Disclaimer : See prior chapters until I think of a clever thing to say here.
Authors Note: Maaaaan! I wrote the epilogue to this thing last night. I now know how it ends. It "just" remains to craft the filigree bridge between here and there. I think there's another five to six chapters and we are there. I was self-sabotaged early last year by accidentally deleting a later portion of the story I was really really happy with. I've been waiting around for it to magically turn up *somewhere* on one of my computers instead of attempting to rewrite it from memory or scratch. See how well that worked :P So I'm going to rewrite it - hopefully it will turn out much better than it was. So yus - advancement!
Chapter 7
Their direction took them gradually uphill again, skirting along the lower edges of mountainous ranges, a little ways above the forested tree lines. The area alternated in patches of bright green turf and bare, grey ground where past small landslips had shrugged the vegetation away, creating broad ledges like a stairway for giants. Where there was turf the vegetation was cropped back close by some alpine herbivore, Serow*? Kagome wondered. The occasional scattered fewmets were the only other sign of the animal's presence in the area. Overhead an occasional small bird of prey wheeled looking for rodents and though the wind was fresh the sun was warm. It was a beautiful day, of the sort that could not seem to hold bad fortune or fear.
Around mid morning, rounding a spur of the mountain, Kagome noted an anomaly - a small, rounded boulder sitting alone in the middle of a patch of turf. At first she thought it might be another stone Jizo, but as they drew gradually closer she realised that it was moving slighting - it wasn't a stone or a statue but a small figure dressed in brown. What she had thought was moss was it's skin.
The creature was crouched in a tight hunched posture, clutching its head in one hand and rocking back and forth, the other arm was held close against its chest. Rin gave a sudden shriek of delight and flung herself forward at roughly the same time Ah and Un's heads shot up and it took off at a lumbering stride leaving Kagome behind.
"Jaken sama! Jaken! There you are! Jaaaa Keeeeen Samaaaaaa!"
Ah Kagome thought, and then there were three. One to go. She followed slower down the slope hoping Rin wouldn't trip and flatten the creature in her haste to reach him. She needn't have worried. The dragon-horse easily outpaced Rin and slid into a showy stop beside the little youkai.
Jaken had unfolded at Rinn's shouting with a squawk and for a moment had looked like he would bolt; then he recognised who was approaching and had limped a few steps forward wailing "Rinn! Oh! Dragon! Oh you survived!" in a thin reedy voice. Tears gushed from his bulbous eyes. As Ah and Un slid to a stop in front of him he pasted himself onto one of the dragon-horse's front legs, holding on fiercely with one arm, the other still awkwardly held against his body as he rubbed his face against the scaley, slightly scabby knee.
"Jaken Sama!" Rin shrieked and the youkai released his grip on Ah and Un to bury himself in her embrace, still weeping.
"Rin you are alive! Sesshoumaru-sama will not kill me when he returns after all!"
By this time Kagome had reached her travel companions. She was just about to open her mouth to comment on their fortune in finding him when Jaken noticed her and pushed Rin away fiercely, stooping to scoop up the broken length of wood that had been lying unnoticed by his feet. Swinging it erratically in one hand he stumbled forward, placing himself between Kagome and the other two.
""Back! Back human! Stay back!" He shrieked, eyes rolling as he looked around, as though expecting more enemies to come pouring across the meadow. Even as she skipped backwards out of range Kagome noted that his eyes weren't tracking very well and he had gone three shades paler and had begun shaking. He was not well.
On her shoulder Itoko ruffled and there was a scent of pino-cleen and peppermint. She put a hand over him to hold him in place even as Rin and Ah intervened.
"No no Jaken-sama! Kagome-sama has been helping us! She is our friend!" Rin said, catching at his hands and the stick even as Ah dipped its head and hoisted the little imp up by the back of his jacket collar. Jaken let out a strangled yelp of pain, releasing his weapon and clutching for his other arm.
Quickly taking in the obviously painful injury to his arm and the now noticeable abrasions to Jaken's bald pate Kagome rapidly calculated how to disarm the situation. He was a courtier. Manners would get her further than demands or protestations of innocence.
Dropping the saddlebag she rapidly took three steps backward, quickly knelt in a formal posture. Releasing Itoko with a shake to remind him to mind his behaviour she placing her fingertips on the grass before her she bowed over them as though welcoming an guest important guest to her family's shrine.
"Jaken-sama." She paused and waited three breaths before she straightened a little and looked up from her fingers. As she had expected Ah had lowered the imp back to the ground and Jaken was staring at her with uncertainty. She bowed again.
"Jaken-sama, I am Higurashi Kagome, I found Rin-chan four nights ago. She has asked my aid in reuniting her to Sesshoumaru-sama. We encountered Ah-san and Un-san yesterday and they have also agreed to seek him with us." Her eyes widened as she remembered and she hastily dug into the pack, pulling out the cloth wrapped official document casings. Putting the package on the ground in front of her she unwrapped them and offered them to the imp. "Ah-san and Un-san implied that these were important. I hope I did not wrong in bringing them with us."
Jaken stared at her, and then down at the lacquered document cases. Behind him Rin looked down at the piece of wood in her hand realised what it was "Oh! Jaken Sama! Your special stick!"
His mouth opened and closed a few times and then he sat down suddenly and began to silently cry again.
~o0o~
An hour later, having coaxed Jaken to let her look at his arm, broken but within her ability to splint, and his head - badly bruised but apparently sound, Kagome convinced the youkai to drink some water and Rin had found him a handful of pine nuts to eat.
He was now seated on Ah Un's broad back, blinking and squinting erratically. Jaken had sat staring blankly out across the vista as she had bandaged him up, clutching the document cases to his chest with his good arm with the two pieces of the Nintōjō resting on his lap. The head of the staff had been tucked into the front of his jacket. Once she'd done all she could for his injuries she had used more of the bandages to secure the somewhat battered carving back onto the end of the staff for him. It seemed to give him some comfort. He had allowed the document cases to be rewrapped and replace in the saddlebag which she carried for him.
Remembering his past high-handedness Kagome had initially set out to placate him as much as possible. She had expected a second outburst in regards to who was in charge of the expedition now and had been braced to coax him into believing the direction they were taking and the plan to continue on while there was still daylight were all his own idea. Instead he had barely paid attention to her words and had offered no opinion. He had stared for long minutes at Itoko, who lay still, draped in two large loops around her neck like a rosary and then Jakenhad pointedly averted his eyes with a little full-body shudder. Despite this odd behaviour she continued to speak politely and with deference, expecting the proud little imp to snap out of his catatonia eventually. He acquiesced to being lifted onto Ah Un's back without even a token protest.
"Rin thinks Jaken-sama is very surprised." The child had quietly shared as Kagome rearranged the saddle pack in readiness to set out again.
Kagome wrinkled her nose and glanced up at the bandaged figure sitting dazedly on the back of the dragon-horse. "Surprised good or surprised bad?"
Rin pursed her lips in thought. "Rin isn't sure. Jaken-sama is usually more…enthusiastic all the time"
Kagome read this as 'passionately loud' based on her previous encounters with the imp. "Personally I think he's more than a bit concussed." A thought occurred to her, "We probably should make sure he stays awake Rin. Could you keep talking to him, just to make sure he's OK and so there's no chance he falls … Ah-san, Un-san - would you be willing to carry Rin for a bit as well? - I don't think he should be left alone up there."
The dragon-horse snorted a chuff of smoke as if to say "Of course" and Ah tilted its head ready to start a shake that would undulate down its body to resettle it's scales and mane but Un quickly nipped it, reminding it of their precariously balanced and unwitting existing rider.
"Thank you both." Kagome said and hoisted Rin up behind the imp. The rest of the day passed at a steady tramp with Rin providing an ongoing commentary to which Jaken occassionally gave monosyllabic responses and Kagome scouting for anything that looked edible to add to their dwindling supplies. At one point Ah yarped something and Rin scooped up Jaken, hastily sliding from the animals back. The dragon-horse returned proudly carrying a very small goat, only slightly singed by it's breath. Kagome gutted it then and there. Despite the messiness it was agreed they would be wiser to keep moving, carry the entire thing with them to further prepare and cook later. Jaken was given the task of ensuring the carcass didn't slide from where it was slung over Ah and Un's shoulders which gave him something to focus on through the mist of his shock.
In the evening, after a dinner of seared goat, all of them tucked in close together with no protest - Jaken on Rin's lap, Rin on Kagome's and Kagome tucked against Ah and Un's barrel, Itoko around her neck and one or another of the dragon horse's heads resting over her shoulder, napping while the other kept watch.
The night was cold but the company warm.
~o0o~
I am basing the landscape on a quick google of the region around Mount Aino in Japan.
*Serow カモシカ capricornis crispus a goat-antelope native to Japan.