A/N: So I recently started watching Inuyasha. Yes, started. I realize it's probably not a good idea to write this before I've even finished the anime, but this is Fanfiction, let's call it creative license, okay? This is something of a practice run anyways, just to get a feel for an idea that's been floating around in my head. In a few days I should know whether or not I'm feeling this enough to continue.
In a secondary note, if anyone knows or cares about my Twilight story, it's ready to go up, revamped and retitled in a few days. Hopefully, I'll get farther this time, instead of rage quitting when I belated realized how terrible the entire concept was. Yes, it has been a year. Everyone who had supported it then has probably forgotten it. Oh well.
But I digress. Here you go:
Prologue: Down the Rabbit Hole
I pinned my short hair back as usual, making a mental note to cut the bangs that still fell into my face. Fighting with obstructed vision was really no fun.
"Kagome! Don't forget you have to reinforce the seals today!" My mother's voice drifted up from the kitchen, and I nodded to myself.
How could I forget? As if I'd leave us defenseless again.
"Yes Mama! I'll start right away!"
The seals that protected the sacred shrine my family lives in could technically last a year all by themselves. But full moons were a time of great power, so each month grandpa and I reinforced them, building onto the protective spells already there. After five years, our lands were impenetrable to all but the most ancient of demons, and even those would be hard pressed to get inside.
I would start by the entrance, which were the most basic of the many levels of protection.
I placed my hand on the slip of paper, letting my power flow into it, until the kanji glowed with power, and thrummed with energy. I would do this around the entire gate.
Hours later, grandpa and I made our way down to the well.
Gramps rarely bothered helping with the seals anymore. He didn't actually possess spiritual power, only the knowledge, and once he'd taught me, he was more than happy to leave me to secure the house by myself.
The well was different.
The Bone Eater's Well hummed with ancient energy, and I could only guess what secrets it held. That in mind, we always reserved the strongest (and most difficult) enchantments for the unassuming wooden well.
But these couldn't be built on top of each other. Each year, we completely removed the seals, and replaced them. Taking care not to miss a single step, or risk ruining the spell entirely.
It was nerve wracking, but necessary.
Bracing ourselves, with Grandpa right beside me with those blasted /useless/ sacred scrolls of his, I ripped off the paper seal like an old bandage.
The silence was broken by sighs of relief when something didn't burst forth from the well like some satanic jack in the box, and I set to replacing the seal, drawing the kanji with a calligraphy brush and chanting as I worked.
A stray breeze floated in, blowing my bangs around my face, but I continued.
A knocking sound filled my ears.
I nearly shared a look with Grandpa, before steeling myself and continuing.
This had, in fact, happened before.
The knocking became angry thumps, jarring the wood that covered the well. The gentle breeze became agitated little bursts of wind. I pressed on, while Grandpa crept forward, a gnarled hand holding down the wood to steady it. Messy calligraphy could break the spell as easily as anything.
A shrill scream cut through the air, and I /did/ flinch, but I continued.
But that split second of hesitation was all it took. The well's covering swelled up and flew open, and something like a tentacle surged forward, wrapping itself around my arm.
"Kagome! You have to finish the seal!"
I nodded, and looked up, my eyes wide with fear.
It wasn't so much a tentacle as the bottom half of a centipede, which was, terrifyingly enough, connected to the top half of a woman.
She grinned at me, with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, while she dragged me closer to the open well.
She cackled evilly her eyes locked onto mine.
I turned and wrote furiously, slapping the seal into place.
I was dangerously close to being dragged down, the well glowed with unearthly light.
'Please by right!' I prayed. With a sound like a popped bubble, the demoness was sucked back into the well, and I fell back to the ground. The well's covering fell closed, and I could see my magic sealing it. The only light remaining was the sunlight filtering down from the doorway.
I turned and grinned at gramps, who was rolling up his scrolls as if he had done some great thing.
"Well done Kagome! The Shrine is safe for another year!" He praised.
Neither of us noticed the seal fall from the well, sliced neatly in half.
We did notice, when a pair of arms wrapped around my shoulders and dragged me down, before I could even shout.
There'd never been water in the well before, but there was today. It swirled like a whirlpool , and sparkled with magic.
"Give me the sacred jewel!" Her voice hissed, bringing me to face her. My mind was growing foggy. My magic reared up and attacked her, severing one of her arms. I could see it floating around my face even as I fell unconscious.
"Wake up you silly child!"
My eyes shot open just as the old woman used her staff to rap me on the head.
Plain blossomed on my forehead, and I cursed.
"What are you doing?!" I hissed, holding my forehead.
"What is your business in the forest of Inuyasha?" She interrogated, her eyes hard with suspicion.
"Look, I have no idea what you're talking about, and I have no time for this! There's a centipede demon running around here somewhere, and I need to kill her before she kills me!"
The woman looked flabbergasted, but her mouth set into a hard line as she offered her hand and pulled me up.
"Explain, child. Art thee speaking of the Mistress Centipede?"
I blinked at her old fashioned speech, but didn't allow myself to dwell on it.
"Maybe, I don't know! She dragged me through the well- I'm not supposed to be here!"
"Come quickly, we must warn the villagers," the woman ordered, hurrying away.
Without another option, I followed her.
Inwardly I shrugged.
Hell, at least I wasn't dead.