Chapter 5

Discovery

Nanashi awoke an hour before dawn, just like she always did. She wandered the catacombs of the palace in search of where she had left the group of young travelers. As she walked down what appeared to be the guest hall, she heard two girls talking. She followed the voices to the last room on the left side of the hall. She opened the door just enough to peer inside. She spotted kagome and sango sitting on the futon talking about nothing in particular. Upon observing this, nanashi opened the door completely. Kagome was the one who spotted her first.

" Hey nanashi! How are you this morning?" she asked cheerfully.

Nanashi gave off a smirk and said, " Hey kagome, I'm just fine."

Sango and kagome invited nanashi to join them. Nanashi, of course, accepted. Nanashi sat down at he end of the bed and joined in on their conversation which consisted of the sacred jewel shards, naraku, naraku's incarnations, miroku's sudden unperverted nature and, of course, whether or not inuyasha loved kagome. Their conversation lasted until well past lunch, when the boys came a knockin' on their door.

" Come on you two blabbermouths! We got jewel shards to find! We ain't got goddamn day!" inuyasha shouted through the door.

Upon hearing this, the girls immediately began their long, sad goodbyes. Nanashi walked the group to the front gates of the decaying palace. When there, the gang asked nanashi to go with them but she declined. She said that she preferred a life where there were no surprises and nothing unexpected happened. She liked living in the palace, no matter how beat down it was, it was her home and she didn't want to leave it.

The gang understood and promised to come back and visit after they had killed naraku and completed the jewel. As they were walking away, kagome ran back and said, " When the jewel is complete, the possessor gets one wish, I'll wish for you to have your memories back, okay?"

" Hai, arigitou kagome-chan." Nanashi then gave kagome a hug and then waved goodbye to the group as they disappeared over the horizon of the noon skies.

After her new friends were out of site, nanashi went back in the palace and went to the greenhouse, to get something to eat. She wandered through the greenhouse garden for what seemed like an eternity, looking for something good to eat. As she grew frustrated, she went and sat on the edge of the diamond fountain.

She sat there for a while, her hands diligently stroking the sapphire blue water as if it were alive. While she sat, she thought. She thought about many things, about why she didn't go with them, why she wanted to stay here so badly, what drew her to this palace in the first place, who she was, where she came from, who her parents were and what exactly was she trying to remember? All those questions echoed through her mind as she walked through the long halls of the palace.

Nanashi was so lost in thought, when she ran into a door, she had no idea where she was. She looked at the door in awe for it was untouched, not burned like the rest of the palace. It was beautiful.

The door was mahogany. It had giant dogs carved into it and placed in the carvings were blood rubies. They sparkled with an otherworldly glow, as if they had captured a ghost from their long past. Nanashi reached for the handle and found that it was made from solid gold and silver. She opened the giant twin doors only to be put in total shock. The room she was standing in was completely untouched. It was as if the fire had never happened. The walls weren't burnt, neither was the furniture or anything else. Nanashi looked around the room.

The walls were made form polished oak. There were also carvings in them as well and they were a lot like the ones on the door. Large dog demons covered the large walls as they danced and played. Blood rubies covered the dogs and made them glow.

Nanashi stepped into the center of the large room and looked all around her. Right in front of her was a large, in floor futon. The sheets on it were ebony with silver dogs on them, they also appeared to be made of silk. To her right, there was a boutique, the items upon it looked as though they had been used just yesterday. To her left were two sets of twin doors. Nanashi walked over to the first set of doors and opened them to reveal a large closet still filled with the finest cloths money could buy. After closing the closet doors, she moved to the next set of doors and opened them. When she looked inside, she nearly died. It was a personal hot spring.

Soon, nanashi took a bath and changed into some fresh cloths. After she had changed, she went and laid down on the bed. She didn't bother to pull the covers over her as she fell fast asleep but her sleep was not peaceful as it usually was. This night brought her dreams, horrible dreams. Dreams of a battle, people dieing, a large fire. She felt as though she had seen those images before but concluded they must be from before she forgot. As her dreams worsened, she kept waking with a start. She was panting, her heartbeat was accelerated and she was covered with sweat.

Soon, it was dawn but you couldn't see the sun through the rain clouds that covered the sky. Nanashi could hear voices as she began to calm down but they weren't the voices of her friends but of people she didn't know. She soon got up into the rafters and began looking for the owners of the voices.