To Protect A Butterfly, Sacrifice Yourself

Yume nibbled on a sandwich as she walked behind Knives, attempting to keep pace with the tall, long-legged Plant. He had said that if they kept up a fast walk and did not stop to rest often, they would reach the town of Gorge by the end of the day. At this point, Yume wanted nothing more than to sleep in a comfy, fluffy bed for a long, long time. She was also horrified by the fact that she was slowing down Knives and so she was determined not to impede their progress any more than she already had. She finished off the sandwich and brushed the crumbs from her hands, moving her feet a little faster as she noticed that she had fallen behind a little.

The dry, heavy silence of the desert made her feel oppressed and so she spoke, trying to relieve some of her anxiety. "Are we there yet?" she asked for want of a better subject. She also had an odd feeling somehow that it was an important question that just had to be voiced.

"Does it look like we are?" Knives replied, not looking at her.

Yume looked around for a nearby town. "Um… no?"

"Then that is your answer."

"Oh…"

They trudged on over and between the golden, mountainous - to the child - dunes of sand, as miles of the hot, dry desert passing beneath their feet. Knives would stop every hour or so and Yume would have a small drink of water to keep her "from dehydrating" as Knives had said. Yume did not really know what that meant but, since she was always thirsty when he offered the water, it sounded like a good idea and so she drank the liquid.

After a long trek through the hot desert, the two travelers finally arrived at the edge of a gigantic gorge. It split the earth in two as if a giant knife had sliced through the desert like butter and on the far side, Yume could make out a few buildings in the distance. She wondered if it was the town that Knives had spoken of. She felt an odd sensation, one of déjà vu, as she looked over the canyon and she realized it was the same one that she had visited in her dream the night before. She opened her mouth to mention this to Knives but decided against it. After all, dreams were merely fictions created by the mind to entertain itself while it sorted through information, or at least that is what her father had told her at one point when he was in an affable mood. There was little to no truth in a dream, it was usually based on a person's reality and then expanded to include improbable events. The two land features were most likely only similar in build and her mind had made her believe they were identical because it wanted them to be.

As she and the tall, blonde Plant stood, looking over the canyon, she felt a tightening in her belly area. She looked down at her stomach quizzically and suddenly, something snapped inside of her. Her mouth dropped open as she felt her belly begin to burn with an inner flame. "K-Knives-sama?" she managed to stammer out as the blood drained from her face and she fought for control over her body.

"Yes?" he turned, taking his eyes off the far side of the gorge, to look at her.

Yume was quite embarrassed by her predicament but the urgency of the situation made her answer his inquiry quicker than she normally would have. "I-I need to… I need to go potty!" She announced, feeling her insides shift and boil. "And soon!"

"'Potty?'" Knives looked confused as he repeated the word. "I am not familiar with this term."

"The potty! The potty…" Yume tried to remember the other word for it that she had heard adults use. "The bathroom!! I need to go to the bathroom!" Panic crept into her voice as she wailed: "Noooowwww!"

It took a moment for comprehension to dawn on the blue-eyed Plant and he stood staring at the child. She required a receptacle for biological waste products and quite soon, from what he could understand from her body language. He looked around, searching for a place for her to conduct her business. Unfortunately, the town was on the other side of the gorge and there were no bushes or such coverage in sight. He stood, speechless, and not knowing what to do.

The little girl let loose a long, aggravated howl and hopped around. She realized that Knives was not going to do anything and so she took matters into her own hands, snatching the knapsack out of Knives'. Yume ran back the way they had come, quickly reaching the top of one of the dunes and then passing over to the other side where she was out of sight. Knives took a few steps after her and then realized she was going to be occupied and would not appreciate his company. He decided that the best course of action was for him to merely stay where he was and wait for the girl to return.

He did not have to wait very long. She soon reappeared, color having returned to her face and overall looking very relieved. She walked over to stand near the canyon's edge with him and stared at the far distant town. Looking up at his calm countenance, she picked at the stitching on the knapsack and asked, "How are we going to get over there?"

Knives' brow furrowed as he answered. "I do not know actually. There does not seem to be a way across. We might end up having to walk around the canyon."

Yume nearly dropped to the ground from the mere suggestion of more travel but she tried to be strong and asked another question, crossing her fingers as she did so. "How long would that take?"

"Most likely a week or more." She actually did collapse when he said that, landing on her rear with a small thud. He looked down at her sharply, a surprised expression dominating his handsome face. "Are you all right, girl?" he inquired, looking at her strangely.

"I'm fine. I just wanted to sit down," she answered, blushing.

"Ah, I see." He continued to look at her for a few more moments, his features undecipherable, but soon he turned back to study the canyon's far wall and the town beyond. Yume sat in the sand, drawing little objects in the yellow grains but she soon grew bored.

She stood back up, dusting off her pants with her hands as she said, "Knives-sama?"

"Hm?" He did not look over at her.

"Can I go look around?"

"I doubt there is much to find but, yes. Go ahead. Do not stray to far away however."

"All right." She skipped off down the edge of the canyon, looking for something to do while Knives pondered a way to cross the great gulf. She stopped at a little outcropping and got down on her hands and knees as she stuck her head over the edge of chasm. Just looking at the hard, rocky floor far below made her head spin and whirl and made her unconsciously start to lean forward. She quickly backed away from brink before she could topple over it, feeling afraid and oddly giddy.

Sitting on the sandy desert as she recovered, Yume studied the side of the gorge that she was on. It seemed to stretch on forever and the girl could see no end to it. She wistfully wondered how long it was and if it traveled all the way around Gunsmoke, a never-ending rift on the planet's surface. The child noticed a large rock formation sticking out of the sand close to the edge just a little ways away from her. Deciding to investigate, she stood up and skipped over to the massive, misshapen boulder.

Quickly crawling up to the highest point on the little mound, Yume threw her hands high up in the air and proclaimed in a loud, unashamed voice, "I am King of the Mountain! Bow down and worship me! Call me 'God' 'cause I am your Master!" She was about to continue ranting when she noticed a rope attached to a part of the rock formation. She jumped down to study it closer and saw that there was another rope and they both led over the edge. Yume crawled close to the edge and peeped her eyes over, wary from her earlier experience. She saw that between the two ropes were boards, making a ladder of sorts, and they led all the way down to the bottom of the gorge.

The child back away from the brink and jumped to her feet, waving her hands in the air to attract the attention of the male Plant as she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Knives-sama! Knives-sama! There's a rope ladder! Knives-sama! Over heeeeere!"

He quickly responded to her call, hurrying over to where she stood. He looked down the length of the rope ladder, not appearing to suffer from the same vertigo that Yume had experienced, and then he studied its appearance. "It does not look too old," he said to himself, fingering the material after he had tugged on the rope to test its strength. "I wonder if it is safe to use…"

"Want me to go down and check?" Yume asked, cocking her head to one side.

Knives glanced at her for a long minute, seeming to assess her offer. Then he nodded curtly, moving back so that she could access the rope ladder. Yume scrambled over to the object and gripped it firmly with her hands as she slid her feet over the edge of the cliff, her shoed toes searching for the top rung. They came in contact and she shifted her weight around to be sure she had her balance and it would not break before she started climbing down. She started off slowly, testing out every rung, trying to find a rhythm that would allow her to descend fast but not slip off on accident.

The girl had to pause after the first fifteen rungs, taking a deep breath and focusing her mind on the fact that she was helping Knives out. The said blond-haired being called down to her and asked her how she was doing and she answered "fine." The actual truth was that Yume was anything but 'fine.' Although the girl did not want to admit it to anyone especially Knives, she was quite terrified of heights and the situation she was in at the moment was sure to guarantee herself many, wonderful nightmares for years to come. The only thing that kept her from panicking was the knowledge that Knives was depending on her to find out if the human contraption was safe. "I won't let Knives-sama down!" she muttered to herself and continued down the ladder.

After what seemed to be an eternity, she touched ground. A wide grin split her face and she called up to the Plant, "It's safe! Come on down, Knives-sama!" He quickly complied, reaching the bottom in a matter of seconds. Yume felt her mouth hang open. "Wow, Knives-sama. You're fast!"

"No, you are just incredibly slow." He gave her an indescribable look. "After all, it took you nearly a half hour to make it all the way down."

"I was trying to be careful…" Yume sniffled.

He shook his head slightly, a small, amused smile playing on his lips. "Never mind, girl. It's not like we had anything better to do with our time." She rubbed her right eye with a balled up fist, nodding slowly. He turned and began to walk across the gorge's smooth bottom floor. He paused and looked back over his shoulder, waiting for the girl to follow him. "Come on, child. Let us go find out what lies on the other side." She nodded and trailed after him.

When they reached the middle of the chasm, Yume pointed down to the ground and exclaimed, "Look! Knives-sama! Water! It's a river!" Actually, it was a horribly small stream, less than a foot across, and it was fed by small springs coming out of the canyon walls that had thinned to mere trickles by the time they met with the middle stream.

"Hn, not a very impressive one." Knives said, but did not comment any further. Yume was taking the opportunity to splash around in the small brook, reveling in the new experience of seeing where water actually came from. The adult Plant let her play for a few minutes before he said in an insistent, though not sharp, tone, "Girl, where you live is going to be just a few minutes away from this stream. You can play in it all you want later. Come on though. I wish to reach our new home before night falls."

Yume's face drew into a pout but she complied with Knives' request, falling back into step behind him, her soggy shoes making squelching noises every time she set her foot down. They searched up and down the side of the cliff face for another, similar rope ladder and soon found one. However, there was a pulley system set up beside it, which led Knives to believe that the stream below was the town's source of water. He looked expectantly at Yume and she quickly moved forward to begin her scramble up the rope ladder.

Climbing up a rope ladder was a much more exhausting task than climbing down one, Yume soon realized as she felt her limbs grow leaden. She wished silently that Knives had allowed her a few more minutes of rest but continued upwards, determined to not take as long going up as she had coming down. She studied the rope and wood passing by her as she climbed and noticed that the rope seemed older and more frayed. The wooden rungs also looked like they had more wear on them and some of them had deep gouges scraped in them.

As she neared the top of that side of the gorge, Yume heard a small creaking noise. She thought nothing of it as she reached up past the last rung but then a loud crack split the air. Distantly, as if from a long tunnel, she heard Knives call out a wordless, hoarse warning as the rope gave way beneath her. She screamed and her hands shot out for a handhold on the edge of the cliff as her reality sped forward, stampeding as fast as her heartbeat. The rope ladder tangled and twisted around her legs, beginning to drag her down as her hands clung with all their little might to the rock face.

Yume hung precariously from the canyon's edge, her fingers slipping as she scrabbled for purchase on the gritty surface while trying to kick off the dead, cloying weight the rope ladder produced. She felt a deep, dark feeling of utter terror and dread grip her body and paralyze her limbs as she realized that she was going to slip and fall to her death within the next few moments.

Suddenly, the bright sun above her head was blocked out by a shadow and a large hand reached down and grabbed hold of her forearm. It lifted her up and pulled her over the side of the gorge, onto firm ground and the blessed earth's foundation. Yume clung to the hand and the safety and comfort that such a savior and the rock beneath her feet brought with it. "I expect that you will release me now or suffer the consequences that the action of holding on for a longer period of time will bring," intoned a rich, calming, all too familiar voice.

Shocked, Yume looked up and her wide brown eyes met the golden amber orbs of her savior's, the man of her dreams.

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Jeril: Hey all. Sorry if there are any errors made that have not been found and dealt with. My beta-reader was sick and could not read through this chapter. I also apologize about the long delay for this new chapter, which is a little bit longer than it would have normally been as a reward. My new high school is a royal pain in the ass and I've been getting homework and projects by the boatload. I would like to thank you all for being so patient and understanding. I also promise you that I have no intention whatsoever of ending this story, as some of you might be dreading. It would help me if you e-mailed me and encouraged me to finish any chapters once you believe I have taken much too long. ^^ Don't worry, I won't bite. Hehe, anyway, next item…

Thanks for guessing at the meaning of the last chapter's title, Riina. ^^ I meant it more in the sense that dreams are sometimes hard to analyze and understand their true meanings, but your idea was a bit true. I had so much trouble starting writing that dream sequence. @_@ I nearly wanted to shoot myself in the foot for deciding to put it in the chapter 'cause I could hardly figure out how to start it… *sigh* Well, I think it turned out all right…

Onto the next matter of business… *pats sobbing Knives fans on the back* There, there. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. Knives is a bastard, but that's why we love him. Even if she's a child, even if she's a Plant, he would still send her down first. Hell, he'd even do that to Vash! To Knives, Knives' safety comes first above all else. *sniffles*

Yume: I was so happy I could help Knives-sama! *she grins* He's so loving and caring!

Jeril: *sweatdrop* God, they must have bashed your head into the ground when you were born… *shakes her head with a sigh* Anyway, in the next chapter, Legato finally enters in! For good! Well, at least for a while… *grins* I love Legato! XD He is my god! *drool* And damn sexy too.

Yume: What does 'sexy' mean?

Jeril: Er, wonderful…

Yume: Knives-sama is sexy! *smiles broadly*

Jeril: *smacks herself* God, that doesn't sound right coming from the mouth of a five-year-old… I need to start monitoring my vocabulary while I'm around her…