Kara opened her eyes and light filtered into them from above. Her body was less tightly bound and she identified the sway of the hammock she lay in. Green and grayish movement blurred above, and sounds of air and water, as if she were in a park in Aquaria, or in a grove of trees on Carrigah. 

There was coolness to the air that she'd never experienced before, and she turned her eyes as far to one side as she could, discovering a large round spear headed piece of glass, rising out of the ground near the tree where her hammock was held. Its emerald color was so intense it literally hurt her eyes and she squeezed them shut. She'd never seen anything so brilliantly reflective. She wasn't inside the mountain, and she wasn't in a park on Aquaria.

Her healer always knew right when she became conscious. She never had long to wait to feel his tampering in her mind. She knew the laws of Galantyne's healers gave him the right to immobilize her and direct her healing in any manner he saw fit, but she had the right to deny his tampering.

"It is dawn, Kara." His voice in her mind reminded her of an urgent sense of hatred and survival. Where had she heard that voice before, or felt those feelings? Her mind told her she had been injured and to trust her healer, her senses told her she was in danger.

"Dawn?"  

"We are in the crystal field that surrounds the mountain. That is why I have you bound in a hammock. You won't understand yet about crystals, but they protect the mountain. Any movement draws them forth to spear or stab, burn or cut the unwary. Only a trained warrior can traverse the crystal field."

"Korlon was going to teach me the ways of surviving the crystal field." She croaked. She couldn't be literally outside the mountain, she must have misunderstood the healer.

"Korlon, the son of Archer of Valdemar? I have heard of him." She'd heard that tone before, and her heart beat frantically until realization forced her to accept it.

"You are not a healer!" She cried, opening her eyes against the mighty glare.

"I am most definitely your healer, little one." The stillness broke with her total recall. "Kara." He said her name and Kara threw up the image in her mind of a shield that he could never traverse.

She struggled against her bindings, longing with all her inner might to break free, and was frustrated by her inability.

"I will melt your shield one of these days, Kara." Rion came within her line of sight and try as she might to keep her eyes closed, her pride wouldn't allow it. Her eyes met his, and for a split second, she saw deep blue before she forced them shut. She had to relieve herself, she thought ironically, but she'd be damned if she'd let him know that.

Shockingly warm fingers pried beneath her bandages, tickling down her back, and up around her neck. Fresh heat scoured her face. His exploration ended abruptly. "You will walk today." Kara shivered. She recognized the feel of his hands on her skin. Her enemy's hands.

If she could walk she could get away. With a lurch, the foot of the hammock swung free to dangle in midair three inches above the ground. Rion's face loomed in front of hers. Kara opened her eyes but the effort cost her. She had to relieve herself; she had held it for too....

Her eyes flew open in shock as warmth flooded her legs.

Rion glanced downward and then back at her mortified face. He watched the progress of hot blood as it swiftly penetrated her neck and cheeks. His laugh was a big booming sound, one she had never heard before, but one that made her feel like she was two inches tall. His laugh was too loud, the air around her too loud as well. Kara brought her free palm to her ear and cringed. This place! It was too loud!

"I'm sorry, Kara." He cut the cords that held her bound in the hammock, and reached one strong arm behind her back, supporting her; oblivious that he was stepping in her puddle, his leg getting wet.

Careful not to draw crystal, and with a strange humming noise coming from his throat, he gently moved her to the fire area a few feet away and lowered her to a woven mat. Kara crumpled to the ground as soon as his strength left her, and in ragged dejection, she fell forward, her bangs covering her eyes. She felt Rion moving around behind her and was forced by her own sense of self-preservation to open her eyes and see where he was. Her right arm was still bound to her body, and her neck was immobilized in some kind of brace. Pain stabbed at her from unused muscles and confinement. Suddenly Rion was squatting there, holding something out.

"I have duplicated your clothing. I will help you dress." His words were perfunctory, without a hint of his previous mockery. How could he understand her shame? And where was her fear? He was a Foeman! 

His hands on her body startled her, sending waves of pain coursing through her and tiny blue shards of crystal to protrude from the soft earth. She stared in shock as she felt the heat of one four foot red which towered above her. She had to get away.

Rion seemed unaware as he forced her laces to loosen, and began rewrapping her body. Kara struggled against him, twisting to see the other spears shooting off to her left, so close, so unpredictable.

"They're alive!" She breathed in the new too bright light, he was darkly handsome. Rough brown curled hair parted at one side and was tied back against the nape of his neck. His skin, touching her face as he reached to retrieve her clothing, was smooth, yet she could see the pores that sported facial hair. This was no youth! But a full-grown man!

Sunlight filtered above in dappled green so brilliant it hurt. Nothing in her experience prepared her for the plethora of overwhelming colors she was experiencing. Her free hand touched the dirt, and her nails scrambled in its airy quality. It moved, it beaded, it crumbled.

She slapped at his hands. "Leave me!" Her strike was feeble and she was appalled that he simply sat back and snorted in amusement at her efforts.

"I cannot leave you. You are as weak as a baby pheroon."

"Don't touch me!

"I have been touching you every day, na'shilean."

"Don't call me that! What does it mean? I don't understand you!"

"It means 'little one'. It is my pet name for you."

"You-- don't call me a pet name!"

"I will call you whatever I please! I am-- after all-- your healer."

Kara pushed at him again, and he squatted before her, but kept his hands to himself.

"Shall I re-bind your eyes? Would it make it easier not having to see me redress you?"

She shook her head, what little she could without causing terrific spiraling pain to accompany the slight movements. "How badly am I hurt?"

"Your neck is broken in just one small place, but your spine was broken in two places. Albeit all the fractures are small, and healing nicely, you have been incapacitated for quite some time. You will have to accept that indeed, I am your healer, and your enemy, and you are at my mercy, and I can and will subdue you if I so choose. Right now, I will dress you. Don't think you have anything I haven't already seen."

Her lips set in a tight line, her eyes squinting against the pain of the outside light.

Rion nodded in satisfaction as he lifted each foot to put the new leather boots on. They were his own design, molded to her step, contoured over her ankles, and not wrapped but laced. He saw her eyes dart in some confusion and appreciation, trying not to acknowledge his workmanship, and at the same time, obviously interested. He was gratified at her hesitant admiration and kept his hands controlled on her ankles as he finished lacing the new shoes. What was really holding him spellbound was the appearance of her eyes. He marveled at their crystalline golden flecks, not apparent inside Sentinel, out here they took on a queer glow that drew him irresistibly to her. He controlled his mind brush just enough to sense the barrier she had erected against him, and was glad she wasn't listening to his thoughts just then. He found her steel wall weakened by his handling of her, and pressed home the issue. "You will be appropriately clothed while you are in my care."

"You are a pig." She spat.

Rion rocked back on his heels. Defiant to the last degree. He liked that. "Yes." 

"You are a fool. I will kill you for all your hard work."

"You are delusional." His tone was unconcerned with her threats. "Eventually I will see your back bent in the fields of my Auditorium for all my hard work. And you will submit to my whims or else you will see your sisters die."

"My sisters in Auditorium are already dead to me, Foeman." Her voice was strained, full of indignation. "I will never submit to any whims of yours."

He laughed humorlessly. "We shall see, my Kara. You are weaker than you think."

"Let me die, Foeman."

He was taken aback by her vehement request. "Never!"

He'd said it with so much negation, Kara was forced to lock his reaction away for further contemplation.

"You are..." He let the sentence hang, controlling his emotions, sensing her probing inexpertly at the roots of his Zalez. He slapped her leg above the tops of her boots and examined his handiwork critically. 

With a quick movement, he tossed her supply pack to her, then turned his back, waiting for the blade. It came in seconds, aimed perfectly for his heart. He caught it in one gloved hand, feeling it slice his thumb even as it stopped short of his vest. His dark hair fell back into place from his quick whirl and he witnessed Kara's eyes widen in consternation, and then appreciation.

"You are fast, Foeman."

"Rion. My name is Rion." He said slowly, an evil smile playing across his lips as he stabbed the small blade into the ground. "You are done crossing me. I have examined your other weapons and find them of little use to you here. Except for this." He palmed out her calling ring.

Kara's face registered no emotion whatsoever, and Rion was disappointed. "You will not be getting this." He watched her eyes follow where the ring disappeared in his belt pack. "Is it the signet of your liege?" Her eyes widened imperceptibly, but that was all. "It won't do you any good."

"Nor will it do you any." 

"It's not for myself I worry."

"You should." 

Rion disappeared into the trees, completely obscured from her vision by the newly formed crystals. Kara took the time to really look at her surroundings. A ring of stones encompassed a few berries covered by leaves, both of which she recognized as edible. She reached over with her free hand and stuffed a few into her mouth.

Where had he gone? Did he really think she was too weak to escape? She wasn't. Escape was entirely possible. In fact, right now.

Kara hefted her suffering body to its feet, testing her feelings of vertigo. The fact that Rion kept his voice low and monotone for the most part while speaking wasn't lost on her, nor was the fact that tiny shards had pushed the softer earth aside close by where she sat when she moved too quickly, or spoke loud and angrily. Something she'd gleaned from the conversation with him, was the underlying hum he kept up under his breath to calm the atmosphere inside the crystal field, which she could now see was completely surrounding the base of the mountain, but also wasn't all that far away from trees and a river.

So this was the famous crystal field. Kara pushed herself to her wobbly feet and staggered back toward the trees and the green crystal she'd been positioned at in her hammock earlier. It seemed a well-worn path, and she kept up the same pitched hum Rion had while she breathed. 

The water close by enticed her. If she could get to the water, she could get anywhere. Inside the mountain would be preferable. Inside the mountain she could meld and get home to safety. Water seemed her best option. 

She slipped into the covering underbrush and kept her ears peeled for Rion's return.  In water, she was efficient. Using a technique she had learned in training, she slithered along the outlines of shadows, barely visible.

She hit the water without a splash, not counting her good fortune until she could reach the mountain. With just a nose above water, she moved along with the current at a pretty good pace, avoiding the large boulders with ease, until...

Something caught her foot, wrapping firmly around her ankle and dragging her against the current under water. She had not had time for a breath nor to consider changing into kai form, and she clawed at the imprisoning vine in desperation. The current raged by, but now Kara was held fast. To make matters worse, the vine seemed to be climbing higher up her leg. She had the sudden vision of a strange animal she'd never encountered, one that habitually ate people. When it got to her waist, Kara was shocked to see a body, ensnaring her in a vice-like grip, plummeting them to the surface. It was the closest she'd ever been to Rion's face. His knowing grin infuriated her.

She struggled, using all her skill to get free, not even daring to wonder what his punishment might entail. Her kicks and punches were effectively blocked, as he drug her out of the water, and none too gently deposited her next to him on the rocky shore.

"You should have mentioned you wanted a bath, Kara, and I would have obliged you without such a battle."

Kara wasted no time thinking up a reply, just tried to maneuver herself out of his grip, but Rion was not to be manipulated. He held her no matter which way she squirmed.

"Let me go!" She demanded, heedless of her voice now.

"You have a few things to learn, Kara."

"Nothing you could teach me." She spat.

Rion raced his hand up her arm, and gripped her savagely by the neck. Pain shot through her muscles in waves of anguish. His eyes bore into hers menacingly. "I am brutal in your pretty little world, Princess. I can teach you everything. I can also return you to your people for another try."

"Don't make me laugh!" She reared back, knocking her forehead into his dead center. Pain blossomed in her healing neck and she shuddered, almost passing out. 

 As he flung his arm up to ward off another blow, Kara kicked him as hard as she could. "Even a fool can see what you're after."

"You are wrong!" He hauled her to her sodden feet and trudged with her back to their camp, while Kara tried to figure out how he had been in the river at exactly that time and place, and wondered if he had known ahead of time what she would do. She would have to be more careful next time.

"Next time, little one?" He said out loud as he tied her back into her hammock. "There won't be a next time."

******