Prolong

A woman walked through the forest barefoot, the bottom of her kimono brushing against the wet grass. The moonlight was making her pale face glow. Her blue-grey eyes were cold and hard, staring straight ahead. Her lips were pale pink, small and full. She had no expression but you could tell she was sad about something. Her creamy white hands held a bow while a quiver full of arrows were slung on her shoulder. The pitch black of her hair was matched smoothly with the white of her top and the blood red of her skirts. Her thigh length tresses were trapped in a ribbon with two strands loose and simmered in the moonlight. Behind her flew many snake-like demons clutching each shimmering orbs that floated near them.

The woman kept walking until she came across a man lying against a tree. She stood there staring at the man. He wasn't really a man, he had the appearance of one, but he wasn't a man. His silvery white hair was very long, well past his waist. His usually golden eyes were blood red and half closed. He had some peculiar markings on him that puzzled her. His bangs were cut right above his eyebrows and parted in the middle so that you could see the light blue crescent moon resting in the middle of his forehead. Right on his jaw leading halfway across his cheek was two twin magenta stripes just like to the one on his wrist, his left hand ended in a stump right below his shoulder, she knew not why, and his breastplate was quite broken. He had a fluffy large something draped around his shoulder and resting underneath him. He seemed paralyzed, because his eyes glared at her, but his head didn't move an inch. The silk kimono he wore was drenched in blood and she could see he was going to die if he didn't get any help.

She started debating with herself whether or not she was going to help this man. He was obviously a demon and may try to kill her once he got better, making it a complete waste of time healing him, not to mention it may be one of Naraku's tricks. But on the other hand, if she left without at lest trying to help him, she could never forgive herself. Even if he turned out to be a mass murderer, she would never let it go. It would eat away at her until her soul finally went back down to hell.

She sighed and walked toward him, 'if he tries to kill me, ill kill him'. She heard a growling and stop and looked around, thinking another demon was around. When she didn't sense anything and the realized it was him that was growling at her. 'Very much like Inuyasha' she thought as she put her bow and quiver on the ground. When the growling got louder as she got closer, she looked him in the eye and gave him her most disapproving look, put both hands on her hips, and said in a very loud voice "Hush, I'm trying to help you and I'm not very thrilled about doing it when you make those noises". The man looked shocked that she was treating like a child that had just misbehaved. He stopped growling though.

She knelt down to his eye level and looked him straight in the eye. "I am not planning on hurting you, I merely wish to help you get back to your full strength. My name is Kikyo." She said in a low voice, she sounded like she was in a lot of pain, or just very sad. It was very soothing just listening to her. "Now I am going to take off the top of your kimono, just to look at your wounds."

She gently slipped the silk off of his shoulders and fumbled with the straps of the remainder of his armor. When she found the leather straps keeping it in place, she delicately undid the ties and removed his armor leaving nothing but his pants on and his kimono half off. She realized that he was much more wounded then she first thought. There were large gashes and cuts on his legs and a huge deep gash starting from the right side of his stomach his left shoulder. She frowned. She didn't have enough cloth to bandage him and keep him warm during the night. She sat on her heels and looked around. She had to use something to keep him warm and something to stop the bleeding. She sighed.

" I am going to have to use my skirt and top to keep you warm. I hope you don't mind. And I also need your top, and seeing as you cant move, I will have to do this whether you like it or not. My apologies." She said as she pulled the top out of his pants. She wished he would look elsewhere, he was making her nervous. When the top was completely out, she started ripping it into strips. She carefully avoided the bloodstained spots and realized that this would not be enough cloth. She would have to leave tomorrow for more cloth and medicine, for now she would use this and his beautiful sash. When she finished wrapping him up, she stood and undid her tie. The red skirt and white top dropped in a pool at her feet, leaving her in a calf length kimono where the sleeves were cut off at the shoulders. She wrapped the long red material around his waist and draped her top on his body. She tucked the cloth around his body to keep in the warmth. While she was tucking him in she started talking. She couldn't hear a lot of it but he could make out a little.

"You will not get any warmth from me, I am dead so it would be useless to try to share warmth. I will just walk to the next village and get some bandages and medicine. My shimidaa-chuu will watch over you and I am placing a barrier around this tree. I will be gone until dawn so just get some sleep." She straightened up and brushed off her kimono. She knelt down to fetch her bow and arrow and walked onto the path. When she was a little ways away she turned and mumbled something. She put her hand up with her palm facing toward him and a bright blue dome appeared around the clearing. She turned and walked into the forest, leaving the man

Chapter 1

Sesshoumaru awoke to a stinging feeling on his arm. He opened his eyes to see the sun escaping through a couple of branches. 'This must be the place I dragged myself to last night' he thought. He couldn't see very well last night because the poison from the demon blinded him. He could remember little bits of what happened last night. His fight with the cat demon clan, how he barely escaped, and the sad, melodic voice talking to him.

The clearing was big and everything was green and brown, except the creature that was leaning over him. The first thing that hit his senses was her smell. She smelled like those purple flowers Rin loves and earth, but also of death. Her skin nearly matched the pure white kimono she wore and contrasted perfectly with her raven black locks. She wore her hair in a traditional priestess style ponytail tied with a white ribbon, but she was not wearing priestess clothes. Her hair was thigh length and cut straight across her forehead. Her big blue-grey eyes warm and focused on smearing the foul smelling lotion on a large gash. She looked extraordinarily like his brother's woman, except that one seemed stupidly rash and this woman seemed to contemplate things. Her hands were smooth and she was being very gentle. He tried to take his hand away but discovered he couldn't move, instead he gave a little twitch. She looked at his now gold eyes and raised one slender eyebrow.

" Are you thirsty?" she asked. He glared at her and gave his head a tiny shake.

"Can you not talk or are you just being rude?" she asked, looking back down at his arm while still rubbing the salve,

"Do you know who I am" he tried to say in a dignified tone, but instead it came out hoarse and scratchy and he was pretty sure he tasted blood.

"You are very badly hurt. And quite frankly, I don't care who you are" she said. He looked like her in indignation. How dare this woman talk to him like this? He opened his mouth to say something, but she gave him her fiercest glare and pressed down hard on his wound, so instead of what he intended to say, he let out a large gasp of pain.

" Stop talking. You are hurting yourself, let me do this," she said angrily. She stopped rubbing the salve on his arm and reached over for a basin filled with water. She then ripped a small piece off of the bottom of his pants. He watched as she dipped the cloth in the cool water and started cleaning his smaller cuts. When that was done she picked up some plants that were placed beside her and placed them in the basin. She started to grind the plants up with a stone until it made a sloppy green paste. She placed the stone beside her and held the bowl on her lap and looked at him.

"You need to drink this, it will help your throat" she said and held the bowl to his lips. He reluctantly opened his mouth and she tilted the substance in. it tasted fresh and minty, but the texture was sloppy and chunky. It stung going down but he felt refreshed and his throat stopped aching.

She placed the bowl beside him and stood up. She walked around to his other side where the arm ended in a stump and sat down beside him.

She took tokijen from his hip and placed it behind her. He was surprised that she was not harmed by its demonic aura. She then untied tensiagas strap and lifted it up. Her eyes went wide then she dropped the sword where it landed partly on his stomach. She jumped to her feet and grabbed at the place her heart was. She backed against a tree and started panting, while staring horrified at the sword. A single tear slid down her cheek.

He looked at her with a hint amusement. She closed her eyes tight for a minute and it looked like she was going to cry.

"What happened priestess, you are able to handle a demon sword and not a healing sword. Makes me wonder if you should be the one healing me," he said in a calm voice. She appeared to not hear him because she was still clutching her heart. He raised an eyebrow. Was she really in pain, the tensaiga heals people, it shouldn't hurt them.

When her breathing calmed, her eyes fluttered open and her grip loosened on her kimono. She walked back to him on shaky legs and pushed the sword away with her feet. Her socks were the only thing in between her skin and tensiagas. When the sword was well away from her, she sat back beside him.

He noticed a bowl already placed there with some red fluid in it. She picked up the bowl and rubbed the stuff on her hands. She looked at him and said, "this will burn quite a bit, I hope you can withstand a lot of pain" and started rubbing the lotion on his stump. He didn't know what she was talking about. He didn't feel any pain, in fact, the lotion felt rather pleasant. She stopped rubbing when all the lotion was on his stump. He looked at his stump in mild confusion and looked at her. She spoke a word foreign tongue and he felt a blinding pain.

He looked at his shoulder and felt the bone in his arm growing, tearing through his skin. He let out a blood-curling howl as the muscles and skin grew alongside it. His eyes turned blood red as he lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was the priestess. She stared horrified with her mouth covered by her hand and on the verge of tears.

Kikyo got out of the lake and placed the fish that she caught in a large bowl. She caught about five, which was good considering she hardly ever fished. She didn't have to; her clay body didn't need it, the only thing she fed off of was souls. The only times that she did fish, was when she was tending soldiers or hurt travelers.

Her kimono was soaked though; she would have to put on the other one that the villagers gave her. She picked up her quiver and slung it over her shoulder and carried her bow and the bowl in her other hands. She walked up the path that lead her to the clearing where she left the man. She left her shimidaa-chuu to watch over him and to come get her if he should be in any trouble. She picked some herbs that she knew had some healing properties. By the time she reached the clearing she had a bouquet of wild flowers and plants. She smiled; the flowers were so beautiful. It reminded her of when she was alive, and used to teach the children about different herbs and Inuyasha watched her from the treetops. She wished she could feel the silky petals and the soft leaves in her hands.

She sighed, and looked over at her patient. He was sleeping peacefully now that his arm had fully re-grown. It was heart wrenching seeing that beautiful face twisted in pain. She wished it didn't have to be that painful when she did that. She had to pour almost all of her healing power to be able to heal his arm. If she poured all of it in he would have died from the pain. She placed the plants beside him and checked that his arm healed okay.

She glanced over at the beat-up old sword and shivered. When she held it, she felt it pulse, and then her heartbeat. She felt blood pumping through her veins, the cool silk cloth of her kimono slide against her warm skin, the cold tear running down her cheek, soft, cool grass in between her toes and the warm wind in her hair. It was a wonderful feeling, she hadn't felt ant of those in 50 years, but it was also a bit frightening. She didn't want to stay in this world for a lot longer. It was filled with too many bad memories.

When she could tell that his arm healed correctly she waved a hand in front of his eyes to see if he was fast asleep. When there was no reaction she carefully peeled off her wet kimono that she usually wore under her miko attire. She left her breast band and loincloth on so she wouldn't be completely naked. She carefully put on the flower printed thigh-length kimono on. She wasn't used to being so bare, she had nothing covering her arms because the villagers couldn't spare anything more than this. She didn't mind too much, it was a poor village. They could barely afford to give her bandages. She hated to impose on them