SECRET OF THE CURSED MASK
Chapter Three: The Half-Demon, Inuyasha
What happened to me? Am I dead? Sokka wondered in his thoughts as he struggled to open his eyes.
"Hey, kid, are you awake yet?" an unfamiliar male voice asked in a sarcastic tone.
Who was that? I must still be alive! Sokka thought to himself as he finally opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the unfamiliar face of a young man with golden yellow eyes, long silver-white hair, thick feathery bangs, and two shorter locks framing his face, looking down at him.
Sokka noticed that the young man was wearing a red kimono, matching red pants and sash, a black cord tied across his chest, and a string of round dark purple beads, with an occasional white claw-shaped bead spaced in between every five purple beads. The man also had a sheathed sword hanging from his waist.
"Who are you?" Sokka murmured groggily. As his vision became clearer, Sokka's eyes widened out of shock when he first noticed the white dog ears perched on top of the young man's head.
"What the…dog ears?" Sokka gasped loudly as he quickly sat up.
"Hey, wait a minute…" the young man grumbled a bit crossly as Sokka quickly backed away from him. "What are you scared of? It's not like I'm going to eat you. Don't run away." It was then that Sokka noticed that Katara, Aang, and Zuko were still alive and slowly coming to.
If this guy was going to eat us, I'm sure he would have done so before we woke up, Sokka thought to himself as he looked back at the dog-eared man. Maybe he's the one who got rid of that other demon!
"Sokka, you're all right!" Katara exclaimed out of relief as she hugged her brother.
"Yeah, I think so. Katara, do you know this guy?" Sokka asked curiously as Aang and Zuko got up as well.
"No, I never seen that man before," Katara replied as the four of them stood up.
"That's no man! He's a demon!" Zuko announced.
"Relax, kid! I ain't going to hurt you," the man replied.
"But, you have dog ears…and fangs!" Zuko pointed out. "Don't come near us!"
"Don't you get it?" the white-haired man asked a bit irritably. "Never mind…anyway, you were great! What kind of technique was that?" he asked as he looked directly at Sokka. "You defeated that demon by shining that light on him."
"Oh, that's right…that strange light…" Sokka slowly realized as he recalled the encounter with the one-eyed demon before passing out. "I thought I was a goner, but I'm still alive…but why?"
"Hey, you four don't look like you're from around here," the white-haired man pointed out.
"That's certainly the truth!" Zuko remarked under his breath.
"What a hassle! Come on, follow me," the white-haired man instructed. "Kagome can probably explain things."
"Who's this Kagome?" Aang asked curiously.
"You'll see soon enough, kid. Kaede's village is just ahead. Come on now," the white-haired man persisted, intentionally ignoring Aang's question. Sokka, Aang, Katara, and Zuko quickly huddled together.
"Should we go with him?" Katara whispered.
"He said he was going to take us to a village. Maybe the people there can be more helpful than those three we came across earlier," Sokka suggested.
"But, what if he's just leading us into a trap?" Aang asked a bit worriedly.
"If that's the case, the four of us should be able to take him down," Zuko pointed out.
"Well, are you coming, or am I leaving you all behind?" the white-haired man asked loudly out of frustration.
"Okay, we're coming," Sokka replied as he, Katara, Aang, and Zuko rejoined the young man.
"And what do we call you?" Zuko asked inquisitively.
"My name is Inuyasha," the white-haired man stated. "And who are you?"
"I'm Sokka, and this is my sister, Katara. The boy with the arrow on his head is Aang, and the stubborn guy with the burn scar is Zuko," Sokka quickly introduced everyone.
"All right, enough with the introductions! Let's get moving!" Inuyasha announced as he started heading down the trail…
"Why do you have dog ears? Are you a real demon? Why is your hair silver? Does that mean you're really old? Because you really don't look that old to me!" Aang asked curiously as he walked alongside Inuyasha.
It was becoming clearly obvious to Katara, Sokka, and Zuko that Inuyasha was gradually getting annoyed by Aang's constant bombardment of questions.
"Is there any way to shut him up?" Zuko asked a bit irritably. "He's beginning to irritate me."
"Aang, I think you should take it easy with the questions for now, okay?" Katara whispered loudly to Aang. Suddenly, Inuyasha abruptly stopped cold on the trail.
"What's going on? Why did you stop?" Zuko demanded.
"Wait! There's a strange smell in the air. I think that demon's buddies are hanging around," Inuyasha revealed.
"What? That's just great!" Sokka complained.
"The smell of demons is coming from that purple light," Inuyasha announced as he pointed at a small swirl of purple light just up ahead.
"What should we do?" Sokka asked curiously.
"What are you talking about? Let's go after 'em!" Inuyasha shouted. "It should be easy if you use that red light again, Sokka. Hey, here they come!"
Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Zuko watched as the purple light started to take on two solid forms: one similar to a green bat with an orange ball and a pair of long lime green stingers attached to its tail, and the other looking similar to a gray wolf.
"What are those things?" Katara asked.
"That's a canis demon and a bad luck bat. Be careful of the bat, his stingers shoot poison at you," Inuyasha cautioned as he withdrew his sword, the blade being much larger than the sheath it was contained in. "Come and get me!"
Suddenly, the bad luck bat swooped overhead and shot down a cloud of green gas from his tail at the group of five. To Inuyasha's surprise, Aang, by using his hands, had manipulated a large swirling disc of air above their heads, which repelled the poisonous gas away from them.
"I've got that thing!" Zuko announced as he threw a punch in the air, shooting a burst of flame from his fist directly at the bad luck bat overhead. The creature squealed loudly in pain as it became engulfed in flames. As the bad luck bat broke apart into orbs of purple light that eventually disappeared, Katara turned around and gasped when she saw that the canis demon was running right at them.
"Stay back!" Katara shouted as she quickly uncorked her water skin and used the water whip on the canis demon. As the demon cried out in pain, Katara drew the water back into the water skin and sealed it up with the cork.
"I've got this one!" Sokka announced as he threw his boomerang at the canis demon. To his surprise, the canis demon caught the boomerang in its mouth and simply spat it out on the ground.
"Okay…I wasn't expecting that," Sokka reluctantly confessed. Suddenly, the gray wolf ran straight towards him, baring its sharp teeth.
"Leave it to me!" Inuyasha shouted as he dove in front of Sokka and sliced the beast right through the middle with his sword.
"Whoa…" the four children gasped slowly out of amazement as the now dead canis demon turned into several small orbs of purple light that eventually vanished.
"Those small demons are no match," Inuyasha muttered out loud as he sheathed his massive sword. He glanced over at the four children and commented, "So, all four of you have special powers, huh? I'm surprised!"
"Thanks, Inuyasha!" Aang replied enthusiastically with a big grin.
"Hey, Sokka…why didn't you use that last move again?" Inuyasha asked curiously.
"I…didn't know how to," Sokka reluctantly confessed as he retrieved his boomerang and placed it back in his sheath.
"You're lame," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.
"But, I didn't know what to do," Sokka pointed out.
"I see…that move came from his subconscious," a male voice announced. "He was so afraid to die, he did it unconsciously."
"Who said that?" Aang asked curiously as he and the others looked around for the unknown speaker.
"It's just Myoga," Inuyasha revealed as he tapped his shoulder.
Upon closer inspection, Aang spotted a flea on Inuyasha's shoulder with a thin white moustache, thinning white hair, and two pairs of arms, who was dressed in a forest green kimono and dark blue pants.
"Is he a demon, too?" Aang asked curiously as he, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko gathered around to take a closer look at the tiny creature perched on Inuyasha's shoulder.
"Yes, I am Inuyasha's personal bodyguard. My name is Myoga," the flea introduced himself.
"How can you say that you're my bodyguard when you run away at the tiniest sign of danger?" Inuyasha pointed out.
"Never mind that, Inuyasha. I can still sense demons around us," Myoga revealed. "This boy's power has not yet been awakened. We have to be careful."
"You're right, I can still smell the demons, too," Inuyasha realized as he sniffed the air.
"What should we do?" Katara asked curiously.
"You have to fight hard and make sure you don't slow Inuyasha down," Myoga replied. "We're getting close to Kaede's village. Well, Inuyasha, I'm going ahead. Be careful." With that, Myoga jumped off of Inuyasha's shoulder and hopped down the trail.
"Hey, Myoga! Wait! Damn, he's run off again," Inuyasha complained.
"But, what about the demons? Shouldn't we be worried about them?" Katara asked curiously.
"The demons around here are pathetic. Let's get going," Inuyasha replied as he led the way…