Promises Under the Moon: Chapter Seven
Kagome watched the man through her lashes. He didn't have the markings of Sesshoumaru, but maybe she was back in her time and he simply adapted to maintaining a human appearance—a lot could happen in five-hundred years. The idea made sense. Besides, she knew he must have been telling at least some of the truth because she knew her body and what she could see of it wasn't the same fifteen year old physique to which she was accustomed.
She had always been fairly healthy, but the tone of her muscles were as impressive as a professional athlete. And if it really was the future and she survived the Feudal Era and made it back to her own time then it made sense that she would have become stronger. Maybe it also meant that she was no longer considered Kikyou's inferior. But then, did anyone in this time even know who the priestess was?
"I know you're not sleeping so you can stop pretending," Tsume's irritated voice interrupted her musings.
"How do you know I'm not sleeping?" she demanded opening her eyes fully.
"For one thing you answered back," he said stopping and setting her feet on the ground. "Your head's not bleeding anymore."
"So what? You think that means I should walk when you are perfectly capable of carrying me? What if I have internal hemorrhaging? It's just going to become worse if I physically exert myself!"
"I'm willing to live with that," Tsume said and then kept walking.
Kagome gaped at him. Even with her worse case scenario voiced aloud the man just walked away. "How do you expect me to lead you to Paradise if you leave me here?"
He turned to look at her over his shoulder. "Is the amnesia gone? You suddenly remember?"
"Well, no. But I'm sure I can find it."
"Your determination is admirable," he sarcastically retorted before continuing on his way.
Having no other alternative since she had no clue where she was and it was too cold to keep lingering Kagome followed after the ill-tempered beast. The sight of a red wolf charging toward her knocked her out of her reverie and she braced herself for impact. The next thing she knew she was on the ground again, her head about to explode from the pressure, and the red wolf had changed into an extremely worried little boy.
"Kagome! I thought you had left! Don't you know how dangerous it is out here? It's a good thing Tsume went with you or who knows what might have happened!" Toboe finished with a slight gasp before taking a deep breath and really looking at Kagome. "You look very pale."
"That's because she's got a head injury mutt and now you've made it worse," Tsume said gripping Toboe by the scruff of the neck and pulling him off Kagome. He knelt next to the fallen miko and placed his hand gently behind her neck to support her head. "Take some deep breaths and steady yourself," he urged in a gentle voice.
"I'm fine," Kagome said through clenched teeth brushing aside his hands. "Did I happen to bring a bag on this adventure?"
"You sure did!" Toboe enthused reaching for Kagome's wrist. "Sorry I jumped on you, but I was really worried." He cocked his head to the side. "You're okay though, right? You're not going to wilt like Cheza or anything right?"
"Wilt?" Kagome asked squeezing her eyes tight and hoping the nausea would go away. She allowed the energetic boy to drag her toward a cave. There were three others in the cave, two males and a girl with pink hair. And sitting in the far corner was a familiar yellow backpack. At least it looked familiar from a distance, but when she approached it noticed it was a slightly different model than the one she used. She kneeled next to it, opened the flap, and looked through the contents. The first aid kit was no surprise.
She opened a bottle of Advil and dry swallowed two of the round coated tablets.
"What did you just swallow?" Tsume asked standing over her back.
"Leave me alone, all right?"
"Not until you tell me what you swallowed."
Kagome ignored him and started looking through her bag past the clothes she found only two books. It was completely unlike how she usually packed her school books for the Feudal Era to study for the high school entrance exams. One was a book about herbs with illustrations and the other was a journal. She flipped it open and recognized her own curly scrawl adorning the pages. It was page after page of spells, incantations, herbal mixtures—and that was only the first quarter of the book! She was about to flip through the rest of the journal when Tsume reached over her and pulled out the bottle of medication from her bag.
"Fool! If you really did have an internal bleed this medication would only make it worse! Were you not the one just complaining about the possibility of hemorrhaging?"
"That was just so I didn't have to walk in the snow." She ripped the bottle out of his hand and placed it back in her bag. "And in the more likely event that I just gave myself a nasty headache this will help with the pain and inflammation."
"What is going on?" Kiba asked rising from his position against the wall to stand next to them. Toboe had gone to sit next to the slumbering Hige and watched the proceedings with worried eyes. "Kagome, are you okay?"
"Of course, I just had a little tumble outside," Kagome said with a bright smile.
Tsume glared at the woman. "A little tumble?" he echoed. "You practically cracked open your head and then had a lovely case of amnesia where you only remember events up until you were fifteen years old. You've lost four years of memories and you say you just had a little tumble outside?"
"What?" Kiba asked quietly. His eyes traveled back and forth from Kagome to Tsume settling on the latter. "What does this mean?"
"It means that our chances of getting to Paradise just went from slim to none," Tsume said.
Kiba's jaw tightened and he looked at Kagome's face once more. He saw her lips thin at the words and the determination that lit her eyes. "The plan remains. We keep moving. We keep searching."
"What's the point of having her? She can't remember anything. The pack keeps growing but our supplies don't."
"Don't talk like I'm not here," Kagome said rising to her feet and poking a finger at Tsume's chest. "I believe you that I have amnesia and that this isn't the time that I remember." With her other hand she waved the journal under his nose. "And luckily for you my future self is organized and made very clear notes. If she—I—whoever—knew where this Wolf's Paradise was then there should be clues in this journal. And besides, I pull my own weight. If I need to help gather supplies I won't shirk my duties."
Tsume's eye twitched and he turned to address Kiba. "Paradise is your dream. Burden or benefit? You decide," he said stepping away from them and going to the unoccupied side of the cave.
"Don't worry yourself about Tsume, Kagome. You helped to save Cheza's life and you gave us food when we were hungry. If you want to leave I'll understand. But, I would like for you to continue to join us on this journey. We'll be traveling through dangerous regions that will probably require the aid of a human to get us past security. Are you sure you still want to be a part of this?" Kiba asked.
"I agreed to this before, correct?"
Kiba nodded.
"Then why would I change my mind? If I've got to trust someone it should be myself. Who am I to contradict my much wiser and older self?"
A small smile spread across Kiba's lips. "Good answer."
From across the room, Tsume snorted at the exchange before crossing his arms and going to sleep. They wouldn't be going anywhere that day.
OoOoO
Kagome took Tsume's advice and tried to stay up. She could appreciate his concern even though his way of expressing it was remarkably rude. However, even with the rude delivery it was better to listen than ignore him and never wake up. The last time she'd been knocked unconscious she had a portion of her soul stolen!
Kiba was also awake though his attention never strayed from the woman resting near him. Kagome stood and moved to sit next to the dark haired man.
"You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"
He blinked at her in confusion and slowly shook his head. "You're already sitting here now, so it would be senseless of me to tell you no now."
Kagome flashed him a disarming smile and was glad to see the tension in his posture relaxed a small degree. "I don't understand how you have been traveling so far with Cheza so weak. And why it took so long for you to decide to seek out a guide."
"She was the one leading us before now. And she wasn't weak like this until a week ago." He gingerly touched just below his right eye. "It's my fault that she's in this state."
"Does she talk?"
"Normally. But she weakened herself when she healed me. We were in a battle with a Noble by the name of Darcia. He had captured her in a misguided attempt to bring his comatose wife back to life. During the fight to free Cheza I lost both of my eyes."
"What happened?"
"Cheza told him she couldn't bring his wife back to life—though she'd tried before. It seems that his wife's sister somehow did a spell that caused her soul to separate from her body. Presumably her soul is in Paradise while her body remains sleeping. Darcia's quest was to find Paradise thinking that would revitalize Hamona. But she told him that even if he found Paradise it wouldn't work."
"You can't bring back the dead," Kagome said with a shiver thinking about Kikyou's resurrection. "Okay, so it is possible to bring back their soul but they are never the same."
"Interesting. You sound like you know something about the matter. Do you remember much from your time in the Feudal Era?" Kiba's hand ran lazily over Cheza's hair.
"Not much but the first couple of weeks. However, it turns out that my lovely journal that is full of herbal remedies, incantations, and prayers also goes into a great deal of detail about several adventures. I'm hoping to find some clues about Paradise."
OoOoO
"Do you really want to visit him?" Kouga asked.
"It's not really a visit. It's a strategy. If we want to find Kagome and those wolves without exploring the whole of Japan we should talk to Sesshoumaru."
Kouga arched a brow. "You're on such a casual first name basis with him? No honorific to his name? He is Lord of the Western Lands."
"And you're a king. What does it matter?" Shippo asked reaching into his satchel and pulling out a candy bar. He was grateful when 1923 rolled around and the Butterfinger was created. He wanted to find Kagome again and complain to her about making him addicted to something that wouldn't be around for four centuries! It was simply cruel!
"Why would he help?"
"He's not such a bad guy. Rin really changed him and then when she and Kagome worked together to reconcile him with Inuyasha he finally softened up. And of the two centuries we'd not seen one another I spent a great deal of time traveling with him. He hates governing from his estate and prefers to roam."
"He didn't kick you and walk over you like he did his old toad, did he?" Kouga asked cracking his knuckles.
There was a flash of light and suddenly Sesshoumaru stood before them. He was just as elegant as he'd been during the Feudal Era but his appearance had evolved with the times, but still wasn't what one might call modern. He still wore white, but it was akin to an Indian kurta, and was rimmed with red and gold.
"I suspect you have a purpose for entering my lands without summoning," Sesshoumaru said crossing his arms over his chest. Seeing him it was hard to imagine there was ever a time where he'd been an amputee.
"Trying to track down some wolves," Shippo answered.
Sesshoumaru arched a brow and looked pointedly at Kouga.
"Actual wolves," Kouga elaborated. "We received reports that Kagome is with them. And we believe they are somewhere in this portion of Japan."
"Inuyasha's Kagome?"
Kouga's eyes narrowed. "Can you help us or not?"
"Why would you think she's with wolves? There aren't any outside of your lands as far as I know."
"They have adapted and can appear as humans," Shippo explained. He crumpled his candy wrapper and shoved it back into his bag.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the movement. "That wrapper better not wind up as litter on my lands."
"Are you senile now? We're trying to find Kagome and the wolves and you're worried about a little trash?" Kouga demanded. No one could cause his temper to rise like the two Inu-brothers.
"Pollution is a serious problem," Sesshoumaru dead-panned. He turned his attention to Shippo. "I will accompany you in this quest. Where do you think their destination might be?"
"They're on their way to Paradise," Kouga answered even more irritated that Sesshoumaru seemed to pay more respect to Shippo than to him.
"Then why do you not wait for them to find you?"
"When have you known Kagome to be involved and not become involved in trouble?" Shippo answered with a smirk.
"Why should they want to find this Paradise? If these wolves can live as humans why bother?" Sesshoumaru reasoned.
"In Paradise, they can be themselves and won't be forced to live as humans," Kouga answered.
OoOoO
Tsume watched Kagome with an odd fascination as she trudged along. She was obviously exhausted having taken his advice to stay up to make sure she didn't in fact suffer any complications from her concussion. It seemed that she had used the time wisely reading through her old journal. When they'd awoken that morning she suggested they acquire a sled and use that to transport Cheza to maximize time. And she'd had a direction for them to travel.
She'd wanted to purchase a sled, but Tsume had convinced Hige and Toboe what a poor idea that was and sent them on a mission to retrieve one. And he was right to do so because when they showed up with a dog sled and she didn't seem to have the heart to say no to their efforts.
Kiba, Hige, and Toboe had harnessed themselves to the sled and were going along at a fast pace in wolf form carrying Cheza and a few other supplies. Tsume and Kagome ran behind at a relatively quick pace for a human.
"I know you're cold, you don't have to stay like this to keep me company," Kagome said holding her coat tight. She was rather pleased with her future self for packing sensibly. Instead of a skimpy school girl uniform she found a smart selection of winter clothing that were both warm and light weight fitting for a skier.
"I need to explain something to you," Tsume said gritting his teeth. He didn't need her reminding him that he could be nice and warm and covered in fur. The icy wind was doing a good job of that on its own.
"All right. But first, answer a question for me. What was a doing when you found me a few nights ago?"
"You seemed to be waiting. It was strange as it was four in the morning."
Kagome nodded. "I read the last entry in my journal and it said I had awoken early from a dream about a black wolf seeking my help to find Paradise."
Tsume stuck his hands deeper into his pockets. "Makes sense. If you're a priestess of any talent you ought to be able to prophesize, right? But that's not what I wanted to talk about. You need to realize something about Kiba and this pack."
She turned toward him. "I believe I know what you're about to say. He's determined to reach Paradise and the rest of you were inspired by him to hope."
"I suppose that's part of it, but no. Determined is too gentle a word. He's obsessed. I can not count the number of times he's endangered the rest of this pack in his obsession and ventured off foolishly on his own in dangerous weather."
Kagome smiled at him. "And that's why you keep following him. You make sure he and the others are safe. It takes more than a dream to lead a pack."
"Hn." Tsume honestly had no reply for that. "It doesn't matter to me if we reach Paradise or not so long as we don't die needlessly. Why don't you sit with Cheza on the sled? It's foolish for you to keep running unnecessary."
"Non-sense. I think it was quite necessary that we had this little heart-to-heart," Kagome said reaching out to pat him on the shoulder. "However, now it would just be stubbornness for me to keep running so I think I'll take you up on that suggestion."
A/N: I know; five years is a LONG time in between updates! You can thank ConstentlyInconsistent for her inspiring review! My excuse is the original novel I wrote. Check out my profile page for more information on my book Heart of a Wolf.
7/11/09