Back in Time

by Bmmonteith

Kagome is sent back in time by Naraku's spell gone wrong. She wanders the forest unaware, getting into trouble until she runs into a young Sesshomaru who is completely different from the man we all know. He takes her in for reasons unknown to himself, falling for her, a human, just like his father. *chapters 1-5 revised*

36. part 36

Part 36

X*****X

I applauded my own choice to seek Kagome out. Her scent was wrapped in the distinct fog of another demon. How she did not notice she was inside the demon's vortex of power was not a question for me, but did call question upon her instincts as a priestess. She has managed to find herself in more danger than I have in all the years I've been alive. I shook my head slightly, irritated beyond all relief, but also worried. The earthquake I had felt was not at all natural. That was made apparent by the swelling aura I felt. I took several small steps forward before I launched myself up and away, chasing her scent for all new reasons. If Kagome was in danger, I couldn't turn the other way and walk. If Kagome got hurt or worse… I blinked away the mixed feelings, the urge to hunt and destroy this threat to my mated half. She may not want me, but that doesn't change what we had done, how I had marked her as mine. She is mine, and I will re-claim her as such.

'She is mine.'

X***X

I launched through the trees, Kagome's scent surrounding me, teasing me, taking me one way and then another. I was also inside the demon. That I was certain of. It was subtle, but I could sense the trees shifting, rotating, and moving not only me, but the ground beneath my feet in a way that any average demon wouldn't notice. But I wasn't just any demon; I was far greater. I whipped my hand out at the trees as I jumped high into the sky, releasing my poison whip and jaggedly ripping it across the tender flesh of the forest. The trees gave resounding angry screams as they fell. Several spirits abandoned the now useless shells of the trees and escaped into the dense foliage, determined to possess a new vegetative host. If I wanted to free the forest, short of cutting it all down, I had to take out the mother. I had to take out the castor of these demons, and I had to destroy its soul.

A sudden iron grip on my lower calf ripped me off the ground and dangled me high above the fallen trees, a most indignant pose for myself. I scowled, my brows meeting and my eyes flashing. My long silver hair fell and hung from my head like a long curtain towards the ground and my fur dangled adjacent to it. The roots of the severed trees held my leg tight and reached for my arms. I slashed at them but there were too many to destroy. They held me, locking me in place. I growled, a menacing and direct threat to the demon who so dared grab me, even if that demon was composed of nothing but roots tangled and twisted into a ridiculous form.

It sputtered and grunted, a clipped voice grinding out from between gnarled roots. I glared at the demon and imbedded my poison claws into its woody flesh. The demon laughed with its thick voice, a sound not at all like the wind as it whispers through the leaves.

"Guffaw little doggie. Scratch and bite and claw, this bark feels no pain. Your poison is water compared to what flows through my trunk." The words were oddly clear after coming from a lipless slit in the visage of the demon.

It tossed me against the ground, slamming my body once, twice, thrice onto the packed earth before lobbing me high into the air to land on my back. I pulled myself up as it reached for me again, slicing the first three feet off the roots that formed its hands. It laughed again, re-shaping its body to accommodate for the lost appendage. The roots twisted and slithered over its body and down its 'arm', like a great many snakes.

With my superior speed I cast myself over its body, slicing off pieces of its hide as I did. I did this multiple times, each time taking more and more, hoping to expose a weakness of the monsters. The sharp tinge of Kagome's scent hit me, tearing away my focus. She was moving away. I scented the air for a direction but was met with confusion. The demon was manipulating the forest wind, changing directions often enough so as to scatter her scent and steal my attention. It hit me with a club of roots, sending me careening through several trees to rest at the foot of a mighty Cyprus.

I laid for a moment as the demon stalked toward me. I glowered at the demon, my eyes flashing red. I felt the takeover begin before the sword to my hip pulsed, calming me immediately. Tensuiga.

I gripped the handle of the blade and drew it, the thin metal soundless. The sword pulsed once more and I followed its movements, allowing it to guide my body. I jumped straight up into the air, twisting and landing for but a moment before I launched forward once more, aiming my Tensuiga at the demon. It didn't bother trying to dodge the blade, ignorant of the history and power of the blade that doesn't cut; doesn't kill.

I sliced across the demons gnarled face and down its chest. It stopped for a moment then uttered a high, wild scream. The roots shriveled and its body froze, posing the roots in wild contortions. The face of the demon froze in its savage cry and the forest grew still.

"Aokigahara, curses you." The demon breathed out as several dark spirits whispered out of the tree roots, steaming out of the wood and dissipating off into the sky. The roots became less evil, their dark air reverting back to that of a regular tree. The wind in the forest returned to normal and I could sense Kagome getting further away once again.

'One down. Who knows how many buds this demon has managed to make. Aokigahara, The forest demon. Named for the deaths of the mortals who seek out its sturdy branches. The Suicide Forest. What could tempt such a well fed demon to attack so freely now? '

X*****X

Shoot, scream, dodge, run some more. That was my day so far. My arrows barely scratched the demons back, sticking into its woody flesh and leaving small handfuls of purified wood where there was once only evil; when I got the chance to aim and shoot that was. The demon was persistent, its energy ever restored by the rations in the trunks of the many trees that made up its body, giving me no respite to calculate a plan. But then even that won't be enough to nourish him, and sooner or later it will tire, and I'll be dead. A forest like this demands blood. Any blood. My blood.

The demon's breathing was ragged, but not from the chase. It was laced with joy and with a primal need to catch me, to win the game of cat and mouse. I stopped long enough to take several deep breaths when the demon roared, long and loud. The game got serious. The jewel in its chest pulsed several times, spewing tarnished, black energy into the demon. It roared again, its voice deepening and twisting. The leaves upon its spiked and jagged back turned black and brittle, snapping off in withered and worn shapes. The purification I exorcized over the trees was tainted beyond recognition and my arrows turned black from the corruption. The wood of its body looked charred and moldy, losing the luster the once oiled wood contained. In all, it was corrupt, from the beautifully horrifying demon it was to this monster the jewel has made it. Its eyes looked at me from lightless sockets. The red orbs had turned from menacing to nothing; the absence of light was startling and gave the creature a puppet like look. Like a black hole, the demon seemed to drain the light from its surroundings. The sky went dark and the land withered away. I foresaw my death in this creatures lightless eyes. There was no fighting this. There was no wild plan for winning, there was nowhere left to run. I felt my hope die in my chest, my will to fight leaving my body. I was not peaceful as I thought I would be. I was not ready to die. I was not okay with it. I had so many regrets, so many things and people I wanted to see and speak to. My courage was dashed, and I was alone. It grinned its ugly grin.

X*****X

The ground erupted in a spray of dirt and chunks of grass before I could reach her. Aokigahara slammed his weighty foreleg down on Kagome, shattering the earth. I felt the take-over instantly, my demon ripping out of my human skin. I screamed at the inhuman demon, startling it as I landed on its back. I ripped it off Kagome, leaving her lying at the bottom of a large crater, her face hidden behind a layer of dust and dirt and her own hair. I risked a glance at Kagome for a sign of life, a relieved smile, an apologetic look, an angry glare. My chest tightened when she didn't even move. Aokigahara rumbled and I turned my back on her.

While I enjoyed the handicap of having a larger physical size, the demon outweighed me by several tonnes, proving to be the better advantage. I clawed at him with bloodied paws, ignoring the razor sharp tree spears stabbing and slicing cleanly and deeply through my feet. It reared back and tossed me like I was nothing. I landed on my feet and winced, the pads of my paws throbbing from the many cuts I sustained. I could smell the disturbing scent of my own blood soaking into the ground; nourishing the millions of Aokigahara's roots beneath my very feet. I could faintly feel the roots wiggling like worms, ecstatic for the metallic liquid.

"I was old before you were suckling at your mother's teat you insolent cur. You really think you can take on the might of a thousand trees? The wrath of the forest and survive? You are too weak." I felt his voice through my feet, felt it reverberating in my body. The forest has spoken, and not in my favour.

My mind went red with rage as the demon slowly slid sideways towards Kagome, stomping its feet with every step. A threat. I felt my muscles coil, felt the poison in my blood heat and drip mercilessly from my jaws. The liquid pooled on the ground, burning its way down to the roots suckling at my blood; its deadly vapor ascending into the surrounding air. Aokigahara opened its mouth in a grin as he turned with a surprising speed and charged me before I could attack;

"Surprise puppy. You want venom? Try mine."

He opened his massive jaws and grabbed my shoulder, pinning me beneath his bulk and razor sharp talons. My mind went blank as his toxins leeched into my body, infecting my whole system. I yelped in surprise and whined in pain, a surprising sound I didn't know I was able to make and tried to buck him off. He neither moved nor showed any notice of my movements. I slowly went limp as the venom hit my nervous system, and had no choice but to let him do as he would.

"There, isn't that better? Now be a good dog and wait for my poison to take effect. You may feel some discomfort, but who wouldn't when they're dying?" His voice was like two stones grinding together, marbled and almost incomprehensible.

His voice seemed to die away as he continued to describe the horrors I would face within the next few minutes to hours. Hallucinations, visions of what could have been, what will never be and what will never happen in my reality; pounding heart and cold sweating, convulsions and comatose. Only then, would he actually let me die; a death as slow as the winter crawls by.

"It is nothing personal, little demon, but the infectious will of the jewel. The desire for your death and the girl; I feel the longing to spill your blood in my own heart, and I will oblige. Fear not, she will not go to waste in a forest; she will become one with me!"

He stood up on his hind legs. Thousands of roots sprouted out of the ground and wriggled about his head. He gave a great roar and the roots all dove down towards Kagome like little barb tipped arrows.

I forced my feet beneath my body with a grand push of effort and forced myself up howling, surprised at the panic I felt; like a common mongrel worried about its owner's safety. I stood on my shaky legs like a newborn pup, unable to take more than a few steps without losing balance. My tongue hung out of my mouth as a strip of leather, dry and cracked. His poison worked fast. I fell back to my side in a sudden spasm, returning to my hidden in plain sight human form by default.

"Damnit." I swore when the convulsion ended and spit out a wad of blood. 'My blood.' I forced myself up once more, trying to stare the mighty beast down with sensitive and blurred eyes; trying to see Kagome.

'He is too fast in my true form, but maybe I could outrun him in this one.'

"Determined dog." He bared his bloodied fangs and slammed a paw down over me. I dodged it by the skin of my teeth and landed hard on my feet and hands; crouched and ready.

He made a move to attack once more but flicked his attention suddenly back to Kagome, growling. The darkness in its eyes seemed to narrow into a thin beam aimed in her direction, sucking the light out of the world.

I glanced sideways at Kagome, at her shimmering body, at the dome of bright light that surrounded her and held the roots out. I flinched as the thick demon shifted, driven to Kagome. I yelled and stood tall, poised and ready. He turned suddenly and swished his tail across me, knocking me over with the crushing saplings. The bark on the trees was molted and infected, a thick plaque slick to the touch as it hit me.

I was launched backwards, landing on a dense matt of grass. It felt thick and clingy, growing over my body the longer I laid there. My other senses told me it was not real, that the grass was just that, grass, but my eyes betrayed that sense. It grew over my legs and arms and chest, slithering and swirling until the grass was faceless vines, hugging me and holding me still.

'Poison. It is poison. It isn't real. Kagome.'

I panicked a moment before I ripped myself free of the vision, my heart pounding and my chest heaving. I looked for Kagome with a measure of difficulty as my eyes wouldn't focus. I saw her standing in a veil of light with her hands poised over her head, black hair strewn behind her. She looked at me with steel eyes, determined and ready. She nodded. It wasn't Kagome.

How I could mistake this woman for Kagome was understandable. My current condition made even breathing a near impossible feat let alone distinguishing the woman I love from a near lookalike. But that was the extent of their similarities. This woman's face was not gentle like Kagome's, nor was the look in her eyes. She was a warrior, no matter how much she resembled a regular priestess. She carried a blade that held magnificent power and her armour was blood and gore spattered. She was as different to Kagome as I was to Jaken.

I grunted in pain, as I stood. Aokigahara smashed his feet down on the veil of light, frustration welling up in his lightless eyes. The woman only held her pose and fended off the giant's swings. I cracked a smile in her direction and then hunched over as a burst of lightning coursed through my body, searing my lungs and leaving my hands and arms numb.

'I am going to die. I can feel it.'

I looked towards Kagome as I fell forward, my once clear eyes foggy and dull. I huffed a few times, trying to take breaths that just weren't there; trying to fill lungs that were too full of holes to absorb anything. The ground opened up and swallowed me whole as the sky filled with the sweet sound of Kagome's laughter and the alluring memory of her warm body against mine.

X*****X

If you are wondering, it was deadly nightshade I was describing as Aokigahara's toxin. I didn't make it [all] up, unless google lied to me. But would google do that? Aha.

I promise it will end soonish. I said that so many chapters ago. The end is near! Ish.