InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Helper of the Darkness ❯ Visions ( Chapter 1 )

A shrill cry filled my ears as I ran. I came to a small clearing with a corpse drenched in a puddle of blood surrounding it. I walked forward slowly. The body belonged to a woman. Her face was drenched in sweat and blood, a few strands of hair loose from the ponytail that held the rest. But the only thing I could look at was her green eyes. Such beautiful eyes the windows to one's soul. And through these windows I saw the ugly presence of fear and confusion.

 

She looked into my silverish white eyes as though I were the air she shallowly breathed through her small lips. Who did this to her? It wasn't human; the bite marks on her neck were proof of that.

 

A growling sound 20 feet to my left made me look up. It was a doglike creature, its mouth stained with blood. Half it's face; body and most of its right hind leg were nothing but bones. A ban chi, a corpse or skeleton that devours flesh, blood, and life force in order to live again.

 

It walked forward, closing the space between us and itself, quite confident that it's prey had nowhere to run if at all.

The last few paces it pounced. I stared at the eyes that belonged to the unholy beast, unable to move, staring into its cold hard gaze as it passed right though me as if I were a ghost and slathered the poor, unlucky mortal.

 

*****

I awoke sweating and breathing hard remembering the ban chi rip the woman's throat. The last sound she made before crossing over to the other side to meet the all mighty goddess of death was an ear-shattering scream.

Once I came to my senses I was once again engulfed in the usual darkness that my useless eyes saw. And yet these same eyes though useless give me the gift to see beyond the here and now. The dream I had was no dream but of a vision of what was to come if I did not act quickly.

 

Some think I am mad. Am I? Even I don't know. These people that are my sisters and brethren shun me. I saved their sorry ass many times and they repay me by ignoring me and the visions that have saved them. Am I mad or are they? Are we all mad? I need to stop thinking so much. It makes my brain hurt.

 

Something was walking into my direction. A doglike creature slightly bigger than a horse mostly black except for the white markings upon it's face and paws and long, white mane. Jicaru. My only travel companion. Unless you count the annoying girl on top of Jicaru, that is my apprentice. Merle.

 

“Master, are you alright?”

 

“Just fine Merle.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Yes, I'm sure.”

 

Her attention was flattering but for the most part exasperating.

 

I got up from my pathetic bed of leaves and walked over to Jicaru.

 

“I'm going to be gone traveling for a while, your to stay here,” I said in as commanding voice I could muster.

She stayed on Jicaru.

 

“I'm coming with you,” a more commanding voice than I mustered.

 

I suck at ordering people around. Sometimes I wonder whose the mentor and who's the apprentice. And what made this worse was that she was on my only means of escape. Shit. You'd think she would listen to me at least once.

Whenever I decide to go traveling somewhere she just has to come along whether I like it or not, and 99.9% of the time I don't like it.

 

“This is going to be dangerous, Merle, I hope you understand this,” the voice of defeat.

 

“So has every other journey you went on,” true, “What was the vision about?”

 

“If you want to know just stay behind and you'll get all the information you want.”

 

“Very funny Master.”

 

“I'm serious.” Whenever there's a chance to make Merle stay behind I take it. I'm just that desperate.

 

“You know I'll figure it out eventually.” An empty threat and she knows it. Still, this means she's coming with me whether she has the information or not. The only way she'll stay here is if I do and that defeats the entire purpose. I can't abandon her either, damn conscience.

 

Sigh. “Move over.”

 

“Yeah! I promise to not be in the way and help out all that I can,” blah, blah, blah, she just has to rub it in. Here comes the flattery.

 

“Your so understanding and good hearted Master Knives.” She always adds Master Knives for good measures making my defeat all the more sour.

 

She moved over as I climbed onto Jicaru's back and embraced me so as not to fall off. I hit the sides of the dog horse and he started to jog though the dense forest with the grace of a deer. Jealous? Somewhat but still jealous nonetheless.

 

*****

This went on for an hour with a sleeping apprentice still embracing me with the grip much like the Jaws of Life when I saw a town. Thank the lord; my legs and arms alike have gone to sleep with the rest of my body wishing to do the same. I decided not to wake Merle unless it was necessary, the girl talked too much probably to make up for my usual silence. I should have been a hermit. (I was a hermit until Merle came along). People left them alone much as I wish Merle would do. She got on my nerves. I should just push her off now. There were 2 reasons, o.k. 3, why I couldn't do this: my damn conscience, she was hanging onto me with the Jaws of Life, and when I turned my head I looked at her and dare I say it, she looked kinda cute with her red hair blowing in the breeze on her dark face, her icy blue eyes closed, the look of comfort…

 

I was brought back to my senses by a low tree branch smacking me in the back of the head. Hopefully it didn't wake Merle. Wouldn't know what to do with an aching head and a woken Merle.

 

“Master…” damn, just my luck.

 

She was looking at me wondering why I was rubbing my head and how it was the back of my head that got injured.

“It's nothing,” I said my voice dripping with pain, very convincing.

 

“What`re you doing?”

 

“I told you its nothing, nothing, nothing I said,” I didn't want to tell her the back of my head hit a tree branch while watching her sleep. Truth is something I want to avoid especially now. Unfortunately I'm paranoid on such matters making me a very bad liar.

 

“Oh it's something.”

 

“No your wrong its nothing, nothing,” I said in 3 seconds hoping that if I say it fast enough I won't have that part of my voice expose myself for lying. I need to stop saying nothing or it will make her more suspicious then she already is. One of my paranoid traits making me a bad liar is when I say one particular word repeatedly even if it had nothing to do with the matter at hand.

 

She gave me that yeah-right look. When she did so I turned around mouthing an incantation putting her to sleep wondering why I didn't do so earlier.

 

We entered the town shortly afterward. I didn't dismount from Jicaru. If I did Merle would still be hanging onto me therefore being dragged because incantations can't be dispelled when freshly cast and sleep spells were no exception.

So I sat on with my apprentice's embrace.

 

“Insolent vermin!” I was instantly knocked off before I could figure out which direction the insult came from. I fell in the mud, Jicaru managed to catch Merle, and a horse's hooves were on my back crushing my ribcage, pushing me further into the mud.

 

“How dare you walk in front of Lord Cau!” Why me? “What do you have to say for yourself?” Absolutely nothing, whether there's mud in my mouth or not. People like this never listen anyway.

A new voice came into the nonexistent conversation that only seemed to exist in the guard's fantasy world. “What's going on out there?” Oh, like he can't tell.

 

“My… my lord, it's nothing worth your time. I'll be done in a second.”

 

He looked down at the pitiful form splashing around in the mud gasping for air and trying to get this fat, heavy creature off their back with as less injury as possible. What does he feed this thing? “What did he do?”

 

“He… he was disrespecting you, my lord.” Why was this guy so nervous?

 

“Answer my question Genjo, what did he do?”

 

“He was in your path.”

 

“Your breaking this man's bones for that stupid reason!” Cau was both furious and disgusted. Well now, this was something I wasn't expecting: a man of such high stature having compassion for a mere peasant. “Get your horse off of him Genjo.” This is a horse?

 

The horse in question removed its hooves from my back. “I apologize for my guard, are you badly injured?”

While I brushed what I could of the mud, trying to reclaim what was left of my dignity I replied “Nothing is broken.”

“Come. I'll get you cleaned up.”

 

Maybe this won't be so bad after all, I can get a bath, food, and supplies for free and can leave without somebody's arm cut or hacked off (usually by me). Without another word Cau led me to the carriage and sat me down across from him. When the carriage moved I was so startled I hugged the seat and Cau laughed uncontrollably as I clung to the seat for dear life losing whatever dignity I managed to reclaim.

 

The carriage hit a bump making it go up into the air further then I liked causing me to cling harder to the seat making Cau laugh so hard he was crying and could scarcely breathe. I also noticed that his pants were getting dark rather quickly. He peed his pants. I would have found this funny except for the fact that this was also an embarrassing moment for me too and the fact that this was so amusing to Cau that he peed his pants wasn't very comforting.

Finally, after 20 minutes Cau got enough of a grip of himself to form sentences, not hold his sides and not die from laughing too hard which was really disappointing. The only parts of the scene that didn't change were Cau's pants and my position on the chair, which was threatening to come right off.

 

Cau was trying to assure me that I was safe and nothing would happen (from what I could understand anyway) while trying not to laugh at me, which he quickly found impossible. After 10 minutes he tried again having an easier time but still giggling like a stupid schoolgirl.

 

“Really sir *giggle* your *giggle* fine…” Another bump causing me to cling tighter, shake frantically, and much to my dismay started whimpering. He couldn't keep it in much longer and when it came out it was nice and loud, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!”

 

“Oh ha ha, just look down, and trust me, you won't be laughing much longer.”

 

Surprisingly he heard me and looked down and started blushing in embarrassment. His expression made me feel better. Attempting to change the topic he asked me a simple question, “So uh, I didn't catch your name, I'm Lord Cau.”

 

“I know that. What do you take me for, a 3 year old child?” in my position yes but I'll be damned if he treats me like a mere child.

 

“How old are you since 3 is out of the question?”

 

“My name is Knives, age 15.” I'm not usually like this it's just that this whole predicament has put me in a pretty bad mood.

 

“A teenager huh, I was expecting a 50 year old man with that animal pelt covering your face and your body.”

 

“Looks can be deceiving. How long until we get to the castle?”

 

“We'll be there any minute.”

 

A few seconds after he said that the carriage stopped but I didn't release my death grip on the seat. Cau had to literally drag me out of the evil moving contraption with the carriage seat still in my arms. Once he calmed me down (and the torn seat no longer in my arms) we walked up to the castle and the massive doors opened automatically and we walked though the doors that made a booming sound once we were inside. 3 servants came and Cau gave specific orders to each one.

 

The servants then started to push and drag me into a certain direction and pushed me into a room. After 5 minutes when I realized I was in the changing room and the bathroom lay beyond the door across the room a servant came in “5 minutes and you haven't even started to undress.”

 

“What of my companions?”

 

“The girl is in a guest room sleeping and the” he paused to figure out what to call the creature that is my travel companion, “beast is in the stables.”

 

“Thank you.” I had to thank him, he didn't like me being here and I didn't like him being here either at the moment and he did give me the info I asked for.

 

With that he left. I stripped myself of my clothing and went into the next room and saw that my bath was already prepared so I did what any other sensible, dirty, male teenager would do, jump in head first shouting “Canon-ball!” into the larger than normal bath tub with a big splash and start cleaning myself.

 

Once that was done I dried myself with a towel and what I could of the room I went to the changing room to find a blue shirt and green pants and my clothes nowhere in sight. Now there are two possible explanations for this new development 1) my clothes decided to change into actual clothing that wasn't badly sewn together animal pelts or 2) a servant came in while I was taking my bath and swapped my clothing with what was in front of me. If scenario 2 was the case I hope they didn't burn them. With that I put on the clothing and opened the door to find Merle about to enter.

She looked up to see who opened the door and got all misty in the eyes and hugged me.

 

“Oh Master, I finally found you,” with that said she shoved her head into my chest weeping in what I thought were happy tears. What a drama queen.

 

“Merle where'd you go?” the question came from a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes and was about Merle's age who came around the corner and stumbled upon the melodramatic scene in front of him involving a teenaged elf who wants the world to leave him alone which resulted to attitude problems and an annoying human child who wants to spend every waking moment in that same elf's company. “Get your hands off of her you bastard! Taking advantage of a girl like that! How despicable!”

 

After shouting at me he tried to pull Merle away from me, which wasn't working out too well so he shouted at me again thinking that that will help the situation. “Let her go!”

 

“Let me go, Jordan!” Merle cried hugging me so tight I could scarcely breathe.

 

“It's John!”

 

“Whatever Joe!”

 

“It's John, Merle!”

 

I decided to enter the conversation at this point because John didn't look like he was going to let go of Merle and I know Merle wasn't going to let go of me and if somebody didn't let go soon I was going to pass out “Can't… breathe.”

 

Unfortunately that didn't help any, they just kept on yelling at each other until I passed out. Merle telling John to let go of her using many names that sounded a lot like John and John reminding her, in a loud voice, that his name was John.

*****

 

I awoke in a room with no decoration on the white walls except for two rather large windows. I turned my head to the right to see a small table next to the bed with a plate of fruit and a glass of water. I hate fruit.

 

“Oh your awake.”

 

I turned my head to the left, “Ahh, demon!” I shouted as I jumped out of the bed and took up a fighting stance.

The demon moved it's head to look around “Demon? Where? I see no demon.”

 

The door flew open and there was Cau standing in the doorway “Where's the demon? Are you hurt Mother?”

“Mother? That ugly creature over there is you mother?”

 

Before either of them could speak Merle was at the doorway.

 

“Master! Are you-” she stopped in mid sentence staring at me. At that precise moment I was just now aware that I was standing in the middle of the room butt-naked for the world to see. She turned her head away to hide the blush rising in her cheeks.

 

“What happened to your-” Cau stopped in mid-sentence just as Merle had “Mother,” he glared at the woman I had mistaken for a demon. She was just that ugly.

 

“Now, now Cau surely you don't expect me to keep away from such a handsome man,” she said mischievously, looking at me. For the first time in 5 years a blush found its way to my face, “though his penis should to be bigger.” The blush just got bigger and redder.

 

“You're such a pervert Mother,” Cau said in an accusing tone.

 

“Can I get some clothes over here?” I said impatiently as I started to recover from the perverted old women's dirty comment.

 

“I'll get some!” Merle shouted, glad to find an excuse to excuse herself from my obvious embarrassment after my discovery.

 

I put my bare butt on the bed and my hands in between my legs covering my private.

 

The door opened slowly.

 

“About time Merle,” I growled pushing myself up and turning around.

 

There was a woman with long, brown hair that went to her butt and brown eyes. This was not Merle, of that I was certain. She moved toward me her brown eyes not leaving my colorless, sliverish, white eyes “Who's Merle?” she asked in a tone that made it sound like she didn't care in the least continuing to walk toward me with her arm out stretched. When she was close enough she put her fingers through my dark, damp, slightly curly hair, her eyes filled with curiosity and what seems to be growing desire.

 

“Master I got…some… clothes…” Merle looked at the scene before her. An unfamiliar woman standing rather close to her beloved master looking into his eyes with her hand in his black hair while he just stands there, naked, apparently struck dumb, “Get your filthy hands off of him you slut!”

 

Merle dropped the clothing and started running for the woman but Cau and the de- I mean old woman managed to get between the younger two women. I spoke an enchantment to have Merle slip into slumber. A side effect to this enchantment is that the person whom the spell was put on (Merle) would think that everything that happened in the previous hour was a dream. Just what I wanted.

 

While Merle was forced off into dreamland I walked over to the black shirt and pants she brought for me and put it on. Cau decided to speak since he found this silence a bad sign. He must want something from me.

 

Cau cleared his throat and began to speak, “Ah hem as I had said earlier this is my mother” as he said this he presented granny to me and continued, “and this young lady over there is my only daughter Kristina,” he presented her the same way he did with granny, “I have a son too. I believe you met him already. His name is John.”

 

Ah yes, John, he was the reason (well part of it) I passed out in the first place. So this means it was his fault I'm in this predicament.

 

I was stumbled out of my thoughts of torturing John with butterflies, pink clouds, and unicorns frolicking in a meadow of flowers. Because of an enchantment put on me long ago by the elder of the forest thinking that I have gone mad when I told him about my visions. Whenever I have violent, destructive, torturous thoughts my mind automatically thinks of nonviolent things. And since guys always have a state of mind where such things are involved in some way the elder decided to have my thoughts turn into girlie fantasies. I'm going to kill that old man I thought of burning him then 5 seconds later I was thinking of myself riding one of those fucking unicorns and actually enjoying myself… the old man is tied to the giant stick with firewood up to his knees. I held the torch in my hand and threw it on the pile of wood, the old man's face sketched in horror… I slid off of the unicorn and started skipping around the meadow… the fire is starting to burn his withered skin… as I skipped I started to sing that retarded love song that all the elf girls love so much…

 

Cau realized that every few seconds my face would turn from evil pleasure to just plain disgusted then back to evil pleasure. He must have been thinking either that I was the wrong person to do whatever he's asking for or if he said something that offended me in some way.

 

“Am I offending you in some way, Knives?”

 

“I wouldn't know, I wasn't listening,” Honesty is the best way (perhaps the only way) to go when you're a bad liar, “how about you sum up what you were saying while I was tuning you out,” and thinking of ways to torture people I don't like (mainly the ones that helped make my life into a living hellhole).

 

Obviously while I was tuning him out he was trying to sweet talk me into doing something. Unfortunately for him it didn't work out too well for I wasn't listening and because of this and the fact that I asked him “nicely” to cut to the chase it only took him one goddamn line to ask me, “Will you marry my daughter?”

 

“What!?” I all but shouted in his face, covering it with spit. What is up with humans? They think that if they marry off with elves they will all of a sudden become important. My people don't believe in rank. Sure someone orders everyone else around but that doesn't mean they get to skip out on the hard labor, live in a big house, and are treated better then everyone else. We are all equal and are treated that way. Why haven't humans caught on yet?

 

Cau cleaned his face off with a handkerchief he pulled from his sleeve, “I know you're a little young to be thinking of marriage,” what is he, my father? “But I must insist. I can't find anyone suitable for Kristina.”

 

“If she wants to marry me, she can ask herself. Unless this is all your idea.”

 

“No, no, not at all, it was all Kristina's idea. She has a very good judge in character.”

 

“If it will make you accept Knives, will you marry me? It isn't customary for a woman to ask this,” Kristina cut into our man-to-man or as I think of it rebel teenager-to-guy pretending to be my father conversation of her future and mine.

 

“No, I don't even know you. I don't care if you are a good judge in character I'm not comfortable under these circumstances,” this is the closest to polite as I'm gonna get.

 

“I'll leave you two alone. Come now, Mother,” Cau said as he took his mother's arm into his own and picked up Merle with the other.

 

“Then stay a few months and get to know me.”

 

“Unlike you, I have more important things to do.”

 

“Can't I come along?”

 

“No.”

 

“Why not?” Are all women this stubborn or just the ones I meet? And why is she so determined to marry me?

 

Not feeling the need to explain myself to a mortal I walked to the door and was about to open it till Kristina laid her small delicate hand on the hand on the doorknob, “At least stay for the night.”

 

“If it will get you off my back, I'll stay for the fuckin' night.”

 

Her face brightened by my defeat while mine got darker. She turned the knob and jogged out probably to tell Cau that I was going to stay the night. Then they'll probably try to somehow trick me into marrying Kristina. Well, if they think I'm going to marry anyone they are sadly mistaken.

 

*****

Merle had finally woken up because I lifted the spell from her and braced myself for the awakening. Once I finished the spell and she was awake she jumped onto me and started hugging me and telling of her dream of a strange woman stroking my hair while I stood there naked letting her do it.

 

A servant girl with incredible strength pried Merle off of me and shooed me away telling me to change for dinner.

 

“What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?” I asked her impatiently, “And where are my clothes? You know, the ones made of animal pelts.”

 

“Those sad excuses for clothing,” it was my first time sewing, shut up, “They're in the wash and will be given to you in the morning before your departure,” and with that she pushed me out of the room with 3 servants waiting at the door. They pulled, pushed, and dragged me to a random guest room, grabbed some fancy clothing out of nowhere, and began striping me of what I was wearing all in a matter of 30 seconds or less.

 

After I figured out what they were doing I began cursing, not cuss words actual curses, at them of bad luck for the rest of their pitiful lives. Half an hour later the battle finally had a victor and guess who won, they did. I left the room feeling like a prissy. Shortly afterwards my curses began to take effect on the servants.

 

After some time I realized I was utterly lost. Is this a castle or a maze? I swear they need to give maps to guests so they don't look like wandering idiots.

 

5 minutes later… Didn't I just pass that butt-ugly pot?

 

20 minutes later then that… that pot looks awfully familiar.

 

15 minutes later… Haven't I seen that pot before?

 

After seeing the same pot for the 9th time I was getting really frustrated, Crap, not only am I lost but I'm not going anywhere.

 

Around 10 minutes later… I'm hungry.

 

10 seconds after that thought…This sucks.

 

What made this far worse then it needed to be was the fact that, much to my horror, not only do I feel like a prissy but I look like one. Damn you fancy clothing I will burn you.

 

After an hour of walking around in circles with similar thoughts from the past half hour and 20 minutes somebody found me, apparently I was 2 hours late and being the guest of honor nobody was allowed to eat until I got there and after the first hour the food got cold so not only did they have to throw away the food but the cooks had to remake the entire feast and Cau had half the castle looking for me. Don't I feel special? No, I feel like a dumbbell with no sense of direction.

 

Once the food was prepared we started eating, me and Merle doing what would be expected in this situation, stuffing our faces oblivious to those around us (who were disgusted and appalled at our manners or lack thereof) until the entertainment (court jesters) came and the food was taken from us and of course being us didn't want to be deprived of our food held onto it for all we were worth.

 

When they finally got the food out of our clutches we were pretty pissed until the jester came in then Merle forgot about the food but being a male teenager I wanted my food back. The jester gave one look at me and saw my foreboding expression, whispered to Cau saying he wasn't feeling well, and walked out as fast as he could while still putting on the act of a stomach ache. Another one came in and when he looked into my direction I gave him such a dirty look that it seemed he was tempting fate merely by being in the same room as me and he ran for dear life not even giving an excuse to Cau for the sudden departure. The next one was braver and started to perform but vomited suddenly from stage fright. The last one that they had came out not looking at me at all after seeing what happened to the first 3 and started doing a juggling act, starting to become more and more nervous feeling my eyes burning his back, and one item that he was juggling he threw up to the chandelier somehow unhooking it making it fall on the jester crushing him to death with blood splattered everywhere.

 

Everybody stared opened mouthed at the crushed body of the jester. Silence. Then Cau started moving, everybody following in pursuit. I was long gone to find the bathroom to clean up. Big mistake. I found myself walking past the same ugly pot as before, more times then I cared for. After passing it for the 15th time I was starting to get frustrated.

 

“Screw this!” I jumped right through the ceiling onto the roof tearing the clothes along with my skin in the process. I'll sleep up here. Who needs a goose feather stuffed bed? I do. But I'm not going to wander the castle for it.

 

I tore off most of the clothing, not bothering with the elaborate buckles, zippers, and whatever else was holding it together. I laid down to get some sleep only to realize I couldn't sleep. I was twitching, tapping the tiles, fidgeting with the roof tiles and strips of what was left of the clothes and growing very irritable though no one was there to irritate me.

 

So it's that time again. I was hoping to do this later after I left. Twitching gets worse. But I won't survive the night getting this restless.

 

I moved myself to a sitting position and crossed my legs, letting my arms go limp. After a while I could feel something rushing through my veins. Not blood but power. Pure power. My power. All of it, gradually increasing. It enveloped me. So much I was not aware that I was 200 feet in the air, my ponytail whipping around in the wind, a wind I created and controlled, my face facing the sky above me, my eyes dazed, showing no thought. Finally, it started to decrease, as did the wind which was what was holding me up in the air. As I gradually descended I was more aware of what was around me. And what was around me was Cau, Kristina, Granny, John, and Merle. Staring at me, except Merle who was staring at me in awe and admiration.

 

“What?” they kept staring, “what?” I asked more irritably.

 

“You… we're…” Kristina began but was too shocked to finish.

 

“Yeah, so? All elves do that. Everybody knows that.”

 

“But Knives…” Cau began trying to overcome his disbelief, “you were up in the air so high we could barely see you.”

 

I was starting to get nervous. “So, big deal.”

 

“You were up there for an entire week.”

 

An entire week? That was impossible. I was fumbling for an answer. The information the mortals knew was that this rite was used to “spend” power when we haven't used it over a long period of time. This wasn't why they were gawking. This was a sacred rite that no mortal has seen in over a millennia, that was why they were gawking. They didn't understand what this meant, not even Merle. The amount of power that courses through our veins takes hours sometimes days to go through the entire body… and my power far exceeded that of even the most powerful elves throughout our age… throughout all time…