A/N: One review? Oh well, this entire chapter to for Crazy-Inuyasha-Sesshomaru-Girl. Thanks for reviewing! Oh yea, and we've jumped ahead a little in this story. Kagome is has gotten her cast off. Read on.
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-Chapter Five: Fear-
"Well, Kagome, it seems that your leg has healed nicely," Gina, the nurse that had helped care for Kagome, said with a smile.
Kagome returned the smile. "I'm just glad to get that baka cast off!" She exclaimed, pointing to the now removed cast and then glanced down at her leg and made a face. "Ugh, I so need to shave my legs, now," she commented, making the nurse chuckle.
It had been four months since Kagome's accident on Jewel, but it felt much long than that to Kagome.
Gina rose to her feet just as Dr. Maku, the doctor that had treated Kagome's injury, entered into the room, holding her clipboard in one hand and making a note on the papers with the other. "Hello, Kagome," he said with a smile as he handed the clip board to Gina.
Kagome returned the smile, feeling in an extremely good mood. "Hi, Doc,"
Dr. Maku chuckled and sat down on his rolling chair next to Kagome's leg. He gently picked it up and began doing some movements with. "Any stiffness in this leg?" He questioned after he was done examining it.
Kagome stood up and took a few step before she answered the doctor. "It's a little stiff," she admitted.
Dr. Maku nodded. "That's to be expected. But asides from that, everything looks good to me," he said and took the chart back from Gina and scribbled some more notes in it.
Kagome took a step closer to the doctor, wringing her hands. "Um, Dr. Maku," he looked up at Kagome, noticing that she fidgeting nervously with her hands. "Um, I was wondering when I would be able to begin riding again?" She asked, hope filling her brown eyes as she asked the question.
Dr. Maku shook his head and sighed sadly. "Kagome, I don't think you'll ever be able to race again. Your leg just wouldn't be able to handle the strain of horse racing. I'm sorry," he added after seeing the stricken look on his patients face.
Kagome looked up at the ceiling, blinking away the tears that had filled her eyes when Dr. Maku told her what she had been denying for months now. She looked back at Dr. Maku and said in a watery, but controlled voice, "Thanks for being honest, Dr. Maku. I have to go, now," and with that, the young woman walked out of the examining room, not even bothering to take the paper that probably held the prescription for her pain killer pills.
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Once Kagome had gotten back to Sengoku Jidai Stables, she quickly jumped out of her blue/green 1994 Saturn SL, walking with a purpose towards the training barn, her jaw set with determination.
She quickly made her way down the barn aisle, making her way towards Jewel's stall. He's wrong. I will be able to race again. I'll get to race Jewel in her next race, She repeated over and over to herself in her head.
When she got to the Thoroughbreds stall, she found, not the big white filly, but Sango with her chocolate brown hair in a messy pony-tail, mucking out the stall.
Sango reached a hand up and swiped it across her forehead, sweeping away the beads of sweat that had gathered there. "Hey, Kagome," she greeted her friend as she put another shovel full of the soiled bedding into the wheel barrow.
Kagome took a deep breath before she answered the older woman, not wanting her to know that she was upset. "Hey, Sango. Where's Jewel?" She asked her friend, trying to sound casual.
Sango dumped some more of the soiled bedding into the wheel barrow before she answered. "Miroku put her out in the pasture with some of his three year olds. Hey, how'd your doctor visit go?" But Kagome didn't answer the last question because she had already left the barn after hearing that the white Thoroughbred was out in the pasture.
On her way out, she stopped by the tack room, quickly gathering Jewel's saddle pad, saddle and her bridle. I will ride again. She repeated to herself once more.
She made her way out to the paddock, ignoring the dull ache that had started in her injured leg. When she reached the fence line she sat the saddle pad and the saddle onto the top rail, brought her fingers to her lips and gave a sharp whistle.
Jewel was easy to spot in the herd of twenty or so other Thoroughbreds. She was the only pure white one among blacks, greys, bays, chestnuts and duns.
The white Thoroughbreds head snapped up, liquid brown eyes looking in the whistles direction. When Jewel spotted her human friend, she gave a whinny and cantered over to the fence, rubbing her head on Kagome's shoulder in a friendly greeting.
"I'll show that baka doctor, he was wrong," Kagome muttered as she slipped the bridle over the large Thoroughbreds head.
Jewel eagerly accepted the metal bit, she hadn't been ridden since the accident on the track and she was eager to get back to her training.
Kagome stepped in between the railing, grabbing the saddle pad and throwing it over Jewel's back and then slinging the saddle into place. She reached under Jewel's belly, fastening the girth snugly so the saddle wouldn't slide when she was in it.
Jewel's caught on to Kagome's upset mood and began to get jittery, tossing her head and prancing in place.
Kagome looped the reins over Jewel's head and attempted to lift her left foot into the stirrup, but she quickly stooped down, clutching her bad leg and keeping a moan of pain from escaping her mouth.
She bit her lip, thinking, and then her eyes landed on the fence that surrounded the pasture. "That'll do the trick," she said, leading Jewel over to the fence railing and stepping onto the lowest board.
She placed one hand on the saddle, with her other hand she gathered a handful of Jewel's silky white mane. "Here I go," she murmured, taking a deep breath and hoisting herself onto the fillies back, catching the dangling stirrups with the toes of her feet. "So far, so good," Kagome breathed a sigh of relief, her leg was aching a little, but she figured she could handle it.
She leaned over her right side, shortening the stirrups a couple of notches then she leaned over to do the same to the left stirrup, so that she would be sitting in a racing crouch on the Thoroughbreds withers.
Her left leg started to throb painfully now, but she ignored it, determined to ride and race again. Without thinking, she automatically nudged Jewel into a canter, and that's when everything started to go wrong for the young jockey.
Being full of energy from not being ridden in so long, and also sense how Kagome was upset, instead of breaking into a smooth collected canter like she would normally have done. Jewel bolted into a flat out run.
Kagome tried to stay in the jockey's crouch, but her leg was on fire! She couldn't stand it. She cried out in pain every time Jewel's hooves thudded against the ground, causing the sharp pain in her leg to get sharper and sharper with each and every step the large Thoroughbred took.
The young jockey could no longer hang on and Kagome was thrown off of Jewel's back.
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Miroku was sitting in the shade outside of the barn cleaning tack when Sango walked out, pushing a wheel barrow full of soiled bedding and he grinned at her. "Ah, my lovely Sango, might I assist you in disposing of that?" He asked and began walking towards the young jockey, grin still in place.
Sango turned a deadly glare towards the trainer. "Take one step closer towards me and I will be forced to hurt you so badly that your ancestors going back five hundred years will feel it," she threatened, her eyes flashing dangerously.
Miroku gave a nervous laugh, holding his hands up in defense, and began walking backwards, sitting back down on the bench where he had been cleaning a saddle moments ago. "I must get back to cleaning this tack, . Lovely talking to you, Miss Sango," he said and quickly started scrubbing the saddle again, feigning innocense.
Sango rolled her eyes and started pushing the wheel barrow around the side of the barn, where they disposed of the soiled bedding, once more. "Baka hentai," she muttered, along with a string of other choice names to called the 'baka hentai'. "If he'd just quite being such a baka hentai then I would go out with hi- no, I just didn't say that!" She cried, slapping her hand to her forehead.
She stopped muttering when she noticed someone out in the pasture ride Jewel. Who is that? All the exercise riders are already gone, and as far as I know no one is supposed to be riding Jewel.
Her eyes widened when she finally registered who the mysterious rider was. "Oh Kami!" She whispered, letting go of the wheel barrow. Before she could call out to her friend, Jewel suddenly lurched into a gallop, racing around the fenced in paddock, throwing Kagome out of the saddle in the process.
Sango let out a cry and began running towards the still form of her dearest friend, Miroku running around the side of the barn at hearing Sango cry out.
Miroku froze when he saw Kagome laying on her back in the green, grassy paddock. "Crap," he muttered and ran after Sango, vaulting over the top of the white fence and landing with a muffled thud on the grassy ground. Sango close behind him.
They both reached the fallen Kagome at the same time, Sango kneeling on one side of her friend, Miroku on the other.
Kagome's eyes were opened wide with fear and she was gasping for air.
"Kagome, are you alright?" Sango asked worriedly at seeing her friend in such condition.
Kagome gasped once more and felt air enter into her lungs. "I'm fine," she replied to her friends, even though tears of pain and failure entered her brown eyes, making them shine. Her leg hurt almost as much as when she had first broken it.
Miroku helped her to her feet, keeping a hold of her shoulders until she got her balance back. "What were you thinking! You just got the cast off your leg, your not fit to start riding yet!" Sango yelled at the younger woman, her fear for her friend, making her cringe slightly. She didn't mean for her words to be as harsh as they were, but her fear at seeing Kagome thrown from Jewel's back made it so.
The tears spilled from Kagome's eyes, trekking down her pale cheeks and falling off of her chin. "I know that!" She yelled back, her eyes flashing, looking over at Jewel who was walking back towards the group of people, her head hanging low, ashamed that she had thrown her human friend.
Kagome felt a pang of fear enter her heart. "I know that, now," she repeated, much softer this time, almost a whisper, hanging her head low, her bangs covering her eyes. "I'll never ride again," and with that she walked slowly out of the fenced in pasture, limping painfully as her leg throbbed.
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Hmm, not one of my better chapters, but the next one well be better. Please review and I'll get the next chapter up A.S.A.P. Ja ne, mina-san, Rogue Hanyou