InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Anusti, A Tale of the Shikon no Tama ❯ Priestess ( Chapter 12 )

 

ANUSTI, A TALE OF THE SHIKON NO TAMA

 

Chapter 12- Priestess

 

Inuyasha didn't return until after sunset and he was fuming mad.

 

“That damn wolf escaped!” He bellowed as he had entered the hut. “But not before he and the dragon got into a fight!” He had woken up everybody in the hut, except for Anusti. She was sitting up against the far wall, her eye's closed, her wounded wing outstretched.

 

“Inuyasha!” Kagome hissed (not literally). “She's right there!”

 

“I don't give a damn! She can't hear me!” Anusti didn't even shift in her sleep. “What is she going to do!?” Kagome was about to open her mouth when Kaede spoke.

 

“You do not know much about dragon demons then, do ye?” Inuyasha looked at her.

 

“Dragon demons are almost never truly asleep. She can hear everything you say and she will remember it in the morning.” Everyone looked closer. Lo and behold, Anusti's eye was opened a slit just enough that she could see the whole hut. Inuyasha groaned.

 

They remained at Kaede's village for the next week. They rested, prepared supplies, and mended clothes. Anusti spent much of the first few days in Kaede's hut. She was extremely weak, weaker then Inuyasha had been.

 

She couldn't even walk on the first day, and had slept in much of the second. While she slept, it was a deep sleep, not like the one Kaede had spoken of earlier. During her sleep, she spoke in a foreign tongue, like a cross between a hiss and a human voice, her words were impossible to understand. Many had steered clear of Kaede's hut that day. On the third day, she had walked through the forest, Miharu on her shoulder.

 

By the end of the week, Anusti was back to her energetic self. The group had left to look for more jewel shards. Even though Anusti was weak, she didn't hold back the group, as Inuyasha had complained.

 

Kagome had sensed a jewel shard on the second day. They had come to an abandoned temple within 2 days, and decided to enter, for Kagome could sense the shard within. The temple was surrounded by a large wooden wall, which had oddly not rotted, even though it looked very old.

 

The gate had been left open, for some odd purpose, and there was no one around, for what seemed many years. Inuyasha had walked through the gate first, and immediately met an invisible wall. Miroku walked up to him and looked on the side of the wall.

 

“There's demonic purification scrolls here. I'll remove them.” He put his hand up to remove the scroll and was electrically shocked. “What the?” He looked at his hand, no damage was done. “I can't remove it…” He said with aggravation, confusion, and shame in his voice.

 

He, Kagome, and Sango could walk by the wall with no problem. Inuyasha, Anusti, Shippo, and Kirara wouldn't be able to enter the temple because they were either part or full demon.

 

Sango had sighed in frustration. “We'll go find the shard, wait out here.” They walked toward the temple and entered the doors. It was pitch black out and Shippo shook. He had stayed near Kirara because he knew Inuyasha was ticked off and he was still a little frightened of Anusti. He quivered next to the sleeping Kirara from noises in the woods.

 

Anusti saw him and couldn't stand it any longer. She spoke to Mirharu, in the same odd tongue she had used in her sleep and nodded towards Shippo. She had seen the hawk and the fox demon play before as she had recuperated. The hawk glided down to Shippo and began to chirp loudly. Shippo looked from the hawk to the back of the dragon and began to play with the hawk.

 

`No kid should be without a friend.' She thought as her eyes glanced down to her amulet. She held it gently in her hand, rolling it in her scaly palm, looking at the contents of ashes for a long time. `And I shouldn't be without him.'

 

By the time the sun had raised, Kagome, Sango and Miroku had not returned. During the night, Anusti had built a fire, with Inuyasha's protest, to warm Shippo and also to keep her awake. It was ashes now. Inuyasha was fidgety. He paced back and forth, clenching his fist open and closed.

 

“I'm going in there now!” He yelled pulling out Tessaiga, and smashing it into the barrier.

 

`I didn't want to have to do this…' Anusti thought as she stood and walked towards the gate.

 

“What the hell do you think you're doing!?” Inuyasha yelled at her. “Are you stupid? There's a barrier there!” Anusti didn't even look at him. She walked towards the barrier, murmured a word, closed her eyes, and simply passed through it. For once, Inuyasha was speechless.

 

“Why didn't you do that before?” Inuyasha wailed, both angered and confused. Anusti simply pressed her hand up to the scroll, eyes still closed. The scroll burned away, all that was left was a black spot. Finally Anusti opened her eyes and let out a gasping breath, as if she had just flown half-way around Japan. Her sides wheezed and she calmed herself. She started to walk towards the temple and turned her head over her shoulder.

 

“Well, are you coming or not?”

 

They did find Kagome, Sango and Miroku, after a series of mazes in the dark. The humans had noticed the demons when they saw Anusti's glowing eyes in the dark. They had been lost for quite some time and nothing anyone tried to do make it light. Kagome had been the first to notice.

 

“Wait a minute, how did you get down here?” She said amazed. “You couldn't get in earlier? How did you get in?”

 

“By her goddamn magic tricks she should' a used earlier.” Inuyasha groaned.

Anusti knew she'd have to tell them the explanation anyway, so she told them there.

“My mother.”

 

“Your mother?” Miroku asked.

 

“She was, a priestess, I inherited that power from my mother. And besides, the spell was weaker in the daytime.”

 

“Your mother was a priestess?” They all said amazed.

 

“That's impossible…” Miroku began.

 

“We'll I'm her aren't I?” It was obvious Anusti was uncomfortable speaking about her mother. Miroku, and everybody for that matter, asked no more questions.

Anusti had been guiding them out of the maze (she can see in the dark) when a horrible stench emerged.

 

“What is that?” Miroku asked covering his nose with his sleeve. Shippo was on Kagome's shoulder and covered his nose with both hands. Finally, they saw sunlight at the end of the corridor and ran for it.

 

The stench actually got stronger as they left the temple. Then they saw what was making the stench. A huge rotting corpse lay in front of the temple. What it had been was unsure. But what stood above the corpse, holding a jewel shard in his hand, was obvious. He wore the oddest thing a demon of dark power would wear, a white baboon costume (A/N-comedy relief, eh?), even though the group knew it was a copy. Naraku.