"Mae, it's all right. C'mon. Up."

I heard his voice above me, distant, obscure yet omnipresent.

I gripped the dirt beneath me and pushed up, pressing my sore feet to the earth, rising to meet his tired eyes.

"I'm coming..." I sighed to the static air. "I'm here."

He tugged me up by the arm, shoving his weight forward to get me to run with him. I stood and scampered along side.

We ran like scared wild beasts. I was dirty from falling and climbing, descending, climbing, hiding...

What would passerbys think when they saw a monk with no master and his servant girl fleeing from the temple masters? Surely they would believe we had done something to deserve exile, but why would we run like this? We didn't want to return; we couldn't. It was an inevitable impossibility to go back.

We had been running for hours, it seemed, although I'm not sure how long it really had been. Down this highroad, around the bends, onward to another road. And it was getting dark and they would have to relinquish the chase.

He was saying something to me, "-the water."

"What?"

"Jump in the water when we get there. I'll hold onto you."

"You know I don't need protection!"

He quickened his pace.

"Wait!"

He let me catch up. "Bastard," I teased.

We came to the second highroad, towards a farm. I saw the water in the distance glisten under the orange setting sun. He guided me towards it, the masters still on our heels.

He gripped my sweaty palm in his and took to the cliff-edge. I dared not think of jumping. But I couldn't stop. He had already begun to leap when I realized my feet were no longer touching earth.

We plummeted into the water, the liquid filling my eyes and ears. I felt stunned momentarily then my senses returned and I could only hear faint splashes. I realized I no longer held his hand. I surfaced, peeling away my hair and looked around.

A bullet shot into the water beside me. I turned, seeing the masters above with their aids shooting at me.

I dived, remembering catching a glimpse of ruins in the distance. Perhaps that's where he went.

I opened my eyes and though the clear water I could see his form swimming with a steady resolve towards the half sunken ruin.

I followed, only daring come for air when I felt on the verge of blacking out.

The bullets still shot past me into the water, and I could see them nearly strike him several times.

Why won't they just give up? What good would it do to kill us?

I kept going even when I felt my arms would stiffen and fall and I would be shot.

Then I felt a pain in my arm. It went numb but I ignored it and kept trying to go. He didn't know what I was feeling. I kept going. I saw him surface behind the ruin. He spotted me and realized I needed help.

He swam back out, taking my arm, dragging me beneath him.

The blood was draining out of me and I began to feel dizzy. But I wouldn't let the pain take me.

I touched the ruin and held to its side. He ripped a piece of cloth from my skirt and tied my arm, pulling me behind the ruin where they couldn't see us.

We waited. We waited for the waters to settle and the sky to cloud over and for the rain to fall in pellets that hurt my face. The blood from my arm had dried the color of his overcoat.

"We have to get that thing out of you," he muttered.