Disclaimer: I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this story. Rumiko Takahashi created them, I am just having a brief, merciless play with them. Unless I happen to invent and insert my own characters. In which case I still won't make money off them.
Author's Note: I am NOT a writer, I am an illustrator and that is where I am most happy. I make no promises nor give false . This is my first fanfic, there is another I am writing simultaneous. As to whether they survive long enough to give a real plot or happiness to readers remains to be seen. Isshin na teleth Or so it would seem.
~Chapter 1~
Kagome had been heading for the stream for water. Had been. She now stood distracted on the edge of a new glade, torn recently from the closed forest that surrounded it. The debris blocked her view in parts but she knew that the damage had been done recently. The last time they had camped near here, surely less than a month ago, the forest had been impenetrable.
The new glade consisted of churned ground and the remains of claw marked tree trunks, the sparse undergrowth torn up by some fierce battle. That the sap from the shattered trunks was dry and most of the leaves well-withered indicated the event was several days passed but Kagome still began to back away.
There was a tremor through the foliage of a bush near her and Kagome jumped like a hare.
Half hidden beneath the leaves, curled up and trembling was a tattered orange and yellow checked kimono. The garment was gore spattered, dry crusted patches stiffened the fabric in place.
Rin.
Alarmed Kagome crouched down wrestled the child out from under the bush. The child's clothing was in a fetid state, the blood flaked off the fabric as it moved and her face was speckled with the brown of dried blood and dirt. Kagome urgently ran her hands over the child's head, searching for signs of injury beneath Rin's thick hair, over her limbs and torso.
"Are you hurt anywhere Sweetie?"
The child shook her head but continued sobbing, eyes shut tightly, though her hands now clutched at Kagome's skirts
The older girl pushed up the child's sleeve where the blood was especially thick. The skin was unbroken but a series of livid bruises were developing in the shape of finger marks - so distinctly shaped for Kagome to see it had been a left hand. The blood had only seeped through the outer layer of the kimono Rin wore, inside was still, in terms of blood, clean.
"Rin-chan?" Kagome gave the child a gentle shake, trying to rouse her from catatonic state. "Can you tell me what happened?"
The child whimpered. Then vomited, briefly and very little.
Kagome rubbed the child's back, painfully aware of the girl's bones through the cloth. Using the corner of her cardigan she wiped the child's mouth before gathering her into her arms as best she could and striking out for where the others were camped – the kettle left behind, forgotten.
~o0o~
Endnote:
I have no beta reader. Please let me know of any errors, inconsistancies and whatnot. I will quite possibly come back and add/change bits as they become relevant in future.