Chapter Three: Chosen
Sesshomaru's POV
Sesshomaru was still shocked as he watched Ah nudge the female with his muzzle while Un sniffed her all over. The large man, who had been yelling for the female to get up and move, fell silent as Tsume and Sesshomaru's father landed next to Sesshomaru and Ah-Un. "What happened?" his father asked tensely, swiftly dismounting Tsume to stand by the female's head.
Sesshomaru didn't reply. Instead, he watched as the female blinked twice before slowly standing up and facing Sesshomaru's father. "She is blind," Sesshomaru stated bluntly. The Inutaisho moved his hand back and forth in front of her face slowly, causing the female to jerk away from him, still breathing heavily from the fight. Sesshomaru looked her over one more time and saw that her feet were very muddy. He sniffed around her discreetly as he slid off Ah-Un's back. He smelled mud, an old dog, the milk-scent of a cat with kittens, and…a scent close to cinnamon. He looked at her in surprise as he finally found her natural scent. He breathed deeply, enjoying it, never noticing that his father was watching him curiously.
Jay's POV
"What happened?"
The voice was deep, much deeper than Sachi's voice. Jay fought back a tremble as she slowly stood and turned to face the location where the voice was coming from. She could hear Sachi breathing several feet behind her. Tension crackled in the air like lightning before a child's voice remarked, "She is blind." Jay relaxed, somewhat. If this man had a child with him, he might leave her, Sachi, and the village alone. Then she heard the sound of someone inhaling deeply, followed closely by a sigh.
"Sachi," she said in a low, strained voice, "tell me what's going on." She heard slow, heavy footsteps from behind her; Sachi's footsteps. He slowly took hold of one arm and pulled her behind him protectively.
"These two are youkai," he hissed. "They're riding on dragons!"
Dragons? Jay remembered the warm, scaly bulk of the creature she had crashed into and gasped, eyes widening. "We mean you no harm," the man with the deep voice assured them. "We were simply investigating."
"Maybe you should investigate elsewhere," Sachi growled. Compared to the youkai's voice, it sounded high-pitched. Jay squeezed his arm warningly. Even Sachi, who was built like a bear, couldn't defeat a youkai with a dragon. "We're simple folks here. Don't want any trouble."
"Neither do we," the youkai said. "But there was an…incident that called for our immediate landing."
"You're not injured," Jay pointed out, and winced as she felt the youkais' attention snap towards her fiercely.
"How do you know this?" the older youkai asked quietly, taking a step closer to them. In return, Sachi gave her a rough shove backwards before following her.
Jay thought and blurted, "Because Keiko says that youkai don't get injured. She says it's just humans."
The older youkai laughed softly. "That's where you're wrong, ningen," he told her. "Youkai are always getting injured. We simply heal faster than humans do. Like yourself, yes?" Jay stared at him. Was he insinuating that she wasn't human? She felt herself break into a cold sweat, and, even though she was careful to keep her face set into a stone mask, her mind was reeling. How much does he know?
Sesshomaru's POV
Sesshomaru tilted his head to the side at the very slight edge in his father's voice. He inhaled deeply again. Her smell was cleaner and brighter than most humans', true, but he couldn't detect anything else that was different about her other than her blindness. He looked from his father to the female and back to his father. He frowned. He didn't think his father would hurt the female, but he didn't want to take any chances, so he walked forward, eyes trained on the female, and stated, "You smell nice. Like cinnamon, almost."
His father's eyes widened as he looked at his son. Sesshomaru looked up at the Inutaisho, chin lifted stubbornly. For a few heartbeats, father and son stared at each other. The Inutaisho's lips curved upward into a pleased smile at the importance of his son's actions, and he nodded to Sesshomaru before swiftly appearing at the large man's side and pressing hard on the junction between his shoulder and neck. The large man crumpled to the ground, and the female knelt beside him.
"What did you do to him?" she gasped, rolling him onto his back. She put her ear against his chest and listened to his heartbeat before trying to wake him up. "Sachi! Sachi, come on. Sachi, wake up. Sachi!"
Sesshomaru's father lifted the female up by the tops of her arms and set her on her feet, gently. The female stiffened and trembled. "My son has chosen you," he informed her quietly. "You shall travel to the Western Fortress with us and it shall be your new home. We will stop by your home and collect your things before we depart from this village."
For some reason, all my chapters end with cliffhangers. Please Read and Review.
