InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen Part Two: For Whom the Bell Tolls ❯ Poem ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5: Poem

The next morning Kagome awoke refreshed. She smiled to her self as she slowly lifted one eye open only to close it again a moment later. "Gah, bright," she moaned as she squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. She rolled over, feeling the cool grass tickle her face. Sighing, she covered her head with her arms, shielding it from the annoying morning sunlight. "What I wouldn't give for a bed with a fluffy pillow and clean sheets," she grumbled, nearly incomprehensibly, to herself.

"It's about time you woke up, wench," a cool voice stated from the left of her.

Startled, she sprung up, launching herself into the air. Her wings burst to life, lifting her once she began to lose altitude, bringing to rest safely on a sturdy branch high in the tree. Her wings twitched agitatedly as she glared down at the source of the voice. The glare wasn't very intimidating, however, because she was glaring in the totally opposite direction of her target. As the temporary blindness caused by the sudden influx of sunlight faded, she blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to completely dispel the dots that clouded her vision. She very much resembled an owl, perched the way she was, blinking like that.

Laughter from below startled her, causing her to lose her balance. In vain, she flailed her arms, trying to regain her precious balance, completely forgetting that she had two very capable wings. Squeezing her eyes shut, she whimpered slightly as she felt the air rush passed her. The air in her lungs left her in a loud `whoosh' as she hit something surprisingly soft, yet hard.

"Mayoke is funny," Rin giggled.

"Rin!" Kagome shrieked after she recovered her breath. "You know who I am? You remember me?" she excitedly questioned as she sat up. The cushioning below her shifted as she bounced around excitedly, and Kagome suddenly shrieked again when it spoke, interrupting her line of questioning.

"Wench, you would do well to remove yourself from this Sesshoumaru before I do it myself," he growled.

Kagome hastily scrambled to her feet, blushing an interesting shade of red. It almost looked unhealthy. Actually, it looked very unhealthy and with her mouth hanging open the way it was as she tried to conjure up a retort, she looked like she might just die.

In the background, Rin laughed uncontrollably, rolling on the ground with her mirth. The sleeves of her pale yellow kimono flailed about her as she tried to gain control of herself, but to no avail. Her poor kimono began to gather some unattractive black smudges from the dirt and grass stains. Both adults could see the child in their peripheral vision and recovered enough to reprimand her.

"Rin!" both said sharply at the same time.

Hastily the child attempted to rise, while catching her breath. But, in her haste to stand she failed to realize that her kimono was completely tangled around her legs and she promptly fell back onto her bottom. There she looked up at them with wide eyes before she began to laugh hysterically again. Eventually, her laughter stopped, and she slowly, this time, rose and began to straighten out her kimono. Completely disregarding the gawking adults, she looked down at her kimono and frowned at the large amount of stains. A look of deep concentration crossed her features for a moment, before she snapped her fingers completely eradicating any stains. The child beamed brightly, but then that smile dissipated as she noticed the tension between the adults. An awkward silence fell over the trio.

"Well, I have to continue on my way," Kagome suddenly burst out, wanting to end the silence.

"Mayoke!" Rin cried, "I don't want you to leave!"

"Rin, I have to," she gently replied. The child looked up at her with large, teary eyes and pouted cutely. Kagome leaned down and gently hugged her sister. She softly kissed her on the forehead as she pulled away. "I have to," she whispered, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"You're not leaving until I get some answers," that damnable voice stated from behind her.

Kagome's posture stiffened as she slowly rose to her feet. Something dangerous flashed in her eyes as she turned to face him. "I don't have to answer to you," she stated with a deadly calm, stubbornly refusing him. From behind, she could hear her sister begin to gently cry and her resolve faltered.

"You're on my lands, bitch. You have to answer to me so long as you're here."

With those words, her resolve once again gained strength as her stubborn pride fuelled her on. "Well, I wouldn't have been here very long if you had just let me leave!" she hissed. Behind her she could hear the intensity of her sister's cries strengthen and her resolve began to waver once more.

"Mayoke, please stay for at least a little bit," Rin whispered through her tears. With that, Kagome's resolve shattered and she heaved a heavy sigh.

"Fine," Kagome said, defeated. There was no way she could ever stand the tears of a child… especially not her little Shippou. With that thought tears gathered in her eyes and she choked down a sob. She turned her back on both Sesshoumaru and her sister, if only to save her pride as the tears continued to fall.

"Good," Sesshoumaru said with a smirk. "Let's go home, Rin." His cloud quickly took shape under his feet, and the child hopped on next to him. He looked to Kagome and raised an eyebrow in silent question when she stayed with her back to them and quickly took to the skies. She ascended to the treetops and then stopped, waiting for him to lead the way. Slowly, he too ascended to the skies. He looked to the west, before heading to the heart of his lands.

Along the way, long after the tears had been dried by the harsh winds, Kagome silently screamed at herself for being so vulnerable to children. However, her thoughts were often interrupted by an eager Rin, who would sporadically ask questions about her wings, how to hide them, etc.

Patiently, Kagome would answer each one, in a distracted manner that didn't seem to faze Rin in the slightest. To put the frosting on the proverbial cake, aside from dealing with her sister and her thoughts of her son, she was still hung up on that damned kiss. `It was nothing!' she kept screaming at herself, but no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, she still couldn't make it seem true. Never before had she been kissed like that, and frankly, it shook her very soul.

From the corners of their vision they would look at one another, Kagome and Sesshoumaru. Each one wondered what the other was thinking, wondering if the kiss had affected the other in the same way. Little did they know, that kiss had shaken them both, silently they wondered why they were so affected, and tried to nullify such thoughts.

Sesshoumaru was mentally berating himself for his loss of control. Never before had that happened to him and now, he had just shown her a weakness. A weakness that would prove deadly to him if it were any other female, but he failed to realize that this one was different. All he could see was that she was female, and as was characteristic of her sex, she would exploit any weakness a man shows. Such was to be expected from what he saw as the treacherous sex. However, he would be lying if he said that he didn't want to kiss her again, and that was where the problem lies. No matter how much he wanted to kiss her, for whatever psychotic reasons, he did not want to deal with the consequences that he just knew would come with it. If he were to kiss her again, that would lead to another and another, for his was a thirst that could not easily be quenched. Eventually kissing would lead to other things and she would somehow worm her way into his heart. Once there, she would take everything he had in his vulnerable state and then slowly kill him with it. Such would be the power that a female could potentially hold over a male, if the wrong female captured the right male's heart. That was not an option. No, he resolved, he would not kiss her again, he would kill her if she tried to kiss him. It was better that way.

Finally the fortress came into view, and everyone sighed a mental sigh of relief. Sesshoumaru, sensing something was wrong, landed a ways from his citadel and delicately scented the air. Kagome dropped down nearby and did the same, though her olfactory senses were inferior to that of a dog demon. Walking forward a few hundred feet, she scented the air again, and recoiled at the stench of blood. Hastily she retreated, and came to a halt a few feet away from Sesshoumaru and her sister.

"Stay here," Sesshoumaru ordered the girls as he began to trek forward. He did not want Rin to see what he knew lay inside, nor did he want to leave her unguarded if the threat still remained. Slowly, cautiously, he stalked inside, shielding his nose from the combined stenches of blood and the beginnings of decomposing flesh. In the antechamber, on of his oldest, most trustworthy servants, save Jaken lay dead.

Jaken.

Sesshoumaru had forgotten him in the rush to save Rin. He, no doubt, also lay dead in Rin's field. As he inspected the rest of his home, he found that all of his servants lay dead, including the few soldiers who lived there. The stench was overpowering. Quickly he went to Rin's room, grabbing her a fresh change of clothing before he headed back the way he had come.

//Over-bearing panic attack entrenching my veins
in an hour I'll be ok
I pray this pain will go away permanently someday//

When he exited the citadel, he inhaled deeply in an attempt to clear his lungs of the god-awful stench of blood. The sight that met him, he would have found rather endearing had he been anyone else. The older of the two girls, held the smaller one on her lap and was talking quietly with her, as the sunlight filtered through the tree that they had taken temporary residence under. He paused for a moment, not wanting to disturb them for some unknown reason, and watched them. Rin had never looked so happy to him before. Stealthily he crept closer to them and discretely listened in on their conversation.

"Did you talk to mommy? Is that how you knew where to find Rin?" the young girl asked.

"Yes, and she sends her love," Kagome gently replied.

The younger girl's face scrunched up for a moment in concentration before she finally replied, " The last time Rin spoke to mommy was when she put Rin to sleep. That was before she hid me away."

//I'VE seen more than...
I should have to...
I'VE seen this on my own//

"Well, the last time I spoke to mama, was when she visited me in my dreams. That was how I knew how to wake you up, but I think that was the only time she could do that."

"Nuh uh!" Rin cried, a smile forming on her chubby face.

"Oh?" Kagome haughtily replied, a joking lilt coloring her voice. "And how would you know that?"

"I just do," Rin confidently replied.

"Oh really," Kagome replied skeptically. There was a few moments of silence before a devious grin formed on Kagome's face. Rin shrieked with laughter as Kagome mercilessly tickled the young girl. It was at that moment that Sesshoumaru chose to make his presence known. It angered him to some extent to know that they were both so oblivious to their surroundings as to not notice his presence. He cleared his throat loudly, causing both girls to freeze.

"I promised you we would camp out by the lake one night, did I not, Rin?" Sesshoumaru asked. Rin squealed in delight as she vigorously nodded her head in affirmation.

"Come then," he sad as he began walking to the east. Along the way, Rin ran from flower to flower picking the exceptionally beautiful while leaving the rest. They reached the lake after a couple of miles, by then her hands were full of a beautiful assortment of flowers.

//this song is a,
poem to myself,
it helps me to live...//

Once there, Sesshmoumaru handed Rin her fresh clothing and informed them he was going hunting. Wisely the girls took that time as an opportunity to bathe and change. By the time Sesshoumaru returned with the cleaned meat, which was wrapped in the animal's hide, the girls had a hearty fire going a good thirty feet into the forest, in a spacious clearing with plenty of extra wood.

The meal was cooked and eaten in a heavy silence. Once Rin feel asleep, however, Sesshoumaru began his interrogation.

"Who are you really?" Sesshoumaru asked, getting right to the point. "Rin calls you by one name, while my brother and his friends called you by another."

//in case of fire,
BREAK the glass,
and move on into your own...//

"The girl Rin refers to is dead, she died with her parents about fourteen years ago. But the girl Inuyasha and my friends refer to is also dead," she cryptically replied.

"Explain," Seshsoumaru countered slightly miffed that she was being evasive.

"You see, I am both Kagome and Mayoke, but they are both dead. Here, in my homeland, Mayoke is dead. She died with her parents at the age of six, or rather she should have. And where I come from, Kagome is dead, she also died at the age of six, but I took her place. However, I am rightfully Mayoke. That is why I am both, yet neither at the same time," she explained.

Sesshoumaru seemed satisfied with her answer, thinking momentarily before posing his next question. "Why is it both you and Rin appeared human until recently?"

//this song is a,
poem to myself,
it helps me to live...//

Kagome answered the question in brief, not wanting to go too deeply into that subject area. Silently she pray that would be all he would ask, but knew there would be at least one more question, which she did not want to answer.

"What breed youkai are you?" he asked.

Kagome paled slightly, having known that the subject matter would eventually come up, but hesitated in tell him. For several moments, she fought with herself, trying to come to a decision with her dilemma, but there was no easy way out of this one. Finally she settled on the truth, and prayed she was doing right in telling him this, not completely sure she could trust him. She took a deep breath before replying, "Rin and I… we are the last survivors of the Phoenix Clan."

Sesshoumaru paused a moment, before he replied, " I suspected as much, though you should know that you two are not the only ones left," at his last statement, Kagome nodded slightly.

"I know,' she replied. "There is one other… I have been expecting her, but to be honest, she is here much earlier than I had anticipated."

//in case of fire,
BREAK the glass,
and move on into your own...//

Rin stirred beside Kagome, whimpering slightly in her sleep. Instinctively, Kagome reached over and began to soothingly run her fingers through the child's hair. Rin instantly clamed and settled into a deeper slumber.

"Why was she not with you?" Sesshoumaru asked after several moments silence, gesturing towards Rin.

//Reoccurring drowning effect entrenching my brain,
I hope you'll be ok someday,
so I can say that you moved on in the right way...//

"She technically died with my mother, but was granted the chance at life she did not receive the first time," she replied sighing.

"And what of you? How did you survive?" Sesshoumaru found himself asking.

"That I would rather not talk to you about," Kagome said rising from her place and walking slowly from camp.

//WE'VE seen this and
WE'VE breathed this and
WE'VE lived this on our own...//

After a few moments she made her way to the lake and quietly approached the lake's shore. There she watched the moon dance on its surface as the water rippled with the soft waves created by the movement of the aquatic creatures. After a few moments, she waded waist deep into the water. Silently she looked down at the crystalline surface, staring into its clear depths. How she desperately wished her future was that clear. After several more moments, she lay back into the water, allowing her feet to rise out from under her and float to the surface. There she lay as she gently floated with the currents of the water. From her vantage point she could see the clouds rushing passed the stars and the moon. Occasionally the clouds would cross the moon's path, leaving everything in complete darkness before it emerged again bathing the land in its light. Hours seemed to pass as she contemplated her life. She sighed softly as tears began to gather in her eyes and slowly ran out the corners to slide down her cheeks and into the water below, creating small ripples in their wake.

//this song is a,
poem to myself,
it helps me to live...//

"Why is life so hard?" she whispered to the stars. Silently she wished to know their secrets, to know how it is they could shine their light upon the land and remain so unaffected by the passage of time. "Why do things have to be this way?" More tears gathered and she closed her eyes sealing them away in their prison.

//in case of fire,
BREAK the glass,
and move on into your own...
your own...//

"You know," that damnable cool voice said from the shore, causing Kagome to jump and flail as she lost her balance on the water's surface and began to sink, "it would not be good for you to fall asleep there. You would very well drown," he continued unaffected by Kagome's near drowning experience.

"Jerk," Kagome muttered as she recovered from her coughing fit and began wading to the shore. She glared at his vaguely amused visage before stomping passed him with all the dignity one can have looking for all the world like a drowned kitten.

//BREAK...//

He quickly followed her, intent on not being ignored. Just before they reached camp, his arm shot out, snagging hers. Angrily he swung her around, pinning her to a tree. He glared angrily at her before he became lost in her eyes. He stared intently into her eyes for what seemed an eternity, completely forgetting his intent on dealing with her insolence. At that moment he lost himself. He was silently drowning in those blue depths until she closed her eyes and turned her head away, effectively snapping him back to reality.

//this song is a,
poem to myself,
it helps me to live...//

Gently he grasped her chin and pulled her face back towards him. Once there, he stared at her countenance intently before he leaned down and gently caressed her soft lips with his own for a second time.

Her eyes snapped open for a moment before they slowly slid closed and she moaned softly in pure bliss. As she began to hungrily respond to the kiss both reveled in the feel of the other. A soft breeze passed them lifting strands of their hair and rustling the dead leaves around them in a small cyclone on the forest floor.

//in case of fire,
BREAK the glass,
and move on into your own...//

As they pulled again, gasping for breath, they caught the sounds of Rin whimpering softly. Blushing an attractive shade of pink, Kagome pulled completely away from him and went to check on her sister. Sesshoumaru stayed rooted to the spot for a moment before he too returned to the campsite.