Rebecca moaned as she started to wakeup, the pain in her leg quickly reminding her of what had happened. As she opened her eyes she found that someone had wrapped her up in her sleeping bag next to a fire, as well as bandaging a cut on her forehead, a deep gash on her upper left arm and, from the feel of it, they had also bandaged and put a splint on her leg.
Sitting up carefully she looked around, she was in a good sized cave, the small fire that was burning nearby, giving off just enough light for her to see farther into the cave. To the back she could make out several shelves that had been carved into the wall of the cave, they were filled with books and what looked like a framed picture.
Looking towards the entrance of the cave she could still see just a little light left in the sky, "Okay so I couldn't have been out more than an hour, so where did my rescuer disappear to?" she said as she unzipped her sleeping bag, "Just tell me my rescuer was a Monomakia in shining armor and not some crazy hermit or something." she said between gritted teeth as she grabbed a long stick that looked like it had been left over from splinting her leg and stood up. She hesitated for a moment, making sure she would be able to keep her balance before she slowly made her way over to the shelves, using the stick and the wall of the cave for support.
Rebecca smiled when she got over to the shelves and saw that the picture was identical to one her mother had had. Everyone one who had lived at the tenement house as well as her mother and even her grandmother and step grandfather were in the picture. Everyone looked happy, although her mother had told her the picture had been followed by a tearful farewell for Marin and Moe as it had been taken at the last minute when they stopped to say goodbye on their way to the airport.
"You shouldn't be standing up." a voice said from behind her.
Rebecca turned around as quickly as her leg would allow and couldn't help grinning, "You don't look any different than you do in that picture." she said in awe as she looked at the Monomakia standing in the entrance of the cave, holding two long sticks.
"My kind age far more slowly than humans do." he replied.
"That's what I was told, I guess I was just expecting some change after nearly fifty years. Oh I'm sorry, my name is Rebecca Fisher, I'm Moe's daughter." she said, suddenly feeling completely unsure of what to do or say now that she had finally met him.
"Why were you on the mountain? It's dangerous at this time of year." Melan asked.
"Well my mom use to tell me stories about you and Brigadoon, I wanted to know more about Brigadoon and you're the only one who can tell me about it. Marin said she didn't think you'd mind, so I came to look for you." Rebecca explained as she made her way back over to her sleeping bag and sat down.
"You saw Marin, how is she?" Melan asked.
"She's doing very well." Rebecca replied.
"What about Moto and Anna?" Melan asked.
"Moto had her baby on New Years day, a little girl, she named her Hana Marin. On that same day Roger asked Anna to marry him, so she and Marin are busy planning her wedding." Rebecca told him as she pulled an envelope out of her back pack and handed it to Melan, "Anna said she'd really like you to come to the wedding."
"Her wedding is in the spring, she knows I only come down for Christmas." Melan said as he looked at the invitation.
"She thought you'd say that, she said to tell you that she would be absolutely heartbroken if you didn't come since you came to Moto's wedding. She also said that the fact that Moto's wedding was on Christmas Eve doesn't make any difference, since you were there for Moto's wedding you have to come to hers." Rebecca told him.
"She really want's me there that badly?" Melan asked.
"Yes." Rebecca replied.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to go, it's been a while since I've been off the mountain at anytime other winter." Melan relented.
"Good. Now do you have anywhere that I could get some of this blood cleaned off of me?" Rebecca asked glancing down at her torn and bloody pant leg.
"Yes, there are hot springs farther down in the cave, I'll show them to you." Melan said as he walked over to her and handed her the sticks he had been holding which turned out to be hand made crutches.
"Thank you." she said as she grabbed a change of clothes out of her bag while Melan lit a lantern, then she followed him deeper into the cave.
It was quite a ways down, but luckily the tunnel that lead down to the hot springs gradually went deeper instead having any steep sections that would have made it difficult to maneuver on crutches.
Once the reached the hot springs Melan lit a couple of torches that were stuck into the wall and set the lantern on a ledge, "Do you think you can find your way back by yourself?" he asked her.
"Yes." Rebecca replied.
"Good, I'll be back, we'll need more fire wood." he said before leaving.
Once Melan was gone Rebecca took her clothes off and carefully unbandaged her leg, she was amazed at how well the skin had already healed, "I'll have to ask him about that, I'm sure Marin mentioned that he had some way of speeding up healing time." she said to herself as she slipped into the warm water.
After getting cleaned up Rebecca reluctantly got out of the warm water, got dressed and carefully rebandaged her leg, then grabbing the lantern she headed back up through the cave.
She was about halfway back to the main room of the cave when the lantern light glinted off of something through a small passage way. As she walked closer to the passage she realized that it was mostly blocked with fallen rocks although there was just enough of an opening for her to slip through with her crutches.
As Rebecca slipped through the opening and lifted the lantern to see what it had been reflecting off of she was shocked and horrified by what she saw. It looked like Melan's sword, with the base wedged between two large rocks that stuck up out of the floor, with what looked like ragged bits of long dried skin still attached to the base. Laying nearby on the floor was his gun, looking as if it had simply been sliced off.
Instantly she started to think of things Marin had told her, about Melan saying he couldn't stay on earth because people would be afraid of him and he wouldn't be able to hold her with weapons for arms. When she had gotten married and he had said he would be better off living away from people because he would never be accepted or fit in because of his weapons.
Rebecca turned away from the sight and was about to leave when she noticed what looked like a picture or at least the remnants of one hanging on the back wall of the room. She walked over to it and after a moment realized it was half of a copy of a wedding picture that she had seen when she had visited Marin. The half with Marin had apparently been carefully cut off, leaving only David in the picture that was riddled with what she assumed were dozens of small laser holes. Laying on the floor below it were bits of broken glass from some type of bottle.
As Rebecca turned to leave she froze when she realized Melan was standing in the entry way to the room, "Melan," she gasped suddenly feeling like she had been caught doing something she shouldn't have been, "I'm sorry, I just- the lantern reflected off of something and I'm stupidly curious sometimes, I-"
"It's alright." Melan dismissed, glancing around the room briefly as Rebecca came out.
After a while of walking in silence back towards the main room of the cave Rebecca finally broke the silence and asked, "Are you going to be okay if I ask you about your time on earth or would it better if I just focus on what you're life was like before you came to earth?"
"No, it won't be a problem, that back there was just the result of a combination of depression over Marin getting married, blaming my weapons for losing her and Tadashi's going away present when I left, which consisted of two bottles of some type of strong alcohol. I found this cave and then the last thing I remember was shooting up the picture of David and having made it about half way through the first bottle. The next thing I knew I woke up with two missing weapons, a horrible hangover and vowed never to touch anything alcoholic again. But that was a long time ago, I've accepted what happened since then and will be fine answering any questions you might have." he told her.