Kuon no Kawa, Imagine.

And here I go wildly making up stuff again, but oh well! At least I'm not sending characters off to Greece again xD

To Make Things Right

A Wife's Duties

Kagura was bored. Desperately so... She remembered how:

"Na, Sesshoumaru, you're going to kill the fire bird first?"

"Nn."

And after that brief exchange, she'd watched his form vanish through the thick greenery of the forest. That had been five days ago, and Kagura was bored.

So much of the Western Lands had been scarred by fire and fighting that the mountain where Kagura found herself now was one of the rare islands of green life to be found. Sesshoumaru had chosen this to be the centre-point of his expansion, at least until he knew enough about the different factions to take his palace back. He had said that, if it pleased her, she could go ahead and destroy any lesser demon tribes who disturbed her while he was away, but it was just a red herring. He didn't want her fighting, not because she couldn't, but because he didn't want her killing things he wanted to kill. Selfish mutt.

The fire bird was an example of this, it was something he wanted to destroy even though with her powers a bird would have been easily grounded and struck down. Still, she had to respect the fact that the spirit who guarded the forest had a vested interest in seeing the Demon Lord put a stop to the encroaching infernos. Once Sesshoumaru completed that task, his dominance over this patch of territory would be re-established and absolute. Until then, Kagura was left with the toads and wolves who had already tasted Sesshoumaru's poison and deferred to him again.

'It shouldn't take him so long to kill a simple phoenix. He'd better not be growing lazy.' Kagura had been back and forth over this mountain so many times that she was beginning to feel trapped by the boundaries of green. Kagura found it to be not unlike the rocky, cold plateau where she'd spent too many years being equally useless on.

So she was violating her husband's conditions, not violently, but she was certainly twisting his words.

Kagura was not allowed to leave his territory, and right now that meant Kagura could not leave the mountain: at least, not without causing some sort of terrible conflict between them. The boundary was clearly defined by the place where green trees, ferns, and grass gave way to the sooty, blackened earth that extended from the mountain's base all the way out to the western sea. So she didn't break his rules: she didn't step foot on the ashes, and Kagura never hovered beyond the reach of the trees out over the wasteland.

But she spent the better part of five days directly on that boundary, and her winds were constantly kicking up and disturbing the hateful soot. She blasted down the trees that the phoenix had turned to charcoal sticks, and drove the air down into the earth so it would churn the soil and devour the ash. It took two days of her walking around the edge of the mountain tilling the ground before the forest's spirit finally approached her.

Sesshoumaru had been lax to explain the guardian's purpose to her, but Kagura understood enough to know that, technically the guardian spirit didn't have to deal with or acknowledge her. She wasn't the Demon Lord, she was his mate, and he was the one who had to make the pact with the spirit, represented by his seal. And seals were complicated; at first he made it sound like a wax stamp, but apparently that wasn't the case.

Most demons had territories, as Naraku had, and they simply controlled or defined them by finding someplace they liked and killing anything nearby that tried getting in. But a Demon Lord was different: yes, they ran around killing anything they deemed unsavoury in their domain just because they could, but they also made seals. It was... some sort of highly concentrated mixture of demonic power and... something else, she couldn't remember. Demon Lords went to the land itself to establish their claim, usually by swearing to uphold some balance or defend a region against such-and-such a threat. In return for the pledge the spirits of the land would then act on the lord's behalf. Like for instance: if a great big tribe of phoenix demons moved in from the north then all the cliffs would crumble where they nested, or the land would refuse to produce fresh food or water for them.

The problem with phoenixes was that they tended to win against forests. And the problem with seals was that, because they provided an advantage, not a weakness, they usually weren't carried around with by the Demon Lord. So Sesshoumaru had lost his along with everything else that had been in his palace. Stupid, forgetful pup.

"If my seal had been destroyed then I would know. It has probably been hidden somewhere by a servant, likely Jaken." Her mate maintained that even if the seal was destroyed, it wouldn't do him any physical harm or effect his strength at all, it would just make it harder for him to re-establish his hold on the Western Lands. "I imagine most of the spirits are irritated by my absence, but they are not difficult to appease."

Hence the phoenix hunt; the forest spirit Kagura had been left with simply wanted him to go and kill a select fire-bird, then the whole 'missing for twelve years' thing would be forgiven. Spirits had very long, slow memories. But they were surprisingly curious: it only took two days for this one to begin walking with her, and after three they were speaking openly.

"You are a wind demon..."

"I am." The guardian's eyes were two pieces of unripe round fruit, pale green. Its face consisted of several leaves delicately overlapping to form a feminine jaw-line and a wide brow. For hair the guardian's back was layered with vines which also gave the appearance of clothing, fingers of wood and stone and a thick base like the roots of a tree. Spirits were very close to demons, very close, but not quite the same. With the great destruction wrought against the forest here the spirit before her was only about the size of a human youth. The greens of its body were alive, but not vibrant...

"The earth and wind are opposites on the elemental wheel..."

"Yes, I know that."

"You seek to bring life?" The spirit sounded confused, and Kagura just dropped her head back with a short laugh as she continued to walk.

The sky was clouded over and the wind coming off the wastelands just made everything feel grey and dry. The air should have been cool like it was further within the forest, with the scent of early summer rain and growth, but the water that fell over the ashes just vanished into its cursed embrace. Five days had taken her about half-way around the base of the mountain, in fact she was beginning now to climb up the division between this rise and the next: the wasted nature of the soil still the same.

"Is that a euphemism for children?" Kagura asked mockingly, tugging at her white skirts as the thick silk caught on a living branch on the side of the forest. Since returning to the islands Kagura hadn't felt the need, nor had the opportunity really, to find a kimono or yukata to replace the mainland outfit she'd been given by a demon seamstress in the west. But she didn't really feel compelled to change either.

Kagura was still pleased with the quality of the spider-silk, heavy as it was, that robed her arms and hugged her sides. The blue, white and green had been made to match Sesshoumaru's colours, and she didn't miss the reds and magentas of her old outfit: Naraku had chosen them. The sheer blue underlayer was hidden under the long white sleeves and dress that went down to her ankles. The deep forest green bodice was made of stiffer, thick material, and hugged her torso and spread down her hips, capping her shoulders with the living colour. None of it was armour, but Kagura found it amusing that Sesshoumaru's claws and acids seemed incapable of harming the materials.

The topaz and ivory comb Sesshoumaru had given her was twisted into her black hair to keep it up, holding the wild strands out of her way. Although she didn't know where he'd found the time for it, her mate had also brought her a pair of topaz earrings that matched the comb; two long drops that fell from each ear and replaced the old jade beads from her time as Naraku's servant.

Still walking with the guardian, green grass and grey ash met along the thin line she was treading around the mountain. Kagura had her fan's green silk spread, the fabric picking up the ambient daylight as she flicked her wrist over the wasteland again, rolling the earth and ash together.

"The Demon Lord has forbidden you from conceiving."

"Ah, you were there when he said that, weren't you?"

"I am the forest..." And they had been within the forest when Sesshoumaru told her point-blank that she wasn't allowed- or wait, had the word been forbidden? Yes, the spirit was right: that Kagura was forbidden from becoming pregnant. She hadn't actually thought of it until he'd said the words, Sesshoumaru had no need for an heir yet, so Kagura hadn't thought it a matter of any importance.

But no, now she was forbidden from burdening him with a compromised mate to protect, and then a dependant child after the fact. Forbidden.

"My husband is an excellent warrior." Another blast of wind, and the rolling, grinding sound of stones and grit spilling over one another to envelope the fine powder. "But sometimes I do wonder what goes on in that head of his."

"For mortals, is timing not determined by the father...?" Uhh... It looked like a youth, and in matters not directly related to plants and growth the spirit had a tendency to sound like a child.

"It's a shared burden, usually?" This was not something Kagura really wanted to discuss with an androgynous creature, let alone one whose loyalty Sesshoumaru was fighting to reclaim. Looking back at the spirit once as she scratched a minor itch by her ear, Kagura kept walking and thought of something the guardian might understand: "It's like saying flowers just decide to spawn more flowers." The guardian's floral eyes lit up expressively, understanding dawning on its feminine face.

"Without the wind new flowers cannot be born. They must come together." Yes, exactly- wait. Did that make Sesshoumaru the wind or the flower?

"Close enough."

"And together, you will bring life back to the Western Lands?" Kagura nodded, because yes, that was the hope. Sesshoumaru neither noticed nor seemed to care that his lands had been decimated by fire, but Kagura had already promised herself that she would have a hand in restoring them. It seemed fair.

Oh?

"He's back." A gust of wind touched her neck, speaking to her and carrying just the right amount of demonic energy to tell Kagura who it was now fast approaching the mountain from the east. The guardian seemed confused by the subject change, but then slowly started to smile again.

"He will go to where he left you." With those words the guardian melded back into the vines and rocks of the mountainside, Kagura not faulting the abrupt departure as she allowed herself to fall into the wind.

Her body became something evanescent and insubstantial, more a memory of sensation as she quickly parted tree-branches and swerved around other obstacles. It took only a few minutes before she had crossed the mountain and returned to the small clearing where Sesshoumaru had turned and walked away from her five days earlier. Her Demon Lord was just touching his feet down on the tall grass as she arrived.

'Take me with you next time, Sesshoumaru, you're much too slow on your own.' He couldn't hear her like this, but being the wind did have its advantages. The world was more a myriad of energy and light when she was in this form, his physical as well as mystical presence daunting to her as Kagura let herself wrap around him teasingly. She could hold his hands under the white and red patterns of his sleeves and embrace him at the same time, press close to his armoured body without fear of his black cuirass gouging her with its horns. He didn't even have to acknowledge the kiss she pressed over his mouth. She was invisible and insubstantial, and affection that was experienced but never witnessed suited his stoic persona.

Twisting around behind him she separated herself from the wind, Kagura landed in a low crouch on one knee just behind him, her fan was open and held over her lips and nose as she slowly stood up. Sesshoumaru didn't look at her, didn't give any outward sign that he'd even noticed her enthusiastic welcome, but she knew his eyes had shut, briefly, when she embraced him, and that felt like enough for now. Years spent cocooned in ice had not warmed him to affection, and Kagura would have been worried if he'd reacted differently.

"You were successful, Demon Lord?" The guardian's voice came through the air and Kagura let her attention follow Sesshoumaru's to the massive tree standing at the edge of the glade. It dominated the treeline, thick enough around that if Kagura had stood on one side and her husband on the other, they wouldn't be able to reach one another- though she wasn't sure about his fur.

"A phoenix clan has come to dominate the eastern quarter of my land." Oh, so did that mean he wasn't successful?

"Did you find the correct one? The fire bird who tore across my sisters and daughters, putting them to sleep?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer, but Kagura watched him pull something out of his armour. She couldn't see what it was, but heard a light snap before he swung his arm to scatter whatever it was- ash? Ash which turned to fire, frightening the guardian before a demon formed out of the flames. The creature was immediately stopped by Sesshoumaru's foot slamming down on its back, holding it to the ground where the grass began to dry and smoke. As always, the Demon Lord remained silent.

Kagura moved so she could see this phoenix. It took the form of a youth, not very old, fifteen or sixteen to human eyes so perhaps ten times that number in reality. His eyes were a brilliant blue colour, dark skin, and flaming red hair which matched the feathers protruding from his ankles, elbows and wrists. He was weak and bleeding, clearly defeated, but now the ash interested her- had that been a seal or something else?

"Yes! Him!" It probably didn't matter.

"Ryokijin! Ryoki-!" Sesshoumaru's electric green whip leapt from his claws and took off the demon's head as the bird began to scream, slashing the skull a second time and halving it as the force of the blast caused it to bounce up into the air. Rather than spit blood and gore across the grass however, Kagura watched the body turn to ash. There was a pull in the air, one driven by demonic energy, and Sesshoumaru removed his foot from the collapsed back of the demon as the ashes burst into flame: charring the ground with its heat.

"Bakusaiga alone does not kill them." What-? He was reforming! Wings were included this time, breaking out of the phoenix's arms as fire and ash combined to give him life again. "They reform from any ash." Including the soot he'd just created right here? Kagura didn't get a chance to ask, she felt the wind scoop up that same layer of ash and draw it up into the bird.

"Let me try it." She said, Sesshoumaru only reacting enough to flick his wrist again and sever the terrified demon's legs from his body, carving another green line across his torso as Kagura waited just until she felt the wind try to grab and pull the forming ashes back together again.

Slashing her fan upwards, a ribbon of air leapt from the green silk and arced wide around the Demon Lord before breaking off into several tiny fingers. Each one fought to grasp a portion of ash and then sped away with it: the terror in the phoenix's fading eyes confirming the damage before his face fell to dust and she swept that away as well.

'If you scatter the ashes then they can't come back.' Minding the winds she'd used to portion the grey matter, Kagura let them fly off in different directions until she drove the air down into the ground. Just as she'd done all around the mountain, the soil was churned up and over, this time with the forest responding with green roots and life to snuff out any additional energy put out by the ash. Next time, perhaps a river would be better than soil...

"He is dead." Sesshoumaru seemed satisfied.

"Yes..." Kagura kept her fan out, lifting it over her face again as she stood straight now that the magic was done with. She watched silently as Sesshoumaru completed his dealings with the guardian. "But..." But? But what? Kagura still couldn't see Sesshoumaru's face from where she was standing, but she doubted it had changed at all as the spirit spoke up.

The guardian didn't need to reform another solid body in order to speak respectfully with Sesshoumaru, but chose to do so now for some reason. It served to make whatever was bothering the entity both clearer, and yet decidedly not. When the effeminate guardian had put itself together, it's unripened eyes were moving openly between the Demon Lord and Kagura. Finally though, they settled on the stronger male.

"Lord Sesshoumaru... I want a new pact." A pause. Brief. Not happy.

"I have already renewed this one."

"Show me your seal?" Sesshoumaru didn't respond. "Do you know where it is being kept?" Again, no answer. The guardian's face was not necessarily sad, but there was clear concern on its face. Stepping away from the great tree it walked around the Demon Lord, the two watching one another closely until the spirit came to a stop between him and Kagura, taking a few steps back so the three of them formed a triangle.

"If your seal becomes any more damaged than it already is, Lord Sesshoumaru, our agreement will be null."

"More damaged?"

"About half a year ago your palace was destroyed, and the strength of your seal was greatly compromised." Half a year... So about the time that he awoke from Boreas' spell. Maybe that was what had set it off? Not some flimsy human magic, but the threat posed to his lands?

Kagura tried not to think very often about the time Sesshoumaru had spent suspended and asleep within his icy prison. He had travelled across the world to battle a god known as Boreas- and had lost. It had taken him almost twelve years to break free of the ice holding him captive, and then months of travel to bring them back home to the sorry state of the Western Lands. They didn't talk about it, their conversations either dealt with the time before he had left for the west, their journey home, or the immediate future here with the warring tribes. If she didn't have to, Kagura was happy to ignore those years of her life, and pretend that they had never happened...

"So you want a new pact..."

"If your seal breaks, you will have to return to me anyways to re-establish our bond." Sesshoumaru fell quiet for a few moments, Kagura watching as the sun finally broke through the dreary clouds over head. The green around them was still lacking somehow, alive but not active, not vibrant the way a forest in spring should be. Against the Demon Lord's austere expression and impressive, clean dress, the world felt a little grey.

"This is not a new concern. Why did you not say something before?" And save him the trouble of spending five days hunting a phoenix for the guardian's pleasure. Kagura understood his frustration, even if he wasn't expressing it openly as he posed the question. The spirit understood the dangerous ground it was now on as well, mimicking bashful gestures of human shyness as two green hands came up, fingers folded over one another and rubbing nervously.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, you are an excellent warrior, but..." Flattery would buy the spirit time to make its point, but Kagura didn't understand why she thought she saw those inanimate eyes flash to her before focusing back on the Demon Lord. "I do not understand the way your mind works." No, it was definitely looking at her, to the point where the guardian actually turned its shoulders so it could make a point of gazing at her, not turning back for a few moments as Kagura got the distinct impression that she was being addressed as well. Something new. "However, I understand Lady Kagura, and through her I am given confidence in you that I could not have had simply by testing your prowess."

Kagura closed her fan slowly because it wasn't doing her any good. She refused to say anything and kept her eyes on the guardian. It was more than Sesshoumaru could manage right now: she could feel his gaze resting on her, then move to the spirit, then back again. Kagura wanted to slap the stupid guardian for bringing her into this.

"Very well." At his words Kagura looked over and watched Sesshoumaru do something with his power that was new to her. Arcs of green, white and blue energy, moving like something caught between fire and wind, ripped from his shoulders and back. They spread down into the ground where the tendrils began to score the grass and cause the soil to pucker up like it was under pressure from below. It reminded her, eerily, of what he'd done with his power the night he'd marked her: just maybe in reverse? And not as long-lasting, something Kagura found herself jealous of as the light display cut out and Sesshoumaru's hair and fur settled down in the breeze. "Our bond is severed."

"Y-yes, I..." The guardian looked woozy now as Kagura turned her attention back to it. What was green had begun to turn brown, leaves curling up and drying around the spirit's face and all along its body, ropes of vines going black and rotting as the connection between land and lord was cut off. She doubted that the spirit would have reacted so harshly if the territory surrounding its mountain wasn't blackened by phoenix fire, every inch under immediate threat.

"State your new terms."

"Yes..." The guardian's voice had been soft and strong before now, like wind through grass or the slow movement of stones sliding past one another. Now it sounded dull, faded, drowned by rot and moisture- like swamp-mud and silt. The unripe fruit in its eyes changed to something yellow and pocketed with brown, and Kagura could almost catch the scent of the sickly-sweet rot from where she was standing. The odour must have been disgusting for Sesshoumaru.

"Demon Lord Sesshoumaru, my body, my strength, and my soul I pledge to your side, for as long as you choose to honour, defend, and keep..." One fragile hand rose and Kagura really wanted to slap the spirit, going so far now as to fold her arms tightly over her chest as she was pointed at. "-this demoness as your mate. So long as she serves as your humble servant, dedicated to the restoration of the Western Lands, so too shall I." Servant? And wait, that sounded more like a three-way agreement than just-

"Do you agree with these conditions, Kagura?" Shit. How dare that wretched forest spirit make this about her! This would be the last time she let herself talk to one of these stupid guardians!

"I'm not your servant, but yes. I do." Keeping her arms stiffly folded, the Wind Demon let herself agree but didn't make any effort to look pleased with the decision. Did it displease her? No, not exactly, but if Sesshoumaru gave her grief over this later then, so help her Fujin, she'd kill him. She did her part to stay out of his affairs, even abiding by his stupid commands like 'don't leave the mountain' and 'don't get pregnant': this wasn't her fault.

The surge of light Sesshoumaru let off this time was noticeably greater than the one before, but behaved much the same way. The idea that it might be taxing for him to release so much energy crossed her mind, but only until a searing pain shot through her marks and caused the Wind Demon to tense up with a forceful grunt. The marks on her skin, the ones cut across her collarbones and slashed over her shoulders, plus the small yellow disk that now stained her chest, all came alive like they were being seared with a hot brand. She could feel heat rising through her clothes, lifting one hand and pressing it down over the tight knot of pain just below the hollow of her throat.

Clearly he had no idea how painful these displays were, and once- just once! Kagura would love to see him go through the pain of having his body's energies re-organized without his control. Because that was what was happening now, Kagura holding on to every breath in case the next one hurt more than the last. She was thankful that her arms had been crossed already, it gave her a way to tense up and grip her sleeves tightly without changing her stance too much.

But it didn't last as long as the time he'd marked her, and for this Kagura was thankful. It left her sore and out of breath, but it was nothing like that horrible night on the beach, so she could, maybe, forgive him for springing this on her.

"You have your new pact."

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru! Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru!" Well at least somebody was happy. Opening her eyes slowly, Kagura hadn't meant to shut them, but she couldn't help it after the fact. At least it wasn't like she was on the verge of collapse. The guardian didn't even seem to notice her discomfort as the earthen creature quickly came up in front of her, hands clasped again and a revitalized look on its androgynous face. "Lady Kagura, with this new pact I will spread life and cultivate the earth. I will ask the wind to help the flowers, and there will be so many new blooms that you will spend all year just counting the colours. Many flowers, Lady Kagura, would that please you?"

"Eh... yes? I guess it would." Flowers? They'd been talking about them earlier, but Kagura couldn't remember why. Either way the spirit looked ecstatic, enough so that it just ignored her lack-lustre reply, turning away and vanishing through the restored foliage surrounding the glade.

"We're leaving." Of course they were leaving, why bother staying someplace after finally restoring it? Why wait around and let the searing pain fade out of her chest? No, that was all just crazy talk.

Trying hard not to grumble after her mate as Sesshoumaru launched himself into the air ahead of her, Kagura reached behind her head and pulled one of the small white feathers from her hair. Tossing it up, it grew and allowed her to kneel down on the elongated spine and strengthened fibres, quickly rising up to join him as he cut across the sky.

Once they'd flown for a few minutes and Kagura was close enough to actually look up and see his face, the Wind Demon finally stopped rubbing her sore chest and spoke.

"Find fresh water." She said, making the words bland and disinterested. "After five days I want to bathe."

"Nn." Yes, a bath would be nice... It would give him time to rest, and an excuse to deal with the red tinge forming across his lips. Just making the one assenting sound to answer her request sent a bead of blood trailing across his cheek from the corner of his mouth. He was lucky to have hidden the blood from the guardian when he spoke, and it sadly proved to her that no, it wasn't easy repeatedly expending so much precious energy...

"Next time abandon me someplace more hospitable, Sesshoumaru."

"Nn."

And off they went.

There we go, that picked up quite smoothly, didn't it? Still muddling about trying to establish characters and situations in this chapter, so please feel free to review or PM me if you saw any fuzzy bits. I'll gladly come in and edit them away so long as you tell me where to look. I also have no flipping clue when, grammatically, I should be capitalizing things like "phoenix clan/tribe", so I think it's inconsistent throughout the story. Any ruling?

So you should just review anyways, and help this story attract more readers.