Chapter III: The Journey
Daybreak. The hospitable streams of the sun's rays enshrouded InuYasha's cheeks, sweltering them in wholesome warmth. Like ethereal hands bidding wake to his consciousness, the dawn's incandescence shone crimson through his eyelids. Stubbornly, he lifted himself from the ground and speared his fingers against his curtained eyes. Allowing an ample yawn and scanty tears, he drew forth an obscure view of his surroundings.
A sky of amethyst lie overhead, christened with fuchsia clouds whirling gracefully about. Below rested a field of blooming wildflowers, waltzing in the gentle zephyr of the doting wind. In the distance was a precipice overlooking an azure sea, gleaming with the reflection of a virgin sun.
There, sitting upon the edge of the cliff overseeing the oceanfront was Kagome, glimmering radiantly in glorious mortality. She rested in a coarse yet magnificent nudity, her beige skin luminescent with youth. Her ebony hair rippled like a rivulet of shadow down her vivacious breasts. She bore an expression of longing within her swarthy eyes, a look conceivable only by the wondrous abyss by which they were presently captivated.
So majestic a fervor this invoked within his heart, setting aflame his senses and tantalizing the very essence of his being. Exotic emotions engulfed his stomach, inflated his fingers, overwhelmed his toes, flooded his spine, and consumed his lips. It was then that the two's eyes converged, and, under the vast morning sky and in the cascading breeze that their existence became one.
Roused to his feet, he ran to her, whisked by the intense desire to bask in her feminine ardor. So clear it was now, the enigma of life, the paradox of being, the intricacy of reason, consumed within the starless infinity of her eyes. Yes! Uproarious silence, inscrutable answer! Never were words spoken so clearly by man, nor woman through the profound silence of Kagome's heart.
InuYasha ran, faster and faster, each step salvaged with twice as much haste as the last. The cycle of time seemed to move in accordance to his advance. With his traverse hailed new entities of the sun, from the crisp prelude of morning, the intervening body of afternoon, to the hindmost epilogue of twilight. The flowers blossomed, their petals extending, prospering, and, alas, withering into the awaiting wind, in which they glided to the prong of existence.
"InuYasha!" she beckoned, softly gesturing him forth.
"Kagome!" he cried in reply, drawing ever nearer.
The cycle had completed conversion into night. All that had even once bore a remnant of luminosity was now but an obscuration of shadow. Even the aloft moon, notorious for its majestic charm, transmitted a languid saffron hue.
"InuYasha!" she again summoned, his arrival now imminent.
There, upon the brink of their meeting, it was that Kagome's face contorted, her visage metamorphosing into a manifestation of unfathomable repugnance. It churned like a whirlpool of flesh and facial appendix, causing a surge of vomit to rise within his throat in revolt. He watched in horror as the moon transfigured itself into a ruby goliath, casting a scarlet complexion upon the sea below. His heart pulsated with apprehension, violently quaking his chest.
"Kagome! What has become of you?" he tremulously inquired.
"InuYasha!" the distortion of a voice bellowed, echoing the unwavering response.
Her face was progressively regaining a distinct profile. A glossy porcelain nose, two abysmal coal eyes, glistening rubescent lips. It almost resembled - Nay! It was -
"Kikyo!" he wailed, roused from a now apparent slumber.
There, but a few meager feet afar, stood the priestess. Abreast of her were two men, both of whom bore an uncanny likeness to recently exhumed cadavers. They were attired in blood drenched rags and armed with corroded kamas. Their eyes were deprived of pupils, merely milky spheroids laden with burgundy veins. The taller of the two bound one arm firmly around Kagome's abdomen, while his other hand veiled her mouth. The other man stood attentive, his kama poised upon her neck.
"I bid you good morning, InuYasha. Did you sleep well?" she asked, an evident hint of arrogance in her tone.
"You bitch! Release Kagome this very instant!" he commanded, palming the hilt of his blade.
Kikyo broadened her arm and outstretched her index finger, waving it to and fro in a hindering gesture.
"Tch, tch, tch. What a bad boy you are, calling a lady such a filthy name! I think your little outburst is deserving of some disciplinary action."
She turned to face the men. With the snap of her fingers, the kama's brim moderately grazed Kagome's neck, inducing a stream of blood, which her tormentor licked off with a grimace of wanton delight. The girl writhed in anguish, emitting a muffled shriek of dismay. The half-breed gnarled as the distress of his beloved cleaved through his very heart.
"Now, now, InuYasha. Control your spasms, or I fear my minions shall have to aid in her journey to hell. Do you understand?"
Aware of the present hazard, he yielded to her threat with reluctance.
"Tell me. Tell me what it is that you are planning." he asked, his voice both abidingly solemn and quivering with apprehension.
The miscreant priestess smirked in amusement.
"Why, I am but contributing to a cause far greater than I, ushering in a new era of destitution and suffering." she vaingloriously proclaimed.
Frustrated, InuYasha examined the area for the remnants of his other allies, but his endeavor met to no avail.
"I hate to disappoint you, dearest InuYasha, but your friends cannot come to your aid. The fox demon and the feline are unconscious within the caravan and the others are being apprehended as we speak. You have no escape."
"How did you know where we were?" he snarled, grinding his teeth fiercely.
She directed his attention to the abroad shadows, from which a figure presently stepped forth. An expansive ebon ponytail, tawny wolf fur, cutthroat cerulean eyes. It was unmistakable. The traitor was Koga.
Submerged in overwhelming rage, InuYasha drew his blade. He cocked himself into combat position, but Kikyo thwarted his aspirant slaughter.
"Do you not remember last time? The girl's life depends solely upon your cooperation." she cautioned, finding an apparent gratification in his defeated position.
Repressed by intimidation, he sheathed his weapon. With an expression of absolute abomination and perplexity, he questioned the treasonist.
"Why? What have you done this, Koga!?" he impetrated.
The wolf was silent, gazing at the ground below in reproach, deterring himself from his former comrade's gaze. Finding the circumstance to her favor, Kikyo seized the opportunity to reply to InuYasha's inquiry with a detestable delight.
"He was promised Kagome's body. A sexy little slab of meat to have and to hold until it's all worn out. Isn't it romantic?" she chuckled in retrospect.
Kagome's eyes dilated in dismay, peering toward InuYasha in desperation and terror, expecting wholeheartedly his imminent revolt, but he spoke not a word. He simply stared into the abyss, devoid of outward expression. The maelstrom of conflicting emotions within his heart must had counterbalanced each other, resulting in the demise of any sentimentality that he once bore.
"It appears that you finally realize the futility of your rebellion. Now," she withdrew two strands of rope and a stave of tape from her kimono, presenting them to him. "Bind and gag your love."
He ogled the utensils, accepting them with indifference into his grasp, then stoically approached his adored. The automaton released Kagome as she convulsed in helplessness. "What could InuYasha be plotting? Why is he doing this?" she contemplated pessimistically.
He advanced upon her, his each step encumbered with insufferable gravity, her each breath immersed in mystification and dread. At last, he overcame her, situating himself to her rear. He received her hands within his and commenced securing the rope around her wrists. Her bondage fastened, he then careened his head upon her shoulder, pressed his lips tenderly upon her ear, and conveyed the following words of encouragement:
"Don't worry. Everything will be just fine. Trust me."
She smiled with faint assurance as he enshrouded her mouth. His labor complete, InuYasha permitted the eidolons to restrain him. With both lovers bound, Kikyo's serfs slung them over their shoulders, trajected them to an awaiting carriage, and turbulently discharged them into a sheaf of hay. InuYasha obtained one final glimpse of his precious' visage before being cudgeled in the back of the head by one of his aggressors, resulting in his loss of orientation and ultimate unconsciousness. Kagome screeched and strained feebly shortly before the same fate became of her.
Kikyo mounted the conducting steed as her underlings boarded the freight alongside their captives. She cued with the beckoning of her hand for the commencing of the caravan's traverse. Four wagons materialized from the umberage of the trees, a pair occupying either side of Kikyo's lead. Embedded in each were the remaining subordinates of the dark priestess, each toting the latest model of European Snaphaunce. Enshrouded in the beds of straw, they awaited anxiously the imminent departure. At last, the anticipated whistle reverberated through the thickets, and the clatter of hooves initiated. The pilgrimage into oblivion had begun, a journey into doubt, lament, and anguish.
(Note: The Snaphaunce is a firearm that first appeared around the year 1570 and was mostly utilized by the English, French, and Germans. It is a predecessor to the Flintlock, which was developed in 1612, and is a smoother, less expensive version of the Wheel Lock.)
Daybreak. The hospitable streams of the sun's rays enshrouded InuYasha's cheeks, sweltering them in wholesome warmth. Like ethereal hands bidding wake to his consciousness, the dawn's incandescence shone crimson through his eyelids. Stubbornly, he lifted himself from the ground and speared his fingers against his curtained eyes. Allowing an ample yawn and scanty tears, he drew forth an obscure view of his surroundings.
A sky of amethyst lie overhead, christened with fuchsia clouds whirling gracefully about. Below rested a field of blooming wildflowers, waltzing in the gentle zephyr of the doting wind. In the distance was a precipice overlooking an azure sea, gleaming with the reflection of a virgin sun.
There, sitting upon the edge of the cliff overseeing the oceanfront was Kagome, glimmering radiantly in glorious mortality. She rested in a coarse yet magnificent nudity, her beige skin luminescent with youth. Her ebony hair rippled like a rivulet of shadow down her vivacious breasts. She bore an expression of longing within her swarthy eyes, a look conceivable only by the wondrous abyss by which they were presently captivated.
So majestic a fervor this invoked within his heart, setting aflame his senses and tantalizing the very essence of his being. Exotic emotions engulfed his stomach, inflated his fingers, overwhelmed his toes, flooded his spine, and consumed his lips. It was then that the two's eyes converged, and, under the vast morning sky and in the cascading breeze that their existence became one.
Roused to his feet, he ran to her, whisked by the intense desire to bask in her feminine ardor. So clear it was now, the enigma of life, the paradox of being, the intricacy of reason, consumed within the starless infinity of her eyes. Yes! Uproarious silence, inscrutable answer! Never were words spoken so clearly by man, nor woman through the profound silence of Kagome's heart.
InuYasha ran, faster and faster, each step salvaged with twice as much haste as the last. The cycle of time seemed to move in accordance to his advance. With his traverse hailed new entities of the sun, from the crisp prelude of morning, the intervening body of afternoon, to the hindmost epilogue of twilight. The flowers blossomed, their petals extending, prospering, and, alas, withering into the awaiting wind, in which they glided to the prong of existence.
"InuYasha!" she beckoned, softly gesturing him forth.
"Kagome!" he cried in reply, drawing ever nearer.
The cycle had completed conversion into night. All that had even once bore a remnant of luminosity was now but an obscuration of shadow. Even the aloft moon, notorious for its majestic charm, transmitted a languid saffron hue.
"InuYasha!" she again summoned, his arrival now imminent.
There, upon the brink of their meeting, it was that Kagome's face contorted, her visage metamorphosing into a manifestation of unfathomable repugnance. It churned like a whirlpool of flesh and facial appendix, causing a surge of vomit to rise within his throat in revolt. He watched in horror as the moon transfigured itself into a ruby goliath, casting a scarlet complexion upon the sea below. His heart pulsated with apprehension, violently quaking his chest.
"Kagome! What has become of you?" he tremulously inquired.
"InuYasha!" the distortion of a voice bellowed, echoing the unwavering response.
Her face was progressively regaining a distinct profile. A glossy porcelain nose, two abysmal coal eyes, glistening rubescent lips. It almost resembled - Nay! It was -
"Kikyo!" he wailed, roused from a now apparent slumber.
There, but a few meager feet afar, stood the priestess. Abreast of her were two men, both of whom bore an uncanny likeness to recently exhumed cadavers. They were attired in blood drenched rags and armed with corroded kamas. Their eyes were deprived of pupils, merely milky spheroids laden with burgundy veins. The taller of the two bound one arm firmly around Kagome's abdomen, while his other hand veiled her mouth. The other man stood attentive, his kama poised upon her neck.
"I bid you good morning, InuYasha. Did you sleep well?" she asked, an evident hint of arrogance in her tone.
"You bitch! Release Kagome this very instant!" he commanded, palming the hilt of his blade.
Kikyo broadened her arm and outstretched her index finger, waving it to and fro in a hindering gesture.
"Tch, tch, tch. What a bad boy you are, calling a lady such a filthy name! I think your little outburst is deserving of some disciplinary action."
She turned to face the men. With the snap of her fingers, the kama's brim moderately grazed Kagome's neck, inducing a stream of blood, which her tormentor licked off with a grimace of wanton delight. The girl writhed in anguish, emitting a muffled shriek of dismay. The half-breed gnarled as the distress of his beloved cleaved through his very heart.
"Now, now, InuYasha. Control your spasms, or I fear my minions shall have to aid in her journey to hell. Do you understand?"
Aware of the present hazard, he yielded to her threat with reluctance.
"Tell me. Tell me what it is that you are planning." he asked, his voice both abidingly solemn and quivering with apprehension.
The miscreant priestess smirked in amusement.
"Why, I am but contributing to a cause far greater than I, ushering in a new era of destitution and suffering." she vaingloriously proclaimed.
Frustrated, InuYasha examined the area for the remnants of his other allies, but his endeavor met to no avail.
"I hate to disappoint you, dearest InuYasha, but your friends cannot come to your aid. The fox demon and the feline are unconscious within the caravan and the others are being apprehended as we speak. You have no escape."
"How did you know where we were?" he snarled, grinding his teeth fiercely.
She directed his attention to the abroad shadows, from which a figure presently stepped forth. An expansive ebon ponytail, tawny wolf fur, cutthroat cerulean eyes. It was unmistakable. The traitor was Koga.
Submerged in overwhelming rage, InuYasha drew his blade. He cocked himself into combat position, but Kikyo thwarted his aspirant slaughter.
"Do you not remember last time? The girl's life depends solely upon your cooperation." she cautioned, finding an apparent gratification in his defeated position.
Repressed by intimidation, he sheathed his weapon. With an expression of absolute abomination and perplexity, he questioned the treasonist.
"Why? What have you done this, Koga!?" he impetrated.
The wolf was silent, gazing at the ground below in reproach, deterring himself from his former comrade's gaze. Finding the circumstance to her favor, Kikyo seized the opportunity to reply to InuYasha's inquiry with a detestable delight.
"He was promised Kagome's body. A sexy little slab of meat to have and to hold until it's all worn out. Isn't it romantic?" she chuckled in retrospect.
Kagome's eyes dilated in dismay, peering toward InuYasha in desperation and terror, expecting wholeheartedly his imminent revolt, but he spoke not a word. He simply stared into the abyss, devoid of outward expression. The maelstrom of conflicting emotions within his heart must had counterbalanced each other, resulting in the demise of any sentimentality that he once bore.
"It appears that you finally realize the futility of your rebellion. Now," she withdrew two strands of rope and a stave of tape from her kimono, presenting them to him. "Bind and gag your love."
He ogled the utensils, accepting them with indifference into his grasp, then stoically approached his adored. The automaton released Kagome as she convulsed in helplessness. "What could InuYasha be plotting? Why is he doing this?" she contemplated pessimistically.
He advanced upon her, his each step encumbered with insufferable gravity, her each breath immersed in mystification and dread. At last, he overcame her, situating himself to her rear. He received her hands within his and commenced securing the rope around her wrists. Her bondage fastened, he then careened his head upon her shoulder, pressed his lips tenderly upon her ear, and conveyed the following words of encouragement:
"Don't worry. Everything will be just fine. Trust me."
She smiled with faint assurance as he enshrouded her mouth. His labor complete, InuYasha permitted the eidolons to restrain him. With both lovers bound, Kikyo's serfs slung them over their shoulders, trajected them to an awaiting carriage, and turbulently discharged them into a sheaf of hay. InuYasha obtained one final glimpse of his precious' visage before being cudgeled in the back of the head by one of his aggressors, resulting in his loss of orientation and ultimate unconsciousness. Kagome screeched and strained feebly shortly before the same fate became of her.
Kikyo mounted the conducting steed as her underlings boarded the freight alongside their captives. She cued with the beckoning of her hand for the commencing of the caravan's traverse. Four wagons materialized from the umberage of the trees, a pair occupying either side of Kikyo's lead. Embedded in each were the remaining subordinates of the dark priestess, each toting the latest model of European Snaphaunce. Enshrouded in the beds of straw, they awaited anxiously the imminent departure. At last, the anticipated whistle reverberated through the thickets, and the clatter of hooves initiated. The pilgrimage into oblivion had begun, a journey into doubt, lament, and anguish.
(Note: The Snaphaunce is a firearm that first appeared around the year 1570 and was mostly utilized by the English, French, and Germans. It is a predecessor to the Flintlock, which was developed in 1612, and is a smoother, less expensive version of the Wheel Lock.)