Spider, Part Four "Sango"
by Vega
~~~
There were strange sounds outside that scared me. I could not understand all that was being said, of course, but I could hear the grunts, the clang of metal on metal, the thunk of arrows in flesh.
I closed my eyes and curled into a ball on the pallet and wished it would all go away.
It sounded like there was a war outside. I heard screaming. I heard laughing.
The laughter was more unnerving than the screams.
I prayed it would all stop. And where was Kagewaki? I wanted him beside me - he was familiar, he was kind. He was safe.
A final, anguished scream ripped through the air, a woman's voice, wailing. "KOHAKU!" was what she said, and I think it was a name.
And then... silence.
I trembled, wrapping my legs up around my bad arm, my good arm surrounding it, and waited, listening. The silence went on for ever.
And then... tamp tamp tamp. I looked up as the door to my little chamber slid back slowly, and felt an immense wave of relief when Kagewaki was the one who entered. I sat up, a smile pulling on the corners of my lips.
He entered just as graceful and dignified as before, and knelt beside my pallet.
"Are you alright?!" I said immediately, sweeping my eyes over him. There were no wounds that I could see, no scratches, not even patches of dirt or cloth that may have been torn in a scuffle. My earlier assumptions had to have been right, then - to have escaped from that battlefield with no evidence of ever having been there, he must have been a powerful general or leader.
His eyebrows drew down in a expression of confusion and I wracked my brain for a moment before stumbling over the unfamiliar words: "Daijobu?"
His confusion melted into amusement and he nodded his head. "Hai," he said softly, and I understood this to mean "Yes."
I glanced at the wall which lead out onto the porch and he followed my gaze. "Ile," he said, shaking his head -this must mean "no" - "Daijobu."
I sagged with relief and lay back on the thin mattress. He seemed amused by this as well. I wanted to reach up, to touch his hand, to communicate that I was relieved, but as soon as I moved my right arm the whole appendage began screaming.
Waves of hot pain burnt their way up my arm, through my veins, into my heart and head and I cried out. Amusement gone, Kagewaki carefully uncapped some of the clay pots that had lain by my bedside and mixed some dried herbs into the now-empty water bowl.
He called for someone, they conversed briefly at the door, and then hot water in both a fresh bowl and a teapot were brought in. The herbs were set in the pot to steep, and the servant dismissed. Carefully, with his own large hands, Kagewaki unwound my bandages.
This was unusual treatment, I knew. I was being tended to by the Lord of the House himself. Carefully, seemingly unrepelled by my withered and scorched flesh, he cleansed first the puncture wounds and then my whole arm, finger-tips to neck, with the hot water, then re-applied the ointment.
Handing me a cup to the brewed tea from the pot, he then settled beside me, crossed his legs, which I had never seen him do before, and slowly, gently, wrapped my arm in new linen. Once or twice I tried to catch his umber eyes, but they remained focussed on the task.
Once finished, he settled back, shifting a few bum-spaces away to lean against the wooden support beam of the outside wall. He pulled one knee up under his chin and raised his hand in a sort of "drink up" gesture. I had been waiting for the tea to cool.
Hoping that it was some sort of painkiller, I took my time sipping on the tepid liquid. "Thank you," I said softly between mouthfuls and Kagewaki, who had turned his head to look at the silhouette of the porch-beams through the paper-wall turned back to look at me.
"Thank you," I said again, adding, "Arigatou."
"Ah," he smiled, "Doitashimashite." I assumed he was saying 'you're welcome'.
As I finished the cup of tea, my eyelids began to grow heavy again, and I lay back down. Sighing with the joy of the painkiller begining to permiate my being, I hardly noticed when Kagewaki came forward and freed my arm from the sling, balled up the fabric, and put it under my head for a pillow.
He got up and I heard his footfalls as he moved towards the braizer in the far left corner.
Then I smelt the sandalwood.
And then I fell asleep.
~~~
"Where are you from?" a deep voice asked me, and in that strange dream-logic way I knew that he was not speaking English. But again, in that dream-way, I never thought to question why I could understand him then.
"Far away," I answered, "Far far away."
"What is your purpose here?" the voice asked again, and it sent thrills up my spine.
"I'm lost."
"What are you?"
"...lost..."
Frustration began to taint the rich tone of the speaker. "Are you human? Or demon?"
"...human."
"What is the name of the place you come from?"
"I... don't know..."
"How did you arrive here?"
"I... don't know..."
In my dream a shadowy figure cut across the moon, and all I could catch was a flash of moonlight on a silver cloak.
Then I rolled over, the dream forgotten the moment it ended.
I did not smell sandalwood when I awoke.
~~~
The next morning I awoke to find Kagewaki already awake and sitting on the porch outside of my room , the paper walls that separated this chamber from the outside slid back. Beside him was a small tray of food, half-eaten.
He was staring with amazement at something and I sat up slowly to see what it was. Over his shoulder I watched with horror as a young girl, perhaps my age, with long dark hair crawl across the ground.
She was wearing punctured and torn armour of a style I did not recognize, and as she hauled herself forward on her elbows and stomach, her face was twisted in a determined grimace. She was leaving a trail of blood in her wake.
Kagewaki immediately stood, and with his frame blocking the door, I could no longer see the girl.
My god, had she been in the fight the night before?
"Sango," I heard Kagewaki say, and could not make out the rest of his sentence. But the tone in it was evident - he was expressing surprise.
~~~
I was, of course, too ill to leave my room, but from the sounds I could tell that this warrior-girl had been tucked into the chamber beside mine. There was much moaning and wailing, and I figured she must be in a lot of pain.
The day had hardly past before I heard her and Kagewaki and someone else whose voice originated from the garden beyond the porch conversing, and then this girl was back in her armour and gone.
The last thing I heard her spitting was "Inu Yasha! Shine!"
~~~
Later that evening Kagewaki came to share a meal with me, and I desperately wished that I had the language skills to ask him what the Hell had been going on around me. I felt so lost, so alone and isolated.
More than that, I had begun to get scared, for I had that afternoon realized that not only was I in Japan, but that I must, somehow, be in a very rural area of the country, for I saw no form of technology anywhere.
The most technologically advanced gadget I could see was the medicinal ointment that the doctor came and went with once every few hours. I had begun to hope that I was just in a very traditional household.
When we had finished out meal, the trays were taken away and Kagewaki knelt once more beside my pallet.
Reaching into the front of his shirt, which he had pointed to and said 'haori', he produced a small bundle of cloth. From the small triangle of white fabric, Kagewaki produced a small shimmering object. I looked closely and saw that it was a glittering magenta fragment of crystal. The edges looked sharp.
He held it delicately by a pin attached to the narrowest part of the crystal shard and it took me a moment to realize that this was an earring. He held it forward, and the meaning behind the gesture was obvious. He wanted me to wear it.
Carefully, and with his help as my arm still hurt too much to move and the fingers of my right hand were still numb, he helped me replace my old earring in my left ear with the shimmering piece of jewellery.
When he sat back, he looked pleased.
I wondered what the significance of the gesture had been... I hoped I hadn't just married him without knowing it.
"Kirie..." he said softly.
"It's beautiful," I said, and had the feeling we were saying the same thing. "Arigatou."
He just nodded and smiled.
~~~
When I slept again I smelled sandalwood and dreamed of falling through the air.
I hit the ground, hard. I was in a ... a room of some sort? I didn't know.
Beside me there was a faint pinkish glow, the same colour of my new earring. I wanted to reach out, pick up whatever was glowing. I lifted my right arm and something... pain! Sharp jagged things drove into my flesh and I screamed as I felt my skin begin to scald.
Then I heard a deep voice chuckling. There was a bright light and I lifted my left hand to cover my eyes, but it was too late. The brightness was blinding. Darkness descended in spots and dancing stars and I realized I lay on the cold earth.
And then I woke up.
~~~
I sat bolt upright on the pallet, ramrod straight, panting.
What a strange dream. Closing my eyes I lay back down, willing the shivering aftermath of the adrenalin surge to fade.
by Vega
~~~
There were strange sounds outside that scared me. I could not understand all that was being said, of course, but I could hear the grunts, the clang of metal on metal, the thunk of arrows in flesh.
I closed my eyes and curled into a ball on the pallet and wished it would all go away.
It sounded like there was a war outside. I heard screaming. I heard laughing.
The laughter was more unnerving than the screams.
I prayed it would all stop. And where was Kagewaki? I wanted him beside me - he was familiar, he was kind. He was safe.
A final, anguished scream ripped through the air, a woman's voice, wailing. "KOHAKU!" was what she said, and I think it was a name.
And then... silence.
I trembled, wrapping my legs up around my bad arm, my good arm surrounding it, and waited, listening. The silence went on for ever.
And then... tamp tamp tamp. I looked up as the door to my little chamber slid back slowly, and felt an immense wave of relief when Kagewaki was the one who entered. I sat up, a smile pulling on the corners of my lips.
He entered just as graceful and dignified as before, and knelt beside my pallet.
"Are you alright?!" I said immediately, sweeping my eyes over him. There were no wounds that I could see, no scratches, not even patches of dirt or cloth that may have been torn in a scuffle. My earlier assumptions had to have been right, then - to have escaped from that battlefield with no evidence of ever having been there, he must have been a powerful general or leader.
His eyebrows drew down in a expression of confusion and I wracked my brain for a moment before stumbling over the unfamiliar words: "Daijobu?"
His confusion melted into amusement and he nodded his head. "Hai," he said softly, and I understood this to mean "Yes."
I glanced at the wall which lead out onto the porch and he followed my gaze. "Ile," he said, shaking his head -this must mean "no" - "Daijobu."
I sagged with relief and lay back on the thin mattress. He seemed amused by this as well. I wanted to reach up, to touch his hand, to communicate that I was relieved, but as soon as I moved my right arm the whole appendage began screaming.
Waves of hot pain burnt their way up my arm, through my veins, into my heart and head and I cried out. Amusement gone, Kagewaki carefully uncapped some of the clay pots that had lain by my bedside and mixed some dried herbs into the now-empty water bowl.
He called for someone, they conversed briefly at the door, and then hot water in both a fresh bowl and a teapot were brought in. The herbs were set in the pot to steep, and the servant dismissed. Carefully, with his own large hands, Kagewaki unwound my bandages.
This was unusual treatment, I knew. I was being tended to by the Lord of the House himself. Carefully, seemingly unrepelled by my withered and scorched flesh, he cleansed first the puncture wounds and then my whole arm, finger-tips to neck, with the hot water, then re-applied the ointment.
Handing me a cup to the brewed tea from the pot, he then settled beside me, crossed his legs, which I had never seen him do before, and slowly, gently, wrapped my arm in new linen. Once or twice I tried to catch his umber eyes, but they remained focussed on the task.
Once finished, he settled back, shifting a few bum-spaces away to lean against the wooden support beam of the outside wall. He pulled one knee up under his chin and raised his hand in a sort of "drink up" gesture. I had been waiting for the tea to cool.
Hoping that it was some sort of painkiller, I took my time sipping on the tepid liquid. "Thank you," I said softly between mouthfuls and Kagewaki, who had turned his head to look at the silhouette of the porch-beams through the paper-wall turned back to look at me.
"Thank you," I said again, adding, "Arigatou."
"Ah," he smiled, "Doitashimashite." I assumed he was saying 'you're welcome'.
As I finished the cup of tea, my eyelids began to grow heavy again, and I lay back down. Sighing with the joy of the painkiller begining to permiate my being, I hardly noticed when Kagewaki came forward and freed my arm from the sling, balled up the fabric, and put it under my head for a pillow.
He got up and I heard his footfalls as he moved towards the braizer in the far left corner.
Then I smelt the sandalwood.
And then I fell asleep.
~~~
"Where are you from?" a deep voice asked me, and in that strange dream-logic way I knew that he was not speaking English. But again, in that dream-way, I never thought to question why I could understand him then.
"Far away," I answered, "Far far away."
"What is your purpose here?" the voice asked again, and it sent thrills up my spine.
"I'm lost."
"What are you?"
"...lost..."
Frustration began to taint the rich tone of the speaker. "Are you human? Or demon?"
"...human."
"What is the name of the place you come from?"
"I... don't know..."
"How did you arrive here?"
"I... don't know..."
In my dream a shadowy figure cut across the moon, and all I could catch was a flash of moonlight on a silver cloak.
Then I rolled over, the dream forgotten the moment it ended.
I did not smell sandalwood when I awoke.
~~~
The next morning I awoke to find Kagewaki already awake and sitting on the porch outside of my room , the paper walls that separated this chamber from the outside slid back. Beside him was a small tray of food, half-eaten.
He was staring with amazement at something and I sat up slowly to see what it was. Over his shoulder I watched with horror as a young girl, perhaps my age, with long dark hair crawl across the ground.
She was wearing punctured and torn armour of a style I did not recognize, and as she hauled herself forward on her elbows and stomach, her face was twisted in a determined grimace. She was leaving a trail of blood in her wake.
Kagewaki immediately stood, and with his frame blocking the door, I could no longer see the girl.
My god, had she been in the fight the night before?
"Sango," I heard Kagewaki say, and could not make out the rest of his sentence. But the tone in it was evident - he was expressing surprise.
~~~
I was, of course, too ill to leave my room, but from the sounds I could tell that this warrior-girl had been tucked into the chamber beside mine. There was much moaning and wailing, and I figured she must be in a lot of pain.
The day had hardly past before I heard her and Kagewaki and someone else whose voice originated from the garden beyond the porch conversing, and then this girl was back in her armour and gone.
The last thing I heard her spitting was "Inu Yasha! Shine!"
~~~
Later that evening Kagewaki came to share a meal with me, and I desperately wished that I had the language skills to ask him what the Hell had been going on around me. I felt so lost, so alone and isolated.
More than that, I had begun to get scared, for I had that afternoon realized that not only was I in Japan, but that I must, somehow, be in a very rural area of the country, for I saw no form of technology anywhere.
The most technologically advanced gadget I could see was the medicinal ointment that the doctor came and went with once every few hours. I had begun to hope that I was just in a very traditional household.
When we had finished out meal, the trays were taken away and Kagewaki knelt once more beside my pallet.
Reaching into the front of his shirt, which he had pointed to and said 'haori', he produced a small bundle of cloth. From the small triangle of white fabric, Kagewaki produced a small shimmering object. I looked closely and saw that it was a glittering magenta fragment of crystal. The edges looked sharp.
He held it delicately by a pin attached to the narrowest part of the crystal shard and it took me a moment to realize that this was an earring. He held it forward, and the meaning behind the gesture was obvious. He wanted me to wear it.
Carefully, and with his help as my arm still hurt too much to move and the fingers of my right hand were still numb, he helped me replace my old earring in my left ear with the shimmering piece of jewellery.
When he sat back, he looked pleased.
I wondered what the significance of the gesture had been... I hoped I hadn't just married him without knowing it.
"Kirie..." he said softly.
"It's beautiful," I said, and had the feeling we were saying the same thing. "Arigatou."
He just nodded and smiled.
~~~
When I slept again I smelled sandalwood and dreamed of falling through the air.
I hit the ground, hard. I was in a ... a room of some sort? I didn't know.
Beside me there was a faint pinkish glow, the same colour of my new earring. I wanted to reach out, pick up whatever was glowing. I lifted my right arm and something... pain! Sharp jagged things drove into my flesh and I screamed as I felt my skin begin to scald.
Then I heard a deep voice chuckling. There was a bright light and I lifted my left hand to cover my eyes, but it was too late. The brightness was blinding. Darkness descended in spots and dancing stars and I realized I lay on the cold earth.
And then I woke up.
~~~
I sat bolt upright on the pallet, ramrod straight, panting.
What a strange dream. Closing my eyes I lay back down, willing the shivering aftermath of the adrenalin surge to fade.