Her Light to His Darkness
Disclaimer: Not mine…
Chapter 3: Drunken Encounter
The ground blurred beneath Kagome's pounding feet, slipping out from under her with alarming frequency. The tangled grasses of the meadow were left behind as they entered a forest. A thick net of branches diffused the brilliant moonbeams into a treacherous web of shadow and light. A dead branch she did not see slammed into her knees even as she stumbled over a rock that was only a reflection in the slick leaves. Surely her whole life had been spent following the flowing tail of this monster steed and the forbidding back of its demon rider. The aching rhythm of her heels faltered, and she stayed on her feet only by entwining her fingers around the strand of rope that bound her wrists. Her head scarf was now crushed, but she refused to drop it.
"Pardon me," she gasped.
The broad shoulders did not turn.
"Excuse me… milord?"
Nothing. Kagome could think of only one way to get his attention. She sat down, throwing her legs around the rope to keep from being pulled to her stomach. She had counted on the nests of pine needles to cushion her.
She had not counted on the Taiyoukai continuing for several feet until her bottom was dragged into a shallow stream with a defeated splash.
He halted and pivoted the dragon to face her. Kagome was not sure who she hated more—the smug dragon or the Taiyoukai who raised one inquisitive eyebrow at her. She collapsed against the bank and closed her eyes. The rope relaxed as he dismounted. She sighed at the sheer luxury of stretching her bound wrists over her head and slowly opened her eyes. The man knelt a few feet away. His molten eyes never left her.
Water filled her yukata. The annoying sensation fanned her flames of indignation. "Would you drown me like an unwanted kitten, milord, or is there that much compassion in you?"
"Why did you not ask me to stop?"
"Would you have listened?" Kagome fought to steady her breathing.
"Yes."
Kagome rolled her eyes and turned her face away to hide her obvious scepticism.
"How did your little rooster of a father manage to raise such a spiritless brood?" he demanded, rising to his feet.
"We are not spiritless," she protested. "You've no right to call us that."
He crossed the stream with one stride and squatted in front of her. "Your father was once a samurai. Has he no skill with a sword?"
Kagome's eyes sparkled with pride. "Otousan had to lay down his arms through no fault of his own. He was lamed in a fierce battle with the panther demons."
Sesshoumaru snorted. "Demons, indeed. What of the two grown men besides your Otousan? They let me dance out of there with you as if it was naught. You do not call that spiritless?"
"You could have slain every one of them, could you not?"
He shrugged. "Perhaps."
"Then they were not without courage. They were intelligent."
The youkai's face dissolved into hearty laughter, dispelling its menace and softening its lines to boyishness for an elusive instant.
"I fear the only quality more lacking than courage was intelligence. Who was the boy? I feared he was going to trumpet me to death."
"It was Hojo. And he is not a boy. He is as old as I."
"I suppose that makes him a man?"
Kagome searched her mind for some weapon to wipe the smirk from his haughty lips but knew the moment she spoke that she had chosen poorly.
"Hojo is my betrothed."
She sniffed with injured pride as the man burst into new peals of laughter.
She spoke quickly. "He is my cousin. Otousan took him in as my betrothed when he was but a boy. Knowing he could provide no dowry, Otousan sought to make me an early match and save me embarrassment."
"I sense you are still embarrassed."
Kagome sighed, missing the absurdity of sitting in a stream and discussing matters of the heart with this stern stranger.
"Do you love this Hojo?"
"I feel a sort of affection for him. He has always been around."
"Like a faithful hound?" he offered.
Nodding briskly, she admitted, "I'd sooner love a toad."
"I found his display of affection rather touching. Did it not melt your heart?"
She shook her head. "You don't know Hojo. He has probably been waiting his whole life for a chance to wax poetic before a peer of the court."
A smile touched the man's lips. He tilted her face with one finger, studying its softened planes in the moonlight. Kagome, suddenly wary, blinked back at him.
"I'd have fought to the death to keep my betrothed from falling into the hands of a man like me," he murmured. His finger travelled upward to trace the curve of her lower lip.
Kagome's heart slipped into a thunderous rhythm she did not recognize. She tried to smile, less than comforted by his words. He stared down at her, his dark eyes succumbing to the shadows of the forest. The last traces of laughter vanished from his face. Kagome shifted, painfully aware of her vulnerability as she laid half in and half out of the stream with her hands bound and this enigmatic stranger crouching over her. The wet yukata clung to her thighs; her skin glistened with the water's mist.
He pried the crumpled head scarf from her hands. Placing it on her head, he tucked each strand of raven hair beneath with great care. "If you must go about sprawling in streams like a wanton nymph, pray do wear your cap to discourage would-be assailants."
He hauled her to her feet and unbound her wrists. Water dripped steadily from the seat of her yukata as he mounted the horse without a word.
She smiled hopefully. "I daresay Otousan has learned his lesson by now. I believe I can find my way home from here."
"Will you mount with me or shall I bind you again?" The knight stared down at her, his fathomless eyes hooded.
She approached the massive steed, dwarfed by the man who sat with such ease upon its back.
She swallowed. "You wish for me to ride with you?"
She was suddenly astride the dragon as he lifted her with one powerful arm and placed her on the saddle in front of him. Her wet yukata tangled beneath her but she barely had time to focus on that discomfort before he kicked the dragon into movement. She realized how much time her pride had cost them since leaving the shrine.
The dragon flew down the path, the thunder of its hooves muffled by the luxuriant carpet of pine needles. Kagome leaned forward to place a safe distance between her back and the broad chest of her captor, only to find herself jerked against him by a muscular arm wrapped around her waist.
"Be still. You'll spook the steed," he commanded.
Kagome surrendered to his iron grip as the horse careened off the path and darted among the trees as if following some esoteric equine map. The youkai's chest became a haven that protected her from being crushed as tree trunks lurched into their path with frightening regularity.
When she realized the arm locked beneath her breasts would not allow her to sail off the dragon, she settled back, lulled by the novel sense of security the warm chest afforded. She slipped into sleep with uncommon ease.
Kagome awoke in time to keep from falling to her knees as the Taiyoukai lowered her unceremoniously to the ground. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Halos of torchlight shone through the trees. The sounds of clumsily plucked shamisan strings and voices blended in drunken laughter floated into the night. She blinked up at the forbidding youkai.
"Trot behind me like a good servant," he commanded. "Keep your hair up. Perhaps it is late enough and they are drunk enough to believe you a boy."
"This is not your home?"
"No. But it will do to pass the night."
He urged the dragon into a walk. Kagome fell into an awkward swagger behind him, at a loss as to how the servant of such a youkai would act.
The Taiyoukai spoke without turning. "You will be left to your own devices when I retire. If you have any thoughts of escape, think again. If you run, I shall return to your home and slay your entire family. When I find you, as I most certainly will, you will wish you had been among the ones slain."
Kagome forced her feet to keep moving. His words sent the skin at the nape of her neck crawling. She pictured Shippo, lifeless, a gaping sword wound where his heart should be. Anger flared in her eyes only to be quenched by common sense as the youkai turned in the saddle and fixed his dark eyes on her. She nodded, eyes wide and without guile.
The merriment within the castle courtyard came spilling out with the light as couples stumbled down a drawbridge that spanned a twenty-foot moat. One of the youkai faltered in front of Ah-Un.
"Welcome all. The feast is just beginning," he announced, his words slurred. His eyes rolled back in his head as he fell straight into the dirt, arms still spread wide in greeting.
The female demon on his arm flounced back into the castle as the other couples dissipated like giggling phantoms in the night.
The Taiyoukai guided the dragon around the prostrate form without so much as a flick of an eyebrow. Kagome followed, cutting a wide swath around the fallen man.
Sesshoumaru dismounted, handing his reins to a pockmarked youkai who materialized out of the shadows. Before they could take three steps, the same female reappeared on the arm of another stumbling man. Kagome dodged them as they passed within inches of her. The female's brittle laughter rent the air. Kagome gaped as the youkai's ham-like hands caught the female's hips and bore her backward. Her grimy toes curled into an embrace at the small of his back. With a grunt and a grind of his hips, he pinioned her to the wall.
Kagome had forgotten Sesshoumaru until she felt his firm grasp on her forearm as he tugged her away from the lurid scene. She was so intent on peering over her shoulder at the mingled pain and ecstasy on the female's florid face that she did not see the youkai who leaped in front of them until she slammed into his chest with a force that set her ears to ringing.
"Who goes there? Sesshoumaru could that really be you?" came the urgent voice.
"No," she replied without thought. "It's Ka—"
The Taiyoukai clapped his hand over her mouth.
"Aye, Kouga. 'It's this Sesshoumaru. I do believe you've knocked my servant insensible. Clumsy pup, Ka is. I shall have to beat that out of him." The Taiyoukai loosed his grip on her mouth and gently boxed her ears.
This was followed by a hearty slap on the back from the slender gentleman. He peered drunkenly into her face, and a smile quirked the corners of his thin lips. Kagome gasped, unable to remember a time when she had been knocked about with such relish.
"Who would be foolish enough to trust their young whelp into your black hearted hands?" Although he addressed her captor, Kouga's gaze travelled from her face to her felt-clad feet with insinuating slowness.
"Need I remind you how many times these black hearted hands have defeated you in a match?" Sesshoumaru replied.
Kouga ignored him and circled Kagome. "Small, is he not?"
"You were small yourself once, Kouga." Sesshoumaru slapped a muscled arm around Kouga's shoulders and guided his stumbling steps away from Kagome and toward the drawbridge. "Have you forgotten the time I pitched you out the window with one hand when we were but pups?"
"How could I? I landed in a bramble bush and spent the rest of the night soaking my finer parts in a barrel." Kouga shielded his eyes from the torchlight and hooked one arm around Sesshoumaru's neck. "Yet still I welcome you to East Castle. What a fool I am! I should feed you to the man-eating fish in my moat."
Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. "After the camels ran away, I thought you'd give up on exotic animals."
"When the emperor took to bragging about his pet lion, I had to find some way to best him." Kouga shook his head sadly. "I lose two or three guests every feast day. One splash and they are no more. Nothing left but bones to be fished out when the sun rises. Ah, well."
Sesshoumaru jerked him back as he swayed toward the side of the drawbridge. Kagome hugged herself and edged closer to the center of the bridge, refusing to raise her eyes for fear of finding bleached bones floating in the bubbling water.
A/N: I'm sort of going to use Kouga as a rival for Kagome's affections, just to show how great and smexy Fluffy-sama is compared to him.83 Throughout the series, I have always felt that Kouga and Hojo were extra characters that were created just for the purpose of being tortured (Rumiko Takahashi is a sadist!), since they could never get the girl.
I'd like to thank PurinsuArashi (Storm) for beta-ing this chapter and helping a clueless writer out. Thanks! You're the best!