A/N: Sorry it took so long, but better late than never. I just finished it today. Enjoy.

Chapter 3: Preparations

The sun rose that morning shinning on Mono's sleeping form. For the maiden, dawn came all too soon. Blinking, rubbing her eyes, and shaking off the dew that collected on her gown and hair, Mono sat up, stretched and rose to her feet. It was now mid-autumn, if she counted right. She had tried to learn how to count the days by the cycles of the moon. If she was correct, she would have at least two and a half months before winter. A breeze blew over her, chilling her damp body. She would have to reside inside the shrine below from now on.

Mono's throat felt somewhat dry and scratchy, and she coughed a few times. She prayed she was not about to fall ill. If she had any hope of living to see the next spring, she could not afford sickness. She resolved to endure come what may, and she had every intention of holding to that. After catching and preparing a lizard and some still-lingering fruits, she ate and fed Argo, whose injured leg seemed to be getting better although she doubted he would ever be the grand stallion he once was. Once she'd eaten, she nursed Wander and rocked him a few times until he fell asleep. After wrapping him in the gray cloth she found, her own shroud she guessed, she set to work.

All day long, Mono walked from the garden into the shrine carrying bundles of fallen sticks. Her long pace took her down the winding path to the empty pool where'd she first found Wander, and in a lonely corner, she piled the twigs. It was a place that would stay dry, she hoped. She would need every branch, every limb, and every small piece of wood to stay dry or they would be of no use to her when winter came. Sometimes she resorted to climbing trees and attempting to tear the already dead limbs from them, but more often than not, a fall was her reward. After one such fall, Mono just laid there, bruised and slightly bleeding. Turning her dark eyes skyward she cried out to the gods.

"What have I done to deserve this?" she wailed. "Was I so cursed to deserve this fate? You spare me hunger and thirst to die at winter's hand or at the hands of the trees. What do you want from me?"

She closed her eyes and laid still. After a time, the cries of Wander brought her from the depths and she tended to him before returning to her toils.

By the end of the first day, Mono was exhausted. She rested against a stone in the garden unable to take another step, let alone carry the baby, light as he was. One more in the garden night wouldn't make much difference she decided. Mono groaned wearily. Her feet were sore from the constant walking, which sometimes took her past the altar in the shrine and out into the land itself. A few of her toes bore bruises from the occasional misstep. Her back ached. Her heart ached. In fact, her entire body ached from falls out of the trees. How she longed for a hot bath and a warm bed that night and also some remedy for her throat which continued to irritate her. She coughed and laid back to sleep. Mono thought back at life beyond this place, beyond the shadows of this 'cursed' land as Wander had once called it when he was still alive, or still a man at least. She thought of all she had hoped for. She thought of the few friends she'd made in her village. She wondered if her mother and father still lived, or if the priests had killed them, thought it was unlikely. Her parents never defied them, even when her life, the life of their first-born child, was demanded. But when she thought of Wander, the clouds and shadows of her life seemed to dissipate. She thought of their meeting, and the kiss, and even the possibility that he may have asked her to marry him; a fine possibility that was, uncertain but still a fine possibility. It was to that thought that Mono slept.

When Mono woke the next morning, she felt colder than usual. She felt a slight tingle on the sides of her feet, and her gown appeared to be wet. As she opened one bleary eye, she saw white all around her. Sitting up, the girl rubbed her eyes and looked with surprise at the sight before her eyes. A light frost blanketed the garden. She had not expected this, not this soon. She looked at the bundle of cloth on the ground near her in which baby Wander still slept. She quickly snatched up the child and hurried down into the shrine before returning to lead Argo inside the ancient structure as well. As she led the horse, Mono winced with every step as she walked with bare feet over the frosted earth. Each step brought the frigid barbs, so cold they burned her, into the soles of her feet. Still she bore the cold as best she could until the frost gave way to equally cold, but slightly more tolerable, stone. As she settled by her small wood pile with the baby and Argo, Mono felt her heart sink. Her spirit fell further by the rise of a cough in her throat. She was falling ill. Sickness or no, however, she had to press on. She looked at the child who was just now stirring, wiggling in his wrappings.

"You will live," she declared, her voice hoarse. "No matter what, you will live."

She rose and gave the child suck before returning to work. All day, she walked upon the frosted earth, gathering more and more sticks. She rarely stopped, except to tend the baby and Argo. She wished she had taken some of the cloth she'd used to cover Wander to wrap her feet. But she could not bear the thought of even slightly robbing him of warmth. Still, she would have not argued about a pair of shoes. Even her old sandals would not be disagreeable.

Like her hunger and thirst, she felt the sting of the frost, the illness within her, the bitter winds, and even her weariness, but she also felt as if they were insignificant. To her, it felt as though she could even be entombed in ice and snow in her bare skin and not freeze to death. But still, while she felt such vitality, she did not feel it wise to test it so. At the end of the day, Mono lit a small fire in the shrine and moved as close as she could to it, letting it warm her tired and chilled body. She also wrapped herself in the cloth, holding Wander close to keep him warm also. Moving a safe distance from the fire, she finally slept.

Daily, Mono continued her labors, trying to forage enough food for each day and gathering any loose wood she could find. Even in illness and utter exhaustion, she somehow found the strength to rise and work. For days, she walked over frost, stone, and dry grass on feet that were blistering and sometimes bleeding. Still, she pressed on. As she did, she became ever more convinced that something in this land both nourished and sustained her. What it was, she could not say for she did not know. It astounded her that while she felt everything, it was almost as though she felt nothing at the same time. She did not know whether to regard this as a curse or a blessing.

"Perhaps, I am meant to live to see you grow," Mono thought aloud as she rocked Wander to sleep one night. To her, that was an encouraging thought. Yet, there was another thought as well; the thought that she was in far more danger in this temple, this very land than she was when she fled her people.