DISCLAIMER: I don't own Inuyasha, character or story-wise. Inuyasha and all related characters are owned by their creator, Rumiko Takahashi, and affiliates. This story is owned by me, and is a complete work of fiction; no monies were earned in its creation.

Listen now to the words of the one who started it all… eons ago, when the worlds of human and youkai were not so separated as they are now. A time when each being would look at the other with curiosity instead of mistrust, compassion instead of loathing, and love instead of hatred.

"Now I can tell you what I've done for you…"

~Evanescence, "Going Under"

I, Midoriko

Prelude

I am Midoriko. My name means 'Green Child'.

In the early years of my life, I didn't realize the true meaning, or the significance of being a 'green child'. Images of a cursed nature went through my head, influences caused by the other children of the village. There had not been anyone named Midoriko before, and they took great pleasure in taunting me with my name's meaning when Hika-obaa-san was not around.

"Midor-icko! Midor-icko! Green's icky," they would say. "It's the color of sickness and bruises."

Did I appear 'green' to others? Did my eyes deceive me as I examined my skin? Did the water in our village's carp pond betray the color of my reflected visage?

Surely I must have been cursed. But my skin was the same color as Mother, and Father, and the rest of the villagers. I would come home crying nearly every day, wondering why my cousins would say such things. Finally, I decided to ask Mother the meaning behind my name.

She sighed deeply and told me that when it came time to choose my name, Father originally wished to name me Arashi, meaning storm, to signify the night of my birth, which was also the worst night of storms during the height of the typhoon season. But Mother had chosen the name of Midoriko instead, which turned out to be appropriate because the first word from my mouth months later was not 'mama' or 'papa', but 'tree'. At that time, when I had first learned to walk, Mother began to take me with her while she worked the fields, and I was always wandering off towards the forest. There was just 'something' that drew me to the cool green shadows. Mother would catch me before I got too close, telling me that I must never wander into the forest by myself. Bad things lived in the forest. Her voice had a fearful tone, as her eyes would dart around, quickly scanning the edge of the tree line for danger before she returned with me in her grasp.

As I grew older, I learned to help Mother plant the rice seedlings in the paddies. My hands always tingled when the feathery stalks tickled down my palms to my fingertips, and into the mud; it made me giggle. Mother always had this look on her face afterwards, like she had seen something unbelievable. The rice that grew from our planting was the tallest and produced the most grains every time. Other people in our village soon were asking me to help them plant their rice as well. Some said that I was a blessing, to have been named Midoriko, and it made me happy to hear such. But others were jealous and thought my parents as presumptuous for giving me such a name.

"How dare they?" they would whisper. "She is nothing special. Her eyes are the color of storm clouds; too much water. She is not nearly as pretty as Masuka either."

Masuka was my cousin, born seven moons after me. Although I was older, she was taller than me, with long, brown hair that reflected the sunlight, where mine was black, so black that it was almost blue. Masuka's eyes were a warm brown color while mine were a color not seen before, and to me, she was prettier. In personality, we were like oil and water. Although she was my cousin, and I tried to make friends with her, Masuka didn't like me. She found more fun in teasing me of being 'special', and I never understood why. Sometimes when she teased me she would kick me in the shins, or smack my arms or sometimes even my head, to get me to retaliate, but I wouldn't hit back. I endured many years of her provocation, and my confusion eventually turned into anger at the taunts of the other children. Masuka always instigated the teasing, and egged the others on. I would clench my fists in anger because Mother would tell me over and over to not fight back. I walked away instead, but it didn't change the feelings that I had.

My revenge was to find her a similar moniker and use it to my advantage; I found it in calling her 'masicka'. Others might have called her pretty, but she reminded me of a catfish. Ugly as sin, that fed off the bottom of the pond where the sewage lay. Yes, that was Masuka's true nature to me. If I were to be called 'Midor-icko', then she would be 'Ma-sick-a'.

One day, however, things changed. Masuka and her group cornered me down by the weirs, and she got brave, shoving me during one of her taunting sessions. It was a mistake, but what I did to retaliate was equally one. I knew that I wasn't supposed to fight, but I had had enough. I swung my balled-up fists and punched her, right in the nose, which immediately started to bleed.

I remember my fists felt funny right before I swung at her. They felt like they were on fire, like a heat was starting from my center, rising up to my shoulders, down my arms and shooting out my fingers.

After I punched her, there was a brief pause in the crowd, and I heard nervous whispers from the others. "Did you see that? There was a strange light coming from her hands." As I glanced around, seeing the fear in their faces, then back down to my still tingling hands, Masuka lunged at me, and we fell to the ground in a tussle of hands and hair. We fought like two cats, complete with the screaming, which was another mistake, because it brought the attention of Hika-obaa-san.

"Midoriko-chan! Masuka-chan! Stop this at once!"

Hika-obaa-san was the eldest and only girl in her family, the village teacher, and a grandmother ten times over. Our grandmother. She parted the gaggle of gawking cousins and yanked us apart. My clothing was torn at the shoulders and bloodied, but not from my blood. Masuka had pulled out some of my hair, and had sustained a black eye.

"She started it!" Masuka screamed, pointing at me, a patch of my hair still within her fist.

"You shoved me!" I yelled back, but Hika-obaa-san was having none of it.

"SILENCE! Both of you!" she admonished as she jerked each of our arms. She turned to Masuka and asked for her story first. Masuka sobbed pitifully as she told our grandmother of my punching her nose and blackening her eye.

"Is this true?" Hika-obaa-san looked at me.

"No, she shoved me first," I started to say, but was only able to get out "No, she…" before Grandmother sternly asked me again, with a sharp jerk on my arm.

"IS this true?"

She bent lower so I was forced to stare into her eyes as she gripped my arm. Mother always told me to be respectful; Do not show defiance by looking someone in the eye, and to never lie. Yet I found diverting my gaze from Hika-obaa-san put Masuka in my line of vision, sneering and sticking out her tongue behind our grandmother's back.

Catfish. I hated her. I know that is a word with a wicked meaning behind it, but as a child of ten years old, sometimes I didn't think. I reacted, blindly, almost as if it was on instinct. My eyes flitted back to Hika-obaa-san's eyebrows (which were close to her eyes) and I gritted my teeth.

"Yes, it's true." I knew that I would be punished for striking Masuka. Hika-obaa-san always carried a bamboo reed under her arm, long and tapered at the end, and we all knew just how hard she could use it. She told us both to stand where we were and then smacked Masuka a few times across the back of her bare legs, saying, "Taunting another to the point of retaliation is unseemly. Go wash your face in the river." Hika-obaa-san then turned to me.

She repeatedly smacked me across my legs. My skin stung with every strike, but it didn't hurt nearly as much as her words. "You are barbaric! You know your mother has told you to set a good example, and here I catch you fighting!"

I tried to tell her that I was not barbaric, and was only defending myself when she yelled again, "Silence! You have disgraced your family! Your parents will hear of this!" When Hika-obaa-san stopped to draw breath, I took to my heels and ran.

Down the riverbank, across the bridge—faster—out of the village, out into nowhere. Half-blinded by tears of anger and hurt, I tore across the embankment between the rice paddies and into the cool shadows of the forest. Dodging trees and rocks, I turned to see if anyone was following me; of course, that was when I tripped on a root and tore the bottom of my clothing, scraping my knees badly in the dirt.

Mou! I cursed in a very unladylike fashion. The painfully torn skin on my knees didn't slow me down as I found my feet and continued running until my sides ached. Finally, I couldn't take another step, and I collapsed to the forest floor, gasping painfully. Breathe, I told myself. Just breathe. While I choked on my sobs, trying to catch my breath, the world around me blurred until I forced myself to calm down, my chaotic thoughts still churning. It isn't fair that I was punished! Masuka started it! Beating the ground hard with my fists, I cried myself into a state of exhaustion.

Tired from my exertion, I rolled over onto my back, feeling incredibly weary and sore, my throbbing knees finally making themselves felt. I stared at the clouds for a while until my heart finally stopped feeling like it was about to burst from my chest. When a chill swept my exposed skin, I paid closer attention to the color of the sky and realized that nightfall was not far off. Quickly sitting up, I looked around; with a sinking sensation, I discovered that I was in an unfamiliar part of the forest and that if I didn't move now, I wouldn't be able to find my way home before it became too dark to see.

The night breeze swirled, bringing with it the menacing sounds of encroaching darkness. I couldn't help myself; I started to cry again.

That was when I met him.

Hmm… I sense you nearby…do you think you can hide?

XxX

A/N: This chapter is a revamp of one previously posted. The original "Prelude" chapter was posted some two to three years ago. I decided it needed a little polishing-up.

I wish to thank Fenikkusuken and Free da Chickens, respectfully, for their patient work in betaing this story. My eternal gratitude.