When I woke up, I instantly knew my cold had become a fever. I definitely jinxed myself the other day. That's perfect. Now it was a real problem. My body was sore, and I felt like I had been shoved in a freezer. The first, and only, one to catch on to my illness was Sesshomaru. He stood and ordered me to follow him. I was barely able to keep up, and my effort, in turn, was not in vain. He took me to a spring.
"Strip." He commanded, receiving a very confused facial expression from me.
"What?" I asked.
Sesshomaru turned to me and began to take my clothes off. I would have swatted his hands away, but then he would, more than likely, cut mine off.
"I can do it myself;" I told him as I backed away from him, "just, please, turn away."
He did so. "You have a minute."
"What do you mean I have a minute? It takes time to do stuff like this…" I said as I looked around for anymore peeping eyes.
"50 seconds."
I threw caution to the wind, quickly undressed. I would much more prefer the possibility of having unknown eyes gaze at me than to be certain that Sesshomaru gets a glimpse. I got in the water just as Sesshomaru turned back around, if I do say so myself, he was quite eager to turn and face me.
My attention left the demon lord as I realized that the water was colder than I had expected. It helped cool down my fevered frame, but made me feel like I had jumped into a river and decided to wait outside in a freezing winter. It was horrible, or at least my fever made it seem that way. Why couldn't this feel like taking a cold bath after spending a day in the cruel, hot, sun in a very humid Georgian summer? The only good part about this was how Sesshomaru left me to my own devices after seeing that I was in the water. I submerged myself in the water and came out a minute later. I still felt like crap on the inside. My throat was killing me, I had no appetite, my entire body felt sore, I just wanted to lay down and sleep. I had to make do with what I had and decided to sit in the water for a couple more minutes.
As I sat in the water, cooling my body, my eyes closed. If I couldn't sleep, I would rest my eyes and think as I let time roll by. Unfortunately, not much time rolled by before my eyes snapped open.
"A young woman alone in the woods, what luck I have!" I heard an unfamiliar voice say. "About to mature I see. Ah, the things I will do with you…"
I knew exactly what he meant. I dove under the water, and got as far away from the spot I was at as I could. When I surfaced, I looked at where the voice had come from, but instead of seeing a random demon, I saw Sesshomaru tossing something into the forest. He set down some clothing before picking up the clothes I wore to get here and leaving. I stayed in my spot, skeptical of what had just happened for a moment before going toward where Sesshomaru had stood. I played it safe, waiting for him to come back before stepping out of the water.
It was obvious that Sesshomaru didn't like my choice, but I didn't care.
"You have two minutes to dress." He told me as he turned to not face me.
It was then that I quickly got out of the water and put on the clothes Sesshomaru hinted at. I still didn't know how to put on a kimono though, so I just put it on like a robe. It covered my body, and that was all I needed. I took the obi and tied it tightly around my waist. I'd learn how to put this thing on later.
Sesshomaru turned around and inspected how I dressed. He noticed… my lack of grace with the kimono, but didn't care, or blamed it on the fever. Sesshomaru had brought Ah-Un with him. He picked me up, and placed me on its back. He then led Ah-Un back toward the camp. I laid down on Ah-Un's back, breathing as well as I could. I bore the pain of having my lungs expand and contract silently.
"Why are you treating me nicely? I thought you hated humans." I asked once I got accustomed to my soreness.
"I do, but I need you alive."
At least he was being honest.
"…Naraku is connected to InuYasha, Kagome, and Kikyo, even though they do not know of it." I told Sesshomaru. He stopped, and looked at me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see his inquisitive golden orbs.
"How?" He asked.
"Can we not use one word fragments?" I asked, trying to avoid the question.
"How?" Sesshomaru said again, enforcing his dominance on me.
I sighed. "I cannot tell you."
"Why is that?" he asked.
At least he wasn't saying one word sentences.
"I cannot tell because then things will mess up, nothing will be guaranteed, yata, yata, yata, black hole, end of everything." That's not what I meant to say, but I had a fever. Can you blame me?
Sesshomaru's answer to that question was no. He continued to lead, and Ah-Un and I followed. On our way back to camp, I turned over to my stomach and hung one my arms off the side of the two-headed dragon. I watched the ground as we slowly passed along for a few minutes before something familiar crossed my line of sight. It was a piece of my old kimono; the one Koga had given me. The last person that had it was Sesshomaru. It wouldn't be in pieces if he didn't want it too. Did he rip it apart? If he did, why would he? I stopped caring once we finally got back to camp. Sesshomaru took me off of Ah-Un, and sat me down across him. My eyes were still closed. I was too tired to open them. I could tell that Sesshomaru was staring at me.
I finally opened my eyes. I wanted to get up, but I wasn't going to be able to for some time. I looked around for Rin and Jaken, only to find that they were not here. I had no doubt that they were safe. If it was otherwise, Sesshomaru would have left to save them.
Speaking of Sesshomaru, an irritated looked surfaced to his eyes. I was learning how to read eyes. Yes, slowly, but surely, I was starting to decode his glances! Sesshomaru got up, never removing his star from me, before turning and leaving. Had I spoken too soon? I could have used this time to escape the clutches of the demon lord, but you can't really just leave a Daiyōkai. He'd probably find me again and force me to come back or kill me, if I even made it that far while enduring this sickness. Whichever floated his boat in the moment would be what happened.
I watched as the two headed dragon walked over to me, and offered its body as a better resting place than a tree's trunk. "Thank you Ah-Un" I told the dinosaur, dragon demon. Both of its heads nuzzled me. "Aw, I like you guys too." I told them.
I must have fallen asleep then, because when I woke up, Rin was in my face, and Sesshomaru was back.
"Welcome back." I told Rin as I managed to move the hair out of her face.
"Kazumi, look what Rin made!"
The little girl had made a circlet of flowers.
"It's beautiful." I said. She did a happy dance, and I smiled a little. It was mildly entertaining and endearing. Deciding that I wanted to see if I could move more than I could before, I sat up. I waited, waiting for my body to give me a 'no go' if I was attempting things too early. Surprisingly, I was feeling a lot better. I stretched, to see if anything was still sore. I was glad to find that my arms were the only ones that showed any sign of weakness. I guess that my guess, that I just needed time to get used to the area, was correct.
"You are well." Sesshomaru stated.
"I am, amazingly." I told him.
"Then you can give me a better explination." He told me.
He couldn't give me a minute?
"Before I went all delusional, I was trying to say that if I told you all of what I know then the outcome of the events that I know might not come true. I'd rather not take the chance. I really do prefer if things end as they should. I don't want anyone's blood on my hands because I said something I wasn't supposed to say." I explained
"Then why did you tell me what you did?" He asked.
"I told you that tad bit of information because that information does not pertain to you."
"And if I were to kill any three of those beings?" he asked.
"That's when we'd have a problem. The entire outcome would become different and that may cause the destruction of everything. I can't tell the future, so I can't say for certain. "
"Do you know of Naraku's whereabouts?"
"Not off the top of my head." I told him.
He gazed at me. What was he thinking of?
"You are to stay within my pack for the time being."
There was a silence as that sank in.
"Do I get a choice?" I asked.
He glared at me.
"I guess that's a no." I sighed.
