Encroaching Darkness

Authors Note: Yes, I know... long time since last update. Always busy. By the way, you can stay updated with my fanfiction and fanart at - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taiyoukai-nile/ . I also usually update at http://inuyasha-fanfiction.com first. Those who write any InuYasha fanfiction are welcomed there too. :)

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“Get up!” Sesshoumaru said.

Kagome scrunched her nose in her sleep, the only indication that she heard him on some level.

Sesshoumaru smirked. He had been informed that Kagome did not easily wake up, but if she wanted to train to be a warrior, she had to be aware of her surroundings. He once heard from another demon that it was like taking care of their young ones. They required constant attention even when you needed sleep, so you always had to keep at least one ear open. The demon lord crouched until the point he was close to her ear and then bit it.

Kagome yelled, and Sesshoumaru almost marveled on how her body jumped so high.

As Kagome recovered, she recognized the aura of the person who had rudely waken her up.

“Training?” she half asked, half grumbled.

Sesshoumaru only replied, “Be appropriately dressed and in the field. We will be beginning with basics today. I trust that you will be able to find me based on my aura.”

Kagome groaned, but nodded as she heard the demon silk of Sesshoumaru’s pants swish, as he quickly left her room.

She had no idea what time it was, but even though she liked her sleep, she was determined to make sure she did not give the Western lord too many problems. He was taking time from his busy schedule to train her even though she had a disability. She grabbed some clothes that Michiko had set out for her and found them to be some underclothes, a simple shirt, and some pants.

“Michiko must have raided my bag to see what I wore,” she chuckled as she put them on.

She had no idea what the colors of her clothes were, but she did not care. She had training to do. When she was done, she followed her senses. Sesshoumaru had left her a trail with his aura and she found it strange that he deliberately did so, but did not argue with his decision. When she arrived, he said, “Now that you have arrived, we will start. You are blind, which is not at all different from when you were not, especially when faced with the dark. However, you contain the ability to sense auras. With this practice, you will refrain from exercising that talent. Instead, you will focus on your other senses. Demons do this often when one or more senses are not available. Sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch are all very important together, but if one is compromised, demons rely on the rest by instinct.”

Kagome nodded her head in understanding. She knew these things from biology. Sesshoumaru saw her nod and added, “You may understand, but there is a difference between the ability to harness your other senses, and knowing that it is possible. Because it is morning, and you will want sustenance, you will have to learn how to find your food using your senses.”

Kagome frowned and replied, “How will that aid me in fighting my enemy.”

“You will be able to sense them with all of your senses instead of one or two,” the demon lord answered. “Your challenge is to taste, smell, and touch your food. You will only partake of each item. After, you will be challenged to smell your food at different distances. This is very basic, but very important. Even though your enemy is not your food, you will smell their body odor. And when you hunt for food, you will smell your prey.”

Kagome found herself frowning once more. At first she was positive the lesson would be easy, but she was not so sure. She knew that demons used all of their senses, and some demons could use some better than others. For example, Lord Sesshoumaru could smell and hear extraordinarily. Even InuYasha could do things she could not. She hesitantly reached out to pluck the first item from her plate with her hands. They landed in something mushy and warm. Just those two attributes had her thinking of the different possibilities.

“Do not feel it. You are to taste it and not guess what it is based on touch,” the silver-haired lord reminded Kagome.

The blind priestess slowly lifted the mushy mess to her lips and smelled it.

“Good. At least you have the common sense to smell what you eat first,” Sesshoumaru said.

Kagome frowned, and let the smell waft into her nose.

‘Cinnamon, sweet, a bit grainy,’ she thought.

“Now that you have smelled it, you make take a guess at what it is,” Sesshoumaru said.

“Is it oatmeal with cinnamon and sugar?” Kagome asked.

“No, it is not oats with cinnamon and sugar, but you are close,” he replied. “Smell carefully again, and then you may taste it.”

Kagome took in the smell as Sesshoumaru beckoned before eating from her hand. Her unseeing eyes widened with shock. She could not believe that she had not recognized it! She had even eaten it in her time.

“Rice with cinnamon, butter, and sugar,” she groaned, her mouth still full of food.

“How attractive, Kagome,” Sesshoumaru said sarcastically.
She almost stuck her tongue out at him, but she knew he was trying to teach her. She remembered the times InuYasha had heard or smelled an enemy within their area. Kaede once told her that no priestess had the same powers. Some had powers that rivaled the demons and some were so weak, but just enough to guard a small village against minor youkai. She knew her powers were odd. She had never been normal and people always were shocked when they came forth. However, that was the point, she was still quite untrained even though Kaede tried to help her. She slowly savored the bite and then proceeded to the next piece of food. Her hand already had stickiness of the cinnamon and sugar rice when she picked up a tender wet sliver of something she could not identify.

She held it to her nose to smell and the smell of blood and meat invaded her olfactory system.

“Raw meat?” she said.

“Yes, but particularly quite fresh. The animal was killed not long ago,” Sesshoumaru said. “Can you indentify what kind?”

Kagome wracked her braining, remembering the times she had to cook and how the raw animal meat had smelled. To her, some smelled so closely to others, but this had a more iron smell than other meat.

“It is a liver, but I cannot tell what animal it is from,” she said.

“Very good. That is part of a chicken’s liver. You will eat it,” the demon lord told her.

She cringed. She did not want to eat raw meat, no matter what it was and gave Sesshoumaru a pleading look. However, she knew it was impossible to negotiate. Sesshoumaru had a lesson to teach and even if she barfed, he was still going to teach it. She hesitantly lifted the chicken liver to her mouth and tried to drown out the smell, but when she opened her mouth, the scent was unavoidable. She could feel her gag reflexes trying to react, but she took a deep breath and shoved the whole piece into her mouth.

The liver was a bit tough, but also slimy. She frowned as she chewed the raw meat, feeling the blood drip down her chin. Some of the juices traveled to the back of her mouth and down her esophagus, and her throat tried to revolt. It was almost like the time her friends had taken her to a Mexican restaurant and she had been dared to eat something so hot her throat tried to close up on her.

However, she soon found herself shocked stiff as Sesshoumaru kissed her lips, lapping up the blood from the liver. She swallowed the rest of the raw lump as a result.

‘Sesshoumaru is kissing me?’ she thought, feeling as if she were having an outer-body experience.

The kiss was brief, but she was left reeling from it. She had not even gotten tongue from him and she just about had a heart attack!

“Why did you do that?” Kagome asked.

Sesshoumaru merely replied, “Proceed to the next article of food.”

She almost stomped from the frustration, but picked up the food. She had a feeling he would just blow her off. She wondered if it was something that he was trying to show her that he was trying to make the relationship work. It had been three weeks since she had been informed of her change of station and they had spent some time together. It was very awkwards, and Kagome had no idea what to do.

He never intruded on her space, but he always kept just inside her friendly space, but never within the close space she always designated as intimate space. He asked her questions about her time and her family. He seemed genuinely interested, far more so than any male had ever expressed. Although she did not get too much feedback from him, what he said was brief and did reveal just a little about him. She found that he enjoyed literature and calligraphy as a private hobby, but he passionately learned whatever fighting techniques he ever heard about and even more so, enjoyed meditating.

However, she still only knew him a little and was terribly shy around any male. The kiss was great, but it was strange that he did it when she had a raw piece of meat in her mouth.

‘Is it a turn on for him?’ she wondered.

“Um,” she blushed, unable to respond properly.

“Please try the next piece of food,” he said.

She nodded and continued. However, each piece she smelled and tasted, she could not get her mind off of the kiss. It was the first kiss she had gotten that was not initiated by her or in a way to save someone from danger. She had kissed InuYasha in Kaguya’s castle to save him from becoming a slave to his demon side. She loved him, but it was the only thing at the time that had come to mind at that time. Fortunately for her, the kiss worked. She feared that if it had not, she would have been lipless for the rest of her life.

“That was my first kiss,” she admitted breathily, although it was nearly hours later when the demon lord ended her lessons with him for the day.

“Perhaps we can make better of it later?” Sesshoumaru replied, eliciting a blush from her as she scurried from the area.

‘He was flirting with me?’ she asked.

She was not opposed to him flirting, but unaccustomed. The only real flirting she had ever witnessed had been from Kouga and Miroku. The both of them were not exactly very gentlemanly, and she had never been interested.

However, as her stay in the Western Citadel grew longer, she was seeing a side of Sesshoumaru that she had never seen before. In fact, it kind of scared her and the fact that she was the Lady of the West; it was a bit much for her to still comprehend. She bypassed the hall that led to Michiko for her lessons on managing the estate and blindly bumbled for a private place to think. It took a bit to get past the stifling demon auras until she was ensconced between some bushes and a wall. She sank to the ground to try to take everything in that had been taking place.

She was not against Sesshoumaru kissing her. She thought he was handsome, but he had never given her any indication that he knew how to be intimate. On top of that, the situation in which he had decided to kiss her had been very awkward.

‘Who kisses another that has a piece of raw meat in their mouth?’ she thought bewilderedly.

On top of that, she missed her ragtag gang. She missed Shippou so much and wondered what he was doing at the moment. She wondered if Sango was whapping Miroku across the face for being a lecher as usual. She even wondered if InuYasha was all right. She almost felt bad, but she knew she had made the right choice. She had only been able to contribute to her group and even though she cooked and helped heal her friends, she had no skills to fight alongside them. On top of that, she was now blind and really needed to help. Naraku had to die and she knew she was the key to finding the evil half-demon. It was not a cocky assumption. It was the truth. She had a connection with the Shikon no Tama was surpassed even Kikyo’s own connection. She had been born with the jewel inside her body and felt its pull constantly. Her friends were the closest she had to family since her own time was sealed from her so she was kind of homesick.

As she came out of her thoughts, she felt Sesshoumaru only feet away. She almost gasped on how she had missed him intruding, but quelled her reaction. Sesshoumaru reached through the bush and picked her up.

“Michiko is looking for you,” he said.

“Oh, I am sorry. I just needed a private place to think,” she said offhandedly.

“As you wish, my lady,” he replied. “However, if you choose this corner again for your private thoughts, do tell others. Your safety is important to this Sesshoumaru.”

Kagome nodded, and then laid her head on the dog demon’s chest as he brought her back within the estate. Her heart fluttered when he had said ‘my lady.’

It had sounded very endearing to her.