Disclaimer: Inuyasha characters? I DON'T OWN THEM!!! Kiseki is my own character though, so please ask before using her in your own fics.
Chapter 14: Meeting Kouga
After about three hours of flying, Kagome could see a dust cloud rising just ahead of them. It was a very familiar dust cloud, as was the youkai aura that seemed to be the cause of it. Well, it looks like Kouga has shards in his legs again...
Sesshomaru noticed Kouga too, but he decided that it would be best to go to Kouga's den instead of just landing in front of him. So he continued flying with Kagome and Kiseki until he spotted the den of the current Lord of the Eastern Lands.
They landed by the entrance and Sesshomaru made sure that Kagome and Kiseki were covered by the haori before they proceeded into the den.
Kagome looked around as they walked into the cave. It was a different cave than the one that Kouga had brought her to last time. That cave had been full of males, and quite messy. This cave had females, males and children all over the place, and if it was a little dirty, it as because there were so many loving families all over the place. Everywhere she looked, Kagome could see brown wolf youkai in their human or wolf forms doing everyday things... until they spotted Sesshomaru that is.
One wolf ran up to Sesshomaru, one that Kagome didn't recognize,and bowed formally. "Sesshomaru-sama! What brings you here? Kouga-sama is not here at the moment, but we will be happy to assist you in any way that we can."
Sesshomaru looked blankly at the wolf youkai. "Kouga-sama is on his way here, we saw him coming this way on our way here."
The urufu looked askance at Kagome, but said nothing. He returned his attention to Sesshomaru. "Well, until he arrives, let us make you comfortable."
Kagome settled at the perimeter of the cave, holding Kiseki close to her body. The small kit was so quiet, but Kagome knew that she would soon need to eat again. Kagome only hoped that the situation would be resolved by that time.
Sesshomaru walked around a bit, looking as if he didn't care about anyone there. He was, in fact, making sure that he knew where each of the wolves were in case there was trouble.
Within moments, Kouga blew into the den. He looked around, sniffing the air. His sight fell upon Kagome and Kiseki, closely followed by Sesshomaru. "Hey Sesshomaru-sama! What brings you here? And with a human no less..."
Sesshomaru growled deep in his throat.
Kouga backed up a bit. "Sorry, touchy subject. I forgot. So, what are you doing here?"
Sesshomaru glared at Kouga, but turned to Kagome. "This girl has a kitsune kit that i have pledged to help. We have discovered that a kitsune kit can be nursed by one of the urufu. I brought them here to see if one of your pack could nurse this little one."
Kouga looked around at the rest of his pack. "Well... Sutaa, would you be willing to take her on?"
A medium-sixed wolf with a white star-burst on her forehead trotted forward, then changed to her human form. "Of course Kouga-sama, at least i will be able to save someone's kit, even if it is not my own." Tears stood behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
Kagome looked at the urufu woman. She could see that this woman would care for her kit as she did. Sutaa came towards Kagome, putting her hands out for Kiseki. Kagome reluctantly handed her to the urufu woman.
"She's beautiful!" Sutaa said, looking at Kiseki. "She's going to be powerful too... What's her name?"
Kagome stared at the woman. "Her name is Kiseki."
Kiseki woke up and cried. Sutaa smiled. "Looks like someone's hungry..." Sutaa walked away to where other nursing mothers were and began feeding Kiseki.
Kagome watched all of this. "How long will Kiseki need to nurse?"
Kouga looked at her. "Well... kitsunes usually wean at about three weeks, so it won't be too long. You're welcome to stay here until then." He said this last with a glance in Sesshomaru's direction.
Kagome was torn between her promise to Inuyasha that she would be back soon, and staying with her kit.
Sesshomaru helped her out. "If you wish to stay, then I will inform that hanyou brother of mine that you are here."
Kagome looked gratefully at Sesshomaru. "Thanks, that means a lot to me."
Immediately, Kagome was accosted by the female urufu and taken deeper into the cave, leaving Sesshomaru and Kouga to talk.
Inuyasha took Shippo into his forest to get away from all the humans. Shippo had bounced back remarkably quickly from the deaths of his parents. He knew that their deaths had been avenged and that his sister would be returning in another day.
Inuyasha looked up at the sky, smelling a familiar scent. It was the woman he had seen fly over the village many times in the last two days. This time it didn't seem that she was just going to fly over, she was landing. Inuyasha grabbed Shippo and started toward the village. As he was running in though, everyone in the village seemed to be running out. Eventually he got sick of dogding all of them and he just jumped over. Then Inuyasha ran in the direction that everyone was running from. The path led him to the burial grounds of the village.
When Inuyasha, and Shippo who was still on his shoulder, arrived at the site, there was only a large crater and a badly wounded Kaede to see.
"What happened?" Inuyasha demanded of the elder miko.
Kaede glared at him with her one good eye. "The witch, Urosuae, took my sister's bones and some of the grave soil. I fear that she is trying to resurect Kikyo. She will fail however, since Kikyo's soul has already been reborn in Kagome. Urosuae will have to take the soul from Kagome's body to animate my sister's body once more."
Inuyasha was stunned. Kikyo...?
The monk looked at the village that he had just entered. It didn't seem like a very good place to stay, it looked very poor. He saw a small girl, maybe six years old, struggling to get some water from the well.
He went up to her and offered to help her. She looked at him, startled, then nodded, moving away so that he could bring the pail up. He brought the water up and handed it to her. "There you go."
The girl smiled and took the pail of water, but didn't say anything. She skipped away to a small hovel off to the side of the village. The monk wondered where this girl's parents were, but he had to move on if he intended to find a place to stay that night.
Sesshomaru and Kouga had agreed that Kagome would stay with the urufu until Kiseki was weaned. Kouga pledged that Kagome would be safe with his pack and that Sesshomaru only needed to come back to collect the girl and the kit in three weeks. Sesshomaru looked bored, but said that he might come to check on them every once in a while.
Kagome had gotten settled in the women's area of the den and was now in a lively conversation with some of the younger females. The cave that they were in was much larger than it seemed to be, having many tunnels running through the mountain that the cave was set in.
Kagome looked up at a sound in the "doorway" to the cavern that she was in. Sesshomaru was standing there. The other females looked at him, whispered and giggled to eachother, then left Kagome alone with him. Sesshomaru just raised an eyebrow at their leaving, then turned his attention to Kagome. "I am about to leave now. I will inform my brother that you are safe and that you will be returned in three weeks time. I will be back soon to check and make sure that these wolves keep their word."
He was shielding his mind from her, but she could tell that he was more worried about her than he would admit, even to himself. She just smiled. "I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure that the urufu will make sure that Kiseki and I are well cared for."
Sesshomaru nodded. "Then I will take my leave of you." And so saying, he left the cavern. The other women immediately came back into the room, effectively keeping Kagome from following Sesshomaru out of the room.
Well, that's all for this chap! (I told you it was short...) Next chapter should get into the return of Kikyo and Kagome's time with Kouga's pack. Here's the response to last chapter's reviews!
Reviewer Response:
SeiSohma: Thanks Sei! I'm glad you like the story! I would love it if you would do a drawing for my story! (though don't feel that you have to, i won't be hurt if you don't) hope this chapter was up to standard!
Cold-night09: yeah, I know Miroku is your fav... he's coming... and yes, there will be some definite character changes happening!!! don't worry, i have the manga of those episodes, if you want, you can read them the next time you're over!
Inu-fanforever: "Got Sesshy" is just the name of my sis' Inuyasha forum, it has nothing to do with the pairing of this story... in fact, i think she opened the forum before i started this story... anyway, I'm glad that you like the story, no matter what the pairing is going to be.
That's it friends, till next chapter! Ja!