Chapter XII: Echo in the Wind
ONE YEAR LATER
Kagome walked through an unfamiliar forest. Everything looked and smelled strange; the sky, the ground – it was all… off.
A tree.
It towered over her, blocking out the sun. Roots bulged from the ground, and its branches hung low, heavy with age. She knew this hulking giant – Goshinboku.
Ensnared in vines and trapped against its trunk was a boy. An arrow pierced his chest. She moved closer, unafraid.
Twin, dog ears peeked out of the boy's long, matted hair, and the edges of a red haori stirred in the breeze. His face was peaceful, but sad.
Kagome reached out to touch one of his ears; they looked impossibly soft.
The wind grew stronger, whipping hair to her face, and she brushed it back absently. Another gust shook the tree's branches, making them creak under the strain.
Kagome blinked, and the branches cracked, broke, and fell away. The boy disappeared, and she whirled around. Goshinboku had followed – the forest was gone.
She stood on the lip of a cliff, her toes soaked and facing the rushing roar of a waterfall.
A voice called from behind. The boy.
He was awake.
Kagome turned and saw him running, the sleeves of his haori flapping as he reached for her.
A woman appeared and blocked his path – a woman who looked like her.
The woman spoke, her voice low and full of threat, and the boy stopped.
Kagome took a step back. Her heel slipped and weightlessness seized her leg, lifting it of its power.
She began to fall.
A man, adorned in armor and fur, pushed past the boy. Horror twisted his face, and he started screaming.
Her vision arced up to the sky as the wind grabbed her back. Wet mist assaulted her neck, and hair flew to her eyes. This time she let it be.
She could still hear the man screaming. Her name came deep and hoarse from his throat.
Kagome closed her eyes.
He would forget her. They all would.
But she would forget them first.
Kagome woke to fierce wind bombarding the hut, howling against walls she had helped build. She sat up, hugging knees to her chest as her heart raced, reliving the dream, so real if felt the wind was inside with her. She touched the back of her neck and found it wet. Covered in sweat, she took several long, slow breaths.
Her dreams were getting stronger, coming so close together now, she barely went a night without seeing the boy. His face haunted her – a wound refusing to close.
A warmth stirred beside her.
"Kagome?" Her name came softly through the darkness, but she still heard it as an echoing cry.
"I'm here Kouga," she reached an arm out to touch his side. "It's okay."
He palmed the sheets and found her space vacant. Grunting at the discovery, he pushed up off the bed. "Another dream?" He asked warily, shedding the fog of sleep in a rush.
"No, the wind woke me."
Kouga's fingers found her back and spread wide as they ran up her spine. "Your voice is high. Don't lie
Kagome managed a small smile. "You make it hard to keep secrets, sir."
He traced bare skin, raising goosebumps and letting his hand disappear under her hair. "I had my fill of those a long time ago."
"Is a year really so long?"
Kouga shook his head. "Don't try to change the subject," he wound a claw through a long lock. I'm not that slow when I first wake."
Despite the concern of the very-real man beside her, a glimpse of the boy's terror flashed behind her eyelids as she blinked. "You sleep through a storm that shakes walls and weakens thatch, but rouse when your wife sits up?" She managed.
"Kagome…."
She sighed. "Yes. It was a dream."
He stopped stroking her back. "About him?"
Kagome nodded mutely, knowing he could see despite the dark.
The hanyou was the only thing they fought over. Hiro's constant, persistent attempts to put anger between them never touched what the hanyou seemed to control; he was the catalyst for every harsh word, hard glare, and stomping exit.
Kouga pulled his hand away, and sighed, "Are you okay?"
"I don't know. This one was… different."
"How?"
Kagome closed her eyes. "I saw a huge tree in the woods… Goshinboku… and felt like a stranger in a distant land. Everything was so quiet and smelled so clean."
"That's how forests are."
"I know, but somehow I expected to hear people, or movement, or… traffic."
"Tra-fick?" Kouga overemphasized the second syllable, trying to imitate the unfamiliar name she said with ease.
"A word I know from somewhere."
"A word like mathematics?" Worry laced his question. "Bicycle? High school?" Kouga's brow creased at the growing list of phrases she woke with on her lips. She spoke of them more and more, setting her apart from everyone in the village.
"I don't know."
"And what about the hanyou?"
"He was pinned to the tree, and then on the cliff with me."
Kouga ran a hand through his own loose hair. "You dreamt of Osaki?"
Kagome nodded.
Silence stretched between them, and the storm outside voiced their inner turmoil.
"You've never seen the waterfall before."
"No."
A sharp intake of breath sounded, louder than the vengeful wind. "Did the hanyou save you?"
Kagome shook her head.
"Would you rather he have been the one to jump? To now be lying next to you?" The words were angry.
"Kouga…."
He laid back down.
She heard him roll to face the wall and pressed fingers to her temple. "We do this so much. Must you give him such power?"
"I'm not the one who dreams of him," Kouga muttered. "You invite another man into our bed, night after night."
The accusation stung. "Invite?" Kagome rubbed her temple harder.
Kouga was quiet, and she felt the muscles in his back tighten next to her.
"I'm sorry," he spoke through a low, simmering growl he only half-tried to curb. "It still hurts every time."
Her fingers slid across her forehead as she palmed her face, ashamed. "I'm sorry too."
The wind filled the heavy space between them, shrieking as it broke upon the hut, and Kagome let go of her knees, returning to the sheets. She closed her eyes and exhaled a shaky breath. "What of Osaki?"
Kouga shifted further away.
Kagome clenched her fists up under her chin. She listened to the storm a long time before her lids grew heavy, and she fell into a fitful sleep.
Across Enomoto, the storm assaulted a lone hut on the village border. Protection scrolls created through intense meditation and deep inner strength were ripped from the hut's walls and sent vaulting up into the night sky. Each scroll had been a ward against youkai, making Enomoto invisible to enemies, and their magic broke the moment they were torn from their fastened roosts. The village stood naked – exposed.
Inside, Hiro's eyes flew open. He sensed the strings weaving his spell snap, and knew this was no ordinary storm; a demon had sent it.
The vision drew near.
Inu-Yasha stepped onto the ledge of a high cliff. Cold wind raked his skin, and he stood numb, taking the abuse. A waterfall cascaded before him, churning white in the storm, and he watched it rush down with maddening abandon. This was Kagome's Cliff, where all he knew had been stolen.
He had tried to forget – tried to move on. Days had turned to weeks, then months. Sango and Miroku had done everything they could think of to help, but now they were gone. Inu-Yasha closed his eyes and struggled to feel the wind boxing his ears and whipping his haori. He knew it beat at him, but his nerves remained dull – deadened from painful memories.
He opened his eyes and slowly moved to the edge. White foam from the waterfall fell into a great, dark maw of nothingness. Kagome's grave.
Inu-Yasha's hands dropped to his waist, finding the cord holding Tessaiga at his hip and working to undo the knot. He wouldn't need his father's sword where he was going.
A gust blew at his face, lifting white hair from his shoulders. He ignored it and concentrated on untying the sword, wanting nothing from this world on his final journey. A blast from the dark void swept up and attacked him again, this time freezing his fingers.
The wind carried a scent, one that stole the strength from his limbs.
Inu-Yasha's eyes widened, and he lifted his nose, taking new interest in the storm.
There. Again. Unmistakable.
Backing up, he suddenly felt the wind's chill.
Early streaks of morning brought Enomoto's residents outside in a great rush. The storm had passed just before dawn, and everyone stopped to survey the damage.
Huts stood with patches of roof and wall missing, and large branches from the forest lay everywhere. The assault would take days to fix, and repairs needed to be made quickly, with the harvest looming so close. Eichiro had already gathered people together to assign clean-up tasks.
The sun warmed a hut near the hunting lodge, streaming light in through the dwelling's open doorway. Its deer hide covering had been blown off in the night, and sounds of stirring came from inside.
Kagome woke to Kouga's weight over her, knees straddling her sides as he made his way to the edge of the bed. She grabbed his wrist. "Where are you going?"
Kouga looked to the exposed door of their home. Light flooded in and broke upon shelves brimming with baskets, clay dishes, and folded clothes, pouring over a chair turned on its side and touching Kagome's bow and quiver leaning against the wall. She had set them down unceremoniously after another long practice session yesterday.
He studied how the bright light lit up their clutter, avoiding her gaze. "Eichiro is calling everyone together," his pointed ears twitched, listening to the headman with youkai senses.
"Will you wait for me?"
"Why?"
"Because I've asked."
Kouga withdrew his knee from her far side and stepped to the floor. "I'm still angry," he muttered, knowing he sounded like a petulant child, but unable to muster the maturity to care.
"I can see that."
Her tone irritated, and he reached down, yanking on a pair of discarded trousers. Kagome propped herself up with an elbow, trying to catch his eye as he shoved his legs through the coarse fabric and turned away to tie the waist. His body spoke to her as it always did. He fumed.
"Talk to me."
Kouga looked back at her. "What's there to say? I've said it all before."
"Please."
He moved as if she hadn't spoken and went to the table Umi and Teru had carved as a belated adoption gift. On its smooth surface lay rows of herbs waiting to be bundled, and Kouga grabbed a piece of twine from the neat stack, slinging his hair into a high ponytail.
"I'll be in the village square," he righted the fallen chair and grabbed a shirt from under it.
"Don't go."
Kouga steeled himself against the soft voice his wife used when she was sad. "He needs my help," slipping the shirt over his head, he left.
Kagome blinked at the space where he'd been, wondering how the divide between them had become such a familiar impasse. Throwing back the covers, she hoisted herself from the bed, rushing into clothes and combing her hair with quick fingers. Running to the door, she saw Kouga's back already at a distance and sprinted outside. "Wait!" She didn't care who heard.
Kouga's shoulders scrunched, but he continued walking.
Kagome cursed and sped to his side, almost crashing into his elbow as he turned and made his body a wall between them. "Stop! Listen to me!" She reached for his arm, and he jerked away from her touch.
"What are you doing?" He hissed. "You're going to make a scene."
She got louder. "I don't care!"
"Quiet!"
"Not until we talk!"
Kouga looked to the right and left. Meters ahead, the crowd around Eichiro had stopped moving, the headman falling silent.
"Please," Kagome reached out again. "We've fought too long over this."
Kouga gritted his teeth and grabbed her palm. Spinning around, he dragged her from the group, lengthening his strides and eating up the path back to their hut. Kagome felt her arm ache from the force of his pull and winced as his fingers crushed hers. When they reached the bare doorway, he let go and crossed his arms, scowling down at her.
"Are you satisfied? You've made us fools in front of the whole village."
"After our adoption, when have you cared what they think?"
"It's shaming to reveal how you control me," Kouga's scowl deepened. "You say 'come' and I follow."
Kagome's anger stirred in her stomach. "I wanted to talk privately, but you brought it outside."
"When a man leaves a room, his woman is supposed to know the conversation is over."
"Have I ever been that woman?" Kagome matched his frown.
"Exactly."
She rolled her eyes. "This isn't about control Kouga, only your pride."
"Pride?" He scoffed and leaned against the doorframe. "I wouldn't know. You leave me in short supply."
She forced herself to breathe in long and slow, reeling back her irritation. "How can you be threatened by dreams? You build them up and make them so much more than what they really are."
"You're right," his eyes narrowed. "I'm letting myself be threatened. How dare it bruise my ego when my wife thinks of another man?"
"She doesn't mean it," Kagome shook her head. "The hanyou visits against her wishes."
Hurt overcame his temper. "Perhaps her mind searches for someone less lacking as a partner," Kouga let doubt show in his face, and Kagome stepped closer, touching his crossed arms.
"How can you say that? Do you really think I feel so little for you?"
He sighed. "It's hard having confidence when you dream of him more and more."
Her fingers closed over his wrist, and she thumbed the inside of his hand. "Maybe the mental block I put up long ago is beginning to weaken?"
"But why?" Kouga resisted the warmth in his palm. "Am I not giving you what you need?"
"That's not it at all. I know yours falters too."
His frown deepened.
"I see the way you look to the woods sometimes," Kagome's thumb stopped. "When you think I'm not watching. You miss your own kind."
"That's not me remembering."
"Really?" She palmed her hip. "Then it's a reflection on me. Maybe I'm the one not giving what's needed."
Kouga dropped his arms and gave a frustrated sigh. "Why do you always twist what I say?"
"I'm just trying to show you my side of it."
"By cutting down every protest I make?"
Kagome raked a hand through her hair, catching her nails on snarls and swearing. "I'm not doing it on purpose. I just don't want to fight over the hanyou."
"What would you have me do?" Kouga pushed off the hut and stepped close. "My wife is plagued by dreams that leave her screaming. She hasn't slept a full night since the beginning of summer," he reached for her face. "Should I watch helplessly as dark circles get deeper under her eyes, and she grows weak and pale? Yes, my anger comes from jealousy," he brushed her cheek. "But also from worry. I fear for you Kagome."
Kagome could feel him fighting his way back to her, trying to find her through the sting of his offense. "Does that fear extend to my actions?" She leaned her face into his touch. "Are you afraid I'll leave with him? A boy I've never met?"
Kouga gave her a long look and dropped his hand to her collar, tugging on the fabric until a familiar mark peeked out. He thumbed the raised scar, closing his eyes. "It's what haunts my dreams."
Kagome surged forward and hugged him, knowing he was close to reaching her side of the divide and unwilling to let him fall back. "I would never leave. Never."
"You say that now—."
"And mean for always," she went quiet. "I love you Kouga. Whatever message these dreams are trying to bring doesn't matter. Maybe the biggest problem is I don't say that enough."
His arms slipped over her shoulders, and he crushed her to him. "Kagome…," her name hitched in his throat. "I'm trying so hard."
She nodded against his chest, wrestling through her guilt at hurting him. "You shouldn't feel you have to try," she mumbled, hating her subconscious. If it would just keep quiet, she could stop tormenting this man who brought such light and love into her life. "You're all I need, effortlessly."
Kouga rested his chin in her hair. "I don't mean to get so angry."
Kagome didn't want him to apologize. "I'm sorry I give you just cause."
They held each other, and let the sun melt their hard feelings.
After a quiet moment, Kagome looked up. "Remember our fight just after the harvest?"
Kouga met her gaze with wary surprise. "The one… after the adoption feast?" He asked slowly.
"Yeah. We couldn't agree on a place for our new home. I wanted it by the common, and you insisted we build it by the hunting lodge."
"Is it wise to rehash old arguments?"
"Do you remember how we settled it?"
He looked at the building beside them, nestled comfortably near the lodge. "As I recall," a smile split his mouth. "It was whoever lasted longer before uh… peaking… in the sheets."
"Peaking?" Kagome laughed. "Is Mika nearby?" She made a show of looking for the little girl, pretending her hand was a visor.
Kouga rolled his eyes and swiped for her palm.
"And despite your lack of talking dirty," she smiled wide. "Damn, did I lose that fight," she stretched up, kissing his cheek. "Keep that in mind when measuring your ego."
Amusement touched his face, softening the creased lines of anger and anxiety. "Woman… you make it impossible to stay mad."
"Really?" Kagome asked.
Kouga nodded, hearing her need for reassurance in the question's hopeful lilt. "Yes," he obliged. "Really."
Confidence returning, she managed, "I do keep life interesting."
Lightness had reentered her voice, and he thought of their initial exchanges in Enomoto. Repartee was a welcome reprieve to fighting; it meant she was happy again. "Interesting is not good for the liver," he countered.
"So says Toushi."
"And Eichiro's oft-visited stores."
Kagome's lips moved to his mouth. "Your liver forgives me," she kissed him before he could respond.
Clapping rose from the group around Eichiro in the village square, and Umi's familiar whistle pierced the air. Kouga and Kagome broke apart, both sighing deeply.
"Speaking of interesting," the youkai glared over at the common. "Having a nosy family of fifty."
A man emerged from the gathering and cupped hands around his mouth. "Who won?" He called.
Everyone laughed.
Kouga looked to his wife. "My best friend is so supportive."
Kagome nodded. "Kind of him."
"Shall I give our audience another show?"
She grinned.
Kouga lifted a hand, showing claws, and the man's eyes widened. "Run Toushi!"
Inu-Yasha ran. He ran until his heart pounded in his temples and spots danced through his vision. Bare feet raced across grass and dirt, devouring distance. His ears swung wildly, listening to the sounds of animals waking and chattering their displeasure at the storm. The sun seemed brighter, the air cleaner, and he felt alive for the first time in months.
He breathed deeply, and the scent filled his every pore. Her scent.
"I'm coming Kagome," his voice was ragged as he pushed his legs faster, lungs heaving. "Wait for me."
Kagome didn't wait to see the scene between friends unfold, returning to the hut she and Kouga shared. With a burst of energy brought on by good mood, she surveyed the dim interior and began to clean and straighten. Chairs got pushed in, cobwebs were swept from corners, and dirty dishes were scraped, soaped, and dried. She searched around and found several articles of clothing, removed in a hurry, and left where they fell. Remembering how each had gotten to the floor, she smiled over a pair of pants and folded them back onto a set of wooden shelves Kouga had built for her.
Looking at her work, Kagome realized how dirty she had let her home become over the past few weeks. "Maybe Kouga's right," she spoke to her bow, now resting in its proper place on a rack at the foot of the bed. "Maybe I've been more tired than I thought."
Her gaze drifted to the table, and she sat down to tie up the herbs piled there. They were for Eika, in hopes having seasoning on hand would help the old woman's cooking.
Kagome's fingers deftly wound the cut twine, working fast and finishing in minutes. Absently sweeping a few stray seeds into her palm, she moved to throw them outside. Her actions were automatic, and a voice broke her routine as she stepped into the sunshine.
"Woman!"
Kagome looked up and saw Hiro coming towards her with purposeful steps. Rolls of parchment filled his arms, and lines of worry etched his face. She opened her hands as he drew near and accepted a load of scrolls.
"Thank you," he pushed past her into the hut.
Kagome followed, looking down at the paper in surprise as Hiro shoved aside her newly-bundled herbs, covering her table with brushes and ink from his pockets. She was used to the healer's brusque manner by now, having trained with him since her first winter in Enomoto. He had insisted she be ready when the shard-seeking demon came.
"Now your studies will be tested," he motioned for her to bring the parchment. "Is it…?" He looked around, startled. "Cleaner in here?"
Kagome frowned. "You let a place grow a bit of character…," she grumbled. "Yes, it's cleaner. Don't act so surprised."
"Character?" Hiro continued digging through his pockets, extracting powders, feathers, and a jar labeled 'guano'. "Is that what mold's called these days? And you looked even worse than this hut. All thin and shapeless."
Kagome dropped the scrolls on the table. "Thanks."
"Today though, you could almost be mistaken for pretty. On good terms again with the man of the house?"
"Very funny."
The lines of worry returned to his face. "Humor aside—."
"Ha! There's your first joke."
Hiro sent her a sharp look. "We've got a lot ahead of us. Prepare to use all I've taught you."
Kagome's frowned again. "I'm not the miko you claim I am."
"For our sake, let's hope its only stubbornness that makes you repeat that mantra," he said grimly. "My protection spells over Enomoto have broken. I'll need your help."
His critique forgotten, Kagome sat down and grabbed a brush.
Inu-Yasha crested a hill and stopped. Sweat from the journey dripped down his face, and his shoulders rose and fell as he tried catching his breath. In the distance, he saw a human village cradled in a valley, and took in familiar rock outcrops, far meadows, and thick forests with a knotting sense of dread.
His mouth went dry. He had been here before. Days after Kagome fell, he had searched this valley with Miroku and Sango. They had combed every tree, shrub, stone, and cave – there had been no village.
Inu-Yasha lifted his head and sniffed the air.
Village or no, Kagome was ahead.
He set off at a run, his hand at Tessaiga. Clouds and sky flew by as he surged toward the valley and spurred by hope, he was at the settlement's border in moments.
Looking around, he spied an aging pine and scaled its trunk. On all fours, he found a thick branch and dug his claws into the tree's old bark, surveying the activity below through dense needles.
Men and women moved in and out of huts, carrying branches and ruined thatch bundles, and the rustle of one far pine drew no notice. Inu-Yasha tried picking Kagome's scent out from the other human smells, but their proximity attacked his nose, assailing him with dried meat, rice, mud, wood, hair, charcoal, sweat, and infant diapers. His ears flattened as he caught another whiff of the last one. Cursing his diluted youkai senses, Inu-Yasha closed his eyes, straining to find her.
She wasn't among the bustle. Perhaps she was being held captive in one of the huts, tied up, beaten, and too weak to call out?
He opened his eyes and growled in frustration. "Where are you Kagome?"
"There you are. I've been looking for you," Kouga stood in the doorway, caked in wet clay. Umi and Teru, equally coated, peeked in over his shoulders.
Kagome's mouth stopped moving. She had worked all morning and was chanting a seal onto her first scroll. The furrow of concentration in her forehead smoothed, and she set her paintbrush down, greeting the men with a slow smile. "Don't you three look handsome," she rose from her chair. Hiro sat hunched next to her, taking no notice of their interruption, eyes closed and breathing shallow.
Umi motioned to the healer. "Is he alright?"
"He's fine," Kouga waved dismissively. "You don't know how many scenes like this I've walked in on. Sometimes they're both in a trance, and then I have to use my poking stick to wake them," he gestured to a stripped branch propped up in the corner.
Kagome's arm fell to her hip, and she pointed out, "Only when you're hungry and wanting dinner."
Teru snorted, staring in interest at the table littered with paper and ink spills. "Bet that goes over well."
"It does," Kagome smiled again. "I take it you went to the river?"
"Yes, and we're about to start working on the roof," Kouga stepped back to show an oozing pile of clay wrapped in cloth beside the hut. "The storm damaged everyone's on this side of Enomoto."
"Toushi didn't join you?"
"He's working with the women," Kouga grinned. "You think Reina would let him out of her sight when she's due any day now?"
"She was also worried your husband would cripple the father of her firstborn," Umi elbowed the youkai. "They both ran well for old men."
Kouga showed a fang. "Didn't you whistle?"
Umi stepped back, raising his hands. "The roof calls," he motioned to Teru, and each grabbed an armload from the pile.
"Holler if you need anything," Teru's chin dipped into clay as he spoke. Some began to dribble down his arm, and he scooped the sludgy mixture back to his chest.
Kagome waved as the two staggered around the hut, their voices carrying as they bickered over whose turn it was to hoist, and who had better shoulders for standing on.
Kouga shook his head. "They put all my troubles in perspective. It could be worse. I could be them."
Kagome laughed and stepped to the doorframe. "Thanks for going to the riverbed."
He pulled her shoulder to his chest. "Of course."
"How go repairs?"
"Eichiro's in his element. He found tasks for everyone," he held out a hand, ticking his fingers down as he counted. "Sen's scouting the hunting trails to see which ones can be salvaged. Mika is finding all the weak places in walls where insects and creatures sought refuge from the storm. She found a poisonous snake in the lodge and carried it out before any hunter gathered the courage to touch it. And of course, he sent me to the river for some backbreaking labor. I'm like an ox who speaks and walks upright."
Kagome laughed again. "With those shoulders, I should fashion a yoke."
Kouga sighed. "I still can't believe they told you. I said they were wide a year ago! And I was probably still a little drunk at the time! Nothing is sacred."
"I tease."
"My shoulders are broad."
"Of course," Kagome stepped out from his chest and held up her hands, eyeing the span of his frame. With a smile, she turned and measured them against Hiro's back.
"Oh, you're funny," he grabbed her wrists in one palm. "A riot."
"I try."
He circled her waist, drawing her close.
"Kouga," she leaned away, motioning to the prone healer. "We're not alone."
He grinned and rubbed his face against hers, smearing clay across her cheek. "Husband's prerogative."
"Ah! Stop!" Kagome laughed as he struck again, wiping his forehead against her collar. "I could break free right now if I really wanted to."
Kouga's grin widened. "Sure," his fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt. "Are you going to?" Claws grazed her hip.
The corners of her mouth turned up, and she shook her head, emboldening his hand to trail higher.
A strangled yell erupted from their right, echoed by running footfalls and a blaze of red in Kouga's peripheral vision. The youkai turned and froze.
A hanyou stood in front of the hut, gaping.
A hanyou he knew.
Dog ears peeked out from long white hair, and amber eyes blazed with shock and fury.
"LET GO OF HER!" Snarling, the hanyou drew a rusty sword from his side, and the blade transformed into a giant, gleaming fang. "You're DEAD wolf!"