Tree Goddess

"Lord Inuyasha, why must we go this way, again?" Myoga complained from his lord's shoulder.

"Damn it, Myoga. Ya always have to complain, don'tcha?"

"But, my lord, this place is not safe for one of ill intentions?"

"Ya sayin' my intentions ain't good?!"

"Of course not, my lord!"

Squish.

Inuyasha growled in annoyance. Myoga was right; this place wasn't safe- but not because of his lack of purity.

The place stank of wolves.

Walking further into the heart of the forest, Inuyasha kept high alert. He didn't have any other choice but to go this way. His bastard brother had summoned him, saying a goddess had declared a prophecy about the second son of the great dog demon. About him. Growling at the still-chattering flea, the hanyou cursed and pushed his way through some bushes.

Myoga howled as he fell to the ground.

"Why did you stop, my lord?"

Receiving no answer, the vassal followed his lord's gaze-right to an enourmous tree. Seemingly transfixed, the hanyou walked towards the tree, running his callused hands over the smooth bark.

"My lord?"

"Shut up, Myoga!"

He could have sworn he had heard something! But that was crazy! Trees couldn't talk! Leaning against the tree, Inuyasha placed a velvet ear against the bark.

There it was agian! Faint, but there. Myoga stared at his master with confusion. What was he doing? He understood there was a calming aura from the enormous laurel, but this was ludicrous!

"My lord?"

Inuyasha turned back to his vassal with confusion in his eyes.

"There's something off about this tree, Myoga."

"Well, my lord, it may be that..." He trailed off.

"It may be what, Myoga?!" Myoga jumped in shock.

"It may be that this is the God Tree, Lord Inuyasha."

"The God Tree?"

"Surely you've heard the story, lord?"

"Never."

"Ah, well then." The flea jumped back onto his lord's shoulder and seated himself. He went into storyteller mode.

"It is known that two hundred odd years ago, that there was a rather fiesty demon known by the name of Kouga."

Inuyasha nodded and seated himself by the God Tree.

"Kouga was in love with a lesser goddess, her name has been lost over time. Although he loved her, he would not act upon his passions and take her as most were wont to do.

"However, one day, as he was hunting, a small kitsune child jumped from the brush and scared off his prey, as kitsune often do. Angry, Kouga threw the fox demon out of 'his' forest rather forcefully. Little did he know that this was really Shippo-sama, the child-god of love.

"Outraged at the indignity, the god did something rather foolish. He cast his love-fire on Kouga, igniting the demon's passions at last. He chased down the goddess and demand that she mate him. The goddess was mortified, and ran to her grandfather's river and begged for his aid. In response, he turned her into a very powerful, very large tree. But her grandfather was a bumbler, and the spell could not be broken. Rejected and alone, Kouga went back to his tribe, and it rained nonstop for a month, for Shippo-sama would not cease crying.

"The goddess was like his adopted mother, his own mother a very busy and distant goddess in her own right. Upset at his own foolishness, he sought out another god, the god of wisdom. This god told Shippo-sama that the only way to right his wrong was to place a reversal spell over the lesser god's weaker spell. Shippo-sama, eager to regain his adopted mother, placed a new spell on the laurel tree, proclaiming that his mother would be the one to pick who would undo the spell.

"This tree has been associated with the story, thus how it got its name, but it is doubtful that this is the tree, milord. And it is only a story."

Inuyasha grunted and stood up quickly, knocking Myoga from his shoulder once again.

"Milord?"

Inuyasha pulled Tetsusaiga from its sheath and prepared to swing at the tree.

"MILORD?!"

With one mightly blow he swung, but the tree did not fall. Instead, a large, purplish-black portal ripped in the tree, and Inuyasha could feel himself being pulled towards it.

"Help me." The cries of the tree could be heard clearly now, and Myoga paled. A young woman's voice pulled hauntingly on his heart as he struggled to hold on to a piece of grass and not go flying into the portal.

Inuyasha grunted and planted his sword into the ground to keep from flying into the portal, his hair blowing towards it.

"Please, help me..."

Inuyasha growled and planted his feet more firmly, but his sword slid out of the soft earth. Inuyasha yelled as the portal sucked him in and began to close.

Myoga jumped at it, but hit only the tree.