Kagome! Where are you!

Chapter 6. Is this Hoth?


Corrected by Angelica Birmingham. Thank you


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Sesshomaru stands up on the ice. 'Foolish woman. Trying to order me around.' he thinks.

His eyes narrow against the glare the sun is causing against the ice. The cloudless sky is a deep
pure blue. He peeps at the sun above. The sun is only a point of light, not a disk, and it's not
quite the right color. A strong wind is blowing from the west. The temperature is still well below
freezing.

He firmly controls his body, so he does not shiver. 'I've been in blizzards that were warmer than
this.' he thinks.

The ice stretches to the horizon in all directions, except north.

To the north, a couple of hundred meters away, a greenish grass starts to grow on the ice. It
spreads across the ice from horizon to horizon. Perhaps a kilometer to the north, he can see land
rising from the ice and on that land he can see green trees.

He narrows his eyes and covers his forehead with his hand trying to reduce the glare, so he can
see better. There might be something flying near those trees.

'Do I tell her what I intend to do?' he thinks.

He shakes his head. "No. She is not my keeper." he concentrates and forms his flying cloud. He
steps onto it and starts to fly toward the trees in the north.

He stops at the line of grass and examines it. It's not grass. It's a thick green plant. It's triangular
in shape and grows about a palm's height off the ground. He rips a stalk off and sniffs it.
"Edible." he says to himself. 'Perfect for her.'

He steps back on his cloud and moves to the land. As he lands, a pair of large flying creatures
come out of the trees. They look like furry dragons at first glance. They are covered in a brown
fur, the wings are furry bat wings, not feathers. They are man-sized and their heads have a
dragonish shape, with a lot of long teeth in their jaws.

They screech at him and fly at him, both of their mouths wide open.

He pulls his sword and slashes them dead. "Food."

He looks at the trees. "Something to burn." The trees look like pine trees, but as he looks at
them, there are differences. The smell is not right. Sesshomaru goes over to one of the dead
flying semi-dragons and bends over it . .

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

"What's taking him so long?" Kagome says to herself. "I know it's only been a couple of
minutes, but I would have thought he'd come back in, by now."

She goes over to the new entrance leaves the chamber.

"Owww . . . " she whispers as the glare hits her eyes. She retreats back into the chamber. She
comes back out a minute later wearing sunglasses. 'Mom added these to my bag, but . . . wearing
them always caused major problems, so I just left them in the bag. Now they'll be useful.' She thinks.

She shivers. 'It's cold . . . ' she places her hands under her arms and rubs herself.

As she takes her first steps on the ice, she slips and falls, landing on her rear. "Ouch!"

She rubs her ass. "Well I can see that I'm not walking anywhere." She mumbles to herself.

She looks around. Off in the distance she can see Sesshomaru fly away to the north. "Why did
he?" She shakes her head. "We're on an unknown world and he leaves me." She hisses in anger.

She spots the trees he's flying to. "Well. That explains that. I wonder if he'll remember to bring
back some firewood?"

A puzzled look on her face, she says, "I also don't remember Hoth being shown to have anything
green on it. Sigh . . . so, we probably on some unknown icy world. And I wanted to meet them."
she sighs . . .

She looks around and shivers. 'I'm going back inside. There is nothing I can do out here.'

She returns to the chamber.

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

later

Sesshomaru enters the chamber dragging a brown furred bag into the chamber. He shoves it over
to her.

"Here woman. Inside are some plants and some meat. You may eat them." He says.

Kagome, instead of opening the bag, shoves it off to one side. "You are getting into my bag.
Now! You're blue!"

"..." he opens his mouth, but closes it and moves to her bag.

"Get out of those clothes too. They're filthy!" she orders
Sesshomaru's robes have blood stains on them. "The robe is magical, woman. The blood will
fade in a short while."

"Still, they are wet, so off with them." He nods, fumbles a bit as he removes his clothes and
enters the bag.

Kagome begins to remove her clothes. "Why woman?"

She looks at him, like he is stupid. "You need to get warm. My body will warm you up faster
than anything else."

"There is firewood outside."

Kagome hesitates, but finishes removing her clothes. "And I'll get it, after you get warm."

She crawls into the bag. "You're ice cold, Sesshomaru."

"This Sesshomaru cannot feel his fingers." he whispers.

She looks at them. They are a blue-black color. "They are probably frostbitten, Sesshomaru. I'll
warm them up and we'll see." She places his hand between her breasts, rubbing it and blowing on
it.

'I will not let my body rule.' Sesshomaru thinks as he prevents his body from reacting.

"Your ears, Sesshomaru?" Kagome can see that they are the same color as his fingers. "And what
about your feet?"

"This Sesshomaru cannot feel either."

Kagome nods. "As soon as your hand warms up, I'll see about your feet, next."

After about fifteen minutes of rubbing, Kagome lifts up his hand. The color looks normal and
she can see that his healing ability is beginning to work and fix his hand.

"I'm going to get out and switch so I can get to your feet, Sesshomaru." Kagome exits the bag
and crawls in head first. She grabs the flashlight as she slides down his body. 'Don't think about
what, I've just brushed against.'

His toes are also a blue-black color, but not as bad as his hand. "The warmth of the bag is
working, but lets help them." She grabs his feet and begins to rub them, to warm them up.

Sesshomaru is looking down his body and up hers, and he thinks, 'I definitely will not allow my
body to react.' He averts his eyes from her body. 'She is also showing great control. Her body is
not reacting to mine.'
After about five minutes of rubbing Kagome can see his feet react and start to heal. "Can you
feel this?" she wiggles his little toe.

"Yes."

"Good. I'm going to crawl out now, Sesshomaru." she warns as she crawls out of the bag and
reenters it. "Lets see about your ears." She reaches for his hair.

"They are fine, Higurashi." he says as he grabs her hand.

She smiles at him. "Thank you, Lord Sesshomaru."
Pause.

"In that case, you are warm enough. So, I will go out and get that firewood. Stay in here and
keep warm."

"I don't have to follow your orders, woman."

She rolls her eyes. "Ok. Consider it advice, then. Just follow it."

"Hrmph."

She leaves the bag and puts on her clothes, including her taped-up pajama bottoms. She grabs
her spare uniform and puts that on. She also puts on her pajama top. 'I'm going to need as much
clothes on as possible. I'm going to be going in and out, probably for a while.' she thinks. She
triples up on her socks and uses socks on her hands as mittens. She ties a towel around her head.

She says to Sesshomaru as she leaves. "Well, If I don't return in five minutes, come out and grab
my statue, Ok?" She smiles.

Kagome goes outside. She looks at the sun and she frowns. "It's in the wrong position. It should
be about noon, but it looks like two or so." she says to herself. "I'll bet this planet's day is shorter
than earths." she smiles, "That also means the night's are shorter, which is good."

"Sesshomaru . . . you idiot . . . " she whispers as she approaches the huge pile of wood. It is chest
high and a body length long. Each piece of wood is cut about the length of her forearm. The
wood is about three to four centimeters thick. "Perfectionist."

"Ok, time to get warm." She grabs an armful of wood and slides back down to the entrance.
She brings the wood into the chamber. "I'm going to start a fire, before I go get more wood."

She places a piece of wood in the pot. It sticks out at an odd angel, but it stays in. She rips some
pages out of one of her books and stuffs the bottom of the pot with the page. She uses her lighter
to s a f a fire. She watches it a couple of minutes. "Good. That wood is catching fire."
"I'll be back in with more."

Kagome goes back and forth several times bringing in wood each time.

After a while, She stops and begins to undress. "I'm going to need you to warm me,
Sesshomaru." she says as she slides into the bag.

"Very well. This Sesshomaru can see the necessity of keeping you alive and healthy."

"Thank you, Sesshomaru, sir." Kagome says in a very sarcastic tone as she looks at him from
only a couple of centimeters away as they lay side by side in the bag.

"Woman, do not take that tone with this Sesshomaru."

"Damn it, Sesshomaru!" Kagome glares at him, her eyes alive with fire. "We have to depend on
each other, at least, you can be nice about it."

Her eyes hold his. "I don't expect you to apologize. No doubt you'd find it demeaning to do so
for a human, but, please, things will be so much better if you'd try to be nice." she whispers.
"And I am sorry for my tone. It's just..."

He grabs her cold right hand and begins to rub it. "Thank you, Sesshomaru." she whispers.

"Keeping you alive and healthy is something this Sesshomaru needs to do, in order to return
home. Being nice, as you call it, may be necessary, but woman, I expect you to respect and
honor me."

He glares at her.

"And Lord Sesshomaru, I expect the same." Kagome glares back to him. "Io, ao, am worthy of
respect and I will expect you to respect me."

"As a Miko, you powers are respectable." he says.

Her mouth twitches. "That'll do. Thank you, Lord Sesshomaru."

After about fifteen minutes Kagome warms up. "Now I'll get out and see about cooking the food
you brought." she says as she slides out of the bag.

"It is not necessary to prepare any food for this Sesshomaru."

Kagome glares at him, obviously thinking about asking him why, again. "Hrmph. You won't tell
me even if I asked." She mumbles as she turns away.

She opens the furry bag, Sesshomaru bought in. Inside are some green triangular plants and
some meat. "Is it poisonous?" she whispers.

"No, woman." Sesshomaru says.

She turns to face him. "Yes, I suppose you'd know."

She prepares the food and cooks it. As she melts some ice for water, she tastes it and spits it out.
"Salt water, I can't use this. This must be a frozen sea. But I've got some bottled water in my bag,
so it's not a real problem." She says to herself.

The green plants taste like celery and the meat has a pork-like taste, but otherwise it's a good
meal. "I wonder about diseases." she says as she cleans up afterward.

"Diseases?"

"Cooking it should kill any bugs, so I should be fine. But what about you, Sesshomaru?"

"This Sesshomaru feels fine and he has never been sick during his lifetime, so you can forget any
thought about illness."

"If you say so."

Kagome finishes cleaning up the area and sits down next to her bag. "Now what?"

"Hmm. Explain."

"Well, you obviously think you're in charge, Sesshomaru." Kagome begins. "So, now what?
We've got food and fuel for the fire. This ice chamber is holding up. I thought it'll melt by now,
but apparently those Eskimo igloos do work." Sesshomaru raises an eyebrow at that statement,
but lets it pass without comment.

Sesshomaru pauses as he thinks, 'what else is needed to do? The chamber is basically as clean as
she can make it. She even dug a space for wastes. Food and fuel are here. Water could be a
problem, but she has some in her bag, so . . . All we really need to do is to stay in here until the
cube works. It's too cold outside to explore, not that there will be anything out there in this icy wasteland.'
"Do as you wish, woman."

"Well . . " she says to herself. She thinks, 'what do I do? I mean, it's obvious that Sesshomaru
isn't a conversationalist, so talking to him is out. Study? Sighs . . I suppose, not that I'd really
learn anything. No way I'm in a mood to learn today. But . . . perhaps, it'll take my mind off this
mess I'm in.'

She goes over to her books and looks at them. 'Well, which one. Let's try physics. It might be
useful.' she thinks.


She goes over to her sleeping bag. "Oh, Sesshomaru, sir. I'm going to join you in my sleeping
bag. That way we can keep each other warm."

"Very well."

She undresses and enters the sleeping bag. She then starts to read her school textbook.

Sesshomaru, his curiosity getting the better of him, begins to read over her shoulder. 'What is
this? This is something, new, strange . . . ' He looks at her and back at the book.

"What are you doing, female?"

"I'm trying to study, Sesshomaru. Back home, I go to school and learning this is part of my
assignments. And when I return home,"

A pause, Sesshomaru can hear her whisper, "and I will return home."

Then Kagome continues saying, "I will be tested on the knowledge in this book and the other
books I've brought." she grins. "This is my physics textbook. Perhaps it'll have something in it
that'll help us."

Her eyes narrow, "Perhaps if I turn to the section on astronomy. You'll see what we are facing."

She turns the boo tha that section and shows Sesshomaru the basic overview. "See we are on a
different world. I thought we were on a planet know as Hoth, but, now, I don't think so."

'How much does she know?' he thinks. The quick overview she just gave him has gotten him
lost. 'Those pictures, beautiful, but what they represent.... Everything she's saying is very
different from what I was taught and what is traditionally correct.'
"Higurashi?"
"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru."

"Why do you not act on your fear of this Sesshomaru?"

"I'm not afraid of you."

"You lie. I can smell it."

She sighs, "Because, Lord Sesshomaru, If I act, as if I'm afraid of you, you will lose any,
however small, respect you have for me." she stares him in the eyes, "And, in order to survive, I
need you to respect me, not treat me as you would any other human female."

'I wonder just how she wants to be treated? As an equal? Preposterous. Do I ask her? No. I
cannot let her think her opinions really matter, she's already ordered me around and asking her
would just be asking for trouble. Give a human a finger length and they'll take a body length.' he thinks.

He nods his head.


A pause and Kagome, softly shakes her head as she goes back to reading her textbook.

Later... after nightfall....

She yawns, puts down her book and turns to him. "Sigh. I not really into it tonight, Sesshomaru.
I keep wishing I was home." she whispers. She closes her eyes, he can see tears begin to form.

'How I wish I could ask him for a hug. But... he would refuse.' she thinks. 'Control yourself,
Kagome. Don't cry in front of him. There is no way he'd understand.' she shivers and turns away
from Sesshomaru.

'I'm lost with only Inu-yasha's murderous older brother for company. I have no idea how long
we'll be together. There are millions of combinations on the cube and only one of them will get
use . e . . .' She closes her eyes and tries to calm herself so she can sleep.

'What do I do?' Sesshomaru thinks. 'She obviously wants to be reassured, but. Do I? ... are her
feelings really that important to me? And even if I tried to comfort her, she'd refuse it, I'm sure.'

He turns around so they are back to back. His hand twitches, like it wants to move closer to
Kagome, but Sesshomaru firmly controls his hand so it does not move.
Kagome's breathing evens out and she's asleep...

His breathing becomes steady and he falls asleep...

The end chapter 6...
I am sorry about the Hoth line. But . . . That was Kagome's best guess. If you, the reader, where
stuck on a icy world, what world would you think of first?

I do plan on them visiting a world from Star Wars, just not yet.

I've had a couple of reviewers ask how this fits into my other stories...

Hmmm.. It is definitely after "Spring Fertility Festival" and it's also after "What Friends Find
Out". It will probably fit in after "A Shard in Kyoto" but... I could change that.

Also had a reviewer ask about how "dirty" this is going to get. Right now... this is about as
detailed as I'm going to get, at least for the foreseeable future. (Violence will be increasing in the
next couple of chapters, as I introduce some physical challs fos for the two of them, and
depending on how detailed that gets, I might rate some of those chapters R for violence.)
Sex/Love will be happening in this story, but I'm going to try to keep it something like. "The
door closes behind them. Noises of lovemaking come through the door."

Thank you for reading jeff shelton