A/N: Sorry for the wait, I've been busy, and thenI got a defective product from ebay so I have to sort it out. Oh well, hope you like, the next update shouldbe faster, I have that chapter nearly done anyways. Thanks for all of the reviews, -huggles all- Very much appreciated!
.:Curse of Dragons:.
.:By: Darkwolfgal:.
.:Chapter 3: Discovery:.
He just glared at her, the new dragon girl, he had long forgotten her name, and had to admit she was pretty smart. If she hadn't figured out he was hungry he'd probably have torn the place apart, as soon as he finally broke this stupid chain.
Now he glared at her, stomach fairly full, the soporific quality of contentment and his own weariness sinking into his bones, impacting his mind as well. He couldn't help but compare her with Kikyo. They had the same raven-black hair and brown eyes, their skin was pale as moonlight, and they had that same 'I-know-what-you're-not-telling-me-but-I-want-to-know-it-all' attitude.
"Shut up." He snarled as the girl oh so annoying pointed out he wasn't just a dragon. She knew he wasn't just a dragon, it was obvious really, but the way she said it, that tell-me-everything look in her eyes, it was the same attitude Kikyo had used with him.
And then, whether it was weariness or memory, Kikyo's image slid into his mind, her hair whipped around in the wind, her expensive silken gown silver, almost as white as her skin, flowing around her, and her eyes cold, dark, menacing.
Somehow the two images blurred over, just as the girl spoke again, and suddenly it was Kikyo that was speaking, her voice slippery as a snake, sending chills up his dragon spine and hate coursed through him. Pure and unobstructed hate.
And he lunged at her, all intent on making the kill, his chain flapping loosely behind him.
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In the first lunge he bowled her over with his snout, as easily as if she was a bag of straw, and before she could get to her feet he had hit her in the back, rolling her over in the straw, pinning her in the corner.
One forepaw flew out, the four talons pinning her down, two on either side of her head and the others beneath her arms. She grabbed at the silver scales, pushing at his talons, but he did not budge.
The silver snout slipped lower, jaws agape, canines wet with saliva.
"Stop it!" She cried, renewing her struggles, and he paused for just a moment, before snarling again, a thunderous snarl that shook her with its volume.
"Please stop!" She pleaded, but she was drowned out by his snarling.
She gasped, feeling the end near, but knowing she had to do something, and in the briefest pause as he snapped his head out, to break her neck, she cried out at the top of her lungs.
"Stop it,Inuyasha!"
She gasped, her heart beating wildly in her chest, her head spinning as if some unknown force had just been freed within it, or something. Where that last word had come from, she did not know, but it seemed to have worked.
He snapped to his senses with a jolt, jaws snapping shut in an instant, only a few inches from her neck.
His name, a word he had not heard for at least half a century, she had known his name, and that was enough to make him freeze, make him see that this was not Kikyo. This was that dragon girl, with the sweet scent, with the softer brown eyes the glowed like liquid.
Shepushed at his talons and he obliged, stepping back almost to the wall, tail lashing behind him as she got shakily to her feet, meeting his eyes as she supported herself against the wall.
"You're not Kikyo." He whispered.
She shook her head.
"My name is Kagome, I don't know any Kikyo." She said, glad her voice, if a little hoarse, did not stammer.
"Then how- how did you know my name?" The dragon rumbled.
"What?!" She blurted out, before regaining her senses. Inuyasha… this dragon had a name… He was Inuyasha… She had known his name…
"How did you know my name?" The dragon repeated, lifting his head ever so slightly so he could stare down at her, his tail lashing once to show his impatience.
"I don't know, it just came out!" she cried back, nearly shouting with her frustration, and none of that was doing her headache any good. She needed rest; even one of the drunks at the village bar would have known that.
Apparently the dragon, Inuyasha, was tired too, or just feeling the soporific effects of a full belly, because a moment later he settled down in his bedding with a light thump, the chain jangling loosely down his side. She reached for it but he was faster, snapping his neck around and snatching the chain with his jaws before lowering his muzzle to his forepaws and closing his eyes.
She sighed, wondering if it had been such a good idea to free him from his chain. For all she knew, he was planning to jump at her the moment her back was turned, he seemed to like doing that.
She'd worry in the morning, she was far too tired now, and her meals at the brothel had seemed ages ago. Her stomach was aching, but her head felt ten times worse.
Sometime between the point when her knees buckled and she fell asleep in the straw she decided she wasn't going bother getting into bed.
He opened his eyes slightly, in a lazy half-lidded look, seeing that his assumptions had been correct. Humans, so weak, this Kagome had just flopped down in his straw. Pah, he would have never been so weak, even on the new moon.
At the thought he lifted his snout from his paws, the chain he grasped jangling gently, and he looked to the ceiling overhead, as if he could see the sky from here, which he could not. The last time he had seen the moon it was a good three quarters empty.
He hoped she didn't plan on sleeping in his stall for the next week.
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There was a rapid knocking on the door.
She groaned, turning slightly, still half asleep. Part of her wondered what time it was, the rest of her was still unconscious.
The knocking came again, faster, louder.
She moaned again, rolling slightly in the straw. It had been late when she had fallen asleep, she didn't want to wake up.
Of course, the hard rap in the side she received a moment later gave her little choice in the matter of waking.
Her eyes popped open and she yelped, staring at a rush of silver scales. She realized this was one side of the dragon-Inuyasha, she must call him that-'s muzzle, with one gleaming golden eye glaring down at her.
"Get up, wench, or they'll barge in here and accuse you of witchery." He hissed, his words barely detachable from the feigned half-asleep hiss, which was just loud enough for whoever was knocking to hear and pause. She could have sworn there was a glint of satisfaction in the dragon's eyes.
"Nobody would believe you 'tamed' a dragon in less than a night." He continued, flipping her over with a bat of his snout before settling back into the straw, his snout on his forepaws, eyes nearly fully lidded.
She got to her feet, quickly shaking most of the straw from her, and creeping to the smaller flap in the door, which was obviously a peak hole, in the corner that had sheltered her from Inuyasha's first attack, and flipped it open.
"You're alive then!" A cheerful looking Rin exclaimed as she saw Kagome's face. "How did it go?"
"Alright, I just treated him like one of the temperamental bulls I saw a lot at the fairs." She replied with a slight shrug.
"Well, it's nearly time for the noon meal, you should feed your dragon." Rin replied with the same cheerfulness. "Meet you here when you're done, I'll take you to the dining room." She said, skipping off to some place or other. Kagome flipped the door shut.
"Yes wench, I'm quite hungry." Inuyasha growled from behind her, where he had lifted his head to tower above her. It must be some male status thing.
"I'm moving, I'm moving." She growled in response, unable to keep from the snapping at the dragon's imperious tone, and he twisted his mouth into a definite sneer. She left quickly, before she had to hear his response.
Outside she brushed the rest of the straw from her clothes and hair before getting her bearings. The feeding room was… that way, and with that she streaked down the hall to the cavernous room, not checking the chart at all as she went around, grabbing beef and pork from the smaller table.
She knew what it would say, add 'herb 3' or Inuyasha's favorite sedative. He wouldn't eat it, and she didn't want to pull a 'what-happened-yesterday' again.
She wheeled the still light barrow back towards Inuyasha's stall without mishap, shoving the door open and wheeling the barrow in. She hadn't even started to close the door when Inuyasha snatched at the barrow, dragging it towards him and slurping up the meal without the smallest sign of etiquette. She grimaced and he grinned with dragonish glee.
"Hurry up, I don't want to miss my meal." She said, hearing her stomach rumble.
The dragon lifted his head, meeting her gaze, and seemed to ponder it for a moment, and then he dropped back to eating, at a slightly faster pace.
In moments he was done, licking the stuff off the barrow walls and shoving it towards her with a leisurely thrust of a forepaw.
She saw him curl up again as she left the stall and wheeled the barrow down the hall at top speed. It was fun, quite fun, until the barrow caught in a rut, and she went tumbling.
With a gasp of pain she got to her feet, staring down at her left leg. A jagged gash ran from knee to ankle, and by god it hurt, but she didn't have time to take care of it now. She ripped off part of her shift and wrapped it around her leg, hoping it would keep the blood off the ground.
Limping, she got the barrow back to the feeding rooms and, tucking her kimono carefully over her leg, managed to hide her limping gait back to Inuyasha's stall where Rin was waiting for her.
The younger girl didn't notice and led her quickly down a corridor and into a room where porridge and hot rolls were being served. Kagome's hunger took over at once and she dove into her meal, scraping the bowl clean and getting an extra roll afterwards. Rin, laughing, ate a much smaller portion.
"All dragons receive a noon grooming, after they've been lounging for a while after their meal, but not too long so they're active again." Rin said as the two girls finished. "The grooming supplies are in one of the closets in the stalls, I'd show you but I have to get back to Mayrei." And she skipped out of the room, leaving Kagome to go her own way to Inuyasha's stall.
She found the supplies, a basket of brushes and cloths with a large jar of oil, and turned to Inuyasha, who was wallowing in the back of the stall where he was up to his shoulders in heated sand. He was obviously enjoying his freedom, though he still had the chain grasped tightly in his jaws.
"Okay, how am I supposed to do this?" She asked and Inuyasha lifted his head from the surface of the sand, sand grains sliding down his scales, and shook it.
"You could ask the girl." He grunted, sand grains flying. "Or you could let me groom myself."
At her double take he continued.
"You think we dragons can't groom ourselves?" A snort after this, "How do you think we look so fearful in the wild? Pah, those dorks out there are the laziest pigs I've ever known, though I can't blame about half of them seeing as they aren't-" His jaws snapped shut, fangs clacking, and she got the impression he'd said too much.
"Seeing as they aren't what?" She pressed eagerly, curiosity getting the better of her.
He growled, eyes narrowing, as if he was pondering what to say. He snorted, sending a breath of extremely hot air, that didn't smell bad, despite what he was eating, wafted towards her and he took a deep breath-
And his eyes seemed to almost bulge, if dragon eyes could do that, and he sniffed again, more delicately.
"Blood, you are-were bleeding." He said, his neck arching and surveying her from the side.
He was right, of course, she had completely forgotten about her wound.
She sat down at once, pulling up her kimono and unraveling the slightly red stained cloth from her gash, only to find it a faint white line, and the even stranger thing about it.
It was glowing!
She yelped, staring at what had been a bleeding wound hardly a half candlemark ago, and yelped again as Inuyasha's head appeared hardly a few inches from her leg. He was looking at it with both eyes, staring almost straight down his snout, and she collected herself.
"It's glowing." She managed to choke out, and his head whipped up, staring at her.
"I'd say you were going crazy, but you already are." He rumbled.
"I swear it's glowing!" She protested, "What's wrong with your eyes?"
He frowned at that, before turning his gaze back to her wound, and he flinched slightly before glaring at her leg, as if it would solve everything. He lowered his muzzle, touching the soft skin between his nostrils to her leg, and this time he jerked back, shaking his head before turning back to her, again.
"The jewel…" He murmured, lost in memory, his voice faraway. "The power… but no… too weak…. It can't be the jewel… the jewel's stronger… unless… unless it was broken."
She blinked at him, wondering what he was mumbling about, but jolted at the mention of a breakage.
"Broken, are you talking about the jewel of four souls?" She asked.
He was as surprised as she by her words and flinched, ears pinning, but nodding.
"The jewel… I broke the jewel."
He snapped to attention then, scales nearly standing on end.
"Don't lie, wench, the jewel is unbreakable!" He roared, eyes vivid with outrage and disbelief.
"I don't care what you say, I broke it! It fell out of my hands and it shattered, no buts about it! Why are you talking about the jewel anyways?" She said, huffed at his reaction, snapping more out of annoyance than fear, and it must have shook him back to reality.
"Shards… if you've shattered it… you've got jewel shards in your leg." He said, touching her leg again as if to be sure and flinching back again.
"What?!" She yelped yet again, jerking her leg back before glancing at it again. It felt almost alive, as if something was leaping like a deer, or soaring like a dragon, right in the direction of her leg, and if she looked at it in the right direction the light came from a certain direction. Three diamond shaped objects to be exact, each slightly different from the others.
"One… two… three." She counted slowly, and he glared at her again.
"You can see them, you can see the shards." He accused, and she nodded, speechless, but thankfully he didn't do any more talking.
Instead he lidded his eyes, thinking hard, his scaly brows furrowing slightly in a human-like expression and she was reminded again that he could not be simply a dragon. Finally he spoke again.
"Help me." He said, half pleading, and she stared at him, taken aback. "Help me find the other shards." He was staring at her, meeting her eyes with amber irises that gleamed with years of sorrow.
"Why?" She said, saying the only word she could on such an occasion and he turned his dragonish head away.
"I can't tell you… you have to trust me." He said, and she could hear the sorrow in his voice as he did so, as if he knew too well what he was saying, and how she would respond.
"I can't trust you, not if you can't trust me." She said, and he sighed sadly, lowering his head back into the sand wallow.
"I can't trust you… I could never trust you… You're just too much like…" And he left off there, his voice drowning away into some pit of sadness, his eyes becoming half lidded and faraway, entrapped in some memory.
"Kikyo." She said for him, though he didn't seem to hear, and she got slowly to her feet and found the door to her new quarters, taking one look back at the sorrowful pile of silver scales that lay still in the middle of the sand.