Impossible Love

Chap 10

YuriYaoiHet_ILoveEmAll

Note: 'Tsuki no Kami' is one of the names for the Japanese God of the Moon. I made him the god that the wolves worship.

SORRY!!!!!!!! I edited this chapter a tiny bit and I added an author not at the bottom to explain a few things. Don't be mad. I didn't change anything too much. You probably won't even be able to tell I did a thing. Again. Sorry.

"Oi! Wake up, filth!" A harsh voice snapped.

Kagome jolted awake, momentarily disoriented. A moment later, she snapped fully awake, and pushed herself up off the floor. She stood in one fluid movement. For a moment, she was suprised, her body barely hurt at all, then her head swam and she stumbled. Apparently, moving quickly was still a mistake.

"Best not overexert yourself, miko. You've a busy day ahead." A male voice said.

She looked towards the entrance and saw four wolf youkai, two male and two female, standing just inside the cave. Sango and Miroku had woken as well. They stood and faced the wolves without a word. Kagome moved forward until she was the closest one to the youkai.

"What do you want, fleabags?!" She snapped.

The male who'd spoken before growled. "Watch your tongue, ningen!"

"Calm down, Soura." The female closest to him said soothingly, putting a hand on his arm. Then she leered at Kagome. "Lord Kouga will put her in her place soon enough."

Kagome snorted. "I'd like to see him try, bitch."

"What did you just call me?!" The female snarled.

"You heard me. Bitch."

"I'll rip out your tongue!" She crouched to spring, eyes wild.

Soura put a restraining hand on her shoulder. Now, now, Kimi. Don't let her upset you." He said mockingly.

"What's going on?" A sleepy voice asked. Shippo and Kirara had just woken up. Kagome realized with a jolt that they were only a few feet from the wolves.

"Quiet, brat!" Kimi snarled, aiming a kick at him.

He squeaked and managed to roll away at the last second. Kirara hissed and ran to Sango. Shippo scrambled to his feet and darted to Kagome. He crouched behind her legs trembling. Kimi and Soura snickered. Kagome felt a surge of rage and her vision swam red. She took a step forward, eyes flashing, and took up a defensive stance.

"You will not touch him!" She yelled.

"Ha! As if you could stop me, ningen!" Kimi laughed. then she glared down at Shippo. "Be glad, little kitsune, that Lord Kouga decided to spare you this long. If you weren't his bait to lure in the last of the kitsune race, you would be rotting beside your parents right n-"

"Enough of this!" The second female snapped. "We have a job to do. You have to take the miko to the hot springs as Lord Kouga ordered. Takuya and I are to take the others. Stop this petty arguing and get moving!"

"Don't sound so full of yourself, Okita. You don't have any more authority than we do." Soura growled.

"The kit stays with me!" Kagome snapped as the wolves moved forward.

"Fine!" Soura snapped. "Let's just get this over with. Follow us! Now!"

Kagome shot Miroku a glance. She needed to talk to them alone. Miroku took the hint and stepped forward. "May we have a moment to relieve ourselves, great youkai?" He asked softly, bowing his head.

Okita's eyes narrowed. "Make it quick. Come to the entrance when you have finished." She turned and walked away. The other wolves followed her out.

As soon as she was sure they were out of easy hearing distance, Kagome spun on Miroku and Sango. "Do you two have any idea what's going on? Why are they taking us to the hot springs?"

"Every now and then they take prisoners out in small groups." Sango answered. "They check the caves to make sure no one has tried to escape and remove dead bodies."

"Wait. There are more prisoners here?" Kagome asked in astonishment.

"Hai. Kouga fashions himself as a collector of sorts." Miroku said shaking his head. "Whenever he finds a survivor that amuses him in some way, he brings them back to the den as a prisoner."

"Why?"

"Most of them are meant to be sacrifices."

Kagome blanched. "Sacrifices?"

"To Tsuki no Kami." Sango explained. "It's horrible, but there is nothing we can do to stop it."

"Maybe there is." Kagome said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Sango asked.

"I mean this could be our chance to escape!"

The tajai's eyes went wide. "You're right. The springs are located away from the main den. With only four wolves to defeat, our chances are better than we could have hoped."

"What of our belongings? And the border patrols?" Miroku asked.

Sango sighed. "Though I hate to leave my weapons, our belongings can be replaced. As for the border patrols, we head north. I've heard that the patrols there are widely spaced. With any luck, we'll be able to sneak past them before an alarm is raised. Kirara won't be able to travel as fast with all of us on her back, but we should be able to make a good distance before nightfall."

Kagome nodded. "And once we're free, we can tell people about what the wolves have done. If enough people stand against them, there may be a chance to free more people."

"Alright. But a plan does us no good if we can't incapacitate our guard." Miroku cautioned. He looked at Kagome. "Are you up to the task, Lady Kagome?"

Kagome responded with a glare. Though it was true that she had never fought without Inuyasha near enough to save her, she was confident that she could do this. I will make it back to the Western Lands! She thought determindly.

Shippo sniffled, drawing her attention. She looked down at him and saw tears in his eyes. Without a word, she kneeled down and opened her arms. He jumped into them and she hugged him tightly. Though she had not known him for long, she felt very strongly for the kit. She wanted to protect him and keep him safe and she would do anything in her power to do so. The motherly urge suprised her. I can't believe I was ever afraid of him, she thought wonderingly.

"Shippo-kun?" She said softly, pulling back. "When the time comes and I ask you to run, you must promise to do as I say."

He looked up at her, emerald eyes wide. "But-"

She put a finger to his lips, shushing him. "Promise me."

He sniffed and wiped his eyes. "I promise."

She smiled and hugged him again. "Good."

Then she stood, still holding him and started walking towards the entrance. As they walked, the everyday noises of the wolf clan, always in the background, grew louder. The dim light of their cave faded as they walked down the tunnel, then grew brighter until it was almost painful. Kagome had it the easiest. She had only been in the cave for a few days and had been unconscious for most of that time, so her eyes hadn't really adjusted. The others had been here much longer. Kirara jumped into Sango's arms and Shippo buried his face into Kagome's shoulder. When they were alomst at the entrance, Kagome stopped.

She turned to Miroku and Sango. "Stop. Close your eyes for a few moments and then open them again. Do it a few times. It'll help your eyes adjust."

They did as she asked and after a few moments they smiled at her. "Where did you learn that, Lady Kagome?"

She didn't have time to answer. Their youkai escorts had grown tired of waiting. "Enough chatter! Move!" Kimi snarled, stepping into the tunnel.

Kagome bit her tongue against a scathing remark and started walking again. For the first time, she saw the inside of the wolves' den. Despite herself, she was awed. She had to pause a moment to gather her thoughts.

Instead of being annoyed, Okita smirked. "Go ahead, miko. Take a good look. Once you are bonded to Lord Kouga, this will be your home as well as ours."

Kagome snorted, but said nothing. By this time tomorrow, she would be well on her way back to the Western Lands and she would never set foot in this mountain again. And a mountain it was. The entire base had been carved out to make one enormous room.

Craning her neck she looked up at the impossibly high ceiling, fifty feet or so above them. Ladders on the walls led to openings set at regular intervals from floor to ceiling. Starting at the second row, the entrances of the openings were covered with fur curtains. The openings on the bottom level were bare. These openings were slightly larger and opened to dark and foreboding tunnels. After a moment she realized they were more prison caves.

She tore her eyes away from the opeings to study more of the den. Gas lamps hung on the walls and ceiling, illuminating the den like sunlight. Intricate tapestries and carvings made of bone hung on every spare inch of wall space. Elaborate rugs covered most of the stone floor.

She was suprised to see that most of the youkai in the den were children. They ran aroud, playing and laughing together. Real wolves ran among them, yipping happily, acting for all the world like tame dogs.

"Alright, she's had her look! Let's go!" Soura snapped, interupting her thoughts.

Takuya glared at him and spoke for the first time. "Your impatience is as taxing as it is unnecessary." They began to argue.

For the first time, Kagome noticed the difference in how Okita, and now Takuya, spoke compared to Soura, Kimi and, in hindsight, Kouga. She studied them for a moment and noticed that Okita and Takuya were decidedly more relaxed than Soura and Kimi, even in the middle of an argument. The later seemed to be riding some sort of weird, jittery, high. She also noticed that Kimi and Soura had red irises. To her knowledge, youkia eyes only bled red when they were consumed by bloodlust and that they didn't stay that way permenantly. Looking back, Kouga's eyes had also been red and he had been unnaturally high-strung as well. For some reason, the thought struck a chord in her mind. Her escorts' argument came to a close and she filed her thoughts away to ponder at a later date.

"Let us continue." Okita said, gesturing for everyone to follow her.

Rather than head for the enormous main entrance, the wolves herded them to a small opening in the back of the den. For a moment, she wondered why none of the prisoners took advantage of this shadowy exit, but when they stepped outside, the reason became clear.

Two wolves, in full-youkia forms the size of huts, stood guard. No ningen would stan a chance against these two. Simply out of curiosity, she looked to see what color their eyes were. Red orbs the size of her head glared down at her. A trickle of fear ran down her spine. She hugged Shippo tighter to her and forced her eyes to focus on Okita's back until they reached to forest. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure this plan was going to work.

OK. First of all, sorry for making you guys think I had posted a new chapter, but this was bugging me.

I know this chapter seemed a little different, but I have good reason for it. I dind't have my materials with me when I snagged this chance to get online, so I had a difficult time remembering what I had written. I didn't know when I didn't know when I could get back online, so I winged it. It's a bit different than what I had done before, but not too much so. Also, this chap was supposed to be alot longer than this, but, because of time restrictions. I am combining the rest of this chapter with the next chapter (as soon as I get done writing it, lol). That's also one of the reasons I didn't write this beforehand.

The other reason is this; I have my story posted on another site and I received a review that was a little disheartening. Ok, that was an understatement. It made me feel like shit. I almost gave up on writing this story because of it. I read the review before I wrote the chapter, like I always do just in case someone suggests an idea that I like, so that's why this chapter seems a little stinted at points.

I'm also not going to be begging for reviews anymore since apparently it 'makes me seem pathetic', so review if you want to. If you don't, oh well.

Thanks for your reviews. Until next chap.