To my reviewer, miss kagome1115, please fix your email so I can respond to your message, I got a failure delivery message the last times I tried. Thankies:)

Chapter 6

The path back to Kaede's house was very quiet. Kagome was walking alone with Inuyasha, the first time she'd ever done so. I made her a little nervous, actually.

Inuyasha probably out-weighed her by at least 30 pounds. She wondered briefly if he would try to attack her, but remembered her subduing spell. She was safe.

Kagome wondered about Inuyasha. She didn't know anything about him, aside from what Kaede had mentioned.

She studied his appearance, for lack of anything better to do. Inuyasha had long, strait silver hair that came to the juncture of his thighs, and the unruly ends made Kagome think he probably had never cut it in his life. His liquid gold eyes scanned the trees for potential threats. He had a handsome face, cute and boyishly good-looking, and his nails were elongated into claws on both his finely crafted hands and feet.

His feet were athletically strong-looking, with thick ankles, but didn't look brutish in any way. Just strong, even graceful. He caught her gaze.

"What are you staring at?" he huffed. His ears rotated as he spoke, listening for any unusual sounds in the shadowy forest.

"Just you," she said, and smiled. "Just admiring your appearance, that's all." He hmphed and went back to watching.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha's twin tails. They were silver, like his hair, but with black undertones. She wished she could pet them. He'd probably just snap at her, though . . . :sigh: She wished she had someone to talk to . . . Inuyasha was a wee bit on the anti-social side. Maybe he had something against her, though. She decided to be brave and ask. Just to clear the air, if it would.

"Inuyasha, do you have something against me? . . ." she asked. "I mean, you're always rude to me, and at first I thought it was just your nature, but . . ."

"NO, I do NOT have something against you," snarled the demon-boy.

"Are you sure? . . ." said Kagome. Her crenium eyes caught the light, so familiar, so haunting, 50 years and she still did this to him, even after betraying him . . . He looked away.

"Leave me alone," huffed Inuyasha, and Kagome let it drop, for now.

Inuyasha voiced that he didn't want to camp, so he carried her, with the speed of a demon, to Kanta Village. They told Kaede what happened to the Jewel.

"By the Gods! The Jewel scattered all over the country?" said Kaede. " . . . You'll have to find them, and quickly. Demons will be collecting the shards and laying waste to both human and Iitairii villages." She was interrupted by Kagome.

"What's an Iitairii?" she asked.

Kaede smiled. "The Iitairiis are the race who existed on this planet before humans came. I and Kikyo's family were Iitairiis. Inuyasha, I believe, is half Iitairii."

"That is true," he said. He folded his arms inside his sleeves.

"I'll tell you the whole story tonight, before you leave for your journey," said Kaede. She said, "Kagome, can you sense the sacred Jewel shards out in the world?"

Kagome blinked. She opened her awareness, and found that, indeed, she could. There was one right close by. She told Kaede so.

"Excellent! I thought you might, since the Jewel lived for many years inside your body, you should be in tune with its energies. Now then," she said, "I'll give you some supplies for your journey."

"Wait!" said Kagome. "I have to see if I can get home first!" She had used up her weekend. She wondered if the well would be able to take her back.

"Of course," said Kaede, "I had nearly forgotten you are not from this time. I will lead you to the well."

The well was in the middle of a clearing, the clearing Kagome remembered being ripped open in by the shadow demon. She looked down the dark earthy depths and gulped slightly. "Here goes nothin'" she said, and jumped down into the darkness.

At first nothing happened, she reached the bottom without problem. Then, without warning, the well erupted in soft blue light, and the feeling of being on a river, flowing between times, came to her. When it stopped, she climbed to the top of the well, but found it was blocked, by the wooden top that usually covered the well at home. She smiled, grateful that she had found her way home again.

But she was trapped. The good feelings faded, and claustrophobia set in. Eyes wide in the dark, she called for her grandpa. She screamed his name. No answer.

Before she started to panic, she realized she could go back. A sudden wave of apathy toward school came across her, and she thought she would try again later. The shrine was a good ways away from the house, anyway, there was no chance anyone would hear her from there.

She closed her eyes, imagining the past world. The soft blue light and engulfing river came again, and she jumped out of the well in the forest clearing.

Inuyasha was sitting up against it. He gazed at her. "That was quick," he said. "You forget something?"

"The well is blocked on the other side," said Kagome. "I might as well go on this journey and come back later." Something hit her. " . . . Were you waiting for me?" She looked at him curiously.

"I have nothing better to do," he huffed, looking away. "I'm not hungry enough to go out hunting, I'm not in the mood for training, I don't have any family, friends, or weapons to take care of . . . and you've only been gone a few minutes. It has nothing to do with YOU."

"Hm," said Kagome, understanding. "Well, let's get back to the village so we can prepare."

Inuyasha sprang to his feet, not in an excited way though, just as though that's how he usually got up. She smiled at him, and he stared at her apathetically back. They walked back to the village, and to Kaede's house.

………………

"Once nature ruled this world," said Kaede, as they sat around the fire. The wind was blowing at their backs, and Kagome huddled in her fur blanket. Inuyasha had refused a blanket.

"This planet was a paradise. Many races lived here, including the nicro angels, the nymphs, the Dryads, and the Iitairiis. The Iitairiis were as populous in the world as the humans are now."

"They didn't overpopulate the planet?" said Kagome. She'd read a book once that said humans were overpopulating the earth, but it didn't seem right that the Iitairiis should do the same. She wondered if she had traces of Kikyo's memories. It seemed like she had a lot of notions like that lately, ever since she arrived in this world.

"Not at all," said Kaede. "The ancient races knew how to regulate their population. Why do you ask?"

"In 2007, the world is overrun with people. It's like no one cares. People in poor countries are starving. . ." she looked down at the ground. There was that feeling again, that nagging urge to do something, do something about the problems of the world.

This urge was not new. She knew the world, and the planet, was in pain, but she didn't know what she alone could do. She wanted to do SOMETHING . . .

It reminded her. Of when she was 10, and the feeling, almost like the nagging of a demon, had been so strong, she'd gone out into the yard. It was pouring rain, and 5 in the morning, and she'd shouted to the sky, "What? What is it I'm supposed to DO? I'll do it! I'll do it if you just tell me what it is!" She shouted for several minutes, then just stood there, in her sky-blue pajamas in the rain and stared at the sky, letting the drops splatter her with their purity.

She'd wept. In the rain, she wept silently, uncertain of her destiny.

Kaede made a grim noise in her throat and closed her eyes. "I should have guessed that. That's what humans do; they eat a planet from the outside in." She continued, "The Iitairiis laid the base of almost all Natural blood on this earth. Most creatures knew how to shape-shift, and so there was a great diversity of species. . . . Where was I? . . . Oh, forgive me . . . Humans are actually not native to this planet. They come from Agniita1, a planet in another galaxy. They are parasites of the highest level. They move from planet to planet, draining the physical, mental, and spiritual life from them. They arrived here . . . let me think . . . 5,000 years ago."

"Humans are aliens?" gawked Kagome. Inuyasha blinked. He'd never heard this story before.

Kagome wondered. There were so many problems in the world caused by humans . . . Now that she thought about it, she didn't really want to be one. To have all that shame attached to your species . . . Kaede saw the girl's expression and said, "Kikyo and I were full-blooded Iitairiis, Kagome. Since you are her reincarnation, you are one as well."

"Really? Ok! Thanks!" said the black-haired girl, feeling loads better. She wondered if that made her parents, little brother, and grandpa Iitairii, too.

"You're welcome," said Kaede. The rest of the story told about the history of the Iitairiis, and the war about the humans vs. nature. It was very long, but fascinating, and Kagome didn't notice the time until her head started nodding seemingly of its own accord.

Kaede finished. She led the two to her guest rooms, but Inuyasha preferred to sleep outside.

"Wont you get cold?" said Kagome.

"I sleep outside all the time," he huffed. "And I like the wind in my ears." Kagome blinked, and smiled. She fell asleep glad she knew at least one thing about her new companion.

1 ag-nee-AI-ta