InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Fifty-Two: Fears ( Chapter 53 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, etc. (The "etc." includes money, so unless you want my beat up NKOTB poster and a neighbor's dung-producing dog as blood money, I wouldn't sue.)

WARNING: Slight Lime.

Chapter Fifty-Two (Fears)

The glow around the tall castle on the rocks pulsated with golden brilliance and subsided into flickering pearl in a rhythm as slow and steady as a heart beat. The shrill demand had subsided into a lower note, a calling of names by the butterfly youkai, bidding his allies to their side. There was a furtive edge to his lands, as if the very earth was tensing under the onslaught of upheaval and summoning. Youkai and ningen, vassal and ally, were answering the call of his lineage, their loyalty written in blood honor to the inu and the Taiyoukai who ruled them.

His father had never summoned his allies to war, there had never been a reason. The old Lord had been arrogant in his faith of his abilities, knowing that he was the strongest and Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. In the end, it had proven foolish, as the neko tribes overwhelmed and killed him in the maddened blood rage of the inu snarling defiance.

SesshouMaru kept a tight leash on the inu rage of his blood, the very blood that had devoured his father's soul until death had been welcomed. He could not keep the growl from his chest, though, a growl of disquiet. The kochou who rested on his shoulders twitched their wings in agitation, and he deliberately collared the inu, his face emotionless and unchanging even as his eyes blazed molten gold.

He began his descent, the red-tinged clouds wisping behind him into nothingness as dawn edged the sky. Thick clouds streaked over the distant horizon, speaking of coming storms in the day. This far north and west, and high into the mountains, the snow was deep, the days shortened as the icy dragon of winter threw its coils across the rocky mountains and roared its icy breath over the forested hills.

The butterflies around him took flight on their own as they drew nigh unto the castle. Their tired glow brightened as they fluttered over the battlements and down into the inner sanctuary of the castle. The surrounding song changed as their brothers returned home, safe, and the resulting joy that flowered over in a jubilating symphony almost touched through the icy barrier SesshouMaru kept over his own emotions. The glittering light that poured forth to embrace the returned would be etched on his conscious forever.

They were home.

*~*~*~*~*

Miroku walked unhurriedly down the river's edge, his string of caught fish dangling from one hand while his staff tinkled merrily in the other. Shippo skipped alongside, the proud smile over his own small catch of two fish beaming across his happy little face. The three men who had gone fishing with them turned aside as they came past their huts, to be met at the door by their wives or sisters. The rings on the houshi's staff summoned other women to part the bamboo mats that covered their doorways and smile sweetly on the handsome, black-haired man. Miroku's smiles were impartial, but the prettiest of the lasses were given a special twinkle in deeply blue eyes that made them blush from the impure thoughts that crossed their minds each and every time the indigo-eyed houshi crossed their path.

Shippo didn't even spare Miroku a look of disgust, used to the houshi's ways---and the way women were always acting around him. The little fox cub was busy beaming with his own small triumph. Okaa-san would enjoy the little fishies he had caught for her, and with his own paws! She would be so proud of him, and maybe, just maybe, she would light up with one of her old, all-over smiles, so that he could see even her soul warming in her beautiful brown eyes, instead of the lingering sadness that seemed to touch them, not even dispelling when she did smile softly at him.

Miroku's thoughts were distracted as well, but by a particularly curvaceous woman who had sauntered out of her small cottage and to the river's edge. She gave him a coy little glance out of the corner of her eye before bending over at the water's edge to dip and fill her empty bucket. Miroku's dark brows shot up and the blue in his eyes deepened as he took in the amply-fleshed rear that curved so enticingly from his vantage point.

The wench winked at him out of the corner of her eye, and he actually blinked. A smile curved the sensual mouth, and he bowed his head in acknowledgment of the girl's beauty as he passed. His gaze lingered, and was only drawn at the last by the old miko who cleared her throat as they came nigh unto her small hut.

"Houshi-sama." Kaede's dark brown eye held a twinkle even as her gruff voice recalled him to his senses. Miroku couldn't stop the slow flush that crept over his cheeks, though he had done nothing wrong. *A man must always admire beauty...else the kami would not have given him eyes to see and a mind to appreciate fine detail and the visionary delight of a woman's---er---assets...*

"Miko-sama." He returned, an amused flash in his blue eyes and a helpless shrug rippling across the powerful frame hidden by the dark blue robes he wore. He held up his brace of fish as a peace offering, and Kaede slightly nodded, her expression wry.

"Look, Lady Kaede!" Shippo jigged up the steps, waving his own two fish at her. "I caught 'em all by myself!"

"Ye did well, Shippo." Kaede told him gravely. "They look nice and fat, and shall I clean them for ye for dinner?"

"Not for me, Kaede." Shippo told her just as gravely. "They're for you and okaa-san."

"That was very thoughtful of ye, Shippo." Kaede said, extending her hand for them. But Shippo hugged the fish to his little body, and pleaded,

"Lemme show okaa-san first!"

"She'll be proud of ye, Shippo." Kaede nodded, her eyes understanding. Shippo dashed in through the bamboo curtain, leaving Miroku to deposit his own fair catch in the old priestess's waiting hand.

"Ye have done well, too, Miroku." She hefted the sizeable weight of the houshi's string.

There was a beguiling look in Miroku's eyes as he bowed deeply. "I would offer you half, my lady, if you would offer to clean them."

Kaede snorted at the irrepressible monk. "Get ye inside while I clean these. Koharu has come to bear Kagome comfort, now that she is in her confinement."

"Is Kagome doing better?" Miroku paused, his expression showing the worry that lay deep in his eyes for the young girl.

Kaede sighed, her brown eye distant as she gazed over the greyed waters of the channel that bordered the hut. "She is well enough, though she tires easy. The babe is restless, and keeps her awake."

Miroku was troubled, and tried to phrase his question delicately. He was a man, after all, and was not privy to the troubles of childbirth. It was a woman's mystery, and at times he felt helpless, like now. "Lady, do you think that since the child could be youkai that it could be...disturbing...Kagome more?"

A worn palm grasped his strong arm in a reassuring grip. "Do not worry ye, Miroku. Kagome is a strong girl."

Miroku frowned, looking toward the hut. "She does not carry as easily as Koharu does..."

"Women are different, and that is enough for ye to know." Kaede said smartly, although she patted his arm before taking her leave, fish in hand.

Miroku was still frowning as he went up the steps and brushed the bamboo aside to enter the old miko's hut. Kagome and Shippo had been sharing the priestess's small home, while he and Koharu lived just past the small spring from whence Kaede drew her water. The two-room cot the houshi had designed and built with the willing help of the villagers was not far from the old priestess's hut, as Koharu desired to be close to the elderly miko, who might need her assistance as a healer.

"I caught them all by myself!" He caught Shippo's proud boast.

Kagome's smile was sweet as she hugged the little kitsune cub to her. "That was well done, Shippo. I'm proud of you."

"Miroku!" Koharu rose to her feet and came to give the houshi a warm hug and a feather-light kiss on the cheek. Miroku breathed in the herbal-earth scent of her hair and tightened his arm around her thickened waist even as he leaned his ringed staff against the wall by the doorway.

Kagome watched them, a small curve touching her lips, but Miroku saw a bit of sad wistfulness in her eyes when she looked at them. Blue eyes compassionate, Miroku loosened his hold on Koharu somewhat and grasped the young miko's hand to bow over it with the grace that could charm a goddess. "Kagome-sama. You are looking as beautiful as ever."

Kagome shook her head at him, her smile wry. Shippo gave the irrepressible houshi a green roll of his eyes before hopping off of Kagome's knee. "I'm gonna take my fish to Kaede, okaa-san." He said by way of leave, and scampered out of the hut with a flick of his sand-coppered tail before Kagome could nod permission.

"Kami, he has so much energy." Koharu sighed. Her white fingers splayed across the slight bulge of her waist, and she looked up at Miroku with a twinkle in her warm brown eyes. "Do you think our son will have that much, houshi-sama?"

*Our son...*

His deeply blue eyes glinted and he pressed his lips to Koharu's cheek, his whisper in her ear making her blush furiously and giggle as his bead-wrapped palm joined hers over the delightful potential in her womb. "Our son will be perfect, as you are, my own."

There was a faint rustle beyond them, and Miroku's head jerked up, his eyes immediately on Kagome. Her head was down, the midnight locks that curled over her forehead hiding her expression. Her hands, though, told a telling tale as they pleated and tightened in the white fabric of the draping white sleeves of her kimono.

Disengaging from Koharu, Miroku swiftly went to Kagome's side and knelt by the smaller girl. She did not look up, even then, and so he used the fingertips of his right hand to pull her chin up. "Kagome-sama?"

Her eyes were misty, although she blinked them rapidly to keep the tears back. He could see the shadows that circled her eyes, a testament to her sleepless nights. She was overly pale and drawn, and he jumped, letting her chin go, when her belly rippled under the draping fabric of her kimono and then seemed to distend and rebound.

She smiled faintly as Koharu laughed at his startled look. Then Kagome's expression changed as she winced as another movement rippled across the wide expanse of her belly. Kagome stirred and shifted uncomfortably, drawing her knees from under her to stretch out at an awkward angle.

Koharu was suddenly there, pulling a cushion forward for Kagome to lean back against and helping the girl to lie back. Kagome winced and turned slightly before finding a better position on one hip. The ripples stopped, and one of Kagome's hands came to lie lightly across the heavy mound as Koharu fetched blankets to cover her with.

"I'm not cold." Kagome protested faintly, but the other girl ignored her. Miroku watched them both, unable to hide the concern in his blue eyes.

"You need to try and sleep though." Koharu said. "Let me make you comfortable."

"I'm not tired." Kagome's protest was faint, the drawn circles under her eyes revealed the lie.

Koharu just ignored her, pulling more cushions aside to make a comfortable nest for the breeding woman. Miroku kept silent, watching Koharu's almost-motherly fussing over Kagome, who was actually breaking open a yawn on another muffled protest. "I'm fine, I'm fine..." She murmured, eyes blinking. She shifted again, so that she lay on her back, her stomach a hill that she sprawled around. Koharu patted a white hand and stood up. Kagome was already nodding off in numbed exhaustion, and Koharu motioned for Miroku to be quiet as they left the hut.

Miroku picked up his staff stiffly, so that the rings would not jangle together and wake the sleeping miko. He slipped outside, Koharu grabbing his free hand in hers as they stepped down off of the steps.

Lady Kaede was just outside, a basket of newly gutted fish over one arm. She was speaking to a village woman, who urged the old priestess to come and check on her son's recovery. Kaede glanced at them, her questioning gaze answered by Koharu.

"Kagome's sleeping...for now." Kaede nodded, and held out the basket. Koharu grasped it in her free hand, and assured the older miko that she would cook dinner for them both. "You go to check on Takeshi?"

"Aye." Kaede said. "I'll come when I'm able, and thank ye for making up the fish. I'll send Shippo to ye, if that's all right."

"Of course, Kaede-sama." Miroku answered, looking around for the little kit.

"He's off with some of the other children." Kaede answered his unasked question.

"Lady..." The peasant woman, a middle-aged mother with a pretty blue kerchief over her black hair, interrupted anxiously. Kaede nodded, and the woman bowed to them all, before hurrying off with the older priestess.

Miroku matched his steps to Koharu's, which were much smaller, and they walked arm-in-arm down the little by-path to their own small hut. Built back away from Kaede's, which stood at the lower entrance of the white steps of the shrine, he had found a pretty spot where the trees arched over and gave their home a bit more privacy than the others in the village. Koharu had cleared a small patch for a garden she meant to start next spring, and he had carefully lain stone in a path to the small spring that stood between their home and Kaede's, so that there would be no mischance of a stumble in the dark of night if either of them needed to come to Kaede's quick call.

The trees were bare of shielding leaves, but their black arms still rose protectively over the roof of their home. Miroku had no small amount of smug pride in the house he had built for Koharu. It was a neat, two-roomed cot, with a raised porch on the outside, so that Koharu might sit and sort her herbs in the cooler evenings of summer if she liked.

Koharu sighed softly as they neared home, and Miroku's hand tightened in hers in acknowledgment. "I'm so happy, Miroku." She said, whisper-soft, as if she might draw the attention of some evil spirit, who would be jealous of a mortal's happiness.

"I, as well, my own." He answered her, and was surprised that it was true. There was a certain contentment in knowing that he was home, that he was walking up the steps that he himself had built for his future, and that he was holding open the woven bamboo for his lady to go in. The fire was a banked ring of coals in the center, and Koharu quickly knelt to brighten it up with wood he fetched for her from the pile he had stocked weeks ago.

The fire was soon crackling to life, delighted with the replenished fodder as Koharu expertly laid a few choice cuts of wood across its coals. He sat on the raised dais that extended across one side of the front room and watched intently as Koharu neatly pulled the basket to her and set rice to boiling and soup to simmering. She had a dextrous hand, and cut the fish he had caught into neat slices, tumbling an assortment of vegetables into the flat skillet as she cooked the fish in their own juices.

Koharu raised her brown eyes to his, and smiled at him. The freckles that danced across her white skin stood out against the orange glow the fire lent her features. She blushed slightly at his gaze, and mouthed the words he had come to treasure.

"I love you."

The fire popped, and the moment was broken. Miroku sighed as Koharu giggled, the giggle which could really send him over the edge. It had been so long...

Koharu fussed over the cook-fire for a moment before standing up and making her way to his side. His arms opened automatically as she sank gratefully beside him. Her curves were more rounded, her determination to bear twins had given added weight to the lithe form, but he did not mind as some men might. She was softness against him, and he held her close as they both watched the dance of flames as the fish simmered and the delicious odors rose to fill the small room.

He brushed the long black hair aside and kissed the nape of her neck. She sighed in contentment and leaned further into him. "Miroku, I am so happy. It scares me sometimes..."

"You do not have to be afraid, Koharu." Miroku said, amusement lacing his voice. "I am here."

*But for how long?*

The question hovered between them, and both chose to ignore it, savoring, instead, the companionship and warmth that lay between them right now. The evil that was Naraku, the uneasy uncertainty about his own future, and whether he would survive the Wind Tunnel burned into his palm, as his father and father's father had not, were easily forgotten in the warm twilight that slowly crept over the cottage as the sun threw its last weak light against the gathering clouds that blanketed the horizon.

Worries were forgotten as they held each other...the faint unease Miroku felt over Kagome's growing listlessness, the sadness that often crept over the young miko and did not banish from the depths of her deep brown eyes...the growing worry over InuYasha and Sango, who they had not heard word from in over five months...the constant watchfulness, wondering what foul plots the dark hanyou was contemplating...why had he not attacked the village? Had the hanyou, instead, turned his attentions toward Sango and InuYasha, alone and by them selves, wherever they were? There was no word, either, from the Taiyoukai, InuYasha's brother, and Miroku did not believe that the inu-youkai would simply abandon Kagome if he had knowledge of the truth, that she was carrying his child. Although he had discussed the possibilities with Kaede many a time, neither of them had ever pressed the issue upon Kagome, who kept silent in regards to the father of her child. She would stare, though, sometimes, her eyes deep and sad, and Miroku wanted to ask her if she thought of InuYasha, or of SesshouMaru...

Koharu turned in his embrace, and laid her fingers along his lips. His gaze dropped, eyes warming as they stared at her. Her love for him was brimming in her deeply brown eyes, and he tightened his hold around her, feeling a stir of interest from that part of him that was always interested. She giggled that devastatingly husky giggle and his manhood tightened in response. He nudged her head up with his shoulder, and kissed her long and lingeringly on the wide, sweet lips. Koharu's eagerness matched his own, and he groaned into her mouth as her fingers feathered over his broad shoulders and down his arms. They shifted their weight, coming closer, matched desire singing along their blood.

*Kami, it's been so long...*

His tongue mapped out a line across her full mouth before sliding in to dance with hers. Koharu moaned into the wet heat of his mouth, and his hands tuned possessive as they gripped her shoulders, sliding the deep vee of her white kimono open so that he might---

"Hiya, Miroku!"

They sprang apart, Miroku pushing Koharu behind him unconsciously so that he was between her and danger. But danger had no part in the small kitsune cub who had popped his rusty head in the doorway. Green eyes widened as he took in a deep sniff of dinner and arousal. Shippo had the grace to flush beet-red before his rusty head disappeared.

Interruption dispersed, Miroku looked hopefully back at Koharu, but the girl was already sliding gracefully up from the dais to check on dinner. The moment was gone, not to be reclaimed, and his expression turned rueful.

Domesticity had no room for romance.

Sigh.

*~*~*~*~*

Kaede's brow furrowed with concern as she watched the restless movements of the young girl who shared her hut. The kitsune cub, Shippo, had awoken with the troubled stirring of his adopted okaa-san, and crept over to the old miko's side, concern written over his little face.

"Lady Kaede..." His little tail twitched, touched rust by the embers of the banked fire. The nights were chilled, and the old miko kept the fire lit day-long. There was the hint of coming rain in the air, she could smell it in the icy breath that roamed down from the west and north. It was unusual for this time of year, as normally this late month, as the year was dying and the new springing forth, was one of the driest in the monsoonal tides of their island weather. She could feel, though, a drawing in the land. It was faint, something stirring in the inner recesses of the earth, a whispering echo shimmering across her old soul.

It could be that that distant drawing could also be calling down a storm from the western mainland, and that the weather patterns might be dislodged by the energies that were, even now, disturbed in their cycle. She could feel an ache in her old bones, her ankle---the one she had twisted as a child, and displaced a bone, and suffered a long time to repair---was pained, boding of damp cold as accurate as any weather sense. The very land was restless, and the feel of it disturbed her.

But not, though, as much as what the poor child was suffering. That was a problem right before her, one that she could see and still not seem to find a cause for.

The babe was strong in the womb, and Kagome a healthy girl. Though she had gained weight quickly, almost shockingly, it did not worry the old miko as much as it might have. Women were different, some carried their babes high, their weight slight, others carried lower, and their hips firmed to support the additional burden. She had been healer and midwife to the village for most of her life---she could remember trotting alongside her mother, who had served as the village's midwife before her. Her mother---a stern-faced woman with her life mapped out on her features much as Kaede's was now imprinted across her own---had insisted that she attend every birth, no matter her age or her youth. Strangely, though, her older sister Kikyo had never been summoned to a birthing woman's side, to learn the arts of midwifery and delivery.

But then Kikyo had been selected from a tender age for special attention, her purity and innocense cherished like a fine gem. From earliest childhood, Kikyo had been kept seperate---

"Miko-sama?"

Kaede's wandering thoughts snapped shut on her sister, as she looked down at the small kitsune who had laid a trembling paw on her white sleeve, concern and a hint of trepidation written on his cute little face. His green eyes were wide, staring at her, and she saw a faint trace of rose-edged white glow fade from the mirror of their surface, a reflection of the aura that had glowed momentarily around the old priestess as she forgot herself.

*Age holds little wisdom if ye forget it.* Kaede commented drily to herself, her gnarled hand curving over the small kitsune's back and patting him in reassurance.

"Lady Kaede, why were you glowing like that?" Shippo hunched under her hand, not that reassured. The poor little kit was uncertain. His little family had been broken apart, his adopted okaa-san was under strain, heart-lost and lonely, no matter how much the girl put a brave face on it and smiled stiffly, pretending a cheer that did not dance in her warm brown eyes as it had in the past.

*He sees and understands more than we credit him.* Kaede thought even as her voice rumbled soothingly, "I was just distracted, Shippo. Do not worry ye over it."

"I'm scared." The little kitsune ducked his head, whispering that small admission to his little paws, which clenched into fists as if he might grab his fear and choke it out.

"Kagome will be fine, little one. She is just weary." Kaede assured him.

Shippo ducked his head and said so softly that Kaede almost mistook the words. "She glows, too."

Kaede stiffened, her work-worn hand stilling on the kit's furry back unconsciously. She formed her questions carefully, not wanting to frighten the little youkai more. "Ye say Kagome glows like I did?"

"Yes, and no." Shippo trembled slightly. "I see her colors..."

*The child sees the girl's aura? It is not surprising, he is youkai, but I did not know one so young could see them...*

"Ye can see the colors in people, ye say?" Kaede's arms curled around to bring the little kitsune into her broad lap. His eagerness to be cuddled said more of his fear than anything else. Shippo was an independent little kit, insisting that he was too big to be held close---until he demanded it with a willingness to be fussed over that was more for the gratification than the comfort.

"Of course." Some of that independence came out in his scornful reply. He turned his head to look at her, and wrinkled his little nose, his fangs briefly flashing. "You're white...and a bit pink."

Kaede hid a smile. Out of the mouths of babes...he had perfectly described her own small gift of miko energy. The white was for her purity as a priestess, the pink the hint of her small spiritual gift.

"And Kagome?" She urged, keeping her tone light.

Shippo hunched his shoulders again, and Kaede soothed him with her hands, combing the little fur with a light stroke and sending a small amount of calming energy through her worn palms and into his troubled spirit. Under her touch, the small youkai relaxed enough to speak his worry aloud.

"Okaa-san...Kagome...she used to be strong." He paused a moment, and her cupped palms around his little back flowed more of the calming influence into him so that he could continue. "Okaa-san is bright, white and pink and fiery rose and it hurts to look at her." His eyes scrunched up, almost as if he could picture the brilliantly glowing aura that was the girl's large soul.

"And now?" Kaede asked quietly. None of the stirring disquiet of her heart showed on her voice, which was roughened by time, but it's very gruffness was soothing like water falling over rocks.

"She's sick." Shippo said, trembling again. It took Kaede some moments to relax him, her power wrapping around him like a hug, sending whispers of peace across his little soul.

"Tell me." She laced the words with a small bit of power, a compulsion to speak and not hold back with hesitation. Shippo, being a little kit, would not know of it as a full youkai would, and he needed his worries unburied and off of his little soul.

"It's angry..." He tried to describe what he saw, the smoldering fuchsia and flaring pink-tinged sparks that swirled across the brilliancy of Kagome's aura. It was almost as if the very power held within the girl's soul was simmering and twisting in on itself, growing and flowing back into her and around her. It seethed and glowered with brilliancy and POWER, and made him quail away from it, frightened for his poor okaa-san.

The little fox trembled in the old miko's lap, thinking of that twisting, maddened aura with a shiver that welled up from the bottom of his little soul. It was angry.

Very, very angry...

*~*~*~*~*

The old miko slipped outside of her hut, the the bamboo curtain whispering as it slid back into place behind her. The night was chilled and dry, but there was something in the air that told her of coming rain before dawn---perhaps ice, if it was cold enough.

Letting out her breath in a puff of whitening wisps, Kaede shuffled down the steps that fronted her small hut and made her way stiffly to the tall wooden gate that towered just in front of the white stone steps that led up to the shrine above. Placing one age-gnarled hand on the heavy wood of the gate, she felt a calming strength flow from the wood and into her troubled mind, soothing her with its presence and timelessness.

What Shippo had revealed to her had caused an ache in her heart for the young girl who had become as a daughter to her. The poor child already had to bear so much. How could she unveil this new worry that nibbled at her, making her fear for the girl's very life, let alone the small life within her womb?

For if Shippo spoke truth, than Kagome's miko powers were not content to stay idle. Kagome's large soul, inherited from her sister Kikyo, was a source of unknown power and force. By bearing a youkai child, Kagome risked injury to that child if she used her sacred energy; the purification properties of uncontrolled miko power would prove devastating to a defenseless babe in the womb.

But the strength of a miko was inherent, it did not sit still. Kaede knew how her own small gift could expand and grow with need. She had used that fact in the past, deliberately channeling it with mediation and prayer, using the time to allow her energy to grow to a level that she might need in battle or a major healing. She had assumed, wrongly, that any unused energy would dissipate in time, scattering unused into the force that ran through all life, or to the plane of existence where souls were sheltered and from which the sacred energy of the priestesses was called forth.

As Kagome's pregnancy had progressed, so had the girl's listlessness and weariness. Kaede had attributed a lot of it to the easy depression that could come with child-bearing, accrediting the young girl's sleeplessness and lassitude to the restlessness of the babe in her womb, even assumed the morning nausea that had not abated was due to the fact that the child was half-demon and might be strange to an onna's body. There was also the fact that Kagome had been left alone, to fend for herself, with not even her family or closest friends around her to comfort and shelter her.

*The burdens the poor child carries would---*

A small noise broke through her thoughts and the silent stillness of the night. Kaede scanned the darkened village for danger, muscles tensed and waiting. The noise came again, and she relaxed as a branch scraped against another once more. She was seeing ghosts everywhere, and the constant watchfulness was getting to her.

*We all are burdened with worries right now.* Shaking her head at her own foolishness, the old priestess withdrew her hand from the shrine gate and turned back to the small hut where the young girl lay sleeping, unaware of the danger in which she lay. If what the little kitsune said was true, than Kagome's miko energies were simmering and boiling just under the surface. By not using them and denying them, the girl might be poisoning herself.

Kagome's sleep was restless, and Kaede had not liked the look of her, or the dry parchment of her skin. It might only be a small fever, claiming the girl's body with the abrupt change in weather, but the old priestess felt a stirring unease that it might be something more dangerous...

*~*~*~*~*

Kaede's palm touched the dry, tight skin with worry. The girl moved restlessly under the light touch, murmuring in protest. Kaede pulled a soft cloth from the bucket at her side, wringing out the excess water before laying it over the girl's white brow.

Eyes flew open at the touch of the cool, wet cloth, and Kaede stared compassionately down into the feverish brown orbs that blinked back at her. Kagome's brow wrinkled, and she whispered hoarsely, "Mama?"

Kaede's old heart tightened at the raw need of the question, before laying her worn hand over Kagome's pale cheek. "Hush, child. Ease ye self. It is I, Kaede."

The brown eyes closed, and she turned her head away. The cloth dipped across her cheek and fell into the dry black hair that lay alongside the young girl's cheek. Kaede retrieved the cloth, which was dry from the heat that arose from Kagome's skin. Dipping it back in the cool water, she patiently placed it across the girl's forehead, draping it so that her turned cheek was covered as well.

"Ye must rest, child." Kaede urged, keeping the concern from her voice. She had watched the night pass and the young girl's restless sleep grow into a feverish tossing of heated dreams and haunting nightmares. Kagome kept whimpering about "vengeance", which made the old miko uneasy. Now that she could see the signs, the priestess was truly feared for the girl's safety, and felt helpless in the face of the fevers that held Kagome in their grip. She did not know how to treat the cause, how she might drain off the excess power that was poisoning Kagome's body. She could only treat the symptoms, and pray to the kami for a miracle.

For only a miracle could save her.

"Rest, child, rest." The old miko whispered it like a prayer, and was grateful when the young girl slipped back into dreams, but the pleading whisper of a single name on the dear child's lips made her heart weep with the lost sound of it.

"SesshouMaru..."

The girl called for him, but who knew if the icy Lord of the Western Lands would ever hear her. Or would care to.

"Rest, child, rest."

*And may the kami grant you life...*

For it was in their hands now.