SphereShadow: I have a little time, so I'm updating. I should probably be working on my homework, but oh, well. Glad you like the chapter. Hopefully the rest of them won't be boring.
SlayerIssac: Nice of you to drop a line. The end isn't in sight becauseā¦I haven't quite reached the end yet. This is a Felix/Kagome story, and they haven't even gotten together. Don't worry, that'll come soon enough, and I'll end this story, and you can go on and read a different one. Anyway, enjoy.
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When darkness had truly fallen, the four Valeans had to leave, but they made her promise to come by and see them before she left again. "So, where have you been hiding?" Mia asked as they sat back down by the fire.
"Not too far from here, actually," she answered, looking at her housemates for the evening. "There's a wooded area a few minutes from here, and I live near the foot of the mountains."
"I haven't been there," Piers stated thoughtfully. "Maybe I'll come by and visit sometime."
"Feel free," she replied. "There's no one else around, so any company is good company."
Ivan yawned. "I'm sorry, but I need to go to bed," he said, smiling sleepily. "I'll see you all in the morning. Good night."
They decided to follow his example and went to their respective room, Mia showing Kagome where she would be staying. Not used to staying up very late, Kagome woke when the sun shone through her window and hit her squarely in the face. Moaning, Kagome drew the covers over her head, but she was not allowed to sleep in. "Good morning, Kagome," she heard Piers' cheery voice through the blankets.
"Are you doing this to pay me back for that time in Vault?" she asked wearily.
"Partly." Just like she did, he yanked the covers back from her head. She winced when the light hit her eyes and threw an arm over them.
"You are evil, Piers," she grumbled. "Don't you have anything better to do with your time than bother weary wanderers?"
"Nope. Well, I did come in to ask you something, but you weren't awake, so I had to wake you up first."
"Well, what did you want?"
"We, being Mia, Ivan, Sheba, and I, wanted to make sure that you were doing okay. I mean, you live by yourself, so what would happen if you got sick or something? We would feel awful."
"So what are you asking?"
"Reconsider living like a hermit. Pick a town; it wouldn't have to be Vale, you could stay in Vault," he added hurriedly.
He looks genuinely worried about me. Well, he doesn't know that my miko powers would let me heal myself. I'll be okay. "I thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine. Really." She could tell he didn't believe her, but she didn't blame him. "Well, now that I'm up, I might as well be on my way." She stood, as did Piers. "Thank you for letting me stay here with you guys," she said, hugging him. "It was nice seeing you again."
"Drop by any time," he told her, the two of them walking out the door. "In fact, drop by often."
She smiled. "I may not be able to do that, but we'll see." She said good-bye to the other three and headed out the door. Now, where does Garet live?
Following the directions the people gave her, she found the mayor's house, which was also where Garet and his family lived. She knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. The door opened, revealing Garet's older sister, Katie. "Oh, I didn't know you were back," she said, sounding surprised.
"I'm not," she told her. "I just told Garet that I'd stop by on my way out, that's all."
"Did you want to come in?" she asked, stepping back.
"Sure." She walked in, looking around curiously.
"Garet, Kagome's here," Katie called, walking out.
The sound of running reached Kagome's ears, and a few seconds later, there was Garet himself sliding through the door. "Good, you didn't forget," he panted.
The sight looked so ridiculous that she burst out laughing. "No, I didn't forget," she gasped. "I'm leaving now, so I dropped by. I don't know when I'll be back, so I guess I'll see you later."
"Wait, you said you didn't live far from here. How far is not far?"
She just smiled secretively. "It's in the woods near the mountains," she told him. "Feel free to look for me anytime." She was out the door before he could say anything else. She went to Isaac's house next, which was right next to Garet's; she remembered that much. After saying good-bye to the family, she started searching for Felix and Jenna's home. This required directions from various people wandering around.
"Kagome!" Jenna squealed when she saw Kagome at her door. "You're leaving now?"
"Yeah, but it's not like I'll be gone forever," she assured her. "There are things that I need to replace every so often, so I'll be coming here when I need something."
"Will you wait for a second? Felix wants to say bye, too. Hey, Felix," she called, sticking her head inside the house. "Kagome's here to say good-bye."
He showed up at the door a couple seconds later, a book in his hand. He's just like Saturos was. "Um, good-bye," she said uncertainly as he watched her with a neutral expression.
"Will you ever come back?" he queried, even his voice holding no emotion.
"Yes. This is the closest town, so it'll be my town of choice to come to when I need something."
Their parents showed up behind them. "We heard Jenna calling Felix," Arianna informed Kagome when she looked at them in surprise. "It was nice of you to stop by before you left. If things go wrong, feel free to stay with us."
"Okay," she thanked her. "Well, I'd better get started." Turning, she walked away from the house, waving over her shoulder at the family of four.
It took less time to leave the village than she thought, and was soon back in her woods. I need to make a path or something, she thought irritably as she whacked her way through the underbrush. This could get very tedious.
Soon her home was within sight, but she didn't go in. Instead, she knelt by the Goshinboku. "Sango, Miroku, Inuyasha, Shippo, Kirara, Koga," she murmured as her gaze went to each gravestone. "I will be strong and take care of your graves. I will make you proud of me." She stood and entered the house.
Putting her weapons in her room where Hiraikotsu and the shakujo also resided and setting the bag of supplies and seeds in the kitchen, she went outside again. Where to put the garden? she wondered. The sun doesn't really hit the ground anywhere near here. These trees are going to have to come down. She sighed. I don't want to use my Psynergy for this; it's so tiring. I'll just have to think about how I want to do this.
Defeated, she went inside. Inspiration struck her. "I can use Hiraikotsu!" she exclaimed out loud. I'll need to learn how to hold it and such, but it shouldn't be too hard.
How wrong she was. Once she decided to learn to use both Hiraikotsu and the shakujo, she found out how hard it was just to pick up the boomerang. Once she could lift it for over a minute ("How did Sango carry this thing for days on end?"), she tried throwing it; she failed dismally. To train her arms, she started carrying it everywhere she went. It made doing things difficult, but then she just switched it to her back, like Sango often did. She wanted to quit, but every time she felt like that, she would look at their graves, steel herself, and keep going. If her friends could do it, then so could she! In memory of her time with them, she also donned the garb of the priestess. What good that did, she didn't know, but it made her feel closer to them.
Before she knew it, snow blanketed the ground. When she woke up and saw snow, she was disconcerted for a minute or two. How long have I been here? How old am I? Checking the calendar she had made, she was surprised to discover that it was already December. "I'm nineteen," she said out loud. I forgot my own birthday! Not like it matters. There's still work to do, and standing here won't get it done any faster. She found her feet again and went outside with the faithful Hiraikotsu on her back and the shakujo in her hand.
She was practicing holding it in one hand and spinning it while still holding it when the sound of a child crying reached her ears. Alarmed because she knew demons lived in the area, she slung Hiraikotsu onto her back and ran in the direction of the child.
Her fears were well founded. A young girl, no more than seven years old, was cowering against a tree several hundred yards away from where she had been practicing, and a wolf demon was in front of her, growling hungrily. Kagome debated throwing Hiraikotsu at it, but knew she wasn't experienced enough with it and could possibly hit the child. Instead, she brought the shakujo up and whacked the demon on the head. Hard. It yelped and bounded backwards.
Opening its red eyes, it snarled and lunged at her, but she used Miroku's staff to hit it hard enough to stop it. In fact, she felt its skull separate from its backbone from the force of her smack. It disappeared, leaving behind an herb and several coins. Gathering the items, she turned to the little girl, who was still huddled by the base of the tree. "Are you hurt?" she asked the child.
She winced when Kagome approached her, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. "D-don't eat me," the child squeaked in her high voice.
Kagome stopped. "I won't hurt you," she assured the child in a soothing voice. "I just want to know if the demon hurt you."
The child looked at her distrustfully, but showed Kagome her left leg. Kagome bit back a gasp. There were deep marks where the demon had bitten the child. She's lost a lot of blood. "Come with me," Kagome commanded, reaching for her.
The child looked like she was about to panic, but fainted right before Kagome touched her. Poor thing, she must be scared out of her wits. Picking her up, she ran back to her home, cursing her luck that they happened to be quite a distance away.
Maneuvering through the door with Hiraikotsu still on her back, she set the girl on the table before shrugging the giant boomerang off and dropping the shakujo beside it. She grabbed some hand-woven towels from a drawer and put them on the girl's wounds, trying to stem the blood flow. It was only partially successful, but that was all Kagome needed. Taking some makeshift bandages, she wrapped them around the girl's leg and tied the ends together, securing it for the time being.
Then she sat down, looking at the girl. Odds are she's from Vale, and someone will be looking for her before too long. Then she noticed how flushed the girl looked. This isn't good. If she has a fever, then she has to stay here; the Valeans don't have vaccine and won't be able to brush off a fever. I hope she won't try to run; that'll make things worse.
Going to the sink, she got some cold water in a wooden cup and brought it near the girl, thanking Kami that she had figured out how to make the water run through the pipes and thus gave her running water.
The girl stirred, moaning softly, and Kagome leaned her against her arm, bringing the water to her lips with the other hand. "Drink," she urged. "You need water in you."
The child obediently opened her mouth and swallowed the cold water. "Where am I?" she asked weakly, opening her eyes to look into Kagome's warm brown ones.
"Safe," Kagome answered, setting the cup down once she had drained it.
"Are you a healer?" she asked, taking in Kagome's strange appearance.
I must look strange to her. I'm wearing the clothes of a Shinto priestess. If I saw myself, I'd probably think I was Kikyo! "In a way," she said. "You will have to stay here for a little while so you can heal."
"What about my mommy?" the child asked, her eyes filling with tears.
"I will take you to her once you're better," Kagome promised. "Now, let's get you something to eat." She stepped away from the child and walked over to her pantry. Choosing a cloth ball, she took out one of her wooden bowls and set it on the stove. She emptied the contents of the ball into the bowl, piled it in the belly of the stove, and glared at it to set it aflame. Adding water next, she stirred it all with a spoon, also made of wood, and waited for it to heat to the right temperature.
"What is this place?" she heard the child ask behind her.
"I live here," Kagome answered cheerfully.
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"I don't remember anyone living in here."
"How often have you been in this area?"
"Lots of times!"
"Your mother lets you come to the foot of the mountains?"
The child gasped. "I'm not that far!"
"I carried you here; otherwise, I couldn't have treated your wounds."
"I never went this far. Mommy says that there are demons and evil spirits that live near the mountains."
"She's right," Kagome said absently, watching the contents in the bowl begin to steam. "You were attacked by a demon, weren't you?"
"Yes," the girl admitted guiltily. "Mommy told me never to leave Vale without an adult, but I've always been okay. There weren't any demons in that area last time."
"I guess that demon was hungry." Kagome used two towels to grab the bowl off its hotplate and set it on a different one to cool. "Why were you outside Vale?"
"I was getting some berries."
Kagome turned around, her interest piqued. "Berries? When it's snowing?"
The child nodded. "Yeah. Those berries bloom all year around. I wanted some, so I went to get them, but a demon attacked me."
I need to go back there and see if I can bring some here. That'll give me a change in diet. "I see. Why didn't you ask someone to go with you?"
"It's my special spot! No one else knows about it."
"But it's dangerous there. If I hadn't heard you, what would've happened?"
The child didn't have an answer to that.
Judging that the soup was ready, she set it and the spoon in front of the child. "Here, eat this," she urged.
"What is it?" the girl asked suspiciously.
"It's soup."
"It's not like any soup I've ever seen." The child took a tiny sip and her face lit up. "What kind of soup is it?" she asked, digging in.
Knowing how children were turned off at the idea of eating healthy things, Kagome just smiled. "Oh, this and that," she answered, smiling.
"When will I go home?" the girl asked sleepily when she finished the soup.
"When you're better," Kagome said, catching her just before she fell off the table. She must be exhausted. What am I thinking? Of course she's exhausted! She ran from a demon, and now she has to fight a fever. I'm going to be eaten out of house and home if I don't do something. I know! I'll get some of those berry bushes. But I can't just leave her.
Putting her on her own bed, Kagome used her Psynergy to ensure that the child wouldn't wake up while she wasn't here. Then she left, taking Hiraikotsu and the shakujo with her. Now where did I hear her?
After a lot of stumbling around in the dark and a lot of cursing under her breath, she arrived at the spot. Looking at the bushes, she came up against a dilemma. How am I supposed to get these back to the house? Getting them out of the ground wasn't the problem; a small earthquake would make the earth push them and their roots out of the ground in no time, but she had no way of getting them back to her house intact. Wait! I can Teleport them there. She had recently discovered that she could move things with her mind, including herself. Imagining she was in front of her door with the bushes, she saw the blue bands appear around her body. When the bands disappeared, she was in front of her home with the bushes. Now I need to make a place to put them.
Selecting a spot in the back, she got the trees out of the way just like she did the bushes, then used her mind to carry said bushes over and bury them in their new home. The trees she would later cut up and use for firewood. Exhausted by her extended use of Psynergy, she stumbled back into the house and fell onto the couch, asleep before she felt herself land.
She didn't realize how deeply she slept until she felt someone shaking her. Groaning, she slowly opened her eyes and saw the girl she rescued looked at her worriedly. "Miss?" the girl said uncertainly.
Kagome sat up. "You need food, don't you?" she asked rhetorically. Standing, she walked into the adjoining room with the child in tow and grabbed another cloth ball. "Did you sleep well?" she asked as she prepared the soup.
"Yes, ma'am," the girl answered. "I'm sorry for taking your bed."
"Don't worry about it," Kagome said. "It's no problem, and you need it more than I do right now. Here, eat up." She set the bowl and spoon in front of the girl and watched as she attacked it ravenously. "I'll be right back." She took a bucket out of one of the cupboards and stepped out into the back. There were berries on some of the bushes she had taken, and she took some of the ones that looked ready to be eaten. It barely took up a quarter of the small bucket she had taken, but she took it back inside and washed them as the child watched.
"Are those berries?" the child asked, wide-eyed.
"Yes, they are," Kagome replied. "Just like the ones you sneak out of Vale to get. Here." She put some of them in a different bowl and set it in front of the child. "You have a fever, so you need to keep eating."
When she said 'fever', the child paled. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" she asked fearfully.
"What?" Kagome asked, shocked.
"I'm going to die, just like my brother," the child repeated. "He had a fever, and nothing Mommy or Daddy did could save him." She started crying.
"You are not going to die!" Kagome said forcefully. "I won't let you. Trust me, I can heal you."
The child didn't look like she believed her, but she didn't deny it, either. After a few weeks, the girl, Lara, was completely healed and fever-free. In that time, though, she grew close to Kagome, following her whenever she practiced with her Hiraikotsu or shakujo. She asked to try handling them, but Kagome wouldn't allow that. One, they were too big for her and she would've hurt herself, and two, they belonged to her dear friends, and she wasn't ready to risk letting someone break them. Once the snows disappeared, she also helped her plant her vegetable garden, which was near the berry bushes. She was full of questions, though.
"What are those?" she asked, pointing to the graves of her friends.
"Those are the resting places of my dearest friends," Kagome answered sadly. "They died in battle, and I buried them here."
"What are those symbols?" She pointed to the writing on the tombstones.
"It's writing. Those are written in my native language, so you won't be able to understand them."
"Oh." She never asked about them again. Still, she was very good to have around, and distracted Kagome from her sorrows, but eventually it had to end.
"So, what are we going to do today?" Lara asked, bouncing around Kagome energetically.
"I think you're ready to go home," Kagome answered, laughing.
Lara's face fell. "But if I leave, what will you do?" she asked. "You live all alone. What will you do if I'm not around with you?"
"I was alone before you came along. I was fine then, and I'll be fine again," she assured the young girl. "I will miss you, but what will your parents do?"
"That's true," Lara sighed. "Will you come home with me?"
"I will take you home, but I can't stay there. What would happen to my house?"
"Leave it."
"I can't."
"But I'll miss you." Lara's eyes filled with tears.
"I'll miss you, too, but you can always visit. You know where to find me if you need me."
"Fine," the girl sighed.
Kagome grabbed Hiraikotsu and the shakujo, and they walked out the door, into the forest. Kagome walked slightly ahead of her in case they ran into trouble. Ever since she took Lara in she had heard voices calling for her. Unfortunately, Lara still had the fever, and Kagome couldn't go near them in case she passed it on to them. Night and day she heard their voices, but she kept Lara away from them. Now she could leave the child with the Valeans. She could hear their voices now. It was surprising that they were still looking; it had been weeks since Lara had come to stay with her, and left by herself in the wild, Lara most assuredly would have died.
"That's Daddy's voice," Lara whispered, finally hearing the voices. She ran forward, ignoring Kagome's hissed command to stay until she knew there were no demons between them. Luckily there weren't, and Kagome saw Lara run into the arms of a man she assumed was her father.
A bad feeling hit her in the gut. I left the fire in the stove! she thought, horrified. If I don't keep an eye on it, my house might burn down! Sure that Lara was safe, she charged back in the direction of her house. I'll have to meet her parents a different time.
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A few weeks ago, a child, Lara by name, had been lost in the woods surrounding Vale. When they'd heard, Felix and his friends joined in searching for her since they knew the area better than most. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found. They saw traces of her in the forest, but then it ended by some berry bushes with blood around them. Felix knew she wasn't dead because there wasn't enough blood, and there was no body. A demon could've eaten her, but there would've been bones left, and a lot more blood than there was.
There were places that looked like something had been ripped from the ground; Felix hoped that whatever did that wasn't the thing that met Lara.
Her parents didn't give up on her, either. They kept looking, along with most of the men in Vale. They were in the woods near where the trail stopped when a child's voice screamed, "Daddy!"
When Felix turned around, he saw Lara being held by her father, both of them crying. "Where have you been?" her father asked.
"I was sick, and a lady took care of me," she answered. "She lives alone in this forest, and she cured me!"
"What?" the man asked, not understanding his daughter's babbling.
"She said I had a fever, and she made me better. I didn't die," Lara said happily.
"What was this woman's name?" Felix asked, feeling like he already knew the answer.
The child looked thoughtful. "Um, I don't know," she confessed. "If you want, I can ask. Follow me." Her father set her down, and she set off in the direction she had come from. She only went a few yards before she stopped, looking confused. "Uh-oh," she said, swinging her head one way, then another before turning around. "I don't know the way." She looked confused. "I don't understand. I just knew how to get there."
"It's okay, sweetie," her father said. "Let's go home. Mommy's worried about you."
Felix watched them go, a frown on his face. It was Kagome; I know it! He took off in the direction the child had started to walk. It's been too many months since she came to Vale. She's not disappearing on me again! "Kagome!" he yelled as he ran. "Kagome!"
No answer. NO! He fell to his knees. I was so close.
"Felix?"
He turned his head and saw Piers behind him. "I saw you run off, so I followed. You think Kagome took her?"
He nodded, disappointment preventing him from speaking. Piers knelt by his friend. "I know how much you wanted to find her, but I have a feeling that she doesn't want to be found just yet, or else we're just approaching from the wrong angle."
He smiled sadly at his friend's attempt at humor. "It probably wasn't her," he said, not sounding convincing even to himself.
Piers put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find her," he promised. "Now we have a place to start looking, which is more than what we had before."
"Let's go back to Vale," the Venus Adept sighed. "We won't be able to find her today."
After the Lara incident, rumors started flying around about a witch that lived in the forest, and if you got lost, she would take care of you. More people had gotten lost in those woods looking for one thing or another and had either lost their way or been attacked by a demon, and the strangest-looking woman had appeared and had taken them to her home. No one knew how to get back once they left, though.
This was driving Felix to distraction. Kagome seemed to be within reach, but she never appeared to him; as he was a Venus Adept, he couldn't get lost, and he was strong, so he could defeat any demon that appeared in the forest. His friends noticed how he seemed obsessed with finding her and were worried about him, but when they asked him to stop, he brushed them aside. "I have not spent all this time looking for her just to give up now," he would reply. "You don't have to help me, but don't stop me, either." They all helped, of course, since Kagome was their friend, too. They looked and looked, but neither she nor her home was found.
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