Chapter 4

Memories

Kagome woke with pain throughout her body; her legs, sore from the traveling yesterday, and her back, sore from the night of sleeping on nothing more than a pelt. She peeked at the entrance of the cave and noticed a full stream of sun shining through the mouth of the cave, partially blocked by a stoic demon lord. His back was completely straight, and he did not make any movements aside from a few strands of his long hair, blowing in the breeze. It looked uncomfortable.

She sat up, groaning at the pull of her stiff muscles. She began taking in more of her surroundings. The cave was cleared of the dead cat, and the fire, which had been tended to throughout the night, had two fish roasting above it. She blinked and did a double take. Where did these come from?

"Now that you are finally awake, you can eat and pack. We have already lost hours of the day." His voice was almost monotone, but she could hear an edge to it. He was annoyed with her for sleeping so long. The pompous demon didn't take into account that not everyone had the luxury of forgoing sleep. Kagome chose to ignore his attitude and stretched out her back, feeling much better after the multitude of pops. She glanced over at his still form, before grabbing a fish.

"Did you want the other fish, Lord Sesshomaru?" She had already begun eating, savoring the crispy skin. She could have swore she had heard him scoff.

"I have no need of a mere fish, Miko." Kagome rolled her eyes. She had met some arrogant men before in her life but this one took the cake.

"The name is Kagome, not miko." Her voice would have growled if she had the larynx of a demon. He turned his head towards her, releasing an actual growl.

"I have no need for such trivialities...Miko." She released a frustrated groan, and began muttering under her breath about demons and their egos. He ignored her, like usual, and returned to the frozen ice lord pose. She finished the fish, and put out the fire.

After rolling the pelt into a tight cylinder, she shoved one end into her bag, allowing it to stick out halfway. She walked out past him, and remembered they were a few hundred feet above the ground. She turned back to look at him. He stood up, giving her a blank stare. "Are you ready, at last?" His tone dripped with irritation.

At last? That was barely 20 minutes. She glared at him. "Why are you so rude?" His eyes seemed to shift at her question, although his face remained frozen. Suddenly, she was dangling over the cliff, held up by nothing more than his hand on the front of her haori. She grabbed his arm, in full panic. Flashes of past encounters at Naraku's castle came to life. Her heart felt like it was caving in. Instead of Sesshomaru, she saw Naraku. "P-Please don't. Let me go!".

"You will respect this Sesshomaru, human. You are nothing more than an inconvenience at this point, and if you want to live, I suggest you yield your attitude." His demonic energy swirled around them. She had to escape, she had to get away before he did to her what he had done to her mother. The suffocating power of his demon caused her own energy to flare to life, burning his arm. Then, she was falling through the air. She screamed, looking up at Naraku, who grinned at her descent. Halfway down, she lost consciousness.

-S-

He dove down, almost without thought, and grabbed a hold of the now unconscious girl before she hit the ground. He hadn't meant to let go of her, but he wasn't expecting her to burn him. His eyes were tinged with red.

His beast had nearly taken over when she fell, and was now snarling in the back of his mind. It wanted to protect her. This was all ridiculous. Why should he care about this mouthy brat? Why should his beast care about a mere weak human he had just met?

He thought back to the look of complete terror in her eyes, and how muddied her scent had become. It smelled of more than just fear, it was complete horror. He had gotten the reaction he wanted, but he was not as pleased as he thought he would be. He wanted to scare her into submission, but it seemed as if he had gotten more than he asked for.

He regained his composure, and took to the skies on his demonic cloud. At least now she wouldn't hold them back with how painfully slow she was. Hopefully, she slept until dusk, by then they would reach the castle and he could be done with her for the meantime. He felt movement in his arms and was worried he had jinxed himself. He looked down at her limp body in his arms. She had merely nestled into the fur of his tail, her fingertips laced themselves through it, causing tingles to rain down his scalp and spine.

No one had ever touched his tail. He simply would not allow it, yet here she was, breaking yet another one of his rules without consequence. They had only been traveling for two days. What was wrong with him? His chest vibrated with a growl, a mix of annoyance and pleasure as her fingers absently worked away.

He felt as if he had no control, and his beast was no help. It was growling like a nursing pup. He grabbed her hand, removing it from his person. As he did, he heard a soft whimper emerge from her throat. Her face snuggled even deeper into his strands and he realized that he would lose this fight.

Releasing her hand, he struggled to ignore her. His mind was over run by her fingers, her scent, her infuriating defiance, as well as the stinging burn on his arm. She could barely control her energy flow, and that worried him. Taking a powerful miko to the castle, one that had the potential to burn the place down, was not a wise decision. In fact, many of his actions in the past two days were simply illogical and served him no purpose.

Why had he agreed to her help? He had plenty of healers, warriors, and mikos. He did not need to add her to the list of his troubles, but he had. Almost immediately. All because of a silly resemblance to a small girl long ago. All because of a scent that had brought painful memories to resurface. He would leave her to one of the senior healers and be done with her. When they reached the castle, she would be nothing but a memory.