~Their Salvation~

~Chapter 5~

Birds chirped, the wind blew gently, it was peaceful. Hana slowly opened her eyes, she was in the bottom of a dried up well looking up and the sky. It was painted red, pinks, and orange telling her it must have been dawn. Hana let out a strained groan before slowly sitting up.

"What the?" She whispered to herself before looking up again.

"Papa? Grandma? Yoshifumi?" She called, but no one answered. She sighed softly before standing up looking around. When she saw some vines she walked over reaching up grabbing them.

"Man, I have to climb up." She muttered before pulling herself up. It took her a bit to get up, mainly because the vines were pretty weak and snapped here and there, but when she finally made it to the top she shoved herself over the edge falling onto the grass below. She caught her breath before looking around again.

"Where... am I?" She whispered softly. She flinched when she saw a tiny soft pink flame dancing in front of her.

'Come.' Hana tensed hearing that damned voice again.

'Come Hana.' It was a bit clearer this time, but Hana still couldn't figure out who it was. Growing curious she walked closer to the flame. When she was about five feet away from the flame it moved away, over and over as if it were guiding her.

"Where are you taking me?" Hana asked the flame before it moved away from her, there was no voice this time. Hana sighed and kept following it, then after a while, it just disappeared.

"What the?" She looked up making her eyes widen. She hesitated but walked closer to what she was looking at. When she got in front of it she stopped, it was a tall muscular man with long white hair and dog ears.

"I-Inu... Yasha?" Hana whispered. He was bound to a tree by what looked to be roots with light pink glowing veins that all connected to a large pink gem that looked to be pulsating. He wore his usual outfit, however, now he had a black chest plate on that had additives covering his nether region, sides, and Hana could only guess his backside as well. He also had silver shoulder and top arm armor on that was connected together in the middle with another chest piece that matched in color, the spikes on them looked sharp enough to pierce the toughest obstacle. Under the silver armor pieces was a thick cream colored fur cape thing that looked rather warm to wear. He looked a lot older, sharper eyes, chizzled chin, and his baby fat had melted away taking away that baby face he had in the drawings.

"Whoa." Hana whispered before looking around. It was fall, soon to be winter, so the area around then was very colorful making this look like some sort of enchanted forest. She looked back at the dog demon, his expression was rather peaceful like he was in a wonderful dream. Hana looked at the roots, some looked to be forming stairs to get closer to him, so she went step by step being careful to not fall until she was right in front of the dog demon. His bangs and side pieces of hair swayed gently in the chilled air. Hana hesitated but reached out to one of the side hair pieces taking it in her hand and ran her fingers through it.

"So soft." She said surprised. She looked up at his ears, they were drooped down in a relaxed position.

'Should I?' She thought, letting his hair go.

'They look soft.' She slowly reached up, then took his ears gently between his finger and thumb. She petted his ears as gently as she could.

"So soft!~" Hana said with sparkling eyes. She loved animals, she felt more comfortable around them. Her family used to have a pet dog named Mikki, but she passed due to old age a few years ago, so petting his ears brought a wave of nostalgia to Hana. She finally stopped before looking down at his sword, it looked old and beaten all the hell.

'Free him.' The woman's voice said in Hana's head once again. She hesitated but looked at his face again.

"How?" Hana whispered but got no response. She sighed looking around him at the odd roots, then the gem.

"Hmm." She hummed. She reached her hand out gently placing it on the gem.

"Weird, it's warm and... vibrating?" She muttered before there was a bright flash and a strong gust of wind blowing her back to land hard on the grass.

"Shit!" Hana hissed turning over, her back hurting from the impact as she tried to gain a full breath again. She slowly sat up rubbing her eyes that stung from the flash before they fluttered open slowly. She looked over at the tree with blurry vision seeing a pink glow. She blinked a few times squinting her eyes trying to see clearer, she then noticed Inuyasha was floating. He slowly landed on his feet, eyes still closed as the glow slowly went away and the odd roots crumbled into dust along with the gem. Hana slowly stood up, though her legs were shaky as she suddenly felt weak. The dog demon's eyes slowly fluttered open as his ears flicked and his hands raised. He looked at his hands, flexing them a few times before looking at the rest of himself, then the tree. Hana flinched when she heard a low beastly growl come from the dog demon.

'Shit shit shit shit shit! Why did I let him go when Kagome said he was dangerous?!' She blinked more, her vision was nowhere near clear enough to really tell what's going on, not only that but they hurt as well. She took a step back, but even though no twig snapped or leaf cracked the large dog demon's gaze snapped to her. His eyes were blue, eye whites blood red, and even with her blurry vision Hana was petrified. Yet another beastly growl came from the man making Hana jump and take a few more steps back, she knew better than to run from an animal, so she applied that rule here.

'What do I do?!' She thought knowing he could sense her fear. Hana jumped out of her skin falling back to the ground when he suddenly appeared in front of her. She tried to look up at him, but the moment the sun's glare caught her eye she hissed in pain covering her eyes.

'What the hell happened?! I better not go blind!' She was suddenly yanked up by her shirt making her grab the hand that held onto her and open her eyes again. His face may have been blurry but it was very clear that he wasn't any human, those eyes, they were terrifying. He let her shirt go before snatching her face, his claws poking her cheek as he squished them holding her face still. He seemed to scan her face, then looked at her eyes for a while. After a long awkward silence, he growled again letting her go making her stumble back and once again fall. He walked past her as she tried to steady her breathing and racing heart. She glanced over her shoulder seeing his blurry figure walk away from her.

'I just... released a monster.' Hana thought before tears clouded her vision even more than it already was.

'Papa... Grandma... Yoshifumi...' She fell to her side curling up as she felt herself slip in and out of being awake.

'Please let this just be a dream.' She closed her eyes chocking back a sob.

'If not... I just...'