Words: 1,018
AN: 50 chapters! I made it somehow! Woot! \o/
Child of the Sky
firefox69
Chapter 50
Fearless
The strange man did not surprise Shippo when he first approached the waterfall. Something about him smelled funny in a really terrible, rotten egg sort of way, and though it seemed as if the man tried to muffle that scent he could not hide it from the small fox. Shippo had smelled him coming from a mile away. He was just a stinky human, but Kagome did not take the news of his impending arrival well. To the contrary, she hurriedly shoved the young kit into a safe hiding place and warned him not to make himself known until the man had left. Fear and uncertainty clung to her stiff frame as she did so, and as the young fox kit squinted up at her figure, shadowed by the bright sun behind her, he was brought back to a time that had passed over half a century ago.
"Promise me you'll stay here until its safe" Kagome whispered, running a trembling hand through his bangs.
His father had said the same thing to him before. Back then, he could also only see the shadowy silhouette of his father and could only feel that large, warm hand on his cheek and the cold stone against his back. The young fox had wanted to say so many things to his parents then. He didn't want them to go. He loved them. He would fight with them. But the words he cried in his mind died in his throat, and the boy simply watched with bated breath and tearful eyes as they confronted the Thunder Brothers.
They did not come back.
"No, mama don't go!" Shippo whined, grasping the miko's hand with his clawed fingers. You're going to leave me all alone.
"I'll be back soon. I promise" the miko soothed, "He's only human."
Shippo could feel the hot pressure pushing against his eyes.
"But you're afraid of him" he whimpered.
Kagome quietly shushed him and smiled comfortingly.
"We always fear what is unknown to us. Don't forget, Sesshoumaru is in the area and Inuyasha is even closer. Everything will be okay."
With that, she kissed his forehead and made her way to the cliff. She observed for a time before she hopped from her perch to confront the man where Shippo could not see her. The boy tried to obey her as he huddled between the large boulders with his legs to his chest, but the sudden cry from below sent a jolt through his body. He could hear the man yelling at her in some unknown language, as well as the pain and anger in his surrogate mother's panicked responses.
His parents' final breaths echoed in his ears.
The boy stood on trembling legs and swallowed the frightened scream in his throat as he made his way to the cliff edge. The man was on top of his mother, pushing her down with a strange, cylindrical weapon.
Images of his parents, still and bloodied flashed before his eyes.
Shippo clenched his small fists and glared, determined despite the harsh pounding of his heart. Losing his parents once was enough. He would not lose them again.
He hopped off the ledge and landed behind the man with a soft tap, then lunged forward and sank his teeth into the man's arm. The metallic blood dripped against his tongue as hot tears of fright dripped down his cheeks, but his actions gave the desired reaction and as the man reared back with a cry of pain, Shippo grinned venomously with his bloodied fangs bared.
"Hurry!" Kagome ushered, smashing the weapon against the cliff face as Shippo spat out what blood he could. He jumped as Kagome reached out to him and caught him, and then they ran into the forest and raced through the cover of the trees.
Just when the fox thought they were safe, he could hear the man crashing through the underbrush behind them almost as clearly as he could hear the miko's gasps and their galloping hearts.
"He's following!" the child cried, tightening his hold around his mother's neck and burying his nose in her hair in effort to calm himself down.
"We're almost at the canoe" she panted, "and he didn't respond to my ki. At the very least, he's not Naraku."
They broke through the treeline and nearly leaped across the entirety of the small clearing in a single bound before collapsing into the canoe where an uneasy Pocahontas awaited them. Without any prompting, the Powhatan princess lifted the oar and tried to push of the edge of the small landing, but they were too late. The flaxen haired man dropped to his knees near the water and grabbed the front of the small vessel.
He said something softly in a calm voice, but all Shippo could understand was his mother's exhausted frame and Pocahontas's agitated stance. He saw Hiawatha leap off a tree, eyes glowing ominously as he raised his spear to thrust into the man's chest as the kit himself prepared to summon his foxfire. Never before had the kit seen his caretaker in such a state. A brutal, vicious glint sparked in his gaze a feral contrast to his frigid countenance. In the second between when the boy leaped and when the spearhead would bury itself into the man's back, the young caretaker appeared both dignified and bestial.
It quickly became clear to him why Kagura had trusted the boy with his mother's safety. Though human, there was something demonic within him.
Before the spearhead could find its target, a mystical power swelled forth from Pocahontas's core and enveloped everything in the clearing in a consoling warmth. Shippo's primal urge to set the man aflame flickered away to nothingness as Hiawatha quietly landed behind the man with spear raised, but unmoving and poised to strike. Boy, kit, and miko all watched as the man extended a hand to the Powhatan woman.
The princess gazed at his palm, silently marveling at its callouses, before raising her gaze to stare straight into the man's azure eyes.
Slowly, cautiously, she placed her hand in his.
