It was a fairly short walk and when they entered the encampment Kagome and InuYasha realized that what they'd seen earlier hadn't been exactly what it appeared. What they'd thought they'd seen was a camp of men and women, traveling from one place to another, practicing swordplay to keep their skills honed. When InuYasha and Kagome entered the camp they saw a completely different story. There were about 20 soldiers and they were in a separate area than the women and some of the men. The women were malnourished and had bruises, they were tied together and many were staked to the ground. There were a few men that were tied down in a similar fashion as well, also looking the worse for wear.
Kagome was tied with her hands behind her back and a shackle staked her to the ground, out of reach of any of the other staked women. InuYasha was similarly tied and staked, though he was also tied by his hands to a tree. Kagome was out of reach of the other women but she was within earshot so she tried to get the attention of some of them to find out just what was going on.
A woman about Kagome's mother's age finally came over to Kagome, though she carefully stayed out of the short rope's reach. "What is this place?" Kagome asked her.
"It's a prison camp." The woman's voice was flat and unemotional.
"A prison camp?" Kagome was quiet for a bit, trying to understand, hostages and prisoners weren't unusual in the feudal era, but a roving prison camp? She didn't understand and said as much.
"Feuding warlords in the area we came from conscripted the men for their armies, and the women and children to feed them and tend them after battle. Our side was outnumbered and finally defeated, that's when we were taken as spoils." A small bit of anger and humiliation crept into the woman's voice and Kagome wanted to reach out to her. "The warlords' men forced our men to return to the villages with the children and they took us a couple days' march from the Lord's castle to a makeshift village where we were forced to be their servants. Some of the girls were taken to be the soldier's women." Kagome let out a small gasp and the woman smiled sadly at her. "I was lucky to escape that fate, but as you can see, we are not treated well." She lifted a sleeve to show Kagome a badly healed broken wrist, then she gestured to the area where the men and InuYasha were tied, "Shortly after we arrived in the village our men tried to rescue us. But they were outnumbered and not as well trained as the Lord's soldiers so many were killed, the others were captured."
The Lord was worried that his men would be upset with him if he let the rescue and escape attempts continue so he ordered his men to take us to one of his allies far away." Kagome understood, the remaining men wouldn't want to leave their children or their crop for too long, even for their women since it was life or death just to survive the winter for many in his time. "We have been traveling for over a week now, and our numbers get smaller almost every day. Many of the women are too sick or injured to continue and they're left behind, the men are being killed off as sport." She explained to Kagome that the men were given short knives or sticks and were forced to fight the soldiers who were armed, if poorly, with swords.
So that's what they meant by entertainment. Kagome thought. She was watching the sky lighten and was praying that dawn would arrive with InuYasha's demon powers before the soldiers decided to just kill them. The woman was looking at Kagome strangely, "Forgive me, but you don't seem too worried."
Kagome gave her a tight smile, "I worry that they'll just kill us before InuYasha can rescue us."
The other woman shook her head, "There are too many of them, even if this InuYasha arrives with an entire village, the soldiers are well trained. And they don't typically let the people they bring into camp live very long."
Kagome nervously smiled just a bit, "I hope long enough." The woman looked at her as though she felt sorry that Kagome had such optimism, it made Kagome sad for what the women there had endured. The woman moved off then, leaving Kagome feeling exposed. She looked to InuYasha and her breath caught in her chest. He looked a lot like he had when she first met him, bound by arrow and vine to the God tree. Tonight though he was human, his long hair black absorbed the starlight rather than reflecting it like his silver hair did. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping, though Kagome was sure he wasn't.
InuYasha was feeling his humanness keenly now, his hands weren't claws that he could use to cut through the ropes holding him and his human ears weren't sharp enough to hear the soldiers discussing what to do with him and Kagome. He flexed his muscles, trying to find some give in the ropes that bound him, but even if he'd had his demon strength, they were too tough to be broken by strength alone. He squinted in the flickering firelight to see if he could find his Tetsusaiga. There it is! He could see it had been left in a careless pile of ill-cared for weapons. He was hoping that the soldiers would make him fight before dawn, so that he would be untied when he became a half demon again.
He'd learned the story of the encampment from another captive as Kagome had and was told that the men were forced to fight in unfair match-ups before they were killed. He noted that the soldiers had gotten sloppy with their weaponry now that they were out of sight of their Lord. If only I could get to my sword! He may have lost his demon senses and his demon strength, but his skill was in his mind and his muscles. He felt Kagome's eyes on him but he didn't want to see the fear in her eyes and feel helpless to make it go away so he kept his closed, feigning sleep to the others in camp.
He opened his eyes when he heard Kagome's squeak of fear, what he saw made him see red. The man that had tried to lift Kagome's skirt in the woods was standing above her with another stick, trying to lift it again. She was struggling to keep her dignity as best she could given that her hands were tied behind her back and she had a leg staked to the ground. She refused to make it easy for the man whom she was trying to stare down. The other women were looking away, trying to afford her some small measure of privacy that she didn't have.
The man soon tired of her maneuvering and took a short sword out of its sheath, "Stop squirming!" he commanded and Kagome complied. "Stand up." She did, chin lifted high, her eyes flicked to InuYasha and he saw through her façade to what he didn't want to see, her fear. The exchange had been noticed by the other soldiers and they were watching with interest. "Time to see what you're hiding under those strange clothes." He said as he started to cut at her shirt with his sword.
Kagome started to shake as her shirt gapped open in the front and the man before her started to cut at her sleeves. "No! Leave her alone!" InuYasha yelled, straining at his bonds.
"Shut him up." The man said to another who grabbed a sword and went over to InuYasha. He held a sword to InuYasha's throat and InuYasha saw it was the Tetsusaiga.
"If you speak again, worse than what's planned will happen to the girl." His voice was strong until InuYasha growled at him, at that moment the soldier felt fear ride up his spine and felt disoriented, as though he was the captive, not this strange human in front of him. InuYasha held his tongue but he couldn't keep he growl away. His eyes were glued to Kagome as she endured her humiliation. Her shirt was now cut off her and she was standing in her bra and skirt.
The man's face was eager as he cut Kagome's skirt and it fell to the dirt. He reached out towards the jewel shards in a jar hanging between her breasts and she finally shrank back, her nerve breaking in the face of possible assault. As she shrank back she heard her name in a familiar voice accompanied by an also familiar growl. "InuYasha." She whispered in her mind, not daring to look over at him in case the man tried to touch her again.
But the camp was now distracted from her plight by one of their own. Those that had been sleeping were now awake, and those that had been awake when the two companions were brought into camp were staring at the tree where InuYasha was tied. Where they had had a human tied to a tree now stood a demon breaking away, intent on violence. When the man before her took his eyes off of her to see what the commotion to his left was she snuck a look as well. What she saw made her gasp and breathe InuYasha's name.
It was not yet dawn but InuYasha's hair was silver and his dog ears and claws were back. What had made her gasp though were the purple slashes on his cheeks and the redness in his eyes. He had turned full demon.