Chapter One

"My lord, we have found what you requested."

The young looking man stirred in his chair. He had just begun to enjoy his nap. It was the same thing every day with these bandits. They were like a flock of sheep, unable to do anything without the request of some form of leader. That's exactly what made it so easy.

The man pulled himself out of his dreamy state. "You found one, did you?" He sat up now, a little more awake.

The small bandit bowed his head, "Yes. She is outside waiting to meet with you."

"Skip the formalities, just bring her in." He was growing impatient. The man bowed once more and left. A bit of relief began to wash over him. He had been waiting a long time for this. The memories were quickly becoming too hard to bear.

A small, frail old woman was forcibly dragged into the room by the small bandit from before. She struggled to break free, but her attempts were fruitless. Realizing this, she became very still.

"On your knees woman. Know your place." The bandit pulled her down suddenly and the woman cried in pain. It didn't matter to him; it would be all over soon. He walked over to the woman slowly and lifted her chin to look him in the eyes. They were a deep chocolate brown than made his heart flutter and ache at the same time. He looked away, trying to erase get the damaging thoughts out of his mind and focus on the task at hand. The man turned away from the woman. "Can you do it?"

"I- I'm not sure what you mean." A thumping was heard as the bandit holding her hit her over the head for her insolence. "Please, don't kill me!" She panicked, "I'll do anything I swear! Just tell me what you want." He could smell the salt in the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Stop it. Stop it!" he turned back but kept his gaze focused behind the old woman rather than into her eyes. He took a deep breath and pulled his beaded necklace away from his neck. "Can you take it off or not?"

The woman looked at him in confusion. "I could," she began, "But the necklace would shatter."

The man was devastated. Why do they always say the same thing? He didn't want it gone, he just wanted it off. He wanted to be able to put it somewhere where he would not have to see it, but always know it was there. It had become a part of him.

He returned to his chair and closed his eyes. "Kill her."

"But Lord Inuyasha..?"

"Just do it." He growled.

"Yes, my lord."

The woman's screams could be heard as she was torn from the hut and into the field. Inuyasha waited until they were silenced and went to sleep.

...

Laughter floated from the fire outside and into Inuyasha's hut. The men seemed to have found some sake in a nearby village and were quite enjoying themselves. The volume was annoying, but it was much easier on the ears than their snoring. Either way, he needed to be awake for the when the second group come back. They were taking longer than usual.

The events from the morning had left Inuyasha exhausted. All he could think about were those brown eyes. All he could think about was the person they once belong to. It was as if they were everywhere these days. He looked down at the beads around his neck.

'Damn, if only that useless woman knew what she was doing.' he thought. He tugged them over his head, but only succeeded in brightening up the hut with its glow. "Your trigger is gone, you hear me! Gone!"

"My lord?" One of the lower ranking thieves in the mob was standing in his doorway.

Inuyasha straightened and struggled to keep his composure after yelling at a piece of jewellery. "What do you want?" No one in the gang seemed to know what was going on with him. They were all too afraid to ask.

"We found a woman…"

"Another priestess?"

He shook his head. "We had finished in the village and we found her hiding in the rubble." He smiled. "She's quite beautiful, my lord. We thought she would please you."

Disgusted, he waved him away. "I thought I made it clear I want nothing to do with your human women. They're too weak and fragile."

"But, this one my lord, she claimed to be able to kill us all." He laughed at the thought. "As if she stood any match against you, my lord."

Intrigued, he considered it. "Let her in."

The thief left with a bow. A few yells could be heard as well as the sound of punches being thrown. After a few minutes a young girl was thrown into to hut. She smelled of blood, sweat and something a little dangerous.

Inuyasha walked over to her and took her in. "What are you?" She looked human enough. Long black hair fell down to past her waist and fell like a curtain around her frame. Her eyes were a strange, brilliant green and looked up at him. The smell of fear wafted off of her body as she trembled from the cold. "What are you?" he asked again, with a little more force.

"I – I'm…" she seemed to think about it for a while, not seeming to understand the question. "I'm human?"

Inuyasha snorted, "Was that a question or an answer?" He looked her over again. There was something odd about this girl. He pointed to the corner of the room with his chin. "You can sleep there."

"What?"

"You didn't think I was just going to let you go, were you?

"Are you going to..?" She backed away as much as she could in the confines of the hut.

Inuyasha sat by the door way and leaned against the wall. "Just go to sleep." He closed his eyes.

Silence fell over the hut and the fire began to die outside. The bandits must have passed out. Inuyasha opened one eye. The girl sat in the middle of the hut still, curled in a ball and shivering. He stood up and pulled her to her feet. Her skin was warm to the touch, too warm. "What's wrong with you?" She shrugged and continued to shake, not meeting his gaze.

Inuyasha sighed and pushed her into the corner of the hut on to some hay that was meant to be the horse's breakfast. "Go to sleep."

This time she complied, but continued to shake. He returned to his place at the entrance of the hut. Inuyasha watched her shiver for what seemed like hours. Finally, he gave in and took of the outer layer of his clothing and laid it over her messily. He turned to return to his spot, but looked back. The girl continued to shiver and breathe heavily.

"What's wrong with her?" he muttered under his breath. Inuyasha kneeled beside her and places a hand on her forehead as well as his own. He panicked. It was too much like before. Inuyasha poked her in the side. "Hey, hey girl. Wake up."

She groaned softly and shot up when she realized who was leaning over her. "What is it?" The girl continued to tremble. He wasn't sure if it was because of him or whatever was wrong with her.

"Why do you keep shaking?"

"I'm not sure." She coughed into her hand and took several deep breaths. He looked at the hand that fell back down to her side. It was clean, a good sign.

He thought about everything he knew about health care. He came up with not solutions. The girl seemed fine. He was probably overreacting. Inuyasha leaned against the wall behind him. "Go back to sleep…what ever your name is."

"Why are you…?" She trailed off after meeting his glare. The hay rustled noisily as she got as comfortable as she could. "It's Sayuri."

He let out a grunt, "Don't make me tell you again." But his voice had lost its edge.

"Alright…" Her breathing slowed after a few minutes and she fell asleep.

Inuyasha finally had some time to himself to think. Why was he letting her live? Didn't he usually kill the humans the bandits gave him? But she seemed different somehow. She made him feel – he wasn't sure what he felt. All he knew is that it wasn't right to kill her today. He resolved to leave the decision until dawn.

Authors Note:

So, there is the first chapter. Or it least as much as I feel like writing for now. I had a little spare time today so I thought I would do this as something to do. I haven't written a fan fiction since the seventh grade. That's about five or six years. I haven't read many either because I find many fan fictions to be either random odd lemons that really have no relation to the series or are so terribly written (as far as spelling, grammar, plot holes and character development) that I get sick of them after a paragraph or two. That's not to say that my writing didn't use to be that bad. I would like to think I've improved since. I thought I would take a crack at the genre now.

Anyways, I'm going to make several promises to any readers:

I am not going to change my idea of what I want the plot to be like based on fan demand. That is, unless I actually think your idea is good. If so, I will credit said person for it.

I will not use random Japanese or any other language in my fics. I have found that to be quite annoying especially when it is used incorrectly.

I will try to respond and thank anyone and everyone who reads things I write. I love to hear feedback. It's the reason why any writer writes. If no one reads what you write or you don't share it, what's the point?

I can't think of anything else at this moment in time so…I guess I'll post again when I have time?

Until then. Thanks for reading and listening to me ramble.

Caroline Winters