Chapter four

Petitefeeme: And here is a new chapter ^_^

I want to dedicate this chapter to my friend Blue-chan. HAPPY

BIRTHDAY BLUE-CHAN ! XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, only my Ocs. Enjoy this chapter! =)

I was in a state of shock for one whole month. For that entire period I sat silently on my futon or in front of the hut, only moving to eat, bath, clothe or relieve myself.

I could see that Aisu and even Hiro were worried about me. Though I was thankful that they were taking care of the egg for me, for the moment I couldn't give a damn to what they were thinking.

What got me out of this trance was actually my inner demon.

'Really child, are you going to transform in a vegetable?'

'Not really, why?' I grumbled.

'All you've done this month was sitting, staring at nothing and I'm getting quite irritated with your inactivity. In an unknowing amount of months, the egg will hatch and you will have to take care of the hatchling, raise her so that she can become a proud dragon demoness and live a happy life. You're certainly not going to achieve that goal by just sitting around!'

'Demo…my family.' I protested weakly, knowing she was right but not really wanting to stop my mourning.

'What, your family? You're a witch and a demoness for goodness sake! Witches can live easily one hundred years and being a dragon witch demoness, your lifespan surely lengthened greatly. You will surely live until you can see your family again. And what they would say if they saw you like that?'

'My father would probably want me to move my butt to make the better off things.' I sighed 'And my mother would want me to be happy, no matter what happen.'

I broke down in sobs again, unable to help myself, but the only difference from this last month was that, after sobbing for half an hour, I actually felt a little better.

I dried my eyes, surely looking awful and decided to explore a bit. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life for the moment, but to begin with something somewhat familiar was a good beginning.

So after making sure the egg was warm enough (and apologizing to it for neglecting it, though I knew the being inside couldn't really hear me), I wandered out of the hut.

I did my best to ignore the stares I was getting for most of the villagers and walked to what seemed to be the centre of the tiny town. It was a sort of place where the well was standing, people gathering around to collect water.

Then the huts were built along the main dirt road, some of them a bit further, on a little plateau at hillside. When I ventured a bit further I found various plantations and pastures with the forest in the background.

I sat on a rock and observed longly women washing clothes in the nearby river, children playing or doing their chores and men working in the plantations or the huts. It was rustic, hard, but I could feel an harmony in this way of living. A sense of peace.

My attention got to a rather old woman who was carrying a large basket of herbs with a lot of more little ones.

She seemed to have some difficulties so I hoped off my rock and neared her.

"Do you need any help?" I asked, hating how my voice now sounded childish.

The woman scrutinized me a good moment before abruptly dropping three little bags in my arms. I barely caught them, not being ready and followed her with some difficulties, noticing now that her straws were long and fast for someone as old as her.

I entered after her in a hut that looked slightly bigger than the other and immediately understood why when I stepped in.

Hanging from the walls were rows and rows of glass, earth, little and big jars containing liquids, ointments, roots, flowers, leaves and pastes of different colours. Dried herbs were hanging from the ceiling and on a little low table were tools surely used to transform herbs into medicine.

I quickly became awe struck at the scenery before me and forgot the bags in my arms until the old woman snapped at me:

"Well! Are you going to stand here looking like an idiot or making yourself useful?"

I blushed, handed her the bags and watched her open them all, the big basket included, before putting all the herbs on the table.

She began to sort them out in piles and tying them together in bunches.

She stopped as soon as she began and said.

"Well? Weren't you going to help me?"

I blushed once again before running literally to sit in front of her and sorting out herbs.

The old woman reprimanded me on numerous occasions, pointing me that even if the flower or even leaves were close in looks, the roots or the colours weren't the same.

I became quickly entranced in the jobs and didn't even notice the sun was down until Aisu entered the hut.

"Ah! There you are." She said, seemingly relieved to see me "Where were you all this time? Hiro and I were worried."

It touched me deeply that they would care so much for me and couldn't help the smile that stretched my lips.

"Gomen." I said, getting off the cushion I was on "I was helping her and I didn't saw the time pass."

While talking I pointed to her the old woman and Aisu nodded to her quite respectfully, getting a grunt in return.

"Come on dear." She said to me once more "It's late."

It felt odd to be talked to like a little child (which technically I was in appearance), but weirdly it felt still good, and warm.

I walked to her but before following her, I looked back to the old woman and asked:

"What is your name baa-san?"

"Shizen." She said shortly, not even looking at me.

I didn't reply, leaving her with Aisu.

For the next two weeks, I slowly integrated myself to the village's life.

I began helping regularly Shizen, fascinated with her knowledge of herbs, or humans, hanyos and demons.

And yes, after a few days I finally understood why some villagers like Hiro had weird ears and tattoos like marks. At the beginning I refused to believe it: demons were just myths, not real!

But after seeing them use their powers, and even transforming in their true form, I couldn't deny the fact.

It took me some days to get used to it, but eventually it became an everyday occurrence.

When I wasn't with Shizen I was helping the children to look after the few oxen and horses or to collect eggs or fishes (which was fun. Fishes are slippery and it took dexterity to catch them).

The village was self sufficient. I later found that with the patch of forest, it was surrounded by high mountains and inaccessible most of the year (the only path was inaccessible from early autumn to early summer). But the forest was full of wild animals and the stream near the village fishy. The earth was rich and the weather clement, so the village was lively and thriving.

The only problem was the clothes but they were growing flaxes to create tissues.

After the end of the second month, I became fully accustomed to the farm life and was more or less friendly with everyone.

There was always something to do from sunrise to sunset and everyone, even little children like me, had chores.

I helped more and more Shizen, who I discovered was the head healer of the village, and at the end of the third month became officially her apprentice.

It was after the sixth month that I finished my 'transformation'.

I woke up one day and my inner had stated calmly that my merging was finished.

'What?' I thought, a bit thrown off by the news.

'If you don't believe me, just go look at reflection.'

I had to wait till I reached the river, the village having no mirror.

I bent gently over the water surface and observed curiously my 'new' apppearence.

My chestnut brown hairs had become freakish PINK! OH MY..!

I stared at my reflection in shock, totally freaked out by my new hairs before realising that I didn't breathed for one whole minute. I took a sharp intake of breath and looked one more time.

Albeit it was my hairs, the colour was beautiful, a very pale, almost white pink which was reminding me of sakura blossoms. The only difference was that they had a silver glint in add.

And I had now the bluest eyes I ever saw instead of my green ones. They were so beautiful that I had some difficulty detaching myself from them. This was so new.

I also noticed I had little pitch black streaks, one on each of my cheekbone.

"Haruko?" I heard someone call me.

I turned to see Aisu searching for me. I called her back and she made a funny face discovering my new appearance but overall accepted me easily.

Hiro laughed at me for one whole week but calmed afterward.

My change caused me another session of laser looks but otherwise, but they adapted to me again in little time.

For the next six months, nothing big happened. I was doing my best to help the villagers with my little body, mostly helping Shizen. I was often alone, my mind not taking pleasure in games of my age (which seemed two or three) and even if they were cordial with me, the villagers were still finding me weird, mostly the children (and perhaps they were right).

I was more and more helping Aisu in her duty, having finally noticed she was pregnant. I also noticed she was in pain and even Shizen seemed perplexed.

The old woman told me that she was worried because of the mixing of energies.

Aisu was a miko and Hiro a demon. Apparently those two energies didn't mix really well and Shizen was afraid the baby would die, taking its mother with him/her.

I wanted desperately to help, but didn't know what to do. So I only helped soothe the pain instead of erasing it.

There was only a little incident resulting from a discovery concerning my powers.

One day I was in the river, playing with the water while the women were washing the clothes. My job was to catch a cloth if it slipped away from one of them. I was enjoying it and dancing when a stream of water formed and began following my movements. Surprised, I stopped, but the stream stayed so I tentatively moved my hand.

The stream moved and I progressively played with it, soon invoking other stream and dancing with them, letting myself loosen and enjoy.

I only stopped when I felt tired and I blushed when the women politely clapped.

A little later, one of them noticed to me that my apppearence changed.

Looking at my reflection in the water, I noticed that some of my pink locks now were of a beautiful blue, the same as my eyes.

I didn't now how to reverse the operation so my hairs stayed like that.

When the six month ended, the egg cracked.

I was walking home with some water for Aisu who was now too big and too easily tired to move.

I was nearing the hut when the woman passed her head outside to motion me to run to her.

"Quick!" she called to me "The egg…"

Fearing the worst, I began running as much the heavy bucket would allow me and entered.

Aisu and Hiro were circling the dying fire and the egg was cracking up, moving in jolts.

"Come." Said Aisu, motioning to me to near the hearth.

I put the bucket and sat beside the pregnant woman, looking at the egg.

We waited like that a few minutes before the egg lighted, blinding us momentarily.

I felt a burst of power and a wind spread quickly, dying after a few seconds.

We opened our eyes again to see a baby dragon looking around curiously.

She had tender golden scales covering her body, reminding me of her mother. Her eyes were like two emeralds and I could see a little patch of earthy brown hairs on her wither.

Her eyes met mine and we stayed like that god now how long and she neared me tentatively on her new paws.

As if I wasn't controlling my movements, my hand neared her golden head and the moment the two touched, I sensed a wave of warmth swept through me.

"Okaa-san!" I heard a tiny voice say.

I blinked at the emerald eyes fixing me intently, knowing confusedly it was her.

"I'm…I'm not you mother you know." I said embarrassed.

I'm sure I saw the baby pout and a glint of hard determination appeared in her eyes.

"Okaa-san!" she said, a bit harder.

I know Aisu and Hiro were looking curiously at me, I being the only one to hear her apparently.

"No, no." I tried to say "Your true mother, the one who birthed you…"

"Okaa-san! Okaa-san! Okaa-san! Okaa-san!" yelled the dragon.

I winced at the tone and obliged, not wanting to have a headache so early in the morning.

"Okay, okay." I granted her "If you want."

The baby seemed satisfied and laid down in my laps before falling quickly asleep.

"What was that?" asked curiously Aisu after a silence.

I sighed and retailed the conversation to them.

"It's normal calf." Chuckled Hiro "You made a promise to her mother to take care of her hatchling. So it's normal she considers you her new mother."

"Am I not a bit too young to be a mother?" I asked, unsure.

Aisu smiled understandingly and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry." She smiled "I'm sure you will take care perfectly of the young one."

I smiled back, somewhat reassured and looked down at the little baby dragon sleeping.

"She needs a name you know." Said Hiro quietly.

Her golden scales were glinting softly in the sunlight seeping through the enter of the hut and looking at them, one name flashed in my mind.

"Haruki." I said softly, petting her.

"Sunshine." Translated Aisu "It's beautiful."