Chapter 4
Kagome tossed in her sleep. She was replaying the fight in her mind, over and over again. Every time she got to the part where she collapsed, it would start over. Eventually, the dream had narrowed down to one moment. Over and over again, she saw the hanyou cough and collapse. She would run to him and shake him, then tackle Naraku. She ran to him. He wouldn't wake up. It was her fault. If she hadn't been so weak he wouldn't have had to worry about her.
She saw the hanyou's face, eyes open, staring ahead. The miko bolted upright, scaring herself awake. She cringed as she bent her arm. Kagome saw the bandages and was confused. Didn't she pass out? Then who had…..
"InuYasha!" She looked around, but did not see the red haori. Instead, she saw eight sleeping bags, and two men leaning up against a tree. On watching the woods, the other watching her.
She stared at them, and the one looking at her nudged the other. He turned and saw her awake. They stood and came over to her and knelt beside her. One of them had brown hair and the other had long blonde hair and…pointed ears?
She shook her head, and stared at the brown haired one. He was saying something to her, and she hadn't been listening.
"Excuse me, miss? Are you alright?" She thought for a moment. What a funny question. Was she alright? No, she wasn't.
"Where am I?" She looked around. This wasn't the InuYasha forest. And she clearly remembered the fight, for it was burned into her memory forever.
"In the forest near Rivendell." The blonde had answered her.
"I'm not in Japan, am I?" She asked. The two looked at each other and shook their heads. She knew by the looks on their faces they'd never even heard of Japan.
"You're in Middle Earth. In a forest outside the elven city Rivendell. My name is Aragorn."
She looked at the ground. "I'm Kagome." The fire cracked, and she jumped. She pushed her hair back, and winced. Kagome looked down at her arm, then at the two of them. "Did you…?"
The elf nodded. "Yes. My name is Legolas." One of their companions had woken up.
"This is Boromir," Aragorn said, pointing to the one who had sat down next to him. "And that one snoring over there's Gimli. Those four are Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. And that's Gandalf the Grey." Aragorn said.
She sighed, taking it all in. She was in a completely different world, and she had to get back to the Feudal Era, back to Japan, to help Sango and Miroku…
"InuYasha," she whispered. She turned to Aragorn. "Where's the well? I have to get back…"
"There's no well around here," he told her.
She shook her head. "That's impossible. There has to be one. The Bone Eater's well, the dried up one. It's got to be around here somewhere." She looked around, expecting to see it somewhere. But there was no well.
"The miasma. It must have done something to the well. He had the jewel and that must have…." She gasped. "The Jewel!" She opened her fist and breathed a sigh of relief. The almost complete Shikon was there. She smiled at the look on their faces.
"The Shikon no Tama. Jewel of Four Souls." She ran a finger along it, and it met the crack. Five shards were still missing. She had three, and Koga had two. But at this rate, she'd never finish the jewel. She reached into the front of her shirt and took out the vial. But when she saw it, it was empty. "Oh no…please no." The shards were gone. She scrambled to the remains of Naraku and searched the ground. They watched her, wondering what she was looking for.
She stopped searching when she realized she didn't sense any shards. She buried her hands in her face as tears started to run down her cheeks. Boromir stood and put an arm around her. She leaned against him and cried. The rest of the group had woken up by now, and were watching her.
Boromir led her to the fire, and wrapped a blanket around her. She stared into the flames, thinking about everything that had happened. Legolas offered her some bread and she took it, and ate it silently. She felt a bit better after that and smiled at the group.
"Thank you guys. It…it means a lot to me after all this." She smiled at them and they couldn't help but smile back. Gandalf could tell she'd been through a lot.
After a while, he suggested that they get going. He invited Kagome to join them, and to everyone's delight, she accepted. They struck camp with more enthusiasm than ever before, glad to have a new companion. They all tried to make her feel at home and cheerful. She was glad to have met up with the group.
-==-
InuYasha woke the next morning and had a slight panic attack when he didn't find Kagome near. He sighed when he remembered she was…wherever she was. He was so happy that she'd made it, but worried to death about what had happened to her after that.
Sango saw his face and asked him what's wrong.
"It's just….Kagome must have made it and killed Naraku, right? So where the hell is she? Why can't she come back? And is she alright?"
Sango was confident and tried to cheer him up. "Well, she did it. All we can do is assume she's alive and well, and searching for a way back."
InuYasha nodded, and smiled at her. "You're right. She did it. She killed Naraku. All by herself."
Sango's expression changed quickly. She turned on the monk and he put an arm up to try and defend himself from the inevitable slap. It never came, and he asked her if she was okay.
"I'm fine. But as of now, there are more important things that slapping the shit out of you for being a perverted houshi." He nodded.
"Like what?" InuYasha asked.
"Like finding Kagome and bringing her back." She smiled, and so did the hanyou.
"I suggest we go back to the village and see if Kaede has any ideas on how to go about doing that." Miroku said. Sango nodded and jumped on Kirara. InuYasha sped off toward the village, eager to see Kaede.