Tsuki no Namida IX

…. Shattered flames

//Written by Star and guided by Bunny. ^_^//

Chapter nine! Sorry for the long wait, but man, this chapter was trouble! When I finally got it written it was this lifeless flop in my hands! So for over the past week, I've been coaxing Bunni to help me find the areas that needed life breathed into them--changing scenes, adding scenes, shining up the character's personalities, basically slaving and pulling my hair out. Warning, it is hard to do CPR to a chapter! @.o But after doing that, and now after getting the last-minute editing from Jana, I would call it a successful chapter!! ^____^

Some people have voiced their concerns to me of Serenity weeping back to Endymion and all that, and I want to tell you to never fear! I have my devious writer's plans for Endymion (a factor in it will be showed at a new arrival in this chapter). Endymion needs a humility lesson and Serenity needs to grow into the confidant savior of her people!

Unfortunately, I'm in great need of brainstorming the rest of the story, since it's getting foggier in my mind, not to mention surprise ideas that makes it a kinked mess in my brain that needs cleaning up. So, I can't say when the next chapter will be out, but I'll try my ultimate best! I'm far too stubborn to send in a chapter until I'm happy with it (as this chapter is living proof), but I hope this characteristic of mine really pays off. Overall, read, I hope you enjoy, and thank you all again for the tremendous support! --star

Raye turned restlessly in her bed, sheets twisting around her legs. Her heartbeat pounded heavily in the silence, encompassing the veil of her ears. Sweat dripped down her forehead, breaths labored. The flame of the lamp by her bed rose in the air.

Fire danced in flashes across her mind, withering up her dreamless sleep and dragging her to the past. In it laid her vulnerability---something she tried dearly to hide.

The dream had just recently begun to haunt her. After many winters of a peace, the familiar storm was returning without warning. Raye could hear the fire's muffled crackling and roaring in her ears. Her mind sparked, and she was once again nine years of age.

* * *

"Papa!" Raye yelled, her child-voice bellowing with joy. Her arms flailed in greeting as she stumbled across the field, her feet tangling in the dampened grass. The moment she heard the jostling cart and horses' trots, she fled the manor, too impatient to bother with shoes as her spluttering nanny's cries and crippled mother's laughs peeled after her.

She swallowed a joyous sound as a man upon a chestnut mare ahead of the distant cart waved a strong arm back to her. Pride for her father swelled in her small frame. Papa was an important man in the military, as she often boasted to others. But oh, why did he have to be gone so long? She waited in the misty morning, turning her weight from one impatient foot to the other.

When her father finally dismounted his horse, the thin threads that had kept her at bay broke. She flew to the giant man in all her eagerness, clasping her arms around his leg before he lifted her and twirled her around. His deep laughter sounded in her ears and she beamed up at him as he tucked her in the crook of one arm and made for the manor. "Did you miss me?" she asked.

He rumpled her silk-thin ebony hair and planted a firm kiss on her forehead. "Every moment of every day, firefly."

For a moment as he carried her up the stone steps, her papa seemed worn and oddly… defeated. But nothing could defeat her papa! She captured her bottom lip, still wondering at the taught lines of his face when he smiled at her and all her concern washed away. She slipped down onto her feet when they entered, and then paraded to the room she had abandoned her mother and nana in. "Papa's home!" she cried breathlessly.

"Dear me, child!" her nana exclaimed. "You run like an earthquake! And just look at your dress…"

Nana's cries faded to the background as Papa walked in, stopping by the entrance. His chestnut eyes softened like sunlight washing over a field as he saw Raye's frail but beautiful mother sitting in the wooden contraption she could wheel around in. Her crippled legs were hidden beneath a quilt, and a warm shawl was wrapped around her small shoulders. But despite her sunken cheeks and tired eyes, there was a healthy flush on her face and a sparkling warmth echoing in her eyes.

Raye's father crossed the rich room, crouching before his wife and taking the frail hands into his own, their met gazes their own silent welcomes. After a moment, he turned to Raye. "Now where's that brother of yours?"

Nephrite, at the boasting age of twelve, had been the only brother too young to enlist in the king's service and aid her father. Raye found it sorrowing that all her brothers had left home. Too soon, Nephrite would leave well. Casting aside her troubling thoughts, she answered, "He took one of the dogs and went off hunting. Said he wouldn't come back till he got something worthy of dinner. I told him that he would be gone for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long" she took a breath, "long time, but he wouldn't listen."

"He'll be back by dark if he doesn't want a sore bottom," Nana cut in with a wry voice.

"Well then, Raye, why don't you gather some flowers for your mother while she and I catch up?"

Raye gave an eager nod and scrambled out of the house, ignoring her nana's cry to put shoes on. She took off like a rabbit through the field, reaching a cobblestone wall under siege of weedy grass and twisting ivy peppered with bristles and tiny flowers. Humming idly, she dallied on the dirt road, walking until she spotted a nestle of violet flowers at the foot of the wall. She eagerly crouched and began gathering a purple bouquet with tentative fingers. Violets were her mama's favorite. Her mama would sit her on her lap sometimes after Raye handed her violet flowers, and in a hushed, eager voice she would tell Raye, "You had violet eyes when you were born! A gorgeous color shining up at me like precious stones." But Papa took her to a holy man to turn her eyes a Terran color. Or at least that was what one of her brothers told her after she puzzled why she had plain brown eyes. She giggled at the thought of having violet eyes. It was a pretty color.

Raye jumped as a twig snap pelted the air, and she turned a wary eye to the silent mist that shrouded a wet field and gnarled trees. Her gaze fell back to her task, even though her senses attuned to her surroundings. She tried to hum, to bring back the happy sound, but it rasped in her throat. Her fingers deftly collected more flowers. Something moved by one of the trees, and Raye whipped her head around, rising to her feet like a startled muskrat. She stood still, ensnared by the eerie silence that was tempered only by distant melodious birds. Feeling her skin crawl, she took off in a flutter of skirts, bare feet darting over the dew-dampened ground as she protectively clutched her mother's flowers.

When she reached the manor and clamored into the main hall, breathless and near trembling, she berated herself for her childish fear. Her papa was the bravest man alive! She felt so foolish inside her home. Her scolding thoughts were swept away, though, as she found that two of her older brothers had returned in her absence. Along group of her father's, men who were also good friends, were also there.

The rest of the day, as she basked in her family's company, she felt like the princess of the family—excepting her mother, that was. Maybe Nana too, but who could call that woman a princess? She wrinkled her nose and restrained a giggle at the thought, balancing the bowls of scraps for the dogs in her arms as she nudged the side door open with her foot. Fatty meat, clips of ham, and strips of roast beef made a rich, seasoned smell that teased her nose. The dogs would definitely profit from the celebration feast. She met the brisk evening air that swept through her flimsy dress as she climbed down the steps.

She rounded toward the makeshift wooden shelter bedded with hay where the dogs were tied, thankful for the two torches that spread a ring of light. The affectionate greeting shriveled on her tongue when she looked up, caught in the sight of a Lunarian man. His clothes were torn and bloodied, skin covered in grime and sweat, and silver hair knotted in twigs and braids. He wasn't supposed to be there.

"Papa?" she called out softly, unable to move her stiffened bones.

At her weak cry, the Lunarian lunged forward and stopped just as the dog barks began to rock the air. Her gaze snapped up, ensnared by silver-blue eyes that were eerily pale and taking an unearthly glow in the darkness.

The Lunarian crept toward her as dogs continued to bark in the background. "Little girl, do you know where my son is?" he spoke, his voice soft and raspy, some dangerous insanity lacing his words.

Her body tensed. "Papa…" she tried to call again, but the word were only a shallow breath.

The man stepped forward.

"Papa!" her voice strengthened in alarm and the dogs whined. The two lamps grew brighter as the flames heightened and wisped into the air like bristling snakes.

"Raye?" her nana's aged voice called. Raye trembled in the silent, frightening moment. As the door she had just abandoned began to creak open, the Lunarian snagged her and pressed a steel blade against her heaving throat, the wooden bowls in her arms clattering to the ground and rolling over the grass.

Raye, consumed by her fear, just made out her nana's form in the doorway. The woman gasped in horror as she held a pudgy hand to her pale face. Tears pooled out of Raye's wide, numb eyes and she felt them slide over her face.

"Stay back," the Lunarian hissed, jerking Raye. "Stay back or I'll kill her. I want my son back, Terran hag. Damn you! Give me back my son!" The man's words were hoarse and frantic, his latter cries straining like those of a wounded animal.

Raye's nana stumbled back. Raye could have melted in joy as she saw her papa's giant form push by the stuttering woman, followed by her eldest brothers and her father's friends, all wearing grave faces. Her Papa stopped on the last step and surveyed the scene. "What is going on here?" he questioned, his deep voice low and controlled, a chilling tone that Raye had never heard from him before.

"Give… me… back… my… son," the Lunarian belted each word as Raye tried to swallow the swell in her throat.

"We don't have your son, Lunarian," her papa said levelly, his men skirting around the Lunarian.

The Lunarian whipped his head at the threatening forms before lashing his voice out at the general. "Stay away or your kin shall breathe her last breath. I swear by God, keep your evil forms away from me!" The dogs' barks grew high-pitched in the evening.

"Calm yourself," Raye's papa said calmly with lifted hands. "No need to do anything rash."

The Lunarian's voice strengthened in rage and insanity, peeling out like a banshee's. "Rash? My wife died in my hands, throat slashed, her body left in the gutter. And then you stole my son! Give me a reason—give me a damn reason—why I shouldn't slay this child and make you know what it feels like!"

The men began to close in and the blade pressed harder against Raye's neck, a pinch and a sting making her whimper. Her narrow chest heaved frantically, and she felt ashamed as her confidence in her father began to shrivel.

Unnoticed, the flames in the two lamps licked even higher before flickering out like a caught breath. Suddenly the fire burst, shattering its glass shelter and startling everyone present. Flames caught on the soiled hay, erupting and spreading, creeping onto the manor's wall. The dogs shied away and barked at it. Burning cedar began to fill the air with smoke.

Raye hardly paid attention, still too concerned with the arms around her and the sting at her throat. The Lunarian man had stood quiet since the fire's behavior, but suddenly, his pant-leg caught fire and he shook it wildly. The grip on Raye loosened, the knife's pressure leaving her skin. Drawing a strangled gasp, she ducked and twisted free, stumbling and falling into her father's sheltering form in a bundle of shaking sobs. She ignored the man's flailings behind her, and only dug further into her father's thick, wool tunic when the man's last cry choked out at the end of a merciful sword.

She drowned herself in her tears, cutting off the world around her. That was, until her nana's shrill, horrified voice rose in the air. "The Mistress!"

Raye stared dumbly at the toppled wheelchair, its wood burnt and broken with weeds bushing around it as it as it sat against the manor wall the next morning. Her eyes were large, remembered flames flickering in their woody depths. Suddenly, she felt like a lifeless doll and crumpled to the ground. Her breaths were steady but held a threatening rasp. Mother… Her mother. Places on her face twitched, but no real emotion grew.

Was it her fault? The tiny voice inside stung her. She pulled back to remember the thread she had felt bonding her with the fire, how the fire had burst and come to her need. Was it she who had controlled the fire? The fire killed her mother. No, no, no. No! Venom streaked her, and she twisted her thoughts to the Lunarian man. It was him who had killed her mother! He could control the fire. Her race gave her no power to do so. Tense fingers dug into the dirt as her gaze burned in hatred. He had killed her mother. She sat there, unmoving as the sky lightened to a gray mist. Of course, there was still that small, tugging voice that insisted she had meddled with the fire in some way, but that thought was far too ugly and painstaking.

* * *

Raye shot up in bed in a barrel of gasping heaves, sweat filming over her skin and clinging her tunic to her body in wet patches. Tears swam wildly in her eyes, and it took her a moment to realize her arms were shaking uncontrollably and her heartbeat slammed against her chest, as if trying to gain freedom. She curled her fists tightly over the cotton sheets, struggling to untangle herself from her nightmare's clinging shroud.

She rose and staggered to a bureau in her room, shaking fingers tumbling over the china pots. Finally her hands found and dipped into cold water, and she splashed it frantically over her face. After a few reckless minutes, her heart calmed, and she brought her gasps to long and steady breaths. Her arms felt light from the blood flooding through them, but no longer shook.

Slowly, she brought her face up, resolving to return to bed--but then her eyes locked on the oval mirror stationed above the chest. She couldn't move, frozen and dazed for a long time—a forbidden state for a general. The whole world had suddenly snapped and pulled away from her, leaving her only to stare at her eyes. The smooth, chocolate brown had vanished, leaving a color damned by belonging only to Lunarian eyes. Her breaths, though steady, made a shallow sound in the air. Razor shards of violet glimmered at her.

Stepping back, she straightened her body to a tense height and shut her mouth, taking a sharp intake of air. A fearful thought snaked through her mind, one that chilled her racing blood. With an ever-growing slowness, she turned as if in a spell and walked over to an innocent candle whose flame was teasingly high. She lifted her hand, trembles darting through her fingers. She brought her palm over the fire. Further, she tried to coax herself. She could only feel the warmth bedding on her skin. She needed to lay it in the fire. But as she nudged it down, nothing changed--only her realization that the warmth almost tickled. No… no. She swept her whole palm and every finger over the flame, waiting--praying--for the sting and familiar swell of skin. The fire wouldn't burn her. Her violet eyes widened in a crazed fear. She barreled her hand into the candle's side. The iron holder toppled loudly onto the floor as the cursed flame blew out.

"We are out of our minds. How can we be doing this? And why the bloody hell are we staying in one spot?" a distressed Amy cried, pursuing her frantic pace over the dirt road where the ground had begun to dip to her relentless feet. She waved her arms, turning to face the stretching road that narrowed and slipped into darkness. "And we're standing on a road! Why don't we just yell and say, 'we're here helping a Lunarian girl and baby escape; won't you take us to prison!' I swear any minute they're going to ride down, preparing for a grueling, sleepless search and find us dallying around on the road like flowers waiting to be plucked."

Serenity bit her lip from where she huddled in the nestle of the roots of a tree, cradling the baby. The night's sounds clutched her nerves. She squirmed and cast a worried gaze to Lita, who was on the other side of the road and leaning against a tree with her arms crossed. Though shadowed, Serenity was sure the girl kept rolling her eyes. "Do you think she is right? Is it really best for us to wait here?" Serenity asked.

"She'll be here. It's not worth chancing to stray from the road."

"Well, she can afford taking her time," Amy said, still wallowing in hysterics. "Her father's a duke! He can weasel her out of any trouble she gets in. But me--a humble midwife? No. Though at least I have some respectability. I could be imprisoned, but you could be hung, Lita! Doesn't that at all trouble you?" she demanded, her voice growing higher as she spoke and leaving her sputtering for breath.

"Ignore her, Serenity," Lita advised, sighing.

"But how can I?" Serenity wailed softly, sullen eyes cast to the shadowed brush. "You two are endangering yourselves for my sake. I would understand if we parted here."

"Not a chance," Lita exclaimed in her full, throaty voice. "We came this far. And to tell you the truth, I'm loving this. Would-be cooks and sad attempts for midwife assistants--"

"Isn't that the truth," murmured a subdued Amy.

Lita glared at the girl and continued. "--don't get enough excitement!"

"Excitement!" erupted the small girl on the road. "We're running for our lives and you call this excitement!"

Suddenly, Lita laughed and said to Serenity, "You know, I can get used to her like this."

Serenity furrowed her brow, flicking away a bug that tickled her arm. "What's she normally like?"

"Miss collected, that's what. Always calm and floundering in books, believing they hold all the answers." She turned to Amy. "Books aren't helping you now, are they?" She looked back to Serenity. "Look--she's sulking! She's actually sulking."

Serenity's head perked at a sound, trembles shooting through her. "What was that?"

All three fell quiet and tense. A steady clackety-clack sounded in the air, like a horses' trotting and jostling cart. A dim light appeared far down the road.

A light rush poisoned Serenity's blood. "I can't breathe," she whispered, her lungs seeming to have tightened and locked.

Lita snapped up. "Quick, hide!"

Amy squeaked and stumbled into some bushes. Serenity rose on her shaky legs and slipped to the other side of the tree, trying not to squeeze Sapphire in her fear. All they needed was for him to start crying! She bit her lip, forehead pressed against the tree, feeling sharp, tiny crevices wrinkling its bark.

The cart's sound grew closer, and Serenity peered into the shadows across the road before daring a peek. A tiny, hunched over woman driver held the reins for two chestnut mares. A lantern stood on the bench beside the woman, shedding a golden light to a bed's length from the cart where it abruptly began to fade to a dusky yellow and then to darkness.

It was neither the watchers nor the soldiers. Serenity dipped back with a loosening sigh as she waited for the cart to pass. Couldn't it go any faster? But then, with a curious furrow of her brow, she saw the slim woman stretch her head this way and that, a tuff of golden hair showing from the shadowed hood as she peered into the darkened forest as if in searching. Was she that wary of bandits or--

"Mina!" Lita stepped out onto the road.

The driver let out a deafening screech and shot to her feet, the startled horses rearing. "Oh!" Serenity exclaimed, scurrying from her hiding place. Holding Sapphire in the crook of one arm, she took the dropped reins of the horse closest to her, helping it to calm down while Lita did the same with the other.

The woman--now yielding the name Mina--stood erect in her place with her hand over her heart. Her hood had fallen back to reveal a young girl with doe-wide blue eyes, a perk nose, and long smooth strands of golden hair partly lifted in a clasp in back while the rest hung winded around her. "Are you crazy? Don't you ever scare me like that!" she cried.

"Well, you scared us! What took you so long?" Lita replied, rubbing the horse's back.

"It couldn't be helped! Papa kept talking and talking and talking about every bloody affair of his. I had a devil of a time excusing myself and then preparing the horses!" Mina wailed with an exhausted drawl. "I really am not used to doing such labor." With a hefting sigh, a smile spread across her lips. "But I am glad you thought of me, Lita! You know I love to help."

Serenity hovered by the horse as the girl spoke, shyly keeping silent. But then Mina's eyes landed on her and a delighted look overtook the girl's face. "You must be Serenity!" Mina cried, slipping down to the ground. She melted at the sight of Sapphire. "Awe!" Stopping, she gave Serenity a tentative look, shadows of knowledge in her eyes that didn't show at first glance. "Is he yours?"

Serenity shook her head, her eyes stinging briefly. "A friend's. His name is Sapphire," she finished with a smile, mind sailing back to the image of Rain as her arms tightened briefly over the warm, fragile form.

Mina immediately leaned over and began cooing at the little Sapphire, but was stopped by the clearing of a throat as a tight-lipped Amy looked down on them. "It might be best that we don't dally," she said with a pointed look, regaining most of her composure while still appearing the rumpled kitten.

Mina gave a mournful sigh before reluctantly pulling away. When she did, though, her back straightened, her chin lifted, and she said a dignified, "Yes. We must be on our way."

Under Mina's instructions, Serenity burrowed into the hay of the cart, careful with sapphire as the others gently placed tuffs of hay over her head. Pricks and pokes attacked her body and she could hear her own shallow breaths as she squinted an eye to look through the slits of hay. Her heart did a sweeping dip as the cart jerked into movement with a call from Mina, Lita laying back in the hay with a grin and Amy delicately sitting with her back straight, pretending she wasn't a bundle of nerves constantly searching the trees.

The jilting ride continued in silence. Serenity would have liked to speak with her rescuers, or at least the adventuresome Lita and the warm-hearted Mina, but any sound she made was muffled by her enclosure--not to mention that it didn't seem the appropriate time to get to know one another. The tension grew as the cart neared the city's limits. Sapphire's one moment of crying when waking to find his suffocating hiding spot with Serenity sent even Lita on edge until he subsided by Serenity's efforts.

As the time wore on and the warmth levied in the hay, Serenity found herself nodding off to sleep, just barely keeping conscious of the sound of her breaths, the horses' trots and nays, and the cart's rocking. Peace nestled snugly inside her and refused to leave despite the danger. She was gone from Larenque's manor, no longer a slave. Despite the wilting scars that were left, and her heart's sorrow still slipping around her like a wayward tear, she was, most in bewilderment, finding herself again. The sunshine girl that loved to run in the fields was curled in a hidden crook within her. A joy enveloped Serenity as she found that girl still alive, and a warm yellow light grew in her, a flower stubbornly growing and blossoming in a land that had grown barren with weeds.

She was swept away by her revelations, exploring herself like meeting a friend she hadn't seen in ages. Amidst sleep, the experience seemed to develop into soft visions. The lovely image of the Delacrae home swayed in her mind, sunshine pouring down like heaven itself and pale yellow, dusky red, and misty blue flowers naught the size of a fingernail budding from the creeping vines that overtook the stone walls. She saw the fields and longing sank deep into the flow of her blood. When the ruckus from her escape died down and it was safe, she could journey back to Artemis and Luna. It was nearly too good to be true. Tears welled in her eyes at the blessed thought of running back home, of her wounded spirit slowly healing as the days crept by as slow and careless as before… She had ventured into the world only to be burnt. What a cruel and terrible place she found it to be! She would never leave her haven again.

Just as she made her silent declaration, a muttered curse drew her sharply to her surroundings. She shifted her head in the hay to look up, but the glow of the lamp was the only thing that met her peering eyes. Her mouth opened to speak, but she shut it on instinct and simply waited. As per her suspicions, the carted rocked to a stop. Her stomach lurched and her arms trembled even before a man spoke.

"Who goes there?"

Mina's voice responded high and lilting with innocence. "Only a few travelers. My grandfather is ill and I must reach him. My friends have come to support me. Is there something wrong? I shall be very much afraid if you say there are known cutthroats about." Mina batted her eyes at the two soldiers that approached the cart. They walked over from a disturbingly large camp in the clearing by the side of the road. Tents were unceremoniously hitched as they prepared for an excruciating search, roasting food over fires while the higher-ups shouted instructions. An unnamed organ trembled sickly in Mina. They went all-out for runaway Lunarians. It would surely be days--even weeks--before they gave up.

"Nay, Milady, have no worries. It is but a runaway slave girl and child we are after. We are under instruction to search all that travel this road." The tall one with a jagged nose bowed with a polite pause for consent, the lamp from the cart casting ugly shadows on his crooked face.

Mina forced a smile, making good of her speech while her fingers fumbled into her skirts. "Of course, by all means." She continued talking, effectively making the soldiers hesitate from their movement to search the cart. "I must say though that I am very relieved that such strong, handsome soldiers such as yourselves are patrolling these areas!" she exclaimed, fingering one of the soldier's stiff uniform collar with a prone innocence as her other hand still discreetly searched. Both men were visibly transfixed and nearly leaned forward enough to topple over.

Mina hid a bubbling smirk and continued in a smooth, sultry voice. "A few girls alone on a road at night with bandits around these parts--the idea gave me such a fright! But I knew I had to hurry to my poor grandfather. Knowing you gentlemen are around makes me feel so much safer." During Mina's speech, Serenity shut her eyes and held her breath, Amy burrowing nervously into the hay while Lita gave a fierce glare from her hunched position. And then Mina triumphantly found the object her fingers searched for--a tiny, round reflector. If possible, her smile became even more dazzling as she brought it to her chest and fiddled it as if it were a broach of sorts, signaling while praying for all she was worth that it wouldn't be missed.

She batted her eyes, the men's gazes enraptured by the flashing reflector she purposely levied by her breasts. One cleared his throat and cast her a questioning gaze and she laughed carelessly. "Oh this? A gift from my papa. It was my late mother's."

The two soldiers held dopey grins, fairly tongue-tied by the praise. Some of the men from the camp cast wary eyes at the cart that had yet to move on, and the two soldiers, collecting themselves, moved to search the cart out of duty, for they surely held no real belief that anything would be found.

An arrow shot through the air with a whipping noise, whizzing past one of the men's head by finger's length and lodging into the cart's wood. A surprised curse sprung from the one man as he swung his head towards the trees. A loud whoop from the night alerted the whole camp and there was rustling in the trees and on the ground like the premonition of a stampede.

Mina sat back and smirked. Amy let out a squeak and, if possible, burrowed even more in the hay like a rabbit darting for its burrow, while Lita sat up with an excited light in her eyes. Serenity's protecting hole began to feel like a prison. She gasped at the excitement that came like an unexpected thunderstorm and she tried to wiggle up, peeking her face into the brisk air. She blew at an infuriating tuft of hay that blocked her lips before her eyes snapped wide, watching men plow down from the trees and other men, upon horses, break from the darkness into the camp's fire-light.

Her stomach began to float sickeningly to unwanted places as chaos struck her, sending trembles through her body like hordes of skittering beetles. The fires stationed around the camp cast raging oranges and threatening shadows, feeding like a plague and catching onto tents. The flames danced in Serenity's numb, dilated eyes, glimmers of orange peeling in deep, horrified blue. For one terrifying moment, she was back in the little girl's body, shaking with trembling tears, pushing back against a warp shed with fire creeping towards her. The fire wouldn't listen to her pleas. The battle raged outside, her people falling in their crimson blood.

Serenity jerked back with a gasp, finding herself unable to control her shivering. She cradled sapphire, pushing more of the hay away and bending over his crying form. Her hand gently cupped his squirming head, her eyes tearing as she kissed his warm, petal-soft cheek and shushed him. When her arms wrapped further around the babe, she wasn't at all sure whether it was for his comfort or her own.

With Sapphire's protests fading and his snuggling and clinging beginning, Serenity lifted her head and let her eyes trail across the area--and felt a surprised jolt. Silver hair! Though not all, many of the men that had raided the camp had silver hair. They were all free Lunarians. An ember of envy touched her as she watched one man jump through the flames, unharmed, waving his arm, and the fire obediently moving and swallowing a cart of the Terrans' weapons. She pushed the envy down and replaced it with awe, a finger unknowingly trailing her collar as her head tilted.

Suddenly, Lita sprang from the cart, tearing a cry from Serenity. Serenity squirmed and fought, drawing further out of her hiding place, idly brushing hay away and tightening her grip on the crying Sapphire as she crawled over the hay. Her breaths grew hollow in her throat as she whipped her head around, leaning over the cart's wall. Finally, her vision clasped onto Lita among the see of battle, and Serenity drew in a tight breath. "Lita! Come back!" Lita, in all her insanity, had taken possession of a sword and jumped happily into the fight. Heavens! What was the woman thinking?

Just then, a soldier noticed her, apparently registering her as the runaway slave girl, and a cruel grin bloomed on his face. "He's heading this way!" Serenity scooted back in the hay like a frightened mouse, tightening her grip on Sapphire. A grimy hand clasped over her bare foot, pushing a fear-sickened cry from Serenity as her heart pounded like thunder against her chest. She slid helplessly across the hay as the soldier pulled her towards him.

Just as she began to despair, the unbelievable happened. A slim arm erupted from the hay and a fist plowed into the man's jaw. Serenity tugged back her defiled foot and slipped it safely under her as she stared at Amy, who poked out of the hay sputtering. Completely covered in the gold hay, Amy stared at her reddened hand as if she had just hit the devil himself.

"Hey handsome!" Mina suddenly yelled as the man recovered from the blow. Serenity turned her dazed head in time to see Mina lunge at the man with a fiery spark, pulling a dagger from her skirts. Her golden mane of hair billowed after her, nearly made her seem like an avenging goddess. In the name of all that was good in the world, were all these women insane? Serenity sat there dumbly. The blonde hardly reached the mens' chests, like a rabbit believing to be a lion! Though… a very very quick and efficient rabbit, Serenity mused, watching the girl slip by every threat and managing to inflict some wounds in the process.

Feeling the girl was in no immediate danger, Serenity turned to search for Lita. Despite there being only two women insane enough to jump into the fight, Lita was exasperatingly difficult to find. After a while, Serenity's eyes landed instead on a Lunarian upon a gleaming, black stallion. He rode tall and confident through the ocean of brawling bodies, eyes intense and hawk-like as he shouted commands, jumping into the fight when needed. Silver wisps of hair brushed over his furrowed brow, his eyes, when they turned, a thundering violet. But then she realized he was staring at the cart. He threw his head over his shoulder and yelled to a man with silver hair brushing just past a set of burly soldiers who nodded and made straight for the cart.

Mina, though not having strayed far from the cart, was engrossed in leashing out at a particularly bloody and angry soldier. She screeched as the Lunarian swept her away and gave an indignant cry as he hauled her up onto the bench of the cart, climbing in after her. She wrestled with the man, nearly scratching his eyes out as she tried to get back down, when he firmly sat her back and managed a fiery gaze with a breathless, "I have my orders!" Mina fell quiet with large eyes. He threw a glance back to Amy and Serenity in the cart before turning back and grabbing onto the reins.

"No! Wait!" Serenity screamed when realizing the man's intent to whisk them out of there--as tempting as it was. God, where was Lita? Why wasn't she able to find the girl in all of her searching? Did she blend in so well or…or was she lying on the ground, brown hair tangled in blood… No! Oh, why did she have to think that? Traitorous mind. Her teeth dug into her lip, eyes scraping the lunging forms. Then a glimpse of knotty brown hair flinging from a ponytail teased her vision.

"Lita!" Breaths frantic, Serenity turned and laid Sapphire in Amy's startled arms before peeling out of the cart. Mina's shout and the man's curse slid past her numb ears. She stumbled around in the midst of fighting bodies that seemed to be as towering as aged oaks and more threatening than lashing beasts. The fire's glow and the men's lunging forms grew fuzzy in her vision, all sound dimming to her labored breaths and pounding heart as her steps whirled, turned, and ran through the chaos.

She shied from a tent engulfed in fire, squinting in the smoke that itched at her eyes. Coughing into her sleeve, she staggered around a trampled fire, the stick holding the roasting rabbit collapsing into the burst of flames. "Lita!" Her scream sounded hoarse and dry, sunken by the strain of her desperation.

She swiped at the film of sweat beading on her forehead, throwing her gaze back to the cart and immediately stopping dead, every nerve screaming in frustration. Lita hovered by the cart, clearly searching the grounds along with the others for Serenity. Serenity fought the wave swelling in her chest and tears striking her eyes as the battle she'd thrown herself into no longer held a purpose.

Biting her lip, Serenity worked her way back, trembles scourging through her at swords that nearly grazed her. A man, engrossed in his fight, barreled into her and she fell with a grunt to the weeded ground. Still shaky, she begged her muscles to work as she tried to rise, fearful of the stampeding feet. Before her coercing took effect though, a Terran soldier's large, grimy hands locked bruisingly over her arms and hauled her to her feet. She screamed, struggling against the brute with every breath.

"So yer the silver-head that started this, aye?" The man's rotten breath blew hotly in Serenity's hair. A strangled sound raged in her throat as she pulled an arm free to hit him as hard a she could on his wide, prickly chin. Unfortunately, it only made him laugh.

"Kunzite, leave!" The calm voice cut sharply in her ears. Not quite sure why, she paused and turned, lying eyes on the violet-eyed Lunarian from before, who still sat regally on his stallion. She followed his gaze and desperation dragged her stomach down as the Lunarian who guarded the cart nodded and snapped the horses into action. They were leaving without her! She bit back the cry welling in her throat, her limbs returning to their vicious fight against the soldier's callused hands.

Fear tightened its grip on her as she came increasingly aware that the Lunarian men were beginning to retreat. Tears stabbed her eyes, scared and angry as they slipped down her cheeks. What would happen to her? Would they bring her back to Larenque? Visions flashed through her mind, sinking her head to a light and dizzy world. She had been too afraid to ask what happened to runaways that were caught. Now she nearly wished she had, for her imagination was far too great and far too torturing.

No! A storm of outrage struck from behind her trembling frailty. So, she was weak. So, she was a runaway slave, still cut off from her elements. But she wouldn't make her capture easy! It was a brief moment in self-glory. Both Lita and Mina had lunged into the fight. Even Amy had managed a sturdy blow! Fear and sheer backbone collided, and her shimmering blue eyes narrowed, her lashing turning rebellious in contrast to her previous frantic flailings.

The burly soldier grunted, his amused smile wiped from his grimy face.

She twisted, a strained cry tearing from her throat at the effort. Her skin twisted over the muscle and tissue of her arm, bruises blooming on its tender surface beneath the iron-like hands. But then her arm finally wrenched free, and in a blind moment, barely feeling the burning of her sore skin, she turned and shoved into the giant, feeling his body give way to gravity. They both struck the ground, Serenity swiftly rolling off his spluttering form. Her gaze flew up to see something sharp had cut into the man's face as he shielded it with one mammoth hand. Her triumph was short-lived, however, because his free hand then dug into the embers of a fire.

Serenity had no time to look away as a cloud of ash and still glowing specs assaulted her, pelting her tender eyes. A sharp sting of tears struck her as she scooted blindly back with a cry. Her eye sockets felt like they were burning, her hands' frantic rubbings inflicting only soreness. She backed into a woodpile, a whimper in her throat turning into a wild cry as she felt arms around her body. She kicked her feet and lashed out, consumed nearly to insanity as fear sickened her bones. It was too unfair! She squinted up through watery, bruised eyes, unable to see anything but orange light and a man's struggling shape. Her hand pushed against a hard chest beneath a flimsy tunic, the other banging into a strong, sinewy arm.

"Stop this!" the deep voice pounded in her ears. She found it vaguely familiar but shoved the thought away and dug her fingernails into his shoulder, earning herself a guttural curse. Just as she lunged her hand forward with her fingers curled to scratch the man's eyes out, a hand locked around her tiny wrist and he spoke again with more exasperation and perhaps a flicker of amusement. "Put away your claws—I'm not your enemy!"

Serenity stopped abruptly, her heaving chest her only movement. The voice was familiar. Through bleary eyes, she stared at the man who towered over her lying form. Abashed, her blurred vision showed silver hair and two violet eyes. It was the leader of the raid. All her fight slid off of her and sunk into the ground, leaving her too dazed to even fumble for an apology.

"Much better," the man murmured.

Still at a loss for words, she could only try to blink her aching eyes and rid herself of the angry sheet of tears that pooled like an instinctive bandage.

"Come. Let's get you out of here," he breathed. Before she knew it, he hefted her onto her shaky, bare feet. Then it seemed for a moment that he took in her reddened, glassy eyes. Her presumption was solidified when his finger drifted cold against the scorching skin around her eyes. At another itching sting, her hand rose on impulse but was captured by the man's hand. "Don't rub your eyes. It does more harm than good. You'll just have to wait it out until it cools down. Can you manage to mount my horse?"

Before Serenity could answer, he gave a deft whistle. A large, ebony motion pooled her sore vision and she jumped at a horse's whicker in her hair. The man slid by her and it took her a moment to realize he had mounted the horse. She felt her hands on the horse's silky coat, searching blindly for where to get on when the man's hand clasped over one of hers and led her to a stirrup which she promptly stuck her foot in and hefted herself up, letting him pull her up behind him.

At once she was buffeted by a towering and rocking sensation as the horse gave a few stuttering steps, and she snaked her hands around the man's torso and locked them together. Her helpless eyes journeyed the trampled camp, bright blurs of fire and smudged forms of cream tents and encompassing darkness.

It was the encompassing darkness they plowed into, pursued by reckless gallops behind. She jerked, throwing her gaze in back. Though the cool breeze started to ease the soreness, she could only peer through the thick blanket of the night. "Are they after us?" she cried, unable to help the trembling that gripped her words. His response wasn't reassuring.

"Just hold on."

She buried her head in the man's back, fingers gripping his tunic. Her stomach rocked as the horse flew through the darkness and she could envision its mammoth hooves pounding into the dirt and pushing off rocks, turning and journeying them through unseen gnarled trees and over dips and hills of ground. After a time of the procession, Serenity could no longer hear their pursuers and lifted her face. "Are they gone?" she asked in a small voice.

The man kept up the stern riding through the quaky trees and ground, still tense and alert. She had the growing feeling that he was as unsure of her question as she was. She didn't know if he would have answered, for the next thing she knew, they were careening down a steep hill into a fair area of lower ground. Sponges of torchlight splashed in her black vision from over the hills around them. A sound peeped in her throat, and she burrowed more into the tense man. She felt his arm move and heard his sword unsheathing, inducing another wave of fear.

One of the Terrans called out, but Serenity's mind, as tangled and fraying as the weeds in a garden, was unable to link the sounds to any recognizable words. However, her savior stayed quiet in response, which seemed to anger the soldiers as they bristled around them.

Just as she was sure they were about to gallop down the hills in attack and braced herself, a funny thing happened. Her wounded eyes captured the glassy sight of one of the torch's fire bursting and snaking flames over the man holding it, who flew into a panic. His horse's rearing peeled through her ears. Even though she couldn't quite see, there was a stillness in the air that made her feel everyone's eyes tensely set on the crying and spluttering man as he tried to put out the fire spreading on his uniform.

After her initial startlement, Serenity felt a victorious streak, but stamped it out when she felt her savior lowering his sword in his own bewilderment. She forced out the tentative words. "Is your element fire?"

When he answered a curt, "No," she felt just as afraid and unsure as the soldiers did.

Another torch bursting seemed to make every soldier jump and waver as dueling cries rang out. "Hold your ground!" a thick voice bellowed. But the men couldn't seem to listen. They were too fearful of the spreading curse. One horror-choked soldier threw his torch to the ground, but the fire wisped out and appeared again like skittering, glowing bugs over his clothes. He yelped and hurried his horse away, many following in his tracks. The final factor, though, was when a barrier of fire erupted from the mulchy ground before them, all the soldiers' horses bucking and whinnying. A strangled retreat sounded from the speaker from before, and not one hesitated in whipping away from the cursed area.

It was deathly silent once they left, the silence broken only by the billowy, crackling sounds of the wall of fire on the top of the steep. Neither of them spoke. Serenity stared up at the fire, wariness prickling her nerves. Her irritated eyes slowly began to focus on the bright, dancing flames, giving her a clear vision of the shadow that emerged from the darkness and stepped up behind the sheet of fire. Firelight gleamed and grazed over a horse's shiny, brown coat and a rider's sleek, ebony uniform.

Serenity could hardly swallow her surprise, her recovering vision clasping over the slender form and the long, sooty-black hair framing a familiar, emotionless face. Serenity sat there numbly, her voice stolen from her throat as a million questions rushed through her bewildered blood. Before an inkling of logical thought could muddle in Serenity's mind, General Hark met her gaze with glimmering violet eyes, and Serenity saw a rasp of fear beneath tight blankness. And then the general tugged at the horse's reins and turned back into the night. Serenity stared at the place far after she was gone.

Ahhh, beautiful ending, no? *eyes twinkle* So now you know a bit of Raye's past--why she disliked Lunarians, her family, and now she has Violet eyes, thank God! I just realized that I wanted her to have violet eyes again so me and bunni went through a torrent of ideas of how to make it possible. ^_______^ This feels like drawing with a pen… you make a mistake, you turn it into something in the drawing (which more often than not, makes the drawing better). By the way, if you didn't realize it, Raye's memory takes place shortly after Tsuki no Namida when her father is coming home. That's why the man is grungy, a bit crazed, and after his son.

Humbly and impatiently waiting your comments,

Star ^.~