InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale ❯ Towers and Tree Houses ( Chapter 10 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Chapter 8
Tall Towers and Tree Houses

Disclaimer: So, like, does Rumiko Takahashi happen to have a son roughly my age? ... probably not, which is why I will never own Inuyasha.

A.N.: I can't seem to reach Alvida, who beta reads my story, so this chapter is not seconded, which means: leave me alone about mistakes – or wait, don't, so I can correct them.
Anyway, as Inuyasha really wasn't hurt during the last chapter this one's the one to make up for it. And, dammit, did I get carried away!
And I'm being rather explicit about some things like throwing up and stuff, if that offends any of you, back off!

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No matter how he looked at it, there was no reasonable way to explain how the other man's presence had managed to escape his attention. It just wasn't like him to let his guard down like that. And it was most certainly pure coincidence that seconds before he'd taken a large sniff of the rooms scent... for some reason of absolutely no relevance except for a vague idea of calming himself down a little. Coincidence, yeah.

A suddenly lit candle and revealed the face of a mustached man sitting on a chair near the mirror. He was smiling but the flickering candlelight subtly changed his smile into a gruesome grimace. That, or he really was watching Inuyasha that murderously, he couldn't be too sure.

The man leaned back in his chair comfortably, placed his entwined hands on the slight bulge of his belly and set to speak in a cheerful and pleasant voice - that still had the hair on the back of Inuyasha's neck rise almost painfully.

"Let me tell you of my day young fellow," the man never took his eyes of Inuyasha, all but ignoring Kagome standing right beside him. "It looked promising all morning, you know, I lead a little fox hunt after breakfast and was back in time to enjoy lunch with my wife and my two beautiful daughters, then I had a long meeting with my housekeeper and my counselor, discussing some financial matters as well as the impending marriage between my house and that of my... dear neighbor. I was interrupted only shortly by the older of my daughters, but what she told me was quite alarming. She said that she feared her little sister was feeling forced into that marriage, was depressed about it. I cursed myself for my blatant ignorance of her feelings concerning that union and promised myself to visit her in her chamber after supper to have her shed some light onto the matter. But finding her fast a sleep I decided to return a little later, since she obviously had slept through supper and knowing my little one she'd wake up hungrily some hours later."

It wasn't until he said that that Inuyasha saw the plate standing on the drawer besides the man – who most probably was the Count of this castle and Kagome's counterpart's father. "Now imagine my surprise upon entering my daughter's chamber at half past eleven and finding it empty – except for the dress she'd worn today lying in a heap on the floor besides her bed. Imagine my surprise and my growing alarm upon finding out that she was nowhere to be found, not in the kitchens, not with her sister or her mother but that on a little prying on my side her sister admitted that our little one had been seen in dubious company today. Very dubious, for an innocent girl like her I dare say, dangerous company."

The count stood and walked over to them, positioning himself in front of Inuyasha who had to admit that he was a little intimidated – the count seemed to tower over him even though he was actually smaller. It must have been the overprotective father aura that did it to him.

"Now imagine my wrath, imagine my wrath upon then, after half a night of wait, having my little dearest stumble into her room accompanied by exactly the very dubious company I feared was bent on defiling her."

Should people that had just declared themselves insanely angry be smiling? Inuyasha wasn't sure, but he braced himself, just in case.

"And on top of that I find her dressed in nothing but a skimpy undergown and with a more than flushed complexion." He took another step closer, bringing his face closer enough to Inuyasha's than it deemed him acceptable but he stayed glued to the spot, even as the fake smile on the Count's face suddenly dropped and turned into a mask of pure ire.

"One reason, give me one reason why I should not have you whipped and beheaded for this outrage and I might decide that having your filthy tongue torn out will suffice." he snarled, all the while grabbing the collar of Inuyasha's shirt and shaking him.

Inuyasha found it hard to speak, but not for the reasons the count probably thought he did. It wouldn't take him more than a split second to effectively get rid of the count, grab Kagome and leave the whole goddamn castle to rot for all he cared, and he figured that there had been a time (Three days ago, to be precise) when he would have done so without hesitation.
But his conscience, or rather Kagome since she seemed to be so eagerly replacing his lacking one, was not only gnawing at the back of his mind and reminding him to consider the fate that their counterparts were to expect as soon as they would cluelessly gain control over themselves again, but also that a kidnapping of that kind might for some strange and very aristocratic reason be linked back to the other count, thus sparking off the expected feud. Not that he gave a damn, but Kagome would go apeshit on him about it and wouldn't rest until 'the wrong was righted', or even worse she'd, he shuddered involuntarily, start crying again.

The throttling increased as he refused to answer, and he was more or less about to just take a run for it without Kagome, when said girl, who had been watchi – no listening to the Count's speech in perplexed silence, suddenly screamed and hurled herself towards them, gripping her 'father's' arms, pulling at them.

"No, please father, he hasn't done anything wrong - " well, she was probably more used to dealing with fathers and the likes, perhaps she knew what to say to get them out of this situation. " at least nothing I didn't ask him to - " Or not. The grip on his shirt loosened at that, but Inuyasha cringed nonetheless. That couldn't possibly have come out any more wrong...

The count's reaction didn't come as much of a surprise.

“You what?!?”, he interrupted her, “What did you ask him to – Palea! You – you – you are twelve for Olaon's sake, that is no age to be... and with that lowly scum of all – what on- “

But Kagome didn't appear to be intimidated one bit by his yelling, the opposite quite, she seethed visibly.
“So I'm of no age to be doing thatbut without doubt of the perfect age to be married, even though, correct me if I'm mistaken, thatis one of the first matrimonial duties? Mind to elaborate, father?!!” Wow, she really was getting better at the whole acting thing, although Inuyasha guessed that the outburst wasn't much of an act anyway, since waves of feminist indignation rolled off her as she glared into the vague direction of the count with her milky eyes. Oh and he was all to familiar with feminist indignation, having spend the late seventies and early eighties in Berlin and all.

The count sputtered with surprise, almost stumbled backwards at her reaction. “Palea! That is no way to be speaking with you father!”

“Well, marrying me off to some creep is no way to be treating your daughter!”

“What language Palea! What has gotten into you all of a sudden? I – you aren't yourself anymore!”

Now if only he knew how close to the truth he'd gotten with that comment. Inuyasha watched the exchange of yells with morbid fascination, dimly aware that he ought to have taken advantage of the count's obvious diversion and take his leave. But now it was too late, he realized as the count turned towards him again with renewed anger.
“You!!! You have defiled my little doe girl!”

“He's got nothing to do with this!!!” Kagome roared almost, “This concerns me and you, not him!”

“Palea, he confused you, took advantage of your naivety and filled your little head with all the wrong ideas, and that is what makes you defend him now, I see that, but that doesn't make what he did any less punishable!”

Definitely not liking the course the conversation took Inuyasha started edging towards the door. It was obvious that the count wouldn't harm his own daughter, so he could risk leaving Kagome alone for a while. But the count's head snapped around as soon as he moved.

“GUARDS!!!” he hollered, and Inuyasha only managed a desperate dash for the door until the room was swamped by men in shiny armor. He took down at least half of them, but in the end their advantages overweighted his, and they beat him unconscious in front of the screaming Kagome, who was being restrained with quite some effort by her father.

In a strange attempt to console her he yelled “I'm alright, Kagome-” just when a particularly nasty blow hit his head and the black blanket of unconsciousness finally was draped over him. He would have laughed at the irony if not for the firework of pain that exploded all over his body that very moment, effectively keeping him from thinking anything besides 'Ouch!'. He only heard the count order “Take him to the cell!” and Kagome sob “Inuyasha!” before he passed out.

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'The cell' the count had him thrown in was really little more than that, a plain room that offered exactly enough space for him to lie on the ground with the skull shaking headache he'd woken up with. Trying to move as little as possible he glanced around in the dim light that shone through the small trellised window up in the wall opposite the door. He appeared to be lying on a heap of suspiciously moist straw that covered more than half of the room. In the far end he could make out some kind of bucket, and it didn't take a genius to guess its purpose by the smells that stretched their repelling, almost tangible tentacles towards him.

Finally fed up with the straw poking into his ear he sat up – which was not that much of a good idea since his stomach, traitorously siding with his concussed head, decided to remind him that it received quite some nasty punches not so long ago and spontaneously spilled its contents into the bucket that Inuyasha only just managed to reach for. When he was sure that there wasn't even an ounce of stomach acid left inside him he sat back, wishing that during the years he'd already spend throwing up at least once a week he'd gotten used to the taste and smell of it but that was probably as much of a unhealthy as of a disgusting thing to wish for. He wasn't bulimic after all.

He spend a while just staring ahead and recollecting his strewn about thoughts until a scraping sounded from the door and a ray of light cut through the half darkness.

“You awake in there?”

Inuyasha glared at the guard that peered through the window in the door and didn't grace him with an answer since that much should have been obvious.

“Hungry?”

Hell yeah! He he'd thrown up what he felt had been a weeks worth of food, of course he was hungry. But pride forbade to even acknowledge the man. Stupid pride.

“Well, anyway...”

Something hard hit his head making it explode again for what it felt like and this time pride just sat and whistled in feigned innocence while he failed to suppress a very undignified hiss of pain. The object the guard had thrown at him turned out to be a piece of bread that was so hard he had to soak the edible bits, that weren't very numerous to begin with, in his saliva to be able to nibble on them. But he wouldn't complain, mainly because he was really awfully hungry and also because there was no one in reach to complain to. He figured that getting up was out of question as long as his head hurt the way it did, he wasn't all that versed in human healing but with the blows he'd received it was best to be careful, he knew that much. So he sat and watched the light grow stronger as morning dawned.

The pain in his limbs numbed to a bearable, or ignorable more like, level rather quickly - two centuries of training had to pay off in some way some day - and when the first rays of the sun found their way through the small window, Inuyasha estimated that it had to be late morning by then, he was able to move his head and not feel like he was being hit by a jackhammer. When he considered his constitution improved enough he pulled himself up, the primitive masonry came in quite handy, and, after a moment he granted his circulation to start working properly again, searched the room for a way out.

But the window was not only probably too small for him to fit through, there was also no way he'd be able to move the sturdy looking bars out of the way in less then a weeks work with noting but the handle of a bucket as a tool. Inuyasha sighed and wished for what he felt was the thousandth time that he still had his own body. With hanyou strength ripping the bars out would have been a matter of seconds, in fact, he could just as well have walked straight through the wall. But it couldn't be helped and so he turned towards the door instead.

The flap that covered the opening in the door could be shoved aside from the inside, too, but while he might have, with enormous effort, somehow been able to squeeze through the window in the wall if it weren't for the bars there was no way he'd manage to stick more than his head through the window in the door. Alarmed by the screeching of the flap the second factor that would make an escape from his prison even harder stood from his chair left to the door and stepped in front of him.

“What is it?” he asked suspiciously.

Well, now that he was alerted anyway, he might just as well pry a little information out of the guard, Inuyasha reasoned.

“So what are you guys gonna do to me?” he asked nonchalantly.

The guard quirked an eyebrow at his tone – or at the question.
“I guess that depends on the results of the inquiry that's going on down there right now - “ he indicated the castle beneath them with a downward movement of his head.

“Inquiry?”

“Or should I say, examination? You know... his Lordship has the maid check how much.. harm you've done his daughter.”

Inuyasha couldn't quite fight the blush that rose to his face at the guards implications, which was ridiculous 'cause he'd done nothing worth blushing, and sure as hell nothing that actually justified all the fuzz the count seemed to be causing.

The guard took his red face as the clear sign of a guilty conscience. He shook his head. “Boy, really, you're insane if you thought you'd get away with that. What on earth has gotten into you? The maids, alright, I understand that, can't say I didn't have one or another of them neither, but his Lordship's daughter, for Olaon's sake!”

“But I didn't -” Inuyasha rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. Why did he feel the urge to defend himself against the accusation of having done something like that with Kagome? Or rather - and that was probably the whole explanation - having done something like that to Kagome? Somehow his thoughts shied away at the sole idea, like it was a sacrilege to even consider it, and it had little to do with the fact that she was currently inhabiting the body of an estimated twelve year old brat. Inuyasha shrugged these thoughts off but they lingered in the back of his mind, surfacing occasionally, especially after the guard had lost interest and left him to ponder whilst returning to the much more pleasant task of cutting his fingernails with a knife.

His still very battered body solved the thinking problem after a while though, when exhaust overcame him he fell asleep before he was able to blush yet again at the unbidden direction said thoughts had taken after a while.

He cursed human healing – for what he felt was the thousandth time on this mission – when he woke up just as the last sun rays made the humid air outside the window glow a dim orange and found that his head still hurt like a, albeit slightly smaller, bitch as did the rest of him. And the rate at which his circulation was setting to work properly again was just as ridiculous. He cussed as black dots danced before his eyes to remind him that he best not try getting up that fast again anytime soon. He dragged himself over to the window and pulled himself up to peer though the bars – not an overly clever idea either but he managed.

By what he recalled of the castle's architecture he figured that he was being held captive inside the tall square tower at the eastern side of it, the one that didn't quite fit with the fancy and playful style of the rest. He eased down and sat on the straw pile again, closing his eyes to better visualize the tower. He was pretty much at the top of it, that much was clear, and on the side facing away from the main building. There had to be several cells such as this one 'cause he remembered the walls of the tower being aligned with windows such as that one.

Sadly that information wasn't worth the braincells he spend recollecting it since he hadn't even figured out a way past either the bars or the guard. Inuyasha groaned in frustration and leaned his head back against the wall - carefully, he'd learned his lesson by now. His thoughts were winding down paths of little pleasantry, inexplicably leading from a rant about the uselessness of human bodies to the familiar rant on the uselessness of hanyou existence, and just when he was about to conclude something along the lines of 'screw this, you're gonna die one of these days anyway, so why not here?' suddenly the thundering of boots drew nearer and after a few muffled words a key was being shoved into the keyhole of the door. Inuyasha stood in the far corner of the room, ready to dash for the door at the first opportunity when the Count stepped in. He let his eyes wander around the cell with what Inuyasha assumed was deliberate slowness designed to put him off, and even that knowledge hardly prevented him from sighing impatiently. Then the Count focused on him.

“I don't know whether it was a thread of honor that is bound to be found somewhere inside even one such as you that kept you from it or just sheer luck that I intervened before you were able to go along with your most dishonorable plans, either way, I have not found with my daughter's constitution a reason for me to have you beheaded. And rest assured - “ he leaned in as if conveying a secret to a friend, “I was more than thoroughly tempted to do so in spite of it. But alas, your blatant disrespect of my person can not and will not go unpunished.”

Inuyasha had to bite back a sour laugh. So it was a disrespect of the Count's person if he did his daughter, not a disrespect of her feelings or anything. That hypocrite, what had he said? He berated himself for his blatant disregard of her feelings? Yeah right. Not that Inuyasha had ever really understood what all the feminist fuzz was about, but there was only so or so much discrimination against supposed minorities that he could stand – for understandable reasons. The count was oblivious to that train of thought, obviously, he probably though that he bit his lip out of fear of the oncoming punishment. Like he gave a shit about that, he'd be out of here before it, that's what he told himself at least.

“I'm going to have you whipped and expelled from my lands.” the Count explained with an expression not too far from amusement. That prick. But as Inuyasha refused to react, what was there to react to, anyway, his half smile faded and he turned to leave. Not intending to give away that perfect opportunity Inuyasha dashed froward as soon as the Count's eyes left him, shoved him aside and stumbled out into the narrow corridor, slamming the door shut behind him. He was surrounded by the numerous guards that had accompanied the Count but as the walls were too close for two men to stand beside one another that was hardly a problem. He drew back his fist and broke a nose, at the same time digging his heel into an uncovered groin. Of what worth was tacky armor if it didn't cover the essential parts?

Right now, which way was the way out? He tried to peer around the guards struggling to get past their colleagues that were busy doubling over, but they blocked the view so he could only guess. Seeing as the one whose nose he broke was regaining composure already he jumped onto the poor fellow with the squished family jewels, using him as leverage to hurl himself halfway over the man behind him and grab the torch holder attached to the wall to pull himself further. The torch came loose and that was not a bad thing, as soon as his feet met the ground he shoved the third guard aside with it. The last one of them did not need as much persuasion, must've been afraid of fire that one, and Inuyasha broke into a desperate run that ended all to soon at the next corner where he spotted stairs that lead... upwards.

'Fuck.'

But his headache was back full force, the torch in his hand trembled, so turning back and getting past all those guards was out of question. He sprinted up higher into the tower. The pounding behind him told him that they had set off to corner him somewhere up there, seeing as he was running into an obvious dead end, and that made him speed up even as black dots danced before his eyes. Why oh why wasn't his counterpart a hanyou, too, he usually got over concussions even faster than over deep cuts and those were hardly a bother either. It was rather ironic that he now wished to have the body he'd meant to get rid of his whole life, but it was just his luck that he didn't have it now that he needed it.

They'd imprisoned him in a cell on the second highest floor, obviously, cause the stairs lead into an unused room that was actually nothing but the space under the four sided pyramid that formed the roof of the tower. A dead end, indeed. But the sound of the charging guards fueled his already battle mode quickened reaction rate on even further and so he took the only other option that was left: he began breaking his way through the roof. It was a pity – for the count, if he'd been the one to decide that – that the roof was not made of wood or straw but of more modern roof-tiles, which left exactly enough room between the rafters for a slender enough person to squeeze through. He was busy doing just that when he heard his persecutors come stumbling over one another into the room and he couldn't help but stick his head back in and grin before he slid down the roof.

Dangling from the rim he realized the obvious flaw in his improvised plan, though. If his arms were hardly able to support his very own body weight, then how on earth was he supposed to climb down the whole tower with them? And the headache and nausea did not exactly make feeling around for a elevation somewhere below him with his feet any easier. When he was about to just let go and hope for a conveniently placed straw or even muck heap his bare toe suddenly caught on the upper part of the window frame below him.

Surprised that he passed the first window unharmed he still avoided the rest of them on his way down, he wasn't going to risk suddenly being pulled inside by some guards that had done some fast thinking. But he was the one to talk, thinking was not exactly running smooth for him either, hadn't it been for the arrow that suddenly clattered against the stones beneath him he would never have considered the possibility that the lack of guards inside the tower might just be explained by the fact that they were awaiting him outside. Deciding that a break to think was overdue he clung to the wall and waited for his brain to do something besides wailing in agony.

What to do now?

He tried to visualize the mental map of the castle he'd drawn the other day and wanted to kick himself for not thinking of that earlier. The tower was connected to the main building right around that corner to his left. He was about to head that way when suddenly the fingers of his right hand unclenched. He just barely managed to catch himself, breaking a toe nail in the process. So they'd called the crossbow shots, he mused, remembering the short thick bolt that he'd seen falling down again after leaving a none too nice cut on his forearm in it's wage. His wound was just oozing enough blood to make the use of his arm increasingly difficult, but it couldn't be helped. The bolt raining splinters of stone onto him as it hit the wall above his head urged him on as he scrambled sidewards. But he had been right, the building really met the wall of the tower around that corner, that at least.

His body threatened to flee into unconsciousness as soon as his behind hit the ridging but he dug his fingers into the wound on his arm to prevent that. He couldn't pass out until he'd left the castle grounds and found a good hiding place somewhere. If he died now, Kagome would never be able to get that shard on her own, seeing as she couldn't even see, so he had to keep on going, it couldn't be helped.

He tried standing but his legs just gave away, and so he started scrambling along the rooftop towards the part where the building was connected to the surrounding wall.

And what a surprise, suddenly his pride was back and bitingly commented on how this had to be the most undignified flight he'd pulled in his life, and yeah, about that, since when did he flee instead of facing his opponents like a real hanyou, anyway? But it couldn't fucking be helped.

Was that going to be the motto of this evening? It can't be helped? Pain and exhaust were driving him to the brink of madness, the brink where you are so desperate for a distraction that you stumble into ridiculous self conversations, obviously, but he had to keep on scrambling, it couldn't be helped after all. Wasn't it, now that he thought about it, really the leitmotiv of his life? He would have liked to play with the other children, but he was to strong for them, he'd hurt them for sure, it couldn't be helped. He would have liked to just be with... her and don't give a damn about anything else but she had a responsibility and he was scum, so no, it couldn't be helped. And he would so have wanted to lead a normal life after the ban, find a girl to spend longer than a night with but hey, he was a freak of nature, it couldn't really be helped.

The arrows and bolts that clattered onto the very part of the roof he was headed to ripped him out of his rant. It seemed as if they had guessed what he was up to. He dropped onto his stomach and tried to think. He couldn't possibly stay here in the castle, could he? But squinting his eyes a little he thought he could make out a ladder being leaned against the wall, so they were going to intercept him on his way out.

How he ended up there of all places was a bit of a puzzle to him, but in the retrospective the idea, or the reflex rather, hadn't been all that stupid. They really weren't going to expect him inside Kagome's counterpart's room, at least he hoped so. He'd slid down the roof when he was right atop her chamber and clumsily landed on the windowsill. Peering inside he saw no one but her, sitting in a chair and staring off into space with an expression of deep sorrow. His hand trembled as he lifted it to knock. It took her a while and some persistent knocking on his side to lead her to the window but she opened it at last.

"Inuyasha?" he heard her ask timidly.

But he never got to answer her. He just fainted to her feet.

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He awoke to complete darkness and thought he had to have been out of it for quite a while but the darkness was just a little too constricting and... fluffy? Carefully squirming he came to the conclusion that he had to be lying under a thick blanket of some kind and shoved it off. With the oxygen came the memory and he bolted up as he recalled the imminent danger he was still in. But getting up fast was still as much of a bad idea as it had been all day and the foul bread he'd forced down a while ago changed its mind about being digested.

“Are you sick?” Kagome asked as he began to sweat with the effort not to puke his guts out right in front of her.

“Hrgm!” he grunted, unable to open his mouth.

“Ah, wait there must be ...” she ducked under the bed and felt around for something, then came up with a ... night pot. “I haven't used it yet it's-” she started but he just ripped it from her and did what his body demanded, turning away from her even though she couldn't actually see what he was doing anyway. Warm and slightly damp hands softly grazed his forehead and proceeded to hold back the hair that had long ago fallen out of the leather strap the nape of his neck. He was too surprised to shrug her off so he grabbed the hanky she was offering and jumped off the bed as soon as his stomach was empty to make up for it. Then he spilled the offending contents of the pot out of the window that Kagome seemed to have left open.

“You ok now?”

He had actually planned to ignore Kagome until he felt like he was able to look at her again after that embarrassing lapse right in front of her but the unmasked concern in her voice had him reconsider.

“Yeah, think so. Concussions and jailbreaks just don't mix very well, you know.” he said in a lame attempt at an excuse.

“Yup, I know. My brother once had a concussion, too, and he kept on throwing up for days.” she shrugged and scrambled off the bed. “Jailbreak? So they had you imprisoned and you fled? And those wounds?”

Only when she mentioned them he realized that his wounds had been bandaged with what looked like stripes of a white bed sheet. Oh, and what was that? He hadn't even been aware that he'd scraped his knees, too, but they were wrapped in white cloth just like his forearm and toe.

“I got them while fleeing. You know, they had crossbows an' stuff. But nevermind me, did they hurt you?” She didn't look hurt but without his usual nose he couldn't be sure. And what that guard had implied they'd done ... sure didn't sound like a pleasant affair to begin with.

“No, they didn't hurt me but... “ she blushed, “they -”

“ - Looked whether I ... this counterpart of mine harmed you, I know. That count's nothing but a sonofabitch, really. Well, as long as it's only your dignity that got a little demolished I won't complain.”

“Excuse me? It was more than my dignity that suffered back there! I feel violated! If they'd only looked, but no, they – ah forget it!” she folded her arms, blush ten folding.

Right. Not that he couldn't sympathize, he'd killed people for less as far as he recalled, but here was most definitely no time to contemplate such petty things now, he still needed to make a quick disappearance after all. So he glanced out of the window into the darkness enveloping the castle grounds. He could make out quite a few guards patrolling the outer wall and the court, more than there had been the night before, which meant that they knew he was still hiding somewhere inside the castle. But he was quite rested now, the headache was almost gone, the wounds were bandaged and his hands - he glanced down at them – nope, didn't shake anymore. No reason to stick around another second. He hopped onto the window frame.

“I'll be gone then.” he announced.

“Wha -What?!” Kagome who had been busy mumbling and blushing perked up and stepped closer. “You're leaving? Where to? And in that state you're in? Are you nuts?”

“They'll find me eventually and I really don't need any beheading anytime soon, even if I'm probably not going to die from it, no thanks. So I'll leave now, find somewhere to stay and hide, and then I'll find a way to contact you and we'll see about that shard. Sound good?”

“NO!”

... that girl, why did she always have to antagonize him? His plan was not even a plan, it was the logical reaction to the circumstances they found themselves in, what other options where there, anyway?

“Take me with you.”

Ah. Well... “No fucking way!”

“But why not?”

“Why not?! I don't even know how to get out of this goddamn castle alone, how on earth am I supposed to do that with a blind brat in tow?”

“But I don't want to stay here, alone...”

Ah, so that was what this was about. But still, it was just not possible to take her along without gravely endangering her and their mission.

“Well, tough, I'm still gonna have to leave you here for the time being, you're safe here, no one's after your head or something, and there's regular food and stuff, all of which you will have quite a hard time finding in the woods, and that's where I'm headed now.”

He turned on the frame and slipped onto the outer windowsill. Now, which way was the preferable way out? Should he try the roof or the ground -

“Please take me along? I'll promise I'll - “

Oh fuck. Was that the voice of a girl about to cry? He had to get away before he turned into helpless putty in his attempts to keep her from crying. Fleeing over the roof hadn't worked the last time so the ground it was. He grasped the sill and swung himself down.

“I'll find a way to contact you, then we'll get that shard.” he promised more to muffle the guilt screaming at him to move his ass back up there and take her along than to reassure her.

The window slammed shut and he couldn't help but flinch, she was obviously not too please- ack! His right hand had suddenly almost unclenched again, the wound still seemed to be getting to it. 'Alright', he ordered himself, 'stop thinking about that wench now and start thinking about a way to get out of this goddamn castle unseen and unharmed!'


And miraculously he did just that. Trying to escape on the ground instead of over the roof had been the better idea after all, the court of the castle offered enough hiding places and covers for him to easily sneak past the guards, not to forget that he was still the incarnation of everything stealthy and graceful. He almost snickered to himself as he found a part of the defensive wall that was partially hidden in the shadow of the tall stable building and climbed over it within less that a minute. The soft grass surrounding the castle grounds pillowed his fall when he just jumped down from the wall and he let himself roll down the gentle slope until he reached some bushes. There he hid to catch his breath and force back all the signs his body send to tell him to rest for an estimated week. No time for that now.

He got to his feet and scurried through the bushes until he reached the much safer shadows of the small forest ahead. The forest was nothing but a small lengthy piece of wilderness left between two large fields of rape, not exactly the best of shelters, and so he climbed a tall tree to get an overview of the country. Climbing was not an action his beyond worn out arms and shoulders approved of but he had failed to memorize the landscape yesterday night, he'd been too occupied... making sure that Kagome, like... didn't fall off the horse... or something, and so he didn't have much of a choice.

He had to have spent quite a few hours unconscious in Kagome's bed, 'cause morning was already dawning when he reached the crown of the tree. The lands surrounding the castle of that charmer of a Count mainly consisted of fields and small assemblies of huts, too little in number to be considered villages, and the only thing that remotely reminded Inuyasha of a forest was the one they had rode through the other day, but that was a good two or three hours away – if you had a horse, which he had not. Then again, sooner or later he was going to have to move in that direction anyway, the shards were after all still inside the other Count's castle. So he slid off the tree and started walking.

He wandered all day, through woods and fields, avoiding the official paths and streets, and reached the woods a while after sunset. To say that he was not in the best of states was an obvious euphemism, he felt he was going insane from hunger and his head had yet to stop aching, his wounds hurt, he was limping because of the ripped off toenail and every muscle in his body felt like it was afire. Still, he dragged himself into the inner regions of the forest until he found a cozy looking shelter under the roots of a fallen tree, where he curled up and fell asleep, really asleep, not unconscious, so fast that the pictures never stood a chance and had to grudgingly wait for another time to haunt him.

He woke when the morning bird concert reached its crescendo, blinking and stretching, and crawled out of his little den. The weakish sun hardly found a gap in the thick foliage above and Inuyasha was shivering in the chilly, moist air, so he looked for a clearing where he could warm up a little before he busied himself finding some food. He settled for fish - it was no wonder the Counts were quarreling about the fishing rights to that river, it was so full of fish that it took Inuyasha little more than a minute to catch one with his bare hands.

After three fish and a little nap in the warm midday light he finally felt up to going about the plan he'd developed yesterday, on his way to the forest, a plan that he still thought to be rather cunning, even though it was the product of a headache martyred and hunger driven mind. On a second thought, seeing as planning actions had never been his forte, maybe that plan was good because it was painborne...

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“Sorry lad, we got a stable boy, an he's doin' his job alright, don't need a second one, no.”

The elderly stable master patted his shoulder apologetically. “But I heard that Fantenborough over there needs one. Had some trouble with the one he used to have.” he snickered. There was actually no way he could have known about that, but rumors where the only thing that moved faster than light, you didn't have to live 200 years to realize that.

Inuyasha, far from giving up yet, casually leaned against the wall of the stable besides him. “I only need that job for a few weeks or so, just to gain a little money so I can continue... Westwards.” he explained, making up some reason as he spoke.

“Well, I told you, there's nothing we can do for you. Staff's complete, we don't -” suddenly a boy of about fourteen came running around the corner and interrupted him.

“Master! Otior he - “ the boy put his hands on his knees and caught his breath before he continued, “he broke his arm, said he fell, he's lying back there, and his nose is broken too, or something, it's bleeding, come, quick!”

“By Olaon, the poor sod!” the stable master hurried off, then stopped and turned around again. “Stay right there, boy, “ he said, “Otior, he's my assistant, and if he really broke his arm we might need a stable boy after all. You're lucky.”

Inuyasha nodded and restrained his smirk until the man had disappeared behind the corner. Lucky, indeed...

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Being a stable boy was actually hard work, but Inuyasha didn't mind hard work, he was more like born for it. It kept you occupied and kept you from feeling lonely or guilty, cause you left a certain someone behind. Well, and his schedule still wasn't as tight that he didn't have enough time to do a little spying.

He still remembered where Kagome had said the shard was situated and that room turned out to be the bedroom of the Count's son, the sucker Kagome's counterpart was supposed to marry.

It was also good to know that his death threads still held as much conviction as they had around five hundred years ago, the former stable boy, Otter or whatever his name was, visibly bleached every time they crossed paths and had obviously not told anyone about their little encounter. Gee, he almost felt bad about the whole ordeal now, maybe he'd overdone things a little. But that had to be his Kagome induced conscience speaking. Inuyasha, after all, was just lacking the heart to feel bad about breaking whiny stable boy's arms

But apart from a little conscience nagging things were actually looking good for once, with the single exception that he had absolutely no idea how to go about the part where he was supposed to contact Kagome. He couldn't possibly go back to the castle when the count still was after his head – or other irreplaceable parts of him – and there was no frequent communication between the two counties so writing a letter or stuff like that was pretty much out of question, too. On the other hand his employment here offered just too many brilliant opportunities at getting his hands on that shard to just waste them by quitting.

But that problem solved itself five days later, when the stable master suddenly came up to him and asked for a word in private. Inuyasha followed him into the saddle chamber worriedly, was it possible that the other stable boy had opened his mouth after all? But the elderly man put an amicable hand on his shoulder as soon as he'd closed the door behind them.

“Boy, I've been doing some thinking and – you are the former Fantenborough stable boy, aren't you? You, uhm, seduced his daughter and - “

“I did not!” Inuyasha, who had been occupied squirming out under the unwelcome hand on his shoulder, interrupted irritably and clamped his mouth shut directly afterwards. That was as good as an open admission. But he just couldn't stand people implying that he'd done... that to Kagome. It just wasn't right or something, not that he was all that well acquainted with moral standards and stuff, but even to him it was obvious that goodhearted, albeit slightly annoying, purity such as Kagome did not mix very well with despicable scum like him.

“'S alright, lad, no one's onto you 'cept me, and I don't give a damn, believe me, I was just going to tell you that the Fantens are coming over as an exchange for the ball they held the day before yesterday, and you might wanna avoid Lord Fantenborough recognizing you.”

“Well thanks I guess.” Inuyasha said uncomfortably. Then, struck by sudden inspiration, he asked, “Is his daughter coming along?” and mentally scolded himself for that one again.

The stable master shot him a calculating look. “Why do you want to know? Don't tell me you're love sick.” he shook his head. “Let me hand you this little piece of advise, boy, that girl is way out of your depth. Stick with your own kind and you'll fare well enough. I heard there's this maid who's got quite the crush on you, you know, that's were your future lies, concerning women, if you know what I mean, not with the Nobles. But to answer your question, yes, I think she's coming along, seeing as she's promised to our Lordships son and all.”

With a last pat on Inuyasha's back he moved towards the door.

“Heed my advise, don't let yourself be seen around today, they should be arriving around three in the afternoon.”

Inuyasha couldn't believe his luck. There he'd been, whacking his brain for some way to contact Kagome and get her over here and now she was coming on her own. Were they going to seize that Shikon no Kakera today or what? He left the saddle chamber and left for the main building to sneak a look at the large clock that hung over the fireplace in the ballroom. It was half past twelve now, so he had another two and a half hours to come up with a genius plan how to catch Kagome alone and take her to the room of that sucker of a successor to have her do the freaky thing that would get them out of this stink hole of a dimension and him one step closer to whatever he would decide his reward was going to be.

Sadly that line of thoughts inspired a whole other line of thoughts that had little to do with his devious plans and a lot with that reward. Thanks to that stupid, greedy and easily sidetracked hanyou mind of his he had only gotten past the 'So I cause, like, a diversion of some kind and snatch her.' part when he heard a guard announce the arrival of the visiting party. Damn! Not surprising since his brain really only ever seemed to work when he was hurt, in danger or drunk, but still, damn!

He hurried down to the kitchens where the Nobles where least likely to stumble across him, and busied himself with some vegetable hacking, which was usually a good way to get a second breakfast, and some little before and after supper snacks as well as, most importantly, access to the counts booze chamber, he'd found that out on his first day here. The cook kinda seemed to have a weak spot for hard working young men...

Now that he thought about it, wasn't that look he was giving him a little on the creepy side? He squirmed uncomfortably and send a few pieces of carrot flying when he brought the knife down harder than necessary. Needless to say, he was still not coming up with a plan how to go about the whole diversion deal, although he figured that there simply was no good way to go about it. Still, he was running out of time.

And so, in the end, he just sneaked up to the room where the shard was, taking utmost care to avoid the dining room where he supposed the Count was entertaining his guests. Maybe it was unlocked today, or something, and he'd just have to find the shard and then kidnap Kagome. That would have been easier than snatching her, bringing her up to that room and then hiding them both somewhere for as long as it took her to fuse with the shard. But he had, of course, no such luck.

A slightly muffled, feminine scream resounded through the corridor when he was just about to round the last corner, and he recognized the voice immediately.

'Kagome?'

He sped up and slithered past the large vases lining the door to the Count's son's bedroom. Another scream that was interrupted by a dull sound of some kind came through the thick wood and he tried the handle. But it was locked, quelle surpise. Not a problem that couldn't be solved with a single forceful kick, though. Inuyasha hurried through and found exactly what he'd feared was going on.
Kagome was lying on a bed, tears streaming down her face, and a young man was standing right beside it, looking ready to pounce on her. Inuyasha closed the door behind him to block out the noises of what was bound to happen. That had to be the sucker her counterpart was going to marry. He was quite the looker, but his head still needed only one brief encounter with the handy wooden bedpost to be switched off. Inuyasha turned his attention to Kagome, who sat on the bed, trembling and feeling around helplessly with her hands.

“What's going on?” She closed her blind eyes and frowned. “Inuyasha?”

“Yeah. Now what was - “

He stumbled backwards when she flung herself against him. She clutched him tightly and he was at a little bit of a loss of what to do, except maybe get those arms to move and hug her back? But he did not quite feel as daring today, and so he settled for a noncommittal hand on her shoulder.

“I was so afraid.” , she finally begun explaining herself, “He said they caught and killed you, I did not believe him at first, but when I didn't hear of you for days I thought that – Don't. Don't just don't.”

“Don't what?”

“Don't ever do that again, don't leave me alone again.”

Her voice was desperate, and her tone implied a depth of emotion, of longing perhaps, that Inuyasha didn't not wish to be the source nor the subject of. Although he knew he was probably over interpreting things he felt a blush rise and was, for the first time in this dimension, glad that she couldn't see.
“It's ok, what are you getting so worked up about anyway? Even if I had died, well, ok, you'd have had to get that jewel shard alone, but that wouldn't have been impossible or anything, just... harder?”

She shook her head, or tried to, but with her face pressed to his chest that was close to impossible. “It's not about the shards, it's about being alone! I, I can't even see what is going on, and the count had me more or less grounded for the whole time, I was this close to just going insane!”

Which was exactly why he'd felt so guilty about leaving her behind. She had this tendency of thinking sad things when she was left in peace for too long, at least from what he'd gathered about her so far.

“I told you we are each others only persons to relate to. I didn't realize how lonely it makes you to be different, when there's no one around that understands about you, about what you are.”

... story of his life, now, wasn't it?

“Look, “ he said, untangling himself from her, “I just didn't have a choice. I had to get the hell out of there and couldn't take you along. And now what was - ”

“I'm not completely helpless, I'm sure I could have come along somehow.”

“You are blind damnit! I would have had to carry you, and I was hardly able to carry myself! Look, woman, we can discuss this later, but couldn't you just get us out first?”

“Yeah right!”, she folded her arms and send a stern glare towards something besides right ear. “That's what you said last time, but I haven't seen us talking about anything by now!”

“Yeah, but I mean it this time!” ...whatever, “Just get that shard and do the creepy stuff already.”

“Fine! But this is not over yet.”

She stomped past him and towards rather girly looking shelf, pulled it open and felt around for a while. Just when she turned triumphantly the door behind them opened. Inuyasha spun around.

“Now this is interesting.”
The Count stood in the doorway, smiling that I'm-livid-with-rage-but-to-high-and-mighty-to-let-it-show smile of his.
“There I go, looking for my little darling daughter and whom do I find her with? Tsk, tsk. After that quite impressive stunt you pulled when you fled I would have thought you had more common sense than to - “

Inuyasha groaned as the count rattled down his speech. It had been rather intimidating the first time but the second time around it really only got on his nerves. So he ignored him and grabbed the squealing Kagome, hurled her onto his shoulder and shoved the Count aside as he stumbled through the door. He hurried down the corridors back through the kitchens and all but teleported them into the saddle chamber. That would have to do as a hiding place for as long as it took Kagome to fuse with the shard.

“Alright, woman, go ahead. We'll be safe here for a few minutes.”

But the girl frowned and let her blind eyes roam around the room. “I don't think we should leave already.”

“Why the fuck not?!” he asked, although he already had his suspicions.

“Well, if we leave these bodies now, they're not going to know they'll have to flee and they'll be caught, and your counterpart will - “

“Yeah, I get it. That righting the wrong we've caused stuff again.” He rubbed his temples. Was that just annoyance, or was his headache returning? “Seeing as I can't make you get us out of here, what do you suggest we do?”

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“You're insane, you're aware of that, right?” Inuyasha complained as he wound the self made rope over and under the branches. “Apart from the fact that your ideas are idiotic and never going to work out, why is it that I always end up doing all the work, huh?”

“Well, if my plan is that stupid, do you happen to have a better idea? Kagome snapped up from her perch on a fallen tree.

“In fact, I do:” Inuyasha jumped off the tree after tying the knot and jabbed a finger at her hand that was holding the Shikon no Kakera. “Fuse with that thing and get us out!”

“Not until you've build this tree house, I won't!” she huffed and crossed her arms, easily guessing what he meant even if she couldn't see what he was pointing at.

Oh that too stubborn and too nice for her own good girl, why did everything have to depend on her these days? If he didn't need her to get him out of this dimension he so would have left her to wither her the second she told him her genius plan. Yeah... probably. Anyway. She still was fucking nuts!

“Woman, it's just not going to help them any. I mean, it's not like I don't realize that heir lives are a tad on the screwed up side, with the count being after my head and stuff, but just imagine, you're waking up in a forest, have no idea where you are, or why you're there, next you realize that you're not alone, but that there's the stable boy or the princess with you for reasons none of you can even begin to understand, and look, what's that? The other person is telling you to stay put and spend your life in that forest or move to another county but never ever, under any circumstances, return to your home again. And seconds later he or she doesn't have a clue about what they just said. They're so going to believe that shit, sure, why not.”

Too bad he'd already spend the rest of yesterday and all morning saying just that, now his words hardly had any impact on Kagome other than making her jut her lower lip forward a little more. She had, after all, spend just as much time explaining that they at least had to try. And so he grudgingly returned to the maddeningly fiddly task of building a stable enough tree house out of scratch.

“If that teaches us anything it's that we're going to have to be much more careful next time around. And that we just need to know more about the dimensions we're entering. We should spend more time gathering information about our counterparts and act accordingly, you know? We could have considered the fact that a stable boy and a princess aren't really supposed to spend time around one another.” Kagome said after a while.

“Whatever.” They were wasting time, either way. Why did she give a damn about people she'd never even get to know?

He worked all midday and afternoon, taking only a short break to eat some of the food he'd snuck out of the kitchens before they'd left the castle for good. But building a tree house was one thing, building one that was supposed to serve as an actual home for one, maybe even two people was another. You didn't do that in just a day. That girl, really...

Well it was, in way, flattering that Kagome seemed to have that much trust in his abilities to do that kind of thing but still, the plan itself was plain nuts! And he was rapidly growing sick of it, too. He eyed the roof of more than questionable waterproofness and the walls that shook with every step he took on the floor that was the only part he'd spend a little effort on. It was going to take him at least another day, probably more to finish this... unless... she was blind, wasn't she?

“Alright, I'm done.” he proclaimed hopping off the tree and landing in a crouch besides her on the trunk.

She perked up and smiled brilliantly.” Really? Cool, I knew you'd do it!”

... great, now he actually felt bad for lying to her. And not only that, he was also using her disability for his advantage. Sigh. “No, just kidding, I need a break, is all.”

Her face fell and he felt only slightly better. Way to go, Inuyasha, after all, making people miserable has always been your favorite pastime, right?

“Very funny. Now get back to work, you lazy bum, You'll get a break as soon as it gets dark.”

“Just who are you, my slave driver? And how do you know it's not dark yet, anyway? Huh? Huh?!”

She gestured vaguely. “The birds, and there's sun on my arm, I can feel it.”

Crud. Damn her for adapting to her blindness so fast.

And so he dragged himself up again silently wondering why he was letting that girl order him around this way.

It actually only took him till a few hours past noon to finish the house the next day, but Kagome then decided that building a fucking house wasn't enough, no, they needed beds of some kind, and some food in store, and why didn't he just build some device for fishing while he was at it? And what was worst was that she always started doing things on her own when he refused to, and ended up hurt sooner than he was able to bat down his pride and give in, so in the end he did everything she told him to and actually felt like he was doing the right thing, right until he was done and remembered that all of it served her ridiculous plan. Now was that twisted or what?

She was only satisfied when he'd burnt a plan that showed the situation of the nearby river into a piece of bark (where did she get all those loony ideas from, anyway?) and hung it on a string from the now waterproof ceiling so it couldn't be missed. The sun was therefore already setting when they finally settled down inside the hut and Kagome pulled forth the shard to do the creepy stuff. But minutes passed and nothing transpired except for a few beads of sweat on her bow and she sheepishly dropped her hands to her lap.

“Uhm, it doesn't work.”

“I figured as much, thank you.”

“No reason to be so snappish about it!”

“I'm fucking fed up with this dimension after I was forced to spend two days more than necessary in here and would gladlyget the fuck out but a certain someone is obviously too fucking stupid to get us out so humor me if that affects my mood a little!”

She opened and closed her mouth a few times until she found her tongue and then he really wished she hadn't.

“You insufferable, arrogant prick!” She screeched with that little girl voice of her counterpart, “Do you think this is easy? Until ten days ago I didn't even know I had these powers, and now I'm supposed to summon them whenever I want just because you don't have an ounce of patience in you and consider trying to keep people from being punished for things they haven't done a waste of time! You make me so mad sometimes I – Ah! It's working, I-” and off she went.

Dangit, hadn't that Sango said something about her powers needing to be triggered by intense emotions and stuff? But Kagome's counterpart began to move and he had little time left to go about that explanation. What was her name again?

“Palea?”

“What? Who are you? Where - “

Right. This was going to be fun...

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A.N.: Right, I know it's been a long time... but hey, this chapter is 27 pages long... in the formatted version, but still. So after this rather depressing chapter... and the one before that... and before that... anyway, the next chapter will be much more lighthearted and that... although, with my humor you never know what I'll consider funny tomorrow.
Oh and did I mention that I like reviews...?