Limerance

Chapter 7

What awakened beneath the broken remnants of the second stone was a girl who knew nothing. She lay upon the dark grey ruins of the slab, naked and listless, marveling only at the rush of sensations flowing through her being. Had her body been a sponge, it would have absorbed everything at once - the prickling cold, the softness of the wind, and the pain of the rocks that dug into her spine. Her eyes followed the cracked and ruined monument as it seemed to stretch to the very clouds, its surface smooth and unmarked as a baby's skin. That seemed wrong, somehow. Markings had once graced its surface, but now nothing remained.

Nothing but her.

She lay still for a long span of time, remembering this nothing and at the same time recalling everything. But as moments then minutes passed, those memories gave way to human thoughts. Companionship arrived in the form of creatures of all shapes and sizes. Drawn to her presence, they gathered around her, some prodding her still form with their snouts; others simply staying as close as their nature would allow. She recognized the names of some: rabbit, deer, fox, wolf, raccoon. None meant her harm. They came out of curiosity, for the girl was an anomaly of nature - both a child to it and a foreign thing, a living being that had no origin and no place among the wild.

It was then that the girl formed her first real thought:

Who am I?

And in that thought, an ego was born that answered with simplicity.

I am Kagome.

Higurashi Kagome.

Yet what that meant eluded her. A name was useless without an origin. A name couldn't tell her why she was naked in the forest. It couldn't offer an explanation as to why she felt hollow and empty, like a vessel without a purpose and a glove without a hand to fit it. It did not explain why she lay beneath a broken stone as tall and glorious as giants of lore and legend or why she was certain that it should be covered in glowing markings.

Certainly, her name couldn't offer neither shelter from the cold nor protection from the elements, yet her mortal body needed those things all the same. Rolling to her feet, she watched the rabbit - watched as it looked about in all directions, seeking any kind of threat. She watched the deer do the same and saw the hunger in the eyes of the wolf. Instinct urged her to find a hiding place, for someone or something would come to take her life. Something would hunger for her flesh just as the wolf craved to crush the rabbit beneath its deadly paws.

Stumbling and clumsy, still unfamiliar with legs and arms and feet, the girl wandered through the trees, searching for anything that could offer her protection, however meager it might be. The animals followed as though guided by a silent bidding, keeping an eye out and seeing what she could not. The stag stayed close, his proud stature and dedication surprising her. Like a loyal guardian, he strayed no more than an arm's length from her side.

On the way, she spied a puddle of rainwater and looked upon her face for the first time. Washing mud and dirt from her skin, she traced her features with her finger pads, trying to memorize the lines, hills, and valleys of this foreign visage. Long raven tresses trailed down to her ankles; pale skin; huge blue eyes.

I look like my father - she thought, though she had absolutely no recollection of who he was or what he'd looked like. He was long dead. She knew that much. Yet there was no sorrow in her heart, no mourning for his passing. Where was her mother, then? Was she dead, too? Had they both abandoned her here in this middle of nowhere? Was that the reason that she was alone?

Somehow, that theory didn't feel right. The mother she could vaguely recall would never have done such a thing. So why was she here, then? Why did she feel like there was nothing and no one that needed her?