Chapter 61
Canes pugnaces
"Dogs of War"


"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
—"Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening"


The explosion of reiki sent her sprawling.

Pushing herself up onto her elbows, she twisted around as her reiki still sparked and snapped in the air like mini bolts of lightning.

Her shoulder throbbed when she moved her arm, and she fought her way to a sitting position. Her side stung, making her hiss as she moved.

She could see the smoke rising off his body even in the rain.

His skin was blistered and burnt, raw-looking in some places and black in others.

Her eyes watered and blurred in the rain.

She hadn't meant to do that. She hadn't meant to do that to him!

They were friends!

She waited for a moment, watching him, hoping that he moved or did something, because right now, Kouga looked every bit the dead man he might be.

Pushing herself upright, she let out a low groan as she moved things that hurt.

"Kouga?" She whispered, not sure if he was able to hear her over the rain, or even alive for that matter.

She'd probably killed him. He'd tried to help her get away, and she was too stupid to find the stream and too out of shape to even make use of it. He'd tried so hard, and she'd failed him at every single turn.

She just—she didn't know where to go.

She'd have to break the news to Ginta and Hakkaku and his pack, and she would have to tell them what she did to him, when he was trying so hard to stop himself.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him. Her face was already wet from the rain, hiding the evidence of her crying except for the weak sobs that left her.

His arm shifted slightly. Gasping, she wiped her face with her sleeve, trying to see him clearly.

"Kouga?"

There was a soft whine, but his shoulder moved again.

He was alive! She hadn't killed him.

She started to advance towards him, only to stop herself at the sound of a sharp raspy growl. He'd wanted her to run away. The shards looked clean enough, but who knew how long that would last?

"Kouga, I'm—I'm sorry. I'm going—I'm going," she was stumbling over each of the words as she tried to apologize for what she'd done and what she was going to do. "I'm going to leave you, okay? I'm—I'm so sorry. I'll find Inuyasha, and—and we'll figure out a way to help you." She swallowed, feeling the lump in her throat stick in its place. "I'm sorry."

And with that, Kagome struggled valiantly to her feet, whimpering as her body ached under the pressure and strain she put it under, before taking one last look at the body behind her.

He was still, barely shifting, but so much of him was burned, and she was honestly afraid to look at his front, which had taken the majority of the blow.

She'd done all that to a friend.

He'd heal. He was a youkai, after all, but that didn't mean that it couldn't still hurt.

She turned back towards the trees, and quietly, took a step away from the scorched body of her friend and into the darkness of the forest, an eerie sense of deja vu drifting over her.


Her feet slid on the damp earth, and from what she could see, Kouga had lacerated her shoulder with his fangs. The rain only mellowed out the blood stain on her shirt, but the wound still actively bled. She kept pressing her fingers to it to check, but it kept bleeding and probably would for a while until she got some continuous pressure on it. An impossible task while attempting to run in the wet weather.

The rain came down harder the longer she shambled—and she still hadn't found that stream that Kouga had mentioned—and the only thing that she could think of was that all this rain and water would only make it harder for Inuyasha and the others to find her.

And she wanted to be found.

The sky grew progressively darker, with the exception of the bolts of lightning that flashed across the sky intermittently. She glanced up through the tree branches, but between the rain and the shadows, it was too hard to tell what time it was and where she was really.

Stumbling over her own feet, she sank down into the dirt, curling up next to a tree. It was the only offering of shelter she had, even if the rain drops still dropped heavily onto her, it was something of a break from the rain.

She looked out at the trees, watching as they slowly faded into the blackness of the terrain as darkness crept across the forest floor.

No one had followed her and no one had found her.

She wiped her face with the back of her hand, trying to remind herself that these things took time, that there was still hope, and at the same time, remembering the unkindness of strangers.


The loud crack above her head made her jerk upright, and she nearly sent herself sprawling with how hard she recoiled.

She whimpered as she gingerly brought her hand up to her shoulder, feeling the tenderness of raw skin under her fingers.

Looking out at the forest around her, it didn't seem any lighter than it had when she'd drifted off. Her head still throbbed, and her entire body made her want to just lay down and sleep for a week until the pain just went away.

She knew that staying in one place was the optimal strategy for being found, but she also didn't know how quickly Kouga could heal. If Inuyasha was a half-demon and healed as quickly as he did, she didn't know how much quicker a full-youkai could. Was it double? Was there any difference at all?

And did reiki make any of that information completely useless?

She stared back at the direction that she'd come, looking for some sort of sign that she was being followed, but the only sounds that she could hear was the rain hitting the ground and the trees above.

Inuyasha would find her. He was probably looking for her right now.

And she'd get an earful about being safe and getting hurt.

And she'd probably cry about it.

And hopefully she'd get a hug out of the whole mess.

A low growl to her left made her turn, and she strained her eyes to see in the dark.

"Kouga?" She whispered, though she really didn't know if she would be happy to see him or not. But a regular wolf, she knew for sure that she would definitely not be happy to see at all.

Or what if it was one of Kouga's wolves? What if they'd found him and now they were hunting her down too?

She didn't want to hurt anyone else.

But she didn't want to die either.

Taking a deep breath, she struggled with herself on if she wanted to flee or try to fight them off.

She couldn't really do either at the moment.

The growling shifted slightly as if whatever was making it moved around, albeit slowly.

Using the tree, she pushed herself up until she was standing, bracing her body against the trunk.

"You can do this," she whispered to herself, trying to pep talk herself into the fight or flight response.

She took a step away from the growling, trying to keep her gaze locked on it. That deterred predators right? Staring them down? Or was that something to do with bears? Or maybe it was cats?

Well, either way, she sincerely hoped it worked on wolves too.

It was enough to encourage her to keep moving away from the sound, hoping that it didn't want to follow.

The rain hid the moon, making everything darker without the moonlight, and the rain also helped make the ground soft and slippery, threatening to trip her at every turn and step.

The growling, however, never ceased, and she had the sickening feeling that whatever it was followed her as she wove through the trees, hands extended to stop her from bashing her face into a tree.

A branch snapped behind her, and she twisted around to attempt to face whatever it was, but the solid strike of a body against hers sent her sprawling into the ground. Her fingers dug into fur as teeth and hot breath snapped just above her face with a loud guttural snarl.

With her own shout, she knocked her leg into the body, wrenching herself to throw the dog—or wolf—off of her.

It staggered off of her, and she heard it snap its teeth as her fingers alighted on something hard and heavy.

Lightning flashed, illuminating everything for a split second only to leave her vision swimming in spots a moment later. But she'd seen it. It was a wolf, not a demonic one, just a regular run-of-the-mill wolf. Her fingers closed over the rock, pulling it up and swinging blindly towards the moving shadow in front of her.

Her swing connected, drawing a sharp yelp from the wolf, giving her enough time to climb to her feet.

It continued to whimper, but the sound of it grew fainter as footsteps led it away from where she was bracing herself against the tree.

So, that wasn't Kouga, which was good news, she supposed.

And bad news too, in a way.

She probably wouldn't have been quite so lucky if it had been. Except now she really didn't know where she was or if she was heading closer to or farther away from Kouga.

She couldn't sense anything around her, even when she tried to push her reiki out. It was just quiet, and nothing that blipped across her reiki-radar.

Heh, reiki-radar.

Yeah, there was probably some concern about a concussion, but she had bigger things to deal with.

Like how she was suddenly really cold.

She needed to find somewhere that wasn't under a bunch of lightning rods in a lightning storm. She also wanted to get dry, all the water couldn't be good for her shoulder.

She moved slowly and carefully in the dark, keeping her steps small and even to avoid slipping and falling.

Lightning flashed in the distance, and she looked up at it, catching the tail end of its flash in the clouds, and then the ground was simply not where it was supposed to be.


The faint wisps of youki drew her out of sleep. Foreign and menacing, this was not Inuyasha's youki.

The ground shook as it moved, the youki gaining strength and direction. A low rumbling growl that at one point she might have confused with thunder, rolled above her, and she scrambled to focus enough reiki to build a dome over herself, curling up into a ball to make the amount of space she had to defend smaller.

Lightning flashed right over their heads, and she could see the shadow of the oni in the dimmed sky of what she assumed was morning.

It wasn't raining anymore.

She'd seen bigger, but it was still large enough to do some damage.

Her reiki wove around her in a barrier, and she pushed more and more into it, strengthening and reinforcing it as much as she could in preparation of the attack that was bound to come. She couldn't afford to have it collapse like it did with the snake. Every muscle in her body burned and stung with the effort she was putting forth.

She couldn't risk the oni breaking through, but there was only so much that she could do. She was only so strong, and she could only hold the barrier for so long before it simply faded, and she would be left defenseless.

The oni slapped it's hand down on the barrier, and Kagome could feel the cracking of it as it applied pressure even as its hand was purified into dust. The loud roar it gave off was deafening, and it swung its other hand into the barrier, effectively purifying its only remaining hand and shattering said barrier in one swift go.

Gasping as it broke into several little pieces, she scrambled as it tried to stomp on her with its feet. Her back hit the steep incline that she'd presumably fallen from, and she tried—she really honestly did—to get up the embankment, but it was too steep and her body just couldn't do it. Sharp pains ran up her through her shoulder and her ankle as she tried—and failed miserably—to save herself.

The foot slammed into the earth just beside her, rattling the ground and making her lose her already tenuous grip, sending her back into soft earth she'd just tried to escape.

Another roar echoed as its foot raised up, giving her just enough time to attempt a pathetic version of the barrier before.

Because there was no time to run, no time to flee, not that she had the physical capability to do so.

The foot came down with a roar, and the ground rumbled under her, but there was no blow to her body or barrier, only a deep and feral snarling that echoed through the trees and the darkness of the forest within.

Was it Kouga? Had he finally healed enough to track her down? She'd hoped that the rain would've hidden her scent enough to hinder his search, but clearly fate wasn't feeling generous to her at all.

The youki was strong and wild, but it didn't feel like Kouga's at all.

Lightning struck the tree across the way, and in the brightness of the explosion she saw the glint of white hair, as Inuyasha's claws came down with the sickening sound of flesh being severed from bone. The oni groaned and then stopped moving.

"Inuyasha?" She whispered, and his face turned towards her, barely a glance as he looked back at the oni before tearing into its flesh once again. The oni was dead, but Inuyasha wasn't done.

Something was wrong; she could feel it deep in her bones. His youki wasn't this agitated or this strong normally. It felt almost like—

"Inuyasha?"

Leaping off the creature, he landed on all fours in front of her, and a weak strike of lightning somewhere far off from where they were gave her enough light to notice the lavender stripes across his cheeks and the blood red eyes.

"Inuyasha! What happened?"

Her barrier slid away from her as he approached. He sniffed the air, a low growl consistently present, rumbling out of his throat.

"Where are you hurt? Why haven't you changed back?" He crept towards her, and she was too afraid to move too quickly, lest he disappear or attack her instead.

This wasn't what she wanted.

She wanted him. She wanted her half-demon.

"How long have you been like this?"

Reaching up, she let a shaking hand trace the lines on his cheeks with trembling fingers. He didn't move or react in anyway towards her touch, which was good? He wasn't attacking her or threatening her, so it had to be a good thing, right? Maybe he subconsciously knew that it was her, and that she would never harm him.

"Inuyasha, you have to change back. You can't stay like this."

His head tilted at her statement, like a dog trying to recognize human speech.

"Inuyasha, please, you have to change back."

The tears came unbidden; she couldn't help it. It was too much, and now Inuyasha was here, without Tetsusaiga, which meant that something was wrong. She didn't even know what had happened to Sango or Miroku or Shippo or Kirara. What if he'd hurt them? He'd never forgive himself, even though it wasn't his fault he transformed.

He moved closer to her, lowering his face to be just inches away from hers as his red and blue eyes stared her down. Her hands fell away from his face to grip his sleeve.

"Please, I need you to come back to me. I need you to be safe."

He pressed forward, his cheek rubbing against hers as he sniffed her shoulder.

"Saaaaffffe," he hissed out, and she let out a choked sob, wrapping her arms around his neck as she nodded.

"Safe," she whispered. "You're safe with me. I'll protect you."

His tongue dragged over her bloodied shoulder, sending a fiery sting all the way down her back. She yelped, jerking her shoulder away from him.

"What're you doing?" She asked him, trying to see his face, but he kept it pressed close to her. Too close for her to see anything useful.

Inuyasha wobbled a little, leaning down against her. His entire body weight sagged as he let out a low groan.

"Inuyasha!" She cried, arms shifting to help hold him up so he didn't fall face first into the mud. Pressing him against her as his arms gave out, she fell back against the incline she'd fallen down some hours ago with a hard 'oof'!

He wasn't growling anymore, and the fear that he'd done too much while transformed only magnified. Inuyasha didn't know his limits when he was like this. He always pushed his body too hard and too far, and there was nothing that she could do to help him now. He could be dying, and she had no supplies and probably needed medical attention herself as it was.

"Inuyasha!" She tried to shift him off of her, so that she could see if there was anything to be done for him. But he was heavy, and she was weak.

So she gave up trying to push or lift him off, and instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and head, holding his close to her as she cried into his hair.

Without Tetsusaiga, there was no returning him to normal. And who knew how far away the sword was? Or if Sango or Miroku had it?

She didn't know how long she sat there holding onto him, but it was long enough for her to nearly cry herself out as she sat there with him. She wasn't leaving him behind.

She felt his hand move, jerking a little, making her stifle her crying for a moment as she looked down at him.

"Inuyasha?"

A low groan echoed her question as his arm circled around her, pulling them closer together.

She felt the soft flick of his eyelashes against her skin before he began to move away. She let him slide through her arms as he shifted away just enough to look at her, confusion evident on his face. The stripes were gone, and his eyes were golden.

"Inuyasha?" She whispered.

"Kagome?" He asked, staring at her face for a moment, before recognition hit. "Kagome!"


A/N: My brain is fried from end of school. I got up a 9 today, put a load of laundry in, read for an hour, and the woke up at noon-thirty and was like, "Where am I?" End of the year teacher tired is a thing. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and let me know what you think.