Author's Note: Yo! Inuyasha does not belong to me! …Yeah. That's all I have to say.
~
Kagome was restless. She had been tossing and turning all night, unable to find a position comfortable enough to fall asleep in. Even after her heart-wrenching apology, Sesshoumaru still had yet to speak a word to her, although she did catch him looking curiously at her when he thought she wasn't paying attention. He had left right after the sun came up, and afraid of an uncomfortable confrontation, Kagome laid still and pretended to be asleep.
It wasn't long before he returned, but Kagome didn't know whether he had brought anything with him or not, being that she was still too frightened to even open her eyes.
Sesshoumaru, as well, was very tense with the whole situation. It was one of the few times in his life where he was absolutely lost for words. Given, he kept from speaking whenever possible, but that didn't mean he had nothing to say. And, he supposed, he did have plenty of things he wanted to say to the girl, but he had no idea how he was supposed to voice them, and he didn't quite know yet whether he wanted them to be said.
As quietly as possible he sat down at his desk, setting the package down in front of him. Now…what could this be? He turned it this way and that, looking for any hints of its contents, but there was nothing interesting to be seen. It was just a plain, decently sized brown parcel, about the size of a pillow. It was actually quite heavy, enough that he didn't try shaking it in fear of damaging whatever it contained. Well…he thought. Can't continue this any longer…
"Human." The word came out as unemotional and empty as any other, and he didn't even spare her a glance. "Get up."
Obediently Kagome sat up, looking down and to the side shyly. She stiffly rose to her feet, saying nothing and expecting some sort of command to get out and never return, or something along those lines.
"Don't stand there like an idiot. I told you yesterday, did I not? We're leaving. Today. Now." With a swift, fluid motion he turned to her, controlling his movements and expression with the experience of thousands of years. Kagome still refused to look at him. He remained there for a moment, waiting for any sort of response, but when he saw he wouldn't be getting one he simply slipped into the bathroom, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Kagome let out a long sigh. She felt childish acting like this, too scared to talk or look at her master. But there's nothing to say! It'll only get him angry…Mentally she consoled herself, idly beginning to straighten up her futon. It's best if I just keep my mouth shut…
The next half hour passed without incident. Kagome changed into a cleaner set of day clothes, but being that she had no idea to where they were going or how long they were going to be away, she didn't even attempt to pack. It wasn't like she had anything to put her clothes in, anyway. Sesshoumaru spent a little while in the bathroom, coming out with his wet hair matted down his face. He sat down in front of his mirror, apathetically tossing an order to his maid to start packing for him.
Kagome stood in front of the closet vacantly for a few moments. True, she had done this before, but he had been right next to her to direct her with every piece of clothing. On top of that, she had known how long he was expected to be away. I suppose more is better than less, since it'll probably be me carrying it anyway…From the top of the closet she pulled the bag, unpleasantly surprised with it's weight. She stumbled back as it collapsed down into her arms, quite literally pushing her off her balance and causing her to tumble into the back of the closet. Before she could even comprehend the situation everything went black, her breathing suddenly obscured by cloth.
Sesshoumaru, who had heard the 'thud,' swirled around in his chair, expecting to see his maid having done something infinitely stupid. Which was right, for the most part. She had, as he could tell, done something very foolish, but he couldn't see her. He supposed she was curled up in the closet, being that he could just barely see her foot peeking out from the nook.
Kagome groaned, trying to push the thick pile of Sesshoumaru's clothes from her face. The material was so thick that she was having a hard time breathing, which only made her head throb all the more. She hissed out a curse, emerging from the heavy pile and wiggling herself out. Luckily for her dignity, Sesshoumaru hadn't come to stare at her mockingly. She wasn't so optimistic to hope that he hadn't noticed, which of course he had, but she planned to take it as smoothly as possible.
The youkai lord shook his head in exasperation. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing, and he knew it. He waited for her to collect herself and pull herself to her feet before rising from his chair, sauntering over to the closet. He found her looking helplessly down at the pile of clothes, not knowing where to start. Without a word he stepped up next to her, leaning down and picking up one of his robes, holding it up high and brushing it off idly. Kagome stiffened some, turning her head to look at him. He seemed to be doing it without a second thought, and once he was finished straightening it out he very easily slipped it back onto the shelf, having an advantage over Kagome with his towering height.
Shaking herself out of her temporary fear, the maid hesitantly leaned over and grasped one of the robes, imitating him shakily. "…Thank you."
He took a step back, allowing her more room to pick things up. "It shouldn't be more than one or two days."
Surprised, Kagome stopped what she was doing, turning to look at him. "You mean…how long we're going to be wherever we're going?"
It was only after the question was complete that she realized what she had done. She clasped a hand over her mouth, embarrassed. Sesshoumaru just looked at her quizzically, wondering why she was acting so strangely. Of course, he knew it was awkward, but it seemed that she was forcing herself to…well…not be her.
"We'll be getting something for my father, in a small town to the south." Sesshoumaru turned away, returning to his chair and sitting himself down. Kagome continued to pick things up, face still flushed with embarrassment.
"I…I see." Neither of them said anything else while Kagome hung up the remaining clothes, pulling Sesshoumaru's luggage bag from the back of the closet once she had finished. The moment she had unloosened the strings, she realized why it had been so heavy. He had returned early from that trip the other week, and so she had only taken out the few dirty articles that were in there. His other clothes were sill neatly packed away, having been there since she had originally put them there. She kneeled down beside the bag, taking out the pens and documents and comb, setting them to the side.
How lucky! Kagome was thrilled with her finding. This meant that she only had to put in one or two more outfits, meaning fewer confrontations with Sesshoumaru. As Kagome finished that up, Sesshoumaru struggled with his hair in front of the mirror. He had neglected to brush it the previous day, having had too much on his mind with his aggravating maid. Thus, this morning the knots were all collected down at the tips, making it especially frustrating to comb out.
With every sound the brush made as it passed through the tangles, Kagome winced. Sesshoumaru's mistreatment of his beautiful hair was always unbearable to Kagome, who feared that some day it might just fall out.
Sesshoumaru was just as irritated with it as Kagome, if not more so. He pulled angrily at the knots, so hard that his head tilted to the side with every brush. He let out a growl; gripping the handle of the brush so tightly it began to shake. Whenever he thought one portion of hair was straight, he would find one more knot that would seemingly multiply the others. Sometimes he seriously considered cutting it, as it was more of a disturbance than anything else.
"Um…" Kagome watched him, furrowing eyebrows. "Do you…"
Sesshoumaru turned his head to his maid just barely, staring harshly at her from the corner of his eye. Taking that as a "no," Kagome returned to packing the things back into the large bag, feeling almost insulted with the refusal. He might as well cut it if he's going to let it get out of hand…And he even knows I can help!
She was pulled from her thoughts by a "hn" noise, and when she looked towards her master, she saw that his arm was outstretched towards her, the brush held loosely in his hand. Immediately she brightened up, feeling more forgiving and confident now, even against her better instincts. Kagome quickly shuffled to her feet, gently taking the brush by the handle and stepping up behind the youkai prince.
"All right…start at the bottom, like this." She took a good piece of hair that was next to his cheek, starting off by extremely gently combing out the tips before moving up. Sesshoumaru watched her movements in the mirror detachedly, showing only minimal interest. "And then…" Finally, she managed to take one long stroke through that strand with no knots or tangles stalling the bristles of the comb. "It's much easier. See?"
As she continued on, she managed to initiate a conversation about where they were going and for what purpose.
"The Shikon no Tama? What's that?" Sesshoumaru looked at her, with a somewhat aggravated expression, as if she had just said something characteristically dumb and dense of humans. "Nothing that you would understand."
After that little comment, Kagome began to brush her master's hair with much less care; although, for his sake, she didn't pursue the topic. Sesshoumaru was somewhat pleased with everything. It was like nothing strange had ever happened at all. It was hard to believe that just the previous day he had locked her out of the room, and that just this morning she was too frightened to speak even a word to him. Now, his maid was back to being noisy and melodramatic. In other words, everything was…Normal.
~
"Tell me…what is all the commotion?"
Candlelights flickered ominously on the walls of a dark, expansive room.
"It seems that Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha are taking a trip."
Naraku rested his chin delicately down into his hand, staring out the window with narrowed eyes and a calm smile.
"Oh? To where, I wonder…?"
"I do not know." Kanna stood next to a silent Kagura, looking as empty and detached as always. Her albino skin and hair quite literally glowed in the illumination of the candles, making her a specter next to the dark and angry Kagura. Kikyou sat on a small plush chair in the corner, eyes cast down, away from the lights.
"Well then, I suppose we'd better find out. Would you like to go on a little adventure, Kikyou?"
Naraku just chuckled at her silent response.
~
"Ready to take off, Lord Sesshoumaru-sama?"
Somehow, everyone was all packed and ready in less than an hour, an amazing feat in Kagome's opinion. What had formed was something much like a caravan; one carriage for the luggage, one for Sesshoumaru, one for Inuyasha, and then a smaller compartment where the driver, Jaken, sat, directly behind the six or so horses that were to lead the group. Kagome, of course, had no idea that Inuyasha was coming along until she saw him stuffing one of his huge bags into the luggage carriage, trailed by, even more of a surprise to her, Sango. It wasn't surprising that she was coming along, since Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha seemed to be a close-knit trio, but Miroku was nowhere in sight.
However, whether Miroku or Inuyasha or Sango or anyone else was there didn't really matter at the moment. Sesshoumaru was very aware of the fact that his rambunctious younger brother was around, and after having let him try to handle his maid once, he was now more determined than ever to keep the two away from one another.
Upon seeing the plush, beautiful interior of Sesshoumaru's carriage, Kagome's heart leapt. The first time she had ever ridden in one of these, that of course being when Inuyasha had taken here, the compartment was hard, plain, cramped, and wooden, making it an extremely uncomfortable journey. But this time, she would get to…
"What are you looking at, human?"
Kagome pulled herself away from the carriage, turning to look at Sesshoumaru. "Just our carriage…"
Sesshoumaru couldn't help but grin. "OUR carriage? You mean, my carriage. You don't ride with me."
"…What?"
"Humans…" Sesshoumaru gracefully raised his arm, pointing his index finger to the luggage carriage. "Ride in there."
~
Kagome was uncomfortable. Indeed, uncomfortable was an understatement. Kagome wasn't just uncomfortable; she was in pain, both mental and physical. The physical pain of course came from being stuffed in between the door and a large, hard bag, which was only one of the many positions she had to assume throughout the commencement of the journey. The mental pain came from being treated like nothing more than luggage; an item to be stuffed into whatever nook she could fit in just because she was a human. There was plenty of room with Sesshoumaru! Argh…my leg…She could feel the familiar tingling in her foot, and so to temporarily prolong the inevitable loss of sensation she swung it over (with some effort) one of the wooden boxes that was back there for a reason she couldn't even imagine.
"When I get out of here, I'm never speaking to him again. Never."
How long she had even been in there, she had no idea. It was probably a few hours; it couldn't be anything much less than that.
Tired from shifting and struggling, Kagome leaned her head back against the hard wood corner of the compartment, just letting it bump this way and that. She was really too exhausted to be angry with Sesshoumaru anymore; she just wanted something comfortable to nap against.
Up front, Sesshoumaru had somehow managed to doze off. It was a very light, daydreamy sort of nap, something that was highly uncharacteristic of him or any pureblood youkai for the matter. Rarer yet, he was dreaming for the first time in his very, very long life.
Sesshoumaru was standing next to some sort of tiny, rural house, patches of dead grass littering the foundation. Confused, he took a few steps, looking around for anything recognizable to him.
"Kagome!"
Swiftly he turned to the origin of the watery sound, alert but not as cautious as was normal for him. For some reason, in this unfamiliar and hazy landscape, he felt calm. The continuing voices came to him slowly and groggily, as if he were hearing them from underwater. They brought him around the corner of the house, where he saw the last thing he expected.
"Haha, you can't catch me!" Sesshoumaru watched in silent wonder as his maid chased a young boy around the yard, finally tackling him down and wrestling him until she managed to secure his arms by his side. He followed her with his eyes as she brought the struggling little boy, reminding him very much of Rin, inside the house, coming back out with a few coins in her hand.
"Only get a pound or so!" An old, tired looking woman was standing near the entrance of the little house, calling out to his maid as she rushed off.
Almost unintentionally, Sesshoumaru followed her, having the strange perception that the scenery was actually moving and changing around him without him moving at all. Suddenly he was on the side of a road that swerved into a town equally as quaint as the house he saw his maid in just a few moments earlier. She was approaching him, focusing exclusively on the coins in her open palm, totally oblivious to her surroundings. That's when another presence appeared in the scene as swift as wind, materializing right in front of the place where the youkai prince was standing.
Sesshoumaru unconsciously narrowed his eyes. 'Kouga…?' He looked back to his maid, a strong feeling beginning to weigh down on his chest. It was just as he had guessed. She didn't see him.
Part of the sequence was suddenly skipped, because before Sesshoumaru even knew it, Kouga had his hand on his maid's chin, examining her this way and that. "Oi. Are you healthy?"
"N-no…I'm not healthy at all! I have…I have a horrid limp and my left eye doesn't work well and…"
Another scene was skipped. Sesshoumaru's expression faltered just slightly with the abrupt change of surroundings, as he was no longer on the side of a small dirt path, but he was in a dark, thick forest, alone.
'Where am I?' Sesshoumaru looked this way and that, but Kouga and Kagome were nowhere to be found. He walked a little ways forward, quite suddenly at the edge of a massive cliff. He calmly looked down at it, the words that his maid had once said coming back to him. 'This humble servant fell off a cliff…'
Once again, in the blink of an eye, Sesshoumaru was back in the same forest spot he was at before, except this time not alone. He could hear rustling and heavy breathing somewhere behind him, and with peaked curiosity, he watched as his maid came bursting out of the leaves and bushes, her legs moving at an incredible pace. Soon behind her was Kouga, enjoying the hunt just as much as any youkai would, his fangs visible and shining with a crooked grin.
In the strange, incomprehensible physics of dreams, Sesshoumaru followed the pair without moving a muscle for what had to be at least five minutes. 'Maybe I'll just keep this one to myself…'
It was Kouga's voice, or at least it was something of Kouga's, Sesshoumaru perceived, even though the wolf youkai hadn't opened his mouth even once since the chase had begun. And then, when things had gotten their haziest, and when the sounds had gotten as water-logged as they were going to get, everything just…stopped.
The sounds stopped, the scenery stopped, everything just went quiet. And Sesshoumaru watched, with a quickly tightening chest, as his maid slowly and in short skips, fell to the ground far below.
And then, everything was gray and obscured, covered in a thick fog. What had become much clearer were the voices. "Don't think you'll get any special treatment." It was Kouga, and he sounded angry. "I saved your life. You owe me. You owe me your life."
"What is your name?" "…Kagome."
"You should always do what you're told…but…if you're ever in any serious need of help…" Sesshoumaru's eyes widened a little. The view had become much clearer. He was sitting, or at least he supposed he was sitting, in a carriage with Inuyasha and his maid, who was very, very, very badly battered up. "I'll protect you. I promise."
Then, perhaps the strangest part yet, Sesshoumaru saw his maid and himself on the first night they met. Not once had he ever seen a profile of himself, although he was not in the least surprised with his cruel and intimidating atmosphere. It was surprising how long ago it felt, he mused to himself, since he first met the poor and easily frightened human girl.
Instead of just flashing to the next image, this time it seemed to morph. The table melted into a stone wall, his maid melted and then materialized once more on her knees next to Sesshoumaru, and both were staring at an Inuyasha who had been formed from the ground itself. The youkai lord remembered this. This was right after she had spilled that water on him, and Inuyasha had come to mock his older brother…And then…"Inuyasha."
Everything went blurry except his maid. She had a look of solid superiority on her face; her eyes were narrowed, her lips were pursed into a thin line, and her head was held up slightly enough that she looked like…
'Me.' Sesshoumaru remembered now. He remembered how he had been relatively intrigued with the way she had acted that day, but until now, he couldn't put his finger on it. 'She looks like…me.'
And suddenly he was awake. He didn't remember exactly when his eyes had opened, but before he knew it he was back in the carriage, sitting up straight and alert as if he had never been asleep at all.
"Jaken."
The little toad youkai made a squeaking noise, turning back to look at his master. "Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"Stop the horses." The toad was obviously confused, but not about to disobey Sesshoumaru. A very groggy looking Inuyasha stuck his head out of the window in front of his older brother, looking as if he had just woken up.
"Nyuh…? Are we there yet…?"
Calmly and silently, Sesshoumaru swung the carriage door open, stepping out and striding over to the luggage cart.
Kagome had of course noticed that the little caravan had come to a halt, since her head was no longer bashing this way and that against the walls and luggage. Did we stop? She tried to poke her head around the luggage that she had moved onto her lap for legroom, but there was nothing to be seen. There was no window, really, just a few slits for breathing and light.
Taking Kagome by surprise the door abruptly flew open, light pouring in and temporarily blinding the poor girl. "Agh!" She winced, shrinking back into her baggage cocoon.
"Human. Get out." Kagome winced once more, looking pitiably up at her master.
"Are we there yet…?"
"No. Get out." As was commanded of her, Kagome pushed and struggled her way through the boxes and bags, simultaneously wondering if Sesshoumaru was planning on dumping her off in the middle of nowhere as a quick and easy way to eliminate her as an annoyance. Well, I suppose the other option would be Kouga…
Once she had finally collected her balance outside, she turned to her youkai master. Before she had the chance to ask him what the problem was he gripped his hand tightly around her wrist, pulling her quite forcefully over to his carriage, swinging the door open, and pushing her inside. She really had no choice but to allow him to do all of this, a speechless Inuyasha watching from up front in awe.
Sesshoumaru followed Kagome into the luxurious cart, shutting the door behind him and waving his hand out the window once more to indicate for Jaken to start up again. Kagome just remained silent, staring at Sesshoumaru with wide, curious eyes.
Sesshoumaru looked calmly and unemotionally out the window, as if nothing odd at all had happened. Kagome continued to stare, needless to say, confused but nevertheless pleased. "I…um…"
Evenly, the youkai prince turned his head to look at his maid, examining her up and down for a few minutes. "Hm." Looking unphased, Sesshoumaru reached out and silently fixed a large wrinkle in Kagome's dress by tugging on the hem of it. With that, he looked idly back out the window and placed his hand back onto his own lap. Kagome just watched him with wide-eyed amazement. With a faint blush and slightly shaking hands, she leaned against the window, watching the scenery roll by and smiling happily to herself.
~
"Lord Sesshoumaru-sama, we've arrived!" Kagome was shaken from her nap by Jaken's toady voice, eyelids still heavy and her vision blurry with the usual fog of the post-sleep half-consciousness that she always experienced.
When she looked over to where Sesshoumaru was sitting she saw that he had already exited, and not wanting to hold them up, she stumbled out as quickly as she could while simultaneously trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. Wherever they were, it wasn't quite as glorious as Kagome thought it would be. It was beautiful, yes, but no towering buildings or streets lined with gold or gorgeously decorated walls and fences that she would expect from a journey by someone of Sesshoumaru's standing. Instead, it was a simple seaside town with short stone walls, plenty of colorful gardens, towering trees and, to top it all off, an ancient looking temple on top of the hill that all the little shelters framed.
"Is that where we're going?" Inuyasha asked the question that Kagome was thinking, approaching his brother and the servant with his finger pointing towards the expansive shrine. Sesshoumaru answered the question with a nod of his head.
"So…" Inuyasha crossed his arms, looking towards the caravan, then up at the temple. "Where do we put the stuff?"
"Shut up, Inuyasha." Sesshoumaru walked past the hanyou without a second glance, heading up the stone road towards the temple.
The hanyou scoffed, sulking after his older brother angrily. "What?! Where do you get off telling me to shut up?! I'm not going to leave my stuff here unsupervised! It'll get stolen!"
"Jaken will take care of it." Sesshoumaru was visually frustrated, the mere sound of his brother's voice causing mental discomfort.
"Yes, leave it to me, Lord Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken hopped down from the driver's box, shuffling over to Kagome and smacking her hard over the head with his staff (which seemed to materialize out of nowhere, in Kagome's opinion). "You, human! You'll be carrying the luggage!"
Sesshoumaru turned abruptly, looking down at Jaken. "No, sh-…"
Inuyasha had stopped as well, watching his older brother quizzically and carefully, something that the pureblood youkai had quickly realized. Biting his tongue and narrowing his eyes, Sesshoumaru turned and continued on his way. Inuyasha gave Kagome a confused look. "Will you be okay, Raven?"
Before Kagome could answer Sesshoumaru paused once more, turning to Inuyasha. "When did you get the idea that you could talk to my servant?" He strongly stressed the next to last word, staring intensely at his younger sibling.
"I can talk to whoever I want! Since when have you been so protective over a human, anyway?"
The youkai prince, obviously tweaked by that last remark, raised his head just slightly. "Funny. Hearing that from a stupid hanyou who couldn't even keep his own silly little human 'maid' from running away. You repel humans just as strongly as you depend on them."
Insulted in more ways than one, Inuyasha's voice rose to a dangerous decibel, revealing his fangs and clenching his fists. "What do you mean by THAT?!"
Without answering Sesshoumaru continued on his way, leaving the hanyou behind with a bruised and battered. Brushing the whole thing off with a 'feh,' Inuyasha trailed back, crossing his arms and looking down with an angry frown.
Kagome would've rolled her eyes or something to that extent, but the painful commands from Jaken forced her to load as many bags as possible onto her back for her own trek up to the temple, which was suddenly looking unbearably steep to her.
~
It had taken at least eight trips, but the luggage was finally all packed away in one of the shrine's traditional Japanese rooms, leaving Kagome with a bad neck cramp and a limp. It turned out that they were only staying the night, which seriously made Kagome wonder what the contents of all these cases and such were.
The ride there had taken 6 hours, she estimated, meaning that it was probably a little past 3 in the afternoon. That didn't make much sense to her either, though, since what she had gathered was that Sesshomaru's job was just to make a delivery and pick something up. She couldn't think of a reason that it would take more than a few hours to complete the transfer.
Jaken had just finished tying the horses up and unhitching the carriages, so she supposed that it meant she could go rejoin Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. She had heard Sesshoumaru's voice coming from behind a sliding screen right next to the gate, but it was shut and she didn't know if she was allowed to just barge in. So, to stay out of trouble, she waited outside, shifting back and forth uncomfortably on her sore feet. Sesshoumaru and a voice unfamiliar to Kagome talked quietly for about ten minutes , Inuyasha inserting some sarcastic and loud comments himself whenever he got the chance. Finally, the screen door slid open, and Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru emerged.
"So, I'll see you two again tonight, I wager?" An old hunched over woman with gray hair and an eye patch hobbled out behind the two brothers, her voice crackly from age. Sesshoumaru gave her a delicate nod. "Thank you."
"Yeah, thanks a lot you old hag…" Inuyasha grumbled to himself, earning a rough hair-tug from the old woman. "As charming as always, Inuyasha!"
"Ow! Let go!" The hanyou growled and pulled, hissing curses at the old priestess. Sesshoumaru just ignored them both, and instead looked down at Kagome. His expression asked the question well enough, and she nodded. "All taken care of."
"Hm?" The old woman suddenly looked at Kagome, letting go of Inuyasha's hair. "And who are you?"
"That's Sesshoumaru's maid, grandma." Inuyasha snorted, saying the term "grandma" with enough sarcasm that Kagome knew that it was an insult rather than a genuine title.
"I can answer my questions myself, Inuyasha." The youkai looked at Inuyasha with disgust, fangs just barely exposed. Kagome thought to herself bitterly, even though it was a question directed at me…
"It wasn't for either of you." The woman, with the confidence of many years of hardships, pushed past both Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. "Who are you, girl?"
Kagome blinked a few times in succession, surprised. "I'm…I'm Sesshoumaru's maid."
"Yes, yes, of course, but your name, girl! Your name!"
She paused. She wasn't quite sure how to answer the question, not with Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha standing right next to her. "Um…er…Raven."
The old woman looked quizzical, examining Kagome up and down. "Ah. I see. Follow me, please."
She walked back into the room, signaling for Kagome to follow her. Confused, but not one to ignore a request, especially one made by someone other than Sesshoumaru or Jaken, Kagome obeyed.
The door snapped shut behind her, and Kagome hopped forward in surprise. "Don't be so scared, I'm not going to hurt you."
The priestess hobbled down the considerably sized room, and Kagome followed her, even though she was not sure if she was expected to do such. "My name is Kaede. Don't look so tense, girl! Now." She stopped abruptly, turning to face Kagome. "We're alone now. What's your real name?"
"Oh…it's…it's Kagome."
"Kagome? I see. Well, Kagome. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha will be coming back here tonight to get something from me. I want you to come too. Do you understand? It's important that you do."
Somewhat taken aback, the raven-haired girl nodded.
"Good. Now, off you go." And with that, Kaede waved her hand to the door, sending Kagome off.
~
Author's Note: I KNOW IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME. T_T I KNOW. I'm SORRY. I really, really, really am. I KNOOOOOOW. And it's TOOOOOTALLY my fault and I'm SOOOOOORRY. And I know this ended really abruptly, but, that's because I PROMISED one of my fans that it'd be done by Tuesday, and…well, it's not. But I figured that SOMETHING is better than NOTHING. Right? Right. Besides, it's not insanely short. 8 pages isn't that bad..Is it? I have not closely grammar checked it. I haven't. I'm sorry, but it's late and I'll work on it more tomorrow. I cannot promise another chapter soon, but I CAN promise that another page or so will be up WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK. Will that do for now?
I will try to update more, since now I have more time and now I actually sat down and thought about it, and I have a sequence of events to follow. Am I promising once a week? No. But I am promising once a month. Will that do for people? And if it gets longer than that, then feel free to IM/e-mail me forcing me to promise. Since I feel bad not keeping promises. A lot of people told me that I shouldn't drag it out and that I need to focus less on the subplots, but I'm sorry, that just goes against my morals as an author. I can't just have the story be about Sesshoumaru and Kagome and her being taken or not being taken away by Kouga. That's dull, dry, and it's quite obviously something an author would write just for the fluff levels and reviews. As much as I love fluff and reviews, I want to make this interesting. Not Dickens material, sure, but at least a real story. Not just something I BS for the attention. Ne?
I hope everyone who asked to be on the mailing list I'm e-mailing…A lot of people asked in the reviews, but trust me, that DOESN'T work. I have like, over 10 pages of reviews, and I can't skim them all for e-mail addresses. So e-mail me, okay? That's much, much easier.
Oh, and I contemplated putting Sango and Miroku in here, but that probably would've just been clutter, don't you agree? Jaa…MATA NE! (Don't be angry, people…! I love you, I do! That's why I worked so hard on this the past few days! I even had two pages in the middle of there that I totally rewrote just to make it better for you!)