InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tensai of the Ookami-Inu ❯ Ao ( Chapter 2 )

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

When Kagome had awoken, she felt as if her head was going to explode. She was dizzy and tired, and nothing made sense. The last thing she remembered was that she killed someone. Normally, Kagome would have started to cry at the thought that she had hurt someone, but then she remembered; that woman had tried to kill her and Souta too. Her father always had said that she should never regret what she did in self-defense or survival.
Getting up with some difficulty, she dusted off her under-armor outfit and picked up her sais off the floor. She looked around for signs of Souta; there were none. The details of what happened not fully registering; she took the stairs by twos and went into Souta's room. Souta was usually neat, with the exception of magazines and clothes littering the floor. Something else caught Kagome's eye however. The zip up case for his bo was on the floor, ripped open violently and hastily. His wet towel was discarded on the floor and his draws still open.
Kagome went to her room quickly. She opened the door to see her room was still in order. All except for the fact that her bed sheets and closet door wee ripped open as if someone was looking for something. Going into her closet, she put on a winter hakama and haroi and ran downstairs.
A loud screeching call caught her attention. A crow was inside the living room. It flapped its black wings and tilted its head from side to side as if calculating something. A lamp, which had not been turned off, reflected a sliver glow into the night on a throwing star imbedded in the floor. Kagome walked over to it, ignoring the protesting caws of the bird. She was going to pick it up when she noticed Souta's necklace. It was a black cord rope that had a crow hanging from it. Souta never took it off, never. Just like their father, Souta's animal totem was a crow: cunning, curious, and intelligent. Kagome whipped around to find the one that was already there. It was staring at her before it hopped to the doorway.
Something in Kagome told her that Souta was not coming back. No matter how hard she wanted to believe in those movies where some animal leads you to your lost love one, she couldn't. She knew...she knew. Kagome couldn't bear it. More than anything right now, she wished she had her blanket. Souta had teased her and said she was a scary cat without it, so she had let it behind. Striding to the coat rack, she put on her puffy coat and winter boots and followed the crow with her sais in hand. When it reached the first step, it took flight into the dark sky.
Kagome looked around for any signs of Souta as she pocketed the necklace...footprints maybe, but there were none. The snow was fresh and unmarked. Kagome had saw the gleam, but her mind dismissed it as a spiders thread. As her foot broke it, she never registered the explosion, only that she was sent flying forwards into a foot of snow.

Kagome had awoken to the annoying feeling of someone poking her.
"Souta, cut it out." she mumbled automatically. But then reality hit her. She shot up; wishing she hadn't afterwards for the ringing in her ears was ridiculously loud. It was still dark, and still just as cold. The imprint she had made in the snow now trapped warmth, and her under-amour prevented any water from touching her skin. The crow looked up to her before flying off. Before she could thank it, or even acknowledge it, sirens came into her view. Her ears were still clogged and ringing, preventing her from hearing it's approach sooner than she could have.
The ambulance pulled in front of her and a small woman came out. She was short with brown hair in a tight bun and a very stern look on her face. She began to shout orders and pointed a selection of men and woman out to the house and around. Kagome's body was now functioning almost fully. The smell of burning wood caught her nose, and she turned to see the vacation home on fire. Before she could do anything, she was whisked away by the stern woman, and into the back of the ambulance.
They were speaking to her, but she couldn't hear them clearly. They began to check her anyway, however. Seeing the blood dripping from her ears, they apparently understood. She let them twist her head this way and that, let them flashlights at her and check her limps and organs; she didn't care. She watched, as some kind of security pulled up and immediately thought, where's her mother and father? Seeing that she was okay, she was given a blanket and hot chocolate. She sipped it quietly as she watched the scene. Kagome's eyes glazed over after about 5 minuets. When she snapped out if her seizure she realized that she could hear again.
The woman came up to her again. She began to speak in a foreign language that Kagome did not understand. After a second, the woman realized Kagome did not catch on. She spoke again.
"My name is Mulan (I know it's Chinese, but I don't any Mongolian names.). You are okay now and I want you to come with me. Do you have a name?" The woman's japanese was a little rusty, but Kagome understood.
"Kagome." The woman nodded, apparently satisfied, and helped Kagome into the passenger seat of the ambulance.
"We're going to the hospital to make sure you have no internal wounds, okay?" Kagome nodded. She really didn't care.

The ride had been silent and bumpy. Kagome had lost track of time as her eyes glazed over and she stared blankly out the window. She merely fingered her sais that sat protectively under her coat; she had refused to give them to the people checking her over. The only time she had bothered to listen to anything Mulan had said, was when they rode by another scene. Body bags were in view, and a fire was still being put out. From what Mulan had said, two people were snowmobile and crashed. It was after that that Kagome had blocked her out with a mental barrier...
She was snapped out of her trance like state when Mulan had slammed on the breaks. Kagome was sure that if she had been wearing her seat belt, she would now be apart of the windshield. Looking ahead to see what caused the sudden stop, she saw a wall of snow. Some of which was still rolling, creating golf-sized balls at the foot of the recent hill. It was obvious that the snow had just fallen there.
Two loud thumps were heard on top of the car, and the woman swore in a language that Kagome did not know. The driver’s door was ripped open and the driver barley had time to breathe before she was sliced clean across the throat. From what her brother told her, the woman had about 14 more seconds before her brain suffocated and she died.
Kagome's door was violently ripped open straight after. The small girl was already pumped with adrenaline and frightened, so her first instinct was to lash out, and that she did. She didn't even hear the woman cry in agony of being cut straight across her eyes as Kagome scrambled to the back to the van, kicked open the door, and ran out. Kagome screamed as she saw the driver’s murderer look at her with blood lustful eyes. The adrenaline was overwhelming her so much that all she could think of doing was to stare in horror as the killer slowly walked towards her with a dagger dripping in blood.
Something dived, and tore a horrible cry from the woman. The mask the woman had been wearing to hide her identity was torn off, leaving huge scars in it's wake. The woman turned to see the offending blur but was forced to dive to the ground to avoid it once more. Kagome took off into the woods that surrounded the area, never looking thinking about where she was going, nor seeing the woman rub her tattoo of a viper on her wrist.
Kagome ran until she thought her lungs might burst. But in her mind, she had to keep running. She was now so deeply into the forest that she could barley seeing the sky.
Even with the cold air stinging her nose, Kagome still could detect the slightest trail of water in the air. She found it not to far from where she was, and climbed a large pine tree. Taking her sai, she cut the bark from a large branch about 15 feet from the ground and hollowed out the branch slightly so it was not to round. She jammed her sais into the bark next to her firmly for balance, really not wanting to fall from a tree and into the claws of a predator. She had barley pulled her arms into her coat and settled down before sleep over took her.

Kagome awoke to a reaching pain in her abdomen. She clutched it tightly and nearly screamed when she realized she wasn't in bed. She looked around herself; she was in a tight ball, her back against the tree, and her knees and arms along with her head had been curled inside her coat. Kagome had been warm, besides the fact that snow was now gently piled on the top of her head. Shaking her head, she took her sais out from the places she had jammed them in last night and prepared to jump down. She hung from the branch by her hands for a brief second before letting go. Her feet went into the snow nearly past her ankles, telling Kagome that now must have fallen all night to get this thick through such a dense canopy. Kagome's stomach growled again, and she nearly growled herself of pain.
Kagome went back to the small lake and looked around. From the sudden drop in the horizon on a small part of the lake, there was a tiny waterfall or a river flow at least, so the water a recycled. Satisfied, Kagome cupped her hands in the freezing water and drank some gently. She looked around quickly for rocks and began building a small pile. The water would be frozen by tonight at this rate, and she would dehydrate without it. Kagome looked around once more. She would need shelter from the wind and snow. She walked straight backwards from her rock pile about 3 feet from the shore. She had walked about 10 minutes when she saw a natural earth pile made from pine leaves and twigs. If should could make something out of it...
Kagome had been thinking for a long while. After thinking, she tried to see if she could possibly hollow out the earth pile, but to no avail. The flimsy pile was more air then anything, it was only holding up because of the large branch that went straight through it. Kagome sat and thinked for a while, maybe she could make a hut? She smirked to herself at her own brilliance.
Sometime later, Kagome had managed to cut branches from the surrounding pine trees and stick the pointed ends that were cut into the snow covered ground, while the full leaves made up a roof. Once the top of her 'hut' was full, she got regular sticks and tried to fill the spaces on the sides. The last thing she did was dug out the ground and snow from inside the hut until the hard earth was left. She crawled inside of her tiny hut; it had taken half the day and most of her strength to this. She felt a definite chill drift through one of the walls. She would have to fix that later. And now that she thought of it, when snow piles on the roof, it would be freezing in here, and the whole thing would probably collapse. Kagome sighed.
'If Souta were here, he'd...' Kagome stopped her thought. Reality had hit her, her family was dead.
'Those snowmobilers, they were...'. Kagome put two and two together. Her parents were the snowmobilers, and if Souta didn't come after her after she had passed out twice, then no one was looking for her, except that woman. Kagome shivered as she recalled the murder in the woman’s eyes. The little girl began cry, thinking no one would hear her, thinking she was alone.
It was well into the afternoon that Kagome's stomach began to bother her again. She had cried herself to sleep and now felt like crying again because of pain. Peaking out cautiously, she looked around in search of something to eat. It was then she remembered that she didn't know the first thing about tracking prey. Her father had never got around to that, but he had taught her some berries that were good. Kagome groaned, tracking berries would take forever. She walked back to the water, needing to shift the rock so they did not freeze in the water as well. She was hoping that the salt on them would prevent them from freezing.
As she walked towards the lake, she realized that there were tracks, slender, but split tracks outlining the lake. The first the she thought of was a deer of some kind, so climbing the trees, she followed them. She was 1/4 way around the entire lake when her prey came into view. He was an old buck who was getting just the last of his velvet off his antlers. He was large, a sign of a good youth, but Kagome was sure that this old buck would not survive another winter. Concealing herself in the trees, she waited until it put its head down before throwing her sai with awesome speed. It struck it buck right across the neck, cleanly and quickly killing him. Kagome was almost drooling at the sight before she snapped back to reality. What has she become? At first she was killing for self-defense, but now she was enjoying it? This would fall under the survival category, but she was an animal lover right?
Shaking her head of thoughts, she surveyed her kill. It was very large, she would be able to carry to whole body, but the smell was bound to attract predators. Working quickly, she cut deeply into the thigh and shoulder and chest and took very large chunks. Securing them in her bare arms (she couldn't stand getting blood on the only thing she had to keep her warm) she walked farther away from her hut and the carcass and started a fire. Cooking the meat quickly, she devoured it in a matter of minutes. Walking cautiously over the carcass again, she was happy to find nothing had eaten it. Now much lighter, she heaved it over her shoulder and put it high in a tree for later. It was getting dark and she had done her best to lick the blood from her arms, hands, and face. She could imagine how silly she looked licking her hands and then wiping her face with them.
A caw sounded overhead. She looked up to see a crow sitting on a branch of a tree. Before she could even shoo it from her precious carcass, the crow took flight again.

Kagome had been following the crow for what had to be thirty minutes before she lost sight of it. She had been to distracted because she saw that this ground was covered in growing grass and not a flake of snow. Wondering if she had crossed the border into another country, she continued to venture deeper until heard the splashes of water and happy yips and chirps. Curious, she held her bloody sai at the ready and crept closer. Her jaw dropped at the sight of a hot spring 3 times the size of any tub. The only thing that kept her from jumping in it was that there were hairy, red-faced monkeys inside of it. She huffed; she was full and dirty, and in so much need of a bath. She was thinking of shaking the bushes when the monkeys raised their noses to the air and ran for their lives. Kagome wasted no time stripping and jumping in, hissing at the hot water touching her skin.
She had just got done scrubbing herself when something set off her senses. Figuring it was the monkeys coming for revenge, she hurried back into her under-armor with huge difficulty and put on her kimono, boots, and coat, and ran at the speed of light back to her 'hut', trying not to trip as she laughed at the thought of monkey revenge, but totally unaware that it was not monkeys that alarmed her...
She had arrived back at her hut at nightfall. She realized that the breeze really did leak through her walls at a gentle drift, but enough to annoy the hell out of her. Much to tired to think of a way to fix it, she went to sleep.

When ad awakened the next morning, she guessed it was about noon. She had slept very late, and the sun was beating overhead as. As she anticipated, water leaked through the roof of her 'hut'. Thinking for a bit, she came up with an idea.
Two hours later, Kagome surveyed her work. She had packed a good layer of mud on her tiny house, blocking out wind, light, and coldness, but keeping in warmth. For several days she slept warmly, drank from her tiny hole in the ice, hunted deer that were not pregnant or nursing, bathed in the hot spring, and mourned her loss. She had gotten over the feeling over the feeling of someone watching her days ago, now so used to her routine that she felt like she did this everyday.
It had been just like every other day. She was down to the last bit of meat from the carcass she hunted 3 days ago, and would need to hunt again probably in another two days. She stretched and drank from her hole in the ice before leaving in search of small prey and then eating, bathing, and carving tools. Out of the antlers from her kills, she had made a comb, an arrowhead, and a knife for carving bark. Winter was the time for sap, and the sticky substance did good to fix holes and cracks in the mud on her hut. When she awoke the next morning, it was not the same.

Kagome awoke, feeling much more warmer than usual. It was the middle of January, why was it so warm it was almost hot? It couldn't be a fire, because the only fires she built were to cook meat and she built those far away.
Sighing at the fact that she would have to get up and out of her nice, war, dark hut, she opened her eyes to meet crystal clear, sky blue ones. Startled, she jumped back and grabbed a sai, causing the owner of the eyes to jump also. Gabbing her other sai, she scrambled out of her hut and looked around. Cowering behind a tree, feigning a dominant stance, a she-wolf stared at her. Kagome was sure of a few things: the wolf was not a full wolf. Wolves cannot have blue eyes, wolf demons, yes, but wolves, no. This wolf was half dog. Another thing was she was young, and alone. A wolf so young could have only been abandoned or a wanderer. Normally, wolves would howl if they found something that would require back up, right? Why was this wolf staring at her?
Kagome hadn't realized that she had gotten lost in the wolf's blue eyes. And the composure she had developed from two years of martial arts training, strong, sure, was intimidating on the young wolf. She had put her ears back and her head and tail down and began to whimper. Kagome looked at it in confusion, her innocent face twisting. What Kagome had not realized was that in her confused face, her lips had parted to reveal her teeth. In the wolf's eyes, Kagome had just denied the claim of submission for a further one. The she-wolf had crouched on her belly and began to crawl like a blind newborn puppy towards Kagome. Once it got to her feet, she rolled on her back, revealing her belly. Kagome understood, the wolf was showing submission to her, accepting Kagome as her leader. Following her new role, Kagome petted the wolf's stomach, which gladly complied with turning her tail into a fan, and walked to get a drink of water.
Kagome had not fully understood the role she had just took on. Her father had always taught her that wild animals were wild, and were to be treated with caution. So, grudgingly, Kagome turned her back on the wolf. She didn't want to try and tame it only to have her throat ripped out later on.
As she walked to her water hole, she realized the wolf was following her. When she would turn around, the she-wolf would keep her head and tail down and walk on the side of her and lean against her legs, like a dog waiting to be pet. When Kagome would reach her hand towards the dogs’ neck to scratch her ear, she would immediately turn over on her back.
Kagome sighed, frustrated. Now, she had a half-wolf that she couldn't get rid of. Come nighttime, the she-wolf would still sleep in the doorway of her hut, blocking out the cold air. The she-wolf would hunt a rabbit, and happily bring it back like a dog with a morning newspaper. Kagome found that she couldn't get rid of it, and she really didn't want to. So, she kept the little wolf, and christened her with the name Ao, meaning blue. Kagome began to hunt for two, taking turns catching prey and in return, she was allowed to accompany Ao on her hunts to learn to track.
As the snow got heavier, Kagome couldn't let Ao live outside like she was. Taking rocks, she cracked the entire backside of her hard mud hut and began to build once more the same way, but with much more twigs. When she was done, both she and Ao could fit comfortably, despite the low roof. On colder nights, they would snuggle together and kept each other warm, Ao more than happy to be used as a pillow. Kagome felt sorry for her; Ao did not have a family either. They were orphans, together.

Her feet pounded on the warm spring grass as her chest expanded and contracted with expert endurance. She opened her mouth to get more oxygen than her nose could provide, enjoying the warm air brushing the ridges of her mouth and giving her a taste of the wind. She soared over a fallen tree with expert grace and continued to run.
Her eyes darted to left, hearing the panting of another creature. Smiling, she hopped off the ground and sprang off of a tree, turning sharply to the right. As she saw the smoke from the chimney, she slowed, not wanting to attract any noise. She crouched in a favorite tree of hers as she awaited her 'sister'.
Ao came trotting up the Kagome's tree with a grin saying that she let Kagome go ahead. Kagome rolled her eyes, for a wolf, Ao was as stubborn as a mule. Kagome watched the new family settle into the newly built home. Staying hidden in the tree limbs, she stared at the house where she was last whole. The very house that her family had vacationed in 6 years ago. Kagome had never gone back to civilization. She had stayed in the forest with Ao, donning it her new home.
Her now very well developed muscles flexed and contracted as she shifted her weight on the branch with grace and silence. Her strong, overgrown nails bit into the bark for balance. Her hair was on her back, now down to her mid-back but neat from her bone-comb-grooming. She fingered her brother’s necklace that she had been wearing since that lonely night. Seeing that the new family had just moved in, she hopped out the tree and decided she'd wait to do what she needed to do.
Kagome had grown accustomed to life in the woods. She had made trails by scraping bark off trees, drank from the fresh lake, bathed in the hot spring that was usually filled with red-faced monkeys in the winter, and gained muscle. Between hunting, daily runs with a growing wolf, and swimming, Kagome's muscle mass was rather odd for a 12 year old. Her arms and legs were thick and her stomach was flat and slightly toned. Kagome had gotten the guts to look at the house after what happened when she realized that she couldn't fit into her clothes anymore. The only thing Kagome could fit was her old kimono, and only because it had been so big to start with. Her haroi sleeves had gotten to short, so she cut them off, and her hakama was now down to her knees. Her under-armor not loner fit her torso and hips; she cut the arms and legs and used them to keep her warm. Kagome obtained new clothes by waiting until the humans that moved in hung their clothes after washing them, and then stole what she needed. Sure there were probably rumors of a ghost or something around, but what did she care? She regrets nothing she did for survival.
Standing in a clearing of the canopy, she took hold of the crow totem between her two fingers and flashed it in the sun while letting out a long screech. She had sat and waited for about a minuete when a caw was heard behind her. She smiled; the crow that had helped her all that time now came to her call. She held out her arm and it landed there, pecking at the totem.
"Oh, stop," she said hoarsely. She didn't use her voice much, if at all. Ao understood her with hand signals and facial gestures, not commands. She pointed to the house and the crow took flight. Crows were intelligent animals, and after time, An'ya, as Kagome named her, learned that when Kagome sent her to the house, she was to watch it, and alert Kagome when the family left so she can do her 'shopping'.
Kagome had stayed close to the house, and waited about 3 hours before An'ya came back. Kagome nodded her thanks and gave the crow a scrap of meat she saved. She and Ao crept to the house and went in through the basement. The family had bags of clothes in the basement, so Kagome picked out a leather belt, some boots, and a large sweater. Outside, Ao stood watch, and at seeing Kagome, she ran back into the woods. Kagome understood why, the family was pulling up the long rode from the town.
When they had got back to their current dwelling, An'ya was there with something in her beak. Kagome's eyebrows furrowed as she dropped the clothes by her hut and took them from her. It was a charm bracelet from the town, probably from one of the tourist shops. Kagome looked back into An'ya's wise eyes, and understood. Kagome couldn't at like she just forgot anymore, she had to go back. She knew that she could have gone back after they had cleared the rode to the town just a few days after everything happened. But she was so lost and scared that she didn't want to go. When it had gotten warmer and she watched nature unfold, she couldn't bear to part with it, thus, leaving humanity and entering nature, where humanity once began and now forgotten. The only thin Kagome used that humans used, were combs, clothes, and her sais. She couldn't bear part with those either. They were still in good condition, seeing as she bathed with them to keep dried blood from tainting them, and she slept with them for protection. Kagome sometimes caught herself envying Ao and An'ya. They could live carefree, not in need of clothes or weapons, just the things that God gave them. Kagome sometimes even tried to deny her human blood, hating that it made her weak. Hating the colds she got every winter, but Ao wouldn't let her. The she-wolf would snap at her hands when Kagome tried to walk on them, and An'ya would bring her human things from he town, as if the remind her.
Kagome had to admit; she had to be better than any human. At such a young age, she doubted that anyone her age could climb trees as fast as her, or run as fast. She doubted they could hear deer’s rutting 2 miles away, or smell the tiny fragrant of plants of prey on the breeze. These are the things that she found that she was ignorant to when she lived with her parents. These are the things animals enjoyed, but humans took advantage of.
Kagome had tried to go to the town once. She was about a mile away when the smells of car exhaust and other air pollution, and the sounds of yelling people and children took over her and made her run away again. But by going down there, she realized that hunting season was in the spring/summer. Ao was almost shot once because of it; if Kagome had not intervened, then her sister would be dead right now. Once again, Kagome did not feel bad for killing for survival. When she hunts, she makes sure it happens clean and quickly, and she uses everything from the carcass: bone, skin, fur, meat, and hooves. When she killed the hunter, Kagome felt nothing; no pain, no remorse. But she felt a tiny tinge of hate when she looked to his lifeless body. She moved his body, so that anyone looking for him would not stumble upon her and family, but scrubbed herself red afterwards. She couldn't the stench of humans.
Lately however, An'ya had been ore and more things to Kagome, and eventually convinced Ao to help her move the stubborn human closer to town. Even though Ao was uncomfortable, she still helped. After 3 weeks of nagging and gifts, Kagome finally gathered the courage to move to town. She knew she would hate it, but she thought it was time to stop denying and facade the facts. She was human, but one of the few that polluted the earth with stinking smells, and ruined the sights and sounds with noisy and tall meaningless contraptions. Wearing a pair of stolen sweatpants, boots, and a stolen shirt, she slowly made her way to town with her sister trotting at her side, and her mother on her shoulder.
Translations:
An'ya- night
Ao- blue
Oba- aunt
So, what do ya think? R&R! (it means read and review sammy, lol.)
Chapter 3: Oba-Kimi