The Silver Senshi
                                      By: Usagi (SilverMoon) 
 
                                               Chapter Seven
                                                  Thundering

              The young woman groaned, slowly coming out unconsciousness.  Her hair was matted and dirty.  There were marks and scratches on her body, blood slowly dripped from them.  She inspected them carefully.  None of them were major, just a lot of cuts and bruises, other than that she was fine, and sore.  She slowly rose to her feet and inspected her clothes.  She was wearing a dark long shirt tunic, and a cloak.  Her legs were bare, but the shirt nearly went down to her knees, so she was decent, just cold.  The cloak was dirt brown and swirled around her feet, with a hood that was pulled back.  Her hair, which went down to mid theigh, was silver.  She had a belt on, and a small dagger on it.  Well, she thought,  At least I have some sort of weapon.  She tried to walk, but realized she was  wearing nothing on her feet.  Great, she thought,  Just great....  She looked around and was surprised to find a pair of green lace up boots sitting next to her, like someone had expected her to just wake up in the middle of no where.  She looked at the terrain.  There were some mountains in the distance, and the sky was weird, in fact it didn't look as if there was a sky.  She put on the boots and wondered why she was out here.  She never even tried to wonder why she didn't know who she was.  She knew amnesia, and she knew it was apparent she had it.  She didn't question it past there.  When she had finished lacing up the boots, she began the long lonely trek to the mountains.

	The two shrine maidens were cleaning the inside, the man was sitting outside, on the porch like part of the shrine.  He sighed to himself.  He should have felt it...sense it....watched for it...but he had missed it.  He could have stopped it, he was sure he could have if he had tried.  But he hadn't watched, and he had missed it.  He had tried to stop it at the last minute, but it was too late.  He had failed to protect her. One of the most important people to him, and he had failed her.  Not just anybody...*her*.
	It was few days later when one of the two shine maidens cried out, "There is a girl approaching!"  He whirled around and ran to the other side of the shine.  Could it be a human? he questioned himself.   But how did a human get here! There is only the shine maidens and me here!  When he reached the other side, he saw the woman the shine maiden spoke of.  It was a windy day and the cloak the woman was wearing was whipping In the wind.  Her hood had long since blown back and her silvery hair tore at her face.  She was staggering as she walked, and the fatigue was obvious in her.  She looked up briefly at them, then collapsed.  The man gasped and ran towards her.

	The woman finally reached the mountains, the tall ragged peaks nearly reaching the sky.  The crags and crevasses fell deep into the earth.  The wind howled in her ears and she pulled the hood up around her head.  She stepped onto the rocks and began the treacherous climb.  Each step brought her closer to the top, the rocks were sharp though, and tore at her skin and clothes.  She was going straight up now, no slant what so ever.  She lifted her foot and put it on another rock.  The rock suddenly fell out of place and tumbled down the mountain side.  Her foot slipped with the rock, and she felt her body being pulled back down to the earth, literally hundreds of feet away.  Her arms flayed above her, as her body tumbled over and over again and again.  She swung her arms out, crashing into the rock wall.  She felt the jarring pain as her body was flung back to the stone, and the sickening snap of her arm as the bone was broken.  She continued to fall until she hit a ledge that jutted out from the rock face.  The ledge was covered in thorn bushes and she crashed on them, cushioning her fall.  She screamed as the small thorns caused a million tiny cuts to appear on her, feeling like ten thousands of needles plunged in to her at once.  She quickly removed herself from the bush.  But at least she hadn't broken her back or worse.  The heavens began to open, and a light drizzle began to fall, cleaning her wounds.  Her broken arms lay useless by her side, twisted in a terribly unnatural position.  She crawled back into a small crevasse in the rock, which offered a minimal protection form the rain.  She cradled her arm and let herself drift off into sleep, the rain still pelting down on her.   
	When she awoke the rain was still falling steadily.  Since there was no sun, she couldn't tell how long she was asleep, but it hadn't been more than an hour.  The thorn cuts had stopped bleeding, and her arm remained in the same state as she left it.  She was soaked to bone, and her stomach was growling, and hurting for want of food.  She slowly stood up, supporting herself on the rock, her body aching and sore from working it too much, them sleeping.  She shivered, the ice cold water dripped from her nose.  She didn't know she felt miserable, she hadn't felt much better when she came out of unconsciousness, so she didn't know she could feel much better.
	She had fallen half way down what she had climbed, and the top was hundreds, possibly thousands, of feet away.  She placed her one good hand on a rock and began to pull herself up.  Her fingers were numb with cold and pain, and the ache spread through her arm and to her shoulder.  She forced her sore muscles to wake, and hefted her body up a foot.  She placed her foot up a bit, then swung her body outwards, then pulled it in rapidly, taking her hand off the rock, and placing it on a higher one.  Her whole body screamed in pain at the sudden movement, but it was the only way to climb higher.  She pulled herself higher and higher, slowly making her way back up the mountain.  About half way up, her hand hit an unsteady rock, pulling it loose.  Expecting the falling of the rock, she put her whole weight in legs and leapt up, grabbing another, more stable rock.  But the rock she had pulled loose let a river of water that was flowing down the mountain side free.  The small waterfall cascaded onto her head.  The ice cold water surrounded her, she couldn't breathe. She tried to move her head, but where ever she moved, all there was was water.  Her eyes were closed, and she searched for an opening in the constant fall of water.  She had gone a minute without air ((doesn't sound like a lot, but u try holding u'r breath for a minute)).  She pulled herself up more, but the water just hit her harder and forced her down.  She tried again and again, swinging from side to side, but the water seemed to surround her whole world.  Two minutes.  The water had gotten past her cloak, now her tunic was drenched in the literally freezing water.  She felt the small pieces of ice flow past her, some hitting her face.  Three minutes.   She couldn't stand it anymore, she opened her mouth to gasp in a lung full of air, but found only water.  She choked and coughed as she breathed the liquid.  She kept gasping more and more into her lungs, choking and gagging.  Four minutes.  She was starting to pass out.  She knew that the only way to get out was down, but that could mean falling to her death.  She squeezed her eyes tight shut, and bit her lower lip, then slowly released her grip on the stone above her, and fell.

	The cries and screams of the people around him echoed in his ears.  The flames rose higher and higher, closer and closer, covering him, and surrounding him.  Then he felt the heat envelop him and he burned.  Then a light flashed and his body flared in pain.  He sat up quickly, a cold sweat covered his body.  He gasped for air and pulled the sheets up around himself, telling himself over and over that it was no more than a dream.  He got out of bed and walked into the next room.  The girl was asleep there, her face covered in small bloody cuts, her face and arms strewn with welts and bruises.  He had no doubt that the girl was beautiful, but these injuries surely disguised it.  She had been in the first stages of hypothermia when they had found her.  His pulled the blanket up over her body, trying to keep her warm, then walked outside onto porch.  The long flat plains stretched out before him   The Great Mountains were a good weeks travel from here.  Could she have come from there?  He shook his head, she was not his concern.  He leaned against the wood of the sturdy building.  The large shrine was beautiful and old, timeless in fact.  It was healthy here now.  Not like before, and he was glad of that.  The girl stirred in her sleep.  He turned towards her.  Her silver hair was very long, and some how he was reminded of *her*.  Damn! Stop this!  he screamed mentally at himself.  He walked slowly over to the mystery girl.  She groaned and whimpered in her sleep, dreaming no doubt.  Her eyes slowly opened, and the mans eye's widened.  She had the most beautiful hazel-red eyes he had ever seen.  No, he corrected himself,  I have seen eyes more beautiful, but I never will again.

	She was semi-conscious and beginning hypothermia.  She was dangling on a rock a few feet below the waterfall, and a few feet to the right of it.  She coughed hard, gasping in air.  She choked and began heaving, gripping the rock for dear life.  Her stomach muscles contracted and she began emptying her lungs of water, vomiting it up.  She gulped in the precious air between each heave of her stomach.  Finally the water stopped coming, and coughed until her throat was raw.  She shivered in her soaking clothes, which had bits of ice on them because of the cold water.  Her lips were blue and she felt herself falling asleep.  She forced herself to stay awake, and tried to keep warm by moving.  Moving equaled more climbing.  Her hand hit the rock again and again, as she swung herself up another foot.  Every time her hand came crashing down against the stone, she wanted to cry out in pain, as blood and blisters built on her abused open palm.  Finally the peak of the mountain was just one more swing away.  Her arm swung back and hit the stone again, and she pulled herself up.  She sat of the top for a few minutes, catching her breath.  She looked up at the country side around her.  Mountains. As far as the eye could see and more.  Mountains.  She lay down against the freezing, wind worn, wet stone, and wept.

	It had to have been a week, though with no stars or sun to tell her, she did not know.  But she had come down the last mountain, and was walking across a wide flat plain.  Her broken arm was turning purple, and twisted back wards, hanging limp at her side.  All this time she had eaten nothing, and her stomach was hurting.  Every so often she would feel like vomiting, but all she managed was dry heaves.  It had only stopped raining a little over an hour ago, and a wind storm had come up.  She didn't know where she was going.  She stumbled, and almost fell down, but something forced her to keep moving.  She looked up as she heard a shout.  She couldn't believe her eyes.  A house...a house.....She smiled, and let the weariness and fatigue wash over her like a tidal wave.  And she fainted.

	 He watched her wake slowly.  The woman looked up at him, obviously frightened and unsure of her surroundings.  She looked like a caged animal, wild and scared.  He smiled and held his hand out to her in greeting.  She wished she could say something to him, but she had forgotten how to speak, but it didn't seem to matter to him.  He gently held her hand and her eyes searched his desperately, wanting to know something, but even she wasn't sure what.  "Greetings m'lady," he said to her calmly, not even sure if she understood him, "You may call me Helios, Mistress."