Fallen Star
by Jessa
Chapter 1: A crack in the dark.
Higurashi Kagome jerked awake. That dream again. She sat up, knowing from past experience that she would get no more sleep that night. Fortunately, the sky was beginning to lighten from velvet black to a silky blue-gray. She looked around the fire at her companions; Sango, stretched out on her blanket, with Shippou and Kirara curled up together near her head. Miroku, sprawled on the opposite side of the fire from Sango, where he'd fallen after his most recent attempt to grope the demon slayer and her subsequent swipe to his head with her boomerang. Kagome couldn't hold back a smile when she saw he still had the lump Sango's attack had raised.
Her gaze fell next on the last member of the group. He sat propped against a boulder, head down, eyes closed. The white dog ears perched atop his head drooped a bit; he was obviously asleep. Long, silver-white hair cascaded over his shoulders like a moonlit waterfall. Even in sleep, he held Tetsusaiga's hilt in his hand, ready to defend the small group.
He acts tough, Kagome mused, but that's because he's had to. Deep inside, he's really a nice guy. Cute, too. She blushed. Kami-sama! Did I just think that!?
The subject of her contemplations opened golden-yellow eyes to find the slate gray ones of Kagome's staring at him. A typical response slipped out.
"What!?"
Kagome blinked and shook her head as if to clear it. "Hmm?"
"What are you staring at me for?"
"Oh, ah, nothing, nothing. I just can't sleep, that's all. And I wasn't staring at you. I was thinking," she replied, the last a bit indignant.
"Thinking, ne? First time for everything, I guess," Inuyasha retorted...and threw up his hand just in time to avoid being brained by Kagome's hard-thrown shoe. He caught it as it fell and tossed it back to Kagome. "Baka. You'd better keep that. You'll need it."
He stood up and sniffed the air. As he sniffed a second time, his ears flattened themselves to his head. Kagome noticed and asked, "What's wrong?"
Inuyasha shook his head and managed to straighten his ears again. "There's something evil on the wind tonight. We'd better be careful."
"Is it Naraku?"
"No, this is something else. It almost smells familiar, but I can't place it. Naraku has nothing to do with it, this time."
"So what else is bothering you, Inuyasha?"
"What makes you think something's bothering me?"
"..." Kagome just stared at the hanyou with a bored expression on her face.
"All right, all right. I just think Sesshoumaru came through here recently."
"How recently?" Kagome asked.
"Did I hear someone say 'Sesshoumaru'?" Miroku asked groggily, sitting up cross-legged and rubbing the lump on his head.
"Yeah, houshi. I said Sesshoumaru came through here recently. Probably within the last day or two. His scent is faint and mixed with that smell of evil on the wind, but still fairly fresh." He sniffed again. "It almost smells like the evil is following him," Inuyasha commented with an odd half-grin.
:o:o:o:o:o:o:
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Look what Rin found!" The little, dark-haired human child bounded up to the youkai lord, something pale and shining clutched in her small hands. "Pretty!" she exclaimed, offering her prize up for inspection.
Sesshoumaru took the bauble from the child, who was beaming with pride. It turned out to be a milky-white stone, about the size of his fist, shaped like an eight-pointed star. As he turned the stone over in his hands, he noticed it seemed to glow with its own inner light. "Interesting," he commented, making the girl smile bigger, if that was possible. "Where did you find it?"
Rin bounced as she said, "Rin will show Sesshoumaru-sama!" Then she dashed off into the forest, unerringly finding her way back to the spot where she'd picked up the star-stone.
As they approached its former resting place, the stone in Sesshoumaru's hand glowed brighter, becoming a little bit warm to the touch. Suddenly, Sesshoumaru found himself in a small clearing in the forest. A strange aura surrounded the place. For some reason he could not fathom, an exquisitely carved statue stood dead-center in the clearing. It was a beautiful youkai woman with an arrow sticking out of her heart. Her hands were outstretched together, palms up, as if she'd held something out in them. The statue was so lifelike that it looked like it could move on its own at any moment.
Rin was looking around the base of the statue, trying to remember exactly where she'd picked the star-stone up from. When she found the spot, she gave a cry. "Here, Sesshoumaru-sama! Rin found the pretty star here!" the child pointed to a spot in the grass about six inches ahead and to the right of the statue's outstretched hands.
Drawing closer, Sesshoumaru saw a faint outline in the statue's palms. Perhaps she did indeed hold something in the past. There was an intense burning sensation in the hand that held the stone. He dropped it-and it hovered in the air for a moment before flying the short distance to the statue's hands and settling into them.
For a moment, nothing happened. Rin clutched Sesshoumaru's right leg, staring with eyes as big as pie plates, as a huge clap of thunder sounded across the land. The star-stone pulsed with an intense white light in the statue's hands, as if signaling someone or something.
The air around Sesshoumaru crackled, alive with static electricity. He picked up Rin quickly and jumped away from the statue just as an enormous bolt of lightning struck it.
