The gardener

Chapter 1

By Zeldagurl

(Begin)

"Miss…?" A young woman sat slumped in the back of a taxi, sleeping quietly when the unkempt driver looked back and called to her softly. Her eyes fluttered open slowly, allowing the woman to gain some awareness to her surroundings.

"Miss… We're here." He said gently as she sat up, rubbing her eyes childishly.

"Thanks" She said quietly as she reached into her purse to pay the man's fare. He smiled reassuringly and took the money, nodding in thanks as she gathered her things and stepped out of the car.

As the taxi drove off, she stood uncertainly in front of a large forest that seemed to have no sure boundary or point of civilization. She sighed and grabbed her small rolling bag and stepped onto the path that led into the forest.

Her name was kagome Higurashi, and she had just come from a funeral far away in Tokyo. No, this forest wasn't her home; her home was back in Tokyo. She belonged to a place of sacred worship; she was the one who was supposed to be taking care of it.

But mom hadn't told her and Souta about her debt to the bank before she died; and she had worked herself to death just trying to make ends meet. The bank had taken everything away, and the only thing she was left with was an old property of her grandpa's. But he had died seven years ago, and kagome knew the place was probably in severe disrepair.

But she would rather live on her own than have to live with her uncle, who seemed to hate both her and Souta, but had begrudgingly agreed to take Souta. Kagome was eighteen, so she wasn't required to live with an adult, and for that, she was thankful.

As soon as she got enough money, she would get Souta out of there and support the both of them. Then it wouldn't be so hard, Kagome didn't want to lose the only real family she had left.

As kagome moved deeper into the forest, the path became more and more rugged, and hard to handle. She found it hard to even keep her balance and in a moment of bitter humor, felt sorry for her faithful little bag.

Kagome had only seen pictures of the house, and really wasn't even sure if she was going the right way. But sure enough, the trees began to clear and diminish into groves of plants and bushes. At first, kagome didn't even notice anything weird about what she was walking through, mostly because her mind was on a few other things. But as a group of tomatoes caught her eye, kagome began to wonder if this place was really as uninhabited as people thought.

She stopped and looked down at one plant in particular, noticing that it was tied to a stake for support.

"That's weird…" She said aloud. She could understand if it was just a bunch of wild tomatoes, but these looked like they were being cared for. She raised an eyebrow and sighed, it was probably some hobo, no worries; she would just sleep with a bat under her pillow. That is, if grandpa had even owned a bat in his long life, which she doubted.

She continued walking, looking ahead through the dense humid air of the forest to where ever the house was supposed to be. And soon enough, it appeared in the distance, looking like more of a hopeless case than she might have hoped for.

The windows were boarded up and the paint was peeling, among other things that kagome was sure she didn't want to know about. But no matter the damage weather had done to the poor house, it was still where kagome was going to be staying for a while, at least…

So with that clear ideal in her mind, kagome walked bravely to the house, and opened the door slowly to see what she was up against. Peeking inside, she was pleasantly surprised when she found that it wasn't as bad as she was expecting it to be.

Everything was still in kind of okay shape, and all the furniture was covered with plastic coverings, so they could be salvaged. She rolled her bag in, and left it at the entrance, wanting to see the rest of the old house.

She entered each room, examining the shape, and touching things that caused her memory to stir. She smiled and touched the base of a picture of her and Souta and mom; it was of the summer festival when she had been eleven.

A little girl smiled out from the picture, happy… She was surrounded by the three people she loved most in the world; her mom, brother and grandpa. Kagome remembered how it felt, she remembered her mother's smile so brilliantly…

She felt tears well up in her eyes, as well as some unwanted emotions that she had yet to deal with; and turned away from the picture, placing it down so that the little girl could be seen no more…

(switch)

Her day had been severely overwhelming, and by night fall, kagome was beginning to feel its effects and decided to find some bed to crawl into and sleep for a while. She had found a golf club and carried it with her to the dusty old bedroom that she had liked earlier. She had brought a small lamp that she hooked up to the main electricity and had settled for that since she knew she couldn't do anything to repair the house until she went to the neighboring town.

She got into bed, snuggling into the covers that she had freshly beaten the dust out of; and closed her eyes, hoping to fall into a dreamless sleep.

But she wasn't able to sleep, even though she was very tired; her mind was moving to fast to be able to rest now. She laid there, thinking about her mother and trying not to cry about her.

It had only been a day, and already she missed her mother insanely; she wanted to hear her comforting voice just once more. The voice that had sung her to sleep as a child, and had advised her during her teen years.

The fact was that she would never see her mother again; no matter how hard she tried to talk to her mom, there wouldn't be anyone there who was listening…

All of the sudden, she heard a creak in the floor, along with quiet footsteps coming toward her. She froze in her bed, her grip tightening around the golf club in her hand. She opened her eyes a slight bit and focused on the figure standing before her bed.

The moonlight filtered across him, and revealed limited parts that identified that he was indeed a man. He wore no shirt, and had only raggedy shorts on, as far as kagome could tell. Two golden eyes studied her quietly, as she laid quietly, waiting for the right time to strike.

Already her mind was accusing her of being stupid enough to think that a forest wouldn't be full of dirty men who just waited for little girls like her to stumble into their grasp. She internally squeaked when the figure knelt down and reached out to touch the hair on the top of her head.

As fast as she could, she swung out the golf club, hitting him in the stomach. He fell with a surprised yelp to the floor, reaching out a hand to support himself while the other clutched his stomach. He looked down at his stomach to make sure he wasn't too severely hurt and then looked up at her with an angry look in his eyes.

"What the hell was that for!" Kagome whimpered and flattened herself against the wall, trying to get as far away from him as possible. She had inconveniently dropped the golf club on the floor, and now lacked a weapon to defend herself.

"Get away from me! Leave me alone, you pervert!" She screeched, closing her eyes and shielding her face with her hands.

She heard him get up, grunting as he straightened himself to a standing position. She cracked an eye open and squeaked as he dropped the golf club on the bed and began to walk away.

"I'm no pervert." He said loud enough so that she could hear him. She relaxed slightly and glared with as much nerve as she could gather up within herself.

"Then why were you looking at me like that?" She snapped at him, grabbing the golf club again and brandishing it at him.

"I don't need to explain myself to a complete stranger!" He growled defensively as he turned toward her again, bristling in anger.

"Well you're in my house aren't you?" She answered, her courage growing with each word that was exchanged between them.

"You own this dump?" He asked quizzically, a cruel sense of amusement in his voice as his anger seemed to evaporate. She set her mouth angrily, amazed that he had the nerve to even ask a question like that.

"Whatever…" He growled, looking back at her once more before walking through the door.

"I'm the only night visitor you'll be getting, you can be sure of that." And with that, he was gone from sight. She wanted to call out to him, if anything to tell him off again. But then, it WAS the middle of the night, and he WAS a complete stranger.

She had been barely able to make out his features; all which kept burning her mind. Those invigorating golden eyes… She looked reproachfully at the door, hugging her knees and thinking. If he hadn't been a regular pervert, than what was it he had wanted, wandering into her bedroom like that?

Was he the one who had put the stakes in to support the tomatoes? She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep at all after this anyway, so she sat back to think, and to wonder about the mysterious man who was obviously living here…

If that was the truth at all…

Authors note: Ah! Chapter 1 of the gardener! Yes, I actually got the idea for this story during school, and I've been planning it ever since. This IS a multiple chapter story, so you guys will have to wait a few days for the next chapter, which will be just as long (Maybe longer). All I know, is that I will be updating cast in stone with the epilogue very soon. Till then, please enjoy this new story.