Jail stunk. The fetid odor of unwashed bodies made Kagome want to gag, and the under scent of blood and festering wounds didn't help at all. She sighed, this whole situation was ridiculous.
~~~WLITS~~~
The day before, she had taken Shippo on a morning walk to the river. They both were in need of a bath. As such, she hadn't brought her entire pack, just a smaller bag of toiletries. They were walking along through the luscious forest, chatting about breakfast (which they wanted pretty badly, but refused to put up with anymore of Sesshomarus pointed remarks on their state of cleanliness) when Kagome shivered all over.
She put a hand on Shippos shoulder, halting the small kit who quieted immediately. She cast a sharp gaze through the leaves around them. The miko was sure it had been a flash of youki she felt, but the malevolence had disappeared almost as fast as she'd noticed it.
"Kagome? It smells weird," The kitsune looked up her with uncertainty.
"How weird Shippo-chan?"
"Like...kinda like blood but also old clothes and lots of sweat, too," His little nose scrunched up in distaste, but smoothed out when he saw Kagomes frown.
"I believe we have company. Shippo, I want you to sta-" The miko didn't finish her sentence as a dart flew from the trees to lodge itself into her neck. Her eyes flickered, a hand reaching out to her kit before the world faded to black.
She had woken up chained to the floor, with a nasty headache. The damp cell was bare, manacles hung from the stone cobbled walls, and a small wooden door was directly in front of her. There was something growing on the ceiling, but the miko had no desire to inspect it further.
Shippo was chained next to her, he was in a horrible mood. The drugs hidden in the darts seemed to have affected him worse than her. His eyes were still at half mast, and it worried her immensely.
Not to mention her rage. Who ever had dared to injure her precious kitsune would pay dearly. Well, if she could get out of this mess...She sighed.
~WLITS~
Sesshomaru, great and powerful daiyoukai, was questioning his judgment. Shocker I know. But he was facing what had to be at least his twentieth headache since the Miko and her kit had joined his small pack. They were either too loud, or too nosy but now...
Now they were gone.
They weren't even polite about it. They had left to bathe, finally agreeing to spare his sensitive nose the torture of being near anything unwashed. But that had been close to an hour before. Surely even the not so sane woman didn't take this long to bathe?
"Sesshomaru-sama? I'm worried about Kagome-neechan." Rin looked up at demon with big watery eyes, her mouth pouting slightly.
He sighed. Deeply. Or he did mentally, since being of his stature didn't show such weakness.
"Can we go look for them, please Sesshomaru-sama?" Rin tugged on his pant leg as he thought for a few moments. Mentally cursing what his life had become, he beckoned Ah-Un closer.
The little girl sighed in relief as she climbed up onto the Beast, who began to follow The daiyoukai as he followed the young woman's scent.
~WLITS~
Kagome's anger was fading. Not leaving per say, but it was hard to stay livid when you were so incredibly bored. No one had spoken besides Shippo, even though she could sense other demons around them. She was actually fairly close to falling asleep when footsteps rang out against the stone floor.
"Well, who do we have here?" A masculine voice filled with malice jolted her awake as the cell door started to open.
Surprisingly, a Human stood before her. He was fairly tall, muscled, but not bulky. Clothed in a nondescript, dark brown kimono and hakama. His face was rather ordinary, except for the scar that ran from the corner of his mouth up to his ear, like a sickening, permanent grin.
Kagome moved in front of Shippo protectively, even as she felt him poke his head out from behind her. She was taken aback when the man smiled kindly at her, though the effect was pretty much ruined by the creepy scar.
"You poor Miko, surrounded by such filth! The men couldn't recognize that you were not the same trash as the demon they saved you from, my lady."
She was about as close to wanting to kill someone as she'd ever been before. Kagome's hands clenched into fists as she looked up at the man impassively.
"Shippo-chan, the kitsune that traveled with me, is as close to trash as I am to male," she said cooly. Unfortunate, she missed the way the mans eerie smile melted off of his face, his eyes growing cold and closing off to her. "Since there's been some sort of mistake here, if you could please let us go, I'd very much appreciate that."
He looked down his nose at her. "You, Miko, have obviously never heard of the great Tadanobo. I am the one who will cure this world of demon filth! I shall exterminate the foul youkai that plague this world. You have A great chance before you, to join my cause. Or, you can stay with this trash in the dungeon until we dispose of you." He sniffed haughtily, but held out a hand to her.
She spit on his hand.
"Never will I join such an idiotic, cruel human such as you! The audaci-" She was cut off as he delivered a stinging slap to her cheeck, knocking her into the ground.
"Kagome!" The little kit attempted to jump in front of her, but was held back by the short chain that connected to the stone wall. The woman groaned, and sat back up slowly, looking at Tadanobo murderously.
He merely smirked down at her. "The world will be free of your insolence in a short few days. I'll execute you myself, wench." With that, he turned tale and locked the cell door before disappearing down the hallway.
Shippo started to shake nervously as he hugged Kagome. "What did he mean by execute?"
She stroked the top of his head comfortingly, but her thoughts were a whirlwind. "I don't know, Shippo-Chan. But I have a bad feeling..."
The man had left her with more questions than he had answered. She knew why they had been captured now, but it wasn't much use to know. They were still chained up in an unknown location. And apparently they were looking at death. She had better figure out some plan, or their lives were forfeit...
~~~WLITS~~~~
Sesshomaru was starting to get a bit angry. The Miko was one of the only interesting things in his life currently, and someone had to go and kidnap her. As a potential pack member, he was duty bound to go find her. He was hoping that she wasn't quite so helpless though, what a dissapointment that would be.
"Sesshomaru-sama, why are we going away from the river? I thought that Nee-chan needed a bath?" Rin looked Up at him worriedly.
"It seems the foolish Miko and kit have been captured Rin, we are following their trail." He almost chuckled at her exaggerated gasp.
"By who?!" She was almost in tears now. He hadn't realized that she had grown so attached to the woman this quickly.
He looked around the forest trail that they were walking on as he thought of his reply. He wasn't quite sure who had taken them. Naraku's scent wasn't present, so he was fairly sure it wasn't the devious hayou. The clearing hadn't smelt of that despicable dead Miko either.
"A ignorant human," he said, rather snootily. After all, who in their right mind abducts a powerful Miko, under his protection?
The trail wasn't cold at all, perhaps only a few hours old. Along with the strangely herbal scent of the woman was the sweat and blood of two human males. He wrinkled his nose delicately. How the humans had ever come to the conclusion that bathing was bad for the body was a mystery to him.
Rins inquisitive voice jerked him from his thoughts. "But, why would they do that, Sesshomaru-sama?"
"Why indeed," he muttered. The kidnappers reasoning was still a mystery. But no use worrying over it, he would reach the end of the trail before nightfall.
~~~WLITS~~~
Kagome was about to admit that she actually missed Sesshomaru. Even his rather pompous ass was better than the nothingness of this cell. Shippo and her had been sitting here waiting for a few hours. More demons had been brought it, and she shivered each time they cried out in pain. It seemed her and Shippo had been lucky to be drugged.
Thankfully, she was jolted from her thoughts by the cell door slamming open. Tadanobo stood before her, holding a ring of keys. His face was twisted into a grin, the scar matching the eerie look.
"Time to be punished, Miko. Perhaps you can watch as I kill that demon behind you?" He sneered at her, obviously not forgetting how she had insulted him earlier.
She glared up at him fiercely, but held her tongue in case he started to hurt the little kitsune.
"I don't have all day, stand up!" His voice was acidic as he jerked her hands forward. He tied A length of rope around her wrists, binding them together before unlocking the manacles. They dropped to the floor with a harsh clank.
She thought it might be safe to question him, he didn't pull the rope excessively tight, and hadn't hit her so..."Why are you doing this?"
He looked up into her eyes, and narrowed his own muddy brown orbs. A hand came up and he pontes to his obvious scar, disfiguring half of his face. "A demon gave me this the night he killed my village. I swore I would kill the beasts until I found the one that took everything from me." He roughly grabbed Shippo and started to bind his hands together.
Kagome frowned, and stood up a bit straighter. Since he had to kneel to reach Shippo she was standing over him, a nice feeling.
"You're going to indiscriminately murder children until you get your way?" Her voice was dripping with digust.
The man glared up at her as he ripped the little kitsunes manacles off roughly. "Demons are not real chilren. They are like young animals. Still dangerous." Kagome winces as she saw his rough treatment of her little kit, and felt her rage start to boil up under her skin. She shook her head in denial of his words, but didn't say anymore as she didn't want him to keep hurting Shippo.
"Whether you agree or not shan't change your fate, Miko. All of you filth are being taken into the village center, where those of my cause are being taught to kill trash like you." He stated to shove them out of the cell. Sore from being still so long, the two stumbled a bit.
"Will we be given weapons to figh with?" She didn't really think so, but it couldn't hurt to hope right? Her spirits sank as the man only laughed.
"Such a stupid question," he spat, prodding them along. Kagome was glad she was wearing her Miko robes. The jail was covered in gunk, from dried blood to suspiciously colored puddles all along the ground. She would have to burn her clothing after it had touched all of this nastiness, so at least she wasn't wearing anything that she particularly liked.
Well, that's assuming she lived through this.
~~~WLITS~~~
Sesshomaru could tell that he was nearing the end of the woman's trail. For one, her scent was quite strong now, but laced with distress. For another, he was right outside of what appeared to be a small village. It was quite eerie though, lacking the usual sounds of children playing and animals running around.
He left Rin and Ah-Un tethered safely in the forest, with Jaken as a guard. Intent on finding the elusive woman and her kit, he hoped neatly on top of one of the small buildings, crouching down to remain out of sight.
The sight he beheld as he looked into the village center shocked him.
There was a line of what seemed to be prisoners, by their unkempt looks and bound hands. All demons with fearful looks upon their faces. A semicircle of guards was around them, bearing roughly made spears and weak armor. They all seemed to be fairly young human males, all bearing wicked smiled and looks of enjoyment upon their faces. A couple were even laughing. One who looked a bit more important, by the sword strapped to his waist, was holding a young woman by the hair, foring her to look at the center of the town square.
Held up by another guard, who was grinning cruelly, was the tiny kitsune. A man with a short, jagged dagger was making little cuts on the gagged demon. Not enough to kill him yet, but a painfil ordeal. The ground under him was red with blood.
With a jolt Sesshomaru realized that kitsune was Shippo. The woman being forced to watch, as tears dripped down her face, evidence of the loud sobs that he could hear, had to be Kagome.
sorry for the choppiness! I wanted to get something out soon, so I haven't done much proofreading. Sorry about the wait time! I made it a bit longer as an apology. Thank you for reading my little story, and please review!
~ that voice in the dark