Prologue

She was running. Running as fast as her legs could take her away from the place, through a big purple cloud, holding her breath so that the miasma would not make her sick, or worse, kill her. She had come to far to fail now. After all, he had kept her prisoner for over ten years.

Just as she thought that she couldn't hold her breath any more, the end of the miasma came into sight and she passed through. She stopped to catch her breath and briefly wondered if Naraku knew that she had escaped yet. She decided that she did not want to find out at the moment and started running again.

After running for over an hour when she couldn't take another running step, she stopped and collapsed to the ground. She still wondered how in the world that she had escaped. He had always kept her locked down tight, making sure that she didn't have very much energy by not feeding her properly or giving her enough to drink. She had actually gotten used to this treatment over the past ten years, always waiting till she could find the right time to escape.

Why did Naraku want some skinny young half-demon, you would ask? Yes, she is a half-demon. A very unusual half-demon. This is the reason that Naraku wanted her. He knew that she was an unusual half-demon and wanted to know what kind. He would torture her every day to find out what kind she was because he knew that it was something special that could help him, considering he didn't have a whole lot of power.

Perhaps this would be a good time to let you know that right now, Kagome has yet to have been drawn down the Bone-eaters Well, into the Forest of InuYasha. It has only been fifteen years since that fateful day when Kikyo trapped InuYasha to the tree and the Shikon no Tama vanished from this world. Since that time, Naraku has tried his best to find some way to grow stronger without the Sacred Jewel. Keeping this girl was one way to do that, but she never gave in to him.

After she catches her breath, she stands back up and starts walking around trying to find a creek or stream to get a drink from. After walking another hour, she finally comes across one and bends down to get a drink. It feels so good to drink as much as you want. You know, you never know what you have until it is gone, then you wish you had not taken it for granted. The next thing on her agenda was to find some kind of food. Not too far from her was a blueberry bush and she rushed over and started to eat them with abandon, eventually making herself sick for eating too much on a two-week old, empty stomach.

When she finished emptying her stomach of some of its contents, she got up and started walking again. Even though she had not rested in a about a day she did not want to stop. She just kept walking, skirting around villages and avoiding as many people as she could. She knew that she could not hold out very much longer so she decided to try to and find a safe place to camp out for now.

As she searched, she didn't notice a young woman coming around a tree. The woman just watched her before making her presence known. She did not think that the girl would hurt her.

"What are ye looking for, child?" she asks gently, so as not to startle the woman. It did not help though, because the girl still jumped and turned around quickly, lowering into a defensive stance, even though she was about to fall over in exhaustion.

"I am not going to hurt ye. I just wish to know what ye are looking for, so that I may be able to help. I am the priestess at a village not too far from here and know this land very well. My name is Kaiede."

"Why would a priestess wish to help a half-demon? Why would anyone? For all I know, you be trying to lure me into a false sense of security just so that you may shoot me with one of your arrows and kill me. Why should I believe anything you say?"

"I am true to my word, child. I just wish to help, not hinder. You look dead on your feet. Come sit, and rest a while. I will watch over you."

"No think you, Priestess. I wish to just be left alone. I can find my own shelter without your help."

"Nonsense. You must be exhausted and there are many demons in these woods that are more than willing to eat a young half-demon, like yourself. You are weak and vulnerable."

As the half-demon looked into the brown eyes of the priestess, she decided that the woman did sound like she was being sincere and that she did not really have that much of a choice, no matter how much she refused to admit it.

"You sound sincere. I suppose that I will take your word for it. What are you going to do while I rest?"

"I have need to sort through my herbs that I have gotten and clean them and trim them, child. No need to worry about Kaiede. You just lay down and rest." The woman says as she sits down and starts sorting through her basket.

With no argument left, the young half-demon goes to a tree, not that far away and leans against it. Within no time at all, she is fast asleep, being too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

When the girl's breathing evens out, Kaiede looks over at her and studies her a moment, wondering why the girl would be so exhausted, but then realizing that it is probably because of her human blood and the fact that there is no one human or demon that is willing to accept her because of her mixed blood and decides to just leave the girl alone and continue until she wakes up.