Fire
Inuyasha is not mine; it is owned by Rumiko Takahashi. I'm only borrowing her excellent characters for the entertainment of fans. This is my first Inuyasha Fanfiction. Please R&R and enjoy.
He was NOT scared!
Determined fox pup sat up proudly, determined not to let an inch of fear cross his face. After all, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, everyone was sleeping just fine. The fire had gone out a long time ago. Yet, they slept on. He had absolutely no reason not to be doing the same. Only Inuyasha was awake and that was because he never slept, far as Shippo could tell.
He was NOT scared!
So why was he sitting here, in the cold of the dark night, shaking?
Kagome's sleeping bag as she called it would have kept him warm enough and generally that was where he slept. He usually would sleep forever there, bundled up and warm, finding a deep comfort in her scent but this night, the cold of the early extinguished fire had woke him and the dark of the night kept him well awake.
He'd never liked the dark, even before he knew there were things to be frightened of that dwelled in it. As a younger pup, living with his father and mother and the rest of their kind, they had always slept and bathed and ate together, always doing many things together if not everything. It had been a rarity for the young fox pup to be alone. Even if his parents had gone off to be alone, he would have been left with a cousin or an aunt or someone of that sense of kinship.
Oh, those days had been fun.
He was his parents' only child not to mention his father had been a dominant leader in his clan of kitsune demons. Mother had always been by his side, usually rebuking him if need be but many times simply being his silent supporter. Most often, she would merely smile and shake her head if he inquired to why she and Father worked so well together. Never insulting though, she'd just assured him that he'd understand that type of thing one day.
Mother had died before Papa.
Shippo remembered well enough that although he tried to forget it each time it penetrated his consciousness, each time without success.
A harsh wind blew then, ruffling the pup's hair and he pulled himself into a tight ball, using his tail as a partial shield. The fur kept some of the wind away but he was still cold. He normally would have run back to Kagome but not this night. For some reason, he didn't feel comforted by her at the moment. She loved him to death, she told him often enough. Yet he didn't want a comfort of fleece this time.
Father hadn't used anything like that when he was cold or frightened. Father would have always wrapped his tail around his son and called up his blue fox fire about them, comforting, protecting and warming all in one gesture. Shippo had fallen asleep to that quite a few times in his toddler years. It had become more and more prominent after Mother's death as Papa grew more protective and other demons grew more violent towards his group of kin.
Aunts, Uncles, cousins, friends…everyone was subject to murder by the oncoming demons and before long, it was THOSE two that plagued his kind, killing everyone they could. All for the jewel shards…
Shippo bit his lip, tears blurring his vision and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his arm. No tears! Inuyasha never cried and he'd been through a lot too, from what Shippo knew. Inuyasha had said men never let people see them cry. He was not a child anymore! The kitsune silently vowed. But…still…
"My fault…" he whispered to the night air. "It was my fault Papa…I had to bring you the "pretty stones" I found. I drew them there…"
He'd found them when he was playing, scattered about the grassy lands around his home. Curious and anxious top show off his find, he'd rushed homeward, thrusting the shimmering shards at his father, declaring that he'd found them "after fighting a whole hoard of demons!" Stories of course but the shards had been real. Had Shippo know what would have come of it, he'd have left them where they'd been.
But he hadn't known.
The Thunder Brothers had come mercilessly, slaughtering without question and laughing all the while. Shippo remembered full well his father taking on his true form, telling Shippo to remain behind him and out of sight. The pup had done so, being frightened, confused and worried. That had been the first time the young child had been so close to bloodshed, so close to any battle. Usually, Papa would have handled them and Shippo would have hidden, as he had then.
This time however, the battle had been brought right to his eyes, his nose, his ears.
He'd seen the Thunder Brother's weapons slice right through his father's body, right on the tender underbelly and had seen the bright red rivers spill out in gushes all over the ground, staining the plants temporarily, staining the child's mind and soul permanently.
He'd smelt the sweat of the Thunder Brothers, smelt their horrid breath as they laughed but mostly, he smelt his father's scent turning cold and empty, smelt the warmth he'd embellished in for so long slowly drift away, as if it were never there.
He'd heard…
Shippo shuddered.
Father never was a screamer. He never gave his enemies such satisfaction. Even then, dying, he'd reframed. He'd merely yelped, a simple cry. The type of cry Shippo usually emitted when he fell or when Inuyasha popped him one on the head. He remembered that and he remembered those two brothers….they'd laughed…
His Papa had died, though the pup had denied it, face in a pool of his own blood as his entire family joined him in the journey to the afterlife and they'd…laughed!
Shippo had run.
Shaking his head, the small fox pup kicked at the ashes of the fire, as if to convince them to relight. He would have liked to do so himself but the others would have awakened at that and he didn't want that. For right now, he sat there, staring into the black ashes, memories pounding at his heart. He remembered meeting Inuyasha and Kagome and seeing Inuyasha fight so valiantly against the demons that had slaughtered his father and other kin. Although Shippo had, at first, been so determined to merely get the jewel shards and avenge his father, his goals had changed upon seeing Inuyasha and Kagome's attitudes towards him.
Well, it was mainly Kagome's attitude the first month or so but then, slowly, he saw Inuyasha take on a different stance altogether. He was mean to him, crude at times and certainly as blunt as could get but ultimately, he'd protected him time and time again even when he had no cause to. Lately, with Naraku's presence becoming more and more known, it had only increased.
Shippo felt and heard the branches shift above him and knew without glancing that Inuyasha was awake, probably watching the landscape. The half-demon never slept much. He was always watching, always guarding. Shippo couldn't deny that he felt safe with the half-demon. The only thing he really had to fear was the half-demon's anger and even that wasn't deadly, just annoying and slightly painful. Although irritating, he'd never really hurt him and Shippo knew it.
Inuyasha was good at putting on faces and masks. He put on a tough guy act and face and ultimately, Shippo supposed he was. However, Shippo also knew that Inuyasha would never fail to come to his aid, even if he didn't want him to. At first, it had been because Kagome liked him but Shippo didn't know if that was the only reason anymore.
Glancing up slightly, he caught sight of the half demon, slumped against the trunk of a tree. He had his eyes shut but his ears were wide open, surveying and Shippo knew it was only a matter of time before he opened his eyes again. The Tetsusaiga hung on his waist, always at the ready. His claws were always sharpened and ready.
He reminded him of Father in some ways.
Lying on his belly, the young fox pup stared into the dark ashes. Memories unwarranted but vivid just the same were swimming throughout his consciousness.
Father's fur had been a comfort even knowing he was gone during that long battle. He and Kagome had rushed out together to aid Inuyasha and when that huge attack had come, Shippo had panicked, burying his face into the warm fur. The scent had been weaker but still there but it hadn't been the scent that had calmed his heart.
That final time, that last time, he'd felt his father's fox fire spread over his body, comforting, protecting and warming. It had spared him his life before he felt the last of his father's spirit vanish away to the world beyond.
Tears ran down his cheeks as the kit laid his face in the cold ground, sprawling out that way by the ashes of the extinguished fire. He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the darkness with more darkness. Dreams were usually dark but this time, he tried with all his soul to focus on his father, as his little body resisted the cold of the night air. The tree branches swayed in the wind and the fox pup's fur ruffled in the breeze.
Yes…it had to be Father that ran through is dreams now. It felt so real and sure, the fox pup inhaled, hoping to catch the scent of his father but he caught only alien smells. No, Father was gone but it felt so like he was there. Papa used to pick him up by the tail and then shift him to cradle him in arms or his mouth, depending on what form he favored for the moment and that's what it felt like now. He could have sworn that his hair even drooped down to gravity's will as it had when he was younger and being plucked up. Then, just as he remembered, the cradling, the gentle soothing motions…
Warmth flooded his body. He bit down his tears, sure if he opened his eyes that this gentle dream would vanish away. The fox fire was warmer than it usually was, as was usually the case with dreams he supposed, especially a feeling that had been missed for almost a year. He felt his legs and arms and whole body turn full of heat and comfort. It wrapped about him like a blue cocoon, shifting his head to cradle it in strong hands. He felt a gentle stroking in his hair, if only for a moment and silently pleaded himself not to awaken, lest he lose this rare and forgotten moment.
His limbs felt oddly constricted, not restrained but pulled tightly into one another, a bundle of sorts. Mother had always done that and Papa had in the later years and it was a feeling the fox pup was more than happy to receive, even if it was only in his dreams. Tears strained down his cheeks and he felt something push them away. Even in his dreams, Papa wouldn't let him be hurting.
Sleep became a safe haven for the pup and he dreaded the coming of the morning, save he lose the protection and salvation he felt now. After a moment, he felt the hold loosen and he whimpered in his dream, reaching out for his father's fur. Tiny fists enclosed and dug in and the strong grip returned. Father felt different though, not a bad different but different nonetheless. What happened to you in the Afterlife? Did you change? Shippo wasn't sure of it although it seemed death had changed Kikyou from the one Inuyasha had known. Papa felt the same, the same protecting and comforting figure but different also. Stronger maybe? His arms certainly enveloped him tighter, more securely than he ever remembered feeling. The pup lost himself in the feeling.
Too soon though, he felt the rays of the morning light and that caused the arms to loosen and then he felt laid down but the fox fire remained. How could that be? Papa always extinguished the fox fire when he finally laid him down.
Curiosity made Shippo open his eyes and they fell to rest on the rising sun in the east. He felt that cocoon still tightly binding his body but the arms were gone. The cocoon was-
Not blue. Red.
Sitting up, Shippo got his bearings. His eyes clouded slightly as the warmth fell away from his face and back and he realized… it hadn't been his father's foxfire at all.
It was Inuyasha's firerat he was wrapped so tightly in.
Shock took the pup's mind and he jerked his eyes up to the tree the half demon had been perched in and found it empty. Shifting his eyes around, he found the others still asleep but no sign of the half demon. Was that…yes, he realized it now. That had been no dream last night. But it had been Inuyasha that wrapped him in warmth, it had been Inuyasha that had wiped his tears away and it had been Inuyasha that clutched him tightly to his chest for that short period.
It had been Inuyasha's scent that had seemed so foreign.
Prickling his nose, the fox demon caught that same scent and turned his head away, finally locating the half demon, not even three feet from him. His back was to Shippo, his eyes still permanently fixated on the horizon.
Seeing the half demon shift his position, Shippo laid back down quickly, closing his eyes, knowing full well what Inuyasha would deny and say and shout should he realize Shippo was awake. He felt no desire to leave this warmth yet.
His ears caught Inuyasha rising and walking over then felt a warmth spread over his hair and ears as the half demon pulled the firerat back up to cover his shoulders and head. Then, taking his leave, the half demon continued onward, seeking out some food for the group with the morning's light.
Only then did Shippo open one eye, watching the proud dog demon hybrid walk off.
"Thanks Inuyasha…it's not Papa's fox fire…" he nuzzled down as deep into the red kimono and thus, Inuyasha's scent as he could, "But it'll do."