Chapter 6: The Fourth Hour- A Protector in a Dreamer's Eye

"I've never felt anything like it!" cried Kagome, putting her hands above her chest where her heart was. Miroku looked queasy. "It's like... like..."

"Doesn't matter what its like," Shippo interrupted. "It's the Forest of Sorrow."

All three of them stood on a thin ledge before a steep drop. The canyon below was full of dead rotting trees, that lead to a stretch of barren wasteland riddled with weeds, and (Kagome cringed) skeletons. There was no way to describe it. Like Shippo said, it didn't matter what it was like. It simply was the Forest of Sorrow.

She stepped through the doorway and waited for the boys to join her. Kagome shivered. The sky was the color of cast iron, and the forest plants looked shriveled, as though the sun had never shone on them since their first day on earth. She felt terribly dispirited after just a minute in this place, and she looked at Miroku and Shippo to help her. Their expressions were more depressing than her own.

"Oh, come on, guys," she said, trying to sound cheerful. She shrugged, with a heavy heart, turned around again, and wondered which way to go. A path ran in front of her into the forest, but how could anyone take it for granted that a path was the way you wanted to go? "I don't even know which way the castle is," she said. Again she looked at Miroku and Shippo, hoping that they would be able to guide her through it.

"I hardly ever come this way if I can help it," said Miroku taking a few steps forward. "I haven't been through the Forest of Sorrow for quite awhile."

As Kagome peered up into the branches of a nearby tree, she was so focused on it that she didn't notice that the earth opened up underneath Miroku and Shippo and swallowed them into a great hole. They didn't have any time to say a word before the earth closed up again above their heads.

"Maybe I could climb up there," Kagome was saying. "Then we could see the way to the castle."

She took hold of the lowest branch and put her weight on it. It snapped off in her hand, with a dry crack like china, and before she could register what to do, the whole tree collapsed. Lying before her she saw a pile, not of dead wood, but of bones. The branch that she was holding had also turned into a bone. With a shudder and a startled scream she threw it as far away from her as she could. There was a dry, rustling noise going on all around, and to her dismay she saw the trees that were around her were collapsing, like a series of dinosaur skeletons.

One bone tree after the other clattered to the ground, each bringing down the next, like dominoes, until the most of the landscape had been reduced to heaps of bones, all jumbled together. And Kagome knew it was all her fault, the destruction of this delicate balance just by snapping off the branch. It was too much to bear. She burst out weeping and sank to the ground. If she had never made that dumb wish then she wouldn't be here right now.

She cried and cried, with her hands over her face. Eventually she looked to face Miroku and Shippo… "Miroku?" she cried wondering why they haven't said anything for awhile, "Shippo?" She looked all around her but realized that they had disappeared.

"Miroku? Shippo?" She stood up and began to run around in circles, looking in a panic for any sign of her friends. Above, the sky had grown even darker and more miserable.

"Miroku? Shippo?" she screamed, feeling utterly alone in this forest of the dead. "Where are you? What's going on?"

She ran, she had to get away, anywhere. If she stayed where she was then she would be bones herself. She ran through the heaps of bones and into another part of the forest that looked just as grim. Huge gnarled roots stretched across the path and the sky grew darker with each passing minute. The trees had trunks like tight fists and looked as if they were all old men, while fallen branches and dead leaves covered the earth. Here and there a brief vista between the trees offered a way on, but along each one that she took cobwebs clothed her face causing her to lose sight until she pulled the webs off. From clumps of ferns, clouds of dark moths flitted up at her. "Why is this happening?" she whimpered as she ran.

The forest got darker as she ran deeper into it. She stumbled into a glade above which the trees were so close that she could not see her feet in the darkness. Still she ran, but her foot suddenly caught on a root and she fell… and fell… and fell…

… she fell into darkness…

(Back at the castle)

Inuyasha was watching Kagome from one of the many bedroom chambers. In a silvery-white mirror he was able to see Kagome's scared face looking around for her friends.

He then walked over to the large bed where her little brother slept. The boy had been sleeping since Inuyasha snatched him from his bedroom so the child had no idea of what was going on around him. Inuyasha sat on the bed next to the boy before holding up the mirror in front of her brother's face.

"Look, Kagome," he murmured although he knew that she couldn't hear him. "Is this what you're trying to find?" Inuyasha chuckled to himself before getting up. "So much trouble for such a little thing," Inuyasha said, shaking his head as he looked at Sota's sleeping face. "But soon she'll realize why I'm doing this. Soon she'll remember what happened. Just as soon as the jewel's magic takes effect. She'll remember everything."

He watched as she kept running through the forest, trying to find her friends and her way out; suddenly her foot caught hold of a root, and she trip. She fell to the ground and didn't get up. Inuyasha knew that she must be trapped in a nightmare…

Maybe he would help her out… just a little bit…

(Kagome's Dream)

Little Kagome was dozing off on soft grass in front of her house when she heard her parent's car drive up. Excited, she leapt up and ran to the front of the house to greet her parents plus the newest addition to their family. Today was the day that they were able to bring home her new baby brother!

When she got to the front yard, the first thing she saw was her grandfather, who was so happy to see his first grandson and was shaking her father's hand. "Congratulations my boy!" he said happily.

"Thank you father," her father said smiling. "Now, where is my little girl?"

"Over here daddy!" yelled out Kagome and she ran into her father's waiting arms. He lifted her up above his head and began to spin her around as Kagome laughed. He then let her drop to his chest and held her tightly.

"I missed you daddy," said Kagome in a muffled voice.

He kissed the side of her head and told her that he missed her too; he then looked back at the car.

Her mother stepped out of the car and gave her daughter a blinding smile as she held a tiny bundle in her arms. Her father carried Kagome over so that she could get a better look. Wrapped in the blanket was a baby boy that looked like he was fast asleep. That is until he opened up his dark brown eyes to stare up at her. He gave her a tiny smile.

Kagome let out an excited squeal, "You see that?" she asked her parents in a thrilled voice. "He smiled at me!"

Her father laughed at her. "That's because he knows that you're his big sister. He looks up to you."

"Can I hold him? Can I? Can I daddy? Mommy can I hold him? Pleeeeeeeaaaaaasssssssseeeeeee?" she begged with all her heart. Everyone else laughed, "Alright," said her mother. "But you have to be very careful."

"Oh I will!" said Kagome as she jumped down from her father's arms and held out her own. Her mother passed her baby brother to her father, who then bend down to his little girl and held him out. Kagome very carefully took her brother into her arms and stared in wonder at his tiny face. "He's so cute!" she said looking up at her parents and grandfather who were smiling at her. "What's his name?" she asked them.

"His name is Sota," said her father. "And from now on, it's gonna be your job to protect and look after him when me, mommy, or grandpa aren't around ok? Do you promise?"

Kagome nodded. "I promise daddy!" she cried out.

But as soon as she said that she felt the air around her grow very cold. She turned to look behind her at the house only to see it had disappeared… in its place was a large and dead looking forest full of dead rotting trees, that was part of stretch of barren wasteland riddled with weeds, and skeletons.

"Mommy? Daddy? Grandpa?" she said trying to keep her voice from shaking, as she held her brother close to her chest and looked back at her parents. "What's happening?" she was scared.

But her parents and grandfather had also disappeared; leaving her and her brother alone in this scary place. She took a few steps forward, "MOMMY? DADDY? GRANDPA? ANYBODY?" Kagome was crying, and the sounds of her sobs caused Sota to start crying… Kagome held him close to her as she started to run… to where she had no idea… as long as she could get out of this dead zone and find the rest of her family.

Several things happened at once… first off she could hear the sound of a dark, terrible laugh behind her… when she looked, what she saw almost made her faint… it was a giant ugly spider crawling towards her… a spider so big that it could easily have crushed a few houses with every step that it took.

Its body was black and covered with thick hair that looked like tangled wire. It had its eight legs all running so fast that she couldn't tell where one ended and the others began. Its eyes were blood-red and were staring at her hungrily, the pincers were snapping with a sickening crushing sound, and worse of all… it seemed to be smiling at her… and it wasn't a good smile either.

She only ran faster, she had to get her and Sota away from this monster spider. She promised daddy that she would take care of him when no one else was around.

But as she ran, the spider was running faster. Her lungs were beginning to hurt as she forced her body to continue on… that is until she felt something grab hold of her leg, which caused her to trip. She landed with a loud THUMP on the hard ground; she and Sota were crying hard. She looked back at the spider that was handing just above her… as she held Sota in her arms she bent her head over him, shut her eyes, and screamed like she never screamed before…

"HHHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP!"

Just as the spider was about to finisher her off, a loud BLAST came from out of nowhere and that alone was enough to get Kagome to stop screaming. As she opened her eyes she could see large flashes of light sweep through the air in the shape of claw marks and hit the giant spider. The spider screeched in agony as it backed away with deep scars covering its hairy head.

Kagome looked in the direction where the light had come from, trying to see her savior. Standing on a hill was the largest dog that she had ever seen… it looked big enough for her to ride him. It had white fur that looked like snow and large silver fangs sticking out of his mouth. He had a necklace that looked like it was made of beads and fangs around his neck instead of a collar. He wore a large crown up top of his head, and he had to large dog ears sticking out from underneath. But what caught her attention more than the crown where his eyes… his eyes were the color of melted gold…

Where had she seen those eyes somewhere before?

The dog let out a loud bark and Kagome somehow knew that the dog was telling her to run. She didn't need to be told twice; she got up and ran towards the dog as fast as she could go.

The spider on the other hand seemed to have recovered and was beginning the chase again.

The dog darted in front of Kagome and leapt up to start fighting with the spider. Kagome tried to keep running but she didn't want to leave the dog here alone. Not when it was fighting to protect her…

She was standing there with a baby in her arms, a dog risking its life for her, and a spider that seemed bent of killing her. What was she supposed to do at a time like this? She was trying to figure out what to do… that is when a large hairy leg came flying at her from nowhere and smashed her against a large boulder. Pain… oh god it hurt… she couldn't move… she was sure that she had a few broken ribs. Thankfully, she somehow knew that her brother didn't have a scratch on him…

The dog barked in rage as he was suddenly engulfed in a blinding light. Kagome let out a terrified scream, thinking that the dog was done for… but when the light had faded, a man was standing where the dog had been… she couldn't see that well for her eyes were blinded by pain. But from what she could tell was that he was dressed all in red and he had back to her.

He raised up a large sword that looked like a fang and brought it down with such force that Kagome could feel the earth move beneath her. As soon as the sword came down, the flashes of light had appeared again… only this time, they took the forms of large whirlpools and hit the spider with such force that it was beginning to fall apart…

The spider seemed to scream in pain and before she could blink the spider was engulfed with a thick black smoke and disappeared.

As soon as he was sure that the spider was gone, the dog-man came over to her, she couldn't see his face, for the pain was causing her eyes to darken… "Kagome?" said the dog-man gently.

Kagome looked up at his form and said in a weak voice, "I know you… but from where?"

He smiled as he bent down and easily picked her up in his arms. He held her against his chest, and Kagome felt safe there. Even with her arms wrapped around her crying brother, and the pain she was in, she couldn't help but feel safe around this dog-man.

The dog-man was then carrying her away from the battle field. He held her closer to his chest and Kagome felt her heart pound. The dog-man began to run at an inhuman face. Everything was flying past her so fast that she felt that she had become a part of the wind.

After a few minutes of nonstop running, Kagome asked her savior, "Where are you taking me?"

A low grumble was her reply, "Here."

Kagome blinked when she realized that they had slowed down to a walk and that they were heading towards a very large tree. She still couldn't see much, but she could tell that this tree had a deep scar on the trunk. Her savior stopped underneath the tree and gently lay her down so that her back was leaned up against the base.

As soon as he put her down, he raised her chin so that he could look at her face, "You need to wake up now Kagome. This is a dream."

A dream? This wasn't real?

"You are in the Forest of Sorrow," the dog-man said. "It creates dreams of fear. You're friends are trying to wake you up now. Listen."

"Kagome?" yelled out a familiar voice that seemed to come from far away. "Kagome! Wake up!"

'Wake up?' She was really asleep? "But…" she said quickly. She tried again to clear her eyesight to get a good look at his face. "How do you know my name? Why are you so familiar to me? Have we met before?"

It was no good. Her eyes have completely darkened now and she could feel herself falling into that darkness. "I've known you since you were very small," she heard the dog-man say gently but in a gruff voice. "Don't worry."

She could feel him lower his face to the top of her head and breathed in her scent. Kagome felt her eyes close, but not before hearing, "We will meet up again very soon."

Kagome opened her eyes and was staring into the worried faces of Miroku and Shippo. When they saw her eyes open, they sighed with relief.

"Kagome?" asked Miroku. "Are you ok? You were screaming in your sleep."

Kagome looked up at him in confusion before quickly sitting up. "It was a dream," she said quietly.

"Yeah," said Shippo who looked scared. "Me and Miroku fell through the ground into a underground tunnel and it took us forever to find our way out."

"By the time we did get out and get back to where we were, you disappeared," said Miroku.

"We looked and looked everywhere for you. And then we heard you screaming," cut in Shippo.

"We've been trying to wake you up," finished Miroku. He offered her his hand and helped her to her feet. "I'm sorry," he said when she was upright. "I forgot to tell you about the power of this forest. It causes nightmares in its victims and feeds off their fear. If I'd remember sooner, I could've warned you. I'm so ashamed." He bent his head down low in shame.

"Oh Miroku," said Kagome as she put her hand on his shoulder. "It's alright I…" she stopped talking… she could feel his hand again… "You sure don't seemed to be ashamed to me," she hissed at him before slapping him hard across the face. "Get your head out of the gutter for once."

"Idiot," whispered Shippo shaking his head. "He'll never learn." He took a few steps ahead and called back, "Come on, the way out is this way."

All too happy, Kagome followed him with Miroku rubbing a handprint on his face.

(After walking in silence for a short time)

She tried to figure out where she should have made a different choice. Suppose she hadn't made that wish back home? If she didn't wouldn't she be back home, with Sota safe in his bed? Perhaps. How would she know? What evidence had she been given that any of her choices were the right ones? If there were right ones; if it wasn't all a cruel hoax by which Inuyasha tormented her with the illusion that Sota could be rescued.

She blinked back rising tears. She would not start that again. If she hadn't been a crybaby, perhaps she would've gotten Sota back by now.

She concentrated on what could be evidence, however flimsy, that she had gotten some things right. Her friendship with Miroku and Shippo that couldn't be meaningless, could it? The happy, goofy smile Miroku given her when she had rescued him… was that a gratuitous event in a story with no ending? Shippo helped her to find out that she was capable of doing more than she had known. To have gotten this far at all, in spite of the hideous traps Inuyasha had set for her… surely that was some kind of evidence in her favor?

Perhaps. But it would mean nothing at all unless she couldn't get to Sota in time, and save him from being turned into a demon. She thought about her dream… she remembered now… that was the day that Sota came home from the hospital… at least up to the part that she promised her father that she would protect Sota. She felt sick… she broke her promise because she did forget… for years she had been angry with her brother for getting all the attention and making her take care of him all the time.

She was tired of being the big sister… but that didn't mean that she didn't still love him… she was just angry when she wished for demons to take him away from her… if she had know what would happen she never would have made that wish. 'That's it,' she thought to herself. 'If I ever get the two of us out of here, I promise to protect and take care of Sota from now on.'

But who was the man in her dream? Who was the one that saved her from the monster spider? She felt as if she knew him from somewhere…

"This way," said Shippo's voice, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up, not noticing that she was starting to head off the trail. She shook her head back to reality and headed back onto the path to where her friends where.

The three of them walked on through the wilderness, and on, until they began to look exhausted and a little downcast. As for Kagome, her body was wilting and her spirit was exasperated.

Miroku broke the silence. "There's a bridge over there. Once we pass that, we'll be out of the Forest of Sorrow." The trio edged their way along the ledge, careful not to slip. When they neared the bridge, the footing underneath Kagome's feet gave way, nearly sending herself, Shippo, and Miroku tumbling down, and into a river filled with dark water.

"What is in that river?" asked Kagome in a shaky voice as she regained her balance.

"Oh, I nearly forgot! That is the bridge that crosses over the River of Despair," said Miroku darkly. "It's a river made of a poisonous miasma, and if you fall into that stuff then it'll melt to bones in less than a minute."

Kagome gulped. "HOW COULD YOU FORGET SOMETHING LIKE THAT?" she snapped at him. "Ok, stay out of the river. Thanks for the warning Miroku."

After gaining their composure back, the three faced the bridge in front of them, It was teetering and in bad shape; the wood was rotten, the stone was crumbling, and it looked as if it was about to collapse any second. Kagome was immediately in doubt as to whether she really wanted to cross a bridge that looked like it was about to fall apart, and into a river that could melt you in under a minute. But before she could decide anything else, a young woman jumped in front of them, blocking their path. She wore a black armored outfit and a mask on covering her mouth and nose, and held a humongous boomerang over her head, preparing to strike.

"You may not cross this bridge without my permission!"