Age of the White Dawn
Chapter 8: Meat, No Water, Scents and Sand Wars...oh my
Kagome groaned in irritation and massaged her sinuses. It had been at least three days since Sango, Inu Yasha, Mr. Toodles and she left the Bendela camp. With Sango coming along, she had expected a steady flow of conversation, but found only silence. Thus she was forced to take up thinking about unimportant thoughts, like she had done earlier, while trudging through the blaring white sand. She groaned again, and this time, was answered by a groan from Sango.
"What's wrong Kagome? You can't be tired, so what's driving you to groan like it?"
"I'm bored."
"...that's it?"
"No. It's just that at the camp we talked all the time, but ever since we've been traveling you've been quiet. You've wanted to talk, don't deny it. I've seen you open your mouth over a dozen times to say something, but you never do." Kagome looked expectantly at Sango, who just watched her feet.
"W-well, I just thought that, well, you know! Friendship between protector and protected endangers both of them and jeopardizes the mission." her voices was suddenly cold and uniformed. Kagome looked at her in bewilderment,
"Protector? Protected? We were friends first right? Plus Inu Yasha'll protect me...er, I think he will. Look, if you really want to help me, teach me how to defend myself when you're not around." It took a few more minutes until she was convinced, but Sango finally grinned and gave in,
"Okay then. But only if you train extra hard. Deal?" She stuck out her hand. Grinning as well, Kagome took it.
"Deal. Now, let's go. Inu Yasha's leaving us behind." And, laughing, they struggled to catch up with Inu Yasha (In the end, Inu Yasha had to stop and wait for them to catch up)
"Took you long enough." he snorted as he began to walk again, Kagome and Sango at his side this time. At Sango's surprised expression he snapped,
"What?"
"Don't mind him," Kagome sighed, tweaking the hanyou's ears (much to his annoyance) "He was behaving really well at the camp, but this is how he usually acts."
"Oh."
"What were you two wenches up to any way?"
"Just talking. How about you?" Kagome asked, shifting the bow and large canteen slung over her shoulder.
"Thinking."
"About what?" Sango asked.
"The progress we made and how far we have to go." he answered.
"That's all?" Kagome knew she was pushing her luck in asking, Inu Yasha never opened up, but she was eager to contribute to the sudden flow of conversation.
"Of course not." he snorted, "I was thinking of other things too. My mind isn't that simple."
"Really? Prove it." Kagome challenged, displaying a smirk of her own to get the message across.
"How?" His ears pricked upwards, detecting the challenging note in her voice.
"Tell us what you were thinking." Sango suggested.
"Erm-well, uh..." he stuttered, his face taking on a strange expression.
"Well?"
The slight curve at the corner of his mouth disappeared as he replied shortly, "I think about hot rolls."
Kagome snorted, "Right."
Laughing, Sango looked at Inu Yasha out of the corner of her eye,
"I think I know what he was thinking about ,Kagome, but the sun is high and I think it's about time for a lunch break."
The other two agreed and they settled down to eat at the very base of a sand dune covered in clumps of plants with limp velvety leaves. Mr. Toodles proceeded to munch happily on the half-dead plants, but his human companions didn't posses his acquired taste; they chose to eat the dried strips of meat they received before they left the Bendela camp instead.
Gnawing on the tough piece of meat, Kagome found she was accomplishing nothing but getting the meat soggy. She looked to Sango in hopes of visually finding out how to get a chunk of the meat without permanently damaging her teeth, but the Bendela had already finished her piece and was using the extra time too take a nap. Glaring at the soggy, but tough, piece of meat, she gripped it tightly in her teeth before tugging at it. When that had no affect she proceeded to tug and flail about like a dog playing with its rope toy. Speaking of dogs...
Kagome turned and redirected her glare at a certain part dog demon snickering at her, the stubborn piece of meat still clenched between her teeth. The sight caused his snickering to grow in volume.
"Hey, aren't I supposed to be the dog here?" he teased. Needless to say, Kagome was delighted by Inu Yasha's suddenly good mood, but then again, his mood was brought about by her embarrassing predicament. She pouted (which was a rather hard action considering the stupid piece of meat was still in her mouth) and opened her mouth to deliver her cutting response but then, thanks to Mr. Gravity, the meat fell out of her mouth and onto the sand, causing Inu Yasha's snicker to elevate into a mix of a snort and a chuckle.
"Nice one."
"Oooh! Look what you made me do! It's all sandy now," she whined, aware that her voice was causing the flattening of Inu Yasha's ears.
"It's not my fault that you're clumsy." he sniffed, cocky as ever, before picking up the meat and rubbing it against his haori.
"See," he said, presenting the meat to her, "It's still good." Kagome looked at it dubiously. "What now wench?"
"I can't eat it."
"Why the hell not? I cleaned it off, didn't I?"
"It's not that," she mumbled, pouting at the meat on his outstretched hand.
"Then what is it?" he tried to keep his ears from twitching in irritation, that would only distract her, and gods knew what she would do then.
"There's nothing actually wrong with the meat itself. I told you before I can't eat it." she snapped, blushing. 'How embarrassing.'
"Huh? Ooh!" he exclaimed in realization. As the full meaning of her words sunk in, a grin, more like a stretched out smirk, spread across his face, radiating so much arrogance, he should've been fined.
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Cracking his knuckles he sighed and tossed his head, "Do I have to do everything for you wench?" Not waiting for an answer, he casually tossed the meat up into the air, slashed at it with his claws, and watched four perfectly bite-sized pieces of meat fall into Kagome's cupped hands.
Okay, maybe he had overdone it a little. He could've easily cut the piece of meat without it ever leaving the ground...but the semi-annoyed, semi-delighted expression on Kagome's face wasn't one that was seen everyday. Inu Yasha couldn't tell whether she was going to clap her hands in childish surprise or sucker punch him before sitting him twenty times. He winced and fervently prayed that she chose the harmless former.
It ended up Kagome didn't choose the former or the latter, as appealing as the latter was, but settled on the third option. This basically consisted of eating the semi-soggy pieces of meat in a silence that unnerved Inu Yasha as much as the thoughtful look she occasionally gave him.
'Okay, just calm down,' he told himself as Kagome glanced over at him, 'Just don't crack and do something you'll regret. Breathe in, out, in, out...' She glanced over at him yet again, chewing slowly on her meat, 'Silence too thick,' his ears began twitching, 'I need to say something before she looks over again...'
"Oy bitch, gimme the water." he growled, the "request" coming out a lat harsher then he meant. She seemed unperturbed, though, merely shrugging and handing him the canteen, still chewing slowly, still glancing over...he took a big swig from the canteen before looking questioningly at Kagome.
Unbeknownst to Inu Yasha, she had been thoroughly enjoying herself. She was aware that she was getting him nervous, and such power only fell into her hands once in a pink moon; why not take advantage of that? So she continued ponderously eating her lunch, getting a sort of sadistic pleasure out of seeing him squirm. That was before he actually looked at her, though. Now she was the one getting squirmy.
"Y-yes, Inu Yasha?"
"Why'd you give me the empty canteen, wench?" he asked, tossing it back to her.
'What do you mean empty? This is the full one, Sango's sleeping on the empty one." She tossed it back to Inu Yasha, hoping he was just getting back at her. No such luck.
At the sound of her name, Sango had woken up and instinctively reached for her swords, but seeing that it was only Inu Yasha and Kagome, relaxed and asked, her words, slurred with sleep,
"Whas going on?"
"Inu Yasha made a mistake and thinks that our last canteen's out of water," Kagome explained with a nervous laugh.
"That's because there is no water." Inu Yasha growled, "See, there's a hole right here. We must've lost all of it in a day," he chucked the canteen to the ground in disgust.
"What are you saying?" Kagome asked, wide-eyed. (A/N: Geez, she's just a leetle thick...)
"I'm saying we're out of water!" he snapped.
"For how long?"
"If we go back it'll take three days. If we go on, the closest town's three day away. We're pretty much stuck," her smirked bitterly.
Sango gave a grim nod of resignation, "We better get moving."
Kagome just stared at the two in dismay. 'Three days? Three days!' her mind screamed. Three hours under the desert sun alone drained her, how could she survive three days? She couldn't. Maybe they could last three days without water, they were used to such rigorous conditions, but she had lived in nothing but comfort and luxury all of her life; water was always a given. To make matters worse, her eyes were beginning to brim with unwanted tears. Sniffling, she willed them to go away, but that seemed to make the situation even worse. A lone tear spilled over when Sango placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and asked,
"Are you okay, Kagome?"
Kagome sniffled and shook her head, "I'm sorry," she apologized, choking back the lump rising in her throat. "It's just that I don't know if I'll be able to last that long without water, but I'll try, really I will, I'm just warning you that..." she stopped, realizing her voice was starting to break. Another tear escaped and slid down her cheek.
"Ugh, don't cry wench." Inu Yasha ordered, once again nervous. He had only made the stupid girl cry twice, but each time he felt like plopping down and bawling along with her...not a pretty sight.
"What," Kagome snapped, tears still gathered in her eyes and trapped in her lashes, "Should I be laughing?"
"No! Argh, I'll find you some water, okay?"
"What?"
"Look, I'll find you your water so you don't have to wait three days for it, j-just don't cry any more, okay?"
She sniffed and nodded, "Promise?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever I promise-- just don't get all weepy on me."
Kagome smiled, feeling reassured, which was a far cry from the expression and emotions Sango was experiencing.
"And how exactly do you intend to keep that promise?" she demanded. He smirked and tapped his nose, "My sense of smell is ten times better then you weak humans' Now shut up," and with the utmost look of concentration, he began pacing back and forth, face turned upwards to sniff the air. Still sniffing, he turned right and trotted off in that direction, an anxious Kagome and bemused Sango trailing behind.
"He kinda does act like a dog, doesn't he?" she whispered conspiratorially behind her hand. Kagome nodded and whispered back,
"Yeah, he even has the eating habits of one."
"I can hear you, you know. And didn't I say shut up?" the one being discussed growled in a very dog-like manner. Kagome smiled despite their dire situation, "Sorry."
He ignored her and suddenly fell to his hands and knees. As the sound of sniffing continued to steadily increase, Inu Yasha began crawling to and fro, an angry scowl on his face, "Where'd it go, it was right there," he muttered, rubbing some sand off his nose, "Hm...maybe, maybe..." he resumed his sniffing again, this time his ears swiveling in every possible direction. Kagome watched in fascination as the cute little ears rapidly turned left, then right, then swiveled back to their original position...
"Don't even think about it, wench," Inu Yasha's voice warned.
"What? I wasn't even thinking about touching your soft, fluffy, adorable little ears. What are you doing any way?"
"Listening for running...running...water!" he exclaimed triumphantly, jumping up and sniffing the air to confirm what his ears had picked up.
"Really? Where?"
"Right under us."
Kagome looked down at her feet, then looked quizzically up at Inu Yasha,
"Uh...are you sure your ears aren't broken or something, because I don't see any water-"
"Of course not, you idiot!" he interrupted, "Damn, didn't that school teach you anything? Not all water runs above ground, you know."
"Huh? That's imp--"
"Of course!" Kagome was, once again, interrupted, this time by Sango's soft exclamation. "You know, he's smarter then he looks." she informed Kagome, jerking her thumb in Inu Yasha's direction in case there were any doubts as to who she was referring to. He opened his mouth to retort, but instead chose to throw the Bendela a patronizing glare before returning to the more important matter at hand.
"Kay, since we don't have shovels and shit like that we'll have to--"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kagome cut in, the interrupter this time, "Take a leap and two step back, and stop." she held two hands up for emphasis, "Now, can someone tell me where exactly this water is? And uh...that was just an expression Inu Yasha."
A red-faced Inu Yasha sheepishly returned to his original spot next to Kagome while an amused Sango explained,
"As Inu Yasha said, the water is right under us, but probably in the form of some kind of under water river. Either that, or we're standing on a dried lake bed."
"Oh, okay...so, how do we get to it?"
"Well, before I was interrupted," Inu Yasha threw Kagome a dirty look, "I was gonna demonstrate--"
"Oooh, three syllables."
Another dirty look.
"I was going to demonstrate how we would get water."
"Oh really? By all means, do proceed."
Inu Yasha smirked and, with a superior air, instructed, "First, you bend down. Bend down!" he repeated; reluctantly they complied. Ego inflated by their compliance, he continued, "Then you stand with your feet apart like so-like so bitch! Heh, good. Then you simply push the dirt back rapidly with your arms."
"...why didn't you just say we would be digging with our hands?" Sango asked, repositioning herself so she wasn't waving her butt around in the air like an idiot. Inu Yasha displayed his trademark smirk,
"Nah. Too easy."
"Either that or you're just a pervert." Kagome added just discovering how high up her skirt could ride without her noticing. Tugging it down again, she began using her arms to shovel at the sand. Inu Yasha gaped at her in disbelief,
"Y-you think I actually want to see you like-like that?" he sputtered, joining the two girls at the hole they were working at.
"I'm not that hideous." Kagome grumbled, glaring at him before she scooted over and began working on widening the hole.
"Damn, you're so freaking sensitive. Did I say you were hideous?" he growled, rapidly shoveling sand over his shoulder.
"Well, no...but you implied it!"
"Feh," he snorted, "You want me ogling you, is that it? Do you want me asking what color your friggin underwear is?" the statement caused Kagome to blush furiously and instantly protest,
"No, no!"
"Then what the hell do you want?!
"Whoever said I wanted something?!"
"Kami your impossible!" he snapped. Kagome threw her hands up in exasperation, flinging a pile of, now, semi-wet sand into the air in the process,
"See what I was talking about!" she called over Inu Yasha's head to Sango, who gave her a sympathetic smile before she resumed digging. Kagome sighed and soon followed suit; minutes lapsed in silence allowing time for the hole to transform into a sort of shallow ditch and for tempers to cool down.
Pausing to pick out the sand jammed painfully under her nails, Kagome seized this opportunity to voice the question that had been nagging her since she first met Inu Yasha,
"Who's Kikyo?"
"Wha?" he quickly looked up from the hole in surprise, before just as quickly looking down again. "Where did that come from?"
Kagome shrugged, "I don't know. I was just kind of wondering who she was."
"How do you know about her any way?"
"Er-well-you mistook me for her, remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
"So, who is she?"
He didn't speak for a moment, and then, quietly, "She was a girl I knew back ho-no," he interrupted himself, brows lifting in surprise, then furrowing deep in thought, "No, she was a girl I knew at the village I was staying at."
"Oh." was the only semi-intelligent reply Kagome could think of. What else could she say to someone about such an obviously sensitive subject? Because Kagome could tell b y his quiet reply and glowering features alone that this Kikyo, whoever she was, was a major part of Inu Yasha's character. The way he never mentioned her or uttered her name was evidence of how precious she was, or had been, to him; let alone the confusing way his eyes seemed to soften yet grow bitter at the same time when he vaguely described her. Kagome dug harder at the dirt; judging by all those hints and clues as well as the small conversation she had heard when flipping through his book, she knew, naive as she was, that the Kikyo girl and Inu Yasha were in love. Perhaps he loved her even now. She stopped her suddenly energetic ministrations to bring a sand-covered hand to her chest. How funny, it was almost as if that thought was the cause of the pain that had lanced through her chest.
"What's with the pitying expression, wench?" Inu Yasha's irritated voice growled, forcing her out of her thoughts.
"Er, what? Oh, sorry." she hadn't realized she'd been staring... Quickly returning to digging, she waited a minute before casually asking,
"Do I look like her?" There was no need to clarify who "her" was.
"Yeah...a-a lot like her actually."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
He snorted, "Not your fault."
They fell into silence again, then "Do I act like her?"
He snorted again, this time in what she guessed was amusement, "Well, you're stubborn as hell, just like her, but other then that you're absolutely different. She was calm, reserved and poised and you, you're-" he smirked, not looking up from the spot he was digging at, "You're loud, wear your emotions on your sleeve and couldn't be poised if you got to sit me fifty times for it." He glanced up at her to see her reaction, then froze. Uh-oh. He didn't like that sad, thoughtful look she was giving the sand...
"And you smell different too." he hastily added.
"Really? How?" she looked at him and tilted her head to the side in curiosity.
"Uh, well, she smelled like lavender."
"And I?"
"You?" He stopped digging. What did she smell like? He hadn't taken the time to clearly identify her scent. Shrugging he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, 'Now's a better time then any, I guess.' Sifting through the many scents that assailed his sensitive nose he tuned out the gritty scent of sand, the musty, rather disgusting smell of cat and focused wholly on the scent emanating from the girl digging to his right; he almost jolted in surprise when he honed in on it. Underneath all that dirt and sweat and grime the girl's scent was actually sort of... pleasant. It was like-he took another deep breath-rain.
A sudden vision, almost like a vivid memory came to mind. It was a warm, summer evening in late June and the grass was slick from the shower that had passed overhead earlier that day. The skies had been gray with clouds then, but now they were clear with stars and fireflies winking against purple and dark blue. Inu Yasha himself was smaller, younger; in this place there was excitement and innocence coursing through his blood. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, yes, she smelt of a June evening washed clean by a summer shower.
"Well? How's my scent different then Kikyo's?" she snapped impatiently. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked owlishly at her. "Uh, are you okay Inu Yasha?"
"I'm fine."
"That's nice. So are you going to tell me?" she asked expectantly, still digging. He stretched and began digging again without replying. Glancing nonchalantly at her out of the corner of his eye he suppressed the urge to shudder. He was not expecting to be given the ultimate glare of death that day, especially from Kagome, so he relented and graciously responded,
"Tell you what?"
"How is my scent different then hers?"
He gazed at her thoughtfully. 'June evening...rain...yeah right. Like I'm going to tell her that shit.' Kagome began to feel nervous under his ponderous gaze and focused more then ever on the section of the hole she was digging at.
"You wreak of that damn cat."
She gaped at him, "You jerk!" Grabbing a handful of dirt she flung it at him, but, due to his quick reflexes, he easily dodged it. Of course, according to the laws of the universe, the thrown object hit the innocent bystander, who just happened to be Sango.
"Okay," she growled (scary!) wiping the sand off her cheek, "Who threw that?"
Kagome pointed innocently to Inu Yasha, who promptly received a handful of dirt in his face.
"What was that for?!"
"Kagome said you threw sand at me."
"And you believed her?"
"Of course."
"You do know that both of you bitches are gonna pay for that." he smirked, subtly grabbing some dirt in each hand.
"Yup."
"Of course."
"Don't say I didn't warn you wench..."
Naturally, a ridiculous, pointless sand war ensued in which Inu Yasha got sand up his nose, Sango got sand in her eyes, Kagome's face was gritty enough to be sand paper, everyone got sand in their hair and Inu Yasha's vocabulary was so colorful that it sufficed for the relatively bland-colored scenery. It would have lasted for hours if something wet and slimy hadn't hit Kagome's hair and cheek.
"Hold it!" she boomed, "SOMEONE threw mud in my hair." Her eyes narrowed and darted around suspiciously. "Who did it? Who threw mud-wait, mud? Mud means wet, wet means water. We're getting closer to water!" she smiled excitedly, just remembering how parched her lips felt.
"It's getting close to around two o'clock I think, so let's hurry and dig some more before it gets too hot." she suggested, sobering. Inu Yasha rolled his eyes.
"No need."
"Huh"
"Everyone get outta the hole."
"Why?"
"Just do it Kagome."
Grumbling the two females climbed out of the hole, now partially filled with mud. Cracking his knuckles, Inu Yasha kindly displayed his trademarks smirk again,
"Now, watch while I get your water, wench."
Sango gave the hanyou a withering look, "Let me guess. You're going to dig again?"
"Senkon Tessou!"
"Or not."
The two girls were showered with clumps of mud, and a cloud of sand temporarily blocked the hole from view. When the sand finally settled and the hole was visible again, Kagome was delighted to see that it was filled to the brim with water. The water was slightly muddy, but it was water none the less. But where was Inu Yasha?
Thump.
"I filled the canteens up, wench. So, both of you hurry up and drink." Sango cheerily complied, but Kagome hung back a moment.
"What now?"
"What about you, Inu Yasha?"
"Me?" he looked at her in surprise, "Feh. I'm stronger then you weak humans, remember?" She still hesitated. "Plus I already had some."
"Oh okay." she smiled before eagerly going to wet her dry mouth. The water had a strange, almost metallic taste to it, but it was cool in comparison to the sun beating mercilessly down the back of her neck and she was thirsty. When she had drunk her fill, she let out a content sigh.
"That was nice."
"A lot better then waiting for three days for water." Sango added, also content.
Inu Yasha opened his mouth, most likely to add one of his "stronger-then-you" comments, but a sudden cat-like shriek filled the air. A hissing Mr. Toodles streaked out from behind a sand dune.
"What on earth? Mr. Toodles what's wrong?" Kagome attempted to pacify the creature, but it merely scratched at her outstretched arms before it fled over the next sand dune.
'What the hell?" Inu Yasha asked, standing up and tensing.
"I don't know," Kagome answered, shrugging helplessly. She winced and clutched the three bleeding scratches in her arm before continuing, "Ever since we left the school he's been acting strange."
"I'll go get him," Sango volunteered. With an almost evil grin she added, "But I can't guarantee he'll be alive. The thing doesn't deserve to live after scaring me like that."
"Cat stew sounds lovely tonight." Kagome called to Sango who also laughed before disappearing over the same sand dune Mr. Toodles had. Still chuckling softly, she knelt down by the water-filled hole and gingerly washed her scratched up arm. It was then that she noticed Inu Yasha hadn't moved at all, and that he was incredibly tense.
"What's wrong?" she asked, standing up and moving next to him. Squinting through the sun's rays, she looked curiously in the direction he was gazing so stonily at. All she saw was sand and sun, but Inu Yasha's nervous state was contagious and she almost felt a crackling, excited tension coming from that direction. Her fingers tingled as Inu Yasha cracked his knuckles and replied,
"Something's coming."
A/N: Whew! Finally that's done with. I admit, it's a bit of a pointless chapter but it's the first chapter of this story that wasn't pre-written from last year. Yay! I've come to the conclusion that "the people" a.k.a. the people who review, are very difficult to fathom. I mean, I've been looking through the fic archives and there are some really awesome stories with great dialogue and character relations and plot and everything, but they've gotten only 22 reviews. Whereas some fics are good but can do better, and they have about 100. I don't get it. But then again, some of those reviews might be constructive criticism and not just good sugary compliments. Meh. I dunno. Just some brain food there. Of course, me thinking is never a good thing, especially in summer, so I should probably stop before I hurt myself. :) Hope u enjoyed this chapter!
~Qweeni