InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shippo's First Rut ❯ Shippo's Flight ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

 

Shippo's Flight

 

 

The night seemed to close upon Shippo, and the forest suddenly seemed oppressive to him. The very thing that had drawn him here was now pushing him away. He had failed! Quickly he got dressed, his mind spinning and his heart full of hurt. There was no way he was going back to Miroku and Sango's house a failure, he just could not bear it! And forget about going back to InuYasha and Kagome, although he longed for the comfort he knew he would receive from Kagome. If InuYasha did not kill him, he would die of humiliation at the looks the hanyou would give him.

 

There was no other recourse, Shippo had to flee the forest and the village, go somewhere far away and wait until the rut was over.

 

`Sorry I let you down Miroku,' Shippo thought. `You tried to help me but it did not work due to my being raised by my surrogate family. I don't blame them for what happened, how can I? But all the same…'

 

With a heavy heart, Shippo fled the forest, in the opposite direction of the village. Tree branches lashed at him and he tripped over tree roots, but that did not stop him. He pushed himself until the dawn, where he found himself far away from InuYasha's forest. Exhausted, he collapsed.

 

When Shippo woke, he was still in misery. Although hungry, he had no appetite for food, just got up and kept moving. Those he came across got out of his way without a word, as his pain filled eyes did not to seem to see them. They were turned inward, where his failure devoured at him and sent pain though out his body.

 

For three days Shippo moved on, and he became weak and ill. Finally his body could take no more, and he collapsed on a beach into a deep, blessed unconsciousness.

 

The lone figure of a girl wandered the beach. The wind blew her long, silver -gray hair and she clutched herself below her breasts with her crossed arms. She was filled with a restlessness that had driven her out of her home, and she breathed in the salty air hoping to clear her unease. She almost missed him, the ragged figure collapsed where the waves meet the sand. Startled, she drew back a moment, then a frown of concern creased her brow and she knelt by his side.

 

`It's a kitsune,' she thought as she looked him. `I wonder what happened to him.'

 

Something made her reach out, and she lightly stroked the hair away from his face. Then she bent her cheek towards his parted lips, to see if he was breathing. It seemed he was alive, if barely.

 

`What should I do?' She thought. `I can't just leave him here. I will take him back to Mother, she will tell me what must be done.'

Carefully she rolled him over, and then slung one of his limp arms over her shoulders. She was strong for her size, and Shippo had lost weight from days of not eating and his relentless flight. She put her arm around his waist, and slowly dragged him down the beach to her home.

 

“Mother!” She called as she reached the small hut. “Come quickly!”

 

The door opened, and her mother gasped, putting a hand to her mouth, then went out to help her daughter.

 

“Oh my,” she said as they carried Shippo into the room. “What happened to him?”

 

“I don't know,” she replied. “But he is in bad shape.”

 

They carefully lowered Shippo to a mat on the floor, and her mother knelt down and touched his neck. Shippo murmured incoherently, moving his head a little, and subsided.

 

“He's burning up with fever,” said her mother. “Go get some cool rags and lie them across his brow.”

 

The girl did what she was told, quickly dipping the rags in a bucket of cool water they kept for drinking. Then she knelt down by her mother and gently draped the rags across Shippo's forehead. This is elicited a sigh from the unconscious kitsune.

 

“He looks like he has not eaten in days,” said her mother. “Look, his ribs are showing through his torn kosode.”

 

“What do you think caused this?” The girl said. “Why would he appear so sick and emaciated on our beach? I see no signs of attack, no battle scars.”

 

Her mother regarded Shippo thoughtfully, then darkness crossed her features, and she closed her eyes and sighed. It was about time she explained things to her daughter. Her daughter had shown signs that she was restless and she had caught a longing on her face recently. But she had hoped to hold off a little longer before she had to explain this.

 

“He's a kitsune,” her mother said quietly. “And this is the time of the youkai mating season. Something must have gone terribly wrong to put him in this state.”

 

“The…youkai mating season?” The girl said hesitantly, and blushed, hunching her shoulders.

 

“Yes, you must have felt it,” her mother continued gently. “Maybe it was what drew you to the young kitsune here.”

 

“I don't want to talk about Mother!” She blurted out quickly. “He is sick and needs our help!”

 

Nodding her head in agreement, her mother pursued it no further. She went and found a blanket to cover Shippo, because he began to shiver in his sleep. They laid it over him, and continued to lay cool rags on his forehead when he showed signs of fever.

 

For the next two days the girl hardly left his side. Shippo drifted in and out of consciousness, but was so delirious he hardly noticed the girl who took care of him so tenderly. She fed him miso broth, wiping when it dribbled down his chin. When he needed to relieve himself, she half-carried him outside. By the third morning, the fever broke, and he showed some signs of recovery.

 

As if rising from a hazy, pain-filled nightmare, Shippo opened his eyes. Where was he? What had happened? Squinting about the dim hut, he tried to remember. The sounds and smells of the ocean hit his senses, and he wondered at it. Then the memories of the rejection by the female kitsune came flooding back, and he groaned.

 

“Are you awake?” A sweet and gentle voice said. “How are you feeling?”

 

Groggily Shippo turned his head towards the sound of the voice, and made out the outline of a slim girl, about his own age. As she moved in closer, he saw her face, pinched with concern.

 

“Wh-who are you?” Shippo said wonderingly, his voice creaky from not being used in so long.

 

“My name is Shiori,” said the girl. “I found you lying unconscious and sick on the beach, and brought you back to my home to help you.”

 

“Shi..ori?” Shippo said wonderingly.

 

Why did he know that name? Then she came closer to him, and he made out her coloring. Memories flooded in of the bat demons who lived by the sea, and the hanyou girl who was caught between them and the humans who lived there. InuYasha had almost thought he would have to kill her to get the red Tessaiga. When had she grown up and become so…beautiful?

 

“Don't try to move too much,” Shiori said, laying a gentle hand on his forehead. “You are still weak.”

 

Shippo sighed and closed his eyes contentedly under her touch. Who would have thought, he had been saved by the hanyou girl Shiori….