Kagome breathed a sigh of relief as her feet touched solid earth once more. Hanging suspended in a ball of strange, wormy demons as she traversed the boundaries of the mortal realm hadn’t been anything less that gut-wrenching.

But the danger had passed. She was back now, at last. As the Shinidamachu slithered away with a bit of her spirit in the bargain, Kagome’s senses attuned to the sharpness of her surroundings. Things she would never even have noticed before suddenly arrested her—the clinging dampness of the air, the smell of wet soil and rotting leaves, the sound of creatures scrabbling around. Sights both ugly and pretty met her eyes as she took in this living wood, rife with new beginnings springing up from the detritus of the past.

For all its pristine surrealness, the immortal realm felt flat and stale compared to this. Like a painting beside its object.

It was good to be back, Kagome decided. It was better to be here than there.

Now, she asked herself, where do I go from here?

Not that she knew precisely where ‘here’ was, anyway. Picking a direction, she simply started off. There were enough obstacles in her path to distract her from what lay behind. She circled around creek beds to find crossings. She skirted past thorny brambles and stepped lightly over sticks, fallen logs and half-buried stones.

By the time the sun began to set, she was fully exhausted. It hadn’t taken much.

With her concealment spell in place, she needn’t fear any demonic attacks—though detection was her chief concern. Lighting a small fire, she spit-roasted a scrawny rabbit she’d managed to shoot along the way. Though it wasn’t much of a meal, she hardly had the stomach for it. Now that night had fallen and she was forced to be still, the darkness around her invaded her consciousness. Her utter isolation oppressed her with physical weight. All the paranoid thoughts that seemed silly in the light of day became shadowy fiends in her mind.

She was so weary her eyes were aching, but she couldn’t close them for fear of what lurked behind. So she stared on instead, until her vision began to blur. In the flames of the campfire, she saw Edo burning. Along the sheath of her dagger the play of shadows became dark blood seeping through. The ghostly white hands held before her morphed into those of another. And in the darkness of the wood she saw—

Yellow eyes, mirrored and narrowed.

Bow in hand, Kagome leapt to her feet with a start. Her heart raced so strongly it pounded in her ears. The eyes—they were still there. Growing larger, growing closer. Leaves crinkled beneath the padding of predatory steps, slow and heavy. Intent. Circling in with clear purpose, just beyond the reach of the flames.

This was no illusion. This was a beast in truth.

Kagome’s grip on the bow grew clammy. Whatever was stalking her, it was formidable. One shot might not be enough to bring it down. And one shot was all she’d have, before it’d be on her, tearing out her throat. Of all the ways for her to die…mauled to death by some random creature in some random wood.

But maybe it was fitting.

When a clawed, grey-white paw broke through the darkness, touched just upon the edge of that scant ring of illumination, her mouth twisted. Her bow lowered. Her arms went slack with disbelief at the shaggy face she saw peering back at her through the cast of the flames.

“Ikiryou,” she breathed.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Still not quite at 100% fatigue-wise so please bear with my while I ease back into things 🙂 Thank you for all the well wishes! <3