The rattling in the wagon stopped.
Night had long since fallen, but the drivers had vowed they could make the three-day journey in only two, if they could be allowed to push a bit farther on the second day. This was a clear bid to get in the lady's good favor, but she had permitted it anyway. Kagome blinked her bleary eyes awake and stroked her brother's hair, hoping that he had not yet had his sleep interrupted. Already chatter was beginning outside, and the sound of dismounting and clatter of metal signaled what should be their final stop for the night. In the wagon, it had been black as pitch for hours, but lit torches now passing quickly back and forth cast beams like streaming comets across the stretched canvas. Maneuvering as gently as possible, she slipped out from underneath her brother's resting body and tucked his blanket closer to him, knowing the sudden dearth of her body heat would soon wake him in the cold. She tugged her cloak closer and wrapped her blanket, a parting gift from her mother, over her shoulders as she pulled back the thin flap that covered the wagon entrance.
The drivers had failed to fulfill their promise. Plunged into the dark at the edge of the petrified forest that marked another day's travels to come, the caravan had paused at a poor place to camp. In fairness, the last half-day had been entirely uphill, and it was certainly better than finding themselves unable to go further along the mountain passes they were to cross tomorrow, but the forest border to the Western Lands was known for heavy snowfall and rocky ground. In the afternoon, the sun dipped below the mountains before the horizon, and the eastern side was known for sunsets at dinner and a high moon by supper.
Kagome stepped outside, wind whipping at her blanket even before her shoe touched the snow. Mounted men barked orders above her head and their horses neighed loudly with displeasure at the rushed and jerky movements their riders forced them to perform. "No camp here! Keep moving!" yelled a bannerman from the front of the caravan, wielding the blue, purple and white banner trimmed with gold that displayed the origins of the company.
"The lady cannot mean to make camp in the forest!" shot back a squire, riding up from the back. "The road through it permits no space for a group of this size to pitch tents for at least another day's ride. The ground is poor for horses and wagons alike, and the trees are so dense in places not even starlight reaches low branches."
"Our lady has commanded it, and it shall be done without complaint," said the bannerman before returning towards the front. Others had emerged from larger wagons, before being ushered back inside by the mounted men. Kagome dipped back inside.
"Sister?" her brother called.
"We're not stopping, Souta," she replied, in as reassuring a tone as she could muster. "Go back to sleep."
An uneasy mood settled as everyone assumed their places. The comforting rattling that had lulled her to sleep for the past few hours was reduced to incessant banging as the wheels continuously hit uneven rock. Kagome waited for the sounds of the forest, but there were none. Souta, young as he was, was soon fast asleep again in her arms. His warmth was comforting, but even her brief encounter with the outside was enough to keep her chilled. Unlike the demon servants who all rode fairly comfortably together, the humans were left to wherever there was space in the caravan. Kagome was lucky enough to find a spot in a wagon carrying flour and grains, which gave a fair amount of insulation. Other humans had found themselves stuck between slabs of salted meat, or worse, pots, which only made the wagon feel colder.
They had hardly gone three more hours before they stopped again.
This time when Kagome went out to investigate she nearly slipped on the icy rocks hidden underneath the snow.
"A horse broke its leg near the front," she heard a demon servant explain to a wagon in front of her, "and the torches keep blowing out from the wind. The lady has given leave for us to stop."
At least, for now, the night would be over. Souta was already up when she went back inside. "We can't make camp here, can we?" he asked. He must have heard the squire before.
"No, Souta. We can't leave the wagons, so there will be no camp tonight."
"But what about dinner?"
Kagome smiled. As uncouth as it was, his favorite pastimes were sleeping and eating, and she could hardly fault him. A growing boy needed both rest and food- especially when, on most days, they worked on their feet for hours without end. She promised to try to find him some bread and cheese in another wagon, so long as he didn't complain if she couldn't find him any.
Her steps were more careful this time, but sliding was unavoidable. The food wagon was unmarked to prevent the exact type of pilfering she set out to do, and the only way to tell where it was without a demon's nose was to follow the dogs that were always in tow, who licked up any crumbs that fell out the back. Red faced and shivering, she found the wagon third from the last in the group, seven dogs huddled and whimpering underneath. Sticking her hand up through the canvas cover, she grabbed the first two shapes she felt: two round, stale crusts. Deeming it too risky to step inside to find cheese, Kagome stuffed the bread under her cloak and hurried back to the grain wagon. In her haste, she moved a little too fast for her footing and tumbled into the snow.
Resisting the urge to curse, she stood, making sure she still held the bread, before catching the fleetest movement of her blanket being carried away by the wind.
This time, she did curse. Her mother was ever the practical woman, and more than once Kagome had sent up a prayer thanking her for giving her a blanket for her birthday years ago and not some trinket. At home it was not nearly as cold rarely needed it outside of the winter months. It smelled like her house, like baking bread and raw earth and the river that flowed in the valley. But memento or not, she needed it now for its purpose and not it's sentimental value-her eyes were tearing from the wind already. Kagome darted after the blanket, doing her best to maintain her footing as she chased it into the forest. Any time she got close enough to grab it, she tripped, or a gust would carry it just out of reach. After one hard fall she gave up, resolving to huddle close to her brother and hope that the next day's travel would be kinder. But after she stood, she realized how far her blanket had taken her. In the darkness, there was no indication of which way she came.
Kagome bit back tears and tried to follow her footsteps back. Initially, it worked, but soon she found that the wind had blown the snow and covered her tracks. She followed the same way for a few minutes, but knew she had not gone that direction for so long. Panicked, Kagome turned and ran randomly, hoping and praying it would take her back to the caravan. She saw a clearing ahead and surged forward.
Starlight was able to filter in without the hindrance of the treetops. Just barely, Kagome could see that her blanket was flapping in the strong wind, snagged on something in the snow underneath the single large tree at the center of the clearing. She ran to it and wrapped the blanket around herself, falling on her knees with exhaustion and relief.
The ground beneath her was far lumpier than it had been, even for the notoriously rocky soil of the area. With a start, she realized that the edge her blanket had been stuck on was not merely a twig but the tip of a sword. Struggling to find footing on the ground, she slipped, exposing an icy breastplate that had been blanketed by snow. When her hand pressed into the snow to steady herself, she could feel coarse hair and the outline of an ear. The entire base of the tree was strewn with piled bodies.
She screamed. Kagome sought to grab the trunk for leverage, but her hand landed instead on something warm. She immediately recoiled, and looked up at the living body attached to the tree.
He was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen.
His armor shone an astonishing blood red. The vines that trapped him wove in and out of his thick black hair that fell past his shoulders. But most catching of all was his face- tanned and gently flushed even in the cold, molded so finely she could have easily mistaken him for a statue of a god. His breathing was ragged in his slumber, and cast only the occasional puff of white into the darkness. A large arrow, plunged into his chest just above his heart, seemed to pulse with power. Drawn to it, Kagome wrapped her hands around it and pulled.
A thin spurt of blood burst from his chest but quickly subsided. The man winced, before relaxing again into the tree. She dropped the arrow and touched his face, just for a moment, before he jerked away.
She gasped and fell backwards into the snow bank of corpses. Her hand, seconds ago on the stranger's warm skin, touched a decaying, chainmailed arm. She clapped her other hand over her mouth, afraid to make a noise that would alert the sleeping man of her presence. In her moment of infatuation, she had nearly forgotten the bodies littered below. What if she had freed the man who killed these men? He hadn't even had to trick her. The man groaned and turned in the grasp of the vines.
Kagome ran, not caring which direction. That man, she was sure now, who had slaughtered some unnumbered demons or humans- she hadn't bothered to check which- was now awake. The arrow had surely been a last attempt to kill him, but she had saved the terrible, handsome murderer.
When her feet could no longer carry her, she stopped, shaking. The sky, thankfully, had finally begun to lighten after the endless night. Up ahead, if only faintly, Kagome saw what looked to be a glimmer from a torch. Legs screaming as they pounded into the snow, she raced towards the light, and nearly collapsed out of sheer joy when she saw the caravan. The grain wagon was, astonishingly, just a few meters outside of where she stumbled into the path. Kagome fell inside, and let out the sobbing she had held in for the past few hours. For the cold. The blanket. The corpses. The man. Her life.
"Sister?" Souta called. "Why are your hands covered in blood?"
Kagome, through tears, wiped her bloody hands on her blanket and covered her eyes. It wasn't a dream. All of that horrible nonsense was real.
"Sister?" Souta called again. "Did you get breakfast?"
Weeks passed. The rest of the journey had gone unhindered, if unpleasant. Aside from the vast differences in climate from the valley, life was mostly the same at the Mountain castle. The first few days of the arrivals of noblemen was marked with color and fanfare that amazed even the demons of high birth. The castle, known for its year-round dreary white and grey palette, was awash with hues of red and gold and whichever colors of the visiting houses had paraded through that morning. But soon after the first servant was hit for gathering water too slowly, distracted by some new influx of banners from the South, the rest of the servants went back to work, no longer dazzled with the distractions of royalty. The colors looked muted after that day.
Kagome spent most of her time scrubbing pots. The water made her hands red for hours afterward, and her back ached from reaching into the larger pots for too long, but it left her with an odd satisfaction some nights. She counted herself lucky. Souta was sent to the stables again, where he would be clearing dung morning to night. He hardly complained, but she knew that he wanted more out of life. She hadn't seen him in five days.
She tried to sleep that night the same way she did every night. The female human servants were all piled in one room and they slept in a mass, warmed by body heat and a menagerie of blankets in varying condition. Her eyes would close, and one by one, she would feel the breathing of the bodies around her become slow and even. Eventually, she too would fall asleep, to the same dream again.
Frozen corpses.
A handsome face.
A spurt of blood.
Her eyes would break open when there was still no light in the sky, and she would try to sleep again, knowing already what would meet her when she closed her eyes. She found the spot on her blanket where she had wiped his blood. Long-dried, it still felt warm.
Another feast was to be held that day, and everyone rose early to the clamor of footsteps and yelling in the kitchen below. Kagome's work was cut out for her before the sun had fully risen. The cooks had started on gravies and stews at midnight the night before. Massive stockpots, crusted in bone marrow and herbs, waited for her. There was no room in the corner of the kitchen where she normally scrubbed, so she had to wash the pots outside. The boiling water made a thick fog around her in the cold, and the clash of temperatures on her skin made her numb.
"Kagome!" a voice yelled from outside the kitchen. Sango, an older human girl, ran out and fanned the steam cloud away. "Our lady has requested a bath, and every demon has been enlisted to scurry around this godforsaken castle to do the bidding of the Lord." Sango scoffed at the title. "I finished in the bakery for the morning but I'm covered in soot. Grab some of the fresh boiled water and take it up."
Kagome gaped. Sango may have soot on her apron, but the steam had wetly plastered her black hair all over her face, and who knows what dinner scraps had smeared themselves all over her dress. "Sango, I really don't think I'm a better choice!" she squeaked. It would be a pitiful sight to see a human in a castle, but a dirty one would surely start rumors as to the wealth of their Lord's home. If Lord Naraku could not spare enough demon servants to send with his eldest daughter to a visit to Lord Sesshomaru, of all people, it would be a slight on both their houses.
Sango, ever brazen, pushed her aside and started scouring in her place. "I mean it, Kagome! If Lady Kagura doesn't get her bath quick…" Sango let Kagome finish the thought for her. Lady Kagura had been notoriously obedient to her father, Lord Naraku, who hated humans almost as much as he wanted Lord Sesshomaru's lands. Who was to say if that trait had been inherited? Lady Kagura was waited on only by demons.
Kagome knew it was futile to argue any further and ran up the passage from the visiting servant's quarters to the castle's servant's quarters. She vaguely remembered other servants of Lady Kagura shouting to take things to the last room on the left side of the guest's chambers, but where that was she hardly knew. It was all demons in the castle walls, so she could hardly expect a pitying look from any of them. Besides, they were whirling around following orders the same way that she was, and distracting them at this time might pique even a normally levelheaded demon.
Hefting the large pot of water, she ghosted underneath legs and between bodies of demons of all kinds, some dressed for the house proper, some for the kitchens and chambers, a few even for the outside and below-quarters like herself. Even an ogre bumped into her, and Kagome barely caught the scalding water all over herself. They carted rags and soap, sumptuous roasted pig dishes stuffed with bayleaf and fruits she had never seen, a rug clawed to shreds, a bucket full of yellow decorative feathers (for who knows what purpose), and more mundane and fanciful objects that blurred as the hoard ebbed and flowed around her. There was one main way out, stuffed to the brim with demons shoving to leave or return. At some point, the crowd was so thick it was at a near stop.
Ten minutes of being pressed between a green-horned thing and a human-looking bear demon were enough. Kagome moved as close as she could to the walls of the servant's quarters, hoping maybe she would find a pack of demons large enough she could scurry under, but soon found that she could barely see beyond the ones in front of her. She had resigned to waiting in line when her hip found a bump in the wall. There was a door to a room that couldn't be half her height, but she supposed it would be better to try than to let the water run cold. Kagome opened the door as wide as she could in the crowd, and slipped in.
The boisterous noise from the crowd ceased as soon as she shut the door behind her. The tiny door opened to a corner in a massive hallway unrivaled in a quiet splendor unlike any she had ever seen. The walls were mirrored on one side and glass on the other, though at first glance it would be difficult to distinguish which was which. The ceiling had an elegant pattern of an azure sky, wrapped in gold and silver filigree tendrils. The mirrors, combined with the vast, empty landscape of the high snowy mountains from the windows made the hall look infinite.
Lord Naraku's palace had been well decorated, of course, but nothing like this. His splendor was dark velvets and rich wood, rooms packed to the brim with exotic trinkets that only could have been gathered over several lifetimes. Naraku's palace was opulence. Sesshomaru's palace was taste.
Kagome's awe was disrupted by little footfalls and the sound of gleeful yelling. Doors burst open at one end of the hall as a tiny girl, no older than six, crashed in, laughing without a care. Her hair was wild, but her clothes were finer than even Lady Kagura's.
"Lady Rin!" Kagome gasped, setting down her pot and curtseying as low as she could muster. Try as she might, bowing to the height of a six year old was no easy feat. "Forgive me for disturbing you, I never-"
Rin laughed and grabbed her hand, pulling her down the hallway. "Miss! Miss! If you don't run, Jaken will catch you!"
Kagome stumbled, but followed along. "Lady Rin, I really don't think-"
A tiny green stub of a demon barreled in from behind. "Lady Rin, festivities will begin in nigh ten hours and you've been running around the castle all morning! When Lord Sesshomaru hears of this, He'll give you a piece of his mind! Or I, Jaken, will do it for him!"
Rin only ran faster. "Nah nah! You have to get me first!"
The other doors opened, silently and gracefully. "Lord Sesshomaru!" screamed the tiny child.
Lord Sesshomaru, the great and powerful dog demon of the West, towered above them, dressed in white to match his home and his complexion. Rin let go of Kagome's hand and barreled into her father's arms, prattling about playing games with Jaken, who did his best to defend his honor against the small girl. Sesshomaru gathered Rin with one arm and silenced Jaken with the other, but his eyes never left Kagome.
Kagome curtseyed the best she could manage while violently shaking. Sesshomaru's stature was imposing, but it was his demeanor made her blood freeze. Something about how he looked both refined and wholly repulsed at her existence, even while holding a child, terrified her far more than it should have. "Your highness," she choked, "I am honored to be in your presence."
Jaken went silent, studying his master, but Rin continued to talk. "Oh, and I was going to play with Miss, I told her to help me run away from Jaken…" Rin looked from her somber father to Kagome. "But she looked very busy so I guess that was not very nice of me to do. I'm sorry miss!" She called to Kagome. "Have a nice day!"
"Where was she going?" Sesshomaru spoke to Rin, but his gaze did not move from Kagome.
"Where were you going miss?" Rin yelled down.
Kagome bowed her head to avoid Sesshomaru's face, ankles straining from the awkward position. "I was ordered to draw a bath for Lady Kagura, your ladyship, but I have no inclination where I might find her chambers."
"Jaken, take the Miss to Lady Kagura's room, please!"
"I refuse to take orders from you!" Jaken snapped at the girl.
"Jaken."
That was all that needed to be said from Lord Sesshomaru. Grumbling, Jaken stomped past Kagome down the hall. "Well, human! Come along!" he called, already impatient.
Kagome curtseyed again, graciously thanking Lady Rin and Lord Sesshomaru for their kindness, before scurrying off after Jaken with the pot of water.
"Miss! Wait!"
Jaken was ready to blow a fuse down the hall. Trembling, already exhausted from their brief encounter, Kagome turned back. Sesshomaru had paused in the doorway, back to her, but Rin had crawled over his shoulder and was waving from behind his mass of white hair. "Come play with me again later please!"
Kagome smiled, and promised to do so, before Rin called again. "Miss! What is your name?"
"Kagome, if it pleases you, your ladyship."
"Ka-go-me," Rin tested, smiling. "Thank you and bye Miss Kagome!"
Curtseying one last time, she hurried to catch up to Jaken, staying a few paces behind him.
"You humans! Always so insolent! How dare you scum think you may walk the halls of the great Lord Sesshomaru! If Rin hadn't taken a liking to you my Lord would have ripped your head from your shoulders before you could so much as blink at him, I guarantee!"
He continued on like this the whole way through the palace, each room growing more icily beautiful than the last. Kagome considered asking about why the Lord Sesshomaru kept a human girl, but thought better of it. Scandalous as it was, nobody questioned Lord Sesshomaru's judgement, as odd as it seemed.
Jaken eventually stopped at one of the large guest rooms on the second floor. Kagome tested the water with her finger, and thankfully it was still acceptable bath temperature. "… and don't you forget your place, human! Next time, get a proper demon to do demons work!" With a huff, he turned to the opposite direction and continued his rant as he left, just the same as if Kagome was behind him.
Kagome knocked gently on the door, to an uninterested reply beckoning her in. Lady Kagura was already fully nude and lounging on her couch, flipping through the pages of some old book of poetry. The bath at the center of the room had already been filled with salts and dried flowers. Wasting no time, Kagome filled the bath and started mixing it with a large decorative rod set next to the bath, hazarding a guess at its purpose. She gathered some hot coals from the fire and placed them beneath the porcelain tub, hoping to bring the temperature up slightly. When the water was a soft translucent green and hissed gently with warmth, Kagome announced the bath was ready.
Kagura set the book down and walked over to the bath, easing her way in gently. "Not as warm as I'd like," she said, pinning her hair up. The lady regarded Kagome cooly but without the malice of the castle lord. "Do you intend to wash me when you yourself look so dirty, human?"
"Forgive me, your ladyship," Kagome said, curtseying. She decided that she didn't really mind scrubbing pots if it saved her the discomfort of bowing at everyone she met.
"If it can't be helped, you'll have to do," she sighed, relaxing into the water. "I will wash my face, you will do the rest. You do know how to wash, don't you girl?"
Kagome gulped. The lady would probably not be amused to hear that she washed pots nearly every day.
She grabbed a soft sponge and a bar of pleasant-smelling soap and gently began to wash the lady's body. Thankfully, Kagura seemed to enjoy most of it, occasionally giving out a hum of contentment. When Kagome finally reached her neck, Kagura caught her hand.
"My lady?" Kagome asked, softly. Kagura pulled at her arm, inspecting it.
"The salts must have been hiding it before," she muttered, running her hand over Kagome's wet skin. "Girl, you smell like dog."
"My lady, I apologize, I wasn't given time to change before I was told to bring your water." Something about Kagura's expression seemed off, beyond distaste with her smell. "I will make sure to be as clean as possible for your presence next time."
"It's not that," Kagura said, suspicion rising in her voice. "Girl, do you know why so many people have come to feast with Lord Sesshomaru this season?"
"No, Lady." It was the truth- when the squires had come to gather a selection of servants, both demon and human, to accompany the Lady on the expedition to the mountains, Kagome was told no more than that they were leaving and their return time would be uncertain.
"Lord Sesshomaru has extended this welcome to neighboring lords as a show of goodwill," she said, calmly. "But it has been rumored that the real reason is that the Lord intends to take a wife to serve as a mother to his human child. Any woman, or any family, joined to the household of Lord Sesshomaru would be granted exceptional power over all the West. Do you understand?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Father intends to make as many daughters as necessary until Sesshomaru finds one suitable for marriage," she said, bluntly dropping their titles.
"Surely, between your beauty, rank, and wealth, you would be a suitable match for Lord Sesshomaru," Kagome said, wincing as Kagura dug her fingernails into her arm.
"Yes, but Sesshomaru does love his humans," she said. "And you smell like dog."
Kagome balked at her insinuation. "I could never!"
Kagura laughed. "I know. But that doesn't mean Sesshomaru wouldn't. He has ways of getting what he wants." She stepped out of the bath and pulled a towel around her body, returning to her couch. "Girl, from now on, you will be the one to wash me."
Kagome nodded, dumbfounded. In silence, she mechanically completed her tasks: clearing the dead coals, cleaning the wet floor, and tidying up the room. She drained the bathwater, casting it into the chute that dumped the discards off the side of the mountain. Kagome normally would have mused about how quickly the water would freeze before it hit the ground, but she was far too shocked to think of anything. Once finished, Kagome gave Lady Kagura a final curtsey, turning to the door.
"Girl," Kagura spoke from behind her pages. Kagome waited. "I have a request for you."
The wind had not let up since their arrival, Kagome thought with a groan. At the edge of the woods, the wind howled like the dog ancestors that haunted the place.
Kagura thought that Sesshomaru had begun an affair with her, so she sent her to die in a rather clever fashion. Longing for the scent of home, she protested, she could no longer deal with the coal fires that insulated Sesshomaru's household. Burning would was the only thing that could appease her- incense was not enough to cover the acrid smell of the dust. Though Kagome had no demon's nose, she knew that the fires of Lord Sesshomaru's castle were not at all unpleasant. Firewood would not have been an outrageous request if the forest around his castle was not entirely petrified.
Kagome had found Souta that evening and told him that she was going to be exceptionally busy that week, what with all the activity in the kitchen, and he should not expect to see her for a while. She already hadn't seen him in ages, and he had been suspicious when she talked to him, but it had just been an excuse to see him one last time. Kagome did not intend to die in the woods, but she wasn't taking chances.
Now, faced with actually going into the forest, she realized just how melodramatic she had been. There was no way she was going to die because Lady Kagura thought that Lord Sesshomaru, of all people, had taken her- a human servant- for a courtesan! She was far more afraid of Sesshumaru than the woods, anyway. If she couldn't find any wood by the time the first rays of sunset rose, she would head back and grovel for forgiveness. Lady Kagura was unlikely to have her punished too harshly at a guest's home, especially under the false impression that she and Sesshomaru…
Kagome made a face. She didn't even want to think about spending another moment in the presence of that terrifying man. Something about him reminded her of that dream. She gripped her blanket as a chill shot down her spine. Her hand always managed to find that spot, where his blood was, no matter how she turned or folded the fabric.
It wasn't long past dawn. Armed with little more than cheese for lunch and her blanket, Kagome set forth back into the woods.
Despite the wind, the air was much warmer by the afternoon, and it was turning into a genuinely pleasant day. She had even taken her blanket off of her shoulders. The forest was eerily quiet, but it was actually rather relaxing after the disaster that was the castle. It made her miss her mother and their little village in the valley outside Lord Naraku's castle. She missed when her father came home with a sampling of the day's catch from the river docks, and her grandfather's old stories from when he lived by the sea.
She had walked straight into the forest for the past few hours, deciding that if she just followed the same direction in and out, she wouldn't get lost. The thick, leafless branches, so awful at night, cast a soft dappled light by day. For the first time since she left home, Kagome felt comfortable. She fell asleep, and when she awoke, she realized it had been the first time she slept in weeks without the dream.
Her nap had taken significant time out of her day. The sun was low, but not so low that sunset had begun. Deciding to wander a little longer in her futile search for firewood, Kagome could almost thank Lady Kagura for granting her a day off.
The terrain grew rockier the further she walked into the forest. Less disturbed by demons, she supposed. While the forest was down the mountain from Sesshomaru's castle, the slope, the way she'd taken, was gradual. Even on the lower side of the mountain, great rocky masses shot up from the earth in jagged patterns.
Sky melted from grey to a light yellow as she descended. Clouds parted at the edge of the far mountains, just enough for the bright orange sun to burst out, smashing rays to every corner of the scenery. Kagome smiled. The mirror room must look beautiful now.
Reluctantly, Kagome reasoned that it was best to head back early, since her hike was uphill. Gathering her skirts, she stepped up the mountainside, a little too gingerly. In her lazy pace of the morning she had forgotten the ice beneath the snow that had caught her in the dark those weeks before. She slipped, tumbling down the mountain at a racing pace.
She screamed, balling herself up to protect her head from rocks and trees as she continued to pick up speed. After what felt like eons, she slammed to a stop on a boulder. Nothing was broken, but she was winded and sliced from the rocks. Groaning, Kagome gripped her stomach where she had hit the boulder and staggered to her knees. She had landed at the base of one of the lower peaks, shadowed from above by the thick, lifeless trees. Up ahead, smoke rose from another castle, far smaller than Sesshomaru's, but similar in design; it seemed to emerge out of the mountainside like it had formed naturally. Kagome hesitated. Obviously not all demon lords would tolerate injured human girls at their doorstep, but the yellow light in the sky was quickly fading to pink. Surely, if there were goings-on at the grand castle, the lord of this place must be away. Even if they weren't, harming a servant of a visitor of Lord Sesshomaru's would be an intolerable act.
Plus, her stomach really, really hurt.
Kagome limped her way up the side of the mountain, dragging one sore leg in front of the other. The incline to the castle was small, but a wrought-iron fence blocked her path far before the entrance. Defeated, Kagome propped herself against it. "Will someone please help me?" she called to the castle, as politely as she could.
Before everything went black, all she saw was a flash of white and teeth and the first red ray of sunset.
AN: Please R&R! Sorry for the long opening, but I had to set a lot of things in motion.
