Chapter Three: Regrets

The darkness was slowly ebbing away from her mind, but a wave of pain was soon to follow in its wake. She moaned, rolling to her side, light piercing her eyelids. One slid open, but she immediately regretted allowing it to. Pain shot through her. She tried to move a hand to her aching skull, but found the feat impossible. Assessing the situation, she realized that she was bound to a pole in the center of a small room. The memories flooded back to her…

"You're awake, are you, strange wench?"

She flinched at the sound of a gruff voice. Standing over her was a bizarre youkai. A bipedal lizard, with four arms and four eyes, all slits as they gazed down on her. A hundred tails or more whipped the ground wildly, all slick with what she suspected to be the poison.

"Wh-who are you? What do you want?" She asked meekly.

"Eki, who wants the same thing everyone wants…" One thin tail reached forward, stroking her jaw line slowly. She jerked away from the sizzling pain. The creature smiled with a twisted amusement, watching the skin he had touched burn. Kagome could only respond with a shudder and a glare of challenge.

Eki mask was of clearly mocking pity. "There, there, pet. No need to get so upset." He reached out, grasping the thin chain holding the Shikon no Tama and yanked it from her neck. "This is what I want…"

Oh no… the jewel!

"What do you mean?"

Inuyasha hung his head slightly, cradling one of Kagome's lost socks. Sango looked at his worriedly, as many questions as he had hanging on the tip of her tongue. Shippou had already begun to cry.

"Are you sure you've checked everywhere, Inuyasha?" Miroku sat on the ground, even his calm exterior faltering.

Inuyasha nodded, looking thoroughly miserable. "I have to find her…"

"It isn't your fault." Miroku rose from sitting with a grunt. "We'll find Kagome-sama."

The hanyou's nose had been at work for hours. The trail he picked up was of a strange scent. A part of it was youkai- burning his nose and eyes, but another was most definitely Kagome's. He held on to her thread, eagerly enduring the pain to reach her.

The others followed close in case of a break, weapons at the ready. But the trail seemed to carry on forever, deeper and deeper into the forest named after their hanyou companion.

Where are we?

Kagome sighed as she lost her grip on the rope again. One more time, she promised herself… always just one more time. She held it again, slowly working at one piece. Why did this always seem so easy in the movies? Every twist tore at the skin at her wrists. It was hot and humid and she felt completely alone. Luck struck at last. Feeling the piece begin to pull away, she mercilessly tore the rest from itself. It served to damage her scalded hands even further, but she had succeeded in escaping. She was free.

For the first time, she looked around the room. Only slightly larger than her own room, with a small end table in the corner, a wicker chair and the support beam she had been tied to. It was dark, windowless. Only a small wax candle burned on the table, to cast shadows against the rocky walls. Turning, she saw a heavy wooden door. Hoping against hope, she pushed against it, and, to her surprise, it gave way into a massive corridor.

Like a labyrinth, tunnels shot out in every direction. With no real sense of where she was going, she blindly ran, turning any corner she could find. When she finally ran out of breath, she peered around to see everything looking exactly the same. The same heavy wooden doors, the same equally distanced candles. Collapsing against the nearest wall, she looked for some escape. Yet she found nothing. No one was calling, no one was coming. But Inuyasha will come. He'll know… But how could he? He probably haddn't even gone to check on her yet. They would have no idea. By the time Inuyasha found out, she'd be long dead. The fight that she had left over seemed all the more stupid now. Finally, as she sat alone in the tunnel, hands and feet burning and bleeding, she let the tears come.

A forlorn howl pierced the eve. The crescent moon hung on the velvet blue expanse of night, nearly devoured by the blackness. As the wolf gazed up at it, he realized his mission once more. Launching himself away, he climbed down the cliff face and into the familiar valley. His furry cohorts echoed another howl, running beside him. He had moved closer. Pouncing on the familiar rocks to cross the stream, he bounded away through the waterfall.

Inside was warm and dry, and he took the opportunity to shake the water from his dark henna pelt before journeying deeper into the heart of the youkai lair. Finding Ginta and Hakaku, he spilt his news quickly in the wolven tongue. With a nod to see off the reconnaissance, the wolf youkai slipped into the cave.

At the back of the huge cave, their leader kicked the bones of a small animal against the wall out of sheer boredom. They hit the wall with such force that they shattered into a thousand tiny shards.

"Kouga… we have some interesting news."

A flash of crimson was all that was to be seen of Inuyasha as he followed the trail with a passionate ferocity. The trail beckoned him; he could virtually see its wafting fumes. It took all of the others' strength just to keep up with the hanyou. He halted suddenly, recognizing the stench of the youkai. "From the well… they're the same…"A rumble began deep in his chest, threatening the unseen force.

But beneath his feet was a strange tickling… a tickling of air as it passed under them. He reached down, brushing away leaves and dead foliage from his feet. A warped wooden door was what he found.

"It would appear to lead down." Miroku said from somewhere over his shoulder. Inuyasha tore it clear off its hinges. Sniffing carefully inside, he blanched. The smell, the burning was overwhelming. "Kagome!"

The sound of her own name halted the tears for a moment. Kagome stood, groping through the semi-darkness.

"KAGOME!" ...Inuyasha...

"Kagome-chan!" ...Sango...

"Kagome-sama?" ...Miroku...

"Ka-GOOOOOOOOmmmmmmEEEEE!" ...Shippou...

She could identify neither their location, nor hers. Still, she had to try to reach them. She had to get out. Standing at a crack in the wall, she returned their calls.

"Shippou! Miroku! Sango! Inuyasha!" She pounded on the earthen wall, desperate for her echo to reach them.

"Kagome?"

Her heart began to beat again, relief flooding down on her in all its glorious warmth. "Down here!" She had never been claustrophobic before, but now the walls seemed to close in fast, blocking her from them.

"Are you okay, Kagome-sama?" Miroku cooed gently through the wall. She could almost feel the vibrations of his voice. But her blood ran cold at the sound of another.

"Perhaps you should worry about yourselves." There was the vicious youkai who had imprisoned her. She shuddered. Why couldn't things ever just go smoothly?