The Wind and the Breeze
By Chris Fowler

Prologue: Have you ever noticed how everything gets quiet when death is present? As
life slips away from a body, time stops. The whole world freezes around you, and everything seems to disappear. All that exists is darkness, until
you realize what happened and it all comes back to haunt you, forever.

Chapter one: The Truth to the Dream

Something is moving through the water, my dad can sense it. The smell of death lingers in the air. Our little outing will soon become a massacre.
Dad draws his sword, getting ready to fight off the monsters. They're
coming.
* * * Kaze stood up covered in his own sweat drenched hair, and looked around to make sure he wasn't at the lake that haunted him in his dreams for the past
few years. Kaze saw that he was still in the old pawn shop next to Inu- yasha forest. The pawn shop had been built next to the forest so that when
travelers passed by, this was the first place they came to. Kaze looked over at Okane, the shop owner, to make sure he was still asleep. Thankfully
he was still asleep on his cot, snoring as loudly as ever.

Kaze turned around to look out the window and gaze at the scene that lay
before him, and calm himself down. There was a meadow sparkling with
morning dew, shining as greatly as the night sky, set in front of the forest. The forest's branches were swaying in the wind, causing the leaves to make the soft noise that he enjoyed over all of the noises in the night. But the almost inaudible noise also reminded Kaze that it was his ability, to sense things, and performs great feats of strength and speed, that got him shunned from the orphanage. They were afraid of him. They were afraid that he might hurt them because he was different, and they would not accept him no matter how hard he tried. So he came to the pawn shop for a place to stay. That was when Okane made the deal, stating that if he worked for him,
then he would give him shelter.

It has been a hard three months working there, but he managed. At that thought, Kaze decided to go on back to bed, unless he wanted to be yelled
at for staying up this late. Kaze stopped dead in his tracks, when he
started to hear the sounds of muffled voices.
Crack!
Kaze suddenly snapped out of his trance like state, and ran to the front of the shop to try and fight off the intruder. When he got there, there was
a hole in the sliding frame door, which was too small for any man to go through. Whatever went through that door was way too strong for a creature
of that size, because the door was made of bamboo. There was splintered wood scattered all over the floor, as well as drops of blood where whatever
busted through cut itself on the edges of the hole.

Kaze reached over to pick up the nearest weapon, which just happened to be a wooden shovel. He started to walk toward the hole, when he heard a sound coming from behind the piles of pottery in the back of the shop. He then started to head toward it, with the shovel raised above his head, ready to
strike the creature. But quickly turned around when he heard a loud thumping noise come from Okane's bedroom. "Please, no, stay away!" screamed
the panicking Okane.

Kaze quickly turned around to help Okane, but the monster hiding behind the pottery came out from its hiding spot, and jumped on Kaze's back. It threw him off balance, and caused him to hit his head on the floor. Before Kaze passed out, he saw the little blue monster, with spikes all over its body, jump off his back and run over to the screaming Okane's bed room. And then
it devoured him, right in front of Kaze's eyes.
* * *

Mom set my sister and I down, and started to row the boat back to shore. After dad drew his sword he walked up to the helm of the boat, and started to search the water for the monsters that we're following us. "As soon as we reach the shore, I want you to take Katana and Kaze to the shore, and run any way as fast as you can ". Almost immediately after dad said that to mom a grotesque blue creature, with spikes all over its body, launched out of the water toward dad. Dad swung at it with his sword, but the monster was too fast for him, and dodged out of the way. The water started to glow
as the eyes of each and every monster, under the surface of the water, opened up to see its prey. Mom furiously rowed the boat towards the shore,
while dad kept hitting away at the blue monsters with his great sword. When we finally reached the shore mom threw down the oars, picked us up,
and started running toward the forest. Mom held us tightly as she ran through the forest. Twigs and branches started to snag onto her kimono as
she ran, and tear holes in it.

Father easily would have destroyed those little blue monsters, if one of
them didn't send out a poisonous barb through his throat.
"INUYASHA", screamed my mom at the top of her lungs. "Ka..*gargle,
gargle*..goeme."
* * *