Ok, this is my new story! Right now I am concentrating more on my other story, "Dreams of Memories", but I will make a few updates on this one until DoM is finished.
I wrote this story quite a long time ago, and I've recently lost the binder that it was in…I've been searching like mad, but no luck so far. In binder form, this story was close to a few hundred pages…which is INSANE. But yes, I will be posting it all here, but I really need to find that binder, because I am scared I will forget something that will be important in later chapters, and that would suck.
On with the show!!!
Does anyone have any ideas about Aimi's name? Aimi doesn't seem to fit her, and if someone leaves a kick-ass name (with its meaning) in their review, I might use it for the rest of the story….
-Amy-loco
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha…sadness…
The Phoenix: Chapter One
The young woman ran through the forest, blindly tripping over roots and bushes. She just had to get away…
She skidded through some wet leaves, stumbling onto a muddy road. She hurried down it, feeling the lump in her throat burst, and tears leak from her eyes. She was trying desperately to swallow her tears when she ran straight into a very solid person. That was it, she was suddenly sobbing uncontrollably, not bothering with the mud being absorbed into her silk kimono.
"You stupid girl!!" A grating voice shrieked from her right. "Do you have any idea who this IS?" She looked over; a little green man was glaring at her, and pointing at her with his staff. "Bow to the Lord of the Western Lands!!!"
She looked up, and saw a rather looming figure above her. She rose slowly, tears blurring her vision, but even so she could tell he was richly dressed in armor. His hair was a clean white, and his eyes a golden amber. His face was perfectly emotionless as he stared at her, his gaze burning coldly, his features fine, but edged sharply.
The young woman turned back to the toad. "I bow to no one! I don't care who he is! I just…I don't…." Her tears clogged my throat, and she fell back against a tree in exhaustion.
She heard a low, clear voice say, "She is disrespectful Jaken. She is emotional and weak." Then he turned to leave.
The girls sobs ceased and she began to shake. Sessho-maru thought for a moment, amused, that she might have been dying, but she suddenly jumped to her feet and shouted at him.
"Y-You bastard!" She sputtered, he face full of hate. "Do you have any idea? ANY IDEA AT ALL, YOU FILTHY…y-you ASSUMING…"
She slid to the ground. Sessho-maru did not look back, but continued forward.
She saw the toad raise his staff, and the mouth of one of the heads mounted upon it began to open ominously.
What would happen? She thought. Would she die? Without them, she was dead anyway…
She felt a small hand tug on her kimono. It was a little girl with dark hair…
"Keiko…?" The young woman mumbled.
The small girl grinned toothily, and she knew it wasn't her.
"This one is Rin." She said.
The older girl smiled gently at her. "I'm…I'm Aimi."
"Why are you sad?"
"…it's all right Rin." Aimi said. "I'll be fine."
"Rin." The powerful man said.
She stood and ran over.
"Come. We must go ahead. Jaken will stay for a short while." He turned, but Rin hesitated.
"Master, may I have her as my caretaker?"
He didn't stop walking. "Rin."
She looked back at Aimi. She smiled reassuringly, and the girl followed her Lord. Aimi waved as Rin went around a bend in the road before turning to face the toad, and the dead toothless smile of the head on the stick.
Seeing Rin…that's what Aimi had survived for. That was why she had been saved, so that Aimi could live and watch Keiko. But Keiko was gone now…and Rin was there. And there had been something in her eyes…she needed Aimi. Like Keiko had.
The toad yelled a command word, and from the old man's mouth roared a blast of flames. Aimi quickly twisted away, ducking into the bushes. How easy. The toad laughed to himself as he examined the charred ground where the young woman had just been, assuming she'd been incinerated. As soon as he turned to go, Aimi slunk out of the brush and kicked him soundly in the head, rendering him unconscious.
Aimi hurried off down the trail, and soon caught up to the man and the girl. The man ignored her, he knew she'd survived the whole time; his nose was almost as keen as her own.
Rin understood her master's silence, and took Aimi's sleeve happily, beginning to skip.
They walked for hours, and Aimi noticed Rin's skips become less energetic, then she began to walk, and then to shuffle along.
Aimi spoke up. "Sessho-maru, Rin is tired. I think we should stop and give her time to rest."
Sessho-maru, who was walking ahead, did not turn. "The girl can keep walking for another mile. There is a clearing that will be suitable. This terrain is not safe."
She bit her lip, swallowing her protests, and helped Rin along as best she could. Only a few more minutes passed before Jaken finally caught up. He was grumbling and had a large bump protruding from his head. He glared at the two girls, passing them quickly to catch up with his precious Lord Sessho-maru.
Aimi could hear his complaining sharply, even though Jaken kept his voice low, at a decibel he thought only Sessho-maru could hear. Apparently his constant whining annoyed Sessho-maru as much as it did her, and Jaken was soon smoothly kicked into the underbrush by the side of the road.
Rin giggled wearily, and Aimi couldn't help but crack a smile as they passed the fallen toad demon.
It took them another half-hour to finally reach the clearing. It was about a quarter of a mile off the road, so there was no danger of travelers on the road coming upon them in their sleep.
The clearing was a sloping meadow, filled with hundreds purple flowers, and a small stream running through one edge. Rin must have found some hidden energy inside her, because she dragged Aimi by her hand to the very center of the flowers, and sat. Sessho-maru followed at a more dignified pace, and sat gracefully a short distance away.
At first Rin was just happy to just sit, smelling the sweet scent of the small pale blooms; but as Sessho-maru watched, Aimi showed the little girl how to weave them together by their long bendy stems. Rin soon had on a crown and necklace, and was working on another tiara. Sessho-maru watched the two girls laughing in the sunlight, in all the flowers, and couldn't help noticing how pretty Aimi looked in her own crown of flowers. Their pale purple color looked so beautiful against her dark hair, and the sun made her skin glow with a golden light…
He blinked and stopped thinking those types of thoughts. She was a simple human woman, and he was a Lord. She mattered not. He would kill her if it suited him. That thought satisfied him, and he relaxed a bit more, still scanning the clearing with his senses periodically, to check for hidden dangers.
He closed his eyes in meditation, still keeping his senses alert, and it was not long before he heard someone approaching. It was the young woman, he could smell it. He opened his eyes to see her standing before him, her hands behind her back, Rin beside her, grinning like the Cheshire cat.
The woman bent down to Sessho-maru, and before he realized what she was doing, he had on his own crown of flowers. Rin clapped her hands and laughed, so Sessho-maru did not immediately remove it. But then the woman began to laugh as well.
He stood slowly, and took off the crown with one clawed finger. He approached the human woman, and watched as her laughter faded, and apprehension appeared in her eyes. He noted that she was not frightened, she seemed like she was more curious to see what he would do. He gently placed the second crown onto her own head.
She looked up at him inquisitively, but then a terrified shriek ripped through the clearing.
The woman turned as Sessho-maru shot past her.
There was a gigantic brown and gray snake demon, slithering out of the stream .Aimi's thoughts immediately turned to Rin, but she was fine, only a few feet away. Her scream had been a warning, and already Sessho-maru had begun to rip away at the demon.
Aimi ran to Rin, and pulled her to the edge out of the clearing, Sessho-maru obviously had things under control, and she did not want them to get in the way.
The two girls, watching Sessho-maru hack at the thick hide of the snake-demon, did not notice the second snake, approaching behind them. At the last second before its strike, Aimi sensed it, and pulled Rin to one side. It's gigantic un-hinged mouth bit into the ground, and Aimi scrambled away, dragging Rin behind her.
It writhed after them, spitting out hunks of dirt, and lunged again. Rin let out a small screech of fear, as Aimi once again pulled Rin out of the way just in time. Sessho-maru quickly slashed once more at the first demon, severing its neck, before coming to their aide.
The snake demon charged again, but this time it stopped in midair, falling back to earth. Sessho-maru had cut off the end of its tail. It thrashed in pain, spraying blood that somehow missed Sessho-maru completely, turning to face the source of its agony.
The Lord looked at it once in its yellow eyes; his own filled with contempt, before he jumped above it, stabbing it through the head, pinning it to the earth, and killing it instantly.
He stood for a moment, listening to make sure it was dead. Once he confirmed this, he turned to his charge and her caretaker. They were both breathing hard.
Aimi met his eyes, then slowly approached the carcass of the snake demon. Sessho-maru looked as she removed one of her crowns to place on top of its body. She prayed, and soon a light engulfed the clearing. When the blinding light faded, there was a large rock where the snake had been, with flowers carved into its surface.
"You are a miko." Sessho-maru said. How could he not have sensed it?
"No, I am a quarter miko." Aimi replied, moving to the next demon.
"I did not smell it." He said.
"It is the same as with the snake demons. All these flowers must overpower your nose." She stood back form the ornamented snake's body.
"These flowers did not mask the snakes scent. They came from the water, that is why I could not sense them." He said, voice turning silky, warning her that she was close to crossing some sort of line.
The light flooded throughout the clearing once more. Once the flash was gone and another boulder in place, she turned to face him. "I did mask my powers from you, but only because demons do not view mikos very highly."
"No. I do not." He said, and did not look at her again. "We must leave now."
He turned and began to walk away. "Rin."
She ran up, taking Aimi's hand, and they began through the trees and the warm sunlight, towards the road.
Review lovers...pwease?