Niko Mane: Hi peeps! So I hope you like it so far. By the way, that wolf was not Kouga. Or was it? Bum bum bum!

Chapter 6: Pins and Needles

And so he had to make a choice; Suffocate here or go out and be captured. He surly would be captured, since he was already weak from being in heat, and the stifling smoke was overpowering him.

Luckily, the choice was made for him. Unconsciously, Inuyasha had been backing toward the only source of oxygen in the cave: the other exit. Yet again, he was grabbed roughly by a pair of hands and was yanked out of the tunnel. Inuyasha released a startled yelp as he landed in another human's arms. Immediately the others started chaining his hands and feet together. He struggled, and snarled, and clawed, but they weren't deterred. The leader grinned evilly as he came around the corner with the rest of the humans. Swinging from his hand was a thick metal collar with place where a chain could be locked in. As he approached, Inuyasha growled warningly. The cruel man just reached foreword to slip the collar on. In response to this, the young hanyou lurched foreword and bit the man's hand as hard as he could. Surprisingly, the leader didn't pull his hand away, but proceeded to slip on the collar, using Inuyasha's shock as a distraction. The leader laughed and pulled away, flexing his injured hand.

"This is nothing. I've learned to endure pain much worse." He scoffed. "You'd do well to remember that little hanyou."

Inuyasha growled, the pungent coppery taste of the human's blood still assaulting his taste buds.

The men dragged him back to their campsite. They attached his collar to a chain to a metal stake that was pounded into a nearby tree.

As they settled back around the campfire, Inuyasha pulled in vain at the stake. Eventually, he gave up, collapsing on the ground and closing his eyes. He was too exhausted to try to escape… or so he wanted the humans to believe. As soon as they were all asleep (except for the one they had left to keep watch), he tentatively opened his eyes. The human keeping watch had his back to him and was half asleep.

Lifting his chains carefully so they wouldn't clink together, Inuyasha stood up and inched forward. When he was only about a foot away from him now and he could see the set of keys hanging off his belt.

He tried to move forward more, but the chain attached to his collar stopped him. So Inuyasha leaned forward as much as he could and stretched his arm out.

Finally he grasped the ring of keys and very slowly pulled them off the man's belt. Suddenly the human grunted, almost making Inuyasha loose balance. Then he realized with relief that the man had fallen asleep.

Inuyasha hurriedly backed off and started unlocking the chains on his arms and legs. Then he realized in horror that the key for his collar wasn't there. He unlocked the chain around his neck and tiptoed away, still painfully aware of the weight of the collar. When he was out of earshot, Inuyasha broke into a frantic run, and didn't stop until he found a town. There he found an old barn where he decided to hide for the time being. It was almost morning. He would continue to follow the river tomorrow; that is if they didn't find him by then,

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru killed a random demon who was unlucky enough to get in his way. He had to take his frustration out on something. The Ever-root Inuyasha had used made sure that there was no trace of his scent. But that wouldn't last for long. In fact, as Sesshomaru flung the corpse of the demon away carelessly he caught a whiff of a familiar scent. He followed it and discovered that it was definitely Inuyasha's delicious heat scent. Sesshomaru smirked. He was catching up.

Niko Mane: You know the drill! Review pretty please?