She lay there, in the crook of the tree. Milky, evanescent creatures, almost as pale as her skin, floated and danced wistfully around their master. One settled on her shoulder, casting light on her long and silky ebony locks. Her eyes, normally honey-brown, shone like embers as the sun cast its final glow of the day. These eyes shone with a sort of wild misunderstanding, as if she were trying to pull some great truth from the sun. Kikyo sat there, deep in thought, just as she had always done- even before her life ended. It seemed she watched the sun even more lately, pondering her life, or rather un-life, and contemplating the great mysteries of the world.

When had it all started? She gazed up at the quickly fading sun, recalling how she had gotten here and why she was here. Her thoughts, her childhood, her life… it all came flooding back to her whenever the sun touched the earth. It was almost as if she could talk to the Gods and Goddesses. She could ask them anything, and while she never seemed to get a response, she took comfort in the thought that maybe, just maybe they could hear her at this time, when the earth was saying goodnight or good morning. Her thoughts were unusually powerful this evening.

She was a priestess… ever since she was a child, divine responsibility had rested on her tiny shoulders. She was the first born, and she always knew when her mother and father passed away, she would have to take responsibility for everything. The village would be her responsibility, the people who lived in it, her sister, their home, and that damned Shikon Jewel…Kikyo had been both blessed and cursed. People loved her, oh Gods, how they loved her… she was, in a sense, the jewel of the people. Yet they only loved her because she was forced into their eyes, she was their leader, their strength. She had no choice but to lead them without complaint, because she was a woman who believed in duty and compassion.

And now, she was a hollow shell of what she once was. She wandered the earth wistfully, searching for a purpose, searching for a way to find another home. She had not wanted to wake from her eternal slumber, for the pain she endured before her death was very great. She was forced again onto this cursed earth, with no responsibility, with no sense of duty, and no reason for living. Coming back to the earth she was born had given her truth, and so, so many times she wished she had not come to know that truth.

She would have been fine in hell, hating Inuyasha eternally in the flames. Her hatred gave her strength, and since she was brought back from the dead, that strength had gone. Now she only felt the shame of being betrayed, and the guilt was something she could not handle, so even knowing the truth, she hated Inuyasha and wished to destroy him. Though it was not he who woke her from her eternal sleep, it was he whom she had trusted, and it was he whom had led her into a senseless plot of murder and greed.

She knew Naraku was to blame, yet Inuyasha made a much easier target. This was the only reason, she imagined, that she tried to hurt him still. She had become lost. Wandering the planet where everything had changed, and where there was no one to love or care for… it had left Kikyo terribly disturbed and out of place. She had not felt one ounce of love, duty, or compassion since her rebirth. How could she learn to love again? Without love, life was worthless, and no one could love her cold skin or her absence of a heartbeat. No one would want a woman whom they could not make love to, to have children with… she was nothing. Not alive, nor dead… she was not even sure she was Kikyo anymore.

She had been young when she was snatched from the world. Her mind was never immature, but her feelings were. Kikyo had not fully begun to love, and had not fully begun to live. Her marriage to a human Inuyasha would have made life easier… but then, she figured, it could not have really been love. Had it been so, she would not have suggested he change. She could love a human Inuyasha- but she could not love a demon.

Kikyo did not know what to do with the half-life she had been cursed with. She did not feel, she could not relate to hardly anything anymore. The memory of her previous life faded with the passing days, leaving her with nothing but hatred and inner turmoil. Instead of planning things out carefully, as she once did, she made impulsive decisions. Kikyo reacted spontaneously to situations, all the while staying calm. That was all she could do until a purpose found her heart.

"A cursed woman on a cursed earth… Lord, how did I offend you so?" Kikyo's soul stealers swooped around her lovingly, trying to calm the spirit of the one they called master. She closed her weary eyes to the dark night and retreated to a place even blacker than the earthen evening. She slept.

Where was she? She sat in the middle of the thick forest, unaware of how she had gotten there in the first place. Her mocha eyes looked almost black as she scanned the dark trees. The moon was high in the sky, yet it's rays barely passed through the thick trees. She stood from the cold dirt, listening intently for any sign of danger. The forest was quiet, as if no animal had dared to trespass on the grounds she stood on.

Something red caught the corner of her eye. The color of danger shone through the trees at her once turned back. She heard a deep growl come from the direction of the glowing crimson, and knew immediately that she was in danger. He would pounce at her soon, harm her. She reached for the bow at her back to find that it was missing. She cursed her childish forgetfulness and took a step back into the dark forest. The red slowly became eyes, and then a face and body, as the owner of the menacing red orbs emerged from the trees. Her breath caught in her chest. How had she known who it was?

Instincts of survival took control of her weak frame. She ran. She could hear him pursuing her as she sprinted clumsily through the trees, gaining on her due to his immense agility. The forest was beginning to get thicker, and she cried out as her feet became tangled in the underwood. She looked back, suddenly regretting the decision. Red eyes glowed at her from the distance, gaining on her so quickly it frightened her. A flash of silvery-white passed her side. Mere moments afterward she was lying on the ground, feeling a sickening pain in her side and her cheek. She touched her face and felt the warmth gush through her fingers. There was no running now.

"I…"

Kagome looked into the crimson orbs glowing in the darkness, and at the silvery hair that seemed to catch the moonlight, that silvery hair that she loved so much… "Inuyasha… why?" She could almost make out his smirk in the darkness. She felt his feral energy closing in around her, suffocating her, killing her… she tried to scream, yet she could not. "I hate you, Kagome. Sad little girl. Weak! Nowhere to run now…" Kagome took a step back into the darkness, feeling around for a place to sprint away from him. Even then, it was no use. He was much faster than she was, and on top of that she was injured. It was hopeless.

"Why have you done this to me? Your stupid affections sicken me… I cannot do this anymore… stupid bitch!"

Kagome felt something stir in her heart, something familiar. She knew what he was talking about, yet she could not quite put her finger on it. The only thing that was apparent was that she would be unable to talk her way out of this. He would not listen to reasoning now. His demon had taken over, he was wild with blood lust… her memory flickered to a time when he had been like this before, and the only two things that had saved her…

As if sensing what she was thinking, Inuyasha reached for the rosary around his neck. Showing a fang-filled grin, he tore the rosary from his neck. Kagome watched in horror as the beads hit the soft ground, their power lost. "Not this time, wench. You don't have any power over me anymore… it's time for you to die!" His claws reached for her, and Kagome saw her life flash before her eyes. The other thing that had brought him to his senses…! She grabbed his hair and pulled his face towards hers, kissed his bared fangs, cried tears of helplessness…

The pain never came. His claws never reached her neck. Her lips were still on his, and his arms wrapped around her silently, accepting her mouth. It was at this time that Kagome realized there was something amiss. The arms wrapped around her small frame were not like Inuyasha's at all. They were toned, but not muscular, and they were so soft… and the lips she was kissing, Gods, they were smooth, not chapped and rough like Inuyasha's. They tasted like honeysuckle… and this body that pressed into hers, it felt like the clouds of heaven, soft, curvaceous…? The kissing stopped, and Kagome pulled back and opened her eyes.

"K…Kikyo?" It was true. Kikyo, the undead priestess stared back at Kagome, a gentle love illuminating her eyes. Kikyo was naked, and her creamy, alabaster-white skin seemed to go on for miles and miles. Kagome, realizing that her eyes were wandering, looked back into Kikyo's eyes. "He will betray you, because he is not yet aware." Kagome felt her heart pound, and as Kikyo placed her smooth hands on the back of Kagome's neck, she felt her world spin. Kikyo's lips touched hers again, and she felt an unfamiliar warmth pool between her legs…

"Oi, Kagome! Get yer ass up!"

Kagome's eyes snapped open, immediately focusing on the sun that filtered through the trees. Morning had somehow emerged from the night Kagome had been dreaming of. The brightness blinded her so terribly that she had to squeeze her honey-brown eyes shut again. The sun had given her an instant headache, and now her temples pounded in sync with her heartbeat. Each time the blood rushed to her head, she could see an image of Kikyo, her eyes loving and unashamed. Kagome sat up upon seeing Kikyo's image, and clutched her sleeping bag to her body, slightly frightened and shaken by the vision of the older Miko.

"Oi, Wench! Have you gone deaf?"

Kagome looked up at Inuyasha, angry and uncertain if she should mention her dream. She decided against it almost immediately. Besides, his yelling wasn't helping her headache, and she remembered Kikyo's words vividly in her mind… "I'm up, Inuyasha! Stop yelling. My head hurts." Inuyasha looked at her strangely, hands on his hips. "Well, you've overslept. Where is that damn Shikon shard you felt last night? Is it further away now?" Kagome blinked furiously to clear her vision, and then focused stoically. "It's a little further away. It's only moved a little. If we leave now, we could reach it in less than half an hour." Inuyasha grinned.

"Well then, get up! Let's go."

Kagome rubbed her eyes sleepily and watched Inuyasha's back as he walked away. She stared darkly at his retreating form for several moments. What had her dream tried to tell her? She wondered if she should take it seriously or brush it off. She decided quickly that it was nothing, and shuffled out of her sleeping bag. She rolled it up and threw it in her knapsack quietly as Shippo bounded over to her for a quick candy bar breakfast. He sat on her shoulder, chewing happily, as they continued to pack camp before setting out once more.