A/N: Written for the Damsel in Distress challenge at dokuga_contest, for the prompt "Dread".
Big thanks to Priestess Skye for doing a quick beta job for me. You're amazing!
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am not profiting in any way from this story, unless you count personal satisfaction.
Kagome's feet ached. Simply ached. She hated traveling without shoes. Never before had she gone so long without some sort of shoe, even if it were as simple as a flip flop. For at least half a day she traveled with Sesshoumaru and Rin on the road back to her village, something that she was used to doing in the first place so it wasn't much of a bother, but it was a dreadful journey without the comfort of her favorite loafers. Those loafers took her all over the country, modern and feudal, plus all of those years at school. They were perfectly molded to her feet, the most comfortable shoes that she owned. She had no aclue how much time had passed since she lost them in the river, but she safely assumed they were still being carried along by the swiftly moving waters and destined to rot out at sea. Her feet were already blistering and becoming quite swollen, but she said nothing. Complaining would do her no good; she was lucky that Sesshoumaru had come along and saved her, and took care of her while she was ill. If she asked for more he could take his generosity away in a heartbeat and leave her alone in the forest with no idea of what direction in which to travel.
How did Rin go so long without shoes on her feet? Kagome imagined that the child's entire foot was a callus, much like Inuyasha's. His feet were terrible from years of running around with no shoes on. She would bet that both Rin and Inuyasha would be a pedicurist's nightmare.
She flailed her arms and cried out as she tripped over an exposed root. "Sesshoumaru, slow down!" she yelled after him.
The demon, who walked quite a few yards ahead of her, never stopped his forward motion, only turned his head to glance at her. "If you would hurry, you would not be left behind."
Quickly, she righted herself and marched along after her savior, her feet throbbing and bleeding more and more with each step she took.
Those were the least of her worries. The hot topic on her mind was Inuyasha. He hadn't come after her. It filled her with a sense of dread. Had something terrible happened to him? Did he come away from the battle worse off than she? Did the youkai, shudder to think, kill him?
She shook the thought from her mind. No. Inuyasha had taken on demons even bigger than he on more than one occasion and came out with nothing more than a couple of scrapes and a few bruises. She wasn't so stupid to believe that one small water youkai had taken him down.
The journey so far had been rather lackluster. Sesshoumaru led the pack, walking regally with his hair and fluttering sleeves swaying with each step he took. He did look odd only wearing an under-kimono, but Kagome was eternally grateful that he had sacrificed his clothing for her sake. The silk was a definite improvement from the rough cotton pieces she had been wearing. The clothing of a simple village miko was nothing compared to his clothing. Such luxury was something that she wasn't accustomed to, and she would be sure to appreciate the fine silk for as long as he allowed her to wear it.
The crisp early fall wind sent shivers up her spine whenever it caught her scantily clad figure. Barefooted and running around in a silk haori that came down to just above her knees wasn't the smartest thing to do as fall was setting in.
Finally, as the sun began to set in the west, Kagome spoke up. "I can't do this anymore, Sesshoumaru!" she cried.
Sesshoumaru stopped and turned to face her. "Had you said something earlier, Miko, we could have stopped."
Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. She was punishing herself the entire time?
"Wait here," he said, "This Sesshoumaru shall find suitable shelter for the night." Without any warning, Sesshoumaru disappeared in a blur of white and silver.
She sighed and sat down and started to pick the bigger pieces of dirt from the wounds in her feet. With any luck, Sesshoumaru would have more medicines for her that would help her heal as fast as his last concoction did.
Rin soon came to her and batted her hands away from her feet. "Rin will help!"
"No, Rin, I'll be fine," she replied, waving the child away.
Instead of minding, Rin shook her head. "Sometimes I help Lord Sesshoumaru after he has been in battle. I know a lot about healing!" she beamed.
Kagome didn't fight her, and leaned back and allowed Rin to do the best that she could with her feet. She grimaced when Rin pulled on a particularly jagged splinter in the ball of her foot. Again she cursed the loss of her backpack - all of her medical supplies were in there, including the tweezers she had picked up on her last trip home specifically designed for removing splinters and other small pieces of debris.
"Try not to move. It will hurt more if you do!"
How the girl could be so damn chipper while working on her bloodied feet?
Just as quickly as he had left, Sesshoumaru returned in another blur of white and silver. "I have found suitable shelter. Follow me."
Rin stood and bounded off in the direction that Sesshoumaru walked, but Kagome didn't move. She didn't dare move; moving and walking meant more pain, and she felt that she had endured enough of it for one day. "Sesshoumaru!" she called, "I can't do it!"
Sesshoumaru stopped and turned toward her. "Then you shall stay where you sit." He turned away and walked in the direction Rin was running.
"I will not! Help me! Please!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Sesshoumaru continued to walk away. Slowly he faded into the distance, and Kagome finally allowed herself to cry in full. How did she always seem to land herself in these situations? If she hadn't been so damn protective of the cat when she was fifteen, she could have avoided the well altogether and remained a normal high school girl in modern Tokyo. But no - she had to try to get the cat out of the well house and get dragged down the well, thus starting the chain of events that eventually landed her in the forest calling out for one of the most cold hearted demons she had ever met in her life. Being stuck on the ground with bloodied and battered feet seemed to be yet another unwelcome bonus.
No. She couldn't feel sorry for herself. It was completely counter productive. If she didn't pull herself off of the ground and follow to the shelter, she knew Sesshoumaru would be more than happy to leave her out there to die at the hands of any demon that so happened to come along. She crawled over to the nearest tree, scraping her knees and hands in the process. Slowly, she pulled herself to stand next to the tree, ignoring the stinging pain in her feet and knees. "You can do this. You defeated a megalomaniac with tentacles and bad gas, you can do this."
The first step was excruciating. Every little pebble and twig she treaded over felt like it cut through to the bone, setting her feet on fire. From tree to tree for balance, Kagome followed the path that Rin and Sesshoumaru had taken, every step harder than the first. "I will not die out here!" she screamed as loud as she possibly could. "I can do this Sesshoumaru!"
The sun was setting by the time she finally found the shelter Sesshoumaru had picked for the night. While it was not the warm and comfortable cave of the first night the camp area was cozy enough, with a fire already blazing with a spit of fish hanging over it.
"Kagome!"
She braced herself as the child ran to her and hugged her middle. "Hey, Rin," she said, gripping the girl just as tightly as she was being squeezed. "Help me by the fire, please?"
Just as slowly as she had trekked to the camp Rin helped Kagome to sit alongside the fire. "Rin will clean your feet again now!"
"Thank you," Kagome mumbled as she lay back on the grass and allowed the girl to tend to her feet. It was even more painful than the first round earlier that day. Eventually she allowed the pain to take over and blacked out, wondering where Inuyasha was and if he was alright.