It was quiet that day, more or less. A soft wind carried the last of the autumn leaves from their branches, and brought in the first chill of winter. The frost would come soon, they knew, and then the snow. The refugees of Green Haven milled about, working at a casual pace. At least…until he arrived.

Sango very nearly didn't recognize him - his clothing was different from the norm, and his hair was unbound. It wasn't until she saw his eyes that she knew who it was. The next thing she knew was that things had gone terribly wrong. His hand was bound up in strips torn from his robes, but he'd bled through those somewhat. His appearance overall was quite haggard, his hair matted with dirt and blood, his clothes rumpled and stained and thick stubble growing across his jaw. He'd been gone a long while. His staff was slung over his back, but she could see the damage - the chips, the scratches, the blood. It was how she knew all was not well - there was so much blood, and everywhere.

She stood quickly and ran over to him, calling to Arashi and Wakana.

"Bandages, quickly. Arashi - please get the poultices and some water. And get Shinnosuke to take a group out into the woods, they'll need to have a look for soldiers."

Slipping his arm over her shoulder, she helped him over to a log, and he sat with a grimace. She couldn't help but notice his hand, and the unnatural curl of the fingers.

"Friar, let me see," she ordered softly, and he smiled shakily, reaching out gently, palm up, to place his hand in hers. Gently, cautiously - lest she tug at the scabs - she peeled back some of the strips of fabric.

"Inuyasha!" she called shakily, and the half-demon stuck his head out of the hut. The moment he saw Miroku, he was there, looking between the two of them and demanding to know what was going on.

"Get Kaede, quickly," was all she said. Miroku's face was lined with pain, and he looked old, too old.

"And whiskey," she added. Inuyasha nodded, for once shutting his mouth, and went to do as he was bid. They had come to an understanding in the month or so since Miroku had left - no questions, no answers, no problem. It worked, for the most part, and they had almost had a decent conversation a few days before.

Arashi and Wakana returned with the supplies, and Sango finished stripping the bandages from his hand. He hissed in pain, and she looked at him gently.

"It's going to hurt worse soon. I have to clean it, and pull fibers from the cut. After that, we wait for Kaede."

He nodded mutely, watching grimly as she worked. It was not long before Sango could see with horrifying clarity what had happened.

Someone had taken a sharp knife, and in one smooth, deliberate slice severed all of the tendons in his right hand. There was no doubt in her mind that this was Naraku's handiwork.

"What happened?" she asked, as she smeared a healing salve over the wounds and began to wrap them as best she could. It was an awkward cut, made across the inside of the hand, where the fingers met the palm.

"I overestimated Prince Naraku's morals," he said with a foolish (and pained) smile. "He has no objection to striking a man of the cloth."

"Friar…" she began, meaning to remind him that that was not what she meant. However, the sudden appearance of Kaede cut her off, and she turned him over to the old woman, who knew better the ways of wounds. Inuyasha handed her the whiskey, but she brushed it off.

"I'll not be using any of that," she said, and (with a surprising amount of ease) looped an arm under his shoulders and helped him into the hut.

"Kikyou was bringing her anyway," Inuyasha said. Sango nodded - it made sense. Kaede was Kikyou's old nursemaid, after all.

"Will she tell us what has happened this past month?"

The half-demon shook his head.

"She don't know. Whatever went on at that meeting went on without her - she wouldn't even 'ave known it happened if the soldier who threw Miroku from the castle hadn't informed her of it."

Sango looked into the trees, frowning. This…wasn't the way Prince Naraku did things, not that she had heard. He killed or kept, (according to Kagome) but that was it. To debilitate Miroku like this and then send him back to them was not how it was supposed to be done. Something felt wrong with this.

"Oi," Inuyasha called, and she turned just in time to catch a staff.

"Stop moping and fight me," he said. She turned and readied herself for his attack.

---

It was several hours later when Kaede walked out of Miroku's hut, looking worn-out and concerned.

"It's a foul wound, made perhaps a sennight ago and healing poorly. There's not much chance he'll ever use that hand again," she informed them when they stopped fighting and asked. Inuyasha frowned, looking as if he'd have liked to yell at the old woman, but thought better of it after a moment and simply walked into the hut. Sango distracted herself from worry, asking Kaede what herbs would be used, how often bandages would be changed, if any exercises would be necessary. She put all of her mind into what she was being told, making certain that not a word of it would leave her. The old woman answered her questions in detail, glad to know that someone else would be capable of taking care of the injured Friar.

The sun had set by the time Inuyasha finished in the hut, and gestured for Sango to enter. She did so nervously, unsure of the Friar's current state. What she saw both relieved and disturbed her - he lay on his cot, head propped up on a straw-stuffed wheat sack, staring quietly at his hand.

"Friar?" she called. He looked over, and his face broke into a smile. He still looked to be in a fair amount of pain - tired, too. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, until he heard her call.

"Well met, my darling. You're certainly a sight for sore eyes."

She rolled her own eyes, and knelt next to him.

"If it's your eyes that hurt, then I cringe at the thought of what the rest of you must feel like."

He laughed, and grimaced at the pain. Sango raised an eyebrow worriedly, and placed a hand on his arm. It wasn't a conscious movement, but Miroku noted it with a smile and reached up with his uninjured hand to cup her cheek.

"I told you I'd come back alive," he reminded her, and she blushed.

"I'm…glad that you did."

His eyes met hers for a moment, and he brushed her bottom lip gently with his thumb. She stiffened, looking away - he sighed and let his hand drop.

"How have things been while I was away visiting our benevolent lord and master?"

She scoffed. "Things've been fine. Abi's not been by, and Inuyasha's led good raids. Speaking of which…did he talk about the tournament at all while he was in here?"

Miroku shook his head, and she continued.

"Well, we're keeping an eye on him. He and Kagome actually had a row over it - he tried to leave for the early tournaments, and she stopped him. Kikyou would've been proud. There's deer meat stretching behind the rocks, we've done quite well. Oh! Wakana's little ones have learned to crawl - they're into everything! Actually, about a fortnight or so ago…"

She regaled him with the tales of Kimiharu and Hatsu's adventures around camp until Arashi came to bring them supper. By then, Miroku was actually sitting upright, and she had shifted herself from kneeling at the side of the cot, to sitting at the end of it.

"So," she asked, as they began to work away at the stew. "Do you plan to tell me what happened, or shall I go find Inuyasha?"

He looked at his bowl with dark eyes for a moment, and Sango cursed herself for being so tactless. After a moment, though, he looked at her quietly, something warm filling his eyes - she felt a similar warmth curl in the pit of her stomach at his look. Before she could wonder what to do, though, he looked past her, and began to explain.

"When we arrived at the castle, it was not as a pair," he told her quietly, his voice low and hollow as his mind reeled back to day's past. "She was there before I was - a day or so ahead, so we planned it. It wouldn't do for her to be associated with the bedraggled Friar who appeared on the doorstep demanding audience with His Majesty. I was let in, given food and bath and a warm bed, for it was late in the night that I arrived."

'And I bet there was a pretty bedwarmer waiting for you as well,' she thought wryly. While she had only recently become properly aware of it, she had always known his willingness for a sweet handmaid. Sango did not voice this, however, but instead waited for Miroku to continue.

"In the morning, I awoke to fresh robes and breakfast with His Royal Wickedness. It was a tedious affair, but that's not the point. It is what happened next that is important. I left to the audience chamber, following his lead, and there we spoke of only one thing - Greenhaven. He knows we are here. And he knows that there are a great many of us. He also knows that Inuyasha - The King of the Outlaws - makes his settlement here, and that all those who stay here are his followers. I do not know how he has gained this knowledge - but I do know that there is a barmaid who has been known to keep suspicious company. And for that, we must assume that she, or someone else in the village, has been assisting the sheriff.

"Our lives - the lives of all who live here - are in danger, Sango," he said. His voice cracked with anger and despair. "There's no way around it. In three days he marches on us - three days, at the most. That's assuming that no soldier left Nottingham before I did. We need to prepare as best we can for the battle that is to come."

Miroku struggled to sit up, only to be pushed down by Sango. She met his frustrated look squarely with her own brown eyes, and her hand slid up to brush a strand of hair from his face.

"We'll be ready, Friar. His Majesty's soldiers can't be two places at once, after all."

He looked at her in confusion, and she explained.

"The tournament which Inuyasha is so crazy to enter also takes place in three days time - it is a tourney, more than a tournament; and if the papers Kagome brought yesterday are to be believed, more than half of his military force has joined. We still have time - it will only need the right planning."

She stood, then, and grabbed his easel from beside the fire, placing a piece of parchment on it and drawing a haphazard map with the ink brush.

"Since the tournaments in Nottinghamshire, nobody'll know most of us - which helps. Now, if the town itself plans to host this, then the inns will be hurting somethin' awful for help. Arashi can be spared, as well as Umeko and I guess Nazuna could go as well. There's bound to be a few others, I bet, who can make certain that the soldiers drink heavily through most of these next few days. It shouldn't be hard - I bet Shinnosuke could even…"

Sango trailed off, her face lighting at the tenderness with which Miroku looked at her. It told her, without words, everything she'd been avoiding since before he left. She blushed, and he chuckled.

"I see everything is in good hands," he said quietly. She nodded quietly, and went back to her work. After a long while, she stood and stretched sore legs. A glance at Miroku told her that he was asleep, but as she began to walk towards the door, she felt a warm hand envelop hers.

"Stay," he whispered, and pulled her down next to him. She curled up quietly against his blanketed chest as he wrapped his arms around her, and closed her eyes. It occurred to her just before she fell asleep that this perhaps wasn't the best choice, but…she had been so close to losing him - if not to Naraku, then to the infection of a vicious wound. And she wasn't about to let him go without a fight. When Inuyasha entered the hut later that night, hoping to get some sleep, he found them still like that and - with a snort of aggravated derision - turned around and made for the nearest tree.

---

In the morning, Miroku awoke alone, which surprised him a little. He had expected to wake up with a certain huntress in his arms; had been looking forward to it, even. In fact, it was safe to say he was the littlest bit disappointed, even if he did understand why she'd gone. So he sat up, pushing himself off the bed -

- and staggered into the table, white-hot pain shooting through his right arm. Malicious throbs of warm discomfort reminded him of his wound, and he stood up again, careful to use only his left hand for support. The ruckus caused Kagome to enter, her eyebrows raised in concern.

"I'm alright," he said hoarsely. She shook her head, and began to strike the fire.

"I'll make a pot of tea," she told him. Miroku sat down quietly, and grabbed an apple. Inuyasha entered shortly thereafter.

"She'd better be different from th' others," he told Miroku gruffly as he, too, grabbed a piece of fruit and began to eat. Kagome studiously not-listened as she gathered the herbs for the tea.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Sango. She's a notch 'bove your usual sort. You should treat 'er proper-like."

"My intent isn't to bed her, Inuyasha. I know her too well to make any attempt of that sort…" he trailed off as the woman in question entered the hut as well.

"Good morning, Friar," Sango said quietly, tapping Kagome on the shoulder. The young woman turned, and a flurry of quiet words followed. The two women left the hut shortly thereafter - as soon as the tea was on the table.

Sango led Kagome away from Green Haven's residents, to near a broad stand of trees.

"So?" Kagome said, the question evident in her voice. Sango filled her in quickly.

"…and so I need you to gather up as many of our women as you can. Those whose Norman isn't too shoddy would be nice, but any and all are needed. And we'll need them to get their best shifts out."

"Not many of them have tidy clothing," Kagome warned. Sango nodded, thinking for a moment.

"We'll do what we can. You can sew, I assume. I've always been a hopeless stitch, but there's bound to be a few women who can do some solid work with needle and thread. Alter what you need to, buy what you can't save. We've got a little extra."

"And what're they to do when they make it into town?"

Sango smiled.

"This is the easy part. Hire on as barmaids in as many taverns as they can. All they've got to do is get the soldiers good and drunk. It shouldn't be hard. The drunker they get, the more difficult it'll be to focus when they awake the next morn."

Kagome laughed. "An army who's half-drunk, tired, and overworked is half beat already."

"That's right. Now…I need to talk to our younglings, as well. Anyone o'er the age of seven will do…"

The children assembled solemnly, all eight of them. Sango sat down on a stump to speak with them, doubts still swirling in her head. What she was asking them to do was dangerous, suicidal even. But every little bit would help, and Kagome had talked their mothers around already.

"You're all old enough, I assume, to know who Prince Naraku is?"

The eldest of them, around eleven years of age, spat. The rest of them simply scowled. She smiled.

"Good. We're going to play a trick on his soldiers. You'll each get a little knife, and a few handfuls of dirt. Now…"

She went on to outline the plan, a devious little plot she was quite proud of. They would sneak into the camps after nightfall, making their way into the supply tents. Bowstrings would be thinned, arrows broken and thrown into the bush, food spoilt by dirt and urine. They'd untie the horses, and throw rocks from a safe distance to scare the beasts off. Odd noises in the night would keep the soldiers (and their sentries) hopping until they twitched at every gust of wind.

"You must understand, though," she told them seriously, "that this is not a game. This is serious work, as serious as anything that I'd give a grown man is. You must be careful and clever - you don't come back from being caught."

Sango watched their faces, and approved of what she saw. Beneath the dirt and muck of camp life, these children understood the gravity of what they must do. She stood, and halted. Miroku was out of bed - out of the hut - standing in front of the assembled residents of Green Haven. Inuyasha stood next to him. She walked over, and heard the half-demon's gruff voice.

"By now, all of you've prolly heard what's happened. What will happen," he was saying. "Naraku's goin' to come at us with all he's got, and we 'ave to meet 'im with the same. Some of you got yer stuff from Sango already."

Miroku stepped forward.

"We need to prepare Green Haven. This isn't a skirmish with a handful of soldiers; this is a true attack on our home. How many of you have used any sort of weapon before? Even just a slingshot."

Several hands went up, almost half the crowd - Sango's included.

"Good…how many of you have used a bow before? A dagger?"

The response was the same - all told, there were only a few who would be unable to fight, and even they could help to heal or to watch over the smallest of the children. Miroku smiled, and Inuyasha spoke once more.

"Y'all know what to do, I suppose. Those that don't, talk t' the scrawny girl near th' big oak. She'll set you straight. I've got my own shite to settle, and this joke o' a Friar 'ere is wounded. I suggest you talk with yer loved one's quick-like, and get to work."

Inuyasha stepped out of the crowd, pausing only long enough to hear Miroku wish them all 'good luck and Godspeed'. Then he stepped into their hut, where Kikyou sat ready to stop him from attending the tournament. Sango sighed, and straightened (she'd get him for the 'scrawny' comment later) as several people approached her. She glanced at the Friar once, watching his expression falter for a moment, give way to a look of concern and care for his people. She forced herself to focus on the man in front of her, and began explaining to him the basics of grass weaving.

---

So pleased with this chapter. It's probably the second-to-last, as well. Maybe the third, but not likely. This story is almost at it's end. I'm a little sad, really. It's been such a great experience, this one. Kitty-chan has a different word for it (it's not a nice one, I bet) and her hard work is certainly appreciated. And you might notice the way people have changed their speech...well... It's a long story. Suffice it to say, I might just go back and change everything so that the speech changes for each character.