The Deep Dark Forest
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and Co. But I love them all so much! hehe
Chapter 2 The Morning's Light Shines Through
The sun began to rise over the hills of a feudal land; over villages, flower fields, castles, and over ancient land. The sun's rays touched upon the wide expanse of forest and filled the land with bright pink, orange, and misty purple hues. From above the forest, light filtered through the leaves of the different trees and made a splendid mosaic on the ground below. Even more beautiful was the sun that had chosen the forest floor covered with various leaves and colors as the surface for the artwork. All different shades of gold, red, brown, and the occasional green lay scattered in a masterpiece on the ground. The morning light shining through the leaves made the brown tree trunks look as if they were covered in a green quilt. Almost the whole forest seemed to be at peace and giving a salutation to the new day.
Kagome was leaning against the trunk of a large pine tree and had situated herself among the roots that had decided to poke their heads above the ground. She sat there watching the morning unfold, both awed and disturbed by the beauty of it all. She never had stopped being bedazzled by how pure the nature of this era was. Not touched by man, not polluted by factories and vehicles, no buildings taking away its peace. The air was so clean, compared to that of her home in modern day Tokyo. She thought to herself of how, when looking up at the sky in her time, that she could always see a tint of brown mixed in with the blue, signs of the polluted world.
Taking in a deep breath Kagome allowed herself to be immersed in the woody scents. It was all so beautiful. But it was no longer perfect.
In front of her was the small clearing where there had been so much evil the night before. Only hours ago was this area constricted with a miasma that threatened to suffocate any living creature. Blood and screams, cuts and bruises, those terrible strong tentacles, surrounding the whole place. A wide gash in the canopy of the trees, leaving the morning sun to leave a field of light in the center of the small clearing.
It disturbed Kagome how pretty her surroundings were when such a fight had taken place. She could hardly believe it. Naraku was gone. And with half of the last shard. He had not killed them, but had left his signs of malice. The broken trees, the break in the leaves above her, the spot where the sun shone down, making it clearly visible the red color that had spilt out of her friends. Her friends. Sango had lain on the floor and had had to suffer because of him. And Inuyasha. He had completely exhausted himself. Miroku had fallen over after holding up a barrier as long as he could. He wasn't unconscious though. He, Kirara and Shippou had helped her pull and drag Sango and Inuyasha so they lay against trees as well. As weak as they were, they had managed to do a mediocre job of bandaging the worst wounds up on everyone, thanks to Shippou getting gauze and bandages from Kagome's yellow backpack some ways back. In the dim star and dim moon light, it had proven to be a difficult task.
She remembered clutching the broken shard while she had closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.
And now, too sore to stand up and walk around, but not being able to sleep any longer because of the sun's light, Kagome sat leaning against the tree.
Miroku and Sango were asleep up against another tree. Kirara was in her smaller form and snuggled in Sango's lap. Hiraikotsu lay on the floor next to Sango. Her hair was still in that half tied up, half loose hair mess, but she still looked pretty. Shippou was still asleep huddled next to Kagome on one side and on her left lay Inuyasha. His silvery bangs were down over his eyes. He was the figure that was leaning the least against any tree because of his stomach wound. Kagome had covered him with his haori, which had the color of dark red-- his blood.
She was scared to think that they could have been in a worse situation. 'At least Naraku doesn't have this' She looked at the shard again. 'Hmmm, I think I'm gonna have to get another glass vile to hang on a necklace. When everyone is resting at the village with Kaede, I should go home. And get more medicine and first aid supplies. We look so terrible...'
She now directed her thoughts on Inuyasha.
'He used the shard and it made him go crazy. It corrupted him, but it saved us. So was that good or bad? And poor Inuyasha, now he must be in so much pain. '
She gazed down at his bloody covering and then looked at his face. She couldn't see his closed eyes because of those shaggy silver bangs. Kagome made to brush them aside and then inched closer to his face. She suddenly stopped, a little unsure with what she was doing. After a second, she gently brought her hand down and pushed the hairs aside.
His closed eyes completed his face and made him look serene as the sun made his hair shine. 'Even when he's wounded he's so handsome... Wait- what am I thinking? And what am I doing?'
She had just noticed how she was sifting her hand through his hair. Blushing, she quickly took her hand away and awkwardly resettled her seating position. Seeing as her body was sore and having cuts and bruises here and there, any movement was stiff.
A warm breeze made its way through the leaves making a rustling noise as if the forest spirits had giggled at her. Kagome looked back at Inuyasha again. 'Thank God he's unconscious- I don't think I could explain what I just did without some big misunderstanding and argument. But how would I explain it anyways.... Why did I do that? Even if I like him, he likes Kikyou so…'
"Hmph. This is so complicated anyways." As Kagome thought about what had just happened she quickly turned her head to look at everyone else as well. And her thoughts drifted into words.
"Now what!? What am I supposed to do? Everyone's so tired and sore...but we can't stay here. And...." Her eyes fixed on her own hands. The image of that bright purple light emitting from her hands came to mind. "I need ask Kaede Baa-Chan about that...Hmph. My life is soooo complicated!"
"hnnnnn.....Ask her what?" A voice from the direction of the being lying next to her asked. Kagome glanced down, obviously surprised.
"Inuyasha! You're awake! How are you feeling?"
He opened his eyes to the bright sun, so that at first he had to squint. The amount of light told him that it was well into the morning. Then as his eyes were still adjusting, he saw that the light was actually not falling directly into his eyes, and that he was covered in the shade of a girl with long hair. From the contrast of the sun, he could barely make out her expression as her face covered in shadow. But he knew who it was that was looking at him.
"Kagome..." Even though she did look frazzled from the fight, she looked heavenly against the daylight. 'Kagome.... you're OK.'
"Are you OK? You look dazed."
Snapping out of his thoughts Inuyasha quickly replied. "Er, yeah, why wouldn't I be OK?"
"Well, judging by that wound you've got going through your middle..."
"Keh, that's nothing. A scratch." He made his way to stand up to prove his point. First hoisting himself to a sitting position and then balancing on his legs, Inuyasha got up with a suppressed breath of pain. His haori, which was on top of him, started to slide off from his shoulders. By reflex, he jerked his arm to grab it. Bad choice.
CRASH!
"UWA! Dammit! ptuh!" Inuyasha spat the leaves out of his mouth. The quick movement on his arm had caused his tired body to loose balance, and he fell face flat on the floor of leaves. "What the Hell? Where'd all these damn leaves come from?"
Kagome blinked at him before starting to laugh.
"You wench! It ain't that funny. If it weren't for these damn slippery leaves! I don't remember there being this many in the dark!"
Kagome went on laughing until she could keep it within herself. By that time she was clutching her stomach because of the aches she got though her injured body from the laughing. "I would say the leaves came from the trees being hit so much and branches being cut off last night from the fight."
"Or one could logically think that since this is a forest, there would be trees and then under the trees, there would be leaves."
At the last statement, both Kagome and Inuyasha twisted their heads to turn over to Sango and Miroku's direction. Sango smirked back at them and winked to Kagome who was trying to suppress a giggle.
"Good Morning Sango-chan!" Kagome called out cheerfully.
Sango felt her arms covered in bandages. "Thanks for the cloth bindings Kagome-chan."
Kagome smiled. Then she felt a furry ball move against her.
"Jeez, you guys are so loud..."
Kagome looked down. "Good Morning Shippou!"
"Kagome! Are you feeling ok!?" The tan ball of furry fuzz jumped up to give her a big hug.
"Yes Shippou, at least better than yesterday. We did bandage a few wounds on everyone so you don't have to worry, ok?"
"Yeah but.... I still hope you're ok."
'He's so worried, Shippou is really caring.'
Sango spoke up again. "Did you do all the bandaging by yourself? I really don't remember much from last night." She petted Kirara who was now sitting awake too in her lap.
"No, Miroku-sama did some too."
"And me and Kirara helped too!" Shippou sat up, looking proud of himself.
"Yes, and you too." Kagome smiled. "And Miroku-sama was the one who brought everyone over to these trees so I could treat some of the wounds. Anyways, I wasn't able to do a good job-so sorry about that. But Miroku-sama was really great because he must have been in a lot of pain too. From the poison and injuries"
"Did someone mention my name?" Miroku's voice could be heard and everyone brought their attention to him... and then his wandering hand... moving to a dangerous position. At it came to rest of Sango's lower back area, the young demon exterminator's face turned a deep shade of red. But only a second passed before she slapped him so hard her hand print lay imprinted on his face.
So in this way, Miroku went from half awake to half unconscious, lying on the ground.
"That dirty-minded good for nothing hentai!" Sango crossed her arms and glared at his figure on the pile of leaves.
"That perverted monk never learns." Inuyasha just shook his head.
The rest of their company had to agree.
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By the time Miroku opened his eyes again, the rest of his friends had managed to stagger to their feet. Kirara had transformed into her bigger state. Miroku made his way slowly to stand up.
"'Bout time you got up." Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.
"We should head back to the village. There's no need to stay here any longer, and the sooner we all get there the better." Climbing onto Kirara, Sango now turned her attention to Kagome. And then to Inuyasha. "Are you sure you don't want to ride Kirara instead? I'm not the one with the worst injury right now."
"Keh" was Inuyasha's answer. "Don't compare me to a weak human. I can take the little bit of pain to walk."
Shippou ran up to Inuyasha and poked him in the side, earning him a wince and a growl from the dog demon.
"Don't push me...." The two went on to glare at each other. Sensing the hostility, Kagome picked Shippou up and sat him in front of Sango.
"Shippou should go with you, Miroku-sama and Kirara. I uh.... actually should be going home to my time for a little bit. That way I can get more first aid supplies and bandages." Kagome told her friend. She was purposely avoiding Inuyasha's gaze.
"Wait! What!?" Inuyasha stepped in front of Kagome. "What the hell do you mean go home?! We have work to get done here!"
Kagome glared back at him. "Before we can get anything done, Mr. I'm-so-strong-and-mighty, everyone has to heal! And I didn't ever say I was going to stay for long."
"Hmph! Fine! But you better be back here in 3 hours! Got that?"
"Why do you have to be so rude all the time! Baka!"
Sparks of electricity could be seen between the two and the others all sweatdropped.
Miroku spoke up this time. "Sango and I will take Shippou and Kirara to the village. If Kagome-sama is going back to her country, Inuyasha, I suggest you accompany her up to the well. We will see you in the village in due time." He climbed up onto Kirara. Then their group started off for the village. Kirara did not go at full speed, because of the cut in her paw, but she wasn't incredibly slow either.
Shippou called out "Bye Kagome! Don't let Inuyasha do anything!" And then they were off behind the thickness of tree branches, leaving the miko and hanyou alone in the woods.
Kagome waved after Shippou and Inuyasha gave his infamous "Keh!"
The two barely glanced at each other before leaving in the direction of the Bone Eater's well. It was about noon by then and the sun shone brightly in the sky. It was another hot, humid day, and the air was still. The heat and moist air hung around them, so thick that if a leaf broke off from a branch, it should surely have stayed, floating in the air. 'One thing that never changes in Japan, even through centuries, is this heat. And I bet it's even hotter in the modern day because of pollution.' Kagome thought to herself. 'I guess the other thing that never changes is the fact that Inuyasha always has to start these stupid little arguments.'
Inuyasha kept on walking beside her, but not directly beside her, there was about 5 feet of space between them. Inuyasha didn't like this silence, and indeed their walk was getting awkward. "Hey... um..."
"What?" Kagome tiredly sighed. She did not want to participate in more arguing. She tried to sound sincere. "Yeah, Inuyasha?"
"Yeah, um... " 'What do I say now? Good going you idiot! You make conversation and all you say is um! Oh, I know, I'll talk about Naraku and the fight...' Inuyasha started to remember the previous night's events. How Kagome had sensed the Shikon jewel and they had all gone into the forest. How they met up with Naraku and how he had taken the last Shikon shard from Kagome. And how she got hurt. By Naraku. By his own out-of-control attacks. Because he couldn't protect her. He had allowed her to feel pain. And then he had gone and managed to lose half of their shard. Naraku had escaped and he couldn't stop him from leaving. What did he accomplish? The burst of energy didn't even come from him, that powerful beam of light had come from another place altogether. And now she had taken care of his wounds and he wouldn't even hear her out when she wanted to go to her own time...to bring more aid supplies for their group! 'Dammit.' Inuyasha got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Was he really that bad?
"Um...Inuyasha.... are you OK? You just spaced out on me. Didn't you want to say something?" Kagome, thinking that he had lost his mind, tried to snap him out of his stupor with a pat on the shoulder.
Inuyasha winced in pain and Kagome immediately remembered that even though he was a youkai, his wound wouldn't have healed completely yet. He stopped walking and put his hand to his wounds.
"Oh gosh, I forgot! I'm really sorry!" She looked at him, thinking he would start yelling at her again. She had no expectation for what followed.
After a moment, Inuyasha looked up, and directly into Kagome's eyes. He looked sad even.
"No Kagome, I'm sorry."
Kagome gawked at him. 'OK… he really did lose his mind now.'
"Inuyasha, do you want to rest? You sound really strange. Do you have a fever?"
She put her hand to his forehead.
Inuyasha stared at her, kind of taken aback by her sudden behavior and contact. He pulled away, but then suddenly he wished he hadn't. Her hands were soft and warm, pleasantly warm, even in the summer heat. His instincts made him grab her wrist that was on his forehead a second earlier. He saw the cut he made on her shoulder.
"It must have hurt. Kagome, I'm sorry I couldn't do anything useful last night." He let go of her wrists and suddenly found the forest floor very interesting. 'Dammit. I never can do anything. Why in hell am I so useless!? Why do I keep hurting her? Why does she even stay here anyways?'
Kagome stared at him, wide eyed. Inuyasha had just apologized and had apologized earnestly.
"Inuyasha, it's not all your fault. I don't even have any big injuries, only cuts and bruises. I'm just sore, that's all. And you did keep Naraku from getting all of the shard."
Inuyasha kept his gaze to the ground. "I had help"
"And you helped to everyone to survive the night!"
"But I couldn't do anything! I let you and the others get hurt, I lost control from the power of the shard, and then I lost half of it. And worst of all, I'm the cause of some of everyone's injuries and cuts! I couldn't do anything!"
Kagome didn't know how to answer. She knew that whatever comfort she gave, he would not forgive himself. She said the only thing that she thought he might believe.
"Inuyasha, you don't have to be sorry for me. No one is perfect. Every one does things they regret, but you just have to try and keep those things from consuming you. And I know that you will defeat Naraku one day."
Inuyasha looked up at Kagome. "Thanks. Kagome. ... … I guess we should keep going then, so you can go back to your time."
Kagome smiled. "Yeah, I won't be away too long. Thanks Inuyasha."
They once again headed off to the Bone Eater's well, and again, there was a silence between them. Except this silence wasn't as awkward, but rather, a silence of understanding that two friends share. It was like this all the way until the well came into view.
Kagome said good-bye to the hanyou and then the miko jumped down into the well. Inuyasha watched her go, and then decided to go sit up in his tree, having many thoughts to sort out. The sun shone above in the sky and the heat was all around. A few fallen leaves lay on the ground by the old well.
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A/N: Ok, that was the second chapter! Sorry if you found it boring after the first chapter, but I promise it will get better! Well, this took me longer than the first chapter to write, because it had more serious talking in it.... Yeah, I don't have much to say today, other than please leave a review! I wanna know what people think of this story so far!
Have a good day!
Clover131
E/N: *cries* everyone… I…. I'm s…s…sorry!!!!!!! I was supposed to edit this sooner… but *sobs* I had so much other crap to do… oh, and I had a friend edit it as well (she found so much more than me… *cries more* but of course she does want to be an editor for real later) n e ways, I'll be having her edit it before me and I will be editing it while I put it up on the computer. N e ways… I hope we get more reviews… despite the fact that I didn't have the time to edit… NOT CLOVER-CHAN'S FAULT!!!!!!!!!! SHE HAD IT DONE WITHIN A WEEK!!!!! *berates self loads* me so mad at self for being over 2 weeks late… but gotta go! C-y'all next time…. Well not litterally…