Welcome one and all to my fic :) Thank you all for clicking on it and I hope that you will be very nice and read it too. And tell me how I'm going in a review. :)

Well anyway, this is my um…second fic, but it's my first attempt at ANY kind of anime, and my first was one about Lord Of The Rings. So if you like LOTR, you can go read it if you want.

Anyone who wants to know some background info on the storyline is just out of luck, because I make up my fics as I go along, which makes them better, I reckon. But then again, I'm not one to judge, since I'm only the author not the reader/s, so read and tell me what you think.

I am gradually collecting the English dubs of InuYasha and so the chappies will be updated once I've written the chap to go with the episode.

On with the show! Story! Fanfic!

Disclaimer: For some unfortunate reason I was not born early enough nor in the right country to come up with the great masterpiece of InuYasha, so I do not own it. However, I do claim any original characters created by me, SO DON'T NICK 'EM!

To Imbue A Soul

Episode 1: The half-demon and the Priestess

.oOo.

On the edge of a village a young woman knelt, gathering healing herbs for the sick that she cared for. A sharp breeze whipped her long black hair about her face and she straightened, gazing sharply at the forest that lay not a hundred paces from where she now stood.

"What is it, Priestess?" one of the village men with her asked.

"I sense a danger approaching," she said without moving from her position. "Fetch me my quiver and bow."

"Aye milady," the man said, reverencing slightly and racing off to do as she asked. When he returned, the woman took what he gave her and started off determinedly towards the trees and into the forest.

"Priestess!" The man called, and she halted a few steps from the forest's edge. "Will ye be needing assistance?"

She glanced back. "Ready a dozen men and follow after me, but I do not think I will need your help."

The villager nodded and returned to the village to relay her orders. The Priestess continued on her way and vanished into the shadows of the trees.

After walking a way through them she entered a clearing and strung her bow, notching an arrow but keeping her weapon loose by her side. Around her, the forest was unusually silent and the woman kept a sharp lookout for any sign of the danger she had sensed.

Suddenly the sound of running footsteps came to her ears from her right, too fast to be human. She raised her bow, aimed at the sound and drew the string back to her ear. A small figure leapt from the shadows and landed on the other side of the clearing in a crouch, with its raven-black hair hiding its face. A bold streak of silver-blue stood out from the figure's bangs.

"What manner of creature are you?" The woman asked in spite of herself.

"Me?" the figure growled softly. "I ain't no demon, if tha's what ye're askin'."

Then it looked up directly at the woman, its disturbingly bright violet eyes filled with a tangle of emotions, though an angry grief was the one allowed to show.

And the figure was that of a beautiful young girl.

Hiding her surprise easily through a great expectancy for the unusual, the woman raised her bow so the arrow pointed to the other's heart.

"You must be a demon," she said sharply. "You move swiftly and your eyes are not humane."

"Me hair ain't normal neither," the girl added, standing and flicking back the sliver of unusual coloured hair from her face and straightening the tattered pale cloth that made up her kimono. "But I never came here searchin' for descriptions on me looks. I came here for – "

"I know what you are here for," the woman said coldly. "You want possession of the Shikon no Tama."

"Aye," the girl said. When she spoke, the tips of pointed fangs were visible. "I wish it for me to become – "

"More powerful?" the Priestess asked, with the same cold tone. "By the looks of you, you obviously need all the power you can get."

Anger flared in the girl's violet eyes, then abruptly dimmed back to their former sadness.

"Ye don' know nothin' about me, Priestess," she said quietly. "And I don' know much about ye. But I do know this: ye hesitate to let yer arrow fly."

She stared at the woman's face.

"Are ye scared?" she sneered. "Ye must be – I can smell yer fear from here."

"I am never afraid to do ill to a demon!" the woman shouted and let loose her arrow. There was a dull thud and the girl was pinned to a tree behind her. She looked down to see the woman's arrow protruding from her chest then returned her gaze to the Priestess with expressionless eyes.

"Wha' will it do to me?" the girl asked calmly.

"My sacred arrow will purify your demonic powers – however few they are," the woman stated. "At the end of the purification you will be nothing but an empty husk of what you were."

"And I suppose ye feel no regret?" the girl asked slowly, accepting her fate.

"None for a demon," the Priestess confirmed. The girl smiled without mirth.

"Haven' I told ye that I'm no demon?" she asked the woman, hissing with suppressed pain.

"That what are you?" the Priestess asked smugly.

They both knew that the girl was dying.

"Me blood is half kin to yers, Priestess," the girl hissed, her violet eyes dimming. "And ye would name me a half-breed."

The woman stared at the girl in silence, trying to fathom what she had done. It was one thing to kill a full-blooded demon, but another to kill a half-demon with human blood. Blood that ran through your own veins.

"Milady!"

The woman spun to face the trees behind her as a group of men from the village came bursting into the clearing with their bows strung and their arrows drawn.

"I thank you for your aid," the Priestess told them, smiling. "But as you see this demon is of no harm to anyone. You may go."

The men looked puzzled, but did as she asked. They left one small girl behind them, who stood still, staring at the girl pinned to the tree.

"I did not see you, Kaede," the Priestess said gently.

"Who is she, big sister?" the child asked curiously. The Priestess gave a dismissing gesture with her hand.

"She is another unimportant demon who craves the Sacred Jewel to gain power," she told her sibling.

"Ye're wrong," the half-demon said, growling slightly, her eyes dull and her breath halting. "If ye weren'…so quick to…judge…then ye'd've known…that I wan'…to become…human."

"You lie!" the Priestess hissed.

"I ain't never lie," the girl gasped. "And I ain't gonna die…at yer hands, Kikyo."

The last word was spat out and the Priestess Kikyo stepped in front of her sister as if to shield her from the girl's malice.

"My sister's arrow never fails!" Kaede called out in a shrill tone.

"Maybe it…hasn't, ever," the half-demon replied, raising her arms shakily to the sky. Suddenly she looked straight a Kikyo, her breathlessness forgotten. "But it will, now. Remember this face, Kikyo, for the next half-breed ye meet ye will not be able to kill so easily."

Kikyo swiftly drew another arrow and pointed it at the girl's heart.

"It don't matter – ye're too late, Priestess," the half-demon said coldly. "Mizu!"

The word echoed around them and the two sisters watched in surprise as a shimmering sheet of blue appeared out of nowhere and encased the girl and the arrow that her heart held. Her eyes closed and she was as still as the dead, her arms by her sides and her face wearing a peaceful expression.

"What has happened?" Kaede asked after a long silence. Her sister stiffened as the child walked towards the half-demon, who was glowing with an eerie light. Kaede reached out a hand towards the still form of the girl.

"Kaede! No!" Kikyo cried out. But her younger sister had already placed her fingertips upon the blue substance surrounding the girl.

"It's cold," she said in wonder. Hesitantly, the Priestess touched the barrier the girl had erected about herself, and drew in a sharp breath.

"It's ice," she said. The half-demon girl had sealed herself in frozen water, suspending herself in time so she would not die from the arrow.

"She has more power than I first thought," Kikyo added softly. "Kaede! Call the village men back! We will need to carry her to a place of rest."

"But big sister, is she not dead?" Kaede asked.

"No," her sister said. "She has put herself into an eternal slumber, and will not wake until my arrow has been removed from her body. As she has sealed both it and herself inside a shield of ice, that will be unlikely."

Unstringing her bow, and placing the unused arrow in her quiver, she walked towards the edge of the clearing and into the shadows without a glance back.

Her younger sister's gaze lingered on the girl's calm face, which held a small smile, as if she was laughing at the Priestess's retreating back. It was so unlike her sad expression in life. Kaede gave the still girl a small smile of her own, before following her sister's path back to the village.

In the clearing, the half-demon's slow heartbeat sounded in the silence.

There you have it! My first chappie for an InuYasha fic ever! I feel so proud! Oh, and Kikyo's attempted sealing away of the half-demon girl happened before she met InuYasha. I'm saying that just in case anyone's confused.

Just a few things to note: If anyone has any questions, send me a review, and I'll be happy to answer. And if you think it needs any improvements, tell me in a review and I'll change it. I'm always happy to do anything for readers that review. Also, do the chapters need to be longer? Or shorter? Or the same size? Please tell me.

Oh yeah! If you haven't guessed it yet, the half-demon-who-froze-herself-to-stop-damn-Kikyo-killing-her is obviously a main focus in this fic, as well as InuYasha and Kagome and all the other characters of the super-cool anime: INUYASHA:)

Well, until next time! Please review!

Lady ElfDragon :)