Crescent Miko

Chapter 2

“Inuyasha! Where are you going? It’s time to eat. Inuyasha? Baka hanyou. Kagome, Inuyasha ran off again, after those soul collectors we saw earlier. I thought Kikyo was dead, so why does he still chase after them. Can I have his ramen since he isn’t here?” Shippo turned to Kagome with a sly innocent look on his face.

Kagome smiled at her young charge and with a last worried look after Inuyasha, handed Shippo Inuyasha’s bowl of ramen.

“I think he chases after them in hope of finding Kikyo, even though he knows that she is no longer among us. He loved her very much, Shippo, and he still needs to mourn her death.” Miroku spoke gracefully around his chopsticks. Eyeing his love’s bottom with a leer he continued, “Sometimes love is painful no matter how many times he tries to change.”

“Why Miroku that was quite deep. I would never expected that from you”

Crash!

“Actually it is just another way of calling the kettle black, Kagome. Miroku just experiences his pains of the heart differently.” Sango turned from her startled friends to lean her favored weapon back on the tree.

“Well at least he learned to keep his pain to one source.” Kagome turned back to gathering her bathing supplies. “Would either of you two like to join me for a dip in the hot spring?” She asked openly knowing that the monk would be unable to enter his two cents at the open invitation.

Shippo just shook his head and walked over to check on the monk. Sango also murmured no thank you and that someone needed to keep an eye on the monk incase he took to wandering.

Kagome walked down the path towards the spring humming softly to herself a childhood melody she could remember her grandma singing before she had passed on. Stopping next to a low tree at the edge of the water she peered up at the moon. It was ¾ full and shining so brightly that she turned her lantern off. Singing softly now she started to change into her bathing suit.

As she stepped from the shadow edges of the pool she dipped beneath the water to stroke to the middle, emerging with a sigh she floated peacefully staring into the moonlight.

Unnoticed by the relaxed miko, small balls of light gathered in the steamy air of the spring. As the lights gathered some start moving with a purpose into a circle around Kagome. Lulling her deeper into the moonlit trance with the rhythmic fluttering of tiny wings. Once assured of her meditation the lights moved closer to her. Gathering to cover her body from head to toe they lifted her lax body above the water. Whispering in the air could be heard, the murmuring of “ It is time. It is she. She is the one. It is time.”

Back at the camp Shippo woke up from his nest he had made in Kagome’s sleeping bag. “Can you hear that Sango. The forest sprites are singing.” He turned around and snuggled back into the heat of the bedding and fell back into a deep child sleep.

Sango and Miroku looked at the sleeping Kitsune and then towards the dark trees surrounding their camp.

“I think it is best that you go hurry Kagome along with her bath, Sango” If Shippo says he can hear the sprites then it is best for us humans to gather closer to our fires where they cannot shine as bright in the moonlight.

Nodding in agreement and thinking of all the stories she had heard about the mischievous sprites from when she was a child in her mother’s lap. She stood up to retrieve her naive friend.

A bright flash of light suddenly streamed through the trees and lit the clearing as bright as day. The trees that stood between the source of the light and their startled eyes cast long shadows across the grass.

A few miles away Inuyasha stood at the edge of a ridge thinking deeply. Pondering the last fifty plus years and how much he had changed from who he was to who he is now. He had loved and lost. Learned the power of true friendship and the strength of loyalty and of love versus brute strength. Sometimes what one thought was wanted was not what was actually needed to fill the missing holes that he could feel in the depths of his soul.

“What the Hell!” Inuyasha turned to look below him at the source of the bright light in the valley. He was too far away to hear anything but he could see a ball of light rising from the spring close to where he had left his friends.

“Kagome!”

He raced as fast as he could back down the path somehow knowing that his best friend was in trouble again. “Can’t she ever stay where I put her. Nooo. Obstinate girl! Somehow she is mixed up in this. I just know it.”

But he still wasn’t fast enough.


Kagome came awake at the sound of a splash causing her to submerge with a gasp. Standing up quickly she looked around for the cause of the noise. Realizing that she stood naked in the middle of the pool, her swimsuit nowhere in sight, she sunk back down to her chin in the water watching the circling waves move away from her body all the way to the shore.

“I better get out now and hurry to bed. I’m more tired than I thought.” Sighing she hurried to the edge and hurried to wash her hair and body. Slicking her rinsed hair back from her face with one hand she reached for her towel to wrap around her body.

“Kagome!” Inuyasha burst from the bushes in time to see a startled kagome whirled to face him.

“Inuyasha? Acckk! Sit Boy! What is wrong with you? Don’t you dare move till I say so.” Kagome moved farther into the shadowy bushes to quickly pull her pajamas on. Come back out in the open she glared at the wet Inuyasha rising from the hot springs. Reaching up to twist her dark hair into a wet bun she demanded an explanation.

“You baka. Didn’t you see the light? I could see it from the ridge and it was coming from right here. What did you do Kagome?” Inuyasha looked around confused because Sango and Miroku hadn’t even made an appearance by then. “Get back to camp Kagome, I can hear the sprites giggling. You need to get by a fire. Umm before a chill makes you sick.” Inuyasha hurried over to kagome’s side and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to the camp.

For the next hour as Kagome caught up on some homework she kept casting worried glances at her pacing friend. ‘What is up with him? He has never acted this way before. Why would the sprites worry him. I didn’t know sprites even exsisted. Well demons exist, sprites must too. But giggling sprites?’

Closing her book, which startled Inuyasha. She checked to make sure Sango and Miroku were still covered by their blankets she had placed on them after finding them lying asleep out of their beds.

“Goodnight Inuyasha. You better have a better explanation in the morning for your weirdness.” Kagome settled deeper into her sleeping bag pausing just a moment as Shippo moved up to curl into her side.


In another part of the forest a silent demon opened his eyes and smiled. Taking a deep breath he chuckled, waking his servant lying to side of a small fire.

“My Lord? You have need?” The servant inquired quietly.

Looking down at the sleepy eyes peering at him. The tall demon breathed the night air deeply again, scenting the air, tasting it. “tomorrow you shall go back to the palace. I will be hunting.”

The servant sat up quickly and watched wide eyed for the rest of the night. The demon just smiled and breathed.