Chapter Four: What will Become of Us…

Shedding her kimono she closed her eyes as the tips of her toes dipped ever so slightly into the water sending a slight shiver through her entire body. Ignoring the slight uncontrollable reaction she submerged herself up to her chin, basking in the euphoric sensation of washing away the night of bloodshed that preceded the day. And for one fleeting moment she allowed herself to forget who she was… what she was… for one entire moment that was no more than three seconds she allowed herself to feel something… something humanistic. .. Something… feminine… complete and total vulnerability.

"Haunted…." The voice called out to her making her snap to attention.

Whipping her head around she felt the cool breeze hit her wet cheeks but paid no mind as she stared into wide violet eyes of an old woman perched upon the boulder where her kimono was.

"Who are you?" She asked, her eyes darting to the crossbow that lay at the woman's feet. It was too far away… there would be no way she could reach it in time…

With a flick of her walking stick the woman knocked the end into the bow and gave a wry smile. "Surely you don't believe this is necessary for such a crony like me." She made a noise that was a mixture of a cackle and a wheeze.

"I am not foolish enough to believe that appearances are truth!" She remarked her eyes sharp and trained. She had walked these paths long enough to know that old women were as harmless as the tip of a sword. Shape shifters and demons roamed this world looking for creatures that were inferior to them to prey on… But she was not easy prey even she were at a disadvantage… and from the smile that she was seeing they both knew it.

That smile… although broad, was anything but warm or friendly. "Then come and get it…I will not stop you." Her voice called out to her.

Kikyo stared at her… something about those eyes… hauntingly familiar… but she said nothing. She stood up, the nakedness of her body bared and dripping wet… for a lady with any sense of modesty there would have been more than a hint of redness in her cheeks, but Kikyo wasn't a lady… she wasn't a woman… she was more… so much more. Instead her skin remained pale, blood drained due to the chilled water. Her steps were steady, purposeful, her face emotionless. As she felt herself leaving the depths and grew closer to the form before her she found herself drawn inward… into this woman… this being.

Standing she towered over her. "No shame… no embarrassment… perhaps you are the one… So powerful… and yet…." She spoke staring into Kikyo's eyes as though they truly were windows into her soul and for a moment they remained quiet and motionless and oddly enough it was Kikyo who broke away first… reaching out to grab her robes. But quick as lightening… much quicker than any normal elderly woman should be, she reached out and grabbed the younger girl's right hand, gripping it tightly in her bony palm.

The movement was so sudden that for a second Kikyo found herself off her guard… the second time in the span of minutes… who was this woman?

"What are you?" She began but the woman's eyes were on her hand… opening it, with her other she took her finger and traced the lines inside her palm…

"This hand… this hand shall betray you… you my dear…" Looking up into her eyes she stared at Kikyo. "So certain you are… and yet so many things outside of your control."

Kikyo watched in awe as the violet pupils turned from a cerulean blue to a storming gray and finally blazing up into an unnatural whiteness, and she felt something inside her heart tighten. "What are you?" She asked again.

"What I am is not the question; but what will you do when the moment comes? I see… I know… you are the Chosen One… Chosen by the web of fate to bare this burden… your life… is forever weighed down… your love for him… it is not enough… he will not save you… your path is marked with pain, blood and death many times over… happiness is fleeting… and it will be your hand… this hand… that begins it all… your destiny is sealed! This life is marked for tragedy!" Her voice was hollow and somehow more powerful than Kikyo had ever known anything to be.

"I don't… I don't understand you. What curse do you put on me?" She asked.

"Yes… cursed… you are… this life… this form… it is damned. The path you must take shall always end the same… and he will not be there for you when it concludes…"

"I don't know what you are talking about… there is no one… there is no love… no love to betray!"

"No need to lie to me… your heart knows… even if the head is not ready…love, however great it may be… passionate… still destructive, your time will be short and he will leave you…"

She stared into the woman's eyes seeing flames surge and lick at what unknowingly was her future… blood seeping across an open field… falling… forever falling… arrows soaring through the trees with an intended target but for whom… And then there was Inuyasha… standing before her… his golden eyes no longer familiar… neither angry nor loving… he was gone from her and she knew it was him… it was always him…

"Can't I stop it? Can't I change it?" When the woman didn't reply she felt desperation grip her. "What can I do? Old Woman! Tell me what I can do!" She demanded angrily not willing to believe that this would be her life… that this was her and Inuyasha's destiny.

The glow in the woman's eyes dimmed and eventually returned to the violet pupils that she once had and this time when she spoke her voice was soft… no longer filled with the power of a thousand Gods, nor cracked with the years of age…just soft and smooth like that of an affectionate mother… the Mother of all mothers. "Savor the moments that you are given… Cherish the smiles… and the embrace of love…"

She felt a shiver travel up through her as the woman released her hand. "I…" But what was there to say?

"Kikyo!" Inuyasha's voice rang out over the trees. Looking over her shoulder she could see the glimpses of red cloth leap from limb to limb as he grew closer.

"Inuyasha…" His name left her lips barely loud enough to be a whisper. Turning back she blinked once… twice… she was gone. Looking up into the forest before she realized that there was no sign of her… turning to the sky there was no one… nothing… almost as is she had vanished and with her… had taken more and given more than Kikyo could ever know.

The sound of Inuyasha's body hitting the shallow water beside her made her aware of his presence. "Kikyo…" His cheeks turned a deep shade of red as he became aware of her lack of clothing.

"What do you smell?" She cut in.

"What?"

"Tell me what you smell." She stated still staring off into what seemed like nothing at all.

Scratching the back of his head he raised a brow. "I smell… water… trees… you…" He remarked not sure of how to answer fearing that his last answer might result in an arrow through his heart.

She turned to him and whatever he was about to say died on his lips as she looked at him… in a way that she never had… never had allowed herself to… she looked at him with the eyes of a woman… a breathing, living woman.

"Inuyasha." She said staring into him and that's when he saw it… saw them… the unshed pools of water clouding her eyes… and before the first tear could fall she was falling into him. She pressed herself into his red clad form and for a moment he didn't move… couldn't move. Her naked body molded with his… her heat pressing against the material of his robes. The water dripping off her body saturating him, her cheek falling into the crook of his neck, her scent mingling with his and so he did the only thing he could… His arms folded around her small frame and he held her… he held Kikyo… not the priestess, but the woman… the flesh and blood and he released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding since the moment that they first met.

"Kikyo…I…." He began when her fingertips came to rest over his lips.

"It's okay Inuyasha… I know… I know…" She whispered afraid… afraid of a pain and heartache that had yet to come… but was approaching… unavoidably approaching…