Winter's Chill (Chapter 3)
by IronRaven

Discalimer: Inuyasha and company aren't mine. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi-sama.

Let's see, where were they? Oh yes, Sango was dragging a very hypothermic Miroku through a blizzard, and Shippou had not only suffered head trauma, he's been stuffed into Inuyahsa's shirt, and we all know how often dog boy bathes. Ewwww....

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The stinging wind brought tears to his eyes as Inuyasha stumbled on yet another hidden object under the snow. At least he told himself it was the wind as they continued on, knowing that the village was in the direction he was going in.

"I'm sorry, Shippou, I thought it was closer. I'm used to moving faster than this, but the snow is too deep to run in." And we got into this because I was leaping in the trees with this wind. "Feh! Damn snow storm!"

One arm holding the still unconscious boy to him, the half-demon paused, breathing hard. Looking back, he could see his path, like a wake in the snow. "If anyone wants to find us, we won't be hard to follow. Now that is a comforting thought, ain't it."

"Shippou, I hope you don't remember what I'm saying. But I figure I may as well keep talking to you, until you start to wake up. It feels better talking to you than to a squirrel. You know I won't eat you, even if you would blab this to everyone if you remember what I was saying."

"And when I've been hurt, everyone chatters at me, so it's my turn to pay some of it back," grinning down at the still slightly shivering kitsune cub in his shirt, Inuyasha's eyes glinted with something. Not laughter, never that, but not cruelty. Maybe teasing.

"Come on, Shippou-kun, it's time to get you someplace warm and dry before the night get's any closer." Gently rubbing the boy's back through his fire rat coat, Inuyasha started pushing his way though the snows again, his eyes flicking from flake to flake with a glare that would wither most youkai where they stood. The snow kept falling as the two faded into the white darkness, not caring about the hanyou's anger, carried on a mocking wind.

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"Please, S-sango, pu-ut me down. I'm heavy."

"I will, Houshi-sama, in t-two hundred and five steps," Sango informed her companion. The falling snow had soaked their hair, and the cold froze it in place. As close as their heads were, their long hair had mixed, becoming one raven mass under the ice. She had yelled at him, cajoled him, and encouraged him.

She thought back to the training that others had undergone at the village. Those like her, her brother, those who had been born into the life of taijiya learned from birth. But many came to the village to learn how to fight demons. Priest, samurai, others. Not many of them ever got the chance. Those who did had shown that they were worthy of adoption into the clan. But first, they had to become a hunter.

The runs through the forest, climbing the cliffs, swimming in the river. Day and night, in and out of armour, even with heavy burdens, until they could do it silently while wearing bells, for hours on end. Learning to fight demons, like they were demons, rather than men. Many of them needed a little coaxing, as her father called it. She didn't need to be coaxed- this was her dream, her heritage, to be a hunter. But the others, who came from the outside, didn't have that advantage. It was from her father's quiver of verbal arrows she had called on for the past hour, stumbling in the snow. I'm sorry, houshi-sama, for saying some of these things to you. If we survive, you'll be alive to hate me.

That thought brought fresh tears of pain to her eyes, mixing with the ones brought by the cold and frustration as her knees landed in the snow.

'If', taijiya?' If' means you already gave up, Sango. The last of her kind, cut down by some bad weather. Yes, that is how your line will end. Frozen in a pasture, and then pecked at by the birds in the spring. If He dies, it's because you quit. Do you feel like quitting, Sango, hmm? Are you going to give up on yourself? On Kohaku? On the vengeance of your clan?

On Him?

Are you ready to leave Him to die, to let him be the first of your new family to die because you gave up? ANSWER ME, SANGO!!

Am I making you angry, Sango? Am I bothering the great exterminator? Oh, I am so sorry, great and powerful Sango-sama. Two hundred pardons, Sango-sama. Do you want me to go away, Sango-sama? Then get up and make me leave, you whimpering little fool! You don't deserve to carry the hairikitsu. Sango-sama, the weakling. Sango-sama, the coward. Stand up and prove me wrong! You can't do it, can you? You are going just going to die here, aren't you. You are going to let HIM die to, aren't you, so you don't have to be alone again. And when the winter sickness comes, Sango-sama? Who else will join you? Hmm? Kaede? Shippou? Inuyahsa? The villagers you've helped? Oh, yes Sango-sama,, you protected them from the evils, just to let them die because you couldn't even carry one little monk! And how about Kagome? She'll keep trying to stop Naraku, trying to save your brother, even without the great Sango-sama to protect her. Just her and Kirara. How long will they last? A week? A day? Do you want to see Kohaku and Okaa-san and Otou-san that badly, Sango-sama? You want to take your houshi home, don't you, introduce Him to your family. Yes, a nice happy, cheery, DEAD family, the old one and the new, and it will be YOUR FAULT, Sango-sama!!!

With a wordless scream of rage and terror, panicked eyes flying from shadow to shadow, Sango dragged herself to her feet, throwing snow from her back and shoulders, looking for the voice that taunted her, that called to her from the darkness beyond the snows. "STOP IT!! SHUT UP!! LEAVE US ALONE!!!!"

Eyes wild, one hand on her sword, the other around Miroku, her heart pounded as she recognized the voice in her head. Her own voice. She had fallen. In the snow. Then she closed her eyes. She remembered that. In a tiny voice that even she barely heard, she answered her own challenge "Shut up, bitch, I'm not quiting, not yet. Not even on you."

"S-s-sang-g-go?" Miroku stirred, disturbed from dreams of warmth by the screaming, flailing girl at his side.

"Nothing, houshi-sama. Come on, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. One hundred and ninety-nine steps, full ones, not these little ones, and then we can sleep." Smiling to herself, the voice asked, haven't tried that, have you? "When we get there, you and I will just take a little nap, just the two of us. Can you do this for me?"

"I.. I can try, Sango. If you want." Miroku's voice was tired, weak, bored. Wanting to sleep.

"Don't try, bozou, do it! One hundred ninety-eight! Don't make me have to drag you like a holy sack of rice!" Shivering not only from the cold outside, Sango's belly turned to ice. His hand hasn't once tried to grab me, and now he's saying he'll try to go to bed with me! Move, girl, before you loose him for good!

"Move it, stop dragging your feet. Left, right, left, right. Pick them up, don't waste my time with baby steps. Move like there is my angry father behind you…."

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"I'm sorry, Shippou. I can't see enough to travel, we could go in circles all night. I'll find us someplace to stay until dawn."

Looking at the trees nearest to him, Inuyasha found a few familiar evergreens. Tearing limbs from several pines, gathering them, he moved towards the remains of an ancient oak that had fallen in a summer storm. "At least I know where we are. Under this oak is a little hollow, I just need to dig down to it, make us a little cave in the snow. Line it with these branches to keep us a little warmer, more of them for a roof. A little den. You and me, otouto, like the beasts we are, eh?"

Using his feet to kick away some of the snow near the hollow, Inuyasha knelt to start digging. I smell blood. My blood! Looking down, he saw that one of his feet had been stabbed by a nub of a tree branch. Giving his toes a reflexive curl, he stared at them until they moved. They're frozen!

"Feh! Just a scratch. Nothing to worry about, Shippou. I've had whole arms in me, and I came back. Don't worry, kiddo, I'll have you back to Kaede's as soon as it's light."

Lining the hollow with the pine limbs, Inuyasha slid into the hollow, covering the opening with more of the branches, knowing that the snow would soon cover them. Body heat warmed the cavity a few degrees within minutes.

"See, Shippou, I'm not as dumb as I look, am I? I told you we'd be warm in here." Opening his robes, he pulled out the cub, looking him over. From an inner fold, he drew out the small flashlight that Kagome had given him.

The swelling had already started to go down, and it looked like his nose would be fine. "Feh- a busted nose would have made you look tough, Shippou. You got to be tough. I wish we could make Kagome see that. Kikiyo understood that, she was tough…

"Kikyo and Kagome… Do you ever think about them? You never knew Kikyo. When she was alive, she was a lot like Kagome. But quieter, sterner. She made me want… to be loved. But Kagome got to grow up in a time of magic and luxury. Imagine, everyone being able to become scribes. They must have to, to be able to become so powerful."

Running a hand through his snow soaked mane, Inuyasha studied the face of the boy before him. "I wonder if my little brother would have been like you. Never knew that, did you? My Okaasan was pregnant when she died. I never got to see my baby brother. So, when I see you, I have to wonder if I would have been a good oniisan for him. Taught him how to fish, and hunt, and fight. Maybe fly a kite, or play kemari with."

Taking the ends of his hair, using them to wipe the encrusted blood from the boy's face, the water and blood mixing, turning the tips pink, he spoke, his voice becoming strained. "Or would I have been like Sesshoumaru? Would I have cursed at him, called him a weakling? Kicked him? Humiliated him for fun, to entertain my flock of cronies and lickspittle followers? Mocked him, abused him just to show the full demons that I was as strong as they were?

"That's why I got angry with you when you asked about our father's swords. I always wondered why I was asked to hold Otousan's shrine, why I was given the Tessaiga. I am the weaker brother. Sesshoumaru is stronger and faster than I am, he's a full youkai. So why did I get the honor of protecting my Otousan for eternity? Maybe you are right, maybe my human half makes me stronger. Maybe that is what you ment."

Curling himself into a ball around the kitsune, Inuyasha twisted the light off. 'Bat-ter-ees', Kagome had called the jars that the tame torch ate from. He only had the ones in there, and didn't want to keep the torch burning if didn't need to. Curling his feet into his knees to protect them from further freezing, he gritted his teeth at the pain, fighting to keep from screaming.

"I think you are right. Humans are stronger. In five hundred years, your life time, they will tame fire, make it meak, docile, a trained pet to come when called from it's cage. But they only live a tenth as long as youkai do. Has any youkai ever made a 'bat-ter-ee'. But the humans will. And their villages shall reach up to touch the sky…."

"They are great miko and wizards, Shippou-kun. One of them was so great, she taught me how to want to love back. But if you ever tell Kagome that I said that, I'll… I'll… I don't know what I'll do to you, but it will be pretty damn horrible…"

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Author's notes:
Ahhhhh... Inuyahsa's so embarrased... :)

Taiyija: Sango's title as a demon hunter. Not sure of the exact translation.
Kemari: A kind of japanese game. As I understand, it's kinda like a cross between soccer and kickball.
Miko: Shinto priestess

About Sango's little voice: I've BEEN that cold. Your mind does really weird things, mostly to try to keep you (and it) alive. In my case, it wasn't even nice as what Sango's does. And I think that threat of Sango's father chasing after me would get me to move if I had the houshi's, err, bad habits. :) As for what she's saying, the taiyija weren't secret, so eventually people would come to them for training. Some of them may have needed "motivation".

And with frostbite, you can't feel your injuries, at least not in my experince. That's part of why it is so scary. That, and the threat of gangrene when the area thaws.