A/N: Apologies in advance!!! I really like the idea of this story but ... I'm not four years old anymore and my memory isn't that good. I can barely remember what I did yesterday...anyways! If the little tykes don't sound so much like little tykes then please, please forgive me.

Read on!

Up the Mountains We Go

They were moving now. Or, as one of the men had put it, on the move.

Seeing her large mount, one of the tall Shang had taken the liberty of lifting her onto Rayto's back. There were maybe five other children her age but they all rode on something like a topless caravan. The Shang Crane stayed close watching her at all times.

"Rayto." He said aloud. "That's a nice name."

Kyrie nodded. "It means Starshine."

"In what language?" The Crane smiled willing to play along. Children made up games sometimes.

Kyrie shrugged. "An old one I think." She looked up to the mountains. Every yard they traveled made those peaks pierce the bright sky at a sharper angle. "Is where we're going near those mountains?"

"Those mountains are where we are going." Treya said. The look he turned towards those mountains was so full of wonder and reverence that Kyrie looked back at them too. She was already small but even if she had been the tallest person in the world these mountains would have made her feel insignificant.

The grass had left the ground a while back. They didn't dare scale the earth leviathan. That close to the mountains there didn't seem to be anywhere else to go from here. One mountain was enough to make her want to give up. How could one get around something so colossal?

The Crane took one look at her face and laughed. Kyrie turned her wide eyes to him. She smiled too.

Soon after that all the children had to get out of the caravan and Kyrie had to walk.

"We may have to leave your horse behind." A Shang woman said.

"No." Kyrie shook her head. "We can't."

"We have to." The woman repeated patiently.

"No."

"Large breed horses like her can die in the mountains." She got as much sympathy in her gray eyes as possible and smiled. "The paths are too rough."

"I am small and weaker and I'll survive. She is big and strong. She can do it." She would keep Rayto by her side for as long as she could. Besides Rayto was a good horse she wouldn't die and leave her alone.

The Shang tensed for a moment in her frustration. "Alright then."

The path didn't start out bad. Kyrie felt fine. She held Rayto's reins and felt like she could have gone forever. It didn't feel like she was slowly going up the side of a mountain.

The pebbled path was soon joined by larger rocks. Kyrie's foot caught on one causing her to crash to the floor. She immediately sat up and held her nose. She gasped in the air and found she couldn't grab as much as she wanted. "Ow, ow, ow."

The Shang Crane crouched down and picked her up into a standing position. He grabbed her face, his hand big enough to cup her entire jawbone, and pulled her hand off her face. Treya took two fingers and pinched her nose lightly making Kyrie wince. "It's not broken. Some scratches and you might have a bruise here and there but nothing bad."

"But it hurts."

"It will do that." He left to keep the children moving.

She wiped away the answering tear. A month ago someone would have been there to help her in an instant. A month ago her mother would have hugged and kissed Kyrie and tickled her until she forgot it had ever hurt at all. And time moved on as it does without a care of the lifeforms affected, and here she was a month later from those times somewhere different being someone different.

Rayto nudged her chest. Kyrie patted her and moved forward.

The road wound oddly, becoming thick at some places and thin and difficult at others. Rayto managed without major injury but Kyrie wasn't faring so well. Her legs wanted to give up on her. Every other step her leg shook involuntarily. A powerful yawn took her so fully she had to stop walking, throw her head back and open her jaw until she thought it would fall off.

"Rest stop!" One of the Shang men bellowed from the top of the line.

Kyrie wasn't close to the front. She looked ahead and saw that the path got considerably more steep before she was going to be able to rest. She clutched Rayto's rein's tighter. Her knees grew weak twice but her legs only gave out once. Still she pushed on. I'm almost there. Almost...Her legs gave out and her hand slipped off the reins. Despite bits of rock digging into her skin uncomfortably through the cloth, Kyrie's eyes drooped.

Someone pressed a something to her lips and cool water made a trail down her throat. Strong arms lifted her up and she was pressed against something warm.

Her mind was drifting away.

"Sometimes I forget how fragile they are." A voice Kyrie's tired mind didn't care to recognize said.

"One can only hope it gets beaten out of them." A female voice put in.


Kyrie woke up in discomfort. Or maybe that was an understatement. Her body hurt. Breathing felt funny. Like the air around her didn't have enough substance to keep her going.

"UP! Everyone up!" A voice shouted into the room.

Immediate cries followed and Kyrie felt like joining them though she didn't know why. She looked around and noticed she was on a mildly comfortable mat with at least ten others around her.

"Let's go! Come on!" Kyrie didn't think it was a suggestion. She slowly sat up her face scrunched in pain. Some of the boys were already standing everyone was at least making a move to sit up except the bump next to her. Kyrie pushed off the thin blanket. Maybe the person was just having a slow start.

Kyrie saw the lump under a duplicate of the same thin blanket she had move. It squirmed then turned on the mat and ended up facing her. She saw it was a boy with very light blond hair and a few freckles. He didn't seem to be waking up and the yelling man didn't seem to be changing his mind about wanting them up.

She took one of the bony shoulders and shook it. Putting most of her strength in the movement she found out two things. One, her back hurt as well as her belly and legs. And two, this boy was a very heavy sleeper.

With open yawning mouths and many fists rubbing eyes, tired children were starting to file out of the room. Maybe she should leave him behind? Maybe he wouldn't get in too much trouble.

An image of a yelling man with a raised bloody fist pushed its way from the back of her memory to the front. With renewed incentive she took her forefinger and thumb and pinched the boy's nose hard.

"Yow!" The blond boy jerked away. Pale green eyes shot open. It didn't take long for him to find who had done it. "Why did you do that?"

"We have to get up."

The boy groaned. "I'm too tired." He put his head back down on his arm and did seem to go back to sleep.

Well, she couldn't wait any longer. Almost everybody was up. A tall, broad shouldered man was coming into the room. Kyrie stood, not wanting the man to think she was still asleep. She pointed to the boy.

The man came over. He nodded to her and said in a deep voice. "Just line up outside with the others."

Kyrie made slow progress to the door due to her soreness. Lucky for her she hadn't been to far to begin with. She looked back when she was at the door to see the man lifting up the boy to his feet with ease.

Just like the man said, there was a line. She took her place at the end, but outside the room her last thought was on the line of people.

They were high! For a moment, inside the room, she'd forgotten they were climbing up a mountain yesterday. Right now there was no doubt they were in the mountains but she was finding it hard to trust her eyes all the same. The structures were built up the side of the mountain. It jut out, creating a man made cliff. It was on a place where two peaks were not so far, in fact they probably shared the same base.

Kyrie took slow steps closer to the edge. By the bare light of early morning, she couldn't be sure but there was a strong flowing stream in a very green valley. She had to squint but she saw it well enough to believe there were even more structures across the other side connected to this side by a bridge.

Suddenly she was pulled back. A yelp escaped her as the very large Shang man from before lifted her and put her back in line next to the blond boy.

"I-I was just looking." Kyrie stuttered, still shook from the complete abruptness and power.

"You've got to be careful." Was all he said. He made a motion to the Shang leading the line and they set off.

"You're dumb aren't you." It wasn't a question and it came from the blond boy behind her.

"At least I woke up on time."

"Yeah, just so you can fall and die."

She stopped and turned around. "I was not going to fall!"

He grinned at her. "You were the one who pinched me." He reached out and before Kyrie could even guess at what he was going to do he pinched her nose. "There, now we're even. I'm Jared."

"Kyrie." She said slowly, confused by him. By chance she remembered that the line had moved on without them. She turned and moved as fast as she could with the soreness. She practically limped. Kyrie couldn't remember a time when her body had hurt so much without visible injuries.

Luckily, the line wasn't too far without them. The tail of it had just turned into another room.

"There you two are. Come over here."

Kyrie was pulled to one side and Jared another. She lost track of everything except someone holding out her arms and making sure she stood straight. Another person took a rope with equally placed knots and held it against her body. The person called out a few numbers and Kyrie was free to go. Or rather, ushered somewhere else.

"Name?"

All the adults she has seen so far looked tough, a somewhat hardened look on their face and they were built. This woman had slender fingers and her face had a delicate roundness to it a streak of gray hair was pulled away from her face along with the other chestnut brown hair.

"Your name please." The woman said gently. "Do you remember your full name?"

Kyrie nodded.

"Then tell me."

"Kyrie Lalai."

"Very nice." The woman said, fingers working.

Next thing she knew, someone was handing her a folded pile of clothes and she was pushed outside the door to wait in the line again. Jared came out not too long after her.

"What are we supposed to do with these?" Jared leaned around her and looked at the others to her right.

"Some of the clothes they're wearing aren't very nice." He said.

Kyrie looked too. Her own clothes were well used at best but most of the others wore little better than rags. One mousy-haired child was even clutching the small pile of clothes to his chest like it was a precious gift. As an afterthought, she examined Jared's clothes. He looked like he'd only worn them once, yesterday probably, not for days and days in a row. They were simple but well made. he even has shoes. They looked comfortably used instead of the barely held together sandals. Most wore shoes that were much too large for them because it was all they could find. One or two of the fidgeting children had no shoes at all.

Kyre might have said something, anything really, but Jared was called back into the room. he heard a yelp or two and after about ten or fifteen minutes Jared came back out in some of the clothes he'd been given shoeless and ...and...all of the fair hair on his head was gone.

"Kyrie."

She entered at the sound of her name. A sturdy looking female Shang with long brown hair met her. A smile lit her face as she closed the door behind Kyrie.

"I told you the next one was a girl, Naka." The woman took the pile of clothes from Kyrie. "The cute one."

"Oh, yeah, because that narrows it down." Came the muffled another from the back. "You think they're all cute."

The woman laughed and picked out a pair of small breeches and a shirt and put them aside. Taking the other clothes, she motioned Kryrie to follow her. The woman led her to the back of the room where the wall looked like it was made of boxes. She pulled out one of the boxes like a cabinet.

"This is yours. You can keep all your belongings you can fit in here." The young woman put Kyrie's extra clothing in it. She noticed Kyrie's fingers closed around something. "Oh, hey, what's that?"

She reached out a hand to see what it was. Kyrie pulled back.

"It's okay. If its something you want to keep, you can put it in here." Kyrie reluctantly dropped what she hand into her new little cubby. The young woman smiled at her. "A figure of the Mother Goddess. You'll need her. No matter what people say, we're only women trying to live fairly in a man's world. Naka!" She yelled to the back. "Can you do her hair?"

A tan young man walked out of the door in the back. "Why can't you do it?"

The woman positioned Kyrie on a stool. She sighed. "Just look at her hair. Beautiful at this age already. I think it would physically hurt me to take it all away."

"I'll physically hurt you." The male grumbled. He took a chunk of Kyrie's black blue hair and with a sudden snip it fell to the floor.

"Tsk, tsk. You remember what happened the last time you said something like that?" The woman warned.

"Yeah, yeah." He cut off as much of her hair as he could and then took a shaver to the rest. Kyrie, too shocked in spite of seeing Jared's state, didn't move.

The young woman sighed. "I'm glad they don't make us keep our hair short anymore."

The youth shrugged. "It's easier if children don't have to worry about hair or bugs that like to live in it."

"I know."

He finished up and went back through the door he came in. Kyrie couldn't stop touching her head, even when the woman told her to strip down and get in a tub filled with warm water. Kyrie was scrubbed thoroughly, even her head. She was dressed in the new clothes and never saw her old attire again.

"My name is Sarah." The woman said. "If you've got a problem come to me, I can help. Can you repeat my name?"

"Sarah." Kyrie said quietly.

Kyrie sat down next to Jared. When she sat down he slid to the ground too. They didn't really need to say anything to each other. They already understood how the other felt in this situation. The both of them just sat their touching their own heads because their bodies were not yet used to the smoothness. Just like their bodies were not used to the lack of weight.

They waited until everyone was done. Some kids came out crying, others angry. Her stomach growled loudly just as the last person went in the room. She groaned.

"I'm hungry."

"Me too." Jared said. Others sounded their agreement.

"Oh, shut up." A boy down the line said.

"Leave me alone!" Came the shrill answer. "Why do you have to be annoying? I'm moving."

"You can't move. We're in a line." The conviction in his voice would have convinced anyone except maybe the person he was talking to because Kyrie saw one of the other people stand a move down. Kyrie guessed it was a girl. She came and sat to Kyrie's left.

"I'm Elena."

Elena had straight, pale brown eyebrows over dark blue eyes. Kyrie was about to give her own name but Jared spoke up first.

"Go away."

Elena made a frustrated sound. "I wasn't talking to you."

"So?"

"Why should she talk to you? You're a boy. She probably doesn't even want to be your friend."

"Well, you're too late. I am her friend." Jared stuck his tongue out.

"I--"

"I'm Kyrie." Kyrie spoke.

The look on Jared's face said betrayal but Elena was smiling.

"I think we're goin' now." Kyrie said seeing a Shang come over. He told all of them to stand and follow him.

Elena groaned. "I'm hungry."

"Then you're in luck." The Shang said. "Food is on its way."

So much had happened already and yet Kyrie managed to be happy that she would eat, at least.


A/N: Haha. I do remember that in kindergarten though. We acted like friends were objects. He's already my friend! But he was mine! Sorry... maybe we were kinda strange.

Now, I'm no mind reader but I know you are just dying to REVIEW!!!