AN: Wow, guess it's a good thing I put up an early chapter last week. School's been hell this week, and I've been running on 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night... So yeah, I didn't feel like revising and re-formatting this chapter, which was a great pain in the ass anyway. Oh well. Just a warning, this is one of those long explaination chapters.. which I hate writing as much as you probably hate reading. But you're gonna need it to understand the rest, so just bear with me. Heh. And if you get through it without nodding off, please leave me a review..?

Chapter Six - Introductions

"This is just stupid. He's gonna wake up and slaughter all the villagers before he even thinks of how he wants to kill all of us!" Inuyasha fumed.

"He's not going to kill anyone with a wound like that!" Kagome retorted, trying not to shout, though her patience was wearing thin.

"How could you even think of bringing that bastard here? The next time he decides to go out and try to kill me for no reason, he's gonna come here first!"

"If he wanted to kill you, I'm sure he'd have no trouble tracking you down. He would find the village on his own if you were in it," Kagome said dryly.

"You should listen to your woman, hanyou, she's wiser than you." Both of them turned with wide eyes to Sesshoumaru.

"Ah, you're awake, that's a good sign!" Kagome said, trying to sound as happy as possible.

"Yes, and as you can plainly see, Inuyasha, I'm not slaughtering any of your precious villagers," he said arrogantly, despite the highly undignified groans he made as he tried to sit up.

"Sit still, Sesshoumaru," Maina said sternly from her seat just behind him. "You'll tear your wounds open if you move around too much."

"Hmmph," he said, lying back down again. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. Had he just done what someone else had told him to do?

"Oh, so he's awakened, has he?" said Kaede, walking into the hut with a basket of herbs.

"Just now," Maina answered her.

"How long have I been out?" Sesshoumaru asked, turning his head to Maina, though the best angle he could get was a view of her knee.

"Not too long. The battle was around noon, and it's almost sundown now. I believe we'll be eating soon," she told him.

"Aye," Kaede added. "Sango began the cooking some time ago."

"And I would be helping her if someone didn't keep following me around and yelling about how I let his wounded brother come to the village with us," Kagome said, with an irritated glance at Inuyasha. He shot one back, but then seemed to think better of it.

"Do you have any ramen with you?" he asked hopefully. She sighed.

"Plenty. I'll go help Sango with dinner now, and I promise we'll have ramen to go with it," Kagome told him, walking out of the hut. Inuyasha, not wanting to be around Sesshoumaru but still concerned about the security of the village, went outside to patrol. With them gone, Kaede kneeled down beside Sesshoumaru's bed.

"Your wounds are quite serious, Sesshoumaru. Ye should rest for at least a week."

"I am a youkai, old woman, my body will heal itself much faster than a human's would, or than Inuyasha's would, for that matter," he said, annoyed already to find where they'd brought him and more so upon hearing how long this little visit could last.

"Even taking that into account, I still advise ye to rest for a week," the old miko said, undaunted by his attitude. She was used to working with surly inuyoukai, after all. She studied him for a few moments. "I think we should change your bandages after dinner, that way ye can get to sleep earlier. Your body, youkai or not, will need plenty of sleep to heal such a wound." Sesshoumaru simply glared at her.

"I know she's a human, but she's helping you, so show her some manners, will you?" Maina whispered loudly. Kaede chuckled.

"Just keep him from straining himself, and I will see how dinner's coming along," the miko said with a smile as she raised herself onto her feet. As soon as she had left the hut, Sesshoumaru spoke again.

"Why did you bring me here?" he asked quietly.

"The young miko told me that Lady Kaede was a skilled healer and could help with a wound such as yours," Maina told him, shuffling over the wooden floor to sit at the side of the bed, within his field of view.

"What young miko?"

"Kagome, the one you call Inuyasha's woman. Lady Kaede tells me she's a developing miko."

"Ah, her.."

"Yes, and you should be thanking her for offering to lead me here. You were on the verge of death just a few short hours ago and yet here you are, not even unconscious anymore." Sesshoumaru ran his fingers over his bandaged stomach.

"On the verge of death..," he repeated softly. Maina's eyes narrowed as images of the battle entered her mind once again.

"You were dead, for a while.. The Tenseiga, it resurrected you. It must have - I checked myself for breathing and a pulse, but there was nothing..."

There were a few moments of silence before she spoke again. "Can it really do that? Resurrect someone on its own, I mean?"

"It can resurrect me that way. I am its owner, after all."

"Did Totosai tell you that?"

"I found out from firsthand experience.." Maina eyes grew wide, but she tried to keep a calm voice.

"Then.. It's saved your life before. When?"

"When Inuyasha hit me with the Tetsusaiga's Kaze no Kizu attack some months ago."

"So, when you left the last time, with the staff of heads, to search for the Tetsusaiga..," Maina began quietly, staring intently at the floor, "that could have been the last time I ever saw you.."

"Don't be so melancholy," he said coldly.

"I saw you die, Sesshoumaru!" she nearly shouted, her voice finally cracking. "And after, by some miracle, you'd come back to life, I held you in my arms atop Ah-Uhn and watched your life blood ebbing away despite my efforts to stop it, and I couldn't do anything but hope that we arrived here in time to save you!"

"Maina..," he began, his eyes softer now. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deeply.

"Just rest, Sesshoumaru," she told him impassively, opening her haggard eyes again, the only remaining signs of the desperation she felt. "I'm going to take a look around the village." She promptly stood and walked out of the hut, leaving Sesshoumaru a bit bewildered in his bed.

Maina walked slowly about, keeping near the hut but avoiding Inuyasha, who was pacing back and forth near the edge of the village, only fifty feet or so away. Upon reaching a large tree, she stopped and leaned against it, watching the peaceful villagers going about their daily activities. They didn't seem the least bit on edge - she'd assumed Inuyasha would have gotten them into a frenzy by now with all his talk. For a few minutes her eyes stayed glued to a horse whose long reigns were tied to a post beside his owner's hut. He was trying to reach some wild berries hanging from a vine that had wrapped itself around a nearby tree. The berries were just out of his reach, but he tirelessly pulled against the reigns anyway. Her mind drifted off at some point, but her eyes remained on the horse.

"Lady Maina, what are you doing out here?" She jumped a little. Kagome, coming up from behind her, laughed lightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay, my mind was just off in space somewhere, that's all."

"Is Sesshoumaru still resting?" Maina only nodded in response. An awkward silence followed.

"Sooo, how are your wounds doing?" Kagome asked.

"Oh, just fine," Maina answered, suddenly having entered a better mood. She lifted up her white chihaya to reveal part of her stomach and back, tracing a faint white line with her finger. "You see? You can barely even tell where the wounds were now, and soon even these scar lines will be gone. And as you've already noticed, I assume, my hand has healed as well."

"I guess I should have expected it. Gods are the next step up from youkai, so it makes sense that you heal faster than they do."

"It's easier to heal when your body doesn't have to concentrate first on surviving," she said with a smile. "I think my bloodied clothes bothered me more than my wounds did. Lucky that Lady Kaede had some miko clothing in a smaller size than her own!"

"That's come in handy for me as well, actually..," the novice miko mused.

"So, Kagome, why are you out? I thought you were helping with the cooking."

"Well, since Lady Kaede is a better cook than either me or Sango, I figured I was just in the way. Besides, Inuyasha doesn't like my cooking very much if what I'm cooking is anything other than ramen, and I finished that before Lady Kaede even arrived in the kitchen - it cooks really fast, you see. And the rest of the food was almost ready.."

"I see."

"But you never answered my question. Why are you outside?" For a second or two, Maina seemed to seek her answer on the ground near her left foot.

"Just wanted some fresh air, that's all," Maina said, her tone more gloomy than before.

"Kagome!" The both of them turned around to see Sango, no longer in her battle attire, of course, carrying two large dishes of food. "Dinner's ready!"

Maina and Kagome hurried back to Kaede's hut. Inuyasha had been further from the hut than they, but he had smelled the food being brought in and had rushed to get there first. As Maina entered the hut, she saw Inuyasha leaning against the wall, scowling, as Kaede hadn't let him touch any of the food, telling him to wait until everyone was seated for dinner. Glancing Sesshoumaru's way, she saw that he had fallen asleep, but this didn't keep Inuyasha from sneaking a wary peek at him every few seconds out of the corners of his eyes. Kaede was currently arranging cushions on the floor for them all to sit on and deciding how to lay out the meal while Sango went back and forth between the hut and the separate kitchen building, toting the dishes with her two by two. Miroku came sauntering in behind Sango as she brought in the vegetable dishes, casually leaning against the wall opposite Inuyasha, near the doorway.

"Sango, do you want some help with that?" Kagome asked her.

"No, these are the last of them," Sango replied, sighing as she deposited the dishes in Kaede's hands. As she plopped down on one of the floor cushions, Kirara, in her kitten form, came bouncing in from the other room and promptly took her seat on Sango's lap. The others followed suit, and soon they were all seated in a circle, Kaede's back to the rear wall, Miroku on her right and Inuyasha on her left. Sango sat beside Miroku, and Kagome, with Shippo sitting just in front of her, sat beside Inuyasha. Maina sat between the two human women. The little dining arrangement was off to one side of the room's central fire pit, with Sesshoumaru's bed on the other side of it. They filled their plates silently for a minute or two before Miroku decided to speak.

"Lady Maina, it has been a long and.. rather strange day for all of us. I believe we've each introduced ourselves to you since your arrival here, but you haven't yet given us a proper introduction. All we know of you is your name and that you are a goddess."

"Why, you're right, houshi-sama, how rude of me!" Maina replied. She could feel the eyes of all around her - the events of the day had been out-of-the-ordinary, after all. They had been waiting ever since the battle ended to hear her story, she realized. "I suppose, with all that's happened, I simply forgot. I'll just start with the basics.

"I am what is known as a protector goddess. Unlike most gods, I am not of a specific element or animal, but of a place. Protector gods, well, protect places. I myself protect a vast forest at the border between the Southern lands and the Western. You can imagine what a chore I've had defending that land, violent as the youkai of the Southern lands are. That's why, for all the centuries that I have lived, I have studied and trained in the art of making barriers - you saw a demonstration in the battle this afternoon. As a protector god, I have some natural power over spiritual barriers, but it took much training to learn to manipulate the barriers I create. I use barriers much in the way a blacksmith uses metal, in that I can shape them into virtually anything I wish. During the battle with Naraku, I used my powers to create solid barriers in sharp, jagged shapes that could serve as weapons."

"Those things that looked like pieces of glass..," Miroku mused aloud.

"Yes. I can make most anything that way, from weapons to.. to vessels for transporting water," she said with a slight smile. "The barrier I use to protect my forest is my latest accomplishment, which I mastered just over fifty years ago. It is a barrier that allows anyone to enter or leave, but prevents everything and everyone within it from being harmed in any way."

"What? How is such a thing possible?" Miroku asked.

"Well, it isn't, at least not for a human, no matter how powerful. Remember, I have inborn abilities, and even I have had to work many centuries to attain a barrier such as the one around my forest. It is essentially a highly efficient protective barrier. It does not hinder those protected by it in any way, but if something somehow harms them, it will have no effect. Say Inuyasha tries to kill someone while within my forest's barrier. His sword would pass harmlessly through the would-be victim, as if they were merely an illusion."

The group only stared blankly at her. She sighed.

"Remember the way Inuyasha's attack bounced off the barrier I erected during the battle? Rather than it hitting a solid barrier and throwing the attack back at Inuyasha, the forest's barrier would cause the attack to continue on its way as if it had not hit anything at all. Of course, none of the trees or any bystanders would be hurt by the continuing attack, because it would go through them as well. Do you understand?" The group still stared back at her, confused, but nodding anyway. Suddenly, Kaede spoke up.

"I think I have heard of this forest of yours. Long have I heard tell of an enchanted forest in the midst of disputed and violent lands where people could find refuge and travel in safety, but no one ever seemed to agree on just where it was, and thus I thought they were mere stories. They said that it was protected by a holy miko who tended a large shrine in the center of the forest."

"That's the place, Lady Kaede. I've dealt with countless humans, and they tend to describe it as such. The truth is, I only dress as a miko for the humans' sake. I'm not very comfortable with humans coming to me offering prayers and sacrifices and worshipping me - by posing as a miko, I am respected by the humans but also, for the most part, left alone."

"Well, that answers the clothing question, but what about the howling thing?" Sango asked her.

"Ah, that. As I said, I prefer to be left alone by would-be human worshippers, and the same goes for servants. So, instead of having a castle's worth of people waiting on me, I have a large pack of black wolves. Some of them reside within the castle itself, but most serve as patrols around the forest. If something is amiss, they howl to alert the others and myself. They have many distinct howls, and I've come to understand them as well as their bodily communication, though I cannot imitate it. I can perform just one type of howl, the one you heard earlier. It serves as an emergency distress call. In everyday situations, however, I simply speak to them and they understand me."

"But how can a pack of wolves understand speech?" Kagome asked.

"Kouga's wolves are all idiots, and they seem to understand it fine," Inuyasha commented.

"You must be referring to wolf youkai. Mine are not youkai and have no ties to any other wolf packs. They are supernatural creatures, much like myself, a wholly different type of organism from youkai and mortal beasts. But in answer to your question Kagome, I can only guess that they learned to understand words in the same way that I learned to understand the meaning of their howls and body language. You see, the wolves that serve me are immortal, as I am, and over the centuries we have grown to understand each other perfectly. Besides, it was necessary since they cannot imitate my native type of communication any more than I can theirs."

"How did you acquire these immortal wolves of yours?" Miroku inquired.

"That, I honestly do not know. I envy mortals, in some respects, the chief one being that your existence is more definite than my own. You are born to a mother, and you live until your bodily organs cease functioning correctly, for whatever reason, and then you die. Immortals are.. less real."

"What do you mean? You have a physical body - it's not as if you're an apparition," said Sango.

"As mysterious as you humans consider the idea of death and the afterlife, we have many more uncertainties. We do, indeed, have physical bodies like you, but no mother gives birth to us. We simply are - no god has any idea where he came from, only when he came into being. I, for instance, appeared on this earth centuries before your father was born, Inuyasha," Maina said, with a glance his way, "but I have no idea how it happened. Suddenly, I existed. I have no memory of an existence prior to my earthly one, if I existed before that at all. In a second, I simply was - and I look the same now as I did then, an imitation human woman. And the wolves, I don't know if they were already there or if they came into existence at the same time I did, but they were there when I arrived, and they treated me as if they had been my servants for years already. I appeared in the center of what is now my forest, and I have remained there ever since. This is, actually, the farthest I've ever been from it, I believe.."

"This is all fascinating, Lady Maina, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that there's one thing that we've been wondering about all along," Miroku began politely.

"Yes?"

"How do you know Sesshoumaru?" Maina gulped silently, though her rational side knew that it was an innocent question, and that the monk didn't actually suspect anything.

"I've been an ally of the inuyoukai tribe ever since they came to rule over the Western lands. I remained neutral for years, as the youkai who held territory near my forest were simply groups of lesser youkai with bloodlust and greed for land. The inuyoukai were the first civilized tribe ever to take power near my forest, and they managed to take control of countless smaller territories to form what is now the Western lands. I wanted to remain neutral, but the youkai in the south grew increasingly violent in their attempts to seize land, and so I eventually agreed to join the inuyoukai for the sake of protection."

"But wouldn't your barrier have been protection enough?" Kagome asked.

"Back then, my barrier was not as strong as my current one. Also, I had not yet mastered the technique of making my barriers permanent, meaning that all my barriers were connected to me, and I had to actively maintain them. I couldn't very well defend against attacking youkai, because over time my energy would be depleted and I could no longer keep up my barrier. Now, however, I have developed the power to create barriers that are self-maintaining. It takes more energy than you can imagine to do, but it's a one-time thing. You see, once I put a barrier up, I have to send massive amounts of energy into it until the barrier is actually powerful enough to create its own energy and maintain itself."

"You're kidding! Monks and mikos have been trying for centuries to perfect the art of creating barriers, but I've never heard of anyone being able to put up a permanent one unless they had some kind of protecting spirit to strengthen it!" Miroku exclaimed.

"I told you, it's taken me many human lifetimes to do it, and I did not have to impart my knowledge on an apprentice in order to have my work continued. It depresses me the way humans have to pass on their existing knowledge before any progress can be made. I've seen so many live and die that could have done miracles with just a few more years on this earth..," Maina trailed. "But anyway, the alliance was mutually beneficial. The inuyoukai would assist me if any real trouble came, and simply by protecting my forest, as I always had, I was simultaneously protecting one of their most troublesome borders."

By this time, nearly all of the food had been eaten. Maina had only eaten a little, usually when she got a break from explaining by way of someone asking a question, but she did not need to eat. She only ate for the sheer pleasure of tasting food. In essence, though, this meant she could not eat very much before she felt full. The others, by comparison, had gotten much food in their stomachs during Maina's little speech, and were quite full themselves.

Kagome, spotting three rice balls remaining on the center tray, and knowing that the goddess hadn't eaten much, decided to give her a chance at them before one of the others decided they had a bit of space left in their stomachs.

"Won't you have a sweet rice ball?" she asked Maina cheerily. "They're really good, I've already eaten two!" Maina just laughed.

"I'm sure they're wonderful, Kagome, but my poor stomach is already about to burst!"

AN: Ugh, I hate explanation chapters. I really do. But I already had all this mythological stuff worked out in my head and - well, I couldn't really work it into the story bit by bit. So here it is in its near-entirity, because there were only one or two things that I could use later on for dramatic effect.. Le sigh. The thing I really hate about these explanations is that I've already got the explaination in my head, the full one, and when I write it, I have to pause to expand on things and such... And I'm always leaving something out. I just know I must have left something out... And later on something will happen and you'll all go "wtf!" because I forgot to mention it here. Ugh. (pets my Sesshie muse to work off the frustration with this evil chapter)

Will you quit doing that? I'm no pet..

Too bad. You're fluffy, and the cat isn't in the room.

It's enough you've made me an invalid, do you really have to degrade me further?

...Yes.