InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forget Me Nots ❯ Fear ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I swung myself up onto the roof of the stronghold by one hand, the other keeping the unconscious girl securely held over my shoulder. I paused there, another small wave of nausea rippling through me, and took that time to review the strangeness of the situation a few moments ago.

The girl hadn’t even cried out. A quick hit to the side of her neck and she’d crumpled into my arms. She’d looked afraid at first, when she first saw me, but that had quickly changed into… guilt? When I had spoken to her, she had simply looked guilty, like she’d been caught doing something she knew she shouldn’t. And when I’d hit her, she’d looked startled – but not afraid. I briefly wondered at that, the possibility that these people were actually not my enemies once again coming to mind.

I shook my head. Why would someone I was allied with be keeping me unconscious against my will? And besides, there was no harm in taking the girl along with me, just in case I ended up needing a hostage.

So where do I go now? I wondered. Definitely not down the flight of steps leading out of the shrine; there was so much noise, so many foreign scents… It reminded me of a battlefield, it was so noisy… I shook my head and made my way back to the well-house, and back to where I hoped I could find some answers, still feeling rather off-balance with the lack of security. Just who was this Kagome-sama supposed to be if she had nothing more than a middle-aged serving-maid to guard her? With a derisive snort, I leapt over the edge of the well.

I easily climbed up the inside of the well, pausing to peer over the top. Miroku and Sango were back, standing off to my left, conversing in low tones. The path to the village where I’d awoken lay straight ahead of me, and the kitsune brat was just making his way over to the two humans from there. I glanced around once more, then bounded up and out, leaping off the edge with enough force to carry me and the girl on my shoulder through the air to the trees lining the clearing. I heard all three of them gasp and immediately give chase.

“HAHAHA!! TOO SLOW, HUMANS!!” I yelled, and bounded away through the trees. They continued to follow, falling further and further behind, until I lost them completely in the thick forest. I smirked over my shoulder one last time and turned back to the trees, letting my feet take me where they wanted.

Just when the scent of the human village was finally disappearing, the girl on my shoulder started to wake. She groaned and shifted, mumbling, “Mm..? Inuyasha? Where are we?” She propped her hands on my back, pushing up to try to get a better view of where I had taken her. I just snorted and ignored her. …Until she started wriggling and twisting around, anyway.

“Oi! Quit moving, wench! You want me to drop you?” I snarled at her and she settled for just craning her neck around to see me.

“Where are we?” She seemed much more awake now and I could hear the frown in her voice.

“Keh,” I said, and again made a point of ignoring her.

“Fine,” she huffed, and squirmed some more before she seemed to find a more comfortable position and relaxed a bit. I looked at the girl oddly; she didn’t seem at all worried that an angry dog-demon had just stolen her from her home or that she was now slung over my shoulder like a sack of rice. She almost looked used to it…

I gasped and had to feign a cough to cover it. That was it! I was a dog-demon! I knew, like I knew that I had gold eyes and triangular dog-like ears on top of my head. …Since when did I know that? I didn’t know, I just knew… I felt my eyes begin to cross as my own thoughts ran away from me.

I heard the girl let out a sound of surprise and realized I had unknowingly descended to the forest floor in front of a small-looking cave. What in the..?

“Mind putting me down now?” Kagome asked, and I numbly complied. My eyes were still fixed on the cave. It was overgrown with vines and weeds, and I was vaguely aware of the girl as she climbed through the grasses to tug back the partial curtain of greenery from the cave opening. “We’ve been away since last winter,” she mused quietly to herself, almost wistfully, and my recently re-discovered ears picked it up easily. I took a quick check of the forest around us: late summer, maybe even autumn. This place had been uninhabited for almost a year then.

“Well, come on,” the girl led the way into the cave and I followed after, glad to be behind her as I was still staring around in confusion at the inside of the cave. Where had I taken us? What was this place..? I stopped when the rock walls widened out into a low-ceilinged room, furnished with a small fire pit, a pile of furs that no doubt served as a bed, and several small shelves that appeared to have been carved right out of the stone. What made me pause, though, what something else entirely: I could smell myself in this cave.

My own scent was everywhere, old, but obviously mine, the most recent seeming to be almost a year old…from the previous winter, like the girl had said. But what surprised me even more perhaps, was that I could smell her scent intermingled with mine all over the place.

She shivered before I could think more on it, saying, “Brr, it’s cold in here!” She walked to the end of the chamber where a curtain hung over a crude doorway and disappeared into the room beyond. I could hear her shuffling around in there, the sounds of wood scraping on stone floor and cloth rustling against itself muffled by the curtain barrier. I sat on the bed of furs slowly, feeling awkward in the wake of her familiarity with this place.

“Um, Inuyasha,” she came back in from the other room, wringing a piece of thick, warm-looking clothing in her hands and looking like she was summing up her courage to say something difficult. “I… I just wanted to say that… that you have every right to be mad.” She looked at me with wide, almost sorrowful eyes.

“Keh. You got that right,” I snorted, shooting her a dark look. So why did I feel guilty seeing her all submissive like this?

She nodded solemnly and took another deep breath. “But… I also wanted to say that I’m sorry for… for what happened…”

I snorted again and looked away. “‘Sorry’ ain’t gonna cut it.” I tried to ignore the way she flinched and looked at her feet guiltily. Then she just nodded and sighed, and turned to push through the curtain into the other room again.

“I’ll… make some ramen…” her voice drifted back to me. I felt my ears literally perk up. Ramen? I knew that word. It was food – it was GOOD food – and I knew that I liked it. But what was it..?!

Kagome came back in then, now wearing the warm clothing she’d been holding earlier, which seemed to be some kind of warm, long-sleeved shirt that went over the sleeveless one she’d been wearing before. She had her arms full with several paper-cup things, two pairs of chopsticks, and a metal tea kettle that dangled from one of her small hands. I watched her silently move over to the fire pit and crouch down to deposit the pile she was carrying on the ground next to her. Then she looked up and held the kettle out to me. “Could you go get some water, please?”

I just stared at her dumbly. “Um…”

“Please? I’ve got to get the fire set up.” She kept holding the tea kettle out to me, and after another look at her, I took it reluctantly. I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking where I was supposed to get any water, and just stood and shuffled out of the den.

Once outside, I looked around at the forest. It was beginning to darken; evening was coming. I breathed in deeply, letting my ears swivel around to catch all the little sounds of the forest around me. I stopped when I heard rushing water off to my right, a stream, no doubt, just over the ridge.

I climbed over the little hill and found the stream gurgling along at its base. The winter rains hadn’t come yet, so the water was still low enough that I had to set the tea kettle on its side in the middle of the stream and wait for the water to slowly pour into it.

I sat and waited on the stony bank, my arms folded on my knees as I looked all around me, watching and listening. I could hear birds in the trees, see them flitting about as they settled in for the night. I smelled a doe somewhere in the trees on the others side of the stream, wisely keeping her distance when she sensed that I was a predator. And then I smelled something else…

I frowned and looked around, trying to judge where the scent was coming from. And what it was. I couldn’t place it, but I knew I’d smelled it before. I felt my hackles rise. I didn’t like this scent. It reminded me of…

Blood. Someone grinning at me, standing over me. Lots of blood. And pain.

The kettle rattled as it finally filled with enough water to move it against the stones in the streambed, and I only realized I’d had another memory-vision when the sound brought me back to the real world. I definitely didn’t like this scent. I was considering tracking it down and beating the tail off whatever was making it, but it faded almost as quickly as it had appeared. I shook my head and reached out to pick up the full kettle, wondering if I had imagined it altogether.

When I got back inside the den, I found Kagome sitting on the floor next to the fire pit, a small blaze crackling on the logs she’d set there, the food stuffs she’d brought out earlier waiting on the floor beside her. She looked up when I approached, smiled, and took the tea kettle from me, hanging it on an iron hook that protruded from the wall over the fire.

“We’ll have to wait for it to boil,” she said quietly as I flopped down next to the fire as well. She watched me get comfortable with my back to the wall. I expected her to either start talking again or to look away and do something else, but she didn’t. She just watched me.

“What?” I snapped, and she quickly looked away, blushing lightly.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to stare. I’m just so… happy that you’re finally awake.”A small, kind of sad smile graced her lips. I growled at her.

“If you’re so happy about it, why were you keeping me asleep?” I demanded without thinking.

She winced. I saw something come into her eyes, something remembered that frightened her, and I suddenly wondered if I would regret my harsh words later on. But then she shook her head, smiling ruefully again. “Well.. You know how you get when you’re wounded. We can barely get you to sit still, much less stay in bed…” She gave me a small, affectionate smile, but I didn’t return it. There was something about her eyes that was off…

She was lying.

The kettle whistled after a few minutes, and Kagome set about pouring the hot water into the paper cups. The scent was amazing. My mouth started to water as soon as I smelled it, and I nearly burned my tongue I ate it so fast. Kagome just shook her head and said I should have waited for it to cool, as she was doing.

After eating, we tossed our empty bowls on the fire to burn, and Kagome took the chopsticks and the tea kettle back into the back room. I figured it must be some kind of storage room. She came back in, yawning and stretching her arms to the ceiling, and gave me a sheepish grin as she made her way over to the bed of furs. “Man, I’m tired…” she yawned, pulling the furs back to slip underneath them.

She watched me sitting against the wall across from her for a little while, before she spoke up. “Inuyasha…?”

“What?”

She pursed her lips, looking like she wanted to ask me something, but then changed her mind, and said softly, “Never mind.” I was glad when she rolled over to face away from me. I had been a little afraid that she might ask me to come lay with her.

It had confused me earlier – I had smelled both of us on the bed when I’d sat there earlier, but from her scent the girl was still a virgin. Maybe… it was just for warmth, as she had said that we had stayed here in the winter. But that was the kind of thing that packs did, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to accept her as pack yet. As far as I knew I was a one-man pack, and it was supposed to stay that way.

But maybe that was why she hadn’t been frightened of me. Even when I growled at her, which I was sure was a pretty intimidating sound, she looked like she was used to it all, like she was just taking it in stride.

Maybe she wasn’t an enemy at all. Maybe… But why had she lied earlier? Why had they been keeping me asleep? I was perfectly fine now, so what had been the problem? I shook my head in frustration, folding my arms as I watched the furs rise and fall with her steady breathing.

What could have possibly frightened her like that?

I woke suddenly. The cave was dark and beginning to grow cold as the last embers of the fire began to die. It was the dead of night.

I couldn’t stop the shaking that had overtaken me. I kept seeing the visions from my dream. Blood. So much blood. And joy. I had rejoiced as I ripped them apart…

Who? My hands clenched at the sides of my head. I had killed, and I had loved it, and I couldn’t even remember who or why or how. My eyes fell on the girl, curled in the furs on the other side of the cave. She had made me think of this, made me remember this. I hated it - the look in her eyes when she had remembered earlier but wouldn’t speak of what frightened her. I hated her for making me remember why she was frightened. And I hated myself for making her frightened.

I didn’t sleep the rest of the night.

The next day seemed monotonous at best. I really had no idea what I was supposed to do now. Kagome seemed perfectly content to just hang around the den for a while, but I was getting edgy.

How was I supposed to go about regaining my memory? I could always just sit and wait and hope that it would gradually return on its own, but I kept having this nagging feeling of urgency, of something that told me that waiting would be disastrous. There was something important that was going to happen, and I needed to know what it was before it came, or I could end up putting both Kagome and I in danger.

That brought my thoughts to a screeching halt. I flicked a glance over to the girl, who had her back to me, straightening the furs on the bed after she had slept in them. Since when was I worried about putting her in danger? But then, since when did it bother me that she was afraid of something but wouldn’t tell me what it was? I shook my head slightly, leaning back against the wall again as I still hadn’t moved from the night.

How could it be that this was normal? That I was supposed to be sitting here, sharing a den with a human girl? And that said human girl wasn’t afraid of me in the slightest?

…Well, except for that thing that had scared her, of course.

I shook my head again, but stopped when Kagome gave me an odd look. I glared at her and folded my arms, looking away toward the cave entrance. Maybe it would be best to just ask her, be straight-forward about it. I mean, she certainly didn’t seem like an enemy. But could I trust her that much?

I took a deep breath. “Oi, Kagome.” It was the first time I’d really used her name, not counting when I had kidnapped her the day before; it felt good to say it. She looked up from the book that she’d pulled off of one of the shelves by the bed. Her gaze was expectant but patient. I suddenly found myself at a loss for words. “Um, uh…” I fidgeted, looking anywhere but at her. “I… I need to tell you something…”

“What is it?” she asked, sounding concerned.

“Um, I…” I scratched the back of my neck nervously, trying to build up the nerve to tell her about my little memory problem. “Uh, never mind…” Or not…

“Are you sure?” she asked sincerely. I couldn’t help feeling a little warmth at how concerned she seemed for me. I nodded and she gave me a dubious look. I tried to look innocent and just settled back against the wall.

The next instant I felt a wave of power wash over me, probing and poking gently. I looked up sharply and Kagome quickly averted her gaze.

What the..? Did she just..?! I felt sweat begin to collect on my forehead as I stared at her. I’d never felt anything like that. It was like a warm hand passing over me – checking for physical injury, I somehow knew. It also occurred to me that, upon finding me in perfect physical condition, that power would have gone on to probe into my mental condition, into my thoughts.

I shuddered despite myself, realizing how close I’d come to being found out.

A/N: Before anyone says anything, yes, I know Kagome said ‘sit’ in this chapter. However, in Japanese there are different forms of the word: ‘suwate’ is polite and used for humans, and would be the form used here. ‘Osuwari’ is a term only used to tell a dog to sit, and it’s considered rude to say that to a person, and Kagome only uses it when she is specifically seeking to activate the spell on the rosary. So you can see why it makes Inuyasha so mad – not only does he get body-slammed into the ground when she says that, but it’s also sort of poking fun at the fact that he’s half dog-demon. n_n; …Besides, he’s not wearing the necklace, remember? He would’ve said something about it when he first woke up.

Anyway, review please!

Edited 6.21.05, Reposted 7.12.05