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A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale	By : Zoid Category: InuYasha > General Views: 3984 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
A
Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Chapter
8

Tall
Towers and Tree Houses

Disclaimer:
So, like, does Rumiko Takahashi happen to have a son roughly my age?
... probably not, which is why I will never own Inuyasha.

A.N.:
I can't seem to reach Alvida, who beta reads my story, so this
chapter is not seconded, which means: leave me alone about mistakes –
or wait, don't, so I can correct them.

Anyway,
as Inuyasha really wasn't hurt during the last chapter this one's the
one to make up for it. And, dammit, did I get carried away!

And
I'm being rather explicit about some things
like throwing up and stuff, if that offends any of you, back off!

OOOO

OOO

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OO

OOO

OOOO

No
matter how he looked at it, there was no reasonable way to explain
how the other man's presence had managed to escape his attention. It
just wasn't like him to let his guard down like that. And it was most
certainly pure coincidence that seconds before he'd taken a large
sniff of the rooms scent... for some reason of absolutely no
relevance except for a vague idea of calming himself down a little.
Coincidence, yeah.

A
suddenly lit candle and revealed the face of a mustached man sitting
on a chair near the mirror. He was smiling but the flickering
candlelight subtly changed his smile into a gruesome grimace. That,
or he really was watching Inuyasha that murderously, he couldn't be
too sure.

The
man leaned back in his chair comfortably, placed his entwined hands
on the slight bulge of his belly and set to speak in a cheerful and
pleasant voice - that still had the hair on the back of Inuyasha's
neck rise almost painfully.

"Let
me tell you of my day young fellow," the man never took his eyes
of Inuyasha, all but ignoring Kagome standing right beside him. "It
looked promising all morning, you know, I lead a little fox hunt
after breakfast and was back in time to enjoy lunch with my wife and
my two beautiful daughters, then I had a long meeting with my
housekeeper and my counselor, discussing some financial matters as
well as the impending marriage between my house and that of my...
dear neighbor. I was interrupted only shortly by the older of my
daughters, but what she told me was quite alarming. She said that she
feared her little sister was feeling forced into that marriage, was
depressed about it. I cursed myself for my blatant ignorance of her
feelings concerning that union and promised myself to visit her in
her chamber after supper to have her shed some light onto the matter.
But finding her fast a sleep I decided to return a little later,
since she obviously had slept through supper and knowing my little
one she'd wake up hungrily some hours later."

It
wasn't until he said that that Inuyasha saw the plate standing on the
drawer besides the man – who most probably was the Count of
this castle and Kagome's counterpart's father. "Now imagine my
surprise upon entering my daughter's chamber at half past eleven and
finding it empty – except for the dress she'd worn today lying
in a heap on the floor besides her bed. Imagine my surprise and my
growing alarm upon finding out that she was nowhere to be found, not
in the kitchens, not with her sister or her mother but that on a
little prying on my side her sister admitted that our little one had
been seen in dubious company today. Very dubious, for an innocent
girl like her I dare say, dangerous company."

The
count stood and walked over to them, positioning himself in front of
Inuyasha who had to admit that he was a little intimidated –
the count seemed to tower over him even though he was actually
smaller. It must have been the overprotective father aura that did it
to him.

"Now
imagine my wrath, imagine my wrath upon then, after half a night of
wait, having my little dearest stumble into her room accompanied by
exactly the very dubious company I feared was bent on defiling her."

Should
people that had just declared themselves insanely angry be smiling?
Inuyasha wasn't sure, but he braced himself, just in case.

"And
on top of that I find her dressed in nothing but a skimpy undergown
and with a more than flushed complexion." He took another step
closer, bringing his face closer enough to Inuyasha's than it deemed
him acceptable but he stayed glued to the spot, even as the fake
smile on the Count's face suddenly dropped and turned into a mask of
pure ire.

"One
reason, give me one reason why I should not have you whipped
and beheaded for this outrage and I might
decide that having your filthy tongue torn out will suffice." he
snarled, all the while grabbing the collar of Inuyasha's shirt and
shaking him.

Inuyasha
found it hard to speak, but not for the reasons the count probably
thought he did. It wouldn't take him more than a split second to
effectively get rid of the count, grab Kagome and leave the whole
goddamn castle to rot for all he cared, and he figured that there had
been a time (Three days ago, to be precise) when he would have done
so without hesitation.

But
his conscience, or rather Kagome since she seemed to be so eagerly
replacing his lacking one, was not only gnawing at the back of his
mind and reminding him to consider the fate that their counterparts
were to expect as soon as they would cluelessly gain control over
themselves again, but also that a kidnapping of that kind might for
some strange and very aristocratic reason be linked back to the other
count, thus sparking off the expected feud. Not that he gave a damn,
but Kagome would go apeshit on him about it and wouldn't rest until
'the wrong was righted', or even worse she'd, he shuddered
involuntarily, start crying again.

The
throttling increased as he refused to answer, and he was more or less
about to just take a run for it without Kagome, when said girl, who
had been watchi – no listening to the Count's speech in
perplexed silence, suddenly screamed and hurled herself towards them,
gripping her 'father's' arms, pulling at them.

"No,
please father, he hasn't done anything wrong - " well, she was
probably more used to dealing with fathers and the likes, perhaps she
knew what to say to get them out of this situation. " at least
nothing I didn't ask him to - " Or not. The grip on his shirt
loosened at that, but Inuyasha cringed nonetheless. That couldn't
possibly have come out any more wrong...

The
count's reaction didn't come as much of a surprise.

“You
what?!?”, he interrupted her, “What did you ask him to –
Palea! You – you – you are twelve for Olaon's sake, that
is no age to be... and with that lowly scum of all – what on- “

But
Kagome didn't appear to be intimidated one bit by his yelling, the
opposite quite, she seethed visibly.

“So
I'm of no age to be doing that
but without doubt of the perfect age to be married, even though,
correct me if I'm mistaken, that
is one of the first matrimonial duties? Mind to elaborate, father?!!”

Wow, she really was
getting better at the whole acting thing, although Inuyasha guessed
that the outburst wasn't much of an act anyway, since waves of
feminist indignation rolled off her as she
glared into the vague direction of the count with her milky eyes. Oh
and he was all to familiar with feminist indignation, having spend
the late seventies and early eighties in Berlin and all.

The count sputtered
with surprise, almost stumbled backwards at her reaction.

“Palea!
That is no way to be speaking with you father!”

“Well,
marrying me off to some creep is no way to be treating your
daughter!”

“What language
Palea! What has gotten into you all of a sudden? I – you aren't
yourself anymore!”

Now if only he knew
how close to the truth he'd gotten with that comment. Inuyasha
watched the exchange of yells with morbid fascination, dimly aware
that he ought to have taken advantage of the count's obvious
diversion and take his leave. But now it was too late, he realized as
the count turned towards him again with renewed anger.
“You!!!
You have defiled my little doe girl!”

“He's got
nothing to do with this!!!” Kagome roared almost, “This
concerns me and you, not him!”

“Palea, he
confused you, took advantage of your naivety and
filled your little head with all the wrong ideas, and that is what
makes you defend him now, I see that, but that doesn't make what he
did any less punishable!”

Definitely not
liking the course the conversation took Inuyasha started edging
towards the door. It was obvious that the count wouldn't harm his own
daughter, so he could risk leaving Kagome alone for a while. But the
count's head snapped around as soon as he moved.

“GUARDS!!!”
he hollered, and Inuyasha only managed a desperate dash for the door
until the room was swamped by men in shiny armor. He took down at
least half of them, but in the end their advantages overweighted his,
and they beat him unconscious in front of the screaming Kagome, who
was being restrained with quite some effort by her father.

In a strange attempt
to console her he yelled “I'm alright, Kagome-” just when
a particularly nasty blow hit his head and the black blanket of
unconsciousness finally was draped over him. He would have laughed at
the irony if not for the firework of pain that exploded all over his
body that very moment, effectively keeping him from thinking anything
besides 'Ouch!'. He only heard the count order “Take him to the
cell!” and Kagome sob “Inuyasha!” before he passed
out.

OOO

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OO

OOO

'The cell' the count
had him thrown in was really little more than that, a plain room that
offered exactly enough space for him to lie on the ground with the
skull shaking headache he'd woken up with. Trying to move as little
as possible he glanced around in the dim light that shone through the
small trellised window up in the wall opposite the door. He appeared
to be lying on a heap of suspiciously moist straw that covered more
than half of the room. In the far end he could make out some kind of
bucket, and it didn't take a genius to guess its purpose by the
smells that stretched their repelling, almost tangible tentacles
towards him.

Finally fed up with
the straw poking into his ear he sat up – which was not that
much of a good idea since his stomach, traitorously siding with his
concussed head, decided to remind him that it received quite some
nasty punches not so long ago and spontaneously spilled its contents
into the bucket that Inuyasha only just managed to reach for. When he
was sure that there wasn't even an ounce of stomach acid left inside
him he sat back, wishing that during the years he'd already spend
throwing up at least once a week he'd gotten used to the taste and
smell of it but that was probably as much of a unhealthy as of a
disgusting thing to wish for. He wasn't bulimic after all.

He spend a while
just staring ahead and recollecting his strewn about thoughts until a
scraping sounded from the door and a ray of light cut through the
half darkness.

“You awake in
there?”

Inuyasha glared at
the guard that peered through the window in the door and didn't grace
him with an answer since that much should have been obvious.

“Hungry?”

Hell yeah! He he'd
thrown up what he felt had been a weeks worth of food, of course he
was hungry. But pride forbade to even acknowledge the man. Stupid
pride.

“Well,
anyway...”

Something hard hit
his head making it explode again for what it felt like and this time
pride just sat and whistled in feigned innocence while he failed to
suppress a very undignified hiss of pain. The object the guard had
thrown at him turned out to be a piece of bread that was so hard he
had to soak the edible bits, that weren't very numerous to begin
with, in his saliva to be able to nibble on them. But he wouldn't
complain, mainly because he was really awfully hungry and also
because there was no one in reach to complain to. He figured that
getting up was out of question as long as his head hurt the way it
did, he wasn't all that versed in human healing but with the blows
he'd received it was best to be careful, he knew that much. So he sat
and watched the light grow stronger as morning dawned.

The pain in his
limbs numbed to a bearable, or ignorable more like, level rather
quickly - two centuries of training had to pay off in some way some
day - and when the first rays of the sun found their way through the
small window, Inuyasha estimated that it had to be late morning by
then, he was able to move his head and not feel like he was being hit
by a jackhammer. When he considered his constitution improved enough
he pulled himself up, the primitive masonry came in quite handy, and,
after a moment he granted his circulation to start working properly
again, searched the room for a way out.

But the window was
not only probably too small for him to fit through, there was also no
way he'd be able to move the sturdy looking bars out of the way in
less then a weeks work with noting but the handle of a bucket as a
tool. Inuyasha sighed and wished for what he felt was the thousandth
time that he still had his own body. With hanyou strength ripping the
bars out would have been a matter of seconds, in fact, he could just
as well have walked straight through the wall. But it couldn't be
helped and so he turned towards the door instead.

The flap that
covered the opening in the door could be shoved aside from the
inside, too, but while he might have, with enormous effort, somehow
been able to squeeze through the window in the wall if it weren't for
the bars there was no way he'd manage to stick more than his head
through the window in the door. Alarmed by the screeching of the flap
the second factor that would make an escape from his prison even
harder stood from his chair left to the door and stepped in front of
him.

“What is it?”
he asked suspiciously.

Well, now that he
was alerted anyway, he might just as well pry a little information
out of the guard, Inuyasha reasoned.

“So what are
you guys gonna do to me?” he asked nonchalantly.

The guard quirked an
eyebrow at his tone – or at the question.

“I guess that
depends on the results of the inquiry that's going on down there
right now - “ he indicated the castle beneath them with a
downward movement of his head.

“Inquiry?”

“Or should I
say, examination? You know... his Lordship has the maid check how
much.. harm you've done his daughter.”

Inuyasha couldn't
quite fight the blush that rose to his face at the guards
implications, which was ridiculous 'cause he'd done nothing worth
blushing, and sure as hell nothing that actually justified all the
fuzz the count seemed to be causing.

The guard took his
red face as the clear sign of a guilty conscience. He shook his head.

“Boy, really,
you're insane if you thought you'd get away with that. What on earth
has gotten into you? The maids, alright, I understand that, can't say
I didn't have one or another of them neither, but his Lordship's
daughter, for Olaon's sake!”

“But I didn't
-” Inuyasha rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. Why did he
feel the urge to defend himself against the accusation of having done
something like that with Kagome? Or rather - and that was probably
the whole explanation - having done something like that to
Kagome? Somehow his thoughts shied away at the sole idea, like it was
a sacrilege to even consider it, and it had little to do with the
fact that she was currently inhabiting the body of an estimated
twelve year old brat. Inuyasha shrugged these thoughts off but they
lingered in the back of his mind, surfacing occasionally, especially
after the guard had lost interest and left him to ponder whilst
returning to the much more pleasant task of cutting his fingernails
with a knife.

His still very
battered body solved the thinking problem after a while though, when
exhaust overcame him he fell asleep before he was able to blush yet
again at the unbidden direction said thoughts had taken after a
while.

He cursed human
healing – for what he felt was the thousandth time on this
mission – when he woke up just as the last sun rays made the
humid air outside the window glow a dim orange and found that his
head still hurt like a, albeit slightly smaller, bitch as did the
rest of him. And the rate at which his circulation was setting to
work properly again was just as ridiculous. He cussed as black dots
danced before his eyes to remind him that he best not try getting up
that fast again anytime soon. He dragged himself over to the window
and pulled himself up to peer though the bars – not an overly
clever idea either but he managed.

By what he recalled
of the castle's architecture he figured that he was being held
captive inside the tall square tower at the eastern side of it, the
one that didn't quite fit with the fancy and playful style of the
rest. He eased down and sat on the straw pile again, closing his eyes
to better visualize the tower. He was pretty much at the top of it,
that much was clear, and on the side facing away from the main
building. There had to be several cells such as this one 'cause he
remembered the walls of the tower being aligned with windows such as
that one.

Sadly that
information wasn't worth the braincells he spend recollecting it
since he hadn't even figured out a way past either the bars or the
guard. Inuyasha groaned in frustration and leaned
his head back against the wall - carefully, he'd learned his lesson
by now. His thoughts were winding down paths of little pleasantry,
inexplicably leading from a rant about the uselessness of human
bodies to the familiar rant on the uselessness of hanyou existence,
and just when he was about to conclude something along the lines of
'screw this, you're gonna die one of these days anyway, so why not
here?' suddenly the thundering of boots drew nearer and after a few
muffled words a key was being shoved into the keyhole of the door.
Inuyasha stood in the far corner of the room, ready to dash for the
door at the first opportunity when the Count stepped in. He let his
eyes wander around the cell with what Inuyasha assumed was deliberate
slowness designed to put him off, and even that knowledge hardly
prevented him from sighing impatiently. Then the Count focused on
him.

“I don't know
whether it was a thread of honor that is bound to be found somewhere
inside even one such as you that kept you from it or just sheer luck
that I intervened before you were able to go along with your most
dishonorable plans, either way, I have not found with my daughter's
constitution a reason for me to have you beheaded. And rest assured -
“ he leaned in as if conveying a secret to a friend, “I
was more than thoroughly tempted to do so in spite of it. But alas,
your blatant disrespect of my person can not and will not go
unpunished.”

Inuyasha had to bite
back a sour laugh. So it was a disrespect of the Count's person if he
did his daughter, not a disrespect of her feelings or anything. That
hypocrite, what had he said? He berated himself for his blatant
disregard of her feelings? Yeah right. Not that Inuyasha had ever
really understood what all the feminist fuzz was about, but there was
only so or so much discrimination against supposed minorities that he
could stand – for understandable reasons. The count was
oblivious to that train of thought, obviously, he probably though
that he bit his lip out of fear of the oncoming punishment. Like he
gave a shit about that, he'd be out of here before it, that's what he
told himself at least.

“I'm going to
have you whipped and expelled from my lands.” the Count
explained with an expression not too far from amusement. That prick.
But as Inuyasha refused to react, what was there to react to, anyway,
his half smile faded and he turned to leave. Not intending to give
away that perfect opportunity Inuyasha dashed froward as soon as the
Count's eyes left him, shoved him aside and stumbled out into the
narrow corridor, slamming
the door shut behind him. He was
surrounded by the numerous guards that had accompanied the Count but
as the walls were too close for two men to stand beside one another
that was hardly a problem. He drew back his fist and broke a nose, at
the same time digging his heel into an uncovered groin. Of what worth
was tacky armor if it didn't cover the essential parts?

Right now, which way
was the way out? He tried to peer around the guards struggling to get
past their colleagues that were busy doubling over, but they blocked
the view so he could only guess. Seeing as the one whose nose he
broke was regaining composure already he jumped onto the poor fellow
with the squished family jewels, using him as leverage to hurl
himself halfway over the man behind him and grab the torch holder
attached to the wall to pull himself further. The torch came loose
and that was not a bad thing, as soon as his feet met the ground he
shoved the third guard aside with it. The last one of them did not
need as much persuasion, must've been afraid of fire that one, and
Inuyasha broke into a desperate run that ended all to soon at the
next corner where he spotted stairs that lead... upwards.

'Fuck.'

But his headache was
back full force, the torch in his hand trembled, so turning back and
getting past all those guards was out of question. He sprinted up
higher into the tower. The pounding behind him told him that they had
set off to corner him somewhere up there, seeing as he was running
into an obvious dead end, and that made him speed up even as black
dots danced before his eyes. Why oh why wasn't his counterpart a
hanyou, too, he usually got over concussions even faster than over
deep cuts and those were hardly a bother either. It was rather ironic
that he now wished to have the body he'd meant to get rid of his
whole life, but it was just his luck that he didn't have it now that
he needed it.

They'd imprisoned
him in a cell on the second highest floor, obviously, cause the
stairs lead into an unused room that was actually nothing but the
space under the four sided pyramid that formed the roof of the tower.
A dead end, indeed. But the sound of the charging guards fueled his
already battle mode quickened reaction rate on even further and so he
took the only other option that was left: he began breaking his way
through the roof. It was a pity – for the count, if he'd been
the one to decide that – that the roof was not made of wood or
straw but of more modern roof-tiles, which left exactly enough room
between the rafters for a slender enough person to squeeze through.
He was busy doing just that when he heard his persecutors come
stumbling over one another into the room and he couldn't help but
stick his head back in and grin before he slid down the roof.

Dangling from the
rim he realized the obvious flaw in his improvised plan, though. If
his arms were hardly able to support his very own body weight, then
how on earth was he supposed to climb down the whole tower with them?
And the headache and nausea did not exactly make feeling around for a
elevation somewhere below him with his feet any easier. When he was
about to just let go and hope for a conveniently placed straw or even
muck heap his bare toe suddenly caught on the upper part of the
window frame below him.

Surprised
that he passed the first window unharmed he still avoided the rest of
them on his way down, he wasn't going to risk suddenly being pulled
inside by some guards that had done some fast thinking. But he was
the one to talk, thinking was not exactly running smooth for him
either, hadn't it been for the arrow that suddenly clattered against
the stones beneath him he would never have considered the possibility
that the lack of guards inside the tower might just be explained by
the fact that they were awaiting him outside. Deciding that a break
to think was overdue he clung to the wall and waited for his brain to
do something besides wailing in agony.

What
to do now?

He
tried to visualize the mental map of the castle he'd drawn the other
day and wanted to kick himself for not thinking of that earlier. The
tower was connected to the main building right around that corner to
his left. He was about to head that way when suddenly the fingers of
his right hand unclenched. He just barely managed to catch himself,
breaking a toe nail in the process. So they'd called the crossbow
shots, he mused, remembering the short thick bolt that he'd seen
falling down again after leaving a none too nice cut on his forearm
in it's wage. His wound was just oozing enough blood to make the use
of his arm increasingly difficult, but it couldn't be helped. The
bolt raining splinters of stone onto him as it hit the wall above his
head urged him on as he scrambled sidewards. But he had been right,
the building really met the wall of the tower around that corner,
that at least.

His
body threatened to flee into unconsciousness as soon as his behind
hit the ridging but he dug his fingers into the wound on his arm to
prevent that. He couldn't pass out until he'd left the castle grounds
and found a good hiding place somewhere. If he died now, Kagome would
never be able to get that shard on her own, seeing as she couldn't
even see, so he had to keep on going, it couldn't be helped.

He
tried standing but his legs just gave away, and so he started
scrambling along the rooftop towards the part where the building was
connected to the surrounding wall.

And
what a surprise, suddenly his pride was back and bitingly commented
on how this had to be the most undignified flight he'd pulled in his
life, and yeah, about that, since when did he flee instead of facing
his opponents like a real hanyou, anyway? But it couldn't fucking be
helped.

Was
that going to be the motto of this evening? It can't be helped? Pain
and exhaust were driving him to the brink of madness, the brink where
you are so desperate for a distraction that you stumble into
ridiculous self conversations, obviously, but he had to keep on
scrambling, it couldn't be helped after all. Wasn't it, now that he
thought about it, really the leitmotiv of his life? He would have
liked to play with the other children, but he was to strong for them,
he'd hurt them for sure, it couldn't be helped. He would have liked
to just be with... her and don't give a damn about anything else but
she had a responsibility and he was scum, so no, it couldn't be
helped. And he would so have wanted to lead a normal life after the
ban, find a girl to spend longer than a night with but hey, he was a
freak of nature, it couldn't really be helped.

The
arrows and bolts that clattered onto the very part of the roof he was
headed to ripped him out of his rant. It seemed as if they had
guessed what he was up to. He dropped onto his stomach and tried to
think. He couldn't possibly stay here in the castle, could he? But
squinting his eyes a little he thought he could make out a ladder
being leaned against the wall, so they were going to intercept him on
his way out.

How
he ended up there of all places was a bit of a puzzle to him, but in
the retrospective the idea, or the reflex rather, hadn't been all
that stupid. They really weren't going to expect him inside Kagome's
counterpart's room, at least he hoped so. He'd slid down the roof
when he was right atop her chamber and clumsily landed on the
windowsill. Peering inside he saw no one but her, sitting in a chair
and staring off into space with an expression of deep sorrow. His
hand trembled as he lifted it to knock. It took her a while and some
persistent knocking on his side to lead her to the window but she
opened it at last.

"Inuyasha?"
he heard her ask timidly.

But
he never got to answer her. He just fainted to her feet.

OOO

OO

O

OO

OOO

He awoke to complete
darkness and thought he had to have been out of it for quite a while
but the darkness was just a little too constricting and... fluffy?
Carefully squirming he came to the conclusion that he had to be lying
under a thick blanket of some kind and shoved it off. With the oxygen
came the memory and he bolted up as he recalled the imminent danger
he was still in. But getting up fast was still as much of a bad idea
as it had been all day and the foul bread he'd forced down a while
ago changed its mind about being digested.

“Are you
sick?” Kagome asked as he began to sweat with the effort not to
puke his guts out right in front of her.

“Hrgm!”
he grunted, unable to open his mouth.

“Ah, wait
there must be ...” she ducked under the bed and felt around for
something, then came up with a ... night pot. “I haven't used
it yet it's-” she started but he just ripped it from her and
did what his body demanded, turning away from her even though she
couldn't actually see what he was doing anyway. Warm and slightly
damp hands softly grazed his forehead and proceeded to hold back the
hair that had long ago fallen out of the leather strap the nape of
his neck. He was too surprised to shrug her off so he grabbed the
hanky she was offering and jumped off the bed as soon as his stomach
was empty to make up for it. Then he spilled the offending contents
of the pot out of the window that Kagome seemed to have left open.

“You ok now?”

He had actually
planned to ignore Kagome until he felt like he was able to look at
her again after that embarrassing lapse right in front of her but the
unmasked concern in her voice had him reconsider.

“Yeah, think
so. Concussions and jailbreaks just don't mix very well, you know.”
he said in a lame attempt at an excuse.

“Yup, I know.
My brother once had a concussion, too, and he kept on throwing up for
days.” she shrugged and scrambled off the bed. “Jailbreak?
So they had you imprisoned and you fled? And those wounds?”

Only when she
mentioned them he realized that his wounds had been bandaged with
what looked like stripes of a white bed sheet. Oh, and what was that?
He hadn't even been aware that he'd scraped his knees, too, but they
were wrapped in white cloth just like his forearm and toe.

“I got them
while fleeing. You know, they had crossbows an' stuff. But nevermind
me, did they hurt you?” She didn't look hurt but without his
usual nose he couldn't be sure. And what that guard had implied
they'd done ... sure didn't sound like a pleasant affair to begin
with.

“No, they
didn't hurt me but... “ she blushed, “they -”

“ - Looked
whether I ... this counterpart of mine harmed you, I know.
That count's nothing but a sonofabitch, really. Well, as long as it's
only your dignity that got a little demolished I won't complain.”

“Excuse me? It
was more than my dignity that suffered back there! I feel violated!
If they'd only looked, but no, they – ah forget it!” she
folded her arms, blush ten folding.

Right. Not that he
couldn't sympathize, he'd killed people for less as far as he
recalled, but here was most definitely no time to contemplate such
petty things now, he still needed to make a quick disappearance after
all. So he glanced out of the window into the darkness enveloping the
castle grounds. He could make out quite a few guards patrolling the
outer wall and the court, more than there had been the night before,
which meant that they knew he was still hiding somewhere inside the
castle. But he was quite rested now, the headache was almost
gone, the wounds were bandaged and his hands - he glanced down at
them – nope, didn't shake anymore. No reason to stick around
another second. He hopped onto the window frame.

“I'll be gone
then.” he announced.

“Wha -What?!”
Kagome who had been busy mumbling and blushing perked up and stepped
closer. “You're leaving? Where to? And in that state you're in?
Are you nuts?”

“They'll find
me eventually and I really don't need any beheading anytime soon,
even if I'm probably not going to die from it, no thanks. So I'll
leave now, find somewhere to stay and hide, and then I'll find a way
to contact you and we'll see about that shard. Sound good?”

“NO!”

... that girl, why
did she always have to antagonize him? His plan was not even a
plan, it was the logical reaction to the circumstances they found
themselves in, what other options where there, anyway?

“Take me with
you.”

Ah. Well...

“No fucking
way!”

“But why
not?”

“Why not?! I
don't even know how to get out of this goddamn castle alone, how on
earth am I supposed to do that with a blind brat in tow?”

“But I don't
want to stay here, alone...”

Ah, so that was what
this was about. But still, it was just not possible to take her along
without gravely endangering her and their mission.

“Well, tough,
I'm still gonna have to leave you here for the time being, you're
safe here, no one's after your head or something, and there's regular
food and stuff, all of which you will have quite a hard time finding
in the woods, and that's where I'm headed now.”

He turned on the
frame and slipped onto the outer windowsill. Now, which way was the
preferable way out? Should he try the roof or the ground -

“Please take
me along? I'll promise I'll - “

Oh fuck. Was that
the voice of a girl about to cry? He had to get away before he turned
into helpless putty in his attempts to keep her from crying. Fleeing
over the roof hadn't worked the last time so the ground it was. He
grasped the sill and swung himself down.

“I'll find a
way to contact you, then we'll get that shard.” he promised
more to muffle the guilt screaming at him to move his ass back up
there and take her along than to reassure her.

The window slammed
shut and he couldn't help but flinch, she was obviously not too
please- ack! His right hand had suddenly almost unclenched again, the
wound still seemed to be getting to it. 'Alright', he ordered
himself, 'stop thinking about that wench now and start thinking about
a way to get out of this goddamn castle unseen and unharmed!'

And miraculously he
did just that. Trying to escape on the ground instead of over the
roof had been the better idea after all, the court of the castle
offered enough hiding places and covers for him to easily sneak past
the guards, not to forget that he was still the incarnation of
everything stealthy and graceful. He almost snickered to himself as
he found a part of the defensive wall that was partially hidden in
the shadow of the tall stable building and climbed over it within
less that a minute. The soft grass surrounding the castle grounds
pillowed his fall when he just jumped down from the wall and he let
himself roll down the gentle slope until he reached some bushes.
There he hid to catch his breath and force back all the signs his
body send to tell him to rest for an estimated week. No time for that
now.

He got to his feet
and scurried through the bushes until he reached the much safer
shadows of the small forest ahead. The forest was nothing but a small
lengthy piece of wilderness left between two large fields of rape,
not exactly the best of shelters, and so he climbed a tall tree to
get an overview of the country. Climbing was not an action his beyond
worn out arms and shoulders approved of but he had failed to memorize
the landscape yesterday night, he'd been too occupied... making sure
that Kagome, like... didn't fall off the horse... or something, and
so he didn't have much of a choice.

He had to have spent
quite a few hours unconscious in Kagome's bed, 'cause morning was
already dawning when he reached the crown of the tree. The lands
surrounding the castle of that charmer of a Count mainly consisted of
fields and small assemblies of huts, too little in number to be
considered villages, and the only thing that remotely reminded
Inuyasha of a forest was the one they had rode through the other day,
but that was a good two or three hours away – if you had a
horse, which he had not. Then again, sooner or later he was going to
have to move in that direction anyway, the shards were after all
still inside the other Count's castle. So he slid off the tree and
started walking.

He wandered all day,
through woods and fields, avoiding the official paths and streets,
and reached the woods a while after sunset. To say that he was not in
the best of states was an obvious euphemism, he felt he was going
insane from hunger and his head had yet to stop aching, his wounds
hurt, he was limping because of the ripped off toenail and every
muscle in his body felt like it was afire. Still, he dragged himself
into the inner regions of the forest until he found a cozy looking
shelter under the roots of a fallen tree, where he curled up and fell
asleep, really asleep, not unconscious, so fast that the pictures
never stood a chance and had to grudgingly wait for another time to
haunt him.

He woke when the
morning bird concert reached its crescendo, blinking and stretching,
and crawled out of his little den. The weakish sun hardly found a gap
in the thick foliage above and Inuyasha was shivering in the chilly,
moist air, so he looked for a clearing where he could warm up a
little before he busied himself finding some food. He settled for
fish - it was no wonder the Counts were quarreling about the fishing
rights to that river, it was so full of fish that it took Inuyasha
little more than a minute to catch one with his bare hands.

After three fish and
a little nap in the warm midday light he finally felt up to going
about the plan he'd developed yesterday, on his way to the forest, a
plan that he still thought to be rather cunning, even though it was
the product of a headache martyred and hunger driven mind. On a
second thought, seeing as planning actions had never been his forte,
maybe that plan was good because it was painborne...

OOO

OO

O

OO

OOO

“Sorry lad, we
got a stable boy, an he's doin' his job alright, don't need a second
one, no.”

The elderly stable
master patted his shoulder apologetically. “But I heard that
Fantenborough over there needs one. Had some trouble with the one he
used to have.” he snickered.

There was actually
no way he could have known about that, but rumors where the only
thing that moved faster than light, you didn't have to live 200 years
to realize that.

Inuyasha, far from
giving up yet, casually leaned against the wall of the stable besides
him. “I only need that job for a few weeks or so, just to gain
a little money so I can continue... Westwards.” he explained,
making up some reason as he spoke.

“Well, I told
you, there's nothing we can do for you. Staff's complete, we don't -”
suddenly a boy of about fourteen came running around the corner and
interrupted him.

“Master! Otior
he - “ the boy put his hands on his knees and caught his breath
before he continued, “he broke his arm, said he fell, he's
lying back there, and his nose is broken too, or something, it's
bleeding, come, quick!”

“By Olaon, the
poor sod!” the stable master hurried off, then stopped and
turned around again.

“Stay right
there, boy, “ he said, “Otior, he's my assistant, and if
he really broke his arm we might need a stable boy after all. You're
lucky.”

Inuyasha nodded and
restrained his smirk until the man had disappeared behind the corner.
Lucky, indeed...

OO

O

OO

Being a stable boy
was actually hard work, but Inuyasha didn't mind hard work, he was
more like born for it. It kept you occupied and kept you from feeling
lonely or guilty, cause you left a certain someone behind. Well, and
his schedule still wasn't as tight that he didn't have enough time to
do a little spying.

He still remembered
where Kagome had said the shard was situated and that room turned out
to be the bedroom of the Count's son, the sucker Kagome's counterpart
was supposed to marry.

It
was also good to know that his death threads still held as much
conviction as they had around five hundred years ago, the former
stable boy, Otter or whatever his name was, visibly bleached every
time they crossed paths and had obviously not told anyone about their
little encounter. Gee, he almost felt bad about the whole ordeal now,
maybe he'd overdone things a little.
But that had to be
his Kagome induced conscience speaking. Inuyasha, after all, was just
lacking the heart to feel bad about breaking whiny stable boy's arms

But apart from a
little conscience nagging things were actually looking good for once,
with the single exception that he had absolutely no idea how to go
about the part where he was supposed to contact Kagome. He couldn't
possibly go back to the castle when the count still was after his
head – or other irreplaceable parts of him – and there
was no frequent communication between the two counties so writing a
letter or stuff like that was pretty much out of question, too. On
the other hand his employment here offered just too many brilliant
opportunities at getting his hands on that shard to just waste them
by quitting.

But that problem
solved itself five days later, when the stable master suddenly came
up to him and asked for a word in private. Inuyasha followed him into
the saddle chamber worriedly, was it possible that the other stable
boy had opened his mouth after all? But the elderly man put an
amicable hand on his shoulder as soon as he'd closed the door behind
them.

“Boy, I've
been doing some thinking and – you are the former Fantenborough
stable boy, aren't you? You, uhm, seduced his daughter and - “

“I did not!”
Inuyasha, who had been occupied squirming out under the unwelcome
hand on his shoulder, interrupted irritably and clamped his mouth
shut directly afterwards. That was as good as an open admission. But
he just couldn't stand people implying that he'd done... that to
Kagome. It just wasn't right or something, not that he was all that
well acquainted with moral standards and stuff, but even to him it
was obvious that goodhearted, albeit slightly annoying, purity such
as Kagome did not mix very well with despicable scum like him.

“'S alright,
lad, no one's onto you 'cept me, and I don't give a damn, believe me,
I was just going to tell you that the Fantens are coming over as an
exchange for the ball they held the day before yesterday, and you
might wanna avoid Lord Fantenborough recognizing you.”

“Well thanks I
guess.” Inuyasha said uncomfortably. Then, struck by sudden
inspiration, he asked, “Is his daughter coming along?”
and mentally scolded himself for that one again.

The stable master
shot him a calculating look. “Why do you want to know? Don't
tell me you're love sick.” he shook his head. “Let me
hand you this little piece of advise, boy, that girl is way out of
your depth. Stick with your own kind and you'll fare well enough. I
heard there's this maid who's got quite the crush on you, you know,
that's were your future lies, concerning women, if you know what I
mean, not with the Nobles. But to answer your question, yes, I think
she's coming along, seeing as she's promised to our Lordships son
and all.”

With a last pat on
Inuyasha's back he moved towards the door.

“Heed my
advise, don't let yourself be seen around today, they should be
arriving around three in the afternoon.”

Inuyasha couldn't
believe his luck. There he'd been, whacking his brain for some way to
contact Kagome and get her over here and now she was coming on her
own. Were they going to seize that Shikon no Kakera today or what? He
left the saddle chamber and left for the main building to sneak a
look at the large clock that hung over the fireplace in the ballroom.
It was half past twelve now, so he had another two and a half hours
to come up with a genius plan how to catch Kagome alone and take her
to the room of that sucker of a successor to have her do the freaky
thing that would get them out of this stink hole of a dimension and
him one step closer to whatever he would decide his reward was going
to be.

Sadly that line of
thoughts inspired a whole other line of thoughts that had little to
do with his devious plans and a lot with that reward. Thanks to that
stupid, greedy and easily sidetracked hanyou mind of his he had only
gotten past the 'So I cause, like, a diversion of some kind and
snatch her.' part when he heard a guard announce the arrival of the
visiting party. Damn! Not surprising since his brain really only ever
seemed to work when he was hurt, in danger or drunk, but still, damn!

He hurried down to
the kitchens where the Nobles where least likely to stumble across
him, and busied himself with some vegetable hacking, which was
usually a good way to get a second breakfast, and some little before
and after supper snacks as well as, most importantly, access to the
counts booze chamber, he'd found that out on his first day here. The
cook kinda seemed to have a weak spot for hard working young men...

Now that he thought
about it, wasn't that look he was giving him a little on the creepy
side? He squirmed uncomfortably and send a few pieces of carrot
flying when he brought the knife down harder than necessary. Needless
to say, he was still not coming up with a plan how to go about the
whole diversion deal, although he figured that there simply was no
good way to go about it. Still, he was running out of time.

And so, in the end,
he just sneaked up to the room where the shard was, taking utmost
care to avoid the dining room where he supposed the Count was
entertaining his guests. Maybe it was unlocked today, or something,
and he'd just have to find the shard and then kidnap Kagome. That
would have been easier than snatching her, bringing her up to that
room and then hiding them both somewhere for as long as it took her
to fuse with the shard. But he had, of course, no such luck.

A slightly muffled,
feminine scream resounded through the corridor when he was just about
to round the last corner, and he recognized the voice immediately.

'Kagome?'

He sped up and
slithered past the large vases lining the door to the Count's son's
bedroom. Another scream that was interrupted by a dull sound of some
kind came through the thick wood and he tried the handle. But it was
locked, quelle surpise. Not a problem that couldn't be solved with a
single forceful kick, though. Inuyasha hurried through and found
exactly what he'd feared was going on. Kagome was lying on a bed,
tears streaming down her face, and a young man was standing right
beside it, looking ready to pounce on her. Inuyasha closed the door
behind him to block out the noises of what was bound to happen. That
had to be the sucker her counterpart was going to marry. He was quite
the looker, but his head still needed only one brief encounter with
the handy wooden bedpost to be switched off. Inuyasha turned his
attention to Kagome, who sat on the bed, trembling and feeling around
helplessly with her hands.

“What's going
on?” She closed her blind eyes and frowned. “Inuyasha?”

“Yeah. Now
what was - “

He stumbled
backwards when she flung herself against him. She clutched him
tightly and he was at a little bit of a loss of what to do, except
maybe get those arms to move and hug her back? But he did not quite
feel as daring today, and so he settled for a noncommittal hand on
her shoulder.

“I was so
afraid.” , she finally begun explaining herself, “He said
they caught and killed you, I did not believe him at first, but when
I didn't hear of you for days I thought that – Don't. Don't
just don't.”

“Don't
what?”

“Don't ever do
that again, don't leave me alone again.”

Her voice was
desperate, and her tone implied a depth of emotion, of longing
perhaps, that Inuyasha didn't not wish to be the source nor the
subject of. Although he knew he was probably over interpreting things
he felt a blush rise and was, for the first time in this dimension,
glad that she couldn't see.

“It's ok, what
are you getting so worked up about anyway? Even if I had died, well,
ok, you'd have had to get that jewel shard alone, but that wouldn't
have been impossible or anything, just... harder?”

She shook her head,
or tried to, but with her face pressed to his chest that was close to
impossible. “It's not about the shards, it's about being alone!
I, I can't even see what is going on, and the count had me more or
less grounded for the whole time, I was this close to just going
insane!”

Which was exactly
why he'd felt so guilty about leaving her behind. She had this
tendency of thinking sad things when she was left in peace for too
long, at least from what he'd gathered about her so far.

“I told you we
are each others only persons to relate to. I didn't realize how
lonely it makes you to be different, when there's no one around that
understands about you, about what you are.”

... story of his
life, now, wasn't it?

“Look, “
he said, untangling himself from her, “I just didn't have a
choice. I had to get the hell out of there and couldn't take you
along. And now what was - ”

“I'm not
completely helpless, I'm sure I could have come along somehow.”

“You are blind
damnit! I would have had to carry you, and I was hardly able to carry
myself! Look, woman, we can discuss this later, but couldn't you just
get us out first?”

“Yeah right!”,
she folded her arms and send a stern glare towards something besides
right ear. “That's what you said last time, but I haven't seen
us talking about anything by now!”

“Yeah, but I
mean it this time!” ...whatever, “Just get that shard and
do the creepy stuff already.”

“Fine! But
this is not over yet.”

She stomped past him
and towards rather girly looking shelf, pulled it open and felt
around for a while. Just when she turned triumphantly the door behind
them opened. Inuyasha spun around.

“Now this is
interesting.”

The Count stood in
the doorway, smiling that
I'm-livid-with-rage-but-to-high-and-mighty-to-let-it-show smile of
his.

“There I go,
looking for my little darling daughter and whom do I find her with?
Tsk, tsk. After that quite impressive stunt you pulled when you fled
I would have thought you had more common sense than to - “

Inuyasha groaned as
the count rattled down his speech. It had been rather intimidating
the first time but the second time around it really only got on his
nerves. So he ignored him and grabbed the squealing Kagome, hurled
her onto his shoulder and shoved the Count aside as he stumbled
through the door. He hurried down the corridors back through the
kitchens and all but teleported them into the saddle chamber. That
would have to do as a hiding place for as long as it took Kagome to
fuse with the shard.

“Alright,
woman, go ahead. We'll be safe here for a few minutes.”

But the girl frowned
and let her blind eyes roam around the room.

“I don't think
we should leave already.”

“Why the fuck
not?!” he asked, although he already had his suspicions.

“Well, if we
leave these bodies now, they're not going to know they'll have to
flee and they'll be caught, and your counterpart will - “

“Yeah, I get
it. That righting the wrong we've caused stuff again.” He
rubbed his temples. Was that just annoyance, or was his headache
returning? “Seeing as I can't make you get us out of here, what
do you suggest we do?”

OOO

OO

O

OO

OOO

“You're
insane, you're aware of that, right?” Inuyasha complained as he
wound the self made rope over and under the branches. “Apart
from the fact that your ideas are idiotic and never going to work
out, why is it that I always end up doing all the work, huh?”

“Well, if my
plan is that stupid, do you happen to have a better idea? Kagome
snapped up from her perch on a fallen tree.

“In fact, I
do:” Inuyasha jumped off the tree after tying the knot and
jabbed a finger at her hand that was holding the Shikon no Kakera.
“Fuse with that thing and get us out!”

“Not until
you've build this tree house, I won't!” she huffed and crossed
her arms, easily guessing what he meant even if she couldn't see what
he was pointing at.

Oh that too stubborn
and too nice for her own good girl, why did everything have to depend
on her these days? If he didn't need her to get him out of this
dimension he so would have left her to wither her the second she told
him her genius plan. Yeah... probably. Anyway. She still was fucking
nuts!

“Woman, it's
just not going to help them any. I mean, it's not like I don't
realize that heir lives are a tad on the screwed up side, with the
count being after my head and stuff, but just imagine, you're waking
up in a forest, have no idea where you are, or why you're there, next
you realize that you're not alone, but that there's the stable boy or
the princess with you for reasons none of you can even begin to
understand, and look, what's that? The other person is telling you to
stay put and spend your life in that forest or move to another county
but never ever, under any circumstances, return to your home again.
And seconds later he or she doesn't have a clue about what they just
said. They're so going to believe that shit, sure, why not.”

Too bad he'd already
spend the rest of yesterday and all morning saying just that, now his
words hardly had any impact on Kagome other than making her jut her
lower lip forward a little more. She had, after all, spend just as
much time explaining that they at least had to try.

And so he grudgingly
returned to the maddeningly fiddly task of building a stable
enough tree house out of scratch.

“If that
teaches us anything it's that we're going to have to be much more
careful next time around. And that we just need to know more
about the dimensions we're entering. We should spend more time
gathering information about our counterparts and act accordingly, you
know? We could have considered the fact that a stable boy and
a princess aren't really supposed to spend time around one another.”
Kagome said after a while.

“Whatever.”
They were wasting time, either way. Why did she give a damn about
people she'd never even get to know?

He worked all midday
and afternoon, taking only a short break to eat some of the food he'd
snuck out of the kitchens before they'd left the castle for good. But
building a tree house was one thing, building one that was supposed
to serve as an actual home for one, maybe even two people was
another. You didn't do that in just a day. That girl, really...

Well it was, in way,
flattering that Kagome seemed to have that much trust in his
abilities to do that kind of thing but still, the plan itself was
plain nuts! And he was rapidly growing sick of it, too. He eyed the
roof of more than questionable waterproofness and the walls that
shook with every step he took on the floor that was the only part
he'd spend a little effort on. It was going to take him at least
another day, probably more to finish this... unless... she was
blind, wasn't she?

“Alright, I'm
done.” he proclaimed hopping off the tree and landing in a
crouch besides her on the trunk.

She perked up and
smiled brilliantly.” Really? Cool, I knew you'd do it!”

... great, now he
actually felt bad for lying to her. And not only that, he was also
using her disability for his advantage. Sigh.

“No, just
kidding, I need a break, is all.”

Her face fell and he
felt only slightly better. Way to go, Inuyasha, after all, making
people miserable has always been your favorite pastime, right?

“Very funny.
Now get back to work, you lazy bum, You'll get a break as soon as it
gets dark.”

“Just who are
you, my slave driver? And how do you know it's not dark yet, anyway?
Huh? Huh?!”

She gestured
vaguely. “The birds, and there's sun on my arm, I can feel it.”

Crud. Damn her for
adapting to her blindness so fast.

And so he dragged
himself up again silently wondering why he was letting that girl
order him around this way.

It actually only
took him till a few hours past noon to finish the house the next day,
but Kagome then decided that building a fucking house wasn't enough,
no, they needed beds of some kind, and some food in store, and why
didn't he just build some device for fishing while he was at it? And
what was worst was that she always started doing things on her own
when he refused to, and ended up hurt sooner than he was able to bat
down his pride and give in, so in the end he did everything she told
him to and actually felt like he was doing the right thing, right
until he was done and remembered that all of it served her ridiculous
plan. Now was that twisted or what?

She was only
satisfied when he'd burnt a plan that showed the situation of the
nearby river into a piece of bark (where did she get all those loony
ideas from, anyway?) and hung it on a string from the now waterproof
ceiling so it couldn't be missed.

The sun was
therefore already setting when they finally settled down inside the
hut and Kagome pulled forth the shard to do the creepy stuff. But
minutes passed and nothing transpired except for a few beads of sweat
on her bow and she sheepishly dropped her hands to her lap.

“Uhm, it
doesn't work.”

“I figured as
much, thank you.”

“No reason to
be so snappish about it!”

“I'm
fucking fed up with this dimension after I was forced to spend two
days more than necessary in here and would gladly
get the fuck out but a certain someone is obviously too fucking
stupid to get us out so humor me if that affects my mood a little!”

She opened and
closed her mouth a few times until she found her tongue and then he
really wished she hadn't.

“You
insufferable, arrogant prick!” She screeched with that little
girl voice of her counterpart, “Do you think this is easy?
Until ten days ago I didn't even know I had these powers, and now I'm
supposed to summon them whenever I want just because you don't have
an ounce of patience in you and consider trying to keep people from
being punished for things they haven't done a waste of time! You make
me so mad sometimes I – Ah! It's working, I-” and off she
went.

Dangit, hadn't that
Sango said something about her powers needing to be triggered by
intense emotions and stuff?

But Kagome's
counterpart began to move and he had little time left to go about
that explanation. What was her name again?

“Palea?”

“What? Who
are you? Where - “

Right. This was
going to be fun...

OOO

OO

O
OO

OOO

A.N.: Right, I know
it's been a long time... but hey, this chapter is 27 pages long... in
the formatted version, but still. So after this rather depressing
chapter... and the one before that... and before that... anyway, the
next chapter will be much more lighthearted and that... although,
with my humor you never know what I'll consider funny tomorrow.

Oh and did I mention
that I like reviews...?
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A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale