Okay – a third fic. I don't know how to rate this one, so you guys be the judge. Thank you to all those who reviewed my last two stories "Whispers of That Nameless Fear" and "Inu-Yasha-Secret Soul of the Demon Dog", you all have inspired me to write yet another fanfic. So sigh here goes nuthin! Please read and review. Let me know how I do!!!!! I live to know how many people have read my story and enjoyed it!!! Thankya!! Oh, and to my Ayame fans – she might make a cameo in this one too wink!!!
The Horrid Cries of the Nothing Woman
Chapter One – Awaken and Face Your Strange New World
The winds whispered through the thick trees, bringing forth new words from far off lands. New scents for the hanyou Inu-Yasha to breathe as he sat upon his perch with his nose to the wind and his ears to Kagome's candid conversation with Sango below.
Leaning up against the thick trunk below him, Kagome sighed, staring off to the west. "We've been out here for three whole days . . . I wanna go back to the village."
Sango frowned, standing beside her with a slender hand upon Kilala's head, stroking her soft, tan fur. "We have yet to hear any more rumors about the jewel this far out," she glanced up to see if Inu-Yasha was listening and then leaned close to whisper. "And with him leading us, you might as well get used to wandering out here."
"I heard that!" he growled, landing lightly upon the ground between them, flashing a nasty glare to Kagome before storming off in the direction she had been staring. "Come on! We'll go this way!"
She blinked sleepily and followed without so much as a peep, as if it were her duty to be his slave. Sango fell in step behind her as they continued though the thickening forest without so much as meager conversation to keep themselves entertained, minds wandering to this that and all of the above.
It was a truly sad procession with the stern hanyou leading them, glancing back occasionally to see if the girls were keeping up with him. He bristled every once and a while when his orange eyes glinted upon Kagome and her sad and tired features.
Normally she was brilliant and bubbly, laughing and carrying on. Trying to make conversation with any kind, sentient being she came across – but not that day. That day she was slow, tired and depressed, as if following him were a chore. A dread. A horrid thing to lower herself to . . .
Inu-Yasha shuddered. Hopefully that's not what Kagome was thinking! It couldn't be what Kagome was thinking!
Could it?
He twitched his ears anxiously. Without Miroku to harass the girls and without Shippou's undeniable cuteness on such a long journey . . . he began to worry that it was no longer fun for them.
But it wasn't supposed to be fun!!! It was a job! It was a chore!
"Kagome." The hanyou stopped and turned to her, catching her and Sango off guard as they nearly ran into him. But Inu-Yasha never flinched. "Kagome? Do you sense any jewels?"
She sighed. "No."
"What's wrong
with you? You're all like . . . tired! What, is this too much walking
for you? Is this too much for you? Is that it?"
Sango raised her hand to silence
Inu-Yasha's rantings. "Something's not
right in this air, Inu-Yasha. Can't you
feel it?"
The half demon
tensed and looked around. "Feel what? I don't feel anything!"
"Exactly what I mean." The demon
exterminator seemed spooked. "It's as
if there is a void . . . a heavy loss . . . something . . ."
As much as he hated to admit it . . . Inu-Yasha felt it too . . .
Lurking . . .
Foreboding . . .
A pain . . . massive loss of life . . .
Death . . .
Kagome shivered. "S . . . something's definitely n . . . not right."
Inu-Yasha reached for his demon blade, his body tense, shadowing Kagome as the trio stood in the forest. The wind shook the trees with a mighty hiss, bellowing angrily onto the world as dead branches scraped against the trunks of their neighbors . . .
Then the world was thrown into silence . . .
"Do you think a demon attacked a village or something?" Sango whispered, leaning back around Kagome to reach the hanyou's twitching ears.
He frowned. "Huh, I don't know. Kagome, do you sense any jewel
shards?"
The girl was pale and shaking. "Um . . ." she began. "I . . . I think . . . "
"Yeah? What?" the hanyou urged.
"There's one . . . no . . . two . . ." she sputtered. "T . . . three . . ."
Then crumpled to the ground with a gasp and a between the two of them. Inu-Yasha dropped his sword and caught her arms as she fell, leaning into him limply, her shimmering raven hair now dull and lifeless as she became . . .
"K . . . Kagome . . .?" the hanyou gasped, feeling his own hands start to shake. Her scent seemed to fade from the air.
"What happened?"
Sango panicked. "She was fine a little
while ago!"
The sound of thunder echoed across
the forest, shaking the very ground on which they stood upon, throwing them
into the dirt. Inu-Yasha covered Kagome
with his arm as he reached for his sword that clattered away with the force of
the great noise that filled their ears, booming into their skulls . . .
blinding them . . .
But Inu-Yasha blinked through the shimmering and fading world. A young woman stepped out from the undergrowth strewn from alongside the path on which they strode. Clad in tattered garments and robes the girl stumbled into the traveled path in front of them, bleeding and gasping around mouthfuls of blood . . . clutching a blood soaked rag in her claw torn hands . . .
"D . . . dead . . . all . . . d . . . dem . . ." the stranger gurgled before falling silent.
"Oh . . ." Sango gasped, she obviously saw her too.
The earth ceased its shaking and the noise stopped as well. Inu-Yasha gasped and turned over to Kagome, shaking her . . . trying to wake her . . .
She wouldn't wake . . .
The strange woman who lay in a pool of drenching blood twitched and lay still, though she was not dead.
Sango and Inu-Yasha exchanged glances . . .
This did not bode well at all.
They had to get back to the village!