Creative Writing

Chapter Three: #4 Monody

Assignment #4

Write a monody poem, a poem where one person laments someone's death. It can be a real person, a fictional person, someone you knew or didn't know. You can be serious or whimsical. It is up to you.

"Kagome has been depressed all day," whispered Sango.

Miroku nodded. "I agree. Perhaps she and Inuyasha have had another disagreement."

"Suppose he hurt her feelings again?"

"If so, I am surprised she has not yet returned to her time."

"Maybe it has something to do with Kikyo," whispered Shippo as he joined in the conversation. "She only gets this depressed when he goes to see Kikyo."

Inuyasha's eye began to twitch. Did they really think that he couldn't hear them? Or were they doing it on purpose just to irritate him? Instead of yelling at them he concentrated on the girl walking quietly behind him. She really was being unusually quiet.

Shippo hit too close to home when he said that she was acting the way she would when he had been to check up on Kikyo. He frowned. Had the other priestess had contact with Kagome that he didn't know about? Had she dared to threaten her again?

Surely she wasn't doubting his heart again. She must know how he felt. After all, if he had been in love with Kikyo he would have been traveling with her. Yeah, if Kikyo happened to be around he would go see if she had any news about Naraku and see how she was doing. He felt a responsibility towards her. He cared for her. Though he didn't trust her, especially not with Kagome. For as long as Kikyo walks the earth, he had to keep an eye out for her when she was near.

However, it was Kagome that he was unable to be parted with for more than three days in a row without going stark raving mad. Didn't that tell her SOMETHING? Inuyasha snorted, but Kagome was never very logical when it came to Kikyo.

But the dead priestess hadn't been seen in weeks. And no one had spoken her name or anything since that day they ran across her. It didn't make sense that Kagome would be sulking over it now. Surely the girl wouldn't be making herself miserable on purpose by thinking of stuff from the past.

Inwardly Inuyasha cringed. Yeah, she would.

There really was only one way to find out for sure. And that was to ask. But no one wanted to ask for fear of opening up an emotional maelstrom.

Two seconds later, Inuyasha exploded. "WHAT is WRONG with you, wench?"

Instead of blowing up at him like he expected, Kagome shrugged one shoulder and looked off to the side as she plodded along, keeping her face hidden and holding on to the straps of her backpack. "Nothing is wrong, Inuyasha." She would have kept walking if he hadn't jumped in front of her to block her path.

"Don't lie to me!" It infuriated him when she did this to him! He wasn't a mind reader! How was he supposed to fix the problem if he doesn't know what the problem is?

"Tell me!" he insisted.

He almost wished that he hadn't insisted when she raised her eyes. They were filled with pain. He watched as she looked at him. Then she looked at Shippo. Then Sango. Then Miroku. Finally she looked back at him. Worse than the pain, he saw shame in her eyes before she ducked her head back down.

"It's no big deal, okay."

He wanted to shake her until she confessed, but she looked so miserable that he couldn't bring himself to do anything other than grunt and allow her to keep moving.

They didn't run across any monsters or any rumors about jewel shards or Naraku. All in all, the day was pretty much a bust. But they kept moving until dark just in case there might be some word. Strangely enough, Kagome didn't complain once about the long trek. That had Inuyasha worried.