This one is longer I swear.
In Time
V
Kagome rolled over on her side. Long black lashes fluttered open. The dim light of early morning reflected in her sleepy blue eyes. A powerful pink river flashed through her mind. She rubbed her eyes.
'That was a weird dream. It was so pretty. And it felt...right. Like that was a normal thing I do every day. But I guess dreams always feel real. I wonder if it means anything.' Sitting up and stretching like a cat, Kagome looked around camp.
Everyone was still sleeping except for Inuyasha, who was nowhere to be found. 'He must have gone hunting or something.' Then she snorted. 'I need to stop lying to myself. I'm pretty sure it's unhealthy.' Kagome crawled out of her bedroll quietly so she wouldn't disturb Shippo. The little kit made a cute picture and she smiled. He was sprawled on his back snoring loudly and had a droplet of drool leaking out of his mouth. Kagome pulled the blanket back up around him and he stirred slightly, rolled over and began snoring louder than ever.
The embers from their cooking fire still glowed brightly in the center of camp, a stark contrast to the dull grey of the overcast morning. The young woman grabbed a stick and stirred the coals, throwing a little more firewood on the pile. She busied herself with getting breakfast ready as the rest of her companions began to wake.
Inuyasha returned with two rabbits which he skinned, gutted, and diced up to throw in the pot with their meal. He dutifully avoided speaking to Kagome however, and the miko took note. 'I knew it…' Breakfast passed quickly and everyone went about their normal routine, getting packed up and ready for the day.
"Alright Kagome," Inuyasha called from his tree, "which way we goin?" He looked at her expectantly, hands folded into his red haori.
Kagome pushed her powers outward from her body, using her "sixth sense" to find the jewel shard. It was still a long ways off and she couldn't quite determine its position. She concentrated a little harder, and suddenly she could sense every speck of life around her. About a mile away, she could feel the faint life force of ants marching along the forest floor and farther still, five or so miles away, she could feel the stronger life force of a deer walking lazily in a meadow. In her mind's eye, she could see every living thing around her for miles.
She blinked, surprised at herself. 'It's like I suddenly have freakin' sonar! That's new. I've never been able to feel anything like that before. Not to mention the distance.' Unnerved, she concentrated even harder, pushing her miko powers as far as she felt she could. Her senses picked up more life forces, some powerful and some weak. She also felt little pinpricks of energy that she recognized as jewel shards. Most of them were clumped together except for two.
'I bet that clump is where Naraku is hiding.' She began to feel giddy. 'I don't know where this power of mine suddenly came from, but I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.' Her brows knit together in thought. 'I think I'll tell the others about all of this later though. I don't want them to get too excited. We need all the jewel shards we can get first.' She frowned slightly. Something was bothering her about this current jewel shard. It felt fuzzy - out of focus even. It was clouded from her new sight.
She could tell exactly where the other one was. It was like the shard was sending her information in a kind of "Morse code" of energy pulses and she knew exactly what it meant. The jewel fragment was about a day away in a little village in the hands of a weaker being.
Inuyasha was growing impatient. Kagome had yet to tell him which way the jewel shard was and she instead seemed to be ignoring him, staring off into space. He jumped down from his perch in the tree and stood in front of her. She still ignored him. He growled in annoyance.
"Oi!"
Kagome snapped out of it and glared at Inuyasha. "What?"
He fixed her with a bemused expression. "Uhh... The jewel shard? Which way?"
"Oh! Right. Well I guess we should follow the path into the mountains first. I'll be able to pinpoint the location of the jewel shard once we're closer. I'll let you know if we need to change direction."
Inuyasha frowned and turned around to trudge up the path, grumbling to himself. Suddenly his rosary beads flashed blue and before his face was slammed in the dirt, he vaguely thought, 'What'd I do!?'
"How dare you." Kagome's voice was laced with venom.
Inuyasha pulled his head out of the ground with difficulty. Looking up at Kagome with his white brows knit together, he exclaimed, "What the hell, Kagome?!"
Kagome's face took on a look of indignant shock. She blinked her eyes and then her face crumpled in anger. She turned to Shippo and let out a short, half-hysterical laugh. "Oh, Inuyasha if you still haven't figured out why I get mad at you then you're more ignorant than I thought." He shot her a slightly perplexed look. Kagome's right arm curled across her chest, allowing her left elbow to rest heavily on the other wrist while her forehead plopped into her left palm. She gently shook her head and exhaled deeply. "So YOU think I have no reason to 'SIT' you-" He smashed into the ground again, "-when you say things like, "Air-headed bitch couldn't tell left from right," and, "I wish Kikyo were here instead," under your breath?!" She stood there, puffing her cheeks with deep breaths to calm herself down. "I'm done with this. If you want her here so bad, then go fucking get her. I don't care anymore. She'd be helpful anyway as long as she doesn't try to kill anyone…" Then she spun on her heel and marched down the trail in the direction her senses pulled her.
Sango and Miroku stooped to pull a stunned Inuyasha to his feet. The hanyou voiced his thoughts aloud. "What the hell is her problem?" He began to brush his robes off.
Sango hid her snicker behind her hand, "I don't think she has one anymore." She giggled out loud and walked past him, following behind her miko friend.
The monk sighed. "My friend, I think you've just been 'dumped' as Miss Kagome puts it." Miroku even used air-quotes around the word 'dumped' like Kagome had shown him. He pat his friend on the shoulder and ambled past Inuyasha as well, his staff jangling lightly as he walked on up the path.
Inuyasha looked at his friends with his most perplexed expression yet, and decided not to dwell on it for now. There were things he could kill up ahead, screw thinking.
The weather high in the mountain pass was dreadfully cold and windy. The chill bit into the skin of the travelers in their warmer weather clothing, and Kagome found herself wishing for a warm fur coat. A soft, fluffy fur that almost tickled your bare skin. Her eyes drooped slightly as she thought about how wonderful that sounded at that moment. A picture of Lord Sessshomaru flashed across her thoughts. 'Oh I bet that fur pelt of his would be just what I need right now.' She then pouted slightly at her chilly predicament.
Though it had taken the better part of a day to get this close, Kagome still wasn't sure exactly how much farther they needed to go before they came upon the jewel shard- and whatever had it. The mountains were beginning to close in around them and although Kagome was sure this pass would come out somewhere on the other side, she couldn't say how far that was. She glanced back at her friends. Miroku and Sango both appeared to be as miserable as she was, and even Shippo and Kirara looked a bit put-out. "We really need to find some shelter guys, we've gotta get out of this bad weather before someone gets sick. And I know you don't get sick, Inuyasha, but WE can- so just drop it now."
The hanyou's jaw snapped closed and he crossed his arms, looking away from the miko as if he hadn't intended on telling her he couldn't get sick. "And where do you think we're gonna do that?"
The miko looked at the mountain sides around them to see if there was an outcropping or ledge that could shelter them from some of the wind. There were a few long-dead trees and some boulders scattered around but none of them looked promising. She was about to tell him they needed to move up the trail to find decent shelter, when she spotted a cave opening peeking at her from behind a boulder to her right. "There's a cave over here! Perfect!" She exclaimed and rushed over behind the boulder. The entrance was small, but big enough for a short person to duck inside. "Hey Kirara!" She yelled to the fire cat through the rush of the harsh wind. The demon mewled and pounced over to her. "Can you transform so we can see what's in there with those fiery paws of yours, please?"
The fire cat mewed again and disappeared briefly in a burst of flame, only to be replaced by a much larger version of the little cat. She shook briefly and entered the cave with Kagome and the others right behind her.
"Thanks Kirara… Oh my god…"
The cave was much larger on the inside than it had first appeared to the travelers. It was as large as a ballroom with a flat dirt floor. The high ceiling sloped upwards from the back of the cave, to a small opening high above the hole they had just passed through. The air was much warmer and there was no wind due to the small size of the entrance. "Yes! We can light a fire without choking on smoke!" Kagome giggled and clapped happily. "Hey, Inuyasha, can you run back outside and slice up a couple of those dead trees out there so we can build a cooking fire?"
"Are we eating ramen?"
"Sure. Hot soup sounds wonderful right now."
"Fine, fine, I'll be right back."
"Thanks!" Kagome and the others began to explore the room while Inuyasha disappeared outside to fetch the wood. As she gazed around, she began to get a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn't feel sick, but a bit nervous and uncomfortable. But before she could dwell on it, the feeling passed.
"Hey guys, look! The cave keeps going! There's a tunnel!" The young fox demon exclaimed as he bounced up and down in his enthusiasm at his own findings. "Can we go explore it Kagome? Pleeease?" He drew out the word 'please' and pouted at her.
"Sure Shippo, as soon as Inuyasha comes back with the firewood and we get a fire going, we can light a torch and see where it leads."
"Awesome!"
A few moments later, Inuyasha returned with a pile of logs and branches that would last them through the night. Kirara pawed at the pile arranged for cooking and the logs were instantly set ablaze. "How long 'till ramen?" Inuyasha asked.
Kagome knelt and took the small pot and ramen packages out of her bag that had been placed next to the fire. "However long it takes for that fire to simmer down enough for a pot of water to boil on it."
"Fine. I'm taking a nap. I'll wake up when I smell food." The dog-hanyou plopped down against a wall in his customary position and closed his eyes.
"Can we go explore now Kagome, please, please, please?" Shippo was anxious to play the part of cave explorer and see what was down the tunnel.
"Sure Shippo, let's go. Sango? Miroku? Want to come with?" Kagome asked her friends who appeared bored out of their minds.
They both nodded in agreement and Kagome grabbed a large branch from the fire to use as a torch.
The cave sloped downward slightly in a large lazy spiral, seemingly endless. Sharp shadows from the torchlight jumped and twisted on the rough cave walls as the group trudged onward.
Shippo broke the bored silence. "Geeze I wonder how big this cave really is?"
Kagome also voiced her concern. "You know, I'm starting to get the feeling this is not a naturally occurring cave."
"Yes, it does seem that way, Lady Kagome. The floor is evidence enough to support your theory, although, I haven't seen any foot prints yet. Whoever made this place…. it's been a very long time since they walked this path."
While Miroku mused silently to himself, Sango stopped and bent down by the cave wall. "Hey Kagome come back this way for a minute, I need to see something."
Curious, Kagome turned around to see what her friend was looking at. As her torch lit up the floor of the cave where it met the wall, Kagome could make out a small purplish blob on the ground. "What the hell is that?"
"That is the strangest mushroom I have ever seen."
"That's a mushroom? I've never seen one so colorful before. Hang on, what if it's poisonous? Sango, I'd put it down. Some mushrooms are deadly remember? We don't know what that is."
"I doubt I'm going to get sick from touching it."
"Well will you put it down for me? This place is starting to make me nervous; I don't think we should touch anything in here."
"All right fine, whatever."
"Thanks Sango."
Sango grumbled slightly and waved her hand dismissively. "You know I love mushrooms. What if that was actually the most delicious mushroom on Earth? You owe me, Missy."
Kagome laughed lightly. "Yeah, yeah. I'll bring you a basket of mushrooms next time I go home."
They walked for what seemed like ages, and the farther they walked the more uncomfortable Kagome felt. A pleasing scent began to permeate the air, like fresh spring blossoms. Though this should have made the three nervous, they all instead began to feel incredibly content. They walked farther still and soon Kagome felt as if she were on autopilot. Her feet moved of their own accord, and she lazily looked at the caves walls and felt fuzzy and peaceful and silly and – 'What was…' Her sluggish brain took a moment to process what she might have seen out of the corner of her eye, yet she didn't try to stop walking.
Another round something caught her attention. It was light pink. Then another. This time blue. The colorful shapes were getting more numerous and bigger. Through their hazy vision, the group finally realized they were staring at gigantic brilliantly colored flowers. Enamored, Kagome rushed up to a large fuchsia colored one with wispy petals and long thin pink stamens exploding from the center. "Why… why are there… flowers down here? There's no…. light… to grow…" Her words came out slowly and much more quiet than she had intended.
"I don't know… it's so…. strange… down here…" Sango was inches away from an enormous blue flower that looked an awful lot like an iris except that it had many smaller petals all around the larger four and had extremely long stamens dangling from its center.
"Ladies… something isn't…. isn't right here… we should turn back now… and return to the… the fire…"
There was a sudden loud thump, and a groan.
Kagome reluctantly let go of her soft flower petals and turned in the direction of the noise. Sango lay on the floor of the cave, unconscious. Kagome blinked and stared at her for a long minute before a deep sense of dread began to penetrate her strange high. 'That's…. really bad…'
Miroku was bending down slowly to try to help the slayer, but he fell down on top of his beloved instead, also unconscious.
"Oh… shi…" Kagome's vision instantly blurred and swam and her world seemed to spin upward. She felt the strange sensation of her stomach disappearing, similar to when she would ride rollercoasters in her own time. She heard a distant thud and vaguely realized it was the sound of her own body hitting the floor. She saw black and felt nothing.
Ooooooo... cliffie... I wonder what will happen next? Seriously. I have no clue.