Chapter 37: Fire and Ice

After a week of traveling, the group finally saw what Kagome had seen in her vision. It truly was a gruesome sight. Bodies of every shape and size littered the ground, 60 of them were youkai. They walked through the town in complete silence. Occasionally they would check the bodies for any signs of life. Kagome walked along in silence, she already knew they wouldn't find any survivors in town.

"Are you sure there wasn't anyone alive in the vision?" question Sango as she leaned over a boy of about 15. 'I'm glad it's not Kohaku.'

"Aside from the little girl in the forest.....no one." Kagome downcast her eyes to the ground as she spoke. She looked up slowly, grief wearing her down emotionally. As she glanced up, a small sparkle of gold caught her eye and she froze.

Inuyasha noticed her sudden frightened state and followed her gaze to the back alley at the edge of town. An object of dark red and gold was reflected in the minimal moonlight. "Kagome, we already know what's over there. We don't have to look."

Kagome nodded, grateful for Inuyasha's gesture. She continued down the road, the triplets following right behind her. Inuyasha and the others bringing up the rear, never letting their guard down. At the edge of the forest Kagome stopped in her tracks and stood still, her ears twitching and swiveled around anxiously.

"Okasan?" whispered Chii as she gave her mothers skirt a slight tug.

"Shhhhh, just a minute…"

Everyone watched as Kagome stalked into the forest, searching behind bushes and trees. A few minutes later she froze and her ears swiveled to the right. She started to walk deeper into the woods, the faint sound of whimpering growing louder as she walked. She came upon a rather large pine tree with several low branches. Kagome heard another whimper and everyone behind her gasped. She slowly moved around the side of the tree, huddled by the trunk was a young girl in a ponytail and covered in blood about the triplets' age.

The slight rustle of leaves and the scent of new comers startled the girl and she tried to back away. She only found the tree's trunk causing her to start growling viciously. Not knowing what else to do, she started to shout "GO AWAY. LEAVE US ALONE!"

Kagome reached out for the scared and shaking child while speaking in a soft, soothing voice. "It's alright. We're not here to hurt you, we want to help you. Calm down, its ok."

The girl looked up with her frightened violet eyes and stared up into a pair of calm gold ones. Still scared out of her wits all she could do was stare at the woman who was now offering her hand. The sobbing lessened as she looked around and noticed the four children behind her, three were hanyous and one was a full youkai. All but one kid looked worried, one boy with silver hair was smiling warmly. She stared at him for a minute while thinking to herself. 'They seem happy. Are these people really here to help us. I hope so.' She looked to the other kids then back to the woman in front of her; she then lunged at her, wrapped one arm around her and started to cry hystericallyly.

The boy with silver hair walked up and looked down at his mother and the girl. He placed a hand on her shoulder "so what's your name?"

She looked up at him to speak but she was interrupted by the cry of a baby. She looked down to the bundle in her arms to quiet the baby. Once that was done she looked back up to the boy to answer his question. "I'm Mizuki and this is my little brother Kori."

The boy smiled down at her and started to introduce everyone. "I'm Kenji, that's my mother Kagome, over there against the tree is my father Inuyasha, my brother Akira, my sister Chiisai, our friends Shippo, Sango, Miroku, and Nekome. I now it's a lot to remember right now."

Mizuki gave him a half smile then slumped against Kagome, asleep. Kagome carefully took the baby from her and Inuyasha walked over and picked her up.

"We should find somewhere safe to camp for the night." Said Inuyasha as he turned and started to walk deeper into the forest.

Mizuki woke up screaming in the early light of dawn. Kagome was already awake making breakfast and Inuyasha had just returned from the forest with all the kids plus three fat rabbits. Everyone immediately looked over at Mizuki, worried.

"Kori, where's Kori, where's my brother, KORI?" Mizuki sat up panicked and started to look around for her infant brother.

"It's ok Mizuki. He's asleep over there." Kagome reassured her and pointed over to a large sleeping Kirara, a bundle wrapped up and sleeping in the folds of her tail.

Seeing her brother asleep settled her down. Mizuki got into a sitting position near the fire and watched the happy family scene before her.

"Mizuki, breakfast isn't quite ready yet so why don't you go down to the river and clean up. Miroku and Sango are both down there so you'll be safe," suggested Kagome. "Chii why don't you go with her, keep her company."

Mizuki followed Chiisai down to the river and she cleaned off the blood, dirt and tears from the night before. She looked at her reflection in the water, she placed a hand to the teardrop on her forehead. "My mother is gone forever…not just sold, but gone from this world, never to return."

Chiisai listened to her sadly. 'Sold? I don't get it.' When Mizuki was finished cleaning up they walked back to the camp in silence and sat down by the fire.

Miroku and Sango showed up right behind the girls and sat down. With everyone seated around the fire, Kagome served breakfast of rabbit, rice, berries and tea.

"Can you tell us what happened last night?" questioned Inuyasha between bites.

"Umm…we had just sat down for dinner when youkai from outside the village attacked. They killed, destroyed buildings, set fires. My mother pushed Kori at me then shoved me out the door and told me to run. I ran but turned around in time to see a large youkai attack her." Mizuki sat her bowl down and stared at the fire. "I don't get it. The village was peaceful. Human and youkai treated each other as equals, no one was afraid. Why?"

Kagome watched the various emotions the poor child was going threw. "We don't know why either. I received a vision of last night so we came to investigate."

"Oh…"

"So did Naraku plan this?" Asked Inuyasha gruffly.When he saw her shake her head and mouth 'I don't know' he continued with the questions. "So why where Golden dogs in that village?"

Mizuki looked unsure about telling them why they were there, at that moment Kori woke up and Mizuki went to tend to him.

"Okasan, whats it mean to 'sell' someone?" questioned Chiisai innocently.

Kagome looked at her, shocked by her question. Confused, she looked over at Mizuki, who was now standing stiff as a board. "Mizuki, was your mother sold?"

She sighed heavily then returned to her spot by the fire with Kori. "From what she told me, she was kidnapped as a child. She was then sold off to the highest bidder. A human was the high bidder. After almost 20 years she fell in love with her owner's son and had me. When he learned of their tryst he had both of us sold. Soon a nice youkai man bought us, mom was to work as a show girl at the hotel. Recently she fell in love again, with a nobleman's son. He'd wandered in on accident and started to come just to see my mother. My brother was born about a month ago. If you were wondering, I'm half golden dog, half human, my brother is also half golden dog but he's also half red fox."

Inuyasha sat quietly with his eyes closed while he listened. "Well, I didn't smell Naraku, but that doesn't mean he's not involved."

They all sat in silence and thought about the reasons behind the attack by that evil hanyous that everyone is after.

Mizuki looked at everyone, then finally asked what had been on her mind. "Who is Naraku?"