| | Tale of the Heart's Slave | |

Chapter Three Memories

It was like I would have woken up from a trance when I felt the grass under my feet. I had forgotten besides many other things how soft it felt compared to rough wooden floor which was full of pieces of glass. The darkness told me that it was night as I was pulled forward. The hand on my skin felt softer than Rico's though the grasp was tight. I was too tired to open my eyes but the scent assured me that the human walking beside me was the same weird girl who had come to Rico's carriage middle of the night. I guess she was talking to me but I wasn't listening. I could only focus on breathing the fresh air which felt like a small piece of heaven.

I wasn't sure how long we walked before she stopped me and I heard a sound which sounded like a door's opening. I felt a floor under my feet and next my shoulders were pushed down. It made my knees shake before they gave up under me and I was sitting on the floor. I heard some rattle near me which made me finally open my eyes. My hair was mostly in the way but with my right eye I saw how she set a fire on a small fireplace. It didn't give warmth yet but I could see her face again, clearly as she looked at me.

"Wait a minute", she told me and I quickly moved my eyes elsewhere, realizing that it wasn't wise to look at her. But she stood up right after saying those words and I carefully moved my right eye, looking around the place which I guessed was her hut.

She came back soon and I flinched when something soft fell around my shoulders. It was a blanket. I settled to watch the fire in front of me and I heard how she said, "I'm sorry... I have to- This might hurt, I'm sorry."

I couldn't make sense from her words and I barely reacted to the pain which I suddenly felt on my legs. It was dull since I had felt much worse pain before but I felt it and I wondered what object she was using to hurt me. Though I didn't even care, I still chose to glance at her hands.

First I thought that I was seeing things but after she had gotten all the nails from my legs, I had to believe it; she wasn't hurting me but helping. No, that has to be wrong... Why would she help me? I asked from myself. I moved my eyes back to her face and I saw that again she was talking but it was so hard for me to understand her words. Just then I realized how much my head really hurt. That must be because Rico hit me in the head with a block. Annoying bast-

Then I threw up. I was a hanyou and hanyou's didn't throw up often since they didn't even get sick easily but even we had the point when it was too much. As I emptied my stomach on her floor, I figured out that this was mine. Not that my stomach had much of anything inside anyway.

After that I was just about to collapse on the floor, not really caring if I'd get dirty but she grabbed my shoulders and held me up. "Let me help you. Can you stand?" she asked and slid her hand under my arms. Then we were walking again but not long until my rear hit a soft matter. I assumed that it was a bed which made me even more confused - I had waited for some kind of punishment from throwing up.

"You can lie here", she said. When I didn't move she pushed me on my back by herself. A pillow under my head was something I had though I'd never feel again but I forced my eyes to stay open and think about any possible reason for that why was she being nice to me. Because there had to be a reason, no one could have been nice for a hanyou. And she was a woman. I had learned a long time ago that women were no better than men, no matter how pretty they were. Women knew how to trick, make one believe that they were worth of trust but then they would kick and spit on the face when you least waited for it.

Though I fought against it, the bed made my eye lids grow heavy and I couldn't keep them open longer. They're all the same, I thought absently. Every bitch, this one too, is like Kikyou.

X

As I came back with a small bucket of water, I found him asleep, breathing heavily. I smiled sadly as I set the bucket beside the bed and wet a rag with it.

"I'm so sorry for all you have been through", I whispered and run the rag over his body, cleaning the small cuts and wounds. That didn't bother his sleep at all, he didn't even budge. That alone told me how dead tired he was. Maybe that was why he hadn't reacted on almost anything I had said or done to him.

After I had cleaned his wounds, I pulled the cover over him and left him sleep in peace. I poured another bucket of water on my floor in front of the fireplace and rubbed the rag against it to wash away the vomit. All of that wasn't really disgusting, it only made me feel more sorry for him. When the floor was clean, I took two accessory blanket from my bed and laid them near the fireplace. I didn't mind sleeping on the hard floor as I watched how the flames danced around each other.

Would you be proud of me now, mama? I thought but quickly regret thinking of her as I felt a tear on my cheek. I let out a deep sigh and wiped it away. I think you would, I think all of you would be, I wanted to believe that. Then I closed my eyes and kept my ears open for an answers like always when I thought about my family. But there was none and so I slowly fell asleep.

AN:

Phew, that's all I'm gonna say. I won't edit a chapter, EVER again!

Thanks for reading, feel free to tell me what do you think about this edited version.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha