Takira stood her back warmed by the setting sun, she stretched, arching her back after spending a quiet day pulling weeds. There was nothing wrong with a hard days work for a young back her mother had always told her. She smiled, and wonder if her mother would have felt the same after 300 years of hard days work. Grabbing her basket, full of her days work, she flipped it to her back, setting the straps gently so as to avoid her sword sheaths that rested across her back. Turning she raised a hand and gazed at the sun set, golden hues of red and pink danced across the sky. A good omen she thought as she headed to the village she protected. One of many really, but the largest, and therefore the most likely target for any band of brigands, or hoard of stupid demons; not that any demons could travel anywhere near her villages without her knowledge.
She would be having visitors soon enough. An elder priestess had predicted that her brother would soon come to visit her. A smiled tugged the corners of her lips at the thought, it had been too many years since she had seen her little brother, half brother but that had never mattered to her.
She walked up the little path to the center of the village and left her basket with the rest from that days harvest, nodded to the village headmen, and continued to the outskirts of the village. She didn't need her own dwelling really, since she visited all 6 of her villages on a rotation, but the headmen had been insistent that she have one. It was a small one room hut, with a fire in one side, and a sleeping mat. She had never used the sleeping mat, preferring to sleep out dores, where she would hear someone approach better.
Takira smiled at the sleeping form on the mat, Akima, her student, friend and fellow demon. Gently Takira tucked a blanket around the sleeping girls form, and left as silent as she had come. It was best to meet her brother alone, though she knew he traveled with others, both demon and human, an odd mix for him.
After a quick sweeping glance at the peaceful village she climbed the base of the mountain that her village was built next too. It was a good mountain, protecting her villages from the back, for no one ever came down the mountain on this side, it was to steep, to unforgiving. She climbed the well known path deep in though, not seeing the beauty unfold around her as the sunset made one last brilliant blaze of color before fading to twilight.
Life had been to exciting of late, the demons all around her village were to restless, to seeking. She had slain more in the last year, then in the last ten years. It was in the last demon she had slain that she found the odd jewels, three long shards of some crystal. The demon hadn't been any more difficult that the others before it, but it had the most unusual regenerative ability. But it had died on her blade like so many before it. When she had noticed the jewels she had reached to take them, but froze when she felt the seething furry embedded within in. How could something so small be so full of hatred?
Takira sought the help of her village priestess, who was able to crap the crystals in a protective cloth, but unable to purify them. She took the jewels to every village and asked the priestess's to purify them, everyone failed. So Takira did the only thing left to her, she put a spell on the crystals, so that no one could find them who was looking for them, no one but her. And considered herself and her villages safe.
That had been three short weeks ago, the demon attacks had nearly doubled, and she was at a loss for what else to do. She couldn't leave her villages to search for other priestess who might be able to help, her villages were her sworn duty to protect. Akima was to young to take on such a mission alone. So she did the only thing left, sent a message on the wind for her brother to come to her aid.
With a last push on the foliage around her, she broke through to a clearing and was looking down on her villages. They each touched the great mountain in a half moon. Looking down on them her chest swelled with pride, and regret. Her mother had been the last Sentient to guard so many villages. Her eyes began to sting with unshed tears. Shaking her head, she pushed out the silly thoughts of her mother, it had been more than 275 years. Yet the hurt was still there.
Takira forced herself to think ahead, her brother would be there with the next dawn. The brother she had raised like her own child. Sesshomaru. The same boy whos mother made her skin crawl. Sesshomaru's childhood had been split between time with Takira and his father, and his mother. When Takira took care of Sesshomaru he learned the lighter side of being a demon, how good it felt to protect, love and be loved. When his mother had him he learned nothing but the evil side of demons, hate, taking what was wanted without care to who it hurt.
When Sesshomaru was with Takira, he was a guard with her, protecting her village, going to battle along side their father and herself. When he was with her, Takira felt the unbreakable bond of family. As he grew up that bond became shielded by his growing dissatisfaction with himself. He was never strong enough, always challenging those around him to fight. It was on one occasion that Takira accepted his challenge, she was exhausted from a day in the fields, and wanted nothing more then a bath and sleep, when Sesshomaur came into her village.
"Brother, how good to see you." She had smiled at him, the creases of her clothes chafing her with dried sweat.
Sesshomaru gave her one slashing look up and down, the looked away. "Why do you do it? Why do you toil all day to provide for the human, they are nothing but demon food."
"Sesshomaru!" she stared at him in shock, "you know it is my honor to protect them, and help them." Studding him she shook her head. "You are always like this after your with your mother. I am tired, I do not wish to have this conversation again."
She moved to the door, intent on a dip in the stream to clean herself and her clothes. Sesshomaru threw his arm in her way, blocking the door. "It is when I am with my mother that I see strait, when I am with you here everything becomes muddled." He narrowed his eyes at her, "you could be so much more, you have so much untapped potential. And you waist it all on these humans. It's pathetic."
He turned away, dropping his arm from her path. Takira stared at his profile for a full minute before pushing past him. It wasn't until she was clear of him that she turned, "It is my choice, and my duty. One day when you have gotten over yourself, you too will have something, or someone that you need to guard. I hope I am there to see that day."
Sesshomaru turned to face her, eyes narrowed, "I will never care for another but myself."
She shook her head, refusing to cry. "Your wrong."
Sesshomaru's hand rested on the hilt of his sword, an old weapon she had given him not to many years before. She narrowed her eyes, staring at the hand on his sword. "You don't want to do this, brother. You will loose."
The last word was barly spoken before Sesshomaru's sword was clear of the sheath. She stood unmoving, staring at him, remained unmoving as he cleared the doorway approaching her.
She ducked the first swing, dodged backward from the second, and leapt over the third. Backing away she kept her eyes locked on his. "Sesshomaru, fighting me wont make you stronger." She dodged another thrust. "Don't make me fight you."
Sesshomaru charged again, "Stop talking and fight me!"
Takira drew the double curved blades that were always on her back and jumped over Sesshomaru's head, summer-salting in the air, and landed behind him, between him and the hut. "I will find no joy in this, brother."
"Hmp." Was all Sesshomaru commented as he made another swing for Takira. Their swords clashed again and again, always Sesshomaru attacking, Takira blocking.
The villagers ran to sound of fighting, then froze when they saw who it was, their guardian and her brother engaged in combat. No one made a motion to intervien, they just formed a circle and watched. Tired after the day of work Takira's movments began to grow sluggish, Sesshomaru saw an open window to get the kill strike. As he spun sword raised to go for her throat, Takira rolled to the side, and brought her own sword up into his chest.
Takira stared at her brother's form on the ground for a full minute before she reolized someone was screaming and crying, it took her another minute to realize it was herself. She didn't know when the villagers left, or when her father arrived. But she remembered the disappointment in his eyes, remembered his accusing silence. Takira had thrown herself over her brothers form when her father had raised his sword.
"Stand aside Takira, you have done enough for tonight." Father said in his gravely voice. When she didn't move, he hauled her away from Sesshomaru, holding her with his left arm, he swiped his sword over his son with his right.
Takira watched through tear streaked eyes as her brother took a breath, then shook his head and looked up at her. The hatred in Sesshomaru's eyes had hurt, the accusation burned her heart, but the worst was after he left and it was just her and Father. He hadn't looked at her since Sesshomaru had come back, hadn't spoken to her, just held the silence.
"I'm sorry, he wouldn't let up, I did the only thing I could." Takira begged him.
Father looked at her, studding her. After a paused he answered her, "I know it was not your intention to hurt your brother, but I cannot let it happen again."
"What do you mean Father?" She didn't like the way he was looking at her.
It had taken her several years to get the answer to that question. And when she had it, she didn't fully understand it. Father had found a powerful priestess and had her cast a spell on the family, it simply stated that no one member of the family could kill another, but two could. For several years the family had simply been Father, Sesshomaru and Takira. When Father had passed, her youngest brother completed the family triangle, InuYasha.