CHAPTER SIX

*

Kagome shook her head as she landed on the ground. But the ground was cold, hard -- not snow. Dirt. She groaned and slowly rolled over, coughing softly. The wind was still blowing hard -- but somehow it wasn't actually blowing on her.

"Inuyasha?" she murmured.

A dark form crept toward the mouth of the cave, which was half-blocked by a wall of snow. Kagome fumbled in the dark for her flashlight, switched it on, and pointed it at the mouth of the cave. Inuyasha was huddled by the entrance, piling rocks and snow in a crude wall over the opening. His hair was blown over his face, and the shadows cast by the flashlight made him look cold and sinister, almost like his brother Sesshoumaru. The illusion was broken when he sneezed.

He paused, with a rock clutched in his fist. "You feelin' okay?" he asked gruffly.

Kagome prodded her own leg. She might as well have been touching a piece of meat; she couldn't feel anything, and it didn't move when she tried to stand up. Suddenly a feeling like a white-hot needle jabbed through her ankle, making her foot twist and cramp inside her boot. "Ow!"

"What's the matter?"

"My foot's waking up. Oww..." Kagome wriggled her toes. It felt like the joints had frosted over, and were only now starting to thaw. She slipped her hands into her thick pants and started rubbing her legs. "Where are we?"

"Dunno. It looks like a den of some kind. Probably some demon lived here until the mountain frosted over, and this is all that's left. There are some bone bits on the floor." Inuyasha had started piling snow and rocks over the entrance again.

When Kagome was sure that all her body parts were still in working order, she painfully got to her knees and crept toward him. She couldn't stand up; even if her legs weren't twinging and cramping, the cave was only the size of a roomy car. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Tryin' to make sure the wind can't blow in here," Inuyasha said grimly. He rubbed his hands together for a moment before setting the last rock in place. "Couldja aim that thing away from my eyes?"

"Sorry." Kagome set the flashlight down and crept painfully back to her backpack. "I think I have a little firewood in -- I forgot my matches!"

"Do we even need a fire?"

"Well, I can't boil you ramen without one."

She felt Inuyasha's cold fingers close over her wrist. "You got firewood? Okay, just hold it up here." In the dim light, he held a rock close to the small log in her hands, his golden eyes glowing faintly.

Kagome couldn't imagine what he was planning to do. How could Inuyasha get fire out of a rock?

She was answered when he raked his claws over the rock, with an earsplitting nails-on-the-chalkboard shriek that set her teeth on edge. Kagome almost dropped the log, but somehow managed to keep a grip on it. Sparks flew out, and one of them caught on the wood.

Inuyasha cupped his hands around the spark, and after a moment of fading in and out, it blossomed into a tiny flame. Kagome put the log down carefully, feeling dizzy. Her ears were still ringing.

"My father showed me how to do that when I was little," Inuyasha said, flexing his hand.

"Well, at least we won't freeze now," Kagome said, rubbing her ears. "Even if I am seeing double now."

"Hey, it's worse for me." Inuyasha huddled over the small fire, his silver hair falling over his face. "I can hear it more than you can." He watched in silence as Kagome managed, after a struggle with the sputtering campfire, to boil enough water for an instant ramen package. They shared it in silence, listening to the howl of the wind outside. Even though it wasn't really hot, the food warmed them a little.

"You think the others will be all right?" Kagome asked finally.

"If they aren't," Inuyasha said darkly, swallowing the last noodles, "then we can't do nothin' about it. I'm practically blind and deaf out there, and you almost froze on top of me. Until the blizzard passes, we'll have to stay here and assume Miroku and Sango are smart enough to find their own shelter." He crushed the ramen cup in his fist, and slowly ground it to small pieces.

Kagome unrolled her sleeping bag and unzipped the top. I'm so glad I got the extra-large, she thought. For once, listening to the sales clerk really had come in handy, even if she hadn't known that Kagome would be sleeping in a cave during a blizzard. There weren't many caves in Tokyo, and people tended to stay home during blizzards.

She slipped inside and flipped the top of the bag open. "Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha had been staring out at the whirling snow. "What?"

"Hop in for the night."

That got his attention. "Y-you want me to get in there?" he said, looking suddenly nervous.

"Of course I do. The best way to conserve body heat in an emergency is to huddle together in an insulated space, like this sleeping bag. So stop blushing and get in here with me."

"I'm not blushing. It's the wind," Inuyasha said. Still looking vaguely nervous at the prospect of sleeping beside her, he stepped down and slid in beside Kagome. She pulled the bag shut and zipped it closed. As he started to stretch onto her half of the bag, she prodded him. "Hey, be careful. We just need to keep warm until morning," she said. "So let's try to stay close, okay?"

For a moment, the two stared at one another, and Kagome could feel herself blushing as well. She'd never gotten this close to Inuyasha. Well, not in a sleeping bag, that was. He wasn't like Miroku, with a one-track mind, but she could guess what some of his thoughts were about.

He was staring at her in an eerie, intent way, as he did when he thought she wasn't looking. Just when Kagome was about to say something to break the awkward silence, Inuyasha suddenly turned his back to her and curled up.

I suppose that could have been worse, Kagome thought. I just hope the others are doing okay right now...

TO BE CONTINUED