InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Another Opens... ❯ The Shattering ( Chapter 3 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Namiyo11 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.27.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 199 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.27.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 199 | Status: Completed
Chapter 3-The Shattering Recap: Inuyasha’s re-beaded, and found out who’s in charge, so to speak. The group, reunited, plans to head out to investigate...what’s going on elsewhere now? Read on!
No, I do not own Inuyasha!
Kouga frowned as he checked Ginta's shoulder. He didn't like the look of it at all. The flaming arrow had burned him badly at the wound, they'd thought at least it would keep it from souring...but it wasn't. All three wolves knew it. It wasn't healing right, and the speed they were traveling wasn't helping matters. No real rest and little time to hunt-wasn't good now. Ginta needed sleep, regular feeding, herbs to draw out the poison. Even youkai resilience had limits. Damn it! They'd pay for this.
"I'll be fine, Kouga," Ginta wouldn't complain.
"When we get to my woman, she'll patch you up," his packleader told him with a confidence he didn't feel. It was bad, and they were still days from her favorite village.
"Little sister will help, Ginta. Can you keep on?" Hakkaku asked.
"Sure," Ginta promised, knowing they had no choice.
Kouga gauged the sun. They'd have to travel soon, the damned Inu would've raised the alert by now. They had to keep moving, sooner they got to Kagome, sooner Ginta got help. Sooner she'd be with him again. They had another clanholding to dodge before they got to her village, one he had to hope they'd be able to slip past. That meant Ginta would have to endure. Wolves did...but he wasn't going to force more from him than he had to.
"Come on. On my back," he ordered the hurt wolf, crouching to pick up his packbrother. He wouldn't leave him to be found by stupid Inu or something else. Damned fools, he always had to have them tagging along...slowing him up. His packbrothers and loyal friends.
"I can keep up, Kouga! That'll slow us."
"I said up!" he barked, and Ginta sighed, feeling horrible as he obeyed. Guilty. A grown warrior, being carried like a cub.
Kouga comforted himself with the fact that he'd soon be carrying his Kagome like this-and that he'd never have to see that mutt have his hands on her again when she was claimed and marked as his mate. Disgusting, she was too soft hearted, letting that little outcast hold her, clasping him...he growled under his breath. Too intimate. She was too gentle with the muttface. Too kind, loyal to him out of shared dangers, and he took advantage.
Kouga had long since seen how much the hanyou enjoyed such a liberty, that he wanted her to be more than a traveling companion. That he loved her too, wanted her for his own, and it was a good thing his rival for her was inept. It was a good thing for the mutt's sake the other humans were around to keep him in line while Kagome honored her promise to restore the jewel. That he was useful for that, for protecting her. The image of her using that command word on him and snuggling against his back as they went home-with Inuyasha's face properly in the dirt behind them-kept him distracted and soothed him as they traveled.
***
As the wolves made their way in the wrong direction-another was dashing through high grass, panting for air.
Koumyou. The lesser Inu youkai was running like the wind, feeling it in every muscle as he tracked. The keep-they'd sent him in the right direction at least. The Great One had flown, but there was the faintest of scent trails on the ground. He had to stop often and hunt for it, but he would keep on no matter what. Lady Kagome, and another. Outsider male. Not pack. Not good. They had gone this way, so he would as well. Her scent was his guide.
Lesser Inu were very fond of Kagome. Several would have long since attached themselves to her and the Great One permanently if Sesshomaru hadn't made it clear they were not welcome to share hunts, only to guard the keep. He didn't want the responsibility and occasional nuisance of their company. But Kagome was kind to them, liked them and was adored almost universally by them in return. Inu like Koumyou couldn't speak as humans...but were quite smart. He'd spoken to the lesser brethren who were at the Keep as part of the guard during his brief visit to raise the alert...and what they'd said was odd.
She'd been taken away by an outsider male, a strong one and that the greater ones said it was right that she’d gone. She should not be with an outsider, no matter what the greater Inu had said at the keep. A noble bitch, Kagome was...Koumyou himself had liked her scent and ears when they'd met some time ago. Where she was, Sesshomaru would be as he had gone to retrieve her. Then he could give warning, go home with his duty done, so tired though...if the weather stayed clear and didn't wash away the slight trail, he would be there soon, wherever there was.
It would be awhile until he found them, as he felt-something bothering him...just on the edge of his senses...
***
Ayami frowned. Kouga had slipped her net. So. Things begin to move faster now. One of her faithful youkai...told her of Yotogi’s quarrel with Kouga, and she smiled.
“If they believe him to be a precursor, then let it be one!” With that, she went into the valley she trapped her Lord’s pets in, penned like bloodstock by barriers. Sixteen of them left. But how many? Hm, she didn’t want to be stingy...and the Inu seemed ready for a good fight, they deserved one with all that preparation. Three, she decided. Not too many, not too few. Not to mention how many she could send out properly...
“You three. I think you will serve. Inu. And so many of them, you’ll be stuffed! Yotogi’s precious pack, well, time we tested their strength, don’t you agree?” Ayami asked them fondly before she climbed to the top of the ridge, out of the way. She turned to one of her lesser allies still edging about her.
“Tell everyone to pull away from the Wolf territories and gather at the main pass into the Inu lands. Tell them to follow my Lord’s children, and be ready to feed. Any Inu remaining after the first barrage of the Dokueki are theirs, so long as they keep any Wolves from the pass they will travel itself. If this doesn’t bring them here-nothing will,” the wolf youkai didn’t watch as it left...and began to concentrate, ignoring a tremor along her spine...something subtle...
***
"What do you mean, she's not been here?" Kouga asked the old priestess, eyes hard as he stared at her, and the strange young miko with her. Michiko, new apprentice, and scared witless.
"You heard me. Kagome no longer lives here. I doubt we shall see her soon," Kaede informed him. She hadn't checked in last new moon. Inu had come and collected her things instead a few days before, saying only they were acting on her orders. Kaede didn't know what had happened, to her or Sango, and it worried her. The wolf looked exhausted, she noted, bow in hand as she studied him.
"Damn it," Kouga was worried now, Ginta was behind him with Hakkaku, and Kaede saw the poorly bound shoulder. "I have to find her, priestess. What direction did they go?"
"You won't find her easily, Wolf Lord," she warned him, frowning.
"Maybe not, but we need her! We can find her, point the way and help for once, let me worry about the rest," Kouga looked uncomfortable.
"Hm. I'd say it's that one who needs help," Kaede noted, considering. Kouga meant them no harm...at least at the moment. But that wolf with him-badly hurt. Kaede wasn't about to help him anymore then she had to, she never trusted him. Having an angry Kouga turn on her village though-well, she would avoid that if at all possible.
"Lady Kaede-we don't help youkai! Do we...?" Michiko asked shyly. She'd been chosen because she was good with herbs and had a small amount of spiritual power, but wasn't at all easy in her new role yet.
"Perhaps we do," Kaede told her, as Kouga watched suspiciously as she approached. "Let me see,” she directed Ginta, who permitted her to look the wound over at Kouga's nod. "Hm. This needs drawing out. If you want him to live, he should remain still and rest," she told him without hesitation.
"No time."
"You shouldn't be anywhere near Kagome, anyways, Kouga! She should be with Inuyasha!" Shippo told him, and he glared at the fox kit.
"Keep it quiet, runt!" A pause...and a frown,"why aren't you with her? Kagome always takes you along, kit."
"I'm helping guard the village from youkai," Shippo answered loftily.
"Bet she got tired of you," he goaded...and the kit fell right into it.
"No! I just-stay here now! She's just waiting for Inuyasha to come back, anyways! You don't know anything," Shippo grumbled, and Kouga scowled. Something was definitely up! He frowned at the trio. Come back? The mutt finally gave up??
"Hah. Well, nothing for us here. Let's move," he ordered, not with bows trained on him with a jumpy miko there, anyways...and Kaede was old, but a good shot.
They stared after him suspiciously as the wolves left...or at least, seemed to.
***
Shippo, however, soon learned otherwise. The kit was unceremoniously grabbed when he was poking around the well.
"LET ME GO!" he yelled, suspended by a hand. Kouga had no choice.
"No, I don't think I will. Yell some more, and we'll eat you, brat. My woman. Talk!" Kouga told him flatly, eyeing the kit. There was a gulp."Where is Kagome-and the mutt?" he asked.
"I don't know! She left with Sango and-" Shippo was pulled face to face with Kouga...alone, upside down, and he shivered, pausing.
"Who, the mutt? Where'd he go?"
"N-no...Sesshomaru. I-i-inuyasha left last f-fall...K-kagome will be really mad if you e-eat me..." Shippo whimpered. Kouga's eyes widened. The fox wasn't lying-he was too scared to, and he knew it. What the hell was going on here?
"Where?"
"I don't know!! She didn't tell me!" Shippo managed...and twisted suddenly, sinking his fangs-right into Kouga's nose. The wolf screamed, and his hand involuntarily yanked-tossed...and the fox ran straight for Kaede! Damn it!! The village stirred like a poked anthill.
"Let's move. There's one place to go," Kouga sighed, picking up Ginta.
"Where, Kouga?" Hakakku asked.
"Sesshomaru. Seems my woman's keeping some funny company. We start at his keep, and I know just how to get his attention," Kouga felt it...so did they-a sort of unease. “Besides, I want open ground around us right now. Before it hits.” There was agreement at that-they knew this feeling.
***
Elsewhere...in a valley...
Everyone was getting ready to travel, and Inuyasha-wasn’t talking to several of them. Not his beloved...or his vassal. Little bastard flea!
Sesshomaru, however, noticed this, and the hanyou could take his friend’s amusement, his mate’s...but there was a certain glee in his brother’s eyes that outraged him. He went on a last sweep of his territory, and to his dismay-Sesshomaru accompanied him, with a certain cautious curiosity.
“You knew, didn’t you? That she-damned custom,” he finally said to the Lord, frowning.
“Of course. You are her bound property by Clan law,” Sesshomaru answered.
“But...the ritual-” he paused. He desperately wanted answers...but not that much.
“Proved you able to be a fit mate. To provide for her, protect her, and attend to her. Did it not occur to you what her rank is? Any other, were you bonded prior to marking, would be your property. She is the senior female of the pack, even if you were bonded first, she would be dominant. It is not unknown to happen, in lesser packs,” Sesshomaru commented dryly, with-damn it, the bastard did think it was funny.
“Damn it.”
They both felt it...and looked at each other. They immediately headed back at full speed.
***
Kagome, closing her backpack, frowned. She felt-funny this morning and it suddenly got worse. Kirara suddenly changed into her larger form, and herded Sango and Miroku outside! Jaken snagged Rin, thankful they were safely with Ah-uhn in the valley proper...realized too late...she didn’t know!
“LADY KAGOME!!”
Then...the earthquake the youkai were all sensing-struck. For some, it was a blessing in disguise...for others, it would change everything...
Author’s Notes-Ahhhh. I love the smell of plot devices in the morning! Well, evening, but still! The youkai could sense it because I elected to give them the same sense I’ve read some animals possess, to sense earth tremors before they strike. It seemed reasonable to add it.
Hah! Fun fact, well, not fun per se. Japan is a highly active area seismically, why not make use of same? Me? Throw a disaster in there? Oh, yes. Thanks for reading!-Namiyo
No, I do not own Inuyasha!
Kouga frowned as he checked Ginta's shoulder. He didn't like the look of it at all. The flaming arrow had burned him badly at the wound, they'd thought at least it would keep it from souring...but it wasn't. All three wolves knew it. It wasn't healing right, and the speed they were traveling wasn't helping matters. No real rest and little time to hunt-wasn't good now. Ginta needed sleep, regular feeding, herbs to draw out the poison. Even youkai resilience had limits. Damn it! They'd pay for this.
"I'll be fine, Kouga," Ginta wouldn't complain.
"When we get to my woman, she'll patch you up," his packleader told him with a confidence he didn't feel. It was bad, and they were still days from her favorite village.
"Little sister will help, Ginta. Can you keep on?" Hakkaku asked.
"Sure," Ginta promised, knowing they had no choice.
Kouga gauged the sun. They'd have to travel soon, the damned Inu would've raised the alert by now. They had to keep moving, sooner they got to Kagome, sooner Ginta got help. Sooner she'd be with him again. They had another clanholding to dodge before they got to her village, one he had to hope they'd be able to slip past. That meant Ginta would have to endure. Wolves did...but he wasn't going to force more from him than he had to.
"Come on. On my back," he ordered the hurt wolf, crouching to pick up his packbrother. He wouldn't leave him to be found by stupid Inu or something else. Damned fools, he always had to have them tagging along...slowing him up. His packbrothers and loyal friends.
"I can keep up, Kouga! That'll slow us."
"I said up!" he barked, and Ginta sighed, feeling horrible as he obeyed. Guilty. A grown warrior, being carried like a cub.
Kouga comforted himself with the fact that he'd soon be carrying his Kagome like this-and that he'd never have to see that mutt have his hands on her again when she was claimed and marked as his mate. Disgusting, she was too soft hearted, letting that little outcast hold her, clasping him...he growled under his breath. Too intimate. She was too gentle with the muttface. Too kind, loyal to him out of shared dangers, and he took advantage.
Kouga had long since seen how much the hanyou enjoyed such a liberty, that he wanted her to be more than a traveling companion. That he loved her too, wanted her for his own, and it was a good thing his rival for her was inept. It was a good thing for the mutt's sake the other humans were around to keep him in line while Kagome honored her promise to restore the jewel. That he was useful for that, for protecting her. The image of her using that command word on him and snuggling against his back as they went home-with Inuyasha's face properly in the dirt behind them-kept him distracted and soothed him as they traveled.
***
As the wolves made their way in the wrong direction-another was dashing through high grass, panting for air.
Koumyou. The lesser Inu youkai was running like the wind, feeling it in every muscle as he tracked. The keep-they'd sent him in the right direction at least. The Great One had flown, but there was the faintest of scent trails on the ground. He had to stop often and hunt for it, but he would keep on no matter what. Lady Kagome, and another. Outsider male. Not pack. Not good. They had gone this way, so he would as well. Her scent was his guide.
Lesser Inu were very fond of Kagome. Several would have long since attached themselves to her and the Great One permanently if Sesshomaru hadn't made it clear they were not welcome to share hunts, only to guard the keep. He didn't want the responsibility and occasional nuisance of their company. But Kagome was kind to them, liked them and was adored almost universally by them in return. Inu like Koumyou couldn't speak as humans...but were quite smart. He'd spoken to the lesser brethren who were at the Keep as part of the guard during his brief visit to raise the alert...and what they'd said was odd.
She'd been taken away by an outsider male, a strong one and that the greater ones said it was right that she’d gone. She should not be with an outsider, no matter what the greater Inu had said at the keep. A noble bitch, Kagome was...Koumyou himself had liked her scent and ears when they'd met some time ago. Where she was, Sesshomaru would be as he had gone to retrieve her. Then he could give warning, go home with his duty done, so tired though...if the weather stayed clear and didn't wash away the slight trail, he would be there soon, wherever there was.
It would be awhile until he found them, as he felt-something bothering him...just on the edge of his senses...
***
Ayami frowned. Kouga had slipped her net. So. Things begin to move faster now. One of her faithful youkai...told her of Yotogi’s quarrel with Kouga, and she smiled.
“If they believe him to be a precursor, then let it be one!” With that, she went into the valley she trapped her Lord’s pets in, penned like bloodstock by barriers. Sixteen of them left. But how many? Hm, she didn’t want to be stingy...and the Inu seemed ready for a good fight, they deserved one with all that preparation. Three, she decided. Not too many, not too few. Not to mention how many she could send out properly...
“You three. I think you will serve. Inu. And so many of them, you’ll be stuffed! Yotogi’s precious pack, well, time we tested their strength, don’t you agree?” Ayami asked them fondly before she climbed to the top of the ridge, out of the way. She turned to one of her lesser allies still edging about her.
“Tell everyone to pull away from the Wolf territories and gather at the main pass into the Inu lands. Tell them to follow my Lord’s children, and be ready to feed. Any Inu remaining after the first barrage of the Dokueki are theirs, so long as they keep any Wolves from the pass they will travel itself. If this doesn’t bring them here-nothing will,” the wolf youkai didn’t watch as it left...and began to concentrate, ignoring a tremor along her spine...something subtle...
***
"What do you mean, she's not been here?" Kouga asked the old priestess, eyes hard as he stared at her, and the strange young miko with her. Michiko, new apprentice, and scared witless.
"You heard me. Kagome no longer lives here. I doubt we shall see her soon," Kaede informed him. She hadn't checked in last new moon. Inu had come and collected her things instead a few days before, saying only they were acting on her orders. Kaede didn't know what had happened, to her or Sango, and it worried her. The wolf looked exhausted, she noted, bow in hand as she studied him.
"Damn it," Kouga was worried now, Ginta was behind him with Hakkaku, and Kaede saw the poorly bound shoulder. "I have to find her, priestess. What direction did they go?"
"You won't find her easily, Wolf Lord," she warned him, frowning.
"Maybe not, but we need her! We can find her, point the way and help for once, let me worry about the rest," Kouga looked uncomfortable.
"Hm. I'd say it's that one who needs help," Kaede noted, considering. Kouga meant them no harm...at least at the moment. But that wolf with him-badly hurt. Kaede wasn't about to help him anymore then she had to, she never trusted him. Having an angry Kouga turn on her village though-well, she would avoid that if at all possible.
"Lady Kaede-we don't help youkai! Do we...?" Michiko asked shyly. She'd been chosen because she was good with herbs and had a small amount of spiritual power, but wasn't at all easy in her new role yet.
"Perhaps we do," Kaede told her, as Kouga watched suspiciously as she approached. "Let me see,” she directed Ginta, who permitted her to look the wound over at Kouga's nod. "Hm. This needs drawing out. If you want him to live, he should remain still and rest," she told him without hesitation.
"No time."
"You shouldn't be anywhere near Kagome, anyways, Kouga! She should be with Inuyasha!" Shippo told him, and he glared at the fox kit.
"Keep it quiet, runt!" A pause...and a frown,"why aren't you with her? Kagome always takes you along, kit."
"I'm helping guard the village from youkai," Shippo answered loftily.
"Bet she got tired of you," he goaded...and the kit fell right into it.
"No! I just-stay here now! She's just waiting for Inuyasha to come back, anyways! You don't know anything," Shippo grumbled, and Kouga scowled. Something was definitely up! He frowned at the trio. Come back? The mutt finally gave up??
"Hah. Well, nothing for us here. Let's move," he ordered, not with bows trained on him with a jumpy miko there, anyways...and Kaede was old, but a good shot.
They stared after him suspiciously as the wolves left...or at least, seemed to.
***
Shippo, however, soon learned otherwise. The kit was unceremoniously grabbed when he was poking around the well.
"LET ME GO!" he yelled, suspended by a hand. Kouga had no choice.
"No, I don't think I will. Yell some more, and we'll eat you, brat. My woman. Talk!" Kouga told him flatly, eyeing the kit. There was a gulp."Where is Kagome-and the mutt?" he asked.
"I don't know! She left with Sango and-" Shippo was pulled face to face with Kouga...alone, upside down, and he shivered, pausing.
"Who, the mutt? Where'd he go?"
"N-no...Sesshomaru. I-i-inuyasha left last f-fall...K-kagome will be really mad if you e-eat me..." Shippo whimpered. Kouga's eyes widened. The fox wasn't lying-he was too scared to, and he knew it. What the hell was going on here?
"Where?"
"I don't know!! She didn't tell me!" Shippo managed...and twisted suddenly, sinking his fangs-right into Kouga's nose. The wolf screamed, and his hand involuntarily yanked-tossed...and the fox ran straight for Kaede! Damn it!! The village stirred like a poked anthill.
"Let's move. There's one place to go," Kouga sighed, picking up Ginta.
"Where, Kouga?" Hakakku asked.
"Sesshomaru. Seems my woman's keeping some funny company. We start at his keep, and I know just how to get his attention," Kouga felt it...so did they-a sort of unease. “Besides, I want open ground around us right now. Before it hits.” There was agreement at that-they knew this feeling.
***
Elsewhere...in a valley...
Everyone was getting ready to travel, and Inuyasha-wasn’t talking to several of them. Not his beloved...or his vassal. Little bastard flea!
Sesshomaru, however, noticed this, and the hanyou could take his friend’s amusement, his mate’s...but there was a certain glee in his brother’s eyes that outraged him. He went on a last sweep of his territory, and to his dismay-Sesshomaru accompanied him, with a certain cautious curiosity.
“You knew, didn’t you? That she-damned custom,” he finally said to the Lord, frowning.
“Of course. You are her bound property by Clan law,” Sesshomaru answered.
“But...the ritual-” he paused. He desperately wanted answers...but not that much.
“Proved you able to be a fit mate. To provide for her, protect her, and attend to her. Did it not occur to you what her rank is? Any other, were you bonded prior to marking, would be your property. She is the senior female of the pack, even if you were bonded first, she would be dominant. It is not unknown to happen, in lesser packs,” Sesshomaru commented dryly, with-damn it, the bastard did think it was funny.
“Damn it.”
They both felt it...and looked at each other. They immediately headed back at full speed.
***
Kagome, closing her backpack, frowned. She felt-funny this morning and it suddenly got worse. Kirara suddenly changed into her larger form, and herded Sango and Miroku outside! Jaken snagged Rin, thankful they were safely with Ah-uhn in the valley proper...realized too late...she didn’t know!
“LADY KAGOME!!”
Then...the earthquake the youkai were all sensing-struck. For some, it was a blessing in disguise...for others, it would change everything...
Author’s Notes-Ahhhh. I love the smell of plot devices in the morning! Well, evening, but still! The youkai could sense it because I elected to give them the same sense I’ve read some animals possess, to sense earth tremors before they strike. It seemed reasonable to add it.
Hah! Fun fact, well, not fun per se. Japan is a highly active area seismically, why not make use of same? Me? Throw a disaster in there? Oh, yes. Thanks for reading!-Namiyo