Well. A note…I may not have read all the way through the Inuyasha series…sorry, I stopped collecting when waiting for volume 31 to come out…Lord, I'm old…but I've read that Lord Sesshōmaru re-grows his arm. This fiction is set after that fact, so he's got two arms. I've said that before, haven't I?

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Jaken stood. He had done everything necessary to save the woman's life. As long as she didn't move for a while, slept, drank, and ate enough, she'd be fine.

"Girl, she is as good as she can be. Now make sure she sleeps, drinks, and eats without moving extensively, and leave me be." With that, he huffed off to sit back in his 'spot' while Rin sat on her knees, staring at the woman, not sure what to do. Maybe talk? She looked around, searching for what to say to an unconscious person.

"So…uh…Pie? You said your name was Pie. I'm going to think that that was accidental. You probably didn't even know I asked you a question. But I think it's funny…Piiiieee…" Rin giggled, and Jaken looked at her like she was crazy. "But then you had to go pass out again. Don't worry, I'm here to take care of you, and Jaken can treat anything. He's really smart when it comes to people hurting." Jaken inwardly preened behind her back when she said that. As much as he pretended to hate anything and everything that a human said, he sure liked compliments, no matter where they came from, and they always boosted his ego. Rin, however, didn't even seem to notice the praise, and continued talking as if it was just a fact of life.

"So I'm hoping you will wake up soon, because you need to do things like eat and drink. Also, I need someone to talk to. Nobody here will talk to me. My Lord is out patrolling the area because of all the blood that was everywhere. It's attracting…things…so he's protecting us. I know as soon as you can, we'll have to move. Actually, we'll probably move before you're ready even. So he's not here, and Jaken doesn't like to talk to me either. I can say all I want to him, but until I start crying or insulting him he doesn't say anything back. And Ah-un can't say anything, or at least anything I can understand. He's the world's smartest dragon, but he doesn't know how to talk. Though I think he can communicate somehow to my Lord, because sometimes he doesn't even need an order, they just sorta look at each other and then Ah-un's off doing something."

And with that, Rin chattered off for the better part of an hour, talking about her life, travelling, the things she liked, those she didn't, and everything she did. She only stopped when her stomach growled, and she scurried around camp, getting herself dinner.

((O))

Not far away, a figure stood tall in their silent surroundings. The animals that had inhabited the area had either been scared away or caught in the crossfire, their lives snuffed out by the blows that had radiated throughout the area. The forest was in disarray, trees that weren't crushed were fallen, and those that weren't fallen had gouges from claws deep into their trunks. The ground was churned and bare, and everywhere there was blood. It was splashed into the trees, and soaked into the ground. Golden eyes surveyed the area, taking in everything. Lord Sesshōmaru was making another lap around his ward and retainer.

He could understand the horror Rin felt upon stumbling onto the scene when it was fresh. When he had heard her scream, he had abandoned the beginnings of his pursuit of another demon to appear in front of an injured human. When he realized that the scream had not meant danger, he was turning to leave when Rin had looked up, crying, begging to try and help the older human. When a simple command could not stop her crying, he was obliged to carry the woman to a less bloody location.

After that, he had to circle the camp, blood attracted creatures, and creatures needed to be dealt with so those that he travelled with wouldn't be killed due to unavoidable weaknesses. As he was taking care of this duty, he spent copious amounts of time in the battlefield. He noticed something when he returned. It had been a barely noticeable detail on the woman, but there were in fact, three different scents. The human and two demons.

Puzzled by this mystery, he had traversed up and down the area, starting with the first demon on the scene. Apparently they had been hunting the human. He followed the path backwards as far as he felt comfortable before he forced himself to stop, not finding any new information. At the site where the demon finally caught up with her, a second demon appeared, though it was not clear if the battle was a three-way battle between all three, the second defending the human, or the two demons were enemies and the human was unlucky to have been there when they met. The last option was the most plausible story, as why would anyone find it necessary to fight or defend another's prey?

Either way, the demons were apparently mainly occupied with fighting each other, as most of the blood belonged to them. The human must have been in close quarters, to be so doused, and eventually sustained her pitiful life-threatening scratch. With that, the story got confusing. The first demon ran off, bleeding profusely, a short distance, before the trail stopped dead, as if they had merely disappeared. The second demon had no trail. It had appeared in the battle and disappeared from the battle.

It was quite obvious they were similarly powerful, and had matching travelling skills, hence why they were fighting each other. Natural rivals usually ended up being opposite sides of the same object, or as some said, night and day. It was common for rivals to spring from the same race as well. The only thing that was unacceptable with the whole situation was that they had the audacity to enact this little charade on his land, under his very nose. Every demon on his land that considered themselves pitifully powerful presented themselves to him, and if they didn't, they were considered his rivals.

He was going to have to take care of this lapse in their judgments if he ever found them again. With that thought, he memorized the blood-scent. As he inhaled, he noticed that now that everything had browned and aged, the forest was settling into its natural cycle. The creatures that dared come back were the smallest and weakest, from the normal mice to scavenging demons. With a flick of his wrist and barely a sound, stalking evil fell.

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Happy reading!
~Kaikie