LXXI

Curriculum Vitae

Any other day, it might be more difficult to sneak past the watchers that the wolf Alpha has set over his den, his people, but today even the guards are distracted. Sounds of battle, a scream of distorted wind… he doesn't know where the noise is coming from, but Shippou is more than willing to take advantage of it. Any advantage, any chance, he'll grab and cling to until it's destroyed or snatched away from him. It's the oath he's sworn; the reason he's living; the thing that keeps him moving, breathing, one moment to the next.

Shippou waits for the distraction to renew itself. A blast of blue light, a renewed set of tornados that shake the branches – the noisy clash draws everyone's attention. He makes himself as small as he can, the trembling kit he is, in truth, and slides under notice and into the caves.

After so long in the snow, the beckoning warmth of the wolf den almost does him in. More silent than a mouse, trailing tendrils of cold air, Shippou clings to the walls and shadows, taking advantage of the hustling tension to remain unnoticed. No one looks down. No one is careful where they step, either, but he's spent far too much energy, far too much effort, to come this far and then be stepped on. It's tempting to find a silent corner and sleep, poke his head out when it's quieter and find his quarry then, but he's also afraid. If he's found, can he fight them? One kit against a whole den of wolves? No. Not any more than I could help Father. Too weak. Too small. Too powerless… But that's all I've got. If they don't see me, and I'm not caught, then maybe. Maybe it'll be different when I get what I want.

There's a flicker of blue fire at the tip of his tail, a red gleam in his eyes before he hides himself behind a stack of furs and lifts his nose to sniff delicately at the paths before him. Their different flavors both beckon and defy. One path leads to safety; one path leads to terror and death. He smells the jewel, but also human odors, female scents… and Alpha. The power is there before him, stronger than he's ever tasted it, but behind the smell of wolf-and-woman, something else whispers of danger, thinner but richer, sparkling and buzzy on his tongue. It reminds him of his mother, and it reminds him of hunting with his father, the sweetness of a fresh kill.

I just want revenge. He chants it as he moves forward, avoiding other passages and chambers in favor of stalking this supreme risk. A little bit more, and a little bit more… I just want revenge.

Shiftless he might be, stuck in the body of a wolf, an errant pup, but Sho is not unintelligent, not unaware. Since their first encounter, he has learned many things about the woman, Kagome, who is not-wolf-but-belongs-to-us, just as he has learned other things since he awakened to this world, bereft of the comforts of the womb and not very happy about it. Now, he knows there are compensations, even if they are changing from fresh blood to free ear scratches, but he also knows there are responsibilities. Kagome will be more than Big Sister, more than his Alpha's my-woman. It is known, like it's known that breathing needs air, not water.

Some of the other pups are older than he is, but except for the eldest that haunt the sides of adolescents willing to teach them how to shift, none are wiser. The requirement of protecting her is more now than it was. More now that Sho knows, in his little way, that he owes her not just for relieving his pain but his life. More now that he understands Alpha is a two part title, and she is their Kouga's other half.

His understanding is the price of being early awakened to his own mortality, to the idea that his mother's eyes might cloud up and rain. It might be the price of Kagome, but other than his parents, he thinks that he is the only one who knows why that payment is worthwhile. The way Kouga smiles now? The new edge to his strength? The sudden unity of all of them, standing beside Kagome's otherness? As they all have been born, so was Sho: knowing that he was never to be tamed. Yet now, he is learning that he need not reject human hands entirely.

He sleeps in her hair, whenever Kouga is not with her. For three days, Sho has spent more time with her than anyone else; she seems to glimmer with change, some thing happening just beneath her skin, and…

His nose twitches at an unfamiliar scent, but the woman beneath him is still. She's not moving to confront the sudden interloper in the Alpha's chamber as she did the first time. This is why he's chosen to stay by her side, self-appointed as guardian and monitor, accepted by the Alpha because he is no threat, even if his help is not yet to be taken seriously. So he thinks, anyway – so they all think. And yet now, here is Sho confronting a second intruder, as if it hadn't been enough to prove himself by trying against the first.

Slowly, he slips out of the feathery blanket of black tresses, meeting red fox eyes with his own glare. His leap off the ledge where Kagome sleeps is more like a tumble, but he's beyond being hurt by such little things. He growls his warning, then a summons. To be wolf is to be part of the pack. What he can do, he will do, but there's no need for him to do it alone.

The intruder knows this, too, and fox fire brightens the darkness of the inner chamber. There's a sudden grinding, as of metal on stone, and a giant top erupts from nowhere, slamming Sho to the side. Even as he yelps and falls, half stunned, his eyes are narrowing in satisfaction. There's only one fox, and many in the pack. The few that were sleeping with Kagome are first to stalk out into the open, but more come from the corners, then through the open door, abandoning the fuss the adults are making for one that's a little more their size.

It takes Sho a minute to find his feet, and he sees others of his kin being blasted back by foxfire, but it's weaker every time, the light growing dim. There's no chance for the kitsune to try harder illusions, not when he's pressed from all sides, and Sho takes the opportunity to run and nip at the fox's shoulder, drawing first blood.

Wild red eyes glare back at him, terror and need blazing in equal measure, before the fox is yanked unceremoniously upward in human hands. "Stop it, all of you. What have I told you about fi…ighting?" Kagome can't make it through the words without a yawn, but even through the haze of sleep the surprise on her face is obvious when the one she's holding her bites at her fingers, then the side of her hand. The kitsune digs in narrow, tiny teeth and shakes for all he's worth. Kagome drops him in shock. "Ow! Hey! None of that, you…" There's a pause as a final eruption of foxfire bursts at her forehead, but it's no longer strong enough to even singe her hair. "You're Kitsune!"

Shippou knows the danger now, but it's too late. The woman's blood burns his tongue, makes his teeth ache. Though he can sense the shikon no tama, feel the fragrance of it just under his muzzle, his fangs won't be enough to find it. Not now, not ever, not while it's in the possession of this human. She's a miko, is that why she's got so many pieces of the jewel? But the thought is dazed and slow, and far too late. Just like last time, he's not fast enough, not good enough. Too weak, too stupid. His plan never had a chance.

He hadn't thought about the pups, about how many there would be in a den this size, hadn't stopped to figure out the number of scents in this place, and which of them might concern him. Two or three he might have taken on, a half dozen distracted, but there are a score of tiny, wolfish growls being directed his way, even now that he's been dropped into the woman's shadow. Drops of her blood fall around him, staining the furs under his paws, filling the air with a scent equal parts terrible and tempting. At first, he tries to step away from her, but the pups around him are having none of that. They tug at his tail with tiny teeth, paw at his sides with claws too blunt to break the skin, but strong enough to bruise.

He finds himself backed up against the woman's thigh, his quivering back arched near her knee, and watches with wide eyes as her hands come down again, shooing the wolves away. "No! No, you can't! I know it's not your way, but please-" Does she want to kill him herself? Is that what it is? "Stop it! Sho, get them back. I know you're trying to protect me but he's just a baby!" The words are so unexpected, dizziness strikes Shippou like a needle between the eyes. She's trying to protect him? She wants to keep him safe? "Stop it, I said! I wouldn't hurt any of you, and I'm not going to hurt him either. Where did he come from?"

There's no answer, just growling, and Shippou shies away as the woman's hands come down again, wounded finger carefully extended away from the others, and pick him up off the ground. "Are you like them, little one? Just a fox? Or can you change and talk to me like my Kouga? Why did you attack me? Why are you here?"

Shippou hesitates, uncertain, but despite his motivations and his attack, so far she's done nothing threatening. And even if she wears the smells of deadly promises, there's something comforting about her touch, the sparkle and fizz of her own scent beneath the power. He wills himself to assume half-human shape, the best he can do yet, and scowls up at her from beneath his bangs. "'Cause I have to be. 'Cause you're the one who has the most of it." And then, when she only looks at him, "The shikon no tama, human! Or don't you know what it is, even if you've got it?"

She frowns and shakes her head at him. "I'm not an idiot, even if I'm human, and my name is Higurashi Kagome. Don't be rude. Haven't your parents taught you any manners?"

"My parents-" The mention catches him off guard, an unanticipated arrow, but there's a gust of wind from behind him, strong enough to bowl over most of the pups, and it cuts off the emotions building in his chest. Something in the back of his brain identifies the new, sudden force, an awareness deeper than his own consciousness: Alpha. The new power and its snarling demands snatch Shippou's answer from between his teeth, drowning it in deep fury. Overwhelming presence rises as the wind retreats, and though Shippou turns to face it, fangs showing, eyes wide, clawed fingers press him down against the furs before his challenge can crystallize into something real.

His father had been leader of their den, but to be alpha among Kitsune is not the same as this. Their way is snapping, cunning, backbiting, keeping power through greed or guile if nothing else will suffice. Canine, but not the same. This is a Wolf, the Wolf, the one he'd wanted to avoid above all others. He'd been fighting; had he won so fast, or had something else warned him? But Shippou is beyond questions, knows with the deepest kind of instinct that to move, even to breathe, might be to die. Whatever it is that's keeping him alive, keeping the harsh pressure of the hand that restrains him from snapping his spine, he doesn't dare to test it.

"Kagome." It's a breathless breath, the woman's name made into a prayer, and Shippou is old enough, smart enough, to sense the strangeness of that. Yōkai do not invoke kami; yōkai know nothing of supplication. Such a strange thing can only have one source, and a tremble moves from the tip of his tail to the top of his head. He's in love with her? In love with a human?

She laughs, and the lightness of it isn't something Shippou has ever heard from mortals keeping yōkai company. "You sound like you're out of breath, Kouga. Can that even happen? Oh, ouch!"

Through his one open eye, Shippou watches the blood fall from the woman's fingers as she shakes her hand, but this time aware of just how bad his bad idea had been. The Wolf's claws prickle through his jacket, his fur, his skin. He can't stop the little yelp that escapes him then, but rather than driving in deeper, the claws retreat, hook in his jacket and jerk him off the furs.

"Kouga, don't -"

"I know." Now that the moment is passed, there's less depth in the Wolf's voice, and more of something like humor. "You didn't want to hurt the priest, and he really deserved it. You won't want me hurting this kit either. Give me some credit, woman, I know you better than that." From his place dangling at the end of the Alpha's claws, Shippou looks up, then away before he catches more than a glimpse of blue eyes staring in his direction. "But a Kitsune… He'll be trouble, you know."

"Trouble?"

The Wolf touches her lips, then the curve of her cheekbone, just below her eye. "He hurt you. I smelled your blood. It only took me a second to get inside and I still imagined terrible things…"

The warmth of the Wolf is echoed in the woman's face. "I'm fine, Buyo's given me worse. But what's going on outside? I can feel…" She shakes her head, as if she's trying to shake water out of her ear, but her frown goes nowhere. "Something's not right. Something is… not right."

Without another glance in his direction, the Alpha drops Shippou to the furs. "You're not wrong. I should go back, just in case the fight's not over. I trust Ginta and Hakkaku, but if you're not really hurt -"

"I'm not. I'll wrap these up while I talk to this little monster." She wiggles her fingers at the Wolf, then makes a shooing gesture. "Go bring them back, Kouga. I'll talk to our new little friend here while you get rid of whatever it is I'm feeling." She's smiling as he leaves, apparently unworried by the low growl that slips out of the Alpha's throat as he turns and speeds away. The expression fades into a wince, and Shippou sits up, on the defensive as the pups crowd around him again and the woman narrows her eyes at him, then lifts an appraising eyebrow. "Well? Get talking, kid. And no biting."

A/N: Kagome-tachi, assemble! As someone has noticed, the only one we're missing right now is Sango…. Do we remember how we found her in canon? Yeah, that's coming. BUT FIRST: this chapter's title can translate a couple of ways, but the one we're looking for is "the course of one's life", which has certainly changed for wee Shippou. Next Time: Goodbye Kagura, hello little sister…

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