Author's notes: Yar…and now for the angst.

Paper Wings
===
Chapter Three
===

The air around the three stood deathly still, Inu yasha stared with wide eyes as an older woman stared at him with an unreadable look. He could hear Kagome's footsteps rushing towards them before halting. He was in plain sight of the two woman's gazes and he felt very uneasy.

"Mama…" Kagome began but was cut off.

"Who is this…" her mother's voice was deadly serious, leaving no chance to dance around the subject. "What is he?" Despite her rough speech, Kagome knew that her mother was more scared than she was anything else. She backed away a step and pushed Kagome behind her. "Kagome…" her voice held a warning tone.

"I found him," Kagome whispered, suddenly fearful of her mother's wrath and feeling like a criminal. "He was hurt…I was healing him…"

"What is he?" he mother repeated with narrowed eyes as she regarded the winged man, whose golden eye stared blankly.

"I don't know," Kagome murmured sheepishly. "He has wings…but…I just don't know…" How could she say he was an angel when she didn't believe in angels? Did that mean that all she believed in was a lie?

Her mother turned towards her and gave her a look that could freeze hell. "Get the Father," she murmured, referring to the priest who'd been converting her people. "Now…" she insisted when Kagome hesitated.

"Mother…"

"Now."

Kagome ran feebly from the courtyard, hating to leave Inu yasha alone with her mother, but really having no choice.

===

The priest looked at the winged man for a long while, his dark gaze just staring as he was met with an equally unwavering golden eye. The two men just stood, staring unblinking. Finally, the father shook his head and knelt before Inu yasha, his teeth chewing on his bottom lip.

"Father…do you know what it is?" Kagome's mother asked, her hands clasped together in front of her as she sent out a small prayer to her god. She didn't believe in Christianity, but at this moment, she was torn between who and what to believe in.

"Aye, he appears to be an angel…" The father trailed off and observed Inu yasha. He'd been a minister for a long time, he'd read the bible every night for the past twenty years, he'd heard confessions and he'd led the prayer in his church, but he had never seen something that was supposedly sent from God. But…the stories of angels were beautiful, heavenly, and angelic.

This…creature was nothing like what an angel was supposed to look like. Underneath the tarnished and broken feathers that sprung across his wings, he could identify leathery skin, something that resembled a bat's wings more than a bird's. His long, dirty silver hair was not described in the stories, and golden eyes that were alit with a hidden fire, Hell's fire. And those ears…what angel was bestowed dog ears atop his head?

The priest stood and looked down upon the wounded man, his wings bent in odd positions, dried blood caking the silver and golden feathers.

"I shall write a letter to the bishop; he will know the answers to this…dilemma," the father said calmly and strolled out of the women's courtyard.

Father did write that letter; it took a while, but the bishop did receive the troubling news. He was both frightened and confused with the whole ordeal, and like the priest, was unable to determine an answer. Hesitantly, he wrote the priest stating that he was to write a letter to the pope and to keep the tiny village in their prayers.

Kagome watched him go, confused. If he was a priest, who was supposed to be in touch with God, why was it that he did not know the origin of a supposed angel? Was he not a messenger of God? Was that not what the father preached about? Why was it that he was questionable towards his God's will?

How could he question something like that? Could there be a possibility that Inu yasha was not that of a Christians' religion and something completely different?

Kagome turned her gaze towards Inu yasha and felt her heart stop. He was glaring at her.

Glaring at her.

Could it be that he blamed her for what happened? Kagome felt her heart lurch in her chest. Could it be that she was responsible for this mess?

She couldn't bare that thought, that look, that absolutely heart stopping, intense gaze that Inu yasha held in his eyes was enough to make her believe that every misgiving in this world could all be blamed on her. Why was this happening to her? Why was the world so confusing to her? All she had done was care for someone injured; was she destined to punish this same soul because of her desire to heal him?

Had she just indirectly killed Inu yasha?

===

The next day, after Inu yasha had refused to even look at her, much less eat her food, Kagome was found in the village's marketplace retrieving food for her mother and Souta. Though still slightly angered with her mother's actions, and the father's reaction to Inu yasha, Kagome had forgiven their reactions as understandable.

However, as she was walking back home, she noticed that the small road leading to her home was a littler more crowded than she remembered…and that people were rushing quickly in her home's general direction.

Then she saw it.

It was hastily written, and she could tell it was in her mother's hand. But in the center in a large piece of parchment, was a crude picture of Inu yasha. It was fairly accurate except for the fact that his ears had been replaced with horns, and his wings were jagged and ugly instead of the elegant beauties they truly were. Blood adorned his hands and his face was contorted into a deadly glare instead of the peaceful face he wore as of late.

It was no doubt a work of her mother. The older woman had always been a fairly good artist, and her talent was not wasted on this parchment. But what horrified Kagome the most was what was written:

Come see Lucifer's spawn, the forbidden angel.

Kagome stared in shock at it. Lucifer. The devil. Satan. That's what her mother was referring to. Kagome knew the story of the arch angel, Lucifer, and how he was banished to Earth with his demons. Though she didn't know the story by heart, she did know the gist of it, having to endure the story every winter at the time of celebration for the Christians.

Under the picture of Inu yasha it read:

To the North of the Village, lies a monster.
Untamed and unrestrained.
Come see the monstrosity that is the fallen angel, the new devil on Earth.

One piece of silver.

So, not only was Inu yasha on display, he was a charged attraction.

Kagome stared and then stared at the people that walked by, paying her no mind.

Inu yasha was a display.

Kagome bolted home.