Chapter Two: Dream
"…Feudal…Japan…?"
Mei gave the other girl a blank look for the longest ten seconds of her life, and then she blinked slowly.
"You mean to say that I'm in the same Feudal Japan that I'm currently learning about in History Class?"
"The one and the same!"
Mei shook her head slowly. This other girl had to be wrong; she couldn't be here. But…
"By the way, my name's Kagome. And you are…?"
"Mei… My name is…Mei…"
The guy with the puppy ears stopped rubbing them, and he gave Mei a careless sniff. Suddenly, he froze.
"Kagome. She smells faintly of…Naraku."
Kagome and the old woman gave Mei a strange look, and she stared right back at them with wider-eyes.
"Naraku? What is a Naraku?"
Kagome sighed.
"Cool it, Inuyasha. She can't have anything to do with him, I mean; she's not from this era and such."
Then she turned to Mei.
"Naraku is the one we've been fighting for a very long time now… He was once a human but by giving up his body, he's become a demon."
"Oh."
Mei thought again and then she tilted her head slightly to the side.
"Does he kinda' look like a woman with black hair and tentacles?"
All three of the other people in the room chuckled at her description, and then that dog-eared boy named Inuyasha answered.
"Yah. But how'd you know that?"
"My little sister…Saka…she was taken by a…a…thing…that looked like that. I followed…"
Leaping to her feet, Mei suddenly started to panic.
"SAKA! OMG, if I'm here, that must mean that she's here too! I have to go and find her!"
She made as she was going to bolt from the room, but as soon as she tried standing, her legs buckled in weakness and she fell to her knees.
"Child, are ye alright?"
The old woman came to her assistance, kneeling down beside the girl.
"My legs…I can't walk?"
"Yes ye can, child, but they are still very weak. Ye need to rest some more until ye are better."
"But…but my sister…"
Inuyasha and Kagome looked to each other. He shook his head.
"Don't get any ideas…we're not going after her sister. It'd take too much time and we need to look for the Jewel Shards."
"Well good. I don't want you to help, dog-boy."
Mei glared at Inuyasha, who glared right back at her for the longest moment. He broke the stare first, getting an uneasy and strange fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach. The girl's funny colored eyes struck an unfamiliar cord in the half-demon's body. She…wasn't normal. Not one bit.
"Whatever."
He stormed from the room. Kagome watched him go with a puzzled look on her face.
'How strange…I wonder what his problem is…'
"Ignore him. We'll be glad to help you find your sister as soon as you're feeling up to it."
Kagome smiled at Mei and then followed Inuyasha out the door. Kaede helped Mei back on the mat, and then instructed for her to drink a cup of foul-smelling liquid. Mei stared at it for a long moment, and then nervously drunk it down.
Taking cup from the girl, Kaede watched satisfied as she blinked long and slow, and, with a yawn, laid down completely and drifted to sleep.
…hnnn…
My hands are shivering…
I must be…
Cold…
I imagine if I stay like this in the snow, I'll die…
…I can't move.
I'm going to die…
But…but I can't…
No, I can't die.
I just can't…
Not yet…
I can't die yet.
I can't…
Huh?
I feel like I'm floating…
…but my body isn't moving.
Hold on a second.
If I'm floating without moving, then that's bad.
This is it!
This is death!
But it can't be!
This isn't my time to die!
I must live!
For Inuyasha…
'That…that dream again…'
Mei laid on her back on the mat in Kaede's hut, staring at the moonlight that shone down on her from the window in the same room. She sat up, and then stood-testing her strength. She was still very wobbly, but she could walk. Silently sliding open the paper door, Mei slipped stealthy out of the house.
The chill night air bit unmercifully at her unprotected skin, and she shivered slightly. A wind blew through the village, a herald of things to come.
Not bothering to look where exactly she was going, she found herself lost. Wandering around a little more; and she then realized that it was foolishness to venture out like this. Mei clapped her hands together, her breath creating a misty cloud in front of her house.
Suddenly, there was a weight lain across her back, and she jumped and turned her head to see Inuyasha standing there. He had taken off this fire rat robe, and had laid it on her back.
"You shouldn't be out here. It's too cold, and you're still weak."
"I was tired of being cooped in that little room."
Mei's yellow eyes lifted up to stare directly at the moon. There was sadness there, Inuyasha noted, and then he sighed quietly.
"You're going to go after your little sister, aren't you?"
"I have to."
Turning her head, Mei met Inuyasha's golden eyes.
"I just have to. Saka is my little sister. She's family. She means the world to me."
"We're going to go with you to help. That is, if you feel strong enough to start in the morning."
Mei smiled at the flustered half-demon, and he got that weird feeling again. Shrugging it off as nothing, he folded his arms with a growl.
"That'll be great. I'll never be able to repay you guys for your help."
"I'll take you back to Kaede's hut. It's really too cold out here for you."
"Uh…thank you…"
Inuyasha was quick to put her on his back, and Mei marveled at the sensation of flying as he leaped from building to building until he landed at the front of Kaede's little hum. She smiled at him, grateful and now even more tired than she was.
"A few people who travel with Kagome and I will probably be returning in the morning, so I'm sure that you'll be introduced. The demon slayer isn't so bad, but I warn you about the monk…he's a lecherous one."
"…A monk!"
"Yah, you heard me…"
-End Chapter Two-
