"So, Karou, how's the boyfriend problem going?" Kagome asked.
"Oh, ha ha! Why should I bother? Men are damned worthless pigs!" I said in reply.
"Yup... he dumped her..." Kagome mumbled.
"And how is yours?!" I retorted angrily.
Kagome stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes as wide as saucers.
"Oh, Shit! Sorry, Karou! Tell Hojo I got tied up again. Thanks. I owe you one!" She yelled as she ran in the opposite direction.
'Oh... Hell no... your not dropping that off on me again...' I thought. 'Where does she keep going anyway?'
My curiosity got the best of me, so I followed Kagome. To my surprise, she ran to the old well house on her family's property.
In it's doorway stood a tall boy with white hair and red clothes.
"You're late, Kagome... AGAIN..." He said.
"Oh, Shut up! I went through Hell to get here! I missed another trip to the shopping center with Karou and Hojo because of you!" she yelled as she pushed past him into the well house.
She jumped down the well and he boy quickly followed after her.
I ran in and yelled, "Kagome! What the hell are you..."
When there was no response, I did the last thing any sane person would do... I jumped in after them.
After what seemed hours of falling through blue mist, I felt my body connect with hard earth.
I started climbing up the side of the well and yelled out as I swung my arm over the edge, "Kagome! You'd better explain what the hell is going on!"
As I finally rambled over the edge, I saw Kagome. She was with the white-haired boy, a man wearing purple robes carrying a staff, and a young woman wearing a light colored kimono. There was also a small cat of some sort or another and a kid who very much reminded me of a squirrel. (Kouga-Ha! Runt! You are a squirrel!) (Shippou-Waaaaah!)
(Karou-Leave him alone Kouga...)
Each of them had a look of shock as I crawled from the well.
"Whoa! Where are we Kagome?" I asked as I looked around.
The white-haired boy suddenly appeared in front of me and picked me up by my shirt.
"Who are you? How did you get here!?" he started demanding.
"Get off me you damned, male pig!" I got free of his grasp and looked to Kagome.
"Kagome, who is this guy?" I asked and pointed at the boy.
"Hey! I ask the fucking questions!" I heard him yell.
"Shut up Mr. Macho!"
Suddenly Kagome yelled over us.
"Both of you shut up! Inu Yasha... behave or I'll say it! Karou... just go back through the well and I'll explain later..."
"Definitely later, Kagome." The man in the purple robes said. "We have company."
There was a ring of wolves surrounding us and closing in on us fast.
They growled menacingly until one of the larger wolves let out an ear-piercing howl. The wolves attacked, causing me to fall back in shock. The battle raged on until the wolf that had howled passed me up.
It suddenly stopped and stared at me for a moment. Then it looked over at another of the wolves and swung its head towards me... like a command.
The wolf it had looked at lunged at me and grabbed me by my arm. I felt a sharp pain as its teeth tore my skin. The wolf started to drag me off in the direction of some thick underbrush. It was surprisingly fast for dragging me with it. I closed my eyes as I was dragged through bushes and underbrush.
When I felt that we had stopped moving, I opened my eyes and looked up. There was a tall man looking down at me from a huge boulder. He jumped down and grabbed my chin as he said, "Well... there you are. Hmmm... he was right... I haven't seen one like you in a long time... Now have I?"
3rd person pov
The wolves that had attacked disappeared as fast as they had appeared.
"What was that all about?" Kagome asked.
"I'm not sure. But why did they retreat?" Sango added.
The Kagome screeched and yelled, "Karou! They took her! Oh my god..."
Kagome was starring at the ground where Karou had collapsed. There was a stain of crimson that led towards the woods. It was blood.
"Inu Yasha! We have to go after her!" She pleaded.
"Why? We have no use for her..." He angrily said. He hadn't taken a liking to her at all.
"Well, I'm going after her! You can stay here!" She yelled and ran into the woods after Karou.
Miroku and Sango glanced at Inu Yasha and then followed Kagome.
Inu Yasha growled as he thought, 'Damn humans... so much trouble I swear...' Then he followed after Kagome and the others.
Karou, 1st person pov
The man was tall with long, midnight blue hair held in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore a black kimono top with pure white pants. He had a young face with coal black eyes with an eerie silver outline.
"What? My kind?" I asked, still dazed from being dragged by the wolf. It didn't exactly help that I was badly bleeding either.
"I can smell the lyncathropy that thrives in your veins. It yearns to show itself..." The man said and grinned.
"What?!" I asked. "Man! I think you've had one too many hits on the head!"
"Here... I'll have some fun and SHOW you..."
The man pulled a small wooden flute from his shirt and began to play a soft melody.
At first the song was soft and soothing... but then it changed. Slowly, the music became louder. Faster! Closer! Louder! And louder! Finally it was howl ringing inside my ears. I felt a pain shoot through my stomach that made me double over. The pain spread so that I soon felt its sting all over my body. The pain was consuming me. I clenched my eyes shut and wished... no... begged for the pain to end.
I got to my knees and forced myself up. The man was still playing his flute faultlessly. Never missing a note. My eyes clouded in tears as I looked up at him. I heard a distant whisper in my ear that kept repeating, "Let your true form out. It desires to be made free."
In the back of my mind I could hear another whisper reply in an unearthly voice.
"Let it go. Let me out. Return to me my freedom to feel... to hunt... to... kill..." The voice said.
"No... No! No!" I yelled and covered my ears.
The music still reached me through them. The voices in my mind seemed to get closer and closer and suddenly my eyes were drawn to the man's face.
His eyes flung open as I heard a voice in my head scream, "Come out!"
The man's eyes were entirely silver...
As I stared, I suddenly envisioned a horrific demon, and then... the moon. It was so... large...entrancing... calling me... like those eyes...
I came back to reality as another pain sent me to my knees.
Then... the music stopped.
As soon as it stopped, my pain ceased. I looked up and saw the man fall over... dead. Behind his corpse stood the white-haired boy holding up a huge sword. I collapsed onto the ground and heard Kagome's voice say something but I didn't catch it. My world went black.
When I awoke, I felt a sharp pain all over my body. Also, someone had a cool cloth over my forehead.
My eyes fluttered open to see Kagome.
"Now Karou, don't panic. Alright? I'm going to take you to Keade. She can help you..." Kagome said as she took the cloth from my head.
"Hmm?" I tried to ask her what she was talking about, but couldn't form the words for some reason.
My hands flew up to my face as an automatic response. It felt... different?
I grabbed the bowl of water beside me and looked into my reflection. My ears were long and pointed, my jaw jutted out like a dog's muzzle, behind me was what I thought to be a tail, and I couldn't bend over without feeling extreme pain.
I was horrifying.
I dropped the bowl in shock and fear and it shattered.
It was at that moment I realized there were other people around me other than Kagome. It was the robed man, the woman, and the white-haired boy.
I gasped and tried to hide my face as I started sobbing into Kagome's arms.
She had a worried expression on her face. "It's alright Karou... I know this has to be so overwhelming..."
Once she had calmed me down, she explained to me who each of the other were and how we were here. She told me everything from when she first went down the well to Kikyo giving Narraku the shards of the Shikon no tama.
When she finished, all I could do as sit there and try to figure things out.
The next day we traveled to a village where the old woman 'Keade' was supposed to live.
"Oh, my!" she exclaimed when she saw me. "Let me see her Kagome. In my hut..."
"Sure..." Kagome said, and left me alone with the old woman.
She constantly muttered 'Hmmm' and 'Ohhh.'
"I think I may have a cure." She said after a moment.
She tried to give me a greenish medicine, but at my first glimpse of its smell, I fainted.
For some odd reason my senses were REALLY high strung.
Next she tried some sort of spell or prayer or whatever, but all that did was smoke us out of the hut.
"The only other way I can see is for you to finish the transformation this demon caused in you. Then you could fully change back." She finally said.
'What does that mean?' I asked in my head.
"Get some sleep child. We shall see if there is anything else we can do in the morning." Keade said.
Before I left, I grabbed a pen and jotted a note that said, 'Thanks' on it and showed it to her.
"Tis nothing child..." She muttered as I turned and left.
All that night I tossed and turned, haunted by terrible dreams. I awoke with a fright not even an hour before dawn.
'That's it!' I thought.
One of my dreams had given me an idea.
I hurried over to Keade's and wrote out my idea.
"Well, let us see if it works." She said.
I went to the middle of the hut and got onto all fours. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth as I imagined what my change would be. It seemed as if my body already knew what to do as I did so. After a few moments my gut clenched as I felt the change begin.
My head spun and, against my will, I let out a shriek of agony. After what seemed to be hours of tear-wrenching pain, it stopped.
I collapsed on the ground as I noticed I felt different.
I looked up and saw Keade ushering Kagome and the others from the hut.
Keade scribbled me a note that read 'Now do the same to change back.'
I weakly got up and noticed I was standing differently. I looked behind me and saw a thick pelt of fur and a long, bushy tail.
I closed my eyes and repeated my change, but into a human form.
After a moment I sat back up and popped my back.
"Man! Does that feel good or what?!" I said.
Then I realized...
"Did you hear that?! I can speak again! Kagome! Kagome!" I ran out of the hut and jumped over the little squirrel looking thing.
I grabbed Kagome and put my hands to my ears as I was about to yell my joy. But then I stopped...
My ears were still pointed. I looked behind me and saw a wolf tail hanging behind me.
"What?..." I asked to myself.
"Remember how the demon claimed to recognize the lyncathropy in your blood? I believe what he may have done was reawaken a subdued curse that ran in your blood. If so, you will always have a mark of that curse now." Keade said when she caught up to me.
Then I remembered something I had read in one of my brother's books when I was small.
It had to do with ancient curses and such. In it, the legend of the lyncathrope had been marked. They were told to be creatures close to werewolves. For three nights when the moon was full, they were forced to take the form of a wolf. The difference between the two races though was that lyncathropes could also change into a wolf form at will. Oh, if only I could remember the rest though...
I went back over to Kagome.
"Can I talk to you for a bit?"
"Uh... sure..." she said.
We walked into a clearing and I told her what I was thinking. Then, in mid-sentence I said to a nearby bush, "Oh, and guys... if you want to listen... just come on out and listen. I hate eavesdroppers."
Suddenly Sango, Miroku, and Inu Yasha all came out from behind the bush.
"See how high strung my senses are Kagome? I think I'm gonna stay in this time. With pollution and motor vehicles and all... Besides, here I can train and handle some... hehe... changes..." I said.
Sango stepped up and suddenly offered, "Why don't you stay with us?"
"What?" I asked.
"At least until you know your way around?" she continued.
"No!" Inu Yasha yelled. "I won't allow that BITCH to stay along with us!"
I walked casually up to him and stared into his eyes.
"What?" I asked, giving a daring look. "You offended that I can talk back? Hmmm? Or Ohhh... afraid I'll be strong enough to whoop you a$$!"
He looked at me with shock, unable to concoct a comeback.
I spun around and walked off as I told Sango, "I think I'll take you up on your offer. It might be fun..."
"Oh, and don't try anything, monk! Come near me and I'll kick you so hard you CAN'T reproduce!"
Miroku and Inu Yasha stared at me in shock as I walked off talking with Sango and Kagome.
Writer's notes and info:
A bit about Karou:
Karou is one of Kagome's close friends who grew up with her dad and older brother. Because of past experiences she distrusts anyone of the male sex.
She has midnight blue hair in a pixie cut (though it does change later in the story along with her attire) She wears dark colored training garb for fighting to make herself appear like a man at times to prove she can outdo them any time.
Well, I'll give more info later!
Disclaimer: None of the characters from the Inu Yasha series used in this fan fiction are my own. Only Karou is my character, designed and created by myself.