Last time: Everyone, save Kay and Charlie, were kidnapped by the strange demon, Enzeru, who looks like an angel. Now the two are off to save the rest of the group from whatever fate may befall them.

Chapter 9: Winter Wonderland

Kay yawned and looked around to see Charlie sitting in the corner of the room, looking out of the window across from him, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Kay asked.

Charlie adjusted himself to get more comfortable and cleared his throat. "Is it normal for it to be snowing in summer?"

"Um... No..." Kay said, confused. "Why?"

"Well, it's snowing."

"Say what? No, it can't be! It's too early for... snow..." Kay said, turning to look at the window. She blinked a couple times and made sure she wasn't seeing things. And Charlie was right. It was snowing.

"Um... So, now what?" Charlie asked.

"We go save our friends," Kay said, standing up and readjusting her kimono so it fit her better. She knelt down and dug through her backpack and soon found a blanket. "Let's go."

They went outside and Kay shivered slightly at the cold. She put the blanket around her and climbed on Charlie's back as he knelt down. Tightening the blanket she cleared her throat to indicate that she was ready. Charlie stood and started to run through the village and quickly left it, jumping on the trees to avoid running through the snow with his bare feet.

What the hell is going on? Kay asked herself, wondering about the strange weather. She shivered and cradled the blanket even closer around her.

Unconsciously she buried her head in Charlie's back to warm her face, snuggling farther into his back and kimono to keep warm. He blushed and felt snowflakes fall from some tree branches above him as he jumped from each tree.

Soon it became night and the cold weather just got worse. Kay had fallen asleep after a while and was just starting to awake, and blinked away her sleep as she peeked out from behind Charlie to see where they were going.

"We should stop to make camp soon," Kay said to Charlie quietly, yawning a couple times.

"Yes," Charlie said, slowing down and jumping down to the ground. Kay got off of Charlie's back and landed hard onto the ground. She pulled the blanket around her, looking around to find a good spot for camp.

"Too bad there isn't a village near here; the snow is so deep," Kay said, noticing that the snow was up to her knees. "Even at home the snow rarely gets this high... It takes a couple three days to get it this high."

"It is cold," Charlie said, his tail dragging in the snow.

"How come you aren't shivering or anything?" Kay asked.

"Well, it's my demon blood. Before, when I was a dog, it was my fur, but just being a demon helps," Charlie explained. Kay nodded and suddenly turned to a nearby tree, sensing the presence of a demon. Charlie did the same.

"So, you're getting better at that, Kay!" said a familiar voice. Anki appeared on a tree branch, making it bounce up and down and having the snow on the branch fall all over the ground.

"Anki... I thought it was someone else," Kay said, smiling. She held her arms and rubbed them, holding them tightly. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to grant you a gift. This cold weather isn't exactly the best to get stuck in," Anki said, jumping down to the ground and walking over to Kay, her white kimono making her blend in with the weather. The only way you could tell her apart from the snow was by seeing her blue hair or eyes. She walked over to Kay and put two clawed fingers on Kay's forehead and muttered an incantation.

Kay opened her eyes and looked at Anki and blinked. "What did you do?" Kay asked.

"Your name means many things. Keeper of the keys, pure... and fire. I have awakened a power that your name has given you. Even though your sword has the power of fire, you don't. Strangely enough, you have a pure i and /i fiery soul. Don't know how that works, but I do know that you can use the power of fire now, with, or without your sword," Anki said. "Try it now. Try to make fire!"

"Um... All right," Kay said, and breathed in deeply. She closed her eyes and held her hands out in front of her, holding them towards the ground. She could hear her heart beating and also could hear Anki trying to give her help.

She thought about the fire in her soul. Didn't work. She thought about how she needed the fire to keep warm. Didn't work. She opened her eyes and growled at her hands and yelled, "COME ON, DAMMIT!" A ball of fire covered her hands and melted the snow around it. Kay widened her eyes and looked at the fire in her hands.

"Awesome!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Now that you've learned that, you two need to learn something else," Anki said, holding up her finger.

"What?" the two asked at the same time.

"You need to learn your fates. Your future. Your life!" Anki yelled at them, making them jump back. "But, the most important thing, and the first thing I will tell you. Love."

Kay and Charlie looked at Anki carefully, suddenly intrigued.

Anki smiled. "Who you will fall in love with, who you will spend your life with! You don't have to look far. You will fall in love with--"

Suddenly a sickening noise of a head being chopped off reached their ears, and Anki was on the ground... Or at least half of Anki. The other part was a couple inches away from her body. Anki's head stained the snow crimson, as well as her body which laid motionless on the ground.

Kay gasped, staring at the demon who was killed before their eyes. A few feet away, stuck in a tree, was a huge, flat, sharp disk that looked like a giant, sharp Frisbee. Kay covered her mouth and held in the vomit that she was sure to come. Charlie stood there, overwhelmed by the feeling of despair and hopelessness.

A few tears fell down Kay's face, but they froze almost instantly. Though they didn't know the demon that well, she still helped them a bit.

"What should we do now?" Charlie asked.

"We should cremate her," Kay said, kneeling down and using her new power to burn the body of the demon. Slowly the demon burned and Kay suddenly felt very cold.

"It's getting colder," Charlie said simply.

"Yeah..." Kay said, getting her backpack off and digging through it for a tissue. She put it up to her now runny nose and held it close to her nose.

The two walked a little bit further and soon Kay made a fire and curled up next to it, the snow quickly melting and her keeping rather warm. Charlie sat near her, keeping watch, and whenever the fire would go low he would alert Kay and she would feed the fire.

The morning brought even more snow. Lucky them. Charlie and Kay got up and they traveled quickly through the snow.

Kay looked around Charlie's head and gasped. "A village! Hurry! Let's go find an inn!" Kay exclaimed, getting excited for the first time in days.

Charlie nodded and stopped in the village, letting Kay get off of his back and they noticed the village didn't have an inn, so Kay searched around for a person who would allow them to stay with them for the night.

"Excuse me, ma'am, could you please let us stay with you tonight?" Kay asked an older woman who was traveling to her home.

The woman thought for a moment and looked at Kay carefully. "I suppose you can, but I don't know about the demon," the woman said.

"He's fine! He's very nice! I've been traveling with him for the last couple of days, trying to rescue my friends..." Kay said, holding her arms and trying to warm herself up by blowing on her hands every so often.

"What happened to your friends?" the woman asked.

"They were kidnapped... Did you hear about that demon, Naraku, that was killed about a year ago?" Kay asked. The woman nodded. "After my friends and I defeated him, his incarnations were left and now one of them has kidnapped all my other friends."

"You defeated Naraku?" the woman asked.

"Not alone. I only did a small part..." Kay said, scratching the back of her head.

"Oh... Well, I guess you can stay with us for the night," the woman said.

"Thank you, miss! It is much to cold out to stay outside anyway. By the way, my name is Kay and his is Charlie," Kay said.

"I am Okamai," said the woman, leading Kay and Charlie to her house.

They entered a smaller home that was nice and warm with a fire nicely burning in the center of the room. Just as Charlie walked in, three young girls around Kay's age came up to Charlie and grinned. Kay assumed that they were the woman's daughters.

"Hello, cutie!" said the oldest one. The other ones 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed him.

"Get away from him!" Kay yelled, pushing the girls aside.

"Are you with him?" asked the shortest one.

Kay blinked. "What?"

"Never mind," said the one in the middle.

Kay walked over to a corner of the room closest to the fire. Charlie followed and transformed into a small dog, laying against Kay to help keep her warm.

- - -

The morning came and the two set off again, and soon enough they were stuck in snow so thick that they could hardly see two feet in font of them.

"Charlie, is it safe to travel in this?" Kay asked, coming closer to Charlie to keep warm, the snow falling both of their hair and making their hair look gray.

"I dunno, but we're already stuck in it," Charlie said, stopping in the middle of what he assumed was the trail... He couldn't see it anyway, so what did it matter?

"Hey! You see that in the distance?" Kay asked, pointing ahead.

Charlie squinted and looked ahead, nodding. "Yeah... Who is that? Or... what is that?" Charlie asked, looking off into the distance.

Next Chapter: Charlie and Kay meet up with a... 'friend', and Charlie gets angry. Though, why would he get so angry?

Michelle: The rest of us weren't even in that chapter!

Kay: Then I'll put you in the next one. All right?

Michelle: Good.

Kouga: MICHELLE! I LOVE YOU!

Michelle: YOU HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN IN THIS FAN FICTION SO FAR!

Kouga: Sorry.

Michelle: Just go away.

Kouga: All right.

Michelle: OK.

Kay: Um... Anyway...

Kouga: The next chapter is something... Um, I think it's Charlie's Realization.

Charlie: What did I realize?

Michelle: You realized how dumb you are.