Kaya's Story (An InuYasha Fanfic)

Chapter 13: The Shrine of the Sacred Jewel

A few days after gaining Father's sword, Tenkari, I headed towards the village of the Priestess. I had heard from several humans that she was quite powerful. If that were true, I was surprised I hadn't run into her yet. Although, I did spend a lot of my time hiding. Not to mention, I stayed away from human villages until recently. My only problem is, I can't seem to get anyone to tell me the name of this Priestess, only that she resides in a small village near a Tree of Ages. Besides that, there are rumors that the Priestess protects the Sacred Jewel. This means the closer I get to her; the more demons will appear. So, I have to be even more careful than before. Plus, I have to try and convince this Priestess to take me on as her student which is a separate challenge all on its own. All I know for sure, is that I'm getting close to my goal.

A few weeks have passed, and I finally reached the forest supposedly home to the Sacred Tree. I will admit the place did have a weirdness about it that I couldn't quite explain. I decided to disguise myself using the power of my necklace, so I could get close to humans. Blending in, was my only option. So, I began walking through the forest until I found a very old tree that was much larger than the others. This is it, the Tree of Ages; that means the stories were true. I took off running as fast as I could towards the direction of the village. By the time I got there to the shrine gate in the village, it was pitch dark and no one seemed to be outside. This was a perfect time for me to see if the rumors were really true about this Priestess. While I was running up the stairs to the shrine, I felt something pure emanating from two different places; the shrine was for sure one place. I got to the top and kept running until I reached the door. Opening the door, I peeked inside and there it was among the purification smoke: The Shikon Jewel.

I stepped further into the shrine and closed the door. It seemed strange to me that the Jewel was virtually unguarded, especially since the Priestess who protected supposedly had such great power. Within in moments, I was eating those words as an arrow zoomed past my right shoulder. I jumped and spun around narrowly missing getting shot by an arrow once again. Meeting my gaze was a Priestess with her bow drawn. This must be her. "Who are you?" the Priestess demanded. In response, I used a smoke ball that was given to me by a young demon slayer and ran through the smoke and out the opened door.