Spider, Part Eight "Curious"
by Vega
~~~
I spent the rest of the dying afternoon sitting beside Kagewaki in silence, contemplating.
Once he turned to me and held out the chicken-scratch scroll and asked if perhaps I understood what was written. I said I did not, and he nodded to himself as if he had expected as much, and said nothing further to me.
I huddled down in the blanket as best I could, knowing that underneath it all I wore was a thin cotton kimono that was probably half see-through. My light reddish hair was drying, frizzing up slightly, as if it had a sort of mind of it's own, creating thick waves around my face and ears.
I took a lock of it between my fingers and studied the colour, the texture... so like the great-grandmother in my dream. The soft russet colour of a fox kit, or a rusting nail. I let go and the hair sprung gently back into place. It was a relief to have it clean.
Then I looked up at the glowing blue sky with my matching eyes and thought.
The moving metal bar... that had been my watch. But how had the voice in my dreams known? The bite on my wrist... had someone done that for real? The smell of the sandalwood, the will-sapping kisses of the handsome young lord beside me...
I turned to look at Kagewaki. His hair was still tied up in that half top-knot, still long and black as ink. His caramel skin was smooth and taught over lovely shaped cheekbones, and wrinkled only slightly in the corners of his eyes and mouth when he smiled. His teeth were white and straight and perfect - something that struck me as odd if I really was far enough into the past to... I shied away from that thought.
And his eyes... his eyes were that strange roan colour, fire dancing in their depths. Darker than but close enough to the colour of the death's head mask's eyes to lurch my sense of reality for a shocking moment.
Kagewaki must have felt my gaze on him because he carefully set aside the scroll, then turned his body to me, hands folded in his lap.
"Yes? Is there something you wanted to talk about?" he prompted, and I bet my bottom lip. "Your dream perhaps?"
"Sort of," I admitted. I looked at the wrist of my burnt arm and his gaze followed. The bandages had been left off today to give the burns some air, and the punctures at the slender part of my wrist stood out, livid and purple. "I was bitten."
"Oh dear," he said, looking not half as shocked as I thought he should have been. "So you have."
"I was bitten in my dream, too. In the same spot."
His eyes narrowed. "You remember this?"
I nodded.
He seemed to think for a moment, and then came to a decision. "What else do you remember?"
I chose my words carefully. "There's that voice I told you about. This time I saw the person it comes from. He was dressed all in white. He had a skull mask on."
Kagewaki's eyes narrowed further. I thought briefly that if I said one more thing that seemed odd to him, he'd end up with shut eyes. "Go on."
"He asks me who I am and where I'm from, and I can't answer him."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know!" I waved my good hand in a gesture of annoyance. "All I know is that I woke up in that hut and that THING bit me, and then I woke up here! Anything beyond that is just... the pain just blocks it out."
Kagemwaki seemed to contemplate this. His hair began to collect the red sparks coming of the sun as it started to set, looking for all the world like someone had flicked a handful of blood at his back.
Then he leaned forward again, and before I could escape it, kissed me. Again that wave of pure trust washed over me, and I felt my cheeks flush as this time he deepened the kiss and pressed his tongue into my mouth. "Try to remember," he panted as we separated, and he pressed his forehead against mine. I let my head fall back against the tree as he ran the fingers of one of his hands through my slightly tangled hair, the other slipping down my neck to part the folds of the blanket enough to get at the delightful little hollow where my collar bones slipped together.
"I'm trying," I said, aware of the slight whine in my voice.
"I will take away your pain," Kagewaki breathed onto the skin of my neck and I felt it goosebump deliciously. Part of me, buried deep inside and screaming, told me to shove him away, but it all just felt so GOOD. I could trust him with every part of me - my soul, my heart, my memories, my body... I wanted to love him.
He tongue lathed the small hollow and I gasped again. "Please..."
"Remember," he said again, the words muffled against my throat.
I closed my eyes and bathed in the sensations. My skin was prickling everywhere, like pins and needled just under the surface from head to toe. For a brief moment the throbbing fire that was my right arm ebbed and I could actually feel every eyelash of his that touched me, every minute wrinkle in his lips. I wanted to kiss him back, so I grabbed a great handful of his hair and dragged his head back up to meet mine.
He chuckled and said "Remember," a third time, and suddenly I was speaking. The words poured out of me like an over-enthusiastic fountain and I couldn't make them stop. He was kissing me between breaths and I didn't want to stop.
"I was in the hallway and I heard my mother crying and telling grandmother that I was human and I hated my shoes and I was far away from here and I speak English and I was on the other side of the world and so very far away and a long time from now and I think it must have been three hundred years at least maybe five hundred and I don't think I'm human and I'm so scared--"
I couldn't stop kissing him. I moved my lips downward, ran my tongue along his jaw line, mildly surprised to realize that while the inside of his mouth was hot and sweet tasting, his skin was cold and bitter. I closed my eyes and threw my head back and I could feel him exploring and teasing the newly exposed flesh, his hands wriggling the blanket away and the shoulders of my kimono down. Not to be outdone I attacked his sash with vigour and reached my good hand around under his arm, brushing the warmth of his armpit, and to his back to stroke and claw and tease.
Feeling a strange ridge there, I stopped kissing him and pulled backwards slightly. His eyes were unfocussed with demand when they met mine, looking all the redder.
"What's this?" I asked in a soft voice, feeling breathless, and for good reason. "A scar?"
He nodded quickly and bent his head once more to my throat.
"Wait!" I said, and he pulled away, this time looking slightly annoyed. "From what?"
He sighed and slipped his kimono down all the way, the fabric pooling at his waist, then turned slightly so I could see. It was a scar alright, a burn scar.
"Would you look at that..." I breathed. "I looks like... a spider."
~~~
My discovery pretty much put a stopper on the whole making out thing, which was essentially a good thing, for the moment I was free from his arms clear thinking descended once more.
What was wrong with me? One or two kisses from I man I clearly no longer trusted and I was suddenly willing to...? I shoved that aside and asked Kagewaki where the scar was from.
He told me in very succinct words how in his youth he had been in love with a Miko who had betrayed him and run off with a jewel very precious to his family with a mangey inu-hanyou - a dog half-demon.
He reached out and touched my earring again and explained that somehow the hanyou had shattered the jewel and that I was wearing a shard of it - it's magic helped us to understand each other's words.
I asked how he had discovered this and why he had a shard of it, and he told me that he had hired a very trustworthy man named Naraku - the same one who had rescued me and brought me here - to track down and obtain the other shards.
When he said Naraku's name a cold thrill raced up my spine - there was something about it that made me want to vomit. Something that conjured low voices and silver cloaks.
I was going to say something, ask if the magenta glow on the floor from my nightmares about my injury was more of the shards, ask if I could see this Naraku and place him in my memory, ask about the goddamned sandalwood, but I was interruped.
A young boy in a black unitard and strange shell-like joint and groin guards approached and knelt before Kagewaki until Kagewaki excused himself from our conversation and bid him rise.
"Well, Kohaku?" he asked.
The name seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't place it.
"Sango has been found, My Lord," the boy intoned gravely. I wondered at him - he was so serious, a warrior of sort, judging by the knife at his belt, yet he couldn't have been more than twelve. "She travels with the inu-hanyou and the Miko. A cursed houshin and kitsune-youkai travel with them." Then he spouted off some directions and times and I judged from this that Kagewaki knew where to find them.
"Ah," Kagewaki nodded and rose to his feet. "Very good. I must prepare. Kohaku, will you see my guest back to her chambers?" Then he walked off.
I watched him go, mildly annoyed that after such a passionate intimacy he could just retreat, but he was a ruler of sorts, and did have an obligation to track down the thieves. Without saying a word, Kohaku pulled me to my feet and placed the blanket over my shoulders. Then, with me leaning heavily on him, he walked me back to my room and set me down on the futon.
He turned to go and I reached up and grabbed his belt. "Wait, please." His dark eyes narrowed at me and I swallowed heavily before continuing. "You're Kohaku?" He nodded briefly, sharply. "I heard someone screaming your name a few days ago. What was that?"
He pulled himself away and stared hard into my eyes. "I do not know what you are referring to." And then he left.
I shook my head and stared at my arm.
Curiouser and curiouser.
by Vega
~~~
I spent the rest of the dying afternoon sitting beside Kagewaki in silence, contemplating.
Once he turned to me and held out the chicken-scratch scroll and asked if perhaps I understood what was written. I said I did not, and he nodded to himself as if he had expected as much, and said nothing further to me.
I huddled down in the blanket as best I could, knowing that underneath it all I wore was a thin cotton kimono that was probably half see-through. My light reddish hair was drying, frizzing up slightly, as if it had a sort of mind of it's own, creating thick waves around my face and ears.
I took a lock of it between my fingers and studied the colour, the texture... so like the great-grandmother in my dream. The soft russet colour of a fox kit, or a rusting nail. I let go and the hair sprung gently back into place. It was a relief to have it clean.
Then I looked up at the glowing blue sky with my matching eyes and thought.
The moving metal bar... that had been my watch. But how had the voice in my dreams known? The bite on my wrist... had someone done that for real? The smell of the sandalwood, the will-sapping kisses of the handsome young lord beside me...
I turned to look at Kagewaki. His hair was still tied up in that half top-knot, still long and black as ink. His caramel skin was smooth and taught over lovely shaped cheekbones, and wrinkled only slightly in the corners of his eyes and mouth when he smiled. His teeth were white and straight and perfect - something that struck me as odd if I really was far enough into the past to... I shied away from that thought.
And his eyes... his eyes were that strange roan colour, fire dancing in their depths. Darker than but close enough to the colour of the death's head mask's eyes to lurch my sense of reality for a shocking moment.
Kagewaki must have felt my gaze on him because he carefully set aside the scroll, then turned his body to me, hands folded in his lap.
"Yes? Is there something you wanted to talk about?" he prompted, and I bet my bottom lip. "Your dream perhaps?"
"Sort of," I admitted. I looked at the wrist of my burnt arm and his gaze followed. The bandages had been left off today to give the burns some air, and the punctures at the slender part of my wrist stood out, livid and purple. "I was bitten."
"Oh dear," he said, looking not half as shocked as I thought he should have been. "So you have."
"I was bitten in my dream, too. In the same spot."
His eyes narrowed. "You remember this?"
I nodded.
He seemed to think for a moment, and then came to a decision. "What else do you remember?"
I chose my words carefully. "There's that voice I told you about. This time I saw the person it comes from. He was dressed all in white. He had a skull mask on."
Kagewaki's eyes narrowed further. I thought briefly that if I said one more thing that seemed odd to him, he'd end up with shut eyes. "Go on."
"He asks me who I am and where I'm from, and I can't answer him."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know!" I waved my good hand in a gesture of annoyance. "All I know is that I woke up in that hut and that THING bit me, and then I woke up here! Anything beyond that is just... the pain just blocks it out."
Kagemwaki seemed to contemplate this. His hair began to collect the red sparks coming of the sun as it started to set, looking for all the world like someone had flicked a handful of blood at his back.
Then he leaned forward again, and before I could escape it, kissed me. Again that wave of pure trust washed over me, and I felt my cheeks flush as this time he deepened the kiss and pressed his tongue into my mouth. "Try to remember," he panted as we separated, and he pressed his forehead against mine. I let my head fall back against the tree as he ran the fingers of one of his hands through my slightly tangled hair, the other slipping down my neck to part the folds of the blanket enough to get at the delightful little hollow where my collar bones slipped together.
"I'm trying," I said, aware of the slight whine in my voice.
"I will take away your pain," Kagewaki breathed onto the skin of my neck and I felt it goosebump deliciously. Part of me, buried deep inside and screaming, told me to shove him away, but it all just felt so GOOD. I could trust him with every part of me - my soul, my heart, my memories, my body... I wanted to love him.
He tongue lathed the small hollow and I gasped again. "Please..."
"Remember," he said again, the words muffled against my throat.
I closed my eyes and bathed in the sensations. My skin was prickling everywhere, like pins and needled just under the surface from head to toe. For a brief moment the throbbing fire that was my right arm ebbed and I could actually feel every eyelash of his that touched me, every minute wrinkle in his lips. I wanted to kiss him back, so I grabbed a great handful of his hair and dragged his head back up to meet mine.
He chuckled and said "Remember," a third time, and suddenly I was speaking. The words poured out of me like an over-enthusiastic fountain and I couldn't make them stop. He was kissing me between breaths and I didn't want to stop.
"I was in the hallway and I heard my mother crying and telling grandmother that I was human and I hated my shoes and I was far away from here and I speak English and I was on the other side of the world and so very far away and a long time from now and I think it must have been three hundred years at least maybe five hundred and I don't think I'm human and I'm so scared--"
I couldn't stop kissing him. I moved my lips downward, ran my tongue along his jaw line, mildly surprised to realize that while the inside of his mouth was hot and sweet tasting, his skin was cold and bitter. I closed my eyes and threw my head back and I could feel him exploring and teasing the newly exposed flesh, his hands wriggling the blanket away and the shoulders of my kimono down. Not to be outdone I attacked his sash with vigour and reached my good hand around under his arm, brushing the warmth of his armpit, and to his back to stroke and claw and tease.
Feeling a strange ridge there, I stopped kissing him and pulled backwards slightly. His eyes were unfocussed with demand when they met mine, looking all the redder.
"What's this?" I asked in a soft voice, feeling breathless, and for good reason. "A scar?"
He nodded quickly and bent his head once more to my throat.
"Wait!" I said, and he pulled away, this time looking slightly annoyed. "From what?"
He sighed and slipped his kimono down all the way, the fabric pooling at his waist, then turned slightly so I could see. It was a scar alright, a burn scar.
"Would you look at that..." I breathed. "I looks like... a spider."
~~~
My discovery pretty much put a stopper on the whole making out thing, which was essentially a good thing, for the moment I was free from his arms clear thinking descended once more.
What was wrong with me? One or two kisses from I man I clearly no longer trusted and I was suddenly willing to...? I shoved that aside and asked Kagewaki where the scar was from.
He told me in very succinct words how in his youth he had been in love with a Miko who had betrayed him and run off with a jewel very precious to his family with a mangey inu-hanyou - a dog half-demon.
He reached out and touched my earring again and explained that somehow the hanyou had shattered the jewel and that I was wearing a shard of it - it's magic helped us to understand each other's words.
I asked how he had discovered this and why he had a shard of it, and he told me that he had hired a very trustworthy man named Naraku - the same one who had rescued me and brought me here - to track down and obtain the other shards.
When he said Naraku's name a cold thrill raced up my spine - there was something about it that made me want to vomit. Something that conjured low voices and silver cloaks.
I was going to say something, ask if the magenta glow on the floor from my nightmares about my injury was more of the shards, ask if I could see this Naraku and place him in my memory, ask about the goddamned sandalwood, but I was interruped.
A young boy in a black unitard and strange shell-like joint and groin guards approached and knelt before Kagewaki until Kagewaki excused himself from our conversation and bid him rise.
"Well, Kohaku?" he asked.
The name seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't place it.
"Sango has been found, My Lord," the boy intoned gravely. I wondered at him - he was so serious, a warrior of sort, judging by the knife at his belt, yet he couldn't have been more than twelve. "She travels with the inu-hanyou and the Miko. A cursed houshin and kitsune-youkai travel with them." Then he spouted off some directions and times and I judged from this that Kagewaki knew where to find them.
"Ah," Kagewaki nodded and rose to his feet. "Very good. I must prepare. Kohaku, will you see my guest back to her chambers?" Then he walked off.
I watched him go, mildly annoyed that after such a passionate intimacy he could just retreat, but he was a ruler of sorts, and did have an obligation to track down the thieves. Without saying a word, Kohaku pulled me to my feet and placed the blanket over my shoulders. Then, with me leaning heavily on him, he walked me back to my room and set me down on the futon.
He turned to go and I reached up and grabbed his belt. "Wait, please." His dark eyes narrowed at me and I swallowed heavily before continuing. "You're Kohaku?" He nodded briefly, sharply. "I heard someone screaming your name a few days ago. What was that?"
He pulled himself away and stared hard into my eyes. "I do not know what you are referring to." And then he left.
I shook my head and stared at my arm.
Curiouser and curiouser.