Alone In The Wake
Chapter One
Blood Soaked Questions
A cold wild breeze whipped around a small group of friends. The stinging needles of the first frost carried on the wind, hitting their faces. Among the random grouping was a small orange haired fox-child of demonic birth, his little body held closely to another being. Yet warmth seemed to evade the child.
"H-houshi?" A little voice rang above the strange silence that had befallen the group. A silence that unnerved the little fox-child. He was not as naive as the adult would like to think and he knew, he knew this was not a good thing. Few things in his short life had been, but silence had proven to be the worst.
"Yes, Shippou?" The calm male voice returned with little emotion to offer. The male's purple eyes locked onto the child's emerald ones. Since this morning everyone seemed to be in a rather foul mood, even the gentle pervert seemed effected and this didn't sit well with the full-blooded child. These people were his leash, his pack, his family and to see and feel this set is teeth on edge. The child had to fix this, he just had to. He was driven to find the cause.
"Wh-why is everyone is such a bad mood? Did Inuyasha do something?" Shippou asked in an ever so innocent voice. He meant no harm by the question, but with the half-bred dog demon being as he is, he lept and gnashed at the little thing in anger.
"And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Said demon asked reaching for the child, but just as he was in reach the being holding the child shifted and shot a nasty glare at the demon, freezing his hand in place. She seemed to be more upset then the males and seemed quicker to anger than normal.
"Inu.." The being's voice warned, with a note of a promise behind the tone, a promise of pain. Yet, this didn't seem to faze the fox-child or the purple eyed man one little bit and the child simply wiggled free from his warm place and onto the monk's shoulder. The little hands holding gently onto the purple silken robes, yet he remained mindful of his ever growing claws.
"For me, Shippou, it is a bad feeling hanging in the air. I sense as if something bad comes our way. " He let out a soft sigh. "As for the others.." He glanced around at the group. His beloved slayer was riding upon her faithful Neko companion, the half demon was glaring daggers at the small commanding female and said female was calmly trying to deal with the over bearing male. "I can not say." Silence once again befell the group as the Monk's words died down in the wind, even the arguing between the other two stopped. The male's words hanging heavy on the groups mind, yet no one spoke out.
The silence remained well into the after noon as the group walked on. Miroku taking the lead with the others following close behind. The normal leader having lost all desire to tread on as hard as they had in the past and simply wished to take in his family's scent for as long as he could, as he did not know how long the group would stay together. Their shared goal was now completed and their small group was no longer needed. It was that small fact that hung heavy on his mind and some where deep in his soul he knew something would soon tear them apart, after all that was how things worked with him.
As the group walked on the three demon-bred beings all stiffened and paused in whatever action they were doing; Inuyasha stopped walking, Kilala stopped purring, walking and thinking, whereas Shippou stopped burying himself in the Monk's robes. Everything just stopped and all actions did not go unnoticed by the humans.
"W-what's going on?" Asked Kagome weakly. She had hoped all attacks and danger had passed with the jewel, yet with her friends' pause she quickly found that to be a false hope. Their luck just would never be good for long.
Purple, black and grey smoke rose from the ground and around the bunch. The smell choking them as it rose with the breeze. All beings forced to cover their faces and attempt to cover their eyes as the smoke was all to familiar, miasma, at least that's how it appeared. Yet this was not as harsh as before, it stung but it was very clearly not as they thought. However, Inuyasha could still sense something in there, something familiar.
"Oi show yourself you cowards! I know someone is in there!" Inuyasha's voice rang out, echoing around the empty spaces and bouncing off the trees. His only answer was that of the sight of deep red eyes with blue irises and the sound of a deep, hardly sane growl. A large white maw peeked from the smoke as the eyes become visible to everyone. There was no denying who the being was.
"S-Ses..." Was all a small meek voice could get out before the being disappeared completely, leaving behind nothing but a falling piece of orange and black checkered fabric drenched in blood, taking with it the smoke. This allowed all to take a breath and attempt to make sense of what just passed.
"Th-that was..." The meek voice tried, but could not form the name that lay upon her tongue. Her mind daring not to finish the sentence, after all how could that have been him, the master of control? What could have caused the ever stoic male to lose his handle on himself and allow the beast free? What had caused that much strife?
"Yes... it seemed to be so..." Another replied, his hand now reaching for the bloodied fabric that fell from the jaws of the great lord, yet, as he held it he knew the cause. Something had happened, and very clearly had happened to the ward he protected as he would his own bloodline.
Suddenly the meek female came to his side and offered her hand to him. Understanding quickly what it was she wanted, he handed the fabric over to her. After a few seconds she gasped. She too, knew who the fabric belonged to and went to the worst possible thing she could.
"Oh. My. Gods... No... Please no.. He wouldn't have.. He couldn't..." She managed to get out before she fell to her knees and clutched the fabric close to her chest, tears streaming from her face. The ground below her soon became muddy from the fallen things. She hardly noticed anyone or anything around her as her sobbing grew louder.
"Kagome? Momma?" The small fox-child pressed as he joined her by her side, seeing and smelling what she held so close to her chest. The blood, the scent, all of it told him all he needed to know. Yet, he could not understand what had her so upset, the blood belonged not to the fabric's owner, but to another being. Then it dawned him, she could not scent the blood, there for she could not know.
"Momma?" The child pressed again, his form now wiggling to get between her and the fabric. He had to tell her what he smelled and he needed to get her away from the cloth to do so, after all if there was one thing he knew about the woman, it was that she held on to things. She was stubborn. And when she got something in her head, it was hard to convince her other wise.
"Sh-Shippou?" She sobbed out, pulling the small fox thing to her breast, he was her playmate and thought he was seeking her comfort. She was heartbroken not just for what had happened to the child but what her own would be feeling at her loss. She held him tight to her and began chanting 'I am sorry..' over and over against his neck.
"The blood... it's not hers, momma. The blood was his."
At those words her tears stopped, her movement stopped and time itself seemed to stop.
"Wh-what..?" She managed out and pulled her arms back to look at her son. Was he telling her the truth? Or was he grieving and only wished to comfort her? At those thoughts her eyes narrowed a bit and she frowned. "Don't you dare lie to me Shippou.." She stated in a manner that threatened motherly punishment.
"N-" The little fox tried.
"He ain't lying, wench. Cut the kid some slack.. he ain't never lied to you before so why would he start now? With this?" He then proceeded to take the kit from her and shot her a rather nasty glare.
Kagome was at a loss for words and felt terrible right after Inuyasha took the child from her. Here she was just sitting there, crying her eyes out in mourning for a little girl she thought was killed, by her father figure no less and the kicker was that she had refused to listen to her own child in regards to what he smelled. Suddenly, the wisp of a girl burst into laughter and finally tears again. All the tension had set her on edge and she just broke. She did feel bad at the scene that had just played out, but Sesshomaru was a strong being, she knew he'd be OK. But that still left the torn bloody fabric they all knew was Rin's.
"R-really?" She choked out, hoping to believe his words. All the while one hot-head had remained rather calm and uncharacteristically collected, in his arms still wiggled the kit. While Kagome broke down, he went and started to speak to the Monk, logically. He had told the monk the fabric was drenched in Sesshomaru's blood, yet it still held the child's scent as well as another's. It was the second scent that bothered Inuyasha. Finally said male got tired of the sound of his sister's crying and the fact she was being rather stupid to her own child.
"Yes, wench. Now stop sobbing, get up and lets continue on. We need to get to Edo Quickly... So we will NOT stop for the night." Inuyasha ordered in a gruff voice and took a step towards her but was beaten to the woman by Sango.
"Kagome. Get your fanny up and STOP!" Sango growled. The harshness of the young warrior did not go unnoticed. Yet, this seemed to help Kagome snap out of her pity party, if only to make her mad again. Yet just as she was about to yell at Sango, she was beaten to yelling by said female.
"You look crazy Kagome... Knock it off or I will hit you!" Sango threatened glaring at the woman. There was a reason for her anger and yet as Kagome cried for another child her anger welled deeper inside her heart for what she did to a separate child, one very close to her heart.
"F-fine.. I am better... I promise... Now what just happened? I mean if this is not Rin's blood but Sesshomaru's... what happened?" The question hung in the air like the miasma had, forcing the group to repeat the question over and over in their minds.
Mark 2 Rewrite Sept 18, 2015