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Strangled Time

Chapter 19

There is something magical about snowfall. It has the power to make the most chaotic night seem calm and peaceful. It turns lively forests into whimsical snow-globes. In the darkness the animals tuck away in their dens and nests, lying low until the first blanket has finished covering the ground. Deer curl tight to their beds, ice dusting their fur. To move means to relinquish their hiding spots; their coats, not yet grey with winter's touch, stood out a burnt sienna against the white.

Snow on a windless night is an insulator. It provides warmth to those still in their holes and silence throughout the entire wood. Each falling snowflake acts to absorb the sounds that could normally be heard throughout the evening. Stirring birds and shivering leaves stand still and forgotten. Even echoes go quiet.

In a normal situation, it would have been beautiful. But when you were rushing from danger, injured and cold with only the sounds of you and your companions' shuffling feet to fill the black of night, it was discomforting.

There was no telling how far Sesshoumaru was behind them, only that he was out of range.

They were making good time, Kagome thought. According to Togashimaru, they were almost to the border crossing. The East and the West were the only two of the cardinal territories that shared an island, and as such were the only ones to have a physical land border. The lord of the North hailed over the northern most island, Hokkaido, and the lord of the South, the southernmost island of Kyushu and it's connecting chains. The main island was split diagonally at its core, starting at the Edo port and moving up. There weren't any major waterways separating the two, it was a winding path of mountain valleys, however their straightest past to the East happened to cross at a bridge.

Relief rinsed Kagome's spirit as she saw that bridge come into view. The trees weren't as dense there, but it was far enough from the main city that there weren't any houses nearby. And since it was late the roads were empty, ensuring that their crossing would go unnoticed.

Just over that sloping bridge, they would find safety.

"There." Togashimaru said under his breath, slow and labored when Saburo brought him up to meet her. The rush wasn't doing him any favors and he seemed just as eager to cross as she was. "Iruma river."

Kagome's joyous response was cut short on her tongue when a familiar tickle started up at he base of her neck. Toga felt it too, she could tell by the way his breath hitched. She didn't look over to see the confusion that was undoubtedly etching itself into Saburo's brow.

He was coming in fast.

Too fast.

"Run." The command was stern. "Come on, we need to go. Now!"

And so they did. The blacksmith all but heaved the lame demon up and over the wooden planks of the bridge and to the shore on the other side. He didn't slow until he reached the treeline, when his groaning parcel shared a protest and the sounds of their beating feet became two too few. He paused to look back to where Kagome stood at the tallest point of the bridge like a lioness ready to preside over an empty court.

She wondered if he could see her skin glowing.

"You two keep going." The priestess said, turning her back to them. "I'm going to make sure he really can't follow us."

The growl from Togashimaru's throat would have been feral if he had the energy to maintain it. "You should not toy with the boy." He warned. "This game that you are playing can only lead so far. His control is not so great."

"You said he can't cross the bridge, right? I'm going to make damn well sure that he can't cross the bridge."

"And if I am wrong?"

She paused to swallow the lump in her throat. "Then I'm giving you a head start."

The older dog's arguments fell on deaf ears as Saburo manually turned him away. "Miss Kagome, what do ya need me ta do?" He managed to shudder out. He was scared. She didn't blame him.

"Keep heading north and find a place to lay low." Experience made her sound stronger than she felt. She shot him a smile over her shoulder. Then she pulled her pack from her back and tossed it to him. The blacksmith picked it up with his free hand, handling the extra burden with ease. "I'll catch up in a bit."

Be it from a hazardously blind trust or for fear of his own neck, the tall human nodded and dragged the irate demon away. Kagome didn't watch as they disappeared into the safe embrace of the Eastern lands. Instead she turned back to the West and gathered her power to her broken bow like a beacon. She'd been holding that purity at the surface to cleanse their trail, but now she flaunted it to distract Sesshoumaru from Togashimaru's retreat.

The priestess didn't flinch when the man of the hour flew down and landed harshly onto the forest path. Dust rose where his feet slid to a stop. When he stepped from the shadows, Kagome could make out jagged markings and eyes that were beginning to glow an angry red.

He. Was. Pissed.

She'd seen him loose control before, sure, but never had it been directed at her specifically. At Inuyasha? Yeah. At Naraku? Oh, hell yeah. But never had those bloodthirsty eyes turned towards her as his main threat. She had to admit, it was extremely unsettling.

The boy lord took a step forward.

Kagome took a shaky step back.

As he continued stalking towards her, the teen matched him step for step, never letting him get closer to her than that. When he stopped, Kagome found herself in the gravel at the other side of the river. The young demon glared incredulously at her, but his boot never rose to touch the wooden planks of the bridge. It was as if the structure itself was holding him at bay through some unseen and unsenseable force.

Just as Toga had said it would.

Like the enraged dog he was, Sesshoumaru started to growl. And then he started pacing along the shore of the shallow river.

Safe within the territory of the Eastern lands, Kagome laughed. It came out a manic sound thanks to the bubbling release of her nerves.

It was also the absolute wrong thing to do.

His eyes snapped to her as quickly as his wrist. The eerie yellow-green glow of his whip sprang from the tips of his claws and swung towards her at a frightening speed. She blocked, but unnecessarily so. The attack didn't stretch over the boundary to the East far enough to hit her. Instead, it whipped aggressively around behind his back, where it struck a number of trees at the trunk.

Pines, some nearly as tall as the Goshinboku, began to fall.

Figuring she'd given Toga and Saburo well enough time to slip away unnoticed, and maybe regretting her gut reaction that messed with Sesshoumaru that tiny extra step, Kagome turned to hightail it out of there. It was a chaotic crash of lumber, branches, and needles as the trees fell at her heels. There was no sidestepping that wall, no way she could outrun the entire length of them with her human speed alone.

Kagome shrieked.

Before the canopies could crush her, the priestess threw up her arms to cover her head. The power she had been holding in the bow at her fingertips exploded with life. Her eyes squeezed shut, as if not being able to see it coming would make it hurt less—or better yet, would make it go away. She felt the force and weight of the trees batter her energy. They were heavy and strenuous, and made her aura feel as if it were going to collapse in on itself, but they didn't come any closer than that. Nothing physically hit her.

When the bombardment stopped and the sound settled, she opened her eyes. Kagome was standing in a small circle, completely cleared of debris. Her body unscathed. She could barely see over the trunks of the felled trees that surrounded her, but across the river she saw Sesshoumaru. He stood in his own bubble of clearing, crackling power shielding around him, silks and hair whipped in his own personal wind. His markings had gone back to normal, eyes cold and gold, but he was still seething with murder.

She didn't stop to chat. The moment the priestess gathered her bearings she started climbing through the dense and sharp brush of the treetops.

Away from the ghost of Sesshoumarus past and onward to carry out her companion's journey in that new present.

…

In the light of the small fire at their hastily made campsite, Kagome sat before Togashimaru wearing not only every single dry kimono that she owned, but one of his and Saburo's jacket as well. It was heavy, but it was also very warm.

While Saburo was away in search of dry firewood, Togashimaru instructed her to bare her legs to the cold once more so that he could bandage up her knees and a scratch that she had gotten on her forearm. The blood from her legs had stopped flowing back when she was in the waterfall, but the skin was still very raw and tender. She tried not to flinch while he wrapped them.

How he was still conscious was beyond her. The demon had propped himself up against a tree and was staying straight and awake by sheer force of will alone. She wondered if his heart was beating as fast as hers, even an hour after the encounter.

"You're sure he won't follow us?" Kagome asked quietly as he tied off one leg and started to work on the other.

The general nodded, but then assured her out loud. "Yes. Fifteen years would not have been long enough for him to build a strong enough rapport with the East to risk crossing those boundaries so recklessly. He may be brash, but at his core he knows that his responsibilities as a cardinal lord take priority over personal matters."

"Why would it take so long for them to build a rapport?"

Large clawed hands paused before starting up again, working as gently as possible with her more delicate human structure and skin. "Fifteen years is not a significant time at all for a demon. But aside from that, the lord of the East is a fickle bastard who never did care for my son's temper." His swaying bangs didn't cover his smirk.

"Will we be safe here?" Kagome asked after that. "Or will the Eastern lord see us as intruders like Sesshoumaru did? I don't know if we can go up against bigger guns and win right now."

Togashimaru shook his head. "No, the Eastern lord will not even know that we are here. My energy will be too weak for her to sense. That is, so long as you keep to a low profile."

The priestess offered him a tight grin. "I'll be good." She said as she inspected his terrible handiwork and covered her legs back up. He'd been so cautious and afraid to hurt her that the bandages hung a bit loose. She'd have to rewrap them after he fell asleep.

"Do you promise?"

Kagome started to laugh, but it turned into a sneeze. After shaking away the urge to sneeze a second time she assured him, "I promise. That was definitely enough action for one trip."

…

"I didn' know that demons could sleep." Saburo admitted as he settled in as far across the fire from her and Toga as physically possible. He'd pulled a small blanket from the hobo sack that had been wrapped to his back and and copied the dog demon's example by propping himself up against the trunk of a tree.

Kagome had to force herself to keep her eyes open and focused as she salvaged her bowstring from its shattered body. Toga had reluctantly agreed to allow her to take up the first watch so that he could rest. Between the two of them, she was in the better condition by far even if she did feel totally drained.

"Yep." She told the blacksmith without looking up at him. "They're not too different than us, really. They can handle a little bit more, but demons have their limits too."

Again, Kagome sneezed. Directly afterwards, her stomach growled as loudly as she'd ever heard it. Flushing, she tried to push away her hunger, but she couldn't help but long after that delicious porridge she been forced to abandon in all the hullabaloo. It was dumped in a ditch back at the well. All of that rice and onion and meat.

Her mouth watered as she mourned its loss.

Suddenly, a bun appeared in front of her.

Kagome had to blink a bit before it came into focus, but when it did she followed the attached arm up to look at Saburo hovering with concern. With her uninjured forearm she rubbed her eyes before accepting the stuffed pastry with gratitude. Satisfied with her acceptance, the lumbering man offered her a silent, crooked smile before he tiptoed back to his tree and rummaged in his cloth to find a bun of his own.

It was going to be a long first night out there in that unfamiliar territory; she was sore and tired and Togashimaru was in all but tatters. But perhaps it wasn't going to be as terrible as it could have been, thanks to Saburo's unexpected presence.

Hopefully she wouldn't come to regret allowing him to tag along.

…

It was the middle of the night when Kagome startled awake. The fire was dying—only a few red embers remained. They sizzled whenever a fat flake of snow landed on them. Across from their sad excuse for a campfire, Saburo was sleeping only half propped against his tree and looking quite uncomfortable. He probably should have just taken to the ground.

Paranoid, the priestess crawled the short distance from her bedroll over to Togashimaru to make sure that he was still breathing and well. That day had been hard, and the excitement couldn't have been good for his condition.

The demon was alive, but the wheezing of his breath was just enough to worry her. Kagome hovered her hand over his forehead to check for a fever before slowing moving to push open his haori to check on the bandages that he'd replaced.

Togashimaru grabbed her wrist before she could investigate far.

"Kagome." He rumbled quietly under his breath, so not to wake their new third wheel. "You should be resting."

"You're awake."

He hummed. "I said that I would take second watch. I am a man of my word."

She tried not to let her embarrassment show too much—she didn't even remember when she had fallen asleep, but she knew that her watch hadn't been up yet. Which meant he was picking up her slack.

"I'm sorry."

"You were very brave today." He said then, cutting through her shame. Kagome looked back up to search the molten gold of his eyes. However, they were still closed, and she was left to wonder what he was getting at until he finished. "I've never met a human quite so powerfully intimidating in their idiocy."

The young woman scowled.

"Are you trying to compliment me or insult me?"

She took the lethargic raise of his shoulder as a shrug. "Take it as you will. However, you are immensely deserving of both."

"Yeah?" Kagome pulled her hand from his loose grip and gently rapped her knuckled to his knee. "Well, right back at ya."

He sighed, head lolling to one side. When his eyes opened then, there was a lukewarm sadness in them. No glitter of humor or light that they usually contained. "No, I have shown no power worth impression." And in a rare moment of severity, he admitted, "I fear I will never be able to share with you the extent of my demonic power. You will be unable to share tales with my sons of their father's true might, once you return to them. Only of my weakness. What a disgraceful legacy to leave."

"Maybe when you get better? We've still got time." She didn't no quite what to say, but she knew after she said it that that was the wrong thing. Even to her own ears it sounded falsely optimistic.

He shut his eyes.

His response sounded equally false.

"That we do."

End Chapter