignoring the doctor, the wheels in her head turning a different direction now that she had all the information she needed, but one thing Ayame said stuck in the girl's mind, and she found herself interrupting Ayame to get answers. "Wait, so I'm staying here for the next year?"

Not that Lillian minded, the small town of Konaha she had found herself in was actually quite nice, and she already had budding friendships with all of the villagers that cared to visit her, and those of which she met when she began to go walking with Hiro a few days after she first woke up. After she had found herself going crazy in the sterile clinic and driving Ayame insane too, even after she decorated it with some of her possessions, Ayame had reached her limit after about ten minutes of Lillian's 'decorating.' Then she had sent her away, which may or may not have been Lillian's secret goal from the beginning, she had been testing Ayame's limits almost every day since the day she woke up. There was really nothing better to do.

Ayame not so subtly glared at the girl after being interrupted in her lecture, but decided to address the issue, knowing Lillian wouldn't hear a word she said until she got answers to her question. "That's what I wanted to ask you about, if you choose to move away, or return to the city…" Ayame trailed off, seeing the grossed out look on Lillian's face. "Then you will have to still complete exercises, but with a different doctor, and I will have to do a lot of paperwork. There's another option though," Ayame paused, deciding whether or not to address the issue, but figuring she'd better because Ina had told her to, and Lillian's interest was thoroughly piqued. "There is another town, located on the other side of the mountain by the name of Bluebell; but I would still be the doctor, and you would have to travel over the mountain every couple days."

Lillian bit her lip, considering the information for a total of half a second. "Can I just stay here and mooch off of you for another couple seasons?" She asked with hopefulness in her voice.

Ayame laughed, having figured Lillian would try to do something like that. "Yes, you could stay in Konaha," Lillian grinned, she had been worried about being told to get lost, "but not here." Lillian's face fell, her hopes of staying in her little paradise dashed. She had nowhere else to go.

"Where you could stay, though, I'm sure Hiro's showed it on your walks, is the abandoned farm up the road. Another benefit of living there would be that light farm work would be beneficial to your health, and you could make a small profit."

Lillian grinned, it sounded perfect, a little piece of her own paradise, a place to finally call her own; exactly what she had planned to find when she left the city, and although she hadn't been planning on acquiring it that way, or even farming for that matter, it all sounded all too perfect to pass up. Besides, where else could she go? She could even get her own pets; something the girl had always wanted but had never been able to actually do. "That honestly sounds amazing right about now. Not that your clinic is boring or anything… I just have my own way of decorating things."

"Great," Ayame said, hanging her clipboard back onto the wall and turning to leave, "I'll go talk to Ina for a second, and if all goes well, you'll have your house key by five tonight, so you better start packing. And remember, light farm work only. I'm serious, I'll even make Hiro watch over everything that goes in and out of that farm, and if I don't like what I see- then there will be no more farm work."

"Yes, of course Ayame!" Lillian said with a grin, "When have I ever given you reason to believe I would break the rules."

Ayame shook her head and rolled her eyes at Lillian as the girl hopped off the table, quickly sprinting passed Ayame, and used her small stature to squeeze between Ayame and the wall. She headed right for what was her 'room' in the clinic, which was really just a small hospital room with all of Lillian's retrieved things in it, or as much as Ayame would allow her to bring in. She had some packing to do.