Word count: 198

Published: 1-24-2005

The Second Time

We returned today, as we do each year on this day, to visit a well that is a dusty hole in the ground, no longer a door to another time. I watch as he checks the wood for damage, clawed hands running lovingly over the wood. He sits, his head bowed, the sun glistening off his silver hair; the picture of sadness and despair, then, I smell it. A scent I remember only once before.

I was a very young kit; Naraku still lived when the Schichinin-tai attacked. Miroku, Sango and Kagome injured from their battle with Mukotsu rested at the temple. Renkotsu tricked us, Inuyasha, Kirara and me. While he fought, the Shichinin-tai fire-breather set ablaze the temple where they lay. My kitsune-bi kept the fire from them, but did not stop the poison.

He taught me that day as he stood beside them that a man doesn't cry where other's can see. Only when she moved did I smell for the first time the scent that tickled my nose today. Slowly, silently I backed out of the clearing, leaving my friend and father alone with his grief. Today was the second time I saw Inuyasha cry.