Kagome tried to keep her hands still as Kouga's parents watched her, it was like they were waiting for her to mess up or something. She wanted nothing more than in that minute to look at Kouga, but her anger for him was way higher than her discomfort.
Ginta then started to make growling and barking noises towards Kouga. Kouga responded in the same language but with a laugh in the end, to which Ginta started to laugh and even Nala started to chuckle.
Feeling self-conscious Kagome looked outside the carriage to the winter wonderland that was the country side. She let the southern family continue speaking in a language that she might never understand, and for that it was not just feeling self-conscious but sad.
Suddenly she felt Kouga touch her shoulder to which Kagome turned towards him.
"We did not mean to make you sad, Kagome. Sometimes we forget you don't know the language of our people." Ginta said with a frown. Kagome shook her head with a fake smile and said,
"Oh it is ok, I am alright." But she looked to Kouga and she realized everyone in that carriage knew she was lying through her teeth. Nala reached over then and took Kagome's hand between her own.
"I know it is overwhelming dear. I know you are probably freaking out because not only did you and Kouga argue, but because you are entering a land where you know nothing about and you will be expected to rule it. So, we will teach you as much as we can about our culture on the way there, ok?" Nala said with a smile. It was hard for Kagome not to like this queen; she was warm like summer and as elegant as a feather. So Kagome nodded with a smile and her lessons began.
"In our culture, it is ok for women to be outspoken. In the west you would be punished for talking out of turn, but here it is encouraged to talk back to everyone except your husband when he requires you to be obedient." Nala continued. Kagome looked to Kouga with a questioning glance and he elaborated on what his mother started.
"You are allowed to speak your thoughts Kagome, to everyone including me unless we are in a situation where I need you to control yourself. So like in a meeting with the other royal families or if there is war." Kagome nodded understanding the rule and Nala continued on.
"So in turn, there is less of a respect rule than everywhere else. We get ready by ourselves and serve ourselves, cook for ourselves. There are no slaves or servants. Everyone is equal in a sense. Though we are treated slightly different, The king always has to take the first bite of food before anyone can eat, we are given the biggest cave rooms, and we held advise the others." Kagome already started to feel the pressure of her new acquired status, but her stress started to flutter away as Kouga started to massage her hand.
"Also you should know that demons work differently than Kagome, especially wolves. For one, we can hear things very clearly, like your heartbeat or the flutter of a pregnancy. We can smell things too. We can smell lies, emotions, blood, death, and other things like arousal, which is how Kouga was able to sense your stress just now." Nala said with a smile and Kouga looked away with a blush. Kagome just smiled and looked at him.
"There are a lot of fights though Kagome. After you and Kouga consummate your marriage you may be challenged for his hand. Luckily Kouga is a prince so he is able to stop the challenging, but if a lot of people appose you may have to fight the challenger." Ginta said with a sigh.
"What do you mean fight? And what happens if I lose or win?" Kagome asked with worry lacing her features.
"You fight until someone submits, and by fight we mean bloody, claws, teeth, the whole nine yards. If you lose, well you have the mark on your neck removed, and then you are removed from the pack and thrown into the wild. If you win you have two choices. You can both go with tradition and kill the woman, or you can take away privileges and kick her out of the pack." Ginta said with a frown at even the thought of this happening. Kagome just bit her lip, full of nerves and fear of what might happen.
Then something struck her as odd as she contemplated her thought Kouga nudged her with a questioning look, but Kagome just raised her head and asked,
"Will they challenge Kouga?" This made the other members in the carriage freeze but this time Nala answered.
"Yes. It is very possible that they will challenge Kouga not only for his title, but for you as well." This made Kagome take Kouga's hand suddenly and curl closer to him which made him smile as her fear and protectiveness washed over him.
"Tell me more. I need to be prepared for more than I believed." Kagome said with a new resolve in her eyes. So each person went through the different customs, from hunting, to the welcoming, to the council deciding on the mating. Kagome looked her hand as they spoke, flexing it open and closed as she thought about her fangs the time she bit Kouga during the wedding.
"What am I? You guys said that you can smell things right? What am I?" Kagome said, interrupting Kouga. This made Kouga look to his mother with wondering eyes.
"Darling, I know you are not human. That night during the wedding when you bit Kouga we did not see the actual biting but we could all smell the power that exploded out of you. We know what you are. Kouga does not because he was occupied. Honey, do you really want us to tell you?" Nala asked cautiously. Kouga watched Kagome as emotions flitted across her face.
"Tell me please, and why am I not presenting the characteristics? I do not understand what is going on." Kagome broke down slightly then as her questions exploded from her in a painful explosion.
"You are a wolf Kagome. We know our kind. Unfortunately, Nala looked into what could seal you like this and the only explanation is a priestess." Ginta said, but once he said priestess Kagome's blood ran cold as she remembered Kaede's story.
"You were brought to me as a newborn, you were kicking and screaming. Your mother did not want anything to do with you at that point so she dropped you off with us and we immediately put you into our society. That anklet you wear is what seals you're past. If you ever took it off it would fill you with all the painful memories of your mother hating you, abusing you, and abandoning you. So Kagome sweet heart, don't take it off, ever, promise?" Kaede said to an eight year old Kagome. Kagome nodded with a happy expression as she promised and looked at the tiny anklet. It was a woven cord anklet and she had tried to take it off but was unsuccessful.
When Kagome came back to her sense she kicked her shoe off shocking everyone in the carriage and she pulled her kimono up to reveal the cord anklet. Nala growled at it when she saw it and moved away from it.
"That thing is coated with priestess energy. Do not take it off until we stop for the night, because once that thing is snapped off it will send all that priestess energy back to the one who cast it." Nala said with a growl. Kagome just stared at it and shook her head.
"I have tried taking it off. When I was younger I was told I was a miko and this anklet was keeping my old feelings away." Kagome said sadly. Kouga then suddenly grabbed the anklet while staring into Kagome's eyes and with a mighty pull and the use of his claws, the anklet snapped off.
The anklet hissed and writhed then before dissolving into a pink energy and shooting straight into the sky. Kagome stared at it leave but then it felt like someone hit her in the head with a brick and she fainted into Kouga's lap. She barley heard Nala's cursing and Ginta's fury with Kouga before she was dead to the world.
Kagome opened her eyes as she floated in an inky black space. Once she was awake she gasped at the darkness around her remembering her dream from before and she started to panic. Then a wolf appeared and started to run at her. She felt the predator get closer and she started to panic and run away.
As she ran the black space started to melt away into colorful pictures. She ran straight ahead and then saw a woman screaming bloody murder as she sat next to a man; her hands were soaked in blood as she tried to revive the man.
Kagome got closer to the woman and noticed she was great with child but as she got closer the woman seemed to look at her and she bared her teeth and growled before she got up after kissing the dead man and running away.
The dead man dissolved away and Kagome continued to run. Another picture appeared before her. It was the same woman from before, but now she was having the baby. She was biting onto a cloth to quiet her screams as her forehead beaded with sweat and a baby appeared under her skirt.
She lifted the baby and cradled it with a sad sweet smile. Then torches started to appear and angry yelling called out. The woman lifted herself in pain and started to hurry away.
Kagome shivered as that picture hit her hard and the wolf behind her seemed to be getting closer. The next picture hit Kagome hard in the stomach.
The woman was as pale as snow and was still bleeding. She held her crying baby with a sad smile as she found a building, and Kagome thought it seemed familiar. The woman crawled up to the building and weakly knocked before passing out in front of the old lady who opened the door.
The old woman helped the bleeding woman into the house and tried to stop the bleeding. Once she was unsuccessful though, the woman opened her eyes and begged the woman to watch her baby girl, to not let the evil men get to her. Then the woman died.
The death made tears run down Kagome's face as she ran through that picture, her heart pounding and her lungs protesting as another image appeared.
It was the old lady tying a cord around the baby's ankle and pushing pink energy through it and right before Kagome's eyes the Baby's pointed ears rounded out; the small black tail vanished completely. In pain the baby cried and the fangs disappeared to gums and the claws rounded into human fingernails.
Suddenly a banging on the door happened and the old woman handed the now human looking baby off to a girl in a cotton Kimono as she threw a blanket over the dead body and poured an herb mixture over it before opening the door to see angry village men.
They were dressed in extremely old attire, at least a hundred years ago, if not longer. They yelled at the old woman in a language Kagome could not understand. The old woman just shook her head at the men but allowed them into the building.
Kagome wanted to fall down at this point, her legs ached, her lungs were screaming and her sides were cramping but the growling behind her made her continue on.
She saw the men ripping through the building like a tornado, throwing papers, breaking chairs, and dumping everything out. Though they never once got near the blanket that covered the dead woman. They searched for a baby though, but the child who had taken the baby hid in a secret panel and held the baby close.
The image melted away and Kagome started to slow down as another image appeared. It was the old woman, it was her death and then the little girl who watched the baby, age as the baby did not.
Then it continued on, the baby not aging and being handed off to different hands. Until finally the baby started to slowly age into a toddler, but still more deaths and more women, the child aged slowly.
Until finally the child seemed to be aging normally when Kaede came into the picture and held a baby and showed the child.
The baby aged fast and turned into Sango, and the slow ager had finally appeared to be the age of sixteen. That was when Kagome realized, that girl, was her.
She stopped suddenly then and stared at the pictures as they started to rewind. The baby had been handed off at least two dozen times before she even resembled a teenager.
Kagome fell to her knees as she realized what she just saw and so she just cried and had completely forgotten what she was running from until she felt hot breath on her face. She looked up and realized she was face to face with the wolf.
The wolf however bowed to Kagome and raised its paw. Kagome, so heartbroken and in pain barley lifted her hand to touch the wolf's paw but the minute she did the wolf dissolved and Kagome was left alone.
She fainted then, from either the pain of what she witnessed, or the realization of how alone she was in the now inky black abyss.
Kouga held Kagome's head in his lap as she cried and screamed and tossed and turned. When suddenly she screamed and claws ripped through the rounded finger nails, and fangs pushed out her old human teeth. Her body strengthened and changed internally in ways Kouga was not aware but he was aware the minute he could feel a soft appendage twitching over the side of the seat.
"Now she is who she was supposed to be all along Kouga, but she missed the entire wolf training she as supposed to have. It is up to you to teach your new mate to be like us." Nala said as she leaned over and brushed the hair out of Kagome's sweating face.
Then suddenly Kagome opened her eyes and made eye contact with her love, but the world was different right then, and she did not know how to cope with her new senses so she just started to cry.