InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Seal ❯ The problem with rivers… ( Chapter 12 )

Yes, well… heh heh…

Well this is awkward…

I am yet again in business after a downfall of bad luck which you will now be has fortunate to hear me moan about:

The actual transition of moving from Norway to England went without a hitch!! (Good for me!)

The actual problems actually started the following Monday when I had the good graces of falling ill. That lasted out the week.

The next week was spent making up lost time job-hunting (I still haven't found any *sniff*).

The third week to grace me was just rock bottom. My granddad had a stroke and we raced down to check on him. He's still not doing to well… sigh… and NOW the doctors think he might have a tumour. (when it rains, it pours!!)

The forth week was spent with my Nan, looking after her since she has a bad heart and could use some company (being alone, with granddad in the hospital and all…) During this time I wrote a lot of chapters for The Seal (well 2 ½ looong chapters and lots more footnotes) on my granddads OLD computer, saving it all on a disk I'd brought with me!

5th week left me in shock when I finally rushed over to my computer at home to post a new chapter. ('THE SODDING THING INNSISTED THAT THERE WAS NO DISK IN THERE!!')

After a lot of sulking, swearing, and other things best left unmentioned I gave up and had to wait for my dad to return to Nan so that he could send by e-mail back home (as due to corruption of my poor disk, now only my Nan's computer would accept it *grumble*)

So that's where we are now!! Finally with a new chapter, after lots of agony and woe!! I apologise (though it wasn't my fault)!

I haven't changed the rating, it's still PG-13, because where I've been raised it would be PG-13, and lets face, kids can handle it (ooo, I'm gonna get my head bitten). If you have any complaints, we can discuss it later.

" "- speaking

' '-thinking

^-^

Now on with the show!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story (if I did I'd be rich, filthy stinkin rich. I'd be off to the Bahamas and… and… and I better come back down to earth as they aren't mine) ; Inuyasha and co all belong to Miss Rumiko Takahashi. Just having plain fun writing about them. ;-P

(I really should change this disclaimer shouldn't I?)

The Seal

Part 12: The problem with rivers…

*Flashback* "I-inuyasha… You came…"

After she collapsed, he stood there staring for a while, seemingly in shock, not comprehending quite what was going on. He remembered being angry with her, after all she'd skipped out on him again, and he'd been on his way to punish her… but he couldn't for the life him remember any part of his cunning plan involving finding the bitch in a bloody heap.

It was a spell of dizziness, from the huge amount of blood, that brought him back down to earth, nose twitching. That, and the knowledge that she had in some way or other depended on him to make everything all right judging from the way her face had lit up when she'd spotted him, relief radiating off her in waves.

'Keh. Shows what she knows. What am I, a magician?!'

He glanced down at the broken girl breathing shallowly. She looked pitiful and weak, just as he'd told her she was earlier. It didn't really bring him much pride to be proven right. It didn't seem right. Not at all…

*Flash* "I-inuyasha… You came…"

'Ah, fuck it!' he huffed resignedly. A decision had been made, for better or for worse: For once he'd earn that trusting faith offered him, given so selflessly by the idiot wench. And deep down, if he'd bothered to look, he'd find out that he felt better with this decision knowing that he would earn that smile, deserve it, and that a small spark of warmth was hoping for more to come his way…

After contemplating what to do, he carefully scooped her up into his arms, protectively cradling her close to his chest. Whatever had done this might still be around after all, he reasoned to himself. Plotting his course he took off, a blur racing the wind.

By the amount of blood covering her, he would need the help of the baba, loath as he was to admit it. Miko's knew the art of healing, while the art he knew would be of no use.

However, before he could let the old hag see her something had to be done to lessen the girl's… macabre appearance. Ripped clothing and dripping blood would make it rather troublesome for him to enter the village with her. More like a hazard to his health. The villagers were still a tad wary of him, though they had lightened up after Kagome's speech, and him dragging in the broken Kikyo-reborn after the previous disaster would look… bad.

So instead of heading straight towards the village, he made a detour down to the river.

It was the most logical choice. She needed to be cleaned; a river is made up of water…

'Lot's of water.' He eyed the river nervously. The flow of the river was mild, still deep from the amount of rain during rain season, but that had been a while ago, and the pull was of no danger to them. As long as he carried her.

Well, she would've needed to have a bath anyway, he reasoned, and he needed to know the extent of her injuries, how serious they were.

Eyeing her clothing, he blushed. They would stay where they were, on her person. What little that was left of the rags needed a good wash themselves anyway… And… and even humans deserved some modesty.

Inuyasha sighed. He was stalling. He was stalling, and he knew it. The wench was unconscious, and unconscious people did not scrub them selves. He'd have to undress and carry her into the middle of the river himself. Joy.

His eyes slid over the limp figure. If he didn't do it, then Kaede most likely would. And he'd have to face her with another dead sister… not that Kagome was Kikyo, she'd kill him if he thought that, but Kaede believed so, and the old crone was old.

And he really needed to see how bad the situation was. Right now it looked horrid: She was breathing raggedly; her clothes were in tatters, though from what he did not know. She was bloody as hell and she had a huge cut marring her face diagonally from her left eyebrow and down her chin. He was worried that it might leave a scar, and with all the blood flowing in the way he couldn't see how deep the cut was.

And the smell was making him so dizzy…

The clucking of the river beckoned to him, and he finally jumped in, though not before meticulously taking off and folding his inner haori. He didn't want to ruin all his clothing after all…

A small part sigh part moan escaped her lips when her body touched water, letting it drizzle past her, bringing obvious relief to her sore flesh. The smell of sickness and weakness, that had surrounded her slowly and grown steadily stronger, was partially swept away by the flow, loosening its grip on her and leaving in its wake a trail of crimson red.

A piece of cloth was ripped from his outfit, and while he carefully cradled the limp girl with his left hand, mindful of his claws at all times as he didn't want her harmed anymore than she already was, the other meticulously wiped at her wound that had by now started to ever so slightly clot.

Blood started to seep out again and dye his claws momentarily red. It was a horrifying experience as old memories ebbed forth from more bitter times, times he wished he'd never had to remember…

For a moment Inuyasha was back in the burning village, blood beneath his claws, holding the shikon jewel. Screams surrounded him, pressing closer, crowding him and making him feel claustrophobic, panic rising high in his chest…

The water washed away the blood, as Inuyasha awakened as if from a trance. Those were times long past, he reminded himself, and right now a pale girl needed him. He could think about old sins when she was safe. He went back to cleaning Kagome's wound.

As the blood and soil slowly vanished with Inuyasha's patient handling of the wound, a thin long cut came into view. It was neither deep nor shallow, and too strait and clean to have been made by anything else than by a sword.

A chill went down his spine as he realised how close he must have come to loosing both the wench and jewel. It must have been a sharp sword, most likely a katana, judging from the thin even cut, if it had been blunt the wound would have been more ragged. If whoever had held that katana's aim had been true, her head would have come off. Inuyasha shivered.

As it was she would live, and if the wound healed up without complications there would be no scar to mar her pretty face, unless exhaustion proved too much for her and disease set in, but she was as stubborn as wenches came and the baba would help.

Finally at ease with the situation, and knowing that everything would be all right, Inuyasha deemed her, or himself, ready to confront Kaede.

It was when he stepped out of the river that he noticed it. He'd laid her on the grass, momentarily distracted by what the old miko might do when she saw what a state Kagome was in, and fumbled for his dry clothing, wanting to get away from the cold that the water had left behind, when he'd innocently glanced back at her lying there unconscious.

It was then that he had noticed that though what few scraps of clothing she had were enough to cover her, they were also very clean now. That alone was no problem, what was the problem was that although the clothes were very clean now, they were also very wet, and they were white…

He could see right through them…

-

Praeceps:

Well… this chapter was sorta humours.

To be totally honest this chapter wasn't planned specifically, but after so much seriousness and drama from the previous chapters we all need to lighten up a bit ( and Ineeded some cheering up after these horrible weeks that've been haunting me!)

I'm quite pleased to notify you that the next chapter will be a long one!

Oh! And any spelling mistakes can be blamed on incompetent English teachers, and/or my spell-check program, because I, myself, am PERFECT!!! ;-P (and when I say perfect, I MEAN perfect. My daddy said so ;-)

If you have any questions about the story that you find unclear, I will do my best to answer them, as long as I deem them of no harm to my present plot-line.

Thanks to all you reviewers, I'll do my best not to disappoint you all.

^-^

Well that was all, for today at least, toodles!! ;-D