Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ. Please insert the usual disclaimer.

Author's notes: This chapter has been revised! Well I hope you guys like this chapter better than the last please r & r.

"Double quotations indicate conversations."

'Single quotations in italics indicate thoughts.'

Glossary :

Ohayo: Good morning

Baka: Idiot

Kuririn poked his head around the door. Where was Maya? He'd only come over because Buruma had yelled at him to, something about her favourite belt. 'Now really it should be Yamcha doing this, I don't know how I get myself into these things.' Not that he minded, it was just that Buruma was annoying sometimes. Kuririn had pounded on the front door for a while before realising that Maya wouldn't have heard him with the music being so loud. Head around the door he could only see Maya's loose hair and slender arms. Maya sat cross-legged on top of the marble bench, pen in one hand telephone in the other and a writing pad on her knee. Strange green, blue, red and yellow patches danced and shivered on the floor and the bench tops. Nothing could be heard above the music emanating from the floored out bass speaker. Kuririn came into the room; quietly with some misgivings. He was surprised by vibration in the floor caused by the sound waves.

"Hello Maya? Maya! MAYA!" She swung round, smiled and waved. When she put the telephone down Kuririn launched a little apprehensively in to conversation.

"Hi! Maya you wouldn't happen to know anything about Buruma's belt would you?"

" Hi Kuririn! Buruma's belt? Oh yeah the belt. It's still in the truck. I'm on my way out at any rate if you want a lift."

Two large brown eyes followed their every movement. Distrustful and afraid, he stood as far away as possible and watched. The humans disembarked from their vehicle, the others the ones he knew, greeted these new arrivals with their usual ritual. Four square, beneath a gunmetal sky, in a dirt yard confined by thick, heavy rails splintered with use, he was beautiful, vital, made his surroundings seem crude and inappropriate. Maya ran her eyes over him with the cold detachment of the unimpressed. He was gangly, very slim though not under weight, just without substance. At twenty-two months he had yet to grow in to himself. Although he already possessed the arrogance of a full grow stallion.

Head held high, nostrils dilated their vermilion lining just visible. Silken forelock half concealing a small white star and his large glittering eyes, finely drawn, blood and breeding evident in every immature curve. He regarded the small knot of people ready at a moment to flee his muscles taunt beneath his flawless black coat.

Maya watched the young horse shift his weight from one hind leg to the other. 'He's nervous.' For a long time he had been a very well mannered, even tempered colt. Some how he had gotten the reputation of being very dangerous horse. The middle-aged couple who owned him had reluctantly decided to have him destroyed. They did not feel capable of controlling the explosive fire that he often caused him to turn on people. Maya wanted a stallion, a good one and this colt was just that if she could find some way of over coming his aggression. 'He doesn't look like a bad horse very few are, he seems more frightened than any thing.' The older couple were beginning to have misgivings about giving in to Maya's persuasive augment.

"I'll just go have a closer look at him. What did you say his name was?"

" Look Miss I don't think that's such a good idea, he's not trust worthy." The older man said brushing his greying hair out of his face nervously. 'Especially for you, you're only a little thing.'

" We call him Sabre. Just be careful all right." His wife interjected twisting her fingers.

Maya approached the gate and paused, 'well let's wait and see what he'll do.' The colt raised his head a little more and began to paw the ground. Other wise he was still, but sweat appeared in patches on his coat. Carefully Maya eased the gate open and slipped in to the yard, 'you do know how stupid this is don't you? That's right it very stupid if he gets it in to his silly little head to have a go at you, you've got no where to go. All right already it's a stupid thing to do, but I've got to see how he behaves don't I.' Maya's conscience, her self-preservation, nagged. Sabre snorted and backed up tossing his head, then suddenly explosively he charged. Maya stood her ground glaring at him, growling low in her throat. The colt galloped head low, teeth bared his tiny black ears pinned against his head. At the last possible second he swerved, sending a fine spray of damp soil in to the air. Unnerved by this strange person who didn't run or yell, but stood growling so softly that it was more a vibration in the air than a sound. Snorting he retreated several strides and stared at Maya who stood completely unfazed by his one horse assault team tactics.

They regarded each other with intense scrutiny the tall gangly pubescent colt and the short blonde woman. Maya spoke to him in strings of nonsensical words. Her tone the same as a mother would use with a frightened child. Never rising in pitch from a soft murmur. Sabre listened to her with his sharply pricked ears almost touching, his dirty leather head collar dangling tantalisingly close. Long moments passed 'don't grab the head collar, just wait let him come to you, that's it. Come on boy.' She listened to the hard won knowledge that told her to wait. On the other side of the fence Yamcha and Buruma waited, leaning against the truck. Kuririn stood in the drive with the older man and his wife, watching in silent fascination as Maya slowly won the colt over. All the while he wondered, wasn't it all too easy. Cautiously Maya put her hand out holding it up in the space between them.

Slowly, so slowly that Maya held her breath, the colt reached out to sniff her out stretched hand with his velvet muzzle. Both of them trembled, the colt with nervousness and Maya with anticipation. He hesitated, a scant centimetre from her open palm close enough to smell her strange human scent. Maya controlled herself 'it would be so easy to just, but he'd go nuts. Animals don't like sudden movements that jangle warning bells in their instincts. Grabbing at them is too predatory and you don't want half a ton of muscle and bone coming down on top of you.' And so she waited and in due course he placed his trembling black lips against her palm. His large lustrous eyes watched her from beneath a tangle of long black lashes. Wholly black but for the star on his forehead, his long smoothly curved neck reminded her of an old poem about an Arab mare. 'Spare is her neck and lean, curved like a palm branch.'

He stood quietly then, resting his fine boned slightly dished head on her shoulder. Cautiously Maya placed her hand against Sabre's neck. Sabre sighed but remained where he was. Slowly with growing courage Maya let her hand slip down Sabre's crest and on to his deeply slopping shoulder. Gently she flexed her fingers and began to scratch the smooth black shoulder working her way up to the gentle curve of his withers.

"Well, boy. How about coming home with me?"

Everything looked washed out and insubstantial. Here where moon and earth meet, have always met. Only light and dark existed, leaving the world flat and two dimensional, under the stark white light of the full moon. Far above clouds surged through the sky, as swiftly as a flock of panicked birds. A wind stirred high in the trees, causing them to dance in time to each slow exhale. Whispered tendrils of ancient stories carried on the inward breath of air that no human can hear. Dark mane and tail frosted by moonlight were tossed around in the wind.

The black colt had been rechristened Kamikaze on his arrival. Sabre did not please Maya, she preferred Kamikaze complete with its double meaning. He walked up and down the stockyard fence his black coat frosted silver by the moonlight. Now and then Kamikaze paused head thrown up eyes staring. Seeking the faint voices on the wind that rippled high in the trees, none came, and he began to settle down.

Through the ice incrusted window Maya watched Kamikaze's restless progress. The only illumination was from the moon light that streamed through the tall windows. Maya was curled up on the deep windowsill a blanket around her as she plaited her long honey gold hair in the pale light. Through the shadowy elms that whispered and flowed with the rising wind, the colt stood, sharply cut as a silhouette in the silver white moonlight. Slowly Maya slipped into dreams.

The sun burned, painfully bright. On a large treeless hill, dry, devoid of all but sun bleached grass two people sat. One a middle aged woman with blonde sun bleached hair the other a dark haired lanky teenage boy. Far below the angry sea crashed against the large black boulders. Around the island composed of granite and earth.

"I 'm going! You can't stop me!! So don't even try, it's not as if you care any way! You've given up!!" He was young, and angry as he berated her in a shaky baritone. 'But then perhaps he's right you have given up. When was the last time you fought?' He was a lanky teenage boy of 15 years, with rough brown hair and eyes that were now flashing angrily from his handsome oval face. He had never known a mother, save her. Maya sighed. 'Time I put my foot down. Damn! Ren I could joyfully kill you, sometimes.'

"Ren!" Warning him. The young man glared at her sulkily. Spoiling for a fight.

"You're gutless that's your problem! Ever since Jananli died you've been a stubborn coward. You haven't done ANY thing since!" Ren, by the end was yelling his voice had risen with each syllable. Maya glared her temper slowly rising 'ungrateful little prick.' All the same she was surprised there was a time when she would have shaken his teeth out by now. Her self control had improved.

"Stop it! Right now! I've had enough! I know you miss Jananli." She paused and went on in a softer tone. While at the same moment Ren drew breath to retaliate.

"I know you miss her, so do I. But you are not going into town. You are not. You'll get killed." For this he had no answer, no words. Ren looked up at the woman, who'd raised him, protected him, feed him and who with out doubt loved him. A woman wise beyond her years. He could see the unshed tears in her dark eyes, and sighed 'I'll have to give in.' He didn't really want to.

"It's all right Aunt Cass I won't fight okay."

The sea crashed against the rocks barely a foot away. Filling the room with its voice. It was gloomy and her eyes took a long time to adjust to the lack of light. Maya listened trying to work out what had woken her. 'Ren!' Panic gripped at her stomach working its way up her throat. Maya got up and threw some clothes on. Her bare feet slapped on the smooth stone floor. She slid open Rene's bedroom door. He wasn't there.

"Ren! REN!" 'Oh Christ, he's gone!' Maya ran towards the stairs. Moving as fast as she could yet seeming to gain ground only slowly. At the bottom of the stairs the pit of seawater gleamed, black and sliver in the poor light. Maya dropped in to the dark water drawing a lung full of ice cold air in on the way down and swum, faster than she ever had. The ice cold water chilled her to the bone, but she didn't care. Her whole being was focused on one singular goal. Her muscles screamed the cold water impeding their function. The retreating tide sucked the water and every thing with it back out to sea. Cleaving the water with her fine boned hands moving forward rapidly in spite of the strong current pulling her back. Her heart beat a rapid tattoo on her ribs; she was running out of air. Now she could feel sand with every down ward stroke. As she made for the beach she lost her balance and disappeared under the waves. Water fell against her skin like a million glass shards, sending shock waves of pain through her body. But still she continued to fight. The sea dragged at her reluctant to release her from its iron grip. Her feet pushed off the surface sand, soon she was running again.

Maya ran along the shattered bitumen unmindful of her jarred in her legs. The moonless sky shed little light on the rough surface. Maya knew the path all to well. The shattered broken remnants of the town come in to view. Aching skeletons of prosperity, destroyed beyond recognition. Buildings cracked and broken like an old mans teeth. What little light there was shone on shattered glass and rusting twisted metal, which had been buildings that lined once, populated streets. Dirty white concrete chunks lay at strange angles, as if a giant avalanche had set them in place. Maya flung herself over the broken wood and concrete, desperate. Cutting her arms and legs on glass and metal. Often she fell and half scrabbled through shattered brickwork and glass, but still she searched. Finally she found him amongst the broken rubble. He lay across a slab of broken concrete stained red with his blood. Ren's hair was stiff with drying blood; his body flexed back at an unnatural angle, his back broken. Even in the darkness she could see his sightless eyes and the pain etched on his face. He was all ready cold and slowly rigor mortis was stetting in. Maya stroked his hair with one of her shredded hands tears streaming down her face. With the other she reached out and closed his clouded eyes.

She woke with a start. Her heart pounding. It took a moment to take in the moon lit room and realise that she was safe. She gazed out the window seeing only Ren's broken body. No longer did she dream she relived the past. In all its dark and bright moments, but the dark, the violent, the times of greatest despair haunted her. Rarely did she sleep at peace. The burning ghosts of her past torn at her when she was vulnerable, in her sleep. Mean while the wind blew and blew. The moonlight danced in slow swirling patterns.

(2002)