Healer
Where in Sesshomaru finds himself in the care of
a human doctor. Sessho X OC
I do not own the characters of InuYasha(c); All
rights and trademarks and copyrights belong to Rumiko Takahashi and
the producers/studio that brought this wonderful series to America.
Chapter One
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As the sun was setting over the old forest the quiet footsteps of a human could be heard making their way through the dense undergrowth. Looking over her shoulder more than once Raylea, a young girl of about 21, carefully selected the plants and herbs she would need. Normally a confident girl, she was wary this evening.
There had been a tremendous explosion earlier, one that had caused a few homes to collapse. In this area only one thing made that big of a ruckus; fighting demons. If there was an injured demon in the area, then undoubtedly it would be wanting food. Pushing her way through the bushes, she caught the distinct smell of mint.
"Perfect. I've been…needing that." She said to herself as she cleared the dense shrubs. She stopped short though upon freeing herself. She had reached the edge of the wood, the edge that became mountainous. Not only was this area extremely dangerous to humans, but the explosion from earlier had originated from up the desolate slopes.
Slowly Raylea began to back up. As her heels entered the brush, her nose caught the smell of the mint again.
""Not worth it. I'll find it elsewhere," she muttered. Then she noticed the other smell, "Blood?"
Steeling her nerve she carefully walked forward, her sandals scuffing lightly on the grey rocks. Nearing the first bend of the mountain trail, she steadied herself, ready to run at a moment's notice. Slowly, Raylea looked around the corner.
"Auh!" she gasped. A man was lying on the path, bleeding from a large gash across his left shoulder and numerous other cuts along his body. Raylea ran forward a few steps but stopped abruptly when she noticed the man's pointed ears and face markings.
"Demon…oh, this is bad…" she whispered. Hesitantly, she put one foot back, wanting to quietly leave; but as she looked at the demon's face she felt a tug of pity. He was still breathing, though it was labored. Biting her lip, Raylea inched closer. Kneeling at the demon's side she leaned close to inspect the wound. It wasn't deep, the bones didn't appear to be broken, but it was long; and bleeding.
"Hey, hey you need to wake up. You're gonna bleed to death," she said. Ignoring her better judgment Raylea reached out and touched the demon's shoulder. As she shook his shoulder she noticed the tufts of mint under his body, "That would be where the smell came from, " she muttered. She pushed gently, calling to him again, "Hey. Come on, you're going to die."
'Nothing,' she thought, 'but what can I do? I can't…oh heck.'
Looking around to see if there was anything or anyone, Raylea took a deep breath. Using the bottom of her kimono and a small knife, normally used for gathering plants, she made a rough bandage for the demon's shoulder. As she tied it her eyes fell on the sword that was lying in pieces near him. It was a broad blade, its hilt wound with red cord.
"Oh I can't believe I'm doing this," she said to the demon's pale face and slid her arm under the demon's shoulders.
"Up you get," she hissed through gritted teeth, "Just stay out till I can get you home. I'll come back for your sword later," Carefully hoisting the demon onto her back she began to stagger forward. She pulled his right arm over her shoulder and reached for his left when she realized his sleeve was mostly empty.
"What the…? Where is your arm?" she asked her unconscious load, "Oh great, this just got about twice a difficult. And might I add that this fluffy thing makes you like twenty pounds heavier." It helped her to talk to the demon, mostly it kept her calm.
He was far too long for her to care him piggy back, but his feet didn't seem to be too hurt, so Raylea just pressed onward.
It was fully dark by the time Raylea reached her small home. Breathing heavily, she could feel her legs trembling. Pushing the doors open she managed to get to her bed before falling to her knees. With as much gentleness as she could muster she slid the demon off her back. Breathing hard she crawled over to her water basin and splashed some water in her face. After gulping a few cups down she felt a little better. Standing shakily, she shut the door and locked it. Going back to the demon she arranged his body into a more comfortable position.
"Okay, mister. You had better not die on me. That was a lot of work and I won't have it wasted." She muttered as she removed the rough bandage on his shoulder and pulled out clean linens. Carefully, being mindful of the wound, she opened the demon's kimono and inspected the injury further.
"Afraid I can't do anything about your armor. I know someone who'll be able to fix your sword up, well your other sword, but armor of this type is different story." She said to his closed eyes.
Pulling various bowls and trays to her side, she quickly washed her hands and began cleaning the shoulder wound. Since he was a demon, a taiyoukai at that, Raylea figured the small wounds were superficial and would heal on their own in no time at all; so she dedicated her attention to the large gash.
Working steadily she was soon sewing the wound closed. As she worked she talked to her patient.
"Well I guess you can't help being the way you are. I think demons may be a bit more violent than humans. After all, we generally don't fight just to prove….oh wait, no, we do. We also don't…oh wait….Well, at least when we go to war we don't make mountains explode." She thought about the new similarities her talking had brought up.
Pausing, she looked at the demon's face again, then sighed, "Well, you're lucky to be what you are; how else could you have survived lying on the mountain side for most of a day with a bleeding shoulder? You also grow your teeth back in record time."
She added that last sentence as an after thought. One of the few times that the demon had opened his mouth to gasp for air, Raylea has noticed that one of his fangs was smaller than the rest of his perfectly white teeth. The moon was full in the dark sky as she continued to work.
"There," she sighed a few hours later, "That's the shoulder taken care of. You should be okay now." She gently brushed the demon's long silver hair away from his left shoulder. She couldn't know for sure, of course, but she figured the demon probably wouldn't like it if his hair got covered in blood.
Standing she stretched and began clearing away her tools and medicines. She was beginning to feel her eyes droop shut so she began talking again
"Personally I want to know what happened. Demons who can take human form are said to be the most intelligent and powerful of the race. So what in all the world happened to you?"
With the last of her tools put away Raylea pulled out a blanket and covered her patient with it. The night wasn't cold, but better safe than sorry. Yawning, the young woman was definitely feeling the effects of the last six hours. Grabbing up another blanket she went over to the other side of her house, curled up, and fell asleep.
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P A/N: Okay, so how's that? I know this has probably been done before, but I am a hardcore Sessho fan; so that's that. Thanks for reading. /p