Resting Places
Disclaimer: do you honestly think I would be putting these stories on here if I actually owned Inuyasha? Yeah right! I would be writing the series and killing Kikyo on the series! But instead since I don't own him I'm stuck here writing stories for the enjoyment of others.
The man with white hair and a red kimono climbed over a rotting stump and carefully watched where he was walking. He looked around him and noticed the little things he often didn't notice. He noticed the lone red cardinal sitting on a branch of a nearby green bush. He noticed the sky turning different colours and noticed the reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, and purples mixing together in the sky. He noticed the reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and greens of the fall leaves around him. He picked up one of the leaves and touched it softly. It was a maple leaf still half green and slightly red. He smiled as it reminded him of the dear miko he was so fond of, may her soul rest in peace. He roughly wiped the tears away and he thought about dropping the leaf but walked on with it clutched tightly in his hand.
He forgot about the leaf in his hand and looked around again, still noticing the little things he hadn't noticed in years, not since the miko walked with him. He gazed at a tree for a moment dumbstruck, he thought he had seen a piece of green material and reed material in a nearby tree. He rubbed his eyes, shook his head and scolded himself for thinking such stupid thoughts.
He stopped for a rest and sat down with his body leaning against the trunk of an oak tree. He played with one of the last remaining ladybugs and wondered why it hadn't gone to hibernate since winter was on its way. It crawled onto his index finger and then flew away. He watched it fly away then had his attention caught by another flying creature. It was the first bat of the night. He hadn't realized that it had gotten so late. He pulled himself to his tired feet and walked his old bones back to the village he and his friends of so many years ago had once called home.
He walked past the gravesite on his way back. He had thought it was a good idea to bury the miko, the demon exterminator, the monk and the two-tailed cat demon by the Bone Eater's Well. It was the reason that they had all been brought together so he felt it was the place where they should all go after they died. He would have to wait to join them there. Sometimes he was glad of being a half demon but more often than not he hated it.
He finally got to the village and walked up to the Goshinboku and stared at it. He tried to jump up into its comforting branches but couldn't find the strength to do it. More than he hated being a half demon he hated being old and weak. He called for a fox demon about a hundred years or so younger than him. The fox demon ran up to him and asked what he wanted. The older half demon pointed up at the tree. "Could you get me a branch from that tree there? Make sure it has leaves on it as well." He asked
"Sure no problem old timer" the fox smiled warmly at him and jumped into the tree, broke a branch off and jumped back down. "Here you go." He looked like he wanted to say more but couldn't find the words.
It didn't matter because the half demon knew what he wanted "Yes I know, I will soon be visiting our old friends. When that happens you know what to do right?"
"Yes old friend, I'm to bury you along side Lady-" he was cut off by the dog demon's coughing
"Yes, yes." He wheezed "You don't need to say her name"
The dog demon bid farewell to the fox demon and retired to his room in the hut where he and his friends had spent many nights together many years ago. He sat down cross-legged on the floor and held the leaf and the branch in his hand.
The next morning the fox demon came in to wake him up and saw that the old half demon had died in his sleep. So the fox demon dragged him out the door and over to the well where he laid him down and started to dig a hole for him. After, he put the body inside and buried him. Then he went back to the village and got another cross to add to the three already there, and he got a writing tool to add the half demons name to the monument.
He walked back to the well and pushed the cross down into the dirt and carefully wrote his name on the monument beside the burial ground. He stood back and looked at the monument and what was written there. He read aloud for himself "Here lies a gathering of close friends , a monk named Miroku, a demon exterminator named Sango, a demon named Kilala, a miko named Kagome, a half dog demon named Inuyasha." 'In a few hundred years my name will be placed up there also.' He thought to himself and pictured what the final phrase would say. "Maybe they'll put 'and last but not least a fox demon named Shippo.'" He smiled slightly and walked home.