Chapter Seven – Healer

The next morning, Izayoi awoke to the sound of the tents being taken down and people moving around the camp, finishing a breakfast meal and getting packed up and ready to leave the area. Even the women were helping to get things moving along. Curious as to what was going on, she finished placing the last of her healing things in her bag and walking out to where Inutaisho was directing the inu youkai and helping them.

He was wearing a light blue undershirt with a white haori with blue designs. The hakama pants that he wore were white with similar designs. The two lines of fur flowed over his shoulders like a large cloak. Bone armor with boney spikes covered his chest and arms, making him appear only slightly larger than he already was. Two swords, one the Tensaiga, were belted at his waist with a red obi that looked to be made of the fire of a fire rat.

"Awake now, are we?" He spoke to her without even turning his head the slightest. One of his generals walked off after having been dismissed, looking at the young healer suspiciously. "We're getting ready to leave this place. We need to get moving before the neko youkai find us and once again attack." He answered the unspoken question in her violet eyes as she stood next to him, looking into his piercing golden orbs. "If you will, I would like you to come with to attend other wounded."

Izayoi looked at him, but his eyes had already been turned back to watching over the preparations for their leaving. "Is that the only reason that you ask for me to accompany you?" She had noticed the slight blush across his cheeks.

He turned to her with a strange look on his face. "Of course. Now, would you accompany me?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'll come with you, but you must allow me to go back to my home and gather other supplies that I could possibly need."

He sighed. "I'll bring you there later on tonight. But you'd better be ready to go, or I'll just guide the rest of my pack to the new place." He turned back to what he had been doing. "Besides, we have to get there within the next night because Kilun should be having the pup either tonight or tomorrow night."

Izayoi nodded, following his gaze towards where the couple was gathering their things in order to prepare to leave for another place to camp. Her mate was helping her out as much as possible, taking most of the work for himself. He clearly looked worried about her late pregnancy and that she was still rather emotional from all that had happened.

"I'm glad that she has her mate back." Her voice was soft as she met those golden orbs. His eyes were filled with a strange light. "It'll make a lot of things easier for her to get through."

He only nodded in agreement before heading back to help the other inu youkai prepare to leave in order to defend themselves against the neko youkai more easily.

Hours later, Izayoi found herself staring at the inu youkai lord, arms crossed and feet dug into the ground. She wasn't going to move. He scowled at her.

"It's the only way that we'll get their fast enough," Inutaisho ground out through gritted teeth, arms across his chest and his eyes set – determined. "So climb onto my back and we'll be going."

"No." She repeated, her violet eyes narrowing. "I hardly know you and I'm not about to go and do such a thing! Do you know how the people of my village would take it?"

He sighed and through his hands up into the air. "For the love of Kami-sama, woman!!! I said that I'd drop you a distance from your village do that people wouldn't get suspicious!"

Her scowl only deepened. "I don't believe you!"

He growled, low and in his throat, his golden eyes gaining the slightest hint of crimson. "Have I done anything to gain your distrust?"

She looked away, a light blush creeping up her neck and face. She wasn't about to admit anything to him. Not in the least.

"I haven't, therefore you have no reason to distrust me?" He ground out, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides and his eyes closed so that she couldn't see the crimson hue that they took on whenever he had been angered. "Therefore you can trust me to drop you a distance from you village and walk besides you."

"Why would you walk besides me?" She asked incredulously.

He snorted. "You have the scent of the inu youkai on you. If you were found by the neko youkai and had that scent, they would kill you, because their leader would likely know that my scent was on you and would kill you for helping me, since you smell like a healer."

Izayoi looked at him with confused eyes. "How is that in any way possible? I thought that I smelled like a ninque?" She used the words that she had heard the inu lord's son mutter the night previous. "I smell like a useless, weak, ninque, so why would they attack me?"

He sighed again. "Because you helped me and the inu youkai are one of the biggest enemies of the neko youkai. Because you helped us, they will be after you do that you won't help us again by helping healing our wounds. Because of that, you are in danger and will be sought out by them. That is why I need to accompany you."

She turned her head away from him, stubborn to the end. "Only because you have to, will I let you. And I will agree to you dropping me some distance from my village."

Inutaisho almost sighed in relief, but held it back. Izayoi gave a small yip of surprise as he stood behind her and lifted her over his head and onto his back, leaping into the air before she could even get her hands on his shoulders for support. Scowling fiercely, she gripped the spikes on his shoulders, since said limbs were too wide for her hands to grasp on to. Still in the air, he looped his arms around her legs, being as careful as he could with his claws and the spikes on his bone vambraces.

Slowly opening her eyes, she looked over his shoulder, watching as the clouds, trees, and pastures flew by her sight in a colorful blur. She hadn't even realized how far they had gone in so short a period of time. She watched as the scenery flashed by her. Even from the remaining blur, Izayoi watched as the farmers tended the rice fields and women tended to the children. A few of the women with children appeared to be her age or younger. The thought really made her feel old, and that she should be having a family about now.

Inutaisho wasn't watching the passing scenery at all. His concentration was mainly in the course that they were picking through the country side.



[A/N]
hello people. i am sooo sry that i haven't updated this in a while. T-T plot bunnies are completely out of energy lately. no caffeine anywhere around my house. that includes whats in my daily dose of tea. anyway, hope you like this chapter. please review. its may be the caffeine that the plot bunnies need.