Kagome was sitting in class trying to catch up with the rest of her peers because of all the days she had missed. She was so busy trying to catch up that she never even noticed the new girl sitting next to her until the teacher assigned her to her at the end of class. "Kagome, I'm assigning you as the new girls escort. It might help you catch up and focus on things by keeping you on your toes." Kagome looking a little distraught but nodded and turned to the new girl. "This is Evadeny." The teacher introduced, "She transferred here from America. Please make her feel welcome." Kagome smiled at Evadeny who smiled back albeit a bit nervously.
"It's good to meet you Evadeny." Kagome said, as she bowed politely. "I'll be showing you around school today." Evadeny nodded silently. She was very quiet as Kagome showed her around and told her where she could find things. The tour of the school was cut short though. A strange guy with long silver hair and decked out in red rounded the corner and grabbed Kagome. "I-InuYasha!" She stammered in surprise before her eyes became annoyed. "What are you doing here? I told you I'd come back in a week. I-"
"I don't care. We need you now." He interrupted her. "The jewel shards could be anywhere and here you are wasting time." He looked as if he would throw her over his shoulder if given the option and just take her with him. He looked like he could do it too. Kagome, however, seemed to have become quite miffed with him.
"InuYasha, you know how important this is to me. The jewel shards can wait a bit longer. It's not like I can find them right off the bat anyways." Her tone was annoyed and angry. A combination that sounded deadly, coming from her. But InuYasha did not back down, he just seemed to want to egg her on.
"Um… excuse me." Evadeny said quietly not wanting to bring the attention to herself but knowing she had to do something before someone did something stupid.
"Oh! Evadeny!" Kagome exclaimed as if just realizing she was there. "I didn't realize you were still here…" She laughed nervously. "Um… InuYasha and I were just… practicing a line for a play we volunteered in…" Evadeny just gave her a look that said 'you really think I'm stupid?' and Kagome blinked and turned to InuYasha.
"Who is this girl?" He asked suddenly very interested in her presence. "She smells different." He stated as he sniffed in her general direction, effectively horrifying Kagome.
"InuYasha! That's rude. You can't just go around sniffing people." Her face was completely red with embarrassment of his manners. "I'm so sorry, Evadeny…. He's actually not so bad once you get to know him." She then started pushing InuYasha toward the exit. "I'm sorry to cut our tour of the school short but I've got to go now." Evadeny didn't even have a chance to respond before Kagome had pushed InuYasha out the door.
On her way home from school, Evadeny thought about Kagome and her strange visitor known as InuYasha. They were obviously hiding something but she couldn't bring herself to care too much. She barely knew Kagome anyways and it was none of her business. But she couldn't get them out of her head. Like they meant something important to her… but she couldn't figure out what it was… or why. She was so distracted with her thoughts that she never even noticed a small figure that had been following her for the last few blocks. She was nearly home before she felt like something was amiss. She realized she had spent way too much time trying to figure out Kagome. She looked around herself, feeling as she was being watched. But before she could make sense of her surroundings she was suddenly tackled to the ground by, what looked like a first, a black blur.
The black blur turned into a small dark blue and black creature that was now dragging her in the opposite direction she had been heading. Its long boney arms, proving to be stronger than they looked, held her fast to its body. "Let me go!" She said as she tried to fight against her captor. She started to scream as she found her efforts where futile. The creature wrapped its large boney hand around her head and over her mouth effectively muffling her screams. She continued to struggle to get out of its grasp and her flailing arms managed to grab hold of something. She looked at what she grabbed and realized she had grabbed a shrine ornament. Her surprise caused her to look around and saw that the creature was pulling her toward what looked like a small shack. She started to panic and tried to get away from the creature with renewed vigor.
"Stop that, this instant." The creature hissed in her ear. Its limbs suddenly grew in size, they were no longer boney, but muscled and stronger than before, it pulled her easily off the ornament and toward the shack. It shoved the sliding doors open effortlessly and Evadeny saw that in the middle of the shack a well stood. She started to cry. She didn't want the creature to kill her and then throw her body down a well were no one would find her! She felt so powerless and scared. Without hesitation the creature pulled her more securely to its body and then jumped into the well. Evadeny had closed her eyes expecting the worst but when they never hit the bottom she opened her eyes to see that they were surrounded by a beautiful purplish-pink light that seemed to sparkle and shimmer. She would have freaked out if it wasn't so captivating and filled her with comfort and warmth. She noticed gradually that the grip of the creature was beginning to loosen. She risked looking at it and noticed it seemed to be fading.
Next thing she knew she was sitting on the floor of the well with the creature nowhere in sight and that she was perfectly fine. She looked up to the opening of the well and noticed the distinct lacking of a ceiling. The blue sky above scared her beyond what she had already experienced because it was not possible. She knew there was a shack built around the well. Even if there was a large hole in the ceiling she should still be able to see edges of the ceiling and hear cars in the distance. But she only heard birds. She was so shaken she couldn't even bring herself to summon the energy she needed to climb out of the well. She curled into the corner and started to cry. She cried for her lack of strength, her inability to go home, her lack of understanding what was happening to her and mostly because she didn't know when or if she'd ever get to see her parents again. Just as she was about to fall into tear exhausted sleep she began to hear voices. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying but she knew she needed their help. She listened carefully for a moment to make sure they were safe before calling to them. But she realized she recognized one of the voices.
"Kagome?" She shouted up at the voices, which suddenly became silent. "Kagome, is that you?" She tried again. Feeling a bit disheartened. What if she was too far away and couldn't hear her. Sound does travel different depending on where it's coming from. Her shout could have been muffled by the walls of the well instead of helped. Kagome's head suddenly appeared over the edge well.
"Evadeny?" She sounded surprised and horrified at the same time, "How did you get there?" She asked as she turned her head to look behind herself. "InuYasha, can you go get her? She's scared."
"I know she's scared, I can smell her fear from here." He said gruffly. "She's been crying too." He stated as he jumped into the well, startling Evadeny as he landed beside her. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said indignantly as she flinched away from him as he tried to pick her up. She nodded but stiffened as he grabbed her by the waist and jumped out of the well with her in his hands. He gently put her down on her feet but as soon as he was no longer touching her, she collapsed.
"Evadeny, are you alright?" Kagome asked as she rushed to her side. "What happened? How did you get here?" Evadeny's shaky breath and obvious stress told Kagome that now was not the time for these questions. It was getting dark now and they needed to get to the village. Hopefully Evadeny would be calm enough after a good night's rest to convers coherently.
When they got to Kaiede's hut Evadeny had regained some semblance of calm as Kagome lead her into the hut moving the straw flap out of the way. The old women stood and helped Kagome guide her to a comfortable sleeping mat. They offered her some of the stew the old women had made for dinner. Evadeny accepted the bowl gratefully and sipped at the broth. As the color seemed to return quickly to her face so did the light in her eyes. "This is very good." She said as she continued to eat. Kagome and Kaiede smiled as they watched her demolish to stew.
"Would you like some more?" Kagome asked when she saw Evadeny had finished it off.
Evadeny looked up at her with a confused expression then shook her head, "No, that was plenty, thank you very much." She looked about herself and found herself in a place she didn't know, she was very tired. She could barely keep her eyes open. "Can… I sleep here?" She asked timidly, blushing a bit for being a mite assertive. Kaiede nodded at her as she filled her own bowl with seconds. Kagome got up from her spot by the fire.
"Of course you can sleep here. You're sitting on a sleeping mat. I'm going to go take this to InuYasha, I'll be right back." She said gesturing to the bowl in her hands. "He gets cranky when he doesn't eat."
"He gets cranky just being himself." Came a child-like voice from the door of the hut.
"Shippo!" Kagome exclaimed as a small child with a large puffy tail came into the hut. Evadeny looked at the kid for a moment before her whole face turned red.
"Is she alright?" Shippo asked as he looked over to the girl he hadn't noticed till a moment ago.
"I-I'm fine!" Evadeny said before Kagome could say anything. "I just… think you're adorable." She explained so quietly that Kagome had to strain her ears to hear her. Shippo had heard her just fine though and grinned ear to ear.
"I am quite cute, huh?" He said as he puffed out his chest and looking quite proud. Kagome rolled her eyes but smiled at his antics. He was just trying to impress the new girl. It was quite cute, in a way. She took this chance to leave the hut while she still had some day light.
"Where are the demon slayer and monk?" Kaiede asked after Shippo had Evadeny had gotten to know each other and Shippo had settled himself in her lap.
"Oh, Sango is on her way from training with Kirara. I'm not sure what Miroku is doing though." He answered. Kaiede nodded and poked the fire under the stew to keep it from going out.
"They must hurry or else the stew will grow cold." She said. She looked to Evadeny now. "Were you not tired, child?" She asked. Evadeny shook her head.
"No, I am… I'll lay down now." She said blushing again for getting caught in indulging the Kitsune in her lap. Shippo crawled out of her lap and then when she lay down he curled up next to her. She smiled and pulled him gently into her arms. "You're so sweet." She said as she closed her eyes and swiftly fell asleep. Her arms released Shippo in her lost consciousness. Shippo felt an odd kin-ship with her. He felt as if she were family and had become attached to her in just a short time.
