Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter, loves. I'm not sure how popular this story is, at the moment, and I think I'm going to put it on hold for a while, after this, to concentrate on a few of my other projects. If you're horribly opposed to that idea, please let me know by reviewing or adding this story to your favorites or alerts lists. And I promise the next one will be longer, but I felt the need to keep this one short for obvious reasons -- reasons I'm afraid you're going to have to wait to find out about.

The Edge of Reason

Traces

Her trail ended here, at a small hotspring that still smelled like her. He had noticed it by the rising steam and, as his eyes followed the billowing puffs upwards towards the sky, he knew exactly where she had gone. Kirara had carried her; Sango and her companion.

'Kirara,' he thought, smiling at the memory of Sango when her father had brought the lovable feline to his daughter. He could remember her squeaks of joy and the kind purring she was able to elicit from her companion. He could remember the way that she used to fall asleep with Kirara snuggled in the long strands of her brown hair. And he yawned despite himself.

He'd been planning to make camp for the night. Maybe not here, at this exact spot, but somewhere. And he knew that he was going to be needing it sometime sooner than later. But if Sango had Kirara, he really couldn't risk stopping now. The two already made so much better time than he did; he didn't have a flying companion of his own. In fact, he was very alone in his travels and perhaps that was the reason why he'd been searching for her so desperately these past years. Or maybe he missed seeing a smile on her face and missed hearing the way her voice would catch when she'd say his name.

Frowning, he realized that stopping for the night would make it nearly impossible to catch them. However she traveled, however her companions traveled; they were fast and they made good use of their time. So he continued on in the direction that he was so sure she was heading. He would find her.

He had to find her.