InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Double Vision ❯ Chapter 68

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

“The Tyger” is a poem by William Blake, from his collection “Songs of Experience”, written in 1794.

Sesshomaru paused as he crested the hill and looked down into the little valley below.  It was nighttime, and an orange flicker of firelight revealed the location of the cave’s mouth.  With his keen ears, he could hear the rise and fall of voices from inside the cave, low and comfortable.  The warm scent of the cave carried on the cold night wind.  He could smell the scent of wolves, fox, roasting deer, and the rich, alluring fragrance of his mate.  It was her time of the month.  He trembled as he stood there in the dark, silhouetted against the moon, smelling her scent on the air.  It bothered Sesshomaru that, while he could smell Kagome, and wolf, and fox kit, he could not detect any essence of himself.  After all the years he had spent pining over Kagome, thinking about her, dreaming about her, he was still in the same place.  He knew all about Kouga, and how he felt about Kagome.  He knew about it because all the time he had been lurking just outside Inuyasha’s camps, outside the village of Edo, hoping for some glimpse of Kagome, some scent of her on the air, Kouga had been there too.  Just outside the firelight.  In the dark and the cold.  Outside looking in.

The beast that lived deep in his heart could not help but regard the wolf as a rival, his presence in the cave an intrusion on his territory.  But he reminded himself that it was not Kouga’s fault that he had been pulled from the side of this new mate.  It was his father, and his never ending thirst for power.  He steeled himself, reining in his demonic aura, when instinct told him to spread his terrible spirit across the land and make every creature for miles around tremble in fear.  He cloaked his scent, and walked softly as he approached the mouth of the cave.  Pausing outside, he rested his forehead against the cold stone of the mountainside.  He concentrated on breathing deeply and calmly.  His mate was speaking, in her soft, sweet voice.  She was speaking low, but vehemently, so quietly that he could not make out her words.  Speaking, obviously, to the wolf prince.  His claws pierced the flesh of his hands, drawing his own blood when his beast howled jealously, demanding that he set himself loose on Kouga, that it be the wolf’s flesh that dripped blood on the stones outside this cave, his home, rather than his own.    

“I can’t back down on this, Kagome.  I’ve allowed myself to be driven, and driven, and driven.  The Eastern Mountains are mostly rock, and the way Fudo is growing, there are fewer trees and less game every day.  There are only a few slopes and valleys that are heavily forested enough to support the kind of game I need to feed even the small pack I have left.  Me, and Ginta and Hakaku, ten females and their cubs, twenty wolves, and a dozen hunters and warriors who are trying to feed and protect them.  This is my territory we’re talking about, my lands, my people, my responsibility.  We managed to save it all once before, when my wolves were so badly outnumbered by the birds of paradise.  It was you that made it possible Kagome.  You make me strong, my pack strong.  Things looked bad then, too, remember?”

“The birds of paradise were mortal, not undead.  Every one we killed stayed dead.  And it took all of us, Kouga.  All your wolves, and Miroku, and Sango, and Kirara, and even Inuyasha, though you’re too proud to admit it.”

“Don’t even talk to me about pride, Kagome.  I don’t have any pride left.  If it’s what it would take to save my people, I would even get down on my knees and beg that filthy mutt for his help against the Band of Seven.”  Sesshomaru’s jaw clenched, until he realized that the wolf was referring to his half-brother.

“You can start over Kouga.  You’ve already proven that.  Find new lands, with enough game to feed your pack.  You can’t just keep beating your head against a wall like this while your cubs starve to death!  You are trying to kill off opponents that just won’t die!”

“Kagome…”   Kouga’s voice died off as Sesshomaru stepped softly into the cave, his aura still subdued.

“Sesshomaru!”  Kagome gasped softly.  She had been kneeling by the fire, turning the spitted deer.  She rose up, but Sesshomaru noted she did not run to him.  He thought of all the times he had seen Kagome run to this brother, and throw herself into his arms.  

Sesshomaru took great care to speak with gravity, a lord speaking to a prince.  “Kagome is not with Inuyasha anymore, Kouga.  This Sesshomaru is Kagome’s true mate, and it is this Sesshomaru that you should be petitioning for an alliance.”   He stepped up to his mate’s side, taking her hand in his and raising it to his lips.  He pressed his lips to her knuckles, then turned her hand over and kissed her palm, staring into her eyes.  Kagome’s cheeks took on a rosy blush, and her spicy scent warmed even further.  Smirking, he dropped her hand, and turned to Kouga, who was staring into the fire.

Kagome’s heart swelled in her chest as she watched her mate speaking to the wolf prince.  Inuyasha had never been able to carry on a civilized discussion with Kouga.  Sesshomaru was just so noble, and dignified, and well… lordly.  She lost track of their conversation as she stared at her mate.  So handsome.  Not for the first time, she tried to remember the words of the poem.  It was her senior year, and each student in her English Language class had been assigned a poem to translate and read aloud in front of the class.  She had been assigned a poem called “The Tyger”, but she had always thought of it as the poem about Sesshomaru.  Using a stick, she began to scratch the words into the floor of the cave.

“Tyger!  Tyger!  Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

The warmth of the nearby fire, and the droning voices of Kouga and Sesshomaru made it easy to pull the words of the poem from her memory.  She continued to write…

“In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?”

Kagome thought of the fire of Sesshomaru’s eyes and the time he had grasped the Tetsusaiga, and held it aloft, a flaming sword…

“And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand?  & what dread feet?”

At first, Kagome had doubted that Sesshomaru even possessed a beating heart, he had seemed so cold.  But now, now she knew.  

“What the hammer?  What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil?  What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”

“When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”

“Tyger!  Tyger!  Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

Sesshomaru walked over to his mate to see what she was writing.  He stopped behind her, and lowered his clawed hand to her shoulder.  Kagome looked up into his face, which remained expressionless, as always.  But his eyes, when he finished reading, burned like suns as he looked back at her.

“Come, mate.”  Sesshomaru offered Kagome his hand, and she took it, letting him draw her to her feet.  He led her outside, far away from the sight and hearing of the others, and pulled her into his arms.  Kagome leaned her head into his hard chest, wrapping her arms tight around his waist.  She could feel Sesshomaru’s chest vibrating rhythmically, as she nuzzled close to his warmth.  After a few moments in the absolute silence of the cold night, she began to hear the low, thrumming purr of contentment coming from deep in his chest, as he cradled her close against him.  She had never felt so safe or protected, or so emotionally close to anyone before in her life.  They stayed like that for a long time, before he kissed her lips and led her back to the warmth of the cave.    



      & nbsp;