A/N; Hope you like it!
Also: thunderpot on tumblr made a freaking awesome art for Fae Tree, you can check it out on their blog or on mine there. And when you are there show them some love :3
Beta; Cstorm86
19
Next afternoon couldn't come fast enough. Kagome and Souta did quick work of their chores, both excited to meet Mr Kaze - Miroku - and his yasha friends. They prepared a basket of sweets for their 'picnic' in the forest and headed out as soon as Souta spotted Miroku at the edge of the forest.
"Good day, siblings!" he waved a friendly greeting and gestured for them to follow him in the shadow of the trees, down a thin, meandering path.
"Thank you for inviting us to meet your friends," Kagome said, a bit breathless after all but running from the house to the edge of the forest
"Yeah," Souta grinned. The path was too narrow for them to walk side by side, so they followed the adult priest between bushes and piles of dry leaves. The forest smelled fresh and wild, with a tint of the smell of mushrooms. Any other day Kagome would try to look for them, but now she was too focused on the prospect of meeting yasha to bother. "So, who are they exactly?"
"Oh, you will find out when we reach the meeting spot," Miroku looked over his shoulder at the pair, a kind expression on his face when he saw their twinkling eyes. "And introducing the new spirited lady and her priestly brother to the yasha community is going to benefit us all."
"I hope we can all be friends and get along," Kagome reached to push aside an overhanging branch that swayed after Miroku brushed past it. She steadied it as she walked past it, Souta was too short to be bothered by it.
"I'm sure you will. I mean you befriended a shiro inu and they are hard to trust humans," Miroku noted, walking easily across the uneven ground. "There are but few yasha who would be harder to befriend. And these we're going to meet are very friendly."
"Yeah, we noticed Inuyasha didn't want to give sis his true name and they danced around this for days," Souta snickered. Miroku stumbled over a tree root and Kagome reached out to grab his elbow and help him gain his balance.
"You... You know his true name?" he choked out, twisting to stare at the girl who blushed and shook her head, remembering how Inuyasha had always answered her questions without answering.
"No... I mean he told me how to call him, but it's not his true name," she muttered, remembering his promise and grabbing her pendant through the fabric of her dress. "We tried to get his true name to make sure he wouldn't attack anyone when we undid the seal."
Miroku gave a nod. "Even I don't know the true name of any yasha," he confessed. "It's better to allow them to give it on their own, albeit I understand your motives. From what I've heard shiro inu can be pretty destructive when enraged."
He resumed walking and Kagome and Souta followed him quickly.
"So, Miroku, you know a lot about yasha and their ways," Kagome started after a minute or two of silence. "What is this Yasha no Mori that Inuyasha's kin guards?"
"A splendid question, albeit I'm surprised you don't know already," the priest glanced at them again. The path slowly grew a bit wider and Souta started to walk beside Kagome.
"Grandpa isn't teaching me about much yasha stuff yet, only rituals and meditations for now," he said.
"I see. Well, Yasha no Mori is the most sacred place for yasha. It is a great forest that houses all their trees. As you know, when a yasha is born, a sapling appears. The type of their tree predicts the destiny of the yasha. For example, an oak is the tree of a sage, or as we call them - a druid. A cedar is the tree of a leader, an apple tree is the tree of a healer."
"And a cherry?" Kagome remembered Inuyasha's own tree, the two-colored flowers covering the branches.
"A cherry?" Miroku scratched his chin. "Actually, I have no idea. I've never met a yasha with a cherry tree."
"That's too bad, Inuyasha has a cherry," Souta pouted while Kagome sighed. This secret was going to be resolved later when she could ask Inuyasha himself.
"I'm sorry, young friend. I will try to find it out in our books," Miroku offered. "Anyway, at the center of the Yasha no Mori, there grows the giant Sacred Tree, the one that belongs to their supreme ruler, to whom all kinds of yasha serve. They call him their Emperor and he can grant many gifts upon those he favors. The legends say he can even bring dead to life and that one sip of his enchanted water can make you invincible. Your shiro inu friend can probably tell you more about him, once shiro inu served as his hunting dogs and guardians of the forest."
"When Inuyasha comes to visit, I will ask him if he'd like to meet you," Kagome promised. "So we all can have a chance to learn anything he wants to share."
"That would be wonderful," the priest beamed at her, then held out his hand to her to help her jump over a ditch in the forest floor. "The trees are important to yasha, they are tied to their life force and energy. Many yasha can be killed only by cutting down their tree. But since no one can actually get to the forest to do that terrible deed, all we humans can do while facing a malevolent one is to banish it or seal it away."
Kagome shuddered at that bit of information. It made sense that fae guarded their trees that way. She thanked the kami that no one had tried to cut down Inuyasha's tree while he was sealed in his hidden room.
"That's why I was quite curious about the tree in your garden," Miroku continued. "I wanted to meet its yasha for years, but they never came to talk to me. It was the first and only time I actually saw one of those trees."
"It is a very pretty tree," Kagome muttered, looking down to make sure she wouldn't trip over a root sticking out from the dirt. Miroku snickered while Souta nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, and our family made wine from the cherries it provided. I wonder if it was magic wine," the boy said.
"I wish I could taste it. Do you still have it?" Miroku asked wistfully.
"No, it disappeared with Inuyasha," Souta shrugged.
They entered a small sunny meadow, almost round in shape and with a thick carpet of grass covering its expanse. Kagome looked around curiously when Miroku stopped and whistled a short tune.
What responded to it wasn't a bird song. It was a melody played from the opposite end of the glade. Kagome gasped when she heard the music that seemed to flow around the meadow, making the colors of little wild flowers brighter and air more fragrant. There were two instruments that entwined their sound together to create a harmony that made Kagome smile and feel fresh and at ease - a flute not unlike Inuyasha's and a string instrument she didn't recognize. She took a step forward without realizing it, without seeing Miroku's pleased, amused grin when he stepped to the side.
"Kami," Souta whispered. A pair of figures approached from the other side of the meadow. The man had a bushy ponytail of ginger hair on top of his head. He wore a green outfit similar in cut to Inuyasha's red robe. Two orange tails with white tips swayed proudly behind his back as he walked on fox paws, his emerald eyes glinting with mischief as he played his flute.
The woman at his side floated on a pillow of blue fire that didn't seem to burn, just glow ethereal light. She also had red hair and three fox tails fanned out behind her, contrasting with her own flowing dark green dress with a flower pattern across the exotically cut outfit. Her eyes were blue and held amusement as she played an instrument similar to a guitar with two strings.
"Wandering lights," Souta licked his lips, his eyes glued to the pair who stopped a short distance away.
"Kitsune is what we call our kind, young priest," the woman said. "Foxes that lead morons astray."
"And who are happy to meet the new spirited miko of the Higurashi shrine and the new priest," the man added with a grin. They threw their instruments aside as if not caring for them, but before the beautifully carved things could hit the ground, they disappeared in bursts of blue smoke.
"You may call us Uka and Shi," the woman said as she leaped off of the ball of fire that disappeared into thin air. Then she handed Kagome an acorn.
"Oh, it's nice to meet you," Kagome uttered and plucked the gift from Uka's hand. The next moment she gasped as the acorn exploded in a cloud of smoke and something a bit heavier filled her palm. She stared as the smoke cleared. A small boy in green and blue robe, a miniature of the adult fox man, but with one tail, stood on her palm, tiny hands covering his mouth to smother his giggling.
"And you can call me Shippou. I stole your ribbon," he said, pointing to his ponytail.
"Uh..." Kagome moved her mouth for a moment, unsure what to say to that. Miroku and the adult kitsune pair didn't even try to hide their amusement at her startled face. "I... If you needed a ribbon, you could've just asked and I'd give it to you..."
"Don't encourage him," Miroku, still grinning, plucked the boy from her hand and put him on the ground. "Let me introduce Lady Kagome and her little brother Souta."
"Hey!" Souta stopped staring at the kitsune. "Why is Kagome a lady suddenly and I'm just her little brother? I'm a Higurashi priest... I mean, I'm in training!"
"Because," Miroku said and glanced at the foxes, who looked at Kagome with the intrigued eyes yasha often looked at him with. "Lady Kagome is favored by a certain powerful shiro inu who wouldn't tolerate disrespect to her person"
"A dog?!" Shi gasped and looked between Miroku and Kagome, who blushed a bit at all the attention from these ethereal creatures she just met. Uka inclined her head and used a tail to poke her companion to bow a little as well.
"We will not do anything that could upset one of Emperor's hunting hounds," she assured Miroku. "And we won't cause too much disturbance during your lifetime, young priest. We lived here for decades and want to raise our kit in peace."
"And sometimes steal chickens. And sometimes lead people in circles in the forest. And pee into the milk of the humans that annoy us."
"Yes, Shi, this too," Uka said with a straight face. "This is tradition, not disturbance, and I'm sure our new friends will not be cross with us for cultivating our culture."
"Um... I think... it's fine?" Kagome uttered. Souta snickered.
"As long as you don't pee in our milk!" he grinned. Shippou flicked his tail at that.
"Up until recently we couldn't even go on the shrine grounds, so your milk was safe," he assured. "And if you leave treats for us, it will be safe forever, promise!"
Kagome chuckled.
That wasn't the last laugh she shared with her brother, Miroku and the three yasha of the woods this afternoon. They sat in a circle around the basket she'd brought with her and shared the sweets until there was nothing left. They talked and laughed, Shippou showing off his tricks and amusing attempts at transforming into animals. His parents looked at him with pride and Kagome clapped her hands, giggling and trying to figure out what he was. Souta asked Shi to see the famous blue fire of his kin and the adult yasha created a ball of fire that didn't burn for Souta to hold for a while. Miroku was trying to flatter both Kagome and Uka, which resulted in Uka promising him a peck to his cheek if he could hold her ring for a minute. Which resulted in the poor priest having his hand stuck under a huge rock for half an hour until his apologies softened the laughing ladies to take pity on him and Uka turned the rock into a ring again.
It was as if mere minutes passed, but at the same time there was comradery between the six of them that usually took months to grow. When Kagome and Souta walked back home, led once again by Miroku, the three kitsune waved them goodbye and promised to see them again soon.
Kagome felt as if with every step she took away from that sunny meadow she was leaving a place of her dreams and approaching the mundane, waking world. She smiled the whole way back, chatting with her brother and Miroku, committing this afternoon to memory. It made her spirit feel free in a strange way. She felt alive and rejuvenated, the woes and discomfort lingering after her visit to Lord Kagewaki's manor disappearing in the magical aura the friendly yasha warmed her with throughout the whole meeting.
When this night she slept, she dreamed about walking through the forest Inuyasha had dreamed and shared his dreams with her when he had been sealed away. Was that Yasha no Mori, that wild, untamed forest full of ancient trees and life? Or was it only a forest deep within yasha lands, where they could wander not disturbed or threatened by humans?
She hoped one day she could visit that place, along with her new and old yasha friends.
.
The very next day just as she was finishing her work, Souta ran to her, excitedly waving his hands. She put her bucket of water down and looked at him when he called her. The chickens gathered around her and were waiting for her to refill their water bowl and scattered when the boy approached.
"Sister, sister!" he ran towards her and grabbed her hand to pull her back towards where he came from. She noticed he had a stray leaf stick in his hair on top of his head and looked so innocent and cute."Come quickly!"
"What's going on, Souta?" Kagome asked, smiling and allowing him to pull her towards the forest. From the tone of his voice she knew that whatever it was, it wasn't anything bad. She looked around, but nothing seemed to be wrong. Her little brother grinned at her and pulled at her hand harder.
"He's back!" he pointed a finger towards the path that led inside the forest and far from prying eyes. At his words, Kagome felt her heart flutter in anticipation and Souta no longer had to pull at her hand.
"Inuyasha?" she gasped, at the same time excited to see him and anxious - she wore a working apron over a dress that wasn't one of her nice dresses. Her hair was in a tight knot under a plain scarf to keep it away from her face when she worked. She wasn't presentable, but she didn't want to run back home to change, afraid he might go away if she took too long to get to him.
"Wow, Kagome!" Souta laughed, practically running after her when she stepped onto the thin path deeper in the forest. "It's not Inuyasha!"
"O... oh."
Kagome stopped, staring at the lush green of the bushes and trees in front of her, feeling a pang of disappointment in her heart. It wasn't Inuyasha. All her nerves were for nothing. It wasn't Inuyasha coming to see her again; it was not her silver-haired canine spirit of a cherry, coming to play for her again, to talk to her, to smile that mischievous smile. She breathed deeply. Well, maybe it wasn't Inuyasha waiting to meet her in the forest, but it didn't mean Inuyasha wouldn't come to see her one day, right? He had to meet up with his family and friends after a long absence. He had places to go before he could come back. She knew that. She reached up to touch the warm little pebble pendant around her neck. Touching it, feeling its warmth and smooth surface helped her reassure herself that she was going to see that cheeky man again.
"Who is it then?" Kagome looked at Souta, who gave her a knowing grin which made her cheeks heat a little.
"I didn't know you missed him that much!" he smirked and waved a hand towards the forest when she scowled at him. "It's just plain old Miroku."
"Ah, okay," Kagome smiled and resumed walking down the path with Souta just behind her. Miroku was a fine guest as well, but definitely not one she would worry about her looks for.
The pocket of sunlight flowing through the small opening in the trees was too small to be called a meadow, it was created when an old tree had fallen and had broken some branches of the surrounding trees. It was located around fifty meters from the forest border, hidden from view, but close enough.
Kagome had no trouble spotting Miroku's black and purple robes against the lush vegetation of young saplings and bushes that grew around the fallen tree on which he was sitting.
The problem she had was because there was too much of the robes. Enough to dress two men instead of one. Two men that sat side by side, looking at her with identical eyes and playful grins on their faces.
"Miroku... is it your twin?" she breathed out, trying to figure out which man was her friend. They snickered - so did Souta, who was now standing beside her - and shook their heads.
"Miss Kagome thinks we're related," the one on the left said to the one on the right.
"I heard, right? We're nothing alike!" the other nodded.
"Kami forbid, I'd never go anywhere with ladies if I looked like you!" the first waved his hand at the second, who looked exactly like him.
"There's no blood relation between us, Miss Kagome," the second glared at his companion before turning to her. "But one of us is real, yes."
Kagome thought that she could use a chair to sit down.
"Can you guess which one?" Souta asked her. "I tried, but I can't. I can't really read auras yet."
"I... I can't see any difference too," Kagome confessed and glanced at her hands. Then she looked up again at the amused snort of one of the adult priests. As she looked more closely, she could see their auras, warm and welcoming, the men good-heartedly amused at her frowning face, both so similar to each other that it was almost scary. They had the same looks, the same voices, the same gestures even.
But the energy in them weren't the same. No, they differed and the more she looked, the more she noticed - a small difference that could be easily overlooked, as the not-Miroku tried to pass for the real one. Miroku's reiki, as any other reiki would, pulsed gently about him while the other's energy was swirling in lazy motion.
She knew whose energy tended to do that, even if she saw it only a few times.
"So, Miroku, is it one of our kitsune friends?" she turned to the priest on the right, who raised a brow, while the other one put a hand to his chest.
"My, Miss Kagome, I am wounded! How can you pretend I am not the real one!" he complained. But his eyes were full of laughter. At her first words indicating which was the real Miroku, Souta stepped closer, trying to see what she'd seen, but shaking his head in annoyance. His reiki might have been stronger than hers, but without training he couldn't use it to full effect while Kagome, thanks to her gift, had sight more attuned to the swirling energy around the accompanying Miroku.
"I can poke you wuth my reiki and see if you sprout a tail," she warned.
"Please don't," the real Miroku said when his companion shook his head. "He has a terribly low tolerance to reiki."
"Yes! And this all was his idea, Miss Kagome!" the not-Miroku reached to his head and picked a leaf that was sitting in his hair. In a poof of smoke the human was gone and instead a humanoid racoon dog in colorful clothing sat there. Souta gasped at the change and took a step back, waving the smoke away from his face. Kagome looked at the revealed yasha with curiosity. The yasha was rather... well, he was fat and his animal eyes held some anxiety, but also kindness and intelligence. His hands were more like human hands than paws.
"This is Hachiemon, a tanuki I befriended years ago," Miroku introduced. "And apologies for this little game, we wanted to see how acute your sight is, Miss Kagome."
"It's nice to meet you, Mr Hachiemon," Kagome said, her little brother smiling widely.
"Hello," Souta greeted a bit shyly. but then gave the tanuki a big grin. "So, there are more than one kind of yasha living around here?"
"Hachie is fine, master Souta," the tanuki bowed his head politely.
"There are a few, but beside Hachie and the kitsune I introduced you to, are the most likely to meet," Miroku explained. "The rest is not interested in interacting with humans."
"Oh, I see," Souta turned to Kagome. "So, how did you know which was the real Miroku?"
"His energy pulses while Hachie's swirls," Kagome explained with a shrug. "I'm sure that you can learn to see it."
"You will have to train to be able to do it, through," Miroku grinned when Souta looked at him as if to answer if she was right. "It's a useful thing, if you want to go into the wilderness where you can't tell if you see a human or a shapeshifting yasha."
"Yeah, I'll train," Souta sighed. Kagome felt a tiny spark of pride at his words. Her younger brother was always more willing to learn by doing stuff. Reading and copying old books wasn't his style of learning. Sadly, their grandfather preferred this way of studying.
"I wander a lot," Hachie said, and folded his hands in front of himself, obviously more at ease now, when neither Higurashi freaked out at his sight. He definitely was an odd-looking fellow, but it didn't bother Kagome that he had a snout instead of a nose. Actually, he was funny in this form, stuck between his animal form and a human shape. She wondered if it was because he felt comfortable this way. He obviously could look like any other man. "I was passing by on my way to the fae and Miroku said that I had to meet you."
"It's always nice to make new friends," Kagome smiled. Yes, she loved to meet new yasha. Each kind was different, but they all were so much unlike humans, dressed in their flowing garments, attuned to nature and accepting her as an equal despite of her being a girl.
"If you travel a lot, Hachie," Souta asked with bright eyes. "Does it mean you know a lot about the yasha lands? Can you tell us about shiro inu?"
Miroku grinned and Kagome couldn't help but nod her own interest, looking hopefully at the poor yasha, who raised his hands to touch his cheeks.
"Shiro inu? Why do you want to know about them?" he gasped. "Humans shouldn't draw their attention. They may be less inclined to hound you to death like kuro inu, but they still can drag your soul to the underworld if you cross them."
A shiver ran down Kagome's spine. She'd never feared Inuyasha, and she still had no doubt in her mind he wouldn't harm her. But the way Hachie spoke, he was afraid of Inuyasha's kind.
"I mean they don't usually hunt humans, only those who tried to destroy what yasha kind holds sacred, or those who had done some serious crimes. They are a just bunch," the tanuki added as an afterthought. "But... Why do you want to know?"
"One called Inuyasha bestowed his favor upon Miss Kagome," Miroku explained, and Kagome blushed at his smirk and the second gasp of the tanuki who now looked straight at her in awe and wonder.
"Miroku, don't say it like that! We're just friends and you make it sound like Inuyasha gave me a..." she started, but her voice faltered when she saw Hachi jumping to his feet and bowing. "Huh?"
"I am deeply honored to meet a lady that is a friend of Lord Inuyasha," the tanuki assured. "And I will gladly answer all your questions and lend my hand whenever you are in need."
"Wow," Souta looked between the bowing yasha and his flustered sister.
"Hachi, don't do that... I mean, don't bow. I would love to ask you a ton of questions, but you don't have to act weird, really," Kagome reached a hand, unsure if touching his shoulder would ease him up or make him more nervous.
"Now," Miroku gestured for Souta and her to sit down on the tree trunk beside him. "I'm glad I introduced you to each other. We can share knowledge more and Hachie can't play his mysterious yasha card anymore."
When Kagome glanced at his amused face, she realized that the priest had planned this, had used her and Souta's connection to Inuyasha to his benefit. And, judging by Souta eagerly sitting next to Hachi and already opening his mouth, the boy was going to use this to his advantage as well.
"So, Inuyasha is a lord?" her brother asked.
"Yes," the tanuki nodded. "Each kind has its own ruler, who answers to the Emperor. The shiro inu's leader is Lord Toga, and Lord Inuyasha is his second son. He was absent from the lands for a long while, but I guess he's back now, right?"
"He was sealed in the shrine and Kagome released him, Souta explained. Hachie looked at Kagome with wide eyes, the girl blushing at his expression and shrugging. It was no use wondering if Miroku's tactic was underhanded. They had a real yasha actually telling them the truth about his kind, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about their ways.
Besides, a big part of her was quite excited to learn that she'd released a de facto prince frim his sort of slumber. It was almost like a fairytale, except there was no kissing. She wondered how it'd feel to kiss him...
Bad thought! Kagome covered her cheeks with her hands, hoping that the others didn't notice her blush - which they seemed not to, because now Miroku was asking where cat yasha lived and how to get there.
She sat down beside Miroku, listening to the tanuki explaining that cat fae - called neko yasha - were wanderers, but all called the city of Ulthar their home. So there was a big chance that even if Miroku went there - and if he survived the journey - he might not find the neko he was looking for.
After a half of an hour of dragging directions out of Hachie, the friends had to part ways. Souta and Kagome had to go back home before someone started to look for them, Hachie wanted to reach a certain inn and Miroku had to get home before night - or before the rain came down from the clouds that slowly but surely started to obscure the sky.
While the fae went deeper in the forest, the three humans walked back to the edge. Kagome walked beside Miroku while Souta went ahead of them. When they reached the border of the forest, Miroku stopped and bowed to Kagome.
"I have to bid you farewell, my lovely friend, and to your brother as well," he said with a fond smile, that was charming, but not flirtatious. "Spending time with you two, showing you the wonders that lurk in the wilderness, is a lot of fun. Still, I won't be able to visit you for a couple of days."
"Oh, that's fine, Miroku," Kagome returned his smile, feeling this warmth around her heart, the knowledge that she had a real friend in this man. "We will meet when we can. Thank you for introducing us to your friends. It means a lot."
He took her hand in his, squeezing her fingers in a gentle grip for a moment before letting her hand go.
"It was destiny that brought us together," he said. "Spirited people aren't that common to live practically next doors. If not for my undying love for the elusive Lady Sango, I'd thought this a sign that we're meant for each other."
Sne giggled. "You should stop joking like that, Miroku. What if she overhears you saying stuff like this?" she shook her head. "Come visit when you can. Souta and I will love to spend more time with you."
"And drag tales out of the yasha of the forest," he snickered and turned to leave. "Who knows, maybe next time it will be you introducing a yasha to me. I mean, I have to make sure he's a decent man, I have a lady friend to watch out for."
"Just go and stop jesting!" Kagome waved at him and the priest walked away down the path along the tree line to where she supposed his horse was waiting for him. Kagome turned to walk back to her work, Souta already walking inside the house, probably to continue his studies for the afternoon.
She picked up her bucket of water and went about her work, smiling as she thought about the racoon dog and the foxes she now called friends thanks to the cheeky priest. Hachie had given her a lot of new information to think about as she refilled her bucket and went to water her fae flowers.
Inuyasha was one of the sons of a lord among his kin. He didn't act like a noble, but there was an air of confidence and power around him she'd glimpsed at times.
She was so lost in thought that she barely heard the footsteps when they neared her. She lifted her head from where she was watering her flowers and saw her grandfather standing close by. His serious eyes looked at her from his frowning face.
"Kagome," he said when she looked at him. "That was Mr. Kaze."
"Yes, he was passing by," Kagome replied, straightening her back. There was no use pretending that it wasn't Miroku. Her grandfather had probably seen the younger priest when they had left the forest. It was good that Hachie hadn't been with them. "Did you want to talk to him, grandpa?"
He shook his head at her question.
"You are forbidden to meet with him unaccompanied by either me or your mother."
"What? Why?" Kagome uttered, her eyes widening at his firm statement.
"It is improper for a girl to meet with a man without an entourage," he explained.
"But, grandpa, Souta is always with us when we meet Mr Kaze," Kagome assured him. Yes, it wouldn't be proper for a girl to meet up with a man who wasn't her relative without someone else being there, but she always thought Souta's presence was enough to keep her reputation intact.
"It's not up to discussion, granddaughter," the Higurashi priest stated. "You are to be wed soon, and I don't want any rumors spreading about having an affair with Mr. Kaze."
The world seemingly lost all the colors and sounds around her. The bucket fell to the ground. No longer held in her suddenly lax fingers, Kagome stared at her grandfather, her heart seemingly stopping as her trembling lips repeated that word.
"...Wed?"
