Chapter 5:

Kaoru

Her feet ached as she hurled herself up the mountain at ripping speeds. In her glass coffin, her feet had been adorned with silk slippers—soft and luxurious, but perfectly useless for her journey. And though it was a short thirty mile climb, the path was wild and overgrown and the ground was broken with sharp thorns that reached up to prick her skin, drawing blood that wet the ground.

Her neck and checks protested the sweat that beaded down. Lounging in the sun had burned her lightly, though only enough to cause discomfort. The leaves and sticks that clung in her hair and rubbed against her enflamed skin irritated the nerves that were laced there and begged her to stop.

But she ignored her damaged feet and skin. She forgot the hair that drooped in her eyes and stuck to her tongue. She even pushed away the crippling thirst that occupied her throat, which had not been quenched in nearly a hundred years. No. She continued on. She pushed forward until, at last, she popped up over the top of the hill and his village was in site and, past that, his manor.

Seeing her home brought a surge of memories that filled her chest and urged tears to her eyes. She would be home soon and back with him again. She would be his wife—a shiver of delight passed through her with a giggle. It occurred to her that he might be home and lumbered off down the hillside.

When she reached the outskirts of the village, she stopped. A village woman and her child walked passed, carrying buckets of fruit. The woman glanced at her and frowned. Kaoru looked down at herself. Surely she was a strange sight, dressed in the finest of kimonos covered in dirt.

"Hello," she said the woman, speaking clearly to try and banish any doubt this woman may have had of her.

The woman nodded curtly and pulled her child in closely.

"I'm—um—I'm looking for the Lord of this area… is he home?"

The woman frowned again. "What business do you have with him?"

This time it was Kaoru's turn to be displeased. Why was this human being so impertinent? At the same time, she felt proud that Lord Sesshomaru had such loyal subjects. She dropped the frown, remembering that there was not a human alive in the village that would have remembered her—maybe they would have heard stories, but none knew her face. It was a pity. She'd always tried so diligently to be kind and helpful to the people—even when Lord Sesshomaru was not feeling so benevolent—it was sad they'd forgotten her.

"I have known the Lord Sesshomaru for a very long time—we are friends," she replied slowly.

The woman stopped frowning, taking on a more confused expression. "Friends?" Then she dropped her child's hand and covered her mouth. She had misspoken. "Forgive me," she muttered.

Kaoru laughed. "It is true the great Lord is not dripping with friends. I understand your skepticism, but I assure you: we are friends and I am here to see him."

The woman smiled and turned to her child, a girl, and said, "Little Yuri, have you heard if the hunting party has returned?"

The little girl shook her head.

"Lord Sesshomaru left with a small number of warriors on a hunt early last week. Last I heard he'd be gone just over a month," the woman explained.

Kaoru nodded, thanked the woman, and turned to go. From behind, the woman called out to her. "Madame," she said, "Who are you?"

Kaoru frowned. "I'm his friend, like I said."

The woman shook her head, "Yes, forgive me, but are you—"

"Am I who?"

The woman looked down and as fragile as her daughter. "Are you the one they tell stories about? The lady asleep at the castle shrine?"

Kaoru blushed and searched for the answer. "Yes, I suppose I am."

The woman let out a small laugh of timidity and bowed. Her little girl followed suit, spilling most of her fruits, which rolled everywhere. She fell to her knees and started to scoop them up, but her mother said frozen stiff.

Kaoru smiled again and turned to go for a second time, only to be stopped again by the woman's ever-shrinking voice. "Madame—"

"Yes?"

"There is something you should—" but the woman cut herself short. Bowed again and wrenched her daughter up and away, leaving many of the fruits still lying on the ground.

Kaoru through to give chase after her, but remained stilled. It was curious, but she had other, more pressing, things to attend to. If Lord Sesshomaru was to be home in a few weeks, what would she do in the meantime? As she headed off toward the castle, she pondered the idea, unaware that the very man she was looking for was sitting in the castle at that very moment.