So I KNOW that I have really neglected my stories… Sadly I couldn't find the time to update:\. I have been so busy with applying to colleges and taking quizzes and such that I have had little time. But now I have found some time, my life has cooled down a bit and I can write! So here is the new chapter to Maybe In the Next Life. Review, please!
Chapter 4
Yash woke up with the great sky torch penetrating his eyes, making him sweat and squint. There was a weight on his chest, pressing him to the ground. He looked down at his chest and a pool of curly raven locks spread across his chest in disarray, tickling it as the wind ruffled softly. He pushed himself up onto his arms and tried to remember where he was or who was on his chest.
As he moved, he saw the face beneath the mass of soft hair and, instead of pushing this girl away, he had an overwhelming urge to bring her closer, to smooth the hair out of her face, touch his lips to hers. As he examined her, sunshiny orbs looking down, forest green eye met his. Kag looked confused for a heartbeat, then realization dawned on her and she jumped up as quick as a rabbit, just about ready to sprint away from him. He knew that if she got into her stride, there was a huge chance that he wouldn't catch her.
As she was just about to take flight, he grabbed her hand, pulling gently. Her eyes traveled down to his hand on hers and she blushed. She remembered how he had gazed at her sister the night before and her face clouded with hurt and despair, then determination as she tried desperately to free her hand.
Yash was surprised with the amount of force this slight girl was able to use to free her hand, not thinking that she was this strong. He was determined to talk to her about this situation, to find out why she'd chosen him. He couldn't keep his grip on her, she was so determined and fast, forceful.
She finally slipped from his grip and suddenly, she was sprinting, gone faster than anyone he'd ever seen. He got up and ran too, trying to make it before she could get to full speed. He got closer and closer, faster and faster, and, finally he was close behind her, so close he could almost touch her. He did the only he could think of that would stop her effectively: he jumped out, grabbed her shoulders, and wrestled her to the ground, trying not to hurt her.
He ended up straddling her hips, holding her wrists down above her head. She arched her back and threw her hips up, almost bucking him off her. He was still floored by how much power her slender body concealed. She looked into his eyes, masking her hurt, pulling at her wrists and trying to make him leave.
"Get off me!" she ground out, proceeding to try and bite him wherever she could and succeeding in biting down hard on his bare shoulder. He let go of her wrists and she still didn't let go of his shoulder, grinding her teeth down as hard as she could, making him groan in pain. He felt hot liquid running down his shoulder and looked at her face, seeing the helpless tears pouring from her eyes.
Instead of trying to detach her from his arm, he put his arms around her waist, pulling her close. The hot wetness of her tears kept coming and the pain lessened. Finally, she detached herself from his shoulder and tried to get out of his arms weakly.
"Get away from me," she whispered brokenly and Yash pulled her closer, resting his chin on the top of her head.
"Tell me, Kag," Yash said, smoothing her hair and pulling away to look at her. "Tell me why you're upset, why you chose me."
She put her hands on his shoulders and Yash thought she was going to tell him, that she would put her arms around him like she use to when they were kids when she would tell him secrets. He was completely unprepared when she shoved with all her might, pushing him to the ground, her on top of him. She looked down at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
She looked in his eyes and her eyes traveled to his mouth. Before either of them knew it, her lips were against his, soft and insistent. He responded instantly, warmth seeping from the point where they connected through his body, electricity zinging through his limbs.
Just as fast as it had happened, it stopped and she was on her feet, looking down at him with sad, angry eyes. "If you don't know, Yash, then we are both stupider than I thought."
And she was gone, her words hanging in the air and Yash lying in the same spot, her kiss lingering on his lips.
Song had finished her chores as she was told by her mentor. Her job as a herbalist was to recognize and cultivate beneficial herbs for food and medicine. She was also suppose to recognize herbs that were harmful and to weed them out of food sources and scavenged piles of herbs that the others brought her for food.
As she was bending to pick up her basket, she felt a hand on her backside, through the beaver fur. She felt her cheeks heat and she whipped around, her hand poised to strike, when it was caught in a pair of strong, yet gentle hands. Those hands pulled her closer and breath tickled her ear as Mir whispered to her.
"You cannot imagine how happy I was when you picked me, Song," he said, kissing her earlobe, making a shiver run through her body and the hair on her nape stand at attention. She blushed as his hand rested at her waist, pulling her closer to his body.
She was so over come with the joy of being close to him, the exhilaration of having him touch her that it took her a second to recognize and decipher his words.
She put her free hand in the middle of his chest and pushed, making him stumble away from her.
"You haven't been chosen as my mate, Mir. You were chosen to woo me and that is all," she growled, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Isn't that what I'm doing?" he questioned with a mischievous grin, moving closer.
"Actually, you're doing the opposite. I don't care for your… disrespect," Song snarled, saying the last word as slowly and with as much emphasis as possible.
He looked shocked for a second but masked it with a playful, hurt expression.
"Song, you wound me!" he whispered, smiling playfully.
"I haven't yet but I'm about to," Song said, smiling deceptively as she stepped towards him.
Mir's hands went up in defense as he saw the look in her eyes. "Now, Song," he started but when she didn't stop, he turned and ran, not willing to risk her wrath.
Kag made it back to the cave within minutes and, instead of going in and learning her spiritual advisor duties as she was suppose to, she climbed the side of the rock facing the cave was in, climbing until her arms ached and she could go no further. She came upon a smaller cave, enough room for maybe two fires, much smaller than the clan cave, which held around 28 fires.
She entered it cautiously, not sure if there was an animal in her or not. She found no sign of an animal, no decomposing, recently eaten food. She made her way through, sitting in the shadow of the mouth of the cave. She rested her head against the cool rock and tried to think about what she was doing.
She couldn't get Yash out of her head but at the same time she knew, she just knew, that he would never see her. All he saw was her sister. 'I should let him go, shouldn't I?' she asked herself, looking out at the great sky torch as though it would hold all the answers. Kag decided that yes, she should let Yash go.
Hours passed and Kagome just couldn't bring herself to come down, couldn't face her sister, who would inevitably be at the fire, combing her hair and basking in Yash's golden gaze. She especially couldn't face the completely awestruck look in Yash's eyes as he stared at Yo with longing.
As the sun began to set, she realized that yes, she would have to come down, before the sky torch left, before it was too dark for her to descend the rock. She started down, hoping to make it before she couldn't see at all.
Finally, when there was very little light, she felt like she could step down and meet ground. As she extended her foot and started to let go of the outcropping of rock, a whoosh of air enveloped her and her stomach clenched as she fell. She heard a crack and blacked out.
Pain enveloped her arm, shoulder, and ankle but the main focus of the pain centered on her arm and when she came to, she couldn't put any weight on her arm or shoulder. She used her other arm to lift her to her feet, but her ankle was already swollen and turned a light shade of purple, growing darker by the minute.
It hurt tremendously and her arm hung limply at a grotesque angle, but she calmed herself, pushed the pain from her mind as she went to her fire, hiding the evidence of the pain. Again, she had to endure Yo, brushing her hair. She was very vain about it and brushed it until it glowed silkily. Yash's eye were trained on their fire and Kagome couldn't look up, couldn't see him gaze at her sister with such longing.
A twinge of pain enveloped her arm as she made a move to lift it. She couldn't help the piercing scream the escaped from her mouth and she covered it quickly. Her mother looked at her with concern, making a move towards her but Kag stood, hugging her arm closely to her chest and smiling.
"Sorry, mother. I got something in my foot. I should go out and find something to get it out. I'll only be gone a few moments," Kag said before her mother could examine her too closely. She hurried out, not aware that Yash got up from his place next to his brother and made to follow her out.
Kagome heard footsteps behind her as she hurried toward the forest, hoping to find something to wrap it with so she could no longer move it.
She felt a hand clamp down on her should and she cried out in agony, sinking to her knees and clutching it with her good hand, leaning towards the ground as tears slipped from her clenched eyes.
"Kag?! What is it?" she heard Yash ask urgently.
She couldn't speak; her throat was clogged up with pain. She got a squeak past her lips and that was all as she sank to the ground on her shoulder, taking shallow breaths as she willed the pain to dissipate.
She heard Yash fluttering around her, trying to find the source of her pain. She swallowed past the pain, pulling herself to a kneeling position, then a standing position.
Yash's eyes moved to her mangled arm and instantly his eyes widened. "Kag, your arm," he started to say but she held up her hand.
"I know. My arm is broken," she said.
Yash made a move towards her. "I think that we need to…" he started.
"NO! We don't need to do anything, Yash. Our arm isn't broken. Mine is. So leave me alone!" Kagome bit out, barely containing her scream as again she tried to use her arm to point at him.
She started back towards the forest, trying to leave him behind but she groaned in frustration when he just followed her, his silence showing his stubbornness. She stuck with a stony silence as well.
When they got to the woods, she chose two short, thick sticks, peeling the bark from them and braiding it into strips. It seemed that her arm was broken close to the middle of her forearm. She put the stick on her arm and tied the bark around it one at the bottom and one at the top. She grunted in frustration when she couldn't do this simple task with only one hand and Yash rolled his eyes at her determination not to ask for his help. Brushing her hands away, he proceeded to tie the bark carefully, making sure it was tight enough so it would come loose, but not so tight as to hurt her.
"How does that feel?" he questioned, seeing her grimace of pain. "Is it too tight?"
"No, it is fine. Thank you," she said grudgingly. Her mother was the healer and she knew that this wasn't supposed to feel good, but to help the wound heal correctly. She would have to endure a little bit of pain but her arm would heal right. Yash, however, didn't know it was suppose to hurt so she kept her reaction and pain to herself, smiling tensely at him.
The pain didn't subside of course. It was making her bones align themselves and hurt terribly but she wouldn't let on because Yash would loosen it and she knew her bones would slip away from each other, making them heal funny.
She was suddenly happy that she got to learn her mother's gift. You was too lazy to learn for herself, she was so vain and full of herself and never had time for such trivial things as learning the healing gift. And, though You didn't know this, wouldn't know this until the mating ceremony took place, Kagome would take over as healer and spiritual advisor. No one knew this because mother felt that people would try to interfere. Kag didn't care either way. She didn't want You working on people when she had no idea what she was doing. They needed an experienced healer and You refused to learn so it was her own fault that she wouldn't inherit such an influential state. She would be nothing but the part of the elite, part of people born from the highborn families but not inheriting a highborn status.
She didn't want to sleight You in any way by being her mother's successor but You wasn't taking this seriously so Kag was forced to learn both. This put the clan in an odd position because whoever mated Kag would become the Clan leader but also the leader of their warriors. This hadn't happened in the clan in many cycles.
Yash saw the pensive look on Kag's face. "Kag, what are you thinking of?" he inquired, wondering why her gaze had grown so dark.
"Nothing, Yash," she snapped, her eyes on the ground now. He could always read her expressions so well, just like he could track her well, understand her well. He knew her through and through.
"Kag, I know when something is bothering you and, lately, you have been a mess," he said, drawing her chin up, "and I am still here for you, in spite of all this."
Kag knew he was right, that he was always there for her, that he would always be there for her. "Yash, You won't ever be the clan healer."
Yash gave her a bland look. "Don't kid like that, Kag, of course she will. It's her birthright."
"No, Yash, she won't because she refuses to learn the gift. She is too full of herself," Kag spit out with disgust at her sister's vanity.
"But, then who will be the healer?" Yash asked, looking dumbstruck.
Kag looked him in the eyes, judging whether she should tell him or wait.
"I am the only one who will learn the gift. She even will not learn how to be the spiritual advisor like my mother's sister. She says she has better things to do and since it will inevitably hers, she is not concerned," Kag said in a tense, angry voice.
"Why are you telling me this, Kag? Are you trying to make it so that I won't woo your sister, that I will woo you instead?"
"No. I have made a very important decision," Kag said, her face becoming determined, her jaw set.
"And what is that?" he growled combatively.
"I will NOT pick you, Yash. No matter the reason I chose you in the first place, I've decided that it will never be. So I will pick Ugg and be happy. That is the only reason why you are allowed to know; no matter what, even if it sways your decision, it will not sway mine," Kag's voice held a note of finality.
She stopped and stared him in the eye, giving him a small smile.
"But…" he started, not liking the idea of her being with anyone else.
"Yash, you can no longer be an option for me. You did not want me before and, now that you know of our situation, you would only want me for the powerful leadership. It would make me miserable my whole life to know that that is the only reason. Ugg would be a good leader. And you would get what you always wanted," Kag said, smiling reassuringly before continuing on the path to the cave.
Yash couldn't speak. He didn't know what to say. His decision had started to change, not because of the change of roles for the two sisters, but because of the scorching kiss Kag had given him that morning. He had kissed You many times and had never felt that way. Sure, it was pleasant kissing You, a sort of warm sensation, but that attraction and spark between them wasn't there. What he felt for Kag was explosive.
He would show Kagome that he didn't just want her for her status or his for that matter…
