Ch: 7
Mara Rose
Things had appeared to be going quite smoothly until noon, as they stopped from lunch on one of the obscure roads crisscrossing the Japanese Empire. Inuyasha was being stubborn, and continuously demanded ramen, refusing the leftovers that Kagome's mom had so kindly packed. Kagome had to keep telling him that because of his plan, they had no ramen. Sky had refused to give up hers, because she would need it for research when she got back to her own time. Until lunch, they had all been just moseying along, as Sky carefully explained the intricacies of the future, how it had been the first female president that had ended up saving their ass's and bringing them into space, where they had eventually mingled with several other peoples – human-ish or not. Sky herself was a direct result of that mixing, being both 'Classic' human (humans descended from Earth) and 'New Age' human (humans that had originated on other planets). However, back to the ramen.
The argument had become so bad that Sky and Inuyasha were yet again fighting, tearing up the road and the occasional tree in their quest to win. Sky was a lot stronger then she looked, and Kagome supposed that it came from her 'New Age' blood. Miroku didn't suppose anything; he was too busy laughing at the pair, then running for his life as the fight started to move towards him. Sango thought this was the funniest thing she had ever seen, but Shippo and Kilala were nowhere to be seen. They were farther out in the woods, playing hide and seek. Or, more accurately, tag, since you can't hide very well from someone who can track your scent.
Because of their distraction, few noticed the arrival of a new face. 'Few' meaning Sky. Her movements stopped abruptly, and Inuyasha was only aware of the fact that he was going to win. Finally. Tying her hands and feet together with a piece of string that just happened to be laying nearby (A/N: Cough, cough), he sat on her back, feeling triumphant. Until this was completed, he didn't notice that she had stopped struggling. Looking up, he found out why.
Sesshomaru stood near the road, watching with that cold expression, Rin and Jaken at his side. The dragon-thing was out of sight.
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WritingWoman: Hello, all! I had writers block for the longest time, but I finally got a little more of an idea! Still no clue about where it is going... And I'm always open to ideas! I have no idea what the dragon-thing is called, but I'm trying to find out... Read and Review!
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Nothing happened for a moment, as Sesshomaru stared at the formerly fighting pair, and everyone stared at him. Then, he sniffed in disgust and turned his head away. The youkai whipped his head back around as he heard a scream.
"It's so cute!" Sky broke her bonds without warning, and lurched up, knocking off Inuyasha. She rushed at the dog demon, who put out a hand to grab her. She merely dodged it, and latched onto his tail, cooing and petting it. Then Sky tried to pull it into her pouch. Sesshomaru grabbed part of it, and tried to yank it away from her, toward himself. What ended up happening is not her relinquishing the tail, but instead being swung by it, coming to rest eye level with Sesshomaru.
"Hi! Would you please let go of my tail?" She said brightly. The demon's eye twitched.
"Let go of my tail now, you stupid human." He shook the giant white piece of fluff, trying to dislodge the human. She swung around wildly, but still did not let go. When she finally stopped moving, she was smiling in his face again.
"But, you see, you haven't been using it, therefore it is not vital, and it follows that it is up for grabs. Now, if it was braided, or something..." She stopped talking, and studied the face so close to hers. "Hey, you know what? You're pretty cute." The twitching eye stopped, and Sesshomaru turned abruptly, walking into the woods, dragging Sky with him, because she was still just hanging onto his tail.
"Bye!" Sky called. "Talk to you later!" Their last vision of her was her swinging by the tail behind the assassin Sesshomaru.
"For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this." Miroku said, rubbing his chin lightly. He looked over at Kagome. "Do we go after her?"
"Yeah!" Inuyasha interrupted. "I want to kill them both!"
"Sit!" Crash. "Why would you want to do that?" The hanyou's voice rose in answer from the hole.
"She has all the ramen!" He scrambled out of the hole.
"I say we wait to see her again, rather then going after them. We can just wait here." A groan reached their ears, coming from a certain half breed dog demon.
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"Lord Sesshomaru, what is wrong?" Jaken asked, hurrying to keep up with his master's long strides. He caught another glimpse of his masters face, confirming that something was wrong. There was a rosy color on his usually pale cheeks. "Are you ill, my lord?"
Sesshomaru was blushing. Rin and the human woman were having a lively conversation behind him, the woman still hanging from his tail. He tried to hold it away from himself, but every now and again she bumped against it, and he blushed a little more, the usual ice pale of his face warming slightly.
"So, where are we going?" Sky asked. She had been speaking to the cute guy with the tail, but the sweet faced girl answered instead.
"We're going to see Mara Rose!"
"All right... who is Mara Rose!" The girl (who's name was Rin, she would discover later) launched into her story.
"Well, I was playing by the stream when a huge group of people came up and grabbed me. Ok, maybe not a huge group, but more then one or two. They had seen me playing alone, and had captured me to sell to far away lands. Mara Rose told me that. She protected me the whole time I was captured, because at first I had been given to her to train me to be a good slave. But she couldn't do it, because I reminded her so much of her own little sister, who was killed by the slavers. Mara Rose called me her second chance, and swore to help me escape. I wasn't worried, though, because I knew that my lord Sesshomaru would rescue me. And he did, by killing the bad men. Mara Rose thought he was trying to hurt me, though, so she dived at me, and my lord attacked her by mistake. Before he could kill her though, I told him how much she had helped me." Rin sighed sadly. "But she won't allow my lord near her to heal her with the Tenseiga, so he looks for a human to heal her." Now she smiled. "I guess you're going to heal her!"
Sky was baffled. "Er..." She was going to say that she knew almost nothing of medicine, but the girl's hopeful expression killed her words. So she said something else. "Why wasn't cutie here there to protect you in the first place?" Rin shrugged. Her lord had told her to stay by the stream until he came back to get her, and that had been enough. As she was explaining this, they reached their destination.
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The dragon-thing was curled up around a huddled lump on the ground. At a word from Sesshomaru, it uncoiled, and went off into the woods. Pulling his tail around so that the woman was in front of him, he pointed at the huddled figure. Rin was already over there, talking quietly to it. It said something back, and Rin ran over. "She's says she's ready, my lord."
"Let go of my tail, and see what you can do for the human." Sesshomaru commanded in an imperious voice. Sky cast an annoyed glance at him, but let go of the tail, knowing it would still be around for her to steal later. Going over to the woman, she assumed that this must be Mara Rose. Slowly, not quite knowing what she was doing, Sky gently turned the woman over, laying her on her back. She gasped in surprise and sympathy pain. "Damn. Girl, what happened to you? Never mind, I know. Did you want his tail too?" The face stared back at her, shocked. Sky cursed under her breath. She had been trying to put the woman at ease. "Lady, I'll tell you it straight. I know next to nothing about healing. I might mess up, and do something worse to you then this. You might die. Why don't you just let the guy with the tail heal you?" Mara Rose shook her head furiously, then gasped in pain as a wound opened up a bit more. "Holy shit. You're losing a lot of blood. All right, I won't suggest it again. Now, just relax. Every time you move, you lose a lot more blood."
Rummaging around in her pouch, she thought desperately for anything that might help. 'What I would give for a Med Hutch!' In her head she reviewed everything she knew about primitive medicine, because it was quite obvious that no such Hutch was going to appear here. 'Well, you did. But there's no Well here, and no crazy old lady.' She had decided a long time ago that the old bat had had something to do with all this. 'Shut up, brain! Stay on track for once!' She remembered that the primitives had used sewing to close wounds to... reduce blood loss! Now that she had something in mind, it zoomed into her hand. 'But this will be so painful... isn't there something I have that gets rid of the pain?' Something brushed the tips of her fingers. Painfully, she grasped it, and pulled it out, reading the tiny bottle's label. The directions gave her hope. This was to knock someone out! 'Well, you can't feel anything when you're asleep, right?'
Carefully lifting up Mara Rose's head, she tried to get her to swallow the pill, but her throat was too dry. "Could someone get me some water?" Rin was at her elbow, with a pail of water. "Thank you very much. I think I have a cup in here somewhere..." Sky pulled it out of her pouch, then tucked it away into her pocket, so that it wouldn't get in her way, swinging from her wrist like it usually was. Placing the pill on Mara's tongue, the makeshift doctor sparingly poured the water into her patients mouth, to see if she could even swallow. Out of reflex, she did.
Sky heaved a sigh. The pills said it took about five minutes to start working, so she spent the time trying to staunch the blood flow, and maneuver Mara into a position where the needle would have no problems sewing up the wound. It was the same needle that had earlier sewn up her shirt so well. She remember something. "Could I get a fire, please? And some boiling water?" Jaken lit the fire, and soon the water was boiling. Sky's opinion of the man with the tail was slowly dropping as he just stood there, not helping at all. She dropped the needle into the water, disinfecting it as best she could. As this was happening, she glared at the fluffy man.
"You know, you could at least help. You did do this to her." The man raised an eyebrow, but did nothing more. Pissed, Sky turned away, facing her patient again. Fighting now wouldn't be much of a help. Slowly, but surely, Mara was going under, and the needle would be disinfected soon. She hoped.
"And what makes you think that my helping would be any good thing, since she's terrified to have me near her?" His voice made her jump. Her face reddened slightly. Oh, yeah. She had forgotten about that, but she refused to say anything more to the man. Since she didn't turn around, she didn't see the slight smile that was on his face because of her anger. If she had, he would have had more to smile about, because she would have been totally furious.
Taking the needle out of the boiling hot water, she didn't flinch. Already her mind was elsewhere. 'Where do I start? Is there a certain way to go about this?' In the end, she started at the worst looking end, pulling the edges of the gaping wound together to make it easier for the needle to sew, thanking (place choice here) that the needle could sew on its own. She had never sewn a stitch in her life, and now wouldn't be a good time to practice.
It took a while, but finally the wound was sewn up, the same way her shirt was, nearly flawlessly. There was a few places where it was obvious that she would have a scar, but they were small and far in between. Sky looked up and sighed, then took out her pouch once again, after cleaning her hands in the much cooled water. She thought hard of the little bottles, and the little boxes that medicine came in in Kagome's time, and thought about what she wanted it to do, which was keep away the infections. She'd never had one, but from what she could remember, they weren't good, and could even cause death. Four came into reach, and she pulled each one out, studying them to see which was one that she wanted. Two suited her purpose, and she gave them to Rin, saying,
"I think you're supposed to put this on the wound every day, with a new bandage – which I almost forgot to put on, hold on a second–" she pulled out a shirt of hers, and, using scissors that glowed blue like her needle, she cut the fabric into strips, then bound the area around and over the wound. "– Now, as I was saying, you need to change the bandage every day, and apply the medicine liberally to the sealed wound." Her voice lost its serious, busy, unfeeling tone as she saw the worried look on the little girl's face. "Don't worry, I think she'll be all right. She's not bleeding anymore, and the medicine is just to keep away infection. I'm sure Mara Rose will be fine. I'll leave you more Orchilum strips too, for the bandages. They're very tough, and should prevent anything from hurting her further, even if it's an attack from your fluffy master." She ruffled Rin's hair. "You remind me of one of my friends' kids. She is about your age right now, and looks a lot like you, just maybe a bit taller. Her name is Rachell, though everyone calls her Randy, don't ask me why, I don't know." Sighing, she got to her feet, and started to walk away.
Stopping in mid-step, she whirled back around and asked the man with the tail, "Which way back to Kagome and the rest?" He said nothing. "Well? Aren't you going to answer me? Or are you just going to stand there like a deaf monolith? Um, I suppose monoliths are all deaf anyways, they are just rocks... But that's besides the point. Are you going to answer me or not?" He just looked at her. Her eyes narrowed into slits. He may be cute, but boy, was he annoying, just standing there, all silent like. "Fine." She turned right back around and started off in one direction. 'If I walk far enough in only one way, surely I'll find an end to these woods somewhere, right? And then I can follow a road to a village, and ask if they know where the Bone Eater's Well is.' Right before she entered the woods, a flash raced in front of her, and she crashed into a solid chest, a bit of fuzz tickling her nose. Looking up, she saw amber eyes.
"Let me pass." More silence. "GR! You are so annoying! Fine, if you won't let me go this way, I'll just go that way." Turning on her heel, she stalked across the clearing, past her former patient, Rin, and that creepy frog thing, and tried to exit the place directly across from the site of her first attempt. Yet again she was stopped by the guy with the tail. "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" She yelled in his face. Finally, he spoke.
"You are going to look after the human. Rin is too young. Because of that, you can't leave." Sky's rage grew.
"And who decided this! You! So! I don't gotta listen to what you say! Leave me alone!" He didn't budge. "Look, buddy, I don't give a dang what you can do with a sword. Let me pass, or you'll force me to hurt you." Still nothing. He was just staring at her with those unreadable eyes. "Man! You make me so mad!" Instead of carrying out her threat to hurt him, she ran in the other direction, hoping to reach the other side before he did. No luck. "All right! You've done it!" Sky took a swing at his head, and a swing at his gut at the same time, bringing up her knee to try to catch him in the balls too. This made her position very unstable. He easily dodged her blows, and knocked her off balance with a touch to her forehead. She fell hard, landing on her backside. Sky sagged her shoulders, pretending defeat, but shot out her legs to try and knock his out from under him. While he was dodging that, she leapt up and grabbed his tail, swinging wildly. "WHEE!" She screamed as she swung in a large circle around him by his own tail. He waited, and snatched her off when she passed within easy reach by the scruff of her neck. Sesshomaru shook his head. The woman was insane, he was starting to think. There she was, dangling at the end of his arm, and she was still trying to swing at him, not admitting her defeat in the slightest. It annoyed him.
"Stop it." He said, so quietly that she did stop, so that she could hear what he was saying. "You can't escape. Stop trying to fool yourself into thinking you can." There was still that stubborn expression on her face. He sighed. This woman was one of the odder ones he had ever met. Probably because she was human. "Fine, as you say. You can keep trying to escape, and the moment you do, I won't come after you. But until then, you have to take care of this woman, until she is healed. Is that agreeable?" Sesshomaru could see that she was thinking it over, and watched as her eyes strayed over to his shoulder, where his tail was. He suppressed another sigh. What was with her and his tail!
"Fine. Not because I don't think that I can escape from you, but because Rin really is too little to have to take care of Mara, though I'm not sure I can do any better of a job. But tell me this: just who the hel-heck–" she changed her words, mindful that a child was present, "are you?"
"He is the great and mighty Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken broke in. He'd been silent far too long. "All bow before his might and power! All tremble at his name! All–"
"Don't see you trembling, froggy." Sky cut him off. "And, I didn't ask you. I asked the guy with the tail." She had turned to look at the frog thing as best she could from her position on the end of the man's arm, and now turned back. "Well? Are you going to let your little froggy do all your talking for you?"
"Sesshomaru. Or Lord. Whichever." He dropped her, and walked away. 'This is why you don't rescue humans, idiot! They are all going crazy, and seek to take you with them! Not to mention that they smell...' He walked over to where the trees were, and sat, watching, waiting for her to escape.
'Oh, no,' Sky thought. 'There's no way that I'm falling for that one. I'll escape when you least expect it, Mr. Sesshomaru.' She snorted. 'Lord, my ass.' She settled down next to Mara Rose, waiting for the woman to wake. Rin came over, so quietly that Sky didn't hear her, and took her hand. Pain lanced through the woman from the future. Looking down at her hand, she saw why.
The boiling water she had taken the needle straight out of had burned her hand, and she finally felt it. Her worry and her anger must have been keeping the pain at bay, but now that she had time to spare, she definitely felt it. Rin also noticed her hand.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to–"
"It's alright, Rin, don't worry about it. Hardly hurts at all. I'm sure it will be fine by tomorrow." She said it in as normal a voice as possible, and the child believed her. Grasping the hand more firmly, she settled down next to Sky, resting her head on her shoulder, as they waited together for Rin's friend to wake up. Soon, the girl was asleep.
"So, you got a place for her to bunk down, or what?" Sesshomaru pretended not to hear Sky, pretended to be asleep. "Damn you." Slowly taking her hand from Rin's, she moved carefully, using one hand to open the pouch, and searched around for a blanket. When she found one, she put it over the girl. It immediately shrunk to wrap around her tightly, to keep any cold air from sneaking in. It was one of Sky's blankets, from her own time.
When Mara woke up, Sky gave her some pain pills, and told her that she thought that she was going to be just fine, but to make sure, she was going to stay with her until it was a confirmed thing. Mara Rose smiled at her, still drowsy, and slipped back into sleep. Eventually, Sky followed her, but not before she had covered Mara up as well. 'Ok, that's all my blankets, but I can do without one.' She also laid down, and slept.
As the people he had brought to this place slept, Sesshomaru snuck up on them, and looked around until he located the woman's hand. Lifting it gently, trying not to wake her, he healed it with his sword. 'Stupid human. Didn't even know she was hurt.' Placing the hand down, he went back over to his place at the base of the tree, but instead of sleeping, climbed it. It was a beautiful night up top. Something was bugging him, in the corner of his mind, something about this new woman that didn't seem to fit. It hit him.
Her hair had changed color in the firelight. It had not been black, but a deep blue.
How odd.