The sun was hanging golden right behind the almost black hue of the mountains. The wildlife of the day was settling down for the night as the predators of the night started to stir. In one section of the woods no wildlife had stirred for the past thirty minutes. They had felt the evil presence enter the forest and either taken to their nightly holdings early or scattered to spend the night further afield. Currently a half-demon, a priestess, a demon slayer, a monk, and a demon-cat were fighting with one of Naraku's puppets. The group had been tracking Naraku's presence and had not been fighting for more than a few minutes. They had fought with these same puppets for almost two years now in their search to find the final shard. The fact that Naraku kept sending puppets to attack them gave them the hope they needed that he also was still looking for the final shard.
With practiced ease, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara took care of any random tentacles that sprouted. Kagome kept Shippo tucked in her waist pouch as she stood next to Inuyasha clearing a path towards the puppet with her arrow so that Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga would have a clear path. After years of traveling she no longer carried the bulky yellow backpack that she had started her journey with. She had gained a lot of experience fighting and the backpack kept getting in her way so she had replaced it with a more time appropriate pouch hanging from her waist.
Inuyasha heaved Tetsusaiga over his head and brought it down to embed in the ground. “Wind Scar,” he cried out. The energy blade from the sword rushed through the opening Kagome had made and sliced the puppet in half. It slowly turned to dust as the energy used to keep it moving dissipated.
“Keh, another one. This is the fifth one this week. We must be on the right track for something with the amount of time he's spending slowing us down with these things.” Tetsusaiga shrank as Inuyasha sheathed it back at his side. Miroku climbed off of Kirara and approached the half-demon and priestess; his staff jingling with his movement.
“If we're not near Naraku himself, then we must be near something he's guarding. Other than the Shikon shards what else does he have left?”
Shippo bounced out of Kagome's pouch, “I can't think of anything else, we must be close. This could be our chance to finally beat him. Let's make a plan.”
Inuyasha just smirked, “Who needs more of a plan than to find him and kill him? I'm all set for that.” Shippo jumped from Kagome's arms and landed on his head and started to gnaw on his ears. “Ouch! You little runt.” He reached back and grabbed Shippo by the collar of his clothes and hit him. Two years ago Shippo would've started wailing and run to Kagome's arms, however recently he had been trying to show Kagome that he was maturing and latched all four of his paws on the arm that Inuyasha had used to hit him and proceeded to bite him. He didn't think it was the most mature response, but it was better than crying. One day he'd be the one protecting her, and then his adopted mom wouldn't have to worry about fighting anymore. She could focus her powers on healing others instead of taking life.
“Inuyasha, it's almost dark. I think it's time we set up camp for the night.” Kagome approached the two quarreling boys and pried Shippo off of Inuyasha's arm. “Enough Shippo, let's gather some wood for tonight's fire.”
Sango picked up her Hiraikotsu, “I'll come with you Kagome. You'll need help if there's more puppets hanging around somewhere.” Kagome nodded her head as the woman who had come to be a sister to her joined her along with Kirara.
“I guess that leaves us men to find dinner,” Miroku sighed. “With the fighting we just did I don't think even the fish are going to be around, but we can try.”
Inuyasha sniffed the air, “Yea, I'm not smelling anything walking on four legs that we could eat. Let's go monk and get some fish. I hear water in this direction.” He turned and walked a bit to the left of where the girls had gone. He hoped the stream wasn't too far because he didn't want to have everyone separated with the way things had been going that week.
Kagome and Sango, both with passengers on their shoulders, were slowly picking their way across the forest floor, searching for smaller twigs to get their fire started, and larger sticks that they could use to keep their fire going most of the night. As Sango was bending down to pick up a larger stick she heard Kagome call her name, “Sango, come here!” Sango jogged in the direction of her sister's voice, not panicking since Kagome's voice didn't sound frightened. She came to a stop next to Kagome, “What's wrong?”
Kagome shook her head. “It's not what's wrong, Sango, but what's right. No matter how long I stay here, sights like this still leave me in awe.” In her hunt for sticks and twigs Kagome had broken free of the forest to find an outcropping that looked over a valley. She could see to the end of the field and rolling hills as they bled into the mountains. The sun was at the proper height behind the mountains to cause the sky to burn a crimson red; the clouds in the sky taking on red, pink, and peach hues with the sunlight causing the edges to shine gold. A few lone small birds were making their way to the forest they had just come from as bats swooped to catch the bugs that were starting to come out. As she was glancing at the valley floor to see if she could find any deer a splash of white followed a dragon figure caught her eye. “Hey look Sango, it's Sesshoumaru. I wonder if he's been having the same problems with Naraku's puppets as we have.”
Sango shrugged and turned to head back into the forest. “I don't know, but if we meet up with him hopefully we can get some questions in before Inuyasha tries to kill him again.” No matter how much the others tried to talk Inuyasha out of attacking his half-brother he wouldn't stop. It had been months since the others had come to a truce with the great demon since they were all aiming for a similar goal when it come to Naraku's death. Luckily it seemed that Sesshoumaru was content to beat his half-brother as many times as he needed to while still sharing information with the rest of the group. “Come on Kagome. Let's finish getting wood and start the fire. I don't want Inuyasha grumbling about having food for us but no way to cook it.”
Kagome took one last glance at the mountains, the colors in the sky already starting to fade to lighter golds and darker grays with the movement of the sun, before hitching her bundle of twigs and sticks up tighter in her arms. “Coming Sango,” she turned back to the woods, her periphery catching a flash of white in the field one last time.
------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everyone, it's been a while. I've had this little thing going around in my head for what feels like ages and I was hoping to flesh some stuff out before I settled into writing it, but at this point if I don't start writing it I'm never going to get it down on paper. I hope anyone who reads this will bear with me. I'm not the most steady of updaters since I'll have boughts of writer's block that are just terrible and other times where work keeps me so busy I don't have time to write. I am interested in getting this story written and I do want to finish it. This is probably going to start out a bit slow and then pick up once I get settled in. I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Also, if you have never seen the sky burn at sunset (or sunrise for that matter) with mountains and forest as the scenery, you have no idea what you're missing. It's always a sight that makes me stop whatever I'm doing and just stare.