InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Walk in the Forest... with Rain ❯ Care to fill in the blanks? ( Chapter 1 )

Kiley blinked at the priest lying at her feet. "Is he as much of a pervert as I think he is?"

"Yes. He either gropes or proposes to every woman he meets. Most, he does both."

Kiley looked at Kagome with a grin that said `This will be fun.'

"All right, that was tons of fun now how about you get on with that explanation you promised?" asked an annoyed Inuyasha. Everyone turned around to see him standing with his back to the group and his eyes on his former foe.

"Yeah…actually, it would probably be better if we all settle down around a fire. It's getting late and kinda chilly."

"Feh, whatever."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Everyone sat uneasily around the stranger's campfire. It was closer to the site where they all met, and besides, somehow it had avoided being rained on.

"All right, where do you want me to start?"

Kagome jumped at the unexpected sound of Kiley's voice. Then she smiled. The other woman was reclining against a tree trunk to her left. We they had gotten back to camp, she had shed her poncho and Kagome found her earlier supposition to be correct. It did look like she'd fallen into a bunch of western costumes and then dressed in the dark. Under her poncho, she wore not only moccasins, but also buckskin clothing which were likely to blend in to her surroundings.

"It's obvious you're from the future, why don't we start with how you got here?"

She nodded to Kagome, "Okay, Jacy can tell his part and then I'll tell you mine. Do me a favor though, and don't interrupt me when I'm talking. I get sidetracked way too easily."

Jacy looked up from his resting place at Kiley's feet. On their walk back to the stranger's camp, she had gotten the chance to get a good look at him. He was a lot taller than she had thought at first. He probably stood at 6'4" or so. He had his hair trimmed like that of most American or British boys, short but stylish. His ears were also something that she wouldn't have expected. Unlike hanyou ears, which perched atop the owner's head, full youkai had ears that you could hide by raking your hair over them. Jacy's were different in that they began as youkai ears but were long and pointed and ended in little tuffs of fur. He had dark brown, almost black hair and grey eyes that reminded her of the rain clouds from earlier in the day. He was also looking up at Kiley with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Why'd you wake me up?"

"You shouldn't have been asleep in the first place, kitty. The story has started and the first chapter is yours. Tell them why you came to harass me in the first place."

Jacy hissed at her and muttered something Kagome couldn't quite pick out. Kiley simply rolled her eyes and booted him in the ribs. Jacy sat up and moved away from her.

"Ahh, excellent Jace, now that you're fully awake you can tell the tale."

"Fine. Just stay away from me."

"To start off with let me explain a few things about myself. I'm a mountain lion youkai and I was born in a country that you might know as England, Great Britain, or any of the other several names we use for ourselves. I grew up in the Welsh mountains with my home den. We worship an aspect of the earth goddess Gaia, Mother of All. The aspect we worship is called Arianhod. She is responsible for connecting the spirits of life to facilitate reincarnation.

"My story actually begins in this time. A youkai from my home den visited this area of Japan and brought back to us a prophecy. I'm the fulfillment of that prophecy. Arianhod came to me one night and told me all of this. I learned that the prophecy which had turned to myth in my home den was true and that I was the reincarnation of the one who had visited…"

(Flash back)

"Jacy, son of the Goddess, I call you forth to witness my truth."

Jacy looked around. Instead of his own dwellings, he found himself in a strange forest, with trees which he had never seen.

"I see you great lady," he said with confusion evident in his tone, "I don't understand, however, why you have come to me instead of the Priestess."

"This message is for you, child. The prophecy brought to you by your ancestor, the one you call `The Legend of the Far-strider' is indeed true. You are being called to your destiny. And there is more, child of my heart. You shall need help in this quest."

"How will I find my helper?"

"The mother will show you. The mother will take you."

With that, the woods surrounding Jacy began to shimmer and slide like ice melting in front of a fire. He closed his eyes to block out the nausea and when he opened them, he was standing beside his own bed, in the cold, cold dark of an early winter morning.

(Back to normal)

"I didn't understand what she meant then, but the next day I went to our Priestess and told her what had happened. She wasn't very surprised about the visit, but she was surprised that the visitation had happened to me. I'm a Healer. I had just gone through the ceremony that made me more than just an herb doctor. In our den, a Healer is more than a job, it's a title. Never had our den had a healer called away within weeks of the ceremony."

Kagome nodded, "So what you're saying is that you were some kind of ruler there. Kind of how Kaede runs the village and leads the festivals."

"Exactly. My people need me, but they understand that any call to serve the Goddess from whom our powers come must be answered first."

He looked into the fire and then passed it, to the people on the other side.

"I few weeks after the dream, the Earth Mother, Gaia, came to me as I was gathering herbs… I didn't say anything. I didn't need to. I had already packed everything I would need and I'd been carrying it with me wherever I went.

"That was right before I met Kiley."

(Flashback)

Gaia suddenly appeared before Jacy. He looked at her and nodded, once, then turned and grabbed a bag sitting behind him in the grass. He took her hand and the landscape began to melt and slide as it had in his dreams a month before. He closed his eyes as he felt a sensation of moving than he ever had. When he opened them, he found himself in a wooded area on the outskirts of a city.

"Where are we, Mother?"

"We are in the place where your helper lives. I must show you something before I take you to her."

"Her?"

"Yes, child, your helper is a woman."

He sighed, "And a human I'd expect."

She merely chuckled.

"Look around you, smell this place and lock it in your mind. I will meet you here when your quest is over to take you back to your own people. I will come for you when the moon is full."

"How long will the quest take, Mother? The moon is almost full now."

"It will take but 10 seconds in this world, child, but I do not know how long it will take in the one to which you will travel."

"Um…Gaia, what exactly is my quest?"

"That is a very good question. But I will not answer you now. You will discover you mission only after you complete it. You will know that it is time to come home to live with your family."

He shook his head in annoyance and mild confusion. (Yes, we are allowed to be annoyed with her, and even angry. It's kinda cool. I got into a fight with a dream version of her. It was sorta weird.) He guessed that no matter what he asked on the subject, no more information was forthcoming, so he turned his mind to the more immediate matter of memorizing the glade in which he stood. He looked up and saw the stars above his head and noted the patterns. If it really did take only ten seconds in this world, then by following the stars he should be able to make his way back to the general area.

"I think I'll be able to find it again."

"Good, child, for now we go to meet your helper. And I warn you, she will not be pleased about this."

The landscape merely blurred this time as they moved, but within moments, they stood in the hallway of what looked like a hotel.

`Not hotel,' he thought as he looked at the doors, `a dormitory.'

They moved to a door with the name Kiley on it.

`Kiley… means beautiful…'

The stopped in front of the door and Gaia laid her hand upon it. Jacy could hear the faint mental noise of magic being worked. And then Gaia motioned him through a door. They walked into a room which held only one bed. The other furniture in the room was pushed to the walls and left a large space in the middle of the room. Everything was neat and clean; nothing on the floors, dresser, desk, bed, or sink that didn't belong.

"She's very neat and tidy."

"Actually," said Gaia with a laugh, "I did this before we walked in. It was horribly messy, and now she'll be much more likely to believe that I am who we say I am."

"It must have been really messy if she would believe only divine intervention could manage this. I'd hate to see it as it was."

His ears began to twitch as her heard footsteps approach the door. The handle turned and in walked a human girl.

She stopped short, halfway through the door and froze as her eyes fell upon the two travelers, and then her room. With a shake of her head she stepped through the door and closed it.

"I don't even want to know how you managed this. But let me know if it ever becomes available commercially."

She stood solidly, feet planted, in front of the door and let her book bag slide to the ground beside her feet.

"Well, are you going to explain to me who you are and why you cleaned my room, or do I have to make my dinner around you?"

Gaia, who shone with an internal light, floated over to her and laid her hand upon the girl's head, "Kiley, my child, do you know who I am?"

"Well, you cleaned my room, which is impossible, you float, and you shine like a glow worm. My guess is the Goddess. I'd like to know, however, who he is and what the two of you want with me."

"Open your mind child, I wish to look into it as we talk. His name is Jacy and he is setting out on a journey to fulfill a prophecy that was made by one of his ancestors. He will need your help to complete his journey."

"Do I get any say in this?" she asked, trying to watch both Gaia and Jacy with half of Gaia's hand covering her face.

"No, and I'm sorry, but you are the only one. As such, you get no more choice in the matter than he. Actually, I'm sorrier for you, because this will ask even more of you than it does of him. I'm also sorry for what I'm about to do."

"What are you-?" She started, and then Jacy heard the loud cacophony of a powerful spell slamming into place. Kiley collapsed and slid slowly to the ground.

"Put her to bed, and when she wakes up, give her this letter," she said as she handed it to him,"This letter is for you. You may read it when I am gone. But first I must show you how to travel to old Japan."

She led him to a corner of the room, between the head of the bed and the closet. He stopped for a moment to pick up the unconscious woman and lay her on her bed, though he had to climb into her chair to do so. When he got down he gave the blocks holding her bed aloft a cursory inspection, just to be sure they were in position. Then he walked to where Gaia was standing.

"What's over here?"

"This is the spot where you must take her when she has awakened and the two of you are ready to go. In the letter I gave you are words of power written in your own Welsh. With them, anyone who can recite them properly will be able to open this portal from either side. This portal is actually linked to one of the pillows on her bed. This may seem strange to you but later it will make sense."

She walked into the middle of the room, and then hesitated before leaving. She turned back to him and placed her hand on his head and then his chest.

"The world to which you go is a dangerous one. I have given her the ability to survive, but she will need help and training. You will be the one to give it to her. She is my child in heart and spirit, but her mind and heart are both troubled. So I enjoin you, Jacy of the McPhaul clan, protect against all harm, and protect her from herself!"

He heard the magic moments before it hit him, then it was as if he was being pulled to pieces and crushed and the same time. His skin felt too tight and his head felt as if it would burst. Then as suddenly as it began, the pain was over and he was clearheaded, if a little off-balance.

He grimaced, "Now I know why she passed out. You did worse to her and she's only human. It hurt badly enough as a demon; I'd hate to think of what she had to deal with."

"Ah, but she is human no longer. Here," she said as she gestured to two small bags and a larger one which had not been there moments before, "In the larger one is clothing for the two of you. It is explained in the letter. The other bags are enchanted to be smaller and weigh less than they should. The green one is yours, to carry in addition to what you have; the brown one is hers to carry with this," she gestured and was holding a pillow, "This is the twin to the one on her bed. For now, this side of the portal will only open at the end of her bed. My reasons are explained in the letter. If she ever moves to a new room or apartment, the portal will move to a place of her own choosing, so long as it is in accordance with my wishes.

"Uh… is she going to be pissed when she wakes up?"

"Yes. I'm leaving before she does though; you need to learn how to deal with her when she is cranky, because I can guarantee that is how she will spend the majority of her time."

(Present)

"She did not say that!"

"Yes she did, Kiley, do you want to tell the story?"

She grunted.

"Alright then, shut up. I'm almost done anyways."

"There's a lot more to the story than that."

"Yeah, but you wake up soon in the story and then it's your turn to talk while I get some real sleep."

(Flashback)

Gaia stepped back and cast a benevolent smile on the two. Then she raised her arms over her head and disappeared. Jacy shook his head and sat down in the chair in front of Kiley's desk. He opened the letter Gaia had told him to read.

`Jacy, by the time you begin to read this letter, Kiley will be close to hypothermia. So go ahead and climb into the bed with her and then continue to read.'

Jacy stood and looked into the bed. True to Gaia's word, Kiley's body was cold to the touch and her breathing was labored, though quiet. He walked to the head of her bed and slowly climbed the side of it.

`I don't know if this thing can hold the weight of two together,' he thought. He slid slowly into the bed between Kiley and the wall. The bed did little more than shift as he moved, and he nodded, pleased. He pulled the covers over both of them and then pulled Kiley to his chest. She began to shiver and he took it as a good sign. In any case he knew it was better than the corpselike stillness that preceded it.

`I've told you that she is no longer human, and she isn't. Not quite. She is what you know as a half demon. But her human side isn't even all human. She is one quarter water changeling. She has most of the abilities and weaknesses of a changeling from the water clan, but will always lack full control of them. Her letter explains the changes I've made in her, the discussion we had while she was asleep, as well as my request of you. If any stranger to the two of you insults her, you will obey my charge to you without thought, and also without true control. If the person insulting her is a friend, you will become angry but will not lash out unless you wish it. If a friend is teasing her, I'm certain you will ignore it unless it becomes a problem. Her youkai blood is not pure either. She is half cat, half dog demon. This may seem like a strange combination, but it serves a purpose which you two will later discover. When you crossover to Japan, seek out the half demon Inuyasha and his friends. He is an inu-hanyou. Oh yes, and before I forget, at the bottom, above the portal spell, is a spell which will grant you the ability to speak and read their language. If Kiley cannot master her changeling's ability to speak other languages, teach her the words of power. She should recover from what I've done to her by morning. When she does and she calms down long enough to read my letter, you will need to heal her. I could not have pushed anymore of my power through her without killing her as a human, so I leave her healing to you to perform.

`There is something which she should know about the portal, something which you may have already figured out. It crosses time and space but there is a catch to it. No matter how long you spend on the other side, only ten seconds will pass on this side. Passage of time on this side is the same as the other. So if you come back through the portal and spend a day here, you will be a day behind Inuyasha and his friends.

`Oh yes, I want you to travel with them. While you are with them, you will accomplish the goal that has been set for you.

`I'm running out of things that I can tell you, things that I can warn you about. But before I go, I must reiterate this to you: Kiley is extremely influential in this journey; you cannot complete your task without her so you must protect her from everyone, including herself!'

While he was reading, Kiley had stopped shivering and the rise and fall of her chest became more languid. Her chest had warmed against his, but her back was cold under his hands. He rolled her away from him and pulled her back so that her shoulders and back rested against his chest he wrapped his arms around her and glanced at her clock. It read 10:00.

`So I've got awhile,' he thought,"I might as well get some sleep. If she's going to be as angry as Gaia says she is I'm probably not going to get any more good sleep for awhile.'

He lowered he face to her hair and sniffed. A pleasant scent of flowers came back to him and he identified it as her shampoo. He turned her head to the side and sniffed her neck instead.

`Ah, there's her scent. Nice. Green things growing beside a quiet meadow brook. Smells like home being at home.'

(Present)

"That's the end of my half of it. Now I'm going to sleep so don't harass me anymore."

"Punk," she muttered as he jumped into the tree above her.

"So what happened when you woke up?" asked Sango.

"What would you do if you got attacked by your god, zapped into a coma, and then woke up as a hanyou? Let's just say it wasn't pretty. But Jacy doesn't have any scars and I calmed down pretty quickly considering the circumstances."

She tugged at her buckskins,"These are ensorcelled. They provide protection from the elements, act as armor, and clean themselves so I never have to wash them unless I want to. They can also blend into any forest landscape if I want to."

"Feh, prove it."

She screwed up her face in concentration and then her body seemed to blend in with the tree and ground. Everyone could see the outlines and faint details of a woman but she was nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Inuyasha nodded, "Not bad. It'll never fool a demon who's looking for you, but if you were sneaking up on one, it might help."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha in surprise. `Inuyasha? Being nice? A compliment? What's wrong here?'

He looked back at her and blushed, "What?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Okay, now its 4:45 and I have an 8 am class. But I promise to write some more tomorrow now that I've broken my writers block. R/R please. Ja ne.