InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ JOURNEY ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

Disclaimer: All characters pertaining to the show InuYasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. I am not making any money from this...the only thing that I am getting out of this story is the satisfaction of knowing that other people enjoy my writing. All original characters are my creation and belong to me...as does the plot and storyline.

 

 

Chapter 15

 

The first snow came on the following day. It was completely new to Kagome, who had never seen snow first-hand. It was all Souta could do to keep her inside. She was absolutely set on going outside into the cold, but Souta wouldn't allow it.

 

Kagome had a lot of free time on her hands. So she took up riding her horse. Her favorite place to go was the lake that bordered the western side of his property. She liked to go and sit on the shore, watching the waves lap rhythmically. She also liked to look at all the tracks she could find on the shore. She had seen deer tracks, wolf tracks, lots of little critter tracks, as well as mountain lion tracks. When she had found those, Souta refused to let her go out again without a shotgun, so he bought her a 410. It didn't have much kick, but it could do enough damage to seriously wound a large animal.

 

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Back in Arizona, it was getting dark and Inu was gone to work when a man walked onto the porch. He took the mail from the mailbox and rifled through it, tossing it back into the box. When he spotted a letter with feathers drawn on the envelope, he tucked it into his jacket and then proceeded to kick the front door in. He took the keys of Sesshomaru's bike from the coffee table and went into the garage only to find that Sesshomaru's bike was in pieces. He swore under his breath and kicked the dirt floor, leaving the keys on the ground as he fled the house.

 

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Weeks passed quickly after she mailed her letter. She watched the mail eagerly each day, but there was no response. She began to lose hope of ever seeing Sesshomaru again. Maybe he didn't care for her as much as she thought. But it didn't matter, she told herself, because the child she carried in her womb was his and in that way, a part of him would be with her always.

 

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Sesshomaru had been locked up for two months when the nights began to get cold. The heating in the cellblock was less than adequate, so he spent most of his time pumping weights or reading in the library. Miroku was trying to track down Kagome for him. Sesshomaru spent a lot of time thinking of how much he loved her. He was miserable. He was angry about being locked up for crimes that he didn't commit. Anger can often cloud one's judgment. His heart knew that she was innocent, but his head refused to listen, so Sesshomaru spent his days in prison and his nights in the hell of his tortured dreams.

 

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Kagome went riding one morning in November and returned to the house carrying a wolf/dog pup. She explained that she had found it in a trap near the lake, which was highly unusual since the only traps that Souta ever used were beaver traps, and he only used them in spring. He cautioned her to be more careful when she went out riding. Kagome nursed the pup back to health and it ended up staying as her pet.

 

As the weather got colder, Kagome spent more and more time inside the house. She took up sewing to pass the time. She still did her chores as usual. The pup, Lakota, stayed at her side, guarding her every step.

 

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By December, Kagome's stomach was slightly larger, and she was beginning to look pregnant. Souta restricted Kagome to the house, except to tend to the animals. He was afraid that she would go out riding and get hurt. Since the snow was deep in places, it could be tricky. Kagome agreed not to leave the yard alone.

 

Souta bought her a sewing machine for Christmas. She was overjoyed the day he brought it home from Browning. After that, she spent her days in front of her sewing machine making clothes for everyone, including herself. She also began making quilts from the scraps left over from making clothes.

 

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The last day of December, it had not snowed for several days, so Kagome sneaked out to the stable and saddled her horse. She headed out to where Souta and the others were supposed to be working, but when she arrived, they had already moved on. She rode on toward the lake. But when she reached the edge of the woods, she was not prepared for what she found. One of their cows lay dead in the snow.

 

Lakota began to growl lowly and hackled up, baring his teeth. He was watching something in the trees. Kagome saw that the cow had been shot by a pistol, judging from the size of the wound. Lakota pounced on Kagome, dragging her to the ground just as a bullet whizzed by her head. Lakota had saved her life. Kagome got up and ran for the horse. She didn't even bother to grab the shotgun. She jumped on the horse and headed for home just as fast as the horse could go.

 

Souta was waiting for her with a scowl on his face. She jumped down off the horse and threw her arms around him. She told them what had happened and swore that she would not go out alone again. The guys hopped in a truck and headed out, fully armed, but when they reached the dead cow, the man with the gun was nowhere to be found.

 

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In January, Kagome opened her own store at a flea market in Heart Butte. She made her prices a little lower for the people of the reservation, and a slight bit higher for tourists. She had a variety of clothing and other crafts.

 

Sesshomaru was still miserable. Miroku was still searching for Kagome. Inu was still drunk. Kouga had gotten married. Sesshomaru's sister-in-law had gotten pregnant, and it was not Kossori's. Sesshomaru took up painting to pass the time.

 

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Souta broke his arm in mid-February, so Kagome had to help him out a lot. Souta insisted that she was being over assertive, but she would not hear it. She was dragging bails of hay from the barn regularly. Souta was griping her out on a daily basis because he thought she was over exerting herself.

 

 

 

Sesshomaru sat alone in his cell with only the walls for company. He thought of how much he hated Kagome for doing that to him. He thought of how much he missed her luminous green eyes and her curious touch. He remembered how her body had glowed in the firelight, how it had awakened at his touch. He thought he would surely go insane if he didn't get news of her soon.

 

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March came quickly. The weather began to warm gradually throughout the month. Kagome tilled and planted her garden. Lakota had grown to at least seventy-five pounds. He still followed her everywhere. Kagome's stomach stuck out for what seemed to her like a mile. Her horse fathered a beautiful red colt, which Souta gave to her.

 

By the end of March, Kagome had not received a reply from Sesshomaru. Maybe, she thought, he had had someone waiting for him in Arizona the whole time. But regardless of whether or not it was true, Kagome would always love the person she had fallen in love with. She subconsciously patted her growing belly and smiled. She knew that even if she never heard from him, she would survive and raise a beautiful child…their child. The baby kicked for the first time.

 

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April brought frequent rains, and the beginning of the pow-wow season. Souta and the guys fixed up an old truck for her to travel with. It was an old beat-up Dodge truck that was just as dirty as Souta's car, and just as reliable. She sat up tables at the various events to sell her quilts, clothes, and other goods.

 

Kagome attended her first pow-wow in mid-April. Souta went with her, and so did Lakota. Everyone went to Great Falls for the first event of the season. Kagome had never been to a pow-wow and was amazed at all the different tribes that were represented. Souta urged her to join in one of the dances. She did, reluctantly, and she enjoyed it until the baby started kicking. She took that a message for her to sit back down.

 

 

Near the end of April, the cows started having their calves. Souta's arm was healed. The weather was pleasant. The guys spent a lot of time out in the pasture mending fences that had broken during the winter. They also began working on a second house, not too far from the main house. Kagome had no idea why they needed another house, but Souta told her not to worry about it. Lakota weighed near ninety pounds and was pretty big for a dog, though by wolf standards, he was only average.

 

When Souta took a portion of the older cattle to slaughter, he sent the hides to a man on the reservation to be tanned. Kagome would get some very fine leather from them. She had become quite a skilled seamstress, and she planned to make some traditional outfits to sell at the pow-wows.

 

 

TBC...

 

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