Lois Fogg
SireneCall@hotmail.com
Fantasy, Book Four, Chapter 1
[AuthorÕs Notes at the end of Chapter 3]

I hated Chiba Mamoru because he was obnoxious, cocky,
narcissistic and too damn intelligent and handsome for his own good.
Not that I would have ever told him the latter reasons, of course, but
they were always there in the back of my mind during our journey. Of
course, IÕm getting ahead of myself. We hadnÕt started our journey yet,
and I didnÕt even know his surname. So, where exactly did I leave off?
Ah yes, as had been my recent habit, I was once again naked and in an
extremely awkward position.
	Cursing Petunia vocally and expertly, I tried to ignore the
growing crowd of people around me. Yes, I said crowd, because I had
landed in the middle of a city. Not just any part of the city, either, but
what looked to be the main market square. Wealthy looking women
dressed in Kimonos and proud soldiers along with the poorest in the
city stood in a horrified circle around me and I cringed. ÒWhy me?Ó was
becoming a redundant question, but still perfectly appropriate. At first
there were only horrified whispers, and shocked faces hidden behind
exquisitely painted fans. Gradually the roar of outrage grew, and I could
see the crowd closing in upon me. I gripped the PetuniaÕs Barbie doll
and MamoruÕs amulet close to my body, determined to defend them. I
didnÕt understand why they came through and my clothes didnÕt, but
that was a particularly irony I wasnÕt in a particularly good position to
ponder. I felt the crowd getting bigger, and an unreasoning panic
gripped me. I remained huddled and frozen in my place on the ground,
until I realized that the crowed was parting. By the time I figured out that
they were parting for the local equivalent of the police force, it was way
too late. Still, some mad desire to avoid trouble forced my legs to spring
into an up right position and dash straight into the crowd behind me. I
knew it was hopeless as soon as I did itÑthey were too close and the
crowd was too tightly packedÑbut I tried anyway. The image of a
helpless, bleeding, Mamoru, weakly calling my name appeared on the
screen of my mind and I refused to give up. I plunged through the
milling people, the more proper ladies reeling away from me and some
anonymous hands slapping my naked butt in passing. I gritted my teeth
in anger, but still focused on getting away. Blind panic was setting in
now. I had visions of myself in chains, dying in an unknown land, and
not even able to help the one man I had returned for. When, in my
haste, I finally crashed back onto the pavement, I knew intellectually
that all hope of escape was lost. Even so, I fought wildly as the smartly
dressed guards grabbed my arms and dragged me upward. One, who
may have been good looking in a different situation, made the tactical
error of releasing my arms to ostensibly hand me a cloak to cover
myself. Never being one to squander an opportunity, I raised my now
free hand, and with all the anger and frustration that had built within me
for the past week, punched him straight in the nose.
	You wonÕt look so pretty next time, I thought smugly as I
watched him grip his bleeding face. Almost simultaneously, the butt of a
dagger smacked expertly against the back of my head and I passed into
reluctant oblivion.

	I awoke shivering on some cold and ominously slimy floor, still
clutching PetuniaÕs Barbie doll in a death grip with one hand and
MamoruÕs amulet with another. At first I was only aware of my splitting
headache and I wondered if the blood I smelled was my own.
Interestingly enough, I knew exactly where I was and what had
happened to me. My object of saving Mamoru was still my primary
purpose, although how to do it from a classically dank dungeon would
be a matter of some interest. Groaning slightly, I cracked open my eyes,
and promptly closed them again. I *knew* the room wasnÕt supposed to
sway like that.
	ÒI think I have a concussion,Ó I muttered to the floor, and
noted that I was again speaking MamoruÕs language. At least *that*
had worked, anyway. I had enough problems without struggling past a
language barrier. Realizing that nothing was going to be accomplished
so long as I lay on the floor like this, I struggled to open my eyes. The
scene rocked violently for a while, but after a determined effort on my
part, my vision stabilized. Gingerly, I sat up feeling the sizeable lump on
the back of my head. Honestly, I was going to have to start thinking
before I punched people. It always got me into these awkward
situations. I didnÕt spend too much time brooding, however, since I was
intent on discovering a way out of this mess. Funny how I was so
optimistic about it, I thought with a small smile.
	I was sitting alone in an absolutely bare cell. The only light
came from a grilled window set at an unreachable height in back. It
couldnÕt have been that long since my debacle in the town square, I
reasoned, since it was still daylight out. Unless, of course, I had slept an
entire day. The thought scared me because I knew that time was crucial
in my quest, and my stupidity may have cost MamoruÉmore than I was
willing to think about. The cell itself was extremely small, no more than
five by five feet, and the thick wooden door in front made escape seem
like a fanciful hope.
	ÒGoddamn it!Ó I said succinctly, banging my hands on the
disturbingly slimy stone. It was at that point that I realized I was still
naked, although someone had had the decency to cover me with a ratty-
looking blanket. I tossed it away angrily, getting to my feet. I fell
backward almost immediately, and the wall caught me. Gritting my teeth
I tried again, this time feeling considerably more stable. My headache
seemed to have diminished in the wake of my frustration, for which I
was grateful.
	ÒThis is just not fair!Ó I said loudly, pacing from wall to wall.
Because the room was so short, I could only take about two steps
before I had to turn around again. This began to induce feelings of
latent claustrophobia, which only made me even angrier.
	ÒGreat!Ó I shouted to the wall. ÒJust what I need! Damn
Mamoru and his stupid amulet!Ó I shouted, pointedly ignoring the
nervous churning of my stomach.
	ÒEverything I went through for him, just for *this*! ItÕs just
not fair! I wasted all of my money, went on a wild goose chase halfway
across the world, got tricked by Petunia and now IÕm stuck here! IÕm
*sick* of being naked!Ó I felt ominously like crying, but held it back. I
didnÕt need yet another addition to my list of indignities. I took a breath
to relaunch my tirade but released it unexpectedly when I heard the
muffled sound of someone opening the door. I let out a small yelp of
surprise and stumbled as far away as I could. I had not given much
thought of my fate in this dungeon up to this point, but I considered it
graphically now. I covered myself up as best I could, refusing to touch
the obviously lice-infested blanket. The lurid pictures of tortureÑ
heretofore reserved for MamoruÑappeared in my mind once again, only
with a certain naked, screaming blond as the main character. I roughly
forced back a whisper, determined to at least *pretend* to be brave. The
resolve flew rather quickly out of my barred window when the door
gave a loud squeal as it was shoved forward.
	ÒGet away from me!Ó I squealed loudly, backing up even
further away from the door. I was practically climbing up the wall. The
anonymous intruder was about to come in, and I knew that I couldnÕt sit
here screaming the whole time. As much as I wanted to play the
helpless heroine, I had to get a grip on myself. After all, I reasoned, this
may be my only chance to escape. That in mind, I sprung to my feet and
positioned myself behind the slowly opening door. My stomach
churned so badly that I was forced to suppress the urge to vomit, but I
retained my position. I refused absolutely to play the helpless heroine,
even if I was buck-naked and a proud owner of a Malibu Barbie doll.
Therefore, when the intruder entered the room, his face shadowed
beyond distinction, I overcame my near terror and planted a well-aimed
side kick in his midsection. My fear and anger lent the kick power I
didnÕt know I had, and I heard a distinctly male grunt accompany my
uninvited guestÕs fall to the floor. I let out a bark of triumphant 
laughter.
	ÒSee if anyone else messes with *me*, Serena: Avenger of the
Innocent,Ó I said giddily, still reeling with the shock of success. He
really must not have been expecting any resistance for me to land a kick
so easily.
	ÒNot like IÕm complaining.Ó I said to his recumbent frame. His
black hair fell over his eyes as he lay there groaning. How hard did I kick
him, I wondered as an ominous feeling began to settle in my stomach.
Why was I still standing here, anyway? I ought to get out of here as
fast as I could and try to find Mamoru. Which was when it hit me.

	ÒHi, Mamoru,Ó I said, wincing as I knelt next to him. ÒSorry
about this.Ó

	I suppose that to an outsider the situation must have been
rather amusing. I will admit that I saw the humor, but I tactfully refrained
from mentioning it to Mamoru. The latter looked as if he was inches
away from punching me himself. Honestly, though, from his expression
of barely suppressed pain, I knew I had hurt him. The knowledge
produced an unexpected pang of regret, which I endeavored to squash,
but never quite went away.
	ÒSerena.Ó He groaned, endeavoring to sit up. ÒWhy did you
have to do that?Ó
	ÒI thought you were a guard!Ó I said defensively, trying and
failing to avoid noticing how gorgeous he looked, despite his twisted
expression. ÒAnd really,Ó I continued babbling in order to avoid my
rampaging and inconvenient emotions. ÒYou could have said
something. And I didnÕt kick you *that* hard, donÕt be a wimpÉÓ I
trailed off, slightly breathless as he gave me a pained smile.
	ÒAll right, I wonÕt be a wimp. For now, Serena, you think you
could put something on?Ó
I blushed radiantly, suddenly realizing that I had been waving
my ÔwaresÕ directly in his face for the past couple minutes. I scrambled
to my feet to get the blanket, then realized that I was giving him a rather
nice view of my butt and sat down again.
ÒThis is ridiculous,Ó I said, inwardly cursing my face for
turning embarrassing colors. MamoruÕs smirk didnÕt help much, either.
ÒYou seem to be in the embarrassing habit of misplacing your
clothes. Might I ask why?Ó
ÒFor someone who just got kicked in the stomach, youÕre
acting mighty cocky.Ó
ÒFor someone who is stark naked, youÕre acting mighty
haughty.Ó
I growled incoherently. ÒAnd to *think* that I came all this
way for you! I should have let you rot!Ó
He yet again produced his now-trademarked smirk. ÒI heard.
How do you think I found you, anyway? You were talking loud enough
for the whole jail to hear you. YouÕre just lucky I came in before one of
the guards.Ó
ÒYeah, I am,Ó I said angrily, momentarily forgetting to cover my
chest, a fact of which his arched eyebrows tactfully reminded me.
ÒLucky, because I got to kick you, instead of one of them!Ó I finished,
pointedly ignoring the last scene.
ÒSpeaking of the guardsÉÓ He said, growing serious,
suddenly. ÒIf weÕre going to get out of here, weÕve got to do it now.
TheyÕll be making their rounds any time now, and with all the racket
weÕve been makingÉÓ
ÒYouÕre right.Ó I said, forcing my pride to the back burner. I
would give him a more satisfactory tirade once we made it out of here
safely. I suppressed the wave of concern that washed over me when he
stood up; he certainly wasnÕt faking that pained expression. How hard
*had* I kicked him, anyway? I had been too scared to pay attention.
ÒYou coming?Ó He asked, turning towards me. His expression
was so ruthlessly sarcastic, that I felt all the burgeoning concern within
me vanish, not without some considerable relief. I never did like having
to apologize.
	ÒI refuse to spend any more time like this,Ó I said, sitting firmly
on the floor, arms crossed around my chest.
	ÒFine!Ó He snapped, and for a terrifying moment I thought he
was going to leave me. Instead, he grabbed his shirt and pulled it over
his head. I barely had time to register what he was doing. My eyes were
locked upon an unasked for vision. Whatever problems I might have
had with MamoruÕs personality, I was beginning to think that his looks
more than made up for it. I forced myself to swallow as my eyes traced
the perfectly sculpted contours of his pectorals. There were some rather
lurid bruises around his midsection, however, which I tried to ignore.
	ÒAre you planning on putting that on anytime soon, or do you
just like being naked?Ó
	Reluctantly, I dragged my eyes from him, endeavoring to calm
the rushing of my heart. When was the last time I had seen a guy that
good looking? In fact, had I *ever* seen a guy that good looking? Not
liking the direction my thoughts were taking, I studiously pulled on his
oversized tunic. At least he hadnÕt noticed where I was staring, I
thought as I stood next to him.
	ÒLetÕs get out of here.Ó He said with a small smile, for once
lacking mockery. I tried to ignore the jolt I felt when he grabbed my
hand and led me into the dimly lit hallway. The walls were lined with
smoky torches at regular intervals between rows of closed doors.
Mamoru closed the door to my cell gently, but any sound he might have
made was easily covered by a terrifying scream that echoed eerily
through the hall. The acoustics made the situation even more terrifying,
because I couldnÕt tell where the scream had come from.
	ÒMamoruÉÓI whispered tensely, gripping his hand more
tightly. He was lucky I only did that, because I was resisting the urge to
jump into his arms. The gravity of our situation had suddenly hit very
thoroughly home. I was trying to escape from a dungeon guarded
heavily armed, unsympathetic men with only the dubious protection of
a Malibu Barbie doll and my reluctant savior MamoruÉwell, I wouldnÕt
say the odds were heavily on my side. Knowing that torture could
safely be added to the list of amenities this dungeon provided only
increased my pointed desire to leave the premises immediately.
	ÒWeÕre doomed,Ó I said fatalistically, as we moved cautiously
forward. I could tell that he had been jolted by that interruption as well.
	ÒDonÕt be so melodramatic,Ó he said irritably over his shoulder,
concentrating up ahead.
	ÒDonÕt be melodramatic!Ó I exclaimed heatedly, momentarily
forgetting that this was not the ideal time to get in an argument. ÒDid
you just hear that, or are you telling me it was myÑouch!Ó I exclaimed
as he yanked me abruptly towards the wall. For a second I struggled as
he covered my body with his own, trying to stay entirely within the
shadow cast by a nearby torch. I quickly realized, however, that the
sound of approaching footsteps was not a welcome one, and almost
assuredly meant our re-capture. This time, I knew, our captors would be
less forgiving, and freeze frame shots of what could happen whizzed
through my mindÕs-eye once again. In a completely instinctual move, I
raised my arms around MamoruÕs bare waist and pulled him in closer to
me as the footsteps grew louder.
	ÒIgnore us. Ignore us. Ignore us.Ó I chanted the mantra silently
as I rested my head gently on MamoruÕs chest. In my defense, however,
there was no where else to put itÉnot as though I was arguing with this
particular quirk of fate. In fact, it was probably the only decent aspect of
the whole situation. The footsteps slowed, and I could tell that they
were almost on top of us. My chanting grew even more fevered and
determined, until I felt lightheaded with the effort. In fact, my entire
body felt fuzzy, similar to the sensation of a limb Ôfalling asleepÕ but
subtly different. I didnÕt know what was happening, I only knew that the
footstepsÑwhich had stoppedÑhad not noticed us yet, and I would
continue doing the same thing until they passed. When I realized that
the footsteps belonged to two people, and that they had stopped next
to us to talk, I thought we were doomed. But strangely enough, they
never noticed anything out of the ordinary. I was concentrating too
hard to really listen to their conversation, but the words ÒKojinÓ and
ÒUshiruÓ and ÒPrincessÓ did manage to penetrate my psyche. I figured,
distantly, that they were two of the KojinÕs many underlings and that
this dungeon was certainly under his control. After what seemed like a
century, but probably only amounted to five minutes, they seemed to
run out of things to say to each other.
	ÒRight,Ó Said voice number one, and I forced myself to pay
attention to this part of the conversation. ÒLetÕs get the Chiba bastard
to the Kojin.Ó Through the fuzziness I smelled the distinct scent of
peppermint, and felt MamoruÕs arms tense around me.
	ÒWait,Ó said the other, nervously. ÒShould we send this sword
with him?Ó
	ÒHmmÉÓ the first voice pondered. ÒI suppose so. The Kojin
may want to see it.Ó
	I heard them walk a few steps further down the hall, and in a
moment of clarity I realized that they were about to open MamoruÕs cell
door, and they would realize that he wasnÕt there. It made perfect sense,
in fact. Who else with a special sword would the Kojin take special
pains to see? It also explained MamoruÕs obvious tension, which was
palpable at our close range. Realizing that I had to do something
quickly, but not quite knowing what that was, I concentrated with a
terrifying intensity on the first thought that came into my head:
	ÒGo to the bathroom.Ó I didnÕt feel fuzzy anymore, I felt
desperate. I repeated it silently, my brow furrowed with concentration.
Instinctually, I began to gather power the way I had when I first entered
Umeru. Let this work, I prayed, even as I braced myself for the inevitable
explosion. What did I think I was doing anyway? Practicing magic? It
was all so completely and totallyÉ
	ÒUmÉGendo? Do you think you could wait a minute? IÕve
*really* got toÉyou knowÉÓ
	ÒYeah, go ahead. In fact, so do IÉÓ
	The sound of scurrying footsteps echoed my utter and
complete surprise.  I lay helplessly against the wall, even as Mamoru
disentangled himself from me, forcibly removing my hands from his
torso. I rather regretted that, actually. He gave me a curious look, almost
fearful, and grabbed my hand silently. In the throws of a rather large
jumble of emotions that included intense relief, renewed worry and an
unfortunate surge of female hormones, it took me a good thirty seconds
to realize that we were heading in the opposite direction.
	ÒWhere are we going?Ó I demanded angrily. I hadnÕt done all
that just to get caught again!
	ÒI have to get my sword back. Now be quiet,Ó he said tersely.
He stopped abruptly, and I walked straight into him, but he didnÕt
appear to notice. His attention was entirely concentrated on the dimly lit
figure in front of him. The man was relieving himself against the wall,
and I wondered if he hadnÕt had time to make it to a bathroom. But did
they even have bathrooms in this world? Fantasy novels were
remarkably unclear on the subject, now that I considered it, and in any
case, this fantasy world was unlike anything that I had ever read about.
The sound of a brief scuffle and a muffled groan dragged me back from
my frivolous musings. I had a momentÕs panic that the groan had
emanated from MamoruÕs lips, but his cocky smile as he raised his
sword quickly erased these.
	ÒAre you done yet?Ó I asked impatiently, eyeing the guard
surreptitiously and wondering how badly he had hurt him.
	He gave me an exasperated sigh, and lowered his sword. ÒFine.
LetÕs get out of here, then.Ó

	I admit that one reason I agreed to walk behind him was to
have a better view of his back muscles. The other, of course, was to
make sure that guy didnÕt get up. After painstakingly making our way
through the honeycomb design of the dungeonsÑand several close
calls with patrolling guardsÑwe came upon two large, heavily guarded
doors.
	ÒWeÕre almost out!Ó I whispered excitedly.
He gave me a rueful smile. ÒDonÕt count on it. If I remember
correctly, this dungeon has at least four levelsÉitÕs built like a castle.
WeÕll never make it past them, anyway.Ó
I began to protest, but forced my mouth shut. He obviously
knew better than I, in any case.
	ÒWell, what are we supposed to do now?Ó I demanded, trying
to ignore the sinking feeling that we would never leave this place.
Unfortunately, my voice seemed to have raised several decibels in my
frustration, and the guardsÕ attention was immediately focused in the
general area we hid. Before I had any barely formed plan of action
Mamoru grabbed my hand and yanked me further down the hall, away
from the guards. I heard them following us, and I closed my eyes in a
silent prayer. I wanted to ask Mamoru what he was doing, but we were
running too fast for me to even breathe. To my fear-sensitive ears, it
sounded as though we were making as much noise as a herd of
elephants. We couldnÕt have been that loud, however, because the
sounds of our pursuers eventually faded into the distance.
	Mamoru and I lay panting against a wall, the beaded
perspiration of both exertion and fear on our faces.
	ÒThis is *not* fun.Ó I said, succinctly.
	ÒWhat? You thought escaping from a dungeon known for its
torture devices would be enjoyable? IÕve got to admire you for
optimism, at any rate, if not your intelligence.Ó
	ÒWhy you obnoxious, self-absorbed, cynicalÑÒ
	ÒAs much as I enjoy name-calling, Serena, I hardly think this is
the time or the place,Ó he interrupted with exasperation.
	If yet another scream had not echoed through the hall at that
precise moment, I probably would have punched him again. Honestly, I
thought, shaking despite myself, I had never met a guy who made me so
unreasonably mad.
	ÒWeÕve got to get out of here,Ó he said, glancing down both
sides of the hall to make sure no one was coming.
	ÒYouÕve got a talent for pointing out the obvious, Mamoru,Ó I
said, allowing anger cover my growing fear.
	"At least it's better than your useless conversation!"
	"Useless? Who got us out of that mess back there, anyway?"
	"What are you talking about?" He asked, staring quizzically at
me. I opened my mouth to answer, and then realized that I didn't quite
know myself. *Had* my fervent desire stopped the first two guards
from noticing us, or had it just been a fluke? Rationality told me not to
give myself too much credit, but another deeper part knew something
else had happened. I looked down in confusion, effectively ending our
conversation.
	"Do you have any ideas?" I asked quietly, after a moment.
Mamoru was still giving me that distinctly strange look, and I shifted
uncomfortably.
	"This place is really oldÉ" he began, thinking out loud. For
once I refrained from comment. "There are legends. I don't know if
they're true, but if so, it could be our way out."
	"Well, what are they?" I asked eagerly. Finally we were getting
somewhere!
	"Mirror has always been a traditional city, but almost five
hundred years ago the temples dominated this entire area. When the
warlords began to usurp control, and build these large castles, they
tried to subdue the church influenceÉviolently. That's why Mirror is so
known for it's torture devices-- the priests and priestesses themselves
served as the test cases. Regardless, the few remaining temples
supposedly undertook a secret task to build tunnels from temples to the
most notorious castles. The holes were, of course, very well hidden
even when they were new, and there's no guarantee that we could find
it."
	"If it even exists," I said quietly.
	He acknowledged my statement with a curt nod. We seemed to
have lost all inclination to argue with each other. Our situation had
given us a temporary truce, at the least.
	"Is there anything more," I asked at last. "What does the
legend say about how these people found the tunnels?"
	"It's pretty vague on that point. Somehow, each escapee had
managed to keep some item from the temple with them, and used that to
find the tunnel. It doesn't make sense to me, though."
	"Why not?"
	"Because, as far as I know, the Kojin and the Lady are the only
two people in this entire world with the ability to perform magic. And I
can't see the story about the objects working without some sort of
magical interference." He paused for a minute, thinking silently. "But
temples have always had a kind of magic of their own. Perhaps it's not
as far fetched as all that."
	"Wait, wait," I said, positively stunned by his statement. "You
mean that there is practically *no* magic in this world?"
	He gave a short bark of laughter. "I didn't even believe in
magic until a year ago. Now it seems as though I have far too much
contact with it for my piece of mind."
	"ButÉweren't Ushiru and his men using magic earlier?
Remember the peppermint?" I protested. What kind of fantasy world
was this, anyway? Yet another proof of the age old adage that life is
nothing like booksÉeven fantasy novels.
	"They weren't using the magic themselves, Serena. They were
using a special amulet impregnated with the Kojin's magic."
	"So, how are we going to get out of here, then!" I exclaimed.
Something told me that if we spent much more time talking we wouldn't
make it out of here alive.
	"If only I had some object from a temple! At least then I could
try it outÉ"
	We sat in silent thought for a minute. When the solution
finally occurred to me, it seemed to easy to be believed. I looked up
eagerly and was met by his opaque blue eyes, shining with the light of
epiphany. For a moment we froze like that, the world stopping, blue
engulfing me. The moment could have continued forever, but the
excitement of our discoveries overrode it, and we both exclaimed
simultaneously: "The journal!"
	As soon as I said it, I realized my mistake. Sure enough, he
gave me a hard look, almost suspicious, and my heart sunk. I had been
planning on telling him about it, of course I had, but I hadn't figured out
the ideal time to tell him that I had been spying on his private life the
past two weeks.
	"How did you know about that?" He asked, surreptitiously
backing away from me.
	"WellÉumÉit's a long story," I began, racking my brain for
the best way to put something that I just knew he wouldn't appreciate.

	I have never been more grateful for the sound of approaching
footsteps in my life. Dragging his attention back to our immediate
situation, he forgot all about me and my seemingly suspicious
knowledge. We ran further down the hall, away from the guards, but I
knew that we were just buying time. I  only hoped that our intuition
proved correct. As soon as we seemed relatively safe again, Mamoru
pulled out the book. It looked exactly like mine, except I noticed that the
writing was in the strange language and it was considerably worse for
the wear.
	"What are you planning on doing with it?" I whispered,
painfully aware of our proximity to certain disaster.
	"I don't know." He said, holding the book like it were some
unpleasant and inscrutable parasite. "Maybe close my eyes and pray?
It's got to be better than sitting here." And he proceeded to do precisely
that, holding the book in front of him in what I assume he believed was
an appropriate manner. He just looked kind of ridiculous to me. I
decided, however, that this was not the time to mention it. After a
minute--which seemed far longer, let me assure you-- I gave into the
urge to tap him on the shoulder.
	"Any luck?" I asked hopefully.
	He opened his eyes and stared in mine, looking a little
confused. "NoÉ" he said slowly, shaking his head. "Nothing at all."
	"God damn it!" He exclaimed, turning on his heels and walking
further down the hall. I hurried after him.
	"What are you doing now?" I exclaimed, looking worriedly
down the hall. He didn't answer me, just continued to mutter under his
breath.
	"Do you *want* to get caught? Because if you do, then keep
this up!"
	He paid not a whit of attention to me, merely brushed off my
presence like I was some offending fly. I admit that this peeved me a
little. All right, so it made me hopping mad. How could he ignore me,
anyway? Even if he was a pain in the ass, he never ignored me. I felt far
more slighted by this than anything else he had done previously. And
to top it all off, he was walking so fast on those long legs of his that I
had to jog to keep up. I was so busy getting annoyed with him,
however, that I didn't notice where he was leading us. No, that's not
quite appropriateÉI had no idea where we were going, so any way
seemed fine to me. What I didn't notice was that *Mamoru* seemed to
know where he was going. In between muttering things like "Damn
book" and "why even bother," he was walking through the halls like he
had lived here all his life. The strangest thing was that he seemed to be
magically avoiding the guards too. I just trotted along after him,
carrying on my own internal monologue, content, at least, to see where
this new event would take me. After a number of twists and turns that I
had thought even a labyrinth like this would have been hard to come up
with, we stopped at a dead end. By this time, Mamoru's monologue
seemed to have petered off, and his eyes lost that dazed expression it
had taken on during the past few minutes.
	"Huh?" he said, eloquently. "Where are we?"
	Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. "That should be my
line. You had me trotting after you the entire way here like a lovesick
puppy."
	His look of confusion turned to one of genuine appreciation,
and he smiled at me. NoÉdon't do that! I thought frantically, as my legs
began to shake beneath me.
	"I'm sure you'll make up for it," he said, winking. If he kept this
up, I really was going to have to get a chair, I thought fatalistically.
There's only so much a girl with normal hormones can do when
confronted with the most gorgeous guy she has ever seen--shirtless--
smiling at her. Never mind the personality issues. Thankfully--or not, a
part of me argued-- he ended the moment abruptly, and began pacing
back and forth in the confined space.
	"Now what do we do?" He asked, but not looking at me. I
barely had time to get indignant, however, because I heard him grunt in
surprise as he tripped over something in the floor, and went sprawling
into the wall.
	"Are you all right?" I asked, running over to him.
	"YeahÉfine." He muttered, holding his torso carefully as he
stood up. I would have pursued the point, but I noticed his gaze was
intent on some spot on the floor.
	"What are you looking atÉ" I began, but trailed off when I
saw it. Barely visible unless you were looking was a groove in the stone
floor. This in itself wasn't unusual, but the groove was a slightly
different color, and there was a barely visible circular line around the
edges.
	"I think we found our way out," I whispered, awe warring with
jubilation in my voice. Without replying, Mamoru knelt slowly next to it,
and felt around the edges for some sort of handle. Eventually he found
a segment where his fingers could get underneath the groove, and he
tried to lift it up. "Tried" being the operative word. After a few moments
of grunting and sweating with no more than a little jiggle in response
from the stone, he asked for my help. Even with our combined efforts, it
hardly moved at all.
	"Brilliant." He said, leaning back on his heels, and wiping his
sweating forehead. "We make it this far, only thwarted by the fact that
the door can't be opened!"
	"Maybe if we try again--" I said, unwilling to give in to what
was appearing inevitable.
	"Serena, this door probably hasn't been opened in centuries. I
highly doubt that anything we do will overcome that."
	"We've got to try!" I exclaimed, leaning closer to him. Funny
how the smell of male perspiration had never turned me on before this.
Imagine that, I was learning new things about myself every day, I
thought wryly.
	"What else could we use? Magic?" The last was delivered with
obvious sarcasm, but I considered the possibility seriously. After all,
what had I done back there with the guards? And how had I gotten to
this world in the first place? Even if I was wrong, I had to at least make
the effort. I owed it to us both.
	"Come onÉjust one more time. For me, Mamoru?" He gave me
a surprisingly gentle look when I said that and nodded.
	"One more time. For you." He added with a smile and my now
typical reaction ensued. By the time I recovered myself he was looking
at me expectantly. Shaking off the last residuals of my hormone-induced
stupor, I placed my fingers under the groove and pulled. At first the
same thing happened--nothing. I concentrated even harder, willing the
block to move. I drew on the same power that I had the last two times,
shaking with my both physical and mental exertion. This had to work! If
it didn'tÉI had no desire to even think on the consequences. And
suddenly, it moved. With an almost audible pop, the block flew upwards
in our hands and we tossed it to the side with surprising ease. Mamoru
stared at the gaping hole with absolute shock, and then shifted his gaze
to me.
	"We did it." He said quietly, disbelief still in his voice. It
seemed to hit him then, and jubilation replaced all doubt. "We did it!"
He shouted, and I did so with him. We clasped our hands momentarily,
staring into each other's joyous eyes. I felt shock waves rebounding
into my arms and chest, making it extraordinarily difficult to breathe.
Unwilling to believe or accept what was happening to me, I broke
contact, and looked into the hole again.
	"Let's go!" I said, doing my best to pretend that nothing had
happened. My heart, unfortunately, belied that fact emphatically.
	"You go down first," he said, not looking at me. "I'll put the
cover back on myself." I tactfully decided not to ask him how he was
planning on lifting that thing all by himself. Sometimes male pride is just
not worth puncturing. Bidding the dungeon an extremely jubilant
farewell, I looked dubiously downwards. There was a series of grooves
in the wall, forming a ladder of sorts. Unfortunately, it was so dark that I
could not tell how deep they went. While not exactly phobic, deep dark
places are not high on my list of ideal vacation spots, if you know what
I mean. I certainly didn't want to be plunging head first--or butt first, as
the case may be-- towards the unknown, without even a light!
	"UmÉdo you think you could bring that torch?" I asked him
nervously, pointing to the nearest one. Thankfully, he seemed to be
considering the very same thing, because he nodded emphatically.
	"Here, you hold it," He said, handing it to me. "You can give it
back once I close the top."
	I eyed him again, nervously. "Are you sure that you want to
close that thing? I mean, what if this is a dead endÉhow are we going
to get out?"
	"They probably already know we're out. You hear that?" He
asked, and I finally tuned in the distant sound of shouting voices and
many booted footsteps. "If this hole has stayed hidden for so long, I
can only hope that it's because it's impossible to find. We shouldn't
make it easy for them to capture us."
	"I know, I knowÉ" I said slowly, reluctantly taking the torch.
"I just don't like the idea of closing off our exitsÉ" My doubts were not
given any more time for consideration. Obviously the guards had
spread out en masse, and from the sound of it they were extremely close
to discovering where we were.
	"No time," Mamoru said in a hushed voice. Nodding and
sucking up my fears--I highly doubted that any horrors that hole had to
offer could compare to the kinds of torture they indulged in this
dungeon-- I put my feet on the first rung. I climbed down slowly,
dubious of my bare feet and the slimy stone. At least the torch light
made everything shadowy. I was quite sure that I did not want to know
exactly what I was stepping in. Mamoru came after me, and my eyes
widened in admiration as he lifted the lid and placed it above us. We
seemed to have been blessed by the gods of luck, because almost as
soon as he replaced the top, the sound of boots was practically right
above us. I could vaguely make out the sound of their voices.
	"Not here, sir."
	"They couldn't have gone far. One of our men heard them a
short while ago, in this direction. What's that smell?"
	There was a pause while, presumably, the other sniffed the air.
"I'm not sureÉit smells sweetÉI can't say I know what it is, though."
	"They must be hereÉkeep looking."
	I didn't know what they were talking about--although now that
I thought about it, I had smelled something strange back there--but I
decided that I didn't want to stick around and find out. Even if they did
eventually find the hole, I had plans to be far, far away when that
happened. Mamoru followed my lead down the ladder. Thankfully, it did
not go very far, and I turned around to face a small, stone lined tunnel.
It only reached my chest, so I had to stoop down just to enter. Mamoru
and I glanced at each other silently, then shrugged. It wasn't as though
we had any other choices in the matter, after all. We would just have to
see where we ended up and hope for the best. I could only hope that
the Kojin's palace--or whatever, since I had no idea where he lived-- was
not on the other end of this tunnel. Almost as soon as I entered, I
realized that it would be a much better idea for me to crawl on all fours.
Walking hunched over like that was too difficult. Momentarily
forgetting Mamoru's uncannily silent presence behind me, I dropped to
my hands and began crawling again. His muffled gasp--which turned
into coughing spasms--alerted me to the fact that not only was I without
pants of any sort, I was, as the phrase goes "going commando." I sat
down, thoroughly embarrassed.
	"You get ahead of me," I commanded, handing me the torch.
He took it willingly, but just before he moved, he winked at me.
	"Ahhh! You pervert!" I exclaimed, as I let him pass. "God only
knows why I bother with you, anyway."
	"Probably," he said, obviously having regained his tongue
from wherever it had vacated the past few minutes. "because I rescued
you from a very unpleasant situation. But that's just a guess."
	He had resumed his steady crawl now, and I discovered that
with Mamoru in the lead I had to work considerably harder to keep up.
One of these days, I vowed, I would pay him back for all the times he
made fun of me while I was naked. Now, however, I had a line of
questioning that I was finally at leisure to pursue.
	"How *did* you rescue me, anyway?" I asked, driving to the
point.
	"Oh, that," he chuckled. "I did the exact same thing you did, in
fact."
	"What? You ran around naked?" I asked, only somewhat
sarcastically. He laughed outright at that. I hadn't known it was possible
to trip while crawling, but as I said, I was learning new things every day.
	"No," he said finally. "I can't say that I had that particular
pleasure. No, I was referring to your plan to clobber the first person who
came through the door."
	"You mean, you stole the keys from a guard? Why didn't they
discover you sooner, then?"
	"Well, I didn't steal them from a guardÉnot exactly."
	"What did you do, then?" I asked, exasperated.
	"One of Ushiru's men came to visit me-- to gloat, I suppose. Of
course, this time he was alone. Needless to say, he was the stupidest of
the bunch. I guess that he assumed I would turn magically docile once I
made it to the dungeon. He talked for a while--I hardly need to relate
what he said. The long and short of this story being that he tried attack
me. Only, since he was alone, I fought back, and I doubt I need to tell
you the outcome of that battle. In the process, I managed to steel his
key ring. He was so embarrassed, that he left without checking, and if I
know my strong but unfortunately stupid attacker, by the time he
realized it was missing, he figured that he had lost them himself."
Mamoru sounded entirely too pleased with himself.	"Mamoru, you
sound entirely too pleased with yourself."
	"Well, I should sound pleased. I can't say I can think of
anything noteworthy *you* have done recently."
	I stopped, overcome with self-righteous anger. "You can't
think of a *single* noteworthy, thing, huh? Well, let me tell you
something, you one-eyed son of a jackal!" Where had that come from,
the part of myself not consumed with total rage wondered. My tirade
continued even before I had a chance to finish the thought. "I have
gone through *hell* to get here, and if you don't show me some proper
appreciation, extremely soon, you might just have to kiss my help
goodbye. Especially since you seem to think that you can do just fine
without it! Was it just my imagination, or at our last parting did you or
did you not tell me to come and find you?"
	His deep blue eyes widened in shock, and he blinked several
times. "YesÉ" He finally managed to choke out. He may have been
planning to choke out more--  I wouldn't know, since I had already
continued.
	"Well then! If you don't want this stupid pendant, and you
don't want my useless help, then tell me so and I will go back to my own
world! I don't need this, and I definitely don't need you! I did not go
halfway around the world to God-knows-where, trying to find my crazed
neighbor, wearing *dirty* underwear and landing *naked* once again
in the *middle* of this stupid city just to be made fun of by an
ungrateful low life like yourself!"
	My anger seemed to have exhausted whatever source it had
sprung from, and I panted slightly. Wow, but that had felt good.
Perhaps he hadn't deserved all of that, but seeing that cheeky grin
wiped clean off his face was doing wonders for my disposition. I
wondered, vaguely, if my tirade had been loud enough to be heard back
in the dungeon, but I doubted it. We had crawled a good distance
already.
	"You broughtÉdirty underwear?ÉpendantÉneighbor?" He
stuttered, apparently unable to form a coherent sentence. I was rather
flattered--it wasn't every day I reduced a man so self-assured as
Mamoru to incoherent mutterings--the fact that his own insensitivity
was the cause made it even more satisfying.
	"Serena," he finally said. "I'mÉsorry I said that. It
wasÉdishonorable of me. You helped me even though you had no
obligation at all. I wasÉvery surprised to see you, in fact," he gave me a
small smile that was, if anything, shy. "My apologies." He bowed
slightly, although it's depth seemed more limited by the size of our crawl
space than his sincerity. I was shocked, I admit, as much by the gesture
as by the sentiment. After an awkward moment, I returned the bow, for
the first time realizing that not only had I traveled to a different world, 
I
had also traveled to a different culture. I guess I had been expecting a
handshake, I thought with a wry smile.
	"Dirty underwear, though?" Now, there was that mocking look
I remembered. I had begun to wonder where it had gone.
	I blushed. "It's a long story." He gave me an appraising look,
and abruptly turned around again. Surprised, I scuttled to catch up with
him, avoiding the unfortunate comparison of myself to a beetle or some
other unpleasant crawling creature. There were certainly more than
enough down here. I was just grateful that I hadn't seen the one type of
bug that consistently gave me fits of hysteria: centipedes. No, any bug
with under a hundred legs was fine with me, but past that pointÉI had
"issues." In fact, in one memorable moment, while camping with my
friends I had screamed so loudly that the camping authorities had come
to see what had happened. Explaining that no, I was fine, I had just seen
a rather large centipede, to officials who just barely managed to keep a
straight face had not been one of the more enjoyable experiences of my
life. I had a feeling that explaining it to Mamoru would be worse.
Therefore, I kept my fingers crossed and told myself that whatever I felt
crawling down there was only a couple spiders.
	"Now, I've got to ask you something," Mamoru said
eventually, and from his tone of voice, I had a feeling that I wasn't going
to enjoy his line of questioning.
	"What?" I asked cautiously, aware that there was virtually no
way of avoiding his questions.
	"How did you know about my journal?"
	Of course. Only when there was no escape would he ask me
that most delicate of questions. I suppose I had been hoping that he
had forgotten the issue in the excitement of our escape and I wouldn't
be forced to explain. Obviously, luck was never on my side. Faced with
the problem, I scoured my brain for the best method of explaining my
situation.
	"Well, see, in my world we don't really believe in
otherÉworlds, like this one. I did actually," I amended, losing my train
of thought. "But I was a very strange person, there. No one really
believed me anyway, so it didn't matter." It didn't seem that Mamoru had
noticed--or minded-- my diversion, anyway, so I discreetly returned to
the point. "So, didn't you wonder how I found out about you?"
	"Well, I did. I never thought that business about a 'vision'
really explained very much."
	Well, at least he was ahead of me, I thought as a blush
suffused my face. I really don't know why I had been under the
impression that I had been so intelligent to tell him that. Really, I should
have given Mamoru more credit for his intelligence. I coughed in a vain
effort to cover up my embarrassment.
	"Anyway, I found this blank book one dayÉonly the next day
it wasn't blank, and I realized that I was reading someone else's journal."
	"You mean, you were reading my journal in your world? For
how long?" His voice sounded as though it was vacillating ominously
between anger and fascination.
	"The entire time you had it, I think."
	"The entire time," he repeated quietly. My stomach sank. I
really did not need this problem at the moment. "So," he continued with
a strange edge in his voice. "You read what I wrote about you?"
	" 'She envisioned herself as some sort of savior,' Mamoru?
Yeah, very flattering!" I said indignantly, completely forgetting my
original plan to appease him. He was making strange noises that almost
sounded as though he was choking. Unfortunately, I could not decipher
whether those were good or bad sounds, so I stared at his butt and
frowned in confusion. It was a rather enjoyable butt at that, I thought,
distracted. Really, its contemplation could preoccupy me for hoursÉit's
fine contours, the way it was round without being fat, the obvious
product of extensive exercise. As Mina was known to say, it was a total
"squishy, squishy."
	Being so preoccupied, it took me a good two minutes to realize
that not only was Mamoru laughing, but he had also stopped dead in
his tracks in order to do so with more ease. The only reason I even
noticed was because once he stopped I ran into said butt. He didn't
notice, but by this time I had forced my hormones into submission, and
I was thinking with relative clarity.
	"Why are you laughing?"
	"Not very flattering!" He gasped, in between peals of laughter.
"It wasn't supposed to be, Serena!"
	"Oh, just shut up! Who cares if I read your stupid journal? You
ought to be grateful that I even botheredÉMamo-chan!" I said the last
as an impulsive insult, remembering the last time that strange nickname
had slipped off of my tongue.
	"Don't call me that!" He said, still chuckling a little.
	"You can't make me stop!" I said, dangerously close to sticking
out my tongue. What was wrong with me, anyway? I hadn't acted this
childishly since second grade! Honestly, Mamoru--no, Mamo-chan--
brought out the worst in me!
	"WaitÉdo you hear something?" He asked, effectively ending
our argument. I listened, and vaguely heard a rushing noise.
	"Is thatÉwater?" I asked, suddenly feeling nervous. How
many more problems did we need, anyway?
	He nodded. "I think so, it must be an underground stream. It
sounds as if it's alongside us." We looked at each other for a moment,
sharing a moment of mutual frustration.
	"Let's keep going," he said, finally, and resumed crawling. This
time I was not quite so keen on my minute examination of his hind
quarters, not because they had grown any less appealing in the past
five minutes but because the matter of my survival until this evening
seemed more important. Long before I was ready for it, the sound of
water grew extremely loud, and we abruptly ran out of crawl space. The
tunnel stopped abruptly to  make way for the stream--well, it was more
like a river. It was about fifteen feet across, and the current looked 
rather
powerful. It ran about ten feet below us, and across  I saw that our
escape route continued.
	"How are we supposed to get across this?" I asked, sitting
next to Mamoru. The tunnel had gradually been growing taller as we
had progressed, and now it was high enough for us to stand. The cliff
down to the water looked pretty sheer and slippery to me. Even if we
got down and managed to swim across, climbing back up would be
another matter entirely. He was silent for a while, and I saw his eyes
scanning the entire area. Finally, his face lit up, and he leaned forward.
Fearing, irrationally, that he was about to jump in, I grabbed his arm. He
looked at me over his shoulder, his infernal eyebrows raised mockingly,
and I quickly released my grip.
	"Look at this, Serena," he said, pointing to what had provoked
his interest. It was, in fact, the remains of a rickety rope bridge that had
apparently served as the means of escape during this tunnel's use.
	"It's broken," I said, matter of factly.
	"I know, I know, but rope has got to be usefulÉ"
	"How?" I asked, worried that Mamoru was about to propose
something utterly typical and foolhardy. I was not disappointed.
	"I know!" he shouted, promptly ripping one of the rope ends
from the wall.
	"What are you doing?" I asked, with a dire feeling that he was
planning something even more ludicrous than even I had imagined. He
was probably going to swim across with only a frayed, God-knows-
how-old rope to hold him against the current, and scale the slippery
rocks to the other side.
	"If I tie these together," he said, promptly tying his broken end
to the rope still attached to the wall. The dislodged planks fell without a
splash into the river below. "Then I can use it against the current when I
swim across."
	Bingo. "So how are you planning on getting back up? Scaling
the cliff face?"
	"WellÉ" he began, putting his hand behind his head in an
embarrassed gesture. I raised my eyebrows at him. "Hey, look!" He said,
pointing. "There's some broken rope on the other side, too. I'll just climb
that!
	"Why don't you just drown yourself and get it over with!" I
shouted, overcome with the million images of the possible ways his
mission could fail.
	"Serena! You're being ridiculous," he shouted back. "How else
do you propose we get across? What, do you think it will be safer to go
back to the dungeon and hope that the guards won't mind that we've
been missing?"
	"No, but--"
	"But nothing! There's no other way. Once I get across, I can
toss you a rope and pull you to me."
	I stuttered for a few moments, endeavoring to find a reasonable
argument against his rampant stupidity, but found I could think of none.
There is something about the insistence of testosterone that can leave a
woman helpless sometimes. I suppose I will also admit that it is easier
for someone else to make the hard choices. In other words, even for
feminists, old fashioned chivalry still holds its charm.
	"I thought you'd say that," he said with a cocky grin. I
experienced about two times my usual reaction, the intensity probably
owing to the fact that he was minutes away from mortal danger, and
there was nothing I could do to stop him. I suppose that I was feeling
rather maudlin at that moment.
	"And you say *I* imagine myself as some sort of savior." I
muttered, endeavoring to hide my emotions.
	"Difference is, I'm not imagining." I did not even dignify that
comment with a response. I settled for an all-purpose derisive grunt
instead.
	He smiled again, and handed me the torch. "Toss this across
once I get thereÉit may not work, but I'd prefer to have a light." He
prepared to jump into the water. Overcome by worries, I grabbed his
arm.
	"WaitÉshouldn't you check your knot, first?"
	He gave me an incredibly cocky look, and exaggeratedly pulled
his knot extra tight. I cursed him silently, but refrained from doing so out
loud. I didn't want to jinx him. Just as he was about to jump, I grabbed
his arm again.
	"What is it this time?" He snapped.
	I winced, but continued anyway. "Good luck." I said quietly.
	I turned away from his smile, unwilling to turn into a useless,
quivering mass of jelly at this moment. As much as I may enjoy chivalry,
I had no intention of standing on the shore, biting my nails and fretting
like a good little maiden. If Mamoru was going to risk his life, I was
going to make damned sure I did all in my power to help him keep it. Call
it 'survival insurance,' if you will. I did not doubt that my chances were
considerably slimmer without Mamoru, obnoxious though he may be.

	I stood paralyzed for a moment when I heard the sound of his
body hitting the water, but I promptly recovered when I saw him
surface, struggling against the water. I ran over to where the remaining
rope was attached to the rock, and grabbed it with my free hand. As I
had expected, the old rope was proving inadequate to the task of
supporting Mamoru and the pull of the current. I held onto it for our
lives, digging my heels into the rock for support. He was struggling
mightily against the current, and was fairly successful. Fifteen feet
doesn't sound like a great deal in a nice, calm swimming pool, but it was
proving an ordeal here. He was about half way there, and I tried to keep
dragging him back towards the general direction of the other hole. I
resisted the urge to call out his name, since that would be pretty useless
and distract me from holding on to the rope. Every time his head went
under, however, my breath caught in my throat and I felt the tears form
in my eyes. Intellectually I knew that there really was no other way, but
it didn't stop me from fuming with anger at his arrogance. I suppose that
I was also a little angry with myself for caring so much. Before I realized
it he had struggled to the other side, and his hands were gripping the
rope desperately. I held my breath, knowing that now there was no more
I could do to help. I saw his back muscles quiver with the effort of
pulling himself from the rushing water. When he was almost half way
up, I let off an unconscious whoop of delight, but I don't think that he
heard me. Just before he had climbed far enough to reach his arms over
the top, the worst happened. Well, not the absolute worst, but about as
close to it as I had been willing to contemplate. One of the ropes
supporting the wooden planks snapped, and for a desperate second I
wondered if Mamoru would lose his grip entirely and plunge back into
the water. To my relief his right hand shot out at the last possible
moment, and grabbed the remaining rope. He hung there for a telling
moment while my voice remained stuck in my throat and my hands had
flown to my mouth. As he raised his other hand, I realized that it still
held the broken rope. It was difficult enough to climb with both hands
free, he certainly did not need that rope to further complicate things.
	"Let it go!" I shouted, and I suppose my fear lent my voice the
volume needed to be heard across the river. He didn't turn around, but I
knew he heard me.
	"I can't," he said, after a moment, still maintaining his
precarious one handed grip.
	"Why the hell not?"
	"You can't get across without it," he answered, which
effectively silenced me. He was right, of course, I was just surprised that
he had considered such a thing when his own life was hanging by a
thread-- literally. Without any further breaks for conversation, he
painstakingly made his way up the frayed rope, and my eyes examined it
carefully for any signs of breaking. If he made it to the top soon, it
looked as if it might hold. Just before I thought I would pass out from
worry, he threw his hands over the top and pulled himself into the
tunnel. I mouthed a silent thank you to whatever power had seen fit to
save him. I was still angry at him, but I supposed that would wait until
later. He lay on the other side, panting for a moment, and then struggled
upwards. For someone who had almost drowned about ten times, he
looked pretty good. He gave me a reassuring smile, and being
unprepared, I had to brace myself against the wall. Serena, I thought
while shaking my head in annoyance, do not get involved with
impossibly good looking men in life or death situations. It makes you go
even crazier than you are naturally.
	Mamoru walked over to the wall where the other rope remained
attached by very little and ripped it off with disturbing ease. He
promptly tied both ends together in what I hoped was a tight knot, since
I couldn't see from across the river.
	"Serena," he called. "Toss me the torch!"
	I stared at the object and the fifteen foot distance dubiously. I
was notoriously bad at all sports that involved projectiles, and none of
those had been flaming. I would feel awful if my throw fell short and our
only light source was lost in the river. Another problem occurred to me
then, as well. If one of my fail-safe klutz attacks kicked in at this 
moment,
and we lost our light, how could I get across? No matter how skilled
Mamoru might be, I had a feeling that this operation wouldn't work in
pitch darkness. Perhaps it was better for me to leave the torch here, and
go across aided by light, although we wouldn't have any for the
remainder of our journey. I didn't like the idea, but it sounded better
than losing the light here. I said as much to Mamoru, but he shook his
head emphatically.
	"No way! We can't afford to lose the light-- who knows what
else is out there?"
	"But what if I can't make it? When I say I'm bad, you have no--
"
	"Don't worry, Serena," he said with a smile. "I trust you."
	Damn that smile, I thought, even as I prepared myself for the
fatal toss. This just wasn't fair--why did he always have to win
arguments like this? More importantly, another side of me asked, why
did he always have to be right? I pointedly told it to shut up. Praying
that I would tap into some heretofore undiscovered athletic talent, I
raised the torch over my head and lobbed it with as much force as I
couldÉstraight into Mamoru's face. I stared in horror as the flaming
mass sailed straight across the river, but at the last possible moment,
Mamoru's hands shot out and grabbed it expertly by the handle. He
lowered it slowly, and winked at me.
	"Was that supposed to tell me something?" He asked, with
palpable sarcasm.
	I balled my fists, horror easily giving way to anger. So long as
he didn't give me one of his deadly smiles, I handled him wonderfully.
He sobered quickly, though, and tossed his newly mended rope across
towards me. We quickly realized that it didn't quite close the gap, so I
had to lean forward to grab it. After the fifth try, the frayed end
remained in my fingers and I smiled up at him triumphantly. The smile
only lasted for a moment, however.
	Because I had leaned so far out to grab the rope, my balance
had been upset, the consequences of which I was feeling now. I
teetered on the edge for a frightening moment, and then plunged head
first into the churning water, my right hand still gripping the rope and
my left holding Petunia's Barbie doll. For several terrifying moments I
could not struggle to the surface, and I felt ominously light headed.
Then, I felt the rope yank violently upwards and I surfaced, gulping air.
The rope pulled me forward little by little, as I struggled against the
current. This had seemed much easier when I was safe, dry and ten feet
above the water. Now, I seriously doubted that I would survive this
experience. Despite that, fought against the current, trying to aid
Mamoru any way I could. I knew that I was almost across, but I felt
almost overcome with exhaustion. Just a littleÉa particularly strong
current ripped the rope out of my hands, and I sank beneath the surface
with a shriek. My survival instinct really kicked in at that point and with
a silent roar, I forced myself above the surface. I knew that I was drifting
away from Mamoru, so I fought my way back to him, all the time
searching for the rope. I absolutely refused to die like this--there was
more of my adventure coming, and damn if something was going to kill
me before I got to it! With that thought, I finally saw the rope and
grabbed it gratefully. Only a second later Mamoru hauled me the few
remaining feet through the river and up the cliff face. I collapsed in a wet
heap, my breath coming in short gasps that resembled sobs. God, but
that had been close. I felt like one big bruise.
	"Serena," he whispered, putting his hands tentatively on my
shoulders. I guess I really must have been exhausted, because I relaxed
under his touch. "Are you all right?" Something in his voice made me
open my eyes, and roll over to face him. At his expression, I smiled, and
I must say it held the teeniest bit of justified sarcasm in it.
	"You were worried about me?" I asked, in a voice so over the
top that I was obviously mocking him. "You mean, Mamoru was worried
about his little damsel in distress?"
	His eyes widened in anger, and I regretted my harsh reaction. I
suppose that had really been uncalled for, but it seemed that all of my
frustration at his heroics had boiled over at this inopportune moment.
	"Fine," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "If that's how
you're going to react, I won't bother caring."
	Now I really did regret it, but my pride forbade me from
apologizing. Instead, I pointedly stood up on my own, surreptitiously
leaning on the wall for support. I tried wringing out his soaked tunic,
but I began shivering uncontrollably and gave the exercise up as futile
anyway. When I began shivering, he looked as though he would say
something but decided against it.
	"Let's go." He said curtly, grabbing the torch.
	"AllÉrightÉ" I chattered. Still dripping, I dropped to my
knees, and followed Mamoru through the tunnel.
	God damn it, I thought, momentarily forgetting about how cold
I was. Even after all this, his butt was *still* gorgeous!

	After perhaps another hour of crawling through the freezing
cold tunnel with only Mamoru's backside as my view--not like I was
objecting--we arrived at the same kind of stone ladder that had allowed
us to crawl down here in the first place.
	"Finally!" I said, the only word spoken between us since my
debacle by the river. I was kind of annoyed with him over that-- I mean,
I've heard of fragile male pride, but this was getting ridiculous!
	"Let's go." He said curtly, and grumbling, I followed him up.
Above us it looked as though there was a seal over our hole, similar to
what we had removed back in the dungeon. I only hoped that this was
easier to release than that one.
	"Here," he said, handing down the torch.
	"Hey! Don't burn me!" I exclaimed, wincing from my close
proximity to the smoking object. It didn't smell too nicely, either. He
didn't bother to respond, instead placing both his hands on the stone
and forcing upwards with what looked to be considerable effort. Just
when I had begun to classify his operation as futile, the stone began to
move, and within a few more seconds he painstakingly pushed it off and
natural light flooded my eyes. I shielded my vision, wincing, waiting for
Mamoru to crawl out. He didn't move, however. Instead he remained in a
somewhat hunched position, making me tap my foot in annoyance.
	"What's wrong with you? Let's get out of here!" With a
wordless grunt, he climbed out and I crawled after him, looking around
me curiously.
	Well, we hadn't found the Kojin, that much was for sure. I
highly doubted that the Kojin would make his headquarters in a temple,
subterfuge aside, I figured there had to be some sort of "bad guy
twisted code of ethics" about these things. We seemed to have crashed
some unfortunate shrine maiden's meditation, and from her expression
we were a rather unexpected interruption. Her bowl of incense stood
forgotten before her, and the stick that she had intended to light it with
was about to burn her fingers. She had long black hair and deep brown
eyes that almost looked maroon-- she was beautiful in an exotic sort of
way. I confess that I looked at Mamoru as soon as the thought crossed
my mind, surreptitiously-- I hoped, anyway-- judging his reaction. He
stared just as blankly back at her, and I saw her eyes slowly trace his
bare chest. Hey, that's my territory, lady! I thought, defensively. Her
mouth opened a little, and she could not seem to close it.
"You know, your face might just get stuck that way," I commented, with
an only slightly malicious smile.