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::Kihmiitehra
Chapter 7
The next day was warm and sunny, perfect traveling conditions.
Kagome never felt better in her life. She felt happy and light, and stretched out of her bed mat on the floor, took a bath in the river that ran behind the village, got dressed, and went to go wake Inuyasha. She found him snoozing in a tree behind Kaede's house.
"Inuyasha!" she called. His ears pricked up and he looked down at her, apathetic gold eyes gleaming in the sunlight.
"We're leaving to find the Jewel shards! Are you ready?" she shifted her heavy backpack full of supplies on her shoulders.
"Give me a second to hunt down some breakfast," he said, jumping down from the tree and landing gracefully on his feet.
"No need. There's some oatmeal in the pot. Go have some of that."
"Alright . . ." Inuyasha grumbled. He liked hunting his food better than getting it in the "civilized" way. He felt it suited his personality better. But they were in a hurry, so he obliged for now.
Inuyasha had never eaten oatmeal before. He liked it. It couldn't compare to a freshly-caught rabbit, but he liked it. Finally they were ready.
Kaede waved them goodbye, and Inuyasha and Kagome started onto the path to the first Sacred Jewel shard. Kagome could feel it, off in the distance like a far away dream.
"Aren't we in a hurry?" asked Inuyasha.
"We're walking because you can't carry me on your back with your pack in the way," she said. "And the Sacred Jewel shards could take months to collect; if one more goes to a demon, then so what? You can beat 'im!" She smiled at him.
"Hmm," he said. "I hope you're right." Kagome got the feeling that she had boosted his ego a little.
A bird, possibly a nacterehn, crooned in the trees. Inuyasha knew that even though she could fight now, he would have to protect Kagome. He had been in more fights with other demons than he could remember, and knew that many had the ruthlessness of daggers in their hearts. She was the only one who could sense where the shards were, so he needed to keep her from harm as much as possible.
"Inuyasha?"
"What?" He looked at her.
"Do you think we could be friends someday, instead of just mission companions?"
"Why would you want to be friends with me? I don't even like you."
"I know . . ." said Kagome, looking at the ground. "But I want to be friends with you, if we're going to be traveling together for months . . . . and also . . . you seem like kind of a lonely guy sometimes . . ." She knew instantly what his reaction to that would be.
"I am NOT lonely," he spat. "I don't need anyone or anything! Never have, never will."
"Alright," Kagome sighed, and they walked on in silence.
They were walking through a wind-swept field. The sun glinted off the shiny grass as it waved and rippled in the breeze, long and thick and full of dragonflies.
Kagome breathed it in deep. She loved nature, especially having a forest to play in growing up. It made her feel so ALIVE. There was an indescribable feeling when she was out here, in the wild . . . something tugging at her heart. Almost a feeling of duty, if that was right. She looked back at Inuyasha, who was smelling the wind for danger. She smiled.
"Why don't you enjoy the wind instead of just testing it for danger?" said Kagome. "I feel so alive when I'm out here, so truly alive; do you ever feel that way?" She wondered if he was too used to his environment to appreciate it fully.
For once he didn't scoff at her. He faced the wind and felt it slide through his thick silver hair, play on his face, caress it like the mother he'd lost when he was a child. Kagome was right. He did feel alive.
Inuyasha breathed it in deep. He felt peaceful, almost happy. And the whispers . . . the whispers were back. He had heard them sometimes when he was little, and had disappeared when he became a teenager. Rarely could he understand what they were saying, but when they did become clear, it was usually important. Very important.
He couldn't make them out now. They came on the wind, like silk threads, through his head, whispering, like dandelion seeds. He turned to Kagome, who had an indescribably glad look on her face, the bright light gleaming in her familiar crenium eyes.
"We'd better keep moving," he said, walking past her. She followed, a light feeling in her heart.
………………
They camped in a field that night, and Kagome got to see the stars for the first time since she came here.
"Oh my God!" she breathed. "I can't believe what I've been missing!" Inuyasha looked, too.
The sky was a symphony of brilliant lights, cascading everywhere, shooting stars darting to and fro, the Milky Way a literally flowing river.
"I didn't know the Milky Way flowed like a river!" she exclaimed. Inuyasha hmphed.
"That's the Star River in this region of the universe. I don't know what this 'Milky Way' is. It sounds like a damn candy bar." Kagome laughed her ass off. "Wha'd I say?" he asked. She shook her head, turning back to the stars.
What had happened, that made these indescribable lights dim so in the future? Had something tainted the atmosphere? Were there just less of them? Was it something humans had done? She felt it was. Something told her, that everything bad that happened to nature happened because of the human race. Like, she'd never even heard of enormous fields where dragonflies played, those places had been torn down to make way for condominiums, shopping malls, and the like. Not that she didn't enjoy those places, but it didn't seem like any were left. Everyone deserved to experience that kind of place at least once in their lives. That peace and wild joy . . . And these stars . . . even Shakespeare himself could not have described them.
Inuyasha looked from the stars to the girl sitting a little ways away from him. He hadn't known Kikyo as a teenager, so he didn't know if her body was the same in that way. He studied her smooth curves, wishing he had known Kikyo longer before she'd died. Gahh, what was he thinking?! He was supposed to hate Kikyo, for betraying him in his hour of need.
Kanta had said she'd died of the wound he'd given her. But that was impossible. He never would have touched Kikyo before then. He couldn't. It was against who he was. After, then, ho ho, look out, but . . . he had loved that woman with all his heart and soul.
And now she was dead.
Even if she had survived the trials of age, 50 years later, she would be too fragile to make love to. He sighed. She was dead, she was dead. And now that he was thinking strait again, good riddance. He didn't know why he was thinking of her all of a sudden. It was probably because her eyes had come back to haunt him, surrounded by a girl who's smell snickered of her.
Those eyes . . . those crenium eyes that he had loved once, so dearly, for one glorious year. That year had been heaven on Earth, a time when he was loved, like his mother had loved him until she'd died, when he was seven. He would do anything to feel that love again. Anything . . .
His face felt wet. He wiped it with a sleeve. Tears? He quickly wiped them away, before Kagome could notice. She caught his movements and broke her gaze from the night sky, looking at him. He refused to meet her eyes. "What are you thinking about, Inuyasha?" she asked in a languid and relaxed tone, as if it was normal to ask what one was thinking about at a time like this, with a sky like this.
"None of your business," he huffed. One ear twitched when a firefly landed on it.
"Oohh, look, the fireflies are coming out!" said Kagome excitedly. The field was filling with tiny yellow lights, darting and dancing.
"Wha??" said Kagome in awe. The stars were dropping from the sky and becoming yellow and white motes, dancing and darting with the fireflies. It was like the sky was a blanket full of lights that covered the world, and the stars were plucking themselves down off of it.
"The fireflies are mating with the stars," said Inuyasha. "Almost every year, in the season of Celestialla, the stars come down and breed with the fireflies. That's why the fireflies look just like stars."
"Wow!" breathed Kagome. The motes, fireflies and stars together, coupled and danced in the light of the night. Kagome had never seen a more gorgeous sight in her whole life.
"Fireflies are actually a kind of star," said Inuyasha. "They descend from them, anyway."
"Really?! That is . . ." she struggled for the right word. Awesome. Incredible. So cool.
Inuyasha watched the mating ritual, as he hadn't seen it in a long time.
Kagome made it her mission, right then and there, to find out as much about this past world as possible, and find out why it wasn't like this in the future.