"Souta what the hell are you doing?" The rough shout of Amber Lote
startled the young boy who was staring down into the depths of the temple
cellar.
He turned to look at her as she came running across the temple courtyard, her brow knit into her familiar scowl and her bright brown eyes flashing. Souta and Amber did not pretend to enjoy each others company, Amber clearly found Souta to be an irritating nuisance and Souta found Amber to be rather impatient and loud. The strangely ill tempered exchange student stopped in front of him looking half way between being fed up and curious.
"Buyo's down there." Souta admitted looking down into the cellar. The cellar was pitch black, the boys' grandfather having not bothered to put a light down there. All that was left of the shrine in the cellar was a beaten up old well, Souta remembered his grandfather telling him once, boarded up and useless.
"So go down there and get him." Amber replied nastily, shoving a package of cigarettes farther into her school bag. Souta often wondered how the unpleasant American girl had gotten a space on the exchange program to Japan. Her heritage was obviously Japanese. That much was evident from her look and voice but Seattle had poisoned her manners and she had never experienced the discipline that Souta's mother had always commanded from her children.
"I can't." Souta admitted scratching his head. "It's dark and scary down in the cellar."
"So let your precious cat starve then." Amber glared at the boy.
"Will you please go down and get him Amber? PLEASE?" Souta shrank back as the girl scowled and looked down into the cellar.
"Fine!" She agreed readjusting the shoulder strap of her bag and pushing past him. "If it'll make you shut up."
Souta followed her down into the cellar, their lungs drawing in gulps of the musty air. Amber's back was visible in front of him, her dark hair shining in the sunlight that leaked through the open door. Below then they could hear a bizarre scratching noise, like a huge claw scratching against stiff wood.
"See there's this weird noise that . . ." Souta began as Amber reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Of course there's a scratching noise stupid." She cut him off rudely, she scanned the dark room briefly before beginning to move around looking for Buyo. "The cats down here isn't it?"
"I . . . I guess so Amber." Souta replied sulkily, angry about being so violently snubbed.
"Here! Here's your damn cat." Souta looked over to see Amber roughly pulling Buyo out from a crack between the well and the wooden floor by the scruff of his neck. She thrust the cat roughly into the boys' arms and turned to go up the stairs. "It's dark and scary down in the cellar Amber." She mimicked cruelly under her breath.
She reached the stairs and turned back to shout at Souta when a violent tremor ran through the floor. She stopped and looked at the old well, her cinnamon brown eyes shining slightly with nervousness. Another tremor, like something hitting the boards nailed over the opening of the well.
"Souta, get behind me." Amber muttered, not taking her eyes off the well. It was still for a moment and then another bang, this one loosening one of the boards until the wood groaned in protest. "SOUTA! GET BEHIND ME NOW!" Amber yelled.
Souta stared at the well for a minute, his eyes large and scared before he ran past her up the stairs. He paused halfway up, silhouetted by the shaft of sunlight coming from the open door. "Amber, don't just stand there, come on!" He yelled back at her.
"Yeah." Amber replied quietly, her eyes still glued to the loose board. The well held her in a trance as she looked at the well, scrutinizing its rough masonry and beaten up exterior.
"AMBER!"
Souta's shout brought her out of the trance. "Yeah I'm coming!" Amber turned away from the well and began to walk up the stairs, not daring to glance back at the well. "Stop crying brat, I'm perfectly . . ."
The last attack burst the pathetic wooden barrier over the well. As the wood shards flew Amber spun and looked back at the strange well. A mass of white smoke, whirling and screaming like a tornado whipped out of the well, spraying Amber's eyes with wood fragments and dust.
"AMBER!" Souta shouted down. "AMBER COME ON!"
The girl turned away again and leapt up the first two steps. She tripped on the third and felt the rough wood scrape the skin of her left knee before she tumbled back into the old temple cellar where the white twister howled as she landed hard on her elbows.
Pain shot up her arms into her shoulders and tears of pain welled in her large eyes. Souta took two steps down as if to fight off the wind but Amber screamed at him and threatened to strangle him if he came any closer. "NO! GO GET YOUR MOTHER!" She screeched as she struggled to her feet.
"AMBER LOOK OU . . ." Souta's warning came a second to late. He'd seen the arms burst out of the white wind and fly towards the helpless Amber. He saw them grab onto her and pull her across the wooden floor. And he saw Amber fight them.
It was something. Amber kicked, grabbed the creatures pinky fingers and attempt to break them with the easy motion she'd showed Souta when he'd asked her about her self-defense lessons. She swore and punched and scratched at the hands that were gripping so tightly to her arms, all to no avail. As Souta watched, screaming in terror, the bizarre monster dragged Amber back into the well, and she was gone.
~IY~
Amber Lote was falling. She could feel the wind whip past her face and the feel of gravity tugging at the core of her stomach as she plummeted through the dark, star filled void of the well. But nothing mattered at that moment except the hands that gripped her body.
Amber was not a quitter. She grown up in one of the worse places in Seattle until her mother managed to bag herself a rich old husband and after that shipped Amber off to a boarding school and then off to Japan. But she liked to think she still had the street smarts that had kept her alive for fourteen years. She tried everything, scratching, screaming, breaking fingers and flailing but the hands were stronger then stone and had a grip like iron. She fell farther and farther, fighting every inch of the decent.
"You have it don't you?" The voice whispered in her ear. Amber glared at the body taking shape before her. All thoughts on the bizarre nature of this encounter were banished from her mind and she struggled and aimed a kick at the woman's body taking form before her. "You have it! I feel my power returning to me! My body is returning."
Amber looked down, horrified as the woman's body took form. She was skinny and naked to the waist with wild tangled black hair and vicious piercing eyes that burned into Amber like burning hot brands. As she watched, the horrible creature sprouted for more arms, making her total six, and her lower body grew into form, not legs or hips but a fat curling mass of hard shelled coils and millions of writhing legs that clicked horribly. Realization hit the plummeting girl like a wall and she began to laugh at the insanity of the situation. She was being pulled down an endless well, whose walls shone as though they were painted with stars by a naked half woman- half monster centipede creature that was screeching about her possessing something that was giving her power. Amber fell, no longer fighting and laughing her head off thinking she'd gone completely insane.
"What are you laughing wretched creature?" The centipede woman asked harshly. "Where is it? Where have you hidden it? Where is the Shikon No Tama?"
Amber laughed harder remembering the key chain trinkets Souta's grandfather had shown her earlier that week. "Souta get the pesticide!" She called into the darkness hysterical with fear.
"What?" The centipede hissed. "Stupid ignorant human where have you hidden the sacred jewel?" The centipede looked at her for a minute as though wondering what to do with the laughing human. It leaned in close and Amber watched, as it's huge sticky red tongue slid out of its mouth.
"Oh you are NOT going to lick me!" Amber screamed at the creature as she thrashed about.
The centipede slid its tongue up her cheek and smiled as Amber screeched. "GET OFF ME YOU SLIMY BITCH!" She screamed. She threw up her hand to deliver an uppercut. As she raised her hand she felt a curious tingling sensation in her side, like someone was pricking the skin with pins and needles, it festered there for a second, like the calm before the storm. Amber did not hesitate but the moment her hand collided with the centipede woman's jaw the feeling in her side exploded like greased lightening, up her arm and burst from her finger tips in the form of a blast of green energy. Amber gasped as the beam ripped through the centipede's arm like a hot knife cuts through warm butter and felt the weight of her right arm come free from it's hold on her body. The left still clung and as the centipede fell away from her through the tunnel and Amber realized the vile truth as she lost sight of the strange monster. The hand clinging to her arm was no longer attached to anything.
Amber though for a minute she would faint but the hard tang of pain brought her away from the darkness as she landed badly on the floor of the well. It made no sense, she'd been falling for so long she should be dead by now but as she shook the still twitching arm off of her body she looked up to see the mouth of the well barely six feet away. This was one seriously screwed up Monday.
"SOUTA! SOUTA YOU LITTLE PAIN, GET HELP WILL YOU?" She shivered as she glanced at the severed arm and looked around the empty well. Something was wrong. Souta might have run off in fright when that freaky centipede jumped out of the well but the heat of the day hadn't even begun to leak down into the cellar when she'd gone down looking for the stupid cat that morning. And the well was hot like high noon in the middle of summer. The sun shone through the mouth and as Amber squinted up she caught sight of a patch of bright blue sky and cloud. There was something definitely wrong with this whole affair.
But she wouldn't figure this out at the bottom of a well. Amber scanned the rough walls and caught sight of the thick vines that were growing up the side. She inspected them carefully, testing their supple fronds and inspecting the places where they had grown through the cracks in the bricks to get at the soil beyond. She sighed and rubbed her forehead and rearranged her still clinging school bag before she began climbing the vines slowly and carefully, her fingers finding handholds in the solid stone wherever possible. She dreaded the thought that at any moment the vines might give out and trap her in the well with the severed arm and the questions eating away at her mind.
Luckily for her though the plants held until she was able to drag herself out of the well, scrapping her shins raw and bloody against the rough edge but living to feel the blinding sun wash over her body. She was in the middle of the bare wilderness, trees and bushes spreading across the landscape and the unfamiliar cries of wild birds filling the air.
"Where the hell am I?" Amber asked herself as she looked down at her legs. They were scratched and dribbling bright blood down across her skin and staining her sneakers but the pain seemed very far away as she looked around the unfamiliar place, fear rising in her throat.
"Oh God how I need a cigarette." She muttered fishing the pack out of her bag. She stuck one in her mouth and lit it up with her lighter. As she took a deep breath of smoke she calmed down somewhat and tried to consider the situation rationally.
But there was no rational explanation to this. She'd been dragged through a well by a freaking centipede and deposited in a completely different well in the middle of good forsaken forest. There was no way to explain this. Amber took another big drag from her cigarette and looked around the clearing. The huge wide branched tree growing to her left looked like the one that grew beside the temple and ground the butt into the dirt before going to investigate.
She pushed aside the bushes and looked around. Something froze inside her as she caught sight of the boy pinned to the tree.
He looked human, except for the dog-like ears that poked out of his long silver-white hair. He was pinned to the tree by an arrow that protruded from his chest where his heart should be and he was dressed in a red kimono thank looked a little like the one Souta's grandfather wore on special occasions. It was very strange to Amber, but then after what she'd just been through she thought that nothing could be very odd. But he had DOG- ears.
Amber walked up to the tree thinking about her awful day, her eyes fixed on the mans bizarre ears. She noticed that thick vines had grown over his body and the sight promoted a harsh flick of memory in her dazed mind. Dog- ears.
Of course! This boy was almost identical to the one in the weird dreams she'd started having since she moved into the temple. The ones where the boy before her fought with the woman with the bow and she pinned him to this very tree. What had she called him? Inuyasha? Yes that was the name, Inuyasha.
"What's going on over there?" The cries of approaching people startled Amber and she turned hopefully towards them. So this wasn't the middle of nowhere! Maybe these people could explain where she was and why this boy had been pinned to this tree. "You! What are you doing there?"
"My name is Amber Lote. I'm lost, can you help me?" She took a step towards the voices but jumped back when an arrow imbedded itself in the ground at her feet.
"Don't try anything stranger." The archer stepped out of the cover of trees and glared at her harshly. "I think you'd better come with us."
~IY~
"Maybe she's a fox in disguise?" One of the men suggested poking Amber in the side as she struggled with her tied hands. "Or a spy! She could be a spy!"
"That's the fourth time you've said that Tanjiro." The man that had been named as Toshiro responded in a bored tone. "We understand your ideas."
Tanjiro made a rude gesture at Toshiro and continued talking with the other men. "Well if she isn't a spy what is she?" He asked poking Amber again in her sore side.
"The priestess Kaede will tell us what she is." Toshiro replied confidently glaring at the helpless girl on the mat. She merely tossed a muffled curse at him and tried to fight the gag they'd tied over her mouth.
"My position is bad." Amber thought looking around the dark hut they'd tied her up in. "My position is terrible." She admitted to herself frowning to herself.
"The priestess Kaede is coming!" One of the men that had dragged her into the dirty little village appeared at the door and Toshiro and the rest of them hurried to greet this mysterious priestess.
"My position could not be worse." She thought as the form of a sturdy old lady appeared at the doorway.
"Well then stranger, what are ye?" The old lady took shape as she stepped away from the glare of the sun outside and Amber couldn't help but look amazed as she took her in.
She was at least a hundred years old with all those wrinkles. She had to be older then Souta's grandfather and a heavy black eye-patch covered her right socket while her remaining eye glared at her.
"I'M A FUCKING PRISONER GENIOUS!" Amber snarled, but the gag muffled her response into a wet gurgling sound.
Kaede stooped and pulled the gag down around her neck and stepped back. "If ye are demon I shall know." She told Amber sternly. She was holding an ominous looking jar in her hands and she began to open it slowly, the lid making rough grinding noises and she removed it. Was it poison? Acid? Some sort of chemical?
"Listen I . . ." Amber began her eyes fixed on the jar.
"Don't say anything. The purifying will tell me." The old woman barked as she tossed the lid aside.
Amber could feel the tense knot rising in her stomach as Kaede reached into the jar. What was purifying? It didn't sound pleasant or comfortable.
The first handful of salt caught her in the face. A few grains filtered through her long lashes and into her eyes as Kaede threw more onto her and Amber screamed.
"A DEMON!" The irritating voice Toshiro penetrated the burning pain of Amber's salt filled eyes and she screamed a stream of obscenities at him as she writhed.
"I AM NOT A DEMON YOU MORON! I HAVE SALT IN MY GOD DAMN EYES!" She screeched.
"LIAR YOU ARE A DEM . . ." Toshiro was cut of by Kaede's rough bark.
"Leave her be Toshiro. She is no demon, though she may be a spy." The next sensation was that of someone carefully forcing her face down into a bowl of water to wash out the salt.
"There now does that feel better child?" Kaede's voice wasn't quite as harsh but the salt still burned at Amber's eyes.
"NO THAT IS NOT FUCKING BETTER!" She screamed. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? DO YOU GO AROUND BLINDING PEOPLE OFTEN?"
"I am Kaede. A priestess and I want to ask you who ye think ye are. It is your own fault that ye got salt in you're eyes, now tell me child. Are ye a spy?" The world began taking form again as the burn of the salt lessened.
"No I'm . . ." Again the old priestess cut her off. This time she grabbed Amber's face roughly and pulled it up close to hers.
"Ye greatly resemble my sister stranger." She said quietly and before Amber could ask about that Kaede was helping her to her feet.
"Come now stranger." She said, suddenly sounding tender and concerned. "Ye have much explaining to do."
~IY~
"The stew is not poison." Kaede reprimanded her guest gently as the girl stared out the window, her bowl cupped loosely in her bandaged hand.
"Huh? Oh yeah! Good stew." Amber said the vacant look in her eyes leaving for a moment.
"I would be flattered if not for the fact ye have not eaten a spoonful of it." Kaede replied motioning for her to eat.
Amber did, quietly, her eyes still watery and leaking tears down her cheeks. She looked so much like Kikyo it was almost eerie. Yet she was different then Kikyo, wild and vulgar where Kikyo had always been controlled and sensible. It troubled Kaede slightly as she watched Amber eat.
"So you know nothing of Shikon No Tama?" She asked tiredly.
"Nothing." Amber confirmed. "Nothing more then what Souta's grandfather told me about back in my time. And he had hundreds of them. He was selling them as key chains."
Kaede sighed and looked out across the village, thinking. Amber claimed to be from a different time and place, having climbed through the Bone Eaters Well.
"Never the less ye must lead the youkai, Lady Centipede, back to the well ye claim to have come from." Kaede watched as Amber shuddered.
"I am not facing that thing again." Amber replied pushing away her soup. She remembered the beam of green light that has leapt forth from her fingers and so easily and almost killed that huge monster. She did not want to spur something like that into effect again.
"You must I . . ." Kaede stopped as she caught sight of the monstrous youkai advancing out of the trees. She went pale and looked at Amber, her eyes large and shining.
"Run Amber!" She said pulling the girl out of the hut and running with her through the streets. The huge youkai had reached the village now, it plucked up one of the village men and threw him through the wall of his house and the screams of the villagers grew louder.
"That was Toshiro Amber! He has a wife and three small girls! If you have a heart save them! Run to the Bone Eaters well, lead Lady Centipede away!" Kaede gave Amber a push towards the forest. The girl stood stalk still for a moment staring at the bulk of Lady Centipede like a scared deer.
"You!" Lady Centipede accused, catching sight of Amber. "You are the human with Shikon No Tama! Give it to me! GIVE IT TO ME!"
Amber stared at the fierce demon before obeying Kaede and running towards the forest. Kaede sent up a silent prayer before running herself to rally a group to attack Lady Centipede.
"Give her wings like the wind." She prayed as she hurried towards Tanjiro and his men. "And please, please, please, let Inuyasha sleep through this affair."
~IY~
The wood smelled different then it had that night. That night when he'd held Shikon No Tama in the palm of his hand, his key to becoming full demon and been shot down by Kikyo, who he'd thought was dead.
Inuyasha stirred where he was pinned, the throb of pain in his chest reminding him how Kikyo had managed to seal him. He remembered the heavy metallic smell of Kikyo's blood, the sound of her labored breathing and the creak of her bow as she drew it tight and the twang of the string as she let loose a merciless arrow. The arrow that had killed him. The arrow that even now sealed him to the tree.
Inuyasha lifted one hand to the arrow, hoping the potency of her magic had worn off. But with a cackle of power and energy the arrow repelled his hand.
"Damn." He cursed under his breath as he shook his clawed hand. His yellow eyes flicked over the surrounding forest and his sensitive nose picked up the tracings of her scent.
"I smell her." He snarled to himself. "I smell the woman that killed me."
~IY~
Amber swore as she stumbled through the forest. There was a reason she'd dreaded track and field season back in Seattle. And the reason was simple. She was a lousy runner.
Volley Ball and Tennis had been okay for her, though she generally abhorred the idea of playing sports beyond her gym workouts. But cross-country was like hell fire to Amber as she wove through the trees, fear rising through her like a great bird as Lady Centipede crashed through the foliage behind her. She was going to die. She was going to be killed by a fucking centipede.
She reached the tree where she'd seen Inuyasha bound to the tree, supposedly dead and cloaked with vines. Now alive and looking rather amused by the whole thing.
"Hey Kikyo, what are you doing hanging out with that wimpy centipede? Have you lost all your powers?"
"Kikyo? What? Hey aren't you dead?" Amber gasped, trying to catch her breath.
"Oh you'd like that wouldn't you?" Inuyasha snarled. "Well it didn't work Kikyo!"
"I AM NOT KIKYO!" Amber screamed.
"I don't care who you are!" Lady Centipede screeched as she swooped down towards her. "Give me Shikon No Tama!"
In an instant Amber wondered if she'd ever see her mother again, if her mother would even notice she was gone and if she even wanted to see her mother again all at once. As the thoughts crashed together in her head there came a tremendous shout from the edge of the clearing. Spears flew through the air and sank into Lady Centipede with wet sucking noises that made Amber's stomach churn and in seconds Lady Centipede was dragged away from her helpless victim, the village men pulling her away with the ropes they'd attached to the ends of their spears.
"Wow Kikyo, you really are weak!" Inuyasha smiled wickedly at Amber as she stared back at him.
"FOR THE LAST TIME I AM NOT KIKYO!" Amber screamed at him.
"Of course you are no one stinks like you do." He took a deep breath before a look of sudden realization passed over his handsome face. "You . . . YOU'RE NOT KIKYO!" He yelled at her.
"NO SHIT SHERLOCK!" Amber screamed back angrily. "MY NAME IS AMBER LOTE!" She took a step forward as though to slap the restrained man but the village men lost their hold on Lady Centipede and the demon lunged forward, jaws snapping terribly.
"I WILL HAVE SHIKON NO TAMA!" She roared snatching up Amber's small body. Amber scrabbled, looking for something to grab onto and seized a fistful of Inuyasha's silver hair as an anchor.
"OW!" He yelled as the centipede tried to pull Amber away. "OW! THAT'S ATTACHED YOU KNOW!"
"I'M SO SORRY I THOUGHT IT WAS AN UGLY WIG!" She replied sarcastically still screaming.
"Give. Me. The. JEWEL!" Lady Centipede screamed. As the villagers watched, amazed, the demon grew fangs and easily bit into the girls' side.
Amber screamed louder as Lady Centipede tore a purple jewel out of her flesh with her fangs and threw her torn body aside grasping for the jewel with her five remaining arms. It landed in the grass beside the sobbing girl and Inuyasha saw his chance.
"THAT JEWEL! GIVE IT TO ME!" He yelled reaching out his hand to it. Amber looked at it and back at the yelling demon, unsure of what to do.
"Shikon No Tama is MINE!" Lady Centipede screamed, she lashed out with her tail and Amber felt herself crushed against Inuyasha's chest, her face grinding into him and her blood splattering his red kimono.
"Ah you were that half-demon that was working for the priestess. Had a fight did you? Is that why you're stuck up here on this tree. The creatures' ugly face drew up beside the arrow and she extended one hand. The same cackle of electric energy repelled her hand and she chuckled cruelly. "Well that IS a nice seal."
Amber looked up and Inuyasha's angry face. "Stupid wimpy youkai! If I had my full power . . ."
"Oh but you don't hanyou." Lady Centipede reminded him. "So just sit tight, suck your thumb and enjoy the show." She dangled the jewel in front of Inuyasha's face before popping it into her hideously fanged mouth and swallowing it.
"DAMN IT." Inuyasha swore loudly and punched the tree with one fist, almost splintering the wood.
"Are you as good as you say you are?" Amber screamed at him as Lady Centipede laughed.
"If you can pull this arrow out I'll show you!" He snarled back, gesturing at the enchanted arrow with one clawed hand.
"DO NOT PULL OUT THAT ARROW!" Kaede's shouts reached Amber from where she was pinned against Inuyasha's chest. "IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT BINDS HIM TO THE TREE!"
"You old bag!" Inuyasha yelled down. "Do you want to be centipede food?" He glared down at Amber. "And what about you?" He asked quietly. "Do you want to die here?"
Amber felt the answer before she even had time to think the answer. She didn't want to die a virgin at sixteen in a place she didn't know and in a time period she didn't even understand. Not this way.
"NO!" Amber screamed as she seized the arrow, her decision made. She could feel the power rise up through her as the arrow exploded in her fist, a flash of bright purple light.
"Inuyasha?" She asked looking up at him. "Inuyasha?"
The half demon seemed to be savoring the feeling of having the arrow out of his chest before he laughed a cruel, evil sound and smiled horribly at the bleeding girl.
Lady Centipede turned to them, her face livid and afraid before tightening her coils. Amber felt the air being crushed out of her lungs, felt her ribs groan in protest as the thick muscles of the centipede curled around her.
But Inuyasha had other plans. His claws flashed as he cut them free from the suffocating grip of the monster. Amber felt her body fly to the side as Inuyasha cast her off, and attacked the living head of Lady Centipede, still regaining her powers. In a blink of an eye the powerful half demon is fighting the head easily, dodging the arms and fangs with simple grace and cutting the creature to pieces with his claws. The ground shook as Lady Centipede's body crashed down, lifeless and torn beyond all recognition.
"Where is it Amber?" Kaede asked harshly. The girl was tired and still bleeding heavily from where Lady Centipede had torn open her side but Kaede could not risk Inuyasha getting his hands on the sacred jewel.
The girl looked up her eyes rolling and blurry before pointing to one of the chunks of Lady Centipede that was already melting away to reveal the skeleton of the demon woman. Kaede reached into the flesh and pulled out the jewel, wiping it on her robes and handing it quickly to Amber.
Amber looked at the jewel in he hand and rolled her eyes. What the hell did Kaede expect her to do with this hunk of glass? She turned to the old priestess to ask her that very question but at that moment Inuyasha caught their attention by breaking one of the giant rib bones of the centipede.
"You'll hand that over to me now understand?" He asked pompously, glaring at the weak human that's wound leaked a puddle of blood over the dirt. "Or I'll start sharpening my claws on you."
"Oh god." Amber thought, rolling her eyes back into her head. "Does it never fucking end?"
~`~`~
Wow, writing a chapter per episode is a long process. I'll try to make the next chapter shorter. Unless of course you like having chapters this long. Tell me in your reviews! NOW REVIEW! OR I'LL SIC KOGA ON YOU! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
He turned to look at her as she came running across the temple courtyard, her brow knit into her familiar scowl and her bright brown eyes flashing. Souta and Amber did not pretend to enjoy each others company, Amber clearly found Souta to be an irritating nuisance and Souta found Amber to be rather impatient and loud. The strangely ill tempered exchange student stopped in front of him looking half way between being fed up and curious.
"Buyo's down there." Souta admitted looking down into the cellar. The cellar was pitch black, the boys' grandfather having not bothered to put a light down there. All that was left of the shrine in the cellar was a beaten up old well, Souta remembered his grandfather telling him once, boarded up and useless.
"So go down there and get him." Amber replied nastily, shoving a package of cigarettes farther into her school bag. Souta often wondered how the unpleasant American girl had gotten a space on the exchange program to Japan. Her heritage was obviously Japanese. That much was evident from her look and voice but Seattle had poisoned her manners and she had never experienced the discipline that Souta's mother had always commanded from her children.
"I can't." Souta admitted scratching his head. "It's dark and scary down in the cellar."
"So let your precious cat starve then." Amber glared at the boy.
"Will you please go down and get him Amber? PLEASE?" Souta shrank back as the girl scowled and looked down into the cellar.
"Fine!" She agreed readjusting the shoulder strap of her bag and pushing past him. "If it'll make you shut up."
Souta followed her down into the cellar, their lungs drawing in gulps of the musty air. Amber's back was visible in front of him, her dark hair shining in the sunlight that leaked through the open door. Below then they could hear a bizarre scratching noise, like a huge claw scratching against stiff wood.
"See there's this weird noise that . . ." Souta began as Amber reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Of course there's a scratching noise stupid." She cut him off rudely, she scanned the dark room briefly before beginning to move around looking for Buyo. "The cats down here isn't it?"
"I . . . I guess so Amber." Souta replied sulkily, angry about being so violently snubbed.
"Here! Here's your damn cat." Souta looked over to see Amber roughly pulling Buyo out from a crack between the well and the wooden floor by the scruff of his neck. She thrust the cat roughly into the boys' arms and turned to go up the stairs. "It's dark and scary down in the cellar Amber." She mimicked cruelly under her breath.
She reached the stairs and turned back to shout at Souta when a violent tremor ran through the floor. She stopped and looked at the old well, her cinnamon brown eyes shining slightly with nervousness. Another tremor, like something hitting the boards nailed over the opening of the well.
"Souta, get behind me." Amber muttered, not taking her eyes off the well. It was still for a moment and then another bang, this one loosening one of the boards until the wood groaned in protest. "SOUTA! GET BEHIND ME NOW!" Amber yelled.
Souta stared at the well for a minute, his eyes large and scared before he ran past her up the stairs. He paused halfway up, silhouetted by the shaft of sunlight coming from the open door. "Amber, don't just stand there, come on!" He yelled back at her.
"Yeah." Amber replied quietly, her eyes still glued to the loose board. The well held her in a trance as she looked at the well, scrutinizing its rough masonry and beaten up exterior.
"AMBER!"
Souta's shout brought her out of the trance. "Yeah I'm coming!" Amber turned away from the well and began to walk up the stairs, not daring to glance back at the well. "Stop crying brat, I'm perfectly . . ."
The last attack burst the pathetic wooden barrier over the well. As the wood shards flew Amber spun and looked back at the strange well. A mass of white smoke, whirling and screaming like a tornado whipped out of the well, spraying Amber's eyes with wood fragments and dust.
"AMBER!" Souta shouted down. "AMBER COME ON!"
The girl turned away again and leapt up the first two steps. She tripped on the third and felt the rough wood scrape the skin of her left knee before she tumbled back into the old temple cellar where the white twister howled as she landed hard on her elbows.
Pain shot up her arms into her shoulders and tears of pain welled in her large eyes. Souta took two steps down as if to fight off the wind but Amber screamed at him and threatened to strangle him if he came any closer. "NO! GO GET YOUR MOTHER!" She screeched as she struggled to her feet.
"AMBER LOOK OU . . ." Souta's warning came a second to late. He'd seen the arms burst out of the white wind and fly towards the helpless Amber. He saw them grab onto her and pull her across the wooden floor. And he saw Amber fight them.
It was something. Amber kicked, grabbed the creatures pinky fingers and attempt to break them with the easy motion she'd showed Souta when he'd asked her about her self-defense lessons. She swore and punched and scratched at the hands that were gripping so tightly to her arms, all to no avail. As Souta watched, screaming in terror, the bizarre monster dragged Amber back into the well, and she was gone.
~IY~
Amber Lote was falling. She could feel the wind whip past her face and the feel of gravity tugging at the core of her stomach as she plummeted through the dark, star filled void of the well. But nothing mattered at that moment except the hands that gripped her body.
Amber was not a quitter. She grown up in one of the worse places in Seattle until her mother managed to bag herself a rich old husband and after that shipped Amber off to a boarding school and then off to Japan. But she liked to think she still had the street smarts that had kept her alive for fourteen years. She tried everything, scratching, screaming, breaking fingers and flailing but the hands were stronger then stone and had a grip like iron. She fell farther and farther, fighting every inch of the decent.
"You have it don't you?" The voice whispered in her ear. Amber glared at the body taking shape before her. All thoughts on the bizarre nature of this encounter were banished from her mind and she struggled and aimed a kick at the woman's body taking form before her. "You have it! I feel my power returning to me! My body is returning."
Amber looked down, horrified as the woman's body took form. She was skinny and naked to the waist with wild tangled black hair and vicious piercing eyes that burned into Amber like burning hot brands. As she watched, the horrible creature sprouted for more arms, making her total six, and her lower body grew into form, not legs or hips but a fat curling mass of hard shelled coils and millions of writhing legs that clicked horribly. Realization hit the plummeting girl like a wall and she began to laugh at the insanity of the situation. She was being pulled down an endless well, whose walls shone as though they were painted with stars by a naked half woman- half monster centipede creature that was screeching about her possessing something that was giving her power. Amber fell, no longer fighting and laughing her head off thinking she'd gone completely insane.
"What are you laughing wretched creature?" The centipede woman asked harshly. "Where is it? Where have you hidden it? Where is the Shikon No Tama?"
Amber laughed harder remembering the key chain trinkets Souta's grandfather had shown her earlier that week. "Souta get the pesticide!" She called into the darkness hysterical with fear.
"What?" The centipede hissed. "Stupid ignorant human where have you hidden the sacred jewel?" The centipede looked at her for a minute as though wondering what to do with the laughing human. It leaned in close and Amber watched, as it's huge sticky red tongue slid out of its mouth.
"Oh you are NOT going to lick me!" Amber screamed at the creature as she thrashed about.
The centipede slid its tongue up her cheek and smiled as Amber screeched. "GET OFF ME YOU SLIMY BITCH!" She screamed. She threw up her hand to deliver an uppercut. As she raised her hand she felt a curious tingling sensation in her side, like someone was pricking the skin with pins and needles, it festered there for a second, like the calm before the storm. Amber did not hesitate but the moment her hand collided with the centipede woman's jaw the feeling in her side exploded like greased lightening, up her arm and burst from her finger tips in the form of a blast of green energy. Amber gasped as the beam ripped through the centipede's arm like a hot knife cuts through warm butter and felt the weight of her right arm come free from it's hold on her body. The left still clung and as the centipede fell away from her through the tunnel and Amber realized the vile truth as she lost sight of the strange monster. The hand clinging to her arm was no longer attached to anything.
Amber though for a minute she would faint but the hard tang of pain brought her away from the darkness as she landed badly on the floor of the well. It made no sense, she'd been falling for so long she should be dead by now but as she shook the still twitching arm off of her body she looked up to see the mouth of the well barely six feet away. This was one seriously screwed up Monday.
"SOUTA! SOUTA YOU LITTLE PAIN, GET HELP WILL YOU?" She shivered as she glanced at the severed arm and looked around the empty well. Something was wrong. Souta might have run off in fright when that freaky centipede jumped out of the well but the heat of the day hadn't even begun to leak down into the cellar when she'd gone down looking for the stupid cat that morning. And the well was hot like high noon in the middle of summer. The sun shone through the mouth and as Amber squinted up she caught sight of a patch of bright blue sky and cloud. There was something definitely wrong with this whole affair.
But she wouldn't figure this out at the bottom of a well. Amber scanned the rough walls and caught sight of the thick vines that were growing up the side. She inspected them carefully, testing their supple fronds and inspecting the places where they had grown through the cracks in the bricks to get at the soil beyond. She sighed and rubbed her forehead and rearranged her still clinging school bag before she began climbing the vines slowly and carefully, her fingers finding handholds in the solid stone wherever possible. She dreaded the thought that at any moment the vines might give out and trap her in the well with the severed arm and the questions eating away at her mind.
Luckily for her though the plants held until she was able to drag herself out of the well, scrapping her shins raw and bloody against the rough edge but living to feel the blinding sun wash over her body. She was in the middle of the bare wilderness, trees and bushes spreading across the landscape and the unfamiliar cries of wild birds filling the air.
"Where the hell am I?" Amber asked herself as she looked down at her legs. They were scratched and dribbling bright blood down across her skin and staining her sneakers but the pain seemed very far away as she looked around the unfamiliar place, fear rising in her throat.
"Oh God how I need a cigarette." She muttered fishing the pack out of her bag. She stuck one in her mouth and lit it up with her lighter. As she took a deep breath of smoke she calmed down somewhat and tried to consider the situation rationally.
But there was no rational explanation to this. She'd been dragged through a well by a freaking centipede and deposited in a completely different well in the middle of good forsaken forest. There was no way to explain this. Amber took another big drag from her cigarette and looked around the clearing. The huge wide branched tree growing to her left looked like the one that grew beside the temple and ground the butt into the dirt before going to investigate.
She pushed aside the bushes and looked around. Something froze inside her as she caught sight of the boy pinned to the tree.
He looked human, except for the dog-like ears that poked out of his long silver-white hair. He was pinned to the tree by an arrow that protruded from his chest where his heart should be and he was dressed in a red kimono thank looked a little like the one Souta's grandfather wore on special occasions. It was very strange to Amber, but then after what she'd just been through she thought that nothing could be very odd. But he had DOG- ears.
Amber walked up to the tree thinking about her awful day, her eyes fixed on the mans bizarre ears. She noticed that thick vines had grown over his body and the sight promoted a harsh flick of memory in her dazed mind. Dog- ears.
Of course! This boy was almost identical to the one in the weird dreams she'd started having since she moved into the temple. The ones where the boy before her fought with the woman with the bow and she pinned him to this very tree. What had she called him? Inuyasha? Yes that was the name, Inuyasha.
"What's going on over there?" The cries of approaching people startled Amber and she turned hopefully towards them. So this wasn't the middle of nowhere! Maybe these people could explain where she was and why this boy had been pinned to this tree. "You! What are you doing there?"
"My name is Amber Lote. I'm lost, can you help me?" She took a step towards the voices but jumped back when an arrow imbedded itself in the ground at her feet.
"Don't try anything stranger." The archer stepped out of the cover of trees and glared at her harshly. "I think you'd better come with us."
~IY~
"Maybe she's a fox in disguise?" One of the men suggested poking Amber in the side as she struggled with her tied hands. "Or a spy! She could be a spy!"
"That's the fourth time you've said that Tanjiro." The man that had been named as Toshiro responded in a bored tone. "We understand your ideas."
Tanjiro made a rude gesture at Toshiro and continued talking with the other men. "Well if she isn't a spy what is she?" He asked poking Amber again in her sore side.
"The priestess Kaede will tell us what she is." Toshiro replied confidently glaring at the helpless girl on the mat. She merely tossed a muffled curse at him and tried to fight the gag they'd tied over her mouth.
"My position is bad." Amber thought looking around the dark hut they'd tied her up in. "My position is terrible." She admitted to herself frowning to herself.
"The priestess Kaede is coming!" One of the men that had dragged her into the dirty little village appeared at the door and Toshiro and the rest of them hurried to greet this mysterious priestess.
"My position could not be worse." She thought as the form of a sturdy old lady appeared at the doorway.
"Well then stranger, what are ye?" The old lady took shape as she stepped away from the glare of the sun outside and Amber couldn't help but look amazed as she took her in.
She was at least a hundred years old with all those wrinkles. She had to be older then Souta's grandfather and a heavy black eye-patch covered her right socket while her remaining eye glared at her.
"I'M A FUCKING PRISONER GENIOUS!" Amber snarled, but the gag muffled her response into a wet gurgling sound.
Kaede stooped and pulled the gag down around her neck and stepped back. "If ye are demon I shall know." She told Amber sternly. She was holding an ominous looking jar in her hands and she began to open it slowly, the lid making rough grinding noises and she removed it. Was it poison? Acid? Some sort of chemical?
"Listen I . . ." Amber began her eyes fixed on the jar.
"Don't say anything. The purifying will tell me." The old woman barked as she tossed the lid aside.
Amber could feel the tense knot rising in her stomach as Kaede reached into the jar. What was purifying? It didn't sound pleasant or comfortable.
The first handful of salt caught her in the face. A few grains filtered through her long lashes and into her eyes as Kaede threw more onto her and Amber screamed.
"A DEMON!" The irritating voice Toshiro penetrated the burning pain of Amber's salt filled eyes and she screamed a stream of obscenities at him as she writhed.
"I AM NOT A DEMON YOU MORON! I HAVE SALT IN MY GOD DAMN EYES!" She screeched.
"LIAR YOU ARE A DEM . . ." Toshiro was cut of by Kaede's rough bark.
"Leave her be Toshiro. She is no demon, though she may be a spy." The next sensation was that of someone carefully forcing her face down into a bowl of water to wash out the salt.
"There now does that feel better child?" Kaede's voice wasn't quite as harsh but the salt still burned at Amber's eyes.
"NO THAT IS NOT FUCKING BETTER!" She screamed. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? DO YOU GO AROUND BLINDING PEOPLE OFTEN?"
"I am Kaede. A priestess and I want to ask you who ye think ye are. It is your own fault that ye got salt in you're eyes, now tell me child. Are ye a spy?" The world began taking form again as the burn of the salt lessened.
"No I'm . . ." Again the old priestess cut her off. This time she grabbed Amber's face roughly and pulled it up close to hers.
"Ye greatly resemble my sister stranger." She said quietly and before Amber could ask about that Kaede was helping her to her feet.
"Come now stranger." She said, suddenly sounding tender and concerned. "Ye have much explaining to do."
~IY~
"The stew is not poison." Kaede reprimanded her guest gently as the girl stared out the window, her bowl cupped loosely in her bandaged hand.
"Huh? Oh yeah! Good stew." Amber said the vacant look in her eyes leaving for a moment.
"I would be flattered if not for the fact ye have not eaten a spoonful of it." Kaede replied motioning for her to eat.
Amber did, quietly, her eyes still watery and leaking tears down her cheeks. She looked so much like Kikyo it was almost eerie. Yet she was different then Kikyo, wild and vulgar where Kikyo had always been controlled and sensible. It troubled Kaede slightly as she watched Amber eat.
"So you know nothing of Shikon No Tama?" She asked tiredly.
"Nothing." Amber confirmed. "Nothing more then what Souta's grandfather told me about back in my time. And he had hundreds of them. He was selling them as key chains."
Kaede sighed and looked out across the village, thinking. Amber claimed to be from a different time and place, having climbed through the Bone Eaters Well.
"Never the less ye must lead the youkai, Lady Centipede, back to the well ye claim to have come from." Kaede watched as Amber shuddered.
"I am not facing that thing again." Amber replied pushing away her soup. She remembered the beam of green light that has leapt forth from her fingers and so easily and almost killed that huge monster. She did not want to spur something like that into effect again.
"You must I . . ." Kaede stopped as she caught sight of the monstrous youkai advancing out of the trees. She went pale and looked at Amber, her eyes large and shining.
"Run Amber!" She said pulling the girl out of the hut and running with her through the streets. The huge youkai had reached the village now, it plucked up one of the village men and threw him through the wall of his house and the screams of the villagers grew louder.
"That was Toshiro Amber! He has a wife and three small girls! If you have a heart save them! Run to the Bone Eaters well, lead Lady Centipede away!" Kaede gave Amber a push towards the forest. The girl stood stalk still for a moment staring at the bulk of Lady Centipede like a scared deer.
"You!" Lady Centipede accused, catching sight of Amber. "You are the human with Shikon No Tama! Give it to me! GIVE IT TO ME!"
Amber stared at the fierce demon before obeying Kaede and running towards the forest. Kaede sent up a silent prayer before running herself to rally a group to attack Lady Centipede.
"Give her wings like the wind." She prayed as she hurried towards Tanjiro and his men. "And please, please, please, let Inuyasha sleep through this affair."
~IY~
The wood smelled different then it had that night. That night when he'd held Shikon No Tama in the palm of his hand, his key to becoming full demon and been shot down by Kikyo, who he'd thought was dead.
Inuyasha stirred where he was pinned, the throb of pain in his chest reminding him how Kikyo had managed to seal him. He remembered the heavy metallic smell of Kikyo's blood, the sound of her labored breathing and the creak of her bow as she drew it tight and the twang of the string as she let loose a merciless arrow. The arrow that had killed him. The arrow that even now sealed him to the tree.
Inuyasha lifted one hand to the arrow, hoping the potency of her magic had worn off. But with a cackle of power and energy the arrow repelled his hand.
"Damn." He cursed under his breath as he shook his clawed hand. His yellow eyes flicked over the surrounding forest and his sensitive nose picked up the tracings of her scent.
"I smell her." He snarled to himself. "I smell the woman that killed me."
~IY~
Amber swore as she stumbled through the forest. There was a reason she'd dreaded track and field season back in Seattle. And the reason was simple. She was a lousy runner.
Volley Ball and Tennis had been okay for her, though she generally abhorred the idea of playing sports beyond her gym workouts. But cross-country was like hell fire to Amber as she wove through the trees, fear rising through her like a great bird as Lady Centipede crashed through the foliage behind her. She was going to die. She was going to be killed by a fucking centipede.
She reached the tree where she'd seen Inuyasha bound to the tree, supposedly dead and cloaked with vines. Now alive and looking rather amused by the whole thing.
"Hey Kikyo, what are you doing hanging out with that wimpy centipede? Have you lost all your powers?"
"Kikyo? What? Hey aren't you dead?" Amber gasped, trying to catch her breath.
"Oh you'd like that wouldn't you?" Inuyasha snarled. "Well it didn't work Kikyo!"
"I AM NOT KIKYO!" Amber screamed.
"I don't care who you are!" Lady Centipede screeched as she swooped down towards her. "Give me Shikon No Tama!"
In an instant Amber wondered if she'd ever see her mother again, if her mother would even notice she was gone and if she even wanted to see her mother again all at once. As the thoughts crashed together in her head there came a tremendous shout from the edge of the clearing. Spears flew through the air and sank into Lady Centipede with wet sucking noises that made Amber's stomach churn and in seconds Lady Centipede was dragged away from her helpless victim, the village men pulling her away with the ropes they'd attached to the ends of their spears.
"Wow Kikyo, you really are weak!" Inuyasha smiled wickedly at Amber as she stared back at him.
"FOR THE LAST TIME I AM NOT KIKYO!" Amber screamed at him.
"Of course you are no one stinks like you do." He took a deep breath before a look of sudden realization passed over his handsome face. "You . . . YOU'RE NOT KIKYO!" He yelled at her.
"NO SHIT SHERLOCK!" Amber screamed back angrily. "MY NAME IS AMBER LOTE!" She took a step forward as though to slap the restrained man but the village men lost their hold on Lady Centipede and the demon lunged forward, jaws snapping terribly.
"I WILL HAVE SHIKON NO TAMA!" She roared snatching up Amber's small body. Amber scrabbled, looking for something to grab onto and seized a fistful of Inuyasha's silver hair as an anchor.
"OW!" He yelled as the centipede tried to pull Amber away. "OW! THAT'S ATTACHED YOU KNOW!"
"I'M SO SORRY I THOUGHT IT WAS AN UGLY WIG!" She replied sarcastically still screaming.
"Give. Me. The. JEWEL!" Lady Centipede screamed. As the villagers watched, amazed, the demon grew fangs and easily bit into the girls' side.
Amber screamed louder as Lady Centipede tore a purple jewel out of her flesh with her fangs and threw her torn body aside grasping for the jewel with her five remaining arms. It landed in the grass beside the sobbing girl and Inuyasha saw his chance.
"THAT JEWEL! GIVE IT TO ME!" He yelled reaching out his hand to it. Amber looked at it and back at the yelling demon, unsure of what to do.
"Shikon No Tama is MINE!" Lady Centipede screamed, she lashed out with her tail and Amber felt herself crushed against Inuyasha's chest, her face grinding into him and her blood splattering his red kimono.
"Ah you were that half-demon that was working for the priestess. Had a fight did you? Is that why you're stuck up here on this tree. The creatures' ugly face drew up beside the arrow and she extended one hand. The same cackle of electric energy repelled her hand and she chuckled cruelly. "Well that IS a nice seal."
Amber looked up and Inuyasha's angry face. "Stupid wimpy youkai! If I had my full power . . ."
"Oh but you don't hanyou." Lady Centipede reminded him. "So just sit tight, suck your thumb and enjoy the show." She dangled the jewel in front of Inuyasha's face before popping it into her hideously fanged mouth and swallowing it.
"DAMN IT." Inuyasha swore loudly and punched the tree with one fist, almost splintering the wood.
"Are you as good as you say you are?" Amber screamed at him as Lady Centipede laughed.
"If you can pull this arrow out I'll show you!" He snarled back, gesturing at the enchanted arrow with one clawed hand.
"DO NOT PULL OUT THAT ARROW!" Kaede's shouts reached Amber from where she was pinned against Inuyasha's chest. "IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT BINDS HIM TO THE TREE!"
"You old bag!" Inuyasha yelled down. "Do you want to be centipede food?" He glared down at Amber. "And what about you?" He asked quietly. "Do you want to die here?"
Amber felt the answer before she even had time to think the answer. She didn't want to die a virgin at sixteen in a place she didn't know and in a time period she didn't even understand. Not this way.
"NO!" Amber screamed as she seized the arrow, her decision made. She could feel the power rise up through her as the arrow exploded in her fist, a flash of bright purple light.
"Inuyasha?" She asked looking up at him. "Inuyasha?"
The half demon seemed to be savoring the feeling of having the arrow out of his chest before he laughed a cruel, evil sound and smiled horribly at the bleeding girl.
Lady Centipede turned to them, her face livid and afraid before tightening her coils. Amber felt the air being crushed out of her lungs, felt her ribs groan in protest as the thick muscles of the centipede curled around her.
But Inuyasha had other plans. His claws flashed as he cut them free from the suffocating grip of the monster. Amber felt her body fly to the side as Inuyasha cast her off, and attacked the living head of Lady Centipede, still regaining her powers. In a blink of an eye the powerful half demon is fighting the head easily, dodging the arms and fangs with simple grace and cutting the creature to pieces with his claws. The ground shook as Lady Centipede's body crashed down, lifeless and torn beyond all recognition.
"Where is it Amber?" Kaede asked harshly. The girl was tired and still bleeding heavily from where Lady Centipede had torn open her side but Kaede could not risk Inuyasha getting his hands on the sacred jewel.
The girl looked up her eyes rolling and blurry before pointing to one of the chunks of Lady Centipede that was already melting away to reveal the skeleton of the demon woman. Kaede reached into the flesh and pulled out the jewel, wiping it on her robes and handing it quickly to Amber.
Amber looked at the jewel in he hand and rolled her eyes. What the hell did Kaede expect her to do with this hunk of glass? She turned to the old priestess to ask her that very question but at that moment Inuyasha caught their attention by breaking one of the giant rib bones of the centipede.
"You'll hand that over to me now understand?" He asked pompously, glaring at the weak human that's wound leaked a puddle of blood over the dirt. "Or I'll start sharpening my claws on you."
"Oh god." Amber thought, rolling her eyes back into her head. "Does it never fucking end?"
~`~`~
Wow, writing a chapter per episode is a long process. I'll try to make the next chapter shorter. Unless of course you like having chapters this long. Tell me in your reviews! NOW REVIEW! OR I'LL SIC KOGA ON YOU! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!