InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Heart ❯ Lost ( Chapter 3 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: ceruleanrain 
A person can only take so much...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.09.2004 | Updated On: 11.12.2004 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 287 | Status: Completed
A person can only take so much...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.09.2004 | Updated On: 11.12.2004 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 287 | Status: Completed
Changing Heart
A/N:
I really hope you guys are enjoying the detail in this fanfic. Again, PLEASE PLEASE ask me questions! And PLEASE PLEASE review! You have no idea how much reviews are inspiring and uplifting.
Oh! And I knock myself over the head multiple times for writing "tow" instead of "toe" in the previous chapter. My apologies. And thanks to Pinkstarz for pointing that out.
mediaminer readers: For some reason, I am having serious problems reading my mediaminer reviews (I've only been able to read one, but there are others...) So from now on, if you have a review, please direct reviews to my email so I can actually ready your comments and reply to them.
________________________________________________________________________ ___________________-
By the time Sango appeared at the door of Kagome's room, sunlight was already streaming through the many windows of the East wing, illuminating the specs of dust floating in the golden beams. She knocked softly on the thick, dark stained door.
"Miss? Miss? May I come in?"
Her voice was enough to rouse Kagome from her uncomfortable slumber on the floor. Her face still swollen from the last night's cry, she rubbed the soreness from her limbs and torso as she slowly got up from the flagstone floor. At the sound of the second set of knocks, the young woman creaked open the door and peered outside.
She recognized the dark-browned haired woman as one of the people who had taken her away from her family the day before. With a gasp, she slammed the door shut and turned her back against it.
"Miss! Miss, please! My name is Sango, and I just wanted to talk to you and offer you some breakfast." Sango rested a white-sleeved arm on the door and placed her forehead against it. After a few moment's silence, she spoke again. "I know you probably hate me for what happened. You must be very afraid and unsure. But if you'll open the door and let me through, I'll be able to explain everything. I promise."
A muffled sob filtered through from the other side. "And that man won't come and yell at me again?"
"Not while I'm here."
There was silence for a few seconds, then the gentle click of the doornob signaled to Sango that she had permission to enter. A slippered foot took a long step in and gently shut the door behind her.
Directly before the warrior was a young woman very different from the one she had first seen last evening. Her hair lay in soft, long waves around her shoulders, down her back, framing a face whose skin was glowing with the aura of sunkissed health and youth. Her eyes, both dark in color and soft in gaze, were tinted red from hours of crying. They moved up from studying the flagstone floor to the tray Sango held. A few bowls were steaming with aromas that made Kagome's stomach grumble and her mouth water.
"Ha! I knew you were hungry. Come over to the table. You can eat while I find you something to wear." Sango set the tray down on a low table under the window of the room and marched over to an armoire made of rich, dark wood that matched the large bed.
"Whff aughf maighf cwovfs?" The young girl kneeling at the table asked in between mouthfuls of rice and miso.
"Your what? Your clothes?" Kagome nodded as she swallowed the cheekfuls of rice. "Those rags? We threw those out, my lady..." She wrinkled her nose as she remembered the threadbare, mud-drenched rags which had barely covered the girl's legs. Disgusting things.
Rummaging through the armoire full of old kimonos, she found a priestess outfit, a white kimono and a red hakama that had once belonged to the late queen. The silky fabric was still soft to the touch, despite years of being stored away in a closet.
Kagome, meanwhile, was choking on her rice. When she regained her breath, she exclaimed,
"You threw out my CLOTHES? I don't have anything other to WEAR! How long are you expecting to keep me here, anyway?"
Sango handed her the priestess outfit and helped her dress. My goodness, how she resembled- "There are lots of clothes here that you can wear. Much finer and of higher quality than the rags you were wearing." A rare, gentle smile tugged at her lips. "I don't know how long we have to keep you here. All I know is that we need your help to break a spell, and you just have to stay until it's broken. No more than six months. As to what the spell is... You have to talk to Prince Inuyasha about that."
Kagome allowed herself to wallow in the softness of her new clothing. Everything about it was gentle... Even the scent. It caressed her skin better than water. She'd never felt anything like it. 'I was used to homespun... But this... this....'
"Prince Inuyasha?"
Sango paused.
"Yes. The Prince. Silver hair, yellow eyes, kinda tall... Yells a lot..."
"There was a man in my room last night. He was watching me sleep, and he yelled at me... But he had black hair and brown eyes."
The warrior gave her a curious glance. It wasn't in her coworker's nature to yell. Well, excepting certain times. But otherwise, the physical desciption fitted him... It was definitely not out of his character, however, to sneak into young womens' rooms, as she had found out by experience. The monk definitely had some explaining to do...
"Your name is Kagome, correct?" A nod confirmed it. "Kagome, let's get you acquainted with the castle."
________________________________________________________________________ ___________________-
"And that," Sango pointed down the hall to a corridor that branched to the left, "is the East tower. You are allowed to go anywhere you wish within the castle grounds, but not in the East tower. Even Miroku and I are forbidden from it. Only Prince Inuyasha may access it."
Kagome nodded again, mesmerized by the size and complexity of the castle. Having been raised in a small, two-storey, four-room house, the palace was a confusing but beautiful maze. She longed to spend hours exploring each room, discovering its secrets, and learning. (Sango had shown her the breathtakingly large library, four storeys high, its walls packed with books).
"I think I'll leave you for now to explore on your own. Remember that dinner is at six in the evening, in the main dining hall not far from your room. If you need anything, just find a maid and she or he will be able to find either myself or Miroku." Sango began to walk away toward the conference chamber when she remembered something. "Oh!" She turned and faced Kagome again. "Please don't be afraid of the Prince at dinner. Just stay quiet, and you'll be ok."
The young girl nodded quietly and waited until the warrior woman left before she began her own adventure. She spent the rest of her afternoon admiring the elaborate paintings and tapestries of the west wing. The kitchen the ebony haired girl found on her way back to her room, in the east wing. The sounds and smells of cooking made her heart lurch as she suddenly began to miss home. Terribly.
Pushing open the oak door to the kitchen, Kagome slipped her head in to watch the hustle of activity of the chamber.
Young and old, male and female, youkai and human alike, the kitchen staff chattered happily as they prepared that night's dinner: deep fried vegetables, flambeed fish, and some thick stew that smelled heavenly. And, of course, the staple of every meal in castles as well as country homes: rice.
In the drunken haze of memories from home the noise and odors wafting from the kitchen brought her, Kagome spotted an apron hanging on a hook not three feet from where she was standing.
Peering about her, to make sure that no one would notice, she slipped the white apron off its nail and carefully put it on. She walked as casually as she could to a vacant mixing bowl filled with a lumpy beige substance and began mixing. Finally, something that felt familiar...
An old, plump lady with a strange look about her was talking... apparently to Kagome.
"And so they brought this little wee human girl in, plumb tired out and covered in ashes and soot from head to toe, with a shockingly short skirt! It was probably Miroku's fault... That young man's wandering hands... Anyway- Kade?" Slowly, a wrinkled face turned toward Kagome. Upon seeing the girl, the violet eyes became saucer-wide and the mixing bowl of flour and sugar she was holding was dropped to the floor, covering both her and Kagome in fine, white powder. "MY LADY!" She exclaimed, arms in the air, dropping to one knee. "Good heavens, what are you doing in the kitchen? How inappropriate!"
The humming of chattering voices ceased. All eyes were on the old youkai nurse and the girl dressed in priestess robes who chuckled nervously.
"But I like cooking... I did it at home all the time. No one told me I couldn't, and - Hey! How do you know who I am?" Kagome protested as the old woman began hustling her toward the kitchen door.
"I am but the one who bathed and dressed you last night, my lady. I am the royal nurse, have been for the past fifty years." She bowed, showing that the back of her greying head had not escaped the explosion of flour from a few moments before. Kagome faught back a giggle, biting on the flesh of her cheek. "Now please, I am sure you have other parts of the castle to explore..."
And just like that, Kagome was ousted from the kitchens and back into the hallway. She brushed as much flour as she could out of her hair, her robes, her ears, and set off toward the East wing.
She didn't "belong" in the kitchen, she definitely didn't belong in any of the other rich, exorbitant rooms that were worth more than her house a thousand times over. Where she belonged was home. And with that thought, a pearly tear slid down her cheek.
________________________________________________________________________ _________________-
By the time she had reached the East wing, or at least what she THOUGHT was the East wing, the sun was in its downward path toward the horizon. The corridor-torch lighter was already making his rounds, bowing and smiling faintly as he passed her.
She cursed herself for not asking him which way was back to the West wing. This part of the castle was much older and darker, with marble gargoyles and eerie-looking armours. The corridors were narrow and cool, and there were not nearly as many windows on this side of the castle as on the West, South, and North wings. She wondered why.
At the end of one of the hallways was an oddly-placed torch on the wall, much lower than the others. The band of metal that supported the rough, wooden torch was beautifully crafted, etched with copper designs she did not recognize. Against common sense, she reached out to touch it, then gasped.
And entire part of the wall, about seven feet by three feet, rotated to expose a narrow, winding stone staircase, with no lanterns or torches. Ignoring her grumbling stomach and her better sense, she grabbed the torch from its elegant hold and entered the passageway. The stone "wall" rotated behind her.
She counted one-hundred and seven steps before the arrived at a landing. It was small, with only one door. It faced the only window in the stairwell, which shed a beam of light. Cautiously, she pushed open the door and walked inside the room.
It was a fairly bare room, save for a few torn paintings leaning on the circular stone walls and a tall table in the centre of the room. But the most stunning thing in the room was what was on the table, casting a bright purple glow to everything in the tower chamber. Hovering inside a fragile glass dome was a violet sphere, transluscent enough to be called a jewel.
Completely drawn by the jewel and its glow, Kagome took a step forward, her hand outstretched as if to touch it though the glass.
________________________________________________________________________ _________________-
-Fourty minutes earlier-
"Kagome-san! Kagome-san!"
Search parties had been looking for the girl for about half an hour now , to no avail. The girl had not shown up for dinner, much to Inuyasha's annoyance and supposed indifference.
Sango was a wreck. What if the girl had gotten lost in the castle! What if she had run away? 'I knew I should have stayed with her...' she thought as she grasped her head in guilt.
The prince had seemed curious about something and jogged off somewhere in a blur of red haori, smelling the air as he went. Miroku had also noticed and pulled her in their master's direction to follow him.
'Hanyou nose or not, I can still smell you, girl.' Inuyasha followed Kagome's steps throughout the castle. He opened the kitchen door even, but shut it immediately when the high-pitched squeals of "Oh! Your highness!" from the young, female kitchen staff pinched at his ears. Ugh. He followed her scent until he got to the East wing, at THAT corridor... She wouldn't have... Fury began to boil in him as he saw the missing torch.
Sango gasped and turned into Miroku's shoulder with a sob as she saw Inuyasha's furious figure fly into the staircase and up into the tower.
"No... Kagome. The one place I told you not to go..."
Miroku patted her back, resisted patting her bottom due to the much more pressing issue of Kagome's safety at hand, and then pulled her toward the passage. THen he abruptly stopped.
"Sango-sama, what is the moon cycle tonight?"
"The new moon, I..." The woman's eyes flew open as the realization caught her. "Oh my god, KAGOME!"
Mere humans running up stairs at panic-induced speeds cannot come even close to the velocity of an enraged half-demon.
________________________________________________________________________ ________________-
-Back to "present" time-
Just before her fingertips could reach the smooth contours of the glass dome, an unearthly and terrifying voice made her heart tremble.
"Get. out. NOW! I KNEW you'd try to screw this up somehow, Kikyo. DAMN YOU! How right to send your twin!"
A tall man dressed entirely in red pounced, or rather flew, between the girl and the table, hitting her hand away from the glass dome with amazing power. His silver hair fluttered around him wildly, as though a raging wind had suddenly passed though the room, inciting chaos in the room, and a deep sense of fear into Kagome's very soul. She backed away, but he moved toward her. His eyes were crackling yellow electricity.
"Didn't they tell you to STAY AWAY from the East tower, wench? GET OUT!"
But Kagome was paralyzed and her mouth lost all its moisture. Her only movements were her rapid and shallow breaths. Her eyes were frozen open and wide, two grey-brown pools of pure terror. Slowly, the last of the sun sank below the horizon and the stars began to shine in the moonless darkness. With a loud yell, the prince threw his head back as his claws became longer and sharper. His eyes dimmed entirely red, each cheek became slashed with two purple marks. There were no more words, now. Only wild growls.
He grabbed several paintings and flung them in no particular order. One hit Kagome in the forehead, cutting through the skin, causing a stream of scarlet to run down her pale face. She fell, and her eyes closed. Darkness.
At this point, Sango and Miroku burst through the doorway, panting. The warrior woman immediately spotted the young girl collapsed on the ground beneath a large, torn painting of Kikyo. How ironic.
"Sango-sama, get the girl out of here. I'll handle the prince until morning." Miroku removed a short piece of scroll from the folds of his robes and began an incantation while his coworker snatched Kagome into her arms and flew down the stairs as fast as humanly possible. When his incantation was over, Miroku flung his ofuda against the prince's back, which was turned to him as the prince thrashed and watched the bright purple jewel with animalistic intensity.
As soon as the paper collided with his back, Inuyasha fell to his knees, then slid to the floor, unconscious. His features were immediately peaceful, contrasting the wild rage they had exhibited not a few moments before. Still panting from the crazed spurt up the stairs, the monk sat down near his master and leaned against the cool stone wall, preparing to watch vigil until morning.
________________________________________________________________________ _______________________-
Morning came quickly, to the exhausted monk's relief. It had taken immense stamina to sit and stay awake all through the night, even if he had many things to think about. One of which was what to say to the hanyou that lay before him, when he awoke.
As if on cue, prince Inuyasha groaned and turned onto his back, opening eyes that had returned to their original golden color hours earlier, under soft pink eyelids. When he recognized his surroundings a few moments later, he snapped into a sitting position and glanced at Miroku, who did not move.
"What am I doing here? What are YOU doing here, bozou?"
With a solemn, controlled face, Miroku replied, "Kagome accidentally found her way into the tower, and you attacked her. Then you transformed into your youkai form."
At the monk's words, a sudden flash of Kagome's face the night before flooded into Inuyasha's mind and remained there, stubborn. He grasped his head. "I hurt her, didn't I?"
Miroku nodded, his facial and bodily expressions unchanged.
A repentful and ashamed growl escaped the hanyou prince's throat before he burst out. "Well, it was HER FAULT. She KNEW she was forbidden from the tower..."
His voice faded, though. No, it wasn't the girl's fault at all... She didn't mean to accidentally stumble upon his most personal secret. She probably didn't even understand. He buried his head in his hands, as if trying to wring out the look of utter horror of Kagome's face out of his head. It didn't work.
"I really screwed up, didn't I. That look on her face... She wasn't just scared. She was terrified... of me..." He took in a deep, quivering breath. His body moved in a way that could only be described as painfully violent. He knew of no other way to contain what he felt. "How can she fall in love with me if she's TERRIFIED OF ME!?"
Miroku finally got up from his position on the wall, but said nothing for a long time. "Perhaps, your highness, you could begin by apologizing. But not today. Not for a while. Let her recover."
Inuyasha was on his knees, now, realizing what consequences his indiscretion had caused. "This'll never work. Send her home." For all the emotions in turmoil within him, his voice was abnormally steady and soft.
"No. She is our only chance. You know that. She has the soul-"
"I know," Inuyasha cut off his advisor, not willing to relive more painful thoughts.
More seconds passed, and the monk began to head toward the door. Before he descended down the narrow staircase, he turned to Inuyasha.
"So the jewel is darkening in color, neh? This is where you've kept it all this time?" Without needing a response, he turned back and continued down the stairs. Although Kagome had not been injured too severely, any blow which caused unconsciousness was potentially dangerous. He was eager to find out if Kagome, and Sango of course, were alright.
The prince stayed in his tower until nightfall, watching the jewel, until something in his heart pushed him to go down the spiral staircase, over to the West wing, where he had many, many things to explain. When he was satisfied that all traces of his demon blood had been erased with his transformation by the moonrise, he set off down the stairs, but not without looking back once at the jewel. He swore that it had flickered a shade or two darker.
________________________________________________________________________ _______________________-
A/N: I hope you like it. I edited a few things... Probably not very noticeable, but they were bothering me =P
I will be annoying again and ask if there are any questions you would like to ask. Any? Not all at once, now...
A/N:
I really hope you guys are enjoying the detail in this fanfic. Again, PLEASE PLEASE ask me questions! And PLEASE PLEASE review! You have no idea how much reviews are inspiring and uplifting.
Oh! And I knock myself over the head multiple times for writing "tow" instead of "toe" in the previous chapter. My apologies. And thanks to Pinkstarz for pointing that out.
mediaminer readers: For some reason, I am having serious problems reading my mediaminer reviews (I've only been able to read one, but there are others...) So from now on, if you have a review, please direct reviews to my email so I can actually ready your comments and reply to them.
________________________________________________________________________ ___________________-
By the time Sango appeared at the door of Kagome's room, sunlight was already streaming through the many windows of the East wing, illuminating the specs of dust floating in the golden beams. She knocked softly on the thick, dark stained door.
"Miss? Miss? May I come in?"
Her voice was enough to rouse Kagome from her uncomfortable slumber on the floor. Her face still swollen from the last night's cry, she rubbed the soreness from her limbs and torso as she slowly got up from the flagstone floor. At the sound of the second set of knocks, the young woman creaked open the door and peered outside.
She recognized the dark-browned haired woman as one of the people who had taken her away from her family the day before. With a gasp, she slammed the door shut and turned her back against it.
"Miss! Miss, please! My name is Sango, and I just wanted to talk to you and offer you some breakfast." Sango rested a white-sleeved arm on the door and placed her forehead against it. After a few moment's silence, she spoke again. "I know you probably hate me for what happened. You must be very afraid and unsure. But if you'll open the door and let me through, I'll be able to explain everything. I promise."
A muffled sob filtered through from the other side. "And that man won't come and yell at me again?"
"Not while I'm here."
There was silence for a few seconds, then the gentle click of the doornob signaled to Sango that she had permission to enter. A slippered foot took a long step in and gently shut the door behind her.
Directly before the warrior was a young woman very different from the one she had first seen last evening. Her hair lay in soft, long waves around her shoulders, down her back, framing a face whose skin was glowing with the aura of sunkissed health and youth. Her eyes, both dark in color and soft in gaze, were tinted red from hours of crying. They moved up from studying the flagstone floor to the tray Sango held. A few bowls were steaming with aromas that made Kagome's stomach grumble and her mouth water.
"Ha! I knew you were hungry. Come over to the table. You can eat while I find you something to wear." Sango set the tray down on a low table under the window of the room and marched over to an armoire made of rich, dark wood that matched the large bed.
"Whff aughf maighf cwovfs?" The young girl kneeling at the table asked in between mouthfuls of rice and miso.
"Your what? Your clothes?" Kagome nodded as she swallowed the cheekfuls of rice. "Those rags? We threw those out, my lady..." She wrinkled her nose as she remembered the threadbare, mud-drenched rags which had barely covered the girl's legs. Disgusting things.
Rummaging through the armoire full of old kimonos, she found a priestess outfit, a white kimono and a red hakama that had once belonged to the late queen. The silky fabric was still soft to the touch, despite years of being stored away in a closet.
Kagome, meanwhile, was choking on her rice. When she regained her breath, she exclaimed,
"You threw out my CLOTHES? I don't have anything other to WEAR! How long are you expecting to keep me here, anyway?"
Sango handed her the priestess outfit and helped her dress. My goodness, how she resembled- "There are lots of clothes here that you can wear. Much finer and of higher quality than the rags you were wearing." A rare, gentle smile tugged at her lips. "I don't know how long we have to keep you here. All I know is that we need your help to break a spell, and you just have to stay until it's broken. No more than six months. As to what the spell is... You have to talk to Prince Inuyasha about that."
Kagome allowed herself to wallow in the softness of her new clothing. Everything about it was gentle... Even the scent. It caressed her skin better than water. She'd never felt anything like it. 'I was used to homespun... But this... this....'
"Prince Inuyasha?"
Sango paused.
"Yes. The Prince. Silver hair, yellow eyes, kinda tall... Yells a lot..."
"There was a man in my room last night. He was watching me sleep, and he yelled at me... But he had black hair and brown eyes."
The warrior gave her a curious glance. It wasn't in her coworker's nature to yell. Well, excepting certain times. But otherwise, the physical desciption fitted him... It was definitely not out of his character, however, to sneak into young womens' rooms, as she had found out by experience. The monk definitely had some explaining to do...
"Your name is Kagome, correct?" A nod confirmed it. "Kagome, let's get you acquainted with the castle."
________________________________________________________________________ ___________________-
"And that," Sango pointed down the hall to a corridor that branched to the left, "is the East tower. You are allowed to go anywhere you wish within the castle grounds, but not in the East tower. Even Miroku and I are forbidden from it. Only Prince Inuyasha may access it."
Kagome nodded again, mesmerized by the size and complexity of the castle. Having been raised in a small, two-storey, four-room house, the palace was a confusing but beautiful maze. She longed to spend hours exploring each room, discovering its secrets, and learning. (Sango had shown her the breathtakingly large library, four storeys high, its walls packed with books).
"I think I'll leave you for now to explore on your own. Remember that dinner is at six in the evening, in the main dining hall not far from your room. If you need anything, just find a maid and she or he will be able to find either myself or Miroku." Sango began to walk away toward the conference chamber when she remembered something. "Oh!" She turned and faced Kagome again. "Please don't be afraid of the Prince at dinner. Just stay quiet, and you'll be ok."
The young girl nodded quietly and waited until the warrior woman left before she began her own adventure. She spent the rest of her afternoon admiring the elaborate paintings and tapestries of the west wing. The kitchen the ebony haired girl found on her way back to her room, in the east wing. The sounds and smells of cooking made her heart lurch as she suddenly began to miss home. Terribly.
Pushing open the oak door to the kitchen, Kagome slipped her head in to watch the hustle of activity of the chamber.
Young and old, male and female, youkai and human alike, the kitchen staff chattered happily as they prepared that night's dinner: deep fried vegetables, flambeed fish, and some thick stew that smelled heavenly. And, of course, the staple of every meal in castles as well as country homes: rice.
In the drunken haze of memories from home the noise and odors wafting from the kitchen brought her, Kagome spotted an apron hanging on a hook not three feet from where she was standing.
Peering about her, to make sure that no one would notice, she slipped the white apron off its nail and carefully put it on. She walked as casually as she could to a vacant mixing bowl filled with a lumpy beige substance and began mixing. Finally, something that felt familiar...
An old, plump lady with a strange look about her was talking... apparently to Kagome.
"And so they brought this little wee human girl in, plumb tired out and covered in ashes and soot from head to toe, with a shockingly short skirt! It was probably Miroku's fault... That young man's wandering hands... Anyway- Kade?" Slowly, a wrinkled face turned toward Kagome. Upon seeing the girl, the violet eyes became saucer-wide and the mixing bowl of flour and sugar she was holding was dropped to the floor, covering both her and Kagome in fine, white powder. "MY LADY!" She exclaimed, arms in the air, dropping to one knee. "Good heavens, what are you doing in the kitchen? How inappropriate!"
The humming of chattering voices ceased. All eyes were on the old youkai nurse and the girl dressed in priestess robes who chuckled nervously.
"But I like cooking... I did it at home all the time. No one told me I couldn't, and - Hey! How do you know who I am?" Kagome protested as the old woman began hustling her toward the kitchen door.
"I am but the one who bathed and dressed you last night, my lady. I am the royal nurse, have been for the past fifty years." She bowed, showing that the back of her greying head had not escaped the explosion of flour from a few moments before. Kagome faught back a giggle, biting on the flesh of her cheek. "Now please, I am sure you have other parts of the castle to explore..."
And just like that, Kagome was ousted from the kitchens and back into the hallway. She brushed as much flour as she could out of her hair, her robes, her ears, and set off toward the East wing.
She didn't "belong" in the kitchen, she definitely didn't belong in any of the other rich, exorbitant rooms that were worth more than her house a thousand times over. Where she belonged was home. And with that thought, a pearly tear slid down her cheek.
________________________________________________________________________ _________________-
By the time she had reached the East wing, or at least what she THOUGHT was the East wing, the sun was in its downward path toward the horizon. The corridor-torch lighter was already making his rounds, bowing and smiling faintly as he passed her.
She cursed herself for not asking him which way was back to the West wing. This part of the castle was much older and darker, with marble gargoyles and eerie-looking armours. The corridors were narrow and cool, and there were not nearly as many windows on this side of the castle as on the West, South, and North wings. She wondered why.
At the end of one of the hallways was an oddly-placed torch on the wall, much lower than the others. The band of metal that supported the rough, wooden torch was beautifully crafted, etched with copper designs she did not recognize. Against common sense, she reached out to touch it, then gasped.
And entire part of the wall, about seven feet by three feet, rotated to expose a narrow, winding stone staircase, with no lanterns or torches. Ignoring her grumbling stomach and her better sense, she grabbed the torch from its elegant hold and entered the passageway. The stone "wall" rotated behind her.
She counted one-hundred and seven steps before the arrived at a landing. It was small, with only one door. It faced the only window in the stairwell, which shed a beam of light. Cautiously, she pushed open the door and walked inside the room.
It was a fairly bare room, save for a few torn paintings leaning on the circular stone walls and a tall table in the centre of the room. But the most stunning thing in the room was what was on the table, casting a bright purple glow to everything in the tower chamber. Hovering inside a fragile glass dome was a violet sphere, transluscent enough to be called a jewel.
Completely drawn by the jewel and its glow, Kagome took a step forward, her hand outstretched as if to touch it though the glass.
________________________________________________________________________ _________________-
-Fourty minutes earlier-
"Kagome-san! Kagome-san!"
Search parties had been looking for the girl for about half an hour now , to no avail. The girl had not shown up for dinner, much to Inuyasha's annoyance and supposed indifference.
Sango was a wreck. What if the girl had gotten lost in the castle! What if she had run away? 'I knew I should have stayed with her...' she thought as she grasped her head in guilt.
The prince had seemed curious about something and jogged off somewhere in a blur of red haori, smelling the air as he went. Miroku had also noticed and pulled her in their master's direction to follow him.
'Hanyou nose or not, I can still smell you, girl.' Inuyasha followed Kagome's steps throughout the castle. He opened the kitchen door even, but shut it immediately when the high-pitched squeals of "Oh! Your highness!" from the young, female kitchen staff pinched at his ears. Ugh. He followed her scent until he got to the East wing, at THAT corridor... She wouldn't have... Fury began to boil in him as he saw the missing torch.
Sango gasped and turned into Miroku's shoulder with a sob as she saw Inuyasha's furious figure fly into the staircase and up into the tower.
"No... Kagome. The one place I told you not to go..."
Miroku patted her back, resisted patting her bottom due to the much more pressing issue of Kagome's safety at hand, and then pulled her toward the passage. THen he abruptly stopped.
"Sango-sama, what is the moon cycle tonight?"
"The new moon, I..." The woman's eyes flew open as the realization caught her. "Oh my god, KAGOME!"
Mere humans running up stairs at panic-induced speeds cannot come even close to the velocity of an enraged half-demon.
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-Back to "present" time-
Just before her fingertips could reach the smooth contours of the glass dome, an unearthly and terrifying voice made her heart tremble.
"Get. out. NOW! I KNEW you'd try to screw this up somehow, Kikyo. DAMN YOU! How right to send your twin!"
A tall man dressed entirely in red pounced, or rather flew, between the girl and the table, hitting her hand away from the glass dome with amazing power. His silver hair fluttered around him wildly, as though a raging wind had suddenly passed though the room, inciting chaos in the room, and a deep sense of fear into Kagome's very soul. She backed away, but he moved toward her. His eyes were crackling yellow electricity.
"Didn't they tell you to STAY AWAY from the East tower, wench? GET OUT!"
But Kagome was paralyzed and her mouth lost all its moisture. Her only movements were her rapid and shallow breaths. Her eyes were frozen open and wide, two grey-brown pools of pure terror. Slowly, the last of the sun sank below the horizon and the stars began to shine in the moonless darkness. With a loud yell, the prince threw his head back as his claws became longer and sharper. His eyes dimmed entirely red, each cheek became slashed with two purple marks. There were no more words, now. Only wild growls.
He grabbed several paintings and flung them in no particular order. One hit Kagome in the forehead, cutting through the skin, causing a stream of scarlet to run down her pale face. She fell, and her eyes closed. Darkness.
At this point, Sango and Miroku burst through the doorway, panting. The warrior woman immediately spotted the young girl collapsed on the ground beneath a large, torn painting of Kikyo. How ironic.
"Sango-sama, get the girl out of here. I'll handle the prince until morning." Miroku removed a short piece of scroll from the folds of his robes and began an incantation while his coworker snatched Kagome into her arms and flew down the stairs as fast as humanly possible. When his incantation was over, Miroku flung his ofuda against the prince's back, which was turned to him as the prince thrashed and watched the bright purple jewel with animalistic intensity.
As soon as the paper collided with his back, Inuyasha fell to his knees, then slid to the floor, unconscious. His features were immediately peaceful, contrasting the wild rage they had exhibited not a few moments before. Still panting from the crazed spurt up the stairs, the monk sat down near his master and leaned against the cool stone wall, preparing to watch vigil until morning.
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Morning came quickly, to the exhausted monk's relief. It had taken immense stamina to sit and stay awake all through the night, even if he had many things to think about. One of which was what to say to the hanyou that lay before him, when he awoke.
As if on cue, prince Inuyasha groaned and turned onto his back, opening eyes that had returned to their original golden color hours earlier, under soft pink eyelids. When he recognized his surroundings a few moments later, he snapped into a sitting position and glanced at Miroku, who did not move.
"What am I doing here? What are YOU doing here, bozou?"
With a solemn, controlled face, Miroku replied, "Kagome accidentally found her way into the tower, and you attacked her. Then you transformed into your youkai form."
At the monk's words, a sudden flash of Kagome's face the night before flooded into Inuyasha's mind and remained there, stubborn. He grasped his head. "I hurt her, didn't I?"
Miroku nodded, his facial and bodily expressions unchanged.
A repentful and ashamed growl escaped the hanyou prince's throat before he burst out. "Well, it was HER FAULT. She KNEW she was forbidden from the tower..."
His voice faded, though. No, it wasn't the girl's fault at all... She didn't mean to accidentally stumble upon his most personal secret. She probably didn't even understand. He buried his head in his hands, as if trying to wring out the look of utter horror of Kagome's face out of his head. It didn't work.
"I really screwed up, didn't I. That look on her face... She wasn't just scared. She was terrified... of me..." He took in a deep, quivering breath. His body moved in a way that could only be described as painfully violent. He knew of no other way to contain what he felt. "How can she fall in love with me if she's TERRIFIED OF ME!?"
Miroku finally got up from his position on the wall, but said nothing for a long time. "Perhaps, your highness, you could begin by apologizing. But not today. Not for a while. Let her recover."
Inuyasha was on his knees, now, realizing what consequences his indiscretion had caused. "This'll never work. Send her home." For all the emotions in turmoil within him, his voice was abnormally steady and soft.
"No. She is our only chance. You know that. She has the soul-"
"I know," Inuyasha cut off his advisor, not willing to relive more painful thoughts.
More seconds passed, and the monk began to head toward the door. Before he descended down the narrow staircase, he turned to Inuyasha.
"So the jewel is darkening in color, neh? This is where you've kept it all this time?" Without needing a response, he turned back and continued down the stairs. Although Kagome had not been injured too severely, any blow which caused unconsciousness was potentially dangerous. He was eager to find out if Kagome, and Sango of course, were alright.
The prince stayed in his tower until nightfall, watching the jewel, until something in his heart pushed him to go down the spiral staircase, over to the West wing, where he had many, many things to explain. When he was satisfied that all traces of his demon blood had been erased with his transformation by the moonrise, he set off down the stairs, but not without looking back once at the jewel. He swore that it had flickered a shade or two darker.
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A/N: I hope you like it. I edited a few things... Probably not very noticeable, but they were bothering me =P
I will be annoying again and ask if there are any questions you would like to ask. Any? Not all at once, now...