Before we start, I just wanna point out that this chapter skips back to a point before where the last chapter ended. I figured you'd all be able to tell at least by the end, but I was hoping to not get reviews that asked "Okay, so…is the beginning happening before all that other stuff in chapter 13? Cause…I was confused." I've learned that as much as I'd like to believe all my readers will understand what's going on this far into the story, expectations are always dashed on a leap of faith. And really, Gossamer Dreams is my "I'm not explaining anything, so HA!" story. But back to our regularly scheduled intro. Sorry to slow you down. Continue into the depths of not-so-murky doom that is this story. What's going on that's got Kagome so worked up? Maybe it's all a dream, but you know…
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Something Is Real
Part 14
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"This is disgusting." Kagura scrunched her nose up primly as she flayed the dead rabbit under Kikyo's watchful gaze. "I'm getting rabbit fur stuck to my bloody hands."
"That might warrant a little more sympathy if I hadn't ever witnessed your dance of the dead." Kikyo sighed slightly. Kagura complained more than any other person she'd ever known. It certainly tried one's patience.
"That's different. I don't have to touch them when I'm doing that." Kagura explained as though the distinction were utterly obvious.
"Is Kagura trying to get out of helping?" Kouga asked, his tone teasing, but utterly civil. Kagome wondered at the lack of friction caused by Kagura's presence, but it was something that made the large group more manageable, so she didn't bother asking Kouga about it lest the delicate balance be upset. So she just cut up her rabbit and pretended that everything was normal and utterly predictable. After three years with Inuyasha, it wasn't a hard thing to pretend. "Don't listen to it. She loves to fake her way out of work."
"Don't start." Kagura pointed her skinning knife at him menacingly. "Aren't you supposed to be getting wood?"
"I got some." Kouga indicated a pile near the fire that all three women were gathered around. "Ayame, Miroku, and Inuyasha are getting some too. We only need so much."
"Sounds like an excuse to be lazy." Kagura sliced a piece of bloody fur off of what she had flayed already and flung it at Kouga with a toothy smile. "Have a snack while you're at it." Kouga jumped back, and the bloody mass landed right on top of his head, causing Kagura to laugh and Kouga to fume.
"Nasty shit in my hair…I'm gonna stink if I don't wash this out." He growled at her just as Inuyasha approached, depositing his own wood on top of Kouga's pile.
"And that's different, how?" the hanyou asked, his lip curled back in a sneer.
"Shut up, dog shit." Kouga grumbled, utterly bored with the daily Inuyasha banter. It never really varied. Someone smelled bad. Someone was stupid. Someone was annoying. We should all kill that someone. Yes, pretty redundant.
"You're such a stupid…" Inuyasha paused, sniffing the air experimentally. "Kagome?"
"You cannot have any yet. I am not watching you eat raw meat again." She answered without looking up as she dropped a double handful of meat in the pot. "Wait and I'll let you gnaw on the bones."
"No, not that." Inuyasha waved a hand in annoyed dismissal. "Can you sense a shard close by? Coming toward us?" Kagome concentrated for a long moment before answering.
"No, nothing at all." She told him as everyone watched her for an answer, with the exception of Kikyo, who nodded her agreement before tossing the mortar full of herbs she'd just ground up into the stew pot.
"Oh, never mind then." Inuyasha shrugged as Kagome handed him a pair of nearly stripped leg bones.
"Kagome onee-chan! Can't we have one, too?" Ginta and Hakkaku swept down like begging puppies, and she set about stripping more of her rabbit's remains for them.
"Never mind what, Inuyasha? Do you smell something weird?" Kagome did not like ignoring smells that bothered Inuyasha. Doing that usually ended badly for everyone.
"I thought it smelled like…" Inuyasha smelled the air again and stiffened. "It still…it smells like Kohaku." And with that, he raced out of the clearing, leaving behind his puzzled companions.
"Kohaku?" Kagome's brow furrowed in concentration. "But…he has a shard. I can't sense anything."
"Whatever. Kagura, finish that rabbit or I'll let Kouga rub that fur scrap in your hair." Kikyo stirred the stew, wafting the smell toward her nose and sniffing critically.
"Fine, mom." Kagura grumbled as she tried to ignore that itch at the back of her mind. Something was coming, that was obvious. It was familiar, too. Could it be Kohaku? But that was impossible without the shard. Wasn't it?
"Idiot." Kikyo's annoyed voice brought Kagura back to reality, and she looked up at the other woman, who was in turn looking down. Kagome and Kouga were also looking in that direction, so Kagura let her eyes drop to the rabbit and the knife. The blade was firmly buried in the palm of her left hand, and now that she saw it, she realized that her hand hurt. A lot.
"You have to watch what you're doing." Kikyo stood and walked over to Kagome's bag, pulling out the constantly stocked first aid kit. "Come here before you cut your hand off."
"Should…I pull it out?" Kagura did not like pain. She also did not like blood. It was nasty, sticky, and it stained horribly. She could handle blood from others, but she really did not like seeing her own blood. It was tied with her dislike of pain.
"Are you okay? You look pale." Kagome put a hand on Kagura's shoulder and noticed the other girl was shaking slightly. "Kagura?"
"Looks like she'll pass out." Kouga chuckled, not serious at all until he got a better look at her. "Fuck, you look like shit right now."
"I don't really…like blood." She smiled weakly at Kagome. "Pretty stupid, huh?"
"Kikyo, I think she's gonna puke or something." Kagome addressed the other woman, who handed the kit to Kouga and sighed wearily.
"I cannot believe that you, of all people, have a blood phobia." Kikyo sat next to Kagura, who was staring at her hand with goggled eyes. "First thing you need to do is to look at me. Kagura, stop looking at your hand. If I get vomit on my clothes, you will be spending your evening cleaning them." Kagura looked up at Kikyo, her face pale and her eyes wide. "Next, stop thinking about it. Argue with Kouga or something."
"How's that going to help?" Kouga demanded, his face screwed up in anxious irritation. "Are you gonna pull that out?" He was still staring at Kagura's hand in morbid fascination.
"That's not helping, stupid." Kagura hissed at him.
"Well look, it's pretty deep. You can see muscle and stuff. Now your hand's gonna be all fucked up." Kouga told her, pointing at her hand.
"Ugh…is it really that bad?" Kagura felt a bit dizzy.
"Why is there so much blood? Did she hit a vein?" Kagome asked Kikyo as Shippo, with an armload of firewood (about ten sticks in total) approached.
"You guys got dinner ready—whoa! What did you do to your hand?" he ran over to investigate Kagura's wound. "You guys gonna just leave that knife in there like that?"
"No, I will pull it out once she calms down." Kikyo explained to the little fox.
"Why's she so…" Shippo's nose scrunched up curiously.
"Kagura's afraid of blood." Kagome explained as she pulled the small youkai toward her so that Kikyo could work.
"That's pretty weird. I thought all those wolves looked a lot worse when she finished with them." Shippo speculated as Kagura noted a sudden difficulty breathing. She could feel blood dripping down her arm. Lots of it.
"Just her own blood." Kikyo clarified. And at that moment, Kagura's eyes fluttered closed and she slumped forward. She would have fallen into the fire had Kouga not leapt up and grabbed her around the waist. "Are you all happy now?"
"Well, she won't fight you if she's out cold." Kouga justified as he stood hunched over, not really sure what to do with the girl he was keeping out of the fire.
"Lay her down, then. Carefully." Kikyo shook her head in irritation as Kouga released Kagura and she began work on the girl's hand.
"Look what I found." Inuyasha leapt into the clearing, two small forms slung over his shoulders and an extremely satisfied expression on his face. With no ceremony whatsoever, he dropped both children on the ground so that Kagome could begin praising him and his cleverness.
"Shit, that's Kanna." Kouga left Kagura to get a closer look at the subdued children.
"Kohaku!" Kagome leapt at the boy and glared at Inuyasha. "You attacked him?"
"I didn't kill him." Inuyasha's expression communicated that he thought this made the situation perfectly all right. "Or the girl."
"Without even asking what he was after?" Kagome was clearly outraged. She knelt to take the pulse of both children before speaking again. "At least they'll be okay."
"How do you know that they aren't here to cause trouble?" Inuyasha wanted to know. "Kohaku, maybe. But he's with her." He pointed viciously at the pale girl on the ground, but Kouga was already carefully scooping her up and brushing dirt out of her hair.
"Kanna's fine. We can trust her." He assured the others as he found the small lump on her head where Inuyasha had no doubt hit her.
"How do you know?" Inuyasha asked, still annoyed that he was getting yelled at.
"I just…when I was in that cave, she brought us food." Kouga looked over at his lounging tribe members to see if they'd noticed his statement. Unfortunately, they had.
"Why would Kanna…" Inuyasha was pondering the question as Ginta frowned in confusion.
"Then there was someone else in that cave!" Hakkaku exclaimed. "I knew we weren't just imagining things."
"Kagura was there too." Kouga admitted, surprising most everyone aside from Kikyo and the three unconscious people present. "Naraku, I guess…I think he wanted us to attack each other or something. Like killing two birds with one stone."
"But you didn't." Kagome looked at Kouga in careful consideration. "What happened in there, anyway? Is that why you two get along now? Even after…"
"Sometimes you get to trust people." Kouga laid Kanna down next to her sister, whose hand Kikyo was expertly wrapping in bandages. "Sometimes you don't have any choice."
"You lived with her?" Ginta looked rather disgusted at this idea.
"Yeah, I did. And it made me a lot fucking stronger." Kouga defended himself. "I knew what Naraku wanted, but I'd be damned if I was gonna be his tool. Think about it. Why'd he wanna kill Kagura unless she could help us? He's afraid of her."
"Oh…that actually makes sense." Ginta tapped his lips thoughtfully.
"That's why I make decisions and you just listen to me." Kouga growled at them, every inch the leader he was born to become.
"Kohaku's waking up…I better get Sango." Kagome left just as Kanna and Kagura also slowly came to. Kouga tried to focus his attention on them, but the way Kikyo was staring at him with that tiny knowing smile on her face was far too disturbing.
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The End (Of Part 14, That Is)