Sorry for the wait but I have been busy with putting other stories of mine on as well. Plus my finals are coming up soon. The next chapter should be up soon but I do not know how soon exactly.
Chapter 4: Through the Well Again
The feeling of solid ground beneath my feet makes me open my eyes and stare around me. I am no longer inside of the well. Most likely the reason for this is because the well does not yet exists in this time. I spread my aura looking for any villages nearby. I can feel a small amount of human aura from the east. I allow my body to move slowly at least for me but smoothly through the forest to anyone watching it would have seemed as if a nymph was moving through the area. The fresh smell of this time is even better than the feudal era which is weird.
Huh must be fewer humans in this time, I think to my inner demon.
Agreed, it is that or there is even less pollution here than in the feudal era, she replies as I jump down a low cliff.
We would have to be back a very long time past the feudal era for it to be this noticeable, I say as I land and continue weaving through the trees.
I truly wonder how far back the kami made the well send us back in time, she agrees.
You know what is weird, I ask her.
What, she replies.
You have never told me your name, I think to her.
True, my name is Tsurara, she answers.
So your name is icicle, I state.
Tsurara just chuckles and goes silent. It is pretty ironic that we call Sesshoumaru the icicle but yet my inner demon is literally named icicle. The others would get a kick out of this. About twenty minutes away from the village, I sense a large group of demons coming towards the village. I ignore it thinking they are just going to go around the village. Most demons hate even being near a village let alone going into one.
As I get within fifteen minutes of the village, I realize that I am wrong. They are coming to close to the village just to be going around it. I pick up my speed for just in case these demons decide to do something. It seems the demons have picked up my aura finally and have decided to pick up their pace as well. Even at my full speed, they will beat me to the village. Hopefully, they do not do too much damage before I can get there. I am nearly there when I start to feel the disappearance of human auras. Damn them, I think as my speed kicks up another notch faster than ever before.
I come to the border's edge and the scent of blood almost causes me to fall to my knees. So much blood has been spilled in so little time. With my speed I catch many of the demons by surprise and kill them with my sword. All of them are oni demons. Why is it almost always oni demon that attack villages? I have a bad feeling about this but I cannot leave this village to defend itself from oni demons which are very volatile. As I enter the center of the small village, the leader turns to look at me. I crouch down and bare my fangs at him drawing his attention away from the villagers. He is the last of his clan left but he is the most dangerous.
I slowly back away from him and begin to lure him away from the village. A few seconds into him following me, he starts charging, and I jump back multiple times to keep the distance between us. Once he is clear of the village by twenty feet I allow him to close the distance between us. The oni swings his club at my head and I duck under his attack. I stumble forward as unexpectedly he swings the club downwards behind me hitting me in the back. I ignore the sting of air on blood as some of my blood wells up onto the skin. I use my speed to surprise him with a cut behind his knees. This causes the demon to fall backwards. He cannot force his body to a stand and collapses back to the ground. I use the opportunity to move forward and slit his throat with my sword. The demon tries to growl but it comes out as a garble. In an attempt to take me to the land of the dead with him, he swings his club at me once again.
I jump into the air and land on his chest before slamming my sword through his chest and into his heart. I jerk my sword out of his chest and hurry to get out of the way of the blood running out of the wound. If any of his blood ended up in my wounds it could be disastrous. Oni blood in someone's blood stream causes a slow and painful death by poisoning. The poison has one cure and that cure is almost impossible to make. Most of the ingredients can only be found on a mountain in the middle of winter sometimes not even then.
I wipe my sword off on the grass and move to walk into the village to access the damage and begin helping the people regain their life styles. Someone grabs my shoulder; I turn around fast enough to make my head spin for a split second. I fall to kneel as I recognize who it is that is standing before me. I am very far back in time if I am seeing Sesshomaru's grandfather. Way back if he is as young as he seems. Most likely he has just introduced Touga to the Cardinal Lords meaning that it is at least a thousand years before the Heian Era most likely even longer (translation: around 1000 B.C.).
"Lord," I say as I bow my head in respect.
"Rise young demoness. Why have you saved this village," he demands as I rise.
"They were in need of help Lord. I was not about to let this group of oni kill off an entire village," I reply not looking him in the eyes.
To look him in the eyes is to challenge him. Challenging Raitonin is worse than challenging Sesshomaru. Raitonin would not, not kill you for any reason if you offended him. A soft growl escapes from his throat. It is meant to make me cringe but I know better than to cringe in front of another dog demon. It means that you think they are stronger than you and you are weak.
"Follow me," he commands in a deadly tone.
I follow close behind knowing better than to disobey him. Even if I had a death wish, I would not ask him to end my life. Raitonin would drag out my death for as long as possible just to make sure others would not do the same. Raitonin hated it when people tried to use him for even the smallest reason or the best reasons. He would complete and most likely then finish off the person. He was good to his people but if they stepped out of line he would put them in their place no matter who they were. Raitonin moves swiftly through the forest towards the west. In a little over twenty hours of traveling through semi familiar territory, we arrive at the Western Palace which even now so far back in time is massive.
Alright that is it for now. I will go into details later about the palace. Sorry for the cliffy but I thought this would be a nice end to the chapter. So until next time, bye.
Translations:
Tsurara: Icicle
Raitonin: Lightning
