InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sunset Love ❯ Return to time ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3 ~ Return

 

 

Dull, tainted emerald green eyes locked with crimson tinged gold through the inky blackness. Sensitive ears picked up the faint echo of chains shifting gently against torn fabric. The sweet metallic smell of fresh blood scented the air mingling with the smells of rot and decayed flesh, making the young Kitsune gag in silent protest. For once he wished he had the human's affliction of poor sight and smell. At least that way he would not be able to see the suffering that surrounded him.

 

“Do you think he made it?” his voice broke the silence, hoarse and broken from lack of moisture. His throat was sore and his body ached badly from the severe beating he had sustained earlier.

 

“Yeah,” the single word spoke volumes of the older demon's belief. Dry, cracked lips pulled upward in a pain filled smirk as he spoke again. “Better have or we're done for.”

 

“I wish Kagome was here. She'd know what to do,” Shippo sighed, his eyes closing to shut out the sight of the other's wounds.

 

“Shut up runt!” The snarl startled Shippo into opening his eyes again. “What would she do except get us in deeper than we already are?”

 

“Inuyasha, don't be that way. Kagome was always an asset.” Shippo sighed knowing his words fell on deaf ears. It had been that way since she'd disappeared all those years ago. His friend had turned colder, blaming himself for the Miko's disappearance even though she had given him everything his heart desired. Shippo believed that he was partially to blame for that, his childish whining a key factor into the broken man across from him. Inuyasha just wasn't the same since Kagome left. Even now he could still hear the hurt in his companion's voice of her leaving, but it hadn't been her choice.

 

“Face it Shippo! Kagome was human, she wouldn't survive this place.” Inuyasha groaned shifting his weight in a vain attempt to ease the pain of extensive injuries.

 

“I still wish she were here.” Shippo muttered under his breath, his eyes closing again. He wanted to block out the motley group of humans and demons that shared their prison. Everyone here was someone he knew, had fought alongside at some point in time and now would probably die with. A thought Shippo did not relish.

 

“Don't worry Shippo,” Inuyasha's pained voice whispered into the silence. “Sesshomaru will find help.” The kit had heard him, Inuyasha was almost certain but the only sound he got in return was Shippo's even breathing as he fell into a troubled sleep. Through out the entire time they'd been captured, the kit had repeatedly called out to Kagome in his sleep. A part deep inside him hoped for all their sakes that the girl would hear the heart breaking pleas of the kit that still considered her his mother.

 

The first few tentative steps toward ones past are always the hardest. A walk down memory lane, no more than remembered heartache and faded joys. Even as Kagome stood on the hill over looking Kaeda's village, said memories come rushing back in a tidal wave of long forgotten emotions.

 

She felt the entire array assaulted her, running from the excitement she felt at being back, to panic no one would remember her, fear that she wasn't in a time where her friends still lived which faded into the deep rooted terror that no one would want her there if they did remember who she was. It was a silent struggle just to keep herself rooted to the spot. One side of her begged to go forward, while the other wanted to turn tail and run home without a backward glance.

 

This had been the place and time where her heat had been taken, shattered into more pieces than the Shikon, scattered to the four winds and left for dead, the cowardly side of her protested. The only safe place was home back at the Shrine where her heart had mended, it told her.

 

The other side agreed only to a point, reminding her that she was needed here or the well would not have opened again. She wouldn't have heard Shippo call for her, that small voice warming a heart that had grown cold in her surrogate son's absence.

 

He needed her, reached somehow beyond time's barrier to call for her. There had been despair in that voice, laced through with fear in that single word he spoke. Her name, like a beacon had called out to her and brought her here where she would have a chance to apologize for leaving him behind. Even though his voice had changed, she recognized the pull it had over her heart.

 

Many guilt-ridden nights had been spent etching his voice on her memories and her heart remembered, ashamed of leaving the kit behind. The only solace Kagome felt was the fact that he still had the others. They would care for him; raise him as their own as Kagome would have done if she'd been allowed to stay.

 

A soft smile touched her full lips at the thought of seeing them all again, even Kikyo, the undead Miko turned living demon. She would no doubt have much to blame Kagome for, but she didn't care one way or the other. Kagome was home, the only real place she had ever felt like she belonged.

 

Now Kagome knew something she didn't know the last time, she understood why she felt that way. Armed with her new knowledge, Kagome took those first few uncertain steps forward toward an unknown destiny.

 

Twin suns burned brightly as Kisho scented the air around him. There was an odd smell that permeated the air, the scent of magic that was nowhere around him. Those brightly glowing amber colored orbs widened slightly as the feeling settled over him, making its presence know like a sharp knife cutting through his heart and mind.

 

There was a rift in time, a tear that had admitted someone or something of great power some distance away. A long dead memory struggled to surface, a vision of love long band from this world under the assault of a broken heart.

 

A growl ripped from the inu's throat as realization dawned on him. It was time, the rippling shimmer of magic and destiny tinting the air till he felt the pull. A pull he knew would lead him back to the Western Lord's castle where his fate would rise up till it suffocated the cold, once lord's heart.

 

Long midnight black hair gleamed in the noonday sun, glinting blue as a raven's wing under the heated globe. The call demanded he hurry, an urgency that refused to allow him do anything other than race toward the designated place where fate would find him.

 

Two things ran through his mind once his feet took up the challenge, two things he knew would haunt him until his fears were laid to rest. One being that this unknown magic said his long time friend and ally; Sesshomaru needed him at the castle instead of on the rescue mission he'd been sent out on. The second was more a feeling than a call, a knowledge he shouldn't not have had, whoever had just come through the rip would be at the castle and they would need his guidance.

 

He only hoped that Sesshomaru and the others had escaped the usurpers prison and that his instincts for magic was not leading him astray. If it had than all would be lost, Kisho understood that clearly. Only the young Western Lord could effectively command the armies that camped outside the enemy's front lines, guarding against many of the various raiding parties that plagued the surrounding villages.

 

Kisho fought down the aggressive growl that threatened to surface at the thought of the usurper, an arrogant pup barely out of the nest who had started this war because Sesshomaru had refused the peace negotiations. An action that had surprised Kisho because he knew that Sesshomaru had not wanted to get involved in the war in the first place. One day he would have to ask his friend just what the treaty demanded that had sent Sesshomaru into such a blood rage.

 

Kagome felt her feet carry her along the well-worn path, down to the village below. Behind her trailed various villagers, curious they had abandoned the fields in favor of following the strange young woman.

 

She had not recognized any of their faces and as she entered the village. Fear gripped her once again that she was in a time she didn't know, where she would be alone, but that didn't explain why she'd heard Shippo call out to her. She felt slightly confused at that because he hadn't been there to greet her and she had plainly heard his voice. If he wasn't there than where could he be that she had heard him so clearly? The questions plagued her mind with no answers forthcoming.

 

The village had grown larger than she remembered; dark blue eyes darted from face to face as she encountered more villagers on the road toward her destination. Still she could see no one she recognized, but reasoned that five years could change a person in this era drastically kept her from screaming in frustration.

 

Only when she reached Kaede's hut did Kagome breath a sigh of relief. The wooden structure looked weathered and ancient, large holes had formed in what she could see of the roof.

 

“Kaeda?” Kagome called outside the doorway sending loud whispers of suspicion and curious wonder through the gathered crowd.

 

“Enter child,” a muffled voice reached out to her, weathered beyond recognition.

 

Carefully, Kagome drew aside the wooden matt covering the entrance and stepped into the dimly lit interior. There hunched over the fire pit stirring a pot of stew sat Kaeda, but she was different, time had taken its toll on the elderly Miko.

 

“Kaeda?” Kagome was mystified as she looked at the wizened woman before her. Deep wrinkles lined the woman's face and a white glaze covered her single eye.

 

“Come closer child, my vision is not what it use to be.” The woman motioned with a gnarled hand, twisted with age.

 

“Do you remember me?” Kagome asked eagerly kneeling beside the older woman.

 

“Why of course, Kagome, ye voice has changed little in the ten years ye've been gone.” Kaeda blindly reached out to Kagome searching for the younger woman's hand.

 

“Ten years?” Kagome explained in surprised as she gripped the woman's searching hand gently.

 

“Why yes, child, ten years has passed and I no longer am Miko here.” Kaeda explained, brows furrowing with confusion and worry.

 

“But only five has passed for me in my time.” Wide eyes portrayed the shock Kagome was feeling but she quickly shook it off in hopes of hearing news about her friends. “What has become of the others? Do they still live?”

 

“Yes,” Kaeda sighed deeply the weight of untold sorrows in that soft sound.

 

“Kaeda?” Kagome filled with worry not missing the unspoken weariness.

 

“Kagome, much has happened since last you wandered these lands.” Kaeda began. Unconsciously, the old woman returned to stirring, as her voice grew heavy once more. “They are no longer safe to travel.”

 

“Why what has happened?” Kagome plead knowing she needed answers.

 

“When you disappeared all those years ago,” Kaeda began her eye taking on a distant and dreamy look as she recalled the past events. “The others raised a shine in yer memory at the battle site, creating a legend that day. Upon their return here, I was informed of what happened and life slowly settled back to what it once was.

 

Kikyo took up her rightful place as village Miko, even though she was now demon. Everyone accepted her for who she was or had been. A healer of great renown across the four lands. She and Inuyasha swore to protect this village. They were wed soon after as well as were Sango and Miroku. Though both couples were extremely happy, a slightly sadness could be felt among the group. I knew it was because ye were not there but none of them would admit it. They would often visit the shrine whenever they felt the need to be close to you when they thought no one would notice.”

 

Kagome listened closely, caught up in the tale that Kaeda was weaving. She felt a pang of sadness go through her as she heard of their weddings and wished she could have been there for her friends.

 

“Sango and Miroku later left, intent on rebuilding the demon exterminator's village with the help of her brother Kohaku and the kit Shippo.”

 

Kagome brushed tears away from dark eyes at the thought of how her friends had felt because of her. If only she could have come back sooner, her heart clenched. But yet she remained silent listening to the woman who had helped her learn so much.

 

“Inuyasha and Kikyo had a son named Haruki not to long after that and I have heard that Sango and Miroku also have children. All in all it was a happy time for all of us, but like so all things, the peace was sort lived.”

 

Kagome watched the lines in Kaeda's forehead deepen with a frown but still she kept her silence.

 

“Two years ago, word reached us that there was a great uprising in the farthest corners of the Northern Lands. An unknown demon was coming to power swiftly and it wasn't long before the Northern Lord Kisho was over thrown.”

 

“What?” Kagome's shocked voice interrupted Kaeda with such intensity that it startled the older woman. “What happened to him?”

 

“I know not child, but it is rumored that he and his men now fight along with Lord Sesshomaru in the Western Lands.” Kaeda peered closely at the stunned girl wondering why the she wanted to know about the old Inuyoukai.

 

“I'm sorry to interrupt,” Kagome stuttered slightly trying to appease the woman. She did not like lying to her friends but this time it was for their own good. “I met him once in our travels and he seemed like a nice guy.”

 

“I see,” Kaeda looked back to the boiling soup. “Since that day the other Lords have been fending off the usurper's attempts at concurring the other lands. So far the attacks have been swiftly dealt with, that was until several moths ago. That is when they grew worse, concentrating solely on the Eastern lands. They too fell under the constant siege.

 

Then something happened, though I know not what, but it sent Lord Sesshomaru into a deep rage and war was declared on the usurper and even now the battle rages. My sister and Inuyasha have traveled to the west to aid him last summer and it is so rumored that the others have joined him as well.” Kaeda's voice grew sad, her stew forgotten as she stared down at her wrinkled hands in abrupt silence.

 

“What aren't you telling me?” Kagome asked catching up the older woman's hands in her own.

 

“Things will be alright, child,” Kaeda tried to reassure the confused girl while skirting the question. “They always are.”

 

“Kaeda?” Kagome had never known this woman to avoid anything question she had and couldn't help but wonder if perhaps age had effected her in other ways.

 

Kaeda heaved a deep sigh. “Word reached us three days ago that Sesshomaru's scouting party had fallen into a trap.”

 

Kagome's eyes grew wide, her heart threatening to stop as dread filled her.

 

“Shippo, Inuyasha, and Sesshomaru were a part of the group that fell. Some believe they are dead but rumors say other wise. It has been two weeks now that this was suppose to have happened and some still hold onto the belief that they are held as captives alive but slowly being tortured to death.”

 

“No!” Kagome yelled her heart aching with pain and anger at the thought of her son being tortured. “They are not dead!”

 

Unknown to the young Miko the pink glow of her powers flared outward in her anger, wrapping her in a cocoon of pink and white light. Even with poor vision, Kaeda saw the anger flare and fear crept over the elder. Never had Kagome felt so strong before, everything about her seemed different yet the same.

 

“Calm yerself child, yer anger is misdirected.” Kaeda admonished softly.

 

Instantly, Kagome calmed, regret at her outburst plainly visible only to harden in sheer determination. “I must find them. That must be why the well summoned me back.”

 

“Perhaps child,” Kaeda tried to reason with her,” but it is not safe for one such as yerself to travel alone.”

 

“I am no longer that weak child Inuyasha believed me to be.” Kagome told Kaeda with enough force to send a chill down the elder's spine.

 

“Be on yer guard out there, Kagome,” Kaeda replied as the girl rushed from the hut.