InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Aiji: A Blanket Fic ❯ The Nest ( Chapter 2 )

Part 2

He never had time to react. As he landed and prepared to jump again, the ground gave way beneath his feet. They collapsed into some sort of hole in the ground, falling several feet before landing in a painful heap of twisted arms and legs at the bottom. It seemed like minutes before Inuyasha could draw a clear breath again. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he was in pain, but nonetheless was he grateful for having landed on the bottom and breaking Kagome's fall.

Laying still for a moment, he breathed through his nose in short, quick bursts, despite her weight on his lungs, scenting the area. They were someplace dark and entirely different from the snowy plains they'd been traversing only moments before. He sensed no immediate danger, and what he could smell was reassuring. Moving his limbs slowly and hesitantly, hoping that nothing was broken and finding, to his great relief, that nothing was, he gently rolled Kagome off of his back and onto the soft pile of brush that they had landed in. It was an immeasurable relief to no longer be laying in snow, but on a bed of rich earth and pine needles, dried and browned by age. Inuyasha glanced around, becoming more aware of their surroundings with each passing second. It seemed that they had fallen into a small, underground den of sorts. The walls and floor were nothing more than firmly packed dirt, the tunnel no more than a cavity that had been hollowed out of the earth.

After a few minutes, when he finally realized where they were, he almost laughed. Out in the middle of nowhere, with no shelter in sight for miles, they had landed in a kitsune's nest.

The ceiling was low, only about four and a half feet high. He tried to stand and found that he would have to slouch considerably just to move around, so he abandoned the idea and opted to explore on all fours instead. It appeared that they had landed in an outer tunnel. A few yards from where they had crashed through, the burrow widened into what must have been the main living area. Inuyasha crept slowly forward into the more open area, though he was fairly certain that there was nothing there that posed any threat to them. The smell of fox still lingered in the room, but it was an old, stale smell. No one had used the nest in years.

'Well, good.' he thought. 'No rival youkai to worry about.' Just below his relief, however, was a twinge of disappointment and fear. A nest had meant a family, with a female, a mother who would have known about bearing young and caring for them. He had hoped… Inuyasha quickly shook the thought away. There was no point in wishing for a rescue; they were alone in this place.

Once he had fully inspected the nest for any signs of life, be they dangerous or otherwise, he then went about the task of setting up a makeshift camp. There was a small hearth in the corner of the room, and he hurriedly filled it with what he assumed were the splintered remains of an ancient dinner table. Using his silver lighter, the one with his name on it that Kagome had given him last spring on the anniversary of his unbinding, he lit the timber. Keeping half an eye on the hearth, to make sure that the flames remained small and contained, he cleared the area of brush and debris, then dug out a small pit in the center of the room for his mate to lie in.

Then, crawling back out into the run, he grabbed the collar of Kagome's kimono with his teeth and dragged her into the living area, much like a bitch would her pups. He backed them into the room, then eased himself into a sitting position and pulled her into his lap. Trying his best to ignore the unhealthy shade of blue that she had turned so that he wouldn't go into a panic, he began to undo the ties that held together her robes. They had soaked through with snow and icy water, and were not at all improving her chances of survival. Ample practice over the last year and a half allowed him to make short work of her clothing, and soon he held her naked body to his bare chest, having also stripped himself down to the waist. His yukata, while wet on the outside, had not soaked through to his white under kimono, which amazingly enough was actually warm from his exertion, so he wrapped it around the parts of her that weren't immediately touching his exposed flesh.

As he gently rocked her in his embrace, he scanned the low room for signs of things that might prove useful to their cause. The pickings were meager, but his eyes did happen upon an old blanket, which looked ratty, but also very thick. Perhaps later, when she had warmed a bit, he could wrap her in that and lay her in the small pit to rest. Then maybe he could…he could…? Could what? Get help? There was none to get, and he was deluding himself if he even entertained the notion for one second that he would leave her alone in this uncertain place. No, it was time to face the facts…they were stuck, and were completely at the mercy of the fates. And as with most of the tragedies that had occurred in his short but cursed life, he felt responsible.

Inuyasha sighed miserably, bowing his head to kiss his woman lightly on her temple. What an amazing person, this mate of his. Above all else, she had chosen him. She had left behind her family and a world of modern comfort for these dark and dangerous times, so that she could be in his company. She had never complained, at least not out loud, and never looked back, at least not that he was conscious of… and who was he? The half-man who had separated her from her family and home, who had selfishly dragged her into this very storm… The man who had made her large with the child that might very well kill her in that godforsaken place, where it seemed that her only midwife was to be the last person on earth who would know anything about whelping pups…

He had caused her so much pain, and yet she bore it all without objection, for him. She trusted him, and her trust was a gift she had bestowed upon him that he seemed incapable of reciprocating. He wanted to trust, desperately wanted to, but a lifetime of bitter betrayals came back to haunt him every time he tried to make that leap. In fact, it was the result of these insecurities that had found them out in the harsh elements, stranded in the middle of nowhere, with Kagome about to whelp.

"She's too weak…" he'd muttered, "At the first sign trouble she'll go running back to her own time! She says that they have better medicines there. I'm not taking that chance, she stays with me!"

"Inuyasha, she's fit to burst any day now! I agree that you shouldn't be separated, but this is not the time to chase after vague rumors…" the elderly miko had warned.

So he'd insisted that she travel with him… he hadn't traveled without her in years… and he promised that if her labor began, he would rush her back to Kaede. He hadn't counted on a freak snowstorm. Who would? He was convinced that strange magic was at work, but regardless, the storm had arrived, and Kagome had neither cursed him, nor complained. She had simply taken it in stride, and had hidden her pains from him when they had begun. She'd been so quiet about them that he hadn't even noticed that anything was amiss until she had collapsed behind him in the snow.

"Weak!" he laughed bitterly, the coarseness of his voice a harsh intrusion in the heavy stillness of the kitsune's nest. "I must be an idiot…"

Starting at the sound of his voice, Kagome's eyelashes began to flutter. With a soft groan, she pulled herself from out the dark recesses of unconsciousness and into awareness, rolling her head away from his chest to gaze up at him.

"We've stopped." she mumbled groggily, rubbing her forehead.

"Yeah, well, I don't know about you, but had to. You're a lot heavier than you used to be." he teased softly. She managed a weak smile before an intense pain gripped her body and sent her face back into the hollow of his chest. He grabbed her hand, and she squeezing his back so fiercely that he thought the bones in his fingers might break.

"Ahhh…Owwwwwww…..OOOOWWWWWWW!!!!" she screamed, the cords of her neck standing out as she strained against the pain. Waves of fear and panic danced down Inuyasha's spine.

"K-Kagome?" he breathed uncertainly, when her muscles had relaxed again and the screams melted into the pitiful sounds of guttural moaning.

"I'm sorry…" she gasped out, slumping against his chest.