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Strawberry Summer	By : QueenoftheDream Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Kouga/Kagome Views: 3312 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I make any money in writing this fic.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Thursday, April 15, 1886
Kagome seldom saw Koga over the succeeding four days excepting the few minutes she took each day to bring him his lunch. That's not to say that that small amount of time was fruitless, however. She learned that he had seen the very first showing of Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Omaha and had seen the beginnings of construction of the world's tallest building in Chicago. Just before his father had died twelve years previous, they had taken the train from Nebraska all the way out to San Francisco Bay and saw the last of the great herds of buffalo on the plains. Yesterday, he told her that the last city he'd been in was Denver and that for all intents and purposes, it would be wise for him to avoid it completely. Naturally, that had captured her attentions, but he was obstinate about keeping the reason a secret. She vowed to try to wheedle the story out of him one way or another.
She ruminated on that admission as she milked the cow that cool morning and let her imagination run wild. Was he on the run from a rascally card player who'd thought to steal his money? Or maybe it was that he himself was an outlaw, though she chuckled at that thought. Tough and wiry he may be, but he just didn't seem to be of the thieving criminal type. She swallowed the hard lump that formed in her throat when she realized that it may be because of a woman. A long-lost love, a courtship gone sour, a… wife…
Kagome had pursed her lips tight without realizing it as she lugged the milk pail up to the house. Koga couldn't be married. It just wasn't possible. For one thing, he didn't have a ring on his finger, not that she had been looking or anything. Secondly, he didn't seem to be of a melancholy disposition that one might expect from a man separated from his love by distance or quarrel. Thirdly, he just seemed… alone. She sensed a sort of loneliness in him, and whether or not it was from prejudice against his race, a tragic past, or the death of a loved one, she didn't know.
Michael was tight-lipped when she asked him about Koga, but Kagome doubted he knew anything to begin with. Koga didn't seem the type to blab about his personal affairs. If Michael knew nothing, then Josephine wouldn't know anything either.
Kagome absentmindedly spooned her breakfast into her mouth. Gramps was griping about his arthritis and Sota chattered with gusto about the coyote he saw earlier in the morning, but Kagome's mind was elsewhere, going on flights of fancy where Koga was a wanted criminal or the suitor of a well-bred aristocrat's daughter. After excusing herself from the table, she took a small bowl along with the cream Mama had separated and headed to the front porch. She poured a little bit into the bowl for the cat and dumped the rest into the wooden churn before setting to work.
While she churned the butter on the porch, she watched Koga walk past, and when he tipped his hat politely she imagined those hard, calloused fingers perhaps curling into fists and pummeling some drunkard in a Denver saloon before fleeing from the law. She immediately scoffed, but a little voice in the back of her head told her that something like that was entirely possible. After all, he'd only been working on their ranch for a short time, so nobody, herself included, had gotten time to get to know the real Koga. For all she knew, he could have the temper and patience of a rattlesnake.
She was unaware her mother was speaking until she snapped her fingers in front of Kagome's face, causing her to startle and nearly knock over the butter churn.
"Were you even listening to a word I was saying?" Mama's mouth was curved down in a tight-lipped frown.
"Sorry, Mama. What was it you said?" She let go of the plunger, the cream having long been churned into butter.
Mama's hand dropped. "I said that the weather is warming up enough that the horses can stay outside at night rather than be rounded up and stuck in the barn. Go and tell your brother and the help."
Kagome gave a silent nod and bounded off of the porch. She followed the sound of repeated hammering to the front of the barn where Sota was banging away at a plank on the wagon that had stubbornly swelled and refused to stay in place.
"Mama says we can start leaving the horses out at night rather than round them all up into the barn. The weather will be turning nice soon, so they'll be okay," Kagome told him.
"Good to know. Say, have you seen the cat lately?" he replied without looking up from his work, and Kagome's mouth fell into a frown.
"Well, no. I set out some cream just earlier, so I would guess the porch is where we'd find her. Why do you ask?"
Sota gave an irritated sigh and flung the hammer to the ground as he stood up straight. "I haven't seen the darned thing anywhere lately. Maybe she's gone off and found a tom, maybe she's sleeping under the porch, or maybe she fell off the face of the earth. Who knows. All I know's Mama will have a right fit if we end up with mice or vermin lurking around."
Kagome hummed her agreement before turning to walk away. "I'll poke around and see if I can't find her hiding somewhere," she called over her shoulder as Sota resumed his attempt at beating the errant plank of wood into submission.
As she headed begrudgingly for the chicken coop, Kagome racked her brain. When was the last time she had actually seen the cat? It had been at least three days, as she last remembered spotting the cat lurking, as usual, around the hen house in the morning. Ducking her head into the small structure, she was greeted with the typical pecking and fussing the chickens gave her.
An apron full of eggs and several henpecked fingers later, Kagome was rushing away from the ill-tempered birds and up to the house. Koga was walking past the porch as she approached and she stopped him without thinking, the eggs still cradled in her uplifted apron.
"Mr. Allen! Sota is having me ask around: have you seen the cat? Because now that I think of it, I haven't seen her in a few days." She held her cheeks aloft with a hopeful smile.
He shook his head, and her face fell. "No, can't say as I have. I'll keep an eye out, though. Maybe a coyote got to her," he suggested.
Her heart stuttered in her chest. The cat was a spitting, bony ball of teeth, claws, and fur, but she was such a fixture in their everyday life that Kagome didn't want to think of her being hurt, or worse, killed and eaten by some prowling beast.
The day passed by slowly as the sun wheeled its way across the crisp, cool sky. Sota was in a foul mood after having to rip apart the wooden cart before reconstructing it, all due to one stubborn plank. Mama was still prickly toward Kagome about the issue of Koga, and Michael was griping and sulking to Josephine because he was cooped up in his house and unable to do anything other than the most basic of tasks due to his broken collarbone.
As evening set in, Kagome leaned against the back of the house, stretching her arms above her head as Mama and Josephine finished preparing supper. The sky blushed, and Kagome traced the crimson streaks of clouds to their terminus in the west, reaching up to the golden disc of the sun that hovered just behind the indigo of Pike's Peak and the surrounding mountains stretching across the skyline. The atmosphere progressively turned pink, then vermilion, then purple as the sun descended beyond the mountains, which still held a golden ridge along the uppermost edges. Soon, the homestead fell into shadow under the flushed purple sky that continued to darken.
Sota tapped on her shoulder, and she jumped. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing, instead walking back around the house so they could go inside to eat supper. The meal was eaten without issue aside from Gramps grumbling about this and that around mouthfuls of food. In fact, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the entire day, save the distinct lack of farm cat.
After supper, Kagome lugged a bucket with the leftover scraps out to the barn where she dumped it into the trough for their two pigs. Peaches was calm and still, which made the evening milking go even smoother than usual. As she walked back to the house with the milk, Kagome wondered at the stillness on the homestead. All was quiet, and everyone was inside their respective abode as the chilly wind whispered over the tops of the wheat across the way. Kagome shivered as the breeze flitted across the back of her neck, raising her hairs on end, and she turned around. The fireplace was burning in Michael's cabin, and she could see a faint, flickering lantern light coming from the small window of the tack shed where Koga slept. Everyone was accounted for, but she couldn't shake the strange, hunted feeling that lurked in the back of her mind.
The milk pail was left in the kitchen to set into cream, and Kagome climbed the stairs to her small bedroom. Within a few minutes, she had donned her woolen sleep gown and brushed her hair before slipping under the quilted blanket. Darkness shrouded her room, and despite needing to get up before dawn, her mind refused to succumb to slumber. All was silent in the house save for Gramps's snoring and the wind whistling through small chinks in the walls.
She drifted between sleep and awake for an indeterminate amount of time, and it was just as she approached the precipice of sleep that a loud, piercing noise jolted her out of bed. One of the horses was screaming. Her heart hammered as she sat straight up in bed. The horse screamed again, so she bounded down the stairs, the horse's repeated panicked noises propelling her shoeless feet outside. She leapt down the front porch steps, bare feet pounding across the rough, frosty ground. Just as she sprinted past the chicken coop, a gunshot rang out. Kagome froze. Her breath sent wisps of fog into the cold air. The moon was hidden behind dark clouds, so she was surrounded by thick, inky darkness. The horse was stomping its hooves in the silence somewhere up in the pasture, and Kagome shivered as a frigid gust of wind passed through her gown to chill her skin which rose up in gooseflesh.
She cast her eyes about in the darkness, trying to pinpoint the cause of the horse's panic though she knew it to probably be in vain. The gravel crunched a few feet away from her, and she spun around quickly, hands curled into fists. A cold hand closed upon her shoulder from behind, and she nearly shrieked as she turned wildly. By the faint, muted light the moon cast from behind the heavy cloud cover, she was able to barely make out Koga's face. Judging by his drawn expression, something was wrong. Looking down, the dull light illuminated the Colt revolver he held in his hand.
"What are you doing out here?" he whispered fiercely, cold fingers wrapping tightly around her bicep.
"I- I-," she stuttered, and he shook his head, dragging her back toward the front porch. When she realized where he was taking her, she dug her heels into the ground literally, wrenching her arm out of his grip. "No!" she growled. "I'm already out here, and something is going on."
Koga's lips pressed together so tightly that they disappeared from view and exhaled through his nose. She glared at him. "Go on in and grab a lantern." His gaze fell to her feet. "And some shoes," he added with what she guess was supposed to be an attempt at a chuckle. Her eyebrow rose in question, and he put his hands up. "If you hurry, I'll wait here for you." Without further prompting, Kagome dashed up the steps and in the front door, not caring that it slammed behind her. She stuck her feet into her work boots and snatched the matches up off of the entryway table. Her fingers fumbled, but she was finally able to strike a flame that she shakily stuck into the lantern, lighting the small wick.
True to his word, Koga was waiting outside when she came clomping outside in her untied shoes. The two of them set out in the night with only the small lantern to light their way. She could hear the horse still stamping and snorting, though the screams had thankfully stopped.
When they approached the paddock, Kagome immediately spotted about a hundred yards up the right side was a clearly distressed horse. Koga sharply inhaled through his nose as he took the lantern from her hands and walked ahead of her toward the horse. As they drew closer, the horse grew more and more agitated, and Kagome felt the blood drain from her face when she recognized it to be Kitty, the mare with the new foal. Her dark feet stomped on the ground, and she thrashed her head as Kagome drew near, her sharp exhalations blowing out of her nose in jets of steam. Koga tried to get close to where he thought the foal was, but Kitty reared up and nearly kicked him. Kagome shrieked and dashed out of the pasture and picked her way across the darkness to the tack shed to retrieve a lead rope.
She sprinted back to where she saw the lantern burning on the ground and found Koga attempting to talk Kitty down. The mare was still antsy and agitated, but seemed to be finished kicking and screaming. With as delicate a touch as if he were touching a priceless jewel, he slipped the lead over her head.
"What about the foal?" Kagome asked under her breath, just loud enough that he could hear her.
"I'll worry about that," he replied, pressing the rope into Kagome's half-frozen, trembling fingers. "You take her into a stall." As quickly as she was able, she did as he commanded without even stopping to think that he was in no place to make demands of her. Kitty stubbornly resisted, but with some coaxing and patience, she was eased into a stall.
When Kagome tried to return to Koga, he called out, "Why don't you just go on inside, Miss Kagome?" By the small, flickering light of the lantern, she saw him crouching on the ground with his back to her. With complete disregard to what he had said, Kagome approached. By the small light the lantern in front of him gave off, she could see the grass glistening, but it was a strange glistening. It wasn't the crisp, clear shine of dew or rain, but was a dark slick. Koga's form was dark and silhouetted to her, but by the flickering light, she could see his hand rise up in front of his face. It was covered in that same dark slick. Her boots crunched upon the frozen dew, and when she drew close enough to see, she couldn't stop her involuntary gasp.
Laying upon the ground, its guts half spilled, was Kitty's little foal. Its haunch had four deep scratches, and the intestines that had fallen from the slit in his abdomen were lightly steaming in the cold air. The grass was dark with blood.
"Lord Almighty, what could have done this?" Kagome whispered under her breath as Koga wiped his hand on a clean patch of grass before standing with the lantern in hand. She turned to him, and his mouth was pressed into a grim line. "Could it have been a wolf?" she asked him.
"We would have heard wolves," he replied. "Besides that, those there aren't wolf scratches."
Before she could ask him what could have made those claw marks, they were approached from both sides by lanterns. Michael and Josephine hurried out of their cabin, Michael carrying an old shotgun with his good arm and Josephine carrying a candle. From the other side, Sota sprinted from the house. Both parties arrived at the scene simultaneously, and Michael cried out, "By God, Josie, there's been a cougar attacked the colt!"
"A cougar?!" Kagome nearly shrieked. As people moved into the area up against the Front Range, most of the wildlife had been pushed back into the mountains, but occasionally predators came down around settlements to hunt if game was scarce.
"Better question would be what was that mare doing out here with the newborn colt?" Michael spat, and Kagome turned when Sota made a choked noise.
"I didn't even think," he started, and his voice broke. Michael pursed his lips and shook his head with a shrug before leading Josie back to their cabin. Sota continued, "I didn't even think to put them in a stall for the night. Mama said to leave the horses out, and the thought didn't cross my mind to keep 'em in." His lower lip trembled, and Kagome could tell that he was trying to hold in tears. After all, it was a matter of a young man's pride.
"You stay here, young Mr. Walker, while I take your sister back up to the house right quick before we drag him over to the fence for the coyotes." Kagome protested weakly, but he started toward the house at a brisk pace and she had no choice but to follow him or be left in the darkness. She tossed one last look over her shoulder at her little brother whose face had gone chalky before she jogged to catch up to Koga. The walk was quick and silent, and when they reached the porch, Koga tipped his hat at her. "Get some sleep, Miss Kagome," he murmured just loud enough that she could hear him.
Sleep did not come easy for Kagome that night.
Whew! It's been a long time since I've updated this baby. Unfortunately for my readers, updates will continue to be slow because I was accepted into grad school. I'm majoring (again) in history, so there is a lot of reading involved (we're talking 600+ pages per week) not to mention the paper writing. I have no intentions of abandoning this story or any other of my major ones, so you guys will have to bear with me as I try to muddle through all of this. I do know where the next chapter is going so I should have no trouble in writing it, but it's a matter of finding time. I hope you guys understand. :]
- 6
- 7
- 8
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Strawberry Summer