Edge of Paradise chapter 12

That morning, Kagome awoke to the sight of the smoldering remains of the fire. More curiously, she found that her clothes, dry but stiff, were seemingly thrown carelessly over her form, Sesshomaru's strange pelt nowhere to be seen. Taking a quick mental inventory, she found Rin blessedly still asleep and Sesshomaru … missing. Of course. Curiously enough, she discovered two small bowls of rice and steamed fish sitting on a bamboo mat not far away. As she gingerly slipped into her clothes, Kagome wondered at the enigmatic man that was the lord Sesshomaru.

The cloud-filtered sunlight was filtering through the dark leaves of the surrounding trees when she gently woke Rin and gave her one of the bowls. As she brought a piece of fish to her mouth, she was reminded of her ordeal as her split bottom lip stung at the slight contact. Though Rin had been polite or unnoticing about it, Kagome knew that her face must look as though she got in a fight with a stone wall and lost. Pursing her lips at the pain, she choked down her breakfast and guided Rin to the edge of the spring to wash their faces.

Her reflection in the pool did not fail to meet expectations. The entire left side of her face was swollen and blotched with a lovely variety of maroons and purples with a few bits of dark blue thrown in for a nice variety. Rubbing her face with the warm water, she unsurprisingly discovered that her flesh was tender to the touch. How delightful. She supervised Rin's washing routine and combed her hair. As she was combing her own, she instructed Rin to douse the remnants of the embers in water, to which she dutifully complied. While tying her hair with her customary white ribbon, she heard an enthusiastic, "Ohayou gozaimasu, Sesshomaru-yokai-sama!"

Indeed, when she looked up, she saw Sesshomaru on the other side of the spring, looking as stoic and unamused as ever. She gave a quick bow and salutation, and resumed packing up camp. Sesshomaru merely walked to the edge of their camp and stood silently.

"Thank you for the meal this morning, Sesshomaru-sama." She was met with silence.

"I do not know from where you acquired it, but I appreciate it. Really I do." Silence.

"And thank you… thank you for last night. I don't know how I can thank you." Silence.

Irked with his lack of the usual cutting remark or even a simple "hmm," she shot a mildly irritated look at the demon as she carefully tied her furoshiki around her sore shoulders. To this he also gave no reply. Shaking her head, she laid a hand upon Rin's shoulder and headed in the direction of the river bank.

"Undress, miko."

She stopped in her footsteps and whirled around, unsure if she had heard him correctly. Her face must have conveyed her disbelieving bewilderment, as his own countenance grew dark with irritation in response.

"Undress, miko. I will not ask again."

Kagome stared at him for approximately two seconds before exploding into an unthinking rage. "Who the hell do you think you are to make demands like that? I didn't come along with you to dodge one man and end up in the hands of a worse one, you callous pig." Silver eyebrows sank low upon his forehead as magenta-crested eyelids narrowed. His expression riled her even more, and she quickly nocked an arrow in her bow, her cheeks blazing.

"Just because I got you into this mess, it doesn't mean you have free license to do with me what you will. If you touch me, I swear, I'll nail you to a tree in a heartbeat."

Sesshomaru reached into his hankimono sleeve, and Kagome's hand drew back the arrow.

"Your arm is shaking, miko. Put down the bow before you injure yourself," he clipped out coldly. To her embarrassed disbelief, his hand emerged from the sleeve with fresh bandages. "If I wanted you, I would have had you, threats of destruction or no. Now remove your clothes."

With equal parts begrudging sigh and sheepish look, she set her furoshiki down next to the tree stump to her right and parted the collar of her hakui and kosode until she could pull her arms from the fabric, leaving it hanging at the waist, still tucked into her hakama. Despite the sarashi covering her torso, she still crossed her arms protectively over her chest, eyes averted. Rin innocently found a pile of rocks to occupy her time, and through the thick silence, Kagome could hear Rin's falsetto voice of her rock villagers living their rock lives in their rock hut.

She looked tentatively up at Sesshomaru, who was the very picture of barely-contained impatience. Of course a brilliant high-born demon lord had no such time for humans and their silly sensitivities and insecurities. Of course, of course…

"Well, hand me the bandages, please. We haven't all day to cross the river, Sesshomaru-sama. Can you smell the storm coming?" The demon gave her a deadpan look that all but screamed, "Really? Did you really just ask that?"

"You cannot wrap such a wound by yourself, miko. Remove the sarashi."

Defiant fire flickered in her eyes. "No."

"The wound cannot be properly bandaged otherwise. Remove it."

"No."

"Miko, I will not ask again." His voice, while low in volume, had the effect of a clap of thunder. "I find neither amusement in your frivolous modesty, nor allure in your form. Remove it." With a disdainful curl of her lip, she did as he bade, folding it as he walked forward to look at her shoulder and collarbone.

"Kneel." Feeling simultaneously like an ill-treated servant and an assuming grating harpy, she complied. Guilt for her misjudgment and shame blanketed her thoughts.

Sesshomaru was alarmingly close. Too close. He bent over, practically at eye-level with her. "Hn. The spring seems to have flushed out most of the infection. Consider yourself lucky, miko. Only one area will have to be cut out."

"C-cut out?"

Before she could protest, the claw of his index finger sliced a thin ring around the inside of the largest and angriest of the punctures, and she let out a little yelp as the blood began trickling down. He quickly and adroitly began winding the bandage around her torso, working the cloth above and below her breast to ensure the stability of the bandage. As soon as it had started, it ended, and he took a wide step back. Kagome could not make eye contact.

"Dress yourself, miko. We have to cross the river and find a suitable shelter for you. It will rain tonight, and I believe the first typhoon of the season approaches."

With a nod, she rewound the sarashi around her torso and slipped back into her kosode and hakui. Bowing deeply, she quietly said, "I apologize, Lord Sesshomaru, for jumping to conclusions. It was wrong of me to imply any misconduct on your part. Thank you for bandaging these wounds. I hope that you will continue to allow this stupid miko to follow you in search of your cure."

With a shrug, he replied, "They were wounds caused by my claws. It is only fitting I should have to clean up my own dishonorable mess. In the future, however, you will be cleaning your own wounds, miko."

Well, this was as close to an apology as she was ever going to get. "Hai," she chirruped, slinging her ever-shrinking knapsack over her shoulders. "Rin-chan," she gently called, prompting the child to jump to her feet, abandoning her rock village and rock family.

When the party reached the ferry station on the riverbank, they found one less ferry operator. Before the toll collector could even open his mouth, Sesshomaru pulled a string of coins out of his sleeve and stepped onto the ferry. Kagome could feel the man's gaze lingering upon her bruises, and she wondered if he knew of his coworker's deed.

No matter. One slow, nerve-wracking float across the treacherous waters, and the trio were once again in safety, surrounded by forested mountains. Upon the horizon, Kagome could see a village and above it, rainclouds brewing. A sticky wind blew her hair over her shoulder. To the southeast, she espied dark clouds portending of storms coming their way. Wordlessly, Sesshomaru led the group toward the village.

Before they reached the outskirts, however, they were met with a party of armor-clad samurai. Rin nervously reached for Kagome's free hand. The largest man of the group strode forward, hand upon his katana.

"The law of our illustrious lord, Nanbu Nobutoki, states that no yokai may pass through this village or any of its incorporated lands. I will ask you one time: leave, yokai." Without batting an eyelash or losing a bit of dignity in his stride, Sesshomaru simply turned to the north and began walking parallel to the village.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Kagome meekly spoke up, "Konnichiwa, samurai-sama. I understand your lord's law concerning yokai, but, as you can see, neither I nor the child are demonkind. I humbly ask your permission to take refuge from the coming rain. I have money, and all I ask is one room-"

"Any human cavorting with demons is as good as one. We do not serve your kind here, yokai concubine. Leave now, or face the consequences of the law."

"But-"

The samurai all drew their swords, a synchronized "shring" sound echoing around them. Without pausing to see them raise their swords and begin running, Kagome tightened her grip upon Rin's hand and sprinted north into the woods. Heavy footsteps pounded after them, and Rin began crying. Kagome paid her no heed and pushed further into the trees. Shouts of "whore," "criminal," and promises of horrors and murder chased them as quickly as the soldiers, and Kagome found herself beginning to wheeze as they ran deeper into the woods without direction.

Without warning, white arms wrapped around her and Rin's waists, and then they were rocketing upwards toward the sky, a terrified scream ripping from her throat.

"Cease your screaming, miko, or I will drop you in the trees to be fodder for the men or wild animals, depending upon the nature of your fall," came an unmistakable cold voice in her ear.

"Sesshomaru-yokai-sama!" Rin yipped excitedly. Kagome stopped screaming long enough for gravity to take hold again, sending them arcing back down toward the canopy. As Sesshomaru sprang off of a tree branch and shot back into the sky, she shrieked. It became a regular pattern: up, down, spring and shriek, repeat. Soon, raindrops began sporadically pelting them. Just as it started steadily coming down, Sesshomaru and his passengers fell through the trees, Kagome giving an extra screech before they hit the ground in front of a massive pine tree.

Practically dropping the two females like hot rocks, Sesshomaru bit out, "Get in."

Kagome looked at him skeptically. "Unless there's a hut hiding behind this tree, I have no idea what you're talking about."

She could almost swear she saw him sigh in exasperation when he bent over and lifted a gigantic drooping bough from the ground. With an eager squeal, Rin darted inside to the underside of the tree. Giving one last tight-lipped look to the demon, Kagome stooped to follow her. Surprisingly, the inside was almost large enough to stand under and was relatively dry. She was pushing dry, sharp needles to one side of the dry ring when Sesshomaru entered their small sanctuary.

"No fire," he stated.

Kagome's shoulders drooped. "You don't say?" she drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm. Judging by his cool expression, he was not impressed by her tone. She finished clearing a spot on the ground and crouched on it. The rest of that rainy night was spent in relative silence.

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*Nanbu Nobutoki was a real guy. He was a leader of the Morioka branch of the Nanbu clan of samurai in what's now the city of Nanbu, and lived from 1442-1501.

Sorry for the huge gap in updates. No excuse really except for laziness and lack of inspiration. My bad :/ Though I have gone back and edited previous chapters. None of them are completely rewritten, but they've been revised, and I've hopefully corrected most of the spelling errors (I don't have a beta reader, so it's pretty hit and miss). Anyway, thanks for your guys' support. Without my readers, I am nothing.