Insane-san says: Well, I had a lovely time in NYC. Well...Not as good as I could have. I'm like, so negative when it comes to that trip. I had PMS the whole time so that didn't help. Because of that, I can't really point out ONE GOOD THING that happened. Except for the Saw-playing lady...Yes, she actually played a saw like a violin. In the train station.
I played with real snow for the first time ever. I don't think I wish to go again. At least not in such cold weather. IT WAS MURDER. Thank God for the hot weather where I live...Those New Yorkers need to abandon their homes and move somewhere else. Like...Hawaii.

I think I'll move there too.

Peacock Feathers

XIV

I turned around, imediately putting on a straight face. I automatically assumed it was Inuyasha. And you know what assuming does...

I went into my lecture voice. "Inuyasha, when a person's in the wash room you can't just... " My eyes tightened. "Inuyasha?" No one was at the door. It was opening slowly as if the wind was pushing it open. I stood up and stepped quietly out of the bathroom. "Is somone..." I searched the room fully with my eyes and saw no one. Then in a quick movement, I pulled the door back to see if someone was behind it.

No one was there.

"If someone's in here, you'd better get out! I'm the, uhhh...The Chosen One!" I walked further into the bedroom until I was at the foot of my enormous bed.

"You'd better think twice about this. I'll kick your butt!" I swallowed even though I had no saliva. My hands were getting sweaty and I guess I decided that the door wasn't totally shut to begin with and it just popped open.

I massaged my wrist slowly and then wondered why I was doing so. I looked down at my wrist and saw a nasty dry tentacle gripping it tightly. It was like a root, almost. A thin, evil, brown root. I gasped and stumbled backwards onto my bed. I clenched my trembling hand deep into the red blankets and took in rasping breathes. I looked at it in a horrified kind of way for a few seconds. I'm sure anyone would do that if they were in my place. I had to decide what it was and what I needed to do about it.

I thought about cutting it off of me. I grabbed my diamond and started trying to cut the root off. The root broke, and on top of that, it kind of...disintegrated. I smiled with relief even though my eyes were still tear-filled. I stood up and pushed myself off of my bed. "Well I don't think I want that to happen ever again. Hah...Hahah...I took care of that alright...Let's see tha--YAAAAAH!"

I was suddenly lifted off my feet. I hung in the air by my ankles like some kind of dying dolly. My black hair brushed against the floor like my head was a broom. I tried to bring myself up and saw two larger roots wrapping around my legs. "What is this?" I choked. The roots ripped my up higher into the air until my feet were touching the ceiling.

Way up high. Very, very high up. If I fell, I knew that I would be in trouble.

I felt the heat of my blood in my head and I felt my nose become congested. No one was around but me and the roots, so I didn't act like a sissy to keep my shirt up. My bra showed, so what? I was having a serious problem.

If I cut the roots, I'd fall. If they unwrapped themselves, I'd fall.

'Think, think, think! What am I gonna do? Talk to them! ...Roots don't have brains, you idiot!' Once realized I was fighting with myself, everything went even more wrong. I got very pessimistic when usually I was optimistic.

"Stop doing this to me! What do you want?" I fidgeted around and allowed myself to swing through the air. "I don't want to die this way! Someone help me!" It was getting harder to yell because my head was basically suffocating from all of the blood. Sweat was steadily dripping from my face.

'Broken bones are better than death.' I reached in my pocket and pulled out my diamond. With whatever strength I had, I lifted myself up and aimed for the root. Out of nowhere, another root shows up, grabs the diamond, and lets itself disolve.

That was great and all, but my diamond fell to the floor with the root. I was way too high up to even think about the possibility of reaching it. I let myself drop down and I sighed loudly. "Whoever's playing this trick, stop! I'll...HURT YOU, DARNIT!"

I swung around and around in annoyance.

Then without even thinking about it, I screamed, "INUYASHAAAA! HELP ME! Aren't you my GUARDIAN?" I stopped wriggling and let myself think about what I said. 'Now why didn't I think of him before? I should have been more--'

"KAGOME!" I gasped at the loudness my voice was called in. "What's wrong? Answer me!" I heard a familiar voice echo from outside my room. I heard the sound of feet slipping on the marble floor and his pounding footsteps as he came closer to my room.

'I wonder where he was when he heard me...' I wondered. "I'm a little bit hung up, Inuyasha!" I yelled weakly. I was about to pass out. The roots chose that exact time to release me. I felt the air of my fall rushing against me. It felt so cold against all of my sweat. I would probably pass out before I hit the ground.

I heard the door smash open.

Someone cried out in surprise.

Strong wind.

An evil laugh that made my blood freeze...

Then it was black.

I felt my eyes start opening by themselves. I was moving. Not by myself, though. I was being carried. There were shouts coming from every direction. A cool wind was blowing against me. Something soft was brushing against my face. I smelled smoke and water. My mouth was dry and my hands were clutching something tightly. My senses were coming back but my blurred vision didn't clear.

I discovered that I was on Inuyasha's back. His hair was whipping behind him and he was running fast. Then I realized that my vision was blurred because of the speed I was moving at. I saw very little but I knew we were running away from that gigantic castle city. We were getting farther away. Flames were everywhere. Even where Inuyasha was running there was fire on all sides. Great pillars of smoke rose up into the sky. People were screaming in fear and pain. People were yelling for water. People were running out of the city...

I wanted to shout out to release some emotion but my voice wouldn't work.

I was very sad to see all of that.

I saw that my arms were around Inuyasha's neck and I was clutching onto his shirt. I tried loosening my hands but they were stuck and shaking. "Inuyasha...What happened?" I managed to ask.

"It's my fault..." He mumbled angrily. "Everything's my fault...Everything...I couldn't...I was too..." He jumped over fallen burning trees, jumped into burning trees, barely touched the ground at his speed... And he continued mumbling. "Your fault? What happened? What's happened, Inuyasha?" I looked back at what little I could see of the castle. The very top of it...Was just crumbling down. I knew it was gone.

"He was there the whole time...I didn't sense...I couldn't have known...He's too...There was no time." My eyes filled with tears at his state. He was always so confident and cocky at everthing. His eyes were wide and shaky and it seemed like he was moving by some other kind of force...Like he wasn't aware of himself moving. He just...was.

After that, we went in silence. He stopped mumbling and just ran.

Hours passed. I was in such shock the whole time. I had gone to that city, accepting the fact that I would be there for a long time. I had worried about something...In the bathroom. I couldn't think of it. Then I felt so bad because Inuyasha had lived there. That was where he lived. It burned down.

"Inuyasha, when will we stop? We've been running the whole night." I couldn't see the smoke in the distance anymore. Either the fires had stopped, or we were just so far away.

"You must be tired, Inuyasha..." He said nothing.

"I'm really, really hungry. I haven't eaten in such a long-" I gasped loudly as he stopped completely. I heard him sniff and he turned to face the right. He stood there for several minutes staring in that direction. Then he ran towards whatever he had decided to aim for.

He ran and ran. I fell asleep on him a few times. When I woke up, it was probably about one in the afternoon. Maybe later.

My stomach pained me so much. My thighs were chaffed and raw from rubbing against Inuyasha's shirt and from the cold wind. It was no use talking to Inuyasha. I didn't even want to try a few words of comfort because he wouldn't hear me. What would I say if I tried? I didn't know what to say. He was the only person I was with at that time.

We were very close to some mountains. Tall, black ones. It was like someone stuck some massive rock formations in the middle of a forest. Inuyasha stumbled and then caught himself. I pushed myself up a little. "Are you okay?" He didn't answer me. "Stop ignoring me, Inuyasha! I want to stop! I'm starving. You've been running way too long...I'm worried, okay?" He stumbled again and gave me no reply.

"That's it! I'll jump off. I swear I will. I swea-"

"Don't you even think about it." He growled quickly. I could hear the hoarsness in his voice from him not talking for so long. My heart leapt to my throat and it stayed there for more time than it should have. "I will think about it. I'll think about it for your sake."

Again I was ignored. That was the last straw. I punched his shoulder with my right fist over and over yelling, "Stop right now, Inuyasha! Stop! We need to--" I heard howling. The howling of wolves I was sure. It was loud and echoing through the trees. Several wolves joined in. Then more wolves joined in. But these were strange and didn't sound quite right. They were deeper than the other howls. We got closer and closer to the howling. I saw trees moving ahead of us as Inuyasha ran through the dense forest.

He jumped up and broke through the trees. Leaves were blown off their branches and one even cut me from the speed of his jump moving through them. He landed on short grass and I felt his body vibrating. He was trying to keep himself standing up. He breathed heavily through his mouth and his ears were moving like crazy. We were right in front of all of these crazy black mountains. It was like a forest oasis kind of. There were waterfalls, streams, a big lake and grass everywhere. I saw wolves all over the place. And wolf people, too.

"Well, well, well." I heard. I looked up to one of the cliffs above us and saw the first wolf demon I met before. It seemed like years ago.

"Koga..." I said. I blinked up at him and saw that his expression was different. He looked strangely panicked.

"If it isn't the mutt-faced Inuyasha comin' over to see if I can play." He smirked and narrowed his eyes down at us. Inuyasha didn't make eye contact with him. He stared straight forward at one of the streams. "Some of my wolves said they saw your place on fire." He crouched over even more. "You smell like smoke so I guess it's true. Set your place on fire, Inuyasha?" He said with a sneer.

Inuyasha hesitated at first, but then he started walked towards the thick waterfall that poured down in front of the tallest mountain. All of the wolves around us started growling. Koga waved his hand to silence the wolves. "Hah! This is hilarious. What do you think you're doing, Inuyasha?" He snapped. Inuyasha gave no answer as we neared the waterfall. I desperately wanted to be put down, but at the same time I didn't.

"Inuyasha!" He shouted. He jumped down off of the cliff and landed on his feet. "Get that Chosen off your back and face me. What are you doing?" He threw out his arm and pointed a clawed finger to us. "Take one more step closer and you see if I don't decide--"

"What's that?" Inuyasha gasped out and he stopped. He grabbed me off his back and put me in front of himself. I was shocked at the quick movement and was mad that he decided to fight Koga. "Who did that?" He said loudly. I tripped and sat on my backside. I saw the wolf demons looking around at themselves. Koga's eyes were bulging out of his head and he dropped his arm. "Did what?" He spoke up.

Inuyasha knelt down and grabbed my face. When that happened it felt like the sun decided to trade places with my head. "Blood..You're bleeding." I felt my lips moving and tried to force my heart back down. "Th-that...That was...A leaf cut me." I said quickly.

"Leaf?" He snapped. I nodded dumbly. "A..A leaf. When you were running...It cut me. I'm okay." He let me go and stood up. "Just a leaf." He mumbled. I rubbed my cheeks like they itched when I was really trying to make the blush go away. I saw a shadow over me and looked up. I almost screamed when I saw Koga standing next to Inuyasha.

He stared at Inuyasha for a few seconds and then said, "You can stay for up to three days. If you're not gone by then...Then I..." He clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes. "I won't be responsable for the things my wolves will do, alright?" Inuyasha stood in silence. Everyone waited there like they just knew he was going to say something.

I stumbled back onto my feet and sort of...Saluted to Koga. Kind of. I think it was a proper salute...Anyway, Koga nodded and then I felt something odd happen. I was being moved backwards. I blinked. "What the...?" I tried to turn around. Inuyasha was pulling the back of my shirt so I would move and we were headed towards the waterfall.

"Inuyasha! Stop! I don't wanna get--" We went through the waterfall. "...wet." I groaned. The watefall had been the doorway to an enormous cave. It looked huge to me, but there was no telling how many tunnels and things were in it so it was probably much bigger. I never saw for myself.

"Woaaaah, Inuyasha! I never thought I'd see a cave like this! It's huge! It's beautiful!" The wolf demons that were in the cave were kind of laughing embarrassedly and glancing around. "Are we gonna sleep in here? Wow!" I clapped my hands together and spun full-circle to get a good look at the cave.

Inuyasha turned around a corner There was almost like a room there in the rock wall. A huge mass of fur and straw was on the floor. He dropped onto the edge of it in a cross-legged position. I saw his legs shaking as he sat. My legs would have been shaking if I had run so much... His legs must have been burning. Either that, or numb.

He glanced up at me and nodded his head towards the mound of fur. I happily sat on my knees and played with a long piece of straw. I opened my mouth to say something to Inuyasha, but his eyes were closed.

I stared up at the damp rock walls and the stalagmites...I heard the faint dripping of water from the ceiling of the cave. The drops echoed peacfully around me and I felt my eyes start closing. I felt myself slipping into a sleep caused by exhaustion and illness. A loud slapping noise woke me from my daze.

"Waaah! That's a great kill, you guys!" Someone shouted excitedly. Inuyasha's eyes opened slightly and his nose winced. I was about to talk to him again, but the shimmer in his golden eyes vanished and he closed his eyes.

I stood up and walked out of the room. I looked back to see if I had woken Inuyasha, but he was still asleep. I was afraid he'd suddenly jump up and tackle me to the floor because he thought a drop of water would blast my head off.

Ahh, I shouldn't joke like that. He went through a lot that day and he did have a certain duty to fulfill by protecting me...

"Hey, Chosen lady, you're hungry, right?" A wolf demon called out to me. I walked closer to the growing crowd of wolves and demons. They seperated so I could get through, staring at me with curious eyes. Plopped in a bloody heap before me was a gigantic pig. It was...It was...I can't describe it. It was ugly, though. Slashed and bloody with a spear through its head.

"Chosen Lady, what's your name?" One asked, putting his face right up to mine with a boyish expression of interest. "Yeah, Chosen Lady, what?" Another asked. I tried to smile and blinked. "Uhh...Kagome." They looked at me with grins and nodded. "Knock it off, you guys. Outta my way." I heard Koga's irritated voice bang out through the cave. Everyone there jumped or ran out of his way right after he spoke. He stood behind the pig and stared down at it.

His shoulders were back, his fists were clenched, his head was pointed down towards it and his blue eyes looked so bright like they were glowing. The light coming in from behind the waterfall outlined his body. To tell you the truth, he looked very dangerous. I started scratching my head out of nervousness. He looked up at me. My heart started beating faster. At that moment, I knew he wasn't just some guy who acted like Inuyasha's rival...He must have been more. It made me scared to think about both his and Inuyasha's past.

What were they?

What was a demon, really?

He bent over suddenly and, pretty much quicker than my eyes could catch, ripped off one of the pig's back legs, thigh and all. He let the red blood pour down until it slowed to a few steady drips. He handed it out to me. "Here. This is your share." He smirked like it was something funny.

"Ah..." I walked forward. I slipped on some blood trying to get closer to the leg and luckily caught myself. "Thank you." I grabbed the thick hoove oddly and stepped backwards. The weight of the leg was so much that I couldn't lift it up. My arms were almost touching the ground. I stared at the leg for a while deciding what in the world I was going to do with it.

When I was far back enough, all the wolves came down and crowded around the pig.

It was just like a huge wolf pack digging into their dinner... It was raw and there was snarling and shoving. I turned around with that huge leg and sort of...Waddled back to the room Inuyasha was in. But then it hit me when I saw the room there in front of me.

'What the heck am I going to do with a raw, bloody pig's leg?'

So I stood there, staring at Inuyasha's sleeping self... I scrunched my nose up and thought hard about where I could build a fire. If I got one going, IF...I had no idea how to cook an enormous demon pig's leg. 'Maybe it's just like chicken in a pan. Only...Bigger.' I thought to myself. I almost woke Inuyasha up to help me but then I decided that I needed to look out for myself.

I slipped on the trail of pig's blood I left as I walked out of the room. I caught myself before I fell and walked slowly through the waterfall. I gasped as the cold, pounding water smashed into me. So then I was completely soaked in water and pig's blood. I looked like someone tried to wipe a dirty floor up with my body.

I dropped the leg on the grass and looked around desperately for some wood to build a fire. Even though I had no lighter nor did I have a match, I was determined to make a fire. I ran around picking up various twigs and branches that had fallen from the trees that surrounded the mountains. I had them all in a nice pile.

So I sat there.

Staring at the wood.

Growing hungrier and hungrier.

At that point I was so hungry I actually seriously considered just eating the leg raw. It was slimy with blood and little blades of grass stuck to the bottom of it. Not a single demon was around anywhere. They were all in the cave eating. Everyone was eating except for me. I frowned and clenched my stomach. Tears began to build up in my eyes and I whined a little.

I picked up a stick and threw it into the pile of wood. "Stupid wood! Why won't you just light by yourself? Just light! Come on... Please?"

As I pushed myself up, a wave of hungry desperation overwhelmed me and I felt so angry and tired. I closed my eyes tightly and cried out loudly. I kicked the pile of wood I had made so nicely and it scattered out in a line. When I opened my burning eyes I saw fire.

'Oh, gosh...I must be so angry I'm seeing flames! I thought that was only an expression! I need to seriously calm down.' I took a deep breath but then I cut it short. I could feel the heat of the flames. Every single little twig and branch was lit with a flame. I dropped to my knees in disbelief and looked around for the person who could have done such a wonderful thing for me.

Once again, I had to come to the scary but amazing conclusion that I was the one who had done the thing. I steadied my gasping breathes and grabbed the pig leg with a shaky arm. It was probably about as big as I was from the waist up. I plopped it onto the center of the undying flames and watched it cook. I smiled and smeared some sweat off of my face.

'Being the Chosen isn't so bad after all I guess.' Sure. I told myself that then. But I had absoloutly no idea at that time what I really was.

Or what I was really supposed to do.

Insane-san: I hope that chapter was long enough to be an apology for a rather late chapter. -throws rose petals around- Please review or no more chapters! n.n I'm serious.