Of Fire and Fairytales

Angelic-Siren

Chapter 1 Searching for Answers

Shadows shifted lazily in the firelight. Their meal long over and the day spent and wasted yet again, the group sat brooding at their camp. Drama was thick in the air as when they had first joined forces, but it had grown to be only an undertone for anything that happened, there were always, always, bigger problems now. Talk was minimal because no one wished to discus defeat, especially to that creature. Everything was building against them, time, power, resources, the will to fight… and winter was fast approaching. Things were indeed getting harder but no one would admit it, not this night, not any. The hunter, the monk, the kit, the miko, and the dog, silent. It was weird.

The far off sounds of small birds of pray made the quiet all the more eerie, but the kit, asleep contently at the side of his false mother the miko, seemed not to notice at all. The hunter sat scarping the edges of her bone weapon smooth to kill added sparks and background noise to the uneasy evening. The monk sat cross-legged near her but, strangely, instead of intently watching her, he paid little attention to anything but the flying cinders from the fire. The miko lay back against the tree behind her sleeping pallet with a book of myths, hoping to find something useful to their quest. She sighed, setting the book aside, and looked up in time to catch her hanyou guardian looking back down at her before snapping his gaze away as if he had never looked.

Kagome set her chin in one hand and stared up at him intently, knowing that to look at anyone this way would draw their attention. Inuyasha flicked several short glances at her from the corner of his eye. He growled at himself. Weak he cursed.

He turned to stare her down. "What?!"

She sat up, startled. "Oh, nothing. I was just noticing… your hair's gotten longer."

His ears atop his head relaxed. "Yeah. I hate what you did to yours, I'm compensating I guess."

Kagome ran her fingers through her chin length black hair as she muttered a little "oh" of disappointment. She dropped her gaze to the fire with a sullen look. Inuyasha glanced at the flames but couldn't see whatever she was seeing. He crossed his arms, had he done it again? He cursed himself again. No matter what he tried to say it never came out as the message he wanted, he was beginning to grow annoyed with her for not understanding and with himself for not making it clear. Inuyasha sighed out loud.

"I've, uh, been… thinking," she said. Inuyasha sat up straight, hoping, but the others looked up too and he slumped back down. "I think it would help if, well, we got some help."

"What?" Inuyasha asked raising an eyebrow.

"I mean if we had two people who could sense shards, it would make it easier to find them before Naraku. It seems logical if you think about it. It would be a lot faster."

Miroku adjusted the beads around his right hand. "Yeah, but, where are we going to find someone else with that power that isn't trying to kill us?"

"I agree." Sango chimed, setting down her boomerang. "Our allies are dwindling, Kagome-san. People are growing more fearful than friendly."

Kagome took the book of myths in her lap again. "This book was given to me by my mother, someone who, until two years ago when all this began, didn't believe in monsters or legends. But she bought it from a girl that I know from school who, shall we say, knows her way around such things. I-I don't know for sure, but she might be able to help. I mean she's helped me find my missing chemistry book or math homework before when she knew what to look for, kind of like she was psychic or something. We're kind of friends, and she doesn't have any reason to hate us."

"You trust her?" Miroku asked.

Kagome nodded with a half shrug. "Yeah."

"Then I have to know," he said narrowing his eyes. "What's she look like?"

Sango slapped him across the back of the head, sending him face first into his sleeping pallet. She rolled her shoulders in satisfaction at his slight yelp. "Books and papers are fine, Kagome-san, but how do you know she can track shards?"

"I don't know that she can yet… but I could test her. It would be easy. Inuyasha and I will go back to my time and I'll leave him with a shard in a park somewhere out of the way of normal traffic. I'll show her one of the shards and ask her help in finding another. If she can find Inuyasha in a reasonable amount of time, we could ask her for some real help."

Miroku sat up rubbing the sore spot on his forehead. "Finally, a useful idea."

"Like you know the meaning of the words." Sango said rolling her eyes.

"I don't like it." Inuyasha huffed from his perch.

Kagome frowned from one corner of her mouth. "Fine. I'll take Muroku with me instead."

Inuyasha sat up, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. He gave a low growl as Muroku raised his eyebrows with the smile of a confident male. "What?!"

"I most humbly agree, Kagome-chan." The monk said smiling at her. Sango mimicked the hanyou's growl.

Inuyasha jumped from the tree and landed with a soft thud between Kagome and the creeping monk. "You will sit back and await our return here, with Sango and the brat." He motioned to the sleeping Kitsune behind him. "Kagome and I will leave tonight so we don't waste time. Now sit back and enjoy the evening from your own bed." Inuyasha bared his fangs and flattened his ears while the disappointed Muroku tried to object but gave up, slumping back onto his pallet. Sango gave him a bitter look and turned away.

Kagome stood up behind Inuyasha. "We don't have to leave tonight, Inuyasha. I just-"

"We're leaving tonight." He cut in bluntly. He tightened the holster at his waist and hunched slightly to let her climb on his back. "Get on."

Kagome reached out and almost touched the back of his shoulder to climb on but pulled back. "It would be safer in daylight." She tried to protest.

"No, that's when the things that are sleeping now will be hunting for our blood tomorrow. Now get on." He commanded glancing over his shoulder.

She looked into the ever-darkening forest. "But it can't be that far and we shouldn't just leave- Whoa!"

Inuyasha turned and grabbed her by the waist, jumping off into a silent and quick hover through the starlit woods. She struggled and fussed for several minutes after losing sight of their camp but Inuyasha pretended not to notice.

"Uh! You lousy, stupid baka!" She huffed.

"Whatever. But I wouldn't "sit" me in this position, it would crush you too." The shadows hid the slight smirk he got from trapping her high in the air alone with him.

She pulled her wind-strung hair out of her face with only a half meant scowl. "Why'd you grab me out of nowhere anyway? There was no point in leaving today rather than tomorrow."

"I don't know, the same reason I've always grabbed you before I guess." Kagome held her breath. "So Muroku couldn't get his hands on you, he's scum no matter what."

"What?!"

"What did you expect me to say?"

"Uh! Just put me down you… uh! Dumb male! You're no better than him either you know! Especially right now! Put me down!"

Kagome wriggled but Inuyasha held tight, crushed though he was. I did it again, didn't I? "You know he'd be all over you by now, so there is a difference." He just shook his head in answer to her command and tossed her slightly to get a better grip around her trim waist. "You know you could have slept on the way to the well if you had climbed on my back."

"And have to admit I ever took an order from you? Yeah right!"

"Would it be so bad?" He asked quietly.

Kagome thought frantically, rubbing the loose cloth of red kimono between her fingers. What did he mean by that? "… It's a pride thing I guess. If I make anything too easy for you it would make me look cheap."

Inuyasha frowned. "Cheap? You mean like… easy?"

"What?! Nooooooo! I mean like... like… like I can't take care of myself. Easy, please! You are just like Muroku." Kagome looked over his shoulder at the landscape they had already passed so he couldn't see her blush in the soft moonlight. Easy? Man! What's his idea of hard to get? But…he was pretty close.

Inuyasha turned his attention back to their flight, face flushed at what he had even suggested. He knew Kagome was way too classy to ever qualify as cheap, no matter what she did. But he could just say it. Why couldn't he just say it? He felt her pulse quicken in her side as she turned away from him. Damn it she was a confusing broad!

Kagome pushed the situation aside, waaayyyyy aside. She had to focus on what they were doing. Help. They needed help. Time was everything and they had next to nothing and that had to be fixed. She felt the warmth of the broken gem hanging around her neck on her skin. Less than half complete, she was afraid to think of where the rest could be, whose hands the other pieces might be in. Naraku wasn't letting up in the least and something had to be done about it. But for god's sake, she was asking a psychic! Why didn't she just call miss Cleo? Kagome prayed, deeply prayed, that this was not just a waste of their already short time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Children's laughter echoed in though the rooms, down the halls, and across the courtyards before creeping into his chambers by the window at night. It was maddening. She was alive! She was alive not four months ago, but now… The White lord sat on the floor next to the edge of his bed at night thinking. How could he have saved her, at least found her faster? Had he known the fang had limitations he would have… have…

Winter was fast approaching, the cold wind dancing through his rooms heralded that. The ground over the child's grave would be frozen soon… that's all he could think of. The lightening sky peeked in on him a little later as every day passed, gradually giving up hope that he would ever recover. But he took no notice. To him, night and day could only be told by how well he could hear her voice. Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands, had fallen; not from power, but from will to live.

She was never a large part of my life, he told himself. How did she suddenly come to mean so much?

But she had been an important part of his life, a very small part as to length, but to a demon, what is time? His father's death had turned him to stone, carved and perfect, yet this human's death turns him into a lost child himself, the ultimate irony. Death forges lords and death forges fools. But what decided between the two, he could not see. Yet he could see her, smiling as she braided flowers into his hair, suddenly turn to a mangled and forsaken corps. The vision was there behind his eyes, whether they were closed or not.

Rin had been missing for two days before he realized her scent was weak in the palace, even in her favorite playing yards and her own room. Sesshoumaru cursed himself silently for that from the beginning. He stormed the grounds looking for her, questioning her maids, but none of them knew where she was, nor did they really care.

"Jaken!" He hissed as he caught the scent of a toad with something to hide. "Come in here amphibious rat."

The creature slid the screen to the library open cautiously. "Y-yes, master?" he stuttered, bowing as low as his little green body could.

Sesshoumaru leveled his deep gold gaze on the lowly servant. "Where is Rin?"

Jaken gulped when his master's angry eyes fell on him like several tons of bricks. "Well I didn't want to d-distract your grace while you were um, planning the border offensive in the south, so I uh, I-I-"

"Where is she?!"

The little green thing trembled. "Isawthatbaboonskinleavingthegroundshemust-havetakenher!"

"When?!" he demanded.

"Two days ago sire! I didn't know! Please, please, have mercy! I didn't know!" The ugly toad was practically bawling by this time for his own bumpy skin, which Sesshoumaru was beginning to think would make a fine nail file.

Sesshoumaru grabbed the little green thing by the scruff of the neck and growled, his golden eyes burning a hole through the servant's body. "Show me the way." He barked. Hardly able to keep from wetting himself, Jaken nodded.

Sesshoumaru held the toad out in front of him as he flew to the outer edge of the palace compound so as not to waist time. Jaken pointed at the high stone wall holding back the expanse of forest from spilling into the courtyard. Sesshoumaru dropped him without slowing down as he raced over the wall and into the depths of the green sea of vines and trees. Ignoring the yelp of his lackey, he sped on at the top speed that his surroundings allowed. In truth, Jaken was glad to be bruised rather than with his infuriated master.

Sesshoumaru sniffed. He could find the scent from here; he didn't need that worthless little bump anymore. It only took a moment for him to focus in on the trail. Sesshoumaru was so angry at the baboon-clad bastard by this time that he could practically see the path that he had left as he flew through the night.

If you've hurt her, Naraku, death will not even be an escape for you.

Soon after sunrise the next day, the already dense foliage was too thick and compact for him to fly through. Sesshoumaru set down on the forest floor without changing his pace. Creepers and thorns tore at his robes but he didn't notice. Only after several miles did Naraku's scent begin to strengthen. Sesshoumaru stopped as he reached a large bamboo grove. He could smell Naraku, but not Rin. He began to panic. The scent trails were too crossed, he'd never find Naraku, and gods know what had happened to the girl.

Sesshoumaru looked around wildly, trying to figure out where he had lost her scent. A short and maniacal laugh came from a tree high above him. Sesshoumaru looked up to see Naraku stretched out on a branch smiling down at him from under the baboon skin hood. A deep growl rumbled from deep in the White lord's throat.

"Dog's must be slow," Naraku said standing up. "In body as in mind. What kept you, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru restrained himself from rocketing up there and slashing the hanyou's throat out. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"Oh, yes. The human whelp. Huh. Pity, but you're far to late for that little brat."

"What?!" Sesshoumaru clawed the base of the tree and in one swipe from the poisonous talons the tree fell. The crack and shudder of the looming giant shook the forest before it even came crashing to the ground. But Naraku was away in another tree long before then.

His cackling laughter was all but drowned out by the roar of the falling tree and Sesshoumaru's unearthly howl. "Oh come now, quiet yourself." Naraku managed to command through his laughter. "I didn't say she was dead, even though she is." Sesshoumaru roared like no demon could, his vision red with anger, unable to comprehend what he'd been told. "Oh for gods sakes man, you make like you have no back up."

Sesshoumaru had been ready to strike at Naraku's next perch when he remembered the fang at his waist. "Where?!" he roared, his voice deep and animalistic.

Naraku shrugged and waved off in one direction. "Over there somewhere. I haven't checked in a while, something could have dragged her off."

Sesshoumaru ran in the direction he was pointed. He slowed and checked the ground. She had struggled, he could tell.

"You would have been so proud of how that child fought! She even cursed and swore you'd kill me! But that was just on the flight here. I must admit, the girl had a right hook to kill, at least for a human." Naraku taunted as he jumped from branch to branch. "Don't worry though. Even though she fought, it was fast and relatively painless. This is me we're talking about."

Sesshoumaru blocked him out and continued to search. He could smell her again, her blood at least. He came to a small grassy drop only a foot or two down and saw the purple cloth of the child's kimono from under the branch of a thorn bush.

Naraku stopped just over-head. "I suppose where she chose to die was a good one at least. From here it doesn't look like anything has gotten to her."

Sesshoumaru, stunned and disbelieving, stumbled down the small incline and landed on his knees. He tried to stand but nearly had to crawl to the place where Rin was laying. He pushed back the thorny branches slowly. Naraku was right, the body hadn't been touched since the attack. Several gashes adorned her new kimono and pail skin, the blood long dried. One across her forehead, one across her belly, several on her arms, and the killing blow across her neck. Her sweet brown eyes were still open but glassy, empty of life now, yet still showing her last emotion: terror.

Sesshoumaru didn't touch her. He reached to his side with his real arm and brought out his father's fang. The sword felt heavy in his hands looming over the child's body. It had never felt this heavy before. He swung the blade twice, then once more to be sure, cris-crossing the strokes over her torso. He set the sword beside him and waited for his sensitive ears to pick up her heartbeat, but minutes passed and nothing happened. Sesshoumaru inspected the wounds, they hadn't begun to heal. Absolutely nothing had happened. He tried again, doubling his strokes this time, nothing.

Sesshoumaru turned up to Naraku. "What have you done?" He was unable to shout this as he had intended, his strength seemed to be drained just at seeing her. "Answer me."

Naraku shook his head with his trademark smile. "I merely killed her, your timing is what couldn't save her. It isn't my fault."

Sesshoumaru looked down at the sword. "But the Tensaiga-"

"Can't bring back those that have been dead for three days or more." Naraku waved his hand. "I did a little research and wanted to see if it was true."

Sesshoumaru dropped the fang onto the grass beside him. "I saved her once before…"

"You mean the first time? Oh Sesshoumaru," he shook his head. "That wasn't even a day yet. Poor thing. She had to journey to the next life all alone, too, without even a kiss goodbye from Daddy of the Western Lands. I wonder if she's mad at you?"

Naraku smiled again but didn't laugh as he disappeared, leaving the White lord alone with his guilty conscience, he wasn't that cruel. Sesshoumaru sat on his knees in the same place beside the dead girl Rin from noon to sunset, praying for any sign of life. Finally, as the moon was rising, he had convinced himself that she was not coming back and closed her eyes. His hand froze on her face as the tears of centuries broke his perfect mask and drove him to the ground at her side. Why had he only brought a sword that couldn't kill? He lay weeping beside her body for hours, betraying all strength he had worked to gain as a demon.

When he at last found some amount of composure Sesshoumaru removed his outer shirt kimono and rapped her in it gently. He passed one clawed finger over her cheek before covering her face with the makeshift burial cloth. He slid the Tensaiga back into its sheath. Useless thing. He told himself. On week legs, the Lord of the West stood with the limp bundle in his arms, cradling her as he had when she was merely sleeping. He rose slowly into the night sky to fly her home one last time.

Rin…

Jaken watched from the doorway of his master's outer chambers, having to peek around the half open door to the inner room. He had finally fallen asleep for the first time in four months, so the lowly servant was relieved. Jaken knew his master's suffering was his fault, but he hadn't realized losing a human could be such a blow. He wondered if perhaps it would help his lord if he went to one of the courtyards and hung himself from a tree branch. There were worse ways to die in the service of his master.

The little green thing sighed inwardly. It was more as if Sesshoumaru had been the one who died, not that little girl. He'd never seen his master so… so… depressed. As a boy, his mother had practically danced on his father's grave while he observed silently. When his mother met an, um, untimely end, he simply tossed a flower at the grave and told her to remain in hell. Yet for this child, this human child, he had done everything for her but dug her grave with his own bare hands… he had a gardener bring him a shovel. It should have been humiliating, but he didn't care. It had been a humbling experience for the whole court, who still refused to speak of the incident.

But the other lords were talking plenty, and that wasn't good. If they talked too much they might stop joking and start attacking. The weakness that had paralyzed his master had to have some kind of remedy, if it didn't the Western Lands could be destroyed. Curse that blasted hanyou! This was his doing but he would never pay the price if Sesshoumaru never recovered. When had the life of a humble servant get twisted into some melodrama fairy tail? He had to help his master, the alternative made his neck ache just thinking about it.