Okay folks, here's my Friday post! Hopefully I can post it within the next minute to make it a friday post D
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It was a clear day, and Kaede was laying out in an open field. The wind blew and the young girl could feel the chill on her face and smiled. It was so hot that the wind felt very good indeed.
The girl opened her eyes and sat up, turning to look behind her only to see her mother and father, along with Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kirara standing far across the field from them. Kaede felt so much love and closeness to the group and she, for some strange reason, felt very lighthearted, as if she had nothing to worry about. As if, at that moment, she knew that Naraku had been defeated and she could finally live a normal life.
Kaede smiled and laughed as she waved to everyone and then stood on her feet, about to run to them. She took a few steps towards them when she noticed a strange, black aura emanating from behind her friends and family.
"Watch out! Behind you!" Kaede yelled in order to warn them all.
The group still did nothing but smile with great anticipation, waiting for Kaede to run to them, seemingly unaware of the demonic presence approaching them.
Kaede ran as fast as she could to get to all of them, but before she could get there she began to feel something within her. It was familiar but she couldn't quite understand exactly what it was. She looked over herself and then she looked back at the group who looked at her, now, with fear and worry.
"What's...wrong?" Kaede asked them, trying to reach for them as she fell to her knees.
Kaede suddenly felt a familiar pain of anger. It was overcoming her like a sticky tar spreading over her body.
"No... Not now... Please, not now!" It was the same struggle that she had experienced when she was overcome by her demon side.
Before her vision blurred out of perspective she could see the evil, smiling face of Naraku, and then darkness.
Waking up, Kaede could feel a soft wind kiss her cheeks as it had before.
"Was...Was it a dream?" Kaede questioned just before she could open her eyes.
As she slowly sat up, she could feel a wave of scents overcome her.
"Is that... blood?" She could smell it all. It smelled horrible because they were all familiar scents.
The girl turned to see puddles of blood, which surrounded... her family and friends.
Kaede's eyes grew wide and she got up and ran to them, yelling at them to wake up, ordering them to open their eyes.
"Mom! Dad! Wake up! Please! Miroku, Sango! Shippo! Wake up!" the girl yelled with tears in their eyes.
Before Kaede could even get close to their bodies, she stopped when she saw dark stains on her white kimono. It was their blood, it was all over her. Under her claws, in her hair, it saturated her entire body.
"...No... I couldn't have... I didn't do this!" Kaede tried to tell herself.
"How does it feel?" a calm, sinister voice asked with a chuckle.
"What?!" Kaede said, looking around her, seeing no one, but knowing who it was.
"How does it feel to know that you have slaughtered your only family. You've killed them all! By your own hands, you've killed the people who cared for you. And they died knowing only fear, fear from someone they could trust!"
Naraku appeared behind the pile of bodies which laid before Kaede.
"They're all dead! And it's all because of YOU!" Naraku chuckled again.
"No... No... NOOOO!"
Kaede shot up quickly from her nightmare, her lungs felt like deflating balloons that had very little room for air as she gasped. It was still only early evening, but Kaede felt wide awake, and she didn't feel safe to go back to sleep now.
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It was very early the next day, even InuYasha was asleep. The sun had barely risen, but you wouldn't have been able to notice because the skies were a rainy, gray color. But one person remained awake. Kaede had been awake most of the night. She didn't get one wink of sleep after her nightmare. Even as a human, if she had something on her mind it would keep her eyes wide open.
"I guess I'll just go ahead and wash up for the day..." Kaede thought.
Kaede got up and walked quite a ways away from the group but just before she got there she heard something moving around in the bushes.
"Who's there?!" Kaede backed up, worried that she didn't have her bow or her demon powers to fight with.
Just as Kaede was about to really worry, a small fox child jumped out from the bushes.
"Oh, Shippo, it's just you! You scared me!" Kaede said looking down at the young boy.
"What are you doing up so early, Kaede?" Shippo asked.
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided that I'd wash my face and get ready for everyone else to get up," Kaede replied with tired eyes.
"Can I go with you?" Shippo asked happily.
"Sure, I could use the company."
Walking to the river, Kaede looked up and saw that the skies were turning a dark gray.
"We'd better hurry and wash up, it looks like it could pour any second," Kaede advised her young friend.
She knelt down to the river and dipped her hands in, splashing water on her face when she heard the cracking of thunder which boomed loud enough to shake the ground. Kaede turned and saw several bolts of lightning which got closer and closer. One of which got so close that it struck a nearby tree, which Shippo was under on the bank of the river washing up.
"Shippo!" Kaede yelled to warn the boy, but as he looked up a tree limb had already begun to fall.
Kaede leapt as fast as her human legs could carry her and she shoved the small fox demon out of way. Shippo slid a few feet away and looked up as he saw Kaede get struck by the tree limb and fall into the river.
"Kaede!" Shippo yelled as he transformed into his balloon image and floated above the river to look for the girl.
"Kaede! Kaede where are you?!" The little boy had trouble keeping up with the fast pace of the river.
Shippo looked over and over but couldn't find the girl.
"I better go get InuYasha!" the boy said as he floated off towards the campground.
As Shippo arrived at the campgrounds, he saw that the storm had awoken everyone and he flew down to where they were at.
"Shippo! There you are!" Kagome said with a smile.
"Where's Kaede?" Sango asked.
"She was struck by a tree limb and fell unconscious into the river!" The little boy said with tears in his eyes.
"What?!" InuYasha shot up to his feet.
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Kaede could feel her body aching. She knew that she would be covered in scratches and bruises being that she was still full human, but it still took her a moment to open her eyes. She opened them slowly and painfully, feeling blood running down her face. She then realized that she had fallen over a large waterfall, and probably hit every rock on the way down. But she was lucky to have washed up on a nearby bank of the continuing river. She tried to pull herself up but she could hardly move an inch.
"What is it?" A woman's voice suddenly became clear to Kaede as she stopped trying to move and listened closely.
"Come on mommy! Look what Satoru and I found!" a child's voice sounded frantic.
"Oh my goodness!" the woman's voice sounded shocked.
Kaede then felt someone grab onto her and pull her all the way out of the water and turned her over so that she was lying on her back. The blurry image of a middle-aged woman looked down upon her with fear in her eyes.
"Young woman! Can you understand me?! Are you all right?" The woman asked, trying to see if Kaede was responsive.
"...help... Shippo... okay?" The injured Kaede managed to force out before she passed out again.
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For the Next Chapter
It was nearing noon, and InuYasha and the others were still looking for Kaede in the river, having traveled far downstream to look for her.
"Damn! Still no sign of her! Where the hell could she have gone?!" InuYasha was becoming more frustrated.
"You don't think that she could have been kidnapped do you?" Kagome asked sadly.
"It's possible... Maybe Naraku was in the area and thought he'd see what kind trouble he could cause!" InuYasha became more angry with every thought that Kaede could have fallen into Naraku's hands.
"Wait a minute, InuYasha. We passed by a village a while ago. Perhaps someone there has helped her. We should at least give it a shot, before we commit to the idea that she has been kidnapped," Miroku suggested.
"Yes, anyone could have found her besides Naraku. We should at least check just to make sure," Sango agreed.
"Let's just give it a try, InuYasha. It's better that we know we've covered every base instead of wondering what we could have done later on," Kagome pleaded.
"Fine! But we better hurry, just in case we've missed something else!" InuYasha agreed as they all turned around back towards the long way back and hurried off.
