Chapter Thirteen: Bad Dreams

By the time they stopped twenty minutes later the miko's were fast asleep in there mates arms. Shippo was riding Minami and Sango was leaning into Miroku's shoulder heavily. Finally finding the decent sized clearing, Sango laid out everyone's blankets quickly with Miroku's help seeing as how the others hands were full. The couple's settled into their bed rolls with a quite good night on behalf of both from the males. Inuyasha laid Kagome in her sleeping bag and scooted inside with her pulling her body to lay somewhat over his. Her belly made the position awkward at first but they had found the right way to lay together expertly over the last few months. Kagome mumbled something only Duncan and Inuyasha caught. It made Inuyasha smile while Duncan filtered it out as back ground noise as he was settling himself and Julianna in their borrowed sleeping bag. He pulled her to him close as he could and she instinctively put her head on his shoulder and rolled half on top of him. Miroku and Sango laid their blankets close to one another's and end up settled back to back touching slightly but neither one moving. The three pairs of sleeping people made a kinda of triangle in the glade so the small kuma and Kirara burrowed themselves together in a large fuzz ball in the middle of the three. Shippo looking around decided to join the other full youkai in the center and lent his warmth to the pile of fluff, settling down comfortably.

Julianna's dream led her to the edge of a river to where she knew she had seen before. There was a large tree that's roots were tangled half in and out of the water. It was calm and peaceful looking at it from the bank. It was crystal clear and sounded so beautiful that she had to get closer. It was a stretch of bank that was quite rocky and had a few larger rocks she had to scale down to get to the soft sand. She walked to the waters edge near the old large tree to hang onto something and looked into its depths. An unfamiliar face met her in the water but instead of a reflection she saw a girls face with her eyes closed. For some reason she knew it was hers but she was looking at it and it was not looking back. As she got closer to the water she suddenly saw the reflections eyes open and reached up and pulled her under the surface. It scared her so badly she sat up screaming.

Her shrieking for help awoke the hole camp at first light. She was out of her sleeping back and running from camp to try and find someplace to hide. She knew where she had to go and she didn't want to now for sure. Running into the brush a low branch of a bush caught a hold of her foot and she fell to the ground screaming afraid to see what had her this time. Duncan had reacted as soon as he saw her bolt. He got to his feet and chased after her. She was not far ahead and he knew he would have caught up to her in a few steps even as she tripped. He heard her scream in terror again and start to cry. He came up behind her fallen form and put his hands on her shoulders. She cried out louder again eyes shut tightly frailing to get away. But it kept hold of her shoulders saying something. Saying it in a voice that was very soothing and familiar. The connection between her and her mate flared against her fear and she felt the love of her husband behind her. She turned to focus on what he was saying throwing herself into his arms. "Kobito its ok it's just me. Its Duncan. Its ok." he had repeated over and over again even as she flew into his arms. He sat back bringing her into his lap and stroking her hair letting her cry. Kagome being carried by Inuyasha appeared next to Duncan. The others had stayed behind to let Inuyasha and Kagome find out what had happened while they packed up.

Inuyasha set Kagome down next to where Duncan was sitting then sitting next to her. They heard Julianna start to talk thru her tears. " I don't wanna go on! I can't! It'll get me if I do!!! I just wanna go back home! Back and get our son and just pretend like it never happened!" She cried for a while longer then calmed. Inuyasha and Kagome had exchanged concerned looks during her tirade. They did not want any more surprises. Kagome reached out a hand and touched Julianna's arm.

"Juli-chan, was it a dream?"

"YES! a horrible one! I dreamed of the spot where the other body of mine died and I went down to the river where there was an old tree and it roots were all entangled in the water. I held onto the tree to see into the water and I saw me but the old me and my reflection was the in the water but it had its eyes closed and when I got closer to the water it opened its eyes and took me under!!!" Tears threatened again, but the soft circles her husband hand was doing on her back seemed to calm her enough to keep her composure even though a few more slid down her face. She put her head back against Duncan's chest. Kagome thought a minute. She leaned into Inuyasha for support and found an arm curl its way around her belly.

"I know it was scary but we will all be there with you. So don't worry I'm sure when the time comes there won't be anything there. It was just a dream, probably more like a message. We really need to go and put the power back in the stone. Its where it belongs. I have a feeling your body will need to get rid of the overpowering energy soon, our bodies were not meant to handle all that stress. And it is taking its toll on you now so we need to go." Kagome finished and took her hand away from her arm. Julianna finally nodded but hid her head into Duncan's chest. Duncan looked at Inuyasha and then Kagome.

"Give us a few please? We will be back and ready to leave in a minute." Inuyasha nodded and helped his mate up to her feet and slowly walked back to camp.

Duncan just sat there with his wife tucked against him securely stroking her hair and whispering soft reassuring loving things to her. It took only another two minutes for her too finally look up at him with clear eyes finally settled. He could see the exhaustion in her eyes that had not left it seems sense she was pulled here. Kagome was right. The releasing of that power was wearing her down and eventually would probably make her sick if not kill her from the stress it must put on her body. He got up taking her with him in his arms. He was pretty sure she needed the contact still and that she probably wouldn't have been able to hold herself up any how. They walked into the now broken up camp with everyone ready. Inuyasha had let Kagome tell the others what had happened trusting her discretion. They set off toward the river bend where the old woman Ise told them the would find the sacred place they had found the miko.

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My never ending thanks to Purple rose for letting me use her Fading scars as a starting point for my story. She is a talented writer and my story takes place between chapter's 19 after they defeated Naraku and chapter's 20 when the baby is born. My suggestion is read her wonderful works to mine might make more sense.

A few Japanese words I used:
Miko- Priestess
Shukuun no Gyokuei- crystal of destiny
Shukuun no miko- Priestess of destiny (don't know if they are right so bear with me)
neko- cat
Kuma- bear
youkai- demon
hanyou- half demon, or in this fanfic's case part demon. I couldn't find a word that meant part demon so i used it to mean a 1/4th too.
Koi- love
Kobito- lover
And I think that covers it. For give my spelling its not the best ^_^
I enjoyed writing it hope like reading it please Read and Review!
Thanks, LJ