Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this chapter except for Kyt who is my own made up character. If you would like to use her please email me and I will probably let you use her if you ask nicely -wink-
Okay well, the first chapter took a while to write. It's about six and a half pages long and 3042 words. Please check out the other stories in the C2 community that this story is in. They are all very well written. Now on with the story.
Chapter 1: Greetings and Good-byes
InuYasha looked down at Kagome who had fallen just moments before. He did not know what he was supposed to do. Shippou had run to her immediately when she had fallen and was now trying to wake her. Miroku looked at InuYasha expectantly. Though, InuYasha didn't know what to do. Miroku gave a motion of lifting his arms and he understood; he was supposed to pick her up. But, why would he do that when she was sleeping so calmly where she was? He shook off the thought and picked Kagome up 'bridal style'.
Miroku smiled and mentioned that they should go back to the last village they had passed since there was no reason continuing without Kagome awake. InuYasha agreed as they turned and began trekking back to the village.
"I knew this calling spell wouldn't work…" InuYasha said under his breath as he looked down at the resting Kagome in his arms.
The man limped as he made his way down the path. He was hunched over from the weight of the bag on his back. He was getting overly tired and had fallen many times because of his carelessness. He knew that after a bit he would have to stop in order to get rest or he would surely fall asleep as he walked.
As he continued his journey, he passed a strange group of travellers consisting of demons, half-demons and humans. What a strange group, he thought to himself. He just shrugged under the weight of his packages and continued on. He came across a clearing and found a young girl with long, wavy, milk-chocolate brown hair lying curled up on the ground. He placed his bags on the ground and approached her. He crouched beside her calmly sleeping body and tapped her shoulder.
Brown eyelashes fluttered and vibrant green eyes looked up at him. She seemed so innocent as she gazed at him as if she had no idea where she was. He smiled at her and she returned it with a wavery one of her own. She slowly stood up and put her hand to her head. He stood beside her and grabbed her arm to help her steady. It was obvious that she was uncoordinated at the moment and did not know where she was.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked quietly and blushed slightly as her beautiful face turned to look at him quizzically.
"I-I-I don't know…" She said and shook her head.
"I'm on my way back to my inn, come along; you look like you could use some food," he said kindly while picking up his bag and leading her the way he was going.
Rin giggled as she looked Jaken running along in front of her double-headed dragon so that he was not stepped on. She looked to her left and saw a large building; compared to what she was used to. She stared in awe and fell off of the dragon. Sesshomaru looked back at her, puzzled.
"Rin, you should be more careful," he stated matter-of-factly. She nodded but continued looking at the building. "What is the matter?"
She pointed to the building and said dazed, "What is this place? It is so large!"
Sesshomaru considered the building for a moment, "It is an inn; have you never been in one before?"
Rin shook her head and looked up at Sesshomaru. He knew by the look she was giving that she obviously wanted something. He could guess but wanted to actually move on in order to find this 'angel of demons'.
"What is an inn? May we go inside of this inn?"
Jaken sighed at the disruption this child was causing. She was so naïve it was annoying at times. He chuckled as he thought of the possibility of Lord Sesshomaru actually going inside the inn. He moved towards Rin in order to get her standing again and help her back onto the double-headed dragon.
"Is it that important Rin?" Sesshomaru asked. He didn't know why or what was wrong with him. He just felt drawn to go inside. Also, Rin was giving the most 'puppy-dogish', pleading face he had ever seen. It seemed weird for him to give in like that, but he figured they could use a rest on something other than ground for once this month.
Rin nodded and smiled childishly. He nodded and walked up the path to the small door of the inn. Rin skipped her way to the door, and Jaken was left standing dumb-founded holding the reins to the dragon.
Kagome laughed as Sango told her about how worried InuYasha was when Kagome had fainted and they had to carry her back to the village. InuYasha, Kagome could tell, was listening in from where he was. He was walking a few feet in front of them with his ears perked, and a grumpy look on his face. Sango and Kagome both knew InuYasha liked to hide his emotions (other than anger that is).
Another wave of exhaustion flooded Kagome's mind as it had been doing frequently since they had left the village. Sango gave a worried look in her direction. InuYasha definitely noticed as he turned around.
"I told you we shouldn't have left so early," he said half angrily, half sympathetically. Kagome was slightly surprised by his caring mood towards her but tried not to show it, as to not embarrass him. She waved her hand at him to show that she was alright before picking up speed in order to catch up to Sango and the others.
After a while, they came across a good-sized inn. Shippou ran up Kagome and perched on her shoulder. He cupped his hands around her ear and whispered something undecipherable by the others. Kagome nodded and stopped where she was.
"Hey guys, is it alright if we stop here for the night? We haven't exactly been sleeping well. What do you think?" Kagome called after them. They turned around and saw that Miroku was smiling. Obviously he had been hoping to stop there as well.
InuYasha looked at the sky and sniffed the air carefully. He nodded approval and they headed for the front door. Miroku pushed open the door eagerly and sighed in relief. Sango approached the man standing by a doorway and began talking to him. He seemed to be the inn-keeper, and was negotiating rooms and prices with Sango. Finally, she nodded and handed over a sum of money before returning back to the group smiling.
They headed to their room to enjoy the shelter. They heard a soft pitter-patter on their roof and they realized it had begun to rain. Kagome walked to their door to where a garden was and opened the door slightly to look out. The garden was beautiful, an arrangement of brightly coloured flowers and shrubbery displayed to give you room to walk as well as enjoy the sweet scent of the plants.
Kagome turned around sharply and shut the door as she heard the unexpected sound of Kirara growling. She saw her standing by the door on the other side of the room, hair on end, growling as Sango tried to comfort her. Miroku opened the door to see what might have upset her to find nothing.
"I hear singing…Maybe we should check it out?" Miroku said deviously. Sango gave him a dirty look, telling him that he better not be thinking what she figured he was thinking.
"We may as well; what else are we going to do?" InuYasha stated in an annoyed fashion. The rest of them nodded and headed down the hall to where the singing was coming from.
They turned into a room with many people seated at tables drinking sake. At the front was a girl sitting up on a comfortable-looking chair beside some men with instruments. Her voice was like honey to the ears, and she seemed so innocent as she calmly looked around the room at the guests.
The group sat down at one of the tables and got some water and food. They figured it wouldn't be very good to get anything alcoholic with a young demon with them. They talked for a while, enjoying the peacefulness in the room. All of a sudden Kagome's head jerked up as she looked around.
"What is it Kagome?" InuYasha asked tentatively. His eyes flicked around the room cautiously.
"There's a jewel nearby… For some reason I can't pinpoint it's location. Though, I'm sure it's in this room," Kagome whispered. She looked around one more time before sighing. It has the same signature as the one I saw two days ago…
Kyt looked around at the guests as they came in. They were very different from at home; some had weird ears or no ears at all. Some had tails and some were even animals. She had never seen anything like this before except for in the children's books that her mother had made. She didn't have the same imagination as her mother, though it may be because she was adopted. Kyt shook her head; she was glad of who her parents were.
She noticed an excited girl looking around at all the people and food. The girl seemed to be still very young with black hair down her back. She was with a tall man with silver hair and pointed ears who seemed rather serious. Standing beside him was a toad-like creature with a stick.
What weird people…
She was stopped as the music began to change to a higher tempo. She didn't really know many of the songs she was assigned to sing, but somehow recalled them from her mother singing them to her when she was younger. Once again the music slowed down and she was tempted to pick up the wooden instrument beside her. She had never played an instrument, but when her fingers wrapped around the flute she felt like she had been playing it ever since she was born.
Soon enough she was tired and whispered a good-night to the musicians and left the room. Out in the hall was the inn-keeper, who was having an intense conversation with a tall man with dark hair. The man looked at her and smiled an unnerving smile. She smiled timidly back and continued on her way to where she was supposed to stay.
She entered the room to find that there were people inside. They had been the group sitting in the back of the room that had come in and left a few moments before she had. She apologized for the intrusion, but they beckoned to her to come in. She entered, a little embarrassed, and knelt on the ground by one of the girls in an outfit like the ones from her school, but in green.
"Hey weren't you the girl that was singing?" A man in a purple and black robe asked. She nodded and smiled as he commented on her voice.
"Why don't you tell us your name? I'm Kagome," the girl in the green and white outfit told her.
"My name is Kyt; I just started working here two nights ago."
"That is a lovely name," the man in the robe said as he slowly approached her with a menacing grin on his face. Sango gave him a quick glare and he sat back down.
"I'm Sango and this is Miroku. It's nice to meet you, Kyt," Sango said calmly. There were only two others of whom she didn't know who they were. One was a tiny child with a fox-like tail and a boy with silver hair and dog ears.
"I'm Shippou! And this here is InuYasha, but he's not very nice," the fox-like child said excitedly. He hopped up into Kagome's lap.
Kyt laughed at the child's enthusiasm and immediately felt comfortable with the group. They gave her some tea and she thanked them. The smell of it reminded her of home; of when her mother would pour at lots of milk into her tea so that Kyt wouldn't burn herself. Thinking of her mother she looked at her hand where the ring still was. It was shining pretty brightly, but no one but her seemed to notice.
"So you said you just started working here two days ago, right? Where do you come from?" Kagome asked. Kyt wondered what she should say since she knew she wasn't from here.
"I'm… not from around these lands," Kyt said with her eyes on her ring. She had no idea where she was, but she definitely wasn't near her home. Kagome looked at her ring inconspicuously and became quiet.
"So, how did you land a job here?" Sango asked. The inn was very expensive; obviously not just anyone could work here.
"The inn-keeper took me in and asked if I could sing since their original singer had just gotten married. She'll be coming back soon, though. So where are you guys headed?" She asked, trying to take the conversation off of herself.
"We just travel around. Nothing too spec-" Kagome started, but stopped when she heard a yell from outside. They all ran to the door and poked their heads out. There was no one there, but Kyt seemed to have recognized the voice.
"That was the inn-keeper yelling... Something must be wrong." Kyt ran out of the room with the rest of them following. Kyt ran into the inn-keeper's room to find him lying on the ground bleeding from his stomach. Kyt asked them to stay with him as she went to find the person who had done the heinous task.
Kyt crept through the inn looking for anyone that seemed suspicious, but found no one that could have done it. She then decided to try looking outside, but again, there was no one. She was angry that the man that had helped and fed her was now in danger of dying.
Sesshomaru watched the young girl at the front play the flute as if it was part of her body. He was intrigued as to why a mere human could have such a talent. He looked at Rin, who was staring starry-eyed at the girl at the front. The girl left the room and Rin began to dance childishly to the music that the 'band' was playing.
Sesshomaru stood up and beckoned to Rin to follow him out. They headed to their room where, after a while, he left Jaken and Rin to do as they wished. He had sensed his younger brother earlier when they were in the main room of the inn where Rin had dragged them. He now found him with his group leaning over a man who was dying quickly.
He went outside to find the young singer storming around angrily. He raised an eyebrow at her, but suddenly felt a strange presence lurking within her. She seemed to be a regular human, but he now knew that was not the case. She then noticed him and put on a pleasant face that suited her more than the tensed, angry one she had, had on just moments before.
She nodded to him as she passed by and entered the inn once again. He was curious about the 'presence' she had about her, but decided he had something more important to find. He had no leads on who this 'angel of demons' was.
Kagome looked down at the man as he stopped talking and then looked up at InuYasha. She knew that he was now dead, and she was not sure if they should do as the man asked. The girl would be in lots of danger, and seemed too gentle for that kind of thing.
"Should we take her along as he asked?" She looked at InuYasha, who seemed to be the one that tended to make the decisions. He seemed to be considering it for a moment.
"I think we should, she may be in more danger here than if we take her. What do the rest of you think?" Sango said. She looked at the others who nodded in agreement. They had a feeling that the girl could probably help them some way in the long run. They all looked up as they heard Kyt enter the room and sigh.
"I couldn't find anyone who would have done it…" She said exasperated. She looked at the inn-keeper and her eyes widened. She now knew he was dead. Even though she had only known him for two days, he had been very kind to her and given her a place to stay while she was lost.
"I'm sorry, Kyt," Kagome said softly.
"Did he say anything before he… died?" She asked and looked at them. They looked at each other.
"He asked us to take you with us. He didn't want the man that did this to him to do this to you. The man was after you…" Kagome said quietly. Kyt seemed to be angrier than ever but then settled herself down.
"I don't know what to do… I want this man to get what he has coming," Kyt said truthfully. She had never been a violent type; but then again, no one had ever killed someone she knew.
"Well, if he's after you then he will probably follow us. Then we can settle this. I'm tired, I think we'll leave in the morning," InuYasha said. He had not said a single word until then, but he seemed to be trying to be nice to her. She nodded and said good-night.
When they left, she grabbed the sheet from the inn-keeper's bed and placed it over his body. She thanked him for his sacrifice and got up. She wandered out of the room in a daze and ran into something. It was the man that had been talking to the inn-keeper earlier; the one that had smiled at her.
Her eyes widened in disbelief at how she hadn't thought of him as being a suspect. She knew she had to get away from him and tell the others. As she tried to get around him, he grabbed her arm and yanked her with him.
Moohahaha I hope people like cliffhangers. Thanks for reading! Please R&R! If you like you can email me; I like getting emails!
Response to Review(s)
Sun-Princess2-Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked the proglogue. Ad yes, now it will work with your story lol. Jeez I work so hard to make the pieces fit... -wipes off sweat- lol.
