The Task

Kagome and Jareth stood atop the boulder, trying to figure out how on earth the tree worked. It seemed far too confusing for Kagome to keep her focus on something that seemed so...well...futile!

Every time she looked away the stupid tree jumped to another spot. She wanted to scream! How on earth was one going to get to a tree that didn't stay put? They had tried for a few hours to simply split up and roam the area, but to no avail. It seemed almost as if the tree really didn't exist and they were both simply imagining it. That would be a bad thing though, because that would mean they had wasted so much time in search of something that didn't exist.

She sighed and jumped down to get a bite to eat, all this work made her hungry. She grabbed a simple snack then climbed back onto the boulder, holding the package in her mouth. She straightened and the package dropped, her eyes wide.

The tree had stayed put! It hadn't moved! She looked at Jareth, he was staring intently at the tree, pondering its mechanisms.

"That's it!" she shouted victoriously, jumping off the rock.

"What's it?" Jareth asked starting to climb down.

"No, I'll be right back, you just stay up there and keep thinking about that tree." She said, "Where is it?" she asked.

Jareth looked up, "Right there," he said pointing out the direction of the tree.

Kagome ran off in the direction he had pointed. She hoped that whatever he had done he would do it again. If he did then she could easily reach the tree before it jumped anywhere...hopefully.

She made her way through the forest as quickly as she could, trying to keep as straight a line as she could.

She could see a clearing just that be it? Could they have really missed the tree and its clearing? Well, if the tree moved then why couldn't its immediate surroundings?

Just as she made it into the clearing she tripped and fell to the ground, stretching her arms out in front of her. She fell to her knees, but the damage had been done. She had sprained her wrist. Her left wrist? But she had landed more on her right.

She held her right hand up to see the black mark in the middle of her palm. A moment ago it had still been hot from the shock she had received when she had taken Jareth's hand. But now...now it was ice cold. She shook off the tingling sensation she had felt...almost like she was going to faint. And over what? A simple sprained wrist and a cold hand.

She shook her head and looked at her surroundings. She was in a clearing that was a circle twenty feet in diameter, and in the very middle was the old willow, its branches blowing as a slight breeze picked up. She shivered and rubbed her hand but stopped when it hurt her wrist. She sighed and gave a shrug before moving ahead towards the tree. She reached the tree and touched the bark. But, as it did with Inu-Yasha, her hand merely slipped through the bark.

She pulled her hand away as if she had been burned by the bark. Her eyes were wide as she simply stared at the tree for a moment. Maybe she couldn't correctly complete this task. Maybe she was supposed to let Jareth come here rather than herself.

She turned to go back but froze in her tracks as she saw nothing. The forest had simply vanished. Now this tree was the only tree for as far as Kagome could see.

She could have cried, but this was not a crying moment. She took a deep breath to calm herself and turned back to the tree. She reached out once more, her hand yet again going straight through the tree. Curiously, and seeing as how it really couldn't be all that harmful to try anything, she stepped into the tree. As she had expected, she merely fell into the tree, only her body really did fall into it, as if the world just outside no longer existed.

She gasped as she found herself in a world of total icy darkness.

Then she saw them.

Three stands stood, slightly illuminated.

She took a step forward to see that on each stand were three scrolls. But the voice had only said that she needed one scroll. Suddenly she felt like Indiana Jones searching for that cup. She went all the way over to the stands.

On one stand she recognized a language that seemed to look like what she expected to be English, on another was the familiar Japanese, and on the final one was in the somewhat familiar Chinese...Most could get the latter two mixed up, except, of course, the people that belong in that category as well. So she turned back to the English one. She understood more Chinese than English, though it should be the other way since English was the closest thing there was to a universal language.

She then looked at the three English scrolls. One was ridiculously long, another ludicrously short, and the third seemed to be the exact length that a scroll should be. Well, that one couldn't be it. She looked at the long one, well...some things took time to learn. So it had to be the short one...didn't it?

She grabbed it...the ground didn't shake like in Indiana Jones...but that was good, wasn't it?

She made to go back through the tree but the walls seemed solid. She looked for an opening but couldn't find any, the whole while it was getting colder and colder.

She realized that she had gone through the tree because it didn't exist in the other place, not wholly anyways. But now that she was there she could touch it and it was real. And it surrounded her. That was the only explanation she could think of, and for some reason, it did seem probable for this kind of a task.

So she sat down and leaned her back against the inside trunk of the tree. No wonder the tree was normal, it was hollow. Surely the other trees weren't hollow. There had to be something in the center of those trees that affected their outward appearance.

She didn't feel like thinking too much more about it though, because she was starting to shiver with the increasing chill in the area. So she just sat there, rubbing her arms, her teeth chattering.

Her eyes began to drift closed, her hands slowing on her arms. It was too cold. Much too cold.

Something snaked about her waist and grabbed her, pulling her backwards. She tried to scream but it just didn't come out.

She fell onto her back and just laid there, waiting for something to happen. But nothing came. So she opened the eyes she hadn't realized she had closed.

She found herself looking into clear blue eyes. It took her a moment to realize they were Jareth's.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly.

She smiled, her body was still so cold that she couldn't answer, but he took the smile as an answer. He brought her up into a sitting position.

"You're so cold!" he remarked, but it was warm outside so he hoped that she would warm up.

He waited for several minutes that seemed like hours but she merely got colder.

He glanced down into her open hand to see the black mark had gone almost completely ice blue. He reached down and pulled her hand into his.

Another shock went through her, heating up her entire body.

She bolted upright, "You did it again!" she said.

"Sorry!" he said immediately.

She shook her head, "I think we have to go back to the boulder." She said.

"Nope, just right there." He said pointing to their left.

She looked over and was surprised to see a big ball of light just sitting there. Apparently she had chosen right.

Hopefully...