Summary: A girl runs through the forest, knowing she can't outrun her destiny.
A/N: I'm thankful for your opinions, guesses, musings and other expressions of interest and enjoyment. You don't even know how much it means to me to create stories people like.
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White snow was covering the Forest of Inuyasha like a fluffy, thick carpet. It was piled on tree limbs, pulling them down. It was glistering in sunlight, the forest basking in radiance of the day and silence of a place where humans were wandering rarely. It was a serene scenery which could make any viewer sigh in awe and want to paint it.
A young woman - a miko - was running through the woods, a thick mantle wrapped around her as she was slicing through small meadows and diving between old, twisted barks. Her breath was heavy, changing into mist in the crisp air. She was hugging a bag to her chest while running, not daring to look back.
"You should have backed away slowly, not run!" a voice of an old flea youkai scolded her from the spot on her shoulder where he was sitting. "You know dogs..."
"I know dogs like to chease things!" she panted. "But I saw him sniffing the air! He knew I was around, it was a matter of time for him to locate me!"
A vision of a man clad in red standing on a hilltop, his nose lifted in the air, appeared in her mind. Kagome stumbled over a pile of snow hiding a tree root and ran forward. There was no time for flashbacks.
She heard a sound of a bramch snapping somewhere behind her and a dark chuckle. Myoga changed his position to check where their pursuer was and gulped.
"I think I shall take my leave now," he said. "I forgot to check something..."
"Wh-what?!" she cried out, but he was already gone. A low bark could be heard from behind, a little to her right. Instinctively the young miko turned left and found a faint path where she could speed up her pace. Her long robes were already slowing her down and she had to do everything she could to escape. She had to... 'A cleaning!' Kagome made her way through some bushes and found herself on the edge of a mild-sized meadow, stretching from North to South. She didn't waste time to ponder the layout of the glade - she had to run.
She was running for a long time now, escaping from the pursuing youkai. She could sense waves of vivid red youki behind her, sometimes hear the being following her chuckling darkly or growling. 'He's laughing,' she thought while crossing the wide space covered in pristine white and cold fluffiness of the snow. 'He's chasing me and laughing, having fun.. I won't let him catch me! I must not let him win! I must...'
A sudden bark to her left - too close to her to be ignored - made a shiver run down her spine. Kagome couldn't help herself, she turned her head to look in that direction. But... There was nothing, only deep marks in the snow, just like footprints... Her eyes widened in surprise and in the same moment she ran into something warm and firm. She stumbled backwards, looking wide-eyed at...
"Oh, goodness!..." she breathed out. The man was tall and lean, clad in red robes. His long silver mane was bound in a high ponytail, waving behind his back as he took a step forward, in her direction. A fanged grin and a twinkle in his beautiful eyes made Kagome take an another hasty step backwards. 'He thinks he won,' she thought observing his clawed hand lift and reach in her direction, the deadly talons glistering in the sunlight - one swipe of this hand was enough to kill. A tongue darted out of his mouth to lick his fangs. 'Oh, no, you don't!'
The young miko turned to her side and ran as if her life depended on it. A growl reached her ears and she swallowed hard. The sound was indicating he didn't mind taking his time in chasing her, in making her run until she couldn't take an another step.
"Inu-Inuyasha!" she cried out between her heavy pants. "Stop it!"
The hanyou chuckled - the sound was low and throaty and Kagome felt her heartbeat quicken. Being chased by the forest spirit through his territory wasn't what she had had in her mind this morning when she had left the safety of her village. She hugged her bag closer to her chest and willed herself to run faster. The trees were quickly coming closer, she could hide behind their barks, it'd be harder to catch her there, right? She was maybe twenty meters from the treeline... Fifteen...
But just as she felt that she could make it to the forest the man pounced.
A loud cry of surprise mixed with fear left her as she fell to the ground and they both rolled a few times until they stopped, covered in snow. The forest spirit growled deep in his throat and pressed his prey to the ground, his weight was enough to make her unable to flee his clutches. Kagome looked up just to see his inhuman eyes shine with pride of a predator who hunted down his prey. 'Dogs like to chase...' Then he dipped his head and suddenly she felt his hot breath against the skin of her neck. She gasped when she felt fangs scrape against her flesh there - all of it was making her heart race even faster. Silver hair fell on her face when he pressed his nose against her pulse.
"I smelled you wander in my forest," his voice was barely a whisper. "Now it's time to surrender. The hunt is over."
Kagome didn't want to surrender, not without a fight. Her hands shot in direction of his most vulnerable spots. Only by grasping them she could gain control over the hanyou pinning her to the cold ground with his hot, lean body. A dark chuckle sounded just beside her ear as he grasped her wrists - her hands were mere inches from his own fuzzy ears. With his head still lowered he pulled her hands away from his head and grabbed her wrists in one hand, pinning them just above her head. His ears twitcged, mocking her, showing her what she couldn't touch.
"I won," he annouced, his tone daring her to disagree, to fight him. Kagome struggled to free herself, but it was in vain, he was much stronger than her. His free hand travelled in direction of her bag, discarded just beside them.
"N-no! Inuyasha, don't!..." her voice pleading and threatening at the same time. The forest spirit lifted his head and looked down at her, smirking. Then he turned his gaze to the bag where his fingers were working on the strings keeping it shut.
A low rumble of anticipation resonated in his chest when he leaned forward in direction of the bag. She saw him lick his fangs once more when his hand slid inside the bag and emerged a second later, holding a bun.
A triumphant noise left his mouth before the forest spirit stuffed it full with food.
Kagome wasted a minute watching the supernatural being from old stories, a fierce forest spirit, a powerful inu hanyou devour her buns. There was mirth on his face, sparks of boyish excitement in yellow eyes and there was no trace of his usual scowl. The hunt made him bolder than usual, but at the same time he seemed less annoyed with everything, the prize put him in a really good mood. It was sweet that the supernatural being like him could find joy in such a mundane, plain thing as a sweet bun. She couldn't help herself - a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. It didn't go unnoticed, the forest spirit turned his head to look down at her, licking bits of the bun off his lips.
"What's so funny, wench?" he asked, demandingly. Kagome shook her head. "Told you the forest isn't for young girls to wander through alone. You can attract youkai," he scolded.
"Especially if I bring food with me," she replied stubbornly. Since him waking up from his seal no one of the villagers had a chance to see any dangerous youkai - it was odd because during winter their attacks were quite frequent. Inuyasha didn't want to tell her anything, but Kagome was sure he resumed to protect the village like in old days. A part of her hoped he was doing it not only because of the offerings given by the villagers, but also because she was living there. They were meeting in the forest - the hanyou and the young miko, spending almost all her free time together, sometimes accompanied by Shippou, Myoga or Inuyasha's dogs.
She had only to go to the Sacred Tree and wait for a few minutes for him to come to her. Often he was letting her talk to him like during the summer days, rarely interrupting her. She could describe the life in the village, complain about things, tell him about her studies ad training. Sometimes it was Kagome silently waiting for him to talk. He was rarely talking about his past or feelings, most of his stories were about Shippou or Myoga being 'stupid'. She liked those stories, even if often the one 'stupid' in her opinion was Inuyasha himself, acting childish, stubborn, being embaressed or angry.
Majority of their meetings had been under the Sacred Tree, but Kagome had visited the den twice more to see the pups and 'make sure the hot spring was still there'. Shippou had visited her in her hut once, transforming and hiding every time someone else could see him. As much as she wanted her youkai friends to come to her home she didn't push them to do so. She herself loved to go to the forest, this place was her sanctuary while in the village she was always feeling like someone was observing her. Today was the first day in a while when she could go to the woods at morning and stay for hours.
"Yeah," he nodded and took off her bag an another bun just to dig his fangs into it mercilessly. "Esfefially."
"Hey! Don't eat them all! I made them for Shippou and Myoga too!" she wiggled, trying to break free and save the bag. The hanyou on top of her growled and then chuckled. "Free me!"
"Can't do it, too busy eatin'," was his reply and as she continued to struggle he gave a bark of mild irritation. "Stop movin', wench."
The third bun disappeared in his greedy maw. Kagome closed her eyes to focus and not see crumbs falling on her mantle. She reached deep within herself, trying to find inner peace - with an hanyou she was kinda attracted to splayed on top of her it wasn't an easy feat - and grasp her spiritual powers. She pictured a river flowing in her mind, the water being the flow of her energy. Kagome wanted just to bring it a little closer to the surface, let the hanyou sense it - she hoped it'd make him jump off her.
She accomplished only being pushed harder against the snow and getting his face pressed against the side of her neck. She knew it was not an intimate gesture on his part, he was just following his instincts and wanting her to submit, but it was still hard for her to concentrate while he was doing it.
"I won," he reminded her. "Don't try tricks on me, miko." It was probably the first time he called her that.
"You have to share or I'm not bringing any food to you, greedy forest spirit!" she scolded him, releasing her breath. Inuyasha snorted, but - surprisingly - the threat of not getting food from her in future made him crawl off her and release her wrists. As he crouched beside her Kagome sat up and quickly seized the half empty bag. Then she stood up and looked around. "Um... Which way's your den?"
"Lost your way again?" he smirked.
"A youkai was chasing me, I was more focused on getting away," she snapped. Inuyasha shrugged and turned around, still squatting on the ground.
"You need to learn how to pay attention where you're running, Kagome," he said and looked back at her above his shoulder. "Come on, I'll carry you, it's quite far from here. Far for a human, I mean."
Kagome resisted a temptation to kick him and instead of it climbed on his back, her bag hanging from her shoulder, her heavy mantle covering them both. The forest spirit didn't need more layers of clothes than his red robe, but she did and she wanted to feel the warmth of his back against herself.
"Inuyasha..." she said while he stood up, adjusting her weight on his back and grabbing her legs while she looped her arms around his neck. "You ate your share already, you won't get more buns today, even if you carry me."
"Keh, I'll just steal Shippou's," he replied and leapt forward.
o0o
The Sun was merely a few inches above the horizon when Kagome was walking through the forest again - this time returning home. She was walking in a steady, fast pace, still annoyed at the forest spirit. 'I will not bring him food for a month,' she promised herself. 'Not after him acting like that!' She shook her head to free herself from musings about the quarrel which caused her lonely return home. Usually after visiting the den she could count on the forest spirit walking her back to the border of his domain.
Kagome was surprised when suddenly almost all light faded in the forest around her. She looked up through the canopy of branches just in time to see heavy dark clouds and something fast and bright descending from them. She took a quick step back as the glowing orb reached the snow-covered cleaning she was about to enter. And when the light faded the young miko couldn't keep herself from gasping.
A humongous white dog was standing there, filling almost the whole glade with its great paws and slender body. Its long tail moved slowly from side to side as it lowered it to the ground but it was as far from a wag as it was possible. A heavy head adorned with two piercing golden-red eyes and a black crescent moon on its forehead turned in Kagome's direction. The miko took an another step backwards as the gaze of the dog, taller than trees around it, rested upon her fragile form. They were frightening and beautiful, the beast was practically radiating power. Kagome realized that this being before her was an inu youkai of pure blood. The dog inhaled deeply.
"Tell me, dinner," the beast spoke. "Why are you carrying Inuyasha's scent?"
A/N: Since I was asked by one of my amazing readers about the Japanese names of the pups. Here you have them all! Just bear in mind Japanese isn't a language I know, so if I made a mistake blame google traslator, ok?
Love - Ai (font face="Nimbus Mono L, monospace"span lang="zh-CN"愛/span/font). Fiendship - Yūjō (font face="Nimbus Mono L, monospace"span lang="zh-CN"友情/span/font). Courage - Yūki (font face="Nimbus Mono L, monospace"span lang="zh-CN"勇気/span/font). Wisdom - Chie (font face="Nimbus Mono L, monospace"span lang="zh-CN"知恵/span/font)
If one of my readers knows Japanese and confirms that these names are correct I might use the Japanese versions instead of English later, so the whole pack has Japanese names. I'm not one to squeeze Japanese in my fics, but I guess it makes sense when you adjust names to people/country/time period.