ha hah, thought i lost this chappie...enjoy!

Earthmaid

Bie started to relax a bit; she knew D's character well enough to trust he was no danger to any but vampires and other evil creatures, not defenseless fifteen-year-old girls. She refused to worry about what this meant. 'Leave the past in the past, and let tomorrow take care of itself.' She thought to clear her head. Running her eyes quickly down her own body, Bie did a quick damage assessment, then squealed when she realized she might as well be naked. Her clothes were torn and ragged enough to show more then she thought decent. Bie felt her ears turn red when she realized that the gorgeous hunter probly thought she looked like an overlarge grub, as pale as she was and with those darn belly rolls she couldn't seem to lose.

"You…wouldn't happen to have something a bit more decent I could wear, would you?" she mumbled, trying to keep the shame out of her voice. The silent Hunter turned to his horse and pulled another coat from the saddlebags. Bie blinked. She hadn't thought the hunter would have a spare coat, since he always wore the same one in books and movies. She looked at her sneakers and then glanced around her for her backpack. Which she realized she was sort-of lying on. After a moment of tugging, Bie managed to dislodge it from between the two boulders holding the pack tight. She accepted the coat with a murmur of thanks and continued to pull a pair of smart black boots from the backpack. D watched her put them on in silence. Nonetheless, a raspy voice commented.

"Well, at least she has the legs to go with those lips." The voice said lewdly. Bie spun towards the Hunter.

"Did you say something?" she said and cocked her head. The hunter didn't do anything. Bie frowned and bit her lip. "Okay, then, did that thing in your hand say something?" she asked, pointing to D's left hand. The Hunter still stood there, and Bie couldn't see his eyebrows race for his hairline between the night and his hat. But something about D must have shown his surprise, because Bie smiled. "Hey, don't look so surprised. Where I come from, everyone who knows about you knows about it-or is 'it' a 'him'?"

D stood silent for two heartbeats, trying to make some sense of Bie's strange statement. He had dealt with enough strange things to not take everything odd at face value. With a mental shrug, D turned towards his mount.

"Are you coming?" he asked the girl. Bie blinked and mounted behind him with a devilish grin.

"You aren't going to be cooperative in the least, are you?" She teased and laughed when the Hunter's pointy ear twitched. " You're the best person I've ever met, though, D. You don't judge people on dumb things."

D had more thinking to do then he usually had cause for. He was riding back to the town that had hired him with a strange girl sleeping behind him, her head resting on his shoulder and her arms about his waist. He didn't know where she had come from, why she was here, or how she knew about the parasite. Worse, he had almost lost control and sucked her dry, yet the girl had shown nothing short of complete trust in him.

" Makes you kind of uneasy, doesn't it, not knowing how much she knows about you? I wonder if the trusting little treat knows what you really are?" The countenanced carbuncle said. "So, did you decide what to do about her yet, D? You know, since she seems normal enough, why don't we just ditch her in the next town? We'll leave her asleep in a back alley, and no one will think she's anything but a drunk. Well, D?" The Hunter frowned; for some reason he didn't want to abandon Bie in some close-minded Frontier town. He felt responsible for her somehow. D tightened his grip on the reins.

" If she wants to go, that's her own prerogative. I'm not going to abandon her." The Hunter answered. The carbuncle snorted.

"I don't believe it. D's going soft, and over a kid, too. Come on, D, I'm telling you something doesn't taste right about that girl. It's like she's a fish flying in the air, like she doesn't belong here." Anything said after that was lost to the howling of the wind.

Bie yawned. She had had the most wonderful dream. She had fallen off a cliff and landed in the world inside the books and movies of Vampire Hunter D. She had dreamt she had awoke to find the elegant Hunter himself standing over her, and that he had actually talked to her and-.

Bie blinked.

"Omigosh!" She was sitting up, not lying under a tent of kudzu. And she wasn't resting her head on her bag, but the actual shoulder of D himself. That meant it wasn't a dream, and she really did fall off a cliff and somehow end up in the world of Vampire Hunter D. She just didn't know, exactly, how.

"Enjoy your nap?" D said. Bie snapped back into what was apparently now reality.

"I thought I was dreaming for a moment." She answered. "What time is it? It looks like the sun should be up soon." Sure enough, the moon sat low in the sky, and the horizon was a pale dusty blue-gray.

"It's about six Morning. We'll be coming to a town soon."

Bie bit her lip. The town wouldn't be very welcoming to D, even if he had worked for them. If she stayed with him, she would just be a burden and she didn't want him to get hurt. But if she left him, she would be in a strange place alone and had read horrible enough things about what happened to unprotected girls in Frontier towns, never mind what a monster would do to her. Humans sometimes frightened her more then anything else she had faced, and she had never been taught how to fight. 'I'm a klutz, so if I stay with D I'll be a liability and if I leave I'll probly get ravished, maimed, killed or all three in alternating order.' Bie sighed. She hated making decisions. They were one of her top things to avoid, right between trying to figure out time travel consequences and sushi with ginger in it. If she hesitated long enough, they tended to decide themselves, anyway. Of course, she had forgotten to factor in how incredibly hot D was…

"Down, girl." Bie muttered under her breath. It wouldn't do to fall for D. It would probably be best for her to make the Hunter another big brother, or not get attached at all. Things would be easier that way if –when- she managed to find her way home. Bie sighed again. Where was home, anyway? Back where she came from? She had nothing to return to there. She might as well try to start a new life in this world.

"D? Can I ask you a favor?" she said. The Hunter didn't answer, which she expected. So she asked anyway. "Will you help me learn how to defend myself? You see, I- I would really like to stay with you, if I could, and I know that right now I'd just be a burden to you. But I'm really afraid of what might happen if you aren't around, and you're the only person I know here. But if you don't want me following you around, then I'll- I'll just figure something else out. Just say the word." Bie waited through what seemed an eternity of silence. Finally D answered after a fashion.

"How much experience with weapons have you had?"

Bie gulped. "Well, I, um, have used a bow and I can shoot pretty good but only at shorter distances if I want any accuracy. I've never used any bladed weapon, or any blunt weapons or whips either, but I played with them before and I think I could get good with a whip. So I guess I'm pretty well helpless next to the Frontier girls, I can't use a spear or a staff either, and don't they learn both?"

Bie stopped herself and took a deep breath. She didn't want to sound like an airhead, but she really didn't know anything. She didn't even know if the dark Hunter would teach her anything. After all, Hunters never did anything without hope of payment, right? But D had helped that Lang girl and her brother…Bie sighed. No matter what happened, she was determined to make the best of her time in this strange new place.

The town started out as a dusty smudge on the dull Frontier horizon. You had to ride almost to the town proper before you could see a fully green and working farm. Most of the outlying farms had fallen prey first to drought, then to the vampire d had slain hours earlier. The hunter went straight for the town center, to a small square. The mayor and sheriff were waiting for him there. Men, strong and wary of the dark youth before them, clutched weapons tight and close. Bie had dismounted earlier and was standing next to the mounted D's boot. She was right at eye level with the mayor. The tiny man was clearly upset by D's presence.

"Did you get the job done?" The sheriff called. In response, D threw the bag with the Vampire's severed head at their feet. The mayor looked as if he were going to vomit. Bie walked toward the officials and took the bag they handed to her. She weighed it for a moment and tossed it to D on her way back to his side. Only then did the mayor seem to find a trace of a coward's bravery. He snarled at the Hunter.

"You've got your stinking money, now get out of my town, you filthy trash!" He ordered. D looked him in the eye, and the diminutive man broke into a nervous sweat. Slowly, casually, the girl and the dark-clad hunter made their way out of the sad little village.

The odd pair had come to another stretch of untended fields when Bie saw a cloud of dust rise from the road behind them. Without a word, D helped her mount up behind him and they easily outdistanced their pursuers.

A/n: sorry it took me so long to get this finished, I was working on chappie three and I have an essay to finish, so chya…R&R, pple!