THE WANDERER'S KEEPER
Chapter 02
In the coffin where she had been laid, Kagome slept deeply. In her sleep, she began to dream. She dreamed of a castle built of gray stone, curled up with ivy, of striking age. She dreamed that she crossed the drawbridge and was welcomed into the gates. However, she could not cross the flower-littered courtyard to the main entryway. An invisible barrier lay between her and the doors. Soon it became undeniably important to her that she break through this barrier; she began beating wildly at it, but her hands met resistance too strong for her to break. Then she found herself looking at a woman identical to her, on the opposite side of the barrier. This other woman sadly moved her hands up and placed them against the unseen wall. Kagome matched her gesture, allowing her hands to slip down. The surface of what fell between them felt like a porous glass, smoothly textured but a bit sticky where her hands rubbed. With hurried desperation, she scratched at the solid air between them, looking for a way in. The woman spoke, but Kagome could not hear her. The carefully pruned branches of the trees and the perfumed heads of flowers bobbed and bowed in a warm breeze, reflecting none of Kagome's needy haste.
In the forest, eyes closed, Kagome's body was cold and still. The candle in her loosely grasped hands flicked and flared, moving in some unseen wind, grew tall and shrank down, offered endless waves of shifting light and shadows.
The King of the Wood did not know that Kagome dreamed, and he did not pay much mind to the candle flame's unexpected dance. He was busy with the raid on the closest village, and that consumed all of his urgent attentions.
* * *
Inuyasha slumped down by the fire and impassively handed a freshly caught rabbit to Sango. At his insistence, they had slept during the day and now that it was evening, with Inuyasha returned to his human form, he was doing what he could to put up the pretense of being a true human. In his half-demon form, he wouldn't take the time to go through the delicate process of skinning, cleaning, and cooking the rabbit. With a human digestive system, however, those things were necessary. Luckily Sango was adept at such skills and began right away as if this had long been something she was accustomed to doing. Inuyasha glowered at his surroundings moodily; how weak the human constitution was. How weak he was now that he had to go about like a human. If he hadn't felt that Sango would turn on him if she discovered his secret, he would not have insisted in traveling as a human. But it was only a short term change. If he didn't cautiously go about rescuing the priestess, then he would have to turn into a human every night for the rest of his life.
With the fire spitting and crackling, Inuyasha silently brooded about losing Kagome. In his heart, he felt like a failure. She was only one small woman and it had been his self-appointed task to protect her, and he had not been able to do it. Now Kagome was facing some peril at the hands of demons who loathed her more than they hated the sun; Inuyasha could not stomach thinking about the endless possible tortures they could be inflicting upon her. It did not ease him at all to think that to whatever they were doing to her, she was utterly powerless; they had somehow suppressed her from even reaching her globe.
How he desired to shed his human companion and use his half-demon strength in the light of day, where he could run much faster with much more agility! But he could not risk being rejected by Sango if she were to play some important part in Kagome's rescue. If the Wise Woman thought that Sango would be important, it was probably true, he admitted grudgingly to himself.
Anyway, he told himself forcefully, it's not really for Kagome. He was doing this so his powers would go back to normal. Not because he wanted to see the priestess safe. His stomach lurched. Of course it wasn't for that measly human.
While Sango spitted the rabbit, she stole a glance at her new traveling companion. She had been waiting to leave the village Timple for quite some time; as a hunter and professional demon-slayer she was normally always moving from town to town. Kaede the Wise Woman had called in Sango to kill a relatively weak demon that had been causing small trouble along its shared border with the forest, in particular to the farmers there. Sango had never before been in Timple, because it had an unusually low occurrence of demon attacks. Sango now attested this phenomenon to Inuyasha and the priestess' presence; surely the monsters were more interested in Kagome than the small village some miles away from her.
Sango scrunched up her nose and turned the spits in her palm. After Sango had slain the centipede demon that had been stealing crops and terrorizing the farmers, Kaede insisted that she stay because, as a Wise Woman, she had had a premonition of some great mission that would shortly be assigned her. So Sango had reluctantly remained in Timple and helped Kaede with menial tasks around her house, trying to patiently await whatever fate would bring her. The words of a Wise Woman could not be ignored or taken lightly; they didn't often receive premonitions, but when they did they were clear and worthwhile, and wholly undeniable. Sango wondered what part she would play in the rescue of the priestess, and also what part Inuyasha would play. She wished that Kaede had told her more.
"Are your injuries bothering you, Inuyasha?" Sango asked, noticing Inuyasha grimace suddenly.
"Keh, no, you puny wench," he said with a snort, his face clearing somewhat; his wounds had mostly healed during the day and he had barely remembered their presence at all. In truth, he was grimacing at his own thoughts. Sango shrugged and ignored his insults. It was easy for her to see that he was worried about something and she wasn't about to let his foul temper come in the way of the rescue mission, which she was going to handle like any job that she was assigned--with diligence, dedication, determination.
Still, she was quite curious about her strange new comrade. She turned to him and noticed that he was brooding again. "Why are you still going after Priestess Kagome? You told us at Kaede's home that you only looked after her because you had nothing better to do and that you hardly even spoke to her." She just knew there had to be more to it than that.
Inuyasha answered with only a glare before snatching up several strips of rabbit meat that Sango designated as his share when she decided everything was thoroughly cooked. They ate in ruffled silence; neither were especially social and Sango could not think of any conversation that would receive polite responses from Inuyasha. To her dismay, it was obvious that Inuyasha did not want to reveal the more personal details of his strange relationship with the priestess.
Instead, Sango observed the sounds of the meadow around them. They weren't much further away from Maytown, the first town along the trail to Seafront; most of the remaining journey, however, would be had through forests. Their area of the world was woody; humans had cleared out intermittent patches of it to reveal nutritious soil that was good for farming. Still, occasional fields broke this sea of trees--places that had once been used by humans as grazing pastures for goats and sheep. These places weren't much use as farm land anymore because the wind had cleared away the topsoil, and they were littered with broken rock and sparse, tough grasses. This meadow was typical of the meadows Sango had seen this far north.
Over the hushed autumn wind, a sudden, predatory howling rose up. Inuyasha, with practiced alertness, stood and his hand went to the sword at his side. The howling had come from some distance, so Sango didn't move into action as Inuyasha had. She only watched him, deciding that he was trying to gauge how far away the threat had been. A chorus of animal cries soon broke out, accompanied by cackles and demonic screeches. From so far away the noises were just echoes of the original cacophony.
"I imagine the demons will be bolder from now on," Sango admitted, "now that they have the moon within their grasp. Nothing good can come from hindering the moon on her journey."
Inuyasha made a low growling noise in his throat that astonished Sango. She had heard the same noise from a tribe of wolf demons that had been antagonizing a village in the mountains, and his imitation was perfect enough that it stirred up memories of the fight with them.
"Damn it, we can't stay here," Inuyasha snapped suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"We have to hurry to that damn priest," Inuyasha huffed.
"We have to eat first, Inuyasha. Or rather, I have to eat first." Inuyasha had finished his share of the meal with alarming speed. Sango watched warily as Inuyasha paced back and forth across the dirt and short grass. She noticed for the first time that he was bereft of shoe. In trying to calm him, Sango changed the topic and allowed her curiosity to return. "Inuyasha, where did you live before you came to protect Priestess Kagome?"
"Mind your own business," he barked sharply. "You can stay here if you want, but I'm not waiting. Kagome is in danger."
"I think at present the villages are more in danger than Kagome is." Sango smoothed out the wrinkles of her tunic and watched Inuyasha keenly. "If we do not eat and have the proper amount of sleep, we will not be at our full strength if we are confronted by a demon." Inuyasha at first seemed bewildered and then the subtle change brought on by epiphany appeared on his face.
In his natural form, Inuyasha was rarely worn out and hunger never interfered with his fighting performance. In fact it seemed the opposite; the more he fought, the more energized he became. But he knew that humans did not possess this ability--he knew that from the times he had been forced to fight in his human form. Humans lost their strength very quickly. He remembered the pain from his wounds, which had healed at a rapid pace during the day when he was in his natural form, and how they had slowed him down so much.
He grunted and sat heavily across from the fire again and continued to brood while Sango ate. The noises in the distance surged and quieted, surged and quieted. Sango finished eating. Inuyasha began cleaning up the camp site, putting out the fire and stirring up the ashes inside the ring of stones.
"Inuyasha, is there any reason you might be followed by a demon?" she asked of her companion while sprinkling water onto the still warm firewood.
Inuyasha rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand and threw down the stick he had been using to stir the ashes. "I don't think so, or the demon wouldn't have run off last night." He hated to admit it outright, even if only to himself, but the battle had not been going in his favor. The female was not there to kill him, but merely to distract him. Inuyasha knew this now and it enraged him.
"Can you describe the demon to me?" Sango asked as she gathered up her few belongings--mostly weapons--and began moving onward. "In case we see her again, I'll at least have some clue."
Inuyasha doubted that they would see the demon again, but formed a jagged answer. "Tall, humanoid. Short black hair. Red eyes. Controlled wind magic. I couldn't get her smell because--" he stopped short, watching Sango tensely. The slayer was nonplussed. "I couldn't get a smell."
"Alright. We should be at the town soon."
* * *
The King of the Wood growled deeply from his chest like a hunting cat. He was watching the battle at the human village with the help of the mirror that belonged to the small demon. She cradled it in her palm with straight stillness.
"Kagura," the King grunted without taking his eyes from the mirror. The image was following one demon in particular; this was its capability. It could follow only one being at a time, one who was enchanted to be "tied" to it. One demon would be chosen, tied to it, and then the King could see through that demon's eyes. The King wanted to improve upon the original magic so that it was more forgiving and useful, but he had no time now to ponder how to make those changes.
The tall female demon moved gracefully and angrily forward. She hated the so-called King of the Wood. As his first creation, she had the misfortune of being the least perfect. She was given assignments that never appealed to her wild, windy nature and she was kept always under his careful control. Kagura craved the autonomous lifestyle of other demons and despised her keeper.
"What?" she asked scathingly.
"Did you kill that half-demon last night?" he asked without reprimanding her for her tone of voice, watching as a human male slung his sword straight at the thick neck of the demon who was being traced by the enchanted mirror. The battle scene turned misty and vanished as the creature lost its head, leaving the King of the Wood only with his own reflection. "How did these humans know we would attack?"
"You didn't tell me to kill Inuyasha," Kagura stated simply. "You told me to fight him and to distract him. I imagine he went off and told the humans, traitor that he is to our kind."
"You bitch!" the King howled in a sudden fit of unchecked rage. Kagura smiled inwardly but appeared impassive. If she could not disobey her master, she could at least do as little as possible to contribute to his plans and do as much as possible to agitate him. She had no love for Inuyasha or for the priestess he guarded, but they didn't bother her more than any other mortal did. She was content with roaming the world only at night time, when the wind was fresh and cool, and she did not have any desire to fight in human villages. The full strength she felt on the night of the new moon did not entice her the same way it enticed the King of the Wood.
The King of the Wood pulled his bony fingers through his hair in barely contained fury, trying to regain the composure he so rarely lost. He addressed Kagura belligerently. "Go find him. Kill him this time. Kill him right away. Kill him quickly. Find him immediately. Do not delay killing him when you see him, and do not delay in finding him." He hoped that these orders were precise enough to prevent any other mishap. Kagura did not resist, as she could not resist any of his orders; she took flight and began her mission.
The King turned to the small demon. "Kanna," he said to her, "you may go now." She bowed and left him silently, tucking her mirror away.
* * *
Kagome, in her constant dream, watched the lips of her mirror-self carefully. Inuyasha, the woman on the other side mouthed. Kagome nodded, indicating that she understood the imperative.
"How do I find him, though?" she mumbled to herself. She looked up at the sky, golden and warm. Here in her dream it was summer. When she walked away from the barrier and onto the drawbridge, she could see an ocean stretching out before her. The water was reasonably smooth, chopped by small breakers and blemished with thin whitecaps but otherwise looking undisturbed. The air coming off of it was sultry and sticky. It was a pleasant place. Suddenly it came to her that it would not be a terrible fate to remain here. Peacefully she smiled and moved across the drawbridge. She wandered through the rough dunes, picking her way through swaying sea oats and soft crotin. Soon she moved down to the foredunes and stepped her way over colorful evening primrose and purple morning glories. As these faded, she went across the soft gold sand and around tiny holes dug by crabs. At the tideline, she met the warm water with joy. The sand was littered with the sea's refuse: stacks of red kelp were just beyond her touch; bits of broken seashells and sea glass sharpened the sand and sea beans lent it the pebbly appearance of a lakeshore.
She sat down on the wet shoreline and allowed the green waters to lap her feet. Serenely she watched the pearly clouds move across the sky at a slow, regal pace.
After so many years of offering her power to be the moon, tension and anxiety leaked away from her before she realized it had been there. How content she felt now, not in any immediate danger. There were no demons jumping for her, no one who wanted to kill her or hurt her or even disturb her. Every day since inheriting her powers she had feared for her life... but here, no such worries troubled her. She smiled, closed her eyes, and allowed the quiet rush of the sea to calm her and the warm breeze to comfort her.
Outside her dream, in the woods where her coffin lay, the candle-flame was steady and bright.
* * *
Sango felt that she was in fact a patient person; being a hunter had taught her to wait for hours in the same position, or to concentrate on following a faint trail. It had taught her how to be silent and slow to learn the habits of a new enemy. However, her careful patience was being worn away by Inuyasha. He was a constant busybody who was incapable of restraining his own rude nature. He was always wanting to move and was adamantly against using the night for sleep; he insisted on disappearing during the day. Sango could tell that he was tired by the dark circles under his puffy eyes and his increasing lack of focus and direction. Even if he did disappear at the sun's light, she was sure he wasn't resting.
At the moment, he was griping about the slowness with which human beings moved as they worked their way through a small grove of trees that grew between Maytown and Marling City. They had been pursuing this track for the greater portion of the early night, and Inuyasha had clearly grown tired of the landscape as moonless midnight approached.
"What do you want, then? We can't afford horses. Inuyasha, get control over yourself. We are doing the best we can to help Priestess Kagome."
"Quiet, you!" Inuyasha snapped as he unsheathed his sword, listening intently to his surroundings. His usual half-demon senses were gone, but he retained some of his former ability to pick out disturbances in his surroundings from being a solitary hunter for the greater portion of his life. He could tell when the usual pattern of things was anomalous. "Come out!"
Sango warily readied her boomerang, wondering if she was either getting careless or if Inuyasha was beginning to hallucinate. Inuyasha pricked a puffy growth of woodruff with his sword with a rapid burst of energy; a childlike squeal rose up from the greenery and a small boy with a fox-tail emerged with clear indignation.
"What was that for, you lousy human?" he groused.
"A demon? But what are you doing out here?" Sango asked as Inuyasha swiped the fox child up by his bottlebrush tail, still holding his sword in his other hand. "I didn't think demons lived in places like this." It was unusual for a demon to be here--this area was a humanized, small bunch of trees with pathways moving between two villages. It wasn't traveled at nighttime so it failed to offer good hunting for creatures like demons, and during the day demons were more vulnerable to the humans who traveled in great numbers for the more southern villages.
"Let me go!" the fox demanded. "I happen to like it here!"
Inuyasha gave an unbelieving snort while Sango raised an eyebrow. "A demon who likes to live on human roads?"
The fox child glared at them both and ceased his struggling. "Yeah, what of it? It's easier to hunt food where there aren't any other demons."
Sango rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe you can help us," she suggested thoughtfully. As a demon-hunter, she knew that there were many species that did not attack or feed on humans; she had actually been aided by a great cat demon, Kirara, in the past on one of her most dangerous hunts. Inuyasha, on the other hand, clearly held qualms with this belief. He looked at her with a deadpan expression and the fox watched her suspiciously, not knowing why a human would trust him.
Sango clarified by saying, "You're a demon, after all, you may have information we need. We're looking for the priestess of the moon. Do you know what's happened to her?"
"No..." the boy said. "That would be the King of the Wood's fault, not mine. I don't have anything to do with him! He killed my parents," the boy said sadly as he squirmed, trying to free himself from Inuyasha.
"King of the Wood?" Inuyasha repeated. "Explain."
The kid wrinkled up his nose and after a moment said, "Alright, I'll tell you everything I know if you do something for me."
"What's that?" Sango asked as Inuyasha gave the boy a shake.
"Well, I've been isolated in this grove for a long time," he said, glaring at Inuyasha but no longer wriggling. "I can't leave because I don't want to join the King of the Wood and I'm bored of this place. So let me go with you."
"Go with us?!" Inuyasha shouted. "You don't even know where we're going, kiddo! Besides, you just said you liked it here!"
"Yes I do know where you're going!" he yelled back. "You just told me you were looking for the moon! That means you'll have to find the King! I want to help fight him, too!"
"Of all the--"
"Inuyasha, wait," Sango ordered. "That sounds like a fair trade." When Inuyasha glowered at her, Sango continued, "It's true that we'll eventually have to confront whomever stole Priestess Kagome. If we have willing strength and even knowledge about her kidnapper, we shouldn't complain. We should welcome it."
"Keh," Inuyasha mumbled as he dropped the kit to the ground. The boy straightened himself up with as much nobility as he could manage, brushing off his clothes and straightening his red hair. "Whatever. When he turns us all into this king of the jungle maniac it'll be your fault, not mine."
"What can you tell us about the King of the Wood?" Sango said without bothering to reply to Inuyasha. "We've never heard of him before."
"Well, before I was born, a demon started taking over all the forest territories. By now all the demons in the forest are loyal to him. In return he makes sure they get enough to eat and that kind of stuff." The fox picked at his tail and the small group began walking on towards Marling at Inuyasha's insistence. "I know that he killed a lot of demons who didn't want to join him. My parents were killed by him because they wouldn't join him, and I escaped to this place. I haven't heard much about him since then, except I know he lives really deep in the woods somewhere."
"Thank you for telling us," Sango said. "I'm Sango, and this is Inuyasha."
At this introduction, the fox looked up at Inuyasha with narrowed eyes. "I thought Inuyasha was the name of that half-breed loser who buddied up with the priestess! Anyway, no real human has that name! But you don't smell like a half-breed..."
Inuyasha swatted the kid before crossing his arms across his chest. "Shut up, puny punk." Inwardly he was shaken that he had some sort of reputation in the demon world--none of them had ever taken much account of him before. Did they make fun of him for protecting a human? If so, he wouldn't stand for that. He would make every last one of them regret such dishonor... and anyway, he wasn't protecting Kagome because he liked humans. Far from it! He was guarding Kagome so that his demonic powers didn't go away. Or so he told himself with a great deal of conviction.
Sango watched this exchange and the rapid change of emotions on Inuyasha's face with interest but did not belabor the clearly tense matter. Instead, she asked, "What's your name?"
"I'm Shippou," the fox said cheerfully. "I'm a fox demon, but fox demons don't eat people."
"No, but you do eat our chickens," Sango said. "We don't appreciate that, either." Shippou gave her a sheepish look as the trio continued onward.
"Where are we going right now?" Shippou asked.
"We're going to Marling," Sango told him. "After that we're going through Tripton and finally arriving at Seafront."
"Look what I found!" Shippou exclaimed happily, having already forgotten his former question. With childish enthusiasm, he produced an earth worm for Sango to see as he jumped up onto her arm. Sango forced a smile and patted him on the head. At least, she told herself, Shippou was more companionable that Inuyasha. She sighed as Shippou flung the earth worm into Inuyasha's black hair with a delighted, playful yip. Inuyasha immediately gave chase with a holler of rage and Sango hunched over, dragging a hand down her face as she resigned herself to fate as a babysitter.