Chapter 3
Three days. Three days to heal. Three days worrying that scavengers would finish me off before I could recover. Three days before I could move without risking my head falling off. Three days cursing myself for letting my attention wander from the demon slayer. Three days hating myself for being so distracted by the taste of his blood.
Three. Bloody. Days. On the other hand, the usual period of healing, self-loathing, etc., was seven days, so I couldn't complain much.
Seven. Damn. Days. I shuddered just thinking about it.
Although the mystery of my rapid recovery rate itched at my curiosity, I ignored it, focusing instead on tasting the air, searching for the elusive scent of dog demon. After a moment, I found it, surprisingly still strong. Usually the scent was so faint that I had difficulty picking it up, but the air fairly pulsed with this scent. I smiled, as much as I was able, and followed it.
----
I immediately realized that I had followed the wrong scent the minute I entered the clearing. This close, the slight differences became more apparent. This one's scent was . . . purer, for lack of a better word, than Inu Yasha's. He smelled faintly of dragon, while Inu Yasha reeked of human and cat. Also, this one had an underlying scent of power.
It wasn't the scent of power that made me retreat. Neither was it the aura of poison and death that surrounded him. It was the coldness of his eyes, the knowledge that he would kill me for no other reason than he was bored. My hasty retreat was born of the fact that I am in essence a scavenger, and this one was strong. There was a reason why I waited a week between biting and eating.
-----
I caught the right scent an hour later, dog demon laced with human with a dash of cat. Another hour, and I had caught up to them. I tasted the air one last time, making sure, and paused. This scent wasn't that of a dog demon laced with human; it was that of a human laced with dog demon. Thoroughly confused, I trailed them more closely, listening carefully.
-----
"I don't know what your problem is, Inu Yasha," a young girl declared, her voice icy.
"What do you mean, you don't know what my problem is? You can't go home now! Not while I'm like this!" Inu Yasha yelled in reply. His voice sounded a little different than it had three days ago, but I ignored that in favor of listening to the girl's reply.
"I've been here for three weeks already! I'm going to fail all my finals if I don't go to school for a while. Besides, we agreed to ask Kaede about this, remember?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"And you're not coming with me! I need a break from you too!"
The argument escalated for a few minutes, but came to an abrupt halt when the young woman said, "Sit." I heard a crash and muffled cursing. It was then I noticed the scent intertwined with the young woman's, mine. That girl was carrying my fangs. Laughing coldly, I waited for them to stop.
I hissed in annoyance when I discovered that they were resting in a village, but my mood improved when I discovered her scent a few minutes later, leading away from the village. Alone. I followed her swiftly, hoping to retrieve my fangs before their aura dissipated.
I caught up with her in time to see her fall into a well in a clearing not far from the village. I chuckled. Thisss isss almossst too easssy. . . As if I had jinxed myself, it went straight to hell from there.
A blue light flooded the clearing, a strange aura accompanying it. Pain shot through my head, and I gasped at the intensity of it, barely restraining myself from screaming. As the world faded to black, I had just enough strength to drag myself under cover.
As my fleeting consciousness became ever more distant, I added another curse to the extensive list: for not realizing she was a miko.
-----
Shards of Light: It's short. Deal with it.
Kagome: You'll have to excuse her. She only caught one Inu Yasha episode in the past two weeks and she has to wake up at five tomorrow for a thirteen hour car ride.
Inu Yasha: Hey, you forgot to say you don't own us! 'looking at SoL's eyes' Your eyes weren't red before. . . Hey, you're not the authoress!
'All Yu-Gi-Oh cast members run away screaming, knowing what's coming'
Shards of Light: 'evil grin' Technically, I am. I'm just her darker side.
'All remaining cast members look very confused. YGO cast explains Yamis, offering Yami Bakura and Yami Marik as examples. Cast members turn very white and all attempt to squeeze into a random bomb shelter. Yami Shards of Light completely ignores them, reading off a paper.'
YsoL: Okay, first of all, cookies to all who reviewed. Sesshomaru plushie to Overactive Mind, who knew what anticoagulant meant. HPHG4EVAH gets a picture drawn by Shippo of a Sesshomaru plushie for attempting to figure out what anticoagulant meant. Anyone who guesses why the snake only took three days instead of a week to heal or why it blacked out at the end of the chapter gets a Human Inu Yasha plushie. Brownies to anyone who reviews. To anyone who flames, 'Snorts in disgust upon reading that the flamers will have the rabid plot bunnies sicced on them, then gives a very evil grin' I will kill you very slowly, resurrect you, kill you very painfully, resurrect you, break all the bones in your body, rip out your heart, and make you like it. On the other hand, constructive criticism is appreciated.
'Resumes reading' I won't be able to update until at least Saturday, because I'm going skiing in West Virginia, with no computer access. I'll probably have written the next chapter during the aforementioned thirteen hour car drive, so I'll probably update Sunday. 'Mutters under breath something to the effect of "unless you end up in the hospital because you ran into a tree"' Hey! I heard that! I can go down the blue squares now! 'is being weirded out by how the note is responding to her' Well, of course it's responding to you! It's an authoress note, endowed with supreme authoress power. . . 'rolls eyes' Whatever. Anyway, review, please!
