InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ C 1: At the Well ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

Chapter One (At the Well)

***Much Later***

"KAGOME! KAH-GOH-MAY!"

The raven-haired girl winced as the call grew louder in volume and demand. Hurriedly putting down her bowl of oden, she rose from her sitting position at the table. Her mother looked up, concerned, from the kitchen, where she was stirring the pot. "Is it time for you to leave already, Kagome?"

"Yes, Mom. InuYasha's going to wake up the entire house if I don't leave right now." Her words were punctuated with the slam of the door to the dining room sliding open and the yellow-eyed glare of her hanyou companion.

"Kagome! Aren't you ready yet? We've been waiting on you for hours!" InuYasha growled.

"Oh, my! Why, hello, InuYasha." Kagome's mom wiped her hands on her apron and came into the dining room.

InuYasha had the grace to look disgruntled. He never knew how to take Kagome's mother. She was as strange as her daughter, accepting him the way she did. In fact, it amazed him (whenever he bothered to think about it) how easily Kagome's whole family had accepted him. He sometimes wondered if this whole era was full of such accepting people or if their acceptance came from their long family history as guardians of the shrine.

"Would you like something to eat before you go?" Kagome's mom made a motion toward the steaming stove.

"Uh, no. Thank you." InuYasha sniffed delicately, the aroma was tantalizing, but they were already running short on time. He added the grudging politeness out of respect for Kagome's mother. Kagome gave him a wide-eyed look at the courteous remark, and he smirked at her.

"C'mon, Kagome. We haven't got all night." He growled at her, hands crossed in front, ears laid back with annoyance.

"Right." Kagome snatched up her bulging yellow backpack, mentally wincing at it's weight. It seemed to get heavier every time she went back to the Warring States era. She-and her mother-kept thinking of more things to take with her, things she might or might not need in the wilderness of medieval Japan.

She hastily hugged her mom, who shook her head indulgently at InuYasha's impatience, and accepted a motherly peck on her cheek. "Be careful, Kagome." Her mother admonished, her eyes faintly shining with moisture in the lamplight. Kagome swept past InuYasha, who turned to follow, but was stopped by a small, careworn hand on his red sleeve.

"InuYasha." Kagome's mother looked sweetly up at him. InuYasha gentled his customary growl; he had a special respect for mothers.

"Yes?"

"Take care of her. Protect my little girl." The soft brown eyes, so much like Kagome's, were teary. "I...I'm worried about her this time. I don't know, but I have a fear that I won't see my little girl again." She exemplified softly, almost to herself.

Kagome stuck her dark head back in the door, impatient. "Oh, come on, Mom! I'm gonna be all right! InuYasha will protect me!" She disappeared, and InuYasha was jerked from the mother's hand by the daughter's none-too-gentle yank on his other sleeve. "C'mon, InuYasha!" Floated through the doorway as InuYasha gave a helpless look at Mrs. Higurashi. The older woman was trying to give him a brave smile, but the tears in her eyes were growing.

"I'll protect Kagome. I promise." InuYasha said brusquely, before turning away to follow Kagome into the dark, early morning night. He joined her in the wellhouse, sliding the doors closed. Kagome already half-sat, half-knelt on the wooden rim of the dry Bone-Eater's Well.

"You could have been nicer to your mother." InuYasha growled as he stomped down the wooden steps.

"Whatever. Come on. You were the one who was so anxious to get back." Kagome sprang into the well. InuYasha scowled at the empty well before launching himself in after her. He hated it when she had the last word!

***

A small kit was waiting for them in the clearing as they emerged from the well. Kagome had waited for InuYasha to appear before her in the bottom of the well. Why climb when she could get a ride? As soon as he came through, crouching, she scrambled up on his back, tucking her legs around his waist and clutching his shoulders. "Hmph." InuYasha grunted at her weight. "What the hell are you carrying?" He groused as he sprung up from the bottom of the well, allowing his powerful legs to spring up and out of the well. His hair, silvery white, and hers, so dark it was bluish in the faint moonlight, blended together in the wind that followed their downward descent.

Taking the impact on his knees, he landed softly. Kagome scrambled off his back and opened her arms to the orange fireball that sped towards her. "Kagome!" Came the joyous, welcoming shout as Shippo hurtled into her arms, the impact of his arrival knocking her down on her butt with its impetus.

"Hey!" InuYasha glared at the kitsune cub. "Watch what you're doing!"

Kagome laughed as Shippo hugged her tightly. "I've missed you so much, Kagome! There's no one to play with when you're gone! InuYasha was so grumpy while you were away. I don't understand why, but he always is. Please tell me you're not going to go away again for a long time."

"Little brat." InuYasha growled at him. Shippo stuck his tongue out at the hanyou, feeling brave in Kagome's protective lap. InuYasha glared, one fist pointedly curling.

"Aah! Kagome! InuYasha's going to hit me!" Shippo shouted accusingly as he snuggled into Kagome's shirt.

"Stop being such a child, InuYasha." Kagome glared back at the dog-eared hanyou, motherly outrage etched in every line of her as she cuddled the kit.

"What? Me! A child!" InuYasha shouted, protesting.

"It seems as if our friends have come back." Miroko mused as he stepped from under the shadowed trees that rung the clearing. Behind him, Sango's mouth curved into an amused smile as she surveyed the scene by the well. Kirara, following her mistress, mewed and rubbed her legs, purring.

Suddenly, the neko-youkai stilled in mid rub, her oversized, red eyes glowing faintly as her head turned sharply to the right. A low growl came from the two-tailed cat as her eyes brightened.

"What is it, Kirara?" Sango asked with concern, looking at the cat.

InuYasha's sharp senses picked up the neko's low growl. He held up a hand as Kagome drew a deep breath in protest at his sudden stillness. He sniffed delicately, then stiffened.

"Kagome! Duck!" He shouted as he hurtled himself at the sitting girl, smashing her and the fox cub in her lap to the ground beneath him as a flame-laden wind swooshed right over where their heads had been but a moment before. A second wind, flames snapping and crackling with heat and purpose, followed the first in deadly intent.