Chapter 25 - Return
After the brief moment of understanding, Otome launched towards the still kneeling monk and burrowed her head down between his legs and then lifted. The man suddenly found himself flipped onto the back of the speeding girl, but facing in the wrong direction. His long legs dangled down over the shoulders of the girl, and his head banged against her spine. His knees and shins struck the ground with each stride. It was rather like riding Shippo backwards when he was in his toy horse transformation. A wicked thought crossed his mind about how he had promised to never have another woman's head between his legs other than his wife, but he didn't really think this qualified. Once a pervert, always a pervert.
Luckily for the monk and the girl, Inuyasha ran up beside them and removed the floundering man from her struggling back. In one simple move, Miroku found himself thankfully astride the half-demon's back, in the usual manner. As the no longer burdened girl resumed her mad dash through the woods back to the compound, Inuyasha took his usual route through the tree tops.
Now that they were headed back, Miroku tried to make sense of what was happening. This was obviously not a playful exercise. This was serious. He leaned into Inuyasha's ear, "What did the girl say back there? Did she tell you what's wrong in the village?"
Inuyasha gripped his friend's legs tighter and tried to explain, "Well, she can't talk much. But what she said was something along the lines of death or loss. That's all we could get out of it."
Miroku started to frown as he tried to decipher what that meant. Had someone died? Had someone gotten lost? Had there been a demon attack while they had been gone? No, that couldn't be it. He didn't think Otome would have abandoned the compound in the face of an attack. So, that couldn't be the problem. Then, in the back of his mind, his old worry resurfaced that had been a constant companion these past months. Was Sango okay? Was something wrong with the baby? This line of thoughts made him sweat and want to spur Inuyasha to travel faster.
Below them, the girl traveled even faster than she had when she had arrived. This time, there was no need to track, just for speed. Sesshomaru ran beside her and was again amazed at her agility among the trees. He kept track of his brother and the monk to reassure himself that they were not falling behind.
In the blink of an eye, they had exited onto the road again, and speeds escalated from there. Inuyasha was actually shocked that he had to expend all his energy just to keep up with the girl. She was probably faster than the shard-enhanced Koga and didn't smell half as bad. Normally, it took them the better part of an hour to travel the distance back to the village. Today it was going to take them only a few minutes.
When the wooden gates of the village appeared around a bend in the road, the girl produced a long, baying howl like a hunting dog on a scent. The guards at the entrance barely had time to pull back the gate before the familiar shapes came barreling through. If they had been a second slower, the gate would have shattered into a million pieces from the three demons and one monk plowing into it.
The band slid to a stop beside Kikyo's hut and the girl turned to grab Miroku's sleeve in her teeth and pulled him towards the door. From inside the hut, Kikyo's voice called out to him and he shook off the girl and sprinted inside.
Outside, the demons could smell what was happening within. Inuyasha hung his head to mourn the passing of this child that Miroku and Sango had expected. Both knew it would still be several hours before the stillborn child entered this world, but all they could do was wait. Sometimes bad things happened to good people.
Inuyasha watched the panting girl turn saddened gold eyes towards him and she whined pitifully. He doubted the girl knew all the details of what happened, and what would happen, but she seemed to understand the sadness of the death. He walked over and knelt down to her eye-level and patted her on the head. "Thank you. You did good." She responded by leaning over and butting him in the chest with the top of her head, and then just stayed like that. He let her stay that way for a moment and patted her back.
Sesshomaru understood the situation the moment they cleared the gate. The slayer's child had apparently died before child birth, and Otome had been desperate to return the males to their females' sides for support. In that moment he felt a glowing pride in his foundling. She might not know much, but what she had learned on her own was amazing.
He watched the exhausted girl receive comfort from his brother and turned to find a place to rest. If they were true to form, the girl would soon come seeking him for security so she could recuperate and Inuyasha would stalk along behind her to protect her from…him? It still amused the demon that his brother could be so stubborn. But, in truth, the trait ran strongly through their father's bloodline and it wasn't always a bad thing.
The demon lord reclined against the wall of the compound, in the shade, with one leg bent at the knee and his arm resting on that knee. As expected, the exhausted girl raised her head out of Inuyasha's chest and searched around for her alpha. With the last of her energy, she silently padded over to Sesshomaru and flopped her body down beside him. While she sometimes rested her head in Inuyasha's lap, she was content to simply be touching the demon lord. Also as expected, Inuyasha trailed along behind the girl, grumbling some nonsense about keeping an eye on the demon. He settled against the fence, close enough that if the girl turned over, she could place her head in his lap. It was actually his preferred position for relaxing. It was comforting to the half-breed to be a haven for someone so vulnerable.
The grumbling of the half-demon roused the girl just enough to flip over and gently place her head on the red-robed lap. With a grateful sigh, she stretched a leg out just far enough to brush the silk of Sesshomaru's sleeve then stilled as she drifted into a deep sleep.