Dreams Are Never Simple Things

For a long time, all that reigned in the desert was the sound of the sand shifting and the occasional gasp for breath from Yume as they crested a dune. Knives thought silently to himself as they walked, pondering over the events of that day. He was slightly confused as to why the girl had required food and drink. Were not Plants able to live off merely light and air? It must be living with humans too long, he finally decided. She had adopted their ways, not knowing of any others. He recalled the fact that when he and Vash had been young and in the care of humans, they had eaten and drank with the humans. In fact, Vash continued to eat to this day, simply for the sake of eating. Knives shook his head ever so slightly, a barely noticeable smile tugging on the corners of his lips. His brother was an odd being. Knives doubted that he would ever be able to understand how he thought, although that did not stop him from trying.

Knives turned his mind to another detail of the day that had caught his attention. He had been listening telepathically to the two females' conversation from outside the diner and when the question about the parents had come up, he had been utterly surprised by the answer Yume gave. She had lied to the old woman. Knives doubted the child had ever lied before in her life, maybe stretched the truth, but never an outright lie.

He turned to ask the child why she had done so when he noticed that while he had been immersed in his thoughts, his pace had increased and caused the girl to fall behind. The Plant paused, waiting for the young child to catch up with him. She arrived panting as a couple small beads of sweat rolled down her face. "Sorry, Knives-sama. I'm a little slow, aren't I?" She glanced up at him, smiling weakly.

"It is not your fault," he answered.

"Can we… rest for a little bit?" she asked tentatively.

He was taken a little aback by the question but nodded in concordance. She flopped down in the sand, a small cloud of dust rising above her to be slowly pulled away by the slight breeze that coursed over them. She lay on her back, watching the few, fluffy white clouds scoot along the sky. They sat in silence for a minute and then he asked his question. "Why… why did you tell Grace what you did back in the diner? Why did you lie to her?"

She sat up and looked up over to him, slightly shocked, though not because he had been listening to the conversation. "Did I say the wrong thing? Are you mad that I lied?" She looked worried that she had done something to displease him so he assured her differently before she exploded into an emotional outburst.

"No, no. It was the right answer to give, but why did you lie?"

"Well…" She drew small, abstract designs in the sand with her forefinger, avoiding eye contact with him by keeping her eyes on her hand. "It seemed like something… you would do…"

Knives stared straight ahead, processing this answer. Had he truly made such an impact on the child? Was she trying to model herself after him now? He smiled to himself. Well, it was a first step on the long path to making her into a proper cohort to help him in the eradication of humankind. Now that it was clear Vash would not, he would need another of his kind to stand beside him and destroy any remnants of the scum that he happened to miss. Legato was only good for so much, he was not capable of even half of what a Plant could do. In the end, he would have to be discarded like the garbage his species was.

"Knives-sama, did I do wrong?" She had mistaken his thoughtful silence as angry and was slowly inching away from him.

"Quite on the contrary, girl." Knives smiled at her and searched for the proper words. "In fact, I am… proud of you. Thinking ahead on how the answer could influence the way the human looked upon you traveling with me… It was very smart of you."

The little girl burst into a wide grin and she slide over the sand, into his lap. She reached up her arms and gave him a large hug, snuggling into his chest. Knives looked down at her and smiled slightly. He brought his arms up slowly and was about to pry her off when he looked down at her and saw the contented smile that was draped across her lips. Slightly, the corners of his mouth twitched up as his arms descended back to the ground and he sat with the girl on his lap, watching the sun slowly drop down upon the horizon, painting the sky a rich red and orange as the dark night sky crept over to claim what the sun had left behind.

Yume drowsed, her sleepy subconscious listening to the comforting beat of Knives' steady heart while her consciousness reviewed, sorted and digested the events of the day. Nearly everything that had happened had taken her little mind by surprise. When she woke up to find her strange dream of leaving with Knives to a new home her actual reality, she had been more than a little shocked. She also had not quite realized how hungry she was until the woman, Grace, had set the plate of food in front of her. Normally, she would have only been able to eat half of a meal that size but since she had not eaten at all that day and had been on the move since before dawn, she devoured ever last scrap on the plate. Likewise, when they had finally stopped, her body had shut down after a few minutes to the point where she could not have stood up again even if her life had depended on it. Now, her exhausted little self could move no more and so she slept, while her body tried to recuperate from the heavy activities of that day.

For once in her short lifetime, the girl did not dream in clear, concise images, which she could easily digest mentally. The pictures that flowed through her mind at the present were fragmented, broken things of little to no sense. They might as well have been the ramblings of a lunatic man for all she understood them. Yet, at the same time, she enjoyed them as she could not enjoy her other dreams. For with this dream, she could dissect the images and search for hidden, inner meanings that were buried deep, unseen to the casual observer.

A thousand stars raced over her head as she barreled through an endless sea of oblivion. She was a free being with nothing to tether her down to the surface of any planet. Not even the laws of physics had any control over her anymore, although the child herself had no knowledge of these laws. She shot through the center of a giant sun, the heat warming her mind and soul as she raced along toward a shining yellow planet. She descended down through the atmosphere and skimmed over the sandy surface of the earth, looking around in wonder at the harsh, yet beautiful planet that was her home.

She soared over a long, narrow, steep-walled canyon and noticed a little city that was precariously sprawled out on the edge, its small houses, stores, and bars laid out haphazardly in no apparent order. It reminded the girl of a time when she had built a small tower out of wooden blocks and then it had been knocked over, causing the blocks to spread out over the floor in a chaotic mess. Finding nothing of interest, she turned to head off in another direction, determined to find something interesting. As she flew past the boarder of the town however, she felt something tugging on her mind, urging her to return. It was as if a small, persuasive voice was talking inside of her head; insisting there was something there inside the town she needed to see. Intrigued, the girl circled back and over the small collection of buildings, looking for the elusive something that beckoned her onward, igniting the fires of her curiosity.

Twice she searched the city from the sky but the mysterious object eluded her questing eyes. She soared high above the canyon, trying to increase the range of area that she covered. As she passed over a section of the canyon wall that suddenly jutted out, creating a small corner area, she noticed a cave in the rock face. Interested in her discovery and wondering if this was the elusive thing she had been searching for, she dove down to investigate the cavern. A quick survey showed that it contained a pile of blankets that were neatly formed into a makeshift bed, a small chair, a table, and towards the mouth of the cave, a small ring of stones with ashes contained inside. Laying on the table's surface were two guns, one of them colored silver and the other colored black. The color differences were the only thing that kept them from being identical and the girl wondered for a moment who owned them.

She exited the cavern, looking around for the person who obviously lived there. She noticed that the slight ledge that jutted out from the mouth of the cave connected to a pathway built naturally into the canyon's side. It meandered lazily up the side of the ravine, finally connecting to the top at a point far away from the grotto. She followed it up to the edge of the chasm and landed on the ground at the end of the path, noticing that it reached normal ground level where the town was just barely visible. Whoever lived in the cave must have enjoyed their privacy.

Hearing a sudden sound, she looked around to see if there was another being present. The man that she saw standing on the edge of the gorge, looking out over it, made her gasp in surprise. He had a tall, commanding figure, accentuated by his long white coat and his striking blue hair. His piercing yellow-amber eyes, one of them hidden behind the hair that draped over the left side of his face, studied the blue horizon as if he was waiting for someone or was searching for a sign from a god of his. This man stood tall and strong on the edge of the ravine and exuded an aura of natural subservient authority. He seemed like one who was a position of great power but he used that force only at the behest of another.

Slowly, he turned to face her, his yellow eyes staring right through over her head as if she did not exist to be seen but he could still feel her presence. He quietly whispered a single word, as if tasting it with his rich, hypnotizing voice. "Master."

The child cocked her head to one side and stared up at the man, wondering to whom he was referring. "What's your name?" she asked and waited for an answer that never came. He instead turned back to look once more at the distant horizon, his searching eyes roaming restlessly.

She waited for a moment, studying him, and then ran past him and off the cliff.

Yume blinked her eyes sleepily and knuckled them as she yawned. She snuggled closer to the warm body of the Plant who held her and was aware that they were moving. "Knives-sama?" she said in a querying tone as she looked up at his face, hidden in the dark night.

"Oh, you're awake. Sleep well?"

"Yeah, I had some weird dreams though."

"Ah. You dream a lot more than the average being." She thought she heard a slight smile in his voice. "It must be because of your name."

"My name?" she asked, not understanding what he meant.

"You do not know what it means?" She was silent, feeling oddly ashamed for not knowing that her name actually meant something. "It translates to 'dream' in a language from the planet where the humans originated."

"Oh… Knives-sama?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you carrying me?"

"I did not want to wake you up: you were obviously exhausted. I also knew that both you and I wish to reach our destination as soon as we could so I decided that it would be much faster if I carried you as you slept."

"Don't you need to sleep though?"

"I shall wait until we reach Gorge. For now, that is your domain, little one. Go back to your dreams." Yume noticed with a slight feeling of shame that he was walking at a faster pace then when she had been walking with him. I knew I was slowing him down, she guiltily thought to herself as she drifted back into the dark, waiting embrace of sleep. I'll try harder tomorrow… I promise…

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Jeril: Okay, peeps. We're in for a long Author's Note. Please stick around and read all of it as a few important topics will be discussed inside.

AnonymousTrigunOtaku, thank you for mentioning that you are still not clear on how Legato survived. I realize now that I was very vague on that point back in chapter five, In Fear of a Demon, and I intend to rectify that matter. In the next chapter when Yume encounters Legato for the first time (in person), Legato will go into a deeper explanation of how he lived, mostly to clarify for you all how he survived and also because, well, you'll see… ^_^;; *evil chuckle* Not gonna be pretty… And yes. That man Yume saw in her dream was Legato. ^0^ He's such a sexy man beast… *drool*

I also extend a heartfelt 'thank you' to Riina and Molly-chan the Anime/Game fan for taking the time out of their long days to ponder the meaning of the chapter title. ^_^ What I meant it to mean was about how Knives was unable to voice his true opinions or harm the old woman for fear of alienating Yume. But I did like the other, original response I got to the challenge of interpreting the title! ^_^ For participating in this little game, you two will receive a special, limited edition chibi Knives plushie! Glomp him and he gets angry and tries to blast you with his Angel Arm! ^0^ *glomps her own chibi Knives plushie and sticks a finger in the Angel Arm's opening so he can't shoot* Ain't he just kawaii?!?

Yume: o.o;; I didn't know Knives-sama was being made into a plushie. *steals Jeril's Knives plushie and huggles him and for some suspicious reason, the plushie does not activate his Angel Arm*

Jeril: *glares at the plushie* Traitor! *pouts* Why does she get all the luck? I shouldn't have made her so charismatic… or nice… or appealing… or likeable… or cute… grrrrs… *looks at the girl, smiles slightly, and then growls angrily, throwing her hands up in the air* Why can't I stay mad at her?!? ~_~ Until next time, folks. Remember; keep your pants on or you might end up with one of those. *jerks her thumb in Yume's direction* No, no, no!! I mean the girl, not the plushie! For crying out loud! *smacks her forehead* Weirdos…

I am so sorry for this chapter having come out so late. With all my heart, I encourage you all to post up your e-mail addresses in your review so I can add you to the mailing list. That way, if I end up going through another two week or, God forbid, a two month slump, I can notify you all that I am not dead and the story has continued. I'm afraid that this might happen a few more times in the next few months (mostly likely until the fanfiction is complete) as I am now back in high school and trying to cope with the stresses, issues and problems that I encounter therein. So, once more: sign up for the mailing list!

One last thing; sorry if all of these dreams are annoying you people. . I love dreams however and I feel they add a kind of… unique feel to the story. Anyway, yeah… I'm sorry if any of you are getting sick of them though and I apologize if so. Anyway, until the next chapter, farewell!