Unbroken

I left Kaede’s village behind. Not sure where I was going or why. 'I wonder what Kagome will say when she returns and I'm gone?'

I walked into the Forest of Inuyasha, past the tree that Kikyo had pinned Inuyasha to, and over a creek. I continued my journey, unsure of which direction I was actually going. The trees were so thick that I could barely see the sky. I went further, never looking back.

Reaching a clearing, I saw a cliff face on the far side and groaned.

“Sigh.” I spoke and I sighed at the same time. 'Good thing I know how to climb cliffs thanks to my father’s training.'

I entered the clearing and looked up. The cliff wall wasn’t that tall and it was straight up. Thank goodness. I looked up at the sky and saw that beautiful and crisp blue was becoming gray. 'I’d better get up this cliff face fast. It’ll be too slippery to climb if it gets wet. Good thing I always wear tennis shoes.' The air started to smell like rain.

I began to stretch my arms, black, and legs. Carefully ensuring that each muscle was flexible enough to withstand the pressure they would take from climbing. I inwardly groaned. It had been a while since I climbed a rock wall, let alone an actual cliff face. Plus, I was always securely fastened in case I lost my footing.

When I finished stretching, I inspected the wall. It looked to have pretty good hand and foot holds, but I couldn’t be certain until I actually began climbing. I took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and rotated my shoulders. I popped my fingers and stretched my neck before finding my first hand and foot holds.
I took another deep breath, let it out, and began my climb. So far, this climb was pretty easy. The wall face had enough splits, and mini jagged ledges that I could easily move up the wall. About half way up, tree roots were visible. I didn’t trust their security so I found hand holds around them.

I stuck my foot on the only foot hold I had, a root, and pushed up. I felt my foot slipping before it gave way. I was a good fifty feet off the ground and nearly at the top. My two hands and my left foot kept me securely to the wall, but my brain didn’t realize that until I saw my entire past flash in front of my eyes.

I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding and continued, my right ankle a little sore from the slip. After what seemed like hours, I finally made it to the top. It was already sprinkling, making the grass wet. I couldn’t gain a grip on the top layer of soil so I had to inch my feet up enough to be able to climb up. I slowly found footings towards the very top of the cliff so I was able to lean the top half of my body over the edge and shimmy onto the wet grass.

Once I was all the way up, I rolled over and began to catch my breath. My arms and legs were sore but that would fade eventually. The sprinkles began to turn into larger drops as I laid there, enjoying the cool droplets on my heated skin.

The rain got heavier and I sat up. Good thing I finished my climb. No way would I have been able to climb in this rain.

I turned towards the woods and began walking again. I lost track of time as I continued my journey. It became dark, and stupid me, didn’t have a way to light a fire. Not to mention, it was too wet to do so. As I kept walking, the air got warmer and more humid. It felt good on my cold wet skin. I shivered at the temperature change and felt the need to free myself from all of these wet clothes. I reached what appeared to be a hot spring surrounded by rocks. The water had steam rising lazily off the surface and I immediately found a rock to sit on. I glanced up, in the part of the clouds, I could see a bright and full moon. I stripped off my socks and shoes, then I took the swords off my back and carefully laid them beside the rock I perched on.

I stood, taking my shirt and bra off, then my pants and underwear. I laid my clothing flat and on different rocks, hoping they would warm up and dry while I was bathing. I stepped into the heated water. My toes were instantly in heaven. I rolled my eyes up and moaned. "Oh my GOOOOOOD!"

I wrapped my arms around myself and covered my cool puckering breasts and stepped further into the water, the warmth inching up my ice cold skin until it covered my butt cheeks. I giggled as bliss ran over my body from the sudden warmth and then I dived into the mineral filled water, completely submerging myself. I stood in the water and completely relaxed myself, allowing the aches from my earlier climb to leave my body.

I swam to the far side of the hot spring and leaned against a flat rock for a long moment before lazily swimming back to my belongings. I sat myself down in the shallow parts by where I entered and leaned back, laying my head on a small rock at the water’s edge. I closed my eyes, enjoying the quiet serenity that I was in. Smiling, I listened to the creatures that came out at night. Bugs chirped, birds screeched, and tiny insects mazed their way through fallen debris from trees and foliage.

'Wait...' My eyes opened wide. 'How can I hear the little insects?'

I turned around to see if there were any bugs beside my head. Even if there were, how would I be able to hear them? My mind was racing and I took a deep breath. 'Boy was that a bad idea!' I instantly could smell each and every mineral that I was bathing in as well as all the scents around me. I didn't know who or what they belonged to and I really didn't want to find out.

I closed my eyes and put my hands over my ears. 'Ok, Angel. This is all just a bad dream. You are going to wake up in your nice warm bed and things will be like they never even happened. You never jumped in the well with Kagome, you never had that freaky dream, and you definitely never went off on your own.'

My 'your not insane' mantra was cut short. I suddenly felt something very evil approaching me fast. I sat up, my eyes open wide. I got out of the water and quickly threw on my shirt before grabbing my swords. Thank goodness my shirt was a little long, it fell just below my butt cheeks and covered my nakedness. I felt evil surround me as I stood in the stance that I was taught to fight with. The larger sword in my right hand and the shorter sword in my left hand. The short sword was held in a way that it went the length of my forearm. It gave added support to blocking any attacks that may come my way.

"I have been waiting for you for a long time." There was a long pause as the voice echoed all around me, making it difficult to pinpoint where it was coming from. The voice sounded deep, wheezy, and purely excited. My instincts were screaming at me to run away as fast as I could but I knew I wouldn't get far. My senses were also warning me that I would soon be facing a creature of pure darkness. The pause finally ended after the creature seemed to take a long breath and exhaled the last words. "Daughter of Haruki!"

Honestly, that one threw me through a loop. I stood there with what I was sure was the stupidest expression on my face. I was completely dumbfounded. I shook my head and focused on where I thought the creature was coming from, but I was wrong. It came at me from the other side of the hot spring and it was moving at an incredible rate. I'm not sure why I did it, but I jumped to dodge the creature and, to my surprise, jumped higher then the trees.

Acting on pure instincts, I let my body and senses take over as I began to fall back down to Earth. As my adrenaline kicked in, the world seemed to slow as I looked this creature over, wondering what the hell it was.

It looked like a giant worm, its body in sections and looking slightly slimy, it had eight arms, similar to an enormous spider. I landed not far from the creature and suddenly my instincts were telling me to move, again. I ran to the right, dodging another attack, this one from what appeared to be a scorpion claw. I then heard a roar and suddenly a million flying insects came flying at me in what appeared to be every direction.

While I was distracted, a tentacle began to wrap around my body. I looked down, seeing eyes on every section of this tentacle and screamed. I looked up and realized it was the tongue to the worm looking thing. I slashed down with my sword, severing the tongue from the worm, but the tongue tightened on the mid section of my body, taking my breath away, I slashed at it with my smaller sword and managed to cut it off but nicked myself in the process. My flimsy shirt was now tore from the cut.

The annoying flying insects were picking at my shirt, boring tiny holes in the fabric. They swarmed my legs, scratching and biting my flesh. The creature with the claw finally stepped out of the woods. It stood up right on four legs, had two claws for hands, and had itty bitty eyes. I could barely see it in the dark because it blended in with the night.

As I was batting away at the insects, trying to eat me alive, the worm looking thing and the claw creature made their way to me. With my back against the hot spring, I didn't have much of anywhere to go. the worm creature came from behind me, leading me to believe that there were more creatures in those woods. I wasn't about to fall for that trap. I kept swatting at the flying insects. I felt more tentacles wrap around my body and legs then two wrapped around each arm, then finally one around my neck.

I flew backwards with the tentacles holding me. I held onto my swords firmly as my world started to spin. I couldn't scream because of the pressure on my neck and it was hard to breathe anyways. I went from being pulled backwards to being pulled up and suddenly I was flying way above the tree tops. That time I did scream, although quietly. The tentacle that was wrapped around my throat tightened, cutting my quiet scream short and, unfortunately, my air supply along with it.

The last thing I remember before totally blacking out was the loud angry roar from the dark creature that had sent those monsters to attack me.

I didn't dream, but I did fade in and out of consciousness, catching bits and piece of my surroundings, but nothing that really added up to much. I didn't gather much information from the snippets of conversation I heard either.

When I finally did wake up, I was hanging upside down in the most uncomfortable way. My feet were chained above me on a thick wooden beam. The beam was short enough that I didn't dangle, but half laid on the floor. My back was arched, my shoulder blades and my head rested on a cold black stone floor. My hands were tied behind my back and connected by a chain to my ankles. The room was about the size of my living room and completely pitch black except for a few slotted windows that showed a night sky completely in cloud cover

My neck was already hurting from being in this position and the blood accumulation in my head didn't help matters. I began to get the most massive headache and every little noise and flicker began to make my head pound. I suddenly remembered what I had been wearing just my shirt and glanced at my body. To my horror, I was completely naked except for a bandage that was wrapped around my abdomen, covering the cut my blade had made when I cut that creatures tongue off of me.

The door behind me creaked open, and light flooded the room. I closed my eyes against the sudden brightness and the pain. I heard foot steps coming towards me. I slowly opened my eyes, revealing a man standing in front of me.

He had long wavy black hair, pale skin, and red eyes with blue eye makeup. His kimono was purple and light blue. He seemed completely normal, well, except for his eyes. I could sense something truly evil about this man, something I seriously didn't like. I blushed heavily and looked away when I saw him look my naked body up and down. I literally felt his gaze, like it was caress.

His voice was deep as he spoke, "Tell me, why did that demon call you the daughter of the great Haruki?" He smirked as he ran his finger down my leg, sending chills up my spine. "And why do you smell human but have all the marking, strengths, and looks of a demon?"

I was completely confused. "Markings and looks of a demon?"

He held a mirror in front of my face and the stranger looking back at me was so familiar.

My hair was a very light blonde, wavy, white blue underneath. My cheeks had a single blue stripe on each one, slightly pointed ears, and a broken up cross looking thing on my forehead.

The man took the mirror away from me, walked to the open door behind me, and tossed it out. I heard the glass shatter. He then shut the door so it was completely dark again. I sighed out of sheer relief.

"So tell me, are you the daughter of the great Haruki?" The man chuckled.

Fear and dread suddenly filled my body. I was alone in this dark room with this strange man. I was chained up and completely naked. What in Gods green Earth was going to happen to me?