An Unlikely Mating
Chapter 6: My Worst Fears Are Realized
My mind drifted in lazy circles, caught between that peaceful place somewhere between waking and sleeping. Something awoke me from my light slumber, but I couldn't remember what as my mind floated back to consciousness. I looked around the camp, taking inventory of everyone and making sure that everything was as it should be. Rin and Shippou slept peacefully, tucked into the sleeping bag next to me. Sango and Miroku slept so close together they might as well be cuddling. InuYasha had taken his customary spot in a tree, and Sesshomaru sat at the base of a tree opposite to InuYasha.
I knew that whatever amount of sleep I managed to get hadn't lasted long, seeing as the wood we banked for the fire seemed mostly intact, and the fire itself burned warm and brightly. Everything appeared fine, so I knew I should probably get back to bed. I rolled onto my back and gazed up through the sparse leaves at what I could see at the stars, trying to clear my mind and sleep.
"Kagome," came the soft caress of a whisper just as I felt myself drifting off to sleep. I swore I heard my name whispered from within the dark confines of the nearby forest. I couldn't tell if the voice belonged to a male or female, but I knew I certainly heard something. I pushed myself into a seated position and scanned the area to see if anyone stood at the edge of camp. I saw no one in the dim ring of the fire, and the shadows stayed still. After a few minutes of listening, I decided I imagined the sound of my name.
"Kagome," came the same whisper once more. My eyes shot open as I pushed myself off the ground and scanned the area beyond our little camp. I was about to lie down again when I saw a flash of white flicker in the shadows. I looked over to Sesshomaru and InuYasha, and with a start, I realized they were both sleeping. If they could sleep through this disturbance, then whatever was out there couldn't be anything very powerful. With the people supposed to be on watch sleeping, I decided I needed to check the situation out for myself. The voice had called my name, after all. I slipped out of the warm confines of my sleeping bag and grabbed my bow and quiver of arrows; stringing up an arrow, I slowly creeped into the woods, ready for anything.
Walking away from the protective and comforting light of the fire, I saw a figure shrouded in white. Whoever the person might have been was heading away from the direction of the camp, leading me further into the trees. I hesitated as the figure lead me further from the camp, because let's face it, following someone who may or may not be a threat into a dark forest alone is not only stupid but possibly dangerous as well.
"Kagome, follow me. I have something important to show you," the lyrical voice floated back to me; against my better judgment, I found myself following the specter into the forest. For some strange reason I wanted to please the owner of that beautiful, hypnotic voice. So even as my inner sense of logic rebelled against my actions, I stupidly followed, stumbling over roots the entire time. I really hoped this person would lead me back to the camp later, because if he didn't, I know I would be lost.
After another five minutes of walking, the figure stopped in a large clearing very similar to the one that my group made camp in. I waited for the figure to turn and look at me, but it never did. The form just stood there with its back to me, leaving me standing at the edge of the clearing, not really knowing what to do next.
"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" I asked after a few moments of uneasy silence. The response I receive was the sinister laughter I knew all too well. As an overwhelming sense of dread settled heavily in my stomach, I knew the face behind the façade.
"Naraku," I spit venomously. I had been so stupid! I should have known the figure was Naraku as soon as he called my name. All of this was a trap and falling into the damn thing had been my own fault. I would be dead before the night was over—that cold certainty washed over me. There was no way I could take Naraku down on my own, but even though I knew I knew the cold, hard truth, I aimed my bow at Naraku so I could be ready for anything he would throw me. If he wanted to take me down, I was going to go out with a bang.
"That's right, Kagome! A young, defenseless girl such as you shouldn't bestow her trust to others so easily; that would certainly lead to some bad situations. You fell right into my trap, just as I knew you would. Now you are powerless to do anything as I consume you and take your power! With all of your power coursing through me, your friends will be next. Without their little miko there will be no one to stop me from doing completing the jewel. No one. I will absorb them and no one will ever be able to defeat me! All of the power will be mine! Kukuku!"
This little speech was what turned my speculations into facts. Naraku was nuts—entirely bonkers. Being that certifiably insane, I don't think any straightjacket or prolonged stay in a padded cell would do him any good. What's worse is the fact that he didn't want to be cured—I could see this from the glee in his eyes.
"That's where you're wrong, Naraku. I'm not entirely powerless! I'm strong enough to defeat your crazy butt!" I said with a confidence I didn't truly feel. I knew I wouldn't win, but still I released my arrow and let it fly straight towards his heart. I hoped the projectile would hit its mark and put the poor lunatic out of his misery.
I watched as my arrow made a perfect, straight path toward Naraku and then stopped, falling to the ground at his feet. How completely useless. I notched another arrow, and this time as I released the string of the bow, the arrow fell to the ground at my own feet. I did this twice more, all with the same result, and that's when I started to panic. My arrows were useless which meant I was useless.
"That's what you are most afraid of, isn't it, Kagome? Your biggest fear is being useless; after all, if you are useless we both know that InuYasha won't stay around to protect you. He will leave you for Kikyo without a single doubt. If you no longer have a purpose, then InuYasha no longer needs you. Who wants the copy when he can have the real thing?" Naraku chuckled.
I knew he wanted me to break down and cry. That's the point of his mind games. He wanted to see he was having a negative effect on me. Instead, I just looked at him and pushed down the fear and hurt, letting anger and disgust at the monster in front of me take their place. Naraku saw the change, but my reaction lacked the sorrow he wanted to see. With satisfaction I noted the rage boiling under the surface of his smug façade.
"Naraku, darling. You don't know the slightest thing about me or my fears," I said in a patronizing tone. "You have no idea what you are talking about, and I pity you for that."
"You should have just cried, little miko. That would probably have made this entire ordeal easier—well, for you that is. Now I'm angry and that's not good for you or your health." Naraku took a step forward, and I took several back in response. Unfortunately, he didn't miss this little fact. "Kagome, I'm offended!" he mocked. "I wasn't going to hurt you… much. Kukuku." Then abruptly, Naraku started running at me.
"Stay away from me or you're going to be sorry! I swear that if you try to take me down, I won't go down without a fight! I'm going to try harder to take you down!" I screamed as I picked up one of my discarded arrows and notched it in my bow.
"What do you plan on doing with that useless thing? We both remember what happened last time you tried to sing that tune," he clucked as he wagged his finger at me.
"You know what? You're right," I said as I threw my bow to the side. I took the arrow into my hand, fully prepared to use it as a weapon.
"How adorable! You actually think that you have a chance to fight me!" he clapped with glee. "Too bad you're going to die instead," he screamed, once again charging at me.
I feigned panic and waited until he was upon me. Using my arrow, I stabbed him repeatedly. Blood seemed to fly everywhere—on my clothes, into my hair, and onto my face—but I didn't care. I stabbed him until he let out an animalistic yell and grabbed my quiver before flinging it away from me. He wrestled my arrow out of my hand, throwing that too to the side, before backing up and taking inventory of his wounds.
"You little bitch," he growled. His hands shot out and grabbed my wrists, pushing me to the ground and towering over me. I gave a battle cry as I tried to kick him away from me. With satisfaction, I managed to land several hard kicks to his gut before he grabbed my legs and pulled me closer to him. I turned to my side and tried desperately to get away when I saw my arrows lying on the ground not even a foot away from my head.
With almost slow motion like quality, I drew back my leg and kicked him in the face. His face snapped to the side and blood flowed freely out of his nose and down his chin. Looking at him, I smiled evilly, knowing the crunch I heard was his nose breaking. Before he could retaliate, I rolled over and grabbed my arrows.
"What are you planning to do with those? You're useless, remember?" He tried to attack me again, so I took my arrow and smacked him across the face. I only managed to piss him off and leave an angry red scratch across his left cheek, but I would take what I could get. He grabbed at me again, but this time sudden inspiration struck me. This time when I hit him, I charged my arrow until it spewed pink light. Hitting him with the pure arrow did more damage, but it also made him more desperate.
"You little brat!" he screamed, taking my arrows from my hand as he ignored the purification coming from them. My hope died as he snapped the arrows in half and threw them to the side like pathetic twigs.
"No, get away from me!" I screamed as he walked towards me. "Help! InuYasha! Help! Anyone help me! Sesshomaru!" I screamed at the top of my lungs in a desperate attempt at saving my life.
"Nobody will come for you. Why do you think you got away from camp so easily? They all knew about the entire plan; they don't care what happens to you now. You are nothing to them. Now sit still so that I can absorb you!"
He pulled me to him and I fought him every inch of the way. "You don't know anything, Naraku! My friends will know that you did this to me, and they will find you and kill you."
"I don't think so. You are mine, little miko," he said. He grabbed my wrists harshly and pulled me to him. As his body started to melt around me, I knew he had me. He absorbed me into his body until all that I saw was pure black. I let out a long scream, feeling the blackness suffocating me.
I felt someone shaking me and tore the blanket from my face. Cool air and firelight greeted me, and I almost died from happiness. Looking around I saw all the worried faces of my friends staring down at me. I'd never felt so safe in my life.
"Kagome, are you okay? It seemed that you were having an awful nightmare," informed Sango, sympathy lacing her worried voice.
"What are you talking about?" I asked. I felt disoriented and all I could remember from my dream was complete darkness.
"Well, you were rolling around and crying. Before long, you started muttering "Naraku" and that's when we started worrying about you. You actually screamed before you woke up. I'm guessing your scream is actually what woke you up," Miroku told me.
Miroku's words broke the hazy fog clouding my brain, and suddenly, my dream came flooding back to me—the figure, Naraku, his words, and the fight. Every horrific detail became suddenly clear in my mind.
"Miss Kagome! You're turning green like Jaken! Do you feel okay?" asked Rin in a worried voice.
"I feel like I'm going to be sick!" I announced as I launched myself out from the cover of my sleeping bag. I ran into the woods where I promptly vomited everything I had eaten earlier behind a tree. When I felt someone's warm, gentle hand pulling my hair back out of my face, I nearly jumped out of my skin, but quickly recovered when I realized I wasn't in the realm of dreams anymore. I wanted to thank whoever held my hair, but I couldn't stop puking.
When my stomach seemed to be completely empty, I finally turned to thank whoever was kind enough to watch that horrific spectacle and hold my hair. To my surprise, I saw that Sesshomaru was the person who sat behind me.
"Feel better, miko?" he asked me, raising a condescending eyebrow. Really, I was too shocked to answer with some witty comeback, so I just nodded.
"Rin has nightmares as well. This is simply instinct," he said by way of an explanation.
"Oh, well… thanks. I know that it has to be hard on your nose."
He just "Hn"ed me and walked back to the camp, leaving me to follow. I went back to the comfort of my sleeping bag and settled in under its familiar weight and warmth. Save for Sesshomaru, everyone was giving me weird looks, but I had to ignore them. I needed a moment to process what happened in the dream and all that I felt. However, I couldn't ignore when InuYasha came over and started sniffing at me.
"What are you doing?" I asked, slightly aggravated.
"Kagome, you smell weird," InuYasha informed me. From the tone of his voice and the look on his face, he didn't seem the slightest bit sorry to be telling me this.
"Why thanks! That's a great way to build my confidence! I wonder why I could smell so weird. Maybe it's this new perfume I'm trying out—it's called 'I just puked my guts up in the forest.' Do you like?" I bit back sarcastically.
"No! That's not what I meant…. Kagome, you smell like you just came back from a meeting with Naraku. His scent is all over you."
Shocked by this information, I looked down at my wrists. What I saw there gave me an even worse shock. On each wrist a think band of bruises was just starting to form. They all resembled fingerprints in the spots where Naraku grabbed me in the dream. I looked up to where I left my bow before I went to bed, and my eyes only found the empty spot where the weapon should have been. Unable to take the realization now coursing through my mind, I ran back into the cover of the trees to dry heave some more.
After I felt certain my stomach had stopped churning for the moment, and I had my emotions under control, I sat back on my heels. There was no point in denying the truth. Somehow, Naraku discovered a way to link himself to me, and now he could enter my dreams. These dreams were somehow linked to reality—the bruises and missing weapon was proof enough that the dream changed something over here. No matter what I did, I would never feel safe again. No matter where I went, he could find me, and that wasn't what scared me the most. What scared me stemmed from the fact that next time, he might actually find a way to kill me. My stomach started churning once more.
When I was confident I wouldn't puke again, I returned to my sleeping bag. I looked up at each one of my friends and I knew that every one of them had questions; that much was plain on their faces.
InuYasha came over to me and took my hands, examining the bruises forming on my wrists. He tenderly stroked them, trying to ease some of my pain.
"Kagome, do you have any idea why you smell like Naraku?" he asked quietly.
"I had a dream about Naraku, and in the dream he led me into the woods." I went on and explained everything—the voice, the fighting, and even what he said and how it made me feel. InuYasha seemed shocked to say the least as I retold what Naraku said to me. When I told them all how I responded, his face took on a disturbed look. As stunned as everyone seemed, no one batted an eyelash when I burst into tears and buried my face in InuYasha's chest.
"Everything felt so real—I really thought I was going to die all alone. I didn't know what would happen to me or what would happen to all of you, and that really scared me."
"Kagome, you're an idiot," InuYasha admonished quietly. "I would never let Naraku hurt you. I would never let him hurt any of my friends."
You would never let Naraku hurt me, but what about Kikyo? I thought to myself. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt guilty. I buried my face farther into his side and sobbed. He brought his arms up and hugged me tightly.
"I couldn't tell that I was dreaming or that I was asleep. It just felt so real. The worst part is that I woke up with these bruises where Naraku grabbed me. To top it off, I lost my bow and arrows in the dream, and they are missing here. I don't know how or why, but somehow Naraku is breaching reality through my dreams."
A growl erupted form InuYasha, vibrating his chest under my face. Quickly, I realized he wasn't the only one growling—Shippou and Kirara were growling too. I heard Miroku and Sango muttering angrily to themselves, and deep lines of worry etched themselves onto Rin's forehead. Even Sesshomaru looked slightly peeved as he stared into the darkness with narrowed eyes. Nobody liked the thought of Naraku being able to reach me through my dreams.
As if out of thin air, Sesshomaru appeared by my side. He gently grabbed my wrist and examined the thick band of bruises still forming. I watched with horror as he slowly brought my wrist to his nose and sniffed.
"Naraku's scent still lingers on the miko," he growled. "If he reached her through her dreams once, he will likely attempt to do so again."
"I bet that Naraku was counting on Kagome not saying anything so she wouldn't worry us,' Miroku added after a moment of thought. "It seems like something you would do," he gave me an apologetic smile. I just shrugged because this was something I would do.
I watched as the two brothers on either side of me processed all this information. They both looked to each other, and for a moment, I swore they were silently communicating with each other. When they agreed on something, I knew because InuYasha nodded.
"Kagome, you're not gonna like this, but Sesshomaru and I agree that one of us has to sleep next to you and wake you up if we smell Naraku. It won't hurt to wake you up the moment you look like you're gonna have a nightmare."
I blinked and looked between the two brothers. I heard what InuYasha had said, but I couldn't believe my ears.
"Wait just one minute," I started. InuYasha's ears flattened to his skull and Sesshomaru actually back away from me. "Did you just say the two of you agreed on something?"
Everyone in the camp erupted into loud laughter, and even Sesshomaru couldn't hide his little half-smirk.
A/N: Hello my pretties! Life has been crazy, and oddly enough I've used this to fuel my writing! I really hope that all of you like this chapter! I worked hard on it and I actually took the time to edit once I had finished writing! (What?!) I hope to have another chapter of Taming the Monster out soon, and of course The After will be updated on Monday! I love you all, and thanks for your support! Also, go check out Weregirl96. She's fairly new to the fandom, so let's give her a warm welcome!
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