The next morning Rebecca headed back to the tenement house, "Good morning Rebecca, I wasn't expecting to see you back here so soon." Marin said, smiling when she saw Rebecca.
"Well I need more information for my book and there's only one way I'm going to get it. Do you think Melan would mind having a visitor?" Rebecca asked.
"Oh I don't think he'd mind at all, but I have no idea where he is, he said he's living on a mountain, that's all I know, I don't even know which mountain it is." Marin replied.
"That's alright, I think I know what mountain he's on, I just didn't want to go looking for him and have him not be willing to talk to me." Rebecca replied.
"You know where he is?" Marin asked.
"I think so, according to some research I did, over about the last thirty years there have been a handful of reports of a being in blue armor helping people who were hurt or lost on Mount Fuji. One person even said it was the blue Monomakia that had been seen when everything had been going on with Brigadoon." Rebecca told her.
"It's a huge mountain, how will you find him?" Marin asked.
"Well most of the reports come from the same area of the mountain, so I'll just hike around that area and hope I find some sign of him, if that doesn't work I could always try pretending to be hurt and see if he'll come to me. I've got thirteen days left before I head home, I should have plenty of time to find him." "Learning more about Brigadoon, writing this book has been a dream of mine since I was a child and when mama realized she probably wouldn't survive she made me promise her that I wouldn't give up. I have to at least try." Rebecca told her.
"But it's January, it's far too cold up there at this time of year and who will go with you?" Marin asked.
"I'll go by my self, I'm strong and healthy, I was lucky and didn't inherit any of mama's health problems. And dad and I have been camping, rock climbing, hiking and have been doing all types of stuff like that for as long as I can remember, even in winter. All I need to do is get some supplies together and I'll be just fine on my own." Rebecca said.
"Well if you're sure, is there anything I can do to help you out?" Marin asked.
"Possibly, I was trying to figure out what the best thing would be to do with my stuff that I don't take with me while I look for Melan. Might you have somewhere here that I could leave it until I come back?" Rebecca asked.
"Of course. Now when are you planning on leaving?" Marin asked.
"I still need to buy supplies and let my dad know I won't be at the hotel, so I was thinking first thing tomorrow morning." Rebecca told her.
"You're sure you have everything you'll need?" Marin asked the next morning when Rebecca dropped her things off.
"Yep, dad made me go over everything as I packed it last night, plenty of food and water, cold weather sleeping bag, compass, rope, well stocked first aid kit, plenty of warm clothing, everything I could possibly need." Rebecca assured her.
"You're sure it won't be too cold for you up on the mountain?" Marin asked.
"I'll be fine, I have plenty of supplies and even without supplies I'd be fine. Dad and I went up into the mountains near where we live one winter to find the perfect Christmas tree when I was fifteen and we ended up getting lost when a blizzard unexpectedly hit. We spent two days sleeping in a cave, but we both new how to use what the earth gave us, all we had with us was an ax and a pocket knife. We sharpened a stick to make a spear and dad managed to kill a rabbit, we built a nice fire and it was actually more fun than scary." Rebecca told her.
"Well, I guess you're as prepared for this as anyone could be, just be careful." Marin said.
"I will, thank you for all your help." Rebecca said.
"You're welcome, just try to come back in time to visit some more before you have to go home." Marin told her.
"I will, I was given two weeks off from school to do my research, so I should have plenty of time to come visit again before I have to head home." Rebecca promised as she loaded her backpack into a cab that had just pulled up.
"What on earth was I thinking? Just go hike around a huge mountain and he'll just magically appear or it'll be easy to find him?" Rebecca muttered to herself, "Three days of hiking around aimlessly, I'm freezing, I'm tired and there's been no signs of anything even remotely resembling a Monomakia."
"Maybe I should have listened to Marin when she said it was too cold at this time of year to be up here." she said as her foot slipped on a patch of ice hidden under the snow and she barely managed to keep herself from falling.
Finally giving up on searching anymore that day, as the sun started to set she headed towards a slightly sheltered area she could see a little ways ahead. All of a sudden her foot slipped again and she lost her balance. As she struggled to regain her balance, her heavy backpack wouldn't allow it and she quickly found herself tumbling down a rather steep section of the mountain.
When she finally stopped about twenty feet down the mountain, she was dazed and in excruciating pain. "Okay Rebecca, breath, you're going to be fine." she told herself as she took several deep breaths and struggled to sit up, then had to fight back the urge to throw up or pass out at the sight of her leg. The bone between her ankle and knee had been snapped in two and had torn through her skin and jeans and she was losing a lot blood.
"Okay, I can deal with this, just stay calm." she told herself as she took off her scarf and used it to make a tourniquet above the break.
"Slow the bleeding, gotta set the bone and then get the bleeding completely stopped, and find shelter. There's no way I'm going to get off the mountain before dark, especially in this condition." she said struggling to fight back tears and keep from panicking as she inspected her other wounds which were mostly just a few cut's, scrapes and bruises of varying severity, luckily nothing else seemed even close to being as bad as her leg.
She had landed on a small ledge, to one side was a shear drop off that went down a good twenty feet at least, on the other side was the steep area she had fallen down with some brush growing along it with an area that looked like the rock was hollowed out at least a little ways behind it. Bracing herself for the pain Rebecca carefully dragged herself towards the cliff face. Once she got over to it she realized there was a cave behind the brush. "Okay, found good shelter, now I just have to set my leg." she said as she moved into the cave and inspected some rocks that stuck up out of the ground near the entrance only a few inches apart.
"Okay, I can do this, it's just like when uncle George fell when we were mountain climbing," she told herself as she took her backpack off and pulled one of her spare gloves out of it, "only this time I'm the one who's hurt and there's no one around to help me." she added as she rolled the glove up then bit down on it as she tore her pant leg enough to keep it away from where the bone was sticking through then braced her foot between the rocks. Taking a deep breath she pulled back, crying out in pain as the bone snapped back into place and she blacked out.