In the Beholders Eye

Written By Sarga

May/June 2006

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters, I'm just taking a theme and running with it...

Chapter 14: Culture Shock

Kagome left the cave shortly after Myoga. Turning her attention towards Inuyasha, who was now yelling incoherently at the old demon sword-smith, Kagome furrowed her brow in annoyance. Sneaking up behind Inuyasha, who had just hit the old man on the head, Kagome growled low and pounced, tackling him.

Still growling, Kagome forced the startled hanyou to the ground.

"How does it feel to be hit without warning?" she demanded as she jumped away, narrowly avoiding being clawed by the same hand that had hit the old man seconds before.

"Ka..Kagome, don't do that!" Inuyasha sputtered as he sat up.

Annoyed by the demand, but even more curious, Kagome crouched low, facing Inuyasha. "Don't do what?" she asked, her growl still emanating from her, low and guttural.

"That!" He pointed to her. "That growl!"

Taken aback, she stopped, not even realizing that she had been growling.

"Why not?" She demanded, this time without the growl. "I've heard you growl lots of times!"

Inuyasha's face went red as he stammered. "I...but...it's not..." he sighed, calming himself. "It's not the same coming from a female demon." His gaze shifted from her face and sought for anything else to view.

Kagome heard as Totosai chuckled.

"What he means, Kagome, is that you were just initiating a mating ritual." Totosai let the words sink in.

"Mating..." Kagome's eyes went wide. She jumped to her feet and stumbled backwards slightly. Flailing her hands in front of her, Kagome vehemently denied the intent that she had unknowingly portrayed "Nonononononono!" she practically stuttered.

Glaring at her excessive denial, Inuyasha barked at her. "Well you don't have to deny it so much!" He stood, crossing her arms and pouting. 'Even if she was a human for so long,' he thought to himself. 'The thought that Kagome actually knew what she was doing was kind of nice...' Inuyasha turned around, his face turning brighter as he thought. "I'll be back later," he said, turning and jumping out of view before anyone could protest.

Turning to Totosai, Kagome scratched her head thoughtfully.

"Is there anything else I should know about?" she asked, shuddering at the thought of what would have happened if she had faced another demon with that growl instead.

"Well," started Totosai, raising his right eyebrow and looking up in thought.

"If you growl at a male demon, it means you either want to mate with him or that you want to take what is his. If you knock him down but don't hurt him, that means mating. But if you stand your ground without looking away, it's a challenge. That could be from either a male or female demon, the challenge." Totosai stroked his chin for a moment, trying to think of other rituals and double meanings to demon actions. "Hmm...If a demon casts his eyes down and bows his head, it means that he is submitting. If he kneels or lies before a demon, it means his life belongs to the one he submits to."

Kagome blanched, thinking of how angry Inuyasha got when he was 'sat' face first before her. 'Well,' she thought. 'That explains that...'

Totosai thought some more.

"The only other one I can think of is the 'mating mark'..." he trailed off, eyebrows furrowed deep in thought.

"Which is?" Kagome prompted.

"Oh, the 'mating mark'...it's what a dominant demon does to the one he want to keep as his own. Like a marker to other demons that says 'this one's mine'. Usually it's what the male demon will do to the female, but it sometimes happens the other way around, like when a female demon takes a human mate. The dominant demon will bite or claw a permanent scar on the submissive one and mix it with his blood. Then he has to..." Totosai paused, like he was about to say something but decided against it. Kagome could fill in the blank.

With that, Totosai returned to his cave, and was followed shortly by the sound of clinking metal on metal.

Kagome sat on the ground, taking in all she had been told. 'There's so much hidden meaning!' she pondered. 'Although, it's kind of like humans, really. How many silly rituals and taboos do we have?'

Kagome sighed.

'We. Like I'm still human...' Kagome peered in at Totosai, who was putting the finishing touches on her new dagger. 'The new dagger that will keep me from becoming a full demon,' she thought with a grimace. 'Full demon. Meaning I'm part demon. Meaning I'm not human.' Kagome wrapped her arms protectively around herself. 'I can't go home, not like this! But I'll have to go back home soon though or they'll start to worry.'

Kagome thought about the one night a month that hanyou's turned back into humans. 'Are we close enough that if I turned human, I could get back to the well quickly?' Kagome thought of how a long journey would leave her with practically no time with her family at all.

'I'll only have one night before I'm changed back into a demon. One night to say 'Hi mom, I'm going to be gone for another month. See you then!'' She rested her chin on her knees, pulling them tighter to her body. 'I hope it's the same night as Inuyasha, I couldn't bare to see him be a human when I'm still like this.'

Kagome rose, shaking her head sadly. She would rely on her friends to find a solution while she trained herself to resist the urge to let her demon half break forth.

Walking back to the cave, she settled in for the night. Lulled to sleep by the methodical clinking of Totosai's craft.

End of Chapter

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