Chapter 1: Eve Of The Festival

Kagome sighed as she felt the hot sun beat down on her. Her mother had asked her to head into town earlier in the day to go and pick some bread up from the market.

Kagome lived with her mother, little brother, and her grandfather at her family shrine. Her grandfather was the shrine head there and he was always telling Kagome various stories about demons and yokai, but it was always useless because she never even bothered to remember any of them. She would always ride them off as boring ghost stories and nothing more. The Sengoku era was incredibly superstitious, but she couldn't be persuaded with the rest of them. She figured that real life wasn't like that.

Kagome eventually found herself at the market and stuck her hand inside her pocket to feel the money inside. Her family wasn't rich, but they weren't poor either.

"Hey, Kagome!" She turned to find the source of the voice who had called to her.

She saw two other girls her own age heading her way. "Hey guys!" She called out to them.

The three met each other in front of the jewelry stand. "Hey Kagome, what are you doing out here? I thought you didn't like coming out in this heat."

Kagome shrugged. "Yeah, well, my Kaa-san asked me to come down and buy bread. What are you two doing here?"

"We're looking to buy jewelry to wear to the Lunar Festival tomorrow."

Kagome thought for a second. "Oh yeah, it's tomorrow, isn't it?"

The girls' eyes widened. "You mean you forgot?"

Kagome shrugged. "Sorry, I've just been busy lately."

Suddenly, the girls' smiles grew wider. Kagome wondered what this could mean, but knowing them, it wouldn't mean anything good. "You know, they say that The Prince will be attending tomorrow."

Kagome blinked. "The Prince?"

"Well, yeah! He's the ruler of the village, so he has to attend."

Kagome thought. "But from what I heard, the Prince doesn't like to come out too often."

"That is true" One of the girls agreed "He usually only comes out on nights of the New Moon, but nobody seems to know why."

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I do seem to recall seeing him out on the New Moon."

"Yeah, we've only seen him a few times, but he's a real cutie."

Kagome sighed. "Why do you have to fawn over every eligible boy in the village?"

"What, do you not like anybody? You have to have a crush on somebody."

Kagome shook her head. "Nope, sorry."

"Really? There's no one?"

Kagome shrugged it off. "I don't have time for guys."

The two girls looked at each other and back at Kagome. "I guess that makes sense, but its fun to at least imagine having a boyfriend."

Kagome shrugged. "Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it."

She looked up at the sun and saw that it was already at the mid day point. "I'd better get going. I promised Kaa-san that I'd be home before evening."

The girls nodded. "Yeah, we'd better get going as well."

Kagome smiled. "Sayonara."

"Sayonara." The girls said before they walked away and left Kagome to her own devices.

She proceeded on to the bakery and purchased the bread for her family. She managed to purchase four loafs and she started carrying them back to the shrine. The bread was freshly baked which made her feel even hotter. At least she would have a chance to cool off once she got home. As she continued walking, she started to think about the festival taking place the next night.

The Lunar Festival was the celebration of the new year, and this year, it was falling on a New Moon, so the Prince would most likely attend. Kagome honestly could not fathom what the deal was with the prince. Since his mother, the Queen died a while back, he was next in line to rule the province. Kagome figured that since he spent all his time inside his palace, he was some sort of anti social loner or an arrogant person obsessed with his looks and looking down on everyone.

She could recall the few times that she saw the prince in public. He was dressed in royal garb and he didn't look too happy to be there. He had long black hair and golden eyes. She figured that it only added to his mysterious charm, which was one of the reasons why girls fawned all over him. It wasn't like any of them actually had a chance with him, because he was practically untouchable. He was royalty and they were just a bunch of village girls. The Prince wouldn't want to marry any one of them, most likely.

Eventually, she arrived home with the bread. She caught her little brother Sota using a small net to catch koi fish in the shrine pond. "Hey Sota, Ojichan wouldn't appreciate you taking fish out of the pond."

"Relax, I'll throw them back. I'm just practicing for the koi fishing game at the festival tomorrow."

She shrugged it off. "Yeah, okay."

She continued on until she was inside the house. "Kaa-san, I got the bread from the market."

Her mother entered the kitchen shortly. "Oh, thank you Kagome."

She shrugged it off. "Yeah, no problem."

After that, she headed upstairs and into her room. She plopped down on top of her futon and sighed heavily. It was cooler in the house than it was outside, and she was just relieved to be out of the heat.

"This feels so much better." Kagome suddenly felt her eyes closing, and she decided that it would be a good idea to start taking a nap. She allowed her eyes to fully close and Kagome drifted off into sleep.

Kagome suddenly found herself in the middle of a dark forest with no recollection of how she got there. She stood up and surveyed the area. She couldn't see anything except for a bunch of trees, while everything else was surrounded in darkness.

"What is this place?" Kagome asked, confused.

She could hear a noise shuffling behind her, which unexpectedly startled her. She was starting to become a bit frightened by her situation. "I don't know how I got here, but I know I need to get out."

The only problem was that she didn't know which way she was supposed to go, and their just might be someone or something lurking in the darkness. She seemed to be stuck. She didn't know what to do or where to go to get out of it. She almost screamed when she saw a shadow brush up against the trees. There wasn't just the one, more of its friends had shown up.

They started moving closer to her, and she tried her best to avoid them all, but they were coming too quickly. She was about to let out a scream, when a light appeared out of nowhere and it seemed to frighten all the shadows away. She looked behind her to see a figure standing in the darkness with the source of light being some sort of sword.

She was about to thank the person who had saved her, when all of a sudden, the nightmare ended and she woke up.