Chapter 3: Unchanged

She was like death, murdered and almost camouflaged among the snow. If not for those stains evident on the ground, she could have been overlooked.

"Take it." she uttered almost out of breath.

She looked at me, knelt. I looked at her. That twisted face, an expression in agony she held. She's trembling. She would lose.

She waited but received only a gaze.

'You are reckless.'

'…nani?'

'Do not trouble anyone if you plan to end your mortality. '

A thud on the ground. She has fallen, sprawled before my stand. One arm outstretched and fingers still clasped on the jewel. That jewel.

Something to protect, huh?

He lifted a foot to give that hand a faint kick, causing a movement. Her fingers loosened from its grip and the jewel rolled off a mere foot from its protector's side.

And this simple act had earned the attention of the lord. Those brows that only a few would notice crooked as the jewel was revealed to sight.

A black hollow crystal

He looked back to see the miko.

Sleeping. Her lips slightly parted and her locks like spilled ink contrast to the ground. Some enveloped her face. And those blood…marks.

Her trails can be easily track. Those footsteps of blood that even the snow fall was unable to conceal. Yes, that scent swelling in this forest…her blood.

'Hn…You remain the same, bothering this Sesshoumaru.'

……………………………………………

Unchanged.

The indignant expression she held that day had dissolved back into calmness. She had been in slumber for days and showed no sign of awakening. She stirred some time though, perhaps a complain to the turbulent weather; then back again into her own peace.

But those bandages and scars make it impossible to believe there is still serenity in her. Her feet, frostbitten; her legs and arms, incised; her shoulder, punctured deep; and her left hand, now protruding out of the blanket is most likely paralyzed. Her flushed cheeks half hidden beneath those blankets were also marred by a cut. Almost all injuries were caused by claws. And to be precise, the wind scar.

Sesshoumaru gave at final gazed at her form once more before deciding to leave the room. He had gone far from 'overlooking' tonight.