Curiosity by Ejunknown [Oneshot #72]
Title: Curiosity
Author: Ejunknown
Theme: Special Delivery
Genre: Slight tongue-in-cheek modern drama, eventual romance.
Words: Roughly 630
Summary: Where Kagome receives a special package through the well. Concerning faulty transportation, wells, and mixed signals.
This is a bit-of-fun introductory segment to a short series of oneshots made from the original one shot this was meant to be (it carried on a bit too long to complete in time, however..!). The churning out of this one is rushed and unbeta'd, but the general idea should be easy enough to follow, and I hope you enjoy this little trip down the well.
Curiosity
He’d gone to his possession, deep within the grounds of his territory - as despite the pitiful claim of his half brother, these were his lands - following the scent of his brothers resident human.
Contemplative, his eyes traced the lines of the water source, the old crumbling row of crowning stones and wooden brace that matched their scents perfectly- yet the source of his attention, the most recent scent of the strange woman, had ended here, abruptly, as if her very existence had been wiped clean.
Or his senses were mistaken - which was not, and never would be, a possibility.
This was some strange magic.
His statement was not quiet accurate, his nose amended him, however. A small stirrings of a breeze removed the stagnant scent, leading his tall frame to lean forward and take a step towards the rim of the old structure, gazing down into the depths - as the scent ended, truly, in here. Below the wells lip.
After a short consideration, the tall demon’s grasp shifted on the crumbling well edge, and with one last cursory glance of the dark depths, had dropped out of sight of the living, green world.
His boots did not sink into the rotten filth that he had smelled at the well’s edge as he expected, a few, short seconds later, however.
Instead, incurred something entirely unexpected, and surreptitiously human in their design.
The world tipped sharply under him, the scents of earth, stone and old water fading so fast that he barely noticed their fleeing, before they were replaced by their… lack?
His sense of smell, sight, his sense, had detracted. Veins flooded with the blood tainted stream of Youki, expanding into his natural state with seamless fluidity in response to the threat. His energy quivered, tremors of trepidation sending the sprouting silver fur quivering - the enemy was strong, much stronger than any he had faced in a long time, and he looked forward to embracing the challenge fully… except that something was wrong.
It was less than a minute before it was too late, the fading ebbs of his power surging violently against the steadily enclosing cage - until weakness swamped him, and smothering his vision in darkness.
----
It was a short time later that his senses returned to him, bringing with it the faint scent of peaches, and human skin.
A small nose twitched as his consciousness returned slowly, bright, chestnut eyes peering blearily into darkness, angled upwards to the origin of the smell, somewhere over the brightly ringed lip of the well. From where she was above him, the scent was tantalisingly weak, but recognisable - it was nearly impossible to rid himself of the hanyou’s stink even when he met his younger brother for short periods of time in battle, Sesshomaru would not be one to make a mistake here. The fresh, clean smell of female woman and his brother’s claim signified only one thing. The Priestess.
With a loud, muffled thump, another presence filled the tight, enclosed space, his hackles raising as his claws scraped back, his muscles contracting with the tension in preparation for his attack. There was no pre-warning regarding the thing's entry that he could detect, and his eyes darkened with the knowledge - his new form was weakened, greatly.
What ever spell this was, it was complex, and powerful enough to bind his Youkai spirit. The moment the scent hit him - human sweat and dust, strangely masked by the scent of flowers - his coiled body pounced, landing lightly on the chest of the woman, the growl coiled in his throat ripping into the air.
The woman’s lips were moving, drawing his attention to them as they slipped into a smile, and he ignored the indignity as she caught his smaller form easily - this reaction to an inu, of any kind, left him at a loss, his reprisal dying on his tongue. Does she know no fear of beasts? If that was the case, then he had gravely underestimated her.
Kagome, however, was delighted by the gift that had literally leapt onto her lap.
“Aw, a puppy!”