InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sacrifice ❯ Found but still lost ( Chapter 2 )

 

 

“You're awake,” she heard a woman's sweet voice say happily and turned her head to look at her. “I'm Midori. Funny huh? My name means `green'.”

 

“Do I know you?” she asked the woman as she sat up slowly and looked at the woman sitting at her side.

 

“No, not yet,” Midori said smiling. “Would you like a bath, there's a hot spring not too far away.”

 

“Ok,” she said and followed the woman out of the hut squinting sharply and hiding her face from the intense bright of the sun's afternoon light.

 

“Don't worry sweetie,” Midori said to her as she led her to the hot spring surrounded by star jasmine bushes in full bloom, their blossoms falling into the water and adding to the scent and comfort of the hot mineral water. “My husband left early this morning for your village. It isn't more than a day's travel away, in three days you should be back home where you belong.”

 

“Ok,” she said again, feeling so very lost as she followed the woman and undressed at her instruction before slipping into the spring. “Um, clothes?” she asked from within the spring, seeing the woman take her own clothing to clean.

 

“Let me get these back to home and I'll bring you one of my kimonos alright?” she asked pleasantly.

 

“Thank you.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Lady Kikyou! Lady Kikyou!” a young girl called out as she and her friend ran over to the resurrected miko.

 

“Yes Hana,” Kikyou said as she bent down to them.

 

“There's a stranger Lady Kikyou,” the girl said excitedly. “He said he's looking for someone.”

 

“Where is he now young ones?” she asked pleasantly.

 

“Over by Lady Kaede's house,” the young girl said and then chased after her friend as they continued their game once Kikyou had nodded her thanks to them.

 

 

 

“Can I help you?” Kikyou asked the man as she came up behind him.

 

“You are the miko of this village?” he asked confused.

 

“Yes, I am Kikyou.”

 

“Oh…I'm sorry I must have the wrong village then. Is there another that sits along the Forest of Inuyasha?” he asked kindly and she noticed he was holding something in his hand, a delicate golden chain hanging from his closed fist.

 

“No, this is the only village. The children said you were looking for someone. Might I be of help to you?” Kikyou asked as she studied him.

 

His aura was kind and patient, and even though he was young and healthy she didn't think he could be dangerous unless you posed a threat to him or those he loved. His entire being projected an air of calm and safety, almost like the big brother everyone wants and searches for.

 

“Yes, hopefully,” he said with a nervous smile. “I'm looking for the hanyou Inuyasha. I bring word of his mate.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Kagome is dead,” Inuyasha said, his voice lifeless as he looked at the strange human male from his seat by the well, he hadn't moved from it since he had returned from Kagome's time.

 

“The woman who came into our village and is staying with my wife and I is very much alive, though she does seem very confused. Her face matches the one that sits alongside yours, inside here,” he said and let the golden heart shaped locket hang from his finger.

 

Wide golden eyes lay fixed on the dangling locket that swung slightly in the breeze as it hung from the man's hand. Inuyasha snatched it up, his chest heaving as he began to pant harshly as he stared at it. It was Kagome's and if what he said was true…Kagome was alive!

 

“Where is she? Where is your village?” he asked hurriedly as he sprang to his feet.

 

“A good day's walk to the west.”

 

Only a two hour travel for me, if that, Inuyasha thought excitedly.

 

“Inuyasha!” Kikyou called after him as he sprang away no more than a leaping flash in the air.

 

“I have to go Kikyou! I have to know if it's her!” his voice called back as he disappeared from their sight completely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girl in the spring yawned gently as she leaned back against the smooth side of the spring, her head resting upon the pillowing grasses as she closed her eyes. She knew it was getting late and that she had been in the spring for quite a long while already, but it was simply too pleasurable, too relaxing to get out of. She would just close her eyes for a few moments, rest a bit and then she would get out.

 

The sun set low over the horizon, the day falling away gently into the night as the woman lay sleeping soundly in the spring. Faces ran through her mind's eye, faces she couldn't place, faces she couldn't remember the names for. Her eyes snapped open and she barely kept herself from screaming when she felt someone pull her from the spring and before she could truly acknowledge what had happened, she found herself held in someone's lap as that person's face was buried in her shoulder, the man crying harshly as he held her tightly.

 

She could feel his body trembling violently against hers as he held her, crushed her to his chest, his tears wetting her damp skin, soft from the long soak in the spring. Tentatively her arms came up around him, one arm wrapping around to rub his back in soothing circles as the other went to his thick head of silver hair and gently stroked the tangled mass.

 

“You're alive,” the strange man strangled out as he finally lifted his face from her shoulder and looked into her eyes. “I thought you were dead. We all did. But you're alive. You're alive!” he cried out as he crushed his mouth to hers in a demanding kiss as he sobbed.

 

The intimate contact of his mouth against hers lasted only a moment, but it burned through them both. His head returned to her shoulder as he rocked himself as he held her and cried into her shoulder.

 

“Do I know you?” the woman asked the strange man in confusion. Who was he?

 

“Of course you know me!” he growled at her as he pulled his face out of her shoulder and looked into her confused blue eyes, it was then she saw his white puppy ears.

 

“Do you know me?” she asked as the hand in his hair absently, unconsciously went up to his ear to pet and touch the silky white fuzzy triangle.

 

“Of course I know you!” he growled again. “This isn't funny! I don't care if you're mad at me, be mad at me! Just let me hold you.”

 

“You say you know me,” she said as he stopped and pulled his face back from where he had once again moved to bury it in her shoulder, her scent a comfort to him. “So can you tell me something?”

 

“Anything,” he said to her. He'd give her anything she wanted as long as she'd let him hold her.

 

“Who am I? I can't remember. I'm scared,” she said softly as she bent her head and looked down at the grass. “I don't know who I am,” she said her voice trembling as her own frightened tears filled her eyes and fell upon her cheeks.

 

“You're Kagome, Higurashi Kagome. And I'm Inuyasha. We - we're - we're friends.”

 

“Kagome…my name is Kagome,” she whimpered sharply as her hands moved away from where they had wrapped around him to hold her head as she whimpered again and buried her face in his chest. “My head hurts,” she whimpered and then gasped. “I have a son!” she looked up at him as she still cradled her aching head, it felt as though it were splitting open. “I have a son…but I can't remember his name!” she sobbed as her head fell against his chest once more. “I have a son and I can't remember what he looks like or what his name is!” she sobbed as Inuyasha held her and rocked her gently.

 

“Shippou, his name is Shippou.”