Hello! -waves-

I have returned, and this time with a good excuse as to why I have been a month since I updated.

I went to Europe! Yay Europe!

So, I have my new chapter out, with an update for a Robin Hood fic, and also the first chapter of Caged Beasts, the fic that shall follow this one when it's done. Sadly there are only two chapters left!

The first chapter of Caged Beasts'll be at the bottom of this page. Just as a tester.

Enjoy, or as the French say, Enjoy-ez vous!

(They don't really say that, it just sounds funny. I have a tendancy to add an -ez vous after I order someone to do something, such as go-ez vous or have-my-children-ez vous.)

It grows dark. I am filthy and covered with blood and I think I am beginning to hallucinate. That or gnomes are dancing around the walls of the well.

The mud is getting to me too. It's cold, more water than dirt, and has soaked my filthy clothes, ruining them for good. They were expensive too. If I get out of this alive, I swear I'm going to have a huge bill from the cleaners.

Kagome sits with her back against the wall of the well, her eyes intent on the sky above, which has turned form a crystal blue to a soft pink to a velvety purple, stars twinkling like light pouring through tiny holes in a canvas when you hold it up to the sky. The rim of her dress is ripped, she tore it to fashion a makeshift bandage for my throbbing arm. This has been a bad year for me: I have never experienced such pain as I have this year. First the operation, then the hammer, or whatever Naraku smashed into my skull, then a goddam bullet.

The gnomes are dancing closer and closer. It seems they all resemble the strange creatures Kaede uses to decorate her garden, little elves with red pointy hats, cheery clothes, wheelbarrows or fishing poles in their chubby little porcelain hands. However, the delirium-gnomes wield their otherwise-domestic objects as weapons, and their supposedly-merry eyes have an evil glint to them. I'm getting worried. I squeeze my eyes shut against them and let the mind-splintering pain in my arm dull the certain insanity.

Kagome shakes me after a time, "We should go now." she signs in the dim light of the quarter moon. " Do you think you can stand?" Concern is in her pretty brown eyes as she takes my unharmed arm and slowly pulls me to my feet. The world spins beneath me like I've just gotten of the merry-go-round from hell. The gnomes dance faster.

I can't sign anymore. My arm is dead. I am, however, able to sign simple things like yes, no, and other things that only need my left arm. The rest, I'm sad to think, is left to the drudgery of fingerspelling. I stagger behind Kagome as she starts tugging on various vines, pulling herself towards the sky.

I try, I really do, but my left hand slips from the vines and I fall back on my wounded arm, causing waves of intolerable pain to rush through my body. I think I must have called out or made a noise, because as soon as the pain abates enough for me to be aware of my surroundings, Kagome is beside me, looking distraught.

"I'm so sorry" she sings, "Are you alright?"

I nod, gritting my teeth and clutching the bloodstained bandage. "I-l-l b-e f-i-n-e," I fingerspell with an effort.

"I can't leave you… I'll stay here and…"

I shake my head no."Y-o-u h-a-v-e t-o g-o t-o t-h-e p-o-l-i-c-e. I c-a-n m-a-n-a-g-e s-p-e-n-d-i-n-g t-h-e- n-i-g-h-t h-e-r-e- i-f y-o-u c-a-n m-a-n-a-g-e g-e-t-t-i-n-g h-e-l-p b-y y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f."

"But…"

"I-l-l b-e f-i-n-e."

"I…" She breaks off, tears in her eyes, "I'll worry about you."

I, lying on the muddy ground, feel a secret smile cross my features, and before I can stop myself or think better of it, I pull her into a kiss, feeling her soft pink lips on mine and melting away my fear and pain with the soft warmth that fills the pit of my stomach whenever I'm near her. We break apart too soon, but when we do she seems more resolute than ever.

"D-o-n-t b-e a-f-r-a-id." I fingerspell, looking deep into her eyes.

"I won't be." She gets up, "I love you"

"I d-o t-o-o."

She slowly gets up, waves goodbye, and climbs up the vines, looking back often. I feel her feet touch the ground ten feet up and slow, hesitant footfalls that turn into swift steps.

The vibrations disappear. I am alone.

In a dark muddy well.

With no one nearby.

And a bullet in my arm.

And if anyone happened to be nearby, no one would hear me if I called out because I have underdeveloped vocal cords.

And my one savior just left, my be caught by her murderous kidnappers, and I've fallen head over heels in love with her.

And, to top that all off, I have a troupe of evil dancing gnomes dancing closer and closer with malicious glints in their glowing red eyes.

I gingerly pull myself into a sitting position against the wall where Kagome was for most of the day and think dark thoughts. My life sucks. My father's fortune will be spent entirely on therapy for me when I get older.

As night comes over me alone, the already freezing mud grows colder and colder. I think I'm getting weaker, because every time I open my eyes I notice the gnomes doing a new variation of tribal dance against an imaginary campfire. I shiver and curl into a ball in the rapidly shrinking pocket of warmth where Kagome was.

The tribe of evil gnomes begins to sing a rather threatening song to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

"Killing, Killing, so much fun,
Life of deaf boy soon be done,

Chopping, slicing cut him up,

Throw him in the boiling pot,

Killing, Killing, so much fun,

Inuyasha, yum, yum, yum."

Okay, at least I know it's a hallucination. If they were real I wouldn't hear them, and even if I could I wouldn't understand the syllables, but creepily enough I get exactlywhat the creepy lawn decorations are singing. And I don't like it, not one little bit.

I clutch my wounded arm and fall to my side in the mud. I don't want to see gnomes that don't exist but still want to kill me and eat me, I don't want to be cold, wet, frightened and covered in blood, and I certainly don't want to be alone.

There's nothing to do but wait for help to come, but there's a possibility help might never come, which frightens me. I decide not to think about it.

Suddenly, I feel overwhelmingly tired. So very, very tired. My head has been throbbing for a few hours at least, but I always had managed to somehow ignore it. Push it into the back of my frazzled mind… but now all of a sudden the headache has turned into an urge to fall into a deep sleep.

It sounds appealing to me. I doubt I have slept properly for more than 24 hours. I certainly have a right to be exhausted… but what if I fall asleep and never wake up again? I don't want to die here, of all places. No, I've figured that all out. I want to die in my own bed, in seventy, no, eighty years of a heart attack or stroke while I sleep…yes. That's how Inuyasha Taisho is going to die, not before I'm even twenty in a dirty puddle of mud and my own blood.

The cannibalistic gnomes are laughing at my plight. Some of them have changed from their kitschy monocolor vests and britches into Cancan dresses. Yes. The gnomes are doing the cancan, bearing their hairy legs, bedecked in frilly pink bloomers.

I'm truly going crazy.

I close my eyes and decide sleep is the best option. Who cares about the danger? I am completely sick of stupid idiotic delusions freaking me out.

I close my eyes and try to relax. It's not easy.

I'm just beginning to sleep when I think I feel vibrations outside the well…

But I'm probably dreaming anyways.