Inuyasha: Girl Lost In Time

Chapter 7: More than just your average girl

Chapter 7: More than just your average girl

The forest thickens as the shadows of nightfall drape around me. Darkness consumes every corner, making it impossible for me to follow the trail of broken thread. With the village men far behind me, their moans and groans drowned out by complete silence, I can solely focus on the heartbeat - like the throb of my skin. Every bruise and scrape comes alive and reminds me of the last few days that have been the most brutal out of my entire life. It's hard not to believe that this place is real now with so much physical pain telling me I am most definitely not asleep.

Before today, this pain would be only a faint echo on my flesh, telling me it thrives, but now that the emptiness within me is gone, the world is clearer - sharp and in focus. I can even feel the slightest difference in the temperature from one area to the next, but most of all, I can feel the cool breeze as it plummets through my nose down into my body, filling my lungs full of chilling air. I shiver.

That's not all that's different. No. The unique difference I have noticed is the sharpness of my mind. It feels unlocked, as if someone took tiny gold keys and unbolted parts of the brain that weren't meant to be unlocked before - to the point where I feel I've read a pile of books and gained all their endless knowledge within the few seconds that beam had hit me.

I don't think I am the smartest person alive, but I sure do feel ...unlocked...in some small way.

"Keara, Inuyasha!" Kaede yells. Her frail, old voice is croaking, and it's loud and clear.

She's close by. I quicken my speed and narrow my eyes in false hope they'll be able to focus on the smaller surroundings just in case I might have missed something. "Kaede?" I begin, "Where are you..." Right as the words leave me, my foot hitches onto a mound of dirt. I stumble forward, pathetically waving my arms, about to catch myself. By chance my right hand grips onto a layer of bark from a tree next to me, and I keep myself from plummeting into the ground below.

"Right here." She speaks again. This time she's behind me, low to the ground. I look over my shoulder, down to the mound that tripped me to see that she is the very mound I fell upon. She's a hill beneath a blanket of dirt and dry leaves, her head the only limb that's not covered, lies on a pillow of fresh green leaves.

You got to be joking. Out of all places he could have taken her or put her, he buried her? That can't be good for her wound.

"Inuyasha is searching for Kagome." She breaks my distraction.

An immediate anger washes over me. And I bet to hell she has the damn jewel. Lost again. Again! I glance around in a full circle in search of any sign of the jewel but I come up empty-handed. I get the whole 'She's a protector' deal, but she's not at all good at it. So why is she so damn important and trusted with it? Every single day we've been here.

Every. Damn. Day. She's lost it. And even broke it!

I grit my teeth painfully, but I can't seem to stop. My hands curl into fists. Red takes over the edges of every object around me. I want to scream again. I want to beat her into dust. She's not taking any of this seriously! And yet the villagers think she's some kind of god!

"I see." Kaede replies to my silent rant. I look down at her in a bit of surprise. "Ye have finally found a piece of ye's soul."

Just like that, my anger drains out of me and sinks into the earth below. I furrow my brows in confusion. Not quite understanding what she means.