InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Sweetest Sacrifice ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

The Sweetest Sacrifice

 

Chapter One:

 

The small woman wandered through the forest with her bow attached to her back and a wicker basket in one hand, and the tail of a transformed fox youkai in another. She was humming a light, happy melody to herself as she randomly stopped to pick some of the native wildflowers in the underbrush. Her tattered dress and hair was dirty; nothing a good rinse off in the stream later couldn't cure.

 

Her dark eyes glittered happily as she pranced around, blissfully unaware of the fierce fight just a mile or so away from her. She was quickly alerted to it, however, when a piercing wail and an explosion echoed through the forest. She dropped the basket and fled no more than twenty paces before she heard a suspicious muffled `thump' behind her. Cautiously, she approached the creature that had fallen behind her.

 

She had to gasp. He was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, even covered in blood. His silver hair and dog-ears told her that he couldn't possibly be human, but at the same time he did not give the impression of a demon. His bloody claws told her a different story, though. She tilted her head to examine him. He had a nasty gash across his forehead and his robes were ripped; almost torn to shreds. He had a tag on one of his ears that looked suspiciously like an indicator from the taijiya village.

 

Concern was quickly replaced by fear when she heard the voices floating through the surrounding scrub. “He couldn't have gotten too far! We'll find the half-breed and slaughter him!” The eager cry of assent that quickly followed easily reached the young woman. Anger quickly overflowed from her heart as she looked down at the one she assumed to be the half-breed that they were pursuing. Who were they to kill him?

 

“Come!” She whispered frantically to the fox youkai. “Help me get him out of here!” She hissed. The youkai trotted to her side.

 

“Are you certain?” He knelt down by the unconscious half-demon, using his fox magic to transform into a horse. “You can be seriously punished for harbouring a half demon. Full demons don't matter, but hanyou are to be killed on sight. You know that.”

 

“I don't care.” The girl grunted, rolling the unconscious man onto the back of the youkai. “So long as you don't tell anyone, we'll be fine. You wont tell anyone, will you?” She looked up at the youkai as he stood on all fours. He shook his head.

 

“No, but I suggest we get moving. They're coming quickly, and I smell anger.” He said earnestly.

 

“You go.” The girl waved him off. “I'll follow soon. If they come over here, I'll point them in the opposite direction.” The youkai nodded and sped off, careful not to dislodge the hanyou. The girl picked up her basket and continued to pick her flowers, hoping that the shaking of her body wasn't obvious to the naked eye. Not even a moment after the fox and his load disappeared around the trail, a squad of about twenty or so taijiya burst through the scrub.

 

One of them spotted her. “You there! Woman!” The girl jerked her head up in pseudo-surprise and blinked innocently.

 

“Yes?”

 

“You seen a half-breed scumbag `round here?” Another asked earnestly; almost seeming excited that the girl could have spotted his quarry. She shook her head in denial. Their faces fell. “Well, you seen anything suspicious? Any demons or the like?”

 

“Sorry.” She shook her head. “But I did hear something over in that direction.” She pointed toward the north; the fox had gone toward the south. “It sounded like a snapping noise and then a yell. I saw something land in the trees over there - it was all red. Maybe that was the half-breed you're looking for?” She invented.

 

A grin broke out on the leader's face. “Thank you, Miss. That may indeed be the scum we seek.” He gave a small bow. “You'd best be careful, Miss. There's demons out here in the wilderness. Would you like an escort home?”

 

“No!” The girl said a little too quickly. “Y-you have your youkai to track. I don't want to weaken your team. I live a short distance from here; I'll be fine.”

 

“If you insist, Miss.” The entire team bowed to her, and they were on their way, charging through the forest. Once they were a safe distance away, she hurried off down the south track, basket tightly in hand. She couldn't believe how easy it was to deceive those men - but then again, she'd been doing it her entire life. It was nothing new to her. Her grin practically had the vegetation reaching out for it; it was so bright and cheerful.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

“I was getting worried.” The fox youkai commented as he transformed into a little boy. “You were taking so long.”

 

“Nothing new.” She grinned at the kitsune. “How's he doing?”

 

“Nada.” The kit shrugged. “Still unconscious. It was hard to get him to lay on the bed.”

 

The girl knelt down beside the half demon. She frowned for a second before turning to the kit. “Shippou-chan?”

 

“Yeah?” He looked up from his drawings.

 

“Think you can go down to the river and get me a bucket of water?” She asked.

 

“Sure!” The kit jumped up. “But I get an extra helping at dinner!”

 

“Of course.” The girl chuckled. “The buckets are outside again. Be quick about it, will you?” He nodded and sped off.

 

The girl frowned a little at the man on the bed before turning to the fireplace. The fire from that morning had long since burnt into ashes in the grate. She sighed and set about lighting another with the tiny amount of kindle that she had left, and the flint stones that she kept in the cupboard. It took her several tries and a few burns, but she managed to get a roaring fire going in the pit. She took the pot that hung over it off the heat before it got too hot. She frowned at the rumble of thunder; thunder meant a storm. And a storm meant she'd be bogged in for a few days.

 

Sighing, she rummaged in the store cupboard to make sure she had enough food for the three people for a few days. She almost laughed in relief when she realised that the small fox had caught a few trout, chickens, and rabbits to last them several days, and put them in the icebox. As long as she could stop the ice from melting, they'd be fine for a few days. Accompanied by a few loaves of bread that she could make easily enough, and some potatoes and other vegetables and fruits that she could harvest from just outside the hut, they would be fine.

 

“I'm back, Kagome-chan!” The small boy appeared in the doorway, still relatively dry. He shouldered a plank connected to two - now full - buckets. She smiled as he tipped the water into the barrel in the corner of the room. “We're running low again. Do you want me to fill it up?”

 

“Please.” The girl, called Kagome, nodded. “As much as you can before it begins to rain. I'd go too, but…” she cast a glance at their unconscious patient and shrugged, “I can't.” The kit shrugged and bounded off again.

 

Kagome fetched a pot hanging up over the grate, and filled it with water. She hung it on the hook above the fire, careful not to burn herself again. She gnawed on her bottom lip as she waited for it to heat up a little, but not too much. She sprinkled a few cleansing herbs into the water, and waited. Just before it began to bubble, she used an old cloth to wrap her hands to protect them, and removed the pot from the heat.

 

She brought it over to the bed, where the hanyou was still lifeless. If he were not breathing, she would have assumed him to be dead. She barely noticed Shippou come and go again with the water as she began to use the warm water and a clean rag to clean the wounds on the hanyou. She had to remove his inner and haori to clean the deep gashes in his chest, and found herself wondering just what on earth had happened to the poor man. Strangely, nothing between his lower abdomen and his knees seemed injured; though he appeared to have a broken ankle. She removed his hakama for cleaning and repairing anyway.

 

The warm water did nothing to stir him from his state of unawareness. Kagome grunted with the effort of sitting him up so he could bandage his chest, but as soon as all the bandaging on his chest, arms, and head, as well as the splint on his ankle, was done, she set him back gently on the floor and stripped the bed of it's linens. They were soaked in blood and sweat; she'd have to soak them.

 

She managed to replace the bed linens and struggled to get him back up and comfortable as Shippou came back with his last load. Kagome set the cooled pot of herbs and water on the table beside the bed for later, and pulled down another one from above the grate. She filled this one with water and went outside. “Shippou-chan,” she looked back over her shoulder, “do you think you could prepare a few bunnies for a stew? I'm going to get some vegetables.”

 

With his nod of reassurance, she stepped out into the biting cold of the evening, carrying her basket in one hand. She hadn't noticed how long she'd been indoors, tending to the injured man. However, it seemed to her that she'd have to keep the fire roaring all night if they were not to freeze to death. Sighing, she pulled her boots on and trudged through the meadow. She lived in the middle of the forest, so there weren't many people around.

 

The house she lived in was, quiet rarely, made of bricks instead of wood or wattle and daub, as was the norm. Her parents had lived there for a time, until they became ill and left Kagome there to live on her own. She was thirteen at the time; perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Over the course of a few weeks, she'd met the kitsune Shippou, who had just lost his parents in the recent flood. She took him in and sheltered him, and in return he'd do her hunting for her; they had a working system. The two were like family; Shippou-chan had even accidentally called Kagome `Okaa-chan' on more than one occasion.

 

She tugged on the wild potatoes that grew outside her home. She was planning on working on a sort of vegetable patch come spring, with Shippou's help. Placing a few potatoes in the basket, she began to search for the sweet wild onions that grew around the place. She uprooted a few of the small onions, and a few carrots and a strange type of root that she immediately threw away for it's foul smell. Looking around, she decided that she'd pick a few mulberries for after dinner, and spotted a patch of strawberries nearby. Eyes glinting with happiness, she plucked a fair few of them, and hurried back indoors with her small harvest.

 

Once she was back inside, she relieved Shippou of preparing the rabbits. He'd gutted and skinned two of them; it would do. Instead, she gave him a small tub and asked him to wash the fruits and vegetables, starting with the berries. She gave him a second tub to put the clean ones in, and set to finishing up with the rabbits. Shippou had been kind enough to bury the innards outside, away from the hut - knowing that she wouldn't have been able to take the smell of faeces that emanated from them.

 

She used a small knife to cut the rabbits down into smaller size pieces, and put them into the pot of boiling water before collecting the vegetables that Shippou had cleaned. He was fast with his paws, so the majority were already clean. She peeled them with the knife, and cut them down to smaller sizes, making sure to stir the water every now and again to ensure that the meat did not catch on the bottom. When she'd chopped up all the vegetables, she put them in with the meat and stirred them in, adding a few herbs.

 

The smell of the cooking stew quickly overpowered the house as soon as Shippou shut the door and the window to ward off the fast-approaching storm. The thunder rumbled overhead, almost rattling the contents of the small house with their power. Kagome made a face at the sky through the closed window, and set to cleaning the clothing of the hanyou and her bed sheets.

 

There were only two rooms in the house. There was a separate fireplace in the back room that was almost always burning, for circumstances just like this. The pot above it was almost a cauldron; it was so massive, and Kagome and Shippou always made sure that it was full of water. Kagome tossed the bloodied garments into the boiling water and left them for a little while; the force of the water and the heat would practically clean the blood out by themselves. She could also tell that the cloth was made of the fur of the rare fire rat; she didn't have to worry about it burning. She washed her hands in the small basin on the other side of the room, and came back out to stir dinner.

 

Kagome and Shippou played out their usual evenings. Kagome curled up in the rather large, comfortable chair by the fire with a book, and Shippou sat in front of the fire, drawing. It was a comfortable silence, only broken when Kagome announced that dinner was ready, and then they lapsed back into that same silence while eating. Kagome was ready to curl up and go to sleep in the chair, since the hanyou was taking up her bed, when there was a sound of growling invading the hut.

 

Kagome's head snapped up from where it was resting on her chest at the sound. She looked around frantically for the source, only to discover that it was the hanyou that had been unconscious not even an hour before. Her breath was taken away at the sight of his eyes. She had thought his silver hair was beautiful; it had nothing on his eyes. They were a lovely shade of honey; they almost appeared golden. She did nothing but stare in awe at the beautiful creature for a few moments, before she realised that he was growling at her and the sleeping kit on her lap.

 

She gave him a small, reassuring smile as the rain outside - when had it even started? - pounded at the window. He scrambled backward on the bed and into the corner, baring his fangs at her in a feral snarl. She blinked at him for a second, before speaking softly. “You shouldn't do that. It took me a long time to set those bandages.” He said nothing, but he did increase the volume of his growling. “Are you hungry? There's still some stew left over from dinner.” She pointed to the pot in the fireplace. “I'm not the best cook in the world, but we live on it.” She continued with her soft, soothing tone as she gently removed the kit from her lap and stood, placing him back down into the warmth of the chair.

 

His eyes never left her as she went to the rack by the basin under the window, and took a bowl and a spoon. She used the ladle in the pot to dish up a large bowl of the food, and broke off a hunk of bread, before carrying it over toward the growling hanyou. She put it down on the bedside table, and retreated a good three feet, sitting back on her ankles and just watching him innocently. His nose was working on overdrive as he sniffed at the bread and stew, probably trying to decide if there was poison in it or not, before he snatched up the food and downed it quickly. She smiled at his belch.

 

“How're you feeling?” She prompted, only to get a snarl in return. “Your clothing is in the other room; I'm washing it for you, and I'll sew up the tears tomorrow. I'll have to re-dress your wounds in the morning, too. Will you let me?” She was beginning to think that he couldn't understand her; he wasn't showing any response to her words. All she was getting was snarling. And a very good view of his fangs.

 

His snarling ceased all of a sudden, and he leant forward, sniffing her intently. She almost giggled at how this reminded her of how she had met Shippou, though Shippou had been outside, in the rain, and wet. He had been in perfect physical condition; Kagome could tell the hanyou was in pain from just that little bit of leaning over. She scooted a little closer so he didn't have to lean over so far, halting when he started to growl again. As soon as she was stationary, the growling ceased.

 

Thinking of something she'd seen her mother do with a wolf youkai once, Kagome held out a hand, palm up and flat. She didn't think that the man had wolf demon blood - their hair tended to be darker and their eyes were normal colours - but his ears suggested he was of the canine variety. His nose landed practically on her hand, sniffing her intently. He used one of his fangs to bite at her palm, testing to see if she'd flinch or attack him. She jumped a little at the pain, but she didn't withdraw her hand. She smiled in recognition. Dog demon; she should have known.

 

He leant back and she withdrew her hand, standing up to find a bandage. She used a little of the cold water with the herbs from before to wash her hand of the blood before wrapping it up. She smiled over at he hanyou again. “My name's Kagome.” She settled back down on the floor. “The kit is Shippou. What's your name?” He was silent. He wasn't speaking, but he wasn't growling, either. “You weren't seriously injured, and I don't think you'll scar.” She still didn't get a response. “Do you want an infusion for the pain?” She shook her head in dismay at his lack of response. “Do you even understand me?”

 

“I understand you perfectly fine, wench.” The hanyou growled, a tic forming in his forehead. “I'm just trying to figure out who the fuck you are and what the fuck you're doing with me.”

 

“I'm not going to do anything to you.” She said cheerfully, encouraged by his response. “You were being chased by a bunch of taijiya and Shippou-chan and I brought you here so we could tend to your wounds.”

 

“Why? You gonna slowly poison me and then hand me over to the taijiya so I last longer when they torture me?” He snarled. Kagome looked taken aback.

 

“No.”

 

“Then why?” He demanded.

 

Kagome regarded him for a moment. “Because it's the right thing to do.” She said simply. “I wont leave anyone to be killed like that.” She eyed the tag on his ear. “How long have you had that thing?” She frowned. His ear had been flicking at it non-stop since he woke up. It must have been irritating.

 

“None of your business.”

 

“Would you like me to remove it?” She offered kindly.

 

He looked at her sceptically. “You wouldn't be able to.” He grunted.

 

She grinned despite herself. “Would you like to bet on that?” She asked playfully. She startled him by standing up, and sitting on the side of the bed, gently turning him to face the edge, instead of where she had been sitting. She knelt up on her knees and grasped the little tag. “I help youkai escape from the taijiya all the time - you're the first hanyou I've ever met, though.” She chattered as she fiddled with it. The next thing he knew, she was sliding off the bed with the tag in her hand. His hand flew up to his ear; it was really gone!

 

She looked at it momentarily. “Tracking spell?” She asked, looking up. He could do nothing but nod dumbly. She chuckled and threw it in the fire. “Not anymore.” She shrugged. “Go back to sleep, you'll feel better in the morning.” She trudged back to the chair by the fire and picked the sleeping kit up, sitting down and putting him back on her lap. She looked back to see him sitting cross-legged on the bed, his arms folded across his chest. She rolled her eyes. “Or not.”

 

She settled back into the chair, sleeping lightly for a little while. She woke a few times to the sound of shuffling, but it was just the hanyou shifting around on the bedding, looking increasingly bewildered. She was helpless against the smile that crossed her face, even in her semi-conscious state. He was just like a scared puppy. He was scared, and confused, and he didn't know what to do.

 

With that thought in mind, she drifted off into a proper sleep.