Frog Prince: Chapter 12
Sesshomaru shook the miko's shoulder with all his might, which was not all things considered, trying to wake her. He had noticed that this woman did not respond well to waking before she was ready, but there was no time, she needed to get up immediately. She swiped a hand over her shoulder at him and curled into a tight ball with a grumble. He looked around for a moment considering and saw his solution sitting next to the embers from the previous nights fire – the water that the girl had fetched to have on hand to make her morning tea.
The girl was up and out of her strange bedroll and standing several feet away with an arrow drawn before the last chilly drop of water fell on the bundle of clothes she had used as a pillow that her head had just been resting on. For a fraction of a second the arrow was pointed at the little imp who still held the empty pot then moved on the sweep the clearing and surrounding trees, looking for the source of trouble. Then she heard it, far off in the distance, a sound she had so frequently welcomed now tied her stomach into an instant knot.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha.
"Oh crap! I thought I had at least another few days before he caught up with me, us. Crappy crap crap!" She whispered fiercely. She took in the clearing and the diminutive daiyoukai and the impending doom. She hit her knees and begin packing with the speed and efficiency of hundreds of repetitions.
Sesshomaru watched as she bent like long sapling in a storm, bending this way and that, reaching to grab an item just out of reach then snapping upright to shove it into the pack. She was quick, quiet and efficient. Sesshomaru considered her quick reaction with approval. Inuyoukai instincts when a pack member was missing were quite spectacular and often extremely violent, even a hanyou will be hard to handle. And unfortunately impossible as I am. Besides, nothing has been accomplished yet so I cannot return her to her pack.
He paused for a second. Something in that last statement was odd. It was a little off. Not the whole truth, but what was false? He silently cursed the resurrected miko for sealing away his beast. Not only was he robbed of his physical appearance and attributes, but she had to go and steal half of his soul. He could not even discern his own thoughts when he was missing the core of his being. Curse her. I will rip her apart with great joy when I am restored. I will cut her and…she will bleed… and… But without his beast even his anger was lacking its usual creative killing intent. CURSE THAT EVIL UNDEAD FILTHY MIKO!
The miko present in the clearing suddenly turned around as she closed the last catch on her pack. She raised a brow at him and cocked her head ever so slightly to the side so her ear was towards the imp. Do you hear yourself?
He abruptly stopped making the farting sound that his current body made instead of his usual blood-stopping growl. He was uncharacteristically frustrated after his long night of contemplation which had yielded not fruit, the impending arrival of the biggest pain in the butt in his life, the extreme emptiness that comes with missing half of his being and the general idiocy of his situation that he turned his back on the annoying woman and smashed the pot that he still had in his hand on the rock it had spent the night perched on by the fire pit. It made him feel better so he did it again, and a third felt much better; enough that the edge of his mouth curled up a bit as he turned to hand the human back her once-was-a-pot-now-a-demented-frying-pan back.
He was so pleased with this juvenile stress reliever that he was caught completely unaware when the impudent wench smack him in the head sticking a piece of paper to it that burned his skin slightly, grab him like a sack, tuck him under her arm and took off through the woods at a human-speed run.
He was outraged and back to the pre-pot smashing mood of desiring the desire to maim and destroy. He twisted in her arms in an attempt to get away from her but she held him tighter and ran faster.
"Be still, damn it! He is going to be here in a second thanks to that racket you were making, not that I'm blaming you, but really it was ill timed to say the least. Hopefully it will take him a minute to figure out what's going on since I used some of Miroku's sutras to get rid of our scents, but I think even I could follow the trail that I'm leaving behind. Please, underst- OOF!"
They were suddenly falling backwards and landed with a resounding thud. Sesshomaru's head had hit something extremely hard with enough force that his frustratingly inferior ears were ringing. The girl fell all the way to the ground as her hands went to cover her nose that seemed to be leaking blood down her face. He took the chance to escape from her grasp.
He looked up expecting to find the tree that he was sure the stupid human had run head long into, instead he found a very disturbing sight – an angrily hissing twin headed dragon. At first he felt a pang of relief, but it was quickly replaced with his own anger and more than a touch of worry – Ah-Un did not recognize him and were not in a good mood. Sesshomaru knew what the dragon could do if it decided to attack – it was a creature that had earned his respect and right to travel with him, it had extreme destructive capabilities.
Thankfully for the two damaged companions, the dragon had two heads and two minds, frequently that had different opinions. In this instance Ah was mad (his master was missing and he had just been assaulted) but Un seemed to recognize the girl and remembered that Rin liked her, but was hesitant because it was his master's somewhat, sometime enemy's female. However, they had been compromising for years and quickly came forward with a hiss, Ah ready to attack, Un to get a better look at the strange human. While their communication tended to be simple but the glare and sharp nod of each head clearly said, Stay where you are and no funny business or we will fry you.
Sesshomaru took a step back while he considered his options. He did not step between the dragon and the girl as Un's interest in her was what had probably saved them, but he did not move away from her either. He could still hear the hanyou coming closer, and at that moment the cries of the girl's name seemed to get louder and more desperate. He must have found the empty clearing and the lack of scent… How to get out of this?
He was saved from choosing an appropriate action by the girl's inappropriate ones. She sat bolt upright, taking in the twin-headed dragon and promptly launching herself at the hissing, startled heads. He was sure that she would be dead in seconds and his hopes of regaining himself with her.
However, the miko was a creature of great compassion and energy. As she clutched the dragons, one arm around each neck (she really had launched herself, for her legs were actually dangling off the ground), a wave of relieved, happy energy of recognition poured off of her and into everyone in a several meter radius. The startled dragons stopped hissing, Ah sniffed at her hair in question while Un nuzzled her ear.
Just then Inuyasha voice sounded quite close and very angry. "Sesshomaru, you bastard! Even if you can hide your scent you can't hide that stupid mount's reek. Give Kagome back." He would be there in seconds.
Kagome entire body stiffened and just as a moment before her emotions waved off of her and into all those around her. She was afraid. She did not want to be found by him. Ah-Un agreed on their course of action. Affectionate girl = like = protect.
Both mouths opened in the direction of the noise and twin beams of energy erupted from them disintegrating dozens of trees. In a fraction of a second, even before the ash of the decimated trees had fallen to the ground, Un had grabbed the girl by they pack and swung her around onto their back while Ah kept an eye out. Before she was even settled they began to levitate into the air.
Sesshomaru watched in stunned amazement. Ah-Un had always been particular but this behavior was astonishing. They instantly bonded with the girl and accepted her as theirs to protect. However, she was also Sesshomaru's traveling companion and asset in his quest, her being taken away by his dragons, while keeping her out of Inuyasha's hands, would also mean removing her from where she would be useful to him. He could not allow that but there was little he could do little about it either. Still he was desperate not to loose her. So he ran towards the flying mount and jumped as high as he could to try and grab a hold of her leg.
He tried again, his last attempt before it would be pointless. "Human!" He fell to the ground again, loosing his footing and falling down on his rump.
The girl who was clinging desperately to the dragon nearly 4 meters in the air swung her head towards him with wide eyes and he saw her panic as it hit her that she was leaving without him. He was watching her face closely, so he saw that she threw herself off the dragon's back without thought or consideration of consequences, in an attempt to get to him.
At that moment chaos broke out. Inuyasha broke through the trees with his transformed sword out and ready to swing, the woman was falling straight at Sesshomaru and he had no way of stopping or catching her, Un was trying to dive to catch the girl and Ah was trying to stay upright to defend from the irate hanyou brandishing the very big sword.
Inuyasha was frozen in mid-swing as his brain processed his friend's proximity to his target. He quickly made the instantaneous switch to panic (Again! How does this girl manage to get herself into these situations – ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME?) as he took in her head first decent towards the ground. "Kagome!" he shouted as he dashed forward to catch her, knowing the he would never make it in time.
Teamwork was Ah-Un's specialty so while Un pulled them sideways as he closed his mouth around the girl's right foot. Ah allowed the movement and adjusted appropriately for the tug that the sudden weight and force of stop from the girl caused. This meant that as soon as the hanyou made his sudden leap towards them he fired another massive energy blast.
Teamwork was something that was starting to come to Sesshomaru and Kagome. As she fell headfirst she saw the doubt and reprimand instantly in Sesshomaru, What are you doing, idiot!
She just reached out her arms towards him. Both were slightly shocked when his stubby little arms reached back in response. Sesshomaru noticed her features wince as she seemed to stretch to her maximum length, just barely far enough to grab his left hand. Suddenly her whole body jerked and he was airborne dangling by his arm, with her clothing falling around him as the pack top popped open. Oh, if I survive this humiliation someone is going to die a long, painful death for it.
They continued to float up through the canopy; Sesshomaru knew that once they were clear of the trees the dragons could show their true speed. When the spill of clothing ceased he looked up at the girl. She was smiling so brightly down at him that for a moment even his cold heart was warmed. I should try to remember to kill someone other than her, was the best he could do to interpret his feelings.
They might be fair game, though, he thought as he looked past her inverted body to the flying two-tailed cat and her two riders. The humans were looking on with confused but bemused expressions, but he noted their lack of aggression or action towards reclaiming their lost friend. They seemed to be waiting.
The girl noticed the strange change in imp's face and was twisting to see what had earned the death glare. The movement however was too much for Un without him biting her tender flesh harder and so he used the momentum of her wiggle to toss her up in the air (and subsequently Sesshomaru) and urged Ah to maneuver with him to dive under the falling human and catch her, which they did with a grunt escaping from both themselves as she landed heavily on their back and from the human as her stomach hit hard across the creature's back.
Sesshomaru had never in his life been nauseous like he was at that particular reason. I will not humiliate myself by throwing up. I will not humiliate myself by throwing up. I will…
Inuyasha choose that moment to erupt from the tree cover. That one had demonstrated some definite aggression and the woman on their back, whom they had decided to protect, still cringed at his appearance. Ah-Un wasted no time in taking off.
The fire cat could keep pace for a short amount of time, and it did, leaving the hanyou desperately trying to keep up as he leapt from treetop to treetop, but he quickly fell behind. Ah kept an eye on the cat but it kept a respectable distance and remained nonaggressive so he left it alone.
The monk seemed to have been waiting for the absence of the hanyou to finally ask his question, "Kagome, is the thing that you are doing something for Sesshomaru? Are you okay with Jaken and Ah-Un?"
Sesshomaru noticed that the girl seemed to hear all the questions that were not-so-hidden in the seemingly innocent questions; Is this what you told me about? Do you still want to be doing it? Did you know Sesshomaru was involved? Is it worth it? Are you safe? Do you need to be rescued? She coughed and croaked out, "Yeah, its for Sesshomaru, that's why I couldn't really tell Inuyasha. You know how he is, especially about his brother."
"Are you sure you're alright?" He called loudly for confirmation, past the wind and the increasing distance between the flying creatures.
"Don't worry, guys, I'm with Sesshomaru, I'll be fine." She yelled back. To the dragon she whispered, "If you guys can go any faster now would be the time."
Sesshomaru, knowing just how fast the mount could go, clutched her hand with both of his from where he still hung from the side of the dragon. The girl looked from her friends down to the imp squeezing her hand and realized what his grip meant. As the mount snorted and took a deep breath she quickly twisted on its back and wrapped her arm around Ah's neck, with her arm between the heads. It was all she had time for before the dragons sped off towards the west. The girl squeaked as the muscular necks pressed together to hold onto her arm.
Oh the humiliation, Sesshomaru thought as he bumped against the dragon's side.
Once the fire cat was long gone from sight she began asking the dragon to let her rearrange herself. She felt like she was going to fall off. She had managed to lift Sesshomaru's little body onto the mounts rump to her side but she was still stuck across its back like a sack of rice. It never listened to her, no matter what she said.
An hour later she felt her arm released. Her body was limp from fatigue and overspent emotions and she just slid from the creatures back. She hit the ground and barely managed to get the pack off before she fell asleep to the sound of the dragons hissing and clacking. Her last thought before sleep overtook her was, I wonder what has them in such a tizzy?
