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Strangled Time

Chapter 20

By noon the next morning, the clouds had begun to clear, leaving the sun high in the sky. It wasn't hot, but it was certainly much warmer than it had been in the days prior. The snow stopped falling, and all of the two centimeters accumulated on the ground were beginning to melt away. It was throughout this thaw that Togashimaru continued to sleep soundly.

"Should we wake him?"

Kagome looked up from where she was folding her collection of kimonos and trying to stuff them back into her backpack without busting a seam. A tickle from the air made her cough, which she managed hide under the guise of a throat clearing. It was just that time of year.

"No." Kagome responded with a shake of her head. "He hasn't had a good night's sleep in a while. This'll be good for him."

Saburo made a throaty noise of acknowledgment, but it was a far away sound—the type that someone makes when they're only half listening to the conversation. He stared at the demon without saying much more, watching the slight movement of Toga's chest as he slept under their guard. She saw his eyes wander, as if entranced, down the tangle of silver locks that twisted over Toga's shoulder and spayed a stark contrast against the burgundy of his haori.

The priestess wondered just how many demons he'd had the pleasure of interacting with over his lifetime. By the looks of it, it wasn't many.

Again, she cleared her throat. The blacksmith snapped out of his daze and made a show of brushing off his clothes before standing to stretch. Moving looked painful. He winced when the ligaments and bones in his back popped.

"Sore?" Kagome asked a little too innocently, hiding her grin behind a folded piece of heavy fabric. He had slept in so many awkward positions against that tree the night before, it was no wonder he was stiff. She'd been uncomfortable just looking at him during the better half of her watch. The half she'd been awake for.

The bridge of Saburo's nose colored and his hand reached back to scratch his neck on reflex. He caught himself and took to fixing his stuffy topknot instead.

"Nah, I'm fine." He shrugged it off.

Smooth, real smooth.

Kagome did smile then. "Okay." She said while getting up from her bedroll and crossing their little makeshift camp to where he was totally not favoring one hip. "But let me know if you need a break. The first couple days can be murder on your back.

"Here. Thanks for letting me borrow this."

Instead of reaching out to take the tidy bundle that was his grey jacket, Saburo held up a hand. Groves of concern etched in his forehead. "You keep it. Ya need it more than me right now."

"Huh? No, I'm fine. Really." The young woman assured him. "It's not even that cold out anymore."

"You sure?" Skeptically he studied her chipper expression before slowly pointing out, "...Miss Kagome. Your nose is burnin' red."

…

Kagome checked to make sure that her bandages were secured correctly for the fourth time, then checked the tie of her sloppy bun for the third. Only when she reached down to relatch the straps of her shoes did she realize that she was stalling. But why? She'd been doing so good, what possible reason could she have to start procrastinating on her responsibilities now? The day was fair, the winds calm. Everything should have been working in her favor.

Pushing herself up from her bedroll, the young priestess rose to her feet and shook her head to clear away the haze. She needed to grasp her knees to keep from tumbling over when the action did the opposite and made her dizzy instead.

Ah. That was why.

Gritting her teeth, Kagome took a few deep breaths, checked herself, and straightened when the forest decided to stop it's spinning. Until they were in a better position—much, much farther from Sesshoumaru, please and thank you. Toga trusted that barrier of territories much more than she was about to—she was just going to have to stick it out and complete her duties as she had been. Business as usual.

In an attempt to save face, Kagome brushed away the dirt from her thighs. "I'll be back." She informed her quiet companions by the fire. "I'm going to see if I can find us something to eat."

The two men started to speak up simultaneously as she started past them, but they quickly tripped over each other's words. Toga turned to stare at Saburo. Saburo turned away to stare up at the canopies of the trees.

Neither one of them tried a second time, allowing the priestess to leave the campsite without comment or protest from either party.

…

Deep in the forest, between a patch of wild shrubs and brambles, a patchy grey rabbit inched closer to the greens and kernels of raw rice that were scattered about the ground near it's hole. Cautiously it sniffed, took a step, and then sniffed some more; that tiny little nose working overtime searching for threat or danger surrounding that unsolicited offering of free food.

A good rule of thumb to live by states that if something seemed too good to be true, then it's probably a trap. But this was a bunny, and bunnies didn't tend to live by the rules of human logical thought. They lived by experience, instinct, and their very acute senses.

The faintest rustle of leaves caused the hare to freeze. It's nose went still. It's ears perked, high and alert. Nothing. Silence reigned once more through the wood. Ever so slowly it's paw began to relax, moving down, down, just a little bit further—

"Achoo!"

At the sound of the loudest sneeze it ever heard, not unlike a bellow of thunder, the rabbit bolted, dry-springing the snare as it slipped away, uncaught.

"Oh, come on!" Kagome cursed as she scrambled up to grab the wildly whipping branch that was swinging about her fishline trap. "Go on! Run away! Be happy you're not dinner tonight, you fluffy little jerk!" She sniffed and pressed her fingers to her sinuses before taking it down.

That was the third one to get away and the light was already beginning to dim. Kagome struggled with a particularly tight knot. They couldn't possibly live on plain rice and jerky tips forever, but it seemed that they were going to have to make due with it for one more night. One grown male was hard enough to feed, but two? That was going to take some finagling.

If only she had her bow! There were more than enough deer tracks in the area. If she were able to take down one of them they wouldn't have to worry about protein for a week! But alas, her bow was still in pieces thanks to Toga's darling prodigal son. And it probably wasn't going to be another two hundred and thirty five years until he would be willing to make it up to her!

Stupid Sesshoumaru.

Kagome kicked at the crispy foliage under foot, crispy and dry thanks to that day's warmth.

Stupid loud leaves.

Then she started and had to hold onto the branch as she held back another, albeit smaller, sneeze.

Stupid nose.

Without her longbow, their options for food were rather limited. Sure, they could forage for edible plants and fungi, but in such a dense forest that allowed for so little light to reach the ground and the nearing winter, there wasn't much for harvest. And she wasn't about to double back to try her hand at fishing in that river. Not with the chance that she'd run into little prince Sesshoumaru again.

Now that would have been quite the power move, wouldn't it? Imagine her, little human priestess Kagome, settling in alongside the bank to cast her line as the young Western Lord paced the other shore, just out of reach thanks to a political territory. Posturing and glaring, like a predator in a zoo, while she sat mockingly on the other side of the glass.

The teen chuckled at the thought and rolled away her nylon line.

It was possible. And she couldn't sense his presence very close...

No. She stopped herself before she actually considered being that bold little mouse. She wasn't about to peek her head out the moment she started to feel safe.

Yeah, no. Another time.

White rice it was.

…

Togashimaru watched with narrowed eyes as Kagome wobbled back into camp. He continued to follow her in silence as she flicked the loop of fishing thread in her otherwise empty hands and threw it onto her traveler's bed. Then she dug into her futuristic yellow pack for the sack which contained their supply of rice and the pot. There was nothing relaxed about her odd, almost lazy movements as she placed the both of them on a rock near the fire. They were off. She was off.

The young woman stared blankly at the pot before her and blinked slowly. He could almost see the slow clicking of an ox cart's wheel in her mind as she sorted out what was missing from her cooking essentials. When it did eventually dawn on her, her shoulders slumped, her head fell back to the sky, and then she let out a pained groan like some kind of dying animal. Normally, he would have found such eccentric antics to be amusing, but when the human girl turned to look at him there were tears welling in her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed and nose rosy.

"I can't make it." She said to him, distraught. When she sniffed it was a wet noise. Even her voice sounded an odd mixture of hoarse and damp. "I don't have any water."

It was an uncomfortable combination of sounds to his ears and he very much did not like it. The moist gurgle of her sob turned hiccup reminded him of the end of a long fought battle, when his opponent was finally succumbing to defeat and asphyxiating on their own lifeblood. Surreptitiously the dog demon search her for sight of red or wound. She seemed unharmed. However that did not necessarily mean anything, as on occasion the bleeding never left the body.

She sneezed then and the force of it sent her stumbling backwards. When she tried to reclaim those steps he could only watch. Unsteadily she swayed. Forwards, backwards. Too far backwards. Horror filled him. He grabbed his walking stick, but he wouldn't be quick enough. "Kagome!" He yelled, helpless, as she began to fall towards the fire.

Just before her bangs could touch the heat of the licking flames, her body came to an abrupt halt. Arms like small tree trunks wrapped securely around her torso and pulled her to safety. Togashimaru had to tear his eyes away from the girl to register that the large creature attached to those arms was the human blacksmith.

A little green demon of jealousy tried to scratch at Togashimaru's shoulder at the sight of the other man's mobility, but he snuffed it out and steadied his focus on the priestess. She was unconscious, but she was safe and she was not burning.

Not being afire was a beneficial state to be in when you were unconscious.

Suddenly Kagome was moving again. Not because she was waking up, but because Saburo had hefted her to carry. Even though her lifeless body made it difficult for him to maneuver without some awkwardness, she was not at risk of falling from his strong grasp. Again, Togashimaru forced himself to concentrate on his relief.

Until Saburo looked up at him, his dark eyes alight with panic and pleading.

"What happened?" The blacksmith demanded, frazzled. "She's gone out cold."

The demon General allowed himself to relax just enough to fall back forward to his knees, trying his best to not lean too heavily on his staff. Then the panic filled him. He'd never seen his little human nursemaid behave in such a way. He hadn't even realized that she'd fallen to such a state until that moment.

He knew how to dispose of beings that have fallen to such disrepair.

But however did one fix it?

"I do not know." Togashimaru admitted, and the helplessness that associated those words left a bitter taste on his tongue.

End Chapter

Author's Note:

Hello and thank you all for reading and reviewing!

I'm sorry that this chapter got posted so late (And totally not on a Wednesday) but the reason for that is because I moved! It was a really big cross country move—the car drive itself took a total of 50 hours to complete. I'm still not completely situated and my new job starts on Monday, so my schedule might be a little wonky until I get the hang of this position. It's a very big change from what I was doing before, even from where I was living before.

Toto, we're not in the big mountains anymore. Houston is going to be a totally new experience.

And I'm going to Love. Every. Minute.

Anyway, I'm glad that I was finally able to get around to this chapter. This and the next have been eating at me for weeks!

Again, thank you for your patience!

~Tsarashi