7. Kikyou

A/N: I've never thought I'd write a story where main focus is Kikyou. I don't hate her, but at the same time I don't love her - my feelings for her are more bound to what she's doing and how she's portrayed. Still, I've never imagined I'd have any idea for her prompt. But since it came to my mind...

A young girl was walking through a forest, her black hair flowing on the light breeze. She was holding a basket partially filled with herbs. She was looking for more herbs, wandering deeper and deeper in the forest, admiring its wild beauty and the serene silence of the ancient trees. She was walking in steady pace, making enough noise for wild animals to notice her and not be startled by her passing by.

She heard a hiss and turned sharply to look in the direction of a shallow hole in an old tree. Something blue was glistering there. The girl wary carefully approached and saw a snake youkai the length of her whole arm curled there, observing her warily.

"I won't harm you," she said when she felt no aggression, but a lot of confusion and fear in its youki. She offered a small smile.

"Miko," hissed the snake.

"Yes, I am training to be one, but I won't harm you as long as you don't harm others, blue snake," she assured it.

"Missuki," the youkai introduced itself after a long minute of checking the air with its forked tongue and its youki brushing against her own power. She remailed motionless, letting it see she really had no will of attacking it.

"My name is Kikyou," she replied politely. "What are you doing here, it's really close to my village. If you try to attack it miko Hana will purify you in a second."

"I'm ressting, Kikyou," the snake said with a little more confidence and lifted its head from it's curled body. Its eyes were like silver coins, shining and very pretty. "Another youkai took my power. I'll ressst and leave this foressst."

"I see. How can I help you?" Kikyou asked. The snake froze, tasting the air with its tongue again, obviously surprised by her eagerness to help it.

"You can't, but thanksss. I've never sssen a miko sssuch asss you," it replied with a small bow ot its head. "Itsss nice to sssee a miko who doesssn't want to kill you at sssight."

Kikyou opened her mouth to say the snake was wrong, that mikos weren't so bad, that they were helping people and wasn't that violent. Then she realized that for him it was probably like this - good or neutral youkai were treated just like bad ones unless they proven their goodness. And they wouldn't still be entirely trusted. It was more common for a miko to fire an arrow and ask questions later. So instead of arguing she just gave a sad smile and a little bow of her head.

"Thank you for your kind words, Misuki," she said. "Rest peacefully and have a safe journey to wherever you're headed."

"Thaanksss, miko Kikyou. Ssstay sssafe," the snake replied and laid its head down while watching the young woman go away.

.

Kikyou heard crying - a child was crying somewhere nearby, behind the thick trees.

"Mommy! I'm lost! Mommy, where are you?" cried the child. The miko felt sorry for the little one and quickly followed the sound just to find a small boy sitting curled in a ball on top of... Stairs.

Stone stairs which stood in the middle of a small clearing. It was eight wide steps, seemingly leading nowhere. There was no building attached to the stairs. It was so surreal Kikyou wasted a long minute standing and staring at it before a new fit of sobbing made her focus on now and then.

"Little boy," she called softly. "What happened? If you're lost I can lead you to my village and we can look for your mother."

She made a step forward and entered the meadow at the same minute as the boy lifted his head to look at her. And as their eyes met she realized it was a trap - no human child had eyes like this - purely white andd perfectly round, with no lashes or lids. She wanted to move away, but a strange power wrapped around her and her feet started moving on their own, approaching the stone steps while the child was observing her with an indifferent expression on his chubby face. Her limbs were shaking when she was trying to stay still, fight the youkai's will. She had to free herself. Sweat started to run down her face as her breath became labored.

She tried to summon her spiritual power just like lady Hana was teaching her, but her concentration wasn't strong enough and her power was quickly disappearing as if draining from her body. A feeling of weakness almost overcame her, she felt like after a long day of working in the sunlight.

When she was about to put her foot on the first step, still struggling against the will of the youkai she saw a flash of blue.

The power around her disappeared in one second. There was nothing to support her shaking, weak body so she fell to her knees. When she looked back at the child she saw that the boy was grimacing, clawing at his throat with his fingers. She saw a blue-scaled thin body of the serpent youkai wrapped tightly around the other youkai's neck.

"Flee, kind miko," hissed the snake before it bit it's own tail to prevent the other from unwrapping his body from around him. Kikyou shook her head, panting as she tried to get up. She had to help the snake, she had to try to do something!

As soon as she thought that the boy fell from the stairs, falling behind it with a loud, inhuman cry. When KIkyou ran around the structure she saw no sign of both youkai. Their youki, previously filling the clearing, was gone. Only the stairs remained. Kikyou bowed her head in silent thanks before grabbing her basket and running all the way back home.

A/N: I really wanted to write something not drama/Inuyasha/being Shikon Miko-related stuff