XLI

Experentia Docet

The wood is a wilderness, with all the wild still in it. The sun gleams bronze on Kouga's shoulders as he moves through the underbrush, his eyes darting left and right, seeking prey, and Kagome feels his skin hot beneath her fingertips, his bare back warmed by her body, his hands strong and hot against her thighs.

The sun beats on her back, and she stifles her breath, tries to hold back the sound of her heartbeat, says not a word to Kouga, so as not to disrupt his chances. He runs swift and soundless through the undergrowth, and when he finally catches sight of something he thinks is acceptable prey, he leans with his whole body in that direction and turns his head back to whisper in inhumanly soft tones.

"There. To the right. Buck and two does."

Kagome turns and shivers as she does so. Kouga is slow to move, and his lips brush faintly over her throat. She draws in a quick breath, and then covers her mouth with her hands. She can see them, the buck's antlers dusky in the light that comes through the trees, the brown coats glistening, the dewy eyes fearless, no sense in them that a predator is a leap away from ending their lives.

As soundless as he had been running, Kouga lets Kagome down from his back, behind the screening presence of the undergrowth. She crouches there, feels her heart beginning to race; she stares at Kouga and then the deer – and then at Kouga again.

He wears only a leather loincloth fringed with fur to hunt; her eyes trace the indentations of lean, smooth muscle in his back, his arms, his abdomen as he turns -

She blushes when she realizes what she is doing, but then he is in motion and her eyes grow wide. The pupils dilate, drinking in the scene; her heart races; her breath comes shallow and fast. She sees Kouga in blinks; he disappears from her vision when he moves, but she can follow the presence of the shards he carries and she sees him still for a single instant -

Then he strikes. His arm is a line of shadow that gleams gold in a single ray of sunlight. His claws slash, once, perfect, a clean cut across the throat of the buck. The animal drops; it makes no death cry. The baying of the stag is silenced on an indrawn breath. The two does are already turning when Kouga comes to them, but Kagome watches him grasp one about the throat and then just at quickly let her go and turn to the other.

The second doe he kills, as easily as the buck, while the other runs away as swift as four legs can carry her.

"Kagome, you can come out now."

Slowly, picking her way across the forest floor, missing the spots where it is sprayed with steaming blood, Kagome makes her way to Kouga's side. He is breathing fast, but not from exertion; just the excitement of the kill, the euphoria of the hunt. She comes close to him and reaches out one hand to touch his chest; she can't help herself, must know that the pounding of his heart is something close to the pounding within her.

"Kouga you – you're so fast -"

"Yes. Because you came, and brought me the shikon no tama...not that wasn't a good hunter before, mind you."

She grins.

"Of course. I'd never even think it. Can you – can you carry these home and me too?"

Kouga eyes his kill critically, and then smiles and shrugs.

"Yeah. Probably. But I'm not going to – didn't you know, Kagome? A wolf never hunts alone. His pack is always beside him!"

He opens his mouth and an eerie howl comes out of his throat; the Great Wolf's cry. From around them, dashing, panting, wriggling rapturously at the cry of their Alpha, lapping at the slain deers' blood, comes the wolves. A few come forward in human shape and slit the stomachs of the deer on a long, clean line from anus to gaping throat. Careful fingers and claws part the skin from the carcass and open a wound to remove the offal without puncturing the gut.

Nauseated, fascinated, Kagome watches, can't turn away. Her eyes lock with the eyes of the buck; a strong and beautiful creature who had succumbed to the final promise of nature's cycle.

"Kouga...Kouga, why did you let the first doe go?"

Kouga shrugs.

"She was pregnant; she'll give birth soon. Better to let the cycle of life continue on. Two's enough, considering."

Kagome nods, and then backs away and bows formally, in thanks.

Kouga watches her, interested; her gratitude is not meant for him, but for the deer. He appreciates her meaning; he is youkai, and these are his lands, and respect for them, for the nature that endows them, is respect for him. He is youkai, and that is not much different from kami. Not here. Not on the earth that sustains and empowers him; not on the land upon which he has lived, growing and gaining strength, it's wolf protector.

It doesn't take long for the pack to finish its work, and when they are finished they wrap the butchered carcass of the two deer, each in its own hide, and vanish into the trees, moving toward the den. Kagome watches them go. One moment they are visible to her – and the next they are not.

She turns to Kouga and smiles.

"What next?"

His lips move slowly, spreading a grin across his face that Kagome feels as if someone has suddenly grasped her heart in her chest.

"The hunt is only beginning, Kagome. That was just a warm up."

A/N: Onward, ever onward! This chapter's title, "Experientia Docet" means "experience teaches" - and Kagome is indeed learning the nature of the beast, as it wear. My thanks go out to all my reviewers, for both reviewing and your good wishes! Slowly, I catch up with myself; 5 more chapters of the flood yet remain! More shall appear very shortly, for 42 is nearly complete!

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