MIAKA'S BRUTAL MISTAKE

One day, as Miaka and the seishi were wandering along, hoping to get to Taiitskune (because Tamahome had a broken back and needed to be healed quickly), they came across a tiny town. Or was it a town? From the distance, Tamahome had thought it looked like the city of Kyrria....but as they approached, it was nowhere like it.

There were but a few pathetic shacks and an old shop of some kind, but that was about it. Tamahome suddenly started. As the seishi carried him on a cot, he thought he caught the faintest whiff of blood...but as they turned the corner, they saw where all the townsfolk had gone. There in front of them was a tiny, but bustling marketplace with many food and jewelry stands and peasants. Tamahome noticed a butcher's stand, and forgot about the scent of fresh blood/ They all seemed somewhat depressed...but Tamahome shrugged it off as his imagination, then began to drift off..

Suddenly, Tamahome felt a sickening lurch as a corner of his cot had been dropped and a shearing pain ripped through his back. In an anger of pain, he yelled, "YOU IDIOTS!! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO NOW?!.." and slapped the nearest seishi, which happened to be Nuriko. But he trailed off. He noticed that Miaka had dropped her corner of the cot and had rushed off to a tiny bridge with a peacefully trickling creek flowing underneath it.

"Miaka...what do you see?" Tamahome asked loudly. "Ohhhh no. OOOHH no. Guys, come quick!!!" Miaka yelled in her whiny voice. Instantly the other thoughtless seishi dropped Tamahome's cot, leaving him to writhe with pain as they approached the girl and the bridge.

"Oh, Miaka, what is it now? Are you seeing things again?" Tasuki bellowed, trying to show off to the others. "No, no, I'm SURE I saw it..it was there..just a moment ago...it was there..." she trailed off like a crazy woman losing her train of thought. "What? What was there, Miaka?" said Chichiri, trying to soothe it out of her, as the others began to laugh.

Miaka paused, and took a deep breath, a small hint of terror gleaming in her eyes. "A...a body...floating...with blood around it."

END OF CHP. 1