Insane-san says: Well, I'm pretty much happy because someone out there said I was "an amazing author." So for you, my dear reviewer...I present you with this quote of idiocy:

Most lies about blondes are false.

- Unknown

I love everyone else out there who's reading this right now...I really...REALLY love you. Just because I don't dedicate idiotic quotes to you doesn't mean I don't read your reviews... -froclics and throws paper hearts around-

This is the last chapter untill the new year. Merry Christmas and happy new year. PRESENTS. WOO. -headdesk-

Peacock Feathers

XV

I prodded that fat pig's leg with a little stick over and over again.

"How am I supposed to know when it's done?" I whined quietly to myself. The blood on it had dried and most of it had flaked off. It smelled surprisingly good. I forced myself not to sniff too deeply because that was making me drool. My grandfather used to say, 'If it's black, it's cooked.' I thought about that for a second before shoving it away from my mined. Black meat? I didn't want to eat that...

Who would?

"Just a little more..." I poked and pushed it over a little bit. Then I started hearing this kind of fizzing sound. I leaned closer to the meat. It fizzed louder and louder. It suddenly split open and let out a large puff of steam. I jumped backwards with a yelp and nearly caught my foot on fire.

"Well," I said, standing up and dusting myself off. "I guess that means it's done." I stared warily at the pig's leg and then pushed it out of the fire with my poker stick. I kicked loads of dirt on the fire to put it out. I kicked here and there and even grabbed dirt from the ground and tossed it all on the flames that stretched out in a line across the grass.

I ran through the waterfall and reached the inside of the cave with an enormous gasp. My body convulsed with a shudder from the cold water. The water in my boots squelched annoyingly with each step. It was getting so hard to lift my feet. I had forgotten about the sand in my boots and now there was water.

'Oh great, my favorite boots have been turned into a complete beach resort.' I thought unhappily as I stumbled into the room Inuyasha slept in. I sat down and tossed the leg onto the edge of the bed. I pulled my boots off and leaned them against the cave wall. I sighed uneasily as I looked down at myself. I wondered for a long time when the next time I'd get some new clothes was.

When I looked up, I saw that pig's leg. Instead of feeling the need to eat it, I felt the opposite. It had started to sink in. The thought of me creating fire with my foot. I grabbed one of my wet toes and stared at it. 'I don't think fire litterally came out of it...I think fire was sort of formed there...somehow...That's only reasonable. But at the same time, it's...impossible!' My eyes glazed over as my thoughts started to crowd my mind.

"Is staring at your feet a hobby of yours?" An obnoxious voice shattered my troubled thoughts. I let go of my foot and stared at Inuyasha. My face lit up like a Christmas tree. Apparently I had forgotten one crucial detail when I walked in this room.

"No!" I blurted out. "I just had a...Oh, nevermind!" I stood up and walked in front of the leg. I sat on my knees in front of it and ripped off a piece of the flesh with my fingers. I took a small bite of it and swallowed it down. I stared down at the meat I had in my hands and then thought of how hungry I was. Why was I taking small bites?

I glanced at Inuyasha for a fragment of a second and saw him staring straight at me. 'What is he looking at?' I took another bite. And another and another. At that moment, I finally realized how hungry I was. I was scared of that hunger so I at as much as I could hold.

When I was full, there was less than half of the leg left. I was kind of scared and outraged when I saw it. I was thinking, 'Who came in here and ate all of this meat?'

"Where'd you get that leg, anyway?" Inuyasha asked rudely, as if I had been touching something dirty. I turned my head and said, "Some of the guys killed it." Inuyasha let out a quick laugh. "'The guys,' huh?" He asked. I frowned and rested my hands on my lap. I wasn't used to handling people who acted like him. I kept getting embarrassed. I think it was peer pressure...Most people I talked to at school and stuff were nice. They were either my friend and thought me a good person, or I never spoke with them before.

"I don't want to call them 'demons' because a demon is something different to me...And I don't want to call them 'wolves' because they aren't animals." Inyasha curled his lip in a smirk."That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." He said.

I sighed heavily through my nostrils and layed down on the soft bed. I curled up against myself with my back to Inuyasha. I was self-conscious about people looking at my sleeping face. Expecially that guy.

"Good night, Inuyasha." I said sleepily with my eyes closed. I didn't recieve a reply. I felt the lump in my pocket where my diaomond rested. I took a last deep breath of the wet rock-scented air before I fell asleep.

Voices were bouncing around in my head. Blurry fog and a wet kind of darkness surrounded me. The voices slid in and out of my head. Like some kind of animal that was trying to cry out, but was reluctant to. I felt my eyes moving behind my eyelids and I took in a small gasp of air. I kept seeing a face in the fogginess. It was malicious. A nasty face with a twisted smile. Long dark hair.

It was coming towards me. Slowly. I ground my teeth and felt a drop of sweat roll down my cheek. The voices got louder and more solid and the evil figure got closer every second that went by. I felt cramped in both my legs. A drop of water hit the ground and echoed through my head. It was so loud. Like a boulder being thrown into the ocean but someone turned up the vollume to max.

Someone was calling me. The figure was almost right in front of me.

"Chosen girl, you in there?"

I cried out and sat upright. "Wha...What? Yeah?" I whipped my head around. Inuyasha sat against the wall. He stretched out uncomfortably and winced his features. His ears shifted backwards and stood up. I smacked a hand over my chest and felt my heart pounding loudly. I touched my fingertips to my forehead and felt sweat. I wiped it off with my sleeve carelessly and looked up to the entrance of the little room I slept in.

There were many voices coming from outside of our room. Howlings, whines, shouts, laughter...I sucked in air and yawned.

Koga appeared in the entrance. "Ah, so you are here. I thought I heard you." I stared at him with an unamused face. "You look a little...are you alright?" He raised a black eyebrow and glanced up and down my face. I sighed with a weak smile. "Ahh...Yes. A bad dream."

He tightened his hair band and said, "Well that's too bad. Dreams are dreams, ya know? Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to come out and help us get some breakfast. You have all those powers and stuff." He put up his hands. "If you want to, that is."

I blinked and felt my mouth open. "Umm...Uhhh...I'm not really sure what-"

"What Inuyasha wants you to do?" He asked. "Don't worry about it. You're supposed to be doing what you want. Am I right?" Those words shot something off in my head. Like a little fire cracker. "Maybe you're right. I think that's what...I was told."

"When that mutt wants to sleep, he's out for a while. He only fell asleep a couple hours ago." I looked over at Inuyasha and rubbed my eyes with the backs of my hands. "Oh, did he?" I stifled another yawn. "I'm not good with all this power stuff yet...You'd probably be better off on your own." I said with a frown. "Sorry." I felt a strong regret in my chest. Like the feeling you get when you're sick and have to stay home but your family wants to go to a theme park so they go without you 'cause they have tickets and your mother doesn't care about her own sick child and she...

...Well that happened once. I'm just trying to say it was the feeling I had... And I was kind of upset and confused as to why I was feeling that way.

Koga made an irritated click in his mouth and crossed his arms with lowered eyebrows. "Well, I kinda wanted you to come along. Maybe you're good at hunting and you just don't know it yet. Even if you're not, you could just come to watch...It's not like you won't have protection..."

This guy was so tricky. He was somehow making it so I wanted to go. His powers of persuasion were shocking, but I knew I was giving in. He stared at me with unblinking blue eyes and I felt my mind being taken over.

"Well...I...Guess it couldn't hurt...I'll just wake up Inu..." I stared at the place Inuyasha had been sleeping. He...Wasn't there anymore. I felt my breath quicken and a strange sense of panic flooded my body. "...Yasha?"

Where was Inuyasha? What was I going to do? Where did he go? I felt my hand move up over my heart.

I spun my head around to Koga to see if he had something in mind.

That odd sensation of feeling my pupils shrink came on me. I stared at Koga in utter amazment. He was...

Scared.

My lips parted and I made some kind of quiet noise. Maybe Inuyasha had somehow died mysteriously.

Koga's eyes were wide and terrified. He couldn't move. Something had stunned him so completley...

'What am I gonna do? What if Inuyasha's gone forever? What will happen to me? What will I do? Inuyasha!'

I felt like I was being spun around in a whirlpool and I was going to die.

Then, so suddenly, out of thin air...Like he was born out of air itself...There was Inuyasha directly behind Koga. His pointed white claws were pressed directly at Koga's jugular. His face was above Koga's shoulder and I became shockingly aware of the muscle in Inuyasha's arms. Koga's mouth opened wider and he still didn't move.

Inuyasha's lips quivered through his growl and I heard his voice. "If you ever play your tricks on Kagome again...I'll cut you down like that breakfast you wanted. Only I'll do it slower. And more painfully. You hear me, Wolf?" I could barely tell his words apart from his growl, but I heard them. I heard them loud and clear. Koga did too. More clear than I did, I was sure.

Koga nodded stupidly. He was so stunned. Like someone had just hit him in the head with a sledge hammer and he was in a mix of shock and pain. Inuyasha released Koga from his death trap. Koga gasped in air and then clamped his jaw shut. He narrowed his eyes and swallowed hard. He looked at me with such a confused expression, and then over at Inuyasha. Then he left.

I stood up quicker than I expected I would and I found myself fingering my diamond nervously.

I wanted to say something, but I think I was too embarrassed. Or scared or something...I noticed that I was getting more and more twitchy every time I saw and talked to that guy. I was way too terrified to think about why, so I didn't.

'Maybe a simple thanks would be good...That would be stupid, what am I thinking? Thanks for what? Thanks for not being dead? I should say sorry...I could just ask him about breakfast. Maybe we...should leave or something. What do I say? He's just standing there with his head over his shoulder.' I thought to myself. "You sleep okay?" I blurted out.

He flicked his golden eyes over at me and I examined the slits that were his pupils. "Why do you want to know?" He asked in a low voice. I felt my insides heat up. I frowned, feeling angry. "It was just a question. Sometimes when people ask you questions it's nice to give an actually pleasant reply." I retorted calmly. "Keh. You don't think I make pleasant replies? What's a pleasant reply to you, huh?" He asked with a fair ammount of sass in his tone.

I shifted my weight to my left leg and clasped my hands together. My eyes wandered to the ceiling of the cave and I sighed. "Well," I began. "A person who was going to reply to that kind of question would usually just say something like, 'I slept okay. Thank you. And what about you?'" I looked at him and smiled. "It's not really that hard. It's not like I asked you a rude question, right?" I waited for his reply.

"Pleasant?" He asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and his head fell a little to his shoulder. "Well..." I smiled more.

"I slept terribly. It felt like I was wakin' up every three minutes after I fell asleep. I had more nightmares than I think I can count. Each one I can remember with graphic detail. They may be more than a human could handle, come to think of it, so I don't think I'll be telling you them."

My heart sank and my hands droppd to my sides.

"Thank you!" He continued in a fake act of cheerfulness. "And what about you?" I played with my fingers and searched for words.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Inuyasha...You've been through a lot. I can...understand what you're feeling--"

"You don't understand anything about how I'm feeling. You can't know how I feel because you aren't me."

Tears welled up in my eyes and I stared at the rock wall, trying to hide my emotions.

I think I failed.

Whenever I tried to break through and be nice, he always did something to win the situation over to his little side over there in the darkness. Patience was a virtue however, and I convinced myself that I had enough for him.

"I know...How it feels to have bad dreams, Inuyasha." I said quietly, swallowing to hide the crack in my voice. "I think I understand a little better than you think." There I was just minutes before thinking of how glad I was that he was alive, and here he was making me feel all...Sad and stuff...Man...

"Is that so?" He asked. "Tell me then. What do you understand about me? How am I feeling?" His feet were planted in the ground like he was ready for whatever I had to say.

"You're feeling hurt about your home. Like you failed...You're angry and scared--" I gasped when I realized Inuyasha was right in front of me looking me directly into the eyes. Our bangs were touching.

"I...Never...Get scared. You remember that." His voice was low and scary and totally penetrated my mental peace.

He then fastened the string on his back pocket tightly and walked towards the entrance of the room. "C'mon." He called. I grabbed my boots and ran out after him. I took one big sniff to clear my teary snot.

"Hey," I heard his voice and stopped. "put those garbage shoes down." I raised my eyebrows in irritation and said, "First of all, stop yelling at me and telling me what to do. Secondly, I need these boots! I can't walk without shoes." He rolled his eyes and started walking again as I dumped the watery sand from my boots.

"I'll get you some new shoes!" His voice echoed around the deep walls of the cave. "Those are dead."

I sighed heavily. "I just bought these a few days before you forced me out of my own home, thank you very much. They were expensive and I won't just leave them behind. They'll dry!" I calmed my breathing with a smile and felt a little completed at getting that off my chest.

"Fine. Whatever! Your feet'll be bleeding in a few days, but I guess that doesn't matter to you." He said, waving a hand in the air.

"Oh, and it matters to you?" I asked with raised eyebrows. "Yeah," He said. My mouth opened and my heart sped up. "'cause I don't wanna be smelling your nasty blood." I gripped my fists together and slammed my mouth shut.

"Right! Then where are you gonna get me new shoes, Inuyasha? Are you going to make them pop out of the ground like a gopher?" I shouted with frustration. "You can't just get shoes wherever...you..." Inuyasha was right behind a wolf demon and was checking out his feet, it looked like.

I was kind of like...'What!'

Inuyasha then grabbed this random guy's ankle, lifted his leg up into the air causing the poor demon's head to crash into the rock floor. He yelped out and wriggled around. Inuyasha ripped off the guy's shoes and then dropped his legs.

He walked over to me and held them out. "There. Put those on." I stared in a horrified way at these shoes. 'That poor demon man...'

"I'll get you better ones once we hit a town if you love shoes that much." He said arrogantly. He put a hand in his pocket and walked towards the waterfall. "Let's go!" He shouted without looking back. I stared at the wolf demon on the ground who was rubbing his head like crazy, growling quietly.

"Umm...I'm sorry." I said. "I don't think he'll let me give them back, so..." I glanced down at the shoes. They were a boot-style shoe made with a thick brown leather and they had these little spikes on the bottoms made out of some kind of metal. Or bone or something... They had black fur trimming.

I couldn't help but think, 'Inuyasha has nice taste, I guess.'

"Sorry!" I shouted as I ran for the waterfall. I shielded the boots with my arms as I broke through the water. When I got to the other side, Inuyasha was shouting at a random wolf demon. Something about being stupid for getting in his path or something...

'Typical arrogant Inuyasha,' I thought to myself. 'Not a nice bone in that one's body...'

I hopped along as I struggled to get those boots on. They fit a pretty well. They might have been a little bit small, but not by much. I straightened myself up and shook my foot around. 'Why couldn't my guardian be a nice guy?' I thought.

I made my way over to Inuyasha. I stopped walking towards him when he looked at me.
He stared and fixed his black eyebrows over his glaring eyes.

"What're you doing?" He shouted. "Let's go already!"

'WHY?'

Insane-san: The next chapter is the break through chapter. It'll probably be twice as long as this. Then everything gets started. That's where like...I'm so gonna get like...All this crazy garbage out of my head and into this fic.

I know you hate reading this and MOST of you ignore it, but REVIEW THIS CHAPTER. I stare at all of those fanfictions that have like, five chapters and they have over two-hundred reviews. And look at me! Where am I? I haven't even hit a hundred yet. What the heck? Come on, people. What's wrong with you?

These are my stats for this fic, okay? VIEW:

Peacock Feathers - chaps: 14 - reviews: 79 - hits: (this is awesome.) 1056 - favs: 20 - alerts: 15

The hits is how many people have read however many chapters in whatever order PERIOD, okay? Take each of those people and have them review. That's a LOT of reviews. Over 1k. You can see for yourself. You're not dumb, right? Of course not.

20 people have me on their faves list, I THANK YOU. 15 people have me on their update alert list, I THANK YOU as well.

If you guys don't have a good Christmas, you can tell me about it. I think I'll have a good one...We can take shots of spiked egg nog or something together. So review or you don't get any spiked egg nog. -grin-

Merry Christmas