What's Left Of Me, Iris.

The problem with any writing project is the threat of getting bored half way through. Thankfully, RtW is complete, so that's not an issue for this story, but the sequel? Bleh. I'm right at a point where there're like 2-3 chapters of content I just don't wanna do, but it's the bridging stuff before the fun part. But I figure, I wrote all the way to chapter 19 before going back and writing 10 here, and that turned out alright, right?

Inappropriate ranting here 'cause there's no point putting it in an AN that's a few months from publication =P

Restoring the Wind

Patient Growth

It was a year before she was able to leave the cave for more than a few hours, to give up her endless vigil and wander far enough from the mountain to reach the nearest human settlement. Kagura honestly couldn't pry herself away before then: being free meant she had the choice of whether or not to leave him, and she chose not to. So it was a year before she realized how slowly he was recovering in slumber, and how agonizing this wait was truly going to be.

She didn't make a habit of leaving very often, even after the second year gave way to the third. Without language to communicate with or anything worth bartering to the humans, she stole into the boundaries of the small village at night and simply took away what she wanted. It was better not to be seen by the humans here, she was too strange to them: they looked like their old gods with curly hair and large, wide eyes, olive skin and an awkward language. She had tried approaching a child once or twice, but their response warned her from continuing with that strategy: they didn't like being near her. They weren't like Rin or Kohaku, or the other young humans Kagura had known back home. True, they were similar in the way all human children are the same, but still much too different.

Food wasn't an issue, but things like blankets, new clothes, and eventually the materials to make a new fan were all carried away. She fixed the edges and entrance to the cave, stabilized them and smoothed the stones with mortar she watched the human men mix and use to build their homes. This place wasn't plagued so badly by earthquakes and typhoons: the humans made their homes solid because there was no fear of them falling over and needing be put back together. The weather was also too cold and extreme sometimes, paper would have been useless as a building material- if there was any to be had at all.

No paper, no rice, or at least not a lot. It was good that she only needed to feed rarely, and that the forest groves and cultivated orchards provided her with sustenance. Eating, she realized, had become a luxury to her now as it was for many other demons and elementals. Naraku had always tormented her with hunger but never allowed her to eat- or when she did consume food, it never satisfied. Now she knew it would be different, even if she still found human food unpalatable.

Time passed very slowly, but very fast at the same time. By her fourth year she would spend most of her hours out flying on the winds near the mountain and beyond, and the time she had spent bound to the cave entrance didn't feel like it had lasted so long. She adjusted carefully to the changes that had come with her new life- her restored one. The way her heart beat, how her skin flushed, how she responded to the seasons and the cycles of the moon. Kagura wasn't sure what it would have been like to suddenly find herself alive and then under scrutiny from people around her: would she have been able to adjust if Jaken had been a constant nuisance? Would she have had time to think and understand what her freedom really meant if she'd had to follow the Demon Lord constantly to avoid being left behind? So there was, maybe, some good that came from having to wait, she just wished the waiting wasn't so long...

Sometimes, in the woods near the mountain, she would catch a glimpse of a heavenly hunting dog, or watch a frighten stag suddenly leap off and away as the unseen huntress prowled too close for Kagura's comfort. It was desperately hard to avoid harming any of the curious mutts or deer that would irritate the goddess, but getting into a fight with Artemis would only get her killed: Kagura wasn't stupid. She had learned slowly, through observing the humans and their devotions, that the gods of this land were no longer under stable or even conscious worship, they'd been replaced. But that didn't mean they weren't still a threat to her.

Sesshoumaru was a Demon Lord, he was the one responsible for slaying Naraku: that put him in a category all his own, several steps above her. It was his right and position to challenge gods, not hers...

She just had a passionate hated for the bitch, and patiently awaited the joyous day when the virgin goddess was gored by one of her prey. Sadly though, that news never reached her because it just refused to happen. In fact, after five years in Thrace, Artemis had become bold enough to regularly leave the forest and walk all the way up to the lip of the cave, where she always found a prickly Kagura standing guard.

"You are selfish, demon."

"Excuse me?" Just because she couldn't pick a fight with Artemis didn't mean she had to be nice.

"Selfish." The goddess' appearance hadn't changed in five years, but Kagura's has been forced to. There were only so many alterations she could make to Greek clothing to make it more suitable for herself, and with such limited skill when it came to mending and stitching, her magenta kimono had finally been laid to rest. Its ability to restore itself had come from Naraku, and he was dead.

One of her under-layers served as the final one now, which had made her feel bare until she found a way to craft a terribly plain kosode out of several stolen lengths of cloth. It was white and patternless wool, but hidden under the blue, floral-patterned kimono which had previously played second string to her magenta one, she could handle it. She still wore her hair the same though, and her green earrings: this land wasn't going to corrupt her.

"Selfish, says the one looking for a rare breed." Contempt laced the words, but she was merely repeating what Artemis had said years ago. The goddess bristled.

"You refuse to help him so you can take all the credit when he wakes up, it's disgusting."

"If you're talking about bringing the Half-breed into things, you don't know Lord Sesshoumaru." She answered, but Artemis wouldn't let her continue.

"They are brothers."

"No they're not." Rebuking the Goddess again, she wanted the huntress to go away, she had no place here and after five years this discussion was old. "If you go to Inuyasha, then yes, the fool will probably come. But he'll know better than to expect to use his Tetseiga on the Demon Lord and then escape unscathed, let alone alive." She conveniently left out the fact that Inuyasha had, technically, bettered his brother more than once in combat. Kagura wasn't quite sure how she knew that so exactly, but wasn't about to share such a secret with Artemis.

"So you're worried about the brother then." Stop calling him that!

"I'm worried about his pride you stupid-!" She bit off the insult and stabbed her lip with one sharp tooth, tasting some of her own blood as Kagura tried to keep the winds curled around her fingers from winning out and striking the foolish deity. Artemis' green eyes were on her like the sight of her bow, the weapon held in a resting position against the standing goddess' legs, but that could be easily changed.

"His pride!" She continued, leaving the insult out of things and taking her anger out on the absent Half-breed instead. "If his younger, mixed-breed, bastard half-brother comes all the way around the world and rescues him, he'll either destroy your precious Thracian highlands or you'll have to kill him to make him stop!" Did this goddess get it yet? Kagura already knew the answer: no. Artemis was stubborn, some sort of divine princess, a bastard daughter of their supreme lightning god.

"When I convince him to stay here-" Subject change, but Kagura knew the drill with this woman.

"You would never convince him!" Sesshoumaru as a goddess' hunting dog? Her little tracker and go-fetch-'em mutt? Kagura had laughed at the idea before, but sometimes, like right now, she just wanted to reach into her own skull and throttle her inner eye for daring to picture it. It made her skin crawl, the idea that Demon Lord Sesshoumaru could ever, would ever, simper and bow and obey a goddess. That he would ever sit at her feet like the stupid dogs that constantly followed Artemis around. Disgusting!

"You are selfish." The stupid divine princess accused again, falling back on the old line and causing Kagura to throw her hands into the air. This discussion was over and would go no further than any other they'd ever had.

The Huntress never did, thank Fujin, ever appear with the Half-breed in tow. Kagura was positive it was really thanks to Fujin too: he had been very clear that Sesshoumaru was not a victim to be rescued by him or any under his power, and Inuyasha would definitely be considered the Wind God's divine territory. Yes, Fujin had told Kagura that she could return home and fetch the mutt here, but Kagura was even closer to the Wind God than either of the brothers, so that put her in a completely different position than Artemis. She refused to bring Inuyasha into things, and Fujin refused to allow the Greeks to interfere, so somehow all of these spiteful intentions were actually a gift to the Demon Lord. Sesshoumaru was away from his lands and wards, yes, Kagura understood that, but he would restore himself and not be rescued by his stupid brother or a pantheon of bleeding hearts!

But as the years slipped by and she finished adjusting to her new skin, her different rhythms, and her altered needs, Kagura had a lot of time on her hands. And without Artemis' rare and unwelcome visits, she was alone. She had never been completely on her own like this before, and her mind, after the solitude started to wear thing, started wandering its way way back to her 'family'.

Naraku's other incarnations. She knew that they were dead, all of them. Some had died before her, but Akago the infant, Byakuya... Kanna. Of all the demons she had lived alongside, the only one she actually missed was her sister.

Kagura had usually been considered to be the eldest of her siblings, with a minor, mistaken nod to Byakuya in spite of his place as the youngest. In truth, the distinction as first incarnation had belonged to the void, not the wind. Kanna had lacked aura, scent, and expression, but Kagura had always wondered if there wasn't a little more personality in the little mirror girl than Naraku had given her credit for. She didn't know how the glass doll had died however, and her mind formed numerous, horrific scenarios to torment her once she was finished dealing with herself.

There were a lot of nightmares anyways during this time: Kanna, Naraku, Sesshoumaru, this strange land... Too many attempts at sleep had ended with her waking up clutching her chest, searching for her heart. Too many nights were spent just flying on the wind, telling herself that this strange life was hers, and that she was free to live it how she willed. But slowly, hesitantly, the dreams started to leave her alone. Time was powerful, and after a while if she dreamt of Kanna then her sister was alive and with her amongst flowers. If she thought of Naraku then it was just to rejoice over his death. And if she dreamt of the Demon Lord...

After six years of waiting, tending, training, and living almost completely alone, Kagura had tried to think of what his absence really meant for the Western Lands. She had thought of it, on and off, over the years, but now it began to consume her mind. How long would loyal servants remain loyal? She never included the toad in her musings: Jaken would simper and pine for Sesshoumaru's return even if the Demon Lord slept for a thousand years, never-mind a measly hundred. But what about the others? What exactly did the Lord of the Western Lands do?

Naraku had both flirted with and violated the boundaries of the Western Lands during his spiteful existence, that was why Sesshoumaru had been constantly watching and aware of her creator's movements. Terrorizing populations of humans and demons alike, blighting crops and desecrating sacred spaces, these were things, she knew, that had something to do with what the Demon Lord dealt with on a daily basis. That was why he had been incessantly travelling and moving about for the duration of Naraku's terrorizing reign. The Inu no Taishou had maintained a palace, so Sesshoumaru had probably inherited that upon his father's death along with the titles and Tenseiga. Demon Lords had to be powerful, incredibly so, which meant that he must also be required to fight in order to fulfill his duties.

This was what worried her. If he was here, asleep, then after seven years she wanted to know what sort of state his lands were in. After eight years, she wanted to know if she was really doing the right thing, defending his pride instead of concerning herself with his obligations. How long had he told his estate he would be gone before he had gotten himself mixed in with gods and wind spirits..?

Nine years after she started guarding his tomb, Kagura was sitting in front of him wishing she could ask her questions. After nine years she had carved out stairs into the slanted plane of the tunnel, and to keep herself busy and entertained she had smoothed the walls with plaster and by simply chipping down and smoothing the boulders and living rock. It made it more tolerable to watch him remain trapped inside that horrible berg of blue ice: he didn't look like a defeated opponent after the cave was formed into something reminiscent of a shrine.

The ice had stopped expanding as soon as Boreas died that night, but remained at least a foot thick in its thinnest stretch over his face, upwards of four or five around his legs and left arm- where the freezing had begun. She couldn't get too close for fear of touching the ice by accident, but could see him clearly thanks to the glow of his aura.

After so many years spent sitting on these steps looking at him, she'd memorized every detail- from the tears and cracks in his armour, to the low murmur that had begun to return to Bakusaiga after a few years of deep rest. She'd brought the broken end of the Tenseiga into the tomb a long time ago. It was the only time she had come close to touching him: she'd set the blade on the ice and let it be consumed. She had been disappointed when the berg had responded that way, active and dangerous instead of inert and safe to touch. Did it mean he still in pain?

The only thing about his appearance that she didn't like was the rod tucked into his belt under his right arm. She hated looking at it, she lamented it time and again, yelled and screamed and carried on in frustration about it, but nothing helped. The one thing that could have melted the ice, that could have freed him without turning to Fujin or Inuyasha- could maybe have even prevented him from being frozen in the first place! was that horrible rod. The fire of the East Wind could have stopped the North Wind's ice from consuming him, but he hadn't thought of it in the meadow, and he hadn't told her before he fell asleep, and it had been too late by the time Fujin showed up.

She could have saved him with that, and then at least Kagura was someone, unlike Inuyasha, who Sesshoumaru could have killed without any great danger to himself for damaging his pride like that. She could have done it if she'd known, but after ten years she'd given up on using her winds to attack that side of his body, surrendered the possibility that he could be restored by anything other than his own perseverance and determination.

Ten years. That meant she only had... maybe another ninety to go, maybe a little more or less, depending on how well or poorly he fared.

"Ten years, Lord Sesshoumaru." Kagura didn't speak to him often, she made a point of not fooling herself into thinking he could hear her. He wasn't there, he wasn't here, he was within himself buried so far that no sensation would reach him until he was ready to come out. It was sunset outside, the dark amber light shining down the cave and striking her back where she was seated on one of the steps near the bottom, arms wrapped around her knees. "You would hate this land if you could see it. When you wake up I'm going to give you hell for making me wait here."

She was tired, not of this- although that was a bit of a lie, she certainly didn't like playing guardian – but just tired today. Kagura didn't know the exact date, so whether it was actually today, or yesterday, or a week from now when she should have said ten years, it didn't matter. She was tired because Artemis had harassed her yet again, a semi-annual occurrence that she dreaded but that helped keep time with so little outside contact.

Kagura hated knowing how much of the local language she'd picked up in ten years. She despised how, very rarely, she was sought out either by a human looking to kill her, or someone looking for help from the wind spirit who lived in the mountains. She only fulfilled the requests for help because they staved off the hunters: the very strange monks with their odd books and unique prayers. She didn't like dealing with their magic, and had decided that if she was going to live here for a century, she'd cultivate the kind of reputation that made humans leave her alone, not go campaigning through the highlands trying to kill her.

Besides, how hard was it to find a lost person wandering in the mountains? Or fly for a day and negotiate or simply destroy a lesser wind demon harassing a fishing boat or field? It was better than just sitting here, in this tomb, on these steps, waiting for Sesshoumaru to not wake up...

At least it was until, in the eleventh year, he woke up.

Alrighty then! Next chapter on Thursday, and we finally get a reunion!