Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Legend:

'……' thoughts

"……" speech

Enter the Wolf's Den

By: wolf demoness

Chapter Seven: Fortune Turns the Wheel

In perhaps the only stroke of luck he'd had all evening a group of wolf demons was skirting the forest edge at the moment Inuyasha's fight had begun. Koga, the young leader of the wold demon tribe was traveling toward the village at that very moment to try once again to prevail upon Kagome to return with him to his den and become his wife. With him were two of his most trusted lieutenants. At the moment that Inuyasha drew first blood in his fight with the boar the wolf demons were able to scent the blood on the air. At first the scent was ignored, that is until Inuyasha's blood was drawn. Koga, never being able to pass up a chance to rub his rival's face in his obvious superiority, veered in the direction that the scent of Inuyasha's blood was coming from. They went at a leisurely pace until the scent of the hanyou's blood became heavy on the wind.

"Damnit," Koga growled and began to run through the forest quickly enough so that he would not loose sight of his men. Though Koga liked to rib Inuyasha, he did respect the hanyou's fighting abilities and whatever could injure the hanyou that badly could surely do some damage to the small group of wolves. The blue eyed wolf decided to keep close to his comrades. After twenty minutes of running as fast as he could safely push the other two wolves, Koga came upon the decapitated carcass of the boar. His men quickly joined him.

"A boar?" Ginta asked.

Koga knelt next to the severed head; he picked it up and studied the boar's ruined face. "Rabid," he said as he carelessly tossed the head so that it rolled on the ground and came to a rest against the beast's back. It's one eye blindly staring up at Koga menacingly as he surveyed the abandoned battle scene.

"He took down a rabid boar?" Hakkaku asked with just a hint of awe in his voice.

"Yeah, yeah. All very impressive, but mutt-face is still bleeding to death somewhere around here," Koga said nonchalantly. Though he was avidly searching the forest for some sign of the hanyou. "The scent of his blood is everywhere, I can't find the source."

"It's been snowing too long for us to find any tracks," Hakkaku pointed out. Never the less the wolves began to scan the terrain. They spread out from the carcass looking for indention's in the snow, broken twigs on the surrounding shrubbery, blood, anything that would give their search some direction.

"Koga! Over here!" Ginta called from a few paces away. When the others joined him they saw that he'd dug down into the snow to uncover a thin layer of rusty red colored snow.

"Good work, Ginta," Koga praised. "Okay, fan out. Let's see where this trail leads." The three demons went forth following the trail of blood and scooping up handfuls of snow whenever a turning caused them to loose the path. Eventually they came to the half-buried body of the hanyou. Koga noted that the snow around the fallen demon was colored red with blood and Inuyasha's skin was cold as ice as they began to dig the hanyou from the embankment. The wolves winced and Ginta hissed when the demon was overturned and the extent of his injuries became apparent. "How much poison do you think he got, Ginta?"

"Too much. He's only a half demon." Ginta was the best healer among the three and so, though he was not the alpha male, the others deferred to him in medical matters. Ginta began to try to stem the bleeding and dress the wounds the hanyou had sustained. "The cold probably saved his life. If he wasn't buried in the snow he might have bled to death."

"How serious are the wounds?" Hakkaku asked.

"Bad, but not lethal."

"And the poison?" Koga asked from his position behind the two.

Ginta stopped wrapping the wounds and look up at the alpha wolf. "I think we should try and make him as comfortable as possible."

'No!' Koga growled mentally. "How long?"

"A day. Two? I can't be sure."

"Bind his wounds. I'll alert his friends in the village." After he gave these orders Koga ran to the village at top speed.

******

Kagome was just stepping into the doorway of the communal hall when she sensed a sacred jewel shard approaching her. Kagome turned just as a dust cloud cleared revealing the wolf demon Koga. "Kagome, I have urgent news!" the wolf announced before the winds around him even died out.

"Koga!" Kagome ran up to hug the wolf, happy to see a friendly face after her confrontation with Inuyasha. "I'm so glad to see you. Did you come for the party?"

"K…Kagome," Koga said flustered from the embrace from his chosen, though not yet bound, mate. "I'm glad to see you too, but I have something important to tell you. Inuyasha…"

"Oh, don't talk to me about him!" Kagome said pulling out of Koga's arms. "Would you believe that he wouldn't even come to Kaede's party! Oh, he's just so rude. I can't stand it sometimes!"

Koga was a bit stunned to see the Miko acting so violently, but being the brave demon that he was he pressed on with his terrible news. "Yes, but Kagome, Inuyasha is…"

"Still sulking in the forest after the sitting I gave him?" Kagome asked sarcastically.

As gleeful as it would usually make him to hear that Kagome made Inuyasha take a swan dive into a pile of mud, now was not the time. "No, Kagome. I was just with Inuyasha and he's…" the wolf paused. A "sitting" certainly would explain how deep the half demon had been buried in the snow. "Kagome, when was the last time you saw Inuyasha?"

"About ten minutes ago. Why are you looking at me like that Koga? What's wrong?" The Miko placed a gentle hand on the wolf demon's arm.

The demon looked into her eyes then to the hand resting on his arm and violently pulled away from the young girl. "And you left him there? Alone?"

"Well, yeah! He was being a total jerk. Why should I hang around him when he's going to act that way?" Koga just continued to stare at the dark haired girl in amazement. "What's gotten into you, Koga?" Kagome asked gently. "Look, why don't we go inside?" She tried to soothe the bewildered demon, smiling up at him innocently. "I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you."

"I…I have to go. Goodbye, Kagome." In a whirl of kicked up snow and wind the wolf demon was gone.

"Bye, Koga. Well, that was certainly strange," the Miko said as she turned to rejoin the party. Before she could even open the door to the hall she was met by the guest of honor.

"Ah, Kagome"

"Hello, Kaede," she greeted the priestess.

"I was wondering where ye got to child." Kaede stepped out of the doorway to stand next to the young girl.

"I took a walk to get some fresh air. Are you turning in already?"

"Aye, child," the priestess said smiling. "These old bones have seen too many years for such excitement. Celebration is best left to the young at so late an hour."

"May I help you carry your packages Kaede?" Kagome held her hands out signaling her readiness to help.

The old woman laughed, "Nay child. I have already enlisted the help of two youths to carry these gift back to my home." Kaede then opened the door further to give Kagome a better view of Miroku and Sango bent nearly double stumbling toward the door with Kaede's packages draped over their backs. The priestess and the young girl laughed at the sight the two made before Kagome hurried over to lighten their burdens.

Between the three of them they managed to bring all the gifts the village had bestowed upon the priestess to her home in a single trip. Once inside Kaede's hut Miroku began a fire and Sango began to organize the packages in the corner of the hut. Affixing the door hanging tightly to the wall to keep out the nighttime chill Kagome noticed a bright package just inside the doorway. She bent to pick up the package and began to inspect it. It was wrapped in brightly colored parchment paper and tied into a neat bundle with a deep purple ribbon. The tag attached to the ribbon simply read "Kaede." There was no note or name to tell whom the gift came from and it certainly wasn't one of the ones that Sango, Miroku, and she had just brought in.

"Hey, Kaede. I think you missed one," Kagome said as she walked over to where the priestess was sitting. When Kaede took the package from Kagome and read the tag she smiled to herself and quietly shook her head.

"Who is it from, Lady Kaede?" Sango asked curiously.

"Inuyasha, my dear."

"How do you know, Kaede?" Kagome asked perplexed.

"'Tis his writing on the tag," the aged priestess said flipping the small shred of parchment to display the neat line of text crawling down the square.

"Inuyasha knows how to write? When did that happen?" Kagome looked from face to face in the small room.

"I taught him myself some months ago," the old woman replied.

"Kagome, didn't you notice Inuyasha helping the village children in their lessons?" Sango prompted coming over to kneel with the monk and the two other women by the fireside.

Kagome looked down at her hands. "No, I didn't. I guess I haven't spent very much time here in the past few weeks."

"Open the gift, Lady. I'm sure we're all curious as to what's inside."

"Yes. Miroku's right." Sango smiled up at the youthful monk. "Open the gift, Kaede." Gasps rang through the room when Kaede drew the beautiful cloak from its wrappings. "It's beautiful," Sango said reaching out to touch the garment.

"Where did Inuyasha get such a cloak? I knew he was the son of a demon lord, but even so…" Miroku exclaimed as he came forward to admire the piece.

"He made it. Look," Sango said gently pulling the garment apart at the seams to display the nearly invisible line of silver stitches that bound the garment together. "He used his own hair to sew it together."

"He made it with his hair?" Kagome asked.

Sango turned to Kagome and began to explain to her the significance of the hair. "Demon hair has very special properties. Garments sewn together with it will never fall apart at the seams and look, see these buttons. It would take a very strong human all his strength to break the thread that attaches these."

"A garment such as this, made from the hair of a demon, would easily pay the ransom of Lords. It's a kingly gift," Miroku continued.

'Okay, I feel bad now,' Kagome though to herself. 'I was so mean to Inuyasha earlier and look at the great gift that he brought Kaede. Even if he didn't come to the party. I know he's not a people person. So why was I so mad? Alright first thing in the morning I'm going to go apologize to him.'

******

When the winds around him cleared Koga turned to face his companions. "Are the others coming, Koga?" Hakkaku asked.

"No. Ginta, get him ready to travel as best you can. I'm taking him back to the den tonight. You two catch up with me later."

"Koga, he could die on the trip," Ginta said.

"We're not getting any help from the village and he will die if we leave him here. I won't abandon another warrior to die alone in the forest. I'm taking him to our den where at least he can die in a warm bed instead of freezing to death in the snow."

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A/N:

1) Koga's finally here!!! Yay Koga!

2) I'm using the spelling of Koga's name garnered from the closed captions on the anime series, thought I'd let you know. I know many people spell it Kouga, so I thought I'd explain that.

3) Many thanks to everyone who reviewed.