Chapter 5

Mens sana in corpore sano

"A sound mind in a sound body"

"Hardships can make or break people."
-Gone with the Wind

Oww.

That was the singular train of thought that kept rattling around Kagome's head.

Because again, consciousness only brought pain and suffering, and she was not here for that.

How was it possible that everything ached and burned, and there was literally nothing that she could do about it?

Everything hurt as she moved and a small, pathetic whimper escaped her. Sunlight drifted down through the branches, and she stared at it for just a moment. It was a pretty morning.

She frowned.

Afternoon? No, it looked like morning. It felt like morning for what that's worth.

How did she even—Oh right, the bird youkai. There was the brief moment of weightlessness, and winced at the recollection of her nasty descent back down to the ground.

Shifting her leg, she whimpered again as she straightened the bent appendage, the movement putting strain and simultaneous relief as tendons and muscles relaxed after being held in such an awkward position for too long. Her foot tingled as the familiar pins and needles sensation took hold.

Nothing felt like it was broken as she moved her arms and fingers to check, pins and needles starting to murmur through her limbs, shifting to push herself up, pain erupted in her chest, echoing and reverberating across her ribs. Deep breaths only exacerbated the problem, and she managed to work her way through the pain with short, quick gasps of air. Making small noises in her throat, she lightly pressed her fingers over her rib cage to see where it was the most sensitive, praying that nothing was actually broken.

Funny enough, she'd gotten pretty good at identifying broken ribs from doctoring up Inuyasha. The only difference was that he was miserable for a day or two, and this might be weeks of discomfort and misery for her. Not exactly a comforting thought.

Fingers gingerly pressing along the length of each rib, she hissed as she applied gentle pressure to each bruise. No weird lumps, but there were several very tender, very sensitive spots. So maybe no actual broken ribs, or at the very least, no displaced ones. She was willing to bet there was at least one fracture based on her sensitivity and how much the pain malingered after she removed the pressure.

Swallowing, she groaned. Her entire mouth felt like cotton. Great. Lightly brushing her tongue over her lips, she winced at how chapped her lips were and how much the saliva almost burned her cracked lips.

She needed water and would eventually have to move to get it. There was no getting around it; she was going to have to move. A small pathetic sound left her as she whined internally about shifting or moving any of her extremities.

Maybe if she did it quickly, like ripping a band-aid.

Taking several short quick breaths, she rolled, nearly launching herself out of the her shallow body sized ditch.

It was not a good plan.

Crying, she screamed at the bolts of pain rocketing through her torso. She managed to get her elbows on either side of her chest and leveraged enough space between herself and the ground to alleviate the pressure. Awkwardly shuffling her body, she got her knees under her and edged her butt in the air so she could press herself up and off the ground entirely.

Blood ran down her arm, and she only glanced at the newly opened wound in her left shoulder. The youkai's talons had done a number on the muscle there.

Honestly, she didn't even feel bad for purifying him at this point.

Wait.

Her fingers dug into the soft soil.

She'd purified a youkai. With her hands. Her bare hands.

No arrows. No jewel shards.

Just her. Just Kagome.

Grinning despite her dire circumstances, she couldn't help her little spark of joy and pride.

She'd defeated a youkai on her own. By herself. No outside help from anyone. Just wait until she told everyone! Kaede would be so proud of her!

Kagome looked up, noting that she was in a forest, no surprise there, but it was an old one, judging from the size of the trees and their canopies, so thick that they blocked nearly all direct sunlight from reaching the ground. There was no real undergrowth except for some random little pockets of vibrant green ferns and bushes.

Again, no sign or sound of water at all.

Great.

Her head was already pounding and throbbing and she pressed a hand to her forehead as though that alone would be relief from the building pressure. Okay, there was a river nearby; she knew that much at least. It was morning, which meant that the sun was in the east, and—

She struggled to remember her own direction, and more specifically, which direction the river lay in.

It should be in the same direction.

Right?

Marking the position she should start traveling in, she tried to figure her best approach for actual movement and resigned herself to the realization that it was just going to hurt. No way around that.

Attempting to stand was way, way too painful, and she immediately regretted even attempting the stupid plan to do so. Crawling on hands and knees seemed to be a much less painful, albeit slower method of moving.

Her shoulder wasn't happy at the agreement she'd made with the rest of her body, and it voiced its frustration by clotting, bleeding openly, and then repeating the procedure repeatedly as she shuffled over the forest floor.

Human beings, Kagome discovered, were not meant to crawl for long periods of time. Her knees were scratched bloody and she felt pretty sure that she'd managed to find every single rock and root in the entire forest with just her knees. Her palms weren't a lot better, but she managed to spread her weight across them a little more evenly.

Grimacing, she looked down at her knee and saw that it was smeared with blood.

Mumbling curses under her breath, sat back, slowly, on her heels, feeling the bruise on her shin ache even more. Her arm was covered in blood, and she was probably leaving a trail behind her. That would probably send Inuyasha through the roof.

She was going to have to walk. Her poor knees and hands couldn't take much more abuse, and her poor battered body was already aching just from what she'd done today.

She swallowed, forgetting that her throat was dry and aching already, and the motion of it just reminded her of it again. And again. And again.

She needed water. Needed it. Glancing around for something to support her endeavors to be upright again, she noted a great oak with gnarled roots that rose from the soil and where water had washed out the ground beneath, creating something akin to an awkward and uncomfortable seat.

She crawled, wincing as every movement only rubbed dirt in her wounds or simply made more of them. Once she was close enough, she pressed her hands onto the top of the root and hoisted herself up enough to turn and sit on one of the roots. She twisted herself sideways so she straddled it and tried to take a look at the damage she'd wrought on her kneecaps and hands.

Her shoulder was throbbing in time with her heartbeat. Sweat ran down the back of her neck from her exertions, and for a moment, she felt the semblance of a breeze lift the oppressive dampness from the air and quash the heaviness surrounding her lungs. It already hurt to breathe, so why did the air have to make it even more so? She reached her good arm up and gently wiped the sweat off her forehead with her fingers. She dared a look at her knees and cringed. They looked as bad as she'd expected. Blackened with dried blood and dirt, she could only hope to stave off an infection later.

Great.

When Inuyasha finally finds me, I'm going home and staying there for a week. I'd like to see him try and stop me!

She could do for a week of pampering; she really wouldn't mind starting now.

Scrunching her face up, she imagined that she looked like an absolute mess right now. She was covered in blood, youkai dust, and caked in dirt and grime. And she was still so tired.

Leaning back against the tree, she shifted a little so that she could slump back against the trunk, letting her abdominals take a break. The muscles in her back were already twitching with relief, and she sighed, letting her eyes drift closed.

It was darker than she expected. The light already fighting to reach the floor of the forest, now seemed to have given up almost entirely. Groaning, she struggled to shift her body, the muscles tight and knotted from slumping against the tree. As the past twenty-four hours, she hoped it had only been a day, predicated, she was regretting her choices deeply.

Kagome shifted her legs, feeling the scabs stretch then break open, making her wince at the slight pain and discomfort, and at this point, any extra pain was more than enough.

She'd never been alone this long before, not here at least. Sure, she'd been home alone for a day or two, but never here. Here, someone was always with her, whether it was Inuyasha or Sango, but never just completely alone and completely on her own. She shivered, blaming the cooling evening air. She hadn't meant to fall asleep and much less stay asleep for so long.

And she was still thirsty. Beyond thirsty actually. Was there a word for that? Parched? None of those words seemed dramatic enough for just how much she needed water.

Exhaling harshly, she tried to mentally prepare herself for what was to come. She would have to stand up. There was no way that she could crawl anymore; her poor knees were battered and bruised, or would be, enough.

There were several—attempts is putting far too much emphasis on what she'd actually done—tries she made towards standing that almost ended in her face planting into the ground around her, as though someone had uttered the same command she used on Inuyasha. Turning herself so she sat sideways, both feet on the same side of her root, she shifted to face the tree, using it as leverage to pull herself up. Fingernails digging in and scraping away some of the bark, she gasped and whimpered, nearly collapsing against the thick trunk as she staggered to her own feet.

Another gust of wind struck, freezing the sweat soaked shirt against her back.

Pants, she promised herself, next time she would pack pants. Pants were the way to go. It was getting too cold here to run around in her uniform, and the mess she'd made of her legs wouldn't be quite so bad if they weren't so exposed.

Catching her breath, she felt her legs quivering as she supported her own weight. Taking the initiative and feeling how her lips had started to split under her tongue, she took a step away from the tree, arms still bowed out as if prepared to stop her fall. But she didn't, even though each step tried and tested each muscle she used.

She'd be sore for days after all this.

The forest was thick enough that she had plenty of trees to lean on as she walked.

Her body burned with fatigue, even if she had just napped for a few hours. She quaked under the strain she was putting her body through, but she knew—instinctively—that waiting for any longer was not an option. She needed to find something to drink, cleanse the thirst that burned in her throat with each swallow and breath.

Her breathing hitched when she thought she heard it, taking a few steps farther just to be sure. It was faint, but she knew what streams sounded like. It wasn't close, but it was close enough to hear and that meant that she was going in the right direction at least. Finding a new resolve, she pushed her body to go faster, doing her best to move towards the anticipated sound as quickly as her body allowed.

And where there was water, there would be people, and she could—

The ground disappeared beneath her foot, and maybe, maybe, if she hadn't been so abused by life, she could have stopped or caught herself, but as it was, there was no hope. Not even a chance.

A hoarse yelp, a sound made mostly of a wheezing breath, as she tumbled and then splashed into the shallow stream. It was deep enough for her to submerge herself completely under the soft current, but it allowed her enough buoyancy to exert little effort in breaking the surface.

Taking a wheezing breath as she sat up on her knees, coughing up the minuscule amount of water that she'd managed to snort up her nose, and groaning as her rib cage burned and ached. She allowed herself to whimper and groan as the pain dulled slowly into the background. She sat, feeling the quiet push of the water around her, and the sharp burn and twinge as it brushed against the raw and torn skin on her her knees and shoulder. But the water soothed as much as it burned, the coolness numbing the ache of her muscles. She dipped her hand in, bringing it to her lips, sighing as the crisp coolness alleviating the burn of her throat, and once it started, she couldn't stop herself from gorging on the liquid that was the best damn thing she'd ever tasted in her life.

Her previous self might have been disgusted, but she didn't care. It was cold and wet and just what she needed.

Inuyasha probably would've said something about her being like a horse and pulled her away, but he wasn't here and the river was and she was going to drink until she threw up and then she was going to drink even more.

Kagome leaned on her hands, shivering as the breeze dipped through the trees, brushing over her shoulders, and she realized that she would have to leave.

Dark had fallen completely. The moon hidden from view by the height and thickness of the trees overhead.

She could manage now. She could climb out, take a nap, and then find a village to help her find her friends. Everything was better. It would be better.

Resolving herself, she crept towards the bank, relying on the water to ease the burden on her own weight on her joints, before she made the hard climb towards the top of the bank again.

It wasn't that deep. It really wasn't, but that didn't make it any less difficult now. Using every bit of her own strength, she hauled herself up out of the water, and then reached out to whatever she could hold onto to help her pull herself out and up. Branches, trees, she sank her fingers in to the dirt, leveraging her weight against holds as she panted from the sheer exertion of doing something she wouldn't normally have thought twice about.

She could see the faint shadowed shape of a plant, and she took a firm hold to pull herself up with her good side. The thorns dug into her hand and yelping, she let go, jerking her hand back to her chest. Clawing her way to the top, she ran her fingers almost blindly over the punctures in her hand to see if any thorns remained embedded. She didn't feel anything, but her hand was sore already.

Just one more thing. She sighed and shifted so she was sitting, legs draped down the embankment. She lowered herself slowly down to the earth, resting on her back, staring up at the stars that she could see through the break in the trees branches. Small and winding, it reminded her of the river. She smiled a little, thinking about how the others were watching these stars too. It made them seem closer, less out of reach; it made her feel less alone.

A yawn broke out and she closed her eyes. She would nap, just for a little bit, and then she'd find a village and then her friends. In this entire mess, things were starting to look up. Yes, nap first, then rescue.

Nap first—