What if and Why?

It's been something that my brother and I have discussed many times…and that was that Tomoe's death could have been more dramatic if she had been pregnant…but then again, what is there to say that she wasn't? There was no autopsy done on the body, maybe she was…so that's where this came from…from that idea of what if…?

Tomoe had not died instantly.

Somehow she managed to survive, but the blow had been brutal, and it left her very weak.

Some by stander happened to pass by and find her bloody body thrown on the snow.

'Poor woman.' He said as he passed her by, but was stopped by the sounds of soft coughing.

It was the woman. Her wound was atrocious, but she was still alive, barely.

There was a man besides her, but he could only carry one at the time, so he decided to try and help the woman.

He took the woman to his home, where he tended for her wounds as much as possible.

'I need a doctor, and I also need to go pick up the man.' He said to himself, but when he arrived, the man was gone.

The doctor wasn't very hopeful.

'The woman is in bad shape, I don't think she'll survive the night.'

But she did.

The woman managed to survive and was slowly on her way to recovery.

'This is amazing. I cannot believe that she managed to survive such a wound.' The doctor was amazed by her recovery.

'Who is this woman?' he asked the man.

'I don't know, I found her lying on the floor next to a red-haired young man, but I could only carry one, so I decided the woman needed help first. When I went back, the man was gone.'

That man had been her husband.

He had not noticed her standing there as he cut through her flesh giving her a fatal wound.

She had died in his arms, yet after he had regained consciousness, she was gone.

He looked everywhere for her, but the snowed had covered any tracks.

Could it be that she had been alive when he lost consciousness? Could it be that she too lost consciousness, and was lying somewhere cold and injured? But he could not find her. He looked for her everywhere, but it was as if she had disappeared.

When he could look no longer, he finally gave up, certain that by then she was dead. That she was beyond his reach. It pained him that he could not give her one last good bye and have a body to mourn over, but he had looked everywhere. Probably some wolves had gotten to her.

'Please be happy wherever you are Tomoe. Please forgive me for leaving you here all alone in the wilderness, but I looked and looked and couldn't find you. If you are somewhere, please give me a sign.' But he never received any sign.

He burned down the house where he had been so happy for the past year, and left without a trace.

'Have you tried to look for that man?' the doctor asked, 'he might be related to her, or know who she is.'

'I haven't, I've been so worried about the poor girl that I have not gone out to look for him.'

He was poor old man that lived alone and there was nobody to take care of the convalescent girl if he was away.

'I haven't even gone to town to sell wood these days. I'm waiting for her to regain consciousness.'

'Maybe you should go look for information on them. Maybe you can find that young man.'

The old man ventured into town to ask around.

People remembered a young man by those characteristics, but he had recently left and nobody knew where.

'The girl is all alone.' He told the doctor.

The girl's recovery was a slow one. It was a month before she opened her eyes.

'I see you are finally awake child, how are you feeling?' the old man asked her.

The girl seemed as if in a daze.

'Where…where am I?' she asked in a low voice.

'You were injured, we thought you might die, but you've pulled through.' The old man told her.

She now remembered how it had happened. She had tried to protect him so much that he had cut her without noticing.

'Where…where is he?' she asked.

'Who? Oh the man that was with you? I don't know, he left town and nobody knew where. I think he thought you had died.'

The girl lowered her gaze.

She was all alone again.