Ch. 28 – The cave

Fuu was watching Mugen, Jin and Hirotori from above as two of the men fought a crowd of other men. Then she was falling, and falling, for what seemed like hours and minutes at the same time. She hit what looked like a glittering vast body of water with a splash and found herself in water. Above her was light glinting through the water. She struggled to swim towards the light.

Just when she thought she would drown from lack of oxygen, Fuu broke the water's surface. Finding herself in a lake in what looked like a valley, she swam for shore. When her feet touched the bottom at last, she dragged herself out of the water and collapsed on shore.

She breathed hard for a few minutes, coughing up a bit of water. When she found it easier to breathe, Fuu noticed there was this distinct feeling that she was being watched. She stood up quickly, and turned. Standing almost in her personal space was a young woman who looked familiar. Fuu jumped in surprise. Then she stared. "Rie?"

The young woman stared at her with her sloe eyes wide. Then she spoke; an eerie whisper. "Help me." Her look turned to terror as she looked over Fuu's shoulder. Fuu turned to where the young woman was looking, and took a step back in fear. A great shadow in the shape of a man watched them with red glowing eyes from behind the nearest trees. "Help me." The girl's fearful and urgent tone frightened Fuu more than seeing the shadow-man had. She started to run away but tripped on a rock.

When she got up, the valley with the lake was gone, to be replaced by the backyard of the dojo that Fuu and Mugen had stayed at after she lost the baby and had died. She was standing next to Mugen as they looked at Rie's grave. On her other side stood the young woman, looking at the grave with them. "Are you a ghost?" She asked the girl. The young woman just looked at her with those big sloe eyes. Then she reached out and put a hand on Fuu's stomach. "Help me." She repeated. Fuu looked to Mugen, and saw another young woman, barely older than the first, with sad eyes as she looked at her and Mugen. The waitress looked back at the first young woman.

Fuu's eyes widened. She finally understood. Then she felt eyes on her and looked past the girl's shoulder. The giant shadow man stood, partly hidden in the tree line. His red eyes stared at her. He began to move as a shadow does, fluidly from the shadow behind one tree to another as he moved towards her.

She turned to Mugen to point out the shadow man, hoping he could fight him, but she was stopped by the first girl's eerie whisper in her ear. "You have to help me. ….Goodbye…mother." The voice faded away as Fuu turned to where she had been. The young woman was gone. Instead she found herself face to face with the terrifying shadow. He stood over her, his aura menacing, as he reached out both hands towards her and put them around her neck. She knew; if she had ever doubted it till then, that he meant to kill her.

Fuu didn't know she was dreaming until a painful pounding in her head jolted her away from that place and she woke up. Her eyes flew open upon a dark grey expanse above her. "The shogun!" she whispered. The young waitress breathed hard, the fear from her dream ebbing but still present, even as she forgot what it was about and what she had just said.

She felt a pressure on her ribs and lifted her head slowly. Even this small action caused her to see stars, but when they cleared, she saw an arm draped over her. She followed it with her eyes and saw it was Mugen's and that he slept next to her. She was very warm from his body heat. Smiling, she laid back carefully. The events before she slammed into a wall came rushing back. She wondered why they were in this dark and seemingly confined space. Then she remembered the Shogun's crest and understood they were hiding somewhere. She shivered, not really knowing why. Then she touched her stomach.

Bits and pieces of her dream came back to her, most in a jumbled haze where she couldn't be certain she actually dreamed it, or just thought she had.

Mugen stirred. She must have moved and alerted him to her wakened state because he was on his knees in a flash, leaning over her, his eyes dark and worried. "Are you okay girly?" He spoke lowly, the tension in his voice pronounced. "Yeah. My head hurts though." She looked around, as if for something. "Where is she?" Her words took on a panicked tone as she grabbed his shirt. "Who, honey?" "She was here just now! She said…" Fuu shook her head, clearly rattled and trying to remember. "Our daughter said 'Help me.'!" Mugen's eyes went wide. "But the shadow man got me first. I HAVE to help her!" Mugen figured she had had some pretty wild and seemingly sinister dreams while unconscious. "It's okay Fuu. You were dreaming." He held her. "Rie's dead, remember?" "No, no. Not Rie! Our other daughter!" "…What?!" Mugen gaped and stared for a minute, before shaking his head. "We don't have another daughter, remember Fuu? You were just dreaming." "But I…" He spoke soothingly. "It was a dream. It's over now. You hit your head, remember?" Fuu looked around the cave, actually seeing it for the first time. "I…oh…Where are we?" "We are hiding out in these caves because those men attacked us at the inn, remember? You flew off my back and hit a wall. We had to hoof it out of there and find a place to lay low while you healed up." "Oh." His words brought back her memories of the incident. "Were we followed?" "I don't think so, but it's hard to tell. We'll probably find out after we leave here."

Suddenly Fuu sagged against him for a few seconds, as if dizzy, then pushed out of his arms and was sick. "Eugh." She rubbed her mouth as Mugen watched in surprise. Then his look switched to concern before it darkened. "No. No. NO. NO. NO. Absolutely not!" He looked at her stomach and cursed. "What's wrong? I'm probably just hungry or shook up or something. No big deal." Mugen got up and started to pace. "Yeah? And what if you're, I don't know,…pregnant?" Fuu gave him a look. "I can't get pregnant anymore. Remember?" She looked sad, but he was still talking. "This has happened last time too. You started randomly puking everywhere. Remember?" "How could I forget?" There were tears in her eyes. "Please stop talking about it. I can't hear it." He shut his eyes and messaged his temple with one hand. Then he opened them and walked over to her to pull her into his embrace. "I'm sorry. I am. …Okay, Fuu?" He said softer. "But would you at least go to see a doctor about it when we can find one?" "If you want me to." She said sadly into his shirt. "I think you should. And who knows, it it's just something you ate, you can always tell me 'I told you so!'." She smiled at this. "Ok."

They waited in the caves for several days until Fuu's head was better. She had vomited several times in that time, but at different times of day. While Fuu was sure she was just sick, Mugen was certain she was pregnant again. This pissed him off because he didn't want to lose another one. He kept thinking about Fuu's dream where a second daughter was begging Fuu to help her, like she was in danger. Mugen didn't like to mention it, but the dream and the vomiting had happened eerily close to one another, enough to make him wonder if Fuu was pregnant with a girl, and if so, to wonder if this was a premonition of things to come. Fuu's dream had clearly scared her. Kami knew that there were people chasing them with the intent to kill, so that bit was no surprise, but that their potential child probablywas in danger before it was even born… no; before they were even sure it existed, was what was bothering him. He hoped….he hoped…it had been a random dream due to their circumstances. He hoped she wasn't pregnant. Not because he still didn't want children, he secretly did want hers, but because he couldn't take losing another child of his. He knew that now. The government killed children. This he knew very well, and it was often for crimes not their own. Just the thought of them putting this 'kid' in one of the penal colonies instead made him mad. Kami, he'd never had to think of that before. Living in the penal colonies was a fate worse than death. Him and Fuu would be killed because that's what the government wanted, but if any of their potential children weren't, then it was off to the penal colonies for them. Fuck that shit.

When Fuu's head was better, Jin went ahead to see if the way was clear. When he returned and told them it was, they set of again; leaving the caves and heading northwest down the mountain carefully and as quickly as they were able.

Long awaited update! I know. My apologies. I am currently working on chapter 30 (Slowly), but I mean to have that buffer of chapters in case I have no time to write (which is common), instead of just dumping all the existing new chapters at once.

What I've said in the past, about posting 'till the story is done still applies, never fear. But I don't have the kind of time I used to in high school/college for writing fanfiction.

I Have posted a new series today about stupid stories related to Lord of the rings. I wrote them a long time ago, and recently found them in paper form. So, I typed them up and posted it. Its just called 'silly stories' (originally 'stupid stories', but I thought would censor it for being mean. Idk). Anyway, you can find it on my page 'Lady Fionavar'.

Also, today I am updating my other story: the only one from the anime 'Vision of Escaflowne'.

I know this part of the story is a bit dark due to her dream, but there will be some humor coming up. Well, I find it funny anyway. I am still trying to put in real Japanese history bits (or at least nods to things that happened), while throwing the modern north America element to it. So, I (still) research things from Japanese history, but only as it might pertain to the story.

I won't comment any more on the happenings of this chapter, but please feel free to comment, rate, review, etc.