Big thanks to reviewers: Hanamaru285, Chibi-Kerochan (thanks for all the reviews and I'll have to remember to check out your stories!), Angel of Saturn1, loozer-09
Okay. I'm sorry that I didn't make things too clear last chapter about Naraku. He's not dead; it was a puppet of sorts that died and along with it most of the imp army. The wooden thing inside the shadow monster was connected to Naraku in a way so that he would know how the battle was going. I apologize once again at my not making that clear. Sorry!
Let's see, about two more chapters than this ccccrrrrrraaaaaazzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyy fic will be done with!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the anime/manga Inuyasha.
Kagome's heart caught well within the thin area of the throat and choked her. Inuyasha walked steadily by her, not paying one ounce of attention to the trembling soldier just feet from him, and how that soldier wished to run to him and embrace him and also wished for him to keep walking. He did the later, much to the intense relief of the soldier known as his wife. Despite his pleas and a quite intense argument that surrounded her coming with him for the last battle –the battle for Hathar- which he "won", Kagome still found a way to follow her husband. She practically ordered Rin to secrecy for this. As easy as it would have been to leave Fiore and Kreiger behind and comply with Inuyasha's request, Kagome knew she could not sit idly at home like a pleasant housewife and just had to be in this battle. With strict instructions to Rin not to say anything about her departure to Sesshoumaru and a letter for Sesshoumaru saying her final wishes if she and Inuyasha died in battle that the children were to have joint leadership of Yogo, Kagome stole away in the wee hours of the morning.
Now it was early in the third day of departure and the Yogo, Veralind, and Girth armies were clearing camp to march on to Mythora. Just the night before the three armies had landed and set up camp and were separated into their fifty person divisions within the army the three armies. Somehow Kagome found herself among heroes from the last battle: Balthos Korrigor, Kouga, and Giltong of the Northern Plains of Veralind. With all her might Kagome tried to avoid Kouga, fearing he would recognize her and drag her complaining to her husband. So far Kouga had been too dense and too stuck up with pride and compliments over the last battle to notice her, and that is what she had been relying on so far.
By noon they were deep within the Catharique Plains and all around her Kagome could feel old death hovering like fog amongst the living. It severely dampened her moderately happy mood and made her realize that they should be parallel on the Catharique Plains with the fortress Quag by the end of the day. Kagome was not looking forward to seeing the fortress that had four years ago been the death place of her father, of Kikyo, and of the entire Hathar army. Sniffing and breathing heavily, Kagome tried to keep hot, stinging tears at bay that threatened to spill down her cheeks. Kagome reached up and pulled down the visor of her army issued Yogo helmet so no one would see her cry.
In the distance Kagome could see a rock wall climb steadily up and two arms of rock that tapered to the far rock's height like a half circle of stone. That death trap of stone she recalled was the Kloric Ravine and Quag was snuggled into the eastern most of the stone arms with the abandoned Rhyne Town at its base. The rock wall far ahead had a road that merchants of old traveled through to get to Mythora. It would take one three hours to get through the Kloric Ravine and then ten miles to the city of Mythora. So close to home, Kagome thought, yet it was a home she hardly knew at all. She spent hardly four months in the city.
Kagome started when she felt a hand lightly grip her shoulder. Quickly she turned to find it was the dog demon Balthos Korrigor looking at her with sympathy in his golden eyes.
"Are you alright?" he inquired.
Clearing her throat, she responded, "I'm fine."
"You were crying and I would hardly call that fine," Balthos said.
"I was just thinking of my older brother," Kagome lied. "He was a medic from Veralind and died in the battle in Ensythide, and I mourn him."
Great, Kagome chided herself for the lie and hope that this Balthos man would believe her. Kagome was quite glad that the Veralind people had a tendency to be of dark hair, dark eyes, and fair skin like her otherwise the tale might not work.
"Ah," Balthos said with much sympathy, "my sincere condolences. Many humans and youkai died in that battle and I'm sure he went down fighting valiantly."
"I'm sure he did," Kagome said and felt like laughing in this poor man's face. But, Balthos managed to startle her again.
"Where do you hail from in Veralind?"
Kagome said the first Veralind location that popped into her head, "The Northern Plains, "and she countered with, "Where do you come from in Yogo?"
Balthos politely smiled, "I come from northern Yogo. A small diamond mining town called Degochi and probably one of the most scenic places on the planet."
"How so?" Kagome challenged. She was finding this Balthos man to be quite interesting.
"The city is nestled well into the mountains; a mountain valley actually. In the summer the grass is extraordinarily green and millions upon millions of tulips pop out of the ground. Tulips of yellows, oranges, pinks, blues, and any other color imaginable speckle the city and its surrounding fields, filling the air with such a heavenly aroma. And the sky is almost always blue with a fair dusting of white clouds. And in the winter the trees loose all their leaves, save for the pines and spruces, and snow many feet deep coats the ground. It's hard to quite describe it all," Balthos finished with a homesick sigh.
"It sounds very lovely," Kagome grinned. "You are the all honored Balthos Korrigor, right?"
"Correct," he nodded. "I am afraid I don't know the name of a lady like you."
Kagome laughed, the first time in many days, and she could not help but notice how lovely it felt. But the she realized that she had no name. She could very well not call herself Kagome; for someone was bound to figure out she was the King's wife.
"My name is Leizle," Kagome lied once again and put her hand out in greeting.
Balthos took her hand and shook it in a pleasant way for salutation. They talked pleasantly the remainder of the day, and Kagome was quite relieved to find someone she could communicate to intelligently in the current situation. And just as she suspected, the three armies were parallel to Quag when the sun began sinking below the western wall of the Kloric Ravine. After a time Kagome noticed the army was heading straight for the abandoned city of Rhyne Town and Quag beyond it. She tensed up immediately and nearly ran in the opposite direction in fear, for she just could not face the place so many had died in… and she was the only survivor of it all.
The dog youkai instantly sensed Kagome's change in mood. He figured it had something to do with the empty fortress the armies were heading for, and just by looking at it he could see why it might bother someone. The fortress was quite dilapidated, its high walls crumbling and the burnt shells of homes at its base, plus there was an odd ambience floating about.
"This place is horrible," Kagome shivered.
"Why would you say that Leizle?" Balthos asked Kagome.
"Bad things," Kagome whispered, "happened here years ago and the place is left with those vibes. I don't want to get any closer, and I had hoped to never see this place again!"
Kagome shivered as the three armies halted the advance and began setting up tents and lighting fires to cook dinner by. She sat by a fire that Giltong had made with her magic and stared blankly at a scouting party that Kouga had volunteered to be in move slowly up Quag's bridge, and how she shivered and her teeth clattered with the thought of how many Hatharans died on that bridge and in that fortress. Her eyes then settled on the houses and she nearly cried in anguish with the thought of Kikyo's last minutes in those death traps.
Thirty minutes later Kouga and some other wolf demon in their division sat by the fire after coming back from scouting the fortress, and their faces were quite grim. Kouga's skin had taken on ashen tones and his eyes were wide with sadness and his companion looked quite confused and disoriented.
"What has got you two looking so sick?" Giltong prodded as she stoked the fire a bit.
"This fortress saw some bad days years ago," Kouga answered. "As you walk up that bridge to the fortress, "he gesticulated behind himself," nothing seems out of the ordinary. Then you see the metal gates are bashed in with imprints the size of my fists and the gate opens like a breeze when you press on it. And inside are skeletons. Thousands and thousands of skeletons of humans and smaller, less developed creatures and if I had to guess what they were I would say Uranin imps. Those piles of bones are quite high –some as high as twenty feet and for bone piles that's really high. And in the center of all the remains is a skeleton impaled on a sword with a marble marker saying 'Here lays King Dion'. It's one of the most disturbing things I've seen, and to make it worse about half the human bones are charred like they were burned before death."
Kagome at this point stood and walked away from the campfire; she could no longer take their talk. Her father's bones were put on display like some freak show with such a mocking little death marker, and those bones –those horrible bones. With a frame shaking sob she knew one of those charred skeletons belonged to her aunt Kikyo. Stumbling along with tears in her eyes, Kagome finally sunk to the ground and cried inside the shell of what was someone's home and feel asleep with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Just as the sun was stabbing at her eyes a soft voice woke her along with a gentle shake.
"Wake up Leizle!" the voice sounded like Balthos. "We are leaving and it's taken me ten minutes to track you down, let's go."
"Sorry," Kagome grumbled as she hefted herself off the ground and grimaced with a sharp pain that ran the length of her spine.
"Are you fine?" Balthos asked as they began walking back to the army encampment.
"Stiff," Kagome shrugged. "I suppose that's what I get for falling asleep on the ground while sitting up. After I walk around a while it'll work itself out. Besides, carrying around a baby feels much worse on the back and feet than sleeping on the hard ground does."
Balthos furled his eyebrows in confusion, "I did not know you were a mother."
Blanching, Kagome realized she had fumbled in words and now had to back track or correct her mistake. Damn, she inwardly cursed.
"I am," Kagome smiled and tried to seem convincing. It wasn't too hard because she really is a mother, but she still had to lie about how she conceived her children. "They are home with my mother while I fight here simply because I want them to live a life free of fear. I know that's wishful thinking; there are always things to fear, but if I can fight to eliminate one of those fears I find it worth it. That's just my thinking. If you don't agree perhaps you need to be a parent first."
Plus I want to keep my husband in sight, Kagome thought to herself. She looked above and was greeted with a lavender sky and light haze –clearing by the moment- settled over the Catharique Plains. A few trees that managed to survive the massacre in Rhyne Town were dappled with morning dew and small pink flowers. Kagome recognized those pink buds as sakura blossoms and she remembered a scene of her childhood some thirteen years ago when she and Horaku would run through the sakura orchards just outside of the village. That memory caused her to turn around and look carefully at the weed ridden cobblestone streets of Rhyne Town and scorched, gutted houses of a city that once housed people. Horaku died here… somewhere in these streets.
************************************************************************
It was around noon of the fourth day of departure when Inuyasha took a rag out from his pocket in which a golden watch carefully rested. It had long sense stopped working –even as a child it had not worked- but in it were pictures of Kagome, Fiore, and Kreiger. The new invention of photograph amazed him: it took a portion of life and copied it onto slippery paper. Scientists of Yogo had worked diligently on this invention for the past three years and he was quite surprised with the satisfactory results, but he had no desire to know how it worked, just the products of the photograph.
Sighing, Inuyasha put away the pocket watch. He very much missed his family and the fact he had smelled Kagome's scent the other day damped his mood much more. Searching through the resting army during their midday break yesterday he had caught her heavenly lavender and vanilla smell, but when he did not find her, he assumed he was loosing it. I probably am, he inwardly groaned and massaged his forehead. After walking nearly all this day from the abandoned fortress with the empty city at its base they decided to set up camp for the remainder of the day on a hill overlooking Mythora. Thirty minutes before Naraku himself had come up to the hill and said they would do battle tomorrow and strangely enough he believed him. The man himself was a nest of falsehoods and malice, but he sensed that Naraku was eager for a morning battle and would not mind weathering the night to eliminate the opposition. Inuyasha too did not mind waiting out the night to kill Naraku and his army.
Deep within his secret heart, Inuyasha had a strange feeling about the battle tomorrow but something calmed him about it too. He only got that calming sensation when Kagome was near, but she was back at Sesshoumaru's manor. Shaking that off, he thought about the other feeling. After thinking on it he still could not decide what it was and little did he know Kagome felt the same too on the other side of the encampment. And tomorrow that sense, that odd impression would draw them together in the heat of battle and fight as only those in that position could.
Awight! Next chapter the battle. The last few sentences of the chapter were a foreshadowing deal. Were they dumb? I just threw them in 'cause I didn't know what else to put in. With next chapter being the battle this fic will end with an epilogue. So two total chapters left: battle and epilogue. Maybe I'll separate the battle into a few chapters if it gets too long, I don't know. Sorry for all my ranting and such. You guys are way too nice for putting up with it! ^_^
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have a nice day/night!