InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Freedom ❯ Seventeen ( Chapter 17 )

Kagome stood along the shore, the waves gently sweeping her feet,as she stooped down and ran her hands through the cool water, splashing her face. She felt at home here, soothed by the distant trill of seabirds circling high above her head and she turned her face up to the midday sun, relishing in its warmth. Strange, she couldn't remember feeling this much peace, since..She frowned, grasping for straws. Her mind was as blank as the cloudless sky.

Kagome found she liked the feeling and she allowed the peace to settle in her bones, she imagined for a moment that she could sprout wings and join the birds.

She began to walk along the shore, with no destination in mind, allowing the vast sea to comfort her. She squinted into the shallow waters, catching a glittering silver shell burrowed in the sand. Hesitating for a moment, she dug into the wet, bed of sand and made a small sound of delight, pulling free the most beautiful jewel that glowed with an ethereal light.

"Hello, gorgeous."She smiled softly, holding the pearl up to the sunlight, admiring its murky depths when suddenly, on its own volition it began to pulse as if it possessed a heartbeat of its own.

She gasped, a shadow of a memory snaked its way under her skin, shattering her calm. She stilled, anticipating the flash of a knife followed by the sharp pain.

"No." Kagome stumbled back, feeling like someone had struck her across the face. When she looked down, red began to bleed through her white robes, and she gingerly touched her stomach. But when she held her hands up, she blinked in confusion when they were clean of blood and there was nothing there but her crisp, unblemished robe.

That can't be right. She swiveled around, expecting someone to jump out from behind her. But behind her, stretched a desert of sand that rivaled the vast ocean. Her jaw slackened, as she stared down at the jewel in disbelief.

"You." Kagome said lowly. "You did this!" Kagome glowered at the tiny gem as if it were the bane of her existence.

"I wish you would shatter into a million pieces." She said miserably. She remembered now, in a sudden rush, she remembered that this dreadful thing had come out of her, was always inside of her. It had been inside of her, had been apart of her. And now in its freed state, she felt that she was holding a strange part of herself that she couldn't quite grasp, that had been forcibly removed.

"Oh, don't look so innocent now. You good for nothing bauble."

With a determined glint in her eye, she was going to use all of her strength to chuck it as far away as she could, but just as she raised her arm, a jolt of electricity shot through her and she hissed in pain.

"Get lost!" She tried again, but the same thing happened and she began to panic. All of a sudden, the jewel pulsed angrily, heating up in her palm until she was forced to drop it.

"Ow!" She held her smarting fingers to her chest, and looked up just as an unnatural wind swept across the shore, she realized in rapt horror that she was being lifted off her feet and she had nothing to grab a hold of.

"Put me down!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs, as she was being sucked into a vast universe inside of the gem, that sent her hurtling through a field of light, and she didn't know which way was up or down.

A spectrum of light hung above her head, spanning from yellow to green. Strands of light going every which way, weaved together, in and out, curling up, forming patterns in every direction. It was the most fascinating and frightening thing that she had ever seen.

She touched a strand that glimmered violet, and it burst into flames, and without warning she was yanked upward, like a fish caught on a hook swimming in the ocean of light. Kagome was pulled towards a whirlpool of shimmering golden light that opened into a doorway.

Kagome became aware that she was falling, and falling fast, as she was spat out of the whirlpool like a bad aftertaste. She swallowed her scream when she landed with a small off, on a patch of grass. Kagome opened one eye, then the other when she realized all of her limbs was still intact, and she was miraculously unharmed.

"I'm alive?" She gave a short breathy laugh. "I'm alive!" But it was too soon to give thanks.

Kagome gave a frightened yelp, as something whizzed above her head with alarming force and speed, and she finally attuned into her surroundings. Demons! And lots of them, too. Shoot! She was completely defenseless.

The giant bone boomerang that nearly took her head off, made its arc back, and whistled as it carved through a large swath that was picking off the handful of soldiers, struggling to fight back.

On her left, she watched as two soldiers were being overpowered by a lesser oni, whose strength was too much for the men. And then out of the corner of her eye Kagome caught, the strangest sight of a man sitting idly by a tree and filing his nails, as he ignored the carnage all around him. Ever so often, a demon would lurch, or slither near him and he would impale them quickly, before getting back to his task at hand.

"Would you please help!" The woman with the giant boomerang screamed, and it only took two seconds for her to drop her guard, before a particularly nasty bat demon, with one hateful eye trained intently on her tried to take a bite out of her, but before she could impale it with her short sword, a ferocious fire-cat demon leapt and tackled it to the ground.

The woman smiled in gratitude. They seemed to be a trained duo, as the woman threw her impressive boomerang, her furry companion would cover her back.

The man in question dug out the wax in his ear, and examined it before he addressed her. For some odd reason, the demons focused most of their attention on the woman, and the few soldiers The man didn't seem to care or be bothered by the carnage around him as his comrades were nearly overwhelmed by the opposing forces.

"Ugh, I just got my armor back from the laundress. Do you know how expensive it is to clean silk?" He paused, taking in the body count. " Especially in these times." He added for extra emphasis, sighing delicately, as he seemed to think something over.

"Besides, it wasn't my idea to go a-hunting for trouble. Remember? Who wanted to stop at a miserable village and play Ms. Hero? And who warned you to leave well enough alone. Hmph. I didn't come all this way to babysit, clean up your own mess."

As the man spoke, Kagome saw that a stray demon made a guttural sound as it dove straight for him, trying to snatch him in its rough talons. With cool, practiced ease, he unleashed his weapon, and Kagome watched in fascination as it swiveled, and coiled through the air, with serpentine grace and he beheaded the demon without batting an eyelash.

The woman screamed in frustration, as her sword broke on the scaly hide of demon, and she kicked it away, procuring a dagger from her belt and slit its throat. The last wave of the horde honed their attention on her, and the few soldiers that were doing their best to keep up and cover the slayer.

With a soft grunt, the woman threw her boomerang, but before it could return, a salivating creature with the head of a lion and the body of a scaly beast saw an opening, bouncing towards her exposed back with alarming speed.

"Watch out!" Kagome shouted, trying to warn the woman. But a gale of wind swept up, and she realized that they couldn't hear her. Way to almost give yourself away. Kagome lightly slapped her forehead.

But just in the knick of time, the slayer reached behind her back, and threw two daggers like well aimed darts. The beast fell dead in its tracks and Kagome sighed in relief.

"I didn't know that we were sitting on a hornets nest. You arrogant twat." The woman said the last portion under her breath.

Reinforcements arrived, soldiers poured in on horseback outnumbering the remaining demons, and slowly they managed to get the horde under control.

Finally, the man who refused to help his comrades got up and stretched, cracking his neck from side to side.

"Well that was a doozy." He yawned and rolled his shoulders, while the woman strapped her boomerang to her back and marched straight towards him, grabbing him by his collar.

"Are you completely out of your mind?!" She shouted in his face, and he recoiled as his face drew in a sneer.

"Watch it, slayer. Who died and made you general?" He pried her fingers off his collar.

"What kind of sadistic psycho sits and watches his comrades die in battle? Did I miss something, are or we not on the same team?"

"The only person I answer to, is the bossman. If you're too weak to fend off a pesky horde, maybe you should do yourself a favor and go home, and leave the the work to the men, girl. Out here, it's the law of survival, and the weak are prey for the strong." He kicked one of the dead soldiers away from him, and a nasty smile curved his lips as she she looked like she wanted to beat the hell out of him.

A tiny, fur sized kitten hopped on her shoulder, and nuzzled the woman's neck, and she sighed.

"You mercenaries are the worst, you have no regard for human life and only look out for your own, selfish, self interest. And that means nothing to you." The woman shook her head in disgust.

"Good to know that you finally got the memo. I don't take orders from you, girl. And you better remember that, or you'll have to learn the hard way where your place is." It was a threat. Their standoff was broken up by the thundering of hooves approaching swiftly.

Two more horses arrived, one accompanied by cast iron cage, and the other a finely crafted carriage.

The slayer seemed uneasy at the approach of the newcomers, but she quickly schooled her features.

As the newcomers neared, something spooked one of the horses, as it drew closer to the patch of dry bushes that Kagome was crouching behind, and it whinnied before rearing on its hind legs and nearly ejecting its rider.

"Woah girl!" A man with long hair pulled back into a tight braid grabbed the reins. "Stupid beast, you trying to kill me?"The man shouted, taking out a leather whip and flogging the poor creature.

"Ban! I was so bored, thank the gods." The man who had left his comrades to die seemed to perk up, and threw his arms around the newcomer, who eyed the bloody battlefield with suspicion, and gingerly peeled the arm away from his shoulder.

"Shit, Jakotsu. I left you alone for two seconds, what the hell happened here?" Ban sighed in disbelief.

"Don't blame me for this mess! We stopped in town to restock, when little miss goody two-shoes over here wanted to exorcise a demon for some hillbillies up in the mountains. " He jerked his chin up the hill where a human settlement,with a good sized wall stood solemnly in the background. "Turns out, she bit off more than she could chew." Jakotsu examined his manicure.

"Tch, I broke a nail." Jakotsu rolled his eyes,"Thanks a lot slayer."

The woman felt a spike in her temper, as Ban rose a eyebrow, but chose not to say anything.

Slowly, the carriage door slid open, and a richly dressed man stepped out, his eyes flickered over the carnage, and he pressed a handkerchief to his nose.

"What should we do, boss man?" Jakotsu folded his arms behind his head.

"It's been a long couple of days. We will set out camp here." The man who was supposedly in charge finally said. He didn't look very well, or like someone who was fit for traveling on the open road.

"Jakotsu, Bankotsu" The richly dressed man began. "Stand watch with the slayer tonight. I don't want any more surprises this evening." He seemed to mull something over. "I need them both alive." He gave a pointed look at Jakotsu, who had the habit of over torturing his prisoners.

"It's you and me tonight slayer."Bankotsu smirked, and grabbed for the woman's waist, but she grabbed his wandering hands, and twisted his wrist with unnatural strength for a woman.

"Try me, and it will be the last thing that you do." She said, her face set in stone as she released him, and caught the smell of corn whiskey on his breath. She wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

Ban laughed, as Jakoutsu glared at the slayer with open dislike.

"Good, I like my women feisty."

Both Jakotsu and Ban disappeared in opposite directions as Ban went to go relieve himself, and Jakotsu began the tedious task of setting up camp with the soldiers who managed to survive.

"Water." Someone weakly uttered.

The plea went up like a whisper, but it was louder now. Two soldiers nearby unloaded their supplies pretended not to hear.

"Please some water."An old man rasped as he banged the iron bars.

Kagome knew by now that they couldn't see her, but she still crawled over to study the iron cart.

There was an old man in the iron cage, a balding man adorned in monks robes. He looked haggard, and the yellow tint of skin spoke of malnourishment and dehydration. But there was another prisoner occupying the cell, and she her heart nearly dropped.

Her breath caught in her throat as she glimpsed upon the familiar face. Koga?! She was positive that it was the boorish wolf demon who tried to hold her hostage not too long ago. His face was bloody and bruised, his dark black hair hung limp around his shoulders, shielding half of his face.

He was bound by thick ropes, woven with intricate charms, and unconscious. Oh Koga. How did this happen? He was horrid to her and in her heart she wasn't sure if she had forgiven him for what he had done. Bur now in the middle of some strange battlefield, his presence offered some comfort.

"Shut it, old man!" One of the soldiers nearest to the cell ordered.

"I got some water for you," Another soldier shot back, as he pulled down his pants and peed in the cell, as the old man scrambled back trying to avoid the stream of yellow liquid. They threw their heads back and laughed, jeering the old man.

"You disgusting brutes!" The slayer stepped in "Why don't you make yourself useful and tend to these horses." She shoved the reins in their arms, and stormed off to to collect fresh water, account for the dead, and prepare herself for the nightly watch.

Kagome was so transfixed by the scene, that she almost missed the strange energy surrounding the quiet, sickly lord. He was moving away from his camp, and Kagome looked back, as makeshift tents went up. She decided to follow her instincts and followed him into the damp, dark woods.

Now that she got a closer look at him, she thought that he could've been handsome. But there was a sickly glow to his skin, and a feverish to his eyes that made his brown eyes, seem black and slightly unfocused.

In his quick, purposeful strides, she noticed that he walked like a man who knew where he was going.

He used a sharp, short sword to cut a path through the overgrowth bushes, until he reached an inky black swamp that buzzed and hummed in the darkness.

He kneeled and began whispering a few choice words, as he untied a sack knotted to his belt and he pulled out a few choice items: a blackened claw, a handful of dried herbs , and reddish black liquid in a small vial. The sickly lord dumped all the items in the swamp, and it began to churn violently.

Kagome felt a strange energy infused the swampy meadow that made her head feel funny. She clapped a hand over mouth as she watched in horror as a two headed creature began to emerge from the swamp, hunched-back and misshapen.

It was an old woman with two heads, her skin caked in the greenish, brown slime. One head covered in a bandages, while the other was not.

"Old woman." The man said in greeting.

"Oh look, it's your favorite human." One head spoke, as the other one nodded, "Yes our favorite human has returned. Why have you summoned us?"

"I followed your advice. You told me that I would find what I was looking for, you sent me after a pack of mongrels with nothing to show for it, and now I look like a fool to my men."

"Oh you poor fellow." The two heads both spoke with exaggerated sympathy, "Your heart is weak, but your will is strong."

"I don't have time for your sing song rhymes, or empty riddles." He didn't have to raise his voice, his voice was thick with contempt. "Where is it?"

"What you are seeking is right under your nose."

Kagome felt goosebumps erupt on her arms, as she imagined two glassy eyes staring straight through her.

"The dogs rule the west, and they are mighty indeed, so, good old fellow, do take heed. What you are seeking sits in the northeast."

"Have you lost your senses, witch? You are sending me and my men on another wild goose chase." He was growing frustrated, and then he grew quiet as he seemed to consider something.

"You." He pointed to the bandaged head. "You said what I am seeking is under my nose, I must be near." There was a hunger in his voice edged in desperation.

"I've searched everywhere, followed ever folk tale, every rumor." He paused. "How much time do I have left?"

"You seek a thing, that is not a thing. You see, but you do not see." They crooned, and the sickly lord felt a surge of anger. He reached blindly for his sword, as a murderous urge nearly overtook him.

"The northeast is long ways from here" He tried again. "I don't know if I can afford anymore blunders."

The two heads looked at each other with a secretive twinkle in their eye, and smiled,revealing rows of blackened teeth.

"Oh, poor fellow, time is an illusion of the sickly mind. Off to the northeast, and you will find, the crowned jewel. Riches and glory will be sure to follow you."

As Kagome leaned in, the same unnatural wind kicked up as she was being dragged from the swamp against her will. A billowing cloud of dust made it impossible to see, she had to cover her mouth and nose to protect her eyes as she felt the same lurch in her gut.

Her head was spinning, as she heard the crashing waves of the shore before she saw them.

It took her several moments for her to gather her bearings, and when she looked down on her lap, the jewel was innocently staring up at her.

"What am I supposed to do with all of that?" Kagome held her head in her hands.

"I don't understand."She said in a small, small voice.

The deafening waves gave no answer.

________________________________________________________

Kagome felt a lightness that she had not felt in a long time. The sweet smell of incense burning reminded her of the temple in her youth, when the villagers would offer up offerings for the dead, or to calm the gods. They were all dead rituals to her now.

Her mind snapped awake, as she heard the sound of resounding footsteps that caused her to sit up, as someone drew the or doors open. She didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a weathered woman beaming down at her, carrying a tray full of fruit.

The old woman bowed, and seemed to tremble as she did so.

"You're awake," The woman said once she slowly got back on her feet, and her face brightened with so much warmth and recognition, that Kagome slightly drew back.

"Yes.." Kagome answered slowly, "I didn't know that I still could sleep like that. I feel like a corpse" The young woman mused.

She watched the old woman methodically slice an apricot, and her stomach grumbled despite herself.

"You must be famished, you'd do best to regain your strength." The old woman said as she patted Kagome's hand. And the young priestess looked around at the unfamiliar hut, and touched her belly.

"Where am I?" She paused, and she didn't want to feel this way, but she found the old woman's open kindness slightly off putting "Do I know you from somewhere?" Kagome stared intently into the woman's face, as she tried to reach back in her memory, perhaps she had hit her head too hard.

"Of course I know who you are." She answered softly, and something about the old woman's tone made Kagome suddenly wary, as the sweet smelling incense was beginning to clog her nostrils.