A bird flies above in the nearly cloudless blue sky. The stream beside us rushes on by, carrying small fish and pebbles along with its current. Sitting near the edge of the stream is Inuyasha. He has been brooding since last night when Naraku kidnapped Kikyo. As much as I want to wallow in my hatred of the woman, I don't want Inuyasha to feel this way.

Sighing, I approach Inuyasha slowly. I bite my bottom lip, something I have never done before.

"Inuyasha, we need to save Kikyo," a deep, dark place in me wants to roll my eyes and take it back. It's on her that she's gotten kidnapped, but after feeling this way, a great heaviness falls on my back. What am I thinking? What if I was the one kidnapped? And what if it was my fault? Should no one come looking for me?

"I'll save her on my own," a sternness takes over his voice.

Miroku grumbles behind me and passes me by. He slams his sandaled foot into the back of Inuyasha's head. The half-dog demon falls onto his face from the force. "Stop being such a stubborn fool. You forget who it was that kidnapped Kikyo. I wouldn't even have this hole in my right hand if it weren't for Naraku."

"He's an enemy to all of us, remember?" Sango chimes.

"What makes you so special?" Shippo adds.

Another sigh leaves me. The heaviness is getting heavier. Kneeling next to Inuyasha, I can feel the frown taking over my face. "We already know your guy's history. There is no use in sneaking around trying to fix everything behind our backs."

"I don't 'sneak around.' I never 'snuck' in my life!" Inuyasha yells. He gets up, his fists clenched tightly as he glares at me, but the glare quickly falls when he notices the emotions on my face.

I know I feel burdened. Saddened. Angry. But which one of these has stopped him from being so aggressive?

"Ke-…"

"Hey! Over there!" Miroku shouts.

We both look and follow Miroku's gaze up to the sky where three serpent-like creatures floating across the sky with little balls of light in their tiny hands. They are instantly recognizable as Kikyo's soul gatherers.

"She's close by," I say, standing.

Inuyasha follows suit, turning back to me with a serious glance. "You coming?"

I nod.

"Get on my back, and let's get going," Inuyasha turns his back to me. I contemplate whether or not this is a good idea. I glance over at Sango, who is getting on Kirara's back. Shrugging, I climb onto Inuyasha's back, my hands gripping his tight shoulders, and my thighs tightly clasp onto his waist. We're off in seconds with Miroku running beside us and Kirara with Sango and Shippo, not too far behind.

After about fifteen minutes of straight running, we notice a couple more soul gatherers up in the sky. It is almost as if they are leading us somewhere. Sango must feel the same way, she guides Kirara up to them, takes out of her blade and slashes into one. Splitting into two, in place of the shredded limbs is one of Naraku's gigantic hornets.

"I knew it!" Sango exclaims loudly. "Be careful! It's a trap!"

Just as she says this, the light from the sun blurs out and darkness surrounds us. I feel my knees skim along the grass below, and Inuyasha fades out of view. I fall, hands first, onto the ground below, my red pants skidding on the grass and dirt beneath me.

There is fog all over the place, nearly suffocating me. Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo are all missing, and I am left alone while it gets colder and colder. The fog moves, whooshing past me. I get up and start walking straight. At least, I think I am going straight. With the fog dispersing, I can see I am in a forest. I feel a tickle at my feet and see that roots from several trees have come out of the ground and are trying to climb up my feet and legs.

"Oh, hell no," I hiss. Unsheathing my sword, I stab the wiggling roots one after another.

Once all the roots are slashed to pieces, I sheathe my sword and glare up ahead to see a large tree and Kikyo standing in the middle of it. She glowers my way, picking up her bow and quiver full of arrows. I feel a pout tug at my lips. She's the last person I want to run into by myself, even though we were purposely looking for her.

She lifts her bow, threads an arrow, and aims at me. The pounding in my chest freezes briefly, and I pause from walking any further. "What are you doing?"

She narrows her eyes and releases the arrow. A zipping sound passes my left ear and my cheek begins to sting. There is a trickle of something dripping down my cheek where the sting throbs.

The sound of crackling comes from behind me, and I look over my shoulder to see a brilliant light coming from an opening in the ground. Before I have the chance to think to run, my feet stumble below me and I slip down the enlarging hole. My hands wave above me grasping at the dirt wall until finally, I catch a thick tree root.

The air is cold below me, my legs kick helplessly into the void. I glare up at Kikyo who stares down at me with narrowing eyes.

"Naraku finds himself frightened of you...He tried to control me with the sacred jewel… hoping that I might be turned against you."

Silky textures surround my legs and skim up my hips and waist until finally reaching around my chest. I am lifted from the root by Kikyo's soul gatherers. Five of them encircle me, holding me slightly, always threatening to drop me.

Being at eye level with Kikyo, I can see now, a purple light beaming from inside her chest. "You have a shard."

"Surely the priestess who once stood guard over the sacred jewel has not fallen so low as to be controlled by a mere shard!" She places her right hand against her chest. With the same hand, she reaches out to me, pushes the slit of my white Shinto priestess garb, and tugs the necklace that contains the shard off my neck.

"Hey!" I hiss. "Give that back!"

I struggle against her soul gatherers only to see them float away. What remains are intertwined roots holding me up in place in front of her. Kikyo grins and slowly, I am dragged down into the darkness below, she disappears the more I am brought down and the faster, the roots pull me down.

"Keara!"

My mind feels numb and I can't see. The sound of Inuyasha's voice pierces through the void but I can't place where it is coming from. Coldness weighs on me and beneath me, I feel the hard surface of compact dirt.

"Keara!"

I open my eyes, not realizing at first that they were closed.

"Inuyasha?" I whisper. My arms wobble next to me as I push myself into a sitting position and look up. Through the darkness, I can see a blur of red and silver coming down at me. It is Inuyasha. He lands a few feet from me, but quickly rushes to me, helping me with my struggle with sitting.

"Those roots cause some kind of illusion seems like you got away from it okay…" he mumbles. I am not sure what he means, was all that I saw an illusion? No. I felt Kikyo's cold hand against my chest when she stole the jewel. I felt the roots as they dragged me down to the pits of the void.

"Let's get you outta here," he wraps an arm around my waist and leaps us up the wall of the hole until the void disperses and we land on the ground outside of the hole.

Standing next to the tree, she had originally been standing in before she approached me; is Kikyo. My jewel in her hand, glowing brilliantly.

"Kikyo…" Inuyasha mutters. "Those are Keara's jewel shards! Keara?" He looks down at me but all I can do is look down. I feel like a failure. Letting her take the jewels from me so easily.

"No! Don't tell me it was you!"

My body quivers at his loud voice, the guilt grows heavily on my shoulders. I look at him, only to find him staring at Kikyo. He's not accusing me. He's accusing her.

"What's wrong? Tell me…Why are you unhappy to know I'm well…?" Kikyo replies.

"Answer me! Just what did you do to her?" He yells.

"I tried to kill her. What is it you plan to do about it?" Her eyes narrow, her slim face looking almost evil as she speaks. "Will you kill me?"

Inuyasha growls, his fists clenching tightly.

"Under Naraku's spell…What was it that you thought about?" A sly smile lifts her lips, and she bursts into a soft laughter. "How could you say that and then kill me?"

My brows furrow close together. What is it that he said? What did he see in Naraku's illusions? Obviously, it had something to do with Kikyo. A pinch bites at my heart.

Kikyo turns away from us, and as she does, several of her soul gatherers come out from the fog, wrap around her, and lift her into the air.

"Embracing death together, now that's a day I'll wait for."

She disappears into the dark navy blue sky.

Inuyasha looks back down at me, "tell me what she did to you."

Sighing, my head lowers once again, "she took the jewel shard from me." My hands find my face and my fingers scramble to hide the guilt placed there.

"That's not what I'm asking! Did Kikyo really try to?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't she!" I yell. My hands twist against my cheeks, forming into fists. Anger rushes through me, but not at Inuyasha, at the fact Kikyo couldn't finish the job. If She had just killed me I wouldn't be in the way of her and Inuyasha.

"Keara…." Inuyasha whispers with a softness in his voice.

"Uh, are you two, finished talking?" Miroku asks. I glance in the direction his voice is coming from and out of the fog, he comes carrying Sango and Shippo on his back.

"Yeah, sorry," I mutter. "We should get out of here before something else happens."

"But Keara…." Inuyasha reaches for me but I pull away and start to walk in a random direction.

If Kikyo killed me….Inuyasha could have the jewel and whatever wish he wants to make. To become a demon? To be with Kikyo? Either way, I'd be out of the way. And maybe, that would be best…