Unknown Child in the Red Snow
Chapter Three

(In Inu yasha's POV)

It has been so long since I last saw you, mother. The last time I saw you I was but a pup. A small child that couldn't defend himself and had to resort to running until I lost control or passed out from fatigue. Why did you leave me, mother? It's been 187 years since I last saw you. You're smiling face and your tender and gentle eyes as she rocked me to sleep.

Back then I could actually fit in your arms huh? Well now you can't, mother, you've been dead for a long time, and the village won't allow me near you so I can talk to you. There's so much I wish I could tell you right now.

I've met someone, mother. She's a priestess. Her name's Kikyo.

And she's one hell of a bitch.

But I feel strangely attracted to her. She has a calming spirit to her and I feel different around her. She spoke to me a few days ago in the field.

Flash back

"Inu-yasha you're there aren't you?" Kikyo called towards the forest, she sat in a clearing, and a gentle breeze blew at her tied hair. "Why won't you come down?"

My head popped out of the tree and I growled. Clenching my fists and hoping from the tree my eyes burning with an inner struggle, to either run away or to just listen to the bitch talk. "..."

"We've never stood so close together have we?" Kikyo asked quietly.

I sat hunched over, supporting my weight on the balls of my feet so I could spring away at any time. I stared at Kikyo, "What of if?"

"Inu-yasha..." Kikyo said my name so softly. "What do I look like to you?" I was caught off guard by that question, I was not expecting that. "Do I look human to you?"

I stepped back a bit, "What? What garbage are you sprouting now?"

"I can't show my weakness, not a moment's hesitation to anyone. If I did, the demons would take me," she held out a hand and a bird landed on it. It chirped happily before flying away into the trees. Even though Kikyo couldn't hear it, I heard it nestle into a soft nest and feed its children. "I am human, but I must not be human."

"You and I are the same Inu-yasha," Kikyo didn't turn to face me, she kept staring ahead, "You too fight your humanity.

"That's is why I have been unable to kill you," she finished.

"Feh!" my classic word, I have no idea what it means but I use it on regular occasions. "What do I care for your whining, I'm nothing like you!" I stood up fiercely, not allowing her to see the affect her words had on me.

"No I suppose...you're not," Kikyo looked up at me and smiled. It was the saddest smile I had ever seen in my life. And that's not a lot of smiles, but still, it's a long time, living for 192 years and seeing a sad smile from a priestess that everyone loved. I gulped loudly.

End

Mother, she looked so utterly alone. And for the first time in my life, I felt like I'd done something wrong. Her face nagged me, and it still does.

And now I find myself thinking about her all the time.

Curse her.

---

I feel so alive now, mother. Kikyo and I have spent so much time together. I just can't get her out of my mind. I find myself sitting in trees and watching her with the village children, or helping her elders. Or even shooting arrows with her younger whelp of a sister, Kaede. I think that was her name. The weird little girl had only one eye.

I follow Kikyo everywhere it seems. Wherever she is, so am I.

I wait outside the cave where she cares for the broken man. I don't know his name, Kikyo hasn't told me. All I know is that he smells horrible, has many burns on his body, like he'd been in a huge fire, and he couldn't walk, he was thrown off a cliff.

About two weeks ago, a day before the burnt man came; a bandit came with some arrows and threatened to shoot Kikyo. I felt anger pulse within me as the arrow shot towards Kikyo's back. I grabbed it effortlessly and ran towards the man.

He gulped loudly and stammered. I snarled at him, "Do you want to die?"

"H-how did you catch that?" he stammered, and then noticed my ears, "Y- youkai!"

I snarled and cracked my knuckles. "Inu-yasha!" I pause, Kikyo is calling me.

I turn towards the man, "You lucked out."

I jumped into the tree above Kikyo. She turned and smiled at me, "What was it?"

"Nothing that concerns you," I say as I hop down and we walk away together.

Yes, that had been fun, but I wish that Kikyo hadn't called, that way I could have killed him for trying to hurt Kikyo.

If she died I don't know what I'd do.

---

"If you wish to be human, Inu-yasha, use the Shikon no tama," Kikyo said to me as we stood in the clearing we always met in. "Tomorrow at dawn, to this place I will bring the Shikon no tama."

I nodded my head.

---

But on that promised day, mother, Kikyo appeared, all right, but without a Shikon no tama. No, instead for me she had some arrows aimed for my heart. The heart that beat only for her.

She'd planned all along to kill me. And that fact made me snap inside and I ran to the village to get the Shikon no tama and become a full youkai. If I was a full youkai, maybe I could forget this never-ending pain that surged through my veins. I ran along the forest and jumped in front of the large god tree. The same tree I had retreated too when you died, mother…

Then her arrow flew from no where.

And pierced me in the heart, mother.

I dropped the jewel.

The whole thing that caused this.

And I stare at Kikyo, my eyes betraying my emotions, I hold out my hand to her and gasp. "Kikyo...how could...I thought we..."

And then I feel into a sleep.

And I died.

Kikyo killed me, mother.

And I'll never forget how much I love her.