InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Midwinter Dream ❯ Encounters ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Alright, I won't bore you with too many words. Everyone seems really excited to have this story continue anyway. :D

 

Chapter 2

 

Encounters

 

“Wow...” was all Kagome could say as another log was put on the fire to keep the room and tea kettle plenty hot. She was dumbfounded that Sango and Miroku already had three children, and being dumbfounded at the beginning of such a long story left her catching up and gathering facts after it ended. “So, Sango's village is revived?”

 

Kaede nodded, cheery for once with her surprise guest. “Hers was not the only slayer's village. After a few months here and bearing child she and her husband went to gather recruits in helping to revive the village. She was raised in one, so it is only fitting that she raise her children there now. Miroku is able to hold a job there too, when not demon slaying with Inuyasha in different villages. He blesses weapons being forged to make them stronger, and stronger weapons means smaller groups for many well paying tasks.”

 

“I'm glad to hear it,” Kagome replied, smiling widely. “Is Sango still going with the groups?”

 

“That you would have to ask her,” Kaede replied. “With twin girls and a toddler son, I suppose not. But Sango can be an unpredictable one.”

 

Kagome was struck with the mental image of Sango going into battle with the boy strapped to her back and the girls bearing weapons. It, oddly enough, was rather fitting. But Kagome supposed that Sango's motherly instinct was still strong enough to spare them more childhood scars than they'd get simply being in a weapon filled village.

 

Kagome was invited to stay the night, and was promised better winter-worthy attire and directions on how to get to the slayer's village by the time she awoke.

 

Despite the thin and somewhat uncomfortable mat she slept on, Kagome couldn't complain about the dream. After four years, her mind was well trained on what her body craved. The only complaint, after waking up, was usually the man involved in them...

 

Wake up she did though, with the feeling of heavy fabrics being dropped onto her stomach.

 

“Time for an early start,” came Kaede's voice. She sounded far away for having dropped the clothes, and Kagome had to look to see she had only turned her back. “Get dressed and ready. I can only walk you so far with these old joints. The cold grasps my knees too firmly after a while, but I have faith you will make it just fine.”

 

Kagome was still blinking sleep from her eyes. Wha? She was going?? ... Was she being kicked out, or did Kaede understand that she really missed the others? Her emotions wanted to feel affronted with the first assumption, but she sighed and told herself it was the latter. She couldn't hold on to childish thoughts at her age. Unless they revolved around the prick in her life.

 

Grabbing what she thought was the white haori like she had worn before with red hakama, she grabbed the pants instead.

 

“Why are they white?”

 

Kaede regarded her. “It is the middle of winter, dear. We can whiten clothes in the purifying process, but the trade routes are blocked this year. Come back in the spring and we will have the dye needed to change them.”

 

“No, it's fine,” she replied, feeling how much heavier the winter fabrics were than the summer ones. They felt at least four layers thicker in some places, like the knees and rump. There was a thinner outfit underneath the one in her hands though, and when she dressed with that one underneath she was relieved to know that it was just loose enough to trap the especially warm air her outer clothing trapped against her body. The pants died around her ankles too, which was awesome!! She'd have toasty feet when she arrived rather than cold and soggy!

 

Speaking of feet...

 

“Oh, wow,” Kagome found herself breathing when Kaede returned. She had a pair of off white leather boots, and Kagome assumed that again there was a lacking in the proper dyes to make them black.

 

“These are made from the skins of a sika deer,” Kaede explained. “Layered and sealed with fat, they will keep you warm.”

 

“Oh, wow,” Kagome repeated, receiving them. They were light weight for how they looked, and shiny. Very shiny. The inside though was red with some white spots. “... Is this fur?”

 

Kaede nodded. “The best way to keep one's feet warm in constant snow.”

 

Kagome was indeed a tad grossed out, but her appreciation knew no bounds. Kaede showed her how to bind up the first shoe, which was a tad more complicated than need be, but Kagome tied the other thin leather straps just fine. Well, close to fine.

 

“Too tight, dear,” Kaede told her when she slipped a finger into the shoe. “Let it breathe. No need to be so tight when your hakama block the snow.”

 

“I feel like my foot could swim in the other shoe though,” Kagome informed. Her toes had plenty of room as they nestled amongst the already warm fur.

 

“To stay warm, you need circulation of blood and air,” Kaede informed her. “I assume things are easier in your time, but remember you will be out in the wild for at least three days. To start with sweating feet means to end with blackened toes.”

 

... Ew... “Alright. Kaede-baa-chan knows best after all,” Kagome agreed, loosening her boot.

 

“That she does,” Kaede replied with a smile. “Remember to be able to press three fingers into the the boot when you are done with tying. They may feel loose, but the fur will keep them on.

 

By the time they left Kagome felt like a ghost. The only things not white about her were her eyes, hair and weapons. Even her skin had paled considerably during the fall. Kaede proved her wisdom once again though, because by the time they stopped an hour later so she could turn back Kagome's toes were still toasty and the shoes were indeed still in place.

 

“Thank you SO much!” Kagome told the elder woman with a hug. “I'll come back and visit you soon!”

 

“You better,” Kaede replied. “My home is not a storage unit for your backpack.”

 

That made Kagome laugh. She was traveling light this trip, and whatever food or bandages she could need were stored in the long tapered ends of her sleeves. She had a blanket as well, which Kaede insisted she take. She had made Kagome strip a layer so as to wrap the thing like a towel around her chest for when she walked. It still held her body at a firm temperature.

 

“You take care now,” Kaede bid to her. “No running. Running means a lack of energy when you need it, loosened hakama ties around the ankles, and the possibility of tripping. Take your time.”

 

“I will,” Kagome promised, standing straight with a clatter as the arrows shifted position in their nicely stocked quiver. Even though she was armed with her long range weapon, at which she excelled, she also had the real sword at her side as well. She had a fabric the size of a wash cloth and a small amount of balm wrapped in its corner to condition the blade whenever it needed tucked away, another gift from Kaede.

 

Kagome felt odd walking away as the elder woman watched, but she was soon out of sight in the dense forest. The snow had ceased falling, for now, but here in the woods it gathered quietly in the canopy, and the only noise to echo off the barren trees was that of clumps finally shifting from branch to ground. They made Kagome startle for the first few hours, but after that she accepted the noise as a part of her surrounding. By the time she decided to take her first break, stamping flat some snow and laying out the oiled skin tucked away behind her quiver to sit down, Kagome was greeted by the first animal of the past in four years.

 

“Hey little guy,” she smiled at the curious little sparrow who tilted his head in about ten different directions to figure out what she was. Turning quite fast in the opposite direction on his branch, he gave Kagome a quick one-eye regard before leaping off and chirping giddily to the silence, sending a white mist of cold to land a few feet away from her.

 

Kagome continued ten minutes and a beef jerky stick later, shaking any beads of water her warmth created on the underside of the cloth before folding it up and securing it to the quiver once more. She began thinking on how she was ever going to sleep comfortably as the sun began to set hours later, but the most splendid looking pine tree with long reaching branches weighed down with snow invited her with great promise.

 

“Ow,” she muttered, some needles pricking her palms as she shook off a spare amount of winter's frost so the limb lifted. It made for a beautiful door to the space preserved underneath, and she found herself to be the luckiest girl alive to only have to clear away a few inches of pine needles for flat dirt. She was thinking that someone divine was brilliant to make those needles acidic enough to kill other plants.

 

She lay down on the stiff skin, wincing at the cold earth as it greeted her side with a numbing warmth. Her stomach also hurt, but Kagome didn't want to trek hundreds of feet through the night just to avoid the scent of food being around. She slept on an empty stomach instead, her weapons propped against the trunk at her back.

 

It felt like only a few seconds of blackness had passed before a shrill morning song had her startling awake and onto her hands and knees. Her head hit the cold-stiffened branch at the same time she realized how agonizingly stiff her limbs were.

 

“Oooooow...” she seethed, shifting her body in slow yet jerky gestures so she sat on her rump. Her hair was a mess, which meant that mother nature really didn't mind there being a bump under it, and her back was killing her. She hated the ground... It was good for her feet, and that was about it.

 

Eating only half her fill in beef jerky she continued on her way, imagining that after another day she'd do anything for a strawberry after all this meat...

 

“I'm a bitch, I'm a lover,” Kagome found herself singing as she trudged onward through the repetitive scenery. It was a song Ayame had shared with her a while back, of course being in English for the sole purpose of practicing her English accent. She wanted to be a translator, and so Kagome was now stuck with the chorus on loop in her head as she dragged herself onward. “I'm a child, I'm a mother! I'm a sinner, I'm a saint! I do not feel ashamed! I'm you're hell, I'm your dream! I'm nothin' in between you know you wouldn't want it any other way!”

 

She paused in her panting to grab a clump of snow off some pine needles, and shoving it into her mouth she pretended for all she was worth that it was the best frappuccino to ever be made and chewed. It melted faster if she chewed it, and it gave her something to do with her mouth other than sing while drooling half-melted snow...

 

Swallowing, she sighed, and her breath came back cold. Her entire face was cold. The day was absolutely frigged and she would like nothing more than to turn around and go back to sleep. That, however, would be very dumb of her...

 

“Where was I...? Bitch, lover ... hell, I'm your dream... Hm-hm-hm-wouldn't want it any other way! So... Damn... So, ah, take me as I am! This may mean you'll have to be a stronger man! Rest assured, that when I start to - to something, and today won't mean a THING!”

 

She knew she butchered that. Thusly why the chorus was in her head... It actually stayed there, because while her mind was focused on songs Ayame sent her the runner up was something called 'Barbie Girl'... Oh, kami, that one made Kagome scared. So, of course, she recorded it, duct tapped the recorder above Sota's door and hit play before running off to practice... He hadn't said anything, but Kagome found her payback in a fascinating and artistic rendition of toilet paper and what must have been a whole jar of raisins in her room... He really did have splendid ways to get back at her.

 

Anyway, back to being a bitch... “-I'm a lover! I'm a child, I'm a m-YEEEH!!”

 

She nearly fell on her ass when something jumped not three feet in front of her. It immediately ran away to leave her alone with her racing heart.

 

“... A rabbit??” she asked, the blood pounding through her ears still. She began laughing at herself. “A rabbit! A normal rabbit! Haha!! Not a demon! I was scared of a bunny!”

 

Then the things which were chasing said little bunny came crashing into sight and onward, and one of them stilled in front of her.

 

A wolf looked simply terrifying when you saw it in the dead of winter and when it stopped chasing a tiny rabbit for food with five others to look at you...

 

“... Hi,” Kagome offered. At least her heart simply gave up and self-terminated to spare her the blood pounding in her ears.

 

The wolf abruptly jumped in place and landed with its forelegs stretched out, neck fur spiked, and teeth glistening. Its lips twitched, Kagome noted, while it growled at her.

 

“...” Thusly, a human learned that silence was a good thing... Until the wolf moved again, then Kagome wanted to be anything but silent. The wolf took a few steps towards her, her hand clasped over the hilt of her sword, and it stopped upon sniffing the air.

 

Kagome, stunned, watched as the poor animal suddenly crept onto its belly and whined.

 

...

 

Apparently, this was one of Koga's...

 

Kagome then proceeded to watch how that one whine turned to a grand total of six...

 

Her shoulders slumped, and she tried to blow her bangs out of her face with a vexed sigh. It didn't work. What was it with her and canines?? She was never getting a puppy, even if her life depended on it. It would be the thing to put her six feet under, she just knew it.

 

“You know, you guys owe me,” Kagome stated to herself, watching six tails fluff the snow like it was pillow stuffing as she handed them each a piece of dried meat. Ugh... That meant she had two left for tomorrow, and Kaede said the trip could be longer. If she got lost, which would be a sin in and of itself, she'd probably die. The only things to eat here were pine needles, sparrows, and quick-footed hares. ... Then again, if you seasoned a rabbit with pine and sparrow, or skipped the seasoning and just slowly roasted it over a spit...

 

Great, now her disgusting imagination had her stomach demanding food.

 

“You owe me big time,” she restated, emphasizing the word big by making the six wrappers very small in her hands before tucking them away. She'd burn them the next time she saw a fire.

 

Looking up from her garbage bag sleeve, she gave the wolves a flat stare as they innocently sought more food.

 

“Go beg your leader for food, not me,” she told them. They didn't listen. “Go. Away. Beg to Koga. ... Now.”

 

They still didn't listen...

 

Alright then... They were canines, right?? Breaking off a stick from a tree, Kagome waggled it and threw the darn thing as far as she could.

 

The wolves regarded her like she was special... In a very special sort of special way.

 

“Shut UP and fetch!” she yelled, pointing at the stick that was probably buried under five feet of snow from throwing momentum anyway. A few of the wolves wagged their tails. “UGH!! You need to be trained!” The rest wagged their tails too. “... You now what? Fine! I'm on my way now, and you can sit here and beg the memory of me!”

 

They stood and backed away when Kagome walked straight through the crowd of them, hands raised as a sign of her surrendered attempt and to show she held no food.

 

A grand half an hour later, Kagome still refused to acknowledge the fact that those wolves were tailing her...

 

“Every thing's fine,” she told herself. “Just you wait Kagome! Koga's going to come whirling in to save the day again at any minute!”

 

Two hundred and thirty eight minutes later, Kagome decided to give up on that vague hope.

 

“So, I've decided,” she began, still not turning around to see the six smiling, panting, tongue-lolling faces, “that if anything, I'm using all of you as a social distraction.”

 

There were no protests, so she decided to spill the last few years of her heart and soul out to these dumb hungry beasts as she followed the now setting sun over a large fallen tree. The wolves jumped over it easily, whereas she thought she pulled her crotch muscle trying to do it in one leap of a step. That wasn't her most brilliant of plans.

 

“Oh, sure, make it look so easy,” she scoffed at the still clueless animals. “That reminds me of him too. The only difference is that he was less furry in places and didn't have the balls to pant.”

 

Her crowd went silent, and she looked around to see that they were all simply distracted at the same time. When they saw her looking at them they continued to pant and wag their bushy tails. “Ugh... Why me? First I'm stuck with Inuyasha for a year, then Sesshomaru for a month... Am I bound to be followed by all of you for a week now?!”

 

Their tails wagged harder.

 

“... Well, I suppose that if that's the way things work, the next dog I run into I'll only have to suffer with for a day... Maybe it'll be Sesshy. I have to say 'thanks' to him sometime, and I can't think of any way for him to swallow it easily. Which is a bonus, actually. While he chokes I might have a few seconds to savor it before decapitation...”

 

A wolf actually scoffed at her, mouth still smiling as it breathed laboriously, then rolled a few times in the snow and shook off.

 

“Yeah, you're right,” Kagome sighed, continuing on her way. “I'm a big talker... Just you wait though, I'll get him back. That jackass not only took the Jewel with him to this time to seal the well, but he also took a month of my time and slaughtered it beforehand, and right between those two events he took my dignity too! Ugh! You should have seen me! I was getting to be ridiculously head over heals for him, which is SUCH a scary thing, you have NO idea! That guy could probably kill his first child without blinking... And so, after everything he did, and everything we did, and just everything in general, what does he do? I'll tell you what he does, he freakin rips the well right out of the freakin ground and calls it good! Oh, he'll be shocked to see me. I'm going to make his life the replicated living hell he put me through!”

 

The wolves stopped when she did, and she turned around to regard them with a hand on her hip. Dang, she was panting too... “You think he has anything like servants, or is he just a wandering regal jerk?”

 

There was no answer, so she gave a 'huh' of consideration to fill in the silence and walked onward. “I hope he does have servants... It would be great to embarrass him before one thing led to another.”

 

The same wolf scoffed again. Did it have something up its nose?? She had a feeling that her guides to the 'deep end' were beginning to figure her out though.

 

“You know what's the worse about this though?? Is that I want to kick his ass, and I want to scream in his face about all of the things that have been wrong in my life since he entered it... Then when I would be done with that, I'd want to tackle him to the ground and make him beg for mercy...”

 

She shivered, not for the cold though. “That'd be nice... Oye, those dreams are getting to me...” Her foot sank especially deep into the snow, but she didn't curse over it. “Maybe I'd beg for mercy too? Seems like he'd want to invoke as much... Hm...”

 

Yanking herself viciously from her feminine daze of pretty hair Kagome actually felt kind of embarrassed. Even in front of the wolves.

 

“Tell anyone all that, and I'll-”

 

They were gone?? What the hell?!

 

“I want my meat back!!” she yelled at the woods, but to no avail. Dammit! Just when she was beginning to get use to them and enjoy their company, they up and leave! That so much... SO MUCH like a DOG!! AAAAGH!!

 

She got over her abandonment though by the time she found an even bigger pine tree than the one before.

 

“Darn it,” she muttered, peering in to see the jabby-sticks-of-doom being far too low for comfort. Either she spent twenty minutes snapping them off and risk an eye with how she tossed and turned at night, or kept on walking until she found another heavenly looking spot.

 

...

 

“I'm making quite the list,” she told herself, steadily breaking both the bone-width branches and her patience. “I hate dogs. I hate the ground. I dislike wolves. Now, I hate sap.”

 

Her whole body shook with the next branch snap, and she reached up to tuck her unruly hair back behind her ear. It followed her finger after she let go.

 

“I definitely hate sap...”

 

Sap loved her though. She woke up to it clinging none-too-tenderly to her locks. She wasn't going to mess with it though. She didn't want to have a tender scalp on top of an empty stomach.

 

“Here bunny, bunny, bunny,” she called lazily ahead as it began to snow again. It had actually worked once. “Here, food...”

 

Her stomach was calling too. But, she only had to wait another day. Yeah, just a day. She could handle it...

 

By the time she began singing again something ancient yet familiar stroked the pack of her conscience and trickled down her neck like ice water.

 

She stopped and smiled. It was a good feeling.

 

The red clad teenager simply stared at her, and a small smirk of happiness and disbelief crossed his face.

 

“Hey,” she greeted, probably possessing that same stupid expression.

 

“Hey,” Inuyasha replied. He looked down, then at the sky. “You're late.”

 

She couldn't help but to giggle, wiping unbidden tears from her eyes. “Why are we just standing here?”

 

She ran into her friend's arms, and hugged him tightly. He was the same. He hadn't aged at all. Maybe he'd grow bodily a few years by the time she died.

 

“What happened to your hair?”

 

... Oye. “It's called sap.”

 

She felt him playing with the ends. “No, I mean it's longer.”

 

“Oh!” she replied, letting go and pulling some over her shoulder. That's right, it use to be shorter... She hadn't noticed since she's been living with it. Now the dark ends curled in slightly where her ribs ended.

 

“It looks good,” Inuyasha informed her. She was then reminded that his hands were still on her hips, and her breath hitched. So many years ago, she'd have savored the feeling. Or, she thought she would. Of late, it's been another set of hands stroking her fantasies. Still, she was very inexperienced with men. She knew she loved Inuyasha, but since Sesshomaru came into her life she had discovered a new emotion. So... What did she feel?

 

“Um, Inuyasha?” she asked, meeting his amber eyes a tad hesitantly. She was a little uncertain, and her heart raced so fast that she couldn't feel anything else.

 

“You're blushing,” he stated, lowering his hands.

 

Oh, kami, now or never. She moved too quickly for either of them to think about it, and soon she felt his mouth against hers and her arms around his neck. He had embraced her again, but his mouth was still. Apparently he was shocked.

 

Good. Even after two seconds he didn't respond.

 

She grabbed the sides of his face and held him away from herself. She didn't want him to respond. She didn't want him to!!

 

“Now you're smiling,” he whispered, blinking. He wasn't phased at all, nor into it.

 

She chuckled once under her breath, whispering back as though to not disturb the falling snow. “I'm sorry. I had to be sure of something.”

 

They were silent for a second, and the sound of something dropping had both looking to the side. They didn't see anything, until Kagome sensed another old and familiar feeling.

 

Averting her gaze slightly she saw the black sheath she had assumed was a sapling, standing straight up in the snow, and in it was the Shikon no Tama.

 

Sesshomaru was there...

 

...

 

... ...

 

... Oh, no...

 

Before she could dread what the demon lord had just seen the sword came to life, like it had so long ago to lead the man back to the past.

 

She and Inuyasha stared as the blade unsheathed itself in an almost happy manner before sailing straight into Kagome's chest.

 

...

 

Yep... It was there...

 

...

 

... ...

 

“Kagome? You awake?”

 

She opened her eyes as a hand slapped her cheek repeatedly, and realized she had just passed out.

 

“WHA-?!” she cried, sitting up and grabbing her chest. There was no hole. She wasn't bleeding buckets. She was sweating buckets, but not bleeding! Thank kami! ... Was it a dream? Oh, wait. No, it happened, her chest stung.

 

“What happened?” she asked, still shocked enough to pull off a toddler's expression as she groped herself in confusion.

 

“Well, Tenseiga said 'hello',” Inuyasha replied, the blade sheathed again and laying in the snow nearby. “Just be glad it wasn't a transformed Tetsusaiga.”

 

That was a joke? She just got stabbed!! ... Well, it was the thought that count... And her chest still hurt, but she knew why.

 

Tenseiga was plain old Tenseiga again. In other words, the demon sword decided to hand over the Jewel it most likely felt tainted with.

 

That was only one pain in her chest. Despite how much she hated to admit it, the thought of Sesshomaru seeing her kiss Inuyasha was a pain she didn't want to bear, and it made her heart want to stop.

 

Damn dog...

 

A/N: ... I wasn't expecting this to be ten pages...

 

Well, I hope everyone isn't confused beyond repair. :D If so, I answer questions if they're asked (unless they give away the plot... :x), so feel free to share any befuddlement.

 

And, that's a short author's note! I hope everyone enjoyed the second chapter! If things really haven't made sense in the last few chapters, then I'm sorry. My mind has been racing of late, and not with this story. I'll clear anything up in the update, sound good?

 

Anyway, review please! :D Thanks for reading!