Heart's Ease
By Ashteldar's Jewel
Chapter One
No Exit
It was the second night in a row that Kagome had the same dream. Not frightening at all but actually quite boring. She found herself alone in a dark and dank stone room. A small room, she'd paced it out. She'd dragged her fingers along the walls trying to find an exit. It was only three paces wide and five paces long. The ceiling was too high to touch, even when she jumped. Knowing the whole time that it was all a dream, with nothing to see, or hear, nothing to feel, except damp stone. And so she had sat there for two nights leaning against a cold, hard wall, her arms around her knees, within a kind of sentient, listening silence and talked out loud about nothing in particular, just any thing that came to mind, because it seemed to her that any noise at all was what the silence desired. And then after hours and hours of nothing much, Inuyasha's foot would prod her awake. And hey! For once in her life she didn't even mind being woken up so rudely.
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Ironically, it had so far been a beautiful day. The best weather they'd seen during their weeks of searching. Feathery gleaming white cirrus clouds against a deep blue sky and a warm sun, not too hot or too cool. And of course no one could enjoy it. And Kagome had forgotten to do her Naraku is dead happy dance when she woke up that morning. Yep Naraku was dead and it was a beautiful day.
The group had been traveling back to Kaede's village for the last two days. Kagome dragging Inuyasha, kicking and screaming the whole way, (Kagome was kicking and screaming at him of course). Sango to recover from the terrible bruises and cuts and Miroku from the poison they had received from a particularly pesky humanoid lower youkai possessed by two jewel shards and also possessed of some kind of noxious poison powder they were unaware of until it was too late and Miroku had already sucked it up into his wind tunnel.
Sango riding on Kirara's back with Miroku unconscious in front of her, flinched, as Kagome screamed once more, "Inuyasha! If you make me say the 'S' word again, I won't stop saying it until you reach the center of the earth!" Birds shrieked as they took off from the trees lining the road and her voice echoed off the steep sides of the valley they were traversing.
"But Kagome," Inuyasha whined, with his ears pinned back, "I just said that we could send those two back alone, and keep going on our own."
"And that was about the hundredth time you've said that this morning alone. I told you I'm staying with Sango and Miroku. If you want to go shard hunting you'll just have to go alone. I'm not abandoning my friends!"
Well you're abandoning me aren't you? I mean you promised right? And now all you ever want to do is 'go home'. You don't need those tests and things. And now it's all the time 'someone's hurt, we're tired; we need supplies, we've got to go home'. Well we're not supposed to be 'going home' all the time; we're supposed to be hunting jewel shards!"
"Well Inuyasha," Kagome, intoned coldly, "that's all very true, and what's also very true, is that some of us are hurt! Two of your friends are hurt, and I just can't believe how utterly selfish you're being right now. And if you say one more word, just one more word, you won't like the consequences!" Inuyasha's ears went back again as the last word came out of her mouth in a shriek.
"Ow, Kagome," Shippo whimpered, from his perch on Kagome's shoulder, "that hurt!"
"Oh Shippo, I'm so sorry. And if Inuyasha can keep his mouth shut for a while, it won't happen again!"
"Yeah well shit, what about my ears?" A sulking Inuyasha muttered under his breath for once wise enough to be unheard. Then his ears perked up as he heard a faint moan from the monk.
"Inuyasha," called the taijiya softly, "we need to stop for a rest."
"All right, I smell clean water ahead, near that clump of trees." Sango nodded and tightened her grasp on Miroku, as Kirara lengthened her stride. Inuyasha glanced back at Kagome, to see her tilt her head and grin goofily in approval. He just turned his nose up in contempt and exclaimed "Keh!"
'Ah,' thought Kagome, 'Inuyasha chose a good spot'. Kirara crouched down so that Inuyasha could easily lift Miroku off of her back and he hefted him into the shade under a huge tree next to Sango. Then the fire-cat transformed into her kitten form and curled up into the taijiya's lap purring. Sango tangled her hand into Kirara's fur and leaned her head back against the cool, rough trunk and closed her eyes.
Kagome plopped her ungainly yellow back-pack to the ground and stretched her arms over her head. Shippo was already burrowing into the pack and pulled out the empty water bottles. Inuyasha was collecting wood for a fire. Kagome pulled out her small kettle, and followed Shippo towards the stream. "I have enough ramen left for one more meal." She called out to the hanyou.
It wasn't but a quarter of a hour later, that Kagome stood over the fire one finger on her lip, her other hand combing back her hair behind one ear, her thoughts running around in her head like a hamster on a wheel. 'Okay…' she thought, 'two maybe three more hours and we'll be back at Kaede's village. Meanwhile water is boiling for lunch, Shippo got water; Oh yeah don't forget the purifying tablets. Ah, check Sango's bandages; give Miroku another dose of antidote. Um yeah, what else?' "Arg! I'm just too tired to think!" 'Oops! Did I just say that out loud?'
"Kagome, are you all right?" Shippo squeaked, and she felt his tiny hand on the calf of her leg.
"Of course I'm all right Shippo." She replied, and stepped back from the fire to kneel next him. She put her hand on his shoulder, and looked reassuringly into his huge emerald eyes. "I'm just tired. I've had a weird dream the last two nights, and I just didn't sleep well."
"A dream, Kagome," asked Sango, concerned. "Did it have anything to do with that demon we just fought?"
Kagome shook her head, and laughed. "I don't see how it could be. It was actually more boring than anything. I was just sitting around in this dark room, nothing else. I wasn't scared or anything. But, anyway let me at those bandages, there's time for me to check them before we eat."
Less than an hour later, they were back on the road. Moving faster now, since Miroku had regained consciousness and Inuyasha had finally consented to carrying Kagome.
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